Today, I just want to share some thoughts I have about being a spiritual teacher and coach. Since my guidance is to strengthen “my inner observer,” I’ve had the opportunity to watch people interact with the information that comes through me, without emotions getting in my way. I thought I’d share my observations, as it might help someone out there choose between content and marketing/appearance/perception.

Even though I implicitly have followed my guidance to make the teachings I share accessible to as many people as possible, I have never hid the facts that I am a transchannel first and have received over 20 years of training from a Native American Moon Woman. Even though I rarely present myself in either context, I am fully capable of pulling in messages from the highest guides on the Spiritual Planes and have done for many, many years, and continue to do in my private spiritual practices, high ceremony. Just because I neither overtly nor covertly advertise these gifts doesn’t mean I don’t own them. Just because I rarely don my feathers and turquoise jewelry doesn’t mean I don’t have ceremonial garb. What it does mean is that I am very conscious that in order to broaden my outreach, I have to appeal to the most people. That means I spend a great deal of time just talking to people, listening to their dreams for themselves and their families, and translating what I know and the information that flows through me into something that people can hear.

Several weeks ago I had a great discussion with my friends on my regularly scheduled Friday night program, The Exchange on ACIM Gather (http://www.acimgather.org) on this very topic. We used the example of James Arthur Ray who marketed himself as a water pourer for Native American Sweat Lodges, using words like “Sacred” “Secret” “Ceremony” “Hidden” “Deep in the Jungles of South America.” His marketing piece on his website made it seem that he had both knowledge and standing in the Native American world as a ceremonial/lodge leader. This indeed was not the case, and several people died and were injured in Sedona, AZ as a result of Mr. Ray’s attempts to lead a ceremony he was unqualified to supervise.

How do I know this? First, in the Indigenous world no one markets their work. Someone’s knowledge base and abilities are confirmed by others and shared by word of mouth. For example, no one ever says, “I am a Medicine Woman.” Others might call someone a Medicine Woman, because she helped them in some way. It is in fact the community that gives credence to the notion that someone connects to Creator in a good way and is helpful. What a bona fide Native American teacher/ceremonial leader will do is share with you who their Elders are and what lineage supports them. That is the acceptable credential in that world.

Second, I have written Mr. Ray several emails and contacted his supporters on Facebook asking them for information about Mr. Ray’s lineage and Elders so that my Elders can connect with his and help correct Mr. Ray’s behavior. No one has ever responded, and it is my contention that they don’t respond because they can’t respond. It is my belief, unless Mr. Ray and/or his supporters give appropriate information to me, that Mr. Ray does not have a lineage in the Indigenous world and that no Elders take responsibility for his behavior. He, therefore, is not in fact a water pourer, has never gone through extensive training and supervision as a water pourer, and had no business taking anyone, let alone dozens of people, through a sweat lodge ceremony.

The sad thing to me is that somewhere along the line Mr. Ray seems to have started to believe his own marketing hype. I really feel that he saw himself as a ceremonial leader, even though he patently was not. Also, if his many emails are any sign of where he is at, he does not take personal responsibility for what happened in the Sweat Lodge in Sedona. Taking responsibility is key to good Medicine work. In the Indigenous world until Mr. Ray makes right, he will never have any good connections, either in the Spirit World or with the People.

So, please be aware, when you are looking for a teacher, that in many spiritual disciplines there are mentors and lineages. The teacher is only as good as the lineage that stands for him or her. So, do due diligence and find out what is standard practice for a teacher in the discipline you are thinking of studying, and only study with someone who has a great lineage and the fruit from that tree.

The second part of my talk with you today is more personal. I have had the opportunity to share teachings on several fronts over the last six months and watch what people do with them. It’s been quite enlightening.

One of the first things I noticed is that who starts applying the teachings will often surprise you. I’ve been watching two young gentlemen who are around 23 years of age, for example. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on chat with the youngster who is heavily attracted to Indigenous teachings and wants to be a healer. Although he’s had some Ah Ha! moments over the course of the last year with me, he continues to walk into karmic lessons (lessons learned through suffering). This last set of lessons I’m watching him in has to do with how he chooses teachers. I’d like to share my observations of his walk with you.

On the one hand, I have been sharing foundational teachings and healing work with this young man all along. I have even put him in touch with my “Auntie” (my Native American teacher), as a first connection to my lineage. I drove over three hours to Alabama to attune him to Reiki, when his teacher of choice fell through. On the other hand, he went to a few sweat lodges with water pourers I know in Alabama and eventually decided to present his Medicine gifts to the couple and request to be taught by them. He even moved to their property and works full time on the property for a barely habitable, poorly-heated room and very little board. After being there since November, the couple has not responded in an appropriate, timely manner to his request for teachings. I doubt that they ever will.

Then, I watched the other young man. I met him because he was a friend of my roommate of 20 plus years, and they went into business together. By profession, this young man is a hairdresser, and he loves to help people. On its face, I would have never thought that this man would connect with my teachings. But, he has. He’s hungry for the teachings, applies what I’m sharing with him, accepts me as is, and shares the teachings and opportunities to work with me with his friends. He has made so much progress in the last few months that I can’t wait to see what he manifests next.

Another person I was observing is the only person I ever apprenticed in over 20 years. I really like this lady and connect strongly with her vision of helping animals. I know that she is new to the spiritual path, and often that means that the bells and whistles being marketed are attractive. But, I was totally flabbergasted when she emailed me to say that she was not going to participate in the teachings at this point. I know for a fact that she spent considerable money, that she did not have, to attend a weekly workshop on creating abundance. Since she told me that she is processing negative emotions and suffering while doing this, I know that she either isn’t applying good abundance teachings, or appropriate truth teachings aren’t being passed along. What is even more on point is that the process I offered to share with her, for free, has a huge track record of effectiveness in helping one manifest what delights, without processing negativity or suffering in any way.

Where I went in my thinking is that people are attached to how they receive the teachings. They want to be in control of how the teachings manifest for them. I knew this, as my Reiki Master told me this over 20 years ago when we discussed the attunement process. My Reiki Master did a traditional style attunement because people who researched Reiki usually had some idea of what that process was like. My contention was that the attunement was sealing an energy transfer that had already occurred, so it didn’t matter how one attuned a student but that one did enough for the student to believe something happened. Even though my Reiki Master agreed with me, he contended that appearing to do the attunement in the “right way” perhaps was a part of building that belief.

In the instances above, I have been guided to offer a life line to three people. Let’s say metaphorically that I offered a white life line. One of these folk didn’t care what color the life line was, so he took it and pulled himself up. One of the people said, “I want a red life line. If it isn’t red, it’s not Native. So, I don’t even see the white life line, even though it’s laying right in front of me.” Unfortunately, unless the Universe intervenes, this guy is in a vibrational morass that could be very challenging to overcome. In the case of the apprentice, she said, “I see the white life line. I’ve seen others pick it up. I’ve even picked it up every once in awhile and then put it down. But, pulling myself up with the white life line means I’m going to have to give up suffering and change some things in my life. I think I’ll try this other life line. They are in a healing center. The way they market their work sounds good. Their terminology sounds really spiritual. They have techniques.”

To round off this discussion, I would just like to say that my training as a healer tells me to be unattached to people’s process and results. I was trained to hold the space for miracles to occur but not to put my details on what someone else’s miracle would look like. As my Elders say, “Healing for some people is a miracle cure. Healing for some people will be happiness in spite of disease or disability. Healing for others might be a good death.” So, even though some part of me feels emotional as I watch people move in and out of the teachings, I work on being as detached as I can.

When it comes down to it, I can only give you one good piece of guidance on this topic. It’s not original to me. In fact, it’s something I picked up by studying Jesus’s words in The Bible. “Look at the fruit on the tree.” Do your research. Find out not only how a person acts in class but how they treat family members and business associates. If his/her fruit uniformly is tasty all of the time in every season, you might want to try it. If it’s not, there are other trees out there. Finally, if you do try the fruit of someone’s tree and see that it is seasonal or not to your taste, you can always find another tree. Ultimately, all paths go one place — they uncover our complete awareness that we are always connected to All That Is. That is God’s promise and our salvation.

This whole incident saddens me greatly. The ignorant choices of a few have created an environment where a plethora of media types and the eyes of the government are turned on the sacred ceremonies of the Indigenous Peoples. Yet, we must look for the kernel of truth that this incident teaches us, since the Divine allowed this message to be broadcast in such a big way. Obviously, there must be an important lesson for us all.

After chatting with several Native American friends who have participated in Inipi (Sweat Lodge) and other ceremonies throughout their lives, including bona fide water pourers I know intimately, I took some time to process our discussions. These are my current thoughts on what I have learned from this tragedy.

More than anything, the incident in Sedona points to the notion that one must be very careful when they pick their teachers, mentors, and peers. As I have stated in previous posts, who you associate with governs what kind of results you have. Nothing is more true than in the case of choosing a teacher. It is particularly important to research, talk to people who have worked with the mentor you are considering, and continue to ask questions of the proposed mentor until you have complete information.

In fact, when I was looking for a coach to help me reach more people worldwide, I started out by looking at about 12 possible mentors. I started corresponding with them, read on their blogs daily, looked at the sales information they sent me, talked to their students, attended webinars and teleseminars they invited me to, began to apply what I had learned, bought some of their more affordable products, and watched what they said on various social media sites. After a year of committed observation, I narrowed the list down to five people. I then spent almost another year testing the waters and carefully interacting with these five people. When the energy trended toward a particular man, the Universe provided me with an opportunity to be coached by him. This is how I found Omar Martin, my current mentor. The process to find a bona fide spiritual or personal development teacher is no different.

One of the things I learned by going through this discernment process is not to believe a person’s sales pitch and/or media hype. You need to dig deep and find out what the actual fruit on the teacher’s tree is — both the sweet-tasting and the rotten. Do they manifest their goals? Is their process easy and elegant? Do they have a vision? What is their vision? How do they act in various settings? What relationships are important to them? How do they treat people? You need to look for a teacher’s consistent patterns and whether what they manifest is congruent with what they teach.

This information will only help you, if you have already figured out what your vision is, what your goals are. When you compare a teacher’s results to your desired outcomes, they must align. A teacher who can’t manifest your goals himself or herself cannot teach you to reach your targets. It’s just that simple.

Now, that we have pulled at least one kernel of truth from this tragedy, I want to focus my attention on the particulars of the situation, as much I can deduce or intuit from the research I’ve done. First, prospective students had no way of knowing, from Mr. Ray’s website, what ceremonies they are going to participate in. The website states, “You’ll become privy to techniques (many kept secret for dozens of generations) that I searched out in the mountains of Peru, the jungles of the Amazon (and a few other places I don’t care to recall).” While this type of sales hype might appeal to a less sophisticated seeker because it promises secret techniques from exotic locations, it does not in fact give any information that would lead someone to make an informed decision about whether it is in their best interests to participate in these secrets. I also looked at Mr. Ray’s “About page,” and no helpful information was found there, either. I am supposing that something was communicated about the sweat lodge experience to those who signed up for the course at some point in time. But, what that information is I have no way of knowing.

However, if Mr. Ray had bona fide, continuing Indigenous connections and a lineage to back him up, he would have offered that information upfront. Offering the names of one’s Elders, their clan affiliations, their bloodlines, and their lineages is typical, common practice among Indigenous people, when they are describing who they are. Not only do I experience this deep sharing of information in Indigenous relationships, I also have had the experience with my Reiki teacher. My Reiki master was very clear about his lineage and what that lineage stood for in the Reiki world. Since he did not choose to share information about his Elders and the lineage that supports his work, I have to assume that Mr. Ray did not have these connections. That is why I believe that Mr. Ray had no business offering Indigenous ceremonies in the context of his work.

An appropriate ceremonial leader spends many hours, resources, and energy learning his/her craft. They literally follow their mentor, as their teacher goes through the day-to-day activities that support producing good ceremonies. This is not someone going to Peru or the Amazon or to any Indigenous teacher every once in awhile for a spiritual experience. This is a committed way of life, where student and mentor spend tens of thousands of hours together doing the work on a daily basis. It is not a one off or two off seminar where you learn everything there is to know about producing good ceremonies. For example, good water pourers (the person who leads a sweat lodge) I know were in sweat lodges thousands of times, before they were even chosen to learn to pour water. So, I am really concerned that I see no evidence that Mr. Ray is apprenticed to an Indigenous teacher, has the protection of an Elder, has any real mentorship for his water pouring, or is part of a strong lineage of teachings.Taking these ceremonies out of the context of the protection of Elders is dangerous. This is what Mr. Ray, his staff, and his students have learned.

Too, not following prescribed teachings exactly to construct a good sweat lodge is dangerous. Whenever I have done a sweat, I go early to help prepare the lodge. We go to the river nearby, give offerings, and take pliable limbs of a certain size and kind from the trees there. We transport them back to the lodge site, which has been carefully prepared in a sacred way for the purposes of Inipi, and then sort through the blankets we have stored for the lodge. These blankets are either cotton or wool. All the materials we use to hold the lodge together are natural. The lodge has to breathe. As we build the lodge, the firekeeper(s) prepare the fire in an ancient sacred way. The stones (Grandfathers) are picked carefully and handled with care. Nothing is left to chance.

The police reported that the Lodge was built by Mr. Ray’s staff. I don’t know at this point what qualifications or instructions these people had to be able to build a good sweat lodge. However, I am supposing that they were no more qualified to build a lodge than Mr. Ray was to lead one. That is why they used tarps and plastic over the lodge poles and sealed the heat inside the lodge instead of letting it circulate. No wonder 19 people were taken to the hospital with a variety of burns and other injuries.

I could go on and on here about the intricacies of the Inipi ceremony — what participants should wear, what offerings they should bring so that they can pray in a good way, what tools are useful. The main thing I want you to hear at this point is that there are literally dozens of intrinsic factors in having a good sweat lodge experience. Each and every one of these elements is pivotal so that the connections between the Unseen and the Seen are made in a good way that is safe for all who participate. Only an experienced water pourer who is backed by a lineage of Elders is qualified to lead such an experience.

So, if we garner from these circumstances the key teaching that picking a teacher is one of the most important things one can do in life, then the people who participated in the sweat lodge in Sedona on Thursday provided us with a valuable lesson. In this way, I can be grateful to everyone who participated. For Mr. Ray, I have much compassion. He will eventually have to go through the difficult task of evaluating how his teachings and his sales hype were so inexorably intertwined that two people died as a result of this enmeshment. I don’t envy him.

I offer my prayers for everyone who is involved in this tragedy. My heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones or who had loved ones injured.