We recently had a conversation with other practitioners, where we shared our experiences as guides. During our discussion, I (Abbie) was asked if I had ever encountered individuals who experienced contact with external entities during their sessions. The concepts of Self and Other, inner and outer experiences, and Spiritual and Alien entities are complex philosophical, phenomenological, and ontological concepts, which become even more intricate when entheogens are involved.
As any ethical practitioner should from time-to-time, I have been wrestling with my own authenticity and the ethics of serving as an entheogenic and spiritual guide. As more light is shed on Spiritual Awakening within the Collective Consciousness, more people will finally have a name for their lived experience, while others will want to experience an aware Spiritual experience. Some will claim they have, or do, but may be generating from the mind rather than an embodied knowing.
Navigating Diverse Paths of Awakening
People are on different paths that are not linear and often cross, converge, diverge, stall, or end. Some people experience a Healing Awakening, others a Psychedelic Awakening, and fewer (but growing) a Spiritual Awakening. Due to our deep collective wounding around separation from our bodies and the broader Natural World, awakening to the awareness of the Spiritual layers of the Universe and the power of any individual to do so is met with a great deal of skepticism by many - even (and often) by both church-goers and those who identify as "spiritual, but not religious."
Journeying Within and Without: My Personal Encounters
In my own entheogen-induced experiences, I have yet to commune with Spiritual, Animist, or Alien entities. I have been graced with the awareness of an infinite and indescribable force both beyond and within me - I have experienced the Mystic. Thus far, my communion with formed entities comes in one of two ways: 1. During meditation and is not open-eyed visual; rather, an embodied felt sense knowing, or 2. Through Nature outside of my own body: plants, animals, people, and elements that, again, don't speak to me in heard human language; rather, connect in a way that activates an embodied sense of knowing.
Guiding the Journey: Navigating Inner and Outer Realms
Much of the work I do as a guide involves facilitating self-inquiry meditation and entheogenic journeys, focusing on trauma processing in the initial stages. Often, what emerges in these sessions are unresolved inner-child experiences that need acknowledgment, validation, and integration with the present adult self. With returning clients who have already done substantial inner-child work, I find that I more frequently encounter entities like ancestors, past-life forms, and archetypal beings.
María Sabina: A Profound Encounter
One of the most fulfilling entheogenic sessions I co-facilitated was with a woman with whom I had no prior connection prior to the pre-work and journey. She had developed her own body-led self-inquiry practice and demonstrated a high level of emotional intelligence. During her session, she communed with her Ancestral Spirit Guides in a manner similar to her meditation practice, which she was using to focus on personal healing and healing beyond her current lived experience. There was also an outside Spirit, Maria, that sat with her and guided her. Interestingly, Maria's presence was not initially appreciated by the other Ancestral Spirit Guides.
María Sabina: An Ascended Guide
María Sabina, in her embodied life, was described as a "Ready One" by Bruce Rimell—of the chota chjine, "folks who work with medicine, ones who are makers, creators, completed in their seeing, those who watch carefully and find what they were looking for." Despite facing negative consequences and harboring regrets, Sabina remained willing to help others and displayed an inexhaustible well of compassion, as noted by David Connell.
Many believe that Sabina, in Spirit, has become an Ascended Master—a soul that has transcended the human experience after death and attained a higher spiritual plane. Ascended Masters possess profound wisdom, healing abilities, and guidance. These enlightened beings may have once walked the Earth as healers, monks, teachers, prophets, or mystics from various cultures and religions. Having transformed their physical bodies into a refined, luminous state, they operate beyond the constraints of negative karma and can freely choose to support and uplift humanity as guides and teachers.
Embracing the Guide's Path
There are many types of shamanic practitioners, medicine people, and spiritual guides. As I walk the path, step into deeper states of awakening, have more experiences, and hone my craft, my personal perspective of my practice evolves. I find the most fulfillment in providing a space for others to commune in their own embodied and authentic way with the Spiritual realms. It humbles me when entities feel comfortable enough to emerge in my presence. Experiencing a layer of initiation from María Sabina has undoubtedly been a highlight of my guideship thus far, reinforcing the transformative power of looking inward as a means to connect more broadly with the Spiritual realm for healing and wisdom.
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