Contacting spirit guides ? what some people call ?angels? ? raises the question about whether and when the information obtained by channeling is indeed coming from spirits outside of ourselves; or whether it is just our own thoughts (thought forms). At first, of course, it seems to the neophyte channeler that the information he or she is receiving ? which usually comes as thoughts in one?s mind (though sometimes it can be images) ? are one?s own thoughts. In our society hardly anyone stops for a moment to examine his or her own thoughts objectively; much less to consider the source from which these thoughts arise. With some experience, however, it becomes easy to determine when the information is indeed being received by contacting spirit guides; and when it?s just one?s own thought forms.
Thought forms are patterns of habitual thoughts which we have learned from our society and parents. Most of what we take to be our own thoughts are in fact little robotic computer programs, which we call ?thought forms?: in response to this, do that! Note that what we here term ?thought forms? are called ?homunculi? in materialistic cognitive philosophy, specifically labeled with various brand names according to the particular school of cognitive thought (e.g. Dawkins and Dennett call them ?memes?; Minsky calls them ?agents?; Norman and Shallice call them ?schema control units?; Waterhouse calls them ?fixed action patterns?; Jerison calls them ?basic specialists?; etc.). Thought forms are in fact alive; that is to say, they have wills of their own, as well as a determination to survive and perpetuate themselves. This is why our thoughts seem to drive us so relentlessly most of the time. We cannot will ourselves to stop thinking, because there is a gallery of thought forms yelling for our moment-to-moment attention.
Thus thought forms form the content of the great majority of what we take to be our thoughts, and evil spirits and spirit guides are the source of the rest. The fundamental difference is that thought forms are our own creation, shaped by parental and societal influences; thus our thought forms die when we die. Spirits, on the other hand, are outside of us ? they have lives of their own and do not depend upon our thinking them in order to blow the breath of life into them. In point of fact, everyone ? not just professional psychics ? is channeling spirits constantly. The only difference between average people and professional psychics is that the latter are consciously aware that they are channeling spirits when they do it; whereas average people are not. In short, the way to start contacting spirit guides is first to start paying attention to your own moment-to-moment thoughts. All of us have angels and spirit guides who pass us thoughts all the time. However most people don?t pay any attention to these messages, any more than they pay attention to what the people around them ? such as their parents, their spouse, or their children, are saying to them. When thoughts prompted by angels and spirit guides pop up in their minds, they simply pass over them or reject them. Their gallery of habitual thought forms is so raucous and insistent that spirit guides have difficulty getting a word in edgewise. Thus, information from angels and spirit guides tends to be ?new? ? not something you?ve thought about again and again and again. It also has a tendency to be something you don?t particularly want to hear ? e.g. forgiving and forgetting, or dropping some line of thought or action which you?re going great guns on. Just stopping for a moment and looking at that thought you just had; examining it objectively; asking the question, ?Why am I thinking this? Is this a good thought, one that will somehow benefit me? Or is it just ego games?? Asking these kinds of questions is a good start on the road to contacting spirit guides.
Bob Makransky
Author Bio
Contacting spirit guides is quite easy. If they had taught you how to contact angels and spirit guides in 6th grade, you?d be doing it all the time and not giving it a second thought.
