One of the things many people neglect to do on the spiritual path is to question spiritual teachers. It’s easy not to when they are marketing teachings in the way sales pitches have been sold onto people for years. They fire us up, raise the passion and the excitement in us, and most of these teachers;
“FUEL our DESIRE!”
The emphasis is placed on attaining the ‘desire’ and much less on whether we are ready to receive whatever ‘it’ is.
I have followed various teachers over the course of 11 years including Neale Donald Walsh, James Redfield, Kyron, The Crimson Circle, The Beacons Of Light and for the past few years, Abraham Hicks. All offering similar nuggets of wisdom packaged in a new and ‘enticing’ way. Many of these teachers offer tools, exercises and promises that their knowledge and understanding will bring about what we want.
Generally they point us on our way but they are not ‘The Way’. It’s quite easy to point fingers at organised religion as preaching the ‘only truth’, yet in a sense many of these spiritual teachers have a following en mass, acting as mass marketing and once you’re in ‘the group’ be it as ‘Shaumbra’ as an ‘Aber’ or even a ‘Lightworker’, once your belief is set and fixed on one set of teachings, there is no difference in this to that of organised religion. The main exception being you might be willing to spend your savings to receive this ‘wisdom’.
While many of the teachings offer a step on the road to self-empowerment they rarely offer the whole enchilada for life. How can they? We are all unique individuals viewing life through unique pairs of eyes.
My following teachers eventually led me back to myself which any good teacher should do.
If the teachers you are following are not making the difference you had hoped for in your life ask yourself if these teachings are for you? People change and quite often we can grow beyond a teaching because our inner selves see a different route for us. And we can come to a place in our lives where following teachers, and not having our expectations of those teachings fulfilled, become an excuse to not listening to our own inner voice.
It’s very easy to go from teacher to teacher to teacher searching for ‘The Answer’ to any problems we think we face in our lives. It’s much like someone going to see a different counsellor every six weeks because they were not able to ‘sort their lives out’.
I was an Aber-Holic
What made me drop all ‘outer’ teachers was when I was following Abraham Hicks. I now confess I was probably an ‘Aber-Holic’. I read all the books, bought all the Cd’s, watched all the videos I could find on ‘You Tube’ and did all the exercises. I sought out better feeling thoughts, but the thoughts did not sustain me. They glossed over what I needed. I grew disillusioned by their teachings and contradictions in both ‘wisdom’ and their ‘methods’.
Now, I recognise this disillusionment was essential to bring me back home, to myself.
I cringe now when I see other ‘Abers’ preaching the teachings of Abraham, because I used to be that person. No other teaching could match what they said. I was a walking, talking Abraham Hicks sales machine. I related only to other Abers and thought people who did not resonate were crazy. In fact I was the crazy one. I was not questioning anything. Until 3 months ago. I am so glad I did because I had to get off the bandwagon of ‘If I Want It I Can Get it’ to allow myself the opportunity to want ‘What Is’ in my life now.
While some teachings are etched in my brain I am slowly but surely finding my own path, my own way and it starts with making the best of TODAY.Check Out : Abraham Hicks – Looking Beyond The Teachings
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Kelly Martin, author of ‘When Everyone Shines But You’ is a dedicated writer and blogger who fearlessly explores life’s deepest questions. Faced with a decade of profound anxiety and grief following the loss of her father and her best friend Michael, Kelly embarked on a transformative journey guided by mindfulness, and she hasn’t looked back since. Through her insightful writing, engaging podcasts, and inspiring You Tube channel Kelly empowers others to unearth the hidden treasures within their pain, embracing the profound truth that they are ‘enough’ exactly as they are.
This is such a beautiful blog. As you know, I too was an Aber-Holic. When I was applying their materials to my life, my voice had been replaced by Abraham's. I was literally a parrot, repeating all their stories and ideas. If I didn't agree with them about something, I felt like it was my job to get to the place where I did agree with them, and I was sure they must be right because, after all, they had a broader perspective than me–right?
The Abraham materials did not help me appreciate where I was. Instead, they kept me setting the bar higher and higher to the most impossible places. And when I didn't reach those places, I just knew that I wasn't in alignment and that I had to find a way to get into my "vortex."
After I parted ways with the Abraham teachings and started to look at their work more critically, someone said to me, "You really remind me of a small child, sitting in a classroom, jumping all over the teacher for the slightest inconsistency." It disturbed me that someone would say this, and my immediate reply was, "I hope that such a child exists." Because I think it's essential for us to question all teachers (spiritual or otherwise).
Wonderful post, Kelly Martin.
Hi Kyra, thanks for dropping by. I am totally with you on this, I was that parrot too lol! Its amazing looking back as when I was totally immersed in the teachings I did not see that my vocabulary had changed. Instead of speaking my own feelings in my own personal way, I was speaking their way. I bought the Vortex book and CD by the way and was probably one of the few people on amazon to give it a critical review and then guess what I did? I did everything in my power to try and get myself 'aligned' with the CD so it would work for me and I changed my review lol! talk about brainwashed lol!
Its almost as if I said a bad or critical word I about Abraham Hicks, Jerry or Esther I was going to be punished LOL! and I did get a lot of responses by Abers explaining to me in the 'same terminology' I had etched into my brain why it was not working for me. Frankly it did not get me in my vortex it pissed me off! LOL I finished doing it and felt annoyed and it was nothing to do with the emotional scale as I was feeling good prior. I have never had this experience with a spiritual teacher before, those prior albeit carrot danglers also, never said things in such a repetitive way that I repeated them or spoke like them. Abraham Hicks is the only form of mental brainwashing I have ever come across and so glad I am out of it. I know many people who absolutely love them and I do hope they enjoy happy joyfilled lives I just also hope anybody reading my blog or yours simply allows a healthy questioning mind into what they are experiencing, particularly if they are not feeling good.
I love what you said about the small child jumping around looking for inconsistencys every classroom needs a child like that its all a part of 'CONTRAST' lol! it is necessary. However, like most education systems these days they don't tend to welcome healthy questioning.
Keep up the good work Kyra, I love that you question.
Much love x
Just to add, one thing I want to get across to anybody reading this blog is that if something you hear or read or experience from any spiritual teacher feels even a slight bit off, trust your instinct. Your intuition knows when something does not work for you. My change in feeling towards Abraham Hicks began with the smallest of inner nudges. That nudge began with "Why is there such a small amount in the teachings emphasised on really being happy with what is and so much more being aimed at focusing on what we want?" whats wrong with what is? its only scary when we turn the other way, don't accept it, don't acknowledge it and don't appreciate it as part of our experience. And then once we have released any resistance to it, our lives shift, in a perfectly natural way into what we need at the time.
Hi Kelly… YES!!! Nice job… I have always LOVED teachings from a variety of places…Not just Abe.. Although I love their teachings, I hear the same messages through many teachers..Teachers are just that teachers and in human form they are always fallible…Channeler that are human can misinterpret what their hearing…
Helloooo Renae, great to see you here. Yes variation is the key. Being fallible as humans can be really opened me up to looking to my inner self as guide now. Grateful for my doubting thomas! lol!
It's probably easier for me not to take something as gospel after spending years in Christianity and finally rejecting it. I think I probably always knew deep down that Abraham Hicks didn't work for me but I guess I WANTED it to work .. Anyway, I believe all of us can and will find whatever teachings DO resonate with our inner being.
Hi Andy, yeah me too, I wanted it to work. And while some of the teachings have helped me, they were not unique to Abraham. The simple teachings of make the best of where I am, be present, have been spoken for decades by other teachers also. I guess universal truths in some sense. Hugs x