Divine vs. Distorted Guidance Explained

Most people who practice Reiki sooner or later experience an opening of their intuitive abilities and they can receive information that is beyond the purview of their 5 senses or conscious abilities. And this is incredible when it happens!

Usually when someone uses Reiki alone and has a strong practice, I’ve observed that the guidance they receive is mostly fine. However, today we tend to mix and match a lot of techniques and this in combination with toxic energy in the environment can lead to our inner guidance being sabotaged. And if we don’t realise what is happening, it can lead us astray and waste our time.

What Happens?

Just like we can see, but that does not mean that everything we see is true, our intuition can also fool us. Our extra sensory perception merely brings us information that the other senses cannot. However, the interpretation is still subject to our intelligence and wisdom, both of which can be messed with very easily in the internet age.

It is a popular misconception that the subconscious mind knows what is best for us and always takes action based on our higher good. But if this was true, we wouldn’t develop toxic patterns in the first place. That was the subconscious trying to do the best for us, but it doesn’t always know the right way of going about things, which is why methods like hypnotherapy or tapping are required to reset old and useless patterns.

Also if we have picked up toxic energy from somewhere, or if our shadow has come up for healing, a lot of inner guidance we receive can be completely off the mark.

How Do I Know the Difference?

• Real guidance is clear, concise, and tends to focus on what you need. It either brings your focus to an inner wound or guides you to do something to help you expand, for example a repetitive message like ‘You are worthy of love’ might address a long-standing emotional wound holding you back, or ‘go to that party’ might be divine guidance if you for example, end up making a new friend who helps you find your way out of darkness.

• Real guidance provides actionable steps. If you get information which involves no action to take, it is usually not divine guidance and just the mind or toxic energy attachments creating some sort of comforting illusion to escape reality as it is. There is always a purpose to authentic divine guidance and it is not random or for fun.

Much of what I am going to share will likely sound radically different from commonly circulated wisdom. I have tested them out on many clients over the years as I was shocked myself to discover them. So, even if you disagree completely, I softly urge you to read with an open heart and mind and be open to finding out the truth – it might just change your life.

Many of the following are not ‘fake’ – they are as real as it gets, because the mind can create illusion in the material world too. All of the following includes inner and outer guidance, right from dreams to say, finding someone’s birth date in every bill you receive.

• Vague, confusing messages. Dreams that leave you confused are probably just processing by your subconscious mind and don’t need to be analysed. Any visions that need you to reach out to someone else for interpretation are not divine guidance, it could just be the mind throwing up your concerns for review too, and does not warrant any worrying.

• Distraction. If these messages are taking you from the present in any way, they are not pure. If they take you away from your responsibilities in any way, they are not pure.

• Ego enhancing messages like ‘you are a star-seed’ or ‘you are here to change the world’ are not real (neither are guilt-tripping messages). These happen when we haven’t done shadow work and need to feel special in order to be balanced. The spiritual pathway is about dis-identifying and letting go of labels, and certainly not adopting new ones. Even messages like an ex still loves you or someone else will be brought to justice – these are not pure and just the naughty mind at play.

• Synchronicity. Surprised? For years I bought into it too, until I discovered by chance that synchronicity is a sign of having picked up toxic energy. If you’d like to find out for yourself, cleanse your energy thoroughly, and the synchronicity will stop. Most often I have noticed, it happens when toxic energies are trying to push us in a direction that is not healthy for us. What is important to realise is that anything truly divine wishes us to be present, whereas these things actually take us out of our bodies and into fantasy. This includes everything, including ‘angel numbers’, seeing a new lover’s name everywhere, etc. Try a simple thing like requesting your guides not to communicate with you like this – if they respect your boundaries, they stop. If they don’t, they are toxic.

• Promises of a bright future. Many light-workers I know see visions of a bright future, great success, etc. These are useless when we see things in the larger picture, and come from a lack of presence. Instructions to do something towards a bigger future are a different matter, but simply receiving messages where you are given something to look forward to which make the present look ‘small’ – this is not healthy and must be ignored.

• Scary events/ news of accidents or death. Sometimes people develop a high sensitivity where they can sense something going wrong a few days before it happens, and usually have an emotion reaction. This is usually alright, but if you are picking up information about people that don’t mean much to you emotionally – and if there is nothing you can do to change this, then this is a sign of some sort of unpleasant energy attachment.

What Can I Do About This?

If you realise that you are receiving guidance that is impure, then a thorough cleansing of your energy will usually stop it. If it doesn’t, just ignore it, and it will fade with time. Do not engage with it, do not try to stop it, just treat it like white noise.

Article by Ashwita Goel, Reiki Master

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Having learned Meditation as a child, Ashwita incorporated Reiki into her life during her early teens. After a decade of witnessing the magic Reiki, she felt compelled to take up Reiki professionally, and ended her corporate career in 2007, taking up Reiki full-time. She eventually incorporated EFT, hypnotherapy and past life therapy into her work. Apart from her healing work, she teaches Reiki and meditation, and her book ‘Healing Through Reiki’ is available on Amazon. She holds regular full moon and new moon meditations at @AshwitaGoel. Her website is www.reiki-bangalore.com and her blog www.ashwita.com