This is an excerpt from My Spiritual Belief System and the New Millennium - a page on which I answer questions about the new millennium posed to me by an Indian New Age magazine. (Indian as in India.):

The main reason that I have seen the so called New Age movement discredited is that people are not doing their healing. They want to get Spiritual without owning their humanity. They do not want to do the messy emotional healing that involves grieving and releasing the rage energy we are all carrying around. They are out of balance and lack discernment so that they keep looking for the whole truth in one place. There is Truth in all religions, spiritual belief systems, esoteric practices, etc. - but there is also twisted, distorted misinformation in them all. Until we clear our inner channel to allow emotional flow it is impossible to Truly be discerning about Truth. The emotional energy/intuition that is Truth is very different from what we experience as our emotional truth - which is most often largely a reaction to our emotional wounds and subconscious intellectual programming. Until someone has become willing to heal their emotional wounds they cannot clearly start discerning between Truth and misinformation. They keep looking outside for the answers, for someone or something to tell them what Truth to believe - instead of owning their own inner channel to Truth. There are nuggets of Truth everywhere if we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. If our intellectual paradigm is limited, then we cannot see and hear clearly. If our emotional wounds are being allowed to unconsciously run our lives then we are incapable of Truly understanding our intuition.

And, the bottom line I believe, is that we are Spiritual Beings having a human experience. We are not here to get Spiritual - we are Spiritual. We are here to integrate that Spiritual essence into our human experience. The first time that someone told me that I was a Spiritual Being having a human experience, I got really angry. The reason that I got angry is because I recognized immediately that this statement was the Truth. I also recognized that since that was the Truth, it was not acceptable for me to go up on a mountain and meditate my way to God. I realized that it meant I was supposed to learn how to relate to other human beings - something that I did not want to do because of my wounds.

Many people who are drawn to the New Age movement are still looking for the right way to do things, for the source outside of themselves that will give them the answers, for the aliens in space ships who will save them from the pain of this human experience. The goal in this Age of Healing and Joy, in my understanding, is to learn to look within to find The Source. To own our Spiritual Essence and our humanity - and to integrate Spirituality into the human experience so that we can achieve some balance in this human dance we are doing.

This is a New Age, but unfortunately many so called new agers are still looking for the magic answer that will allow them to vibrate at a higher vibrational level that allows them to escape the human experience. I do not believe it is possible to do that without first honoring our human emotions, clearing our emotional bodies of repressed emotional energy, and embracing the experience of being human.

"It is however, vital for humans to realize that doing their emotional healing is a vital part of opening up to Love and en-Light-enment. For any human to focus on anything but healing their own self is counterproductive in this New Age. To put their time and energy into belief systems that do such things as: attribute all of the significant events, and the important people, in human history to the intervention of aliens from other planets or other dimensions; buy into the belief that they are being manipulated and/or led to Truth by some hierarchy of beings from higher vibrations; or need the intervention of discarnate entities from the Astral plane to teach you Truth; or any of numerous other ways in which people focus their attention on some of the myriad of false gods that are outside of their being; is to deny that they in and of them self are Lovable and worthy simply as beings who are extensions of The Holy Mother Source Energy. To attribute messages that are coming through your inner channel from your own Higher Self to someone or something outside of - or separate from - you, is to give power to the shame and separation that is the evil in this Creation Dream. And the reason humans are doing these things is because they are scared to do their own emotional healing. Honoring, respecting, Loving self enough to heal the emotional wounds from this lifetime is what will clear the inner channel and open self up to Love - not connecting with some being from the Pleiades."

"We will talk about how entities of the Astral plane have interfered with the inner channel after you have recalled some more memories of the future and past. For now it is enough to note that any communication that requires unconsciousness on the part of a human being - including entity channeling, automatic writing, drugs, meditative trance, etc. - has always resulted in as much misinformation as Truth, and will in this Age retard the beings growth process. Of course, the path for some beings has included some of these things at certain points prior to the information about what works best in this Age becoming available to them. The key is balance which can only be attained through emotional healing. Each person must strive to be emotionally honest with themselves and that requires taking responsibility for one's own path. This Age of Healing and Joy is about awakening to consciousness of one's own Spiritual Nature and Spiritual Purpose - and that is accomplished by healing the wounds within, by healing the 'inner child' that is the soul. One cannot awaken to consciousness by turning over responsibility for one's own path to anyone outside of Self. That includes gurus in body, aliens from the Pleaides, and/or entities of the Astral."

The e-mail I received was from someone who was in a relationship with a spiritual teacher that had taught this person a great deal. The teacher was a Reiki Master and Spiritual Minister who was very invested in the concept that there are no limitations to the spiritual power available. The teacher was also a practicing alcoholic/addict. The person who sent the e-mail was relatively new to spiritual teachings, and was confused about the behavior and inability to set boundaries exhibited by the teacher. My answer in part:

There is a page that is part of one of my Update Announcements that you might find interesting. In the bottom half of the article on that page http://Joy2MeU.com/news.htm (the news addendum I refer to at the beginning of this article.) I talk about misconceptions and misunderstandings of Metaphysical law that many spiritual seekers fall into the trap of empowering.

Although I don't speak directly to the concept of limitations - the same principles apply. That the Universe is capable of any miracle, that it's power is unlimited, is an absolute Truth. That we have access to that power is also a Truth. That it is important for us to be open to that power and not put limitations on ourselves in terms of the attitudes, beliefs, and definitions we allow to dictate our relationship with self, life, and The Universal Force / God / Goddess / Great Spirit is very True. But it is also true that we are here to do Karmic Settlement and heal wounds from the past - and that Karmic Law and physical existence do impose certain limitations on us. The wounds that we suffered in this lifetime are reflections of the Karma we need to heal. The situations we find our self in are perfect for us to learn the lessons we need to learn. And important part of learning is to see reality clearly - and then take appropriate action to heal what we become conscious of.

One of the limiting factors that we need to learn to accept and make the best of, is the physical body vehicle we have chosen for this lifetime. Some of us have chosen - in alignment with Karmic settlement - to experience bodies which include a genetic predisposition to alcoholism and addiction. Any alcoholic who thinks that they can heal their alcoholism through spiritual power without quitting drinking is delusional and empowering denial rather than Truth. Their disease is twisting their thinking to suit the purpose of allowing them to rationalize continued drinking. An alcoholic who is in denial about their alcoholism will always have as their first priority justifying their drinking - that is a survival level priority for an alcoholic in denial. Anything and anyone in their lives who tries to get between them and their drinking will suffer for it - unless or until the alcoholic gets conscious enough to recognize that they have a problem.

In order to protect yourself, it is necessary for you to recognize the reality of the situation. Talking to an alcoholic that is drinking is about as effective as talking to the bottle itself - in other words, a waste of time and energy. As long as the alcoholic is in denial, he will blame others and rationalize his behavior.

Alcoholism is a physiological condition. All of us have certain limitations caused by the physical body vehicles we are inhabiting in this lifetime. That there are no limits to the power we have access to, does not include the ability to create anything we want to in this physical world we inhabit. Someone who is 5 feet tall with no athletic ability does not have the power to manifest a career as a professional basketball player. If we are focusing on a specific goal that is based upon external circumstances then there are many limitations to what we can manifest. That there are no limitations to the healing possible through Reiki or other spiritual practices is very true - in terms of we should not put any limitations on the possibilities, but there are still other forces at work that do limit possibilities.

As I say on my page that includes questions and answers about alcoholism:

"One of the major indicators that a person is an alcoholic in my opinion, is that when they decide they are not alcoholic they have a drink to celebrate. Some one who is not an alcoholic has no compelling reason to drink - and most non alcoholics do not ever have to wonder if they are alcoholic." - Questions about Alcoholism

Someone who has accessed so much Spiritual power that they could heal their own alcoholism, would then also have no reason to drink. There is no limitation to the abundance of Joy, the exquisite feeling of Love that we can access in some moments of our journey through doing our healing. Accessing those transcendent emotional vibrational frequencies results from clearing our inner channel and being open to whatever we are feeling in the moment. Using temporary artificial means to help us raise our vibrational frequency and access higher vibrational energies was sometimes the only way they could be accessed prior to the dawning of this New Age. In this Age of Healing and Joy, our mission is to raise our consciousness naturally through clearing our inner channel and owning our Divine connection. The purpose of the healing is to own our True Spiritual essence and remember that we are connected to the Source. Temporary, artificial means of doing that are detrimental to our path in this New Age.

One of the things that is very important in recovery is to not put people on pedestals. Anytime we put someone on a pedestal and empower the belief that they are much better than us, we are setting ourselves up to be victims - because they will disappoint us. Everyone is human. Everyone is wounded. Which means that the most highly thought of "experts," the best selling authors, the pioneers to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude for blazing the trail, are human also. One does not have to be perfect to be a channel. One of the most important best selling books - a book that introduced millions of people to seeing life from a spiritual perspective - was written by a practicing alcoholic. Some of the greatest spiritual teachers have a marvelous gift for communicating Truth - but have a problem with applying that Truth in relationship to themselves. (And also have the potential to be the most gifted in turning any perceived criticism back on the person trying to communicate with them. Anyone who is in denial about what they perceive as a life threatening priority - like an alcoholic who feels compelled to drink or an "expert" whose ego strength is based on feeling "better than" - can be masterful in defending themselves. They will use spiritual/recovery language and knowledge of interaction dynamics to manipulate.)

We all need help in remembering Truth. We all need help at times to see ourselves more clearly. We all need to have people come into our lives who will help us heal, who will share with us understanding and knowledge, tools and techniques, that will help us on our path. None of those people will be perfect. Everyone is in process. No one is completely healed or enlightened. Putting someone on a pedestal is codependent and a block to intimacy. Any "expert" who buys into believing they belong on a pedestal is being codependent.

No one has the right to tell you what your path is, to judge you in your process. Anyone who teaches that there is a right and wrong way to heal, is trapped in the black and white, polarized thinking of the disease of codependence. Anyone who gives the message that there is a destination to be reached is empowering the concept of conditional love. Anyone who gives shaming messages is projecting their own unhealed wounds outward.

At the core of the condition of codependence - which I believe is the human condition - is shame about being human. Feeling that being human is a punishment of some kind - or something to evolve beyond. As I say in my book, many aboriginal societies were far advanced over "civilized" societies in this regard. They actually believed that there were Loving reasons for this human experience, and that it was just a temporary condition to celebrate rather than something to escape.

At the core of recovery from the dis-ease of codependence, is the need to take the shame and judgment out of the process on a personal level. The only way, in my opinion, that we can Truly manifest Love into the world is to start with learning to Love ourselves. As long as we are judging and shaming ourselves for being human, we will judge others for being human. As long as we are fighting our own emotional process, we will not be able to clearly discern rather what we are feeling is a reaction that is coming from the old wounds and old tapes, or an emotional energy communication from our soul.

Recovery is a process of learning how to take power over how we feel about ourselves away from the critical, fear based internal programming so that we can more clearly tune into the intuitive messages from our soul, from our Higher Self. The test of rather a message is coming from our wounds and false beliefs or from our Spirit is a fairly simple one: does it support Love? Is it a Loving message?

Any message that supports polarity - right and wrong, black and white - is not coming from a large enough paradigm. Yin and Yang are not separate - they are ONE dynamic, one whole. It is our polarized perspective that makes them seem to be competing opposites. When we look at the human dynamic from a large enough perspective we can see the ONENESS of it all.

It is very difficult to communicate in polarized, three dimensional language about a process that is multi-leveled and multi-dimensional. The quote from Marianne Williamson that I use above may be taken out of context - my interpretation of it may not be what she meant at all. There may be quotes in this very article that someone could use in a shaming manner. I certainly am not perfect - nor is it possible for me to communicate clearly all of the time.

The point that I am trying to make is that any message that empowers judgment and shame, that supports the illusion of separation, is not coming from our Spirit - those messages are coming from the disease. The Highest Truth, the only Truth, is LOVE. By accessing the Transcendent emotional energy of Love, Joy, Light, and Truth through paying attention to, clearing our channel to, that which we resonate with - we can reconnect with the Source and remember our True identity.

Life is not a test that we can fail. Life events are not punishment for being defective, or for doing it wrong. As long as we are in human body we will sometimes experience fear. When we judge and shame ourselves for being human we are feeding the disease, we are allied with the shame instead of with Love.

By learning to have compassion for our self we can take power away from the shame and judgment - which will in turn take power away from our fears. By remembering the Truth of Unconditional Love, we can access the faith and courage to walk through our fears.

This is an incredibly complex and convoluted process. It is also very simple. Love is the answer. Love is the guide. LOVE is Home. And Love has to start at home by learning to Love and accept our self by tuning into the Truth within us. That Truth is that we are part of the ONENESS; we are Unconditionally Loved; and we are going to get to go Home. On a Higher Level we are Home already - we always have been.

Go to Abundant Spirituality in a New Age of Healing and Joy