How to Meet your Higher Self (Blog)

[Erin Pavlina]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Erin Pavlina's blog:

How to Meet your Higher Self

[Jeff Lilly]

Way fantastic. I'm going to go talk to my HS right now.

No, wait a minute. I have a question first... :-)

I thought it was interesting that you said that doing the HS visualization might feel like you're imagining the whole thing at first. Is that how it felt for you when you first started talking with spirits, seeing dead people, that kind of thing? Or were you already familiar enough with how it felt to be "tuned in" that you would never mistake it for your own ego?

[Erin Pavlina]

I didn't start talking to spirits, seeing the dead, etc until after I had reached a really high level of awareness.

However, I did have paranormal experiences since age 4, when I was not at a high level of awareness. But communing with energies in the higher realms... yeah, not until more recently.

[Jill]

Could one's subconscious be their higher self? Or somehow related? Or no...completely different?

[Erin Pavlina]

Your subconscious develops as a result of your life experiences. The higher self is more pure, at a higher level, not tainted by the happenings of just this one life.

[Athena]

Erin, this is a beautiful article! Thank you for sharing it with us!


===

I'm also wondering if-- we are somehow very well connected with our Higher Selves when we are young? Like, when we're young, we often have fantasies and creative impulses that lead us to a certain direction. As though we remember VERY FRESHLY the directions given to our spirit then. I'm finding now, at a crossroads in life, that referring to some of my thoughts when I was young to gague where my greatest strengths are.

So, perhaps there are certain times in our lives, to those of us who have not previously actively tried to connect to our HS, that it speaks to us loudly anyways?


===
and also, with reincarnation-- if we have a mission for THIS LIFE, what happens if we don't complete it? Can we carry it on for our next life, even stronger and brighter and more direct in our path?

[Steve Rodgman]

Hey Athena,

As a young child I have learned that it's possible that we actually remember clearly our past lives. Soon though, any window in the veil is covered. I suppose later on it is possible to learn of past lives or get hints (e.g. such as what we are really passionate about in this life could stem from a previous life...I was asking about this in another post in the spirituality forum).

Steve

[Akashic_Librarian]

Is it possible all people who channel "God" or "buddha" or "Ghandi" and so on are just channeling their HS?

[Steve Rodgman]

I believe that God is another word for the universe; or the source; or the one. God refers to the single consciousness that the universe is. Each of our selves (spirit) is a slice of God (separation is an illusion portrayed by the ego).

So when religions speak of God (yes) they are really speaking about your true self (or your higher self) -- which was created in the same spirit likeness as the source or 'God'. You have the same free will and infinite ability that God has.

When you are praying, however, you are actually actively talking to the universe, or the source, or the one God (not the religious God)(you are placing your order with the universe as Erin cleverly puts it). Truth is, you, in fact, are always 'praying' or asking the universe. So many of us are not doing so consciously though (the law of attraction works 24/7). And those who do pray to God (many who do....not all) are praying in a state of lack.

As Steve mentioned in one of his articles, when you interpret religion using an eternal free will model, or 'subjective reality' model as he calls it, God-like miracles and feelings of pure joy, love, wealth and abundance are 'things' you can achieve and be too. You, in fact, already have everything -- your spirit, as it was created in the same likeness as God or the source (etc.), has everything and can do anything, just like God in the religious sense can.

Religions, in my opinion (I think Erin might have said it like this...but don't quote me), are the way that different cultures teach the foundations and truths of the universe. Each religion essentially teaches the same truths, simply using different imagery.

Quantum physics (what appears to be more universal science...as opposed to the objective 'laws of science') is only just letting us understand why what religious and spiritual teachers have been teaching are actually closer to truthful interpretation than that of the pure objective reality others think is true.

The part that I'm hung up on right now is the relationship between the physical world and the universe (ether? or control centre realm?) and how all the dimensions/realms are linked. And the idea of there being infinite Earths.

Of course all of this is just what I believe right now in my 'remembering'.

It’s so interesting how it’s all so simple when you 'get it' -- but learning it can be difficult! (there are so many pieces you have to pick up here and there and place together...and when you learn something new...it’s like OH! RIGHT!...as you see the error in your ways or re-enforce something else)

Steve

[Steve Rodgman]

Sorry for another one...but I have some stuff to add to what Erin said!

To tune in simply quiet the mind. Turn down all the chatter from the ego and from there you will tune in to your higher mind. Many have said that they get their most fascinating inspiration when they remain still and quiet (such as during meditation...it is best to shut out the ego all day long though...die ego die).

Simply ask the universe a question, quiet the mind, and wait for the answer (don't tell 'things' what they mean...let those things, your higher mind, and the universe tell you what they mean). The answer may come through feeling or intuition (as Erin says). It can also come through "coincidence" (such as an event or thing that enters your life that provides you with guidance of some kind).

I am experiencing coincidences (of course they don't really exist...the universe is perfect) and getting messages (intuition) all the time. But you have to let the answers come to you, and be open to receiving them.

Steve

[Erin Pavlina]

Higher self is not the same as Source or God. However, your Higher Self is connected directly to Source, no middle man. Your higher self is the piece of God - the tentacle - that is cast out to become, to learn, to grow, to experience and then to bring back to God (Source).

If God is the trunk of the tree, the higher self is the branch, and you are the leaf. All connected, but not quite the same.

[Kelly]

This was a great blog post!

Having kept a journal for 20-odd years, I've tried in the past to ask questions and get replies from my Higher Self, but I never really felt as though it was "working." But I've noticed just recently, when I am writing in my journal -- usually moaning about some great offense or injustice -- I'll get this little knowing as I am writing. It is the "still, small voice" saying "Ah...excuse me...that's not quite right. You could do this... Or you could try that...etc."

I am allowing the information and guidance of my Higher Self to come through, whereas when I tried the Q/A approach, I expected mind-blowing answers and this stopped the whole process dead in its tracks. It's really quite wonderful, and I wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience?

[elainevdw]

Score!! The first of many more blog articles we keep nagging poor Erin for. You have sun a fresh way of writing about this stuff, too... it's great!

[Erin Pavlina]

Thanks, Elaine. I appreciate your positive comments.

[jakedahn]

Hey,

I'm just wondering if the higher self, is just another way of looking at spirit guides. One can draw some paralells.

What do you think?

[Erin Pavlina]

Your higher self is a separate entity than the spirit guides. However, they both act in a similar manner; guiding you to fulfill your spiritual contract. So in that way, yeah, HS could be seen as your ultimate guide.

[songwriter]

Well... I read about "confronting your past lives". Like incarnating here to do better what you did your past life or so. I have clues about my past life, but never visions and memories.

But if I try to confront that supposed past live everything gets better for me.
That's all I know.

[Slade]

Erin,

What great fun - I've paid so much attention to defining and Naming:

All the members of my God Posse - how I collectively refer to all the ancestors, angels, totems, spirit Guides, etc - I am constantly exploring and writing about the conceptualization and personification that accompanies our relationships with these benevolent entities who support our experience here

Even my relationship with Money
If Money Was A Person, Who Would He Be?

For most of my life, I thought I was channeling Characters - I explained away much of the clairaudience and automatic writing I experienced as a part of my creative process.

Indeed, it is - our creativity is so closely linked to our divinity.

Reading your higher self article, I realized that although I have a sense of this, I've never really "cast" this aspect of myself - like you and the rest of us media-saturated virtual incarnators, my mind goes straight to the

"Who would play my Higher Self in a movie?" approach.
Or "If my Higher Self was a character from a book, he'd be..."

Like with all the best music, it's a Mix and a Mash-up of associations...

I had an editor who called me "Dr. Phil on Witchcraft" - which makes me smile.

But I also feel that I am growing to meet a Higher Self who's very much the Gandalf of the Lord of The Rings movie trilogy. Indeed, I hope to be a wise and funny crazy old coot when I'm 105 and a Martian colonist...

I am also extremely jealous of Lir, the protagonist in Son of A Witch, the sequel to Gregory Maguire's Wicked. That broom was meant for me, damn him! Now I know how his mother felt when Glinda gave those slippers to that blasted goodie-goodie with the pigtails...

I do know that my dialogue and movie posters would say things like:
Elphaba lives!
You shall not pass here!
I want you to fall in love with your life!

I don't know who this Character looks like, and I don't know where I would find him outside myself, because, of course, you know the only place he really exists is inside me, and the person born to play this Alternative White Wizard with a sense of humour, a Potty Mouth and a withering eye-roll

You're looking at him, my pretty!
: )

[yasi_joy]

erin i wnated to thank you,,,the imagining tip really helped me hear the voices more clearer

[thomasinalhama.com]

Hi Erin,

Just curious. Is it Possible To Have A "Lower Self"?

I haven't really heard about this "higher self" although I've always had "conversations" with someone that directs me. I've always thought of it simply as the "reasonable me," my "better half," or just my imagination. etc.

Anyway, I tried to be methodical about it -- to see that I'm not just imagining things, I guess. And followed your advice.

The first time was easy. She was right there. It is however the first time that I've actually seen a face rather than just a voice.

The second time however, someone who looked exactly like my supposedly "HS" showed up. But she was a bit more nasty--like a rough version..After a few minutes, I told her she wasn't my HS and I wasn't interested in talking to her. And she replies, "Why can't I get a break around here?". With that she leaves and my actual HS shows up.

Is this all a figment of my imagination? Or is this experience actually possible?

Thanks a lot

Aimee

[Erin Pavlina]

Aimee, your ego is your "lower self." Your ego is the one that tells you "You cant do that. Who do you think you are?" and "You'd better hurry before someone else gets what you want!" Etc.

You were probably chatting with your ego.

Raise your vibration before you contact your higher self. it's like tuning your radio to a higher frequency.

[Alison]

I was excited to see Erin writing about the Higher Self. I have been learning about the Higher and Lower Self through the Pathwork (International Pathwork Foundation - a spiritual path of personal transformation based teachings of self-responsibility,self-knowledge and self-acceptance channeled by Eva Pierrakos and known as the Guide Lectures) and I've found it immensely helpful.

For the last two years I've been practising a written meditation where I dialogue with my Higher and Lower Self about my intentions, the things I want to create. Listening to my Lower Self helps me bring to the surface fears and limiting beliefs and self-sabotage. Then hearing from my Higher Self helps me bring those issues into alignment with my intentions. I always feel so much better after I've heard the wisdom of my Higher Self, and felt her love and compassion for me.

One of the Pathwork lectures describes this meditation: it's called Meditation for Three Voices (Ego, Lower Self, Higher Self) at http://www.pathwork.org/lectures/P182.PDF. In Pathwork, the Ego is the mature adult consciousness that we live from day-to-day, so it differs from Erin's terminology in that way.

[dorothy hanna]

I experience my lower self as very child-like (not childish). She reminds me of a child about 4 years old. She brings me things, and will help me often, and she loves to play. She can be fearful, as a child can be at times, and full of wonderment, and she can be persistant, and demanding at times. She's very curious, and asks a lot of questions at times.
When I first discovered her presence, it was quite startling, as I suddenly became aware of this child-like presence tugging on me, the way a child tugs on it's mother. When I first began dialouging with her, it was a lot of work, as she was very fearful, and full of negative ideas, and fears. It didn't take to long though, to work with her, and explaining different views, and re-interpreting old, or past events to her, and she's like my buddy now. She is with me always, and she enjoys the dialouge with our higher selves.
She's also enjoying the MDI emmensly, and won't let me forget to say it.

[Tripp444]

Ok, so I'm still not very good at communicating with my higher self, but I'm going to start working on it. I think I am going to have to go with the journaling method because I am a terrible visualizer, and when I try to "hear" my higher self I try too hard and I get frustrated.
So far I've had a couple Q and A sessions in my journal and I have mixed feelings about the results. What I did last time was I closed my eyes typed a question and then typed the first answer that came to me. It seemed like the answer would pop into my head faster than I could type the question. Sometimes I got the feeling that the answer was coming from me, like my brain wanted to latch on to the first thing it could produce just so I would have an answer. Sometimes I thought the answers were merely what I WANTED the answers to be... I felt too involved in it.
However, I feel like I got some good info on a few of the questions. Most of the answers I got were short - one or two words. Anyone else have any experience with the journaling method? Do you do any kind of meditation or breathing first?

[magickmystik]

i had figured out that our higherself is 67 feet above us

[dECLAN]

Originally Posted by Kelly

I am allowing the information and guidance of my Higher Self to come through, whereas when I tried the Q/A approach, I expected mind-blowing answers and this stopped the whole process dead in its tracks. It's really quite wonderful, and I wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience?

Hi Kelly and welcome to the forum!

Echart Tolle in The Power of Now says when we become the silent witness to our mind we experience a sense of presence. He goes on to say that most people have become compulsive thinkers and this stops them from experiencing presence which is their connection to their higher selves and the divine.

Buddhists say that the reason we don't all experience enlightenment or dharma is because of attachment. This can be attachment to thoughts, people, money or objects.

SITTING QUIETLY, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

TOYO EICHO in The Way of Zen
Alan Watts

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

Your higher self is a separate entity than the spirit guides. However, they both act in a similar manner; guiding you to fulfill your spiritual contract. So in that way, yeah, HS could be seen as your ultimate guide.

Does one have the same spirit guides throughout life or do they come and go as expertise is needed much as good friends and friendships have cycles? The same basic question about guardian angels for life?

I find when I journal I become centered and find wisdom almost every time I sit and write. I have a belief that for me it is a connection to my HS.

[Erin Pavlina]

You will likely have one or a few spirit guides your entire life. Other guides will pop in and out as you have need of their expertise.

Guardian angels are with you for life.

[Jill]

Erin, or anyone else for that matter...

Can your higher self (or your guides if these are different) be real people you know in your life? And if so, can they be relatives?

This is going to sound crazy, but I had an amazing conversation with my 19 year old daughter the other night (till 4 in the morning) that made me feel as if she were my higher self talking to me. She has amazing insights into all people, but really has me pegged since she's known me since she was born.

I was telling her some things that a friend of mine had told me about myself that really got me thinking, and she totally agreed and was able to explain it to me in a way that I could really understand (better than the friend had...or maybe I was just more ready for it).

The scary thing is that what she told me, and what I've been learning lately about myself is that I've been pretty clueless about myself most of my life. Even recently as I've thought that I was more intuned to myself and reality, I've realized that I haven't even been close.

I feel good knowing what I now know, but also disappointed in how far I have to go.

But for the purposes of this post, I was curious about the higher self thing and if my daughter could some how be manifesting it for me. It was literally like she held up a mirror to me that for the first time showed me the real me.

[Erin Pavlina]

Steve sometimes channels my higher self, but he is not my higher self. It is possible for other incarnate people to hear or tune in to your guides and spout off their musings through a sort of channeling. But that doesn't make them spirit guides or higher selves.