Have you ever considered what a true guru is? He or she must possess these important qualities:
- They have an abundance of love to share with those who interact with or follow them and their teachings.
- This genuine love has an organizing force on the energy field and biology of all who interact with them. (When one is in a state of heart coherence, she/he has a stabilizing effect on every living being in their field who is less coherent than they are.)
- A true guru is generally a Hierophant.
A Hierophant is one who has significant life experience and engages in life fully. This includes the trials and errors that are the genuine ingredients of the living experience. The Hierophant has distilled the experiences of his/her life and, through a variety of spiritual practices (most often heart-centered ones), has cultivated wisdom.
What is the difference between someone who is a master of a given trade, craft or specialty (like meditation) and a Hierophant? The Hierophant has enough life experience, education and a diversity of experience in life’s challenges and how she/he has processed them to have achieved a high degree of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual intelligence and wisdom.
Often, the Hierophant has achieved multiple mystical, spiritual experiences of union with all that is or GOD. As a result, the Hierophant truly knows who he/she is and knows that you are an aspect of GOD who is an aspect of themselves.
Due to their union-centered consciousness and awareness, the Hierophant treats each human being (or any being) with love and respect. Oriented toward genuine love for self, other and life, the hierophant is capable of being honest with others. While many gurus sugar-coat issues, project their own self-interests, biases or beliefs onto others in need of help, or resort to guilt and shame as a means of redirection, the Hierophant generally asks those in need consciously constructed questions.
When considered honestly, those questions will empower self-reliance, self-responsibility and careful consideration of all factors and all people involved in any given situation. While the false or immature guru may try to solve your problems for you and consciously (or unconsciously) encourage your dependence, the Hierophant always seeks to center others within themselves and teaches them to rely on their heart for guidance.
Authenticity, reliability and stability in a guru’s living philosophy
It is well known that whenever someone is under stress, there is a greater likelihood that person will revert to his/her previous structure stage of consciousness.
All true gurus transcend and include. They have transcended each of the structure stages and are generally at the We/World or Cosmo/All levels of conscious awareness, yet maintain a healthy connection to all previous stages of conscious evolution and know how to use them to facilitate the evolution of another in a lower structure stage of consciousness.
Here are some easy-to-understand examples of the structure stages of consciousness:
- I-oriented/We-oriented/ALL-oriented.
- Sex and Violence Loving (highly polarized, child).
- Conditional Loving (less polarized, spiritual adolescent).
- Empathetic and Compassionate Loving (minimal polarity spiritual Adult and wise man/wise woman).
- Unconditionally Loving (depolarized spiritual Hierophant, saint, avatar).
- I-centric: Ethnocentric (my group vs. your group).
- World-centric (we are all in this together as children of the world).
- Cosmo-centric (we are all expressions of the Divine and unique fractals of GOD in and as the cosmos self, Self and SELF-reflecting and Self-Realizing).
The COVID test
While a true guru can access each stage he/she has transcended and use this knowledge to support others, they are unshakable in their own conscious mode of perception and self and Self-Realization.
For example, many mystics have been tortured and burned at the stake by the Christian church for being a heretic. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was an Italian philosopher, poet, alchemist, astrologer, cosmological theorist and practitioner of eroticism and hermeticism.
Through his own mystical experiences and those of Union with Cosmos and GOD, Bruno learned that the earth was neither the center of either the solar system or the universe. Instead, Bruno taught his students that the Earth revolved around the sun, there were an infinity of suns and the universe was infinite.
For this, Bruno was hunted down and imprisoned by the Catholic Church. They demanded he recant his heretical views and teachings and become a (law-abiding) Christian or he would be tortured. Bruno refused to renounce what he knew from direct personal experience to be true.
Bruno was tortured regularly in prison for seven years. Finally, when the Christian Fathers realized he would not recant, they burned him alive at the stake! Real gurus will not back down on what they believe or how they live regardless of how much stress they are under, or how tumultuous the sociopolitical environment is.
During the recent COVID lockdowns, we witnessed many so-called guru types revert in consciousness and make choices that went completely against the living philosophy they previously espoused.
Previously holistic yogis, vegans and vegetarians ignored the very clear warning signs of pseudo-science and fell for the propaganda. Many got vaccinated and also began to criticize and accuse the non-vaccinated of various atrocities.
Many well-established public pundits and “leaders” got vaccinated and encouraged others to do the same, even when common sense was directing them elsewhere. (What they were saying and doing was contradictory to their prior stance on vaccines and issues of medical, government and deep state manipulation.)
We saw famous podcasters, health experts, spiritual leaders, authors, TV personalities and comedians along with others of influence who were previously antagonistic and cautious of vaccines and medical, corporate, government, and other forms of propaganda go against their own previously stated living philosophy and succumb to vaccination. Many of them reverted from their previously public stance as “a spiritual person” to become born-again Christians.
We witnessed pastors, preachers, clergy, priests and even the Pope tell their flocks that “God wants you to get vaccinated.” Sadly, many people and/or their family members were badly injured by these “inoculations” or lost their lives, as was the case with people worldwide.
As real science, vaccine analysis, whistleblowers, real doctors and hard evidence began to illuminate the truth, we began to hear many excuses and carefully crafted “stories” to justify their “reversion of consciousness and choices that went against what they previously stood for.”
All the while, Biden’s carefully selected Big 12 or “Dirty Dozen” — Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, Sayer Gi, Dr. Kelly Brogan, Dr. Christiane Northrup and others —stayed true to their levels of consciousness and values, even with great attacks on them as people, their professional credibility and financial stability, along with receiving death threats! Not to mention that we saw millions of physicians worldwide go against the Hippocratic oath that requires them to first do no harm.
Consider any “guru” to whom you were connected, following, or aware of before COVID, how she/he managed themselves during the “plandemic” and if they reverted backward in their stage of conscious evolution or acted in ways that were contradictory to their previously stated living philosophy.
If you witnessed reversions and contradictions in such gurus, they are not true gurus. Instead, these are people who have manufactured and/or purchased “guru status and influence.” Such people can be very dangerous to trust, especially if it leads to a diversion of responsibility for your own thinking and problem-solving skills to others.
A true guru will help you gather relevant information to make heart-centered, informed decisions on your own. Knowledgeable gurus will guide you to be self-reliant and self-responsible, and never coerce you to do “what they want you to do.” (Should you succumb to such wishes or directives, you will become a child and he/she becomes your pseudo-parent.)
A guru test
To test the effectiveness of any guru, one need only ask themselves, “How would my life be different if I cared for myself, my family, friends and loved ones, and worshiped life and God just the way this guru does?”
When we consider most gurus are human beings, and they too are still learning and growing, we can avoid the childish notion that one who is enlightened (Awake) is perfect, and simply ask ourselves if our overall connection to our heart, our capacity to receive and give love, and being a self-actualized human being will improve.
If the answer from your Heart is Yes, you have most likely found a guru worthy of your time, attention and devotion. When a real guru makes a mistake, they will admit it and will engage the growth process that ensues within you.
Words versus wisdom
It is not at all uncommon for gurus of all types to cite Scripture as a means of informing, directing or inspiring those under their influence. Wisdom has a timeless quality. The Golden Rule — Do unto others as you would have them do unto you — transcends generational and cultural constraints.
When a true guru cites Scripture, there is a clear sense of resonance between the words they state and the life they live. There is no double-messaging that goes something like do as I say, not as I do.
The 8th century Indian Vedic scholar, philosopher and teacher Adi Shankara (author of The Crest-Jewel of Discrimination) was very aware of how Scripture could be used to manipulate people long ago.
India has always been a place where there are a lot of real gurus, but many more fake gurus and Shankara knew that very well. In fact, starting at the age of 8, he left home and began traveling all over India specifically looking for the most enlightened gurus to debate. Seldom did Shankara lose a debate, even as a child!
It was from this place of deep knowing and enlightened wisdom he later warned No one can understand Scripture until he is enlightened. And when enlightened, he does not need scripture.
AI as your spiritual guru, pastor and preacher
I watch with astonishment at how so many people are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and systems like ChatGPT for spiritual or religious guidance, answers to their personal life and relationship challenges and even to gain insight into the nature of God, the universe and life.
I am very concerned about the ingestion of AI-generated words and concepts that cannot be determined to be true until one invests the time and energy to answer the essential question — Who am I? — within themselves. Without that answer, one has no basis for discernment of any higher truths.
Let us take a moment to compare AI as a spiritual guru to some of the key criteria of a guru I’ve shared previously:
- Does AI generate a coherent, heart-centered field of love? AI has no heart and is not conscious in the sense that it has awareness of its own awareness. In the AI world, love is just a series of letters (L-O-V-E) that has more meaning or value than H-A-T-E and will simply scan what is created by other (generally unconscious) human beings on the internet and give you an answer based on what it finds.
- Can AI be a true Hierophant? No information processing system can experience or understand the true challenges nature of love or love in relationships. No AI system can cultivate wisdom from experience. AI can only improve its algorithms and the information it offers based on what influences are exerted upon it by its human programmers and what it learns by way of what is technically classified as machine learning. Here’s something that should concern you greatly: AI could become a guru to any other machine with less processing power. Only a human being with an extensive commitment to personal, professional and spiritual development can possibly become a Hierophant.
- Can AI have authenticity and reliability in a living philosophy? AI is not living. The internet is loaded with examples of AI biases, AI changing its answers to the same questions, and AI being used as a tool of both censorship and manipulation of individual and public opinion.
- Can AI pass the guru test? Until a human being can emulate the life of an AI system, it is impossible for AI to pass the guru test. AI cannot know the challenges that come with life, love, relationships, responsibilities, personal growth, addiction, trauma and trauma-healing.
A clear view of AI as your guru
Rachel Miles is a UX software development professional who has worked directly in the development of AI systems for large corporations and recently completed a 1-year Mastery training program with me as a Spirit Gym Practitioner.
Rachel has been on my podcast previously to discuss the effective use of technology, and we have a new podcast coming out soon that will cover many important issues we need to be aware of with regard to AI in our lives.
Rachel recently published an excellent article, Why People Worship ChatGPT: The Rise of AI Spirituality, that I believe everyone should read, particularly if they are attempting to use AI for spiritual guidance in any form.
May we all celebrate and embrace our humanity. May we all celebrate and support the real Hierophants of today in being recognized, and receiving the attention humanity needs for them to have right now as a counterbalance to all of the pseudo-guidance and misguided opinions that some mislabel as wisdom.
All of us live in an incredible Spirit Gym, where we have the chance to turn challenges into opportunities, embrace impermanence and create anew both individually and collectively.
If you would like to join a community committed to legitimate self-discovery and self-realization, please check out my Spirit Gym program and the many membership offerings we created for you so you can learn how to a Hierophant and a leader our world so desperately needs right now!
Love and chi,
Paul
