How to run a spiritual development circle?

A free article on Meditation

By: Neil Dennis

Many circles work on teaching that in order to become an accurate and proficient medium you need to learn to get a link with spirit, and then get three accurate pieces of evidence to prove that the link we have is true.

I believe that asking a beginner to get accurate evidence in or out of a meditation exercise is only promoting fear and doubt in their ability to do so. If they get the evidence wrong then they are learning to judge themselves harshly.

In all our human physical abilities, such as sport, if we start off getting it wrong , we do not expect to be accurate first time as we know we need to practice. The more we practice the better we will become. This is the same for spiritually developing our spiritual gifts. If we begin by disregarding accuracy, but work on getting used to linking and disconnecting and linking again with spirit, accepting anything we get, we build our confidence and thus open the door to far better accuracy, confirmation and evidence in the future.

Focusing on accuracy makes for a very long and arduous process of psychic growth and constantly belittles people in the process.

If we stop worrying about accuracy and instead promote acceptance, we learn that if we trust what we hear, see or feel when we are open to spirit, we can accept these things for ourselves and thus promote our self confidence in our own development. This promotes a fast and efficient method of development creating confident and proud mediums.

Insisting on "evidence" also creates competition between the fledgling mediums, about who can get it right and who cannot. This in itself is also creating ego problems. Ego, when out of control, is very much the opposite of spirituality.

If we do not focus on evidence but rather work together in a psychic school circle to create acceptance, then there is no need for competition as you either accept what you get or you do not. It has no bearing on the other members of the circle. However, when you do get a good link and you can offer honest, positive and accurate evidence to another member of the circle, it enhances everyone’s learning and teaches that accepting what they get and offering it honestly is a positive process of their development.

Many circle leaders are very rigid in their teaching methods, with many unnecessary rules and regulations, because they themselves have been taught that way. They expect other people to develop in that same way, thus inadvertently stopping others from finding their own path and hindering their progress.

In a circle we are there to learn about our own personal spiritual development. It is a very personal and private self discovery process that we share in a circle, so we may also learn from other people's development. However we need to be sure we are all developing in our own way. We need to strongly abide by the most important law of spiritual development. “What feels right is right, what feels wrong is wrong”. In saying this, many people may disagree with what I have written, but I hope they disagree because it feels wrong, not because it was not the way they were taught.

After all that I have said I know that every single person has their own opinion on their own psychic growth. I hope that this information promotes thinking and change in the way our wonderful and dedicated mediums teach and run their circles. Knowing that what they are doing is for the highest of good beyond their own needs but is providing the universe with the ability to connect to us on the earth plain.