Tami Simon: You’re listening to Insights at the Edge. Today I speak with Marie Manuchehri. Marie Manuchehri is a nationally known energy intuitive and Reiki master who first discovered her gifts for energetic healing while working as a registered oncology nurse. In addition to her private practice in Seattle, Washington, she leads popular workshops and hosts the radio program “The Marie Manuchehri Show … Where Energy and Medicine Meet.” With Sounds True, Marie has released a new book, Intuitive Self-Healing: Achieve Balance and Wellness Through the Body’s Energy Centers. She’s also released a new audio learning program, How to Communicate with Your Spirit Guides: Connecting with Your Energetic Allies for Guidance and Healing.
In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Marie and I discussed my own skepticism about the reality of spirit guides. We also talked about Marie’s unique take on the concept of free will and her intriguing perspective on the coexistence of the physical body and the soul. Marie also shared a guided exercise to enable listeners to being the process of communicating with their spirit guides. Here’s my very open, exploratory conversation with Marie Manuchehri.
Let’s begin, Marie, by talking about spirit guides. What or who are they?
Marie Manuchehri: Spirit guides are beings that we meet on the other side. Spirit guides are beings that we meet before we come to earth that we actually ask to guide us while we live a lifetime here on planet Earth. They’re beings that, we believe, are more evolved than we are. So we literally ask them, and if they say, “yes,” then they become our spirit guides from the moment when we’re conceived until the moment we leave this place.
TS: OK, so you talk about them as “beings.” Now, I’m going to ask you a bunch of questions that my rational mind produces. You can tell me if maybe these don’t apply when you’re talking about something like spirit guides. But as beings, do they have a life span?
MM: Yes. And they’ve had at least one lifetime on earth, so they know what it’s like to be in a body, put gas in [a] car (if indeed they lived in a time period where there were motor vehicles), wear clothes, eat food. Because all of those [things] are part of how we maneuver through our existence. And we have to be comfortable in that part of our lives so that we can also grow consciously.
TS:OK. So these are beings who have at least spent one lifetime on earth.
MM: Yes.
TS: And how did they get to be spirit guides? Do they have a lifetime as spirit guides? Do they live 10,000 earth years? Do they live forever? How does that go?
MM: Well, we all live forever. I don’t believe that there’s any such thing as “death.” We just move on from different time-space realities. Some beings really love the fifth dimension, which is, I believe, the place we go to after we leave earth. But there are many other dimensions, and so we can live in whatever dimension we choose to be in. We’ve all been spirit guides. You’ve been a spirit guide as well. You’re a very good spirit guide, actually. [Laughs]
TS: Wow. Suddenly I’m enjoying this.
MM: [Laughs] Yes, because you’re good at coaching and giving direction. And spirit guides are like that. Many times they may be asking us to choose a path that may be more to the right of our life, and many times, humans frequently choose the opposite path, for all kinds of interesting reasons. I call it “spiritual consciousness.” Spirit guides are all, “Right! Go to the right! Go this way!” And then we choose the path to the left and then spirit guides say, “Alright everybody, go to the left; she’s choosing the left path.” They unconditionally love us as we choose a path that, of course, we’ll continue to learn on, but maybe isn’t in our highest good.
TS: OK. Now, there are several things you’ve said here. One: You don’t believe in death. But does a spirit guide function in a certain dimension for a period of time, and then after a period of time, do something else?
MM: Well, you know, the strongest universal rule in the entire universe is free will. So anyone can do pretty much anything they want. But to answer your question, yes, I do see them slightly isolated from other beings that live in the fifth dimension. I almost see a hallway—which they tell me, they are not confined to this hallway. They have freedom to move about the universes, just like we do, maybe, when we’re asleep at night. An essence leaves our bodies, and we go off to other time-space realities to be remunerated.
So I do believe that maybe a being would decide to guide so many people in five or six different lifetimes. Maybe they want to have some training in the experience. But it’s completely up to them. I don’t think there’s any set rule, other than, if they agree to guide anyone, they must remain in that agreement—unless there’s been an agreement for an exchange. Because sometimes we get different guides if we change our life path, if we make different choices.
TS: Now, you mentioned the fifth dimension. So let’s go through this kind of slowly.
MM: Yes. [Laughs]
TS: You and I are here, talking to each other in a multidimensional world. We might think we are in the third dimension. So explain—what’s the third, what’s the fourth, what’s the fifth? Can we keep going? Sixth, seventh, eighth? How does that go?
MM: Yes. It goes out for thousands and thousands [of dimensions]. When I explain energy medicine and spirit guides, I always try to focus on being in a body, and [what it could look like] from the physical reality, rather than going too far out into multiple dimensions.
So, you’re right, we live in the 3-D. Then, the fourth dimension is often called the Astral Plane or the psychic realm. So when we gain intuitive guidance, it comes from the fourth dimension, another big huge time-space reality that exists for the human world. It’s also where we can access our past lifetimes. Spirit guides and other beings walk through the Astral Plane. And then the fifth dimension is kind of like the other side, or heaven, or some kind of aspect where we exist in more of an energetic form—where spirit guides and we are before we decide to have a life on earth.
TS: OK. So you talk about all of this very definitively, like this is just sort of how it is.
MM: [Laughs] Yes.
TS: Of course. But first of all, how do you know that this is “how it is,” and couldn’t this just be your personal mythos here about what’s going on?
MM: Yes. One of the things I’ve always asked my guides to do, especially when I started to do energy work—I wasn’t planning on becoming an intuitive or a healer. I was a nurse and wanted to have a normal life. I was married and had three kids, living in a little bit of Pleasantville in Kirkland, Washington—I still live in the same neighborhood, actually. I kept asking, “Can you just drop down a book from the heavens with symbolism in it?”
So I actually hear and see images, and then many times what I hear or see [is] validated in a book that may come my way. Or, someone will say, “Oh, yes. That place that you’re thinking about is the Akashic Library.” [Laughs] So I’ll have personal experiences. Most of the learning that I’ve experienced has come through my own spirit guides, even when I’m working with patients in my healing room, beings will walk in and teach me things and direct things for me to learn. So that’s how I’ve learned most of what I’ve experienced. I don’t think any of us can definitively say that what we experience is real. And I also think that it’s individual for each person. I think you have to look at what sings to your heart and your soul, and if something vibrates to you at a place that feels real and authentic to you, then I think that it’s important to pay attention to it.
TS:OK. So you mentioned that I could have been a fabulous spirit guide at one point.
MM: Yes. You are. [Laughs]
TS: But I’m here now. Do you have knowledge of your own history as a spirit guide?
MM: I don’t, actually. I haven’t asked the question. I think a lot of times, if we would literally just take a moment and ask a question, the information is available. But I haven’t asked that question.
I’m so busy in my physical reality having a lot of fun, but I have seen many of my past lives when there’s an area that I need to heal in this physical world, and a previous lifetime is holding me back. Then my spirit guides have shown me that lifetime so I can work on it more consciously and let go of the story that I have connected to it and heal it and allow myself to be more whole and balanced in this lifetime.
TS: Can you give me an example of when a past life was shown to you?
MM: Yes. Actually, right around the time when I began to open up as an intuitive, I was working as an oncology nurse in a Seattle hospital, and I began to see and hear stories inside my patients, and in their organs and in their body. [That was] also when I began to see their chakra systems. And I was actually really afraid to tell anyone about it. I didn’t even tell my husband or my children. I was even afraid to tell my coworkers at work. But it was every day that I was inundated with new paranormal experiences.
I started to hear voices every day as well, and they told me that I would start working with people to help them heal. And I was really nervous about that. And I was crying almost every day. It was kind of odd. When the kids were gone, I worked the night shift, and when the kids were gone at school, I’d be crying all day. I believe I was just letting go of all the grief, and things were just moving through my body because I don’t even know what I was crying about. It was a very odd experience.
But [I saw a past life one day in my home.] I got up from a meditation and walked to the living room window, and I saw a past life where I’d been persecuted for having a talent or some insight and speaking about it. It was as if the past life had actually come into the third-dimensional world—even though I know it hadn’t. I could see beings, or what looked like human form, standing around the house, actually holding torches on fire. [Laughs]
TS: Wow.
MM: I was told at the same time that I was safe, and that this past life was very old and that I needed to remind myself what century my cells were currently living in. So I started to have a daily dialogue with my body about who I was, what century it was, what part of the world I lived it, that it was safe to be different now. And that really helped me. Shortly after, I started to see patients in the house and told my supervisor at the hospital what was happening to me, and she became an incredible supporter of mine.
TS: Do you have any sense why these gifts opened up for you? I mean, you said you were meditating, but were you asking or praying for anything?
MM: Yes. I had prayed to find my passion. I thought nursing was my passion. I loved putting in IVs and talking to other coworkers and physicians, and being with patients even during stressful procedures. I enjoyed it very much to connect with other human beings.
But after a while, that started to change for me. I was no longer excited when I walked into the hospital. And I was very perplexed, so I had been praying every morning in my bathroom before I went to work, when I shift to day shift. My prayer was, “I’m willing to do whatever it takes; I just want to know and live my passion.”
TS: That’s a powerful prayer, “whatever it takes.”
MM: “Whatever it takes.” Yes.
TS: And so, what was it like when you met the first spirit guide that you met, your own spirit guide?
MM: It was a beautiful experience. It was also humorous because, I love guides, they know what may make you anxious or uncomfortable. His name was Kozar, by the way. That’s the name he spelled out in my head. He looks like Sean Connery. He’s really handsome. [Laughs]
TS: Lucky you.
MM: Yes. Exactly. And he’s wearing this itchy, unattractive, burlap robe. And I enquired, of course, about his attire [first], because I happen to like fashion. Then he explained to me that I was a lot more spiritual than I realized.
TS: Were you meditating, and this series of images came to you?
MM: Yes. First it was a creek, a beautiful stream of water, and me walking near it in my mind, and then he showed up, walking on the other side. He didn’t tell me he was a spirit guide. I actually called someone, a friend, right after the meditation because it was so profound, and she goes, “Oh! You met a spirit guide. Oh. OK.” [Laughs] So that’s how it started for me.
TS: And how does Kozar work with you? Is Kozar with us right here while we’re talking?
MM: Yes, absolutely.
TS: Kozar’s right here?
MM: Yes. In fact, there are a lot of spirit guides in this room right now—yours and mine and also those that work in media and development. There are a lot of spirit guides in this room.
TS: Could you posit a number?
MM: Yes. There are about 76 right now. It’s kind of crowded.
TS: Seriously? About 76?
MM: Yes. Well, that was the number that dropped in my head.
TS: Wow.
MM: Yes. It’s pretty crowded. There’s a lot that’s going to be happening on the earth plane in terms of consciousness. And Sounds True is a company that has a lot of integrity. Spirit guides are really happy to help move integral conscious information out into the human reality. They’re excited about it just like we are. As we evolve here on earth, so do spirit guides. In one aspect, we’re all one. So as they evolve, we evolve, and also the opposite.
TS: Now, I could imagine somebody might here something like, “There are 76 guides,” and they might think to themselves, “I don’t trust that information.” Or who knows? Like a number popped into my head, but blah, blah, blah. How is it that you, when you hear something like that, you think that’s what’s happening?
MM: Right. I’ve been doing this for such a long time. As soon as I started to have experiences in the hospital, I started to lay hands on patients. Physicians would even order me to lay hands on their patients. They didn’t want to know exactly what I was doing, [laughs] but they would come up to me in the morning and go, “Hey, Mrs. Johnson really wants you to go do that thing on her again because she really relaxed, and she was much happier.” Sometimes I would reply that I was too busy, because many times I worked as an on-call charged nurse and had a lot of responsibility. Then the physician would take out the chart and would start scribbling for me to go do hands-on work.
So I started to trust my experiences really quickly because the outside world started to validate my experiences, even if they didn’t completely understand. And I feel like my role isn’t necessarily to convince other people of my experience. They’re real for me. And if they provide helpful, healing experiences for others, I’m eternally grateful. But what happened, just so you know, in my mind—you asked the question, and I’d already noticed the room was full, but I didn’t bother to know the number; it didn’t really matter to me. As soon as you asked the question, I saw the number 50, and then I saw something like 79.
TS: Yes.
MM: And then as you were more direct about the question, the numbers started to creep up, and creep up. The numbers came together, and then it stopped at 76, and that’s how I knew.
TS: Right. So did you have some experience early on, of validation that was just sort of a watershed moment, one that was like, “OK, wow”?
MM: [Laughs] You mean when I “opened up,” so to speak?
TS: Yes. So you meet a guide that looks like Sean Connery walking on the creek. I mean, that’s not exactly a huge, external—that’s an internal moment.
MM: Right. That’s an internal experience.
TS: But [was there] something that happened on the outside, where you thought to yourself, “This is quite the real deal here.”
MM: Well, I’ve scanned people’s bodies while they have been clients of mine, and I’ve been able to accurately diagnose health issues. I don’t think of myself in that way, because that’s not always why people come to see me—even though they think it is, because we have MRI machines and CT scanners. But a lot of people who can’t be diagnosed through conventional medicine may come to me, and then they can go to their physicians and get more definitive testing. So that’s been a very positive experience.
I think one of the things that happened after I met Kozar and my two other guides (I only have three, however, I’ve had as many as 27 in my office when I first started to do energy work), is a memory that I have from childhood when I was about five years of age. And my sister has validated this memory for me. Apparently, I used to tell all my little girlfriends what was going on in their lives—even when I had never met their parents or their uncles or their aunts. I knew accurate information about their lives and their childhood, and I used to give them advice when I was quite young.
So I had forgotten completely about that until I started to have some awakening moments, I guess, is one way to describe it. And I had full memory of it. That was kind of a validating experience for me.
TS: Now, is Kozar guiding anyone besides you, or is he just your man, and that’s it?
MM: Yes. He’s a primary guide. So we all have a guide that can never leave our side, so Kozar is my primary guide. Your other guides—because you have five, at least from what I can see, you have five—can kind of go and do activities for us.
Let’s say that before we came to earth, we said that we didn’t want to have any children. And so they’re like, “Great. You’re not going to have any kids. Excellent.” So there’s been no connection between you or someone else, some particular [child] that could [a] teacher, or some incredible experience. And then, the person comes to earth, has a lifetime, and then, because of free will, they go, “I think I want to adopt a bunch of kids.”
So them some of their guides run off to find who these beings might be that would be in your best interest and formulate relationships with their guides, find out where these children might be, so they can be brought into this family unit. So that’s one way to look at how guides work for us.
TS: Now, the reason I asked [if it’s] possible [that] Kozar is working with more than one person is because sometimes I’ll meet people and they’ll say, “My guide is X, Y, Z, some famous person from history or mythology.” Like, “My guide is Isis,” or something. And then I meet someone else, and they’re like, “My guide’s Isis.” And I’m like, “Wow, Isis is one busy goddess guide!”
MM: Yes. I don’t know. It’s very possible. Some people believe that the Virgin Mary had multiple souls inside of her being at the time of her existence, which was a very profound time on earth—the time that Christ walked the planet. So it’s very possible. I don’t see a lot of famous beings in my life for me, in terms of guides. But you know, anything is possible.
TS: OK. Well, let’s get back to me for a moment here. I’m curious about your experience. When you sense five guides, are you seeing something? Are you feeling, sensing—what’s going on for you?
MM: The first thing that was happening was I was having an auditory experience—I’m clairvoyant, clairaudient, and clairsentient. So I heard something. And I heard first, “You’re going to need to talk to her about her guides.” They were referring to you, Tami. And then, in my mind, I just replied. I said, “OK.” So as I’m speaking to you with my human mouth, I’m having a multidimensional experience with whatever happens to be going on.
TS: You’ve got a lot going on over there, Marie.
MM: [Laughs] Yes!
TS: And you look so normal. I mean, it’s amazing!
MM: That’s what my kids always say: “You look normal, Mom.” [So] I heard that dialogue, and then I saw the number five. And I felt a resonance feeling inside of me, because five, in numerology, is a very powerful number. It’s a master number. And so that was a validation, like that makes total sense to me that I would interpret that she has five guides.
TS: OK. So you said something earlier in our conversation that I want to circle back to, which is that free will is the one law of the universe.
MM: Yes.
TS: And I’m curious about that, because I think people have often the experience that there’s something that they are really willing to happen in their life, that they really want to have happen, and it’s not happening. A lot of people don’t actually have the experience of being a creator in the way that you’re describing. So I’m wondering: our conscious minds might want to create something, but then what’s actually happening in our unconscious? How do you see this?
MM: I think manifesting is a very interesting topic. It’s one of my favorites, actually. I also think it’s incredibly complicated. We do have free will. I believe even if we’re not conscious of what we’re experiencing, or what we think we want, our free will is happening all of the time.
But when it comes to manifesting, I think the biggest rule, especially when you know what you want, is to let go—to surrender. To identify something that you do want to create in your life and then step back as if it’s already happened, and feel the energy of that event as if it’s already occurred, without trying to figure it out, or analyze it, or move it in a particular direction. Let your guides and the universe unwind it in a way that’s in your highest good—that’s the best way to manifest, actually.
TS: OK. Well, that’s helpful, this idea of stepping back. But there’s still something in my question here. As I was reading your book Intuitive Self-Healing, you talked about how nobody dies without choosing to die. And I have the experience of being at the bedside of someone who said that he very, very much wanted to live. He wanted to live so much. And he had done everything imaginable—every special diet, every alternative, he was trying everything. He had me visualize him eating a piece of pizza, because that’s what he wanted more than anything, and then he died within 48 hours of this visit. And so when I read in your book, “Everybody chooses the time of their death,” I thought, “How do I understand what I saw with this person?”
MM: It’s a very different consciousness, the human consciousness versus soul consciousness. So we have a soul, and the soul doesn’t do anything that isn’t in the highest good of the being, right? And the soul leaves when it’s the perfect time. I believe we have at least five escape routes planned into our life path before we get here so that we can leave at various times during our lifetime. I don’t believe there’s ever an accident. The person that you’re talking about, I hope you don’t mind me reading the energy?
TS: Yes.
MM: I know that was an honorable experience for you. To be at the bedside of someone dying is probably the most profound experience I’ve ever had in my life. This person was not a person who let go when he was alive. He continued that pattern even in his moment of death. And that’s a common pattern I see in my clients, too, who swear to me that they want to live. But they also don’t do things—until, maybe, something really bad happens to them—to live their life, maybe, more peacefully. You know? They make their life a lot harder than it needs to be, a lot more challenging than it needs to be. And that’s an indicator of a person who doesn’t want to surrender.
It’s just really what living is really about: true surrender, getting out of the way. So even though he professed, through his humanness, that he wanted to live, he was terrified to die, actually. He was scared to death of it. He’s much happier on the other side now, from what I can see, I believe on a soulful level. It was his time to go.
TS: So what you’re saying, then, is that our soul is making these choices. And so our human personality may think it’s making certain choices, but that’s not really who’s driving the car necessarily?
MM: Well, I believe that our soul is this huge, gigantic organism. And we don’t bring all of the aspects of our soul into this lifetime. We’d probably go a little bit nuts [laughs] because it’s just so huge and gigantic. We bring parts of our soul that will be very helpful in this physical reality, parts of our insight in expanding consciousness, but we also bring parts that we want to heal.
Like, when I look at this person that you’re talking about, he really did want to learn to be at peace, something that he had moments of that he really, really cherished. But he wanted to be in control so much that it was hard for him to do. And I don’t believe we’re really in control of what happens around us, really. That’s that whole part of surrendering. It’s about being part of the divine plan, what is in the best aspect of everyone. And I know you’ve had those moments yourself, where you sit back, you take a deep breath, and what you thought needed to happen wasn’t exactly in the best interest, and what did happen was beautiful. It was perfect in that moment.
And I think that’s what, as human beings, we’re learning to do is take that step back, reconnect to ourselves—the true, authentic part of ourselves, the higher consciousness of our being—and be there. I think that’s when the fear dissipates. When people who say they want to be in a relationship but are single for years recognize that maybe they wanted to be single. [Laughs] So I don’t think there are accidents. I think that, on a soulful level, we are making profound choices. And they are in our highest good for the moment.
TS: OK. So I think I’m fully with you on the surrendering part. I think I feel that. I get that. The part that I’m curious about is what you recommend in terms of enacting our will in the world. I mean, do I just admit what it is that I really want?
MM: One way to look at it—you know, I’ve had many experiences in my own life where I want something, but it’s not turning out that way. I know that, in my core, there are beliefs that are holding me back. Not true beliefs, but beliefs that I’ve created, stories, maybe from even previous lifetimes that are not allowing me to move forward in a certain direction.
And so I know I need to look at those honestly, not ignore them, not pretend that they don’t exist, but to really admit to the fact of some deep-seated feelings I have. A lot of people don’t like themselves. A lot of people are not really, really happy. So I think we have to look at those wounds inside of ourselves, honor them, appreciate them, be kind and loving to them, so we can move in a direction of our dreams—our authentic, real dreams. I think your friend has really wanted to live on the other side for a long time, actually. He loved spirituality very much so.
TS: Now, give me an example from your life [of] when you hit one of these places where you could see that there was a belief that was stopping you and how you worked it out.
MM: Yes. There are so many. [Quietly counts] Writing would be a good one. My spirit guides, [and] Kozar, for years have asked me to write, which I did. I actually really loved to write. And I could go to coffee shops and write for hours and really enjoy myself. [Laughs]
But I was really afraid to be published. I didn’t have a lot of faith in myself, in my ability to explain what it is that I wanted to express in a book. I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence as a writer because I didn’t pay a lot of attention to grammar in school. And I’ve put authors in this very high regard. I love books. Walking into a bookstore, just smelling the ink on paper, I’m in heaven. I think, there was one book—well, there are a lot of books I really love, but one, in particular, and I’ve bought it I don’t know how many times, maybe 50 times, and gave copies away, and go buy a new copy again. [Laughs]
So I had to learn to believe that I could write, and that I had something important to share, and that there’s spell check, and that I could learn more about grammar. I had to learn to embrace that part of myself, and also be seen. To be an author means that I’m looked at in a different way.
TS: Yes.
MM: And I had to get comfortable with that feeling. So that’s something that I worked on a lot. I think mirror work is a great way to work on getting rid of hidden beliefs, that you finally come to a—
TS: So explain to me how would I do mirror work?
MM: Well, what I do in order to get better at writing, and to get an agent, and then a publisher, is that I would literally look into the mirror, make direct eye contact, and I would say to myself, “You’re an amazing author.” And I would say it for two to three minutes every single day, and I would let my vibration in my body get excited and more happy about it. And feel confident about that experience. Whether I’m an amazing author or not is another story, but learning to feel good in the craft that I would love to be good at certainly helps. What I also recommend when you do mirror work is to use language that makes you feel a little uncomfortable, like, “I’m an amazing author.”
TS: Right. So then, let’s say you’re looking in the mirror, and you say something like, “You’re loved and highly desirable.”
MM: Yes! Yes.
TS: And the feedback that you hear inside is not that your cells are singing, but you hear just the opposite, like, “What? Come on. You should be on a diet. You’ve got wrinkles.” You know, whatever you hear. You hear all of this, and what do you then?
MM: You sit with that. You be kind to yourself. That’s how you’re feeling in the moment. You may start with, “I’m learning to like this woman in the mirror” as your exercise. And after a few weeks, “I’m lovable. I’m desirable.” And I wouldn’t stop. One of the things I love about mirror work is I actually really think that it works. Because our eyes are the windows to our soul. And I believe that’s one of the reasons it works so well. When you have a desire, and you’ve done everything else to make it come about it your life, and now you’re doing mirror work—which, probably we should start with mirror work. I would continue doing it until the event manifests in your life.
TS: So I’ve been doing the mirror work, and I hear these negative things back, I’m nice to myself, and I just keep going?
MM: Well, I would stop and peel back.
TS: So instead of, “I’m highly desirable, I’m on my way to becoming—”
MM: Yes. “I’m learning to believe I’m a desirable being.” Yes. I think that’s a great way. To say, “I’m learning to believe in this and learning to feel this way about myself.” Because it’s something that we, as human beings, say: “OK. I’m learning this. All right. I can buy into that.” And then progress over a period of time. Even that experience in the mirror can change the cells radically and move belief systems out because you don’t have to change your belief system 100 percent. Even if you change it 10 percent, you can have phenomenal change in your life.
TS: OK. Now, for you, Kozar appeared. He just appeared while you were meditating one day.
MM: Right.
TS: But I think most people [wonder,] “Who are my spirit guides? Do I even know that they exist? If I had an image of them, why wouldn’t I just think it was my imagination coming up with some movie-star-type character that I liked?” So what do you suggest for people that want to meet their spirit guides? How do they do it?
MM: I think that’s a really great question, and one of the things I love about living in the physical reality is if you believe you’re communicating with a spirit guide, and you think you’ve even got information, you’re going to find out if it’s valuable or not. Because the physical world is going to show you if, indeed, whatever you got or felt or intuited is true.
So that’s one way that you can start to gain your confidence—by asking questions, by having a feeling, a sense feeling. Not get caught up in, “Does my guide look like a movie star?” Maybe you may feel a warm ball of light. Or maybe you’ll hear a sound when you feel your connection to your spirit guides. But to start to have a dialogue—and speak out loud, because human beings think so much, their brains are full of so much information (most of it not very valuable, in my mind).
TS: Fair enough.
MM: So spirit guides communicate to us in mental telepathic conference most of the time. But because human beings overthink, overanalyze, and overprocess, sometimes they actually decipher what the question is that you really want from them. So to speak out loud to a spirit guide, with the intent of having a conversation and a connection, is really important. Until human beings, or the individual, learn to be in their body more and think less, so that there’s space for the conversation there.
TS: Right. So I know I’m talking to my spirit guides, and I’m having a bunch of thoughts and maybe receiving genuine communication. How do I sift that out? Which is which?
MM: Well, they’re probably not going to be talking about the grocery store, or gas in the car, or lunch with your mother. [Laughs] It’s probably going to be a lot more personal. It could be an answer to something you’ve been thinking about for a long time. Like maybe a person really is working on self-love, and now they’re making a suggestion to attend a particular event, or to read a particular book, or that new people are going to be coming into their lives because they have been incorporating more of a vibration of self-love. And they’re going to be meeting new friends who are going to be compassionate towards them.
So I would pay attention to all the information. I mean, how could you not, really? But go for the information that has more of a calming experience. I believe communication with beings creates a neutral feeling inside of us, because they’re neutral. Nothing’s good or bad or wrong. We’re just moving through a lifetime, having a human experience. So to be neutral, I think, is really helpful. Not to be overly dramatic in the connection. Feeling peace or flow, I think, is a sign that we’re connecting to our spirit guides.
TS: So every single person has at least one spirit guide?
MM: Yes, or many more. They could have 20. I think the most I’ve ever seen around someone was like 22, in terms of long-term. You can have beings that come into your life, spirit guides that come into your life, when there’s a big change occurring in your life. Like, when I started to do energy work—because I hadn’t formally studied it or didn’t really know much about the topic—a lot of guides came into my room to help me with learning.
TS: Right. You talk about this thing that I think is very interesting: you say that when someone’s going through a big change in their life, you’ll see an arch behind them.
MM: Yes!
TS: And that there are many spirit guides who are coming in through that archway.
MM: Yes. You have an arch that just closed. So you must have had something kind of big happen in your life in the last couple of years. I don’t know what it was exactly.
TS: I wish it would stay open!
MM: Well, you are getting a new one. In about three months, you’ll have a new one. People who do personal work, inner work, get many more arches. People who aren’t consciously doing their personal work may get an arch when they get married, or have a child, or get divorced, or leave a job because something in their physical reality has drastically changed, and they’ll need new skill sets. So they are being forced to evolve. But people who do conscious work have more archways.
TS: Well, you’re the first person I’ve ever heard describe this archway phenomenon. I’ve heard other people talk about spirit guides, but this archway thing, this is the first I’ve ever heard of it.
MM: I started to see it around my clients about seven years ago. Of course, when I saw it—what happens to me when I see something, I’ll ask a question, and then I’ll get information. So typically they are about 50 feet high, 20 feet wide. And the whole idea of the archway is that within the arch, the third-dimensional space actually peels back. And light from other spiritual realities that will really be helpful rains upon the person, like sunshine, to give them new information, new concepts, new ideas, to move through whatever it is that they’re learning at the time.
So yours closed about three weeks ago. It looked as though it might have been a little challenging, so you can just kind of go, “Phew.” [Laughs] Whatever it was.
TS: Have you ever seen this archway phenomenon confirmed by any other intuitives, by anybody else? Has anyone else ever talked about this?
MM: No. I haven’t asked anyone, either, about it.
TS: Yes. This is so curious to me. You see something like this, and then, from that, you conclude—maybe you don’t conclude, maybe you just sort of posit—that’s kind of the way things are?
MM: Well, usually what happens is I’ll see something at least three times. So probably the first time I saw it on someone, I just went, “Huh. That’s interesting. What the heck is that?” And then, maybe the next day I saw it on another client. “Well, that’s interesting.” And then maybe I saw it on one of my friends.
So that’s how I’ve learned to teach clients how to work through things in their own lives. Or, what symbolism means to me when I’m working inside the body, energetically, or how individuals can take energy in their bodies. I’ll see something numerous times, usually a minimum of three, and that’s when I’ll start to ask questions. It’s real for me, like, “Oh. This might mean something. Hmm. What does this mean?” And then I’ll get dialogue and information, and then, it will continue to happen, and that’s kind of my evidence that it’s real for me.
TS: And so, the archway phenomenon, it opens because people need additional support in their lives, and then it closes when there’s some completion?
MM: It’s only open for a period of time. And it’s really there to help a person evolve. So maybe when a person becomes a parent—you know, learning to be an unconditionally loving being—that’s a great opportunity. Archways are there for opportunities. Whether that individual actually moves through that information well or not is up to the individual. We have free will. So they’re only open for a period of time regardless if the person moves through the material in a way that’s in their highest good or not. It’s an opportunity. That’s how I look at it.
TS: I’m wondering, Marie, if you can give a gift, really, to our listeners, which would be to take us through a very short exercise of some kind that might help us open up to contacting our spirit guides.
MM: Great idea.
TS: Can we do it?
MM: Yes!
TS: OK. Let’s do it.
MM: Can I just take a moment?
TS: Yes.
MM: OK. [Takes a breath] So I’m going to take us through a little meditation. And what we’re going to do is introduce water into it. So if someone wants to do this exercise again, they might want to do it in the bathtub, or sitting by a lake, or just standing in their bathroom if they want to. Because we’re mostly water. Our guides connect to us through our water molecules fairly well. It’s an easy way for them to bond with us. They also connect with us through our auric fields. Our auras reach through eternity, [and] so do theirs. Auras exist around everything, even camera equipment. So that’s how our spirit guides connection with us.
The frequency in the room has already shifted. So the guides are helping us to help everyone else have this felt experience. So I’m going to go ahead and close my eyes. There’s going to be some rapid eye movement in my head. I’m not sure why. My guide just told me that. So I’m letting it happen, rather than stopping it. There might be some fluttering of my eyelashes, while my being is being calibrated for this exercise.
So we’re going to have everyone else, when they’re ready, sit down. Feet flat on the floor would be perfect so that we can ground to the center of the earth, allowing our beautiful, energetic roots or vines to come out of the secondary chakras of our feet. Moving to the core of the earth. Plant in. [Breathes] And then allow those energetic roots or vines to pull up energy into the body. Beautiful. [Breathes]
Taking deep cleansing breaths to release any stress or anxiety we many have from the day. [Breathes] From the week or the month that we’re currently in. [Breathes] Beautiful. And now, just bring your awareness to your body, as if your body really just is shimmering water, maybe like a waterfall. You can feel your body. You can even sense your body’s presence wherever you’re sitting, knowing that you’re grounded to the earth, connected to this glorious planet that we live on.
Feeling a kind of shimmering essence, like beautiful moonlight on a lake. Whether you see it, hear it, or feel it, just allow your water molecules to become more vibratory. OK. And we’re allowing this calibration of energy so that we can more easily feel, sense, experience our guides—our energetic allies. And now that you have your body in a beautiful vibrational pattern, I would love for you to just sense around your body. In front of you, maybe a few feet to the left of you, a few feet behind you, a few feet to the right of you. Up above your head, and below your feet. Feeling your auric field. Getting a sense of this gigantic energy that surrounds you, that’s shaped like an eggshell, that goes through eternity, as do the fields that surround your spirit guides. Wonderful. Excellent.
Taking a few more cleansing breaths. Relaxing your being because you’re quickening your energy significantly in this moment. And now that you have more of a felt sense of your aura, once again, as you feel a few feet outside of your body, ask the question, “Is my spirit guide in front of me, behind me, on either side of me, above me, below me?” Where do you sense your spirit guide is? It’s most likely going to be the first spontaneous answer that you get. So if you felt your left hand, or your attention was on your left side of your body, that is where your spirit guide is. So wherever you spontaneously felt, or if you need to take a few moments to be in this space, then please do so. We’ll go to that place in just a moment.
[Breathes] Wonderful. So now that you have some idea of where your spirit guide is next to you, ask the question aloud if you can, if you will allow yourself to, “What does my spirit guide look like for me? What does it feel like for me? How can I know, again, what my spirit guide is like for me?”
And so now we’re going to activate many senses, from having visions in your mind, like color or light, or feelings in your body like warmth or coolness—tingling—hearing a word or a voice. Just allow your senses to be activated so that you’ll be able to identify something about your spirit guide that you can re-identify again, and again, and again. [Breathes] You’re all doing a really great job having this felt experience with your spirit guides. And whatever impression, or feeling, or metaphor that you receive, we’re just going to lock it in our memory banks so that you can use that image, feeling, thought, word, in the future.
But at this very moment, if you have a question that you’ve been wanting an answer for, now would be the perfect opportunity to ask it again. Out loud would be great. Maybe there’s something that you have had concerns about, or something that you want to do that you have a question about. Go ahead and ask the question out loud. And then bring all of your attention to your abdomen, right below your belly button, in the second chakra area. So that you can be out of your brain and let your mind take whatever answers are possible in this moment.
That’s perfect. Just sitting in the belly, relaxing. Good. Knowing that your answer is here for you, or will be, when you open your eyes, or first thing in the morning. In your awareness, a beautiful, beautiful response. And we’re going to thank our spirit guides for the introduction—the answer to our question—and welcome any felt sense that they can provide for us into our future.
[Breathes] Bringing our attention back to our bodies, and our feet, feeling ourselves grounded and in the moment. And when we’re ready, open our eyes.
TS: Wonderful.
MM: Thank you. It was fun.
TS: I particularly liked the way we went into the exercise by turning ourselves into shimmering water molecules. That makes a lot of sense and really seems to open up.
MM: Good.
TS: Now, Marie, I have a question for you. So often people who teach and speak from, we’ll just call it the psychic realm, are full of dash-dash-dash-dash—they’re full of shit, basically.
MM: Oh. [Laughs]
TS: Often. And some aren’t. And I think that what happens is often critical-thinking, rational listeners come to a place where they think, “All of this spirit guide stuff is just nonsense.” Then, either they meet someone in their life where they think, “This person doesn’t seem like they’re full of nonsense, and they’ve had these experiences.” Or, they meet someone like you. And they’re like, “She’s an oncology nurse, things started opening up, things like this happen to people. Now I’m so confused. I don’t know what’s clearly just superstitious bahookey and what really has merit.” And I’m wondering, what would be your suggestions to help people sort that out?
MM: I kind of look at spirituality as a way to help out being evolved here on earth. Maybe that’s not what someone wants to experience. Maybe they don’t wish to have that kind of felt experience in their life. That’s why I embrace it, and I think that’s one of the reasons why it works for me. So I think it depends on the individual.
TS: Well, let’s give these individuals the benefit of the doubt, that they’re very evolutionary-oriented. They’re evolutionary-oriented, but they have strong critical thinking functions. And they’ve been exposed to fortunetellers who clearly taking people for a ride.
MM: [Laughs] Right.
TS: And then, they’re exposed to somebody who’s sharing real experiences, and they are starting to think, “Maybe these judgments I had—you know, things aren’t so rock-solid.”
MM: I think I know what you’re talking about. But I think that you have to trust your heart. Just like I was raised in a very holistic family—our physicians were chiropractors and Chinese herbal medicine doctors, my mother wasn’t interested at all in conventional medicine—but yet, going into nursing felt like the right thing for me. You know, studying oncology medicine felt like the right thing for me because it brought joy to my being.
And I think having a better understanding of the human body helped me to be a better healer. So you have to go with what feels right for you, not based on what you’ve been taught as a child, or what society says to you. You have to make that felt decision on your own energetic, personal level about what is in your best interest as an individual and then move from that place. That’s what I think anyway.
TS:OK. And just to end our conversation, I’m wondering if I could ask one more thing of you.
MM: Sure.
TS: Are you willing to give our listeners and viewers a blessing of some kind, for their own journey in meeting their spirit guides?
MM: Oh, sure. Certainly. Well, you know, I happen to be in love with the human race. [Laughs] I realized this when I became a nurse. I grew up in a multicultural community because both of my parents were students at the University of Washington when I was young, so I just thought, well, I like culture. But when I started to walk hospital floors and see people missing a limb, or other body parts, or hair, I just realized, I just love people. So I’m honored to be able to offer a blessing.
[Breathes] I believe that blessings come from the universe. I know that there are more beings than we could possibly imagine. They really do love, and adore, and cherish, and honor the human experience. It’s not always an easy experience. And so their arms are always open to us in every way possible, whether it is just to have a pleasant day at work, or have a safe drive home, or to be able to spend more time with our family, or eat perfect food for our bodies. They are always emanating a pulse of vibrational love to our planet, hoping that we will open our hearts and allow ourselves to be loved, even for an instant, by these beings or truly do adore and cherish us.
So I hope that anyone who is listening to this is able to open their heart just a tiny bit more, so that they can feel this enormous love, even for a moment longer than they did yesterday, and that with each and every day they allow that moment to become bigger and longer, and that they’re able to express that with the people in their lives as well. So that’s my blessing.
TS: Beautiful.
MM: Thank you.
TS: I’ve been speaking with Marie Manuchehri. She is the creator of a new six-session audio program with Sounds True on How to Communicate with Your Spirit Guides: Connecting with Your Energetic Allies for Guidance and Healing. And she’s also created a new book with Sounds True on Intuitive Self-Healing: Achieve Balance and Wellness Through the Body’s Energy Centers, a book that takes readers through the chakra system and offers a variety of different exercises and practices that the reader can do to become more aware of what’s happening through out their whole body.
MM: Thank you.
TS: Thank you. Thank you so much for your sincerity, and your truth-tellingness, and your beautiful heart. Thank you.
MM: Oh, thank you very much. It’s a pleasure.
TS: Sounds True.com: Many voices, one journey. Thanks for listening.
