About Guideworks (read this first)

Karen:

I am a Canadian freelance writer living in rural Ontario.  I was raised strictly as a materialist-atheist.  I have talent in art, music and writing, but concentrate my efforts mostly into writing.  In childhood, I suffered severe sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of my parents.  Between that and past-life trauma that I was not aware of, I entered adulthood struggling with severe self-esteem issues, sexual difficulties, depression, anxiety and a core belief that it was wrong to share myself with the world, because I was essentially evil, and that I did not deserve to be loved.  This all put severe constraints on all aspects of my life—creative work, career, finance, appearance, relationships, sex, social life, spirituality—which I knew would be permanent if I didn’t do something.

I began doing healing work in my early twenties and tried all manner of techniques from mainstream psychotherapy to spiritual healing. (All had their part, but I particularly credit, in order of appearance: homeopathy, Three-in-One, regression therapy and Landmark Education.)  I also read a lot about psychology, especially the aftereffects of father-daughter incest and emotional abuse by parents.  I explored spiritually, mostly within pagan, new-age and reincarnation contexts.

Somewhere in those spiritual explorations, I first heard the notion of spirit guides, and was particularly struck by a friend’s account of averting a car accident due to an inner or disembodied voice protectively whispering, “Step on the brake.”  I’d had experiences like that myself.

In 2004, in the midst of a relationship crisis, I began hearing such voices, but speaking at length and in detail, offering me comfort and calming wisdom.  (Their most frequent line: “Don’t worry.”)  I began transcribing everything they said.  Once I realized they’d come up with strikingly apt or intelligent answers for any question I asked, the topics began to range wider.  In the next couple of years, I even did several guide readings for other people.  But I was somewhat frightened by the whole thing and became discouraged, and stopped hearing the words.

In March 2011, when the spirit guides came up in conversation with someone I was getting to know, I did a short session to see if I could still access them, and recorded it.  (One line from that session: “In precision is truth; in vagueness, bulls***.”)  Then in June 2011, in the midst of another relationship crisis, they began talking at length again, heartening me so much and saying things that were so helpful on that and other challenging issues (“Life is about love!”  “You always want to be empowering, freeing, inspiring, encouraging, supporting and ass-kicking where appropriate.”  “Fear has a way of making itself seem important.”) that I decided I didn’t want to lose the connection ever again.  I set out to do at least one guide session per day, keying every word on my laptop, then decided to start a website to bring their insights out to a broader audience.

It would be one thing if they were just supportive (which they are—unfailingly, incessantly, impeccably, always on my side, always telling me not to worry, always reassuring me that I can handle things I feel I can’t).  But they are supportive in a way that cuts instantly to the heart of the matter, and sees things that I cannot.

I’ll be spinning my wheels with some emotional problem, thinking as hard as I can, going around in circles, finding no answers in myself, but then I’ll ask them and they’ll say something so off-the-wall opposite to what I’m expecting, so impossibly understanding, that it knocks me into looking at the situation in a completely different way.  I cannot stay in a mental/emotional rut when my guides are around.  They will kick me right out of it on the first sentence, then keep me out of it by substantiating it with more.

As I go through stages of my healing and development, they always match the level I am at, telling me things appropriate to the degree of my understanding.  They work in partnership with whomever else is aiding me, enhancing and riffing off that other message, showing me how to understand it even better. Starting this site so as to share their wisdom with other people is the stage I have come to, so I have done it.

Spirit guides:

Hi everyone, we are Karen’s spirit guides.  Our names don’t matter, and nor does the number of us.  We have always been with her, though most of her life she was not aware of it.  At times, she heard us speak single sentences, though mostly she has forgotten.  That changed in January 2004, as she describes above, and in the next couple of years we produced tens of thousands of words of material.  Karen stopped hearing us until 2011, when we produced tens of thousands more words of material.  We continue to do so.

What we provide is common-sense wisdom, a fully mature and practical perspective on matters, encouragement where you least expect it, and unfailing support, all with absolutely no withholding (though within the time and energy constraints of a mortal human, since we must work through her).  We also offer, for those who ask, information on spiritual realities.  We are not Karen; we think of things and know things that she doesn’t.  We could be said to be the verbal portal of her connection with that which is divine.

Enlightenment, we know, can be struck like a match by a mind’s encounter with the right words.  For that reason, we invent new wordings for eternal facts, often more than one for the same eternal fact.  Our mission is to transform your life, if it needs transforming, in a single moment—or longer, if necessary—if you so choose.

Our mission, above all, is to clarify.

How to read Guideworks

Karen: What I am starting with on this site is a series of blogposts drawn from my files of guide transcripts.

I originally decided that I would only post that which is universally applicable and stay away from what is personal to me, but I realize that there is wisdom in the personal stuff that will apply to any number of other people.  I will include what I can without revealing identities or other personal information.

I also like to pull out lines by the guides which stand out for me, so I’ll use them in some form, maybe a “Nugget of the Day” sort of thing.

Within the posts, I have bolded whatever seemed the most important points.  These are points that apply to situations far beyond the one being discussed, indeed sometimes are utterly universal.

Anything [purple in square brackets] is my commentary.  Plain black text is from the date of the session even if it’s in brackets.  Plain black text [in square brackets] is so as not to name names.

Any post entitled Practical Immortality xxx (xxx being the number of the post) is where things get metaphysical.  If you are weirded out by reincarnation, pre-life planning, psychic phenomena, mediumship, etc., and don’t want to read anything about these sorts of things, skip those posts.

Beyond all this, what this site will grow into will be very much determined by reader request.  If you have a particular question, please ask in comments, and they will answer based on demand (assuming there will be demand) and, as they say, my merely-mortal time constraints.  We’ll take it from there.