Are spirit guides real?

Thank you, I’m still trying for one. I almost had it a few days ago. Anyway, your spirit guide, is it real? Would it tell you all your flaws and what you can do to improve your life?

This topic was split from How much do lucid dreams improve your life quality? :dragon:

Spirit guides are real in my opinion, and yes they would. They stick with you, and they’re sort of that gut feeling you have. They’re wise and know what’s best for you. :content:

So if, for example, I ask them what to do in a real-life problem I am having, they would tell me?

They guide you to the right direction, they don’t nessaarily tell you what to do, because ultimately it’s your decision. They sort of show you or tell you the results of the paths you take.

Depends on if you tend to believe in supernatural phenomena or not.

Personally, I believe lucid dreaming is a scientifically explainable occurrence with no “otherworldly” involvement. So, I’d say the so-called “spirit guide” is just a dream character and nothing special.

Well, if you believe spirits are embodied wisdom, and you believe dreams have messages from the Collective Unconscious, both are true.

I must sound like a broken record, repeating Jungian ideas.

And here you’re branching off into even more metaphysics. First, you’d have to acknowledge the existence of a collective unconscious (correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that it’s not like this hypothesis is universally agreed upon). Next, you’d have to agree that dreams have messages (or that they mean anything at all). There are many different opinions out there nowadays. For example, Laberge seems to subscribe to the idea that dream content doesn’t have any inherit meaning or symbolism other than that they serve as an evolutionary means to prepare people to better survive the world around them. Hobson doesn’t believe they have any meaning to them at all (see activation-synthesis theory). Celia Green tends to take a neutral point of view in her writings about Freud and Jung, but there’s definitely an underlying skepticism.

My point is that none of this stuff is agreed upon, and the function or meaning of dreams is still unclear.

i think that if you think they are real, then they are pretty much real, but if you think they are nothing more than a DC, than there nothing more than a DC

Real in the sense that they exist, I would say so. I’ve not personally met mine, should it be, but there are hundreds upon hundreds of people who say they exist. I wouldn’t see it as anything… Unusual or supernatural. I think it’s more of an embodiment of your thoughts, but unlike most dream characters, since you give it more of a meaning and connection, helps you think and rationalize your own thoughts.

True, unfortunately. :razz:

As i am currently reading Jung, and it’s all clicking with me, i’m becoming a real believer in this stuff. His material is a lot more than conjecture, and the explanations behind it are phenomenal (as in good). I am also experimenting with meeting what might be my anima, so, it’s hard to see it otherwise.

Regardless, according to Jung, the spirit-guide is explained by the collective unconscious. And very well too, assuming the spirit guide is wisdom.

I pesonally believe that a spirit guide is as real as anything else, I dont really go with the word real because how do you really define what that means. is something not real if it is just a thought form or is it just a different sort of real. I think i do know what is meant by this but i think we can only really know what our own experience allowes us to for certain, otherwise it is my belief or his or her belief. nothing is created without the thought first or the dream. I dont know if im making any sense at all. interesting to know what others think about all this though. :smile:

I think what Gamblino is trying to say is that it is like faith or belief in religion: If you blelieve spirit guides are real, then they are. If you don’t, then they aren’t. I haven’t had any experiances with spirit or dream guides, though (yet!), so I’m not sure what to think yet myself.

According to Jung… :smile:

Real to an extrovert is anything in the outer world of people and things.
Real to an introvert is anything in the inner world of thoughts and ideas.

The other world is dealt with only when required.

:smile: I have been quite interested in carl jung, have been looking for a biography on him but cant find any in my town. just a small town and our bookshops dont have a lot of variety. I will probably have to order one in, i have ordered Robert waggoners book which i have been reading at the moment.

I consider myself quite a spiritual sort of person in that im open minded but also stand firm in my beliefs still keeping room for new ideas though.

I was just pondering on that which jung said but am wondering does the introvert have a little of both, as we would obviously know outwardly what is real and be open to believe in the possibilities of the things from within being real also in there own sense. but the extrovert may find it harder to be open to that belief maybe :confused:

If we equate “real” with “objective”, it becomes better understood? The other world exists, as you point out, but it is dealt with via a subjective attitude.

yes of course, that makes sense :smile:

Jung spends most of Book Six discussing Introversion and Extraversion. And by most, i mean probably 90% of the book. Being I/E is out attitude towards the inner and outer worlds, it is by far the most important factor of personality.

Anyway, even if i did understand it fully and well, it’d be hard to encapsulate in a few sentences. :smile:

I can imagine, I will have to have a look for the book. how many books are there and are they very expensive to buy.

It matters what you want. If you want Jung, and you want personality types, that’s Book Six: Personality Types. Currently, i’m reading Book Nine part A: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, which has a lot more to do with dreams than book six. IIRC, there are over twenty books in the collection, but you’d have to be a serious Jungian to want to read them all.

If you wanted personality types in general, it matters what you want, a social approach (Please Understand Me II), a what’ll we do best approach (Gifts Differing), a detailed understanding of the brain functions (Concious Orientation).

Jung’s the hardest to read, and really requires reading Jolande Jacobi first, as she has a short description of the overall lifecycle (The Psychology of C. G. Jung) and view of the unconscious (Signs, Symbols, Archetypes). Although, might as well get The Way of Individuation in there as well. :smile:

wow that really is a lot. I dont know if I would know where to start, myabe with pesonality types as that does interest me. But there is so much I want to know. I have just been recently getting very interested in phycological matters after getting a lot of A and D counseling and batteling addiction, in which I have been clean for a substantial amount of time now I might add :smile: . and also being diagnosed ADHD as a child. I would like a much deeper understanding in those areas. I started to become more interested in jung after reading little bits of his work in other peoples books and so I started to watch some documentary material and interviews that he had done. I guess I find him quite fascinating.