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This Q&A with John-Roger was originally published in the Movement Newspaper December, 1980.

Q: I want so much to have a “spiritual experience” but no matter what I do, I don’t seem to have one. What am I doing wrong?

J-R: First of all, demanding and pushing for a “spiritual experience” can and often does have the opposite effect. It can push the experience away rather than bringing it to you. The saying, “Let go and let God,” is just another way of saying, relax and be patient; and when it is right and proper for you, you will have your “spiritual experience.” But also keep in mind that all experiences, when approached with the correct attitude, are spiritual and that sometimes trying so hard to achieve your expectation of a spiritual experience will make you miss the spiritual experiences that are happening all around you. Spirit is very subtle. It will be present and manifest when you least expect it, and often in ways that are most unexpected. Approach everything as if it were that spiritual experience you’re looking for.

Q: I find that thoughts come into my head which are what I call really negative and which scare me that I am going off my spiritual path. What’s going on?

J-R: You are responsible for what stays in your mind and for the thoughts you voice, but not for the drifting thoughts that float in and out of your mind. You can think all sorts of things, and if you don’t hold on to them, they may leave as quickly as they came. Not putting energy on them might mean that when the negative thoughts come in, you get up and get busy, exercise, do the dishes, chant the sacred tones, etc. Don’t focus on your negative thoughts and emotions.

Q: Sometimes I feel like I am not succeeding in living what you are teaching me in the discourses [MSIA’s Soul Awareness Discourses], and I feel like I am failing as your student. Do you have any suggestions that might assist me?

J-R: No one is expected to be able to put into practice right away all that I teach. If you could, you would be off the planet by now. It is a very gradual process that we all keep working at and working towards. You will find that you move in and out of manifesting the teachings and sometimes you do it better than other times. It’s a process of practice, practice, practice. As time goes on, you will see that you are more fully living the teachings and then, just when you think that you have an area mastered, you might experience yourself going back into “old stuff.” At those times you might be tempted to judge yourself harshly as failing when in reality you might have lifted into a whole new level and be working through the same habit patterns but on much more subtle levels. This is all a process more than it is a result.

Q: What is the best way to let people know about the Light and the Traveler?

J-R: The best way to spread the Light is to live the Light and be the Light in all your actions and expressions. Talking about the Light can sometimes be the poorest way to communicate, since words can so often be misrepresentations of the truth and be misinterpreted by the listener. People can and do receive benefit from the loving that you extend out to them, and some will “catch the Spirit” and ask you what you have that seems so loving. You can then say, “I’m glad you asked,” and tell them of your personal experience with the Light. The ones who are to consciously work with the Light and the Traveler will touch to it when the time is right and they are ready.

Q: Do you or should you ever use the Light to control others?

J-R: No, the Light of the Holy Spirit, through which I work, is an energy that does not-ever-inflict upon the consciousness of any individual.

When you seek to “control” another person, for whatever reasons, you are, most probably, inflicting your will upon their consciousness. They have probably not given their permission for you to do that; and therefore you are acting against their will. The Light will not participate in that; the Mystical Traveler Consciousness cannot and does not work with anyone who has not asked for that assistance, on some level.

Q: What is the difference between animal and human Souls?

J-R: Generally speaking, humans have individualized Souls that are rather “high up” on the evolutionary scale. Animals, for the most part, have group auras. In other words, they are working in a mass consciousness of the species and are fulfilling their evolutionary progression in that way. Some cats (mostly Siamese), and occasionally some dogs may have an individualized Soul; and those are the ones that might come in as a basic self to a human consciousness in the next step of their progression. They are getting close to moving out of the “animal” category and into the “human” evolutionary process.