How do I distinguish guidance from projection and middle-world bleed-through?

What is middle-world bleed-through? #

The middle-world creeping into a journey. When people start journeying, their journeys “are usually entangled up with middle-world stuff and objects”, and even much of what passes for Lower or Upper-WorldUpper-World. The realm of Father Sky and of Spirit: spacious, rarefied and clear, layered in tiers, offering not escape but perspective. Not better than the Lower-World: we ascend rooted, and bring the gifts back down. Read the full answer experience is still just the middle-world in disguise.¹ That is normal, and noticing it is the skill. “Once you know what to look out for, then with only a little practice it becomes easy to spot”.

What are the signs of bleed-through? #

Anything human-made or domesticated. The Lower-World looks as the world did before agriculture: no roads, no pylons, no domesticated animals, and “There are no books, scrolls or writing of any kind whatsoever”.² Nor is there farming of any kind, metalwork such as chalices, goblets or metal knives, or modern clothing. The real Lower-World is “pure, completely wild, undomesticated nature”, and anything else is a sign that the middle-world is bleeding in.

How it feels. “If you do not feel safe, or even just feel uneasy, that is a sure sign of middle-world energy.” The Lower-World and the Upper-World feel slow and steady, whereas the middle-world can feel rushed and disjointed, and “even the nice bits of it, feels decidedly murkier than the other two worlds”.³

Advice about your life here. In a Lower-World journey, “what should not be happening is the animal telling you about middle-world stuff and your life here. So, no advice about whether to apply for the new job or not”.⁴

Can a friendly figure be a sign of trouble? #

Yes. Friendliness proves nothing. One journeyer was led away by a kindly old woman, and the fact that she looked kindly and was friendly meant nothing at all: “All over the world there are tales of trickster middle-world beings.”⁵ The clearest test of all concerns the Power Animal: “anyone or anything that tries to separate you from your Power Animal does not have good intent and is categorically not to be trusted.” See What is the role of Power Animal in shamanic journeying?

Are there tricksters in shamanism? #

Yes, in the middle-world. All over the world there are stories about the need to beware of trickster spirits posing as guides in this kind of work. Middle-world beings are not all bad, but they are limited, and “The trick though, is knowing whether a guide is indeed truly a Lower-World (or Upper-World) being, or a middle-world being masquerading as one.”⁶ The middle-world is “a tricky place, where there are trickster people and spirits.”⁷

How do I tell guidance from my own projection? #

By knowing what you bring. Because a journey is co-created, “it is vital to be as aware as we can about what concepts and ideas we bring to that process”.⁸ Lower-World GuidesGuides. The Lower-World and Upper-World beings a practitioner works with and learns from, of whom the Power Animal is the first and foremost. True Guides are ethical to their core; the shaman’s power comes from the depth of these bonds, not from the shaman. More about this keep impeccable ethics, so if a Guide seems to help you do harm or manipulate someone, “then either they are not really Lower-World Guides, or you are not really listening to them but are deluding yourself with your own wishful thinking and fantasies”.⁹

Do not swing the other way, either. Reducing everything to symbols humanises everything, treating every being you meet as a projection or a metaphor for your own growth. See What are hollowing-out and stalking our stories?

Should Guides give long verbal explanations? #

No. “Words are middle-world things. They have little place or use in the Upper-World and Lower-World”.¹⁰ Paul Francis’s own Lower-World Guides rarely speak to him in journeys, and if they do, it is usually only single words or simple sentences, such as “Pay close attention”, “Do this” or “Be this”. If a Guide describes something at length, “then that is channelling, not Lower-World journeying.”¹¹ Guidance comes as image and experience: “Journeys work by engaging you, by suggesting and evoking things, not by spelling things out with words in a literal way.”¹²

Do genuine Guides tell us what to do? #

They may teach and advise, but they never compel. The relationship between a practitioner and their Guides “is not a parent-child one, but a teacher-student one.” They offer, but “They cannot, and will not, make us do what they say.”¹³ “Lower-World Guides are not going to tell you to join a choir. Let alone a particular middle-world choir.”¹⁴

Why should I not tell someone what their journey means? #

Because the meaning is theirs. Taking it from them takes power from them. “When people hand their power over to me and ask me what something means in a journey, I do not want to collude with them disempowering themselves.”¹⁵ To impose meanings “is to have the power-dynamics all wrong.”¹⁶ Telling also shrinks a journey: in one example, a practitioner who added “their own middle-world interpretation, agenda, ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’” took what could have been an authentic part of the journey and turned it into advice.¹⁷ See How do I unpack and interpret a shamanic journey?

What should I do if the middle-world bleeds in? #

Notice it, and act on it calmly. There are several options: change a middle-world thing into its Lower-World equivalent, as “a metal knife can be changed into a flint one”; pay it no more attention, so that it fades; or go deeper into the Lower-World.¹⁸ If a being is trying to lead you away, the safest course for anyone not yet experienced is to leave it and head back to the Lower-World with your Power Animal.¹⁹