Editor's Note: This is the fourth of a projected series of 26 articles in which Allen Aslan Heart will pass along the spiritual wisdom found in the stories behind his dream catchers. Like many others, Mr. Heart feels that the time has come when we must get our spiritual and ecological acts together if we are to survive and evolve.

Following Your Own Dreams: A Lesson in Personal Power and Wisdom Part One—My Experience

by Allen Aslan Heart / White Eagle Soaring

I've had a wonderful chance to see the inner workings of a cult of personality and to see how it is established and maintained, even to the point of physical and emotional harm. I was introduced to a group that gathered in the apartment of a woman who had a classic case of "Narcissistic Personality Disorder." She had convinced several adherents to wait upon her every need and whim in exchange for the promise of spiritual advancement that she claimed could not be received anywhere else. She had convinced one of them, a wealthy businessman, to build a secret underground teaching facility on his isolated farm in northern Minnesota, complete with sewer, water, kitchen, showers, and electric generator. Access was limited to workshop participants who would pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars. It also served as a storehouse for foodstuffs in the event of earth changes that were supposedly just around the corner. And, of course, only those in good standing with the leader would be allowed safe haven at such a time.

She claimed to be "transmitting" spiritual entities from beyond the physical world. These entities she called "The Blessed Ones." She would go into a trance-like state and "emerge" talking with a strange accent and authoritarian demeanor. She sounded and behaved in a manner similar to Ramtha in whose workshops she had participated. The content of her teaching was based largely on Tibetan Buddhism, which she had studied, and on Touch for Life healing which she appropriated as her own.

I first met the "The Blessed Ones" when I picked up a friend from the airport after she had returned from a 40-day journey with the group in Australia. Later she invited me to a Native American conference and powwow with the group in northern Minnesota. Obviously, the topic was of great interest to me. Later, I began to attend evening “meditations” and then a weekend workshop with my friend. These workshops resembled the ancient mystery schools that I had read about and I found much that seemed true.

I was open to new experiences and was ready to enter this realm finding that a door had been opened to me. I had asked the grandfathers and grandmothers to make it obvious when a door opens to me and to close all doors that are inappropriate to my path. It was a stunning revelation to note the slamming of doors and the "coincidences" that showed me the open doors. I don't believe in coincidence, although it is a reasonable explanation. I believe the universe has purpose and meaning and that the Source expresses power and wisdom through the material world with intention, design, and love.

Later I chose to live on the farm at the invitation of the owners who wanted someone to help them run the farm organically. I had been a landscape designer for 15 years, an organic gardener for over 25 years and had grown up on a farm using very little, if any, chemicals or artificial fertilizer. They promised to help set up and promote classes, seminars, and workshops that I would teach. And I could keep learning from "The Blessed Ones." Given a house near the lake and an opportunity to do something so fulfilling, I jumped at the chance. But there was a flaw hidden in this "paradise."

I noticed how "The Blessed Ones" praised her for the "great sacrifice" in allowing her body and mind to be used so that "they" could teach through her. "The Blessed Ones" sought our promises to contribute to her emotional and financial well-being, and encouraged fawning behavior.

There were several other clues along the way, including the newly erupted "spring," described by "The Blessed Ones" as "healing water" that they had brought forth with the use of powerful energies. They encouraged participants in the Easter workshop to drink from the "healing waters" and to take a container home with them. Several did so. As part of my contribution on the farm, I began to construct a five-foot wide trail to the site with stone terraces planted with wildflowers, perennials and flowering annuals. We were preparing to receive visitors from all over the planet, many of whom would be in wheelchairs. The trails had to be wide enough to accommodate them.

By June, the flow had slowed to a mere trickle. Since I was investing a lot of my energy in this project, I was concerned about the permanence of the "spring." Others had attempted to isolate the healing water from being contaminated by surface water. They had failed and I wondered if somehow they had interfered with the underground channel of the spring. I knelt at the edge and dragged handfuls of sand from the opening. Finally, my arm submerged to the shoulder, I discovered a small arch that was certainly not a natural artifact. I grasped it and pulled. It was a piece of concrete field drain tile that had broken 18 inches below the surface. The line of tile had been carrying water from a marsh to the lake. These disembodied "entities" from a "plane of higher knowledge" had not been able to "see" or "know" that the source of the "healing water" was a swamp 300 feet away! They had encouraged people to drink it, to take home a bottle of it for future use! I told the woman who owned the farm what I had discovered. She said that she would tell the leader. As I was preparing to leave the farm that fall I found that she had not yet told her husband. Probably none of the others had been told either. "The Blessed Ones" would not have wanted their followers to know the truth.

Self-proclaimed gatekeepers of power and wisdom have been part of the human experience since the beginning of time. Today they might be television evangelists, priests, ministers, gurus, politicians, or medicine men. Gatekeepers try to regulate and control access to spirit. Many people will give up their own capacity for wisdom and power to follow someone or some group who claims to have more power, or better ideas, or more wisdom. We are each capable of amazing power and wisdom and we do not need to look up to anyone else who seems better than ourselves.

In Part Two (to be published Febuary 6, 2002), we will look at how you can use the events of September 11, 2001 to discern the wisdom and clarity of gurus, channelers, and spiritual leaders. Many charlatans and frauds cannot see deeper than the surface of their reality. “…………… says …………“ is no longer a viable choice. You are your own authority. If you are not prepared to pierce the veil of illusion yet, if you prefer the comfort of reality as it seems, don’t read it. Taking responsibility for your own life requires using your own power and wisdom as your guides. You are each to walk your own path of power and wisdom in Truth and Beauty, to follow your own dreams, one after another. It is your right and heritage.

Bawaudjigaeaun wae-ondji manitouwiyaun. In Ojibwe this means, "To dreams I owe the mystery."