Alternate Perceptions Current Issue Index

Return Visits from My Spirit Teacher

By Brad Steiger

It has been very exciting and gratifying to receive correspondence from so many individuals who have experienced their own interactions with a Spirit Teacher similar to the benevolent being that I described in the previous issue of Alternate Perceptions. Among the many reports from readers were two oft-repeated questions:

1. Did the Hooded Entity who “gave” you Revelation: The Divine Fire ever appear to you again?

2. Were you ever able to converse with him or did he always place you into an altered state of consciousness?

Thus far (December 2007) the Hooded Spirit Teacher has materialized to me on three different occasions, and on each of those meetings I was allowed to remain conscious and to participate in meaningful communication.

In 1982, a little more than ten years after transmitting The Divine Fire to me, the Spirit Teacher manifested in my office in Phoenix when I was working late one evening. At this time I was the editor of a small publishing company and manager of a recording studio, producing other people's books and cassette tapes--while striving to maintain my own career as an author, lecturer, and paranormal researcher.

Most evenings, after having worked on my duties for the company from ten to five, I would start work on my own writing projects. On many nights, I would often fall asleep at my typewriter--the same faithful 1923 Underwood-- and spend what remained of the night asleep on the floor beside my desk. Every day, I was forced to deal with the stresses arising from the financial problems of the company, the individual temperaments of the staff, the eccentricity of one of our principal backers, and the fickle demands of the marketplace.

My Spirit Teacher’s materialization on this occasion was in sharp contrast to his prior dramatic arrival in a glowing green orb. I simply looked up from my work, and he was seated across from me on the other side of my desk.

He still wore the cowl, but I could distinguish shadowed male features, a rather prominent nose of the type commonly called “Roman,” and a salt and pepper beard. During his prior appearances, his voice (or the voice I heard) seemed rather androgynous. On this visit, his voice issued in pleasant, rather deep, male tones.

The purpose of this visit seemed entirely focused on helping me to decide what my next move should be in terms of furthering my career. He had come to help me evaluate my options.

While the session had begun in my office, we were suddenly transported to his study, a large room with heavily laden book shelves set against stone walls. I was now seated across from his “desk,” a large, coarse wooden table.

It seemed as though we spoke for many hours, but I cannot be certain if our meeting occurred in linear or other dimensional time. Neither can I recall exactly any nuggets of wisdom to share with others. It was very much like being caught in a memory pattern, wherein one recalls the essence of what was said, rather than exact words.

During the course of our discussion, I was given to understand that he was a member of an ancient order of spirit teachers who manifested from time to time to oversee the fulfillment of certain projects. Since we humans liked to have names for our acquaintances, I sensed that he would be comfortable with “Elijah.”

Sometime before the first light of dawn reached through the window shades of my office, he had gone, but he had left me with concepts and information that were acutely necessary to make an intelligent decision regarding the dilemma that had faced me prior to his visit.

Elijah seemed a fitting name for the entity. The parentage of the biblical prophet Elijah is unknown, as if he had just somehow materialized in a time of need. It was said that Elijah could travel from place to place with such speed that it was as if he traveled in a whirlwind. And Elijah was said not to have died: He ascended by fiery chariot. In my cosmology, I could very much accept the proposition that the Elijah of the Old Testament was a multidimensional being.

It is clear from an examination of many biblical references and certain passages from the Dead Sea Scrolls that Elijah was regarded as a helper, a guide, who would manifest in time of need. In Matthew 11, Jesus says that John the Baptist was more than a prophet, he was Elijah. In Mark 9:11, after Jesus, Peter, James, and John returned from the Mount after Jesus’ Transfiguration, the other disciples asked if it was true that Elijah must return again. Jesus answered that Elijah would return to restore all things. As he hung on the cross during his crucifixion, observers stated that they heard Jesus cry out to Elijah.

When I confided in a Rabbi acquaintance of mine that I had interacted with a being that I considered my Spirit Teacher and whose name was Elijah, I initiated a great burst of excitement.

I want to make it very clear that I am in no way suggesting that the Spirit Teacher who has appeared to me was the Elijah of the Old Testament, but I do feel that he does manifest in the Elijah vibration.

A little more than a year later in 1984, the cowled being came to me at a time when I was truly undergoing a dark night of the soul and suffering from an extremely painful blight on my physical body. I had become covered with painful boils and swellings.

When Elijah appeared that night, he gave me specific instructions to ingest a certain combinations of foods, which I protested would be liable to make me feel even worse.

Rather than scold me for my ingratitude and ignorance, the entity spoke soothingly and assured me that I would get well immediately if I but followed his instructions.

Lying naked on my bed, unable to bear even the touch of a sheet on my painful sores and boils, it seemed unlikely to me that I would get well immediately, regardless of who told me to eat whatever concoction.

That, however, is exactly what happened. I struggled to my feet, managed to mix the bizarre combination of ordinary food items, ingest it, and within two or three hours all traces of the swellings had vanished from my body. Never to return, I am delighted to add.

Although he did not manifest in any guise that I was able to recognize in the next few years, it would later become clear to me that Elijah had been working earnestly behind the scenes of my life.

In October of 1986, I received an invitation from the director of a Holistic research group to attend an evening lecture. I hadn't given a firm commitment about whether or not I would attend the event, but since the metaphysical center was only a short distance from my apartment, I decided at the last minute to go.

Just before the evening's proceedings were to begin, an attractive blond lady asked if the seat next to me was taken. I told her that she was welcome to sit down. She introduced herself as Mary-Caroline.

After only a few moments, Mary-Caroline turned to me and told me that she brought me greetings from our very dear mutual friend, Sherry Hansen.

I had met Sherry only once four years before, but I had thought her a beautiful and fascinating woman. My curiosity aroused, I asked if Sherry was in Phoenix.

Mary-Caroline said that indeed she was. According to her, she and Sherry took a class together, and when she mentioned that she would be seeing me that night at a lecture, Sherry had said to be certain to say hello to me and to give me her love.

I was suddenly so intrigued to learn that Sherry was in Phoenix that my normally rational journalist's mind did not pause to wonder how Mary-Caroline, who was meeting me for the first time, could possibly have known that she would see me at the lecture that evening--especially since I myself had not known until minutes before the presentation began that I would be there.

What I did not yet realize is that when benevolent beings really want to bring someone together with that special person, they will make it happen.

After the lecture, I returned to my apartment, paged through the Phoenix telephone book, and found the listing for Rev. Sherry Hansen. It took me two weeks to muster the courage to call her, and another three months of remarkable telephone conversations before I asked her out on a late-night coffee date.

As we grew to know each other more and began to share confidences, I told her of my mystical experience with writing Revelation: The Divine Fire and my encounters with the Elijah entity. Astonished, Sherry shared her own experience with Elijah in 1972, which we ascertained, would have been precisely when I was working most intensely writing the book.

Sherry had been meditating during a prayer-healing meeting that was being held in her home when she was startled by a voice and vision that was so three-dimensional that she was momentarily confused. In her vision, two sandaled feet began walking toward her, and the closer they came, the more distinctly she could see the edge of a brown, monk-like robe. Then she heard a voice cry out, “Elijah!” Silence. Then another call, this time louder: “Elijah!” And a third call, louder still, a shout: “Elijah!”

The next day it was shown to Sherry how she might combine her interests and backgrounds in nursing, healing, the ministry, and counseling. She saw herself establishing a place of education where one could understand how the body, mind, and spirit functioned and interacted. It seemed clear to her that people needed to perceive the Oneness and the interconnectedness of all of life, whether it was the relationship of our minds and bodies to the environment, the planet, or to the universe. In the early 1980s, Sherry gathered as many as forty gifted faculty members and established the Butterfly Center for Transformation in Virginia Beach.

In the spring of 1987, Sherry and I established a business and research association. One afternoon, I received a call from Mary-Caroline who in the interim months since our initial meeting had been away from Phoenix, conducting insightful research with dolphins. As we chatted, I thanked her for connecting me with a good friend of hers.

Naturally curious, Mary-Caroline asked who.

When I told her Sherry Hansen, there were several moments of silence. Finally, Mary-Caroline said that she didn’t think she knew anyone named Sherry Hansen.

I was stunned. "Of course you do. The night that we met, you told me that you were bringing me greetings from our mutual dear friend, Sherry Hansen.”

Mary-Caroline politely repeated that she was certain that she didn’t know anyone by that name.

I persisted:. "You told me that the two of you were taking a class together. Sherry asked you to say hello to me, to give me her love."

Keeping her voice pleasant, Mary-Caroline said, "Brad, I really do not know anyone named Sherry Hansen, so I could not have promised her that I would bring you greetings from her. Secondly, I have taught classes in the Phoenix area, but I have never taken a class from anyone in Phoenix."

After I said good-bye to Mary-Caroline, I decided that I would solve the mystery of why she had denied knowing Sherry, and I called Sherry at her office.

"I just had a call from your friend Mary-Caroline," I told her.

"My friend, who?” she asked.

"Mary-Caroline. Don’t tell you don’t remember. An attractive, tall blond lady. You took a class with her in Phoenix just a few months ago."

Sherry was firm in her response. "I haven't taken a class with anyone or from anyone since I've been in Phoenix."

"Sherry," I said, deciding to admit something that I never before revealed, “It was because you asked Mary-Caroline to greet me at the lecture that I even knew you were in Phoenix. It was because of her relaying your message and your wishes of love that I called you."

"That is most interesting, Brad,” Sherry responded, “because I do not know anyone by the name of Mary-Caroline--and I know nothing about her meeting you at any lecture!"

And then, for the first time, it became clear to me. My Spirit Teacher had temporarily “borrowed” Mary-Caroline’s body and her consciousness in order to bring Sherry and me together.

The third time that Elijah appeared to me was in my apartment in Scottsdale, Arizona in May of 1987. On this occasion, our meeting was very brief. He stood looking down at a photograph of Sherry on my nightstand, then smiled at me and nodded. With a final gesture of blessing, he disappeared. He had confirmed that Sherry Hansen was the one with whom I was to carry out the fruition of my mission on Earth.

It is my conviction that I should never directly call upon Elijah, nor should I ask him for help or request his intercession. I heed the admonitions given in numerous sacred works that advise against seeking to summon one’s spirit guide as inadvertently creating the risk of worshipping the being or encouraging undue reliance upon one’s celestial companion. I am, after all, supposed to learn how to accomplish my mission on Earth with as little help as possible from other dimensional allies. Then, too, there is the danger that if I should seek to summon him, I could be opening the portal to an astral masquerader to pose deceptively as Elijah.

On the other hand, on many occasions, I have been aware of Elijah’s subtle influence and inspiration in my life and in my work. And who knows, I may even have met him again in one of his many guises as I have continued on my quest. He may have been the strong hand that reached out from the crowd at an intersection and pulled me back just in time to avoid being struck by a speeding taxi. Or he may have been the stranger who claimed to have been the victim of a pickpocket and needed just the exact amount of money that I had in my wallet to buy a bus ticket home to see his wife and kids.

Editor’s Note: I encourage our readers to check out the Encounters with the Unknown feature in this issue to read the intriguing account of a lady named Karen, who may herself have been visited by a luminous Spirit Teacher back in 1972.