While Eva was the person who spoke, she did not claim to be the one who was speaking. Every two weeks, for over two decades, a group of people would gather with Eva, she would go into a trance, and a wise, caring and articulate being—who became known as the Guide—would begin to speak.

The Guide provided volumes of deeply spiritual and yet practical wisdom. Along the way, these teachings were named the Pathwork®, because the Guide so often refers to “being on the Path” and it is hard work to go on this Path. “The way,” he says in Pathwork Guide Lecture #11, “is steep and narrow and long.”

I have created this collection of my favorite Q&As to help clarify and illuminate this path we call life. For these remarkable Q&As have certainly been eye-opening for me. And as the Pathwork Guide teaches, to open our eyes and wake up is really the key to everything.

– Jill Loree

Pathwork Helper since 2011

Founder and manager of Phoenesse since 2015

This audio production of Keys is published by Phoenesse LLC with permission from the Pathwork Foundation.

________

How do the different main religions continue their activities in the spiritual world? Do they fight? And how far can they influence human beings?

________

The Catholic Church has managed to survive until the present day, while the gnostic religions, which are more in accord with the Pathwork teachings, have not survived. Why is this?

So this is the reason for the decline and virtual disappearance of gnostic religion?

Is that perhaps the reason why the female aspect of God is recognized more there, and the male aspect of God more in the West, and that is why East and West ought to get together?

________

In the traditional Scriptures of Judaism and Islam, the texts are specific regarding the consumption of fish, flesh, and fowl; it is commanded that “of their flesh shall we not eat.” But in the fifteenth verse of Matthew, Jesus said, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man, but that which cometh out of the mouth.” Christianity, in fact, has no ban against pork, but during Lent, dietary restrictions are observed by Christians. So are the dietary laws based on that which is unclean, or on that which is holy?

So then what is the meaning of Lent and the counting of the days?

________

What about customs such as circumcision?

________

Most religions of the world use the motion of genuflecting. Many of them also use the two palms together. There are also the patterns created by the whirling dervishes. Do these movements have some inherent meaning?

Is it possible that these body positions bring about new connections in the body? For instance, if a person bows and puts his head below his heart, lowering his ego, is that position significant in some way?

________

Could you please explain the meaning of the sacrament of Holy Communion? Is it a ritual or is it more?

________

This night is the eve of the Sabbath. It also happens to be the eve of Yom Kippur which is the Day of Atonement. On such a night, in ancient Nazareth, it is likely that Jesus, as a Jew, would have been in the synagogue, chanting solemn prayers with his congregation. Yom Kippur is also designated as the Sabbath of Sabbaths. The word Sabbath is loaded with meaning and it appears frequently in Scripture. Jesus referred to it when he said: “The Sabbath was made for man.” What did he mean? And also, what is the significance of ritual in pursuit of the path toward God?

Yes, it is quite clear. Incidentally, the word Sabbath actually means “rest,” and it also means “seven.” I wonder if you could tie the two together.

________

Why is it that all spiritual teachings in the past speak of sin instead of sickness or neurosis?

________

Is evil a condition which results from an actual fall from grace? And what is its relationship to Lucifer in the Old and New Testaments?

But how can we go about it? This God-image is so embedded in us after so many decades of learning the false attitude. Wouldn’t prayer change too if we discarded this concept? Wouldn’t everything change?

What religion is farthest away from the truth?

One of the last words of Christ was, “Father, Thy will be done.” Taken as an example, this could have meant obedience, or it could have meant freedom. Which is it?

From what you say, it becomes clear that religion is a matter of each individual soul developing to its optimum point by way of search and self-realization. The churches have played a dominant role for many years, however, so it would seem that their function would eventually fall away. Is that correct?

________

Is a faith in God and love, without emotional maturity, possible?

– Pathwork® Guide, Q&A #130

I would like to ask whether the Christ spirit is an all-pervading spirit like God or an individual spirit?

My question is: how are we to reconcile this Church-proclaimed doctrine of faith in salvation through another, with our work on the Path? And further, is this faith in a heavenly being who had become man sufficient for a mortal to share, through mysterious rites, in his divine life? Is this faith plus the sacraments sufficient to redeem us from the bonds of earthly guilt and earthly death and to awaken us to a new life which would mean eternal existence and blessedness?

There still is the one portion of my question which is unanswered, which has to do with whether or not a person can be saved through the medium of a Savior or through a person’s own efforts?

You said that when the obstructions are removed, faith follows. But I know people who have faith and still have a lot of obstructions.

Listen to Pathwork Guide Lectures #19-22 about the greater significance of his life and death in the entire Plan of Salvation at the end of this section on Jesus Christ.

Does it necessarily mean that such a person is spiritually very highly developed?

________

I read a story in a current magazine about miracles. This story said that a child broke a wooden Madonna and in kissing the upper half, tears started coming out of the eyes of the Madonna. This was repeated in the presence of different witnesses. Do you wish to comment on this?

Has it to do with the spirit of the child in question?

How then was it possible that Jesus could perform many miracles, many times?

The early Christians faithfully followed these words, seeking to convey the Gospel of salvation through Christ to the entire world, even at the risk of their lives. Much of the Christian church, to this day, takes these words very seriously as defining its mission.

The norm in spiritual circles is to not preach to others, but to respect each individual’s beliefs. Was the early church’s task different from ours today?

“I explained at length in what way the act of Jesus Christ constituted salvation for all the fallen beings, what his contribution was and how it opened the door and showed the way (Pathwork Guide Lectures #19-22). I do not have to repeat that now, for it is all on record and it is useless to take the available time for repetition. By rereading it, you will see that it was never implied or stated that the coming of Christ exempted the individual from personal work and effort. Quite the contrary is true.”

Following is an audio recording of these four important lectures.

Pathwork Guide Lecture #19: Jesus Christ

Excerpt from lecture:

Now who is Christ? Some Christian religions claim he is God. This is not so, for he himself has said, as you can read in the Holy Scriptures, that he is not God. He is not the Father, or the Creator. Some say Jesus was just a wise man, a sage, a great teacher with great wisdom, not unlike a few others who have lived at other times in other countries. This is also wrong.

The truth is, my friends, whether you want to believe it now or not, that Jesus, the man, was the incarnation of the Christ. And this spirit is the highest and most exalted of all created beings. He is the first direct and inborn creation of God. His substance is the same as the substance of God.

All of you possess some of this substance which I call the higher self or the divine spark; it has to come out gradually through spiritual development. But no other created being has this substance in quite the same degree as the Christ. And there Is the difference.

Pathwork cosmology lectures

• Listen to all four Pathwork cosmology lectures, recorded as part of the Keys audiobook with permission from the Pathwork Foundation (please listen in the order given):
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #19: Jesus Christ
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #20: God: The Creation
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #21: The Fall
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #22: Salvation

As I said in my last lecture, God put forth as His first creation the spirit of Jesus Christ and most of this divine substance is in Christ. Therefore, some religions refer to God the Father and God the Son. You can see that there is truth in this statement, although it is erroneous to consider them one and the same person.

After the spirit of Christ, many other creatures came into existence; so many that you could not count them with the numbers you have available in your world.

Once I was asked, “Why did God create these beings?  Being all-knowing, He must have realized that misery could result from it.”  This is indeed an important question which I would now like to touch on briefly.

Pathwork cosmology lectures

• Listen to all four Pathwork cosmology lectures, recorded as part of the Keys audiobook with permission from the Pathwork Foundation (please listen in the order given):
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #19: Jesus Christ
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #20: God: The Creation
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #21: The Fall
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #22: Salvation

Since one of the most important divine aspects is free will or freedom of choice, this had to turn into its opposite too. The spirit who was the first to succumb to the temptation of abusing this power, the one who is sometimes referred to as Lucifer, Satan, or the Devil, who influenced others to follow him, would naturally have been the first one to inhabit the new world that came into existence.

This spirit had complete power over all those who followed him, and, contrary to God, he used this power. God gives the freedom of choice and this has deeper significance than most of you realize. With that freedom necessarily comes the possibility to abuse the given power and to use it contrary to the divine laws.

If no choice were available, there would be no freedom and no power. There can be no divine happiness, in fact, no divinity at all, if it cannot be attained or maintained by free choice. By the same token, the opposite of God and His laws must be the prohibition of free choice and the domination of the stronger over the weaker ones.

Pathwork cosmology lectures

• Listen to all four Pathwork cosmology lectures, recorded as part of the Keys audiobook with permission from the Pathwork Foundation (please listen in the order given):
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #19: Jesus Christ
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #20: God: The Creation
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #21: The Fall
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #22: Salvation

On the earth sphere you have the possibility with your free will to develop and to decide which side to follow. In your own nature, you can of course find both currents:  the good current that once came from God in perfection and the evil current that was accumulated during and after the fall.

Between these two currents the conscious self stands, able to decide either to take the line of least resistance, which is always man’s lower nature, or to follow his higher self, which is the difficult and narrow path...

I should like to tell you what salvation by Jesus Christ really means. Very few people indeed realize its full significance, least of all the organized churches.

Pathwork cosmology lectures

• Listen to all four Pathwork cosmology lectures, recorded as part of the Keys audiobook with permission from the Pathwork Foundation (please listen in the order given):
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #19: Jesus Christ
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #20: God: The Creation
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #21: The Fall
  • Pathwork Guide lecture #22: Salvation

________

Is it possible for anyone following such a path to reach a stage of development in this lifetime so that you would be lifted out of the cycle of returning?

Are the seeds of our hindrances and our blocks made in childhood?

________

When we are reincarnated, we have no memory of our previous lives. When we get to the Spirit World, after this life, do we then have the memory of previous lives?

But is not the variety of different races and their trends part of the beauty of life?

________

I’m curious about the role or the mission of black people in this country today. Historically, this has been a very turbulent role, and it seems that there can be some answers to learn.

Is it necessary, in the development of the soul, to appear and be reincarnated on more than one planet?

________

Will a person who may be attached to his country come back to the same country, either as a spirit or in a next incarnation?

________

At one time you told us that it was easier to work on this Path here on Earth than in the Spirit World. Yet we know that our loved ones are developing too. They too, are working for their self-realization, and are helped by our work on ourselves. Could you explain how this works?

________

Can you tell us why the influx of the new Christ consciousness energy has accelerated the process of development?

________

When artists have really reached a very high level of artistic expression, have they attained that because they have also attained a high level of spiritual development and awareness? Do these things go together?

So when life is not produced in a human way but is produced in a scientific way, where the ingredients of the life organism is absolutely identical, is there a different soul for each of these beings?

Is it possible that fear of life is really a fear of dying and reincarnating within this life—the process of giving up the old and moving on to the new?

I’d like to know whether my current crisis is actually a rebirth for me at this point?

What can an animal learn from having a disease?

________

Do animals killed for the purpose of being eaten go into the same sphere as a deceased pet?

What it is like for an animal to wake up after it has died? How is this with the group souls?

________

Do animals change from one incarnation to another? For instance, will a cat be a cat in all incarnations?

________

Do animals have karma?

________

Do animals have souls?

Mankind knows very little about the awareness of animals. So why is man considered higher on the evolutionary scale?

________

What role have pets such as dogs and cats have played in the spiritual development of people, and vice versa?

–Pathwork® Guide, Lecture #54

God’s World

You say we should be in contact with the Spirit World of God, and that other spirits will harm us spiritually and even physically. But isn’t everything God’s world?

________

When bad things happen in life, is that due to the presence of dark forces?

________

Let us imagine that all humanity, meaning each individual, would follow the line of least resistance and give in to the Lower Self, and nurse it instead of fighting it. What would happen from your point of view?

________

In Isaiah it is said that God created good and evil. Did God create the evil forces and the Luciferic powers too?

________

A friend of ours who is a follower of Rudolf Steiner’s teachings said that there are not only two “kingdoms,” heaven and earth, good and evil, but three. According to this concept the earth is ruled by a being that is not Lucifer or the devil, but Ahriman, who is the ruler of matter and who is supposed to be more dangerous than Lucifer. Is this true?

________

The souls in the lower spheres are supposed to suffer much pain. How is it then that Lucifer, who is the worst of all evil spirits, does not seem to suffer? Is this just?

________

Is it OK to contact spirits to ask them for help?

________

In what form do spirits who are still undeveloped see higher spirits?

________

What are bodhisattvas?

________

I would like to ask about restitution to loved ones in the Spirit World. Apart from what you told us we can do, can we dedicate certain actions to them, or how can we help them to understand that we have understood, that we want to make restitution?

________

We know that when we are asleep, often the Spirit World teaches us or communicates with us. Is there any way of remembering these communications? Is there a way of training oneself to be more open to receive them consciously?

________

It seems possible to use a Ouija board to train oneself to communicate with other entities. Would you say this is a good thing to do?

So the prediction of Nostradamus for the end of this century does not have to come true?

So seers such as Nostradamus have insight into these records?

Are any of the guardians in between incarnations, or are they all out of the cycle of incarnations?

________

Can you give us suggestions for interpreting dreams?

________

Sometimes when one has an unresolved problem and one goes to sleep relaxed, intending to have the problem resolved, one wakes up with the solution. Is it correct that then one’s unconscious mind has solved it?

________

This is in connection with a sudden death, in an accident, of a very good friend at the age of forty. I understand that everything has its meaning and its purpose. But is there really no such thing as an accident?

________

So to what extent do we form our fate or to what extent is our span destined for us?

It seems that former President Kennedy had reached an impasse in his endeavors and that he perhaps accomplished more by his departure than he would have been able to do further in fighting with the forces that were opposed to him. Is that right?

On the subject of Kennedy, I would like to ask a question I wanted to ask for a long time. How does a Roman Catholic reconcile the Roman Catholicism in the last review of his life? What does he do with the last judgment and so on—all the things he practiced here?

Is it correct that atheists remained in darkness because they are separated from divine light?

________

What seems so painful regarding the death of a small child is that there are so many things left undone.

________

When a young person dies, such as in an automobile accident, it seems that this must be connected with a death wish. Would you explain this more? Also, what is the work to find the death wish in oneself?

Are spirits in the Spirit World still tied to their country and their names?

________

Regarding Lecture #112 Humanity’s Relationship to Time, how can one truly face death and accept the reality of after-death so as to live in the Now?

________

What would be the best emotional and spiritual approach to aid someone who is dying in meeting this challenge?

“It is so very important to know what to pray for at any given stage of your development.

People seldom realize that they must pray to get ahead. Often it is not clear to you what you need most at specific phases of your development. You may put emphasis on something that is less important now than it was two months ago. Your needs may have changed.

As Jesus Christ said, “Knock and it will be opened unto you.” The knocking symbolizes being alert and interested enough to figure out what you need most at various stages of your path. The path changes constantly. And you surely cannot pray with equal concentration on everything at once.”

–Pathwork® Guide, Lecture #38

Prayer vs. Meditation

What is the difference between prayer and meditation?

________

Another spirit once told me that it is good to have a very long prayer and meditation. After some years, this became very much a habit. Some time ago, when I asked you about it, you said that this may not be good because there is a rigidity and a habit in such prayer, and that we should try to unlearn what we did at that time. I was wondering why was it that we were told by a supposedly developed spirit to fall into this habit-pattern?

________

Very often I receive this guidance that suggests to ask for inner guidance from the inner self. Just how do you go about that?

There are some theories that say that in order to achieve the discipline of daily prayer, one should set aside the same time every day. I think that this leads rather to the routine against which you warned us. Which is right?

________

Are the batteries of both willpower and courage recharged by prayer?

________

What about the problem of selfishness in prayer?

________

Is silent prayer, without uttering words, sufficient, or does formulation and verbalization in loud words make prayer more effective?

________

I noticed that some people pray by addressing God in the third person. In other words, they speak about God. They say, for instance, “I ask God…,” rather than speaking directly to God. Is there any significance in this? Does it make any difference?

________

May I ask why is it so difficult at times to start praying at all?

________

Can you please provide some guidance for how to get started?

________

Is it possible, through prayer and meditating, to influence the subconscious of a loved one who is at a great distance from you?

– Pathwork® Guide, Q&A #172

How to Find God

How should we think of God?

________

How does a person go about re-establishing an emotional experience about God?

________

Would you explain further about the state of being and how to achieve it?

________

You close all your sessions with, “Be in peace. Be in God.” My question is about God. Recently it has been in the public press that many in religion are beginning to question the meaning of God. Can you comment on that?

________

The Guide: I leave you all with the message that you please trust in the goodness of life and in your own goodness at the bottom of your heart. Bank on it. Pray for it. It is there. It is there. Focus on it, without overlooking the negative. Look at the negative and recognize it as a temporary, unreal, partial state. Take responsibility for it.

See it squarely, but never lose sight that that part in you that is capable of this self-confrontation and honesty and openness and exposure—that part that is capable to choose the proper attitude—is the God that is eternal. It is so near. It is your choice—the choice in which way you direct your thinking.

Do you direct your thinking into an abysmal hopelessness and self-defeat because you are imperfect, or do you direct your thinking into acknowledging your divine nature, even though there are imperfect parts in you? They’re only parts. Know your beauty. Know your eternal greatness. You are God.

Be in peace. Be in God.

Eva was born in 1915 in Vienna, the daughter of the well-known Austrian novelist Jakob Wasserman. Driven by a private curiosity and a desire for deeper understanding of her world, Eva began to develop the gift of accessing an inner voice, at first through automatic writing and later by speaking in a trance state. In time, the inner voice took shape as the authoritative, insightful and loving persona of the Pathwork® Guide.

Eva came to the United States in 1939 and continued her work in New York, giving Guide sessions and an ongoing series of trance lectures. She was a beautiful, vibrantly alive woman with a keen intelligence who enjoyed life in all its aspects. She loved people and animals, and enjoyed food, skiing, swimming and dancing.

Eva Pierrakos died in 1979, leaving behind her the rich legacy of more than two hundred Guide lectures and thousands of students and followers of the teachings.

JILL LOREE, Arrangement

I actually gave a lot of thought to how I should refer to myself relative to this body of Question and Answers. As we know, the author herself, Eve Pierrakos, didn’t claim to be the author. The author of these answers is the Pathwork Guide.

So while I have created this way of organizing this material, it is not my material. This material belongs to the Pathwork Foundation, a non-profit organization charged with disseminating and caring for the Pathwork Guide’s words.

I completed my assembly of these Q&As—which involved reading them, sorting them by topic, and editing them lightly for easier reading—around Christmastime. At the time, I was listening to the many different arrangements of Christmas music offered by so many different artists. Which is when the word “arrangement” popped into my head.

I didn’t create the “song”, but I crafted it this way so that others could enjoy it. If you are interested in exploring what else I have crafted to make these teachings from the Pathwork Guide easier to access, please visit Phoenesse.

—Jill Loree

Pathwork Helper

Founder of Phoenesse

Read more about how Jill Loree created The Guide Speaks.