In this Episode
- [00:49]Stephan introduces Paul Selig, a leading spiritual channel, as their conversation delves into the realms of guides and psychics.
- [02:10]Exploring Paul’s channeling process for writing books and his frequency of interaction with his guides.
- [07:06]Paul and Stephan delve into their own psychic abilities, encompassing clairaudience and clairvoyance.
- [14:00]Paul talks about his reservations about opening up spiritually and physically.
- [17:24]Stephan inquires about Paul’s encounters with physical attacks due to his psychic abilities.
- [23:19]Paul elaborates on receiving spiritual information and guidance.
- [29:27]Unveiling important steps for leading a spiritual life and actionable strategies for fortifying your connection with the divine.
- [39:27]Paul shares his perspective on extraterrestrial beings and their absence from his teachings.
- [45:09]Paul’s approach to extracting insights from his guides and the dynamics of information sharing.
Paul, it’s so great to have you back.
Thanks for having me.
I was curious, have you ever done a children’s book or considered it?
Absolutely not. I don’t write books. I sit in a chair, close my eyes, and speak what I hear, which gets printed without editing. I would not do that. If my guides wanted to do that, I suppose they would. I don’t imagine that they would somehow because I think so much of their teaching is about being in choice. I think doing this kind of work that the guides teach requires choice and the ability to discern. I think that comes with some time and experience.
I don’t write books. I sit in a chair, close my eyes, and speak what I hear, which gets printed without editing.
Yeah. How often are you hearing your guides talk to you? Is it all day long? Or when you request, “I want to channel another book or the next chapter? How does that work?”
They agree they will be there if I know I will work. I channel a lot. The books are the books. Those take a couple of months usually of sittings to complete. I do a five-day intensive online every month and a weekly channeling, and I might tour some. The agreement is that they will also be there if I show up at the appointed time. They haven’t stood me up yet, and I’m grateful for that. When I see clients and do my readings, I work differently. The guides may pipe in with commentary, but it’s a different way of working. The psychic and the channel seem to be two different skill sets.
In my own life, most of the psychics and channels that I know we don’t read for ourselves because it’s a little risky, I think. The ego gets involved. I can be very neutral. I can become neutral about the outcome if you ask me a question. If I ask whether I will get what I want, I have an investment in the outcome. While I tune in a fair amount, I generally get counsel from the guides in my own life. I’m not making choices in fear. That’s usually what I get that is effective, and it’s of the moment. I don’t ask about the future. I don’t get that stuff for myself.
What if you get this intuitive feeling that you should go to a specialist or doctor or get a specific medical scan? Are you consulting your guides and asking which specialist to go to?
I don’t do medical readings.
Even on yourself? Even if you get this feeling, “I need to go to the doctor. I don’t know why.”
I have a doctor that I trust. I would call my doctor. I would take his recommendations for referrals. I might tune in to what feels best, or knowing me, I would call up one of my friends who does this kind of work and say, “This is what’s going on. What do you get on?” I trade with people that I respect. It’s part of navigating the shared field because I think most agree that sometimes another eye on something can be useful.
I was preparing to work at NYU when I started hearing for myself. This was 25 or 30 years ago. I’ve always been a bit of a slob, I was going to go to work, and I heard, “Wear the blue shirt,” which was the only thing that was pressed in the closet. I wore a blue shirt the day I had to meet with my boss unexpectedly. I’m so glad I wore the blue shirt with no mustard stain. That was a big moment for me.
I learned I might get other guidance if I ask myself a question. But learning to differentiate my personality, self, and the guides was a process I had to go through. The guides don’t care about the idiosyncrasies of my life for the most part. They’re teachers. They’re coming to teach. They’re there for the bigger picture.
Right. Presumably, your guides to help you navigate this earth school to be the best version of yourself possible and get closer to God. Then you have these other guides that are the ones that are speaking through you to affect more planet-wide change. Is that right?
When I’m channeling, I’m only doing very specific work.
I think there’s an overlap. I think the guides I work with are teachers who are there for that reason to teach. I assume they’re personal guides too, that are piping in. But for the most part, when I’m channeling, I’m doing very specific work. I think there is a misunderstanding amongst some people that if you can do this, you have access to all the information in the world, and every psychic would be winning the lucky numbers daily.
And maybe reading each other’s minds too.
Yeah. I don’t know if it works when the ego is invested in an outcome. It’s not a healthy thing. I think to try to read for yourself. Because you’ll get either what you want or hear what you want, which is risky, or you’ll get confused. I just say the guides are teachers. I think they do support me in my growth and my work with the teachings. They certainly support me in this work; I’m very fortunate. But do they care if they get a date? Not necessarily, that’s in my opinion. There’s bigger fish to fry than my personal life.
Do you find that you also get messages or information through the environment? For example, what I’m seeing as my psychic abilities are increasing. I’m getting information through the clairaudience, one of my primaries, and the environment. For example, I just saw a blue jay out the window a couple of minutes ago, and the sense I got about it was that it was not random, and it was something I was meant to talk about in the interview. These animals have messages for us, and there is often a book or a website I’ll be guided to unpack.
For example, Power Animals by Steven Farmer or Animal Talk by Ted Andrews. Sure enough, when I read the page either for myself or for the person I’m in conversation with, I’m like, “That hits home, thank you. It was exactly what I needed to hear.” How does that work for you?
I don’t. It’s not how I work. I’m pretty specific in what I do. I understand the abilities that I have as they’re implemented. I’m not a trained medium or a trained channel. I am grateful for my development, but it took a long time. I started opening up as a channel over 30 years ago and didn’t know what was happening or what to make of it. It’s been a process for me. I don’t seek things out. I remember because I lived in a house with many windows in the jungle. Occasionally, the birds fly into the house or bump into a window.
I remember the first time a bird flew into the house. I went, “My God, what does that mean?” I looked up the meaning of birds flying into the house online, and it was all terrible. It means somebody’s going to die. Somebody somewhere probably did, but it wasn’t anybody that I knew. I’m not looking in the ways I used to and speaking meaning in those ways. There was a time when I was developing when I would. I think that that was a useful time for me.
I was beginning to understand the idea of divine order, divine flow. But there’s a line that I think sometimes people cross into magical thinking, which is, “I saw 11-11 four times today. What does that mean?” “Well, it only comes twice on the clock every day, so four times. I don’t know what it means, but it might mean something to you.” We develop our systems of understanding things. I read in a specific way. I’ve seen other people who do readings that work comparably.
I saw a film about Jane Roberts, who channeled self-channeling once, and I recognized how she was working. I was like, “That’s what it feels like. That’s what it’s like.” I’ve seen other people channeling, and it’s a completely different physical effect. That’s how they work, I guess. It’s just a different thing. I have to be open to the fact that everybody gets their information differently.
At this point, I have not experienced trans-channeling, where my vocal cords are taken over with my permission. That hasn’t happened yet. I get a lot of clairaudient messages, some clairvoyant visions or images. I’ll get unknowing claircognizance, clairsentience. It’s certainly developing, and I’m open to being a trans-channel. I just don’t know when or if that’s going to occur.
It hasn’t occurred to me. I’m a conscious channel. I’ve receded. There are things that I do that seem to be in alignment with a physical medium. My eyes change colors sometimes. They go bright blue when I work, and I have hazel eyes. When I step into people, I can somatize them. I’ve been doing what people that I’ve never met where I take on their physical challenges. But I don’t offer the body.
I studied with this old lady years ago when I was very young. She was a healing teacher, and she used to say, “If you’re not in your body, who is?” I understood the need to stay in the body. My abilities began to kick in. I began to open up when I stopped drinking when I was 25. I was doing everything that I could in my life to get out of my body. To check whether it was booze or four packs of cigarettes a day which I did for many years. Food, which I’m not doing now and I’m happy about. These are always checking out. To be effective in this work, I have to be present for it and hear. That’s not to say that there aren’t remarkable trans channels.
I recall about a third of what comes through me, but I’m so busy keeping up with the dictation when I channel that if you were listening to it, you would probably have a better recall of what was said than I did as I spoke.
You mentioned somebody said, “If I’m not in my body, who is?” That reminded me of a concept I learned from my Kabbalah teacher. He explained to me the concept of an ibbur. When a spirit takes over you, it’s a positive possession. This can go on for quite a while or can just be very temporary. One reason for this is that the soul piggybacking along for the ride can perform a mitzvah or good work or complete some mission they couldn’t finish in their lifetime. Have you heard of this concept, and do you feel you have any ibburs?
Not my thing. It’s an interesting teaching. I don’t have an opinion on it. At times, I am concerned that people opening up psychically and spiritually suddenly just think, “Well, I get to be a radio, and I’m going to play any station that wants to come through. Like any station, some are lower than others. I think until people learn discernment, it’s to be done with prudence and awareness. If you think of all the cable channels, there are spooky ones.
When somebody’s opening up, the excitement or the glamor of the psychic work can be seductive.
There’s no need to go there. My guide says everything is the source. Everything is good; just operating at different tones and levels of vibration. Anything can be reclaimed in the higher. But I think that when somebody’s opening up, the excitement or the glamor of the psychic work can be seductive. It was for me when I was very young, opening up, and didn’t know what to make of it. My life was falling apart on those days, which was interesting to be opening up spiritually while my life was in real disrepair.
But I was undergoing a real renovation, or hope is continuing. But the initial excitement of all of that later became replaced with practicality because there comes a time when I suspect it will happen with you when it becomes more normal. It’s just like another way of being in the world. I’ve learned to say if I’m sitting with somebody and my left foot begins to hurt, and it wasn’t when I sat down with the person, I might be feeling their pain, their foot, their problem, and I’m going to ask if you have a problem with your foot. That’s clairsentience showing up.
I don’t carry people’s stuff, but when I started opening up and those things started happening, I was alarmed and excited. Maybe that’s what I needed to keep going forward. I needed some proof to encourage me to trust the phenomenon. The challenge is that the phenomena and not the substance can seduce people. That’s got to be the key. “Does it pan out? Is it helpful? Is it working?” Other than that, it’s just stuff.
Yeah. There is also an important distinction around paying attention to the message or the messenger. If somebody puts the messenger on a pedestal, that becomes an intermediary to God. Not relying on or establishing a direct connection with the creator, you’re going through an intermediary, and that’s dangerous on many levels.
They’re teachers, and there are all kinds of teachers and people teaching different things. I don’t call myself a spiritual teacher and am certainly not a guru. I’m a guy with a specific skill set, and I work with that skill set and hopefully am held by it. But I don’t want people projecting their stuff on me because I don’t need it. It’s not my stuff. I think that there are people that want that focus. But I believe there are hard lessons to learn through that as well. If somebody puts you on a pedestal, they’ll likely want to knock you down eventually.
Exercise prudence and awareness, and hone your discernment before you act. Share on XSpeaking of which, do you ever get psychically attacked?
I have.
Can you tell us more about it?
I don’t like to talk about it much. Usually, it’s been somebody who’s holding a great deal of anger that’s projecting it. I don’t perceive it necessarily as an entity. I think that thoughts create it. Nobody knew who I was the first time I was interviewed on a cable show. There was a college teacher in New York, and there was this channel book with my name on it, and I was on the show. I was very heavy and rocking when I channeled back and forth. I looked pretty crazy. I knew it. I was like, “I got to live with this.”
But when the thing aired, there was ridicule, and there was a lot of stuff that wasn’t pleasant, and I could feel it. I still feel it when I do something now that airs, and many people see it. I usually feel it when it’s up as I focus on myself and get uncomfortable. But I was hurting. When this happened, I told my guides, “If you want me to do this kind of work, why are you letting this happen?” The response was very simple, “Well, as long as you care what people think about you, it’s going to be a problem. You see, we’ve got to be at a certain level in vibrational accord with these things.” My attachment to how I was perceived for wanting approval or to be liked was operative.
I don’t say it’s all gone, but it’s not what it was. I’ve been doing this publicly long enough that at least a body of work supports how I work. How I work is clunky and awkward in some ways. I’m not elegant. I’m not sitting there espousing. I’m taking dictation. I’ve had the experience of it, and it’s not pleasant, and I don’t recommend it. But it’s not a place where I like to hang out. It’s not my subject either.
Yeah. What if somebody is getting that psychic attack or criticisms, scrutiny energetically from a detractor?
Raise your vibration. Lift your vibration to a level without getting hit with it. I think you’ve got to have a level of investment to be caught at that level. It’s the old teaching of turning the other cheek. I think that’s what this is about. It is you’re lifting to a level where it doesn’t hit you, they can throw the stones, but they’re going to operate below. But again, this isn’t my subject other people talk about; it’s theirs. I’m specific with my guides’ teaching, which I can talk about. If I’ve had an experience with it, I can only speak about my own experience, not necessarily what other people should do.
If I’ve had an experience with it, I can only speak about my own experience, not necessarily what other people should do.
Because you have this area of specialization and there are other psychics and medium and so forth who have different specializations, maybe it’s medical intuition or a certain healing modality, or whatever, thus you end up possibly trading services with a trusted group of friends with abilities, what sort of areas of focus or modalities do you tend to rely on, on friends and in your network for? Is it medical intuition?
Not necessarily. I have a couple of people I’ve traded with or worked with for many years, and I trust them. Sometimes, it’s just like second-opinion stuff. “Well, I got to bid on it, so which one do you think is the best?” Maybe, that simple and that practical. I excel at my ability to step into other people and hear them. I can do precognitive work, but I don’t love doing it. I have a friend, and that’s her thing. She’s a good precog.
I have another friend who does other things. He does acupuncture. He does herbology. He has a context and a vocabulary for something that I don’t. He can be useful in ways that I’m not. I don’t think that one is necessarily better. I don’t do a lot of work with the dead. It’s not my thing. But I have somebody I refer clients to when they have somebody on the other side who needs to clarify some stuff. If you ask me to turn into a relative on the other side, I may get them, but I most likely get them while they are alive. When they still have the body.
I’m accurate when they still have the body. I’ve done accurate readings for people who have been in comas. Their families can verify the information or have a locked-in syndrome. But once they don’t have a body, it’s a different station. Sometimes I will get it if they want to talk, but that is not my job. That is not how I say this is what I can offer you. Other people do. That’s appropriate for the. I suspect different ways of being expressed and operating or being in service.
Yeah. When you say precognitive, for a listener unfamiliar with that, that’s foretelling or seeing the future?
Yeah. It is. I have a friend who reads the market. She is effective. That made her famous for doing that kind of work, and I don’t do that. I think I could, but I don’t.
Interesting. Do you hear God? Do you go directly to Him to talk to and share things with and receive information and guidance from?
I do. I talk to God. Is that where the information I get comes from? I expect an aspect or a way that one may receive information from a source. When I was opening up, and I was new, and before any of this new age stuff showed up in my life, which I didn’t know about, I wasn’t interested in it. I had been bottoming out in a hotel in Saint Paul when I was there for a few days. The Bible was in the drawer of this hotel room, and I opened it up. It’s a prayer for people in crisis, and I said the prayer.
I was an atheist but prayed because I didn’t know what else to do. Three days later, I asked myself what I could do for myself that day that was positive. That was the question. I think I had spent my last dollar on a glass of white wine the night before. I heard a voice, and it startled me. There wasn’t a voice in the room. It was a thought that blocked out all other thoughts. It was like, “When you know something is true, there’s no question attached.” I listened to the voice, and I stopped drinking. That was the beginning of a passage for me.
Going direct is the best. People want to channel. The guides I work with encourage people to move into their true knowing, which is the aspect of the true self. They say, “The divine self, sometimes the eternal self.” They call it all kinds of things. But that aspect of self knows. The idea of wanting to look outside the self is tempting. I was somebody they didn’t even necessarily believe that much in channeling. Some of what I think is called channeling. I’m a little suspicious of it at times.
Inspiration is wonderful, but inspiration and channeling can be different.
Inspiration is wonderful, but inspiration and channeling can be different things. Inspiration—there’s a great inspired art and literature, and the stuff is gifted, but it’s then crafted. When I’m channeling literal dictation, the books are unedited. There are three words maybe in any book that I have to go back and fix because I mispronounced the word. I spoke so fast that I inverted the and of, so the of as opposed to the. But that’s about the extent of it. Once in a while, there’s a word I didn’t know they used, so I mangled it.
But it’s pretty clear usually because I whisper and repeat when I channel. It’s usually heard in a whisper. The transcriptionist will catch it. That’s my sense about these things, but my experience is my own experience with this, and other people’s experience is completely valid. I remember where I started with this. I went out all around, so forgive me.
This is fascinating. You mentioned you were an atheist. What was that like for you versus where you’re at now?
Well, I don’t know. I say atheist, and maybe we were agnostics, but my father, who died when I was five, was a German Jew. He was a holocaust survivor. He was shipped out of Germany in McKinder transport, and many of my family on his side didn’t make it out. His immediate family did, but not most of everybody else didn’t. My mother, I didn’t know this until a couple of years ago because I always thought she was sort of an atheist. Still, it turned out she was quite religious as a child and then had a very bad experience with a minister who was supposed to care for her when she hadn’t a place to live.
Between the two of them, there was nothing there in the house. I think they were both, I don’t say, disenfranchised harm and felt betrayed by whatever was out there. I was at home, where we didn’t talk about it. I didn’t know what spiritual life was. That was interesting. My father became interested in the paranormal, but he died very young, and I think he was seeking evidence of something more.
Lift your vibration and avoid getting hit with psychic attacks or criticisms. Share on XI lived in a world where you snickered at people who prayed over their food. It was for people somewhere else. I didn’t know what spiritual life was, whether one could have one, or why one would want one. I didn’t know these things. When I was writing early on, I was always writing about transcendence without understanding what that was I was writing about. I think that there was a tremendous yearning in me for the spirit.
Whereas now, I take life for granted now. I accept certain things that I could never have believed were so. It’s become part of my experience. I do think that we are learning here. This is all an opportunity to learn, and some of the lessons aren’t ones I would have chosen for myself. At least at the level of personality. But am I religious now? No. I mean, a Jesus painting back there, but if you look at my desk, which you can see, I’ve got Hanuman here, there are Buddhas over there.
I think it’s all a source. It is depicted in different ways, and there are other ways forward. The guides that I work with, teaching seems a kind of esoteric, gnostic or Christian thing. It’s almost like pre-Christianity. They say that Christ is the aspect of the Creator that seeks to be realized in form. That’s how they described it. They call it the Monad and other things as well.
You mentioned leading a spiritual life, and I would love to hear more about how you put that into practice. What are some of the actions that you take daily that keep you connected and inflow and climb that ladder to a closer and closer relationship with God?
I don’t know. I’m certainly not perfect, but they’re basic things. Tell the truth. Don’t lie. The guides say the action of fear is to claim more fear. Every choice we make in fear gets us more of the same lying fear. There has never been a lie told that wasn’t told in fear. That’s a simple one. They repeatedly say, “You can’t be the light and hold another in darkness.” There’s a lot of hypocrisy in spiritual communities. Us versus them thinking and all a bunch of crap. It’s been there since I opened up. It was going on when I was in my 20s. There are all these little camps of healing communities, and it’s all silly. It’s all God. It’s just different ways to practice and to learn. They call them different to them.
They say that self-righteousness is always the small self. Feeling up on my horse usually indicates where I’m coming from, so I try to monitor and not act on that. But a lot of it is about how we treat other people. I’m an old 12-stepper, and they used to say, “Look for the good or the God in everybody.” That’s a high spiritual teaching. It’s so simple. Anybody can do it. This doesn’t mean there aren’t people I don’t want to see again. There are people I don’t want to see again, and that’s perfectly fine. God bless them, but that’s fine.
The action of fear is to claim more fear.
I’ve learned a fair amount about being integrity in your choices. Boundaries, healthily maintaining them, I’m doing my best, living and letting living, which is a fair amount of it. That’s some of it. I avoid specialness, I suspect. I don’t like investing in that. I just think that what I do as a channel is what I do. What you are doing here is what you’re doing. The crossing guard is doing what she is doing. The man who is fixing the road outside, it’s all different ways of being in this experience of being alive.
The idea that one is better than the other is still in adherence to societal structures and beliefs of what is merit and not. Thank God somebody is fixing the road. It’s so interesting. I was on Maui when COVID hit. This period was when everybody in New York City cheered for the essential workers daily. They banged pots and pans on their rooftops when they went to work. I thought how wonderful it is that they’re acknowledging people.
But I don’t know that that respect and honor has continued.
Would you say that you loved life like a prayer?
No. Life is prayer anyway, but am I always aware of that? No. It would be nice. But I’m human. I get worried, I get frustrated. It’s part of it, but I got to say, I’m so far beyond where I used to be in terms of how life can be lived and how I experience myself in the world in good and very positive ways. I’m very grateful for those things. But have I ascended? I don’t think so. I tend to be a little suspicious of people who announce that they have because I think people probably don’t need to announce it.
Yeah. Can you see the good in everything, not just in everyone? For example, you mentioned how your parents were disenfranchised. There is this adage that everything happens for a reason. Can you see the reason? Can you see the divine beauty of it?
No. Not always. There are perspectives where one can. I came into my own spiritual life, the beginnings of it, in the late 1980s. It was the height of the AIDS epidemic in New York. Many of my friends were dying fast. It was a train wreck of a time. Do I see the beauty in that? I see the compassion in the community as they care for people. I see the bravery in that community as people seek to correct injustice. I saw my response to learn from energy healing and help people that way.
There were benefits, but was there a time that I wished it happened? The guides talk about one of their claims: God is. I don’t know that you get to have it both ways sometimes. I think it would be nice to say—I do believe that everything is holy. But that doesn’t mean that everything is good in my opinion and this is just my opinion. The guides say there is one note song in the entire universe, which is a source. That one note is actualized or in manifestation in form and beyond the form in different ways, tones, and vibration levels—high and low.
I used to ask questions like this, and I still do. I say, “God is all things. What about the darkness?” They said the darkness is of God too. It just denies it. It refutes it. You can’t be in the source finally because the source is all things. It’s complex teaching, and the guides go into it at length in the books. They go into this stuff in ways that I still grapple with. I don’t find the teaching that comes through me convenient to what I want to hear. That would be nice. But it’s just not. It’s challenging.
The idea that one is better than the other is still in adherence to societal structures and beliefs of what is merit and not.
What do you find to be the most challenging? What are you grappling with the most? That’s one of their foundational teachings.
I don’t know that I’m grappling with the teachings per se. I grapple in my own life with my unwillingness to implement the instructions sometimes, and I’m much better with that now. I grew up a worried child. In some ways, worrying is one of my defaults. I can rest in this place of worry. It doesn’t serve me anymore, but it’s a comfortable way of knowing myself.
The fact that I’m not always worried is so remarkable, I can’t tell you, but I can still retreat to the known worry and pain, and I have the tools. But I’m not one of these people who necessarily believe this is supposed to be a swan ride every day. There are challenges in life. Things happen that are hard. People get sick and die. There are wars. Some things are deeply challenging. How I hold anything in consciousness contributes to that form. I think that’s a big teaching of the guides.
What you put in darkness calls you to the darkness. Who you put in darkness calls you to the darkness. That’s a teaching of co-resonance. You can’t be the light and then hold another in darkness. That’s not always easy to do. But I understand what happens when I don’t, which is I suffer. Think about it this way, what you damn, damns you back. It’s simple teaching. What you bless and bless isn’t—prayers and blessings of dismissal, the guides say to bless something is to realize, which is to know the presence of the divine word appears to be lacking.
You claim spirit where it has been denied. The guides I work with say humanity’s only real problem is denying the divine. That’s not religious teaching. That’s where we just deny the source. What we deny are all of the things that cause pain. It’s the cause of poverty. The cause of war is fear. Fear is the denial of the source. That’s all.
Do you consider the difference between source, spirit and God? Are all those interchangeable synonyms for God?
People use them in different ways. The source is God, to me. I experience Spirit as an aspect of source, not source in the one-note song. The soul is the soul. You can get caught up in the semantics. I don’t know that it matters so much. The guides I work with use language rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I had somebody very well-meaning write a letter once and send it to me, “You must tell your guides to stop using those words because they’re turning people off.”
I grapple in my own life with my unwillingness to implement the instructions sometimes, and I’m much better with that now.
I thought it was a channel text. They’re going to say what they want. It’s not up to me. I had somebody else who wished all of the editors to return and put all the books in general neutral language. I didn’t write the books. It’s not mine to change. They can do what they wish. They’re extraordinarily aware of how we can mess language up. I think they’re pretty cautious with it, for the most part. I try not to get caught up in the semantics.
Again, my job is as a stenographer. I’m the radio that is broadcasting this stuff. I’m not selecting the language.
Right. But they’re using your language. If you didn’t speak English, they would use whatever your English.
They’re using my vocabulary and occasionally beyond it because they’ve used words I’ve never used. I knew it was a word, and one of the reason books—there’s a lecture, and they keep trying to say a word, and they’re saying a word, and Paul is not repeating it or something to that effect, and I wasn’t because I didn’t think it was a real word. I was getting nervous because the rule with the books is I don’t get to go back and change things. As soon as the lecture ended, I said the word was penumbra.
I had no idea what it meant. Everybody got their phones up and looked up penumbra in the workshop. This was at the Esalen Institute. Penumbras meant the light that shines from behind the clouds. A light that’s visible from behind the cloud. It was the perfect metaphor for the entire chapter. I didn’t say a word. It’s a footnote in the book, not. Occasionally, they exceed my vocabulary. But that’s what they work with. They work with the language that I speak.
They have said, “I’m sure, over the years, several things that I wish they hadn’t said.” I can’t remember them, but I’m going. I don’t believe they just said that. That’s what the teaching is, and that’s what I end up living with. That’s what’s published in their books.
It’s funny you mentioned penumbra because I just got a book called The Ultimate Book of Space for my three-year-old. He loves that book, and penumbra is in there.
It explains the difference between a lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse. In a lunar eclipse, the umbra is fully black, where the earth’s shadow completely blocks the sun’s light. Whereas the penumbra, it’s partial. It’s like on the edges of the earth. It’s just a little bit of sun coming through but partially blocked. Speaking of space, what’s your view or your experiences with extraterrestrials?
It’s not their teaching. I don’t have experience with it. I believe in it. It’s not what they’re talking about. Somebody else goes there, and I’m sure it goes very well.
Because these different channels and psychics connect to Arcturians, Pleiadians, and so forth, you’ve never communicated with them, is that right?
I know who I’m working with. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them are from someplace. They say some of us have been informed, and others have not. They’re teachers. No, it’s not how it comes through me, and that’s fine that it comes through other people.
Misconceptions of psychics include the idea that they can access all of the world’s information and that if they’re genuine, they should win the lottery daily. Share on XHow about past lives? How do you feel about that?
I believe in them.
Do you have any glimpses of any of your past lives? Do you have any sense of unfinished business from past lives that have spilled over to this life for you?
Some. The one that I was given directly was interesting. I was in my early 30s and on jury duty for the first time. I was very proud to do my civic duty and began having terrible anxiety in the court so badly that I didn’t think I could stay there. I kept thinking, “I’m not the one on trial. What the hell is going on here? This is nuts.” I meditated a lot in those days and opened to channels. I wasn’t fluid in those days, but I was hearing some and kept hearing the name Mirandola. Then I finally heard, go look it up. This was pre-internet. You can’t just get on Wikipedia; look it up in the encyclopedia.
It was a philosopher in the Renaissance who had been on trial before the inquisition for teaching the universality of all religions. I heard, “Well, that’s who you were,” and it was a dream that I had right around the same period of this chubby guy, who was gay, looking at me with a big collar and a big gold cross and a little red beanie on the head. This monk with this great big nose who looked cowl looked very sad. It was an odd dream about an arrest and martyrdom. Years later, when the internet came, I looked up to this guy I’d been told I was. The monk showed up on a Wikipedia page, which was interesting, so I knew they were, and they were close. They both came to difficult ends, but that is the one I know about that I give credence to. Because I wasn’t looking for it, I think we can sometimes get caught up. There’s a reason everybody says that they’re Cleopatra. I mean, it’s exciting. Somebody probably was, or we were all an aspect. I don’t know if it matters.
I think it’s interesting information sometimes, and for other people, that’s their work. It’s just not my work again. I believe in it, but I’m not doing past life readings when I work with people. Rarely will I get information about that? If you get difficulties from history, they will make themselves known in this lifetime and become the opportunity. If we had to go back and fix everything in the past, we wouldn’t be living in the present very much.
When you interview this, do you get nudges or information from your guides, like, “Pass this info on?” Like there’s a message for you to pass on to your interviewer.
It’s presumptuous to share something if it’s not asked. It’s often unwarranted.
No. Occasionally somebody will ask, “Is there a message?” I don’t offer that unless I’m asked. I’ve learned the hard way when I say, “I’m getting information for you.” It’s presumptuous to share something if it’s not asked. It’s often unwarranted. That’s mostly my wanting approval to do this interesting thing. I don’t throw it up that way. If somebody asks, I’m often able to tune in. Usually, there’s got to be a reason. I was at a book signing once, years ago, in Asheville, North Carolina. I was just talking, and this guy raised his hand and said, “This is all great, but do your guides have a message for us?” I said, “I’ll check,” and they said, “Yes, we are not the entertainment.” That was all I heard from them. They were not entertainment, so I guess not. That was the message.
That’s awesome. Your guides are awesome. Is there a message for me from your guides?
I will ask. I will see if there is one. I hear you need to let yourself be who you are. You don’t have to prove anything. You have to allow yourself to be. Cherish the one you’ve come as, and don’t expect him to be somebody who’s not. The one you’ve chosen in this lifetime is perfect for you. Celebrate who you are in conscious awareness that you are who you need to be. That’s what I get.
Celebrate who you are in conscious awareness that you are who you need to be.
Beautiful. Thank you. Thanks to your guides. Awesome. What a great way to close out this interview. If our listener or viewer wants to learn more, what is their first book to dive into that you channeled? Also, where should they go online to learn more?
My website is my name paulselig.com. There is lots of information and links to upcoming workshops and live streams. As for the books, I suggest that people go as they’re led. The very first book, I Am The Word, is a primer. The book that came out most recently, Resurrection, is also an interesting entry point for some people. That’s clean and coherent teaching. The books are dense. They’re challenging. They’re not beach books. The books are energetic transmissions, so most people can feel the guides’ energy when working with the books. That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it continues to be.
Amazing. Thank you so much, Paul. It was such an honor and pleasure to sit with you again. Your wisdom and the wisdom you’ve gleaned from your work with the guides and your authentic, vulnerable sharing of your experience in this life. Thank you.
Uphold your integrity through conscious choices and maintain healthy boundaries to live your best life. Share on XThank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Thank you, listener. Thank you for the willing suspension of disbelief. Thank you for being open to something seemingly unproven but still incredibly valuable and part of who you are. We’ll catch you in the next episode. I’m your host, Stephan Spencer, signing off.
Important Links
Connect with Paul Selig
Books
YouTube Videos
Films
Previous Get Yourself Optimized Episodes
Further Resources
Checklist of Actionable Takeaways
Be open to receiving intuitive messages and guidance. Trust my inner knowledge and differentiate between my own thoughts and intuitive insights.
Practice discernment. When seeking guidance, exercise discernment and avoid falling into magical thinking. Seek practical and helpful insights rather than trying to overanalyze signs.
Focus on staying grounded in my physical body. Maintain my presence. Avoid getting lost in the glamor of psychic work and remain connected to the practical aspects of my life.
Use psychic and intuitive abilities as tools for personal growth and self-awareness. Recognize that these abilities are part of my journey to becoming the best version of myself.
Cultivate a direct connection with the divine or source energy. Focus on deepening my relationship with God and aligning myself with higher vibrations.
Maintain healthy boundaries and respect others’ boundaries. Avoid projecting my beliefs or expectations onto others.
Take action on the teachings and insights I receive. Overcome the tendency to resist implementing guidance and work on letting go of worries and old patterns.
Embrace and celebrate my authentic self. Release the need to prove anything to others. Recognize that my life’s path is perfect for my growth and experience.
Share messages or insights received from higher guidance only when asked, or there’s a clear reason to do so. Avoid presumptions and seek approval before offering unsolicited information.
Visit Paul Selig’s website, paulselig.com, to learn more about his teachings, workshops, and upcoming events.
About Paul Selig
Paul Selig is considered one of the foremost spiritual channels working today. In his breakthrough works of channeled literature — I Am the Word, The Book of Love and Creation, The Book of Knowing and Worth, The Book of Mastery, The Book of Truth, The Book of Freedom, and the Beyond the Known Trilogy: Realization, Alchemy, and The Kingdom (see books page) — author and medium Paul Selig has recorded an extraordinary program for personal and planetary evolution as humankind awakens to its own divine nature.
Paul was born in New York City and received his master’s degree from Yale. A spiritual experience in 1987 left him clairvoyant. To gain a context for what he was beginning to experience, he studied a form of energy healing and began to “hear” for his clients. Described as “a medium for the living,” Paul has the unique ability to step into and “become” the people his clients ask about, often taking on their personalities and physical characteristics as he “hears” them telepathically. Paul’s work is widely featured in various media, including ABC News Nightline, Fox News, the Biography Channel series The UneXplained, Gaiam TV’s Beyond Belief and the documentary film PGS: Your Personal Guidance System. He has appeared on numerous radio shows and podcasts, including Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and Bob Olson’s Afterlife TV.
Paul offers channeled workshops internationally and serves on the faculty of The Omega Institute, The Kripalu Center and the Esalen Institute. Also a noted educator, he served on the faculty of NYU for over 25 years and directed the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Goddard College. He lives in Maui where he maintains a private practice as an intuitive and conducts frequent live-stream seminars.
Disclaimer: The medical, fitness, psychological, mindset, lifestyle, and nutritional information provided on this website and through any materials, downloads, videos, webinars, podcasts, or emails is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical/fitness/nutritional advice, diagnoses, or treatment. Always seek the help of your physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist, certified trainer, or dietitian with any questions regarding starting any new programs or treatments, or stopping any current programs or treatments. This website is for information purposes only, and the creators and editors, including Stephan Spencer, accept no liability for any injury or illness arising out of the use of the material contained herein, and make no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the contents of this website and affiliated materials.
LOVED THIS EPISODE
Please consider leaving me a review with Apple, Google or Spotify! It'll help folks discover this show and hopefully we can change more lives!
Rate and Review