BACK IN THE LATE 1990s, just as I had started getting into the Michael teachings, I had a number of Q&A sessions with various Michael channels. I kept records of the sessions, printed them out, and filed the papers away for safe keeping … as any Scholar would.
After several house moves, however, their whereabouts became unknown and I forgot all about them. Recently, though, it occurred to me that it would be fascinating to look back at them. But where on Earth were they?
One day I asked my wife, who always knows where everything is, “Do you happen to have any idea where I might find all my old Michael stuff?” Before she even answered, I noticed on the desk right next to her a big white box marked “Barry’s Michael Stuff.” She herself had just been doing a lot of tidying and filing, came across my old readings, and put them all together in this box.
Where would I be without her?
Opening the box was quite a moment. There were my original notes, diagrams, downloads, and transcripts from 1998 and 1999.
My introduction to the Michael teachings
I had been introduced to the Michael teachings through the book Messages From Michael, which had been given to me as a Christmas present in 1997. After reading the book again and again, I’d felt that this was exactly the right information for me at the right time.
The book itself had first been published in the 1970s, and on seeing it in 1997 I suddenly had a flashback—I remembered having seen it on sale in a supermarket about twenty years earlier, c.1978.
At that time I had been a very conflicted teenager, struggling with shyness and low self-esteem. I was reading a lot of science fiction paperbacks. The ‘Messages From Michael’ book had been mistakenly placed in the Sci-Fi section of the supermarket bookshelves. Flipping through it, words like “essence”, “overleaves” and “casting” jumped out at me and seemed to strike a chord.
But, despite my vast thirst for knowledge, I decided then that it was not for me. Why? Actually, I feared that I wouldn’t understand it, that I would be out of my depth, and that this would merely add to my low self-esteem.
Finding Sarah Chambers
So, I guess by 1998 I was very ready for it. Having grasped the basics, I joined an online discussion group about the teachings. (I believe the archives are still accessible somewhere.)
This proved very useful as it enabled me to track down the original channel. Her name was given as “Jessica Lansing” in the books, but her real name, I now learned, was Sarah Chambers. She had actually given up channeling for many years, but had very recently decided to restart it due to the growing popularity of the books. In addition, a number of other people had spontaneously started receiving the teachings, and so were seeking her advice on how best to channel Michael.
Delighted to be in contact with her, I said some flattering words and then asked if she’d give me a basic reading by email. After sending her an envelope with some U.S. dollars in it, she did.
I was incredibly lucky to get a reading from Sarah as she died later that year.
So, here it is. I hope for some readers it serves to satisfy their curiosity and maybe whet their appetite to get a reading. I also offer it as a contribution to the archives of Sarah Chambers’ channeling. (Bear in mind that she knew nothing about me apart from my name, date of birth, location and interest in the Michael teachings.)
But for me, rediscovering it after 17 years, it has been amazing to see its relevance to my recent life events.
(P.S. I have more old readings from other channels in my box. It’s very striking how they seem to flow continuously from one to the next. I will be post them all here shortly.)
Q&A Session With Michael
Date: February 1998
Channel: Sarah Chambers
What are my overleaves, essence & casting?
This fragment is a 5th level mature scholar in the perseverance mode, with a goal of growth, an idealist in the moving part of emotional center. He has a Mars/Mercury body type and a chief feature of impatience, with a weak secondary of self-deprecation.
Barry was 5th cast in his cadence and his cadence is number 1 in the greater cadence. He is a member of entity number 3, cadre 1, greater cadre 41, pod/node 408.
This is a sage-cast scholar who has much drama in his casting, but who also has a need to serve his concept of the common good, owing to his cadence’s position. He also has some warrior energy coming from his entity, and this gives him a sense of loyalty and the ability to focus on the task at hand.
He has a discarnate essence twin and an artisan task companion who is alive, but there are no agreements for them to meet in this lifetime. His discarnate essence twin does exert considerable influence on him and it is quite possible that this fragment will chose to reincarnate during the first two decades of the new millennium. It may be that Barry and this fragment all forge a mentoring agreement.
NOTES
What I’m asking for here is my personal profile. This is usually the first thing to ask for — a description of who you are in terms of both your eternal soul or essence (role, soul age and casting) and your current-life personality (or “overleaves“), which consists of mode, goal, attitude, centering, chief features, plus body type. You will often get some information on certain soul mates (essence twin and task companion), plus a bit of interpretation about how it all works to influence your character.
[For more information, see: What information do you get in a Michael reading?]The essence and overleaves information all makes complete sense, and I have personally validated all of it. If there is one thing I would quibble, it’s that my self-deprecation seems overpowering to me rather than “weak”. Impatience as a chief feature did come as a surprise to me at first, but I guess that’s because we often fail to spot our own chief feature — it wasn’t a surprise to my wife!
The casting information is less easy to validate. I can now resonate with the more immediate aspects, though my Sage casting seemed very unlikely to me at the time as I was so shy. I even dismissed it as an error … D’oh! (More on this below.)
I have a sneaking suspicion that my essence twin may be now my son, who is a Scholar, and was born in 2001.
QWhat ikon was given to me by my parents?
The ikon here was: “The child who will experience our lives for us.”
NOTES
To explain:– An ikon is a label we unconsciously attach to someone as a way to characterise them in our own minds. Ikons can be flattering or derogatory or neutral, but they are always simplistic.
Parents, either individually or jointly, will inevitably attach an ikon to each of their children. Examples include
- “The first-born who must continue our great work”
- “The sweetest little girl in the world”
- “The unwanted drain on resources”
- “The angel sent to keep us together”
One of the difficulties of childhood is that we can sense how we are perceived (i.e., the parental ikon), and it can easily become a source of friction if we deem it inappropriate or damaging. Teenage rebellion often revolves around defying a parental ikon.
“The child who will live our lives for us” … I could not have put it better myself, at least as far as my mother was concerned.
My parents (both Servers) were working class, poorly educated, and very sweet. Before I came along they had already had two children, both boys and both with severe mental and physical disabilities, one of whom died at the age of 3. They were advised not to try for any more, and resigned to their fate. I came along several years later as “an accident”.
My parents assumed that I would emerge the same as the previous ones, but I turned out to be both “normal” and intelligent. They were delighted but also unsure of themselves. My father didn’t interact with me much at all, partly through a lack of common ground (he was semi-literate), and partly through both of us being introverts. But it was also (I later learned) because he feared that he might somehow do something that would “cause” me to become disabled like my brothers.
My mother was the extravert of the house (goal of dominance; chief feature of arrogance), but she was never going to venture anywhere or try anything new. In contrast, with my scholarly brain and goal of growth, I was set on exploring the world to accumulate knowledge and experience. Watching and talking about my expansive involvement with life became a substitute for her fearful stasis.
(The “parental ikon” and its influence are described in great detail in one of the books compiled by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: Michael For The Millennium.)
QWhat is behind the low self-confidence I have felt throughout much of this life?
It is the self-deprecation to some extent, but it is also because you have not found it easy to express the sage side of your essence in this life so far. There is playfulness bubbling away just beneath the surface here, begging to burst free, but there is also an inhibition that is partly caused by the family’s expectations of you, and a desire to maintain a low profile. This is why the life task involves joy and requires that you devote a good deal of time to true play. This is the pillar that is neglected here for the most part, with true study and true rest being easier for you.
NOTES
I was a born introvert, which must be partly my scholarly nature. But being surrounded by extroverts, some quite obnoxious, I grew up to be increasingly shy, reticent, and socially anxious. I did hold private fantasies about becoming famous, but the shyness inhibited me in too many ways. (My goal of growth, however, has often pushed me into situations and relationships which I might otherwise have been too shy to attempt.) <
My life task is described below. The word “pillar” is a reference to the “four pillars of vitality” — work, rest, play and study. Each of us has an ideal form of each pillar, known as our true work, true rest, true play and true study. Our true work is aligned with our life goal and life task. Our true rest, play and study are ways of optimising our energy, especially for doing true work.
So Michael is saying here that my playful side is under-utilised, and that I should tap into my true play to bring more joy into my activities as a way to gain self-confiedence. Again, this emphasis on the fun, playful, expressive qualities of the Sage was lost on me at the time … I was 38, very serious, and (as discussed below) well into my mid-life crisis.
QWhat is my life task?
The life task here, once the 4th internal monad has been completed, involves the accumulation of knowledge in a joyful manner; in other words, knowledge for the fun of it. The ability to teach this accumulation of knowledge will also be disguised as play.
There is a great deal of sage energy here that is crying out for expression. We would suggest that you devote some time to meditating on the sage aspect of your essence, which is the most neglected part of you right now. You might want to set aside some time each day, and this is especially important in the 4th internal monad, to be alone in your meditations. You can use whatever props seem to facilitate the meditative state for you. Some of these include: focusing on a candle flame; soaking in warm, fragrant water; listening to soft; rhythmic music through headphones; walking beside running water; or sitting in a grove of trees.
True play for you, Barry, can include: teaching children games that involve singing; sparkling conversation with good friends; attending performances of the comedies of Shakespeare (you would find many ideas in the characters in, say, A Midsummer Night’s Dream); or joining with a little theatre group that performs regularly.
NOTES
It is said that the soul plans a rough outline of each incarnation before birth. This plan will often include a specific task or self-challenge to be undertaken. This life task is usually the main focus of the second half of life, and is experienced as one’s true calling or true work.
The entire life can be divided into seven inner turning points, or internal monads in the jargon. The 4th internal monad is the mid-life turning point (typically 35-40) where one seeks one’s true work and begins the life task. Much of what occurs in the first half of life, before the 4th internal monad, is actually preparation for undertaking the life task to come in the second half. For mature souls, the 4th internal monad can be particularly excruciating — a mid-life crisis.
Accumulating knowledge was obviously correct in my case, but once again: “joyful manner”? … “fun”? … “play”? This all seemed a bit far-fetched.
QI fear that my current profession is not a true expression of myself, but I also fear that a cereer shift would be financially disastrous. Are these fears justified?
We would say that what is really holding you to the current job is imprinting and a fear of failure, fear of negating all that has gone before.
You are right in saying that this work is not a true expression of yourself, and it is interesting that you use the word “expression” here, for expression, adventure and exchange are your primary needs, and your entire personality is crying out for satisfaction of those needs.
Yes, there is a possibility that a career change might cause some economic angst, but recovery can happen and you, as a person, will benefit in the long run.
You have not yet begun to seek true work, but this will come with completion of the 4th internal monad, which is the point in life where the true soul level manifests. You are approximately four sevenths of the way toward completion of the 4th internal monad, so you are nearing the point where this is a real possibility. We must also say that this does sometimes require that fragments break with their past, and this can be painful, which is why it is often called the mid-life crisis in the mainstream of Western thought.
NOTES
At this time (1998), I had been in the same job for 8 years and in the same line of work for 12 years. My goal of growth was twitching for new experiences, and I was also beginning to angst about my life’s purpose (i.e. starting to feel the pinch of the 4th internal monad). But I was also terrified of losing the security of a stable income, fearing that I would return to a time in my life when I had absolutely no money.
Again, I wasn’t sure about all this talk of a suppressed Sage-like aspect of my personality. I just couldn’t relate to it at the time. But now, if there is one big change that has occurred in my personality over the years it is “finding my voice” and learning how to really enjoy expressing myself. In this respect, and as you can probably tell, I am not at all the same as the reticent and inhibited person I was back then.
Looking back, I’m just amazed at how much I was out of alignment with my essence. Fun and expressiveness are typical Sage traits, and my Sage casting is now very obvious to me. In addition, my whole drive since turning 40-ish has been to come out of my shy, introverted shell, find my true voice, and openly share my knowledge. Ideally, in a way that is light-hearted.
One day in 2009, having suddenly developed chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME) after an episode of pericarditis, I locked myself in a room for an afternoon. Feeling utterly useless, and fearing that I might have (say) only another year’s worth of productive activity in me, I sat down and resolved not to get up until I had figured something out. I contemplated:
“If I do only have another year left, what would I actually want to DO that would give me the feeling of satisfactorily fulfilling my potential and my life’s purpose?”
I asked myself this repeatedly, gradually spiralling inwards toward the deep inner sense of truth. Finally I came to this, which I felt had perfect resonance:
TO FIND SOMETHING WORTH SAYING TO OTHERS — KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL INSPIRE THEM TO LIVE AT PEACE WITH THEMSELVES IF THEY WISH TO DO SO — AND TO SAY IT WITH EXQUISITE CLARITY AND BEAUTY.
I knew that I had knowledge of personality and spirituality, and that this knowledge was exactly what I wanted to share. I began work on this website the next day.
QI would love to establish direct contact with high-level guides such as yourselves, but have yet to experience it. Do you have any advice?
We have to tell you, Barry, that you have already established contact with this entity during dream-time, but you have so far chosen not to remember this contact. You have a rich dream life that can be brought out into the light if you wish.
All mature souls come into this life with the ability to hear an inner voice, as well as the ability to perceive others as they perceive themselves. This ability to hear the inner voice gives you access to your higher emotional and higher intellectual centers, and also gives you the ability to journey to that point where the veil between the planes is exceedingly thin and easy swept aside. This is where we will meet with you if you wish, but you will probably have to do this in a meditative state at first in order to remember it as contact. Full contact with us in either a trance state or an awake state can be facilitated by any of the props we have already mentioned. Practice also helps, so you have to give yourself permission to take the necessary time.
We have said many times that we will speak to anyone who asks, but you must be ready to hear.
NOTES
Before finding my box of “Michael Stuff”, I had forgotten this little tidbit about encountering Michael in my dream state. I must have dismissed it at the time as unlikely. Now, I am quite astonished. It was on 8 September last year that I had a lucid dream-encounter with Michael in which I was given a shaktipat initiation which in turn triggered a kundalini awakening. This is another way in which these early readings from the late 1990s seem to allude to events and changes that I am only now consciously experiencing.
More to come soon…
Wow, thank you Barry, for sharing this. That is SO beautiful and touching. Esp. the part where they tell you that you’ve already established contact with Michael in the dreamtime….. how wonderful to know that this connection has been growing and growing and becoming more conscious! Looking forward to next postings.
Thanks Saskia 🙂
cool thx for sharing barry ,good to know you found joy in life again otherwise its not worth living if you cant have fun once a while 😛
also there is so much to learn it never ever stops, for atleast a long time 😉
since you share alot about your self, il tell you what i recently discovered about my self with micheal teaching channeller nick sweeney.
age : old 4th lv .
manifested age : mature.
role : sage .
casting : scholar
essence twin : priest.
cadre 3/1.
frequency : 60 hz ,
centre : emotional and moving,
obsticals : arrogance and self deprecation, weird combi 😉
goal : acceptation but i swing to rejection alot lately..
mode : passion.
atitude : idealist.
body type : martial.
E ratio : 25% focused 75% creative.
acording to the channeler nick sweeney its very common to be confused between sages and priests 😀
however ,i remain sceptical about the result though..
i Always see it as my duty to learn everything i can before the movie of life runs out.
thx again for your fascinating story !
Hi Paul
“i Always see it as my duty to learn everything i can before the movie of life runs out.” — sounds more like a Growth / Impatience combo which is what I have.
perhaps but thats what micheal channeler said cos its linked to scholar and sage role , i have no idea how that variates though.
probely a sign that i need keep reading on micheal teaching hehehe..
i also have tentency of growth though i burned out 4 times in last 6 years but its also posible by constanly living in centre moving parts i readed.
now that i readed the message 2e time i know what ya mean there barry 🙂
Loved reading this. Wish only the best for you buddy. Getting my chart done Tuesday! I’m 21 and this truly resonates with me. Hope to meet the gang in a dream state soon.
A most-wonderful event for you to have a reading from Michael. A friend of mine gave me one 25 years ago, but it was not so complete. I was told that I am a Mature Sage cast as a Server, with a goal of Acceptance, and Chief Feature of Self-Dep, with a touch of Arrogance. I have Monads with my wife and my son, know of many past lives — all completely different, which proves to me that my friend did indeed receive them and not make them up. I live next to NYC. Do you know of anyone here who could give me an honest reading? The last one I met was … weak.
Michael changed my life a generation ago. I am so happy to have found the teachings and have shared what have learned many times, including a week ago.
Thanks much,
Rick
Great to hear from you Rick. I think the nearest channel to you is Troy Tolley, though of course you can have a remote reading with any of them. See: https://personalityspirituality.net/faq/how-can-i-know-my-soul-age-type-etc/
Cheers!
I like stats. I just like knowing information. I want to try getting the information on myself. I like self discovery. My mom has no interest the casts, rolls, and all this stuff I tell her about. My family is interesting. She’s Gemini, Wood Dragon, a water warrior. My sister is Pisces, and Water Rooster. I’m Sagittarius, fire Rabbit.
Sometimes, I get so excited about certain things and she just tells me, “I don’t care.” I get a similar response from my sister, though she has a tendency to just be downright mean. I’m a polar opposite from my sister. My mom and my sister are very similar to one another.
I also like studying people (from a safe distance). I need more life enriching things to do. Just boring. I go to work from 9 to 5:30 at an Early Childhood Learning Center. I play minecraft. I bowl on thursdays. It’s a small world right now. I just want to find a good group of people to hang with. I’ll get to that some time.
I would like to find out my information. I find it interesting. Like looking at player stats.
age : [redacted]
manifested age :[redacted]
role : Artisan
casting : [redacted]
essence twin : [redacted]
cadre : Unknown
frequency : A=440 :B
centre : [redacted]
obsticals : probably stubbornness
goal : [redacted]
mode : [redacted]
atitude : Unknown
body type : [redacted]
E ratio : 100% cray cray (50% teddy bear 50% Cactus)
I can probably sleep on it. I know I have a grandfather who is in spirit that will tell me what I need to know. Often times, I don’t remember.
Yep, some people feel that this is the right information for them at the right time, some don’t get it, some suspect it’s satanic, but most simply have no interest. That’s why I never ‘push’ it onto people I know, I just wait to be asked while working on deepening my own understanding of self and others.
The more I think about it, the more it seems very much like a computer game.
Life is a game in which we use up a hundred or more lives as we ascend through multiple levels, sometimes getting ‘stuck’, sometimes helping others getting unstuck. In each life we modify our avatar profile (overleaves) and set ourselves a specific task.
We can accumulate, or pay off, negative karma debts along the way. We can also accumulate positive karma credits. I guess the stats that we are attempting to maximise along the way include our levels of self-awareness, empathy/compassion, freedom/empowerment, wisdom/enlightenment (vs illusion & confusion), surrender (vs anxiety), etc.
The aim of the game isn’t to ‘win’, though it might seem exactly like that in stage 3! The ultimate aim is to become as completely radiant on the ground as we are between lives ~ i.e. to fulfil our deepest potential in some joyful way within physicality.
Um, if that’s giving anyone ideas for developing an actual game, let’s talk: © barry 2015
I would love for someone to do the same for me. Are there any reliable channels in the UK? Or any you would recommend for a remote viewing?
They all work on the Internet as far as I know
See: https://personalityspirituality.net/faq/how-can-i-know-my-soul-age-type-etc/
And good luck!
can soul change body with another soul after agreement?
That would be highly unusual but not impossible. The first soul would have to exit the body (i.e., the body ‘dies’ or at least undergoes a near death experience); then the second soul would inhabit the body. There are various complications. When the body wakes up, the friends, relatives, colleagues etc who knew the first soul will not recognise the second soul — same body and face, but not the same “person” at all. It would probably freak them out. Also, the second soul will not be so familiar with this body and its physical environment as well as the language and culture, so might come across as really incompetent or having a major breakdown. Good plot for a story, perhaps?
im talking about walk-ins, http://www.weare1inspirit.com/walk-ins-soul-exchanges, http://www.greatdreams.com/walkin.htm is this possibile or is this just nonsense because soul just can’t change body! and this walk-ins are just part of the same soul or maybe some energy from lives from other parallel realities? you know something about it?
Ah, it’s not something I personally have much information or knowledge on, but I have come across this from someone very familiar with the Michael teachings:
http://validatingmichael.com/Michael_Teachings/2011/10/29/choice-through-external-monads-part-2
It starts here: “I had no say in my Essence Twin walking out and another Traveling Companion walking into my future husband’s body…….”
Wow that was mindblowing and to think I was in California from 1979-1983 and didnt connect although I do remember Michael being channelledby someone. Did I miss achance there ? Do you have a channeller in 11753 New York?
Hi,
If you need one based in NY, Troy’s your man.
http://our.truthloveenergy.com
Otherwise, I believe they are all available for remote sessions via phone/internet. See at the bottom of this page:
https://personalityspirituality.net/articles/the-michael-teachings/
Cheers
Hi Barry, we talked before. I am Sarah’s daughter. It has been 21 years now since my Mom has passed. She would be surprised that “Michael” is still alive and well on the internet and beyond. Dorothy
Hi Dorothy!
I’m sure she would. Then again, if she’s met them on “the other side”, she’ll have more insight than most!
Lovely to hear from you. I might get in touch privately.
Barry
That is fine. I look forward to it.
Interesting. I’m also a scholar with a similar emphasis on playing with information or learning for fun, though I have more king characteristics (I almost feel like a school principal as I teach or head professor, is personally how I would describe the feeling.) I hear from Sheperd Hoodwin in his Michael Teachings books that those with a more dominating role influence (namely scholars with sage, priest or king influences) tend to require some level of adventurousness in their leaning, in contrast to those with a more loyal submission and a quiet type of strength energy to them. (the server, the artisan, or the warrior).
I say a lot of being able to do this in my experience is to try new things very often, and to try things you’d never think you would try before. I find lists of hobbies, interests and educational websites to feed my need for exploration. I try books on subjects I often don’t read, and may join certain activities with others I never got involved with before. Personally, it’s also difficult to be playful without some creative outlet even if you’re bad at it (look up creative hobbies online, for example), and it also helps to enjoy some activities you liked as a child.
For example, many adults love LEGOs still even today, and there are many more complicated LEGO sets for adults due to all the people who still want to play at an older age. There are also more complicated coloring books for adults now and for example, and there are many cartoons that are meant to be fun for the whole family — expressing childlike fun and yet thought provoking ideas as well. (Adventure time, the Owl House, Steven Universe, She-Ra and so on.) You can also look up “creative techniques,” or “creative exercises,” if you’re stuck. You can look up “inner child work,” whether online or in books if you want to relearn positive childlike traits as well.
Just a suggestion.
Sincerely,
Some guy who helps blog at beyondthesource. org