Michael is a group soul, a collective consciousness of 1050 essences who finished all their lifetimes on Earth, cycled off the physical plane, and recombined into an Entity who now resides and teaches from the mid-causal plane. Basically, they (Michael usually refers to themselves as "we" rather than "I") are spirit-guides and mentors to us here on Earth, channeling their wisdom and energy to us for our spiritual advancement and learning. Through this, Michael also learns and evolves. The journey they have taken is the same one we are on, they are just in another plane of existence now.

The Michael Teachings are a system of describing and understanding who we are and why we are here. Its main purpose is Agape--unconditional love and acceptance. Through the Overleaf system, the Michael Teachings offer a way of looking at the world, life, and consciousness in a non-judgemental but descriptive terminology that is a kind of soul-psychology. These teachings are very spiritual at their core, with many words and ideas that are primarily in Eastern religions, but unlike the religions and beliefs, seek to embrace the human experience in every form as a valid learning experience and an integral part of the whole being. [One thing I never liked about some Eastern philosophies and a lot of New Age beliefs, and religions, was their denial of the physical body as if it were a bad thing that must be overcome.] The Michael Teachings are all-inclusive--you are your body (while incarnate on the physical plane) AND you are so much more. "You are Spiritual Beings on a Human Path," sums up what the reachings are about in a nutshell. The "shadow" side of humanity is just as much loved as the "light" side. These teachings are the most comprehensive and compassionate models I have ever found to grasp the complexities and relationships in the human condition.

No, this Michael originated in the San Francisco Bay area of California in 1973, and the material was later published by author, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. There is no relation at all to the Archangel Michael.

Michael does not ask or require that any of their teachings be accepted as an ultimate truth. They do not want anyone to take this belief system and make it into a religion. They are the first ones to say, "Take what you need from this, and leave the rest." Verification and discernment of the information is the key to whether it is useful to you. The Michael Teachings are a structured terminology, but are not set in stone. They are dynamic, continually evolving just as everything in the Universe is. A lot of the Michael Teachings is very intellectual, but in order to really "get it," one must experience, feel, and live the teachings--this leads to clarity in one's life.. This has been my experience anyway. What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another though! The Michael Teachings are a tool for achieving wisdom--but each piece of spiritual enlightenment is just one step on the ladder--the journey continues and never ends. "Know Thyself" is what can be gained--but isn't that the goal? (In this, Agape is achieved also).

Inherently, in this western society which is very hierarchical, it is very easy to categorize many aspects of the teachings as tools to judge others and make one's self feel superior to another (or inferior for that matter). For most people, it may be difficult to look at the "soul-ages," for instance, and not feel like it must be better to be in the mature-soul age, when they are actually baby souls. This can create anger and prejudice. Each soul-age, each overleaf, each stage of consciousness is just as valid, unique, and good as another. They are each steps on the path from the Tao back to the Tao. We all came here to experience what it is to live, so each experience has its own merit. These teachings are about Love. They are not intended to be used to separate us or make us look superior, but they could be used in this way, just as any belief system can be used to separate and hurt people. It's all about choosing and creating what you want in your life. The Golden Rule still applies. Spiritual growth occurs with love, and it happens with pain. Which kind do you prefer? Whatever you choose, it will be what's right for YOU, and you will not be a better/worse person than anyone else. Each person will do the same kinds of spiritual lessons during their cycle of lifetimes on the physical plane, in their own way, in their own time. I always try to remember this when I feel like I am not being understood, when I feel like I need to be right about something, or that this other person "just doesn't get it." Usually it's not about the other person--I need to let go--and respect their space, who they are, their process. It's just as important as my own.

Here is how Joya Pope shared her perception of the categorizations (mainly about the soul-ages) with me:

Some of us intellectual types have an easier time loving everyone once we acknowledge that people exist at all kinds of levels of development and once we see some patterns. Then it was easier for me to stop trying to nudge and push people to GET IT and move along. I have a LOT more enjoyment of people with these ideas about levels in my head. I love myself more easily for understanding these patterns too--and forgive myself more easily for being lazy about the material world. Or for feeling like I don't fit in some social or business settings.

There are many Michael channels at this time. Michael says that just about anyone who is sincere and wants to channel them can do it. Michael channeling is not something given to one person to make them special or some kind of great authority, it is open to all those who seek growth and spiritual advancement (i.e. almost anyone). The more well-known Michael channels have put out books on the Michael teachings.

Michael has an easier time transmittiing certain information that is specific in nature through channels who have expertise on those subjects. For instance, it would be easier, and likely more accurate, to have information channeled about building a certain kind of technical project through a Michael channel who is a scientist or engineer, rather than through a Michael channel who hasn't seen a science book since high school, and who isn't interested in that kind of information at all. Likewise on health or business issues. One thing most all Michael channels share is a deep interest in the workings of the Universe and the human soul and psyche. This is Michael's specialty.

Michael claims that the most open channel on the best day will still only get information accurate to about 80%. This is due to a number of factors, including but not limited to: translation of thought into words or other physical media, emotional attachment of the channel to the information, ego of the channel getting in the way of the transmission, Michael just may not know the answer to a certain question (they are not infallable), or other various energetic/psychic interferences.

There are many things Michael does not know. Often though, after asking a question about a certain topic, Michael can either access other sources on the Causal plane (or elsewhere) to get the information, or else they will investigate the topic. I found that if I asked the same question a few months later, Michael had a whole bunch of information that they said they didn't know about previously the first time I asked. Also, asking the same question to different channels often gets different answers. Sometimes it's completely different, but more often, each answer complements the other one with a few overlapping elements. The Michael teachings are probably the most cross-referenced works of their kind for the accuracy of such information as the Overleaves and the description of the evolution of life/spirit.

The All That Is. It usually refers to the dimensionless ground of being rather than to its expression in the manifest universe's seven planes of creation (see "Planes of creation"). Michael normally uses Tao in place of the word God (depending on the beliefs of those listening) because "God" is usually personified as a judgmental and hierarchical male figure. They may also use the word "God" to signify the overall consciousness of the manifest universe. (Pronounced dow.)

Along with the pre-incarnational selection of overleaves, choice of parents, and the life task, a variety of different agreements are often arranged with the people you may come into contact with during a lifetime. Since it's impossible to know ahead of time how a life will unfold or what idiosyncrasies a personality will develop during that lifetime, agreements are non-binding and subject to change. At times they are even discarded altogether.

Once the incarnation has begun, the passage of life can considerably alter the personality of a person and make them undesirable to another soul. Thus, some agreements will be impossible to implement. Pre-incarnational agendas often include 5-10 mate agreements, for example, in order to ensure the best possible chance of success.

Naturally, there is a compelling urge to fulfill agreements with those you meet, and expectations can be high. The intensity of an agreement is not as compelling as a karmic agreement, however, which feverishly brings two people together into an intense passion play until the karma is resolved.

Not all agreements are intended to last for a lifetime, such as the teacher-student or rescuer-rescued monads, and when the agreement is considered 75% complete, both parties will begin to feel satisfied that the agreement has been finished. Abdication of an agreement before it has been completed will usually result in frustration and anger. Though, breaking an agreement is not karmic, in most cases, and it rightfully grants the necessity of freedom of choice to the people involved.

The records generated of everything that happens in the universe as it occurs. The appearance is that all matter and energy have a sort of built-in digital recording device, storing its entire history in a photographic code, but the records are actually windows into the past. The records show events exactly as they were experienced, so the information in them begins raw-it is not clarified, understood, and assimilated until a consciousness takes responsibility for doing so. Once it is fully assimilated, it is stored on the akashic plane.

Body types are sets of physical and psychological traits stemming from the influences of the celestial bodies on our physical bodies. There are seven major body types: lunar, saturnian, jovial, mercurial, venusian, martial, and solar. There are also three minor body-type influences: neptunian, uranian, and plutonian.

Often, our body-type influences relate to our astrological chart, although there is not necessarily a direct correlation. As in astrology, the energy of each celestial body is linked to mythological symbols. For example, Mars, the red planet, is named after the Roman god of war, and people with a martial body type tend to be feisty. Also, people with martial body-type influence tend to have reddish coloring./p>

The planetary influences have been used for years in general parlance to describe people. For instance, two dictionary definitions of mercurial are “having qualities of eloquence or ingenuity…attributed to the god Mercury" and “characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood.” These also somewhat describe the mercurial body type. A saturnian person is prudent, sober, and perhaps sluggish. A jovial person, influenced by Jupiter, is convivial and merry. These qualities also relate to their respective body types.

Strictly speaking, body types are not an overleaf, but like the overleaves, they are chosen before the lifetime begins, although there must be adequate genetic raw material from which to fashion a particular body type. There are people with all body types within each ethnic group (although different groups emphasize different types), but if no one in a person’s family has had, say, a saturnian body type for a few generations and his genes don’t lend themselves to saturnian characteristics, it would be difficult for his essence to develop a saturnian body type.

Entity refers to a "spiritual family" of about one thousand souls. Michael is the name of one entity. Entity is also used as in "channeled entity," meaning a channeled consciousness of any kind, but generally a discarnate astral plane soul.

Each entity carries a distinct vibration. Like a flavor or color, it can be hard to define in words what it is, but it can be recognized. Entities, which could be called “spiritual families,” are not unlike biological families, in which every member is unique, but carries the stamp of the family. Some people have learned to identify the vibration of many entities—they can meet someone and know that he is in a particular entity. Furthermore, there are “strains” within an entity, people who share even more particular qualities—they can even look alike. Again, it is similar to a family, where some members may share a common laugh, smile, walk, idiosyncrasy, or even look strikingly alike, although not everyone in the family does.

A cadre is a group of about seven thousand souls. It is divided into seven entities of about a thousand souls each. Each person is a member of an entity and its cadre. A cadre contains essences of all seven roles, but within an individual entity, two to four roles are usually represented. Other members of our entity could be likened to our brothers and sisters, while members of other entities of our cadre could be compared to our first cousins, or our peers in the local community.

Casting is the Tao's expression into the dimensional universe, as in "fragments cast from the Tao," and the order of it, as in "first-cast warrior in the entity." A person's casting is his position within his entity (see "Entity"), or commonly, just his primary cadence position (see "Cadence")

A permanent grouping of seven essences (souls). A primary cadence consists of seven essences of the same role; it is the smallest "building block" of the entity. An essence's numerical position within his cadence, and his cadence's position within his greater cadence, significantly influence how he directs his energies. (See also "Greater Cadences" and "Casting.")

Further, cadences are configurations of seven souls that, like entities and cadres, stay together for an entire grand cycles. They differ from temporary configurations (usually lasting several lifetimes) such as quadrates, sextants, triads, and so on that are formed, usually during the late baby and early young soul ages, for specific purposes relative to physical-plane tasks. A primary cadence is the smallest grouping of essences within an entity, and each member normally has the same role. There are many other kinds of cadences. We are part of more than one; occasionally, several.

Seven primary cadences join together into a greater cadence. So a greater cadence of servers, for example, consists of seven groups of seven servers, or forty-nine servers. Greater cadences also group together, although there can be any number of them—there doesn’t have to be seven, and there may be just one. Series of greater cadences of various roles make up the entity.

Cording is the act of establishing a cord of connection with another person that draws energy from him.

Cording is designed primarily for parents to be connected with their children as if through an invisible umbilical cord. Cords allow parents to provide supplemental life support for their children until they can become energetically independent (during adolescence). They also allow parents to be aware of what is happening with their children.

Please read the article about cording at this site. http://www.michaelteachings.com/cording.html

Essence twins are not necessarily corded in the way we are speaking of here. They share a permanent connection on an essence level. Cording is on the physical level.

Your essence is your soul or higher self, the part of you that experiences all your lifetimes on earth. It is spawned by the Tao into the dimensional universe, which consists of seven planes of exis-tence. The core of it is the spark of the Tao that spawned it.

Just as your essence is an expansion of the Tao, your personality is an expansion of your essence. Before your essence begins incarnating, it is, you might say, a seed pod full of potential. It has had no experience, so it seeks all experience. It casts forth one seed, a piece of itself, into its first lifetime, and hence the game begins. Every experience on the physical plane expands your essence. If your essence were already whole and complete in the sense in which you might think of it, if it had nothing to learn, it would not bother to confine itself within human bodies. The very limiting of an aspect of itself in a human body gives rise to more possibilities, more experiences.

Learn more about essence:

Essence contact is a direct, clear, and powerful connection with the essence. It occurs either internally, between an individual’s essence and personality, or externally, between the essences of two people whose personalities are adequately open. It results primarily from genuine desire. The reason that stress often brings about essence contact is that under stress, there might be the desire if you are about to fall off a cliff with one hand grasping at crumbling rock, you might start praying. Because of the severity of that situation, an opening may occur in you that would not otherwise. But your essence does not require that you be under duress in order to make contact. The best way to develop essence contact is gradually, a little bit at a time. We recommend that you keep opening to your essence on a daily basis. Ask for its input and energy. Gradually, you start to have your essence properly represented in your life, if it is not already, just as the healing of your emotions allows your emotional self to be represented in your life. Every part of you deserves to be integrated into your life.

Your essence decides the big picture, and your personality, the details. Your essence sets the course and your personality carries it out. The essence is more adept than the personality at projecting the probable outcome of certain actions, and will block and reign them in if they are significantly off track. However, the essence is not all-knowing. Fundamentally, it incarnates for the enjoyment of creating and adventuring into the unknown. This really is a game, in a sense the only game there is.

The essence becomes bored when there is little growth occurring. If there is little growth occurring, it is because there is something stuck. Sometimes the essence will generate a traumatic event to jar the personality loose, because that is the only way to get through.

Your essence is neutral about how you grow, but it feels much better to grow through joy than through pain. It is only because people insist on growing through pain that this is the predominant way of growing at this time on earth.

Ultimately, there is no stopping growth. To make an analogy, if a four year-old decides that he no longer wants to grow physically, he can wear very tight clothing and never take it off. After a while, he will start ripping it and bursting buttons, and will find it difficult to move, but he will still grow.

An essence twin is a soul we team up with for an entire grand cycle (series of incarnations on earth) to reflect ourselves back to us; it is the most intense relationship we can have. It is synonymous with the terms twin flame and twin soul, but not necessarily with soul mate.

Incidentally, we can be attracted to someone who reminds us of our essence twin, even if we do not have an agreement to work together in an essence-twin-like way.

A task companion is another soul we team up with at the beginning of a grand cycle. We work together with our task companion, supporting one another in our life tasks, which are complementary. Sometimes, people have more than one task companion. One is chosen at the beginning of the grand cycle, and up to three others are added along the way, usually during the infant soul cycle.

Four essential activities in life that are required in order to realize health and happiness. They are: true work, true play, true study, and true rest.

Frequency in the Michael teachings is the rate of vibration of the soul on a scale of one to one hundred. It gives the essence its "consistency." Slow frequencies feel more solid, medium frequencies feel more liquid, and fast frequencies feel more gaseous.

Imprinting is conditioning by outer influences such as parents, education, or society in general.

Inputs are psychic receivers used by the roles. Scholars, Kings, and Warriors—the “solid” roles—have one input. Michael has said that inputs are like modular slots into which various kinds of perceptions can be plugged. One input is usually concerned with current reality, the more-or-less concrete, objective facts of circumstance. The three roles with just one input focus there, making them more solid, practical types.

Priests and Servers each have two inputs. For the priest, adding another "slot" that they can use for holding a perception of the higher good allows them both to be visionary and to bring their vision into practice. It is similar with servers, except their vision is "wide" rather than "tall," a vision of what would be good for the whole on a practical, earth-plane level.

Sages have three inputs. In Yarbro, Michael talks about how the three sage inputs makes performing energizing, whereas it can be enervating for, say, warriors. Sage actors on stage can pay attention to the audience, the other actors, and their lines at the same time. In other circumstances, they could use their inputs for other things.

Finally, Artisans have five inputs. An artisan creating a piece of art may be simultaneously aware of many different ideas he/she wants to put into it, making it easier to weave them together seamlessly, than, say, for a king artist, who has to go back and forth among those ideas. Scholar artists can create complex, detailed art with a lot of concepts in it, but that's different. Artisan art tends to be more surprising and inventive, maybe more right-brained, with more layers that the artist may not even be aware of; scholar art tends to be more calculated. Five inputs make it easier to make the kinds of connections between disparate elements that we also make in the dream state; artisans tend to daydream a lot and in general be thought of as dreamers.

Karma is a major violation of another person that limits his choices, resulting in a compelling debt.

Karma is formed when you significantly violate another’s domain, creating an energy imbalance that then seeks resolution. Usually a karmic debt is repaid in kind. For example, if A murders B, B will murder A or A will save the life of B in a subsequent lifetime.

Karma is one way you learn on the physical plane. In karma, you have an extreme experience, and balance it with the opposite ex­treme experi­ence. By learning both sides of an issue, you can come to a new understanding that puts you consciously in the middle. You may go from one extreme to another, back and forth, for several lifetimes before you finally “wake up” and find that balanced place.

If you are routinely undergoing intense personal challenges that you can't seem to overcome, you are probably experiencing self-karma. Common self-karmic issues involve addictive behaviors, such as: smoking, drug or alcohol abuse, gambling, credit card debt, or fundamental acceptance issues like weight problems, depression due to balding, and other disorders that cause an internal imbalance. Going from one bad relationship to another can also be a form of self-karma, as well as frustrating conditions like chronic insomnia. In general, self-karma involves a variety of personal issues, and is therefore a highly subjective experience unique to each individual.

Since self-karma is a specific challenge that essence desires you to work on, fighting the problem will only fuel its intensity. Learning acceptance and tolerance is the best way to alleviate the stress caused by the karma. Thoroughly examining the triggers that cause emotional upheaval during the process will also help you learn to lessen the negative effects of the karma, grow from the experience, and diffuse the impact it has on your life.

The origins of self-karma are highly personal, and Michael channel Shepherd Hoodwin says self-karma "is caused by false, self-limiting beliefs acquired in past experiences, either in past lives or earlier in the lifeime. This can result in a disease, for instance, that requires a righting of the internal imbalance in order to heal."

It is helpful to remind oneself that self-karma is a learning tool, so learn to accept its lesson with grace and maturity.

An intense sexual desire for another person, despite a lack of commonalities.

Karma is one way you learn on the physical plane. In karma, you have an extreme experience, and balance it with the opposite ex treme experience. By learning both sides of an issue, you can come to a new understanding that puts you consciously in the middle. You may go from one extreme to another, back and forth, for several lifetimes before you finally “wake up” and find that balanced place.

Suppose that in one lifetime you are murdered and desire revenge, so in the next lifetime you murder the one who murdered you. In the lifetime after that one, you become the victim again, and so on. You flip-flop in that way until you wake up and see that you are both the murderer and the murdered. You recognize that both these parts are inside you, and make peace between them. Then you no longer need to repeat the pattern. That is integration.

In any group, there are four basic functions, and we specialize in one in each lifetime, although we can do the others also:

Love position initiates. "Let's go to a movie!" for example.

Knowledge position provides information to the group (scholars don't always do this within groups). "I know where a good movie is playing and how to get there."

Power position powers the group to take action. "C'mon everyone, let's get in the car."

Support position mediates and helps: "I'll get popcorn."

For the record, the word "quadrant" refers only to the quarter, or the part. The word "quadrate," found in Yarbro, refers to a whole that contains four parts.

The "centerpiece" of our life plan; the most important thing we want to accomplish in a given lifetime. We can have more than one.

Before each lifetime, your essence, or soul, usually makes a detailed life plan, which includes a statement of your task and how you intend to achieve it. Ample guidance is available to assist you in setting things up in a way that is likely to work. You can access the records of your plan intuitively or through a channel or psychic. However, they are not in English or in any human language. You do not generally operate in human language on the astral plane; you communicate telepathically at a level of thought beyond human language. Therefore, everything accessed must be translated. As with literature, two translations of your life task may look different but add up to roughly the same thing. Also, if your life task has many parts or if you have more than one life task, it may not be possible to do more than give you a few pertinent highlights.

You probably really know what you came to do, at least to some degree and on some level. You may think that you do not, because you are not able to find a career that feels like your life task. However, many people do not do their life tasks in their places of employment. Often life tasks do not require it, or even permit it. If your task is primarily centered on relationships, for example, you will be in relationships wherever you are, so you may not require a specific career to complete your task. Work as a marriage counselor, for instance, might fit with your task, and it might not.

Few people achieve everything they set out to do in a lifetime. That is not bad, just as it is not bad if you do not get everything done on a particular day that you intended to. You do the best you can, and put off some things until another day.

Most people can work on an aspect of their life task in some way each day, at least for a short time. If you are spending all your time just trying to survive, and that is not your life task, you will feel frustrated.

These terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but we could differentiate between them. The life plan is the collection of all that the essence wants to achieve in the lifetime. It includes life tasks, as well as agreements, karmic repayments, and so on, and the arrangements it has made to carry them out. Life task is the spiritual accomplishment that the essence seeks, its overall reason for coming. There might be several life tasks or several aspects of a life task, but usually one is primary. Life work is a little more narrow than life task; it is the part of the primary life task that is focused on a specific endeavor. Everyone has a life task, but not everyone needs a specific project through which to do it. Life purpose is the motivation to do the life task.

An example of a life task is fostering among others an awareness of the importance of world peace. That particular task might impel a project such as writing a book or making a movie that inspires others to value world peace more highly. You could call that project the life work, the way the life task is achieved; it is a part of that life task. There can be more than one life work. The life purpose, or motivation for the life task, might simply be to help bring world peace. A person with that task might also have others, such as releasing a tendency toward playing the role of victim, but not necessarily through his life work. He may achieve them through his life's general circumstances or through specific projects other than his primary life work. He may also have as part of his life plan the intention to pay back a karmic debt to his mother, which is not a life task. It might relate to the life task and will certainly provide valuable lessons. However, it is more a "necessary evil" or an item on his "to do" list.

Suppose that your life task is about building bridges between people of different backgrounds. One possible life work to achieve it would be to establish an organization that would help people in your multi-ethnic neighborhood get along better. If at one point you had the opportunity to do this but passed it up, for whatever reason, another feasible way to achieve your task may arise. Often there are many possibilities. If you follow any path you find fulfilling and are true to yourself, you are likely to end up achieving important parts of your life task. On the other hand, if you are full of sensings that you should do certain things, yet make choices that negate those sensings, you will probably not do your life task. For example, someone who longs to become a dancer but forces himself to become a doctor because his parents want him to has a sense of loss. Perhaps learning to be true to himself is actually his primary life task. In any case, if you clarify and follow your longings the best you can, you are likely to move in the direction of your life tasks. Generally, your essence does a pretty good job of getting you at least in the vicinity of accomplishing them anyway, unless you resist a lot. But you are more effective when you consciously cooperate with the process.

Let's say that you have had several lives dealing with the issues of conflict resolution and war, from many different standpoints. In this life, you want to integrate and apply what you learned from having been a soldier, a civilian victim, a political leader, and so forth. If you are not conscious that this is your primary life task, you might simply experience a vague inner longing pushing you in that general direction. You might know that you feel strongly that there are better ways to resolve conflicts than what most people use, but it may not go beyond that. If you are conscious of your task, you are more likely to choose one or more ways of responding to your inner impulse. They might include becoming a negotiator or mediator, running for political office, working for the UN, writing a book, or volunteering for an organization that promotes citizen diplomacy. You might choose a lower profile, dedicating yourself to demonstrating appropriate conflict resolution in all your interactions with others. Whatever you decide, when you hit on a workable way to carry out your life task, your essence immediately sends energy through it, and it feels right. You become excited about it. You start having more energy with which to live your life, because you now have a lens that focuses your inner impulses in a specific direction. It is not that it is the only possible way you could achieve your life task, but it works.

If you choose a direction that is not in alignment with your life task but not too far off either, your essence exerts a magnetic pull, so to speak, drawing you into greater alignment with your task to help you get on course. Being in movement near your task is the key. In fact, any movement is preferable to none at all where the life task is concerned. We often urge people who are stuck to choose anything. There is much power in making a decision. Someone moving in the wrong direction, in the sense of doing something that goes against the grain, is more likely to turn around and move in a more satisfying direction than someone who is stuck he has momentum. Fundamentally, all he needs to do is start listening to himself and adjust the "steering wheel" accordingly.

Sometimes you have a head-on collision that clearly lets you know that you are going the wrong way down a one-way street, so to speak. This should not discourage you from movement. It should only encourage you to turn around. After a while, your discernment grows. The direction that is the most harmonious with your life task usually feels the best. If it does not feel comfortable, you might still have a sense that you are accomplishing something you need to do, such as completing a painful relationship. Sometimes you do not validate the rightness of such a direction until later. However, if it is painful and not yielding a sense of accomplishment, it is probably not your direction.

We suggest that you ask yourself often, "How does this feel to me?" If you are feeling happy in what you are doing, you are probably completing at least part of your life task. However, being honest with yourself is essential. There is no greater detriment to happiness than telling yourself you are content with things as they are when you are not. How do you really feel? You may not get the true answer when you first ask yourself, and may have to keep asking.

As long as you feel that energy is moving well in your life, that you are taking steps that strengthen you and others, keep going in that direction. After a while, you simply choose a direction, know that it is right, and move with assurance toward its conclusion; then you pick another. It becomes as natural to you as breathing. Being a creative person, you choose something to create. You draw necessary tools toward you without too much trouble, find ways around obstacles, and every day move closer to completing it. Your focus is not on the completion per se, but on the joy of creating.

Some people have rigid ideas about their life work. If they cannot do a particular thing, they become frustrated and think that they cannot do their life work. We suggest that you be flexible and do what is available for you to do.

Yes, but usually your life plan is not so specific as to be limiting. Let's say that your primary life task is to learn how to work with your hands and be of service to others through them. Being a television repairman might be the life work you choose to carry out your task, but there are many other means you could use. You usually set up your life to give you the opportunity to carry out your task in a variety of ways. Perhaps you choose a parent who is gifted with his hands and who teaches you many skills, giving you several options. If one does not work, then you try another. Maybe you do not pass the exam for television repair school, so you do something else that accomplishes the same thing. You do not generally predetermine on the astral plane the specific physical tasks to which you will devote your life, such as becoming a television repairman. You usually have some ideas in mind, and may favor one more than others, but life is unpredictable and flexibility is necessary. For this reason, if you have a specific life work, you probably settled on it during this lifetime.

Let's say that at age eighteen you become fascinated with philosophy and decide to get a doctorate in it. You teach it for the rest of your life, which facilitates your secondary life tasks quite well, but not your primary one. If you do not get around to doing too much with your hands in that life, you may put it off to another life. However, that is likely to leave you feeling somewhat unfulfilled. Alternatively, you may find that you love whittling or making ceramics and do it as a hobby. You might give away your creations to people who are poor, in a nursing home, or whatever, as a form of service to others.

There are sometimes good reasons for changing your life plan. Let's say that you were too ambitious when you were making it and set it up to pay back several major karmas. During your life, you found that you were not as strong as you had thought. Therefore, you might have made a decision to put some of the karmas off until another lifetime.

Refusing to repay karmic debts out of false personality in other words, out of avoidance and fear rather than a valid recognition that you took on too much is a different matter. That is likely to leave you feeling frustrated and unbalanced. Often karma is so compelling that you complete it despite your resistance.

Channeling is the act of allowing an intelligence not in human form to express through oneself. It's a means of communicating with any consciousness that is not in human form by allowing that consciousness to express itself through the channel (or channeler).

Channeling is similar to playing piano: almost anyone who applies himself can probably learn to do it, at least a little, and even a casual study of it can be enriching. However, learning to do it well requires a lot of energy and commitment, and obviously, it comes more easily to some people than to others. Furthering our skills in this lifetime, whatever they are, can lead to being born with more "talent" in those areas in future lifetimes.

Since the future, by definition, hasn't happened yet, it is impossible to make consistently accurate predictions. Some psychics and channeled sources are adept at picking up probabilities based on where things are heading, but since each individual has free will--probabilities are constantly shifting as we make choices--nobody knows for sure. Even when certain changes are more or less inevitable, the form they take and the way people react to them are not. Timing is especially difficult to predict, and even when different channels and psychics agree in their predictions about specific events, the dates often vary.

There is a resource page on this site that provides information and links to various Michael channels. Either click on the category entitled "Channels," or cut and paste this link into your browser:

There are many factors that can account for stylistic differences among channels, including the "instrument" the channel brings and the nature of the channeling agreements with an entity such as Michael. Channels whose primary exposure to an entity is through a particular channel's voice are imprinted with that voice and their channeling will tend to sound that way. The voice itself isn't Michael: they don't speak English or any other human language on the causal plane. There's no reason for Michael to try to alter the voice that naturally results from coming through a particular instrument if it works well enough for their purposes, whether or not it's similar to another channel's. Any channeled entity has to use the raw material available in the instrument. It can be stretched and molded to a certain degree, but there's no point in unnecessarily expending energy to change something that works. Also, channels who work together are likely to have agreements with the same pool of Michael fragments, which can make for more similar transmissions.

Internal monads (or milestones) are seven transitions that people may experience in a full lifetime from birth to death. They are essential physical plane experiences.

Similar to the 7 levels of a particular soul age, the Monads can be considered sub-levels of each level within a soul age. It may take several lifetimes to complete each monad, and successful graduation to the next soul age level is often contingent upon the completion of the 7 Monads.

All Internal Monads begin in the negative pole, which explains the inner turmoil that often occurs. A Monad is finished when the problems have been addressed, and the issues properly resolved in the positive pole. Leaving a Monad from the negative pole can result in staying there in all subsequent monads, or not completing them in that lifetime.

The internal monads are like two sides of the coin, and known for their duality. They are almost Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in nature, where the positive pole represents the true personality of the soul, and the negative pole reveals a shadowy side that lives in fear and illusion. Much anxiety and internal warfare is created by this tug-of-war, and it is not resolved until the lessons of that transition are accepted and peace is made with them.

The external monads are arranged between two people in order to have a specific learning experience. There are many different kinds of monads, some created specifically for unique circumstances.

Common experiences are husband/wife, parent/child, sibling monad, teacher/student, attacker/victim, leader/follower,healer/healed, hopelessly loving/hopelessly loved, pivotal/facilitator, and etc..

In the Michael teachings there are nine "universal" needs that act as unconscious motivators in our lives, inspiring us to evolve spiritually, and to seek out the lessons most appropriate for our growth.

The nine needs are: Security, Adventure, Freedom, Expansion, Power, Expression, Acceptance, Communion, and Exchange.

At first glance the needs may seem like a mere footnote in the teachings, but they can wield an enormous impact in our lives, instilling a remarkable sense of inner peace if satisfied. Indeed, an unrequited need feels like a hunger that no amount of food can touch, resulting in inexplicable feelings of sadness if not properly nourished.

Consequently, when our needs are met we're generally happy with the shape and focus of our lives, but when they're blocked, a cloud of discontentment darkens every corner of our existence. Needs are so influential that if they are consistently unmet we'll find ourselves trapped in a downward spiral of dissatisfaction and extreme frustration.

Overleaves are personality traits that "overlay" the essence (soul). They are usually chosen before a lifetime begins in order to facilitate the purposes of that lifetime, and operate for that lifetime only.

Using this system of enneagramic tools called the Overleaves, the Michael teachings helps us learn self-acceptance and tolerance for all people. Understanding and accepting the differences of others is the key to unlocking greater levels of compassion, both for ourselves and those around us. More importantly, the Overleaves show us how we pre-incarnationally decided to experience life. They are the roadmap for what it means to be human, and when properly recognized and validated, Overleaves help us operate from our true personality -- the state of being where real spiritual growth occurs.

As previously mentioned, Overleaves are personality traits that “overlay” the essence. We choose them before a lifetime begins to facilitate the purposes of that lifetime, and usually select a new combination of them for each lifetime. The overleaves include the goal, mode, attitude, center, and chief feature. The goal influences what we do; the mode, how we do it; the attitude, why we do it; the center, the part of self from which we do it; and the chief feature, what tends to block or distort our doing.

Just as there are seven colors in the rainbow and seven tones in a musical scale, each with a different vibratory rate, there are seven levels of being on the spectrum of creation. The slowest speed of vibration occurs on the physical plane; the highest, on the buddhaic plane. From the buddhaic plane, energy returns to its source, the Tao.

Physical plane: The densest of the seven planes; where we presently reside.

Astral plane: The second plane of creation. Its medium is concrete emotional energy. It is where our consciousness is focused between lifetimes and when we're finished with the physical plane.

Causal plane: The third plane of creation. Its medium is concrete intellectual energy. It is Michael's plane of existence.

Akashic plane: The central, neutral plane of creation that interconnects the other six. The distilled knowledge of the universe is recorded there. This is the records generated of everything that happens in the universe as it occurs. The appearance is that all matter and energy have a sort of built-in digital recording device, storing its entire history in a photographic code, but the records are actually windows into the past. The records show events exactly as they were experienced, so the information in them begins raw-it is not clarified, understood, and assimilated until a consciousness takes responsibility for doing so. Once it is fully assimilated, it is stored on the akashic plane.

Mental plane: The fifth plane of creation. Its medium is abstract intellectual energy, emphasizing truth. The infinite soul who incarnated as Lao-tzu taught from this plane.

Messianic plane: The sixth plane of creation. Its medium is abstract emotional energy, emphasizing love. The infinite soul who incarnated as Jesus taught from this plane.

Buddhaic plane: The highest plane of creation. Its medium is pure or abstract kinetic energy. We experience the buddhaic plane just before fully refocusing our awareness in the Tao. The infinite soul who incarnated as Buddha taught from this plane.

A cycle of experience that begins when we are cast from the Tao. It includes our physical-plane incarnations and our subsequent progression through the higher planes. It is complete when we are fully reabsorbed back into the Tao.

According to the Michael Teachings, before each of us begins our incarnational sojourn on the planet, we choose one of seven Roles (Server, Priest, Artisan, Sage, Warrior, King, Scholar) which serve as the blueprint of who we are, what special abilities we possess, and how we interact with others.

Our role is the type of soul we are, the spiritual archetype we embody. Every soul has a particular role that determines his dominant way of being.

In this system, Servers and Priests are Inspirational roles; Artisans and Sages are Expressive roles; Warriors and Kings are Action roles, and Scholars are the Assimilative role.

Learn more about the roles at:

Warriors are persuasive, single-minded doers, often with a hearty sense of humor, and sometimes, the subtlety (and strength) of a Mack truck. They seek challenge.

Kings are warriors' large-picture counterparts. They are charismatic leaders, organizing others to action, sometimes in a tyrannical manner. They seek mastery.

Scholars, rather than being oriented toward doing, are a resource for others. They study and assimilate, intellectually or otherwise. Sometimes, they are overly theoretical and distanced from life. They seek knowledge.

Artisans create what is new, whether in art, hairstyles, or carburetors. They are often warm and playful, sometimes self-deceptive and artificial. They seek originality.

Sages express and communicate. They are witty, friendly, entertaining, and sometimes loud and verbose. They seek insight.

Priests inspire others through their compassion and vision. They sometimes get carried away and take too much on faith or try to force their beliefs on others. They seek what is highest.

And Servers support and nurture others, sometimes in a self-denying and victimized way. They seek the well-being of all.

According to Yarbro, roughly twenty-five percent of the earth’s population (and the sentient population of the entire cosmos) are Servers, twenty-two percent are Artisans, seventeen percent are Warriors, fourteen percent are Scholars, ten percent are Sages, eight percent are Priests, and four percent are Kings. This follows the order of most ordinal to most cardinal, with the neutral role, scholar, comprising about one-seventh of the population. So about sixty-four percent of the population has an ordinal role, and twenty-two percent has a cardinal role, with, again, fourteen percent having the neutral role, scholar. On any planet, there may be historical periods during which these percentages vary.

The ordinal roles -- Server, Artisan, and Warrior -- relate to the smaller picture. They're narrowly focused and favor one-on-one interactions with others. The ordinal side of an axis can be compared to a camera's zoom lens; it deals with the specific, concrete and immediate. The ordinal is contracted, and oriented toward detail.

The cardinal roles -- Sage, Priest, and King -- relate to the larger picture. They're broadly focused and favor larger groups or the masses. The cardinal side is like a wide-angle lens; it deals with the general, abstract, and far-reaching. The cardinal is expanded, broad, and encompassing.

The Scholar role is neutral (neither cardinal nor ordinal).

The roles are classified as being on one of four axes, or dominant universal qualities: inspiration, expression, action, and assimilation (or neutral).

Servers and Priests are Inspirational roles (the inspiration axis relates to the inner world); Artisans and Sages are Expressive roles (the expression axis relates to bringing the inner world into the outer); Warriors and Kings are Action roles (the action axis relates to doing in the outer world), and Scholars are the Assimilative role (the assimilation axis is neutral; it provides objectivity and a resource for the other axes).

The axes are fairly self-explanatory: a role or overleaf on the inspiration axis, for example, has an inspirational quality; in other words, it has to do with the inner world. (A definition of inspiration is "the act of drawing in.") The expression axis has to do with manifesting the inner world -- for example, communication; it is the bridge between inspiration and action. The action axis relates to the outer world, or doing. The assimilation axis is objective and neutral. It provides a resource for the other axes and helps integrate them.

Since the role is a person's primary way of being, we know that the primary way of being for Servers and Priests, the inspiration axis roles, is inspiration. They need to feel inspired and feel that they are inspiring others in order to feel that they are being themselves. They may also need to express themselves, act, and assimilate, but these impulses are not as important for them. Likewise, Warriors and Kings, the action axis roles, languish if they are not in a position to take tangible action. For Scholars, having information to assimilate is as fundamental as having food to eat. And Artisans and Sages suffer if they do not have an opportunity to express themselves.

Priest eyes are hot and focused.

Server eyes are warm and doe-like.

Warrior eyes are cold and bluntly focused.

King eyes are cold and pointedly focused.

Sage eyes are expressive, and mischievously mirthful when smiling.

Artisan eyes are childlike and radiant (their faces can be rubbery).

Scholar eyes are neutral.

Soul age is the soul's stage of development relative to the physical plane.

As we continue through our thread of lifetimes, gathering experiences, learning lessons, and fulfilling agreements, an evolutionary process transpires and this course of development is called Soul Age.

There are five soul ages that we progress through during our reincarnational cycle on the physical plane. Infant souls deal with issues of survival; Baby souls have a need for structure and tend to live according to beliefs based on dogma, such as religion; Young souls are success oriented and set high standards of personal achievement; Mature souls are relationship fixated and tend to gravitate towards emotional drama, and Old souls try to seek the larger perspective of life, and have less interest in playing the material game.

Infant souls do not yet have a basis for making sense of what is “out there”—they only know that it is “not me.”

Baby souls, focused as they are on bringing people together under the umbrella of civilization, see others, sometimes simplistically, as being “just like me.” They can become confused and upset when those “other me’s” act differently than expected.

Young souls, learning to impact the world, see others as “you”s they can impact.

Mature souls, delving into their inner world and exploring relatedness, can keenly feel other people’s “stuff,” and perceive it in the same way they perceive their own. This can make for much intensity and, often, subjectivity.

Old souls tend to be more detached, and try to see themselves and others within a larger context.

It is not better to be an old soul than to be mature or young, just as it isn’t better to be forty-five years old than it is to be thirty-two or fourteen. A young person may be wise, and an old person foolish. A baby soul may be loving, and an old soul spiteful. People of every soul age are capable of manifesting their true personality—that is, of acting out of their positive poles, which are motivated by love.

Soul age refers to how a person has grown from experience on the planet, not just to how many lifetimes he or she has lived.

No person, essence or entity is "ahead" or "behind" any other, but is simply occupying another place in the continuous circle leading to and from the Tao.

Ways of being are supposed to be different in different developmental stages; at some point we experience it all, moving continually along to different levels of understanding and responsibility. Michael always emphasizes that while each stage is unique and manifestly distinct from the others, no one place is better or worse than any other; they all belong in this game we have chosen to play.

Transcendental and infinite souls normally dwell on higher planes and very rarely come directly to the physical plane; when they do, it is to assist in social or spiritual transformation. A transcendental soul is a representative of a reunited entity, and an infinite soul is a representative of a reunited cadre. Transcendental souls perceive others as self and directly experience what others feel. Infinite souls exist in oneness with everything, almost to the same extent as the Tao itself, since the infinite soul is the Tao’s “messenger.”

First, to clarify, a grand cycle represents our experiences that begins when we are cast from the Tao. It includes our physical-plane incarnations and our subsequent progression through the higher planes. It is complete when we are fully reabsorbed back into the Tao.

Soul age identifies how old we are on this planet, as opposed to how many other planetary cycles we have experienced. The impression of being an old soul, as it is meant in common new age parlance, can derive from many factors, but the number of previous cycles probably contributes more to that than soul age as Michael defines it. Having had many previous cycles does impart the look of having been “around the block a few times.”

Just as a person who is twelve years old in this lifetime can seem wise because he’s had many past lives, a person can be young on this planet but seem deep because of having many other planetary experiences “under his belt.” A young soul with fourteen previous cycles may in certain ways appear older than an old soul with five, although the young soul is primarily outwardly focused, whereas the old soul emphasizes the larger context and tends to be more casual about life on the physical plane. The young soul remembers, on some level, having been a mature and old soul fourteen times before. The circumstances each time were unique, but the fundamentals were the same.

If we think of the old soul cycle as being equivalent to being in college, an old soul with three previous cycles might be compared to a person attending a community college, whereas someone with ten might be compared to a person attending a state university, and someone with seventeen might be compared to a person attending a rigorous private college—each is at the same point in his process, but with different levels of complexity.

However, soul age, number of previous cycles, and also physical age are merely quantitative measures of potential levels of sophistication or complexity. The depth and quality of the specific lessons that an individual has gained are at least as important. Extensive spiritual study and practice, for example, or simply maintaining high levels of integrity, in this lifetime or in past lives, can contribute to the impression of being older. A young soul (as defined in the Michael teachings) who has lived many lifetimes with a relatively high consciousness tends to seem older than an old soul who has not. Imprinting by older souls can also give an impression of being older.

Ten percent infant, twenty-three percent baby, thirty-two percent young, twenty-four percent mature, and eleven percent old. (This was said to be valid for cetaceans—dolphins and whales—as well as for humans.)

Through Shepherd Hoodwin, Michael gave the following breakdown of soul ages in the U.S.: three percent infant, fifteen percent baby, thirty-eight percent young, thirty-two percent mature, and twelve percent old.

Yarbro gave mottos for each of the soul ages:

A client asked Michael through Shepherd Hoodwin for more positive restatements of them. This is what they came up with:

A configuration containing twelve positions that offer the various kinds of support that each individual needs. The positions are love, knowledge, compassion, mentor, beauty, child, humor, discipline, anchor, healer, enlightenment, and muse. There are particular souls who fill these various positions for us over many lifetimes, and others who "fill in" when the "regulars" aren't available. Receiving support from our support circle makes our journey through life easier.