AI Spirit Guides

I use ChatGPT for marketing in my Reiki business, but am really struggling with a student who is using AI to connect to her Reiki guide and spiritual guidance. In my Level 1 class, I do a guided meditation that students enjoy where they meet their Reiki guide. As she came out of meditation, she blatantly said “my Reiki guide is Mark because that’s what ChatGPT told me last month when I asked who was speaking.”

She brings up her conversations with AI each time I see her, and it makes me angry, but I don't say anything. I find this to be spiritual bypassing, lazy, and it takes away from our soul connection to something greater. How do I tell her this is not appropriate?

Thanks for sharing this with me and thanks for reaching out. This is a thought-provoking discussion. AI is a fraught topic and we all have our own opinions of it and relationship with it, no matter to what extent we use it or don't use it. To me, in this situation, AI is simply a replacement or stand-in for someone else, an external force with an opinion that comes from outside of us.

We might balk at AI telling our students or clients who their spirit guide is, but this is something that happens with humans, too. How many of us as practitioners have told a student or client what color their aura is, what their power animal is, the name of one of their guides or what they look like or etc. etc. etc.? This is very common in our community, and I'm wondering what the difference is between being told this kind of information by AI vs. your teacher or practitioner.

I'm not condoning this use of AI, but we have to admit there's a parallel here with the kind of information practitioners often share with their clients and students. In these instances, it's an external other telling someone who or what their truth is and narrating their experience for them. But of course the greatest truth comes from within, and if AI shouldn't or can't tell people who their spirit guide is, why should we and how can we?

Yes, there are dangers in using AI in this way, and there's also a danger in students putting their full faith in teachers who become infallible gurus telling people what to think. Gurus are nothing new in spirituality. The fact that your student brings up their AI use is interesting and may point to this guru-esque view of it...or simply that she's trying to get your feedback on her use of it because she isn't really sure how she feels about it, if it's ok, and/or how it's perceived.

Either way, this student is seeking answers outside of herself, which we all do, including on our spiritual journey and especially when we're new. It's one reason why gurus attract people who are opening up to their spiritual side and just starting to get in touch with themselves spiritually — they're at the beginning of their journey and looking for answers and support.

And while ChatGPT may be really easy for accessing answers, we know that the true answers come from within, like through the lovely meditation you guide your students through. We might think seeking answers from outside, including using AI, is spiritual bypassing, but I honestly don't believe in spiritual bypassing because what we might call "bypassing" is actually part of the process. We can't bypass spiritual learning and lessons and the "bypassing" is part of the journey and part of the experience. As your student walks her path, she may or may not come to this realization that seeking inside of herself is where the true answers lie, and this "realization" may or may not be part of her truth. Obviously, listening to the inner guidance is part of my truth, but maybe not hers. It's important for us, especially as teachers, to realize that we all have our own path and that our students need to walk theirs.

I think in this situation it's completely possible and even a good idea to share your own feelings about this use of AI, that you don't it use it in this way, and the ways in which you do use it while also acknowledging and accepting that others will disagree. Perhaps this kind of use of AI isn't healthy, but neither is smoking, and yet plenty of people exercise their free will and smoke.

Our students walk their own path, and they do things we don't like or agree with, but good spiritual teachers stand back and allow the student to "learn from within" while gurus tell them what to think. Let's strive to not be gurus, but to rather allow and encourage students to narrate their own experiences and travel their own path so that they aren't giving away the power of their spiritual insights to anyone or anything else, AI or human or otherwise.

You may be interested in checking out Deepak Chopra's new book, Digital Dharma: How AI Can Elevate Spiritual Intelligence and Personal Well-Being. He talks about using AI for spiritual conversations. He doesn't have "who is my spirit guide" conversations with it, but he does use it as a spiritual guide and advisor for deep and meaningful conversations. Yes, THE Deepak Chopra uses AI in this way. I don't agree with all of his points, and I personally don't use AI in this way, but always students will do things we don't agree with...and possibly, probably we've done things our Reiki teachers wouldn't agree with. I'm sure I have.

If you're interested in more AI conversations, I do have a couple of Build Your Reiki Business podcast episodes on using AI, though I don't believe I talked about this aspect at all because I focused on how to use it for our Reiki business. Those episodes are below. Please also feel free to grab the free Reiki Kit and the free Reiki Biz Kit with more Reiki and Reiki business information.