S2 EP317 – Inner Bonding: Discerning False Prophets

Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Inner Bonding Podcast. I’m Dr. Margaret Paul and today’s episode is about discerning false prophets. Be sure to stay to the end because I’ll be sharing how you can learn to stay more tuned into the truth about another’s intention.
 
 One of my listeners suggested this topic. She wrote this to me: 

“The topic I thought about suggesting to you is false prophets, how to know them and especially those who’s falseness is not so obvious because they speak very kindly and also have a lot of true knowledge. The wolves in sheep’s clothing. There’s not a lot of good source on this topic and it’s something that is so widespread today, the world is full of spiritual deception and falseness, so many self-appointed priests, priestesses, mediums, “seers” who promote themselves in the world, seeking power in overt or covert ways. I’d love to hear you exploring this topic.”

What I want to talk about here is about developing discernment, strengthening the loving adult, and learning to trust truth over charm, power, or appearance.
 
 Unfortunately, the most harmful spiritual deception is often subtle. It looks loving rather than dark. It may be soft-spoken rather than loud. It reassures rather than threatens.

Being able to discern truth from manipulation is so important today, because we are living in a time of spiritual hunger. Many people feel disillusioned with religious institutions and disconnected from a sense of meaning in life. Many people are seeking healing, guidance, comfort, and hope.

And wherever there is deep yearning, there is opportunity – not only for genuine spiritual guidance, but also for exploitation.

The world seems to be full of self-appointed spiritual teachers and coaches who claim to be seers, channels, intuitives, healers, shamans, priestesses, gurus, and guides – people who claim special access to truth, insight, or divine authority. There are influencers who mix spiritual language with personal branding.
 
 Some of these people are sincere and grounded and are truly gifted in their access to spiritual truth. But some are deeply wounded but might not even be aware of this. And some are coming from greed, seeking power – overtly or covertly – through spirituality. And it’s not only in the spiritual realm that this greed is occurring. In my field many coaches offer quick healing or easy to obtain certificates in some field of healing, but when I go to their website and look at their background, they sometimes have little or no schooling or experience. Doing your research is important, but even that isn’t enough. What’s vital is that you develop your ability to discern the differences in the energy of someone who is authentic in what they are offering, and someone who is manipulative coming from greed and a desire for power over others.

I want to take a minute here to define what really is a false prophet. A false prophet is not defined by whether or not they say some true things. In fact, false prophets often speak a great deal of truth. What defines a false prophet is not content, but intent.

A false prophet is someone who may speak some spiritual truth but isn’t aligned with love or with sharing love. Without love, a false prophet can use spiritual knowledge to gain power, control, admiration, or dependency. If someone places themselves above you rather than fostering equality, or encourages your reliance on them instead of learning to trust your inner guidance, and is more invested in your being a follower than in your becoming empowered and discerning, they are a false prophet. True spiritual leaders or teachers encourage you to become all you can be, and become your own guru.

False prophecy is not necessarily about misinformation, but about misalignment with the love that is God. The danger in following them is not what they say – it’s about the intent with which they are speaking.  

True spiritual guidance flows from love, service, and surrender to something greater than the self. It flows from a deep desire to help people learn to love themselves and trust themselves. False spiritual authority flows from their ego wounded self, even when it speaks the language of love. False prophets have an agenda regarding what they want from you, while true teachers want to be emissaries of love and truth. They want to be, as Mother Teresa put it, “God’s Pencil.”
 
 One of the most confusing aspects of false prophets is that they often appear to be gentle, kinds, calm, compassionate, insightful, charismatic, and emotionally attuned. They may speak beautifully about love, unity, forgiveness, and healing. They may have genuine intuitive insight. They may even facilitate real experiences for people.

So how can something that feels loving be dangerous?

Because words and even actions that seem loving but are actually coming from an intent to control you, are manipulative. And truth without accountability is manipulative. We all know about guru’s who were acting out sexually with their followers, or spiritual leaders who amass huge fortunes under the guise of being loving.

When you learn to trust your inner knowing and higher guidance, you can fairly easily tell the difference between spiritual language coming from a place of love, or coming from the ego wounded self performing.

And this is exactly why I created my 30-Day online video course, Unlocking Your Inner Wisdom. If you’re looking to learn to trust yourself and access your spiritual guidance, this is something I walk you through step by step. You can learn more in the description below.

Subtle deception occurs when someone uses kindness and compassion as manipulations to bypass the truth and avoid challenges to their integrity. Are they using spirituality to elevate themselves rather than elevate you? Are they using loving language to suppress your discernment? Do they use fear of negative consequences to silence your questions?

If in questioning someone you are blamed as having a “low vibration,” or coming from your “ego,” or having a “lack of faith,” or being “unspiritual,” that is a major red flag.

Truth welcomes inquiry and love does not fear questions.

At the heart of most spiritual deception, as well as political deception and corporate deception, is the unhealed ego wounded self’s hunger for power over others, such as psychological power, sexual power, financial power, and social influence. The person seeking power over others, rather than the personal power which is what Inner Bonding supports, has not done their inner work to heal from self-abandonment and childhood wounding and trauma. Spiritual authority can become a way to feel special, needed, or superior.

And here is a crucial distinction: True spiritual teachers point you back to yourself, teaching you how to love and value yourself, while false spiritual teachers position themselves as essential to your well-being.

If you are following a spiritual teacher or considering following someone, you might want to ask yourself some important questions:

• Do they encourage your inner authority – or subtly undermine it, leading to a lack of self-trust?
• Do they empower discernment – or discourage it?
• Do they accept accountability – or deflect it?
• Do they welcome disagreement – or frame it as spiritual failure?

Power seeking disguised as service is one of the greatest spiritual dangers. I’ve had clients who were deeply harmed by false, power seeking spiritual teachers.

The harm of false prophets is often subtly psychological and spiritual rather than overt.

Followers may experience increased dependency, loss of self-trust, fear of thinking independently, confusion about their own intuition, shame for questioning, suppression of emotions, spiritual bypassing of trauma, loss of personal agency, or sexual violations.

So let’s talk about discernment, which is a function of the loving adult. It’s not cynicism or judgment, and it’s not coming from fear. It’s coming from trusting your inner experience of what feels right or wrong for you. It comes from your loving adult being aware of your feelings of discomfort when with the teacher, and from what your higher guidance is telling you. It comes from not handing your authority to anyone else, not trusting others over yourself.

Your inner child, your feeling soul self, feels safety in truth. It’s very important to trust that your body knows when something is off. Discernment is listening to that knowing.

True spiritual teachers and guides share certain qualities. They live what they teach, and they don’t claim special status. They admit their mistakes and learn from them. They encourage self-responsibility, supporting you in becoming all you can be, rather than supporting codependence through positioning themselves as indispensable. They are not threatened b your growth. Instead they celebrate it. They welcome inquiry, and they support you in loving yourself rather than encouraging loyalty to them. Rather than claiming to be “chosen,” they recognize the divinity in everyone. True teachers do not shine by dimming others.

You don’t need to fear deception if you strengthen your connection with your inner and higher sources of truth, and you trust what feels right and wrong to you.

False prophets thrive when people doubt themselves. They thrive when they promise to give you what you didn’t get growing up and what you are not giving to yourself. When you trust your inner knowing, manipulation loses its grip.

Discerning false prophets is about recognizing that love does not dominate, and truth does not manipulate. True spiritual teachers do not require worship or even loyalty.

When you live from your loving adult, connected with spirit, valuing your true soul self and wanting responsibility for your own feelings and well-being, you become very difficult to deceive.

If today’s episode was helpful to you and you’re ready to develop discernment, I invite you to check out my 30-Day online video course, Unlocking Your Inner Wisdom. It’s designed for anyone wanting to learn to trust themselves and helps you learn to access your inner and higher wisdom. You’ll find the link in the description. Thank you for joining me today, and I’ll see you in the next episode.”
 
 As always, I’m sending you my love and blessings on your learning journey.