AUTHOR Q & A
Ainslie MacLeod discusses his new book, The Instruction: Living the Life Your Soul Intended. Members of the media who wish to excerpt any portion of this interview should contact
Q: Your new book is entitled: The Instruction: Living the Life Your Soul Intended. What is The Intruction all about?
A: The Instruction is a method that was given to me by spirit guides: souls who have long ago completed all their lives on the Physical Plane. It will help you create a happier and more fulfilling life by revealing the plan your soul created before you were even born.
In my sessions as a psychic, I use the Instruction to uncover each of the ten elements of a person’s life plan. The book takes readers through the same ten steps, and allows them to assess themselves as they go along.
Q: Is the world ready for this kind of book?
A: I think there’s never been a better time for a book like this. We live in uncertain and chaotic times, and more people than ever are looking within, rather than outside of themselves, to find happiness and meaning in their lives.
In a superficial world of rampant materialism, there’s a huge thirst for a return to a more spiritual way of living.
Q: Why do we need The Instruction?
A: Most of us sail blindly through life. We get stuck in dead-end jobs and relationships because we don’t really know who we are or why we’re here.
The Instruction offers a solution. By going deep into the world of your soul to explore the elements of your life plan, I’ll show you how to reclaim the personality and goals that are truly your own.
Q: What are the specific benefits The Instruction offers?
A: There are three important benefits. They are direction, empowerment and fulfillment.
The first is direction: By understanding who you are and why you’re here, you’ll gain clarity about your life’s purpose.
The second is empowerment: By overcoming barriers to personal growth, you'll take control of your own destiny.
And the third is fulfillment: By connecting with your spiritual self, you’ll create a happier and more rewarding life.
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Q: Who is The Instruction aimed at?
A: It’s aimed at people who are searching for a more purposeful and spiritual life, particularly those who seek greater personal understanding.
Most of my clients are women, though many more men are beginning to open up to this kind of information.
Q: What prompted you to write The Instruction?
A: Possibly the biggest reason is that discovering my soul’s purpose was transformational for me. It gave me self-acceptance, self-confidence and a clear sense of direction.
I’m like the guy who lost 500 pounds and wants to tell everyone how he did it. I feel like I've stumbled across the meaning of life. Now I want to share what I’ve discovered with other people.
I also want to correct some of the misinformation about the soul that’s out there. And I know it’s a long shot, but, if I can, I’d like to elevate the standing of psychics, given that they generally have a pretty awful reputation.
Q: So, The Instruction answers some huge questions about the human soul?
A: That’s right. The book describes how our souls make us who we are. I want to show that your soul impacts every single thing you do. The soul is not some nebulous concept, but has practical, real-world implications.
To fully understand yourself, you have to understand your soul and its purpose.
Q: What is the soul’s purpose?
A: Your soul wants to evolve. And it will do this by learning everything there is to know about being in a physical body in a physical world.
Of course, one lifetime isn’t going to teach your soul very much about anything. Thanks to the process of reincarnation, however, it will keep coming back until it has learned everything it needs. Your soul wants a master’s degree–not an evening class.
Q: So, what exactly does the soul do for us?
A: That’s the question The Instruction seeks to answer. The soul influences where we live, our choice of friends and partners, what job we do, how we vote, who or what we worship, and where we stand on issues like medical marijuana and a woman’s right to choose. In other words: Everything.
The soul is the source of our vast diversity. And it’s also the reason for our species’ incredible rate of development over the last 50,000 years or so. Without our souls, we’d still be living in caves.
Q: How does the soul achieve its goals?
A: It begins with a plan. Before starting out on each new incarnation, your soul creates a life plan–a kind of outline for the journey ahead.
Your life plan includes lessons to be learned, people to meet, places to go, and challenges and fears to confront. And it also includes a complete personality. Your soul brings a number of elements into each incarnation that gives you your traits and a focus for that particular lifetime.
If your soul wants you to become a musician, for example, it might choose to give you a personality that enjoys being in the spotlight. And it might make a talent for music available to you. It might even choose to be born into a musical family so your talent will be recognized and encouraged. That’s what happened to Mozart.
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Q: You talk a lot about spirituality in the book, but you don't mention God. Where do religion or other viewpoints of the soul fit into the Instruction?
A: Spirituality and religion are two different things, though they frequently overlap. Vlad the Impaler was religious though hardly spiritual. Gandhi was both religious and spiritual. I consider myself to be spiritual but not religious.
I've been asked if the Instruction is compatible with religious belief. My answer is that it's purely subjective. It's up to the individual to decide.
Q: Were you always psychic?
A: Like all psychics, the ability was with me from birth. I just didn’t know it. I saw ghosts and suchlike, but I never associated those experiences with being psychic.
I’ve always been highly skeptical. And even though I kept encountering psychics who told me I was one of them, I never really believed them. A woman once came up to me in a London pub and said she was a psychic, and felt compelled to tell me that I was too. She even told me I should be doing it professionally. I thought she was mad.
It was only after I had a kind of epiphany, and realized I was living a psychic’s prediction of my life, that I finally took an interest in using my psychic skills.
Q: You say you had an epiphany. What happened?
A: Back in the ‘80s, when I was living in London, a psychic told me, “You’re going to end up in California. There’s nothing you can do about it, nothing.” I thought he was way off the mark.
Q: Did the prediction come true?
A: It certainly did. About a decade later, on my first night in San Francisco (where I eventually stayed for several years), I heard the voice of the psychic from all those years before: “You’re going to end up in California. There’s nothing you can do about it, nothing.” It gave me quite a shock.
I decided then to make it my mission to find out how the whole thing worked–how anyone could accurately predict the future. That led me directly to exploring the nature of the soul.
Q: Was it after you had your epiphany that you decided to become a professional psychic?
A: It was a long time before I summoned the courage to get out there and do it professionally. I was putting off the inevitable day when I’d have to hang out my shingle and tell the world I was a freak.
When I finally did, I was so self-conscious about my new job title, that I used the term spirit channeler instead of psychic. Then I found that it had even worse connotations. For a long time, I described myself as the “Reluctant Psychic.”
Q: How do you feel about your calling now?
A: I’m a round peg in a round hole. I couldn’t be happier. These days, I’m proud to call myself a psychic. I feel truly privileged to be doing what I do.
Q: What is the most important message you hope readers will get from The Instruction?
A: By seeing themselves and others as kindred “spirits,” all at various stages of development, with specific lessons to learn and paths to lead, I hope readers will gain greater understanding, not only of themselves, but of others too.
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