What Are Spirit Guides? How To Connect & Communicate With Them

If you’ve ever wondered what a spirit guide is, how spirit guides work, or how to know if you have a spirit guide, you’re not alone. Whether you’re just getting curious about channeling or have been on your spiritual path for years, connecting with your spirit guides can be one of the most grounding and empowering parts of your journey.

I’ve been working with my spirit guides for years, now as a voice channeler working with my spirit guide Monty to share guidance and wisdom with our audience and clients. Working with my spirit guides was and continues to be one of the most transformative experiences on my spiritual journey.

This article is based on Episode 2 of my podcast Vessel & Voice and shares both my human experiences and insights from Monty. Much of what you’ll read here has been co-created with Monty and comes directly from his teachings and our conversations. 

What Is a Spirit Guide?

A spirit guide is a non-physical being dedicated to helping you evolve on your soul path. They work with you and you alone. That’s a really important distinction to understanding spirit guides versus other spirit beings. 

Unlike guardian angels who may support multiple people, or ancestors who work with a lineage, spirit guides form a one-on-one relationship. They’re part of what I call your "spirit team." They're not just here randomly either. They're chosen to walk with you, and you’ve likely worked with them across many lifetimes.

They are here to help with your spiritual growth in every part of your life. That means relationships, health, money, purpose, and emotional healing. When something feels challenging or expansive, chances are your spirit guide is gently holding space and sending energy behind the scenes.

Monty shared in our episode about spirit guides that, “Your spirit team is a group of non-physical beings who have decided that they wish to join you in your soul growth... because it also helps their own spiritual growth.”

This relationship is mutual and collaborative. You’re not alone in this life on your spiritual journey!

Are Spirit Guides Real?

Yes, spirit guides are very real—but the way they show up might not be what you expect. When I first tried connecting, I thought it was going to be dramatic. I thought I'd hear a booming voice or get crystal-clear messages. Instead, it felt like nothing was happening. For a while, I believed it was all just my own imagination.

What I’ve come to realize, and what Monty has shared, is that their communication is often subtle. Think nudges. A thought that pops into your head. A symbol that keeps reappearing. The quiet reassurance that you're on the right path. These may seem small, but over time they build into a powerful connection.

Monty shares his perspective as a spirit guide on why we have spirit guides by saying, “Being in physical manifestation is a particularly challenging experience.  Being in physical form is so challenging, it is a collective effort and not merely an individual effort.”

Before I started my spiritual journey, I doubted if spirit guides were real. I didn’t always feel very supported so it didn’t make sense to me why I would have a team that was supposed to be supporting me if I couldn’t sense it. 

But as I’ve worked more and more with spirit guides, I’ve noticed all the ways they support me. While it’s not always easy to see, especially if you’re not looking, it doesn’t mean they’re not there.

What Do Spirit Guides Do?

A lot of people ask me, “What does a spirit guide actually do?” The truth is, their support touches every part of our life, even if we don’t realize it. Their roles include insight, energetic support, and emotional comfort and depend on what you need the most.

Insight

When I’m in channeling sessions, spirit guides always offer something loving but precise. They help you see your life from a higher perspective, sharing things we can’t see ourselves but that seem so obvious once we hear their guidance.

Support

Your guides aren’t passive observers. They send energetic support to help you move through challenges. Maybe you’re having a rough day and you suddenly feel a warm presence or see something beautiful. That’s them. They can also send support through synchronicities, like meeting the right people at the right time or hearing the right message just when you need it.

Comfort

They love you unconditionally. That means even when you’re having a hard time, even when you’ve made a mistake, they don’t judge you. They don’t leave. They’re still here. It may be subtle, but by opening to the unconditional love and comfort from your spirit guides, you’ll feel uplifted and supported even in your most difficult moments.

Do We All Have Spirit Guides?

If you’ve ever wondered, does everyone have a spirit guide?—the answer is yes. And not just one. You have a team. Some of them have been with you for multiple lifetimes. Others might step in to help during a certain phase or challenge.

In channeling sessions, Monty has told clients they have hundreds of spirit guides but not all of them know how to connect or want to. Most of them are working behind the scenes to help you and guide you, though you’ll never know they’re there.

What surprised me most is that being a spirit guide is a learned skill. Monty actually teaches spirit guide school on the other side! For everyone who signs up for our classes, their spirit guides also join in Monty’s school. 

This connection is mutual learning. Together, you’re growing on your spiritual paths. 

How Many Spirit Guides Do I Have?

There’s no set number. Most people have between 3 to 7 core guides at any given time that they can work with and sense more easily. Some specialize in specific areas, like relationships, creativity, or healing. Others act more like overseers of your entire soul journey or of your spirit guide team.

Your team might evolve over time. Some guides complete their work with you and move on to their next soul assignment. But they’re always available if you want to reconnect. Your bond is eternal, even if it changes.

I personally work with Monty the most closely in my life but have a few other guides I work with routinely for other things in my life. Getting to know each of them has helped me be able to open up to their guidance more deeply and trust what guidance I receive from them.

Types of Spirit Guides

Monty often says that spirit guides are a specific role, not a type of being. Many different types of beings can be spirit guides. But there are lots of different kinds of spirit beings outside of your spirit guide team. 

You might be wondering about the differences between all the non-physical beings people talk about. Here’s a simple breakdown:

• Spirit Guides: Your personal soul companions. Dedicated to you.
• Guardian Angels: Angelic beings who can assist more than one person.
• Ancestors: Loved ones or lineage-based spirits.
• Spirit Animals/Totems: Powerful symbols, often rooted in Indigenous wisdom (not interchangeable with guides).
• Ascended Masters/ETs: Higher beings who support humanity collectively, but not usually one-on-one.

It’s not usual for someone you knew who passed to be on your spirit guide team but they can be someone who is helping and assisting you on your journey. The reason why is spirit guides are generally more spiritual evolved and have done more spiritual work so they can better guide you.  

Spirit guides are the most accessible option for personalized guidance, especially when you’re just starting to open up. I usually advise that if you want to start communicating with spirit beings, spirit guides are the best place to start.

How Spirit Guides Communicate

One of the signs I associate with my spirt guides is the ladybug. Every time I see one, whether it’s a real ladybug or a symbolic one, I feel a deep sense of trust. I know my spirit guides are saying, “Everything’s okay. Just relax and go with the flow.”

One of the most common questions people ask at the beginning of their journey exploring spirit guides is How do I know if I have a spirit guide? You can start to notice the signs your spirit guides are around by looking for these signs.

“Communication is always energetic,” Monty reminds us. “Even when it shows up in physical form.”

Signs and Synchronicities

You may see repeating numbers, animals, or images that feel oddly specific. These signs often appear three times or more to catch your attention.

Dreams

Dreams are a powerful space for communication. If you see a figure you don’t recognize, but feel comforted or familiar with, that could be your guide.

Sensations

Warmth, pressure, tingles, or a calm presence in your body when you’re trying to connect your spirit guides, especially in meditation, are often signs of energy coming in from your team.

Voice or Knowing

Some people hear messages. Others just know. You may get a phrase or an image that feels like it didn’t come from your logical mind. Trust that.

As you learn to connect with your spirit guides more and more, you can use more advanced styles of communication, like automatic writing and channeling to help you get direct messages from them. I started voice channeling my spirit guides after getting to know them through automatic writing after I started noticing these kinds of signs.

How to Start Working With Your Spirit Guides

If you want to start intentionally connecting with your spirit guides, here’s one of my favorite beginner exercises, based on Monty’s method he shares in episode 2:

1. Speak Intention: Say, “Spirit guides, I want to know you’re there. Please show me a sign.”
2. Choose a Sign: Make it uncommon, like a pink feather, or giraffe.
3. Ask for It to Appear 3 Times in 5 Days.
4. Be Open: Look in books, media, random conversations.
5. Notice Resistance: If doubt or fear comes up, breathe and return to trust.

Many students in our Spirit Guide for Beginners course make contact using this method and it changes everything. If you want help getting started, I created a free meditation you can use to connect with your spirit guides.

Myths About Spirit Guides

There’s a lot of misinformation about spirit guides and most of them come from fear people have about connecting with spirits. There’s a lot of cultural conditioning that says connecting with spirit beings is dangerous or evil that has created certain myths about spirit guides.

Believing in these myths and fears can hold people back from being able to connect with their spirit guides so let’s talk about a few of them.

• Myth: It will be dramatic. Most of the time it’s gentle and subtle. Spirit guides are there to support, not force, so it’s ease-filled rather than trying to force.
• Myth: They’ll tell you what to do. They guide, they don’t control. Spirit guides want you to make choices that align with your soul and spiritual path, not force you to evolve.
• Myth: They’re all-knowing. Spirit guides learn too and only can share as much as they can see in energy or have their own experiences with. They make mistakes just like we do and can get it wrong.
• Myth: You’re imagining it. If it feels loving and familiar, trust it. Your body can’t make up physical sensations, your mind isn’t just using pattern recognition. It’s real.
• Myth: Only meditation works. That’s not true. Connection requires intention and energetic openness, not just silence.

The biggest obstacle for most people to connect with their spirit guides is they have an internalized fear about connecting that’s holding their energy in a close, unreceptive space. 

Monty’s Perspective as a Spirit Guide 

As my spirit guide, Monty has taught me a lot about what it means to be a spirit guide. In our episode, Monty shared insights about what it’s like to be a spirit guide and why they choose to become one.

Monty said, “The reason spirit guides choose to work with you is threefold: to be of service, to experience your energy, and because of past connection.”

They aren’t perfect or omnipotent. They’re growing too. Some are still learning how to send messages or channel energy. That’s why things aren’t always exact. They don’t override your choices, they empower them.

“They love you without limit. Not like a parent who can only tolerate so much. They will love you through every mistake, every decision, without pulling away.”

That’s the kind of support you have access to by working with your spirit guides!

Why Work With Spirit Guides?

Spirit guides aren’t just a mystical idea. They’re real help. Working with my spirit team has helped me:

• Heal emotional wounds
• Grow my business intuitively
• Trust my body more deeply
• Open my psychic channels

It’s one thing to believe in something greater. It’s another to feel it. When your team sends you comfort, encouragement, or energy, you begin to know you’re not alone.

There’s a certain amount of comfort but also understanding as we start working with spirit guides in the Universe. We begin to see that we’re more than just our physical bodies and that we’re equals with everything and everyone in the Universe, physical and non-physical. This allows us to come into a deeper connection with ourselves and others, accelerating our spiritual growth.

How to Know It’s Really Your Spirit Guides

One of the most important parts of working with your spirit guides is learning how to discern what’s they and what isn’t. Sometimes when we try to connect with our spirit guides, we connect with our own ego or subconscious. Other times, we may connect with other beings that aren’t our spirit guides.

There are a few markers of authentic spirit guide communication:

• Feels calm, supportive, familiar
• Messages are loving, never shaming
• Doesn’t use “should” or manipulate you
• Honors your intuition and free will

While connecting with low vibrational beings is more rare, using your discernment helps you know when it’s your spirit guides. 

Ready to Meet Your Spirit Guides?

You don’t need to be psychic or perfect or spending hours in meditation. You just need to be willing and ready to start working with your energy. 

You can download our free meditation to meet your spirit guides, listen to this full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Youtube to hear more about what Monty has to share about what it's like to be a spirit guide and how to start working with yours.