I guess we all learn from our bad experiences. Hopefully we understand what to do or not to do the next time we’re confronted with a similar situation. In this article, I hope to show you a bad choice I made that was costly. In 2008, I experienced a financial disaster. I was losing my home and had lost my car due to the real estate crash that hit Florida like a demolition ball. It left me eating at my savings.

There were no jobs that I was qualified for since I had been in the real estate and mortgage business for a good seven years. The housing industry summed up my experience and was all I had on my resume that was current. Everyone who had been in this industry was out looking for jobs. I figured I needed an environmentally-friendly car, one that would help me economize. So I searched for a Toyota Prius that would allow me to save on gas. They were going for a lot of money back then, but I thought I would get a good deal on EBay. After searching that site, I found one there that I really liked, and I placed the bid. My bid was too low, and I didn’t get the car at the auction. But a week later, I got an email from the owner of the car letting me know that he hadn’t sold the car. Even though I hadn’t won the bid, he wanted to know if I was still interested. He said that he was desperate to get rid of it because he was going through a rough divorce and needed to sell it fast. He was willing to let go of the one-year-old car, with low mileage, for $9,000. My excitement took over me. It possessed me and possessed my mind.
“Sure, I’m interested,” I said.
He sent me a link, and when I opened it, it took be to EBay. I followed the link and followed the instructions. I read that there was a guarantee from EBay, and that was good enough for me. And I sent him the $9,000 via a wire to his bank. He emailed me back as to how the vehicle would be transported to me and that he’d send me all these instructions in a day. I kept visualizing this car in front of my house. I was very excited and couldn’t believe the deal I had just gotten!

A day passed, and nothing was sent to me. I wondered if he got busy, maybe he was in the middle of all the paperwork necessary for the transport of the truck. I held on to that vision of the car. I emailed him to find out about the delivery of the Prius, and to give him a gentle nudge to find out how things were going on his end. There was no response back. I emailed again and no answer.It’s OK, I thought to myself. It’s mine. It’s a done deal. I imagined myself driving it and saving money on gas. It was on its way…  I kept emailing and emailing. I never got back a response. My heart had dropped and was sitting in the pit of my stomach giving me major indigestion. This was beyond heartburn. I was now scared. My only hope was the guarantee from EBay. So, I contacted them. They told me they didn’t have any such page with any such vendor.

Due to a very sobering realization that I had just been conned, my heart fell to the floor and splattered. I called the police, and they sent me a detective. It was a “white collar crime” he said, one that he would put at the bottom of a stack of files of more pressing crimes. Needless to say, I cried for days. I still look back, and the thought of this incident conjures up feelings of deep sadness.

“How could I have been so trusting,” I would ask myself? “Why didn’t I pay attention to my gut?” Yes, that uncomfortable nudging was there – that nudging that told me “don’t do it!” I wanted the car more than I wished to acknowledge the possible repercussions. There was no way there was anything wrong with this deal, I argued with myself. The guy sounds legit. He seems like an honest man going through a terrible divorce, and he needs the cash. After all, I went through the same thing. I know what that’s like. I’ll help him with his money situation, and he’ll help me get the car I need so that I can economize on gas.
Well, it sounded real good, in theory. But, I was conned. I was one of the many, many victims, during those “dark” days of the real estate crash, of major fraud, and I couldn’t do anything about it. Just because I was kind, good-hearted, had top-notch integrity and had a conscious didn’t mean everybody else did. It didn’t faze me that I would become a victim to this and that I could get no justice to boot! Someone, who made a living – if I can call it that – out of fraud had polished the skills of deception, and had honed in on my lack of discernment, and taken me for a ride without a car. Yes, deception is a skill and an art. And someone more tuned into me than I was used those skills to defraud. And I chose to be naïve.

So deception is a real problem in this reality or home we know of as Earth. It is evident everywhere: our government, the media, the entertainment industry and our religious institutions and our spiritual practices. How else are we deceived, besides the obvious fraud of a business transaction gone wrong, besides the love-interest who kind of forgets to tell you that he/she is married? We tend to buy into the lie because we’re too eager to get the result that we want, the outcome that blinds us – and we overlook that the “packaging” has some defects.

It’s like when we go to Best Buy, and we purchase what we think is a new DVD player. We bring it home and realize that there are parts missing, and that it’s not working. We didn’t notice that the box wasn’t sealed with the original tape. It was a household tape that one picks up at the hardware store. We didn’t pay attention to the details. We figured it would be new and working because of where we got it. In my case, I fell for the EBay logo on the website page that the con artist sent me.

But, deception in spirituality, in my opinion, is worse than any deception. Why? We’re playing with people’s soul-evolution.By falling into deceptive spiritual practices, it stunts our spiritual growth, we help spread the deception so that others are also affected, and the entire planet suffers. When we hold on to certain concepts and beliefs that make us self-absorbed, indifferent and callous to a world that is experiencing unprecedented deterioration, we are accountable for our actions or lack thereof. It affects all life on the planet and, as a consequence, none of us evolve physically or spiritually. Those of us who are feverishly clinging on to Ascension promises, while the world burns via a descension of morals, and via socioeconomic, environmental and spiritual deterioration, are also victims of deception. Instead of being stewards of this planet, we have become stewards for what keeps the entropy in place.

So how do we recognize deception? Here are some tips that will alert you if you are on the brink of being deceived:
• The message is fluffed-up or embellished – Because the message is a lie, it is usually decorated with words, phrases and such that make the message palatable. When it sounds pleasing to us, we tend to deem it as safe because it comes across as benign.
• It fills a need – If we have a need for something like certain information, a product, a service or a self-esteem boost, for example, we become more prone to being deceived by clever people. They can pick up on our vulnerability and then feed us what we need to get us to believe in them, their message, product and/or services. Being objective and aware of our needs is important, as you may be giving off hints that act like pheromones, attracting potential predators – including pseudo-spiritual teachers and those in the spiritual industry seeking to dupe you.
• You fall for the Truism – The deception is laced with truths that are common knowledge and embraced by most. These truths are readily accepted along with the hidden disinformation. If you are sharp and pay close attention, you’ll be able to catch them. Once you detect these, you are more than likely being deceived and about to get conned. The truism makes you confide in the message or messenger, and you willingly put down your guard and won’t question the information or the source. You figure the individual, message, concept, spiritual teaching, etc. speaks truth so it must be genuine.
• Your B.S. detector isn’t working – The B.S. detector is called your discernment or good judgment. It is also known as common sense. You know the old saying, “If it’s too good to be true…” If you could use this quote in any given situation, this would be your first line of defense because if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
• Being in tune with what makes you tick – Being honest with yourself is key. Knowing what your weaknesses are, especially what kind of things you fall for will help you 1) get in touch with your vulnerabilities, and 2) allow you to “get in the shoes” of someone who could potentially use these weaknesses against you to exploit you in some way. So, for example, if you are a sucker for people with southern accents from the Midwest United States – because you love how genuine and good-hearted they are – you may just fall for a con artist that has that accent. You may have the tendency to put down your guard whenever you hear someone who has this accent, because you assume they are kind-hearted and intrinsically a good person. Knowing this weakness about yourself will allow you to notice the “letting down of your guard” behavior when you hear a Southern Accent.
• Understanding the nature of a deceiver – Not everyone wants to know what makes a deceiver tick. You think to yourself that you’ve got more important things to do with your quiet time than to figure this out. But, if you do not understand how these people function, you more than likely may not recognize the deceit when it happens to you. It is important to know what would motivate someone to deceive and what opportunities you give them to use, twist, manipulate and coerce a situation to benefit them.

How does any of this apply to our spiritual practice? Many of us are holding on to concepts and beliefs that not only no longer serve us, but never helped us to begin with, as they were based on misleading and misguided information. It may have brought us peace, allowed us to connect with our so-called “guides”, made us more sensitive to invisible realms and ourselves, but what it has actually done is desensitize us to the world at large. The world I refer to here is not so much the physical planet, but the life on it – especially humanity.

A con job is a con job, regardless if it’s about money or if it’s a distribution of erroneous information to purposely keep us sidetracked or looking in a certain direction, while the “crime” is being committed behind our back. In this world, the con job is being committed by the globalist criminals and all the nefarious forces that are on the loose creating havoc and suffering en masse, while we’re attending to our personal spiritual edification.

Learning how to recognize deception of all kind is key in order to not become a victim of it. But recognizing how to detect Spiritual Deception is crucial, as this is the skill that most of lack and is the skill that needs to be acquired and polished in order to help us seek not only our liberation from this Matrix, but allow us to help others do the same.

I lost $9,000 in one day. I didn’t even have the pleasure of gambling it or going on a shopping spree. I didn’t even have that money to help me pay for the move out of the house that I was losing. I got conned because I fell for what I had deemed to be an honest and integritous demeanor and an opportunity that I thought was a win-win for everyone. I let my emotions run my actions. For me, it was money that I lost. For others, it could mean losing their health, their relationships or worse – their souls.

I ask all of us to revisit all those beliefs and concepts that are holding us back and that are no longer serving us or that are acting as spiritual, growth-inhibitors. The sign of a mature soul is one that is willing to let go of the baggage and travel light. Be honest with yourself and see if what you are currently embracing actually helps the collective whole or just you. If it’s only you, have the courage to see that what comes from the Light includes everyone. It gives everyone the opportunity to experience a life of dignity, respect, peace, and joy. That which comes from the Light intends all Creation to experience the return to Creator, and thus partake in experiencing the greater Joy, Bliss and Love of a Grand Reunion. It is the right of everyone on this planet to do so. Let us remember who we are and why we are truly here. The deception states that it’s about our spiritual attainment and ticket out of here. Shouldn’t we be making sure that everyone has that same opportunity? Isn’t that for the Highest Good of all and more representative of The Light? By going directly to the Source of All That Is, we align ourselves with what is good and just, equitable and balanced. Our alignment with God-Creator inspires the right action and we become the true representatives of the Light in Earth embodiment.

Had I taken a moment to connect to God-Creator back in 2008, and not left it to my financially motivated thought process, I wouldn’t have experienced the paralyzing grief that I did. I would have known unequivocally that my choice of buying a car via the internet because the price was right was the wrong one. But the good news is that I learned from this and I hope to pass this information to you so that you don’t have to experience something similar. Knowing how to detect deception begins with getting in tune with your own weaknesses – your hot buttons – and understanding how someone who is unscrupulous could use these against you. In a way, you do need to think like the potential perpetrator. Also, you do need to polish your discernment skills.

To learn how to detect Spiritual Deception, that which is keeping us within the confines of this Matrix, get your copy of Spiritual Warfare & The Art of Deception: The Hijacking of Spirituality on Amazon.com. The book is now an International Bestseller and not only exposes the deceptive tactics of the Dark Forces, but also gives you the tools on how to navigate this archontic-infested world unscathed.

Order Here

To sign up for her second book: Getting Back to Source: Tools for Connection, Protection & Empowerment, go to BOOKS and fill out the subscription form. The book launches late Summer.

– Ari Kopel

Editorial Note:  The concepts presented in this article are taken from the book Spiritual Warfare & The Art of Deception: The Hijacking of Spirituality available now on Amazon.

 About the Author

Ari Kopel is a graduate of the University of Miami with a major in psychology and minor in communications. While at the University of Miami, she worked as an assistant to Dr. Cesare Emiliani in the Harold C. Urey Laboratory for Paleotemperature Research, on projects involving the study of Pole Shifts and Ice Ages. She later attended Columbia University, New York, for her graduate studies and worked as the assistant to Dr. Robert Jastrow, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, while also serving as Jastrow’s teaching assistant at Dartmouth College, NH.

Ari is the author of the new book Getting Back to Source: Tools for Connection, Protection & Empowerment; the founder of 2012Emergence.com, and the radio show host and creator of “Shattering the Matrix” on BlogTalkRadio.com.
For talks near you, go to: www.AriKopel.com