I’m creating an ethics class, inspired by my sweet friend Lisa Owen (see? An important rule of ethics: GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE). I think it’s LONG due, after I’ve heard horror story after horror story of local, regional, national and international unethical situations and events. Here’s the deal, folks: nobody wants to reinvent the wheel, that’s true, so we look around at other language and possibilities, and then create, morph and craft our own unique verbage. This should be ONLY when it comes to such things as commercials, press releases, event publicity language, client information forms, client’s bill of rights, etc. Under NO circumstances should you EVER take someone else’s Work and teach it as your own, passing it off as your own. This includes meditations, classes, trainings, workshops, theories, business names and descriptions. I once saw a brochure of one of my students, and not only did she take my BUSINESS NAME as her own, but also copied my description of my Work word for word. I called her and told her she couldn’t do that. She didn’t understand why.
We all work hard to get our Work out to the world. Most of us are doing the hard work of investigating ourselves and our gifts, working with those gifts to become integrated and empowered, THEN presenting our expertise out to the world. We’ve WORKED with our gifts long enough to really KNOW and FEEL what we’re doing, so we can give 100% back to the rest of the world. If you have watched a movie, you simply are NOT qualified to teach a class about it. Nor are you qualified to teach a class or training after attending a weekend training or free online training. Integrity comes from the root word meaning “whole” as does the word integration. When I did Reiki trainings, I left several months in between the levels to allow students time to work with the energy and become empowered with their own healing energy. I think it does the world a disservice if you skim along the surface then pass your ‘knowledge’ off to others. You’re cheating them, not giving them all that you could be giving them, if you’d worked long enough to really KNOW what you were doing. If a dry sponge is dipped quickly into the water then squeezed, you can’t get as much water out of it as if you submerge the dry sponge into the water and let it soak through 100%. Then it’s totally saturated, and when you squeeze the sponge, you now get an incredible amount of water out of it. THAT should be your aim when you’re teaching and doing your Work. To give people 100% of what you are doing. That cannot be achieved quickly. Let me clarify: if you’re really excited about someone’s Work, tell others about the OTHER PERSON, and direct them to the OTHER PERSON’S website or information. But don’t pretend it’s your own Work.
If you are excited about something someone else is doing and want to pass on some of that Work, TALK TO THAT PERSON. See if there’s some way that could be possible. I’ve done two meditation CD’s. One woman called me and asked if she could use them in her small group work (she’s a counselor). I was grateful she’d called, and said sure, just please give me credit and give them information on how they can buy the CDs if they want them. In stark contrast to another friend who was so excited about my CDs that she told me she burned 20 copies of them all for friends! When I told her she’d just stolen $400 from me, she couldn’t understand what I was talking about. I told her I’d spent $5000 producing and making those CDs and every time someone bypassed me, they were effectively stealing my Work from me. I still don’t think she understood what I was talking about. STEALING IS WRONG, however you look at it. I’ve heard people say, “but we NEED to get this Work out to the world, so I’m going to just spread the word.” But remember - if this Work originated from someone else, it’s not yours to ‘get out the world.’ You have your own unique Work to get out to the world, and you may not be confident enough to realize that yet, but I’m telling you the Truth. Until you figure that out, please work on your own Work rather than continually presenting other people’s work as your own.
I’ve also heard from others that they’d heard I had stopped doing my Work, or had passed it over to someone else, or some such nonsense. Other ‘spiritual’ people were spreading lies about me in order to get more business for themselves. That kind of energy is not only setting up some really bad karma for themselves, it is also what I call ‘old energy’ which is not even tolerated or acknowledged in these new energy times. New energy says “there’s enough for all - let’s support and uplift, encourage and inspire each other. How can I help you? Will you help me? Together we can be greater than if we stay separate.” Old energy says, “I don’t think I’m good enough to do it alone, so if I eliminate everyone around me I’ll have a better shot at succeeding.” Yuck. Won’t work. I had that happen to me a few years ago when some people were starting a business and wanted me to stop doing some of my own Work I’d been doing for 20 years. I suggested we join forces - they said no. Work whose foundation is built on those principles simply cannot stand. If you don’t believe me, just look around at anyone else you know who may be operating in those same ways. If you build a house with inferior supplies, it will not stand very long. Build it with solid, quality materials, and it will stand forever. Likewise building a house with someone else’s supplies will not make for YOUR house standing strong. You’ve built a shabby replica of someone else’s house, not your own beautiful, shining, perfect YOU house. Trust that you are smart enough, and talented enough, and capable enough to do your OWN Work when the time is right. You’ll know exactly when that is. Trust the timing.
If you want to do Work that is learned through someone else, that’s great. Take the training, and proudly display your qualifications on your office wall. But do NOT under any circumstances take a free online course then say that you are as qualified as someone else who has taken a formal, legitimate training. It is not only demeaning to you, it’s demeaning to those others who have taken the legitimate, formal training, and misleads the general public who now thinks you have all had the same training. If you have taken an online course or a weekend course, be honest and state so in your list of qualifications. People should know exactly what your training is, how long you have been working in your area of expertise, and what your qualifications are. If you tell me, “it’s all just free and out there for anyone to teach and do,” then I know you are one who doesn’t want to let the world know what your qualifications are because you have little, if any. I believe it IS all just free and out there, but then put that motto proudly on your brochures. It’s all about honesty, integrity, morals and ethics.
Give people credit if you quote them, ask permission BEFORE you attempt to use any of their Work, LIST your qualifications and trainings, do your OWN Work. These are just a few of the things I feel very strongly about. We just can’t operate in the dark anymore, purposefully or unconsciously misleading others anymore. Be proud of who you are, and if you aren’t willing to list your qualifications publicly, maybe you’re not quite ready to teach. Again, I don’t think a weekend course in past life regression qualifies you to do readings for people the Monday after the class. I just don’t. Take your time. Work with it. Get to know it, from the inside out. I guarantee you your clients will FEEL your power when you are integrated, because you are exuding that power from the inside out. You OWN it, you KNOW it, you FEEL it, then you can give that to others. On and on and on. I’m just writing some stuff down as I start to work on this class, so thank you for bearing with me on all of this. This certainly won’t be the final outline for the class, just some ideas. What do YOU think about ethics, and right and wrong? E-mail me at . I’d love to hear your ideas and stories. And if I use any of them, I’ll be SURE to credit you! (Just teasing - I won’t use any of the stories or ideas - I’m just pointing out the ethical issues again so you can see what I’m talking about).