Here are fascinating answers to a deep and wide variety of life-related questions. Such great soul-searching inquiries are answered through the specific questions that were asked at lectures and Question & Answer sessions—Q&As, as they were called—held primarily in New York from 1957 through 1979 by Eva Pierrakos. While Eva was the person who spoke, she did not claim to be the one who was speaking. Every two weeks, for over two decades, a group of people would gather with Eva, she would go into a trance, and a wise, caring and articulate being—who became known as the Guide—would begin to speak. The Guide provided volumes of deeply spiritual and yet practical wisdom. Along the way, these teachings were named the Pathwork®, because the Guide so often refers to “being on the Path” and it is hard work to go on this Path. “The way,” he says in Pathwork Guide Lecture #11, “is steep and narrow and long.” I have created this collection of my favorite Q&As to help clarify and illuminate this path we call life. For these remarkable Q&As have certainly been eye-opening for me. And as the Pathwork Guide teaches, to open our eyes and wake up is really the key to everything. – Jill Loree Pathwork Helper since 2011 Founder and manager of Phoenesse since 2015 This audio production of Keys is published by Phoenesse LLC with permission from the Pathwork Foundation.

What actually is religion?

Why are there are so many different religious concepts on Earth? ________ How do the different main religions continue their activities in the spiritual world? Do they fight? And how far can they influence human beings?

Even if one has little interest in organized religion, one can still have a longing for the atmosphere that can exist in a church—a feeling of awe standing in front of something that is higher. Is the experience of going to church really a true thing? ________ The Catholic Church has managed to survive until the present day, while the gnostic religions, which are more in accord with the Pathwork teachings, have not survived. Why is this? So this is the reason for the decline and virtual disappearance of gnostic religion?

What is the Holy Ghost and what should be our relationship to it?

Why does Hindu philosophy not include the Fall of the Angels, as the Plan of Salvation does? Is that perhaps the reason why the female aspect of God is recognized more there, and the male aspect of God more in the West, and that is why East and West ought to get together?

In general, what purpose does ritual serve? ________ In the traditional Scriptures of Judaism and Islam, the texts are specific regarding the consumption of fish, flesh, and fowl; it is commanded that “of their flesh shall we not eat.” But in the fifteenth verse of Matthew, Jesus said, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man, but that which cometh out of the mouth.” Christianity, in fact, has no ban against pork, but during Lent, dietary restrictions are observed by Christians. So are the dietary laws based on that which is unclean, or on that which is holy? So then what is the meaning of Lent and the counting of the days? ________ What about customs such as circumcision? ________ Most religions of the world use the motion of genuflecting. Many of them also use the two palms together. There are also the patterns created by the whirling dervishes. Do these movements have some inherent meaning? Is it possible that these body positions bring about new connections in the body? For instance, if a person bows and puts his head below his heart, lowering his ego, is that position significant in some way? ________ Could you please explain the meaning of the sacrament of Holy Communion? Is it a ritual or is it more?

Will you explain the meaning of keeping the Sabbath holy in the face of our present-day obligations? ________ This night is the eve of the Sabbath. It also happens to be the eve of Yom Kippur which is the Day of Atonement. On such a night, in ancient Nazareth, it is likely that Jesus, as a Jew, would have been in the synagogue, chanting solemn prayers with his congregation. Yom Kippur is also designated as the Sabbath of Sabbaths. The word Sabbath is loaded with meaning and it appears frequently in Scripture. Jesus referred to it when he said: “The Sabbath was made for man.” What did he mean? And also, what is the significance of ritual in pursuit of the path toward God? Yes, it is quite clear. Incidentally, the word Sabbath actually means “rest,” and it also means “seven.” I wonder if you could tie the two together.

Can you provide a spiritual explanation of sin and evil? ________ Why is it that all spiritual teachings in the past speak of sin instead of sickness or neurosis? ________ Is evil a condition which results from an actual fall from grace? And what is its relationship to Lucifer in the Old and New Testaments?

Could you explain what “true religion” is, as compared to the wrong attitude? Where does belief in God and his help come in? But how can we go about it? This God-image is so embedded in us after so many decades of learning the false attitude. Wouldn’t prayer change too if we discarded this concept? Wouldn’t everything change? What religion is farthest away from the truth? One of the last words of Christ was, “Father, Thy will be done.” Taken as an example, this could have meant obedience, or it could have meant freedom. Which is it? From what you say, it becomes clear that religion is a matter of each individual soul developing to its optimum point by way of search and self-realization. The churches have played a dominant role for many years, however, so it would seem that their function would eventually fall away. Is that correct? ________ Is a faith in God and love, without emotional maturity, possible?

[1979] Our world has recently been shocked by a mass suicide associated with a spiritual community led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. Many of us have been examining our own feelings about this event, and many Workers have brought up their fears of being associated with our spiritual community in the light of this tragedy.

“The answer always lies within the self. For if it were otherwise, man would indeed be lost. The fact that he has himself as a key, which makes it so accessible and so possible to stop fear and to stop uncertainty, that is the beauty and the truth of creation. It is possible to know yourself.” – Pathwork® Guide, Q&A #130 I would like to ask whether the Christ spirit is an all-pervading spirit like God or an individual spirit?

Here we are taught that salvation comes through work, through self-search, through effort and through the finding of images to be cast off. Today, a man who calls himself a “twice-born Christian” asked me whether I accepted Jesus as my personal savior, and that unless I did, I would not find salvation. My question is: how are we to reconcile this Church-proclaimed doctrine of faith in salvation through another, with our work on the Path? And further, is this faith in a heavenly being who had become man sufficient for a mortal to share, through mysterious rites, in his divine life? Is this faith plus the sacraments sufficient to redeem us from the bonds of earthly guilt and earthly death and to awaken us to a new life which would mean eternal existence and blessedness? There still is the one portion of my question which is unanswered, which has to do with whether or not a person can be saved through the medium of a Savior or through a person’s own efforts? You said that when the obstructions are removed, faith follows. But I know people who have faith and still have a lot of obstructions.

What is the meaning of the “way of the cross,” its principles and its course of actions? How is it comparable to the Eastern concept, the one that follows the Buddha?

Will you tell us the spiritual significance of Good Friday, please? Listen to Pathwork Guide Lectures #19-22 about the greater significance of his life and death in the entire Plan of Salvation at the end of this section on Jesus Christ.

I understand the Bible does not account for Christ’s life between approximately the ages of 12 and 30. I have read that during his teens and early twenties, roughly, Christ went through training in secret orders. Then he conducted a worldwide ministry before returning to the Middle East to conduct the last period of his life mentioned in the Bible. Is this true and would you give more details?

What is the role of the Virgin Mary from the spiritual point of view?

Christian religions place a lot of emphasis on the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why is that?

I would like to ask if you could explain the miracle of Therese von Neumann* who has the stigmata that bleed every week; she has not eaten for years. Does it necessarily mean that such a person is spiritually very highly developed? ________ I read a story in a current magazine about miracles. This story said that a child broke a wooden Madonna and in kissing the upper half, tears started coming out of the eyes of the Madonna. This was repeated in the presence of different witnesses. Do you wish to comment on this? Has it to do with the spirit of the child in question? How then was it possible that Jesus could perform many miracles, many times?

What about Christmas, with the displays of light, the story of Christ, the Christmas trees and the Christmas carols?