Hamnet understands that truth instinctively. It doesn’t rush to name anything. It lets the pictures form, activate, and release - which is a pattern that all clairvoyants will recognize instantly.
“No one can be a good teacher unless they have feelings of warm affection towards their pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what they believe to be of value.
This is not the attitude of the propagandist. To the propagandist the pupil is a potential soldier in an army…. The propagandist desires, like a topiarian artist, that the pupil's growth shall be trained and twisted to suit the gardener's purpose…. In thwarting the pupil's natural growth the propagandist is apt to destroy in them all generous vigor, replacing it by envy, destructiveness, and cruelty.
There is no need for human beings to be cruel; on the contrary, I am persuaded that most cruelty results from thwarting in early years, above all from thwarting what is good.”
Bertrand Russell was many things—logician, philosopher, dissident, Nobel Prize winner—but he was above all a fierce defender of intellectual and spiritual freedom. Long before we had language for spiritual bypassing or cult dynamics, he was warning us of the danger of any teacher who twists a student’s natural growth to suit their own agenda.
This distinction between teacher and propagandist is not abstract. It shows up vividly in the spiritual world, especially among those who come to Art of the Seer Academy after being shamed, pressured, or constrained in other psychic schools. What Russell described in 1953 is precisely what many intuitives are still healing from today.
And the antidote is just as he named it: warm affection, genuine care, and a commitment to autonomy and freedom.
The True Teacher: Affection, Respect, and Freedom
Russell begins with a radical idea disguised as simplicity:
Real teaching begins with affection.
Not codependence. Not emotional fusion. Not hierarchy.
Affection in the spiritual classroom means:
respecting the student’s autonomy,
believing in their innate wisdom,
taking genuine joy in their development, and
helping them grow as themselves, not as a reflection of the teacher.
This is why, at Art of the Seer Academy, students learn to validate their own clairvoyant sight, intuition, and spiritual authority. You learn to run your space, read your pictures, and trust your Spirit. My job is not to recruit you into my worldview—it’s to strengthen your capacity to see from within.
Russell wrote:
“The essence of the liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held.”
This is the soul of ethical clairvoyant training. It isn’t what you believe or what you see that matters most. It’s the consciousness with which you see it—neutral, curious, humorous, grounded.
The Propagandist: Twisting Growth Instead of Supporting It
Russell’s description of the propagandist reads like a psychic case study:
They see the student as a resource instead of a human.
They impose worldview instead of cultivating discernment.
They mold people into tools for their own purpose.
They replace vitality with fear, dependence, and confusion.
This dynamic shows up in spiritual communities that declare:
“Only our method is correct.”
“Only this lineage is legitimate.”
“Your doubts mean you’re resisting your growth.”
“Your intuition is wrong unless it matches ours.”
This is not teaching. This is taming.
Russell famously warned:
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves.”
Propagandists thrive on that kind of certainty. True teachers don’t.
At the Academy, we dismantle that dynamic intentionally. We cultivate spiritual autonomy, not spiritual obedience.
The Teacher’s Love Is Real — But It Isn’t Personal
One of the places students get tangled—especially in spiritual development—is the subtle wish for the teacher to have a personal relationship with them.
It’s an old, tender reflex: the nervous system trying to repeat or repair early relational patterns.
Many students unconsciously expect the teacher to:
become the parent who finally understands them,
be like a supportive and guarding sibling they never had
offer emotional closeness as proof of approval,
provide constant availability,
or see them as “special” in order to feel safe.
But this is not the function of a teacher.
A true teacher holds warm affection without enmeshment.
Presence without possession.
Support without fusion.
The teacher’s care is real—but it cannot become personal, or the teaching collapses.
The psychoanalyst Winnicott wrote powerfully about the difference between a relationship and a holding environment. A teacher is not there to become the student’s emotional anchor—they are there to create the conditions for the student to anchor themselves.
Chögyam Trungpa put it beautifully:
“A good teacher is like a mirror—it shows you your face but does not cling to your reflection.”
Neutral distance is not coldness. It is love expressed as clarity.
When a teacher avoids enmeshment, they avoid twisting a student’s growth around their own needs. They protect the student’s autonomy. They help the student grow tall, not close.
This is how spiritual maturity is built.
Clairvoyance Requires Freedom, Not Indoctrination
Clairvoyance is not memorized. Mediumship is not installed. Spiritual sight cannot flourish under pressure to conform.
Seeing requires freedom.
Healing requires trust.
Mediumship requires sovereignty.
Propagandists can create followers.
Teachers cultivate mystics.
Russell argued that the purpose of education is:
“to give a sense of the value of things other than domination.”
Your work at the Academy teaches people to see without dominating—neither themselves nor others. It teaches sensitivity without fragility, power without ego, and autonomy without isolation.
What Happens When You Don’t Twist the Student?
When a student’s natural growth is supported—not manipulated—they become:
self-validating,
internally resourced,
discerning,
ethically powerful,
spiritually mature.
When growth is thwarted, as Russell warns, students become:
ashamed of their intuition,
dependent on authority,
terrified of making mistakes,
spiritually immature,
creatively stunted.
And worst of all:
they mistake obedience for development.
At Art of the Seer Academy, we refuse to twist. We refuse to prune. We refuse to make people small.
Instead, we help them grow in the direction their Spirit is already heading.
That is teaching. Everything else is propaganda.
William FitzRoy comes to this post with over two decades of experience in clairvoyance, mediumship, and the art of intuitive living. He founded Art of the Seer Academy in 2015 as a sanctuary for seekers, sensitives, and spiritually curious humans ready to grow in their gifts. He offers session based readings and healings and classes for those ready to deepen their Meditation, Clairvoyant, and Mediumship practice.
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