Yes. More than one. Too many. Like cooks, too many spoil the soup. My 8th grade science teacher took me where I needed to go, but it was reality based, not spiritually based.

Yes. Mooji.

Since the whole idea of spirituality seems to be a direct connection with the…Universe; why would you want a teacher. Will the Universe not teach you one on one?

My social worker lent me a couple of books from an “Anatomy of the Spirit”, two books from the Dalia Lama, In university a book on Emotional Quotient EQ , “A Course in Miracles” and “Creative Visualization.”

Yes, but…

In my tradition (Zen Buddhism) teachers have a very limited role. To build on what @Dan_Lyons said, it’s overtly recognized in Zen that there’s actually nothing to teach—nothing that a teacher can impart to a student that the student doesn’t already bring to the table, no truths that aren’t already on full display. As my teacher’s teacher used to say, “Being a Zen teacher is like selling water by the riverside”.

So the role of a Zen teacher isn’t at all what the question details imply: to “take the student beyond the physical into the spiritual”. One of our main stumbling blocks is the idea that there is some inherent division separating the “physical” and the “spiritual”. Another is the idea that there is somewhere else to get to, some better place that a teacher can help us reach. These (and plenty of others) are just ideas that keep us from seeing the way things are.

A Zen teacher’s job boils down to pointing out, over and over again, the obstructive ideas that we’ve latched onto along the way. No new ideas are offered to replace those old ones. None are needed. It’s when the student gets to the point of “no idea” that he can see the truth all by himself.

Try Dantes Paradiso…..by Allen Mandelbaum
In the past I have met and read many books on Esoteric topics of Spirituality etc
It is nice to scour the universe in discovering different perspectives but do not get lost in some.
I know of two people whom had got stuck and messed up going too deep into “suspect” idologies.
My advice is to read up on, learn about, meet people etc…but DO NOT get sucked into it.
Get the info that you require on each disiciple then get out and DECIDE FOR YOURSELF whether it has any basis in your life. One can then make up their own ideas that would better apply for their life journey.

No, I had never anyone that tried to lure me on the path to supernatural hocus pocus.

@thorninmud

In person no, but Herman Hesse did which amusingly ultimately guided me to my nihilistic tendencies and atheism.

Listening to Baba Ram Dass on the radio and reading his book “Be Here Now” helped my evolution from Roman Catholicism to a broader perspective of spirituality. There are other books too numerous to list that furthered a more inclusive understanding of religion and philosophy.