Over the 17 years during which Bartholomew shared his wisdom through Mary-Margaret Moore, the question of his nature was broached several times.

He established early on that because he realized people wanted to know whether to call him "he", "she" or "it", he thought it would be more convenient to just call him "he", even though he made it clear he didn't really care one way or another.

Maybe the best answer to the question above came in one of the early sessions (Tape 30C - "Bartholomew's Function" - June 1978 - Timestamp: 00:00:57) when the facilitator, Justin Moore (Mary-Margaret's husband), asked:

"…we would like to ask something about your function in the plan, the spiritual plan for this planet and for perhaps the cosmic scheme of things. How do you fit in and this work?"

Bartholomew answered:

"Basically, what you need to know is that, just as on the Earth plane so called people have different jobs, in the higher areas certain energy fields are dedicated to certain fulfillments. And an energy field is really how it is best to explain what I am. But if it's easier to stop using that terminology, I will. I say "a teacher" in this case. Certain teachers are given certain assignments, so to speak, because their energies connect up with the necessary unfoldment that should take place. When a force field like myself enters into the Earth plane, which it just has recently - I have not been here in a long sense in terms of the world - and that is because a movement, a shift in energy, is taking place on the globe, and the energies that I used to represent in an area called the Himalayas, which is where I was; again, please understand, when I say I am speaking of a force field, and I am speaking of a force field that greatly extends past any idea in your mind that you might have of a teacher."

Then something odd happened: another presence came through, interrupting Bartholomew, who said:

"I feel that the other master is about to come in."

(This happened several times in the early years, although the identity of that "other master" was never revealed.)

That other master added the following:

"I feel that I would like to intervene at this time for my brother and answer this very high question…The energy field that he speaks of, if you could observe it in the physical world, would be made up of boundless units of energy that would seem to take on the form of an immense man. This is why so many psychics have interpreted this energy as beings of light, giant beings of light. We are composed entirely of moving, undulating, rhythmically cohesive light. We carry a field of power. At this time, the shift in energy is moving away from the Himalayan section of the world and moving into other places. One of these places is this area. The main focus of this is the mountain called by you the Taos Mountain."…

He continued:

"The function is simply to do the best that we can to imbue the entire area with a very high spiritual force. It is greatly advantageous to our plans if we have agents - again, a very bad word - I do not mean agents in the mundane sense. If we have certain vehicles who are receptive to our vibration, who can help to move this energy into greater and greater awareness among the population of that area, the understanding that is necessary must come into the peoples of this area because the destiny of this area is very important."

This second master then proceeded to explain in a nutshell the essence of the message that Bartholomew was to repeat countless times in the following years, namely that:

"The question that is constantly asked by Earthlings is "how can I best become aware of this thing called God?" Is this a valid question? The answer is simply that, once you stop thinking of yourself as separate from that force, you will find it easier and easier and easier to merge your consciousness with it. This is best illustrated by the separate mind viewing itself as separate and beginning to view itself as one with every other mind. It is a practical instruction. For example, as you stand in front of another brother, another human being, if you would make yourself aware of the space that lies between your bodies rather than the bodies themselves, you will begin to attune yourself more and more to the Oneness. If, as you look at an object, instead of fastening your view on the object, if you were to fasten your awareness on the space between you and the object, you would soon become aware that space has a meaning. Space itself carries the message of Oneness, and as you concentrate with your eyes and then later with the feel of the space upon your skin, all of these techniques begin to convince you slowly that what you have done is to carve out of the unity of the One individualized objects. If you keep your attention on the individual objects, it is much more difficult for us to break down the mental construct of separateness that you have made over the lifetime. So, as strange as this may sound, it is a very helpful tool for you to concentrate on the space between things rather than on the things themselves."

This was an early clue regarding Bartholomew's nature and mission. It also explains why on different occasions Bartholomew would describe himself merely as an "Elder Brother," a "Planetary Brother" or a "Gentle Brother" (hence the titles of the books) or, as in this quote, a simple "Teacher" (Transcript of tape 500 ("Filters")):

… this is not the great, wonderful guru who presents to you the great, wonderful teaching. This is not so. This is the mirror of remembrance. This is all that it is. It is a mirror of remembrance, and in that relationship to you, let us now talk again about the basics."

One teacher in a long line of other teachers

From our human perspective, one could consider Bartholomew as one of the hundreds, if not thousands of spiritual teachers who have appeared in history since the beginning of time to help humans wake up from the illusion that they are separate from the unicity of the universe. But since humans are singularly hard-headed and have short memories, the process has needed to be repeated over and over again down the centuries, which is why a prophet, a holy person, a mystic appeared at regular points in time, preached the message of unicity of and with what humans call God (usually mistaking It for some kind of figure that looks like them, only bigger), only to end up killed in some cases or revered in some others. And after a few centuries during which their message ends up distorted, the necessity of yet another refresher course becomes apparent, and a new one shows up. Sometimes they are welcome and adulated, some other times not so much. In some cases they are followed by large numbers of people, if not the majority of a population, while in other cases they have only a small following. It seems that, for all the intrinsic high spiritual quality of his teachings, Bartholomew belongs to this last category, and apparently by design.