Everyone of us has a principle spirit guide and a guardian angel. These are backed up by other spirit guides in the form of relatives and close friends who have past. Some of these can be relatives that past many years ago. They are there to keep you safe, but that is not their main purpose. We are a spiritually evolving multidimensional soul. That exists on more than one plain at anyone time. On earth in our bodies we are on the first plain. To move to the next plain and there are seven plains. We have to grasp all aspects of this life, eradicate all evil and embrace all elements of love. To help us achieve this we have spirit guides. This doesn't necessarily mean we move to the next plain on our first attempt. We may come back many times until we get it right. When you have evolved to the seventh plain of existence, and opened your crowning shakra. You become a god like soul that exists as a light entity. That is a controlling fully functioning part of the universe.