Apr 11 2008
Channeling 1-2-3
Alright so this little article is going to talk briefly about channeling.
And what’s channeling you ask?
It’s a good question.
As it is understood in the popular new age movement, channeling is basically the ability to connect with “spiritual” entities (i.e., entities not in a body) through some secret mystical, meditative process. The actual process differs for everybody. You “aum” a chant, or smoke some ganja, dance yourself into a delirium, bang some drums, ingest an entheogen, and then “snap,” you begin communicating with Spirit.
Now when an outsider looks into the new age or modern alternative spiritualities and sees this, who can blame them for being a little skeptical. When I first looked into the new age a few years ago I was skeptical. But you know, my skepticism was only at the start. I mean it wasn’t too long into my investigation of all things spiritual that I myself actually started to channel. A few years ago, after I did some chakra work and clearing, one day I sat down at my computer and the ideas began to flow. And boy, did they flow. I wrote on epic story of genesis, a book on ascension, a book on chakra activation, a cosmological statement of God, a basic spiritual primer, and a bunch of poems and parables in the space of only a few years.
After that experience, channeling became legit in my eyes. For me, there was no other explanation for it. The ideas came too fast and too furious. They were too well coordinated, and, in many cases, too novel and outside my normal experience to be anything other than “from the outside.” The clincher, at least for me anyway, was when the ideas I was getting allowed me either to a) understand things that I have never understood before or b) were verified by me later through some additional reading or something.
And that’s channeling.
Channeling is what happens when the bodily consciousness of your Physical Unit connects with something “outside” itself.
And just what is it that is outside of the physical unit.
Well, if you judge by the westerns who do it, channeling is a phenomenon confined to communication with “famous” entities like Ra or Laksmi or Sananda (a.k.a. Jesus Christ) or somebody else. Usually these entities have come to save the planet. These “saviors,” whomever they may be, then provide the lucky individual with mystical information about the spiritual worlds using words like ascension or end-times or service quotient or whatever. If you go by how the westerns do it, channeling is all about normal people (or reborn prophets) talking to famous dead guys and gals who, being dead apparently have nothing better to do than make our worldly affairs their after-life business.
But is that the case?
Does Ra have a real interest in humans?
Is Thoth involved in the channeling of tarot decks?
Well, maybe. I mean, after doing it myself for over six years, and bringing what I think is some pretty useful and unusual information into the spirit world, I think it is possible for somebody to be talking to Ra or channeling Thoth or something like that. But, at the same time, and after doing it for seven years, I’m also kinda skeptical when people say that. For me, it sets off alarm bells. For example I know, after seven years of doing this, that keeping control of the ego, keeping good boundaries around it, and even maintaining a good sense of identity, can be challenging when you open your bodily consciousness to the fabric of consciousness. The problem is, the fabric of consciousness, the light that is our spirit, is powerful, bright, and awesome at any level. When you compare that against the diminished and damaged ego of so many of us, it’s real tempting to attach one’s identity to some “powerful” otherworldly entity. I mean, some of us feel so terrible and guilty about ourselves that we’d rather be identified, or be the identity of, anybody else. How cool, and positively aggrandizing to the ego, is it to be talking to Jesus Christ or channeling Sananda or the great “white” brotherhood. It’s even better if we actually are these cool figures.
Truth is, it’s an ego trap—and a subtle one at that. And it’s very easy to fall into. Truth is, as your skill as a channeler advances, you can come into contact with these powerful entities. They descend into your energetic space and you actually do feel like you are these entities for a time. This doesn’t mean you are though. It just means you are in contact and you have to remember and not be tempted into becoming identified with energies that are really only there to help you and impart information to you.
In the early stages of channeling, ego problems are common. Don’t get me wrong though, this is not a reason to stop channeling, but it is a reason to go slow, be careful, and take the claims of people who claim to be identified with the powerful energies of other than their own identity with caution. It may be that they are channeling who they say they are, but it may also be symptomatic of some pathology and if there’s pathology, then they are probably not a clear channel for information. It’s a question you have to ask either of yourself if you are beginning to channeler, or of others if you are just starting out on your spiritual journey and coming across information from people who claim to be channeling.
Anyway, there’s a lot more I could say about channeling but I think I’ll leave that for my article series Opening to Channel. To close this little musing off I’ll just say this. Opening to high level spiritual communication is very cool and something that we can all learn to do. It’s no special gift and you don’t have to have any special talent. Like other things spiritual, it’s just a question of intent and visualization. It’s not rocket science! In fact, if you’re serious about spiritual development, it’s something you have to do. As I say in my article series on channeling (which are excerpted from The Book of Magic), you can’t make rapid progress in your own spiritual development while you’re confined to “indirect” methods of communication like intuition or emotional sensitivity,[1] or if you are confined to listening to others who may or may not be clear channels for information.
You want to make rapid spiritual progress?
You want to learn to express your own spiritual consciousness through your own physical vehicle?
Then you take responsibility for the information you get.
When you’re ready, do what I did. Set your intent, make the connection, and open the channel. After the foundational spirituality you’ve get with the first few books of the Lightning Path, opening communication to The Fabric is quite literally the next step in your personal spiritual maturation process.
ms
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Opening to Channel Series Articles
- Opening to Channel I - Preliminaries
- Opening to Channel II - Opening
- Opening to Channel III – Detecting the Channel
