What Is Channeling?

In the process of Channeling, one establishes contact with an entity residing upon a higher plane and allows this entity to use the vehicle of the body to express itself. The medium or channel is like an iceberg, only a part of the complete whole, receiving guidance and teaching from higher-level inner beings who are not physically incarnate.

The medium is like the earth terminal of an electrical circuit, grounding the vision, inspiration, and guidance of the inner adept in form. Occasionally unusual people are born who possess the ability to establish contact with the higher planes naturally; ordinarily, however, becoming a channel requires extensive training.

Opening Lines of Communication

Before channeling we must learn how to contact and communicate with these higher-level teachers. Because our level of consciousness is generally fairly mundane in orientation, and theirs is based on a much more elevated level of intelligence, in order to communicate at all, we must learn to raise the level of our own consciousness up towards theirs.

Like miners building a tunnel through a mountain by boring holes from opposite ends, we must establish a pathway of contact on our side, while the inner adepts do the same on the other. If our calculations are precise and our efforts consistent, then we shall meet in middle and establish a pathway of communication.

Another way to explain this process is in terms of frequency. The inner plane adepts could be conceived as transmitting on a certain high-frequency radio band. We can conceive of our own consciousness like a radio, tuned to the lower frequency of sensory perceptions and the gross material world. In order to receive the information transmitted from the inner planes, we must change the dial and re-tune it to a different station so that we may receive the desired waveband.

Becoming a channel thus involves being able to raise consciousness at will. This requires exquisite concentration and strength of focus, for one needs to be able to withdraw attention from the physical world and the body in order to hear the music of the celestial spheres. One must be able to shift the focus of consciousness away from the objective sphere to the subjective sphere. Contacting higher entities also requires an open heart, for the frequency of unconditional love is the waveband in which these entities reside.

The Vibration of Astral Guides

By withdrawing consciousness from the objective world, the ego is freed from the limitations of the physical senses and the brain, and so may enter upon independent activity upon higher planes. In order to perceive the subtle impressions of these more delicate realms, it is necessary to inhibit the stronger impressions of the physical senses. For this reason, mediums usually require darkened rooms and may lie down or place themselves under warm blankets. A channel must be entirely relaxed and comfortable, for anything which attracts attention to the objective world interrupts the concentration of attention on the subjective world, and so prevents occlusion of consciousness and entry into a trance.

Once upon the higher waveband, one may tune precisely to the identity of a particular inner contact, for there are many individualized beings upon the higher planes.

Establishing contact with a particular guide or teacher is done by finding the “feeling tone” of this guide. Inner plane beings have palpable presences, characters, or threads of energy by which they can be recognized. Certain words or images which evoke the essence of the sought-after guide may be helpful in this pursuit. The channel may memorize images of the guide or recall information or words which conjure the feeling of his or her energy.

Once the channel has established contact with a guide for the first time, the channel may memorize the feeling of this abstract energy and use it as a touchstone for establishing contact in the future, scanning the waveband to find the familiar feel.

• Uncommon Forms of Divination – Part 1
• Uncommon Forms of Divination – Part 2
• Uncommon Forms of Divination – Part 3

Being in Two Planes at Once

After contact has been established the channel may engage the guide in conversation by posing questions and receiving answers. This too requires subtlety and skill as in order to pose questions or to repeat the answers given to anyone present in the room, the channel must re-establish contact with the physical body that he or she has withdrawn from. It takes a great deal of practice for a channel to learn how to remain present and in control while participating in two different planes at once.

The typical concern when one is learning how to channel is the sneaking suspicion that one is making it all up to oneself. How do we know that we are really channeling something outside of our own psyches, and how can we be sure that this is a benevolent or truthful source?

A good rule of thumb is found in the old adage: “by their fruits shall ye know them”. That is to say, we know whether we are genuinely channeling firstly by the quality of the experience of channeling itself, and secondly by the quality of the content that comes through.

To conclude

The frequency of teachers on the higher planes is extraordinarily high and thus the channel will feel an intense heart-opening upon genuine contact with them. This is a distinctive and unmistakable experience which the channel will intuitively know is the real thing. After the communication has finished, a ‘residue’ of this high-frequency state remains, as though one has been “touched”, and a sense of a link of unconditional love with that inner plane being will live on.

The quality of the content that has come through will have a similar numinous quality or at least one of a high moral order. When first learning how to channel, one should appraise the content that comes through with level-headed objectivity. If the supposed communication consists of nonsense, information with which the student was already familiar, or advises action of questionable ethics, more practice may be required.