On channeling
Channeling is the direct transcription of spiritual information from a higher source.
Skeptics aren’t too fond of claims to channel, but the literary quality of the material is hard to debate. Don’t take my word for it. Read the material and make up your own mind.
This is a basic article on channeling for a skeptical audience. I have advanced articles on how to channel, or improve the clarity of channeling, literary or scientific work.
Photo by Spencer Imbrock on Unsplash
“…this was strictly mental. Otherwise, I would consider it hallucinatory activity. I don’t feel it was that. …It wasn’t my voice. It couldn’t have been because it talked about a whole area with which I am entirely unfamiliar.”
Dr. Helen Schucman, on writing A Course in Miracles
The majority of spiritual information I use now is channeled material. This is because I find it more logical, and clearer than the material generally presented by embodied spiritual teachers.
Examples of channeling
The two best examples I can give of channeled material are Seth Speaks — channeled by Jane Roberts, and A Course in Miracles — channeled by Helen Schucman.
In both cases, the female channelers dictated and male collaborators transcribed. The channelers were emotionally separate from the material and adamant that it was not from them. In the case of Schucman she vehemently disagreed with the material, she was an atheist but felt that the channeled material was from Jesus.
The two women had different temperaments, occupations, and different relationships to the material. Schucman was an assistant professor of medical psychology at Columbia University and remained anonymous as the author of A Course in Miracles until her death. A rare interview was recorded and later released with her description of the experience of channeling which I recommend to anyone interested in the phenomenon.
Schucman was conscious throughout transcription and hypervigilant of any inconsistencies that would indicate psychosis. Roberts was in a trance during her dictations, taught psi workshops, and toured while channeling live on stage. She had transcendental spiritual experiences while the channeling occurred, and appeared to have much less need for control over the situation.
Both women felt unreservedly that the work they did in channeling was important although they did not feel responsible for the content, only for reproducing it accurately.
Channeling for skeptics
I think there is no point in trying to convince a skeptic that channeling occurred. There is simply no way to know empirically with our current methods where the material came from. Most observers agree it is substantially different in content and tone from the other work produced by its authors and usually of substantially higher intellectual caliber. But one can always argue these women had split personalities, that it was their subconscious rising to the fore giving the material, that the men they worked with influenced the work, that it was a hoax, etc.
The only way to get away from that is to evaluate the material on its merits alone. Read the channeled content I suggested, and ask yourself if you have ever read material so logical, clear, succinct, and well organized. Also, the material is internally congruent, congruent with that of the other channeled material I recommended, with Jed McKenna's work, and with that of other spiritual teachers such as Rumi, and Chogyam Trungpa.
If you’re a skeptic you should be capable of turning skepticism on your own rejection of channeled material. Are you rejecting it because it is inaccurate, or because its source refutes your own unproven assumptions about the nature of the world?
(This is a question I failed myself which is how I know to ask it.)
Like Helen Schucman I had a really hard time accepting the source of channeled material, but no difficulty at all accepting that the material itself was true. That was obvious because its content was logical and I’m an academic writer for the ivy leagues — I can tell high-end writing when I read it. I simply don’t know any humans that can produce written work of that caliber. Certainly never in a straight dictation.
At the end of the day, I accepted it because why not? It’s not inconsistent with advanced physics. If consciousness is independent of space-time then there is no reason to assume transfer of information like this could not occur. Indeed it must be occurring continually.
I’m willing to accept that I don’t know and that means I have something to learn.
Channeling for spiritual awakening
At the end of the day, I could give a crap how the material got here. All I care about is if it’s true.
I’ll talk about this in other settings but at a certain point of spiritual awakening, it becomes absolutely intolerable to believe in a lie. Not only is untruth and unlove physically uncomfortable, it is mentally unbearable. I would do anything, and give up anything to know the truth. All my time is spent in what Jed McKenna calls “the hot and narrow pursuit of enlightenment”. Anything that sheds light on my suffering is like cool aloe-vera on a burn.
For me, Seth Speaks, all the work by Jed McKenna, and a Course in Miracles are all consistent, rigorously logical, and triangulate to point one direction — towards shedding bullshit and waking up.
Not all material that is reportedly channeled has this ring of truth. There are many other people who claim to channel angels etc, but their material is not clear, nor consistent, and leads in circles. I cannot tolerate reading that stuff anymore than I can tolerate my own meandering mind.
So the use of channeled material is only as good as your ability to distinguish truth from a lie. If you have practiced discernment, can recognize truth, and feel that the material helps you, who cares how it got here?
Your focus is inward anyway.
Channeling conclusion
The source of channeled material is hotly debated. No scientist is likely to be happy to accept how it got here. The good stuff is clear, concise, and congruent with itself and other channeled material.
I don’t care where channeled material came from it it alleviates my suffering, reduces my bullshit, and shortens the time before I can wake up completely.
