Channeling As Part of My Spiritual Practice

I often wonder what people think of the term channeling.  The way I experience it, channeling is easiest described as being a bridge for a transmission of energy – whether that is a feeling or set of ideas.  It might be an old, new or strange idea to you, but read on and I’ll tell you what pulled me into being a channel.

It all started for me when my brother Drew died of sudden heart failure.  He was young.  It was a week before his 24th birthday to be exact.  We were close, and he was living with me and my family when it happened.  The grief was tough as you can imagine.  Part of the way I dealt with it was to write to him.  I had started doing the practices in Julia Cameron’s Book: The Writer’s Way.  I would wake up, grab my journal and just do a mind dump in stream of consciousness fashion, straight for 10 mins or more.  

What was interesting was that over time I started experiencing a flow of words coming through me that seemed far more meaningful than anything I could have thought of.  I found what was emerging so healing.  I kept exploring this and as someone always interested in the metaphysical, I heard about automatic writing.  This was a term popularly used in the later 1800s by spiritualists, artists, mediums, and others to describe unconscious writing.  It feels like allowing something to flow through you onto the page in my experience.  Some famous spiritualist include Arthur Connan Doyle, Mary Todd Lincoln, Hilma af Klint, Thomas Edison, Carl Jung, and others.  

I started opening to the possibility that maybe the words were more than inspiration, but possibly a communication.  So I tried writing questions about my life that I needed help with.  It was so profoundly useful, I’ve never stopped.  At first, I wondered, was it my imagination, was it what writers call the muse or could I even be making it up? I often felt that I was dialoging with the wisest part of myself.  Over time I learned to trust the feeling of the transmission and see the value of the messages far beyond the doubt.

For me, I fell in love with the clarity and gift this is in my life, so years ago I took formal training in channeling. I shifted from written channeling to voice channeling, and do it daily unless I’m ill or something unusual interferes.  It’s become part of my daily spiritual practice. 

Here are a few keys to my learning process: 

·      One of the key factors to channeled messages is the importance of clarity.  When a channel opens to receive a message, personal biases can interfere, so it is critical to learn neutrality and step out of the way.  All people that channel are not the same, it is a gift and a learned skill. 

·      There is also an element of setting energetic boundaries that is very important to the process.  This includes part personal preparation and part setting clear boundaries as to where you are connecting to.  

·      Last, I always encourage anyone to trust their own knowing above all else. Whether you think of it as accessing your higher consciousness, inspiration, the universe or a specific non-physical being – you always have the gift/responsibility to decide what’s right for you.  You can ask yourself, does it feel like love, peace, or inspiration that leads me to a better place? 

Interestingly, there are a range of perspectives that come through on a given topic if I explore it in more than one session.  It is often like getting multiple views of the same idea, so that my understanding is broader afterwards. I receive so many blessings through it, but I offer it with one suggestion.  Take what feels right to you and let the rest go. 

This is your unique journey after all.  Blessings to finding your way as a divine, soverign being having a human experience.