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Channelling (mediumistic)

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Channelling or channeling is the purported communication of information to or through a person (the channel or medium), from a purported spirit or other supernatural entity outside the mind (or self) of the channel.

Channelling is part of the belief systems and rituals of many religions, such as shamanism, Candomblé, Voodoo, Kardecism, Umbanda, and more.

Contents

General

Channellers claim to have channelled ascended masters like Buddha, Jesus, or St. Germain.; people that have died; angels; higher dimensional beings; and extra-terrestrials of a spiritual or more evolved nature. Channelling is a popular source of revealed teachings in some New Age groups. Well known channellers like Diandra (Salem), Esther Hicks (Abraham), Jane Roberts (Seth), and Lee Carroll (Kryon) have volumes of teachings on angels, chakras, higher dimensions, future predictions, manifestation, meditation, non-judgment, now moment, past lives, and spirituality.

The channels, depending upon their expertise, tap many tools to ‘channelize’ their psychic energy. They may use tarot cards, crystal balls, gems or dream analysis. They use their psychic abilities of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience.

One type of channeling is 'Conscious voice channelling,' in which the channeller calms his or her mind and 'connects to the energy' of the source being channeled. The source uses the vocabulary of the channeller. Channellers in this state usually have their eyes closed and are conscious of the room and what is being said. They then, alledgely, allow the source to speak through them by staying in this calm state.

A less common form of channeling, 'Trance channelling,' occurs through deeper meditation in which the Channeller appears to have their consciousness leave their body and the 'source' enters. Observers may notice the channeller's voice and mannerisms change when the transition is complete. This is not related to multiple personalities. The trance channeller will later reconnect to their physical body and the session will be over. The depth of the trance varies, with some channelers recollecting the entirety of the session while others are conscious of little or none of the transpirings. Deep full-trance channeling is relatively rare. Trance channelling appears to use the same dynamics as astral travel.

Research

The late professor Marcello Truzzi, a sociologist formerly at Eastern Michigan University who co-founded the "Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal" and the "Center for Scientific Anomalies Research", prefered to maintain what he calls "constructive skepticism" until someone comes forward with channel information that is evidential.

Criticisms

The claims of some channels have been found to be without merit, such as Mina Crandon. Harry Houdini was a famous debunker of psychics who claimed they could channel spirits. James Randi offers a million dollar prize to anyone who can prove they can do anything paranormal(as do many other skeptic organisations). Despite these money prizes, famous Channellers such as John Edward, Sylvia Browne and James Van Praagh have not attempted to claim them.

Critics claim that channellers and other psychics use techniques like cold reading and hot reading to appear to have mystic powers.

Examples

John Edward's show "Crossing Over" has been criticised for heavy editing, audience planting, hidden microphones and other techniques for information gathering[link]. Sylvia Browne has gotten many things badly wrong - famously, upon hearing miners caught in an accident were all alive while on a chat show, she stated that she had known it all along, while criticising people who claim, after the fact, that they had known something all along. Then, later in the show, when it was revealed that twelve out of thirteen of the miners were actually dead, claimed that she had known that all along - without offering an explanation to her previous contradictory claim[link]. James Van Praagh is noted to often ask questions to a person, then restate their answers as if spirits had told him that information[link].

Other channellers, who provide messages of inspiration, as opposed to information about individuals, often provide little in the way of testable information about their claims, but typically can gather large followings of new age types.

Books, channelled texts, entities and mediums

Books and channelled texts

Several notable books describe the entering of a trance state to allow the dead to speak through the medium or channel, or a spiritual guide to convey messages from other spirit men to listeners (see séance).

Entities and mediums

Channelling in fiction

In fantasy literature, the term channelling is sometimes used in other ways, particularly to describe a person's ability to draw on some form of magical power. The Wheel of Time series, for example, uses the term extensively (although it is by no means the only work to do so).

See also

References

External links

 

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