Channeling

A process in which information is supposed to be transmitted through human recipients from beings on another plane of existence.
Channeling is akin to mediumship but by no means the same. A spiritualistic medium performs in a trance. Channeling may involve a trance, but not necessarily—the recipient may be awake, in a state of conscious receptivity. Also, the beings that are contacted

by mediums are believed to be spirits of the dead. Some opponents have claimed that they are actually evil spirits, impersonating the dead to deceive the living. The entities allegedly contacted in channeling are neither. They are regarded as higher beings with messages for humanity.
This phenomenon was at its height during the 1970s and 1980s, afterwards declining in popularity. The best known of the entities contacted was probably “Seth,” who was channeled through Jane Roberts from 1963 until her death in 1984. He communicated a mass of material to a group that gathered around her, talking about the nature of reality and human beings’ relation to it. His favorite maxim was that “You create your own reality.” The Seth material was published in several books.
Another channeled text was A Course in Miracles, communicated through Helen Schucman, a research psychologist at Columbia University in New York City. Published in 1975, this was concerned, among much else, with distinguishing truth from illusion. Other entities named in the channeling connection were “Lazaris,” “Ramtha,” and “Emmanuel.” Lazaris transmitted psychological teachings through Jach Pursel. Ramtha appeared first in a vision to J. Z. Knight, a woman in Tacoma, Washington. This was an unusual case because when Ramtha communicated afterward, she went into a trance like a medium. Ramtha claimed to have been a warrior in Atlantis 35,000 years ago. Emmanuel spoke through Pat Rodegast, the result being a volume published in 1987 entitled Emmanuel’s Book: A Manual for Living Comfortably in the Cosmos.
While the products of channeling are voluminous, it does not appear that they have ever been seriously predictive. It must be added in fairness that a phenomenon rather like this has been suggested as underlying some prophecies that do call for an explanation. With the channelers themselves, however, the case is different. There is no need to dispute that their outpourings have had value for some readers, even, perhaps, for many readers. But it remains a question whether higher beings have ever really seemed to be speaking through them. Channeled material lacks the literary quality that might be persuasive, and it is doubtful whether it has ever included factual information, unknown at the time, that was afterwards verified—one of the few tests that could carry weight. Channelers can probably never be proved to have done more than reprocess their own reading and reflections or other people’s.