General Topic : Channeling Specifically : Divination Devices.
Picture a scene... Six young students; four women and two men. Ages ranging from seventeen to twenty-three. All are sitting in a small dormatory room. One male sits on a bed near the door nervously watching the group. Two of the women sit on another bed; nearer to the action. One of these women wields a pen, busily writing down the letters that the members of the group call out. Within arms- length two females and one male sit around a small table. Thier eyes transfixxed on a small glass cup which upon each one has a single finger resting. The table is divided into many sections; The alphabet lay scattered about in organized chaos surrounding and crossing through words such as Yes, No, What, and Why, among others. The room's lights are slightly dimmed. Even though no one says it out loud, there is a great feeling of expectancy. Each of the six has a hidden reason for attending, yet all are curious to play with toys that they were never encouraged to play with as childred.
Channeling a neither something new nor something old, it is something that has always been. The above scene is a picture from memory. Many times I have seen postings on this group and others describing channeling as being demonic. Now I'd like to take a moment and describe my knowledge of channeling. Hopefully, this knowledge may open a few minds and give a new perspective to an unaccepted social practice.
Basics: The diversity of channeling devices is astounding. Almost anything can be used to channel. A channeling device is anything that is used in conjunction with oneself in order to better understand the messages one recieves. Some of the more known devices are tarot cards, Ouija boards, divination rods (the common name escapes me for the moment), and autowriting. There are thousands of other devices used in conjunction with channeling. No device has been proven to be effective in the interpretation or amplification of channeled messages. (Professor Reich's device excluded - as I've never read a proper report on it yet.)
To narrow down a bit, I'll stick with the device commercially called a Ouija Board. The history of the board can be found either on a boxxed set of the game or within the backlogs of the forum. I'll stick to the name Ouija Board hereafter, even though many channeling boards are nothing like the game set.
A ouija board can be of any size or dimension. It can contain words, numbers, letters, symbols, or anything else for that matter. The commercial set uses a plastic pointer with felted bottoms to ease it's abilty to slide on it's board. Some people refer to the pointer as a planchette. The pointer can be almost anything that will easily slide on it's board's surface. Glass vessels are often used. Most- likely this is due two one of two reasons: 1) the crystaline properties inherant to it's structure or 2) it's a handy item that most people have around. As to the board design; there are many. Some people tend to stick to the commercial set, while others design hand-carved wooden tables with polished glass tops. Blood is also used by some who believe that once one becomes part of the board then they can master it's power more easily and control it's forces better.
Preliminary Ceremonies: Sometimes a cloth is kept with the board to wipe it clean of spiritual residue before and after the board has been used. Mostly, it's a good idea to keep one's board free of dust so the pointer can move freely. Another practice is to dim the lights and light a candle(s). A prayer of protection is also used often to protect the channeler from evil forces. Many practices are used, as there are too many theories and too few facts to give people. Most people are afraid and will do anything that they think will aid and protect them.
The Act Itself: Initially a session begins with a number of people grouped around a board. The number commonly varies between two and four members. A common belief is that a person will be open to a spirit's will if the person maniplulates the board alone. The initial cerimonies are preformed and each member of the group places a finger or two on the pointer. If there is no table then the board is placed so that it touches the knees of each of the members. Usually a caller is determined, a person who is either experienced with channeling or one who has a strong will. Hereafter the session can go in a multitude of directions. Common practic is for the caller to ask if there are any spirits in the room. If there is no caller, then the channelers take turns asking questions of the spirit; either verbally or mentally.
Some Facts About the Spirits: [Ed. note-- refer to my comment at the beginning of this document. Most deleterious effects can be avoided by working withing a 'protected' area. --Amythyst]
Observations: Devices such as Ouija boards are no better or worse than any other such device that a practitioner uses as a focus. For once someone has mastered the ability to focus thier attention, such devices will not be needed again. Granted, no one likes to abandon the one tool that most aided them on thier path of learning. Initially a person begins as a student, learning the basics; like how to feel and how to tell the difference between feeling true forces and non-true forces. A true force is one that is physical and can be measured (assuming one had the equipment or resources). Non-true forces are those that come from one's imagination.
The second level is when one can not only feel, but also hear. Usually one has to teach oneself to hear. To hear one must open thier mind to the speaking voices. When one begins channeling they cannot feel nor hear so thier limbs must be forced to move a pointer on a board. Breaking words down to thier components (letters) is not always an easy task. It is much easier to hear a whole word then wait for the board to spell it out for you. Mostly what one needs to do is listen for the words and guess at thier meanings, but never force the pointer to letters. If you're guess is correct then good, if not just keep at it. If your ability good enough or the spirit strong enough, you will hear it's words of frustration when your guess is wrong. Once you can hear words, sentences will not be far behind.
The last level (surely not the last) is when the channeler puts down thier device and no longer needs it. When this happens, the channeler can now see. Like the other levels, seeing is an enhancement of one's existing abilities. To see one needs to have found thier focal point. To say it is a point of great power is to under estimate it. For each person the exact point is different. Once one can see, this ability will stay with them, even if they give up the pratice of channeling. Seeing covers many areas; it is the visualization of auras, second sight, travel, among many other things. This level is a spring- board point from which the channeler can easily move on to other psi-related areas.
Expectations: Why does a ouija board directly/indirectly contact spirits whereas tarrot cards only seem to flirt with spirits who know the future and past? The reason is that our expectations of these devices are different. When one uses a ouija board they expect to contact a spirit (or non-tangable force). If one thinks they will come in contact with the devil, then maybe they will. It's an internal force that one deals with when channeling. For this reason, a novice can easily interpret a subconcious effort for a true spiritual confrontation. One's fears of meeting the ultimate evil or one of his dominions can easily force one to perceive fantasy for reality. Likewise, if one expects that they will be possessed by a spirit, then it may just happen, but it will be a force of the mind rather than an exterior force. These possessions can be easily fixxed by giving the subject something positive to focus on. Many times self-induced possessions are the result of depression. Once the person has announced that they have been possessed they will recieve companionship and the attention of thier peers. Given this attention most cases will disapear.
Misconceptions: If you channel, you can easily be contacted by one [evil entity] and not know it. [...] Ouija boards are gateways for entities, they especially are contacted by nasties because it's an easy gateway for them to get through. Remember, evil entities will not seem evil all of the time - thier goals are to get to our world and manifest.
This is a clear case of the misconceptions that, unfortunately, are taken as truth. There are indeed such things as evil entities, but channeled spirits are not always evil. It is just the evil ones that people find most worth noting. One thing that should be remembered is that a Ouija board is nothing more than a device, you are the medium through which the entities converse; the gateway is you.
Invitations: The invitation of entities may not be wise, for it releases many forces. A free entity, unless controlled, will most often express it's presence in unexpected ways. It's not that freed entities are neccessarily evil, it just means that they have been cooped up with no way to express themselves and thus tend to be bit over-zellous. This in no way confirms the existance of entities, it just means that there are forces at work that we do not fully understand. As stated before, one's expectations can be an extremely powerful force. When one expects an entity and truely believes in it's existance, they may indeed fabricate one from thier own will. Whether this is a concious or subconcious force is not clear, but it is believed that a person can induce telekenetic forces from thier own will.
Poltergiests and Entities: One of the more famous encounters with forceful entities is detailed in the Warren's book, The Demonologist. The case tells of a teenaged girl who took up playing with an Ouija Board. The girl encountered an entity that claimed to be a sixteen year old boy who had once lived near her prior to his death. The girl, being lonely, made contact with this spirit on a nightly basis, trying to find out more about him. She became romantically attached to the spirit. She told the entity that she wanted to meet him and in doing so invited him to her world. After this calling her life and her family's was in constant termoil. In essence she had called forth a poltergiest; an entity of mischief. The Warrens were called in and after a couple of weeks they persuaded the entity to leave the family alone.
In this case there are a few factors that stick out and may have enhanced the encounter: a) The girl's loneliness and possible depression, b) The age of the girl. Emotions such as loneliness and depression express themselves as darkened areas (voids) in a person's aura (or bio-magnetic/electric field). When a person channels, they open themselves to the entities. If a void exists in one's aura it is not difficult for an entity to merge it's energies with those of the channeler's. The more a person uses such a channeling device while in this state of mind, the more chances the entity has to work itself into one's own field; in essence it anchors itself and burrows in. Once an entity is "attached", it can do several things: a) Possession, b) Gateway through, c) Bind.
A possession occurs when an entity is able to burrow down far enough to attempt to gain control of a person's internal electrical relays. Possessions have to be allowed, even asked for in order that they may occur. Living beings have what one would term as "shields". These shields protect one from being attacked by low energy bursts (psi) or continuous low intensity fields (entities). When a person becomes depressed they begin to internally weaken thier shields, thus inviting attacks by entities. One thing to note is that while one lives they cannot fully drop all thier shields (unless trained). Like any well constructed machine, the human body has many redundant fail-safe guard systems.
The second possibility is gating. A spirit, if given enough oppertunities, can gate itself. Gating of this manner relate to the entity's ability to passthru the channeler's energy field(s) and roam about the living world as they please. There's one major flaw to a spirit gating itself; the entity's energies are linked with the channeler's. If the channeler works hard enough to rebuild and strengthen thier aura, they can in effect banish the spirit. While linked to the channeler the entity cannot roam far, and it's roaming range is severly limited. Since the entity would rather stay in the world of the living it may try to prevent it's host (the channeler) from rebuilding his/her aura. If an entity is desperate enough it will try almost anything to keep it's host distracted and if possible try to drive the person into greater depression so that it may establish a greater link. Gatings of this nature are usually the result of incompatible host/entity relations. When an entity and it's host are compatible they establish what is termed as a "link".
A link is more complex than a gating because it involves a willful merging of both the entity's and the channeler's auras. A link involves the sharing of energies as well as knowledge. Compatibility of entity and host is essential because a link boarders on gating and possession, but it requires cooperation whereas the other two require force. Links can lead to greater understandings and manipulations of one's own psi-related abilities. [ Actually, when one channels, they are in essence establishing a link. Although a channel link differs in that the link is less successible to coruption. ]
The age of a channeler plays a strong factor in the stability of one's connection. Teenagers who dabble in channeling usually do it based on an ulterior motive. This most often being due to the need for speaking to someone who understands what they are feeling or experiencing. It's also a time in one's life that they seek to experiment and defy authority. In essence it's a time of great change, and with change comes much burden of thought. For some teenagers, channeling is a way to find a friend. For others it's a means of expressing thier inner feeling, even some that they are not aware of.
Observations:
Conclusion: If one approaches channeling with an open mind they will have little trouble understanding it. Yet, one who has an open mind is not one who is easily persuaded, it is just a person who can look at all things as though they are new. Looking at thing without preconcieved ideas is not an easy task, but it can be learned and once mastered one can see beyond most learned hatreds and fears.
Channeling is an art. It is an ability that one must strive towards. It can be reached many ways including meditation; which I haven't discussed. And like most other psi-related abilities, channeling is something anyone can do. There are many factors that can inhibit a person, the foremost being that of thier programming. From the point of conception, a child is burdened with programming from it's parents, from society, and from many other sources. One theory is that children shy away from thier inate psi abilities in favor of the positive reinforcements from thier parents. As people grow older and begin making decisions for themselves, they tend to experiment to see if they can gain back the abilities that they loss. The bond between mother and child may be a good example of this; the way a mother can sense when her child is in danger.
Afternote: When I mention auras I am referring to a general term. A living person is nothing more than a glorified machine that changes matter into energy. Basic laws of physics say that energy can never be loss, only transfered. The human body is constantly changing matter into energy and although a good bit of that is used for the body, there is an amount of it that escapes the body in the form of radiated energy. Some of this energy stays near the body in a concentrated form while other bits extend out into fields. There are several fields, some very distinct, while others are widely dispursed and somewhat amorphus. Based upon dispersion, the layers differ in color and magnitude. To say a person's aura is a certain color is incorrect. It is more to correct that one's field is comprised of a greater amount of one color than the other. Either that, or people are referring to the outer field. The inner field is a great display of a multitude of colors and shades. It's this field that I'd guess healers look at to see illnesses. By way of comparrison one could look at the reflection a gasoline gives, but an aura's colors are better organized and filled with less darkness. I'm sure many will disagree, even say I'm completely wrong, but in my defense I can only say that this is what I see.
In my experiences, the Ouija board is an instrument of the Oracle.....a strange force; the Oracle makes all decarnated dieties(esp. those meant for Oracle tasks,) possess neither positive nor negative centered - personalities. Some spirits/souls may lie when they usually don't, and some may laugh when they are really sad ...if affected by this strange force that dwells between the netherworld and this physical plane of existance. A basic theory on the astral world/theory is that it is composed of 7 planes of existance(the physical plane counting as 1 of the 7.) Experiences vary from individual to individual when encountering different planes...just like people's views differ about this physical plane. However, the basic principals remain the same. Dig further by reading the book, " The Astral World....dwellers and phenomina," by Swami Panchadsi. Most of the book I agree with and it can be ordered through any bookstore for only $2.00!
It may sound quite simple and childish to talk about the use of a Ouija Board when confounded by the awesome mysteries of the universe. After all it can be purchased in most toy stores or novelty shops and is usually regarded as “having a bit of fun” on a otherwise boring evening. You and a few friends, one or two who are a bit nervous or scared and your guaranteed an interesting hour or two. The biggest problem you usually face is how to get in contact with Elvis.
In my experience, the reality of this device goes much deeper than is commonly accepted, or should I say tolerated within our society. I was a very naive 17 year old when I first encountered the Ouija. Sure I had heard about them prior to that time. I had seen the horror movies where they were used and naturally apprehensive if not a little scared about trying it out. Now add to that the fact that the person who organized the event was someone who was known to friends and relatives as strange with the power to read minds and see into peoples souls, and you start to get the gist of how I was approaching the session. He didn’t own a proper Ouija Board but instead had 1 1/2” square cards each with a letter of the alphabet. This he placed in a circle on a table. He had a special crystal glass which he kept wrapped in velvet material in order to keep it pure. This was placed in the centre of the table and the idea was that we would each place a finger lightly on the glass and away it went. Of course the atmosphere had to be right so candles were placed strategically around the room giving off enough light to see the writing on the cards but still dark enough to make you wonder what was hiding in the corners of the room.
The actual contacting of a spirit involved ritual as well. The glass was turned over three times and this person would stare intently on it, trying to see an aura forming around the glass, and then when the time was right, he would instruct us to place our fingers on it and he would speak, “Is there anybody there?”. I cannot begin to describe the exhilaration I felt when the glass began to move, under our fingers, to the “Yes” card. Over the next two hours I witnessed things that have had an effect on me ever since. Now I won’t go into any details about that session as it is not relavent to what I am disscusing here, I just wanted to give you a run down of my first encounter and how it was setup.
Being someone with an inquisative mind I began wondering, a couple of months later, whether all the preparation and ritual was neccessary in order to achieve these results. First of course I had to become comfortable with doing this myself. So I did quite a few sessions with this person trying to discover as much as I could about the supposed do’s and don’ts in holding a successful session. There were things like not ever breaking the circle of letters or the spirit may escape, being firm with them so that they don’t take over. You know silly things like that. After a while I had the gist of it and did a few on my own. I even thought I could see the aura of the glass change which told me the glass was occupied. I know that this all sounds so tounge in cheek but stick with me, it gets better.
The first thing to go were the candles and the serene atmosphere. I used normal lights and had music playing in the background. We drank and smoked, munched on chips and peanuts. Yet it still worked. Then I thought do I really need a crytal glass? So I used a plastic cup, then a plastic bottle top and evetually down to a box of matches. It all still worked! Now you may ask why I did all this. What was I trying to prove. Well, to me, too many things we do these days are ritualized to some extent. Some more than others. Half the time we don’t even know why we do them. And when asked we say, “Thats the way its always been done” or “Everone else does it that way”. I wanted to prove that the mystical was not needed to perform this phenomanon. No witches brews or wizard spells were called for. Whatever was going on, it was independant of these silly man made decorations.
So the next question that came to me was, ok.. if it’s not a part of all these things I have been taught then what is really going on? Is there someone at every session who is pushing the glass? Are we being subjected to “Involuntary Muscular Contractions” which is the scientific term for what is going on. Or are we actually contacting something on a different plane of existence beyond our own? Lets look at these things individually.
PUSHING THE GLASS Now this is the first thing that a sceptic will say when they encounter a seance. Someone is pushing the glass. Believe me there were many times when I suspected the same thing and on a number of occasions found this to be true. But it did not explain all of the sessions. Particularly when you have two or three people with you that you can fully trust (you have to take my word on that). That the glass still spells things out and reacts as if there was someone there you were communicating with was proof to me that some sessions were real enough to discount tampering on the part of the participents.
INVOLUNTARY MUSCULAR CONTRACTION Only a scientist could come up with such a term. What it basically means is that if someone asks a question and lets say the probable answer is a “Yes” then involuntarily even subconciously, our muscles in our fingers push on the glass in such a way as to lead it to that particular part of the circle. Ok, that may be what accounts for some of the sessions. I know that certainly there were times when I could see people look to a specific letter and the glass would move in that direction. Using this method it is quite probable that whole sentences could be formed without the people being aware of what was happening. I decided there had to be a way to disprove this idea because not all sessions were that simple. What I finally worked out was this. I would take my finger off the glass. Then I would go into another room (with a witness) and write a letter down on a piece of paper. Next I would re-enter the room, but still not touch the glass, and tell the entity that I was concentrating on a certain letter and for it to go to that letter. Well as you might have guessed, quite a few times it did just that. Now considering that there are 26 letters in our alphabet it seems to be beyond pure chance that the rest of the group could guess the letter with any regularity.
CONTACT WITH ANOTHER PLANE So where does that leave us? If we can guarantee that the people we are with are trustworthy and are not pushing the glass and likewise if we can establish a communication which goes beyond Involuntary Muscular Contraction, then we have no choice but to accept that there is something beyond the people at the table at work. The question then becomes, what is it, where is it and what can it really tell us? Over the last 15 years I have come up with many answers to these questions. But none of them explains every circumstance fully, so rather than try to convince you of one thing or another, let me just give you some of the facts which hold true regardless of the situation.
Firstly there are a few different types of personalities(entities) you can come accross. The most usual, and unfortunately the most useless, is what we have come to call the “lower entities”. They are the ones that say they are anyone you want them to be. Are you my dead sister - Yes. Are you my spiritual guide - Yes. Are you my dead poodle - Yes. They get info from your mind and use it to make you believe they are who they want to be. So how do you know when you have someone like that? Well the first sign is how well and how quickly they spell words from the circle. This kind cannot spell to well and moves around the table quite slowly. Do not believe anything they tell you as it is usually a lie. The second kind is from what we call a “higher entity”. They are rare and will only present themselves if the group is serious about what they are doing and there is an important piece of info that needs to be told to one of the party. They are quick around the table and spell very well indeed. How do you know if this is not a trick by one of the lower entities, well usually the telling of an event yet to happen, which subsequently does, either in a few minutes or later on, is a good sign. Of course you cannot test this until after so keep a check on what is said and hold your reservations until you have some proof. Unfortunately asking them a question which only you know the answer to is not a good test because as I have previously stated, they do have the ability to read your thoughts. So only something which is beyond your ( and that of the rest of the group) current knowledge can be regarded as proof. This can also be in the form of a technical question on something that is beyond the people present. Of course you must check the answers later to be sure it is correct.
The last two types are sometimes harder to accept. Although, again, I have tried every possible test to validate their claims. One is the higher self of a currently living person. This entity (call it the astral body) is usually available when the person is asleep. One of my greatest sessions, very recently in fact, was that of an enounter with my sons higher self. I won’t go into details of what was said as it is a bit personal for an article such as this. Needless to say that the information I gleamed from that session nearly blew me away, and every thing it said would happen, did happen. Believe me some were pretty far out. At the time I did not think these events could ever take place. But they did. And until someone can explain to me how this could be possible within current scientific laws then I will go on believing it was who it said it was. The last type is that of your own personal subconcious. Now I understand that this can be self deceptive and shed no new light whatsoever. But if we really do have higher selves, and our subconcious is part of that. Then it has all the knowledge it needs to draw upon. But only when it feels you need to know.
Of course apart from the first type the rest are very rare. In fact in the 15 years that I have been doing this, I can count the number of times I had one of the “good ones” on my fingers. Believe me that is very discouraging. Nevertheless these few times were worth all the crap I had to put up with.
My advice for anyone wishing to attept this is do it with 3 or 4 people you trust. Make sure you are all serious about what you are attempting. Never believe what is said until there is some proof. Watch for how it moves around the table and how accurate it is. And if you need ritual to get in the mood then so be it. But don’t do it because you think you must. It’s all just a lot of hoohaa.
© 1997 asmoday@hotmail.com
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