Sources of Channeling Errors

Before generally embracing quality channeled information, we must address the issue of channeling errors and the potential sources of it. By definition, the message comes through the channel; who in turn can distort (corrupt) the message and produce errors because of personal beliefs, limitations in conceptual knowledge and other (e.g., psychological health and personal integrity). Another source of potential error is the limited knowledge of the channeling source; all sources are not going to be highly evolved masters.

In considering potential sources of error in channeling, it would be useful to understand how channeling works. It is my understanding that the spiritual source transmits its information to the channel in the form of impressions or feelings that are “translated” by the channel into human language (1). At a given point in human evolutionary time and personal history, an individual channel will have language and conceptual limitations relative to spiritual, scientific, psychological, and social messages; this is the first potential source of message distortion. The next source is the opinions and biases of the channel. These may be thought of as resonant points within the channel’s mental energy field. They can create a blockage or interference (the corruption) in the channeled message. In many regards these are often related to the channel’s psychological and spiritual maturity. Overall, there are many points for breakdown and distortion in the perfect channeling of the source’s message.

Esther Hicks writes in the preface to her book, The Amazing power of Deliberate Intent (2), “They [Abraham Group] told me, in the beginning of my receiving them, that I was a particularly good translator for them because I didn’t have strong biases or opinions that would make it difficult for me to receive them clearly….it was that I wasn’t pushing hard against anything”. In the same book, the Abraham Group discusses the opportunity of error that arises is translating information from one language to another; and they end with: “And that is why we do not think it is a good idea for you to count on Esther’s translation, either. We think you should get your own”.

A minor, but telling example of how a channel’s personal beliefs distort the message is the language distortion, or slant, in the quality channeling information Edgar Cayce provided to us. Because of his very deep, fundamental Christian belief system, Cayce channeled his spiritually related information through the language of the King James Bible, which I experience getting in the way of message’s information. Cayce’s orthodox Protestant belief system was so strong that when he started getting information on reincarnation in response to client questions about reincarnation and past lives, he was thrown into a personal crisis; and he had to overcome his initial aversion and doubts before he was able to continue his great work (3). It is a testimony to Cayce’s commitment that he overcame his strong personal religious bias against the deeper spiritual aspects of his work.

Many people have had a personal experience with a medium or channel where they noticed (or had an intuitive feeling) about a distortion in the provided information. Michael Crichton in the second half of his book “Travels”, describes his extensive “field research” with British mediums during a period when he was directing the filming of The Great Train Robbery (4). Every evening after he had finished the day’s filming, he would walk past a Spiritualist church, where he got into the habit of stopping for a reading from various mediums. Crichton describes how he could tell when the medium’s message was of good quality and when they were getting in the way. He came away with an informed skepticism in mediumship and channeling.

Sometimes a channel will be asked a question whose answer is beyond the intellectual knowledge and concepts of the channel to “translate”, and the source will say that it is not able or worth going more into this. Susy Smith, who channeled an entity she called James through her typewriter, wanted to know more about the nature of space in the spiritual realm; but when she asked for more, the source typed: “This is beyond you. Einstein could understand it, or possibly one who has had a deep illumination, but not one with your limited training” (5). When I read and studied the material that Susy Smith channeled, I found considerable corruption (using a method that of comparing the information from a group of sources); and I fournd that her material to be an example of how a spiritual message can be corrupted by what was probably the biases of the channel.

Another good example of how a person’s belief system creates errors in a spiritual message is Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life (6). I found that there are deep spiritual insights and messages throughout Warren’s book; it is an inspired work that could be considered channeled using the broader definition. Much of it is very consistent with the messages from the quality channeling (and other) sources that I am using here, but his message is totally presented within an evangelical Christian background and biblical context. For example, in his message about life being eternal and the importance of living our human life with an awareness of ourselves as eternal beings, he places this within the context that how we live our life will determine our eternal relationship with God—whether we will end up in heaven or hell. Warren’s total belief in the Bible providing the fullness of God’s word blinds him to the possibility of reincarnation and a deeper understanding of the spiritual realm and ourselves as souls.

In spite of all the potential sources of errors, the potential for expanding human spiritual knowledge and practice with “quality” information from channeling and other new sources is so great that it is worth taking on the challenge. Our objective will be to find a way to minimize and isolate the inevitable errors that occur. In truth this is probably a much easier problem than the one of reconciling the large differences in the world’s existing religions, all of which came from or rely heavily on channeled information. I will present this approach in a future post

(1) This explanation was provided to me by Christie Pennington, the channeler of The Lightspeakers.
(2) Abraham-Hicks Material: Hicks, Esther, The Amazing power of Deliberate Intent: Living the Art of Allowing, Hay House (2006).
(3) Langley, Noel, Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation, Warner Books (1967) pp 11-13.
(4) Crichton, Michael, Travels, Alford Knopf (1988).
(5) Smith, Susy, The Book of James, G. P. Putnam’s Sons (1974) p 28.
(6) Warren, Rick, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For?, Zondervan (2002)

Copyright by Douglas Kinney