The word channelling has been introduced into the occult and Spiritualist language over the past 10 to 15 years and people are often confused as to what it actually means.

 Channelling is the ability to obtain information from personalities who do not live on earth. This is what mediums do when they use their sensitivity to link into spirit vibrations and, using either clairvoyance, clairaudience or clairsentience, or a combination of all three,  bring forward evidence from a spirit communicator which is relevant to the recipient of such a communication.

Channelling is also used to describe what is more normally known as trance mediumship. The state of trance is an altered state of consciousness and can vary from a very slight overshadowing of the medium’s mind by a spirit operator, to a very deep level of control wherein the medium’s consciousness is suppressed to such a degree that the medium has no memory of any occurrences during the period the control was taking place. 

A Medium who enters the trance state allows the spirit operator, usually one of his/her guides, to take control and influence the body, especially the voice box, thereby enabling the spirit control to speak to sitters and give spirit teachings or evidence of survival. This does not mean that the spirit guide enters the medium’s body  -  control can be exerted from quite a distance.

Some Channellers claim to bring through beings from other planets and alien universes. Claims of this kind should be considered in the light of any accompanying evidence. Without such evidence, these claims will never be given serious consideration by investigating scientists who are earnestly seeking evidence of survival of humans after the change called death. They are also very interested in information regarding other life forms but again, validation would be required.

 It is apparent, therefore, that all Trance Mediums and Channellers should be very careful who they allow to control and speak through them as there is a very real danger that they could inadvertently be instrumental in bringing discredit to the very people they purport to represent.