When I first came across the idea of channelling, like most people I thought it was to do with connecting with the recently departed. Accordingly, when someone told me that I must have channelled my first book, I took it with a pinch of salt.

Just a few years later, I not only channel daily but I find myself teaching other authors how and why to do it.

Channelling is not a special gift, we all can do it but for many reasons it has been suppressed and sometimes is treated with derision in our society. Fortunately, the word has entered popular culture, with many pop and film stars saying that they channelled their performances.

Virtually all the literary greats will testify that they did not know where their Muse exactly came from but allude to it being external to them.

We also have this gift innately but somehow lose it. For example, seeing a child immersed in a drawing reminds me of the famous Picasso quote …

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

By learning to channel, we can get back to this child-like state of awe and wonder, but with all the experience and wisdom we’ve amassed over our life times.

Passive vs Active Channelling

I found out there are two types of channelling. Passive channelling is where people let themselves be taken over. When this happens, sometimes the literary output tends to be a bit repetitive, and quite often frankly a bit dull.

When you actively channel, all that happens is that your conscious mind gets out of the loop and you silence your inner critic. You don’t lose control from directing the flow, shape or semantics of the work. You just get ‘in the zone’.

What’s more, you come out with stuff that you amaze yourself with, both from the perspective of quality and the level and detail of information that you didn’t know you knew. This applies equally well to musicians and artists as it does to writers. I’ve lost count of the time when writing where I’ve got access to information that I could not have possibly known which latterly I’ve discovered was true.

So what are you channelling?

Again the common misconception is that we channel recently departed spirits and indeed some people do. More commonly people channel their guides and some say they channel Ascended Masters, angels and archangels. I’ve worked with authors who channel elementals like fairies and others that channel the Sun, Earth, Moon and stars. Again, whether this is all true or not is down to one’s personal belief. As it happens, my favourite theory is that we channel our future selves who of course we strongly morphically resonate with.

Now I don’t doubt this is what people are experiencing but I feel this is likely to be more personal intepretation than fact. What is more likely to be happening is that we are connecting with levels of consciousness that we struggle to explain in our language and three dimensional reality so they end up with names that sound a bit far out. Also, sometimes when people lay claim to channelling x, y or z, all too often, ego sneaks in to play and common sense goes out of the window. Two elements that are not overly healthy in the creative writing process.

Note that some people claim that, “It must be true as they channelled it”.

I prefer to say, “I channelled this so please take it with a pinch of salt but I hope it either proves useful or entertaining.”

I am agnostic about who is channelling what exactly and prefer to focus on the output. What seems to work a treat in this regard is not channelling randonly but giving whatever source is feeding you with information to a structure. In my ecourses and workshops, I use Mind Maps. They have the added bonus of bypassing that inner critic by busying the left hemisphere so the right can be holistic.

It’s worth noting that you are also not limited to channelling the words (or images or sounds). You can also ‘channel’ or conjure up the perfect publisher, sales and marketing contacts, speaking engagements and your readership.

So how do you go about it?

Regular meditative practice is the key. This doesn’t mean sitting cross legged on the floor for an hour chanting “Om”. A good walk so long as you primarily look up is good enough. There are also some great Meditation Machines you can buy nowadays.

Undertaking a yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi or Qi Gong class is also a great way to immerse yourself in the state that is ideal for channelling.

Nowadays, in a busy world, a good entry point to channelling is learning How to Quieten Your Mind

And, if you want to unleash the book inside you, learn How to Channel Your Book