How to Channel

[Janet]

From a workshop Troy ran on February 6, 2010.

 

@Tom participated in this workshop and managed to keep a recording of it all these years. Wonderful @DanielaS transcribed the recordings. Here is the workshop in all its glory.  

 

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Troy:  This is the first official Truth, Love, Energy workshop. It's February 6, 2010, and this class is Learning to Channel, and we're going to cover the basics.

 

So, the first thing I wanted to start off with is the concept of channeling. I wanted to share one thing that I've always found to be an obstacle or daunting about those who channel. There's this presumption that the channeling is just contacting spirits, contacting these profound teachers and doing some healing of some sort. What I want to do is get away from that limited definition of channeling and really broaden it out. What I consider to be the definition of channeling is creative access to consciousness, perceptions, and energies that are beyond what you consider to be your normal, everyday consciousness, perceptions, and energy.

 

So, that opens up the field to all kinds of things, such as creativity, art, writing. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you're accessing something otherworldly. It's just accessing beyond your limitations. And that's, I think, what channeling is. And I don't want anybody to feel like because they're not getting some sort of message from Hookah-bu-roo from Star Shine 11 Galactic Planet that they aren't channeling. But if anybody has a message from them, let me know.

 

So, officially I like to define the concept of channeling as creative access to consciousness, perceptions, and energy that goes beyond what you consider to be your normal everyday consciousness, perceptions, and energy. A person who is sitting down to write a novel and just sort of tunes into that flow of creativity I think of as the same thing as channeling when somebody accesses Michael, for instance. So, channeling is not just about connecting to other spirits or guides, but about opening to creative passages within yourself that are usually cut off or ignored.

 

The first step in beginning to channel is the ability to transcend yourself, to get to these higher parts of you. And that's the way I like to look at this concept, because if you can't do that, then it's going to be really difficult to reach beyond that. So, it's really important to start there, to be able to recognize that process of accessing more of you before going beyond that.

 

Channeling is also a creative process that leads to becoming a skill, no different than playing a piano or being an accountant or an executive or a musician or writer. So, I think of it as a skill. I don't think of it is a gift any more than playing the piano or creating a piece of art is a gift. Although, it does seem that some people have natural tendencies toward those certain things, and it looks like they're inherent gifts that that person brings. And if you want to look at it like that, then that's fine. But I always think of it as just that happens to be where they felt drawn to go, and they did their best in that direction. So, if you decide later in life, if you weren't a gifted pianist early in your life, that doesn't mean at some point you can't develop that skill just as beautifully as somebody else who was "gifted."

 

So, think of it as a skill, something that requires practice. It's not something that's just going to happen. It's not something that's just going to be handed to you or given to you. It's just like anything else that you have to work for. You have to develop the skill. And an important part of this concept of channeling is that, like I mentioned earlier, you'll always be channeling YOU first, before you channel anything else. You're never going to just be bypassing yourself as some sort of clear connection to whatever it is that you're channeling. You're always going to be going through YOU first. No matter what, you were going to be involved. And that's really important. We'll get to why that's so important later.

 

And so before I go on, I want to ask you . . . well, those of you who know me know I get really turned off by the whole exclusivity of anything. So, even though I channel, I think of it as something that I've worked hard to do. I don't think of it as something that was bestowed upon me and that now I will reveal to you these pearls of wisdom. I think of it as being no different than being a construction worker that worked really hard to be good at his job.

 

Depending on what tier you're interested in, you have to accomplish the tiers before that. So, if you go public, you will have had to have been your own personal channel and you will have had to have practiced by sharing privately with a small group of people before going public. So, it's also a process of widening your range of influence and sharing. And, also the breadth of what it is that you're getting.

 

As we go through this class, I hope to point out as we get to different sections how these things can be a practical thing in your life. I want them to be accessible. I don't want it to be something where you have to make sure the incense and candles are lit before you can tune in. This is something you want to be able to do, to turn on as a skill anywhere. Just looking at writing or let's say playing a piano as an example, you don't want to be limited by only your piano, only in your house, only in a certain way. If you truly make playing piano a skill, you'll be able to play it wherever you are. And even if it's a messed up piano, you can play the best you can with what you have.

 

So, I want this class to hopefully get that kind of thinking going where this is something that doesn't require all kinds of conditions. But that can eventually, for instance, with your writing, you won't be trapped by the fact that life has become distracting. You'll actually let that be part of the inspiration, part of the process of accessing that sense of flow.

 

So, now let's go onto the next area, and that is what I consider to be the three media of channeling, because there are different forms of channeling and you can mix and match them up. But there are three distinct ones that I've been able to observe.

 

One is Informational Channeling. That's someone who connects to and brings forth insights, understanding, truth. And it's usually done in the form of words so there are people who will do things that are informational. They channel information.

 

Empathic is the next media. I consider that . . . there might be better words for these. So, if you guys have better ideas I'd be open to that. But I consider certain channels to be Empathic Channels. And these are the people who bring more inspiration. They're able to bring out the more intangible aspects of channeling and they bring forth compassion and nurturing and even love. And it's a way of resonating with another person and connecting with them so that their intangible emotions and feelings can come up for processing. So, I consider them to be Empathic Channels. Sometimes just their mere presence is enough to bring that out. But it's more of an intangibility and it has to do with the emotions.

 

And then there is the third media that I consider to be the Energetic Channels. And these are people who help to bring forth whatever it is they're bringing forth to transform tangible energies that are a part of a situation or a part of the body. And a lot of people think of this as healing. They're healing channels. And a lot of times it's implemented through touch, like laying on of hands or concentrated intentions like Reiki at a distance. So, its intentions are to help transform tangible energies whereas the Empathics seem to be bringing through energies that help to transform or enlighten or gain insight into the intangible energies. And then the Informational one is just information.

 

So, when you guys think about what you're interested in channeling, what do you find yourself gravitating toward naturally? It doesn't mean that you're going to be limited to that because these aren't exclusive to each other. It just tends to be that you lean towards one direction or the other.

 

Whatever you intend to do isn't necessarily how other people are going to receive it. So, it's important to remember that. If you are providing information, that doesn't mean that somebody else isn't going to let that information help transform their intangible energies, their emotions, and inspire them. And just because you might be trying to do Reiki or energetic healing, it doesn't mean that somebody else isn't going to have their emotional bodies affected by that or gain insight in a way that could be called information. So, your intention is just to help you focus or to understand where your skills are or where your interests lie. But how it's received is going to be relative to the person receiving it. So, when we're going through these categories, this is more about your starting point, not necessarily how the other person's going to receive it or use it.

 

So, now I want to go into the actual steps of channeling that I've come to recognize as important to understand in the process of learning to channel. The first step is Reception, and that is the ability to receive those resources in the first place. The next step is Translation. That's the ability to interpret those energies and to make sense of them. So, there has to be that step of Translation. And then Transmission, which is the skill to manage and to convey and deliver whatever it is that you're connecting to in a way that becomes tangible. So Reception, Translation, and Transmission.

 

So, what I want you to do, if you have your pen and paper, make a column titled Inspiration, make a column titled Expressive ... Inspiration, Expression, Action, and Assimilative. Or you could use short abbreviations like INS, EXP, ACT, and ASS. I know, I know. [Laughs]

 

So, you guys probably already know where I'm headed with this, but we're going to delineate your profile so that we see how much emphasis you have in certain areas. So, there's an Inspiration column, an Expression column, an Action column, and an Assimilative column. And what I'm going to do is help you to delineate your profile so that we can see how much emphasis you have in those different columns. So, for instance, if you're a Server or a Priest, you need to put a little tick in the Inspiration column. If you're an Artisan or a Sage, you need to put a little check in the Expression column. If you're a Warrior or a King, in the Action column. And if you're a Scholar put it in the Assimilation column. So, we're going to go through that like that.

 

So, if your Goal is Reevaluation or Growth, put a check in Inspiration. Discrimination or Acceptance goes in Expression. Submission and Dominance goes in Action, and Flow or Relaxation or Stagnation or however you want to call it is in Assimilation.

 

Your Mode. If you have Reserve or Passion Mode, you're in Inspiration. If you have Caution or Power, you're in Expression. Put a check there. Perseverance or Aggression is Action. And Observation is Assimilative.

 

Your Attitude. Stoic and Spiritualist are Inspiration. Skeptic and Idealist are Expression. Cynic and Realist are Action. And Pragmatist is Assimilation.

 

Now Body Types are important here, too. But if you don't know your Body Type, then we'll get that in later. But your Primary Body Type can also be added in here as part of the count. If you know your Body Type, then this would be helpful. If not, then I'll see if I can get it from Michael as we go along. Lunar and Saturn are Inspiration. Venus and Mercury are expression. Mars and Jupiter are Action. And Solar is Assimilation.

 

The reason why I'm not going to put a lot of emphasis on the Body Type is because they're so confusing to a lot of students. That's probably the least understood part of the Overleaf System. And for now, don't give a whole lot of weight to that at this point.

 

Your Soul Age. If you're an Infant or Transcendental, put that in Inspiration. If you're Baby or Old, put that in Expression. If you're Young or Infinite-- any Infinite Souls among you? -- put that in Action. If you're Mature, put that in Assimilative.

 

Your Soul Age Level. First Level or Sixth Level, then you're Inspiration. Put a check there. Second Level and Fifth level, Expression. Third Level or Seventh Level, Action. And Fourth Level, Assimilative.

 

Well, let me just go through [the Body Types] really quickly so you can help yourself. If you have a Lunar body type, you're usually pale, a little doughy, a little slow to mature, but really smart thinking, quick thinking. If you are Saturn, you tend to be leaner and taller, but you don't have to be six feet tall. You just can seem tall. And then there are positive and negative poles, but I don't want to get too distracted with these Body Types.

 

Venus, usually you're very curvy. You've got curves, you're softer, you've got kind of a warmth about you that draws people in. Mercury, usually very ADD almost. They're usually a little bit quicker in their movements and lean, too. And tend to be talkative.

 

Lunar would be Inspiration. Mars tends to have freckles and tends to be pretty feisty and show up as having a lot of physical activity running through their body that can show up sometimes like temper or reactionary. They're just very physical. Jupiter can tend to either be overweight by our standards or physically muscular because they have a lot of physical density, a lot of physical mass. However it's shaped is dependent on how much they've focused on that. Solar tends to be very ethereal, petite, very petite often, and childish, in a lot of ways childish or extremely innocent.

 

So, but like I said, use that as a generality, but don't let it be . . . I'll send out some stuff about Body Types in the weeks ahead as a . . . yeah, I was saying, don't put too much emphasis on the Body Types yet just for the sake of that it's a study in itself. And I don't want anybody using the wrong information. Unless you've validated your Body Type or you can identify it very easily for yourself, then they should be pretty obvious to you if you look at the descriptions.

 

Centering is another one that you can use, if you find that you validated it and you feel like it's accurate to you. But because Centering changes a lot, I really don't like to use those unless it's a tie-breaker. Like, your Center and your Part of Center, if you find that there's an even amount throughout some of the columns or between two columns, then Centering might help you to break that tie, to figure out where the emphasis is in your profile. But Centering, ultimately we want it to be even, you know, you want to use all three Centers equally. So, I don't want to count those.

 

But your Casting is important. Does everybody know their Casting? Like Sage-Cast Priest, Server-Cast Sage. Okay. So, add your Casting to the count, and I'll go through them again. So, if you're Server- or Priest-Cast that's Inspiration. If you're Artisan- or Sage-Cast that's Expression. If you are Warrior- or King-Cast that's Action. If you're Scholar-Cast that's Assimilation.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] No, don't add Centering to it unless you have a tie. Chief Negative Features the same thing. We don't want to add that to the count because technically they're not Overleaves and technically they can shift and change depending on circumstances. Susan, I like to think of them as porcupines to embrace. Dragons to slay is from the Young Soul paradigm. Now we're in a Mature Soul paradigm, we want to embrace our porcupines.

 

So, now you should have one column that has maybe more than other columns. Does everybody have something standing out?

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] Madelina, what do you mean you only have two in three columns and one in one? Oh, you had two in three of your columns and one in one. So yours is evenly distributed among three columns. That's true. It does. Yeah, it should add up to eight, Madelina. No, because if we don't have Body Type, yeah. Madelina, what if you add your Centering into that? Does it break the tie? Intellectual Centering is Expression. Expression requires having a voice, so to speak.

 

So, look at where your profile has the most emphasis, whether it's Inspiration, Expression, Action, or Assimilation. Where you have the highest number is going to be where your strengths lie and indicates what comes naturally to your Personality. If there are any columns where you're lacking any kind of Overleaves or if it's empty, relatively speaking, compared to the other ones, that indicates where your Personality has to compensate. That's where it needs to focus on its challenges or to bring balance to the process of channeling.

 

So, let's go over the strengths and what they mean. So, if you have a lot of emphasis in your Inspiration column, it means that you naturally are inclined to the Reception stage of channeling. Your natural strength would be in dreaming and daydreaming and extracting insight from the imagination. So, if you have an emphasis in Inspiration, that means that a natural strength for you is your daydreaming and your dreaming and in receiving, finding the source in the first place.

 

If your emphasis is on Expression, then that means you are leaning towards the Translation aspect of the process of channeling, and that your natural strength would come from conversation. I like to use the word conversation because if you have a strength in this area, then you tend to have a strength in extracting insight from exchanges with people or exchanges from whatever. But you're able to extract insight from those.

 

If you have emphasis on Action, then that means that you tend towards having a strength in the Transmission aspect of the channeling, and that your natural strength comes through affection or the capacity to drop your boundaries, to allow a circuit between you and other people.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] That means that your strength is in Translation and that people who have an emphasis in this category tend to have the strength of conversation. And I use that word to capture the ability to extract insight from your exchanges with people. I just used the word conversation because it's about an exchange. And from what I understand, almost all of your writing involves exchanges with people. You're very interactive. And, like I said, we're going to get back to the Assimilation part. Until we get to that part, like for Ann, if you have any other column that has an emphasis go with that for now. Because the Assimilation emphasis is unique in itself.

 

So, going back to Expression, that means that your natural strength is conversation and then getting insight through exchanges, and you tend towards the step of Translation. If the emphasis is on Action, then you tend towards the Transmission aspect of the channeling process. And your natural strength would come from affection or your ability to drop your boundaries as a way to create a circuit between you and other people.

 

Before we go into the challenges, I want to point out that sometimes, depending on where you are in your life and with yourself, there's an imbalance toward that strength and it can show up as a problem. It can become its own obstacle. So, sometimes for people who have an emphasis on Inspiration or an extreme emphasis there or overcompensating there, it can show up as defensiveness in their lives. And, so if you have an emphasis in the Inspiration column, you can tend towards defensiveness. If you have an emphasis in the Expression column and you're overcompensating or there's an extreme imbalance, then it can show up as lying. It could show up as is literally lying to yourself, to others, and so on. If there's an overemphasis in the Action column or there's an imbalance that's being overcompensated, then it can show up as isolation. So, take note of those.

 

Now we're going to go into the challenges. So, the strengths themselves can become a challenge, so you want to keep an eye on that. But where you are lacking in your profile will also be its own challenge inherently.

 

If you're lacking emphasis in your Inspiration column, then you don't tend to lean toward the Reception aspect of channeling. And what you tend to do to overcompensate for that lack is to over-anticipate responses. You'll try to guess what's going to be said instead of hearing what's going to be said, or what's going to happen, or whatever. And so you're always over-anticipating. The key to balancing yourself if you have a lack of Inspiration is to practice listening. If you can practice listening to yourself, to others, to the messages of life, you can help to bring balance into that Inspirational column. So, anyone who's lacking Inspiration is lacking the capacity to listen.

 

If you're lacking emphasis in the Expression column, that means you don't tend towards the Translation aspect of channeling and you'll tend to overcompensate through speculation. The way to balance that or to practice bringing about a balance is to start telling the truth, to literally look at where you're only speculating things or deciding things without any basis and learn to tell the truth. Learn to tell the truth about what you're experiencing, learn to tell the truth about what you are seeing, what you're hearing. It's basically a need to get honest and real with yourself.

 

So, when you're lacking in that area, or even if you're overcompensating with it, even if it's a strength, keep in mind these solutions that I'm suggesting, also apply if you have an emphasis there and it's become an imbalance in that direction. For instance, on the Expression column, if you have a strength there, but you find yourself telling lies to yourself about your life or about your relationships or whatever, then the balance is to start telling the truth, to have reality checks.

 

And for instance, if you have a lot of emphasis in the Inspiration column, but it's become its own obstacle, then what you will need to do is listen as well, practice the art of listening.

 

If you lack emphasis in the Action column that means that you don't tend towards the Transmission aspect of channeling, and you will tend to overcompensate by retreating from people or retreating from your life or retreating from yourself. The solution to that is to practice asking for help, because when there's a lack of emphasis in that column there's usually a lack of sense that you deserve to get help or that you can ask for help or that you don't have permission to ask for help. So, if you have that column as a strength, but it's become overemphasized, or if it's absolutely lacking or the lowest count in your axes, then asking for help is part of the solution to bringing balance.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] Like I said before, if you have an emphasis in your Action column, it can show up as isolation. And if it's a strength and it's not being used, or if it's being rejected, then it's going to show up a certain way and it's going to show up like isolation. So does that seem valid? And the solution would be asking for help, being able to reach out, make connections with other people. Like if you're lacking in Inspiration, you'll tend to over-anticipate responses from other people. So, it can be a problem when it comes to channeling because instead of waiting for or opening up that flow, you're jumping ahead. And, it's kind of like being played out in a conversation where you presume what the other person's saying. And so you're already formulating your response to it. That's why listening is important.

 

Going back to these--some tools that you have. I've worked with Michael over the years to really hone these down to tools that are kind of across-the-board helpful for each of these categories. Even though you could come up with things on your own, these are the tools that I've found really make a difference in people's lives when they're working with this type of opening up to other energies.

 

So, if Inspiration is lacking or over-emphasized, then the tool that you can use to help bring some balance is dream journaling. It might sound corny, it might sound tedious, but it is tremendously helpful because it's going to help you practice listening, not only in your daily life, but in your sleep state as well. Even if you go several days without remembering your dreams or you don't get anything, it's still going to keep you in that mode of practicing, listening. Dream journaling, the way you would want to do that is before going to bed-- or you can read up on different techniques that might work for you-- but, in general, you would want to go to bed and invite yourself to remember your dreams and have something ready to record them. Don't trust that you'll remember them after you get out of bed. Write it out before you get out of bed.

 

The Expression axis, if you tend to have an overemphasis there or if you are lacking there, using oracles that require symbols as the medium tends to really help those people. So, like learning how to read tarot cards, learning astrology, anything that requires interpreting symbols. That tends to really balance out the person who is either lacking in the Translation category or overemphasizing it. So, you can come up with all kinds of different things like reading ruins, I Ching, anything that you consider to be an oracle that requires interpretation. I was going to suggest the Zen tarot by Osho. That tends to be a favorite among Michael students when they go into reading symbols. They're very friendly and beautiful and really make you feel invited to interpret. And the more you practice, the more accurate it becomes.

 

For the Action axis, this is going to sound strange, but those who are either over-emphasizing that area or lacking in emphasis could do well practicing psychometry. And that's because it's really important to make that circuit, that connection to something tangible outside of you. So, practicing psychometry can help. That means literally taking somebody's ring and seeing what impressions you get from it, looking at a person and getting impressions from them, holding their hand. Even palmistry can be helpful for somebody who is lacking emphasis or overemphasizing Action, because it requires another body involved. A lot of times it's touch, even though there's still an interpretive factor there, it still requires a lot of times physical contact, unless you are taking Xerox of palms, but still it's about the human body. So, it's very helpful for those who are lacking emphasis there or overcompensating or overemphasizing. So, psychometry is what I've found.

 

Just read up. I'm giving these suggestions, like dream journaling, oracles that use symbols, and psychometry. But what you would want to do is explore those categories on your own to find the techniques and methods that are comfortable to you. Those particular things tend to really help bring a balance if you're going to practice the art of channeling. And remember, the art of channeling means even getting you back into feeling like you're flowing when you write, or playing the piano fluidly, or whatever.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] Lack of emphasis, I would say, is relative to your profile. So, wherever there seems to be less than other places in your profile. In your case, eliminate the Assimilation area and where are you most lacking in the rest of it.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] Learning how to read people, literally. Studying psychometry and practicing either reading palms or reading a room or touching something and getting a sense for its history. Anything involving physical touch as a way to make a circuit.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] That would be good. That's a great example because there's a circuit being created there. Oh, that's a good one. I'll need to remember that for the next time that I do this class. A pendulum. That's good for Action.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] Touching people. [Laughs] Touching people appropriately, Geraldine! [Laughs] See, Geraldine. Hence your lack of emphasis on the Action. [Laughs]

 

All right, so let's go on to the Assimilation axis. The reason why it stands on its own is because the Assimilation axis in the process of channeling acts as the Comprehension step. The Comprehension step is basically making it work, putting it into effect, applying it, practicing it. So that no matter where your emphasis is in your profile, you're going to always need to find that that's the hub around all of the steps. Because eventually in order to actually truly channel, you're going to need to receive, translate, transmit, and comprehend that. So, the Assimilation axis acts as the Comprehension part of that equation. And another way of saying it is that it's the part of the equation that is about the practice. It's the part that represents the entire practice altogether. The effort, the practice, the time, the comprehension, the pulling together of everything.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] It's the process part? Yeah, it's part of the processing. It's the place that makes room for comprehending, for pulling it all together into a succinct picture, succinct effect, succinct impact, influence, or a piece of art.

 

So, if you have a real high emphasis in your Assimilation column, if the emphasis is strong, then you want to look to different parts of your profile to see where your "strengths and challenges" are. If the emphasis is weak there, then it means that you will probably tend to take more practice, more time, more effort, more patience, for you to implement the other three stages. If you just boil it down, it's the part of the process that's the practice part.

 

If you have a lot of emphasis there, that means that you could probably have a lot of dedication, a lot of strength to practice, or a lot of focus for practicing. If you don't have a lot of emphasis there, then you might tend to be scattered and have to focus a little bit more. The overemphasis on that axis means that you're trying too hard, that you are missing the point, that you cut yourself short because you're not getting it. You've overemphasized the practice part of it, intentions, and tripping over yourself or you're kind of stuck in a cycle of a routine that needs to be broken. So, if you think of it as the practice part of the equation, then you either over-practice or you under-practice. That's the easiest way to understand the Assimilation axis.

 

So, like for you, Ann, since you have an emphasis there, then that would mean that you can tend to probably make it seem really daunting or you stay stuck at step one the entire time. So, here's the solution because the solution to getting started at all in the practice of channeling is actually by emphasizing the comprehension aspect of it, the Assimilation aspect of it. So, although you're going to use these other tools to bring balance, this is where the actual practice is going to be, what you want to focus on as you are developing whatever it is that you want to channel.

 

The first step in the practice of Comprehension or in the practice of channeling is to know yourself because it's really, really important that, depending on what it is that you want to start channeling, you really want to be able to differentiate between you and YOU, or you and Michael, you and your guides, you and your inspiration, whatever it is that you're doing.

 

So, you really need to get to know YOU. And the best way to do that that I've found among everybody that I've worked with in these classes is to sit with yourself for 20 whole minutes, three times a week for at least a week, and literally get to know yourself. And I don't mean the Divinyls way. I mean, literally just sit there. Let all the emotions come up. Let the mind race and pay attention to what comes up. Pay attention to whether you're fidgety. Pay attention to whether you just can't wait for it to end. Pay attention to whether you fall asleep. But these are all going to be ways to get to know where you are with yourself. Do you fall asleep? Do you get agitated? Do you get completely distracted? Do you lose track of time? Does time move really slowly? It's really important for you to do the 20 minutes minimum, because the fact is, if you can't sit with yourself that long, and if you can't observe yourself in any way that's sort of objective, then you're not going to be able to get to the next steps.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] You could call it meditation, definitely, but I didn't want it to be so literal as what we think of as meditation. I just want you to sit with yourself. Like, sit and think. Sit and feel. But don't do anything else. Don't have the TV on. Don't have music on. Just sit there. And let it be the time that's made for you to get to know you. And by getting to know you, what I mean is getting to know how you sit with yourself, because that'll come in handy later, when you start to bring in other energies. You'll be able to tell: Oh, this agitated, distracted, over-anticipating part is me. Here's the source that I've connected to. And you can differentiate the two. So, sit with yourself 20 minutes, three times a week for at least one week. And see what comes up. Make notes about it. However you want to record that experience.

 

After you feel like you're able to sit with yourself -- because the ultimate goal will be to be able to sit with yourself and be okay with that. That's really what the sitting with yourself means. Sitting with yourself, no TV, no stimulation, just you. And if you can't do that, then you're probably not going to get very far with the rest of it. So, either keep practicing that, or don't worry about channeling because you really need to be able to sit with yourself. And ultimately, you want to get to a place where you're able to sit with yourself and it's absolutely okay. Like there's no stress for time. There's no stress for, what am I thinking? How am I thinking, how am I feeling? You're just present with yourself. And once you're able to get to that place then -- and I think a week is good. A lot of people can make those breakthroughs within a week. But if you can't, then extend it into the second week or third, however long it takes.

 

Once you're able to sit with yourself comfortably, then you want to start to invite your Essence to be a part of the process. And whether you continue sitting with yourself as a practice or not, you want to start to wake up in the day -- and this starts from the very first moment that you wake up -- and take a moment to invite your Essence to be a part of your day. I call the first phase getting to know yourself and then the second phase getting to know your soul. What you want to do is invite your Essence to be a part of your day.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] Bobby, no, you don't have to try to quiet your mind. No. You want to see what's there. You want it to come up. Until it doesn't. So, yeah, let your mind race. You might find you have a lot of things in there you didn't know were there. Make notes about it. See what happens the next time you sit down, whether there's more of a peace or whether it's higher anxiety, whatever, but just observe yourself.

 

When you bring your Essence into your day, which is stage two of this practicing, you want to bring that observation to your activities through the day, your experiences through the day. Pay attention to when you feel like YOU are reacting versus when you've reacted from Essence, where you're making decisions based from Essence or decisions based on YOU. One is not better than the other. The point is to be able to feel the difference. A lot of times the difference is when you are deciding from the place of Personality, there's usually a protective element involved. Some people might call it fear, but it's not a bad thing. It's just a sort of protective element. And when you're making decisions from Essence, there's usually a softer, trusting energy about it. So, observe yourself throughout your day, knowing that your Essence has been invited to be a part of it, and that you'll be able to tell when you're making decisions from YOU versus your Essence.

 

When you feel like you've experienced that to an extent, that it's clear that sometimes I make a decision from Personality, sometimes I make a decision from Essence, then you're going to be much more whole than you were before. Despite the fact that you're dividing them in your observation because you know about them, the part of you that knows that and is able to observe becomes the two combined. So, that's a trick that happens in the process of you observing yourself like that. Now you've got this trinity of Essence, Personality, and then the two that come together. And from that wholeness, then you can actually start to really channel, really bring in whatever it is that you are trying to tap into.

 

I call the next phase cleaning house. You start to invite these other sources -- either healing energies, or your guides, or Michael -- and you sit with THEM now. But as you sit with them, or your higher self even, then all of those three challenges that we talked about earlier -- over-anticipation, speculation, and retreat -- those are going to come up. No matter how much work you've done, once you get into that place where you're actually practicing channeling, you're going to be cleaning house and dealing with where you over-anticipate, where you retreat, and where you speculate. And so, you have to make room for getting information that's coming from your own consciousness, getting energy that's coming from your own body. If it's on an empathic level, then you're maybe projecting your emotions onto another person and interpreting those instead of actually getting a feel for that person. So, it's really all about clearing up those expectations, clearing out those anticipations. And you WILL go through that. No matter how good of a channel or how clear or how distinct your alignment is with whatever it is that you're channeling, you're going to go through that cleaning house period.

 

And that's why some channels I don't resonate so much with because they never went through that process. They brought that process to the public and they're channeling their own ideas about things in their own . . . and I'm talking about channeling in the sense of spirit channeling. I see a lot of people read a book and think they can channel. And then they bring that cleaning house to the public. And the cleaning house process can take a year to become a clear channel, a minimum of a year before you actually have those internal layers cleared out. So that not only can you tell what's you, what's Essence, but what's the source that you're connecting with. I think a responsible channel, if you're going towards the public level, works through the personal level, the private level, and then goes public after between two to five years.

 

The reason I say that is because I've seen the effects of people going: Oh, I can channel. And then they just go out there and it ends up [being] a lot of misinformation, a lot of pandering, a lot of tears. I've seen some people in tears because of the channeling that comes from that place. Also, it can be very confusing because you haven't learned how to discern and then you pass that on to your clients or the people receiving from you. You're passing on that inability to discern. And I don't think that's very cool.

 

So, know yourself. Get to know your soul. Become the central meeting ground from that observing place and then clean house. And then, after you've had that experience, then I would say that you could consider yourself to be a clear channel enough to be available for the public.

 

No matter where you are, whether you want to keep it on a personal level or a private level or public level, you're still going to go through these phases because you ultimately want to get to a place where you're clear in that process. But it's extremely important if you're going to go public. Keep in mind, this is just based on my experience and someone else may tell you something different. Go with whatever makes sense to you. This is what I have found through trial and error and from teaching the classes over the years randomly and getting to a point where now I feel like I'm comfortable with what I've learned.

 

The thing about channeling in this sense, when it comes to healing and channeling spirits, there's so much that's dependent on subjectivity that people count on that. Like I said, they pass on the lack of discernment so it's like one big fantasy game where I'm going to close my eyes and tell you gems of wisdom and you're going to pretend like it made sense. Then it sort of perpetuates. But I just think that it's no different than offering your services as a doctor or a pianist. I mean, a pianist wouldn't say I can play a concerto and walk in and play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. And then everybody has to be like: Oh, that's beautiful, because we're not supposed to judge.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] Nicolas is asking, did you find that in your personal channeling stage you were able to get clear, accurate info about yourself? The next stage we're going to talk about will explain what I'm about to say in response to you. But, I let the information come and then I judge it afterwards. I would say that the quality and accuracy just increased over time. Also, in the personal stage, I took it more as a way of dealing with getting insight and not information that required validation past whether it made sense to me or not. So, as long as it helped me to gain insight then I consider it to be successful and then I can build on that.

 

So, there were definitely more problems in the past with it. But now I've been in situations where me and my friends are seriously having an emotional, painful division among us causing us to not even want to be around each other. And then we come together for a private session with Michael and I somehow have no problems getting out of the way for Michael to come through and work with everybody. And counter to what my opinions are, counter to my feelings, counter to everything that I would have said myself, they're able to come through and get the insight that we all needed to resolve situations. I love that. So, I don't get in my own way anymore AS MUCH. I don't think you ever stop getting in your way sometimes.

 

[Reading participant comment] "Just to be clear, the cleaning stage is about practicing channeling OTHER and becoming familiar about all the sources from which stuff comes." Yeah, it really is. It's about that. It's that final stage of discernment. Being able to say, "My emotions got in the way here. I gave this information because I thought it was the most helpful when other information was available that actually might've been more helpful. I gave this information because I was afraid of scaring this person. I gave this information because I was afraid of being rejected by this person. I gave this information because my knowledge base wasn't broad enough to get the information through clearly." Yeah, all kinds of different things, but it's that final discernment stage.

 

For instance, even publicly in the past -- some of you might have been a part of that -- where I've been in trance and Michael has pointed out that I'm in the way, that I have influenced it in some way. I would rather them do that and me to be embarrassed slightly then to have the information continue. So, I've put these breaks in place that I don't mind getting called out on. If you're going to do stuff publicly, that's a really nice thing to do. Give permission to be called out by whatever part of you does that or other source and qualify the channeling or correct it. Like I said, there are some channels who have put it out there and then never went back and corrected it or qualified it, and now we have information that's part of the Michael Teachings that's not really from Michael, but from the channel because it's too embarrassing to deal with that sometimes. That's up to you, but I would rather be embarrassed than to contribute to confusion.

 

The next stage is the validation stage and I want to talk about that before we go. Then we'll open up the floor to more questions about other areas I thought about that you might be interested in but weren't essential. So, I wanted to include as part of this class an exploration of the concept of validation, because that is one of the only ways that you can truly discern. The validation process seems to be extremely misunderstood in the Michael community. It's kind of thrown around as meaning only one way, and there are four ways to validate. I'm going to go through those and see if they make sense to you and you'll be able to watch yourself and apply what's appropriate to whatever situation is happening for you, either in channeling or any other part of your life.

 

The four types of validation are Internal Validation, External Validation, True Validation, and False Validation.

 

Internal Validation is where it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks or feels or decides is true, it's true for you. Nobody else can validate it for you necessarily or has validated it for you. No one has agreed with you. No one else thinks it's true. You've decided it's true and that's enough for you. That's Internal Validation. That's what most people think is validation. I've decided it's true; therefore, it is. That's only one type of validation, and when you hear all of them, you'll see where it fits in.

 

External Validation is where somebody tells YOU that something is true. Whether you believe it or not or whether you agree or not, it's what's true AROUND you. It's feedback from the world that's telling you something that's different from what you think is true. So, for instance, somebody can tell you you're really beautiful, and you don't believe that or you don't care to even deal with that. It doesn't mean it's not true. It just means that it's only externally validated. Your beauty has been externally validated, but not internally validated. Somebody could be saying to you, you're really ugly and you're stupid. And that doesn't faze you because internally you think you're beautiful and that you're not stupid. So, your beauty has been internally validated, not necessarily externally validated. So, there's the difference between Internal and External Validation. What's true for you versus what's true for everybody else.

 

Oh, and by the way, a lot of people tend to think validation means ignoring External Validation. And that's not validation. That's only part of the process of validation. It first has to be true for you. But External Validation is just as important because it can be painful and it can be informative. It's there for a reason.

 

True Validation is when those two things come together. Somebody tells you you're beautiful and you receive that and you allow yourself to hear that. That's True Validation. Someone says you're ugly, and you believe it. That's True Validation because you have made it true inside and out. And of course this goes into the different layers of truth, which we can talk about, but we'll see how much time we have. But if it's true internally and true externally, that's True Validation.

 

False Validation is the fourth one. And that's where you've decided that something is true with no feedback whatsoever, internally or externally. It's kind of like blind acceptance. So there are people who do that too, where they falsely validate something by saying it was told to me, therefore, it's true. I don't believe it, I don't see any evidence for it, but it's true. That's False Validation.

 

So Internal, External, True, and False. Internal and External are important when they come together. It's True Validation. And when they're completely ignored, that's False Validation.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] False Validation is where you've concluded something with no feedback internally or externally. So someone says, God exists. You've never experienced it. You've never seen any evidence around you, but you decided that it's true because someone says it's true.

 

Keep in mind that sometimes True Validation isn't necessary for you to validate. If it's internally validated, that's important because what you want to do is allow room for it all to come together. For instance, let's say your connection with Michael has been internally validated. You've found the proof that you need, but you haven't been able to convey that to anybody else. There's nobody else to share in that validation. That doesn't mean it's not true. And it doesn't mean it's not true for you, but it may take time for you to find the people who will validate that externally. And that will come with practice and with accuracy. And when the information comes through that has an impact in a way that is what you intended, then the External Validation comes in. So you want to see these things as all coming together in different ways, but not necessarily that one negates the other.

 

The other one you want to stay away from, if you want to, is False Validation, but sometimes that's just as important as the others. For instance, the whole concept of channeling, if you've never experienced it and you've only really heard about it or seen other people claim it's true, there's really no place to start. So, you're deciding if it's a possibility. It's very close to being False Validation, but technically it's not, but still it's gonna feel really close to it. Like, I'm taking a leap here and going to go for something that I really don't know whether Michael exists, for instance. So, it's still all a part of it. I didn't want to make it seem like one is better than the other. Except that ultimately you do want to, especially before going public, True Validation is important. Because if you can channel all day long and if no one else is enjoying it or getting anything from it, it's not going to be helpful. You can play the piano all day long, everybody around you is going: God, stop it! It's not going to be helpful to go public. So, you're going to have a lot of Internal Validation at first and that's really important. Then you'll extend to External Validation.

 

[Reading participant comment] "I've had a couple of experiences that are like seeing a candle lit for the first time, but getting so excited you blow the candle out before you really get to enjoy it." [Laughs] I know the feeling! That's a really great way of describing it. Well, you learn to stay present. You learn to relax. Like sitting with yourself and inviting your Essence to be a part of the day, that whole process really helps. Because when I first started channeling Michael, I couldn't do it. I had to sit with Michael for months before I could actually speak on their behalf. And even then I almost passed out. My heart would be racing super fast and I would literally be terrified and think that I was going to die. And my friends would have to get me back because I was ruining the whole thing from my, I don't know what it was, my over-excitement at the process, like, "Oh, my God, Michael's here. Oh, my God!" And then I would just freak out because there was clearly something going on.

 

When I sat with Michael, it was the same way you sat with yourself. By this time I could tell Michael's energy clearly. What I started doing was using symbols for representing Michael so I had some amount of control over it. When I first started channeling Michael, instead of it just being some amorphous energy that I was letting come through, I imagined them as being a cape. I imagined myself getting a king's cape, you know, this kind with a big white collar with all these jewels. And when Michael was present, these figures would come up behind me and put the cape on my body. And I would just sit with that cape. That's how I sat with Michael. So, depending on what you're working with, symbolism is really helpful because it gives your mind something tangible to work with.

 

Oh, and by the way, once I was able to sit with them long enough not to pass out -- and there were reasons why I had trouble sitting with them for awhile. One reason was because in previous lives, apparently, I had decided to say: I'm open, I'm an open channel to anything because I want to explore this. According to Michael, through another channel, all these Infant Souls were jumping in and out of my body. Everybody thought I was crazy and they killed me because they wanted to put me out of my misery. Because apparently I was just, you know, letting all these Infant Souls jump in and out. I don't know how true that is. I get a sense that there's some validity to that based on my reaction from my body. It fit completely, because we carry our Instinctive Center from one life to the next and my Instinctive Center, once I started bringing Michael, recognized that as a threat. So, my body would fight the whole process completely and react. I had to re-teach myself that I was safe to let that happen.

 

After I started sitting with them for awhile and I had that symbolic cape sitting with me, then I was able to free it up a little bit more, to be closer to their own idea of themselves. It became this blue sphere. When I would go into my trance and have my visualization process, instead of the cape, it would be a blue sphere that would come and, not really surround me, but be there with me. And now I don't have to use any symbols at all. I just know that it's them.

 

[Reading participant question] "Did you have previous agreements to channel Michael? Wondering how that affects the process?" That's a good question. In the case with Entities and stuff like that, previous agreements do tend to speed up the process. But it's not really that it speeds it up, it just gets implemented sooner. I had, according to Michael, previous agreements, and they were just waiting around for me to remember.

 

My first conversation with Michael through another channel was to confirm that I had agreements before this lifetime and that they were just waiting around for me to remember. The reason why this was really profound to me to hear was because for two years before that I was working with my own personal guide and keeping notes and keeping a log of all the things that I was experiencing and going through the validation process and sharing with my friends insight from my guide, let them ask questions. Then my guide said that he would be leaving because I was opening up to a larger source of information. I kind of dismissed that because I didn't know exactly what that meant. They said that I would be meeting this source soon. I went into an old bookstore and -- everybody probably already knows this story -- but I reached for a book and my sleeve hooked on it and knocked the book off and I opened it up and it was Messages from Michael. But in the week previous to that, I had been working on a Ouija board with, I found out later, my Essence Twin, and we had asked a question and the board had said something that was confusing. And I said, well, I guess we're going to have to have faith. And then the board replied saying, "Faith is a lie. Faith is blind acceptance and things you don't know to be true. Why shouldn't you question?"

 

So, when that book fell and it split open, it went right to the passage that said, "Faith is silly," by Michael, and went on to say, "Why should you not question?" So, that's where I made the connection. Like, oh my God, this might be the source that I'm opening up to, but I didn't understand it. But as I flipped through the book, all of the terminology like Sages, Warriors, Kings, Old Souls, Young Souls, Sixth Level, Seventh Level, all these things were in this book that I had in my journals for two years and I had no context for them. Those two years that I was writing them out and getting all this information, I thought they were literal. I thought someone was literally a Priest in a past life, or a Sixth Level had to do with numerology and I tried to figure out how it worked in with their birthdates. I didn't know what the hell I was getting, but I found out later that I was being prepared with this whole base of terminology that ended up being Michael's terminology.

 

So, when I got my session with the channel, I didn't want to lead her in any way. I didn't mention any of that. But interjected into the conversation, Michael said, yeah, we've been waiting for you. You have agreements with this and you can start whenever. And that started the process of my taking it more seriously, because that was really profound to have that whole series of validations. And so I think previous agreements help set things up in that way.

 

Any last words before we close down for the day? Are you all exhausted? Do you have headaches? So, you guys have a good night. Thanks a lot for being such a great class. I really enjoyed that. Bye bye, everybody.

[lilag]

Wow - thanks for posting. 
This is super helpful and and accessible on many levels. 

[DanielaS]

Hi! Here is a worksheet I made when I transcribed this. I created a chart so you can add up your profile overleaves across the Axes and see which stage of channeling you lean towards and what are your strengths and challenges.

 

How to Channel Worksheet.pdf 

 

The three stages of channeling are Reception, Translation, and Transmission. To determine which stage your Personality naturally leans toward, map your Overleaves to the Expression, Action, Inspiration, and Assimilation axes. Circle the Overleaves of your Personality profile, then at the bottom of the chart, add up how many of your Overleaves are in the Expression, Action, Inspiration, or Assimilation columns.

[Janet]

And, once you've filled out the worksheet @DanielaS created, you might want to pop over to this session where a similar approach to mapping Overleaves was used: OMW: The Circuitry of Overleaves.

[Rosario]

so good!! thank you !! 

[Yin-da]

On 6/3/2021 at 5:31 AM, Janet said:

The first step in the practice of Comprehension or in the practice of channeling is to know yourself because it's really, really important that, depending on what it is that you want to start channeling, you really want to be able to differentiate between you and YOU, or you and Michael, you and your guides, you and your inspiration, whatever it is that you're doing.

 

So, you really need to get to know YOU. And the best way to do that that I've found among everybody that I've worked with in these classes is to sit with yourself for 20 whole minutes, three times a week for at least a week, and literally get to know yourself. And I don't mean the Divinyls way. I mean, literally just sit there. Let all the emotions come up. Let the mind race and pay attention to what comes up. Pay attention to whether you're fidgety. Pay attention to whether you just can't wait for it to end. Pay attention to whether you fall asleep. But these are all going to be ways to get to know where you are with yourself. Do you fall asleep? Do you get agitated? Do you get completely distracted? Do you lose track of time? Does time move really slowly? It's really important for you to do the 20 minutes minimum, because the fact is, if you can't sit with yourself that long, and if you can't observe yourself in any way that's sort of objective, then you're not going to be able to get to the next steps.

 

[Response to participant questions or comments] You could call it meditation, definitely, but I didn't want it to be so literal as what we think of as meditation. I just want you to sit with yourself. Like, sit and think. Sit and feel. But don't do anything else. Don't have the TV on. Don't have music on. Just sit there. And let it be the time that's made for you to get to know you. And by getting to know you, what I mean is getting to know how you sit with yourself, because that'll come in handy later, when you start to bring in other energies. You'll be able to tell: Oh, this agitated, distracted, over-anticipating part is me. Here's the source that I've connected to. And you can differentiate the two. So, sit with yourself 20 minutes, three times a week for at least one week. And see what comes up. Make notes about it. However you want to record that experience.

 

After you feel like you're able to sit with yourself -- because the ultimate goal will be to be able to sit with yourself and be okay with that. That's really what the sitting with yourself means. Sitting with yourself, no TV, no stimulation, just you. And if you can't do that, then you're probably not going to get very far with the rest of it. So, either keep practicing that, or don't worry about channeling because you really need to be able to sit with yourself. And ultimately, you want to get to a place where you're able to sit with yourself and it's absolutely okay. Like there's no stress for time. There's no stress for, what am I thinking? How am I thinking, how am I feeling? You're just present with yourself. And once you're able to get to that place then -- and I think a week is good. A lot of people can make those breakthroughs within a week. But if you can't, then extend it into the second week or third, however long it takes.

 

Once you're able to sit with yourself comfortably, then you want to start to invite your Essence to be a part of the process. And whether you continue sitting with yourself as a practice or not, you want to start to wake up in the day -- and this starts from the very first moment that you wake up -- and take a moment to invite your Essence to be a part of your day. I call the first phase getting to know yourself and then the second phase getting to know your soul. What you want to do is invite your Essence to be a part of your day.

Yes, this is the real work in getting to know yourself. I can highly recommend it, and I still continue to do this combined with "cleaning my house", as Troy put it up there, and inviting Essence into my day. I used to do 30 minutes, but now I can vary between 15-60 minutes depending on what I need.

Edited January 22, 2022 by Ingun