Following are highlights from the book Opening to Channel: How to Connect With Your Guide. It is written by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer, published by H. J. Kramer Inc, Tiburon, California, in 1987. Much, even most, of the material in the book has been channeled to the authors by their guide spirits Orin and DaBen.
Channeling and mediumship are united. The medium channels: thus, mediums engage in channeling. A medium may be referred to as a psychic or a channel. And what is channeled comes from what are referred to as guides, spirit guides, animal guides, dead ancestors, and more.
Then there is the term “trance channeling,” since channeling is done while in a trance, which is a passive or altered or shamanistic state of mind or consciousness. This state of mind is usually entered into by using various forms of meditation involving concentration, emptying the mind, deep breathing and relaxation, and waiting to be contacted by spirits.
The stated purpose of the book under consideration is to teach the reader how to channel a guide. The authors say that one can “learn to channel a high-level guide or your higher self” (p. 10). And by means of channeling one can access “all the ideas, knowledge, and wisdom that is and ever will be known” (p. 13).
Again, all of this hinges on the trance state. To enter this state, you must learn to concentrate, rid yourself of your own thinking, and be open or receptive to higher guidance. It is in the trance state that the higher energies are contacted.
Once the guide is contacted, this entity becomes a friend “who is always there to love, encourage, and support you” (p. 14). This friend becomes a wise teacher, “one who comes from within rather than without” (p. 14).
The book by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer is an account of how two well-meaning people became indwelt by spirits, and we mean evil spirits or demons. This is a typical pattern; one we have often encountered. Many are anxious to tap into wisdom and acquire or access power and knowledge, and to be indwelt by these spirits is usually quite exhilarating. Make no mistake, it is very spiritual. It does not have to be religious, meaning, one does not have to engage with or be a member of a religious organization, whether Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, or other, although that is not prohibited.
Here is how Orin and DaBen describe themselves to Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer: “We, Orin and DaBen, are beings of light. We exist in the higher dimensions, and our goal is to assist you in opening your channel to these dimensions so that you may evolve more rapidly” (p. 15).
The above is not fantasy or the work of someone attempting to sell books; it is evangelical outreach of a diabolical sort. And it is incredibly deceptive, when all of a sudden one is aware of actual contact with spiritual entities. Few realize what has taken place. Here is something new and exciting, even something where some money could be made. The understanding that these spirit guides are unholy or demonic is rare. Deception and devotion come quickly. One would have to have a solid Biblical theology to recognize that he or she has been duped.
These guides, by various means, can prove their incredible spiritual power by giving knowledge that would not be accessible by any other means. Revealing events and histories of those they possess and of others is enough to capture most.
Orin and DaBen teach what channeling will or will not do for you. For one thing, a person will be able to make a difference in the world and will experience not as much depression, anxiety, or heaviness. And, high-level guides will “not take over or control you” (p. 16).
Here is a huge deception, because, in fact the guides will take control little by little, and this is over a period of time and in a way that is almost imperceptible. It is little by little, but the dependence grows.
Then Orin and DaBen say that “channeling will help you learn to love yourself more” (p. 17), by being free of normal prejudices, thus loving yourself more, especially as you follow your higher path. It will also greatly enhance creativity.
Then Orin and DaBen describe what a person can use channeling for. “Some people’s guides assist them in counseling, teaching, therapy, healing, or bodywork” (p. 17).
Here we grasp the heart of the incredibly rapid growth in the numbers of those who offer various forms of psychic therapies. The “Life Coach” is a new industry that is sweeping across America. Not all those who present themselves as life coaches use mediumistic or psychic means to do their work, but a growing number do. We are acquainted with a few who do not, but very many rely upon psychic means, using practices like Reiki, Akashic Records, tarot cards, and so on to do their “therapy.” And here is how it works:
Jesus, while teaching His disciples, said to them something of incredible importance. “For where two or there are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). Even just two together and because of Jesus, in worship or prayer or fellowship, and He, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is actually present with them.
It has long been known that Satan mimics the things of God. He is the great counterfeiter. The craft and power of the devil and his angels are great, as Martin Luther wrote in the hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” And for every gift of the Holy Spirit, as we find in Romans 12:3–8 and 1 Corinthians 12:4–11, there is a counterfeit or demonic gift. Those “gifts” coming from Satan are very convincing and often dramatic.
Orin and DaBen state that asking for a guide is all one needs to do. “If you request a guide to assist you, one will begin to work with you” (p. 23). Supposedly, this will most often happen in a person’s dream state or even at unexpected moments. Engaging with tarot cards is another way to make a connection. In addition, using the Ouija board, seeking automatic writing, and deep meditation are also means of connecting with a guide.
Chapter 2 is titled “Channeling in Trance,” and directions are provided on how to achieve the trance state. And it is the trance state that allows a person to connect with a guide. “Channeling involves the achievement of a slightly relaxed state where you can turn your attention inward and upward to receive messages from higher realms” (p. 27). Meditation practices can assist in achieving the trance state, but a relaxed state of internal focus also works.
There are also states where the consciousness disappears all together, and those who reach such a state are called “unconscious channels.” The person now is not aware of the contact with the guides and will have little or no remembrance of it at all. The “conscious channel” will be able to recall some experiences of engaging with the guide spirits. It is said that most people fall somewhere between deep, unconscious trances and full alert states. Orin and DaBen suggest it is best to remain conscious while channeling.
Sanaya experiences Orin as a very loving, wise, gentle being with a distinct presence. Duane says DaBen’s interaction with him can change greatly, but is a very radiant energy, loving and exacting. And DaBen has great knowledge.
Chapter 3 is titled, “Who Are The Guides?”
Orin and DaBen say that guides come from many places, so many that they seem to be infinite. Some guides have incarnated on the earth, others have not, and they come from dimensions outside the galaxy and stars, like from a fourth dimension. These are the Masters such as St. Germain, angels such as Michael and Raphael, guardian angels, and other extraterrestrial entities. Orin says he was incarnated once on earth and has long since evolved into pure light and spirit without a physical body. DaBen is also a being of light and has not incarnated.
Guides pick people to indwell who have similar goals and purposes. Not all entities from the higher realms choose to be guides.
Guides, in order to work with people, must be able to work with energy where their electromagnetic fields are at a very subtle and refined level (p. 36).
Orin and DaBen say some guides will be known to those they work with, figures like Christ, Buddha, angels, American Indians, Chinese sages, East Indian masters, or one of the great masters like St. Germain. Some guides will appear as male or female, however, there is no actual polarity with guides.
Orin and DaBen are not guides; they are demonic spirits. Without a Christian and biblical understanding, Orin and DaBen might get away with this lie. But those who are biblically grounded know better and have for ages. Yet, what these two evil spirits have to say will be readily accepted by many, especially when they learn how to focus, meditate, and attempt to connect with higher powers of energy. This is the devil’s playground, and it seems so exhilarating at first. Down the line, however, these spirits will present themselves as who they actually are, and this realization may prompt the person who has become indwelt by them to seek relief from the misery these minions of Satan bring. This is called deliverance ministry.
Excerpts from Wikipedia
Wikipedia, February 22, 2022
Channeling
A conduit, in esoterism, and spiritual discourse, is a specific object, person, location, or process (such as engaging in a séance or entering a trance or using psychedelic medicines) which allows a person to connect or communicate with a spiritual realm, metaphysical energy, or spiritual entity, or vice versa. The use of such a conduit may be entirely metaphoric or symbolic, or it may be earnestly believed to be functional.
In the latter half of the 20th century, Western mediumship developed in two different ways. One type involves clairaudience, in which the medium claims to hear spirits and relay what they hear to their clients. The other is a form of channeling in which the channeler seemingly goes into a trance and purports to leave their body, allowing a spirit entity to borrow it and then speak through them. When in a trance the medium appears to enter into a cataleptic state, although modern channelers may not. Some channelers open their eyes when channeling and remain able to walk and behave normally. The rhythm and the intonation of the voice may also change completely.
A notable channeler in the early 1900s was Rose Edith Kelly, wife of the English occultist and ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), who allegedly channeled the voice of a non-physical entity named Aiwass during their honeymoon in Cairo, Egypt (1904). Others purport to channel spirits from “future dimensions”, ascended masters or, in the case of the trance mediums of the Brahma Kumaris, God. Another widely known channeler of this variety is J. Z. Knight, who claims to channel the spirit of Ramtha, a 30-thousand-year-old man. Other notable channels are Jane Roberts for Seth and Esther Hicks for Abraham.
Mediumship
Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between “familiar spirits” or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as “mediums” or “spirit mediums”. There are different types of mediumship or spirit channelling, including seánce tables, trance, and ouija.
Mediumship gained popularity during the nineteenth century, when ouija boards were used by the upper classes as a source of entertainment. Investigations during this period revealed widespread fraud—with some practitioners employing techniques used by stage magicians—and the practice began to lose credibility. Fraud is still rife in the medium or psychic industry, with cases of deception and trickery being discovered to this day.
Mediumship is associated with several religious belief systems such as Shamanism, Vodun, Spiritualism, Spiritism, Candomblé, Voodoo, Umbanda and some New Age groups.
In Spiritism and Spiritualism the medium has the role of an intermediary between the world of the living and the world of spirit. Mediums claim that they can listen to and relay messages from spirits, or that they can allow a spirit to control their body and speak through it directly or by using automatic writing or drawing.
Spiritualists classify types of mediumship into two main categories: “mental” and “physical”:
• Mental mediums purportedly “tune in” to the spirit world by listening, sensing, or seeing spirits or symbols.
• Physical mediums are believed to produce materialization of spirits, apports of objects, and other effects such as knocking, rapping, bellringing, etc., by using “ectoplasm” created from the cells of their bodies and those of séance attendees.
During seances, mediums are said to go into trances, varying from light to deep, that permit spirits to control their minds.
Channeling can be seen as the modern form of the old mediumship, where the “channel” (or channeller) purportedly receives messages from a “teaching-spirit”, an “Ascended master”, from God, or from an angelic entity, but essentially through the filter of his own waking consciousness (or “Higher Self”).
History
Mediumship became quite popular in the 19th-century United States and the United Kingdom after the rise of Spiritualism as a religious movement. Modern Spiritualism is said to date from practices and lectures of the Fox sisters in New York State in 1848. The trance mediums Paschal Beverly Randolph and Emma Hardinge Britten were among the most celebrated lecturers and authors on the subject in the mid-19th century. Allan Kardec coined the term Spiritism around 1860. Kardec claimed that conversations with spirits by selected mediums were the basis of his The Spirits’ Book and later, his five-book collection, Spiritist Codification.
Some scientists of the period who investigated Spiritualism also became converts. They included chemist Robert Hare, physicist William Crookes (1832–1919) and evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913). Nobel laureate Pierre Curie took a very serious scientific interest in the work of medium Eusapia Palladino. Other prominent adherents included journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849–1912) and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).
After the exposure of the fraudulent use of stage magic tricks by physical mediums such as the Davenport Brothers and the Bangs Sisters, mediumship fell into disrepute. However, the religion and its beliefs continue in spite of this, with physical mediumship and seances falling out of practice and platform mediumship coming to the fore.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s there were around one quarter of a million practicing Spiritualists and some two thousand Spiritualist societies in the UK in addition to flourishing microcultures of platform mediumship and ‘home circles.’ Spiritualism continues to be practiced, primarily through various denominational Spiritualist churches in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, over 340 Spiritualist churches and centres open their doors to the public and free demonstrations of mediumship are regularly performed.