Psychic Tuning and Turning on the Channel: A Channel is Born - Part 2

A Channel is Born: From Sensitive Child to Spiritual Counselor is the beginning of the story. That hub recounts what led to my becoming a channel, experiences from my young years and how later, while in India with a teacher, I had openings that resulted in being able to psychically receive information. Here I will continue the story and tell the process of honing this psychic receptivity in order to learn to channel information and energies to others in the form of readings.

Returning to my life in Seattle after the transformative time in India was confusing. I was in a kind of deep culture shock. I see now it was much more than that; a sense of a whole new way of life more vast than I had formerly perceived was upon me. Soon I would be learning an entirely new set of skills and abilities as faculties grew that would stretch me from the inside out.

When a young child goes through a major developmental leap, as they first learn to walk or talk for example, there is a period of time when they are adjusting to their new skills. They begin to mimic the behaviors of those around them and are often fussy as they work to overcome the initial challenges presented. Later, elated and proud, they make headway with the new skill. As that new skill gets integrated, it becomes second nature. The child goes through a natural maturation process and is then ready to take successive developmental steps.

For the next several years, I felt like a very small child just beginning with baby steps, though without having adults around to demonstrate the skills I was learning. There were no examples or role models during these developmental stages but I was graciously provided with guides along the way, seemingly appearing in my life to specifically help me take these steps.

It took me 3 months of adjustment before I felt ready to start back to work in the world. I had left my position as a horticulturist before leaving for India so needed to find a job. On the day I felt ready to return to work I opened the phone book, ran my finger down the page and called the number of a Horticultural design company where my finger pointed. When I asked about a position, I was met with, “Did you see our ad in the paper?” I went to interview the next day. The business was new and right up the hill within walking distance from my home. I was hired on the spot. This was a perfect position for me. My boss became one of my closest friends and together we grew her business into a very successful venture.

This was also the setting for me to meet significant people in my life, people who helped me develop my inner hearing and intuitive skills and groomed me to offer trustworthy readings for others.

As the business manager, I hired a woman named Naomi as a plant care technician. She was terrifically over-qualified (being a Serbo-Croatian scholar with a PhD), but needed a job and liked the stress-free, nurturing aspect of plant care. Very soon we began to have captivating conversations that moved into themes mystical and spiritual. We began to meet for tea and conversation, and before long she offered me some techniques she knew about for activating and cultivating my newly discovered skills.

Naomi began by suggesting I learn to ‘turn on’ this voice. Up until then I only encountered the inner teaching voice when it was offered randomly. I carefully constructed an introductory prayer of opening to set a sacred space within which I offered myself as a pure vessel—clear of my own intentions, personal needs and ego structure.

I expressed a preference to remain conscious and not have to go into a trance. Naomi was a fierce advocate of my learning to be such a conscious channel and it turned out to be an easily met challenge. I was very relieved to find I didn’t have to ‘disappear’ in order to be effective as a channel. Up until then there were very few channels I knew about, and all of these were ‘taken over’ by an entirely other entity while they were channeling.

As my ability to invoke this conscious awareness developed and deepened, my regular waking consciousness began to recognize that it was time to relinquish ‘control’ and allow this new inner voice to come through. It was a simple act of signaling me to turn my awareness over to a wisdom of greater proportion.

What was natural for me up until this time was quiet observation and introspection. I hardly felt comfortable speaking, which was part of why being a dancer suited me so well. It gave me a place I could express myself without having to verbalize. To express through movement felt more valuable and appropriate to me than expressing through words.Thus a deep new challenge began—I needed to practice and cultivate verbal skills that would accommodate the expression of the fascinating information I was receiving as a channel.

My job was to become as effective and clear a communicator as I could. Sometimes I would receive a message word-for-word and other times I would be entrusted to elucidate a vision or describe a concept I’d receive through an extra-sensory faculty.

I also learned to create a finishing prayer for sessions that helped me re-group afterwards, a very important step. Before I figured this out, I would be highly irritable and my nervous system overly sensitive for many hours after a reading. I would have to meditate after a client left for almost an hour just to re-balance my system. This necessary regrouping time eventually shortened to just a few moments, but remained a very necessary step to clear my energy and reconnect with my physical body more effectively.

Whenever a sensitive works with a client, there is a strong likelihood that energies will be absorbed or taken on. This, too, needed to be dealt with, so I had to learn to erect an energetic screen that would keep another person’s energy from filling my very open auric field and displacing my own energy.

Once the inner voice could be summoned with an effective invocation, then it was time to practice asking for information and learning how to bring through the response. For this step, Naomi supplied a simple practice that helped me slowly to trust the energies working through me. I learned to spell out answers to questions letter by letter. We had a board with all the letters of the alphabet on it and I would close my eyes, go into a deeply meditative state and move my left hand over the board until it stopped on a letter. Naomi would transcribe these letters, and we would have a valid, spelled-out answer by the end of a session.

When I think back to those early times, it seems like it was a very slow process but the speed was not as important as the remarkable answers that emerged. Always and consistently there were profound bits of information spelled out, filled with clever puns and quirky insights. Little by little I began to trust this teaching from within. I also realized that it was as a result of the many years of consistent meditation practice that prepared me to be able to quiet my mind enough to do this.

One thing I was very clear about from the beginning was that only a ‘seventh level’ being could use me as a channel. What this meant was that I would not be an open conduit to just any non-physical being who wanted a mouthpiece. I would only open my consciousness to one who was an evolved fully Self-realized, enlightened being. This was a very important distinction for me as my interest was in spiritual growth for all my clients, not just party games or providing questionable psychic information. I welcomed my mentor in spirit, introducing himself as Ragore. We began a fast and loyal relationship working in concert towards a common goal, to assist people in their pursuit of spiritual awareness.

Along came Judith into my life, a beautiful heart and gifted artist interested in all things metaphysical. She heard about what I was doing and asked if she could work with me and meet Ragore. It was wonderful to have Judith’s enthusiastic support, and we logged many hours with her asking questions and transcribing my slow responses. Eventually I began to be able to speak the letters aloud rather than having to point to them on the board.

Later still, I began to listen for that small, still voice and haltingly speak the words I was hearing. The inner voice was becoming more audible with time, trust and practice and soon I was speaking in full, easily flowing sentences. The information I received was still filled with quirky puns and amazing information that ranged from Akashic record specifics and past life scenarios to overviews about relationships, health and entrenched psychological issues. By this time it felt like my tiny baby steps had progressed to jogging.

Only after many logged hours of practice and training did I feel ready to offer myself in service. I tested the process over and over until I felt completely sure that I was able to provide authentic and helpful information. Only then did I welcome my first clients.

Clairvoyance was developing along with clairaudience, and soon people were beginning to approach me for readings. They came with questions and soon were insisting upon offering me donations. Before I knew it, I was busy seeing people for readings on a professional basis. Some of these clients are still having sessions with me 27 years later.

Before long I began to be sought out by psychologists for help with their patients, as well as by people interested in clearing their chakras, healing auric wounds and exorcising earthbound spirits they felt were menacing. I will go into more detail in the next part of the story about the many ways I was called upon to offer my services.

I now see that life is arranged to fulfill certain callings. Every single step along the way, I have been provided exactly what was needed to bring me into contact with the callings of my life, however unexpected. My life has been filled with many seeming miracles, synchronicities, coincidences… call them what you will. I see them as a seamless whole that is life. There are no mistakes. There are no accidents. Everything happens for us, not to us. But this realization launches for me what is a very big subject, which I will discuss in another part of the story of Channeling and Beyond.