Learning to channel doesn’t have to be a serious thing. It was for me until I finally broke through and then it became fun. But, it doesn’t have to be like that. It could have been fun all through the learning process. I think what I wasn’t sure of was if I was doing it right. I had advice from all different quarters and I actually couldn’t do many of the exercises well or at all in some cases; I was just a miserable student. But, this is the key to success in this endeavor: I did not stop trying.

So, there I was, serious, miserable and just would not stop. I was driven, I suppose. I just had to do this thing; this talking to my guide thing. I sort of had an idea of what it might be like once I got through, but I wasn’t sure. Mostly people were sort of vague about it. The only information for me that seemed real came from the books of people who were actually channeling. I read some of the Seth books. I really loved the Messages from Michael books, but I still could not really imagine what it would be like once I was finally channeling.

Actually, I pretty much feel the same before and after. There were a few instances after I had started channeling where I went around with a tingly sensation on the top of my head. Like I was wearing a headband and for the circumference of that headband my head tingled. Also, I’d get this piercing tingling feeling on the upper portion of my head. Now, I don’t know if that was a developmental thing or if the guides were just jerking me around, but I did feel it. I suppose those feelings must have lasted a few months. But, they went away. Seth told me once I was being fine tuned. Okay.

I guess my advice to anybody who is wanting to learn how to channel would be there are lots of ways to learn. You don’t have to be expert or comfortable with all of them. Just the one or two that are actually going to be the ones to help you make that final leap. And, it isn’t a case of you attracting your guide to you like they are way far away and now you are ready to talk to them. Our guides are always there. It’s you who aren’t ready yet. So, they are there. Get ready.

Learn to quiet your mind. That means meditate. If it puts you to sleep, fine, next time sit in a chair. If you still go to sleep, sit on a bed of nails as Seth told me to do once. I considered a doormat, one of the Astroturf varieties with a little daisy on the side, but I actually never got around to doing it. Anyway, I have a tendency to go to sleep when I meditate. And, I would not recommend sitting on a bed of nails. That was guide humor.

The other important thing to remember is that you are forcing yourself to move forward on your own journey. When you do things like that you rustle up crap from the past, things that you’ve tended to ignore for years and would rather not look at. Guess what? You get to look at them now. When you talk to Spirit you better be on the way to an emotionally healthy place. At least the willingness to do something about it will somehow magically place the tools to do so at your disposal: you’ll see a Dr. Phil marathon, or a Dr. Wayne Dyer show or a psychotherapist will move into the house next door to you. “Pay attention”, one of the guides just said.

The reason why I say this is that the information you receive is going to be distorted by the fact that you are a human being and you are changing the information, filtering it through the being that is yourself. The guides told me once that they don’t mind so much. They work with what they get. Ahem. Anyway, imagine that a guide says, “Blue”. You perceive a light lilac color. Or, a guide says, “Tiger” and you understand him to have said, “Kitty cat”. See what I mean? It gets distorted. If you are psychotic that info ain’t going to be good at all. So, if you’re schizoid or are under a doctor’s care of a psychological illness you best not learn to channel. Not a good mix. But, mildly neurotic like most of the world is? Just get your self help book handy.

And, have fun. One of my favorite things to do is to doodle. Sometimes I’ll just turn it over to Spirit for a few minutes and let them write, or draw, or just doodle. It’s a way for me to just hang out with Spirit for a few minutes. Just to be there.