A very important part of learning how to channel is learning how to focus your thoughts. Meditating will help you to do this. There are other activities which, when done very intensely will serve the same purpose like running, or drawing, or maybe writing, but for our purposes here I’m urging you to a practice of meditation.

Now, please try not to get so all fired impressed with people who say they can meditate for hours on end and adopt that as your goal. Marathon Meditators should have a meditation coach or access to a therapist to help them deal with emotional and psychological issues that will, without fail, surface. 

What you need, instead in the beginning, is a regular practice. Every day for 10 minutes. First of all this is not going to put a crimp in any of your other activities. For pity sake, the day is 24 hours long. You can spare 10 minutes of it to meditate. Additionally, you’re the one who said they wanted to learn how to channel. I’m telling you that you need to do this. For clarity. Fine, you’re channeling and somebody says, “If you don’t turn right at the corner three people are going to die.” Well, that’s channeling isn’t it? Yes. It’s also warped channeling. So, meditate already. For clarity.

Next, put away all your expectations about what meditating is like or how you think it should be. It starts out one way and ends another. It is over time that your meditation will change and it is as you do it more and more that you begin to see the results of the meditations. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

It starts like Grand Central Station in your head. There’s just no getting around it. Your mind is not trained. It’s a new place to be. You’re trying to be quiet and it just isn’t working. Do you quit? No. Keep doing it.

Be kind to yourself. Realize that for everybody it is going to be noisy in their head in the beginning. It happens to everybody. Be kind toward your wayward mind and when you find yourself straying from the act of meditating and thinking about all the things you want to do or all the things you need to do gently take your mind by the hand like you would a little kid straying from a path and bring them back to the meditation. If you’ve got to do that 25 times during the 10 minutes you’ve devoted for meditating do it. The next time you meditate you’ll only have to do it 22 times.

What you could do is to have a piece of paper and a pencil by your side and every time a thought occurs to you write it down. Say you need to pay the electric bill.  Don’t write, “Pay Electric Bill”.  Write instead, “PG&E” (in my neck of the woods that is Pacific Gas & Electric).  Don’t write, “Call the doctor for results of my bloodwork.”  Instead write, “Dr”.  Same technique to use when you are trying to remember your dreams.  One word instead of ten. 

That way you won’t spend energy being anxious that you’re going to forget something. Actually, this technique is fantastic to use for getting your ducks in order for the day. Just depends on how you look at it. In any case, reassuring your mind that you are not ignoring it, that you depend upon it to keep you on track and you appreciate all these reminders of things to do is great. Eventually, it will realize (this is your subconscious, by the way) that you are not going nuts with this new practice of meditation and it will be quiet for the time that you want to spend meditating.

Something else that happens to folks who embark upon a practice of meditation is their own personal demons will rise quickly to the surface. This is also understandable. Keep meditating. And, for those folks who are meditating for hours at a stretch?  Their personal demons will surface that much faster.  Have the telephone number for your therapist handy because you are going to need it. But, this is a good thing.  Don’t be frightened of personal growth.  Just deal with it.  You’ll be a happier person in the end.

You are toeing your way into an expanded reality and for somebody who is trying to learn how to channel the clairaudience and the clairvoyance takes off. You’re not trained in this and it’s going to be odd, strange, weird and possibly frightening. You know it’s coming. Keep meditating. The distorted, yowling faces will stop. I know. It happened to me.

In the beginning you can use tricks to help you move into the meditation. You can visualize yourself descending a ladder. You can count backwards. There are all sorts of things you can do to help yourself into the meditative state of mind. I used to pretend I was melting like when Dorothy throws water on the Wicked Witch of the West. She melted. It was great for moving me into a meditation. Whatever rocks your boat. There are lots of techniques to try out.

Get a book about meditating. It doesn’t matter which one. There are lots on the market. Find one and try out a few of the techniques. They work. What doesn’t work is the person trying to learn how to meditate because they don’t stick with it. Same thing with diets. That’s why there are so many books on the market. Anyway, if you can make a deal with yourself that you are going to devote a short period of time every single day for a month to a practice of meditation and then step back at the end to see how you did I can almost guarantee that you’re going to see results. This will be the encouragement you need to continue.