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Evaluating
Channels
BY
SHEPHERD HOODWIN
I am sometimes
asked what I think of another
channel's work. I rarely feel
that I have enough information to make an
evaluation. I've seen a lot of
other people's work, but hardly ever a wide
cross-section of any one
channel's. Of course, I resonate more with some
than others, and could
comment on a specific piece of
channeling. I
may suspect certain tendencies
from what I've heard and seen. However, to make
a fair, well-rounded
assessment of a channel's overall strengths,
weaknesses, and biases, it
would be necessary to collect a wide variety of
samples with several
different clients and at different times, and to
interview those clients
about their experience: Was it satisfying and
helpful? Could they validate
most of the information? Lacking a large enough
sample, as it might be put
in scientific terms, I give the benefit of the
doubt.
As far as I can tell, every long-time channel,
including Sarah [Chambers], has had
disgruntled clients as well as glowing feedback
and validation. One cannot
get a picture of a channel's body of work over
many years with thousands of
clients from a few comments, either positive or
negative. One doesn't know
if a particular piece of feedback more reflects
the individual's issues and
projections than the work of the channel, or
what the full story might have
been.
With the exception of the Yarbro channels, most
Michael channels
do not keep
transcripts of most of their client sessions.
Some channeling is done in
writing, but, by and large, most is done orally,
and the recording is given
to the client. Once in a while, if there's some
universal material that I
think would be valuable for a book, I copy the
tape and have it transcribed.
However, most of my work is answering personal
questions that would not be
all that interesting to other people, so it
doesn't make it into books.
Personal material *can* reveal universal truths
and have interest to serious
students, but the cost of having all private
sessions transcribed is
prohibitive. One Yarbro channel would have
clients transcribe her answers
and read them back after each one so that she
could have a record. Every
channel works differently, and that way was
right for her, but in my work,
it would interrupt the flow and slow down the
session too much, and many of
my clients would find it a hassle.
Several people have had the idea that they could
test channels by asking
different ones for the same set of overleaves.
However, the Yarbro books
speak about channels "blocking" when trying to
channel material that's
already been given by other channels. At the
Michael Channel's conference in
La Veta, Colorado in 1996, attending by Sarah,
JP, and 14 others, many
people confirmed that channeling Michael chart
information more than once
has pitfalls, and that overleaf "shopping" is
not a viable way to get
accurate overleaves.
Yes, we should test the material, but through
self-validation. Tests set up
for channels generally do not work, in terms of
giving a fair picture of a
channel's abilities. In the 70s, a skeptic came
to Sarah's group with a test
question. She had no problem with his asking it,
but she sweated bullets and
couldn't come up with the answer he was looking
for. On the other hand,
those who participate in sessions with openness
and good will often find
they get plenty of validation, sometimes
including amazing answers. Those
who test often have issues that create a
self-fulfilling prophesy--they
aren't open enough to establish a flow conducive
to getting good material.
Norman Shealy
is an MD who has been testing and training
medical intuitives
for years--he's Carolyn Myss' mentor. He's a
hard-headed skeptic type, and in
an interview, he said that most of the medical
intuitives who had contacted
him are fakes. Then he explained his method of
testing them: he'd give them
the name of a patient and ask for their
evaluation. I wrote him and
suggested that he wasn't actually testing for
medical intuition--he was
testing for the ability to tune in to someone
with just a name. Carolyn
Myss
clearly has that gift, but most psychics can't
tune in without something
more, such as a photo. He wrote back that he
hadn't thought of that and
would start providing photos.
My point is that people testing channels might
not, in fact, be testing for
what they think they are. For example, the
ability to read minds doesn't
prove that someone is channeling Michael; in
fact, Michael has told me that
they refuse to read minds because it is an
intrusion. In addition, Michael
doesn't know everything about a person, and
getting some information is more
trouble than its worth, so not being able to
tell someone his mother's
maiden name, for example, doesn't invalidate a
channel.
Incidentally, I went to a medical intuitive who
was one of the few who *had*
impressed Norm, and I didn't have a very
satisfying reading. It doesn't say
anything about her overall abilities, only that
I didn't feel she helped me
much, for whatever reason. Maybe she helped me
more than I realized--I keep
an open mind about such things--and I'd be
willing to try her again.
A good way to choose a channel is to get
referrals from like-minded people,
and, especially, to experience channeling by
different people and see whose
work you most resonate with. However, not
resonating with a particular
channel doesn't mean that he or she is a poor or
invalid channel, and even a
piece of clearly faulty channeling doesn't
necessarily reflect the overall
quality of the person's work. As I wrote
earlier, some channels are more
skilled and talented than others, as in all
fields, but who is qualified to
rank them? And wouldn't there have to be many
different categories (subject
areas such as Michael math, overleaves, health,
history, science,
relationships, past lives, and psychology; skill
issues such as vocabulary,
precision, specificity, speed, energy work,
etc.)?
This applies to all things: we rarely know
enough to fairly evaluate or
judge another person's life, and maybe not even
our own. That's why the
masters have counseled us not to judge, or to
judge "righteous
judgment,"
which I take to mean, "Know what you're really
qualified to make a judgment
about, and withhold judgment on the rest." That
is not to say that we
should
lack discernment, but we're on safer ground when
we stick to specific cases
rather than making sweeping general statements,
such as dismissing, as a
unit, the work of a particular channel. People
so often jump to conclusions
based on limited or faulty information.
Arrogance and the negative pole of
discrimination/rejection are especially prone to
making judgments they
aren't qualified to make.
Related
Articles:
Shepherd is a
professional Michael channel and author of The
Journey of Your Soul--A Channel Explores
Channeling and the Michael Teachings and Loving
from Your Soul--Creating Powerful
Relationships. He does channeling
sessions and intuitive readings via telephone,
mail, and e-mail. Visit his website:
Summerjoy
Press
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