Any kind of messages or announcements coming from the spiritual world are booming in our crisis-ridden world. The messages from the other side are often alarming and may lead to inconsiderate actions.
When looking at channeling from the perspective of ACIM it is an illusion, just like the world, that we believe to live in as physical beings in time and space, is an illusion or rather a projected image in our dreaming mind. We are the dreamers but not the dream and its figures. The world of the deceased or souls is also part of this dream and not all of them are necessarily resting in divine peace and heaven's wisdom. Any image of separation is some kind of dream, which has nothing in common with GOD'S REALITY, where there are no separated beings (FATHER and SON are one, which is truly hard to imagine for us).
All of us who are here have chosen dream images; otherwise we would not be here and wouldn't believe in the existence of a world. The world can't be a pleasant place to live in, since we favored this dream construct more than the reality of HEAVEN. On the contrary: it is a spiritual symbol for the attack on LOVE. Thus, there will never be peace on earth because this world is the manifestation of sick minds that is possessed from nightmares. The nightmare is based on the idea of separation, which can be equaled with the belief in sin. It leads to an unbearable feeling of guilt which culminates in fearing penalties and turns into hatred which is projected onto other people. Like everything in this world, channeling is based on a dualistic idea also. Since we, who are seemingly separated creatures, are all absolutely connected in the mind we are constantly experiencing some kind of channeling. Simple telepathy or the conversation with a person is an image of this procedure of communicating messages – that's all it really is. Thus, the question is not whether there is such a thing as channeling, the question is who is on the other end and what does he want to sell us. It's only by the quality of the message that we can tell if it comes from an enlightened being, which acts out of love, or from a confused spirit-being, which is still stuck in the sick, egomaniac categories of the world and thinks and acts accordingly (there are plenty of messages coming from the latter). The dreaming mind invents a world that is real and worth saving, which exists in his (our) dream only. The awakened mind speaks of GOD'S totality, of LOVE and will stress the dream like or rather nonexistence of the world. Messages coming from a being that is dreaming and ruled by the ego will always encourage fear and speak about threat, destruction and death. The all too human angst is nourished that way and very precise instructions for behavior are given. There are often spooky theories of conspiracy and a plan for freeing the earth. The evil are destroyed and the good prevails and continues to live. I can only say: welcome to the movies! The show is apparently booked and paid, still I can choose a different film at any time and I can even leave the theater and go into the peace of GOD.
Messages that come from beings who are inspired by the HOLY SPIRIT, namely from LOVE, will always go towards peace, love, trust and the REALITY of GOD. Any kind of fear mongering is avoided and the dream like experiencing on earth is explained. Do we have to
be afraid of dreams? Not at all. Waking up would make sense, to find understanding would be helpful. There is no reason to worry since a dream can never ever be real. There won't be any corps under my bed on the following morning. The procedure of salvation is awakening, which is supposed to happen and can happen quite gentle if we accept and implement the course of instruction coming from the pure MIND of GOD. It aims at what needs healing: Our dreaming mind. It doesn't want to save a world which has not existed ever.
Indeed I studied various systems of Mind Trainings and for me A Course in Miracles is the clearest, most coherent and most relieving of all. Formally there are many paths, but as far as content is concerned the path can only be real or illusional. It will either lead me the way to GOD'S PEACE or it will entangle me even more into guilt, fear and hatred. Any kind of channeling will have to be measured accordingly and soberness and right judgment are demanded. Many channeled messages enforce our connection to the world and the body in time and space. But we all know that the world melts away between our fingers and that fingers, hands and body are in a state of destruction – nothing will stay the same. And this nothing – "no thing" – is the dream we are holding onto and which is supposed to bring us happiness and peace. It can't.
Only the MIND is real. We are all living in an ego-world without spirit and the only spiritual accomplishment is to reunite with GOD'S MIND within us. If channeling can actually contribute to that I'll appreciate it. But when it leads to games of the ego played on a high spiritual level – games like for example "Who has been who in a former life, meaning former dream" or "The great master XY has told me you should sell your house" – then I don't want to be part of the game. It would be a waste of time that could be used to find PEACE, instead. There is a good reason why ACIM regards the study of obstacles as very important: The ego, the creation of the dream in our dream which is the expression of the idea of separation and who wants to announce it as real. To let the light dissolve the obstacle through LOVE in one's own mind. This will take the obstacle's power away and that is the sovereignly path of awakening.
The world as we perceive it is as much a problem as the nightly nightmare. We take everything for real and suffer while we're dreaming. The first step to awakening is lucid dreaming: I am aware that I am dreaming while I am dreaming and I can get rid of fear. I can even choose how the story line is supposed to continue. ACIM calls it the happy dream that we are already able to experience here and now. The next step is the awakening in GOD. To choose it today and to want it with all your heart is the essential step. Since the mental power of decision has always belonged to me and always remains my own. Unfortunately, it's power is often underestimated or stays unrecognized. Man's willpower is his heaven or his hell. We can experience the one or the other with all there is to it even today within the classroom of the world. Classroom always means a mental training room for mental activities, which we are supposed to use. But no one wanted to settle in the school of his childhood and youth.
There is always something to learn even in the most irrelevant or fascinating or weird channeling: the dream is often more important to us than the REALITY of GOD. Then we'll keep on dreaming just a little more about lust and greed, about guilt, fear and hatred. It is not a sin, just a painful misapprehension, which can only be corrected and healed when we want it.