"Channeling" is frequently little more than a business scheme used to con people out of their money.

There is no science or proof to substantiate such claims. The experience is subjective and can easily be faked.

And simply accepting the claims of such supposed "mediums" can be potentially unsafe and often quite unsound.

Yes, I agree. Channeling is like cold psychic reading and the Gathering, by the shear quantity of material, over 30 years of channeled madness, occasionly makes a hit. As for their money making I don't see it. They pool their income and really do not generate a stream of income. There is the possibility of income from their website online store, but I cannot imagine that it amounts to much. They also volunteer to help alleviate hunger in their community by working the food bank and giving food to the needy, a noble cause. Still I think that perpetuating channeled ficition as fact and the belief in third density alien presence and alien interactions with humans is way off the mark. All they channel is unverifiable and re-hashed science fiction movie themes and new age alien tripe. It is a dis- service to the bona fide spiritual life they claim to be living.

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rrmoderator
"Channeling" is frequently little more than a business scheme used to con people out of their money.

Often, but not always. For example, I don't think the woman who "wrote" [i:1fad4f3869]A Course in Miracles[/i:1fad4f3869] made any money off it. Others, maybe, but not her. She was a professor carrying out an experiment.

The story is that she heard a voice telling her to write down what it said. She went to her department chairman and they decided that if she just put it down unfiltered, this would be an interesting experiment to se what they got. And the result is [i:1fad4f3869]A Course in Miracles[/i:1fad4f3869].

Devotees of ACIM claim the voice was Jesus.

But in any event, it doesn't look like this woman made any money off what was channeled through her.

Here is my LGAT overbreathing experience:

I saw my grandpa...(channeling)

I also saw bright light and a budda standing behind him...(spirituality)

Perhaps Channeling and Spirituality are two of a kind.

Here is how science explains spirituality:

[godpart.com]

Hsuchi

There is no evidence that "channeling" is anything other than Imagination, Creative Writing, a confidence trick to make money, or even mental illness and "hearing voices".

[www.skepdic.com]

As far as ACIM, the post by Timmer is spreading yet MORE deliberate distortions of the facts.
Perhaps its True Believer Syndrome at work, [www.skepdic.com]

As far as MONEY, the Foundation For Inner Peace has made MILLIONS in income from the ACIM money-machine.
[skepdic.com]

It is obvious that Helen Schucman just wrote ACIM the same way any of us writes anything. I have read ACIM and there is nothing profound about it, just the same old stuff being reworked. To say it is JESUS CHRIST is an absolute absurdity.
If its Jesus doing the writing, then why do all millions of followers of Jesus think it is a hoax and a scam?
ACIM is just another in a long long line of HOAXES. Not only that, it has become source material for dangerous groups.

The most charitable way to talk about "chanelling" is that it is Active Imagination. Its called...CREATIVE FICTION WRITING.

After investigating the Gathering/ [www.higherforces.info] and the trance channel, Tom Ringrose, I have an issue that needs input. While I cannot agree with the channeled material or methods involved in these so called psychic sessions I have seen no evidence of forced coersion or undue influence or manipulation of others. My question revolves around the other work this person does. Tom Ringrose is a health unit coordinator for University of Virginia Hospital heart unit. How can an individual be so deluded by their imagination to be able to channel alien presences that communicate a mish mash of rehashed science fiction themes that he himself believes to be absolute truth and at the same time be a highly functional individual in charge of patient health care and nurse, doctor and hospital administrator needs? In other words how does Tom Ringrose function so well in the "real" world yet believe unverifiable nonsense and infact be the originator of it? Is this a power trip of some sort?

Also do you think the National Association of Health Unit Coordinators would be interested in these kinds of unusual and even borderline schizoid
behaviors?

There are all sorts of things in our world which seem unlikely, virtually impossible, and unusuall. The fact that a channeler is also in the everyday work force is not so unbeleivable as other every day phenomena.
Depending on where you got the information from (ie the channeler themselves??) The motive for providing it might be suspect. Then there would also be the questions of if they are good at their job or not and all the other necessary information one might need in order to make a determination if they were a "functioning member of society" or not, which would be a fairly presumtuous statement in its self.

I would be interested in hearing why the whole channeling phenomina should be looked at with any sense of being able to vailidate, evaluate what is being said so that it might be taken seriously.

I do not check the board often so it might be some time before I get back to you if you pm me.

Instead of motivation, I want to ask why is a "channeling" exercise in a LGAT course? Overbreathing was the last exercise we did for the workshop. One may wonder its intend.

Perhaps it was not about channeling; perhaps it was more about transformation, enlightment, meditation, or whatever New Age you called it. Who could escape that? Well, unless I opened up my eyes and stop overbreathing, right. Or I possessed the knowledge in advance that it was an overbreathing exercise and how it might affect me physically and emotionally before I joint that LGAT.

Do I believe what I saw? Yes. Am I skeptical of what I saw? Yes. Is that a hallucination? Yes. I could ask more questions but I would stop here. Sould it come down to believe it or not, I think, from my experience, jsut take logical reasoning of both sides.

Hsuchi

I am enjoying the discussion of this topic. Tom Ringrose the trance channel for the Gathering had a bio posted on the website [www.higherforces.info] (It's now gone) and his position is easily verified on the web, so I believe the information of his abilities to perform his day job are accurate. This does not mean he is sane but just adaptable in his ability to compartmentalize his experience. One the one hand he effectively performs his job at the hospital and on the other can "communicate" with aliens who can interpret global political, geological, economic, and religious patterns. This is pure hokum to me. These experiences are a product of unconscious imagination and delusions of grandeur, that he and his group think are real. So I wonder how this group has sustained this illusion for over thirty years. They really keep quiet and to themselves except for this web site and it seems in the past have tried to encourage discussion with people in order to network (ie gain new members?) I really believe and have talked with others who have left their group that coersion is not one of their methods, other than a kind of group think that focuses on the authority of their leader and his trance channeled material. On the surface it does not appear dangerous, but are there hidden dangers here that I am not aware of? Like dangers to others or for the current members? I imagine that there are.

On the www.higherforces.info site it appears that the channeler, Tom Ringrose passed away. His asthma flared up and he died unable to breath in the arms of his wife Isis. I am disturbed that a life has passed while indulging in the fantasy of trance channeled alien entities/angels. But on some level he must have chosen to believe those voices in his head rather than seeking treatment for a disease or disability. It is sad that he is gone because his group did love him and now they must feel very lost.