Although the art and practice of channeling is at least as ancient
as written history, and although a scholarly work of research
comparing and contrasting various kinds of channeling throughout
history would undoubtedly be fascinating, this volume is in no way
intended as such a work. It is, rather, a workbook for the
practicing channel, or for one who is contemplating the attempt to
learn how to produce channeled material.
It is my response to the
veritable explosion of new channels, and especially to the many
new-age weekends which teach the mechanics of channeling, which are
very easy to master, but which do not give students a firm
metaphysical basis for the appropriate use of this gift.
I became a channel in 1974 and have pursued that gift to this day. I
have taught students the mechanics of channeling, but I hope that I
have done a good deal more than that, for it has always been my
intention to make available not only the how-tos of being an
instrument but the whys. Channeling is not a parlor game. There can
be emotional, mental and even physical difficulties which spring
from the misuse of this practice. It is my hope that this volume
will help those who wish to avoid such problems. The ideas which are
offered herein are my opinion only. It is hoped that they will help
you. If they do not, please leave them behind without a second
thought.
I would like to acknowledge my enormous debt to several people, for
although I was given the gift of faith and the temperament to
sustain an effort which I thought well-begun, I would never have
begun channeling were it not for the encouragement of Donald T.
Elkins, my beloved friend, partner and companion of many years, who
died in 1984. His faith in my gift far outmatched mine from the
beginning, and his encouragement was equaled by the disciplined
compassion of his counsel to me as I encountered situation after
situation which had been unfamiliar to me previously.
James Allen McCarty has also encouraged and supported me in every
imaginable way in the very humble service that I perform, and this
book would have been physically impossible to create without his
emotional support and the nimbleness of his and Kimberly Howard’s
fingers.
Thanks go also to my family and faithful friends and those many
members of our meditation group over the years, without whose
enquiring questions and hunger for truth there would have been no
call generated for our contacts to answer; without whose personal
love, encouragement, support and tolerance I would be poor indeed in
the currency of shared love.
Spring is creeping quietly into our inland hills, touching the
burgeoning pussy-willow and unfurling our winter hearts to warm,
free bloom. Peace to each of you from Kentucky.
Carla L. Rueckert
Louisville, Kentucky
February 10, 1987