Channeled messages resources

One of the purposes of this blog is to disseminate spiritual knowledge and wisdom that I have gained from my personal experiences (good and bad - though now I just look at them as experiences that altered my perspective - especially the so-called bad ones) and by persual of books. I also take great pleasure in pointing out to sources of knowledge and wisdom on the internet.

The internet is a fantastic place to get inspired messages and spiritual guidance if you know where to look.
Channeling is a form of dissemination of knowledge or wisdom. This is a process where two people are involved. One is the channeler, who acts as a channel or as a medium for the second person or entity. This second person or entity is a non-physical being or a being without a physical body that channels information through the channel or medium.
You might question this whole channeling process. By all means, be sceptical. My take on this is that, the messages being disseminated through the channels are consistent with the knowledge that I gained through reading spiritual books.
Let me give you an example: In the book, 'Home with God' by Neale Donald Walsch,
it is stated that contrary to what many people think, 'The body doesn't house the soul or the spirit, it is the other way around: the soul houses the body'.
The above statement was clarified in a channeling session by Bashar(on youtube) when the entity stated that the soul houses the body and not the otherway around. Did Bashar's channel, Darryl Anka, read 'Home with God'? Well, if he did, he is keeping track of many, many spiritual books and their messages. On the other hand, it seems more likely that this channeling process is legitimate.
So, as in the above example, I just looked to see if the messages have a 'ring' of authenticity and truth to them (based on my existing understanding gained from reading books), but in the process, I also got convinced about the authenticity of this channeling process.
So, my suggestion would be to be 'open' to the channeled messages and see if you find a 'ring' of truth to them.

Below is a list of my favorite channeling links:
On Youtube!
1) Darryl Anka on Bashar
2) Bashar - Circumstances don't matter
3) Tuning in - trailer of a documentary on channeling
4) Veronica
5) St. Germain on love vs fear
6) Steve Rother and group
7) Abraham-Esther-Hicks
8) Galactic council voice
9) Trisha Newton



On Webpages
1) Lightworkers
2) Crimson circle
3) Salusa
4) Kryon
5) A huge collection of channeled messages
6) Wisdom of the light

Have fun and enjoy the learning or remembering.

Shamanic meditation experience

This was about a week back.
Went to the East-west bookshop in Seattle where there was a shamanic meditation going on at 7 pm.
There were about 10 people in the room. We were all sitting in a circle on chairs. The room was mildly lit with an incense buring in the room to create a calm atmosphere. The instructor started off by talking about meditation in general and shamanic meditation in particular. She then stood in the centre of the circle and started calling the spirits and guides of the east, west, north, south. The instructor also called on the guardian angels and ancestors of people in the room to come in during the shamanic meditation. She asked us what we expected from this session. I mentioned that I would like to meet my spirit guides. Others mentioned that they wanted to just be open a new experience, experience clarity, etc.
The meditation started by the instructor asking us to become comfortable by either lying down or reclining or sitting on chairs. Most of us lied down, 2 of them were sitting on a chair.
She had a 20 minute tape which she played - It was a guided meditation with drum beats in the background.
The meditation began by us being asked to imagine that we are in a lush green forest and that we are in front of descending steps that go into a clearing. We were asked to breath in and out as we descended the steps into the clearing. As we reached level ground, we were asked to visualize a door or a gate into the clearing. As we opened the door, we were to leave our burdens/cares/worries in a basket near the gate. We were then to begin our journey by being open to whatever shows up.
Since, I was intending to meet my spirit guides, I tried visualizing beings of light.. My visualization skills need a lot of improvement, but I could still visualize two beings of light around me. I listened for any communication, but I didn't get any. I was wondering what I should be doing next.
Meanwhile, my body was becoming more and more relaxed, as I listened to the rhythmic drum beat sounds coming from the tape being played. As I began to feel more relaxed, I started sensing vibrations near my chest and on the top of my head. It gradually increased to a point where I stopped trying to visualize my journey through the clearing in the forest and started experiencing these wonderful vibrations on my chest. At one point, I felt like two hands were gently pressing on my chest and sending me warmth, I did feel warmth, and also vibrations. (Reference)
To the readers, I would like to mention that usually when I meditate, I sense vibrations on the top of my head though they were more pronounced during this experience. The vibrations and warmth that I felt on my chest during the above experience were similar to those I felt during a reiki experience I had before.
Also, the drum beats were spacing me out, I felt very light near my chest region and felt like I was floating. The spacing out feeling has so far not been a pleasant experience, but I think I will get used to it soon. For instance, in this blog I had written previously, I was pretty shaken by this experience.


Peoples' experiences
Before I knew it, the meditation had to come to an end. I was pretty relaxed and wanted to stay that way for some more time. The instructor then enquired about our experiences.
One guy mentioned that he was going through the forest, he saw monkeys and then that he was among them and playing with them. Then he went to drink water near a lake and that he was drinking water with other animals and strangely he felt like he was a monkey. His tale went on and on this way and had weird twists and turns to it.
Another guy mentioned that he was a journalist and got an insight on an interesting topic that he could write about.
Others like me mentioned that we experienced vibrations and heat near the chest, head, etc.

The instructor then summarized the experiences by saying that, shamanic experiencers fall into the three broad categories of visionaries, journeymen, and healers.

I asked a few more questions afterwards and that was it. A pretty interesting experience, I must say, though a lot similar to the reiki experience I had earlier.

World of light: Good video

Introduction
You read these books on philosophy and spirituality and some of them can be abstract to begin with, mind-boggling to begin with, paradigm-shifting to begin with, confusing to begin with... I remember when I first read the 'Complete works of Swami Vivekananda' in my 10th grade/class. I was mind-boggled and confused. It is a great compilation of the essence of vedanta and correlates well with the western spiritual books I have read (E.g.: Conversations with God series by Neale Donald Walsch). The idea that was mind-boggling was the idea of my identity. In that book, Vivekanada explaining the concepts of advaita(or non-dualistic philosophy of creation), said that who you are is not the physical body, who you are is not the mind, who you are is verily the spirit.
The terminology used is: Atman, Brahman.
Atman is analogous to Holy spirit in christianity, and Brahman (not to be confused with Brahma or the creator god) is analogous to Father the God in christianity. Except that, Brahman was supposed to be undescribable. The best analogy that could be given to Brahman was an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent being of light, knowledge and bliss (sat-chit-ananda). Brahman is supposed to be something that pervades everything and everyplace and everywhen. Brahman is supposed to be the very essence of life and non-life.

So, you have an ideological understanding of the identity. But visually, not so much.
Here comes along a video (see below), that comes close to describing this idea of this magnificent being of light and love that is supposedly our identity, but that we forget this after our birth and assume that we are just the body, that we are just the mind.
As one video I saw mentioned, we are the hosts that inhabit this body, we are the hosts that go beyond time and space, we are the hosts, who are gods. Indeed, ye are all gods. In vedas, it is mentioned, Aham Brahmasmi(I am Brahman or Atman = Brahman, Holy spirit = Father the God).

Watch the colorful video here.

Insight

Had an insight today. Usually, these insights arise from a better understanding of what you already know..the knowledge you gain from books and experiences. But, some times, the insights seem to come from a source outside of yourself..but then that means you don't know yourself.
Here's an insight I had on spiritual growth:

The process of self-discovery is bitter-sweet to begin with..lots of confusion in the beginning. Slowly your life gets streamlined with the flow and that's when the fun begins...that's when you see the dramas of life for what they are..That's when you stop being afraid of uncertainity and welcome what shows up with open arms.

On balance

Wow, what a life I have had so far. Seriously, for me, it has been a whirlwind of sorts. I have always been a jack of all trades kind of guy. There are a multitude of activities that I have tried out at some point in time in my life, most of which I have explored only on the surface. Some of them are:
yoga, running, swimming, climbing, biking, hiking, taichi, meditation, maths, writing, quizzing, reading novels, reading spiritual books, thinking or contemplating, etc.

Yoga I learnt in my 5th class, I did it for some time and didn't continue it. I was an avid quizzer during 6th, 7th, and 8th classes. I was a voracious reader of novels in 7th, 8th and 9th class. Running, swimming and biking, I explored quite a bit during my undergraduate years. I even ran a half-marathon and biked upto 90 kms in single day.
I explored tai chi last year and discontinued it.
I have been hiking the last two years in Seattle every once in a while.

Meditation.. well I have been meditating regularly for the last 6 months, I am pleased with my dedication.. Well, it's not hard to meditate actually and I enjoy doing it or rather being myself while meditating.

Maths.. I have been interested in maths and problems in maths since 9th class, when I started scoring well (had a good tutor outside the school). My research is also based in applied mathematics.

The last two years have been a whirlwind of sort as I mentioned earlier. If I can consider running and research in applied mathematics as the physical and intellectual dimensions of my life, then the spiritual dimension of my life has seen a tremendous explosion in the past two years: I have read scores of spiritual books during the past one and a half years and contemplated on how I could apply that knowledge to my life. At the same time, I realized just reading books wouldn't be sufficient.. mere intellectual understanding wouldn't suffice.. so establishing a meditation routine was the most important spiritual step I have ever taken. It has helped me quite a bit on many levels.. some subtle, some explicit.

All the three dimensions seem important to me and I am striving or seeking to balance these dimensions out. I recognize that meditation is fundamental to my composure and my spiritual growth. I recognize that running will give me an energy boost and connect me with nature (there are quite a few running trails nearby).
I also understand that research is sort of what I would call my 'career'.

Balancing these three dimensions is what I am looking at, at this point in my life, although the spiritual dimension is definitely overpowering the other two dimensions right now.. Let's see how the drama unfolds!!

Feeling sleepy while meditating

A visitor friend to this blog, Mitra, commented in the previous blog that a meditation which leads to sleep wouldn't be a right way of meditating. I pondered on it and here are my thoughts on when I actually fall asleep while meditating:

1) If you go back to my first formal experiment on meditation in February 2008, in most of these meditations, I was falling asleep. I didn't know why that was happening then.. now I do. I was sleeping 4-5 hrs a day during that period during the week and around 10 hrs a day during the weekend.
The lack of sleep was intensified when I meditated.
So here's my intuition or insight on falling asleep during meditation: If you are very tired or have a sleep deficit (i.e. not having slept properly during the past few days), then when you meditate, you would tend to fall asleep almost immediately.
This is good, it is a sign from your body, that you need to give it the adequate rest, which for some reason, you have been evading.

2) Today morning for example, I woke up refreshed and when I meditated for 25 minutes, I felt relaxed and alert, no hints of drowsiness. Ofcourse, I didn't just jump to meditation, I did my usual morning rituals and got down to meditation.

3) Meditation can be used as an aid to fall asleep if for some reason, sleep evades you. I had some problems falling asleep during the time I began meditating (Feb - March 2008), so meditating in the night helped me fall asleep quicker.
Another aid to fall asleep is deep relaxation/shavasana. Shavasana or corpse posture in yoga is usually performed towards the end of a yoga session to relax and refresh the body.
This blog has some nice relaxation/meditation techniques including the shavasana technique.
A good article on staying awake during meditation.

Establishing a meditation routine
A good online course on meditation, which I subscribed to through email is Jeanie Marshall's Meditate now course. This course helped me establish a daily meditation routine. The meditation technique in this course is based on focusing on your breath, also known as ana-pana-sati, a buddhist meditation technique. So if you are reading this line and are interested in meditation, my suggestion would be to jump right ahead and subscribe to this course; it is free and will give you a taste of meditation.

Meditation update

I came back from India after a 3 week stay. I was well-fed and well-rested (partly due to my falling sick). I didn't meditate much though. My daily meditation routine went awry. Right now, back in seattle, my meditation routine is back on target.
My morning routine includes meditation followed by intention setting. I consider intention setting very important since I have noticed that a continual intending leads to manifestation. One of my intentions is to say my intentions everyday! How wonderful is that.
Today I did my usual meditation of just passively observing the thoughts without participating with them.. just like English people watch cricket.. They are passive observers(like me) and the players in the field(bowlers, batsmen, fielders) are the thoughts. Towards the end of the meditation (25 mintues later), I imagined a ball of light in the center of my chest and sent out love to the universe. Strange, huh? Well, I didn't experience something big when I did this, but I tell you, these meditations are a gradual process...you notice effects gradually, when you are consistent in doing them. I then read the second chapter of the book, 'Soul Love' by Sanaya Roman. This book is all about meditations, specifically guided light meditations to get in touch with your higher self. The second chapter describes the solar light meditation, I felt good doing it and would like to incorporate it into my daily meditation routine.
That's it for now.. For those of you just getting started on this thing called meditation, there is a nice book called 'Hurry up and meditate' by David Michie.
Find it here.

I will put up a post on how the 'solar light meditation' goes in about a month or so.