Alternate Timelines with Ian Vogel

What Is Channeling? Higher Guidance — From Ancient Origins — to Modern Mystics

• Ian Vogel • Episode 6

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What is channeling — and is it something only “gifted” people can do?

Or is it a natural ability we all have?

In this video, we explore the ancient origins of channeling, how it's been used by mystics and civilizations for thousands of years, and how the practice is making a modern resurgence.

From the Oracle of Delphi and Tibetan oracles to Edgar Cayce, Esther Hicks, and The Law of One—we look at the wisdom traditions that shaped this sacred practice.

You'll also learn how channeling actually works on a consciousness level—and why you're probably already tuning in without realizing it.

If you’re curious about developing your intuition, exploring non-local awareness, or simply trying to make sense of the rising interest in psychic communication, you're in the right spot!

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Hey, I’m Ian Vogel—host of Alternate Timelines. My journey started on a small farm in the midwest, where I always felt a little out of place. After years of skepticism and even a stint as an atheist, a near-death experience changed my perspective on everything. Since then, I’ve explored plant medicine, past life memories, and the mysteries of consciousness. Now, I’m sharing those experiences to help others navigate their own awakening. Through real stories, deep conversations, and wild explorations of the unknown, we’re building a community where it’s okay to question reality. You’re not alone in the unknown. 👽✨

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These days it seems like everyone and their neighbor is channeling, whether it's their spirit guides, ascended masters, or some galactic council. But channeling isn't just a TikTok trend or a party trick. It's an ancient practice rooted in real experiences that cultures around the world have relied on for thousands of years. In this video, we're gonna break down what channeling is, how it works, how our ancestors relied on it, and why you're probably already channeling without even realizing it. What is up? I am Ian with alternate timelines where we explore topics like reincarnation, extraterrestrial contact, psychic abilities, metaphysics, and the infinite potential that lies within each of us. If you vibe with this kind of content, I invite you to like, share, subscribe, and leave a comment or review on whichever platform you're on. It only takes a few seconds of your time and supports the show in a massive way. Your support matters a lot and is greatly appreciated. the first thing that we need to do is define exactly what channeling is. For the purposes of this video, I'm gonna stick with the most common definition, which is the act of receiving messages or energies from a higher or non-physical source. It's as simple and straightforward as that. I totally get that for a lot of people, the idea of accessing information in a way that doesn't involve physically gathering that data through our eyes and our ears may seem like a fantasy. Trust me, I was there at one point and lived as an atheist for many years during that time in my life, you could not talk to me about anything that I couldn't put my hands on or directly experience. It It wasn't until I started to examine the experiences in my own life that had no rational explanation, that I opened my mind up to new possibilities. But before we get into the mechanics of how channeling actually works. I think it's important to talk about the historical significance of this once widely used practice, because For millennia channeling wasn't treated like some fringe phenomenon, it was woven into the fabric of entire civilizations. In ancient Greece, the Oracle of Delphi was one of the most trusted sources of wisdom and guidance for centuries. Leaders, warriors and ordinary people would travel long distances to hear the words of the pythia, the priestess who said to channel the God Apollo, she would enter a trance-like state and deliver messages that influenced major political and military decisions. The idea that humans could tune into information beyond our ordinary perception wasn't limited to ancient Greece. In Tibet. Oracles were and still are, consulted for everything from spiritual teachings to national policy. The state Oracle of Tibet, for example, was considered a direct channel to higher spiritual wisdom, guiding people like the Dalai Lama and many others during times of crisis. Indigenous cultures from around the world have a rich history of practicing various forms of spiritual communication. Shamans, medicine people and seers would enter altered states through meditation, drumming, plant medicines, or fasting to receive guidance from the spirit world. These messages weren't seen as strange or questionable. They were seen as necessary for the health of the tribe, the individual, and the land itself. Despite developing independently across different continents and cultures, these channeling traditions shared remarkable similarities. The core idea was always the same, that there's more to this world than we can perceive with our five senses. And if we can learn to quiet the mind and tune in, we can access wisdom that lies beyond the veil. Moving into more modern times, there's one famous channeler that stands out above the rest, and that's Edgar Cayce. Born in 1877, Cayce became known as the sleeping Prophet because he would enter a self-induced trance, a completely unconscious state, and deliver detailed information about health, healing past lives and even future world events without any conscious memory of what he had said afterwards. Over the course of his life, he delivered more than 14,000 readings. Many of which were meticulously documented and verified. He wasn't working for fame or fortune. Edgar Cayce lived a simple life and saw his gift as a way to be of service to others. What's really interesting is that during Cayce's lifetime, many people held a lot of respect for psychic phenomenon. Spiritualism had been booming in the late 18 hundreds, and the idea that a person could receive messages from beyond wasn't as heavily stigmatized as it would later become. But as the 20th century progressed, there was a major shift. Science being viewed strictly through the lens of materialism and rationalism began to dominate the cultural landscape. Anything that couldn't be measured under a microscope was increasingly dismissed as superstition, fantasy, or fraud. Channeling, which was once a widely accepted practice got pushed to the margins becoming associated with charlatan's, unreliable mystics, and fringe believers. It wasn't until the 1960s and seventies with the rise of the new age movement, that challenging started to make its way back into the mainstream conversation. This renewed interest in the ancient and sacred practice of channeling was ushered in by a new set of voices. Jane Roberts, for example, began channeling an entity known as Seth, resulting in the Seth material, which was a groundbreaking body of work that introduced us to the now widely known idea that you create your own reality. Then there was Helen Shukman, a clinical psychologist who, despite her own skepticism, channeled what would become a course in miracles, a teaching that emphasizes forgiveness, the end of separation, and the simple, yet profound truth that only love is real. Another important body of channeled material that emerged around this time was the law of one. Which is often referred to as the Ra material. In the early 1980s, a team of researchers led by Don Elkins, Carla Riker, and Jim McCarty. Began receiving a series of deep philosophical communications from an extraterrestrial consciousness known as Ra. The material they recorded dives into topics like the structure of the universe, the evolution of souls across dimensions, and the idea that free will and unconditional love are the foundational principles of existence. What really stands out about the law of one is its depth, consistency and the profound respect it has for personal sovereignty. It's not all about dogma or blind faith. It's about recognizing that we are all fragments of a singular, infinite Creator and that we are all here to learn to love and to serve. More recent figures like Esther Hicks, who channels Abraham and Darrell Anka, who channels Bashar, have continued to deliver channel teachings to a broader audience. Their messages often focus on the law of attraction, emotional guidance, multidimensional realities and humanities, accelerating evolution, But despite differences in style, vocabulary, and even cosmology, when you step back and listen closely, the core themes that emerge are strikingly consistent in regards to personal empowerment, the creative power of thought, and unity consciousness. There's also a strong emphasis on the importance of free will and unconditional love. I often highlight some of the more profound teachings, insights, and even some of the quirky details surrounding channeled material in my newsletter. Now, I invite you to follow the link in the description and sign up if this is a topic that resonates with you and interests you as much as it does me. At its best, channeling has always been about helping us remember the truth of who and what we really are today. Channeling isn't just happening behind closed doors or in remote temples. It's everywhere. Podcast, YouTube, TikTok, you name it. We are living in a time where spiritual knowledge is no longer hoarded by gurus and religious scholars. Society is shifting away from top-down structures where a handful of authorities tell the rest of the world what to believe, and we're moving into an era of direct personal access to sacred knowledge and experiences. But with that freedom comes responsibility because when anyone can share anything, the quality of information can become questionable. That's why practicing discernment is more important now than ever. I personally think that we have a lot of reasons to be optimistic, even if it is noisy and chaotic out there in the world. The fact that so many people are waking up asking questions and exploring consciousness is a sign that something powerful is happening beneath the surface, and the more we learn to trust our own inner knowing, the more we can clearly navigate our current situation. Now that we've explored its history and why channeling is coming back into the spotlight today. Let's shift gears and take a closer look at what's actually happening during the challenging process itself. When you really understand how consciousness works, it starts to make channeling feel a lot less mysterious. To understand channeling, we first have to recognize that consciousness is not generated by the body or brain. Rather, consciousness flows through the body. Everybody has the ability to channel and does so in one way or another. What do you think is happening when you remember something from childhood? If our bodies completely regenerate every seven to 10 years, as most biologists will agree, then information pertaining to older memories has to be coming from somewhere external. Sure cells may remain, but all of the atoms that made up those cells are eventually replaced with new ones over time. The body you're in now is simply not the same body that was present when the original experiences recalled in memories took place, especially in the case of childhood memories. This unsolved question is also known as the body paradox with as much as our current scientific establishment knows about how the human body works, you'd think they would've found an organ or internal system responsible for memory storage by now if it existed. Ancient sages and wisdom keepers of the past understood very well what modern science is beginning to come to terms with. The fact that the brain acts as a radio receiver for consciousness, rather than a generator of consciousness. And if the human brain receiver can be tuned to one frequency, who's to say that it's not possible to turn the dial just a little bit and pick up other frequencies as well? We've all had the experience of thinking about someone you haven't spoken to in a while and looking at your phone to see a missed call or text message from that person. This phenomena has been documented by many people over several decades. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Scientists like Rupert Sheldrake have dedicated their entire careers to researching how people and animals both demonstrate the ability to act on information that they should have No way of knowing.

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For most people, this experience is fleeting and often dismissed as a coincidence. But what if coincidences were just a part of a larger organized pattern that we haven't yet noticed? And despite all of our technological advancements, how much can science definitively say about consciousness At this point, not very much. Everyone has the ability to channel and does channel in one form or another, whether they realize it or not. Our personalities are not stored in the body, and any creative ideas that we may have are definitely not stored in the body. Michael Jackson famously said that one of the reasons he spent so much time in the recording studio is because he didn't want Prince to get the songs. He's alluding to something that many artists freely admit. That they don't come up with the new ideas themselves. Instead, they receive creative impulses from an external source. This concept has been understood by every traditional culture around the world and goes by many names. Including the muse by the ancient Greeks and Saraswati in Hindu cultures. The fact that ideas are received from an external source is a phenomenon that's been recognized by people throughout human history. Channeling is a skill, and like any skill, some people will naturally be able to do it more easily than others, but regardless of natural abilities, it is possible to develop and improve one's ability to tap into various sources of non-local information. So let's talk about how to do that. This may seem counterintuitive. But when it comes to channeling effectively, the key isn't to do more, it's to do less. If the mind is where we receive channeled information, being able to clear our headspace of irrelevant thoughts and mental chatter is crucial. You can't pour into a cup that's already overflowing. There are potentially many techniques that Channelers could use when receiving messages, but there's one foundational practice that all Channelers rely on, and that's meditation. the ability to focus one's attention entirely on experiencing the present moment, free of thoughts, desires, and judgements. Intention also plays a major role in one's ability to receive channeled messages. Approaching this ancient art form with reverence, respect, genuine curiosity, and a desire to serve others can have a profound impact on one's success When channeling. It's said that love is a key that opens many doors, and when those doors start to open, it's common for channelers to receive information in a variety of ways. Messages can come in from visions, emotional cues, sounds, dreams, straight up downloads, or any number of other ways. And while being able to receive channeled information from beyond may seem intriguing, not all sources of spiritual information are created equal, far from it. In addition to receiving transmitted data, a channel must be able to assess the material coming through with a critical eye. It is super important to know if a channeled message came from a place of love and higher vibrational frequency, or from a lower vibrational source. Learning discernment and how to distinguish truth from falsehood is an essential skill for both channelers and non channelers alike. That's why I created this video right here to show you how to tap into your own intuition and easily spot channeled misinformation in any situation. This video is everything. I wish someone would've told me years ago. I learned it the hard way, so you don't have to. We'll see you there.