Inward Vision

It was not easy for me to identify myself, even privately, as a medium or channeler. I love mediums, from minor TV stars like Tyler Henry and the Long Island Medium to those I have seen privately. My great grandmother was a physical medium, and has been a huge influence in my spiritual life even though I never met her in the flesh. I have heard a few stories from my childhood of me talking to spirits, and have memories of doing so mainly in the form of plants and animals but I buttoned that up tightly prior to my teen years. The door to direct spirit communication reopened to me spontaneously in 2017, in my first encounter during Breathwork with my great grandmother Bessie, which brought tremendous healing for me. But it took many years for me to understand what this work might look like for me, and I struggled with self-doubt.

I have had some of those more classic visitation experiences, and I can communicate some “evidence” from the loved ones of those I’m working with, but that’s not most typical. More often, I’m the one doing the traveling (astral projection experiences) and coming back with information, or connecting in psychic space during meditation. Or in some cases spirits present themselves because they are seeking energetic assistance, rather than wishing to communicate to the living. My experiences as a medium are not only with human spirits, and frequently focuses more on guides, plants and animals, and other energetic beings. The fact that these encounters didn’t look like a typical “mediumship session” was a hurdle that took a long time to move past, and I had to broaden my perspective to understand how those gifts would take shape.

Channelling is generally described as a process of actually letting the spirit or guide speak directly through you. It can also include translating psychic information in a live, “streaming” style of dialogue. For me it is usually both, and I also do this in writing and in artmaking. Creating space for sharing this more widely with others was the inspiration for Intuitive Dialogue sessions. After a few interactions happening in close succession expressing interest in my process for receiving and working with intuitive information, I felt inspired to share my process and how it’s informing my path forward. I imagine some of you have had similar experiences (please tell me about it!).


While I was resistant initially to fully opening to my channeling abilities (probably a lot of it being my psychotherapy training getting in the way), once I committed to working with these gifts they opened up organically and easily. In hindsight I applied a lot more effort to not channel or intuit information in my many years of work as a trauma therapist than it has taken to surrender to it. And I also edit a bit sometimes because I have boundaries (and guides can be blunt). Like other psychics I respect, I also believe that not all information that is communicated is meant to be shared literally; sometimes it is information for us that helps us to navigate our work with others. And sometimes we receive information that is a only a partial truth, intended to open a door of awareness rather than a sort of prophesy what’s going to happen.
(If you’re curious for yourself, there are numerous books in the subject of psychic exercises to develop particular senses, the book “You are Psychic” is an excellent primer, and I found “The Evidential Medium” to be really useful as well. You might also enjoy engaging with the work of AJA who is one of my teachers.)

I was trained in Ericksonian hypnosis, which I still love, but in the last year or so I felt a tension between focusing exclusively on tuning in to the energy of the group or person during trance (hypnosis) vs connecting with the supportive energies who gather around when Energywork is happening (channeling). And increasingly, differentiating between energy and trance work feels unnatural— I see them as coocurring, sometimes with an emphasis on the body and non-verbal, and sometimes more on the conscious and subconscious level.

Direct energy channeling has become mostly unconscious for me at this point, so it can be active whether I’m talking/walking around or not, but when language is not needed the capacity for trance is greater. Especially in groups when I’m on mute I go very deep into trance pretty quickly, and I feel my own energy traveling. I let the guides work directly with my hands and with my third eye. I see myself as a witness and an anchor for the energy; sometimes guides wish to share information to be offered and other times they simply want the space held. I don’t usually use the structure of imagining a more physical session (like imagining moving through hand positions) during distance work anymore, rather I focus my awareness on the person or each person and ask their guides what is needed. I’m often shown metaphorical representations of the energy that’s being worked with, in the form of shapes, colors, or images and scenes and I direct the energy there. Once I’ve established the connection, I stay in trance so that I can work with each person simultaneously and allow the guides to use my body directly. I ask if there are any other vibrant and supportive beings who wish to assist, and incorporate that information.

I also like to check in periodically and ask guides if anything is needed, lately there have been more requests to share visual information and some of you have noticed I’ve been doing that. While I’m quite visual, my intuitive vision is highly abstract, metaphorical, and other worldly; it was easy to understand as it related to my own life, but it has taken much practice to develop a language for translating that information to others. Ironically, or maybe not, as that language developed I did start to see more of those clear “pictures.” Individual guides (mine and others) have been appearing more and showing themselves, and as I’ve been working with many of you over some years it’s been great getting to know your individual guides! While I love being my own boss, I’m a social being and I do miss having “coworkers.” I guess this now feels like a version of that, connecting with someone else’s team and collaborating on a regular basis.

Being in a less conscious state of flow allows for a greater range of exposure to different types of energy that different people hold around them. I think this is a benefit of channeling energy with groups, certainly for me but also for those participating. Each person brings unique energetic ingredients, unique experiences and perspectives, and their own special gifts; the matrix of energies in the group create a unique ecosystem to explore from that we couldn’t achieve alone. Even the clearing and release groups (a bit more of an energetic lift) are still hugely expansive for me personally! I receive a benefit from channeling a greater volume of energy during groups than I would be able to do for myself alone.

To be a channel is to be a conduit, a medium for energy to flow from non-physical to physical; the art of reiki (or any other energy modality) is to allow it to flow strongly and consistently without getting in the way. It’s a lot about listening! And similarly channeling on the verbal/mind level is also about listening and allowing the information to come through without hesitation. There’s a playful quality, like improvisation, when allowing yourself to hear the information for the first time as you speak it aloud. Sometimes what is said surprises me, or I’m perplexed and curious about what it may mean.  Most of my individual sessions lately have been focused on clearing and release, and while I try to maintain a certain recognizable structure, it feels more meaningful to tune in directly to a person’s guides to understand what is needed in the moment and channel it directly.

As Energywork has become so unconscious and second nature, it seems a missed opportunity not to utilize it regularly when leading trancework. I’ve started to work collaboratively with the supportive guides and energies present, translating it through a hypnotic speech pattern. Hence the introduction of the Timeline Hopping group as a deeper blend of modalities, channeled live. And increasingly in my personal meditations the volume of information during my own deep space traveling has been hard to translate after the fact, so I record them through audio or writing.

One of the big projects of the last few months has been creating formal recordings, some of which I will be sharing in the form of digital bundles and free downloads (the first few offerings are live in the new Learning Library, formal announcement to come). It’s been really fascinating and exciting to tune into a future and unknown group of people, who will be dropping in at different times, and to channel trances (or journeys) encoded with energy to explore different topics and goals. It feels like a completely organic form of channeling that can be done on the spot and made available indefinitely. How different it feels to be primarily working with future selves in this way.

But back to the process…

In my view channeling is most effective when you can tune in on all the levels of your consciousness. We can do this by developing our psychic senses— through seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing we can more easily understand information coming from guides and other sources. Developing excellent energetic boundaries and protection gives us the ability to work unconsciously without fear of injury. And when you can receive and channel on the unconscious level, through your energy body, you can channel beyond the more human or language-oriented beings. You feel it and allow it to blend with your own awareness, and perhaps translate it into words but experience it first in its natural form. It’s kind of like immersion-style language learning. When you simply listen, feel, notice, and observe a new way of communication without a direct translation, you gain a better sense of the true meaning behind what’s being shared. You capture the nuance. You learn a language that expresses the unique qualities of different realms.

For example, plants actually like to talk and be talked to (in my experience), but there are many elements of what is being communicated that needs to be felt rather than heard. Because there’s no human reference point for it, no direct translation. There’s a quality I would describe as stretchy, almost like how a music track played back at half tempo is both drawn out and lower in tone; you need to be patient and listen for a long time.
Working with cosmic energies also requires an energy-based dialogue, you learn about them through working with them; you feel their qualities through their interaction with your own energy field. They take you on a journey through different ways of being and experiencing your consciousness. It breaks down the barriers between the idea of ending and beginnings, and challenges the ego identity.

Allowing your consciousness (your energy) to travel and connect across the cosmos, to channel and receive information outside of your current human experience is like any other kind of travel that’s done well. It broadens your perspective, allows you to learn and grow, and ultimately be a more positive participant in the world around you— if you fully immerse yourself in the place rather than viewing from the outside. And it can also be a bit disorienting and confusing at times!

I’m beginning to feel that connecting to a broader range of energy is necessary for the painful and chaotic times we live it. Sometimes it all feels like a bit too much! It’s too easy to get cynical, bored, hopeless, exhausted, and detached. Its hard to keep your head up in the face of all the oppressive systems at work, and make no mistake, human supremacy is another layer of it. It’s humbling and relieving to feel beyond that and remember our energetic origins.

ok. I think that’s all I’ve got on this topic for now… Let me tell you, I got a hard push from my guides to write this but my mind pushed back! So I’ll let this be done rather than perfect, we’ll return to it again some time soon 😅