Why 'Channeling' Triggered My Skepticism

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Thanks for tuning into our series these last few weeks on divination and channeling — did you have fun? I had fun! I hope you had fun.

I went into this divination series experiment with a pretty strong opinion about people who throw around the word "channeling" in their marketing copy. Six weeks later, I haven’t totally changed my stance… but there were quite a few ideas that emerged in our research that’ve really stuck to my ribs.

As we wrap this experiment, I’m left with four big ideas that I’m still rolling around in my brain that directly relate to channeling.

In this episode:

I.

The body always finds a way to become a divining rod.

It’s not all about freeing your mind and opening your third eye.

The body plays an integral and oft overlooked role in divination/channeling/flow state, and even thought I know this it still surprises me how involved the physical body is in the quest to become an antennae for cosmic information. It’s very easy to get all ethereal and heady and mental about spiritual stuff and forget your body is a necessary (and literal) vessel of information.

Regulating the nervous system through somatic practice — meditation, breath, repetitive motion, routine, etc. — is key for clear downloads.

This realization hit me like a brick to the face, which is infuriating because I literally study embodied cognition. I'm training to be a Feldenkrais practitioner for pete’s sake. I should know this. Yet I'm constantly trying to bypass my body — can't I just think my way through everything? Can't I just sit down and make art without paying attention to whether I'm breathing?

But every single divination practice we explored came back to the body. Spiritualist artists used repetitive motions to access trance states. Automatic writing requires that flow state you can only reach through breath work or movement. Even your morning pages routine is a somatic practice, though we pretend it's just "journaling."

II.

Fluency in your preferred medium makes channeling more powerful.

You’re able to more accurately describe what you’re channeling when you have more words to say it.

Think of it like a computer's operating system. If channeled information shows you "a green tree taller than the tallest building you've ever seen," but your reference for "tallest building" is a two-story house, you're going to translate that as a three-story tree instead of a massive sequoia.

Agnes Pelton, trained from childhood in oil paint and color theory, could translate her visions with precision that someone who took art classes in middle school simply cannot match. It's not about the information being wrong — it's about having enough vocabulary to communicate what doesn't work linguistically.

This is why I get annoyed when people dismiss skill-building as "too academic" or "not intuitive enough." If your first language is movement, energy will communicate through movement because that's the path of least resistance. But if you only speak one creative language, you're limiting what can come through.

III.

Channeling is kind of a code word for “ego-less information.” It’s simultaneously not that special and so goddamn special.

Just like giving birth or falling in love.

When someone uses the word "channeled" to describe something they’re presenting to the world, I think they're kinda of covertly messaging: "I don't have skin in this game. I'm delivering this information without agenda. I'm just the messenger." Whether that's actually true is another question, babyyyyyy.

IIII.

There are benefits to delusion and meglomania!

Self-trust is essential for accessing flow states. The thing that blocks most of us from channeling anything useful is self-surveillance — watching ourselves from a distance, judging and editing in real time. Narcissists don't do this. They're like "yeah, that's divine wisdom" without questioning themselves for even a second.

I'm not endorsing spiritual megalomania, but most of us could benefit from like, ten minutes a day of drinking our own Kool-Aid. Spend the other 23 hours and 50 minutes of the day doubting yourself if you want! That’s none of my business.

But you have to get over yourself is the bottom line.

OK, so those are my direct influences from the last seven weeks — but I wanted to take some time to zoom out a bit and reflect on some pattern observations I’ve seen in the intuitive business and creative work space.

Things I’m noticing whether I like it or not

I’m of the belief that you need to change up your inputs (experiences, habits, research, practices, influences) to get new outputs (ideas, lessons, beliefs, skills, outcomes).

There were a bunch of things that I did this summer — some planned, some coincidental — that shifted my inputs:

* I went on a “summer break” from seeing 1:1 Matrix of Destiny clients

* I spent two weeks in Ann Arbor training in the Feldenkrais Method (normally my trainings are over three days on zoom)

* Saw a new round of 1:1 business advising clients

* Welcomed lots of new members to the North Node and personally did onboarding calls with about half of them

* My schedule changed a little bit because we (blessedly!) enjoyed a nanny share for two half days a week, which meant that I got 4-8 more hours of “free time” in every week

* Put a 15-minute per day timer on my social media use (truly I’m rolling my eyes at this myself because it’s just SO BASIC IT’S SO ANNOYING but it really did impact my inputs and outputs for the summer!)

And all of that ^^^ contributed to the things I spent time doing, thinking about, getting annoyed by, etc.

There were a few striking patterns that seemed to emerge this summer in the intuitive business and creative work world as a result of those shifting inputs. It’s tough to say if what I’m noticing are actually global patterns, or just microtrends within my little ecosystem. I’ll let you be the judge — either way, I think it’s curious! One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to talk to lots of people from lots of walks of life and it’s gotta mean something that these concepts have come up so many times with so many different people this summer.

"Wait, I Don't Actually Want This"

Nearly every new business client this summer had the same realization — they didn't really really want to pursue what they'd initially contacted me about. They'd been on autopilot toward goals that were no longer theirs. And these aren't people following societal expectations; these are self-directed entrepreneurs who'd outgrown their own previous desires without noticing.

Running Experiments / “Adjust, try again. Adjust, try again.”

People are running experiments and adjusting in real time instead of going back to the drawing board. Launch didn't work? Adjust one thing and try again. This health intervention failed? Try a different approach. Less "burn it all down," more "tweak and iterate."

The rage fuel ain’t fuelin’ like it used to.

The sacred rage that fueled so many businesses and activist projects is running out of steam. Anger is fast fuel but burns out quickly. People who built entire platforms on rage against AI, MLMs, patriarchy, corporate America are finding it unsustainable. The rage is still valid, but it can't be your only creative fuel source.

I’m seeing people reaching for sustainable fuel that doesn't require you to stay perpetually pissed off.

Whew, OK let’s wrap this up

This whole exploration reminded me that channeling might just be the magical-mundane experience of accessing flow state where ego steps aside. Whether you call it channeling, intuition, or getting out of your own way, the mechanics are surprisingly consistent: get present in your body, develop fluency in your medium, trust what comes through, and create something that didn't exist before.

What stuck with you from this? I want to know what you're noticing in your own creative practice or in the patterns around you.

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