I’m sure that many of you have had the experience of saying that you’re into Michael channeling, and getting a reply something like, “Yeah, me too! The archangel Michael, right?” Then you must explain, “No, this is the entity Michael, consisting of 1050 souls on the causal plane.”

“Well, the archangel Michael is the one who came as Jesus.”

“Is that so? Then why didn’t he keep that name?”

This is all very confusing — the name Michael seems to be as common on higher planes as it is on the physical plane — so I suggested to Michael that they change their name. They agreed that it was worth considering.

A simple route would be to go with “Mike” — “I like Mike” could be our slogan, and we could have buttons printed — but I favor something different altogether.

Since, like all of us, Michael has both male and female energies, perhaps we should think about some female names. Michael consists of kings and warriors, so someone suggested “Brunhilda.” My mini-encyclopedia of baby names says it means an “armor-wearing maiden who goes into battle.” (A dictionary defines Brunhild (without the a) as “a queen in the Nibelungenlied.”) It has possibilities. I also like “Ethel,” which means “of regal bearing.” Since Michael is a collective entity, they could have more than one name. “Lucy” means “will bring much illumination and knowledge.” So one could channel “Lucy and Ethel.” Or two channels could team up, one channeling Lucy, the other, Ethel. However, although it’s perfectly socially acceptable for a woman to channel an entity with a male name (such as J.Z. Knight channeling Ramtha), a man channeling an entity with a female name would not be taken seriously in our society by many people. Since channeling needs all the positive public relations it can get, perhaps a male name would be more practical for the time being.

How about “Gary,” or “Fred”? Whom do you know who channels Fred? The Michael Educational Foundation (in Orinda, California) could then be called “The Fred Educational Foundation,” or Fred Ed for short. The only trouble with “Fred” is that I already have both a spirit guide and a father named Fred. If a causal entity, spirit guide, and father all answered when I said “Fred,” it would be confusing for me. However, that’s not your problem, and I still feel that “Fred” should be given due consideration.

My favorite, though, is “Bob.” It’s short, and sounds pleasant and approachable:

“I channel Bob.”

“Bob who?”

“Just Bob.”

“Who’s Bob?”

“Bob is a friendly, easygoing causal-plane entity made up of kings and warriors who give practical information on things like relationships and parallel universes.”

Now I know that some of you would prefer something more spiritual-sounding, something Indian (either kind), or at least Biblical, but let’s face it: most of the Biblical names have been taken, except for some obscure ones in the Begats. The East Indian names are long, and the Native American ones are hard to spell. No, I’ll take “Bob” — good ol’ Bob, your causal friend, and mine.