Whenever we undertake to do something positive, we attract discarnate beings who are interested in collaborating such as by brainstorming and offering support. That doesn’t take away from our individual accomplishments, but we can often accomplish more when collaborating with both seen and unseen beings.

For example, inventors working on inventions that could benefit others attract the help of guides. The fact that many inventions surface through multiple people around the same time suggests that some of the ideas originate in spirit, or at least, those in spirit recognize an idea whose time has come and may encourage people with similar ideas or interests. It’s also possible that those various inventors are collaborating with one another on a soul level, especially when they’re out of body during the dream state.

Stephen Sondheim wrote a song for his musical Into the Woods, “No One Is Alone,” that was a pretty amazing statement from someone who probably identified as an agnostic East Coast intellectual. The fact that he could write it was itself an illustration of its message that we all have guides behind the scenes, even someone like him who probably didn’t believe in guides. According to the lyrics, even people we disagree with or think are terrible human beings have guides. Sondheim’s brilliance was responsible for his songs, yet some of them reveal wisdom he would have disavowed or claimed was just the character or book (script) writer speaking. He was unconsciously being guided.
I channel the Michael entity. When directly and consciously channeling discarnate beings, we give them most of the credit, but even that is a collaboration. They must make use of channels’ understanding, vocabulary, and gifts.

When I do sessions of any kind, including both channeling sessions and non-channeled intuitive readings, I’m aware of the “heavenly host” that gathers. They are attracted by the rare opportunity to participate in an opening of the veil, and clients’ deceased loved ones are fascinated by the view from their side.

Most channeling or collaboration with spirit is unconscious. Artists may view it as inspiration or connecting with their muse. Sondheim said that when he was stuck on a lyric or another creative task, he would sleep on it and often know the answer in the morning. His own subconscious and higher self working on it was no doubt a large part of that—we are each creators in our own right—but in the dream state, we also connect more directly to our guides. They are not necessarily more advanced than we are, but like coaches watching games from the sidelines, they know the plays we have planned and can see things we cannot—they have a higher vantage point.

The arts and spirituality are perhaps the highest frequency human realms. Our evolution as souls in large part is about learning to make increasingly skillful choices. We make countless choices every day, and they all matter, such as what we say and eat. In the arts, though, we start with a blank canvas, so we have infinite choices, a harder and more exciting undertaking. We are creators-in-training, and artistic expression is the most rigorous school for that. Because of this, artistic creators are perhaps nearest and dearest to the capital-C Creator, or Source, or the Tao, as we say in the Michael teachings.
The point of being in a universe is to expand love, truth, and beauty. We, as Source, are already love, truth, and beauty, but we don’t rest on our laurels; we play around with them to explore new directions, to more fully realize their potential. Otherwise, we’d be bored. I, for one, can only play a harp on a cloud for so long.

Spiritual work is directly and specifically about expanding our experience of love, truth, and beauty, which is why it is the other highest frequency realm. When we do healing work, we are joined by nonphysical beings who love being able to help amplify higher energies. No one is alone. Although there are seven planes of creation, the physical plane, the first, is the front line of growth. The evolution of those on higher planes is tied to ours. We are the stage actors, and they are the backstage crew (along with having their own growth experiences).

Some work combines the creative and spiritual. Bach said, “The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” His understanding of God was no doubt limited by his religious beliefs but his intent still allowed him to tap into the eternal and create pieces that spoke to the people of his time, and since. Had he not had the talent and training he did, his creations would have been less complex and refined, so he brought a lot to the table. Again: collaboration. Note “refreshment of the soul”—it wasn’t just about self-sacrifice, as religions often frame it.

I learned as a teenager that we can receive inner guidance. When I was twenty-two (in 1977), I started asking within constantly, starting with yes/no answers. In time, I was having almost nonstop full conversations with my guides. I took it to an extreme for a while, asking about almost everything out of fear that I would make wrong decisions. I later understood that learning to make my own skillful choices was part of my maturing, but it was good practice in listening and forging a connection with spirit.

I started channeling the Michael entity in 1986, having learned about the first Michael book, Messages from Michael, from a close friend. In the weeks before, I learned about a California Michael group that a friend’s new girlfriend was a part of. I soon realized that this was the same Michael teachings. In addition, around that time, another friend who gave psychic readings offered to do one for me, and he channeled an entity that identified itself as Michael. Considering the synchronicities, it was obvious that this was meant to be, that I was keeping an appointment made before birth. I was at work one day and started writing down questions for when I found a Michael channel. My pencil kept moving and I got answers. That’s how I started channeling. A year before, I didn’t even know what channeling was. (You can read my piece “How I Began Channeling Michael” on my site, ShepherdHoodwin. com. I call it my “Frequently Asked Question.” 😀)

How I Began Channeling Michael

By this time, due to Shirley MacLaine’s 1983 book and 1987 mini-series Out on a Limb, channeling was increasingly in the zeitgeist. Some people dismissed channeling, saying that it was just accessing the subconscious.

It can be the case for some attempting to channel that they are just accessing their subconscious, especially when it hasn’t been adequately healed and there are issues demanding attention—they aren’t able to make a deep enough connection. This is a common issue in all psychic work. One way I knew that it wasn’t true of me is that from early on, I started channeling intense energies along with words. People report seeing light around me, my face changing, and feeling tingling and waves of energy in their own body.

I’ve never known another channel to bring through so much and such high-frequency energy. I can recognize Michael’s energy when others channel them (Michael is a group and there are several Michael channels), but it’s much less concentrated and is often more intellectually focused—it’s mostly about the words. There’s no better or worse here. Energy work just happened to be part of my particular agreement with Michael.

I started channeling public lectures in New York City for around twenty to forty people once or twice a month. The edited transcripts of many of them later became part of some of my books, including Opening to Healing. (My recent books that also address healing are called Holistic Health for Smarties and Energy Literacy. All sixteen of my books can be found at https://shepherdhoodwin.com/ book/.)
Michael is on the causal plane, the third plane after the physical and astral, so their energy vibrates relatively rapidly. Most channeling is from the astral, where our guides, angels, and our own soul reside. That’s easier on bodies since they are designed to have an astral component—the soul. Again, there’s no better or worse here, just different sets of pros and cons.

Soul is usually defined in metaphysics as the part of our essence that incarnates and carries our past-life personalities in addition to the current one. Essence in the Michael teachings is what many refer to as the “higher self.” It’s the oversoul that includes all our potential that later becomes activated as we move through higher planes—the acorn that becomes the oak tree. The soul is its outer or lowest level that interacts with the physical plane.

Channeling is characterized by going into some kind of altered state, from light to deep trance. It normally refers to directly bringing in a different entity to speak through the channel. However, we can also channel our own essence. Ideally, we are always in alignment with essence, but it is personality that is on the front lines of everyday life. In channeling essence, one can switch focus from personality, the part of self who shops and pays the bills, for instance, to letting essence have the floor to address the big picture of things, which is its bailiwick. Channeling essence is the easiest form of channeling, and maybe the most important. When personality has a clear and direct connection with essence, it makes all other kinds of access possible, because essence is connected to Source and all other resources in spirit. Once we can communicate accurately with essence, we can communicate with all beings. We can, for example, receive thought impressions from animals and plants, although each kind of access may require some practice to develop.

Even when channeling essence, there are likely others in spirit collaborating, feeding ideas and energies that would best serve those present, even if the channel is not directly channeling those other souls. No one is alone.

A few years ago, I stopped channeling Michael directly for individual client Q&A sessions and moved them over to intuitive readings supervised by Michael. Channeling has always been hard on my body, especially because I’ve had lifelong insomnia and fatigue; it is much easier when I’m well-rested, but that doesn’t happen often. (Insomnia and some other health challenges are common among channels and psychics. This kind of work generates some unique wear and tear—the upper chakras get an intense workout.)

I still channel Michael directly for Michael charts, the “trues” (true rest, play, work, and study), other questions only they can answer, and for channeled lectures. The night before I’m going to channel, about once every three weeks, I usually take a benzodiazepine sleeping pill so that I’ll be able to do it. (If I take it more often than that, it doesn’t work as well, so I reserve it for that.)

Although intuitive readings are in my own voice and are more conversational and casual than my channeling, I find that the information is largely the same. People aren’t blasted with causal plane energy, but I still do energy work in all my sessions, and when we focus on it, people still report feeling transformed and wonderful afterward. Having been Michael’s partner in thousands of sessions over forty years, I’ve learned a lot from them about healing, and their intense energy has roto-rootered me. 😀 I love the concept that shamans walk between the worlds. I experience myself as walking between the worlds, too, in that I’m always in conversation with spirit.

Most of my sessions are over the phone (or now, Zoom, for international calls) and include Q&As. The information comes alongside energy work. I rarely do sessions that are only energy work.

I am not a naturally gifted psychic (I can’t even find my own lost objects 😊) although I’ve gotten better with practice. I don’t see auras in vivid color or detail like some do. I get subtle images more akin to line drawings pointing to what is going on. Of the four “clairs,” (clairvoyance—seeing, clairaudience—hearing, clairsentience—feeling, and claircognizance—knowing), I am most claircognizant; I know. My strength is communicating with spirit, so I rely equally on what they tell me along with my own faculties, although I am not usually conscious of where information comes from unless I ask—I simply use my truth sense to know the highest thing to say. The client’s essence and guides collaborate with me and mine, and the best information wins. I may coach clients to state affirmations to counteract what’s getting in their way, and have them visualize what’s missing coming in. It’s in part a therapeutic use of imagination, along with my own healing energy transmissions. I don’t have much technique beyond that, but it works.

I’ve received healing energy work from a wide variety of other practitioners and modalities throughout my life, including name-brand techniques such as Reiki and Johrei, but the majority have been the healer’s own techniques, often evolved and integrated from several different trainings. It has always been a good experience. There are differences in each, but I am not psychic enough in seeing energy to be able to verbalize exactly what the differences in technique are.

I am currently the long-term client of two healers with extraordinary technique, way beyond my own. One is Susannah Redelfs (https://councilofone.org/). She writes on her site, “Since birth, I have seen energy before physical form, geometric and fractal shape and structure before registering the physical appearance of my environment, and the coursing gold waves of pulsing energy connecting everything and everyone.… It makes everything I look at inexpressibly beautiful.” I work with Susannah weekly.
The other is John Friedlander, a workshop leader and author of several books including Psychic Psychology. John’s work and understanding are astonishingly subtle and complex, and I have experienced dramatic shifts in my energy with him in as little as a few minutes. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he was a member of Jane Roberts’ Seth Group in the 1970s and trained with Lewis Bostwick at the Berkeley Psychic Institute, which integrates several paths such as Theosophy and Rosicrucianism. I work with John about every six weeks.

Technique is important and a lot of different techniques work—they are helpful in some way. Intent, though, is more important—the unconditional desire to be a blessing. I’ve heard of healers who deliberately sabotage their healings so that people will have to pay for more sessions. Appalling. But as far as I can tell, I’ve only had honorable people work on me. True, some are more powerful than others, which has in part to do with how much work they’ve done on themselves to be clear and to stay in strong connection with essence. Also, how much power comes through healings has to do with the capacity of the recipients to receive and how open they are.

In addition, the intrinsic soul nature of a healer, including their essence role, makes a difference. One breakthrough understanding of the Michael teachings is that there are seven different types of souls, or roles, each structured uniquely: the inspirational server and priest, the expressive artisan and sage (I’m a sage), the active warrior and king, and the assimilative scholar. Moving from the most ordinal role, server, to the most cardinal, king, the energy becomes increasingly concentrated, with kings having the most concentrated energy of the seven roles. They naturally feel powerful.

All true healers are on the same page about wanting to be a blessing to humanity, which is slowly coming out of great darkness. Those who love to their highest ability are essential to holding this grand experiment together until we pass through these rapids into calmer waters. Coming together to heal, meditate, channel, or anything else that prioritizes love is of inestimable value. Without those keeping the flame lit, humanity, already on thin ice, would have little hope of avoiding worst-case scenarios. Love is the core energy, the force that holds things together.