Spiritual Forum

The year 2012 is drawing to a close. It is becoming painfully clear that almost all of the – often channeled – predictions for this year have not come about. No huge natural disasters, no shifting of the poles, no mass ascension, no Niburu cataclysm, no alien invasion, no galactic federation, no coming of the world teacher … to mention only a few.

Apparently, a lot of false information is being channeled. How can this be? Does someone who channels not receive a higher inspiration? Are all those people who are channeling cheating or are they led astray by their own imagination? It is not as simple as that. People who channel typically believe in what they are doing and often are sincerely shocked when their predictions do not appear to come true. They usually are sensitive, paranormally gifted people who are able to make contact with non-physical entities and who are convinced that those entities give them reliable and important information.

What is going wrong then?

One big problem is the astral plane that surrounds us.

What is the astral plane? How did it emerge?

After you die, you are free. Free to return to the spiritual plane of your origin, free to create your own reality. But that freedom can be a trap. A lot of people are not free on the inner level. They have locked themselves into firm beliefs about good and bad, about life, death, and the afterlife. Others are not so much attached to certain beliefs, but to emotions and desires, such as addictions, anger, or feelings of inferiority.

The astral plane is, among other things, the joint creation of all these people. It is a social plane of existence in which all those thought forms of fear, illusion, and desire take shape directly. For instance, if you have a lot of gloomy thoughts, then you might find yourself in a landscape that is bare and gray. This landscape reflects your inner state. People remain in the astral plane until the call of their soul becomes so strong that they release their illusions and rise up to the spiritual plane, or if that is not possible, go to sleep and incarnate again.

For example, when someone believes that he will arrive in a “golden city” right after his death, where people walk around exulting and praising God, then that is where that person will arrive along with others who believe this. In the beginning, they will be pretty happy there; they think they are in heaven. But eventually, life becomes boring and monotonous; the “golden city” becomes a prison. Through this experience, an inner space opens up in which the voice of the soul, the voice of truth, will be heard again. Gradually, an awakening will occur and the astral illusion of the “golden city” will be released.

The astral plane is filled with the “heavens” of people of fundamentalist persuasion. The stronger their convictions, the longer it takes for them to hear the call of their soul. But not only “heavens” are to be found in the astral plane; some people create a kind of “hell” for themselves. Someone who suffers from a strong sense of inferiority may find themselves in a barren and lonely place that reflects their inner feelings. Again, it may take quite some time until such a person allows their inner Light to emerge.

In short, the astral plane is a gathering place for all those who are not yet open to the voice of their soul. Because their convictions are not rooted in their soul’s wisdom, they create their own prison on the basis of those convictions.

How does the astral plane influence psychics and people who are channeling? There are two ways.

1.The cycle of fear

The astral plane is partly formed by us, the living, especially by our strong emotions like anger and fear. As a plane, the astral is close to the Earth plane, in the sense that most of the human fears and prejudices that prevail there, match the fears and biases that exist on Earth in the collective consciousness of humankind. For example, when people on Earth are afraid of natural disasters, all sorts of images of natural disasters emerge in the lower regions of the astral plane. These doomsday images can be picked up by paranormally sensitive people who interpret them as images of the future and present them as higher truths to their audience.

In addition, roaming around in the lower regions of the astral plane are all sorts of entities who cannot let go of Earth. Some of these entities like to promote the transmission of visions of fear, because it makes them feel important. Often, it is the departed dead who cannot let go of the Earth; their consciousness is still focused completely on the Earth, and the recognition and attention of humans is very important for them. They need contact with people and if those people start to see them as messengers of higher truths, some of them find it totally awesome. They will proclaim anything that will reinforce their status as an important messenger. They feel instinctively that making spectacular predictions works very well for them: the greater the predicted disaster, the more attention they receive. The original fear that was already present in the collective consciousness of humanity is thus reinforced by astral forces. Thus, a cycle of fear is created.

Because of this cycle of fear, fed by human and astral forces, it can and does happen that people gather around a guru who is genuinely believed to channel higher knowledge, but in fact is only confirming their fearful visions while presenting them as so-called higher transmissions. Many predictions about 2012, especially the ones speaking of disasters, can be explained that way.

2. Astral gurus

The spiritual development of mankind will cause the astral plane to disappear eventually. Once people tune in to their soul, to their inner truth, and listen to their hearts instead of their egos, the astral plane will no longer be “fed”. The astral plane thrives on illusions and lower emotions; truth and love will mean its demise.

Presently, however, there are entities in the astral plane that have dwelled there for a long time and have built up a special position. In a fundamentalist “heaven” (think of the previously mentioned “golden city”), there is often a single leader, a self-proclaimed guru who sees himself as the voice of truth. That person derives their whole status from their special position in the astral plane. Over the centuries, that person may have adopted the standing of a famous religious personality, for example Christ. They may even have become convinced they arethe Christ. This will, of course, be confirmed by their followers, who believe that in their fundamentalist heaven they ought to be close to Christ. Naturally, such an astral guru presumes to remember everything about the life of Christ. In every fundamentalist heaven of Christian origin, and there are many, such a Christ is roaming about. This explains, for example, why there is so much conflicting channeled information about the life of Christ.

However, an astral guru like this is never completely cut off from reality. He realizes that the spiritual growth of humanity is a threat to him and he will try to prevent it from happening. This he does by sending information to Earth that strengthens the fear and duality here. This information is passed on in the form of a channeling, for example. Because these entities often possess sophisticated insights into, and knowledge about human nature, it is often difficult to recognize them as impure. What is more, the entities themselves usually believe in the accuracy of their information. The quite substantial human capacity for self-deception is even greater in the astral plane than on Earth. On Earth, there is the continual confrontation with dissident voices and with the facts, but this is hardly the case in the astral plane; there, every change of belief has to come from within the individual.

How do you recognize information as impure?

Pure information comes from the plane of the soul, the spiritual plane: a plane of unity, love, freedom, and respect for everything that lives. Pure information will touch our hearts by giving us an immediate sense of peace, love, and freedom. It makes us feel good about the universe we live in; it gives us a sense of confidence about ourselves. Pure information leads to a true understanding of who we are.

The purpose of impure information is always to thwart the spiritual development of mankind and to strengthen the astral plane by creating new illusions and fears. Impure information has the following characteristics:

- Impure information proclaims duality. “That is bad, that is good; those people are wrong; there are conspiracies against humanity; disasters will happen”, etc.

Why is this information being spread? The spiritual plane is one of unity; behind every expression of spirit that we see outside ourselves, there is a core of oneness that we all share. Enlightenment means to be completely aware of that unity. Thinking from duality – whatever the duality is – keeps the human being away from this unity, away from the inner Light.

- Impure information exercices coercion and pressure. “You have to do this or that to be pure; make sure that you are ready for the changes that will happen; you should work hard on yourself otherwise things will go very wrong for you”, etc.

Why is this being proclaimed? The soul connects you with the unity, with the All. To get in touch with yourself, you must learn to listen to your soul. This can happen only in freedom. The voice of the soul is a gentle, non-coercive voice. All pressure and coercion keeps a human being away from the soul.

- Impure information calls up fear. ”Disasters are about to happen; you must join us, otherwise things will go bad; watch out for this or that, etc”. The voice of the soul is a voice of love, not of fear. Encouraging people to listen to the voice of fear makes them move away from their center.

- Impure information is not focused on the here and now. Specific dates of future events are mentioned, or the umpteenth cosmic history of mankind is told. Often these are quite interesting, however, nothing is made clear about life here and now.
Spiritual development always takes place in the now. By pulling people out of their consciousness of the now, their spiritual development is hampered.

- Impure information gives you a bad feeling about yourself. If you do not agree with the text, it is implied that you are stupid and naive, or that you are selfish and not yet illuminated.
When people believe this to be true, they will be less confident about their own intuition and inner guidance. This also impedes their natural spiritual development.

- Impure informants proclaim that they are the only true, and most pure, channel. They imply that they have privileged access to information that you can receive only through them. At the moment you want to make people believe that there is a spiritual authority outside them that knows better, you are denying their own Light.

Finally

Channeling is a talent like other talents: painting, writing, and musical talent. The gift of channeling does not make someone a better person, any more than other gifts do. Also, people who are channeling are not authorities on spiritual or ethical matters.

In her article, “What is Channeling?”, Pamela Kribbe writes: “What is decisive for the value of a channeled text is the richness of content, the clarity and love that is expressed. What is given as the source of the channeling is of secondary importance. In addition, channeled messages are received by human beings and the messages are always colored by the personal experiences and the conceptual framework of the one who transmits the information.”

(This quote is from a Dutch article; for an English article on channeling by Pamela see www.jeshua.net “Who are we”, at the end of Pamela’s Biography).

Personally, I think you should read a channeled message like you listen to a song on the radio: if it touches your heart and you feel uplifted by it, enjoy it. If you do not, tune to another channel.