16 July 2014 - QA 3

Dear Gurudev, what do you think of channeling?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Stay away from it! I think you shouldn't get involved in channeling. You are on a path which is much higher and far superior than the channeling.
Channeling is when some spirit comes into your body or somebody's body and says something, and it is never 100% true. There could be some truth in it, that will give you a little idea of what is going to happen in couple of months, or a couple of years, or what happened in the past. They can give you a little insight, but you should not be dependent on such things.
Often, people who channel, they channel the lower spirits. It's almost like the Plan-Chit (Ouija board). People call John F Kennedy to come and answer their questions. These things are not good for your own energy. I have seen people who do these things and their energy gets so drained. People who do crystal gazing and all these techniques are ill most of the time. How many of you have noticed this? So it is not advisable to take the help of these people.
Once in a while if you want to do it, you can do it, maybe just for fun, but don't take it too serious. And you should not do channeling. I won't agree! I think you know that people can get stuck in the channeling. That's a very unpleasant place to be in, if you are stuck with the departed. Then you won't find liberation. Such instances have happened.

I want to tell you one incident. A young lady from France had come to India. She was a very good seeker, she did her spiritual practices every day and she was very bright. She went to a person who did channeling and as the person was channeling he said, 'I see someone with a white dress behind you protecting you, so I cannot predict anything for you'. 
So she thought, 'Okay, this must be because I am an Art of Living teacher, which is why this person is unable to tell me anything'. So she just dropped Art of Living and she went into channeling. She got married, and had two kids. Her husband was a drug addict and so she too got into drugs and I tell you, her whole life became a big mess, and she became so miserable. There was nobody to feed her, or to take care of her. Then some of the Art of Living people went helped her out of that. After five to six years she came to the German Ashram (Art of Living European International Center, Bad Antogast, Germany) and I looked at her and my God she was completely in a mess.

When channeling many of the lower spirits can try to detract you from your path of joy, wisdom and knowledge. So it is best to keep them at an arm's length.
Sometimes, when you go to someone who does channeling, they may say, 'Oh, I see some big saint coming'. But, only if the person is completely hollow and empty then they can become a channel for a pure life, but often people are not. They say all these thing during channeling for money, or for maybe for some other motive.
So, as I said, you don't need to be afraid of it but at the same time, no point in getting into this spirit world.