I was fortunate, I think, to have grown up in a family that believed in the existence of spirit realms that could sometimes, and without our knowing it, often did communicate with or through us. But my experience with spirits began much earlier, before these parental influences. Put into an orphanage at around 3 or 4 years old (as part of Australia's refugee policy at that time), I often felt presences around me, or heard them, and found some of them very comforting. At first, I thought they might be fairies; later, nature spirits, but most were simply presences with whom I carried our mental conversations or who might just sit with me at times of distress.
image from wattpad.org
These spirits never talked through me, but I felt their influence. Of course, a great many of these communications occurred in my dreams. I learned very early in life that we often speak with spirits in our dreams.
Years later, I discovered that my parents knew about spirits, and would now and then attempt to communicate with them. When I was about twelve, they held a seance that I was allowed to attend.
Overall, my experience of spirits has been mostly positive, and often beneficial. There have been incidents where I have not felt safe, where I felt an energy trying to enter, which I would never permit.
I found that as Seth, the spirit who communicated for over a decade through Jane Roberts, said, the integrity of the soul cannot the violated unless we allow it to be, unless we cause our energies to resonate at lower levels, or leave ourselves open to violation by 'abandoning', as it were, ourselves through, for instance, drunkenness, getting high or otherwise losing conscious control.
In a way, making oneself a channel for spirit communications can be like allowing oneself to be possessed, which can be either a positive or negative experience. The spirit takes control of the body, voice and the conscious mind. I think that is what happened with Seth and Jane Roberts, for observers noted significant changes in Jane's voice, mannerisms, expressions and body when Seth spoke through her.
The extensively tested British medium, Leslie Flint, allowed spirits to speak through him via a kind of plasmic substance, but was, I think, conscious at the time. The famous American psychic (for want of a better descriptor), Edgar Cayce, was not possessed by his spirit sources but psychically left his body to gather the required information. Occasionally, a spirit (or angel) spoke directly through him, but generally, no possession was involved.
Spiritualists do recognise the veracity of possession, often by discarnate souls with unfinished business who try to possess or torment living family members or former acquaintance.
Spiritualist mediums may hold healing sessions for such spirits, inviting them into the sessions so that they can be spoken to and hopefully encouraged to be healed of their anger, resentment, or co-dependency on some living person.
Thought they can have very different connotations, possession and channelling are not always as different as they might seem. In both cases, the experiencer can be taken over and used by another personality such as a spirit of the dead, a celestial being that has never been carnate, an evil or ill-intentioned entity, or perhaps a higher aspect of Self.
What does distinguish these two kinds of experiences, is, I think, the involvement of, or lack of free will. While entities can spontaneously come through a person, the channeller permits or accepts this temporary ‘intrusion.' It is not, as far as I can tell from my own readings, ever forced, and a channeller must willingly put aside the personality self to allow the other entity to come through.
With possession, the alien entity temporarily takes up residence in the person, and controls their behaviour, often causing the person great distress. Where possession is involuntary, Jung believed that the possessing entity is an aspect of the person’s own psyche, noting that such psychic manifestations “can assume a completely autonomous function” (Groff, pg. 94). It has been suggested that even the most unique, profound and unexpected information to come through channels like Edgar Cayce and Jane Roberts might actually come from the higher levels of their psyche, such as Jung’s superconscious.
Perhaps in some cases, though that is not how those individuals or other mediums perceive it. Nor does Jung's explanation explain channelled spirits of the dead like the long-deceased philosopher-psychologist William James who ‘came through’ Jane Roberts seeking to dictate a book about his after-death insights (Roberts, ). For me, accepting that spirits of the dead, even celestial beings that have never been incarnate, can and do communicate with us (some of which communications have been recorded) (Macy Afterlife; World ITC) is no harder than accepting that some possessions are most likely by otherwise unexpressed aspects of one's own psyche. I suspect that a great many cases of possession or harmful poltergeists are unconsciously self-generated.
Let us not ignore the potential for harm in communicating with spirits.
One of the dangers of psychic 
development, I think, is that when we open our psychic channels, we may not know what we are opening them to. What seems to be involved is the attraction of resonating energies. How do we know that our frequencies are of a kind that will attract positive, uplifting or enlightening experiences? In developing our psychic abilities, do we know to what we are opening the doors of our psyches?
Most people who talk to me about channeling or communicating with spirits don't seem to want to ask these questions, but it is a concern that has made me approach psychic development with great care. Being dead does not automatically make an entity wiser or better than he or she was when living, after all. And many spirits who want to communicate with us have not gotten past the lower levels of the next world.
This is what the great spiritual teachers tried to teach us, to seek guidance from the highest sources, which means to make ourselves able to receive higher frequencies. The main reason for the spiritual principle of self purification, I suspect, is to prepare ourselves adequately to receive messages, inspiration and guidance from wise and good sources. Purification is a critical first stage, and perhaps the most difficult, for it can mean bringing to the surface all that is within us, deep within our psyches that is disturbed, doubtful, chaotic, fearful, ego-centric, selfish, fearful and so on, so that we can clear it away.
In several readings, Cayce advised making oneself a fit habitation for God. I think that is what he meant, that if we want to attract what is good and true, we must clear away all that prevents it. That process is not easy. It can be, in fact, earth-shakingly traumatic, especially if we are pushed into spiritual crisis. Then, it can indeed feel as if some other power is in control, and we can only hope that we will emerge intact.
Which is why my strong advice for anyone seeking to be a channel of God's love, or for wise spirits is - First cleanse your mind, body and spirit. Clear the way.
Image: Nzkat Creative Movement on facebook
Image: Edgar Cayce from EdgarCayce.org
Groff, C., Groff, S. (1992). The Stormy Search for the Self. Calif., L.A.: Tarcher
Macy Afterlife: the Beacon. Accessed online at http://macyafterlife.com/
Roberts, J. (1978). The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher; The View of William James. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
World ITC. Accessed online at http://www.worlditc.org/
