Channelling *

Channelling is a modern term for mediumship that claims to provide contact with the spirits of the departed. It has become fashionable now for channellers to claim communication with entities from Atlantis and or Lemuria/Mu! As a means of assisting in the quest for Atlantis, channelling, in the opinion of your compiler, is about as useful as a packet of sausages. Recent articles regarding psychics and police work have only strengthened my scepticism^(a)(h). Simon Singh, a well-known author, recently penned an article on the subject^(c)(d).

My principal objections to the use of so-called channelled information are listed in Joining the Dots ^[p.63].

(1) Channelling sources have frequently been shown to be fraudulent or demonstrate manifestations of schizophrenia.

(2) Channelled ‘information’ relating to Atlantis frequently contradicts accepted scientific knowledge.

(3) Channelled ‘information’ repeatedly conflicts with commonsense.

(4) Channelled ‘information’ is not acceptable in a court of law.

(5) Channelling sources often contradict each other.

(6) No published medium, psychic or psychotic,  has ever offered a verifiable location, date, or identity for Atlantis.

We should also keep in mind that the name Atlantis was a Hellenised name concocted by Solon or Plato to identify the homeland of the Atlantean invaders, hundreds if not thousands of years after their island was submerged. So when it is claimed that messages have been received from Atlantis or past lives experienced there, how do the mediums know that Atlantis was the source of their ‘communication’, since Atlantis would have been known by a different name or names to its inhabitants and they could not have been aware of a name invented many centuries after their demise. Furthermore, how do we explain these ancient Atlanteans communicating in English or any other modern vernacular language?

Psychic Archaeology has been defined  as “the process of using psychic abilities to locate objects of centuries past.”  It gained wider public awareness in 1978 with the publication of two books, Psychic Archaeology ^[781] by Jeffrey Goodman and The Secret Vaults of Time ^[1881] by Stephan A. Schwartz. They both touch on the subject of Atlantis, but only in the context of the ‘revelations’ of Edgar Cayce. In the 21st century, Luciano Pederzoli published The Megalith Builders – Psychic archaeology and the Nuragic civilization(n). His book deals specifically with “the reconstruction of an entire life is presented – from birth to death – of an important individual who lived on the Italian island of Sardinia approximately 3,500 years ago, at the peak of what is known as the Nuragic civilization, which is now gradually attracting more attention from progressive scholars,”

A book-length paper by Luciano Pederzoli on the Researchgate.net website that purports to offer information about life in Sardinia during and before the Nuragic period^(o). It is claimed that it was developed through the use of regression hypnosis. Pederzoli has published a number of papers about channelling and Out-of-Body Experiences^(p). This is not for me.

When law courts allow channelled information to be admitted in evidence, I will be happy to reconsider my opinion. While speaking of courts, I should point out that the evidence of witnesses is preferred where there is corroboration, partly in recognition of the fragility of memory^(f) and partly because of the risk of lying. How do you corroborate that the ‘spirit source’ of a medium is real? A recent study^(g) of a high-profile medium Allison DuBois would do little to encourage channelling as a dependable tool.

Further psychic pscandals^(l) have even led their representative organisations to call for greater controls^(k).

A lengthy paper^(j) by Eric Pement, soberly discusses the subject of channelling from a religious viewpoint.

David Pratt, in a paper on Pole Shift theories, has highlighted the conflicting information generated by psychics when exploring the subject^(m), noting that “A number of psychics, with the help of their ‘spirit guides’, have offered dramatic and generally conflicting accounts of past and future pole shifts. All their ‘prophecies’ have so far failed to come true.”

In the meanwhile, it might be worth reading an article by Karla McKlaren, a former New Age leader, on her conversion to scepticism^(e). Also consider a 2016 large-scale study⁽ⁱ⁾ which concluded that “The results don’t prove that relatively poor analytical thinking skills cause people to become believers in psychic phenomena, but they are certainly consistent with the idea that a lack of these skills may leave people more prone to developing such beliefs.”

See Also: Critical Thinking

^(a) Psychic Detectives Have a Perfect Record – Pacific Standard (archive.org) *

^(c) https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/16/psychic-sally-morgan-deluded-harmless

^(e) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20180825014452/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/bridging_the_chasm_between_two_cultures

^(f) The Certainty of Memory Has Its Day in Court – The New York Times (archive.org)

^(g) https://web.archive.org/web/20170502150312/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/medium_allison_dubois_is_testedand_failsin_the_real_world

^(h) A Recent Investigation Into British Psychics Revealed Something Shocking – Hayley is a Ghost Geek (archive.org) 

⁽ⁱ⁾ Why do so many people believe in psychic powers? – Research Digest (archive.org)

^(j) See: https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-3169/

^(k)   https://www.psychicnews.org.uk/articles/Psychic-News-TRUTH-campaign

^(l) http://www.badpsychics.com/2016/06/gary-mannion-secretly-recorded-cheating.html

^(m) https://www.davidpratt.info/pole2.htm

⁽ⁿ⁾https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317264700_THE_MEGALITH_BUILDERS_-_Psychic_archaeology_and_the_Nuragic_civilization

^(o) (PDF) THE MEGALITH BUILDERS – Psychic archaeology and the Nuragic civilization (researchgate.net) 

^(p) (99+) Luciano Pederzoli | EVANLAB – Academia.edu