"Cosmic Connection" review: a fresh take on channeling

I'm not a believer in mediums or channeling. But I'm open to the possibility of tapping into some sort of cosmic consciousness that is way beyond the bounds of everyday human awareness.

So when a publicist for Carole Lynne, who wrote "Cosmic Connection: Messages for a Better World," asked me in an email if I'd be willing to read the book and write a review, I replied "sure."

Free books attract me. Plus, an overview of Cosmic Connection said that Lynne felt that she was tapping into an impersonal consciousness, not the psyches of departed souls.

That makes more sense to me than the typical claims of mediums.

I've been to one medium, an experience I blogged about here. I came away with some insights, particularly about how I deal with the genetic and psychological influences of my father's strong "dark side" (a.k.a. Darth Vader'dom).  But I didn't end up believing that any dead relatives had been communicating with me.

I enjoyed Cosmic Connection, though my skeptical side kept wondering, as I read transcripts of Lynne's channeling sessions, "What evidence is there that this is true?"

A big plus for me, though, is that Lynne repeatedly asks the same question. In her introduction she says:

The spiritual experiences I write about in this book are personal, and there is no way to verify them. ... As a teacher of spirituality and spirit communication, I make it very clear to my students that no matter what I say at any given moment, I may change my mind in the future.

The doubts and questions that I have about my spiritual experiences are the same feelings that my students and many readers may have.

Nice. I also liked:

We have been brainwashed to disbelieve our spiritual experiences. We have been taught that the only way to have spiritual experiences is through the guidance of a religious authority figure, such as a minister, priest, or guru.

My wife, an eminently sensible and grounded person, believes in the possibility of channeling disembodied souls. She is a member of Ron Scolastico's study group. Scolastico goes into a receptive state, is asked questions, and then answers as a higher consciousness -- all of which is shared with members via CDs.

Lynne's book mostly is a description of similar sessions. At first she calls the source of what comes through her, My Guidance.

Eventually it manifested to her in a form that made her change the name to My Energy. Here's some of what it said to her/through her.

We are an energy. We are a stream of light. We are a speck of energy that then explodes and becomes many more. We are not people. We are not creatures. We are energy, vibration. To use the word we does not really work. 

...We are not just with her [Lynne]. We are everywhere. We are creative energy; we are sustained imagination and creativity.

...We are not spirit guides in the way that you think of it.

...If you can try not to personify the Energy, you will be closer to what it is.

...There are many great spiritual leaders that have lived that were people who survive in spirit. But that is not who we are. We are not Jesus. We are not Mohammad. We are not any of those spiritual leaders because we have never lived a human life. And yet you know that we are there when you open to the presence.

The Energy gave Lynne and her channeling associates some lessons in grammar and proper word usage: no pronouns!

So before we can really proceed, the idea of a "you," of a "we," of an "I," of a "me," as any kind of personified being has to be let go of as it is very difficult for us to converse.

...If this energy flows through the channel, she has to put into her own words because we do not even speak in words. We do not speak; we are not "we."

I give Carole Lynne a big thumbs-up for her ability and willingness to examine her mediumship through fresh eyes. Summing up a session with The Energy, she writes:

But it was extremely disconcerting for all of us attending the session to hear that sometimes when we feel we are communicating with individual guides, we are actually creating their images with our imagination. Those of us in the room were faced with a deep fear that we had had for many years: "Are we imagining our guides?"

Having written a couple of books that fall into the narrow non-best-selling category of "too scholarly to be popular, and too popular to be scholarly," I resonate with Lynne's Cosmic Connection -- which struck me as too questioning to be loved by true believers in channeling, yet also reflects a strong belief in channeling that won't be loved by questioning types.

Well, it's better to be honest than to sell lots of books (best of all, of course, is to do both).

If someone is open to the possibility of connecting with a wordless cosmic consciousness that speaks (imprecisely) through people, he or she likely will enjoy this book.

There's no doubt in my mind that Carole Lynne is a sincere, open, generous seeker of truth. That comes through on every page of her book. And, her You Tube video.

Her main message: find your own truth. I heartily endorse that advice.

While many equally useful spiritual paths have teachers who give initiations to their students, not every soul on earth is meant to join a spiritual organization or follow a guru. Some souls are in need of another kind of path.

...On the Path of Direct Initiation there is no authority figure to make decisions about when the student is ready to receive an initiation and take the next step on the spiritual path. The student has to develop an inner knowing and a relationship with the Divine Consciousness that allows him or her to know when a direct initiation has occurred.

In fact, the student may not even call this spiritual event an initiation. No label is necessary. The student will just know that he or she has walked through another spiritual door and is closer to Divine Consciousness than before.

Comments

[Rose]

How refreshing, she seems to be a different kind of medium.

[Rain]

I do believe in this possibility and what it is, well each of the people who can connect seem to come up with different answers. It is interesting to explore the possibilities. So often people are encouraged to not go beyond comfort zones.

[George]

goddamn that video turned me straight off.
lecturing parochial charlatan of note.
her students, ppl must be mad.
god bless carole.
George.

[Stuart]

Earlier this month, I went to the Penn & Teller show at the Rio in Vegas. Penn did a couple of mind reading/psychic tricks that were far more impressive than anything I've seen from a medium. Many of his tricks can be viewed on YouTube. Unlike most magicians and all psychics, Penn sometimes explains how his tricks work.

Also on YouTube, check out "Derren Brown," particularly the "Messiah" clips like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ02I6QyagM

Brown (through magic, showmanship, psychological manipulation) does the "talk to the dead" thing better than anyone; he can fool audiences of ordinary folks, as well as "professional" psychics.

There are lots of imponderables surrounding this issue, but one thing is for sure. Magicians and showmen skilled at "cold reading" (with zero pretentions of having special "psychic" skills) can do the act in a way that's INDISTIGUISHABLE from the people who claim to be real psychics. Except that the magicians tend to be more impressive.

Stuart

[Stuart]

Lynne writes...
> The student will just know that he or she
> has walked through another spiritual door
> and is closer to Divine Consciousness than
> before.

Good that Lynne is ready to throw away the need for labels like "initiation." Next step would be questioning these ideas about "Divine Consciousness."

The world is filled with people who hold this or that idea about a "Divine Consciousness" or "God" or "Spiritual Truth" etc etc. Once you believe you know something about "God," then you can fall into the type of idea that Lynne suggests, the idea that you've walked through a spiritual door and gotten closer to it.

Sure, this is often innocent enough, no more dangerous than say an obsession with Star Trek. But once you clutch the idea "I'm closer to God now than I was before," how can you NOT fall into, "I'm closer to God than you are"?

Lynne's idea of "Divine Consciousness" is clearly a limited thing. If we conceive of this Consciousness as omnipresent, there's no possibility of getting "closer" to it; it'd be like swimming miles in the ocean in the hopes of getting closer to water.

Like I said, these belief-systems may be innocuous. But I prefer hearing from people who are courageous enough to question EVERYTHING. All these ideas of walking through spiritual doors and getting closer to Divine Consciousness are mere beliefs; personally, I prefer to cultivate doubts about all beliefs, rather than clinging to them.

[George]

Stuart,
Yeah, Derren Brown is exceptional.