Osho on Channeling Phenomenon

 

 

Question 2

Beloved Osho,

Have you anything to say about `channeling'? Supposedly a spirit being speaks through a willing human host. This is a growing phenomenon that is happening right now, particularly in california and new york.

There are famous ones -- Seth, Ramtha and Lazarua. But now they are springing up everywhere -- people claiming to channel kwan yin, beings from other galaxies, etc., etc. A common theme seems to be that they have come to help the planet evolve right now.

The word `Channeling' is about as common as `coca cola'. Even some Sannyasins are claiming to channel this one or that one. There is almost an attitude that if one is not channeling someone, one is not open to spiritual possibilities.

Is channeling a real phenomenon? Why is this springing up right now, and why are people so attracted to channeled beings and information? Is there anything for our spiritual growth in this?

 

 

David and Kaveesha, California needs all kinds of idiotic ideas. It seems all the idiots of the world are born in California. It is the land of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Everything is possible in California. But it remains only for a few years -- three years, four years at the most; then the fashion changes.

 

In California everything is a fashion -- and when something is in fashion everybody is involved in it, because not to be involved in it means you are out of date, lagging behind, not belonging to the contemporary world.

 

Channeling is simply a new name for an old disease. In the past they used to call it `being possessed by a ghost'. Channeling is the new name for being possessed. Then the ghost speaks -- but that is a very old idea, not very appealing. In old countries, it still continues to happen. There are people in villages in India who become possessed, and when they are possessed you can ask questions and they answer -- and they answer in such a way that you can make anything out of it. It is never a certain, meaningful statement. Channeling is an American translation of the old idea of being possessed.

 

There are many people in America -- particularly in California and New York -- who become possessed and start talking to you, answering you. And certainly their language is different from the old; it is more scientific. The very word `channeling' has come from television -- channel number one, channel number two.... Now, the poor old countries cannot think of channeling, that word is not yet meaningful to them.

 

And the idea of channeling has given a scope... you are channeling to a certain planet, a certain galaxy -- and you can say any nonsense, there is no way to prove it right or wrong. Even scientists know nothing about galaxies. There are at least fifty million galaxies. Scientists are still working with very refined instruments to count how many galaxies there are.

 

And one galaxy means... One sun and the planets that are attached to the sun is one solar system. A galaxy means millions of suns, millions of solar systems -- which are moving around a certain unknown center of gravity. Each galaxy is so huge.... Science has not been able to find out all the facts about even one galaxy, the galaxy in which we live.

 

Now there are the cunning and there are the stupid, and there are idiots who are channeling to other galaxies and bringing messages to humanity. Books are printed with their messages.

 

But the whole thing is that a person goes into a deep hypnotic sleep -- if it is authentic. Out of ten, nine are not authentic. If somebody is authentic, then all that happens in reality is that he relaxes, his conscious mind goes to sleep, and from his unconscious mind, collective unconscious mind, cosmic unconscious mind, things start coming up.

 

You can say they are coming from ghosts. You can talk about them in psychological terms and say they are coming from the unconscious. Or you can talk about them in Californian terms: they are coming from channel number one, channel number two. But they are all coming from your own unconscious mind. This is about the authentic cases.

 

And when so many people are channeling, it becomes a competition. If somebody else is channeling, why can't you channel? No talent is needed, no intelligence is needed; all that is needed is insincerity, cunningness, fraud.

 

Every year in India, Mohammedans have their holy festival, Muharram. And during Muharram, holy spirits possess people. Those holy spirits -- because Mohammedans, just like Christians and Jews, believe only in one life -- those holy spirits will always be around until the last judgment day, which goes on being postponed, and I don't think it is going to happen ever.

 

I had a center in Jabalpur near a Mohammedan graveyard. And they reported to the collector that because of our meditations, the spirits in their graves were very much disturbed.

 

The collector called me: "Why are you disturbing their spirits?"

I said, "This is strange. What report have you received? Who has come?"

 

He said, "Mohammedans -- and it may create a riot unnecessarily."

Jabalpur was one of the most vulnerable cities in India for Mohammedan and Hindu riots, any excuse....

 

And their excuse was that because when we were doing our meditation we would use the Sufi mantra "hoo."

 

So the Mohammedans had said, "Because they say, `Hoo, hoo, hoo' the Mohammedan souls lying in their graves wake up. These are dangerous people -- because nobody has ever heard of such a meditation. And after one hour these people are gone, but those spirits roam about and torture Mohammedans, and many are becoming possessed."

 

The collector said, "You stop. At least this `hoo' mantra should be stopped because it can create trouble. And in your own book you have explained that `hoo' is part of `allah-hoo', it is a Sufi mantra. So they have certain grounds against you, that you are disturbing the souls. They are sleeping well, and you `hoo, hoo' every morning, and they get so disturbed that they start torturing Mohammedans." So I had to close that center.

 

In my childhood in my village.... Each time that Mohammedans celebrate the holidays of Muharram, some people are "possessed by the holy spirit." The holy spirit is called wali. There are a few people who are thought to be very saintly -- they are possessed by walis -- and they dance and they shout, scream, and you can ask questions.

 

And they should not run away, so their hands are tied with ropes, and two persons keep them in control. There are many walis, and each wali has his own crowd, and people come with sweets and fruits -- somebody has received a blessing last year and has got a boy, a child; somebody has got married, and somebody has come to get a blessing for the future. Only Mohammedans participate in it.

 

But I always enjoyed every kind of entertainment. My parents used to tell me, "Listen, that is the Mohammedans' festival, and you are not supposed to be there."

 

I said, "I am neither Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Jaina nor anybody. What do you mean -- that I cannot enjoy anything? All festivals belong to some religion. In fact, I belong to no religion so I can participate in all festivals." So I would go there.

 

Once I managed to hold the rope of one wali who was just an ordinary man and a fraud. I had told him before, "I will expose you if you don't allow me to hold your rope."

 

He said, "You can hold my rope, and you can share a few sweets also, but don't say anything to anybody."

 

We both used to go to the same gymnasium -- that's how we became friends, and he himself told me that it was all fake. So I said, "That means I am coming; if it is fake, you have to share it."

 

I went there with a long needle, so I could make him jump. He became the most famous wali because no other wali was jumping so high!

 

He could not say anything about what was happening -- because he is possessed by the wali and the wali cannot be afraid of a needle. So he could not say anything, and I went on sticking him with the needle. He managed to get almost four times more sweets, more fruit, more rupees... more people came to get his blessing.

 

He said, "That is great, but you tortured me so much!"

 

I was in such demand from that day -- every wali wanted his rope to be given to me. Because whoever got me as his assistant would become the greatest wali -- immediately, the very same day.

 

For ten days the function continued, and no wali wanted me again the next day!

 

They would say, "I will escape from town if you come again!"

 

I said, "There is no need. I am in so much demand by other fools who don't know what is happening.... You just give me half your share -- because you will still have double."

 

And I found that almost everybody was a fraud -- because I could make everybody jump with my needle. Not a single one in the whole town was an authentic person who was possessed or anything. They were just pretending -- shouting, screaming, saying things that you cannot understand, but you have to make sense out of it.

 

And the maulavis, the Mohammedan scholars, will explain to you what the meaning of it is -- "You have been blessed, your desire will be fulfilled." And who bothers about whose desire is fulfilled or not? If a hundred people come, at least fifty people's desires are going to be fulfilled. These fifty will come back, and these fifty people will spread the idea. The other fifty will also come back -- not to the same wali, but to other walis who are there, because the first wali they went to doesn't seem to work: "Perhaps he was not powerful enough."

 

And my walis were the most powerful, and their power was decided by how high they jumped, how much they screamed, how much they shouted.

 

And everybody asked me why my walis were making such gestures towards me....

 

I said, "That is a spiritual language -- you will not understand."

 

In California, Kaveesha, you can start a new game. Don't bother about this channeling -- within two years it will be past.

 

California is good. It has money, it has the young generation, unemployed, and it has a tradition of changing everything -- changing the job, changing the wife, changing the town, changing the house. In two or three years they become bored. So rather than being worried about their channeling...

 

It is absolute fraud. And if there is someone sincere, that means he is relaxing to the point where the unconscious mind starts throwing up its repressed contents. It has no spiritual value.

 

But it will be good to check. Go to any person who is channeling with the galaxies, but keep a good needle with you! With the needle, the person will start dancing, jumping, and his galaxies will start going higher -- from one channel to nine channels. You can check: if your needle does not work, that means the person is at least not a fraud, but is simply falling into unconsciousness and allowing his unconscious to reveal its contents.

 

But they have no spiritual value. But before you leave, try the needle -- particularly on the famous ones!

 

-Osho, "Sermons in Stones, #2, Q2”