Tag Archives: synesthete

A Day in a Life: Explorations In Channeling

Taking a break... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Taking a break…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Having taken a few months off from my book writing, I’ve had time to explore and try out some new channeling methods. I’d become very comfortable picking up my pen and notebook and writing whatever came through. I’d then type it up and pass it on to you, our readers. A few months ago, I decided I’d like to try speaking the channeled messages we post on Mondays. I found a nice little MP3 recording device and a new process was born. I didn’t hesitate but stepped up to the mic and gave it a whirl and I have enjoyed not only the challenge but the shorter amount of time I need to dedicate to getting that Monday message out!

We had done some experimentation with my speaking a few years ago, but I reverted back into my comfort zone and I have to say that I am still most comfortable writing, yet I have continued to challenge myself to let Jeanne’s thoughts, words, and messages of guidance come through my vocal chords. Over the past two weeks we’ve recorded a couple of conversations that we’ve been posting as Random Acts of Guidance, which you can find under the Categories listing on the lower left sidebar. I’ve noticed that my trance state deepens the longer we talk and that pretty soon I’m in the familiar deep trance that I normally achieve quite quickly when I write the channeled messages.

When writing there is rarely a pause. I write quickly in a large scrawl. I’m not aware of anything in this world, except maybe my pen writing, but sometimes not even that as I am more taken up with sorting through the pictures that appear. Out of those pictures I must grasp, as quickly as possible, the portion of the message that is coming through most strongly and get it down in words that make sense. I say “a portion” of the message because in the second that it takes me to view the picture I am given a multitude of messages, which I seem to be able to grasp on a deep intuitive level, on a knowing level. Somehow the perfect words always appear to describe the content of the picture/message.

As I write about in the introduction to my last book, Into The Vast Nothingness, I am a synesthete and seeing things in pictures is pretty normal for me. In fact, I see pictures all the time; it’s how I interpret, examine, and view the world. If I hear a word or if someone asks me a question a picture appears in my mind. Words and numbers are not abstract to me but visual. If I say the word “bed” to myself I immediately see the bed I had when I was a child, tucked into one corner of my tiny bedroom. I see it clearly. I see the dresser next to it and its twin on the other side of the dresser. The room was tiny and that was all that could fit into it. There was a closet behind the door and one window. Beneath the window there was a forced air heating vent through which I could hear my parents talking in their room which was right next to mine.

Filtering through to what is most important... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Filtering through to what is most important…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Basically everything filters through me in a similar manner. I usually see more than is needed and so I have had to learn how to hone in on what I’m looking for. For instance, if someone asks me a question and several visual options appear I have to pick out the option that best answers the question. It can sometimes be frustrating for the questioner when I don’t answer straightforwardly, but often I just don’t have a plain and simple answer. I am sent too much information!

I believe that this ability to sift through a visual bombardment has aided me in my channeling process. Often as I’m channeling, however, I feel that some of the messages that get pushed aside during this sifting process are important and that the rest of you will miss out, but Jeanne has always urged me not to worry, that they will come through again at another time.

When speaking during a channeling I have the sense of speaking quickly, but am astonished by how the words seem to come from such a long way away, as if I’m talking from the end of a long tunnel. I am always astonished, however, that full sentences that make perfect sense appear!

I’m working on finding a way to bring Jeanne’s voice closer, more into the room, getting my throat into an open and relaxed place, doing ujjayi breathing beforehand if it’s a planned session. But more often that not we just decide to do a channeling. Or Chuck will ask: How about doing a channeling? And then I gulp, a little frightened, and say “Okay.” The fear is a normal reaction to what I’m challenging myself to do. It’s not like I haven’t done it before, but I’m challenging myself to just open up and let the words flow.

All of this brings me now to the name thing. Is she Jeanne or is she Saleph? Well, she’s both and although she never said we should call her Saleph she did indicate that she would leave it up to Chuck to decide what name she should now be known by. When I channeled a recent message regarding her name, a great welling of emotion passed through me, as I sensed her love and appreciation for all Chuck does and continues to do in this triangular relationship that has totally changed our lives and how we live in the world. I knew she knew that she was challenging him to release her in a new way, on a deeper level, with no entitlement, no sense of ownership whatsoever really. She was challenging herself too and I sensed this as that wave of emotion went through me. It was love and sadness intertwined, not sadness of loss but recognition that there is always sadness in partings, even if the partings are the beginnings of phenomenal new life.

Chuck made the decision to call Jeanne “Saleph” now, and so we ask all of you to embrace this new name as we take this process forward into phenomenal new life too. I still think of her as Jeanne, but more often than not when we speak of her now we use her soul name, Saleph, the name that encompasses all of her many lifetimes, her previous lifetimes on earth and whatever she may be called as she ventures onward. We knew her as Jeanne, but I suspect she was known by other names even when we knew her as Jeanne. Ah, the mysteries of life!

Are we ready to contemplate who else we might be? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Are we ready to contemplate who else we might be?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The other day I caught a few minutes of an episode of Radiolab as I was driving, synchronistically aligned with my thoughts of Saleph’s statement about her all-encompassing name. In the episode, a woman who had a death experience returns to life to tell the story of how when she died she found herself not in heaven or having gone through a white light but as an old man, a vegetable farmer in Vietnam.

What other lives are we living now? I hope to ask Saleph some more questions regarding all of this, and more, as we continue our conversations.

I hope you’ll tune in!
Jan

Here is the Radiolab show: Who am I? The segment I am referring to starts 14:45 minutes into the broadcast—you can scroll ahead—and lasts until the 23 minute mark.