Last Updated on July 18, 2020
In my life alone, I have personally know 4 persons who were being requested by a being, supposedly a deity to use his/her body to channel it in order to communicate with people. These things does happen to certain people and if you are or someone you know is affected by this, do read on.
Such occurrence are common in the South East Asia, hill tribes and natives of the land. Taoism and shamanic does use medium channeling to help in healing as well as overcome some spiritual disturbance, black magic, etc.
I am aware of this occurrence for sometime and did search out English writings on such matter but the information available is not as comprehensive in the East where such event is not so unusual.
From the Buddhist perspective, it is not advisable to give in to the being or spirit and allow your body to be used for channeling. Essentially you are allowing yourself to be possessed by another being and during that time you would have no or limited control of your body and thinking faculties. It is a form of spirit possession, except the spirit is using you to help others and do healing, etc as compared to other spiritual possession where it is more malevolent in nature.
Do note that contrary to the common claims, most beings that chooses to posses a human body is no angel, deity or beings from heavens. These are usually spirits or ghosts. This is because the human body is very gross compared to the refined heavenly bodies and it is hard for heavenly beings to get into our body to possess it.
Why the being/spirit selected you
Most of the time, you would have a strong kammic affinity with the being/spirit often in a past life. That causes the being to seek you out and often follow you from the past into the present life. In most of these cases, the reason they wish to possess you would either be:
- the being wishes to do good deeds to accumulate enough merits for a rebirth but that would require a physical body, hence it needs to ‘borrow your body’, OR
- it is coming to repay you for something you have done for it in your past life. Usually if it is a kammic debt repayment, you can charge for it. Through channeling, you may get famous and rich
Both the above can be accomplished when you have some kind of affinity with the spirit.
Real life stories of people I know who was ‘forced’ to channel spirits
Note: All the names below have been changed to protect their privacy.
Of the 4 cases, 2 gave in a channel spirit, while 2 others refused to do it.
1. Aunt Penny
Aunt Penny become a widow at a young age and have a son to care for. She was born with ‘yin yang’ eyes, ie ability to see spirits. I used to accompany my mom to visit her at her home and would hear scary stories that she said about seeing ghosts hanging around trees and by roadside, etc.
She told my mom that she used to be disturbed and pushed in her sleep by spirits who insist she become a medium to channel them. For a while, she resisted but eventually she relented because she needed income to raise her son. She become a lady who helped people communicate with their departed. There is no fixed charge but people would give her ang pau.
However, the channeling only worked for a short while before the spirits left. She was then left high and dry to fend for herself. Eventually she also visited a temple to have her ‘yin yang’ eyes closed so that she is no longer able to see spirits.
2. Mr Leng
Mr Leng was a family man who is married with a wife and 4 kids. When we know him, he was already a medium. He was advised by a spiritual teacher not to channel as he would be effective the most for 3 years and after that it would leave him with weakened aura and no income. He refused to listen because at his heyday, cars will parked up to 2km to attend to certain festival associated with the ‘deity’ that he was channeling.
True to the prediction, the spirit got enough merits and left. Leaving him high and dry with a wife and 4 kids to feed. He had to start over from scratch. Eventually he turned a new leaf, went to ordain temporary as a monk and then start over as a real estate agent. He also went to a Buddhist temple to offer alms regularly to the monks and eventually his life improved.
3. Ms Jenny
A friend contacted me to speak to Ms Jenny who have been quite ‘aggressively’ harassed by a spirit who was persistent to use her body as a medium. Whenever Jenny go to certain places like temple or near certain types of people, she would feel the spirit trying to possess her. Jenny has tried to get rid of the spirit through visiting other mediums, healers and monks. She even paid money to have ‘cleansing ceremonies’ performed. But all were still to no avail. It was constantly disturbing her and making her life miserable.
This is until she consulted a wise spiritual teacher who told her that the spirit is bounded to her by strong kammic connection. The only way, according to the teacher that would help her is she need to temporary ordain as a nun. Each day she needed to practice and dedicate merits to the being. Start with 99 days. If 99 days not enough, then 9 months. Continue to practice and dedicate merits to the being until the being has enough merits to take rebirth. With this method, the being and her will part on good terms and it is a win-win situation.
She did not follow the route as she was not willing to give up on her job and lay living for such a long time. But she actively go to another temple to do chanting and service and dedicate merits to this being. Last I heard she still have this problem but with her religious practice, it is more manageable.
4. Nun May
The final case was a Buddhist nun that I had once known. From young, she has been often sick and disturbed by spirits who tried to channel through her. Like Ms Jenny above, she has tried all sorts of methods to get rid of the spirit but none worked. Eventually, she ordained as a Buddhist nun and has remained in the robes for more than 20 years. The disturbance if any, were minimal.
Why it is not advisable to channel spirits
As I mentioned, mediumship, ie those where the medium goes into trance is essentially a spirit possession. When you allowed your body to be used as a vessel for the being to accomplish what it wanted to do, your consciousness or spirit need to vacate your body or need to relinquish control.
When that is done repeatedly, it weakens your life force energy and auric field. Eventually, it weakens your energy so much, it puts you in a vulnerable position for spirit possession of a more malevolent type in future.
Do note that in MOST of these cases, the accuracy of channeling last for 3 years. At most it is 5 years. After that, the spirit or being would LEAVE YOU as it has enough merits (through helping others through using your body) to go and seek a new rebirth. That leaves you in a limbo.
You would find yourself suddenly high and dry and have nothing to channel anymore. There is no more income for you. And also with a weakening life force and auric field.
I have been told that many mediums eventually die from cancer. Maybe is because through channeling they inadvertently interfere with other peoples’s kamma. Ie there are spirits or kammic debtors coming to seek revenge on a particular person causing him/her bad luck/ illness and when you were a medium you interfered with them. Now that your inhabiting spirit (who was more powerful than them) had left you, they came after you to seek revenge. Multiply that by the cases you have helped over the years and it would not be surprisingly to find yourself with an incurable illness down the line.
