How Did I Get to Be A Channel Anyway

How Did I Get to Be A Channel Anyway?
Part 1 of 4
by Jonette Crowley

Since so many people ask me this, I thought the story might be of interest.

In 1986, I was living in Australia and meditating weekly with a group in a Spiritualist Church. I did not consider myself a "good" meditator, but somehow found it was easier to do in a group.

Two things happened in that group that would change the course of my life. (I was, at that time, in the software development field).

On a particular evening the teacher came to me while I was meditating, and indicated that she "saw" a spirit friend present with me. I felt nothing. She then welcomed the spirit and asked her name. I still felt nothing. (Does this sound familiar?) But in the spirit of (excuse the pun) "nothing ventured, nothing gained", I opened my mouth to see what would come out.

In a childlike voice I answered: "My name is Melissa. I've come to bring you flowers." That was it.

Two emotions tumbled through me. One, excitement that I had apparently actually channeled! And two, great disappointment that I channeled some silly, little girl and not great wisdom with profound words and deep truth.

I never allowed myself to channel again and pretty much forgot about it.

The next event that would change my life was the evening I was meditating in the group and I "saw", in my inner vision, an American Indian chief in white, ceremonial regalia. I had hoped he was a guide, and began to try to guess his name. I must have been way off-base, so he decided to make it easy on me. The Indian transformed into a huge, white bird - an eagle. Again, that was it. The inner vision was gone. I felt it was unimportant, and didn't share the experience with anyone.

A month later, the group had a goodbye party for me, as I was leaving Australia for good. They presented me with a small, gift-wrapped book. I unwrapped it to be utterly shocked by the title: The Quiet Mind, the Teachings of White Eagle!

This was all too much for my analytical mind. I opened the book only long enough to find that White Eagle was a spirit guide who had been channeled by Grace Cooke in England for decades, until her death. I didn't pick up the book again for a year. But the die was cast. Now I knew who White Eagle was.

I didn't think much fo all this as I took a year off to backpack around Africa and Europe. Yet often in my meditations I would feel a warm and loving presence I knew to be White Eagle. (An interesting note: I have never again "seen" White Eagle as an Indian or an eagle - only a feeling of golden light.)

How Did I Get to Be A Channel Anyway?
Part 2 of 4
by Jonette Crowley

It is often interesting how people stumble, (or are we pushed?), onto our spiritual paths. So I thought I should share some more of the story of how I got into this line of work. In the last part, I told how White Eagle first came to me in 1986.

The next chapter came a few years later, in the second half of 1988 and early 1989. I had one of those periods in life where everything fell apart. I was married in August, in marriage counseling by September and separated by January. My heart and soul were bruised and battered. I dropped to 100 pounds and cried constantly. A health condition, that had lingered from my Africa travels, worsened. This caused my short-term memory to fail and I was not able to grasp concepts and think as quickly as before. It was clear to me that I could no longer do justice to my job as database software Consulting Manager. I needed a sabbatical from life!!!

So I decided to take off six months or more to heal and write a book based on my expedition through Africa the previous year. [click here for Africa Journal in e-book format].

Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer were offering a weekend workshop, Being a Writer. I quit my job at Oracle, left my husband for good, and the next day I was on a plane to San Francisco that would change my life.

One of the workshop's processes was designed to help us visualize a symbol for our writing project. This would be a symbol that we could use to empower and focus on our project. Since I had decided to write a book about my camping journey through Africa, I fully expected he symbol to be a pygmy or an elephant. I was surprised to get the symbol of a huge crystal emanating light. It didn't look like an elephant to me!

The next surprise came in a process in which we were to get in touch with our inner creative writer. We were to speak as if we were that inner self and have that part of us talk about our book.

I opened my mouth, and instead of my inner creative writer telling me how to organize the Africa book, I said: This is White Eagle, the book you will write is a gift of light."

Who invited him? He had never just popped in before. I had never channeled White Eagle. He must have the wrong person. It was the darkest time of my life. Everything had just crashed around me and I certainly was not feeling at all light!

Yet somewhere in that vision of the crystal and the words of White Eagle, I felt the truth behind it. How that truth is manifesting in my life is still unfolding.

So, being without money, and unable to work, I moved in with my sister Erin, who was managing a lodge in Vail. For months I read, slept, grieved and healed.

How Did I Get to Be A Channel Anyway?
Part 3 of 4
by Jonette Crowley

One day, as I sat by myself in the living room, I was stunned by a surge of energy through me - White Eagle. I grabbed a tape recorder and found myself standing on my feet. My mouth opened and I began to speak as if I were addressing thousands of people. "This is White Eagle," he began:

"You on Earth are standing on the threshold of a great and beautiful emergence. It will eclipse anything that has occurred before. The Renaissance and the Period of Enlightenment in your history are nothing compared to the power that is waiting to be born in your lifetime.

SO much is happening and it is at your feet. You who are listening are the activators. You are the people whose minds are open to a new dawn. I bow to you. More than at any time before, the future is in your hands. I am here to tell you that those hands are capable.

Each of you has a set of talents, skills and background that your hands are the perfect holder of these dreams. You will take the essence of dreams and mold them into form.

And, my friends, I want to tell you, you are not just doing the groundwork, for the seeds have already been planted. I want to say again that it isn't in the far off future. The sense of immediacy is so strong. Great things are happening.

Listen to your hearts. Each of you have a different part to play and your message is sounding in your soul.

What more can I say? The light is so powerful. I honor you deeply as spiritual brothers and sisters. You are more than caretakers on this Earth. You are life givers. Go now, listen to your hearts and give life back. Thank you."

Can you imagine my surprise? The only time that I had ever channeled White Eagle was six months before when he popped in to tell me I would write a book that would be a gift of light. I was more than a little unsettled by the fact that he seemed to have so much to say, to so many people. Then it began to sink in: I was supposed to take him public!

Looking back at these months in 1989, I am surprised by the amount of blind faith I exhibited. With the support of my lovely friends, Carol and David Shouldice, I rented a meeting room, posted some fliers and embarked upon life as a public channel. The entire time, however, I thought I must be crazy. Here I was, a well educated, software consulting manager, with a Catholic family, presuming to talk for a wise, dead, Native American. What do you tell your sorority sisters?

White Eagle, however, was undeterred by my major doubts. Somehow he magically attracted 60 people to my first ever channeling! A partnership was born!

How Did I Get to Be A Channel Anyway?
Part 4 of 4
by Jonette Crowley

At about the same time as I was beginning to experiment with channeling White Eagle, I received an invitation from Sanaya Roman and Duane Parker to participate in their first series of classes: Awakening Your Light Body. It sounded intriguing – get yourself to a higher vibration, make breakthroughs in your emotional and mental bodies, become more connected to your soul . . . All of those things I certainly needed right then. I was stuck in a deep, black hole.

But my rational self argued, “Don’t be silly, Jonette. Why awaken something that you did not even know was asleep? Besides how can you possibly afford to fly to California for three weekends, stay in hotel and pay for the seminar series?” I couldn’t. The rational side had won – for now.

The idea just wouldn’t let go of me. In a fit of exasperation, I re-read the invitation packet and asked White Eagle if it was something that I should attend. “It is one of the most important things that you could possibly do”, came his answer.

“Then how will I pay for it?” (My rational side was in an arguing mood).

“With your engagement ring”, was White Eagle’s reply. So I sold the diamond from my very short marriage and signed up for the course that would change my life. “My brother bought the diamond and thoughtfully replaced the stone with a cubic zirconium so no one would know the difference!)

The series for Awakening Your Light Body was three, 4-day weekends of meditation/energy processes. After about 80% of them I could remember nothing. People talked about incredible journeys – I fell asleep!

Still, something seemed to have shifted, or opened up. The hurt and pain in my life began to dissolve. The dark hole got lighter. I felt more content. I worked with the tapes of the class between workshops, again, sleeping through most of them. Yet strangers would comment on the calmness around me. Acquaintances told me that I looked radiant. Something magical was clearly happening.

White Eagle told me to get a class together. In 1990, I became one of the very first teachers of the Light Body processes. Since then, White Eagle and I have taught hundreds of people the magic of working with consciousness and energy in this way It would take pages to relate the miracles this has brought to my own life and to so many others. The Light Body work has given me the skills and confidence to go beyond and to develop my own work with White Eagle and Mark.

My life took a turn onto a higher plane as a result of those first classes in 1989. Deep gratitude goes out to Sanaya and Duane for beginning this work, to White Eagle for insisting that I go, and to my brother, Christopher for buying that diamond!

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