A comment on the channeling file by the author:

I wrote the article entitled *Channeling: Extrasensory Deception?* in 1991

after I read Joe Fisher's *Hungry Ghosts--an Investigation into Channelling

and the Spirit World*, which was published in 1990. At that time I was

concerned about the phenomenon of ISKCON devotees getting involved with karmi

channelers. Around that period, a number of my Godbrothers and Godsisters

were followers of the channeled entity called Lazaris. In my article I tried

to show that such entities who speak through ordinary, unregulated karmis must

be pretas. I submitted that article to the BTG. Jayadvaita Maharaja politely

rejected it. The major reason he gave was that I depended too much on Joe

Fisher's book in my presentation. But he also mentioned that this article

would displease a prominent leader in ISKCON who has a disciple who channels.

I was informed by a sannyasi Godbrother at this past 1998 Mayapur festival

that channeling has gradually become an "in-house" ISKCON activity. At

Mayapur, so he told me, some devotees were even holding a seminar at which the

highest stage of Reiki was being advocated, whereby subtle beings are sought

out for guidance. This sannyasi Godbrother was astonished when these devotees

advised him to take help from these beings for not only health but even for

spiritual reasons. Other devotees were told that the spirit guides could fill

in for their gurus who might be too busy to give them close, personalized

instruction.

An argument is offered to defend devotees involvement with spirit guides.

"Yes, karmis who are unregulated, who are in the modes of passion and

ignorance, will attract pretas when they seek out spirit guides. But devotees

are in the mode of goodness. Thus devotees will only attract auspicious

beings: devas. The tangible proof is that these beings help the health of the

devotees."

My article on channeling dispenses with the second part of the argument, that

the tangible proof that the subtle guides are devas is that they help

devotees' health. Pretas are very interested in the health of the bodies that

they haunt, because they want to satisfy their desires through those bodies.

But what about the first part of the argument, that since devotees are in the

mode of goodness, they won't attract entities in the modes of passion and

ignorance? What follows is a scriptural answer. The essential point is that a

true follower of Vedic knowledge is *above* the modes of nature, even the mode

of goodness. Worship of demigods is a deviation from Vedic knowledge.

Comments that appear in brackets [like this] are my own.

*yajante sattvika devan

yaksa-raksamsi rajasah

pretan bhuta-ganams canye

yajante tamasajanah*

Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods;

those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those

in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.

(*Bg* 17.4)

[In his *Gita Bhasya* commentary on the above verse, Srila Baladeva

Vidyabhusana writes,] *karyabhedena sattvikadi bhedam prapancayati yajanta

iti*: "Thus Lord Krsna reveals the distinction of one mode from another on the

basis of worship." [His commentary goes on to tell us that] worshipers of

demigods lack proper spiritual understanding. The faith of such worshipers,

conditioned as it is by the mode of goodness, obliges them to serve deities

like the Vasus and the Rudras. Then there are people who worship Yaksas and

Raksasas like Kuvera [the treasurer of heaven] and Nirrti [a fierce,

inauspicious goddess of the southwest with a black complexion and golden hair,

who holds an iron noose].

These worshipers are in the mode of passion. And those who worship the Pretas

[spirits of the departed] and Bhutaganas [other kinds of subtle entities] are

in the mode of ignorance. Even twice-born *brahmanas* [who are supposed to be

in the mode of goodness] and *ksatriyas* [who are supposed to be in the mode

of passion] who leave aside their *svadharma* or prescribed duties [fall into

the mode of ignorance]. Neglectful *brahmanas* receive the airy bodies of a

type of firemouthed demon called Ulkamukha, while neglectful *ksatriyas*

assume the forms of a type of demon called Kataputana. [And so this verse

(*Bg* 17.4) depicts] those who, due to laziness in their observance of real

*vidhi*, [remember: in *Gita* 9.23 Lord Krsna says that to worship demigods is

*avidhi- purvaka* or a violation of the real injunction of worship] are

situated by their materialistic nature in one of the three modes. Of course,

by the potency of contact with genuine Vedic knowledge, they can rise above

their materialistic nature and come to the factual Vedic level.

The original Sanskrit of Baladeva's commentary is as follows.

*karyabhedena sattvikadi bhedam prapancayati yajant iti

sastriya viveka samvit hina ye janah svabhavajaya sraddhaya devan

sattvikah vasurudradin yajante te 'anye sattvikah

ye yaksaraksamsi kuvera nirrtyadin rajasani yajante te 'anye rajasah

ye preta bhutaganamsca tamasa yajanti te 'anye tamasah

dvijah svabharmavibhrasta dehapatottara labhdavayaviya deha

ultkamukhata patanadisamjnah preta manusah pisaca

visesa va iti vyakhyatarascat sapatmatrkadaya

evam salasyat tyakta veda vihdinam svabhavat satvikatad

ya nirupitah ete ca balavad vaidika satprasangat

svabhavan vijitya kadacit veda 'pyadhikrto bhavaniti bodhyam*

--

A comment on the channeling file by Gauranga Dasa:

Undoubtedly in many cases these chanelled entities are ordinary pretas, souls

who are bereft of their physical bodies because of grossly sinful activities.

So they try to gain possession of others' bodies for gratifying their sinful

desires for intoxication, violence, and carnal pleasure. I will give some

quotes from the Garuda Puranam regarding the pretas in the near future to this

conference.

Meanwhile I would like to refer to a case from a few days ago. I met a girl on

sankirtana who looked like a really haunted person. I began talking with her.

She had different kinds of psychologic diseases like fears, anxiety etc. She

had attempted to commit suicide several times. She showed me her hand. It was

cut in many places by a razor's edge. She confessed me that she liked seeing

blood. Once she started practicing so-called Transcendental Meditation taught

by Maharishi but all she was seeing during meditation is how she tortured

killed other people and children. She was 14 years old. I began to explain her

something about ghosts and possession and she grasped the idea. She related to

me a recent event when she was sitting in a class in the school and suddenly

she felt like someone took over her personality and began vibrating in her

mind: "Kill yourself! Kill yourself!" She started yelling in the middle of the

classroom and ran out, trying to cut her arteries. Somehow the others stopped

her and the ghost let her go. So this possession can be very severe,

especially in the case of those who are very mental, subject to the modes of

passion and ignorance, and full with negative feelings and desires. The

influence of the pretas can be decreased by cleanliness inside and out and

around us, practicing the habits of the mode of goodness, mental strength,

positivity and Krsna-consciousness, especially chanting Hare Krsna.

My conclusions are however that not all subtle beings are exclusively demoniac

and harmful. There are some who are more sattvic than the pretas. I base this

on my talks with Bhanu Maharaja and Bhakti Tirtha Swami's book entitled

Spiritual Warrior (Uncovering Spiritual Truths in Psychic Phenomena),

especially chapters 3 (Angels and Demigods) and 7 (Strangers in our Bodies).

I was talking to Bhanu Maharaja about the healing with reiki energy and prana.

I mentioned to him that many healers report the appearance of celestial beings

during the therapy who had radiant bodies and made the healer and the patiend

feel comfortable and safe. Many times these beings personally assist in the

process of healing, entering the body of the patient and cleansing the aura,

repairing cakras, removing poisoned and diseased tissues, sonetimes even

operating the organs in the body by using even instruments like scalpels and

others, Of course all this is happening with the subtle duplicate of the

body, and most often only the healer notices their presence and help. I asked

Maharaja about who they were. He told me that they are guardian spirits or

angels, who are lower than the demigods, but still pious and who always

accompany the person and try to save him from bad deeds and help him. Maharaja

said that everyone of us has at least one or maybe three or four of them

always watching him. Although they are pious, they don't have completely

realized spiritual knowledge, like the Yamadutas, who are servants of

Yamaraja, but although he was a mahabhagavata, they didn't know that they

couldn't snatch someone calling out the name of God like Ajamila did. So

trying to establish the communication with our guardian angel, or 'inner

guide" as popularly named, is not in any way replacement for accepting and

surrendering to a Gaudiya Vaishnava guru, who can take us back to Godhead and

give us Krsna-prema, because he is a pure devotee. The guardian angels (called

amanava purusa in Sanskrit) are not pure devotees, but they are pious, so they

can't answer all philosophical questions but usually tell us to accept what

the devotees say. Both amanava purusas and pretas or bhutas can have

superhuman abilities or a capacity to heal etc. but if accepted from a pious

entity, you can eliminate your debt by worshiping Krsna, if accepted from a

demoniac entity you will have to pay the price of being exploited for sense

gratification and gaining very bad karma resulting in utmost suffering.

General info

We have two kinds of bodies - gross (physical) and subtle, or psychical

(also called astral). The gross body (Sanskrit: sthula sarira) is

composed of gross material elements and the subtle body consists of

subtle material elements: mind (manas), buddhi (intelligence) and

material ego (ahankara). We ourselves, jivas, are of nonmaterial nature

and are situated within these bodies.

At death we leave the gross body and in the subtle body we move to our

next body according to our actions (karma) in this life. When our

karma is exceptionally bad (heavy sins and crimes like murder, suicide

etc.) we are not allowed to accept a new gross body but must remain

in the subtle body for an extended period of time. In this way we suffer

because we can't satisfy our material desires. So we hang around and

try to possess other bodies and ignorantly revenge on others for our

fate. Only after the karmic burden expires we can take another gross

body. This may take many years. In every spiritual tradition there are

rituals to prevent a deceased person to become a ghost and to attain

a successful new position. Ancestor worship exists all over the world.

But in the new body we create another karma and thus we take one body

after another, suffering the birth, disease, old age and death. The

Vedic tradition therefore recommends to break out of the reincarnation

cycle (samsara) and attain our original position in the transcendental

realm in the company of the Supreme Lord, Vishnu or Krishna. Thus we

by purification get rid of our material bodies, gross and subtle, so

there is no question of suffering (duhkha).

There are three main ways of liberation (mukti) - offering the results

of our work for the Lord's purpose (karma), cultivation of transcendental

knowledge (jnana) and selfless service to the Lord (bhakti). In the

current age called Kali-yuga the path of bhakti is the most effective.

Its main element is chanting of the holy names of the Lord, like Krishna,

Govinda, Gopala, Hari etc. in the form of mantras. Other names of God

known from genuine traditions can also be chanted or sung (any path

through which we develop love for the Lord is genuine). This knowledge is

exposed in the books of knowledge like Bhagavad-gita.