Mouzr's Mayhem

By Amanda Mouser

What is it that excites people when it comes to communicating with the dead or seeing your future? Is it human nature to seek the unknown or to test others ability to do such? I think it is a little of both. There has been a rise in channeling, a medium through which info is perceived from a source other than the personal conscious self. Whether it is divine or demonic guidance, is it real?

Channeling and the use of mediums to search for answers or to speak with the deceased have been done for many years. It dates back as far ancient Egypt and Greece. I can remember playing "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board" in my friend's bedroom floor in the eighth grade. Even that game is a type of physical channeling called levitation. So do my friends and I have the gift? I also recall the time my friends and I were going to play with a Ouija board in an abandoned house in hopes of waking the spirits of the dead, but ended up running off the road and crashing, just several feet from falling off a cliff. It was quite a coincidence that we (we being my 2 best friends, our preacher's 2 daughters, and myself) wrecked when we were going to defy our Christian upbringing. Were we in the hands of a higher power that night or was it a just coincidence?

Could such a "gift" be used merely to ploy people to spend money? So-called "psychics" have used their fortune telling gift as a way to make money. Which isn't unrealistic. Everyone uses their talents to make profits, i.e. athletes. But do they really have a "gift" or is it merely the talent of being a con artist? After September 11th, many read the predictions of Nostradamus to see if he predicted such a tragic and life changing event. I didn't read it myself, but was told by a reliable source that his predictions were vary vague and you could interpret them any way you wanted. I think this is what today's fortunetellers do. They tell us what we want to hear with out specifics, so that we can apply their answers to any event that happens in the future. Could it be then be further concluded that psychics such as Mrs. Cleo, cause an event to happen? Think of it this way. She tells you that December will be a bad month for you and to be aware. Such predictions could cause one to make the month seem worse that it really is.

Channeling is said to be induced by meditation, prayer, fasting, self-hypnosis, dancing, chanting, smoking herbs, or taking hallucinogenic drugs. If this is true, then anyone could do it, even your typical drug user. So is it real? Can someone speak to the dead or become that dead person? Can someone truly see your future? I don't know having never known anyone who said they could or never having experiencing it myself. My challenge for the month is for you to try one of these methods of channeling and see if you have the gift, maybe you can make some money at it.