Discernment and Protection

Discernment is the ability to tell what is true from what merely sounds spiritual. It is the most important skill a channel, or a reader of channeled material, can have. This page explains how to test a transmission, including the ones on this site.

Why Discernment Matters

When a person opens to receive, three things can come through. The first is genuine guidance from the Higher Self and the beings of light. The second, and by far the most common, is the channel's own mind: hopes, fears and opinions wearing borrowed robes. The third, which is rare when the simple precautions are kept, is interference from sources that are not of the light.

All three can use elevated language. All three can produce a feeling of significance. The words alone will not tell you which is which. You have to look at the quality of the message and at its effects.

Seven Tests of a True Transmission

1. It leaves you freer. After reading or receiving it you feel more capable, more responsible for your own life, and less dependent on the source.
2. It does not flatter. The beings of light do not tell anyone that they are more advanced than others, specially chosen, or the reincarnation of someone famous. They love without inflating.
3. It does not frighten. A true message may be serious. It is never menacing. It contains no threats and no predictions of catastrophe.
4. It does not command. A Master may speak plainly, even bluntly, about a path you have already chosen. True guidance still leaves the choosing to you. It gives no orders about your relationships, your money or your health, it threatens no consequences, and any message that says you must is suspect.
5. It asks for nothing. No being of light asks for money, for secrecy, for exclusive loyalty, or for you to separate from family and friends.
6. It gives no dates. In our experience the Masters do not foretell events or name days. They speak of what is possible and of what is needed now.
7. It respects your reason. It does not ask you to abandon common sense, medical advice or your own moral judgment. If anything, it sharpens them.

A message that fails any one of these should be set aside, however beautiful the rest of it may be.

The Fruit Test

There is an older and simpler rule that includes all seven: judge a tree by its fruit. Watch what a source of guidance produces in you over time. If you are becoming kinder, steadier, more honest and more useful to the people around you, the source is good. If you are becoming anxious, proud, isolated or preoccupied, it is not, whatever name it uses.

A Simple Practice of Protection

Protection is not a matter of fear. It is a matter of spiritual hygiene, like washing your hands. Do this before any session of channeling or deep meditation, and whenever you feel unsettled.

1. Ground. Feel your feet. Take three slow breaths.
2. Call the light. See a column of white light descending around you from far above, wide enough to stand in with your arms outstretched.
3. Call Archangel Michael. Ask him to seal the column in his blue flame, and to stand guard.
4. State your terms. Say aloud: Only that which is of the highest light, and which serves the highest good of all, may communicate with me.
5. Challenge, if in doubt. If a presence feels wrong, ask it directly, three times, whether it comes in the light of the Source. A being of light is never offended by the question. Anything else will withdraw.

When to Stop

End the session at once, ground yourself, and take a break of at least a few days, if you notice any of the following.

• A message that tells you to harm yourself or anyone else, in any way
• Pressure to act immediately, or to keep the message secret
• A cold, heavy or agitated feeling in place of warmth and calm
• A presence that does not withdraw when you ask it to
• Voices or impressions that continue outside your practice and that you cannot switch off

Please take this seriously. If you are hearing voices that distress you, that will not stop, or that urge you toward harm, this is a matter for a doctor or mental health professional, and you should contact one promptly. Seeking that help is itself an act of discernment, and the Archangels stand fully behind it.

The Humility of the Channel

Every channel colors what they receive. Their vocabulary, their beliefs, their hopes and their blind spots all leave a mark. A wise channel knows this and holds their own transmissions lightly. They say this is what I received. They do not say this is the truth.

For the same reason, be cautious of any channel who claims to be the only true voice of a Master, or who cannot bear to be questioned. The Masters speak through many people. They have never appointed a sole representative.

Reading Channeled Material, Including Ours

Apply everything on this page to the transmissions published here. They were received by fallible people. We have tested them as carefully as we know how, and we believe they carry something true. But you are the final judge of what is true for you.

Take what brings you peace and makes you more loving. Leave the rest without a second thought. The Venusian Council has put it to us this way: we would rather you trusted your own heart and disagreed with us, than agreed with us and trusted it less.

Questions People Ask