After several months of casual study, I began to take a more systematic look at the social and cultural dimensions of this flamboyant spiritual activity. Eventually my research interest narrowed to one of the most controversial expressions of alternative spirituality, channeling, which can be defined as the use of altered states of consciousness to contact spirits — or, as many of its practitioners say, to experience spiritual energy captured from other times and dimensions.
— Michael F. Brown, The Channeling Zone