Mediums and channels bypass religious specialists to establish direct, personal contact with the spirit world. The messages that they find there reveal local concerns that have not yet breached the walls of institutionalized religion, which in its search for permanence tends to respond slowly to changing social conditions. Unburdened by rigid procedures, channeling operates close to the everyday experience of those who embrace it — their hopes, their troubles, and the language in which they frame their personal search for meaning.

Michael F. Brown, The Channeling Zone