At Dan’s request, I’ll share my channeling technique, which seemingly evolved quite naturally throughout the 1980s. My contact on the other side is my spirit guide Abenda, who claims we set up this incarnation as an experiment in spirit/earth communications.

At first, the communications were primarily about family and friends, all of whom encouraged me to keep at it, because the predictions in the writing turned out to be so accurate. In 1991 I began to write a “Cause and Effect” column in our “Soaring Spirit” newsletter. People with problems sent me “why” questions and Abenda chose the letters she felt would relate to many readers. To receive the communications, I go into a theta-level altered state, and Abenda finds someone on the other side that knows the letter writer or a loving entity who is aware of the problem. Under my spirit guide’s carefully orchestrated conditions, this soul controls my hand and the response is received via automatic writing. In 2001, in response to many requests, I began to do private readings.

The answers I receive explain the letter-writer’s karma or dharma -- the past-life reasons for the current problem and relationship situations. Soon after the column began running, I started to receive verifications from the writers, assuring me and my readers that I was indeed in communication with souls providing valid information. This work was the basis for my 1993 book, Blame It On Your Past Lives.

MY TECHNIQUE: Upon attaining a self-induced theta state, I visualize myself in the center of a Celtic Druid circle. I feel the grass beneath my bare feet and I look upon the stone altar. I place a symbolic gift upon the altar (flowers, stones or feathers as an example) and I make a blessing for my earth life. Then I leave the circle feeling the earth and grass as I run and feel myself running until I am flying out of earth’s atmosphere. In time, I come to a white mist where I find stairs ascending up into the mist. The stairs are ancient, gray and worn. I reach out and touch the surface. Often I find flowers by the stairs. They’ve been left by my deceased Grandmother, who is waiting at this level for her children to cross over.

Focusing my senses, I feel myself walking up the stairs, going higher and higher, until I come to a landing where Abenda awaits in the doorway to my “temple room.”

Abenda and I hug upon meeting and then enter the room, which is furnished with unusual furniture, which I’m told is Persian. Yellow Chinese silk pillows abound and East Indian statuary accents the decor. In my earthly reality, I love Native American, Western and Spanish decor, but I am very comfortable here and can see, touch, smell the room. At this point, I feel an almost complete transference of energy. My physical body is numb and I no longer hear or see what is going on in my real life.

My temple-room time becomes my reality while I am there. I scrunch pillows to relax on the couch, while conversing with Abenda. Over the years, she’s learned to joke and play with me. That took awhile, because she perceives our association as a working relationship, and she wants to keep the energy between us clear and precise. We get into intense conversations and we can even have arguments. Some of the disagreements relate to work versus play. Abenda doesn’t live an earth life. She died brutally in her last incarnation and wants no association with our physical world other than to help me (and others) through our earthly trials and tribulations.

When I’m channeling for an individual who has written me about their problem, I physically hold their letter or another touchstone, such as a lock of hair or photograph. In trance, I visualize myself strolling out the back door of my temple room and going to a glass teahouse. Here, in this separate environment, Abenda calls in the letter-writer’s spirit guide or someone on the other side who loves them though a past-life connection. I perceive this soul, who has come to write through me, just as if they were actually sitting beside me here on earth. Usually, they come to communicate wearing what they wore in the past life they shared with the letter-writer. If they were shy and demure in a past life, they will appear the same today. A flamboyant man from a 1700s incarnation will still be showy when he walks into the teahouse to communicate.

Abenda has to provide an “okay” for an entity to write through my hand. Anyone from a lower vibration is not allowed contact. My spirit guide also stresses that a language other than English can be translated, but not written. If they have difficulty writing legibly, they can allow me to use my own handwriting.

Sometimes I feel like a spiritual phone connection. Why me? Anyone willing to practice can develop the ability to do automatic writing. Richard and I prove this in our Sedona Psychic Seminars, and I get a lot of feedback for those using my “Automatic Writing” CD. But I realize my abilities go far beyond those normally expressed through this medium.

My early near-death experiences probably set the stage for my work today. I had two major surgeries by age ten weeks. As a young child, I knew of my past lives. My father often rocked me to sleep in response to nightmares in which the Germans were coming for me during W.W.II. In that incarnation, I was captured and died in the concentration camp showers.

At eight years of age, I nearly bled to death from a bicycle accident. While floating above the operating table, I perceived a joyous and comforting light and began to rush toward it. But two women walked up to me blocking my way to the source of the light. They bent down and told me their names were Abenda and Francoise. They talked to me about my life and family before telling me it was time to go back. I didn’t want to go back, but soon experienced myself floating over my body again. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital ward.

Francoise was my spirit guide until my early-twenties when Abenda stepped in to take over. It was at this time I began to experiment with automatic writing. Today, Abenda is like a member of the family, although my brothers call her my “imaginary friend.” But the moment anyone needs advice or must make an important decision, guess who they ask me to contact.

NOTE: To read all the Tara/Abenda writings, click HERE.