For the last twenty years, it has been my joy and privilege to share the wise and compassionate messages of our sentient planet Earth with you. Because we like to name almost everything, we came to call her Gaia, an intimate and accessible name reminiscent of ancient Greece and other olden times when god-like beings communed with mere mortals like you and me. And this was perfect, because more than anything, Gaia wanted us to feel connected to our lives and purpose here — to the elements and kingdoms of which we are a part.

Although I was already channeling before my first encounter with Gaia, everything changed from that moment on. Gaia became my primary teacher, and I could not have asked for better — she opened my eyes, my mind, and my heart. You might think that I received more than my fair share of guidance during this time, but I came to realize that Gaia has a knack for showing us how to discover our own answers by pointing us in the right direction. She wants us to claim the victory of discovery — her stake in the claim is being present for the “aha!” moment. If you are lucky enough to have had a private session with Gaia or have attended a seminar, you probably know what I mean.

I have spent the last several years traveling around the world presenting and animating Gaia’s wisdom. I cannot begin to tell you what this has meant to me — thousands of hours during which I have learned, grown, and become more aware of the true meaning of life. These years have been filled with special moments, tears and laughter, smiles and sighs. In sharing Gaia’s words, I have discovered firsthand what her wisdom represents to people all over the world. My many blessings include an extended family that spills over borders and boundaries, where language is no barrier and bridges to hearts and minds are everywhere — a truly marvelous adventure!

We live in interesting and exciting times that afford us important glimpses into our pasts, visions of distant futures, and opportunities to create meaningful change in our own lifetimes. Ever present and patient, Gaia has inspired new projects and ideas, instilled courage, helped to suppress fear, and shined a spotlight into corners and crevices that we overlooked or dared not look into. Deeply satisfied, I felt fortunate to have found work that I truly enjoyed. And yet our journey leads ever onward, sometimes even circling back to revisit what we might have missed or to reveal new opportunities. I have always thought it wise to continue on before becoming too comfortable or complacent, too sure or proud of our accomplishments — which is more often a statement of where we are than who we are.

How Channeling Works

Channeling often mystifies people. From the outside looking in, it can seem exotic and potent, a space that only gifted or spiritually advanced individuals can access. As special as channeling may seem, it can best be described as a semimechanical process that allows the ordinary conscious mind to gracefully yield first to the innocence of the subconscious mind and then to the elegant wisdom of the superconscious mind. We all have sensory “keys” that can quickly unlock and free our intuition from where it has been sequestered or ignored. The same keys open the storehouses of knowledge that we have been seeking. Good channeling, real channeling, begins here, and we can all access it. Just imagine what our world would be like if we learned this when we were growing up!

Our intuition is like a perfectly designed shuttle bus that travels easily across a bridge or gap that might otherwise appear as an impossible divide. Just beyond the place where the ordinary mind thinks it will surely fall into an abyss and dissolve into nothingness, the shuttle suddenly veers left or right, altogether avoiding the chasm of destruction. If we choose to, this is where we encounter spirit guides, teachers, and angels. Where we go from here and how we choose to use this awareness is an individual matter. I have taught beginning, intermediate, and advanced “How to Channel” classes around the world with verifiable results. The basic technique is almost always the same, the difference being the intensity of desire that offsets our prevailing fears and beliefs. We tend to think of channeling as a spiritually advanced method of communication, yet my teachers assure me that it is as rudimentary as children playing telephone with two tin cans connected by a cord or wire. But we can’t help ourselves. We want to see and touch whatever lies beyond the veil, and channeling is one of the ways we do that.

Even so, I reached the point at which channeling no longer held the same appeal for me, and I knew that I was beginning to outgrow it. I wanted to know what was further down the road; I wanted to know who our teachers’ teachers were and what they knew. I became less interested in tomorrows and yesterdays, past lives and future predictions. In the beginning, I was merely curious, but my curiosity became a mild obsession, and eventually I could think of little else. If sacrifices were required, I was willing to make them. When we are very determined, nothing can stop us, but that doesn’t mean that our determination will be quickly or easily rewarded.

The Point of No Return

The process of going beyond the known was simple enough, but most journeys are like that in the beginning, aren’t they? The basic principle was not much different than channeling, but the risk/ reward features were arranged differently. My first encounter was with a labyrinth of sorts, one that summoned uncertainty and fueled fears. I felt lost within the labyrinth; it held fast and did not yield. My awareness urged me on, but I could only see a tangled web ahead, a maze that led nowhere. I felt lightheaded but dense and brick heavy. Unsure of how to lighten my density, I began to set aside the human armaments that we are accustomed to carrying — the ones that make us feel special or important, knowledgeable and wise. When we disrobe, we reveal our essential, vulnerable self. To access the unknown, we must sometimes leave the known completely behind, and that’s what I did. The labyrinth became an open-ended corridor, and I easily crossed its length. I next encountered a maelstrom of energy that I can best describe as an electrical storm. I was swept into it with little warning. Turning back may have been an option, but not one I was willing to consider.

When the storm subsided, I found myself in the proverbial “cave of wonders” — the dwelling place of all the glamorous gifts and treasures most of us crave. My name was inscribed upon everything I saw, so there was little doubt that it was there for me — secrets to esoteric knowledge, ointments for eternal youth, ladders to success, and more. I longed to touch these things, to possess them. And then I heard the words, “If you remain steadfast and single in your vision, you will find a road that did not previously exist. It will lead to a sanctuary where mind and heart are not separate but one. The treasure glitters and calls to you, but it is sugarcoated with illusion. Look again and see it for what it is. Continue on.” And I did, but it was one of the hardest things I have done.

A new road did appear out of nowhere, but it seemed to lead back the way I had come. Was forward the past and backward the future? The road eventually led to an expanded state of awareness but not the one I had imagined. It led to a more developed, or progressed, version of my own mind — what I now call the Inclusive Mind. As the name implies, the Inclusive Mind does not dismiss or cancel abstract or illogical thoughts. Instead, it takes a more modern approach by developing thoughts into ideas and then advancing or “progressing” them through time. It projects them onto the canvas of our ordinary lives, allowing us to see thoughts as active possibilities. The Inclusive Mind is where our thoughts and feelings dwell when we are not busy struggling into and out of the problems and situations associated with being human. It supports our dreams and desires and frames them within a creative structure.

Finding myself within the Inclusive Mind was like coming home and helped me to make sense of the ordinary reality we call life. I could see how our abstract, disorganized thoughts create chaos for us, how we work toward something and against it at the same time, and how we veil and screen ourselves from the things we say we want most in life. I saw how different versions of who we think we are slide in and out of plastic, mirror-like imagery, dependent and interdependent on each other. I experienced our dense thoughts and beliefs and felt their brickand- mortar weight as the burdens we carry. We created this separation and then forgot we did; our teachers have been telling us this all along. And yet juxtaposed between the past and the future, the present moment — our now — is new and pristine every day. It invites us to explore, to create our days or our lives anew.

My detailed description of this experience is not designed to showcase it as overly important or special, but to demonstrate that a little curiosity and courage can go a long way! Beyond the lofty realms from where we imagine the highest forms of wisdom emanate, there exists something that is simple, innocent, and pure, and we all have it. So to be clear, I did not actually go anywhere or arrive at a new level of enlightenment. I did not meet a new teacher or become a better channel. I was not rewarded for my courage or punished for my audacity. I came home, and home wasn’t somewhere far away or better; it was here. Now, this might not seem like what you’ve been hoping to hear or what other teachers have been telling you or promising. But it is true. The promised land is not out there; it is here. It is not beyond the planets or stars; it is within reach. You don’t need to have the kind of experience I had to discover the same truth, but you can — anyone can.

A New Perspective

So what changed? Well, almost everything but not immediately. The thing about having courage is that we don’t always know when we will need it. We all know that the things we fear most rarely materialize or amount to very much. On the other hand, change has a way of sneaking up on us and asking us to be and do the unthinkable. The experience I described took place about two years ago. For a while, everything remained about the same except that I could not shake the feeling that I had been given an opportunity to see life from a new perspective, one that eliminated the need to communicate with spirit teachers through channeling.

My new perspective indicated that wisdom could be accessed through our ordinary awareness. There was no need to go to some stylized version of “there” or to adapt our awareness to bring something or someone “here.” I crossed what I thought was a distant horizon, and it brought me right back to a more modern interpretation of myself. Home was here and represented by the Inclusive Mind. I was here and represented by the same. Home and I were one and the same. If Home and I were the same, what about Gaia and I? Were we one and the same too? Was channeling spirit teachers, sentient planets, ETs, and angels also part of the Inclusive Mind? Were the akashic records and libraries, healing modalities and therapies part of the Inclusive Mind? Does Mind act and communicate as the Inclusive Self? And if so, can our Inclusive Self access the MIND that is ALL?

I studied these questions privately, rarely speaking about them in public except with a few close friends and mentors. I loved my relationship with Gaia and didn’t want it to change. My relationship with Gaia, the sentient and compassionate face of nature, has always been a deeply personal one — even with hundreds of people in attendance at events, Gaia and I have been as connected as a tree to its roots. I needed time to revisit my new perspective, to be certain that I would arrive at the same conclusion without doubt or default. If I could do it successfully time and again, I would stay with it and eventually show others how to do the same — how to skip a step instead of adding one.

Thoughts continued to rearrange themselves and new truths formed around them. The new truths were not strange or distant but appeared in a different order than the mind is accustomed to. Although I continued to love the warmth and wisdom associated with channeling, I was captivated by the power and sophistication of the Inclusive Mind. I came to understand that our Inclusive Mind contains the experience of channeling and not the other way around.

Choosing a New Path

Our mind/soul (never separate) has already mapped an individual route to a successful life and stands ready to reroute our paths as dictated by the thoughts and choices we make. My discovery revealed that channeling is actually an additional step or overlay. It is a wonderful connection to something we already have. We call our guides and teachers by other names and envision them as above us or just beyond our reach, because it helps us to understand life better. We are afraid to think that we may be 100 percent responsible for our lives and that yesterday’s thoughts are today’s experiences. We have not been taught how to or reminded often enough that we can access our own higher states of awareness with the same grace and ease as our teachers seem to display through us, but we can!

Waking up, something many of us have been working on for the last several years, allows us great leeway to explore, learn, and grow. Growing up, as most of us have discovered at one time or another, does not always invite the same luxury. My experience has clearly shown me that channeling — regardless of which entity or master teacher, what dimension or portal — and all versions of the past, present, and future originate within the Inclusive Mind, also called the Superconscious Mind, Third Mind, God-Mind, Soul Mind, and more. There is nothing too surprising about this, and depending on your beliefs, it might not change a thing. But I felt that my worldwide work needed to change, because I now knew with certainty that we can all access the same deep wisdom, guidance, and truth with or without channeling. Better put, once we better understand that our mind is our ally and the storehouse of almost everything we need and want, channeling becomes unnecessary or redundant, because it already resides within the realm of the Inclusive Mind.

I had placed my relationship and worldwide work with Gaia on a pedestal. The higher I had climbed in my channeling career, the taller the pedestal had become, and since I was in no hurry to get down, I had not realized just how far off the ground my feet were. So I have spent the last year or so slowly and gently climbing down the ladder instead of up. I have been traveling less and accepting fewer speaking engagements. I stopped writing a monthly column for a channeling magazine, updated the direction of my radio show, completed my commitments to subscribers, and offered fewer personal sessions. Earlier I wrote that we sometimes need great courage to do the unexpected, especially when it is unnecessary. These were not demands, and in each instance, the choice was my own. Even so, I felt heartache with each decision, and I still feel residues of it today.

Beyond 2012

Twenty-twelve was a “wow” year for many. We were all over the place, searching for clues in predictions and prophecies, completing projects, fearful of beginning new ones, and wondering if things would get better or worse next year. My Native American friends would say that 2013 arrived in a quiet and good way, without bells and whistles. It seemed to me that every possible word related to 2012 had been spent, as had every event celebrating the end of one great cycle and transition to the next. Some were disappointed that nothing magical or devastating occurred; after all, almost every prophet, teacher, and mystic — including channels wellknown and obscure — had predicted that something would happen. So did it? Well, if you agree with me that change begins within and later demonstrates itself without, then yes. If we can find common ground in the idea that our thoughts create our reality, then yes, collectively we are all creating a new paradigm in which to live. I would like to invite you to see the world in a new and different way by shifting the focus of your thoughts about who and what you are in relation to the world we live in. We are capable of reshaping ourselves and our world, but we may need to shake loose some old ideas to make room for new ones.

At the beginning of 2013, I decided to take a fresh approach to life by exploring new possibilities. Starting the year with new thoughts and ideas was more appealing to me than continuing to build on previous accomplishments. I was certain that newer projects waited, and while these might include channeling, they would no longer be exclusive or limited to it. Sometimes even the things we care most deeply about need to be moved into the background so that we can continue to grow. That’s the premise of this year for me, and I hope to be sharing more about it as the year continues to unfold.

So where does that leave channeling? In the best of places! I like to think of myself as an “old school” teacher, which means that I have seen channeling evolve and remake itself many times. I could recount some interesting stories about how it was in the good old days, but I’ll save that for when I write my memoirs. I believe that this is an important time for spirituality and channeling, a real turning point. We are here to witness this evolution and to take part in it if we care to. The transformational nature of true channeling allows all of us to access the same expanded awareness without the assistance of an intermediary — gifted or otherwise. We are moving into a time when we can have direct experiences with the teacher within, and not even the most skilled master teacher or spiritual authority will be able to match what you can experience on your own. That time is not in the distant future. It is in the near now, today, if it is something you believe and dedicate yourself to.

What About Gaia?

What about Gaia? Gaia is the sentient awareness of this planet, which includes care, concern, and a certain amount of responsibility for all that is Earth related. Gaia’s words and wisdom existed long before I brought them to public awareness. One day, in the aftermath of a powerful earthquake, a frightened, angry, and lonely voice within me summoned her and she came, just as she would (or has) to you. A bond was forged and nothing will ever change that. Gaia’s wisdom has helped us to perceive ourselves and our relationship to Earth differently. We are one and the same in Gaia, made of the same substance and energy, never separate or apart.

Over the years I have smiled at rumors that suggested Gaia was leaving the planet after becoming fed up with humanity’s failure to progress. Really? I giggled when I heard that Gaia would be fired and replaced by a more experienced and less tolerant sentience. New rumors surface almost all the time — Gaia took away the honeybees, global warming is Gaia’s way of getting back at humanity for being poor stewards of Earth, and even this one: Gaia is going to decide who gets to keep nuclear weapons and who doesn’t. Statements and rumors of this kind eventually find their way to me for confirmation, denial, or rebuttal. In the beginning, I did just that, believing it was my duty to do so, but as they were neverending, I eventually decided that I was not a public service announcement for Gaia. This grand lady planet can take care of herself!

Will there be another channel for Gaia? It is my understanding that there will not. Gaia’s wisdom is a unique mix of nature’s remedies, elemental mysticism, sage advice, and a mother’s understanding of the difficulties associated with being human. The messages I channeled were collectively attuned to the strides we have been making and the upward swing we are now on. Communication with Gaia is all around us. Your own will and authority easily attract her words and wisdom to you. Wouldn’t you like to have your own relationship with Gaia instead of having someone else reinterpret what you can already receive on your own? Even as I write this, I am reminded of a saying that goes something like, “Opportunity knocks, but opportunists rarely do.” In other words, there is a very good likelihood that you will soon hear that this person or that channel is the newest or next version of Gaia. An unfortunate attribute of the end times of our beloved New Age is that those who do not merit our trust sometimes assume it anyway; a charismatic speaker does not a teacher make.

But seriously, there is something I want you to know: These many years have generated a vast legacy of words and wisdom, specific guidance and information, instructions for happiness and wellbeing, descriptions of present and future technologies — pearls of pure and perfect knowledge. I call this the Gaian Library, and its care, use, and protection is our responsibility.

The Gaian Library

Knowledge is all too easily lost and misplaced. We have done this throughout history only to work at piecing great works back together centuries later. Sometimes careless, sometimes ignorant, our busy minds quickly move on to the next new thing, overlooking great works and ourselves in the process.

I have vowed that will not happen with the Gaian Library, and my helpers and I are already at work restructuring and reordering the library to make it easily accessible to all. This includes the great talks, Gaia’s voice recordings, seminars and workshops, videos, and other material that may have been previously unavailable. The plan includes grouping these into subject-related study programs, and into areas of specific and personal interest. I think this is the best and most practical approach. You will see these changes take place over the next few months.

What about future events and private sessions? They are on hold for now while I explore the new projects and ideas that feel most inspiring. I will invite you to read about them soon and to participate in them if you are interested. I may channel publicly again, perhaps for an interesting occasion or by special invitation. The relationship I forged with Gaia is a timeless and profound one, regardless of whether I choose to channel or not. More importantly, it formed part of what we collectively wanted and needed in the post–Harmonic Convergence, old paradigm, New Age generation. We were waking up to the idea that who we are and what we do really does matter. We needed to be reminded that we are not alone, that we are always surrounded by guidance and goodwill, that our paths are of continuous evolution, and that like us, our teachers will come and go and come again. And we got that, right? Gaia’s messages were never exclusive to me — the sentience of Earth could never belong to one person or be contained by one messenger.

Over the years, I have met a few unique people whose compassion and care for the subject of channeling have touched me deeply and paralleled my own dedication to the subject. They’re devotion and enthusiasm under my mentorship has left no doubt that they are fully capable of carrying on the “How to Channel” program of classes I began long ago. For instance, in South America, I have given special permission to Pablo Morano to continue my work in his own style and spirit in cooperation with the foundation of spiritual values he already embodies. You will likely hear more from him in the near future.

Renewing Our Spirit

Earth is renewed in us and with us daily. Gaia, the ample and generous wisdom that is our living library, is available to everyone. We can access it anytime. We have moved beyond the time when channels and their stable of entities need to carry us upon their shoulders. We are now strong enough to receive new truths from our own inner authority while leading purposeful, unburdened, and authentic lives. We asked for the next age, and we have embarked on it. I like to call it the “Now Age” for lack of a better term. Individually and collectively, we are free to advance into new and direct relationships with ourselves, each other, and the world we live in. I can’t imagine anything bringing Gaia more joy than this!

It took some time and forethought before these words finally arranged themselves onto the page. Twenty years ago when I began channeling Gaia’s words, I could not imagine that they would be as widely read or received as they are today. Back then, I could hardly imagine that anyone would even believe it was possible to commune with our planet in such a way. By contrast, someone shared with me in a recent conversation that they could not believe that I would even consider setting something so precious aside in favor of the unknown. What can I say? I believe that we are all here to explore, to create, and to continue to grow. Like the nautilus, I outgrew the (spiritual) environment I lived in and am eager to explore a new one. For those who mentor us, there can be no better compliment.

I plan to stay in touch with you in a variety of different ways, and I hope you will do the same. You can join me live on the radio for Solutions for a Small Planet on the last Wednesday of every month or listen to the archives later on (visit http://www.awakeningzone.com). I check in on Facebook semi-regularly, sharing my adventures with you and reading and replying to your posts as often as I can. And if you are signed up for my newsletter, I will also be writing again to tell you more about my discoveries with the Inclusive Mind and other projects that may be of interest to you, including a mentorship study-participation program. I have been experimenting with some new exercises and am really enjoying the results!

Please accept my deep appreciation for being my companions along the way and for sharing this ever-expanding journey with me. You continue to be my inspiration, my family, and my friends. I invite you to join me on my next adventure!