What I have come to believe channeling is:
It starts out with - where do we go when we die? As you become more spiritually aware, you realize you (your mind, your thoughts) are not your body. So then, after we are done with the body, where do we go? We - our spirit - returns to the non-physical realm. We do not cease to exist, we change form.
Before we got here, we made the decision to come "down" here into a physical body. When we were non-physical, it seems like a really good idea :). But only a part of our "essense" - the energy that make us up" - came down here, and the larger part of "ourself" is still non-physical.
So, believing that, everyone we know is only a part of their essence, and the larger part is non-physical - our soul selves, if you will.
We are all here playing in this physical realm because we love to explore the physical through the physical body.
OK - so ....
We all have a sixth sense, some call it. What that really is, I believe, is our inner being, the part that dwells within our physical body, the part of our energy that came down into this physical self - our soul in our physical body.
It is with this part of our "essence" that is aware of other things besides the 5 physical senses. The body senses - the five that we relate to this physical plane with - make it difficult to realize that we - ourself - our soul self - is capable of seeing and hearing things that are normally outiside the physical body.
So, channeling is "tuning" into the non-physical realm. Anyone can channel, we all have the capacity to channel, but it takes time to learn and the desire to learn.
We are all the radio. We come with the same radio parts. We are all well equipped radios.
Channeling is when, as a radio, you tune your receive to a certain channel and tune into that channel. You can decide what channel you want to tune into, when you get the basics of how to do this down.
I always use "protection" when I channel, because you can tune into whoever, and there are non-physicals who find it funny to mess with you.
So, if you learn how, and if you are specific in who you want to channel, and if you use spiritual protection, you too can channel.
It's a process to learn but doesn't take long.
Esther Hicks has been channeling a group of entities that call themselves Abraham for ove4 25 years, probably over 30 years by now. There are very many well known "channels".
Channeling your higher self is also something one can learn. And you always channel through your soul - and if you believe we are all One, then I guess you could say, you are channeling yourself ;)
Whatever it is, it is fun and exciting and feels really good. The energy is phenomenal, your cells wake up!
There are 1000's of videos on You Tube of channelers channeling.
Here is Abraham's take on how everyone can channel them. They are always fun to channel. Whatever it is - it is fun. And the information given is very helpful to us "down" here, it puts a different, more clear, focus on what we want, and what we are, how we can get what we want, etc etc etc
So this is Esther, as she is channeling Abraham. She channels in front of huge crowds, pretty much every weekend somewhere in the US - but she has expended to other countries...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ilomKaFyw0
Enjoy. Hope that explains my take on it anyway...