What is channeling?
To channel is to open yourself to information that cannot be gotten from the outside world. It only comes through those inner pathways that carry what is unseen and unheard by the physical eyes and ears. They bring information that we receive with our clairvoyance - clear seeing with the mind; with our clairaudience - clear hearing with the mind; clairsentience - sensing it; and clairkinesthesia - feeling it in the body. It is, then, the receiving of information from nonphysical sources, including our own higher selves. Sometimes it is just opening to what is stored in the right hemisphere of the brain.
Sometimes it comes from any number of heavenly messengers. These include angels, spirits of various kinds, ascended masters (humans who have ascended into a higher realm of life and stick around to help us), devas (earth angels or spirits), and any of those who have crossed over.
Just as often, it comes as our own insight and inspiration. We are just so crammed full of knowledge - some inherent and some learned on the way through life - that when we ask a question, bits and pieces come together and give us the answer. We access our own higher knowing and bring it into view.
All of us have the ability to do this in some way or another. It is not always making contact with beings from other planets or the spiritual realms. It is opening ourselves to being receptive to the universe, gathering information that will help us understand life, heal ourselves and all of the other things we need to know. Sometimes, yes, it is talking to ascended masters, angels and others as though we were carrying on conversations with someone whose presence is very palpable. But other times it is a knowingness, an insight, a feeling, a sound or a vision. The more deeply we understand this, the more we can open into our own power. Otherwise, channeling will be limited to those few we consider gifted.
How do I use it?
In the context of a session, I try to put myself into a state of tuning in to my client and linking to their energy field. I ask to be clear and open so that the information I receive is clear and truthful. If there are "others" present (which, of course, there are), they will inspire my thoughts and words. Mine usually shows up visually and, when I understand it, it clicks into my body as a sense of knowing. Everybody has their own style and you will have yours. It's a skill that can be developed. That's about all there is to it.