I first heard about Chelsea Quinn Yarbro when I was much younger: a very young teen, in fact. My older sister and I got our hands on a copy of Messages from Michael and it didn't take long before we both absolutely devoured the book. One thing I really like about it -- even though a lot of the book has been debunked by its detractors -- is the message of kindness. I'm not so sure that the a Ouija board is a very good way of passing along the word, but there are still things about the book that resonate with me. I have a copy somewhere, although it's been a long time since I reread it.

What I always liked most was the whole concept of soul levels: old souls, young souls, infant souls. When we were teenagers, we used all our wisdom to try to identify the different overleaves for our friends and family members (we all wanted to be old souls and when we were mad at our parents, they were definitely infant or baby souls). I'm sure we didn't get it right, but it was a fun and valid exercise.

There's a lot of Zen-ness in those teachings, so even if someone made the whole thing up, it's not a bad philosophy to go by: everything is our own experience, and we learn from every action and every choice. Everything is a choice, and therefore, life is what we make of it. Know one's self, and you can know others: they're sensible, kindly teachings.

Are they really channeled? I have no idea. Does it matter? No, not really. It is what it is, and the people who find strength from it find strength from it regardless of its source.