“Channeling” is the nearest word I’ve found yet to describe a process when a person permits other non-physical beings to speak, using a person's body as an instrument to communicate their supernatural perspective on life and reality. 

This ability could also be called mediumship. Almost all mediums transmit the message they receive with some interpretation of their own, though. The medium's consciousness and personality is still there, even if they are processing and transmitting information the rest of us don’t access. 

When the character in this story, Mari, channels, strange as it is, she is not really there at all. She falls into a deep trance. The beings she channels speak in their own right, with no colouring or distortion by Mari's thoughts, judgements or opinions.

In other cultures this role could lead to a person being called a Shaman, a Clever Man or perhaps an Oracle.

If you'd like to know more about the history and process of channeling, read recommend [With the Tongues of Men and Angels][1] by Arthur Hastings. 

A larger, discursive work is [Channeling][2] by John Klimo.

[1]: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1864290M/With_the_tongues_of_men_and_angels

[2]: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/93746/channeling-by-jon-klimo-foreword-by-charles-t-tart/

A deep trance allows Mari, the channel, to step away while non-physical, 'spirit' beings use her body to communicate with humans. This sounds strange but has been practised by humans of many cultures for millenia. 

Mari asks that people are quiet and that they don't stare at her when she is going into trance. She asks that phones and devices are switched off. When she is in trance, Mari's face and posture are different. She can be jolted out of trance by touch. 

Mari gets irritated when people talk to her as if she is aware of what is said during channeling. She does not hear it and does not read the transcribed material.

No, Mari is unaware of what she says and does not want to talk about the content she has channeled. 

A highly-intelligent, forceful and passionate woman, Mari has an opinionated personality and a rich personal history. She doesn't want her personality to colour the channeled material in any way. She feels that if she is aware of, or even conversant with the material, there could be a risk to the purity of the work.

This decision makes her an excellent channel, but it comes at a cost. 

It puts a strain on relationships with her partner Nerida, who would like to talk to her about the material she has channeled. Nerida finds the process of Mari's channeling and the material itself life-changing. She is confronted by the idea of a transcendant soul and a reality beyond material existence. Sometimes she is not sure whether it is wise to encourage Mari to continue channeling, but she finds the conversations compelling. Nerida has no one to talk to about it. She eventually shares the story of Mari's ability with friends and family. Some of them stop speaking to her.

When Mari channels, people are excited, keen to talk about what they've discovered after a session. Mari leaves the room.

Mari gives up hours of her conscious life to do this work, and cultivates and accepts separation from those closest to her in doing so. She has no way of knowing the value or otherwise of what she channels, except by observing its effects on others. 

She also deals with stigma from those who do not accept or want to begin to understand what she can do.

The Conscious Virus contains complete transcripts. Sign up to the email list to get news of pre-launch purchase and give-aways.

The excerpts from the conversations with spirit which feature on this website reveal flashes of the wisdom of the beings. But the material here only hints at the narrative power and complexity of the entire conversations, which build on powerful interleaving themes: the nature of reality and the reality of spiritual existence, the purpose of life, the crying distress of our planet. 

The spirits try to help Mari and Nerida stay well and safe.

Not necessarily. Even though many excerpts here on the website and on the [Facebook page][3] are from conversations several years ago, they have may never been posted or published before, as backstory is built up to create a fuller, deeper story. 

The excerpts are chosen to represent the beings and their conversations as succinctly as possible without sacrificing comprehensibility. The transcripts of entire conversations have not been made available online, but will be in the novels. 

The only sure way to know what and when is updated here, and to hear about the book when it's ready, is to subscribe to email updates [here][4]. 

[4]: http://www.aedgar.com/contact/

[3]: https://www.facebook.com/aedgar.wisdom/

Mari talked all night in her sleep in different languages since childhood.  In 2012 she was taught how to negotiate with the beings to be able to control her channeling.

Now Mari is able to choose when the channeling occurs and request that the beings speak English.

Trying to maintain some kind of normal life when Nerida's worldview totally changed led to conflict and tension. Sometimes Mari felt left behind.  She wondered whether Nerida liked Aedgar and the others better than her or whether Nerida only stayed with her because of her strange, compelling ability.

The upcoming books are fiction. If it helps you to consider this a surrealist experiment, please do so.

Good question! The existence of a spirit or soul is usually associated with religion. 

Most science separates itself from religion by denying the existence of any kind of eternal soul or spirit in living things. Parapsychology is an exception. 

Mari and Nerida were both atheists since youth. Channeling with Mari is not a religious experience and does not follow any religious formats or rituals.

Words such as spirit and soul are used to speak of who and what we are, in channeling. But Aedgar and Bartgrinn are aware of the religious connotations of the words, ‘spirit’ and ‘soul.’ Both witnessed atrocities in the name of religion. M'Hoq Toq must have, too, but has not yet spoken about it. 

Those words are used for lack of better ones in English, since Aedgar and the other friends exist and communicate without physical bodies of their own. 

The beings are tolerant and fundamentally kind. And will tell, each in their own way, that religions are man-made and often misused.