Directing or guiding something along a particular path; claiming to communicate with spirits or accessing supernatural knowledge.
From Old French 'chanel' (canal), from Latin 'canalis' (pipe, groove). The spiritual sense emerged in the 19th century with the rise of spiritualism, metaphorically extending the idea of being a conduit for otherworldly communication.
In modern usage, 'channeling' often just means embodying or imitating someone - actors channel characters, and we might channel our inner confidence. The word bridges the physical (water flowing through a channel) and the metaphysical (spirits flowing through a medium) in fascinating ways.
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