Channelling is a practice some people believe in: a spirit — often a dead person — is said to enter a living body and talk through that person’s mouth. The living person is treated as a path, a “channel,” that the spirit can pass along. You will hear this in New Age circles, in stories about mediums, and sometimes at a gathering where the speaker’s voice or manner suddenly changes and the room is told, “This is not me talking.” It is a belief word, not a science word; some listeners find it a comfort, others think it is a kind of theatre. Though actually, people stretch it. Many who “channel” today say the voice is not only the dead, but an angel, a teacher, or some other being — same idea of a borrowed voice, wider cast of speakers. British spelling usually keeps two l’s (channelling); American spelling often has one (channeling). And the very same letters are also just the ordinary verb channel with -ing: channelling money into a school has nothing to do with spirits. You only know which meaning you have from the rest of the sentence. This entry is the spirit one.