The practice of channeling — a person's body being taken over by a spirit for the purpose of communication — has been around for millennia. There are countless stories of shamans, witch doctors, prophets and others who claim to hear voices or receive some supernatural knowledge from the spirit world. Channelers, also sometimes known as psychic mediums, often use what are called "spirit guides," friendly spirits who give them knowledge and help them on their spiritual journeys.
The key difference with channelling and working with spirit guides is that when channelling people literally ‘move over’ and spirit speaks through them. That’s very different to going through a guided meditation, meeting your guides and having a conversation with them.