How did New Age channelers differ from traditional Spiritualist mediums?

Traditional Spiritualist mediums and New Age "channelers" differ primarily in the scope and nature of the entities they claim to contact.

Historically, Spiritualist mediums focused on communicating with the spirits of the recently deceased, often to provide comfort to the bereaved or to demonstrate the survival of the soul after death. These interactions frequently occurred within the context of a séance, where mediums might facilitate physical phenomena such as levitation, the materialization of ectoplasm, or independent spirit voices.123

In contrast, New Age channelers, who gained prominence during the movement's rebirth in the 1970s, claimed to contact a much broader range of disembodied entities. While they also communicated with the dead, their repertoire included "Ascended Masters"—spiritual beings believed to guide human destiny—as well as extraterrestrials.2

While both practices involve acting as a conduit for non-physical entities, the Spiritualist tradition was deeply rooted in 19th-century efforts to provide empirical evidence for immortality, whereas New Age channeling was associated with the movement's broader, idealistic vision for a future culture.2