It's a bit different history to that claimed by Scientology. :D From what I've read there so far, no evil overlords kidnapping thetans and dropping them into active volcanoes - so far. :D
I'm inclined towards listening to stories of the distant past and how we came to be in the Solid. There is so much mystery about how we came to be and the difference between what materialistic Science says we are and what we can personally experience with only a little change of view and practice is vast enough that there is room for quite a lot that doesn't fit a Darwinian progression.
Unfortunately I am at the same time inclined AWAY from channelling and a bit like the FEA comment above, wonder at the disconnect between higher spiritual values and high costs for what is basically a conversation, or worse, a sermon. Scientology has a similar issue - "Let's go save the world... hm... maybe only the rich..."
I'm also concerned that there appears to be a fairly strong connection between the origins of channelling and the MK-Ultra types of the CIA, so while you might want to discount what I say as just more anti-Religion stuff, I do have reasons for suspicion.
But there are also reasons to suppose that back before the disasters of the end of the Ice Age, we had a very different world, one that was sophisticated and well-developed but perhaps not in our fashion. with 3 major disasters coming in the form of tsunami, flood and deluge across perhaps 7,000 years, too many connections were broken and too much lost - what we think of as the History of Man is actually the comeback path.
It explains too many things not to be seriously considered - and the people from before the cataclysms seem to have been very concerned with immortality of one form or another - spirit was certainly of utmost importance to them.
I have my reservations about any kind of 'galactic' influence and there seems a split between that view and that of angels and higher/lower powers, but there are mysteries to resolve if we can.