What exactly is channeling, and how does it work? I keep seeing stuff on it, and it sounds pretty well appreciated around here. So what the frag is it?

In short, Channeling allows a summoner to absorb a spirit they summoned and gain some of it's powers for a limited time. All the services of the spirit are used up by Channeling and their is a nasty drain following the time limit. Invoked spirits can even grant Immunity to Normal Weapons upon the channeller and stat bonuses.

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Nasty combination. Invoking and Channeling.

I was making a cheat sheet for channeling today and I may need corrected.

Do all spirits grant the immunity to normal weapons, or was it great form spirits only? If not, was there a benefit to channeling a great form?

Only Great Forms grant the Immunity and Stat Bonus. Some spirits have different powers in Great Form - and some spirit powers are domain limited, thus require Great Forms to extend (that last part is IIRC the channeller takes the weaknesses and limitations of the spirit).

Quick little metamagic tangent: absorbtion absorbs spells and gives you dice equal to your successes against the force, right? So the lower the force, the easier it is to take control of it. So why not have an ally, like an ally spirit or something, throw at spell at you at say force one, absorb it, and chuck it at someone else in a higher force spell?
Does this work? Anything I'm missing in it?

Also factor in the higher TNs while you have the bonus 'Absorbtion Pool'.

I agree with Kanada Ten, it is better to use an Ally as an extra Power Focus. More dice, without danger of Focus Addiction.

Not if you have a relativley minor (say F3 or 4) ally with your (usually) 6 sorcerery form the sorcery power.

On the same note though, if you have spell defense as a specialization, do the dice you allocate still count against your sorcery for casting spells? what about the other way around? if you specialize in spell casting, san you have spellcasting of say 7, and put all 5 dice from your sorcery skill into spell defense at no detriment to spell casting?

You'd have 2 dice for spellcasting.

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. The other way seemed pretty cheap, just wanted to double check.
Just to clarify, if the example was the Spell defense 7, sorcery 5, put 5 dice into spell defense, would that still leave you with 2 dice for spellcasting, since the spell defense is 2 above the 5 sorcery? Or does 5 dice for spell defense from the spec 7 jsut waste 3 extra dice that you could have used?

I dislike this metamagic. It is like yo you voodoo people, your nifty trick,that sets you apart from other magical type,is now open to everyone.

My magic-fu is not great. Which book(s) have the rules on Channelling?

Target: Awakened Lands, aka the Australia Sourcebook.