History Main / WillingChanneler

* ''Manga/{{Kannagi}}'': Zange is [[spoiler:also a ''kami'', in possession of a body named Haruka. She sometimes [[TalkingToThemself has conversations with her host.]]]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''

** Used by the Exorcists, a Loyalist chapter who undergo possession as part of their training. [[WhoWouldBeStupidEnough Despite the incredibly stupid-sounding nature of the project]], they actually took sane precautions like keeping a squad of Literature/GreyKnights on hand and only summoning minor Warp creatures into the hosts. After twelve hours of possession, the hosts are exorcised, and the survivors become invisible to all but the most powerful of daemons, preventing them from being possessed again in most cases.

* ''Literature/MatthewSwift'': The titualar Matthew Swift, and the blue electric angels in ''A Madness of Angels''. Their... cohabitation in Matthew's body is [[WhodunnitToMe more]] or [[FirstEpisodeResurrection less]] an accident, but neither party seems to have a problem with it, probably because they're combined so thoroughly that they're pretty much the same entity now anyway.

* On ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Avatars who have mastered the Avatar State can channel Raava the Avatar Spirit and all her past hosts.

* In ''Literature/TheTruth'', one theory accounting for Altogether Andrews' multiple personalities is that he'd started out as an overly-hospitable example of this trope. Eventually he was "colonized" by so many wandering souls that there was no room left for Andrews himself.

** This is what the Arretians were doing with Kirk, Spock and Dr. Mulhall in "Recap/StarTrekS2E20ReturnToTomorrow". Gene Coon and Gene Roddenberry tried to play down author John Dugan's original ideas because they seemed "highly mystical, theological, religious and non-''Star Trek''". Dugan was a devout Catholic and their changes were so out of line with his beliefs that they caused him to use his pseudonym Knightsbridge on the final work.

Note: A Willing Channeler is NOT the possessing entity, it is the host. TruthInTelevision as this is what [[SpookySeance Spiritualist Mediums]] as well as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism Shamans]] invite and encourage. It is one of the basics of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Vodou Vaudon]] and other similar [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-American_religion African diasporan traditions]]. In traditional Balinese society, [[http://www.indo.com/featured_article/sanghyang.html the hosts are little girls]] who are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvqOqw3OR0s possessed by angels]] to restore villages after sickness or drought.[[note]]As Balinese farmers reinstate ancient sustainable rice farming methods, they [[https://sanghyangdedari.org/resurrecting-sang-hyang-dedari-dance-to-preserve-balis-rice-field/ revive this ceremony to bless the fields]].[[/note]] Some mediums' reported voluntary possession relationships have been known to last for decades, usually in co-operative arrangements, like a SplitPersonalityTeam.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'' an entire group of the normally AlwaysChaoticEvil (at the time) BigBad Goa'uld race elected to [[DefectorFromDecadence take only willing hosts]] and form a resistance movement (Tok'ra) to fight their evil kin. This actually led to an amusing misunderstanding during FirstContact: the protagonists, after hearing of them, came to offer an "alliance", which the Tok'ra naturally took to mean they wanted to join with a symbiote (what else does a human have to offer a nearly-immortal alien with ancient supertech?), much to SG-1's alarm. Also, some of the human servants of the Goa'uld have been brainwashed to treat being chosen as the next host as the greatest honor imaginable, not realizing that they'd be trapped in their own body for centuries.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'' an entire group of the normally AlwaysChaoticEvil (at the time) BigBad Goa'uld race elected to [[DefectorFromDecadence take only willing hosts]] and form a resistance movement to fight their evil kin. Also, some of the human servants of the Goa'uld have been brainwashed to treat being chosen as the next host as the greatest honor imaginable, not realizing that they'd be trapped in their own body for centuries.

* In ''Discworld/TheTruth'', one theory accounting for Altogether Andrews' multiple personalities is that he'd started out as an overly-hospitable example of this trope. Eventually he was "colonized" by so many wandering souls that there was no room left for Andrews himself.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark,'' where [[OnlySaneMan Stan]] willingly fuses with [[AntiVillain Satan]] in order to [[EvilVsEvil fight]] [[spoiler:the Canadian Devil, Beelzaboot]].

* In the Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse, the energy beings known as the Fates can enter into a being's mind and control their body while their own consciousness is inert. The being has to be a) the right sort of person with the correct genes or mental abilities, and b) willing. Astraea, the leader of a Cardassian religion based upon worship of the mysterious "good" Fates led by Oralius, is the best example of the truly WillingChanneler. See: ''Literature/TerokNor'' and ''Literature/StarTrekTheLostEra''. The EvilCounterpart to Oralius, Uramtali (leader of the Night Spirits) shows up in the ''Literature/StarTrekTheLostEra'' novel ''Well of Souls''. She cheats a bit; she ensures her host is "willing" by placing him in a situation where if he refuses his child suffers.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}: This is apparently a power Quack Quack has. He uses it to channel Olga, a sentient block of ice, into his body so she can directly communicate her needs by talking through his mouth.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius:'' The English spy/adventurer Trelawney Thorpe is able to summon England's uber-Spark Queen Albia to directly possess her body, at the cost of great physical strain.

* From ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'', Les Mysteres allow themselves to be possessed by Spirits to further the Spirits' goal, believing that Spirits are inherently good beings that's being tormented by the Uratha. Problem is, anyone who's read ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken'' will know that this is a [[WrongGenreSavvy stupid]], ''[[TooDumbToLive stupid]]'' idea. Not only are Spirits [[BlueAndOrangeMorality devoid of any human morality]], prolonged possession would eventually reduce the host into a meat puppet for the Spirit to use as it desires.

* ''Comicbook/{{Shazam}}'' could count, in the continuities where [[KidHero Billy, Mary and Freddy]] have separate personalities from their superhero forms--by saying a [[ByThePowerOfGreyskull magic phrase]] they essentially let the hero take over, [[OlderAlterEgo turning them older]] (for Billy and Mary) and [[PowersViaPossession giving them superpowers]] in the process.

* ConversationalTroping during ''[[Comicbook/TheDeathOfSuperman The Reign of the Supermen]]'', when a medium claimed that [[Comicbook/{{Steel}} John Henry Irons]], the only S-shield wearer who made no claim to the name, was a channeller for Superman's spirit. She was wrong, but it raised the possibility to readers that he was as likely to be "the real Superman" as the Cyborg or the Kryptonian.

* In the Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse, the energy beings known as the Fates can enter into a being's mind and control their body while their own consciousness is inert. The being has to be a) the right sort of person with the correct genes or mental abilities, and b) willing. Astraea, the leader of a Cardassian religion based upon worship of the mysterious "good" Fates led by Oralius, is the best example of the truly WillingChanneler. See: ''Literature/TerokNor'' and ''Literature/StarTrekTheLostEra''. The EvilCounterpart to Oralius, Uramtali (leader of the Night Spirits) shows up in the ''Literature/StarTrekTheLostEra'' novel ''Well of Souls''. She cheats a bit; she ensures her host is "willing" by placing him in a situation where if he refuses his child suffers.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius:'' The English spy/adventurer Trelawney Thorpe is able to summon England's uber-Spark Queen Albia to directly possess her body, at the cost of great physical strain.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'' the spirit entities have "avatars" who wield immense power in exchange for acting as instruments of their will in the mortal realm. Often compared to D&D player characters. [[spoiler:Of course, Pete uses rather underhanded means of coercing his potential avatars.]]

* In ''Literature/TheKaneChronicles'', the heroes serve as vessels of the Myth/{{Egyptian|Mythology}} gods and can channel those gods' power.

* In ''{{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}},'' this is actually required--[[TheTrickster Puck]] can't transfer a soul into a new body unless the host agrees. That said, this does follow ExactWords--[[TheLancer Brooklyn]] got possessed by a villain while trying to volunteer for a good guy, while [[TheSmartGuy Lexington]] got possessed by [[spoiler:[[GooGooGodlike baby Alex]]]] just by saying "I could use some help here."

* ConversationalTroping during ''Comicbook/TheReignOfTheSupermen'', when a medium claimed that [[Comicbook/{{Steel}} John Henry Irons]], the only S-shield wearer who made no claim to the name, was a channeller for Superman's spirit. She was wrong, but it raised the possibility to readers that he was as likely to be "the real Superman" as the Cyborg or the Kryptonian.

* ConversationalTroping during ''Comicbook/ReignOfTheSupermen'', when a medium claimed that [[Comicbook/{{Steel}} John Henry Irons]], the only S-shield wearer who made no claim to the name, was a channeller for Superman's spirit. She was wrong, but it raised the possibility to readers that he was as likely to be "the real Superman" as the Cyborg or the Kryptonian.