Astral projection
From WikiMystica
Astral projection (or astral travel) is an interpretation of any form of out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it.<ref>astral projection. (n.d.). Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7). Retrieved June 21, 2008, from Dictionary.com website</ref> Astral projection or travel denotes the astral body leaving the physical body to travel in the astral plane.
The idea of astral travel is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife<ref>Suki Miller, After Death: How People around the World Map the Journey after Death (1995)</ref> in which the consciousness' or soul's journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an...out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in his/her subtle body (or dreambody or astral body) into ‘higher’ realms."<ref>Dr. Roger J. Woolger, Beyond Death: Transition and the Afterlife, accessed online June 2008 at the website of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/PDF/RWoolgerTransition.pdf.</ref> It is therefore associated with near death experiences and is also frequently reported as spontaneously experienced in association with sleep and dreams, illness,<ref>See, for example Sylvan Muldoon's account in; Muldoon, Sylvan J. and Carrington, Hereward - Projection of the Astral Body. ISBN 0766146049</ref> surgical operations, drug experiences, sleep paralysis and forms of meditation.<ref>Osho, The Transmission of the Lamp, Chapter 3, Rebel Press.</ref>
It is also sometimes attempted for its own sake,<ref>Muldoon and Carrington</ref> or may be believed to be necessary to, or the result of, some forms of spiritual practice.<ref>Richard Wilhelm, Cary F. Baines (trans.), The Secret of the Golden Flower, RKP London.</ref> It may involve "travel to higher realms" called astral planes but is commonly used to describe any sensation of being "out of the body"<ref name="Gale">Template:Cite book</ref> in the everyday world, even seeing one's body from outside or above. It may be reported in the form of an apparitional experience, a supposed encounter with a doppelgänger, some living person also seen somewhere else at the same time.<ref>Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, ISBN 978-0-87612-083-5</ref>
Through the 1960s and 70s, surveys reported percentages ranging from 8% to as many as 50% (in certain groups) of respondents who state they had such an experience.<ref name=Blackmore>Template:Cite web</ref> The subjective nature of the experience permits explanations that do not rely on the existence of an "astral" body and plane.<ref name="Gale" /> There is little beyond anecdotal evidence to support the idea that people can actually "leave the body".<ref name=skepdicAP>http://www.skepdic.com/astralpr.html Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert Todd Carroll, article on Astral Projection, retrieved August 24, 2007. "There is scant evidence to support the claim that anyone can project their mind, soul, psyche, spirit, astral body, etheric body, or any other entity to somewhere else on this or any other planet. The main evidence is in the form of testimonials."</ref>
Contents |
Beliefs
The theme is treated in anthropological or ethnographic literature on witchcraft and shamanism,<ref>Hoppál 2005: 15</ref> in classical philosophy and in various myths and religious scriptures.
Western philosophies
According to classical, medieval and renaissance Neoplatonism, and later Theosophist and Rosicrucian thought, the astral body is an intermediate body of light linking the rational soul to the physical body while the astral plane is an intermediate world of light between Heaven and Earth, composed of the spheres of the planets and stars. These astral spheres were held to be populated by angels, demons and spirits.<ref>Dodds, E.R. Proclus: The Elements of Theology. A revised text with translation, introduction, and commentary, 2nd edition 1963, Appendix.</ref><ref name="Pagel">Template:Cite book</ref>
The subtle bodies, and their associated planes of existence, form an essential part of the esoteric systems that deal with astral phenomena. In the neo-platonism of Plotinus, for example, the individual is a microcosm ("small world") of the universe (the macrocosm or "great world"). "The rational soul...is akin to the great Soul of the World" while "the material universe, like the body, is made as a faded image of the Intelligible". Each succeeding plane of manifestation is causal to the next, a world-view called emanationism; "from the One proceeds Intellect, from Intellect Soul, and from Soul - in its lower phase, or Nature - the material universe".<ref>John Gregory, The Neoplatonists, Kyle Cathie 1991 pp15–16</ref>
Often these bodies and their planes of existence are depicted as a series of concentric circles or nested spheres, with a separate body traversing each realm.<ref name="Besant">Template:Cite book</ref> The idea of the astral figured prominently in the work of the nineteenth-century French occultist Eliphas Levi, whence it was adopted by Theosophy and the Golden Dawn magical society.
The Bible
A common belief is that the subtle body is attached to the physical body by means of a psychic silver cord.<ref>Projection of the Astral Body by Carrington and Muldoon</ref><ref>Out of Body Experiences: How to have them and what to expect by Robert Peterson (chapters 5, 17, 22)</ref> The final chapter of the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes is often cited in this respect;<ref>http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research12.html</ref>
- "before the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be shattered at the fountain, or the wheel be broken at the cistern"
Paul's second letter to the Corinthians (Chapter 12, verse 2) is more generally agreed to refer to the astral planes;<ref>http://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/3223908</ref>
- "I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows) such a one caught up to the third heaven..."'
This statement gave rise to the Visio Pauli, a tract that offers a vision of heaven and hell, a forerunner of visions attributed to Adomnan and Tnugdalus as well as of Dante's Divine Comedy.
Ancient Egypt
Similar concepts of "soul" travel appear in various other religious traditions, for example ancient Egyptian teachings present the soul as having the ability to hover outside the physical body in the ka, or subtle body.<ref name="Gale2" />
China
Taoist alchemical practice involves creation of an energy body by breathing meditations, drawing energy into a 'pearl' that is then "circulated".<ref name="Chia">Template:Cite book</ref> "Xiangzi ... with a drum as his pillow fell fast asleep, snoring and motionless. His primordial spirit, however, went straight into the banquet room and said, "My lords, here I am again." ... When Tuizhi walked ... with the officials to take a look, there really was a Daoist sleeping on the ground and snoring like thunder. Yet inside, in the side room, there was another Daoist beating a fisher drum and singing Daoist songs. The officials all said, “Although there are two different people, their faces and clothes are exactly alike. Clearly he is a divine immortal who can divide his body and appear in several places at once. ..." ... At that moment, the Daoist in the side room came walking out, and the Daoist sleeping on the ground woke up. The two merged into one." <ref name="Erzeng 2007">Template:Cite book</ref>
India
The Theosophists also took note of similar ideas (Lin'ga S'ari-ra) found in ancient Hindu scriptures such as the YogaVashishta-Maharamayana of Valmiki.<ref name="Gale2">Template:Cite book</ref> Modern Indians who have offered experiences of astral projection include Paramahansa Yogananda<ref>http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi/Chapter_3</ref> and Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)<ref>Osho, The Transmission of the Lamp, Chapter 3, Rebel Press</ref>
Japan
In Japanese mythology, an Template:Nihongo (also read shōryō, seirei, or ikisudama) is a manifestation of the soul of a living person separately from their body.<ref name=Clarke2000 >Template:Cite book</ref> Traditionally, if someone holds a sufficient grudge against another person, it is believed that a part or the whole of their soul can temporarily leave their body and appear before the target of their hate in order to curse or otherwise harm them, similar to an evil eye. Souls are also believed to leave a living body when the body is extremely sick or comatose; such ikiryō are not malevolent.
Inuit
In some Inuit groups people with special capabilities are said to travel to (mythological) remote places, and report their experiences and things important to their fellows or the entire community; how to stop bad luck in hunting, cure a sick person etc.,<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985: 7–8, 12, 23–24,26, 27–29, 30, 31</ref><ref>Merkur 1985: 4–6</ref> things unavailable to people with normal capabilities.<ref>Hoppál 1975: 228</ref>
Amazon
The yaskomo of the Waiwai is believed to be able to perform a "soul flight" that can serve several functions such as healing, flying to the sky to consult cosmological beings (the moon or the brother of the moon) to get a name for a new-born baby, lying to the cave of peccaries' mountains to ask the father of peccaries for abundance of game or flying deep down in a river to get the help of other beings.<ref name="yaskomo soul flight">Fock 1963: 16</ref>
"Astral" and "etheric"
The expression "astral projection" came to be used in two different ways. For the Golden Dawn<ref>Chic Cicero, Chic C, Sandra Tabatha Cicero The Essential Golden Dawn, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2003.</ref> and some Theosophists<ref>Arthur A.Powell, THE ASTRAL BODY AND OTHER ASTRAL PHENOMENA, The Theosophical Publishing House, London, England; Wheaton,Ill, U.S.A.; Adyar, Chennai, India, 1927, reprinted in 1954 and 1965, page 7, online June 2008 at http://www.theosophical.ca/AstralBodyByPowell-A.htm</ref> it retained the classical and medieval philosophers' meaning of journeying to other worlds, heavens, hells, the astrological spheres and other imaginal<ref>Henri Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, tr. Ralph Mannheim, Bollingen XCI, Princeton U.P., 1969</ref> landscapes, but outside these circles the term was increasingly applied to non-physical travel around the physical world.<ref>e.g. William Judge, The Ocean of Theosophy 2nd Ed. TPH, 1893, Chapter 5, book online June 2008 at http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/ocean/oce-hp.htm</ref>
Though this usage continues to be widespread, the term, "etheric travel", used by some later Theosophists, offers a useful distinction. Some experients say they visit different times and/or places:<ref>Astral-Projections.com"Secret Guide To Instant Astral Projection"</ref> "etheric", then, is used to represent the sense of being "out of the body" in the physical world, whereas "astral" may connote some alteration in time-perception. Robert Monroe describes the former type of projection as "Locale I" or the "Here-Now", involving people and places that actually exist:<ref name="Body' p 60" /> Robert Bruce calls it the "Real Time Zone" (RTZ) and describes it as the non-physical dimension-level closest to the physical.<ref>Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc, 1999. p 25-27, 30-31</ref> This etheric body is usually, though not always, invisible but is often perceived by the experient as connected to the physical body during separation by a “silver cord”. Some link "falling" dreams with projection.<ref name="ReferenceA">Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce. Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc, 1999 ISBN 1-57174-143-7</ref>
According to Max Heindel, the etheric "double" serves as a medium between the astral and physical realms. In his system the ether, also called prana, is the "vital force" that empowers the physical forms to change. From his descriptions it can be inferred that, to him, when one views the physical during an out-of-body experience, one is not technically "in" the astral realm at all.<ref>Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Mysteries (Chapter IV, The Constitution of Man: Vital Body - Desire Body - Mind), 1911, ISBN 0-911274-86-3</ref>
Other experients may describe a domain that has no parallel to any known physical setting. Environments may be populated or unpopulated, artificial, natural or abstract, and the experience may be beatific, horrific or neutral. A common Theosophical belief is that one may access a compendium of mystical knowledge called the Akashic records. In many accounts the experiencer correlates the astral world with the world of dreams. Some even report seeing other dreamers enacting dream scenarios unaware of their wider environment.<ref name="FarJourneys" />
The astral environment may also be divided into levels or sub-planes by theorists, but here are many different views in various traditions concerning the overall structure of the astral planes: they may include heavens and hells and other after-death spheres, transcendent environments or other less-easily characterized states.<ref name="Body' p 60">Journeys Out of the Body by Robert A. Monroe, p 60. Anchor Press, 1977.</ref><ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref name="FarJourneys">Monroe, Robert. Far Journeys. ISBN 0-385-23182-2</ref>
Notable practitioners
Emanuel Swedenborg was one of the first practitioners to write extensively about the out-of-body experience, in his Spiritual Diary (1747–65). French philosopher and novelist Honoré de Balzac's fictional work "Louis Lambert" suggests he may have had some astral or out-of-body experience.
There are many twentieth century publications on astral projection,<ref>Substantial bibliography of general OBE and astral projection literature</ref> although only a few remain widely cited. These include Robert Monroe,<ref>A biography of Robert Monroe by Susan Blackmore</ref> Oliver Fox,<ref>A biography of Oliver Fox by Susan Blackmore</ref> Sylvan Muldoon and Hereward Carrington,<ref>A biography of Sylvan Muldoon by Susan Blackmore</ref> and Yram.<ref>A biography of Yram by Susan Blackmore</ref>
Carrington, a psychical researcher, and Muldoon, who professed ease with astral projection, jointly published The Projection of the Astral Body in 1929. Techniques they felt facilitated projection included visualizing flying or ascending in an elevator just before going to sleep and trying to regain waking consciousness while in a dream state (lucid dreaming) by habitually recognizing apparent incongruities in one's dream such as a different pattern of wallpaper in one's home. Such recognition, they said, sometimes resulted in the feeling of being outside the physical body and able to look down on it.<ref name="Gale2" />
Robert Monroe's accounts of journeys to other realms (1971–1994) popularized the term "OBE" and were translated into a large number of languages. Though his books themselves only placed secondary importance on descriptions of method, Monroe also founded an institute dedicated to research, exploration and non-profit dissemination of auditory technology for assisting others in achieving projection and related altered states of consciousness.
Robert Bruce, William Buhlman and Albert Taylor have discussed their theories and findings on the syndicated show Coast to Coast AM several times.<ref>Coast To Coast archives of shows featuring Robert Bruce</ref><ref>Coast To Coast archives of shows featuring William Buhlman</ref><ref>Coast To Coast archives of shows featuring Albert Taylor</ref> Michael Crichton gives lengthy and detailed explanations and experience of astral projection in his non-fiction book "Travels".
"Belzebuub" (Mark. H Pritchard) wrote a free course in Astral Projection, available through The Gnostic Movement and Astralweb, who claim to have taught over 60,000 students. A book was published 'A course in Astral Travel and Dreams' (aka 'When I go to sleep') of the course content. "Belzebuub" has appeared on major radio stations and television internationally speaking on Astral Projection.
Waldo Vieira, a physician and dentist, claims to have had his first OBE at the age of 9 and has gone on to write numerous articles and over 20 books, including Projectiology.<ref>"Projectiology"</ref> Wagner Alegretti, president of and researcher at International Academy of Consciousness, is another out-of-body experiencer, featured on the Discovery Channel en Espanol<ref>Discovery Channel en Espanol</ref> and New York's New Realities<ref>New Realities</ref> series.<ref>http://www.globalhealingexchange.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75:astra-travel&catid=38:articles-about-spirituality&Itemid=77</ref>
"Soul Travel", the belief that when one sleeps, the Soul leaves its body and seeks spiritual lessons in the Soul Planes, or heaven, is a key element in the religion of Eckankar. They believe that there are many different Temples that Souls go to in higher planes to learn their religion.
In occult traditions, practices range from inducing trance states to the mental construction of a second body, called the Body of Light in Aleister Crowley's writings, through visualization and controlled breathing, followed by the transfer of consciousness to the secondary body by a mental act of will.<ref name="Greer">Template:Cite book</ref>
See also
References
WebSites
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Further reading
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- Barton, Mary E. - Soul Sight: Projections of Consciousness and Out of Body Epiphanies. ISBN 978-0-557-02163-5
- Bruce, Robert (1999) - Astral Dynamics: A NEW Approach to Out-of-Body Experiences. ISBN 1-57174-143-7
- Buhlman, William - Adventures Beyond the Body: How to experience out-of-body travel. ISBN 978-0-06-251371-7
- Leland, Kurt. - Otherwhere: A Field Guide to Nonphysical Reality for the Out-of-Body Traveler. Hampton Roads Publishing (2001). ISBN 978-1571742414
- Muldoon, Sylvan J. and Carrington, Hereward - Projection of the Astral Body. ISBN 0766146049
- Monroe, Robert - Journeys Out of the Body Doubleday (1971). reprinted (1989) Souvenir Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0285627536
- Peterson, Robert - Out of Body Experiences. ISBN 1571740570
- Pritchard, Mark H - A Course in Astral Travel and Dreams. Absolute Publishing Press (2005). Second edition. ISBN 0974056030
- Stack, Rick - Out of Body Adventures. ISBN 0-8092-4560-4
- Vieira, Dr. Waldo - Projectiology. ISBN 85-86019-58-5
- Wilde, Stuart - Sixth Sense. ISBN 1-56170-501-2
External links
- Online literature of the Theosophical Society
- Astral Projection at the Skeptic's Dictionaryaf:Astrale projeksie
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