Astral Odyssey

Contents

#

Cap.

#

Sect.

PP.

1.

Hidden Realm

   

1-23

   

.1

OBEs

3-7

   

.2

Conscious OBEs

7-19

   

.3

Evidence

19-23

2.

Mind-Spectrum

   

25-48

   

.1

Historical Perspective

25-7

   

.2

Sleep Studies

27-30

   

.3

Dream-Continuum

30-42

   

.4

Integrating Spectrum

42-46

   

.5

Higher Self

46-48

3.

Centre of the Self

   

49-76

   

.1

Dream-Recall

52-5

   

.2

Dream-Interpretation

55-67

   

.3

Dream-Induction

67-73

   

.4

Dream-Intervention

73-76

4.

Consciousness

   

77-109

   

.1

Hypnagogic & Hypnopompic

77-85

   

.2

Passage to Realms

85-86

   

.3

Creative Inspiration

86-87

   

.4

Mental Projection

87-88

   

.5

Transition State

88-92

   

.6

Dual Consciousness

92-96

   

.7

Lucid Dreams

96-99

   

.8

OBEs

99-109

5.

Invisible Worlds

   

111-138

   

.1

Model of Reality

111-113

   

.2

Denizens of Worlds

113-117

   

.3

Invisible Bodies

117-120

   

.4

Contrasting Perceptions

120-123

   

.5

Astral Adventures

123-126

   

.6

Astral Body

126-133

   

.7

Astral Encountres

133-138

6.

Between Worlds

   

139-157

   

.1

Inducing OBEs

143-146

   

.2

Crossing the Boundary

146-150

   

.3

Return to the Physical

150-151

   

.4

Specific Procedures

151-157

7.

Cabin

   

159-193

8.

Storefront

   

195-202

9.

Townhouse

   

203-231

10.

Merging Worlds

   

233-244

   

.1

Opposing Opinions

235-240

   

.2

Benefits of OBEs

240-244

Capp. 1-2.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. (pp. 1-23) "Discovery of a Hidden Realm".

1.0 (p. 1) the authoress’s 1st OBE

"The fatigue was so overwhelming that my only thought was to make it to my bed ... . ... I reached the side of my bed.

{The authoress, in looking straight at her bed, apparently did not see her physical body lying there – which would indicate that this was not an OBE, but rather a case of false awakening. I have had dreams of false-awakening wherein I looked at my bed to see it unoccupied.}

Suddenly it felt as if a powerful ... force jerked me upward from the floor, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in my bed."

{This force is characteristic not of false-awakenings, but of OBEs. Did she suddenly shift from a false-awakening to an OBE?}

[She never seemed to have viewed her only physical body during an OBE, merely citing (on pp. 92-3) that in "case studies of OBEs, the exteriorized [p. 93] subject often looks at the physical form and observes it"; and again on p. 135 mentioning others’ doing likewise.]

[Her various experiences, described on pp. 159-231, seem to be, nevertheless, authentically OBEs, for they involve other features leading to OBE, such as vibrations in the body.]

1.0 (p. 2) how the authoress was initiated into exteriorization of the subliminal body

"My Aunt ... explained to me that she had successfully induced astral projection ... .

{When this sort of declaration is personally made to a sincere disciple, then the disciple is thereby empowered to be able to perform likewise (though it may take practice to gain proficiency).}

She said that during astral projection the soul and consciousness leave the physical body and experience freedom".

[5.5 (pp. 125-6) "[p. 125] The first time I voluntarily left my physical body, I was astounded that my consciousness actually could exist in outside by physical form. As is [p. 126] typical of others who have had even brief OBEs, I no longer believed I had a "soul," I knew it."]

1.1 (p. 3) definition of out-of-body experience

"an OBE ... was defined by D. Scott Rogo, a parapsychology researcher, as any experience in which ... personal consciousness is located in space outside the physical body." [reference :- Rogo 1978, p. 35]

Rogo 1978 = D. Scott Rogo : Mind Beyond the Body. Penguin Bks.

1.1 (pp. 3-5) similar attainments distinguished from usual OBEs {The authoress’s discussion of these apparently failed to treat these (designated by her as "hallucinations" or "disorders") as of aequal validity with OBEs (not designated by her as "hallucinations" nor "disorders"), although they actually are praeternatural performances of at least aequally real validity and significance as OBEs.} {The authoress’s denunciation here of the prime goals for achievement in spiritual practices of the major world-religions is shameful, but due merely to blatant ignorance on her part.}

p.

attainment

{mention by another writer on OBEs}

3

"Autoscopy is ... an image of a duplicate self outside the actual physical self, perceived from the physical". [p. 140 : instance of autoscopy]

{External ""Autoscopy ... : the faculty and act of the individuals directly seeing or sensing themselves in front of themselves" (P 40, p. 126).}

4-5

"multiple personality, a condition in which more than one personality is present in the same person, with the personalities alternating outward expression. Each personality displays a unique character, [p. 5] level of intelligence, and abilities, and may or may not be aware of others."

{These "multiple personalities" are possessing-spirits. Practitioners of OBEs can themselves act as possessing-spirits in regard to animals (whose living souls they may temporarily control), as Vieira mentioned having done (P 364, p. 716).}

5

"Depersonalization ... is a condition n which a person feels ... as if the self and the world were unreal."

{This realization of the irrealities of both self and material universe is bodhi (satori).}

P = Waldo Vieira : Projectiology : a Panorama of Experiences of Consciousness outside the Human Body. Rio de Janeiro, 2002.

1.2 (p. 9) subliminal/phantom body & its variations

"During an OBE I am convinced that the body that the body I am occupying and functioning in is a subliminal body ..., ... distinct and separated from my physical body, which I realize is lying in bed unconscious while I am out and about in astral form.

I observe the phantom body which contains my vital essence ..., and become aware of the astral form’s unique attributes and abilities which are impossible to ascribe to the physical organism."

1.2 (p. 12) OBE in the physical world

"Often the OBE setting looks like a true familiar place in the physical world, sometimes an exact replication down to the minutest detail,

and sometimes a counterfeit copy of with distortions and inexplicable quirks of reality, such as consistent failure of light switches to work in the astral world.

{The counterfeit copy of the world, and consistent failure of light-switches are both highly characteristic of lucid-dreaming, NOT of OBE – literature on lucid dreaming is replete with accounts of failure of electric light-switches, and I have experienced this during lucid-dreaming in a counterfeit copy of the world, perhaps hundreds of times.}

The OBE world can also look like an unfamiliar place in the physical world, populated with ... strange entities."

1.2 (p. 14) day/night variation in OBE

"During an OBE the time of day or night can be different from physical time ..., but perhaps this is because the place that is being perceived is on a different part of the planet or on a different plane of existence altogether. ... I know that I ... left my body and traveled swiftly through a dark tunnel to a new locations that may be thousands of miles away."

1.2 (p. 18) superpositions of images from different worlds

"on rare occasions I have seen dream images briefly persist in the physical world."

"At other times when OBE consciousness changes to dream consciousness, I see dream images superimposed upon the astral world that I am occupying at the moment. I either just passively step into the dream action, fully aware of what I am doing , or get the two sets of imagery so jumbled that I never fathom where the OBE ended and the dream started."

1.3 (pp. 19-20) OBE adepts tested in sleep-laboratories

p.

adept

tester

19

Miss Z

Charles T. Tart at University of California

 

Robert Monroe

" " "

20

" "

Stuart Twemlow at Topeka

 

Ingo Swann

Janet Mitchell at Amer. Soc. for Psychical Research

 

Alex Tanous

Joel Whitton in Canada

 

Blue Harary

at Psychical Research Foundation in Durham, NC

p. 19 "Rapid eye movements ... were absent." {This was apparently while the OBE eyen were looking around, apparently indicating that the eyen-movements in the astral body cannot be detected by electrical recording equipment attached to the physical body.}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. (pp. 25-48) "The Mind-Spectrum".

2.1 (p. 26) dreaming by the soul

"Synesius of Cyrene wrote a treatise, On Dreams, in which ...

the individuality of the soul ..., according to its nature, could create dream worlds of beauty or horror, depending upon the ego’s moral evolution ... .

{More accurately, the dream-deities create for the soul a dream-world depending on the degree of that soul’s ethical perfection.}

Synesius conceived the dream world as comprised of past, present, and future images, ... a realm which could only be interpreted on an individual basis. Also, he expounded that by studying dreams each person could profit greatly".

2.2 (p. 28) discovery of REM sleep

"Eugene Asterinsky, a graduate student at the University of Chicago, ... reported specific eye movements that seemed to occur during dreaming. A later study by William C. Dement and Kleitman confirmed that these eye movements take place during dreams."

2.3 (p. 32) naming of "lucid-dreaming"

"the lucid dream, was named by the Dutch physician Frederik van Eeden, who wrote "A Study of Dreams" in 1913."

2.3 (pp. 33-4) authoress’s experience of false-awakening

p. 33

"I have experienced another strange kind of dream ..., the false-awakening. ...

p. 34

I dream of awaking ..., always in a dream environment that resembles my home, but instead of actually awaking, I enter another dream ... . The new dream unfolds, with content similar to the physical reality located in my home, until I realize that it, too, is a dream, and I awaken either to physical reality or another false awakening. Sometimes an entire series of these dreams takes place, each initiated by dreaming that I awaken from the previous one ..., but actually in a new dream. Each dream in the series has a similar theme and location ... . ... At the lucid points I understand what is happening, that I am enmeshed in a false awakening series."

{These false-awakening series are well-known to Amerindian shamanism. I have also undergone false-awakening series.}

 

"I experienced false awakenings before I ever experienced conscious OBEs, but after learning to self-induce OBEs, false awakenings became more frequent."

2.3 (pp. 34-5) authoress’s experience of hypnopompic dream-music (this being her most recent dream, happening after the last one recorded on p. 229)

p. 34

"I dreamed I was lying in my bed, which was different from my physical bed, in my bedroom, which was different from my physical bedroom. In the dream, I was awakening from a dream and briefly remained in the hypnopompic state. (... it was ... a dream hypnopompic state.) My dream self could still hear music emanating from the dream state from which she (the dream self) just awoke, the dream within a dream. ...

p. 35

The thought that such original, complex, joyful music could just automatically flow out of a dream world thrilled my dream self, and she began laughing. Then my dream self went back to sleep, into the dream within a dream again. ... My dream self awakened a second time, hearing more of the same musical composition playing from within the dream, and laughing even harder than before, laughing at the wonder of such carefully composed and gorgeous music automatically sounding out from her dream."

2.3 (pp. 35-6) post-dream hypnagogic/hypnopompic state

p. 35

"post-dream dreams ... start out even closer to waking consciousness on the dream continuum, because post-dream dreams are preceded by a partial or complete awakening to the physical world ... . The awakening is slow, with a prolonged hypnopompic

p. 36

state, from which the dreamer drifts back to sleep,

 

reentering the previous dream, which continues from where it left off.

{I used to do these dream-recontinuations often.}

 

The brief awakening before a post-dream dream could be considered

 

a combination of the hypnopompic and hypnagogic state ... .

{or, more properly, a transit out of a hypnopompic into a hypnagogic state}

 

These dreams are especially conducive to OBEs".

2.3 (p. 39) an origin of sleep-paralysis

"types of realistic images can manifest beyond the dream world into the waking world. Several times I have awakened from vivid dreams with dream visions and sensations existing briefly in physical reality. ... Dreamologists call such experiences persistent dream images ... . They are sometimes accompanied by sleep paralysis, which ... entails a temporary inability to move despite concentrated efforts."

2.3 (pp. 39-40) voice of dream-deity emergent into the waking-world

p. 39

"Occasionally, upon awakening, words are running through my mind, ... in a form similar to a story or lecture. ... . ... the content seems foreign to my knowledge."

{I have experienced a divine being follow me (audibly, at least) out of the dream-world into the physical world.}

p. 40

"this type of ... "spontaneously appearing qualitatively unusual ... verbal constructions"" may also appear in a "context ... hypnagogic ... rather than hypnopompic".

2.3 (p. 40) dreams of ingesting psychedelic drugs

"Another usual type of dream, defined by Dr. Charles Tart, is the high dream, so called because in these dreams the dream self "ingests" psychedelic drugs and experiences the effects of those substances just as vividly as if in physical reality the person actually takes the mind altering chemicals and enters a "high" state of mind. ... Sometimes, after the dream, the effects linger in waking reality for a few minutes."

2.3 (p. 41) sexual dreams

"Closely related to high dreams and persistent dream images are orgasmic dreams in which the dream self has a sexual encounter with a dream lover".

2.3 (p. 41) dreams of OBEs; dreams of death

"Dreams of OBEs may become lucid, revert back to an ordinary dream, or lead to an actual conscious OBE".\

"Similar to OBE dreams are death dreams ... . In death dreams, the dream self dies from some explicit cause and experiences being out of the dream representation of the physical body, and in a dream representation of an astral body."

2.4 (p. 45) the superconscious

"The term superconscious is used to refer to the part of the mind involved with ESP, which includes telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, precognition, retrocognition, and psychometry."

2.5 (p. 46) the higher self

"a higher self ... oversees the conscious, subconscious, unconscious, and superconscious".

{This is one’s fravas^i (spirit-guide, guardian angel).}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carol Eby : Astral Odyssey : Exploring Out-of-Body Experiences. Samuel Weiser Inc, York Beach (ME), 1996.

{The authoress had the rather annoying habit of continually designating the waking-world (but not the non-waking worlds) as "reality". Actually the waking-world is less "real" than non-waking worlds, in the sense that the waking-world is less stable, less permanent, and less influential in controlling future incarnations than are the non-waking worlds; the waking-worlds being the main abode of helpless mortals, and the waking-worlds being the main abodes of the omnipotent immortals. She read and cited as authoritative (as to other matters) the publications of the Theosophical Society without, however, subscribing to the Theosophical Society’s (and its numerous outgrowths’) doctrine of past and future lives, a self-defeating attitude of hers rendering the whole purpose and function of OBEs meaningless. The various other authors on OBEs who discuss OBEs’ significations in such detail usually (or all) accept the doctrine of past and future lives; such as, e.g., Vieira on "Projectiology", who treated OBE as an opportunity for working alongside (and as in co-operation with) divine spirit-guides for souls of the dead. This inadequate attitude of hers resulted in some quite derogatory reviews of her book by the few readers familiar with other literature on OBEs who condescend to write any remarks at all about her book. Another reason for the book’s receiving derogatory reviews is her abject submission to ruling-class-appointed "psychologists" who deride (as she did on pp. 3-5) other praeternatural experiences very similar to OBEs.}