personality when using their paranormal faculties. Why? Because in their ordinary state of consciousness they are often fearful of their own powers, and astonished by the things they are able to ‘see.’ When they enter the trance state, they tend to assume someone else’s personality, often the ‘spirit’ of a deceased doctor. This endows them with new faculties, like the ability to per- form an on-the-spot operation without anesthesia, using the crudest of in- struments (see the case of José Arigo), or diagnose a health problem and pre- scribe an effective cure (as Edgar Cayce did on hundreds of occasions).
If they are asked, while still in the trance state, how they are able to diag- nose a health problem, they reply that they can see the patient’s subtle body or aura, and interpret its constantly changing colors and movements to de- termine whether various organs are healthy or diseased. Doctor Lang sug- gests that mediums are able to operate on a patient’s subtle body, and that the healing that takes place in the subtle body is then gradually transferred to the patient’s corresponding organs. To perform such an operation, the subtle body must first be separated from the physical body.
There are thousands of people who claim to have experienced a separa- tion from their physical body at some time or other. The phenomenon often occurs while patients are being anesthetized prior to surgery. Here is a typi- cal example of this type of experience:
Mrs. J: “I suddenly had the feeling that I was being freed from my body, but that I was still completely myself. I studied my body, stretched out below me on the bed. My two sisters and my mother-in-law were there in the room. One of my sisters was sitting on the bed, warming my hands, while my other
sister sat on the other side of the bed, not moving, just staring at me. Al- though I didn’t feel the slightest desire to re-enter my body, I felt compelled to do so against my will…
“But the most amazing part of the whole thing was this: as soon as I woke up I said, ‘Where’s Mrs. K?’ (the patient’s mother-in-law). Now, Mrs. K was not there when they gave me the anesthesia. She arrived after they had put me under. When she asked me how I knew she was there I said I saw her come in.”
The word anesthesia is derived from the Greek ‘an’ meaning cessation and ‘aisthesis’ meaning senses. The phenomenon of body separation (or as- tral travelling as some call it) only occurs when ordinary consciousness - and its corresponding sense perceptions - have been altered. It is as if the exterior- ization of awareness can only take place when ordinary sensations are no longer being transmitted along their usual pathways.
Let’s go back to the simplest form of extrasensory perception, referred to as double vision. Strangely enough, clairvoyants who use this technique can only ‘see’ with their eyes closed. One of the greatest mediums of this century, Vanga Dimitrova, received a grant from the Bulgarian government that en- abled her to carry on with her work, even though she was blind. Persons who lose their physical sight often develop an extra-retinal sense of color (i.e. they perceive colors, but not with their eyes).
Numerous parapsychological experiments were conducted on deaf mutes in the USSR, because they were found to be the best subjects - they were much more tuned in to paranormal perceptions than people with all five senses functioning properly.
Through paranormal sense projection, subjects under hypnosis can actu- ally feel whatever the hypnotist feels. Extrasensory perception usually only works when ordinary sense perceptions have been interrupted, or severely limited.
Hypnosis, certain drugs and certain states of consciousness can cause ordinary sense perceptions to be projected over distances. In one experiment a subject had no trouble hearing an intimate conversation that was taking place three hundred yards away. The complete exteriorization of the senses is only one among many possibilities.
“Subjects feel as if they are outside their body, able to move around in space, but limited to the confines of their ordinary sense perceptions (which can sometimes be quite extensive).
“The phenomenon could be considered to be a paranormal illusion, since the source of the perception is too far away to be perceived normally, necessi- tating the displacement of the subject’s subtle body through paranormal means. In fact there is no separate entity outside the body, but merely an enlargement, or intensifying of sensory perception.”
A number of laboratory experiments were conducted by the American Society for Psychic Research. One subject, Ingo Swann, a writer and artist, was able to leave his body at will. He would describe objects and drawings placed in a completely isolated, locked room with regular success. He could also locate objects randomly placed in another room with a fair amount of accuracy. The difficulty lay in determining what type of paranormal phe- nomenon was involved. Was it clairvoyance? Telepathy? Double vision? There was no way of telling.
Throughout the experiments Swann continued talking and responding to people, describing in detail the various sensations he experienced. Most of the time he described visual perceptions. Tactile, olfactory and gustatory sen- sations were almost never mentioned.