The
ASTRAL
PROJECTION
Publishedin 1990by
Sterling
PublishingCo., Inc. 387 Park Avenue South NewYork, NewYork 10016Copyright
©J. H. Brennan 1989AllRightsReserved. Nopartofthispublication may bereproduced, storedinany retrieval
system, ortransmitted, inany formorbyany
means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying,
recordingorotherwise,withouttheprior
permissionofSterling Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN0-8069-7306-4
FirstpublishedintheU.K. in 1989byTheAquarianPress This editionpublished byarrangementwiththe
ThorsonsPublishingGroup,
Wellingborough, England
Thiseditionavailablein theUnitedStates, Canada and thePhilippine
Islandsonly.
Printed in theU.S.A.
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-PublicationData Brennan,J. H.
The astralprojection workbook: howtoachieveout-of-body
experiences/J. H. Brennan. p. cm.
ISBN 0-8069-7306-4
1. Astralprojection. 2. Astral
projection—Problems,
exercises,etc. I. Title. BF1389.A7B74 1989
133.9—dc2O 89-29668
CI?
Introduction The Two
Types
of
Projection
7 PARTONE: ETHERICPROJECTION
1. The
Living
Ghosts 112. What
Happens
WhenYou Leave YourBody
17 3. The SilverCord 234.
Dangers
ofProjection
295. What
Helps
You Leave YourBody
37 6. Howto MakeaWitch’s Cradle 457. Scientific
Projection
508.
Preparing
toProject
569. The
Body
ofLight
62PART TWO: ASTRAL PLANE
PROJECTION
1.
Descriptions
ofan Otherworid 692. AModel of the Astral Plane 74 3.
Imagination
and itsInfluence 79 4.Introducing
Your AstralBody
84 5. Lucid Dreams 906. Astral
Doorways
98 7. The Astral IChing
1068.
Working
theQabalistic
Tree 113 9. Guided Tours 120PART THREE:
PROJECTION
IN PRACTICE1.
Techniques
ofProjection
127 2. The UltimateProjection
134Appendix: Questions
and Answers 139 Index 157Introduction
‘Astral
Projection’
isone of thosetermswhich,
though widely
usedinesotericcircles,
actually
meansdifferentthings
todifferentpeople.
To someitsuggests
stepping
outof yourphysical body
tomakeyour wayinthe world likeaghost,
passing
through
walls and doors while youare(generally)
invisibletothose still locked into solid flesh. Toothers,
it is theprojection
of consciousness intoanother world
altogether,
the fabled AstralPlane,
where the normal laws ofphysics
nolonger
apply
and all sorts ofinteresting
weirdness may beexperienced.
Although
carrying
the same label and far too often confused in occultliterature,
these twoexperiences
arequite
distinct. Ihavemanaged
both— thelatter farmore often than the former—and
they
seemto meactually
toinvolvedifferent mechanisms.
Certainly
thetechniques
usedtostimulate themarequite
different.
Inthis
workbook,
Iwifi deal with both forms of astralprojection.
Buttoavoid theoldconfusion,
Iproposetocall the former(where
you wanderthefamiliar world like aghost)
ethericprojection
orprojection of
thephantom.
The latterexperience
(where
you enter atotally
differentworld)
I wifi call Astral Planeprojection.
You should be aware that skill inone form of
projection
is noguarantee
ofexpertise
inthe other. Thereareethericprojectors
towhom the Astral Planeisas
mysterious
and alienasthe far side of the moon. Andthereare Astral Planeprojectors utterly
unable toseparate
thephantom
inthephysical
world. Onebenefit of thisisthat you need
only
practise
thetype
ofprojection
thatinterestsyou- there isno
pressure onyou todo both.
The first section of the Astral
Projection
Workbook deals with theprojection
of thephantom.
It wifi introduce you to theconcept
of subtlebodies,
show youhow these bodies
separate
on death(and
partly
separate
during sleep)
thenteach you how
they
may beconsciously separated by
almost anyone withoutgoing
tothe trouble ofdying
first.The second sectiondealswithAstralPlane
projection.
Itdiscusses the Astral Planeitself,
itsnatureandlocation,
then shows howyoumayenteritby
meansofvarious
techniques, including
thespecially
constructed astraldoorways
whichFinally,
having
tried toclear up someofthe confusion thatexistsconcerning
the two
types
ofprojection,
I feelobliged
to add to itby mentioning
that anetheric
projection
cansometimesinadvertently
causeyoutoslip
ontothe Astral Plane.By
the timeyouhave finished thisworkbook,
you willhopefully
knowPart
One
The
Living
Ghosts
In
1845,
a Livonianlanguage
expert
named Mademoiselle EmilieSagee
wassacked from
yet
anotherteaching
post.
No onequestioned
herabilities,
qualifications
orskill;
itwasjust
that sheupset
herstudents. . .who could oftensee two of her. The second Mlle
Sagee might
bestanding
nearthe first besidethe
blackboard,
oreating
thesameschool dinner. Sometimes the secondfigure
would sit
quietly
in a corner,watching
the first atwork. Sometimes it would leave hertoget
onwith the lesson whileitstrolledthrough
the schoolgrounds.
Thiswasalltoomuch forthedirectorsofthe School for
Young
LadiesnearRiga.
In the face of
parental
complaints, they suggested
MileSagée
shouldpack
herbags.
. . as 18 other School Boardshadalready
done beforethem.Mile
Sagée might
have had betterluckteaching
inAfrica,
where theAzandeTribe believe that everyone hastwo
souls,
one of which - the mbisimo-leavesthe
body during sleep.
Or inBurma,
where the second soul is likened to abutterfly.
Or among theBacairis of SouthAmerica,
who talk(like
theAzartde)
ofashadow which travelsoutof thebody
whenwefallasleep.
Infact,
when youget
right
down toresearch,
it isquite surprising
to find MileSagée’s
talent caused any consternation at all. A survey has shown that no fewer than 57cultures hold a firm beliefin some sort of second
body
- and the list does notpretend
tobe definitive.One of my earliest
published
short stories was called HouseHaunting
anddescribed howayoung
couple
discovered the home of their dreamsonly
tofindit was onthe marketata
suspiciously
lowprice.
Whenthey quizzed
theestateagent,
hereluctantly
admittedthereason wasbecause the housewashaunted,
but
added,
‘Don’t worry, Madam-you’re
theghost.’
The
story
drew ona factualcase; andonethatisparticularly
instructive. Thewoman
(on
whomthe fictional wife wasbased)
had been obsessed about herdream house for many years,
creating
andrecreating
it inhermind,
imagining
herselfwalking through
itscorridorsandrooms.When,
with her husband andthe
hapless
estateagent,
she discovered the houseactually
existed,
she wasable to describe the interior to the estate
agent
before entering.
Herdescription
wasaccurateinevery detail
except
one: shespoke
aboutagreen door which didnot
actually
exist. Theagent
was,however,
abletoconfirm that suchadoorhadexisted,
but had been bricked upafew years earlier.The Astral
Projection
WorkbookAs a novice
author,
I withheld several of the more bizarre details from myfictional account. I was convinced
they
woulddestroy
thecredibility
of thestory.
Inthosedays
Iwas notawarehowwidespread
thissortofphenomenon
actually
was.Back in
1886,
threefounding
fathers of theSociety
forPsychical
Research,
Gurney, Myers
andPodmore,
published
acomprehensive
tome entitled Phantasmsof
theLiving
which detailed 350cases. In1951,
Sylvan
Muldoon andHereward
Carrington
added another 100 in their Phenomenaof
AstralProjec
tion. Three yearslater,
HornellHartwasexamining
288casesintheJournal
of
theAmerican
Society for
Psychical
Research.Anotherpsychical
researcher,
RobertCrockall,
entered the lists in 1961 and between then and 1978published
nofewer thanninebooks ofcasehistories. ThescientistCelia Green
appealed
forinformation on the
subject
in the late1960s,
and had 360replies
frompeople
with
personal
experience. John
Poynton
added 122 more in 1978. Anddoubtless
by
the time this book ispublished,
even more material wifi havebecome available.
Typical
of the sortofcaseinvestigated
isan incident which occurred in 1863when an American manufacturer named Wilmot was on board the
City of
Limerick when the
ship
hit amid-Atlanticstorm.During
thenight,
he dreamed his wife visited him in hernightdress
and kissed him.Although
he had saidnothing
of thedream,
his cabin-mate teased himthefollowing
morning
about hismidnight
visitfromalady.
When he arrived homeinBridgeport,
Connecticut, hiswife atonce askedhimif he had receivedavisitfrom her inthe
night.
She
had,
shesaid,
been worriedby
reports
ofshipwrecks
anddecidedtotry
tofind out if he was safe.
Consequently
she visualized herselfflying
over theocean,
finding
theship
andgoing
tohiscabin. Amaninthe upper berth lookedstraight
ather,
but she went ahead and kissed her husband anyway.(Steve
Richards makes the
intriguing
suggestion,
in his Traveller’s Guide to theAstralPlane,
that she hadplanned
todomorethan kisshim,
butwasrestrainedby
thepresence of an
audience.)
Whenpressed,
she was ableaccurately
to describe theship,
the cabin and the manwho had sharedit withMrWilmot.Although
this is the sort of evidentialcase-study
which finds its way into thetextbooks,
it is very clear that agreat
manypeople
haveout-of-body
experiences
of a lessspectacular
type
— the sort ofthing they might
findpersonally impressive,
but which would havenothing
in it to convince anoutsider.
Several years ago, for
example,
Iwasinbedpreparing
forsleep
whenIfoundmyself standing
at a crossroads about half a mile from my home. Iglanced
aroundinsome
confusion,
then returnedto mybody
witha substantialjerk.
Iam
quite
satisfied theexperience
wasneitheradreamnorahallucination,
butitis, of course,
quite
uselessas evidence.In this
instance,
minor as it was, I had at least theadvantage
of sometheoretical
knowledge
of ethericprojection.
Othersarenotalways
solucky.
On one occasion Iwasvisitedby
an18-year-old
womanratherdesperately seeking
advice on the treatment of
epilepsy.
Her‘symptoms’
were those ofsponta
when shewas
eight
yearsoldand shehadbeenreceiving
regular drug therapy
eversince.Whatis
happening
here?Why
shouldawoman’sbrooding
cause animage
ofherselftoappearinthe cabin ofa
ship
at sea, orinthehouse shewasthinking
about? How could Mlle
Sagee
appear in twoplaces
at once? What is thembisimo ofthe
Azande,
thebutterfly
ofBurma,
the andadura shadow of the South American Bacairi? And is the wholething
some sort ofpathology,
the manifestation ofepileptic
brainpatterns
as my visitor’s doctor believed? Foranswers, wehaveto venture intothe
daunting
realms of occultanatomy.
Whatever the cultural statisticsquoted
earlier,
Westernthought,
by
andlarge,
assumesyou haveonly
onebody
-theonethat isholding
thisbookatthismoment.Even
religious
doctrinesof soul andspirit
tendtoconjure
up formlessabstractions farmore
readily
thanconcretepictures.
In Ancient
Egypt,
however,
itwas acommonconceitthathumanity
hadthreesouls. Thesewereknownas the
ba,
theka andtheib. The bawas thebird-soul,
the ib was the
heart,
but theka,
interestingly,
was known as the double.Egyptians
believedittobeamirrorimage
ofthephysical body,
butcomposed
of finer matter. The ka, under avariety
of differentnames, would berecognized
instantly by
yoga initiates ofIndia,
Tibet and China.Many
yogasystems
actually postulate
awhole series of subtlebodies,
onewithintheother,
likeasetof Russian dolls. This
notion,
carried intoEurope
and Americaby
MadameBlavatsky
and herTheosophists,
has taken firm root in Western esotericthought.
How many bodies you
actually
havedepends
tosomeextentontheparticular
sub-system
you arestudying,
but most authorities include an etheric(some
times called astral or desire
body),
a mental and aspiritual.
Each has its owncharacteristics,
functionandsphere
ofoperation.
Each iscomposed
of progressively
finer material.Inthis section, the
only body
we willbedealing
with is theetheric,
although
we wifibe
returning
briefly
to the others when we reach Section Two of theworkbook
dealing
withthe Astral Plane.While it is true to say that science in
general
does notrecognize
the ethericbody,
som&scientistscertainly
do - and a few of the moreopen-minded
(or
perhaps
merely
eccentric)
have triedtofindoutmore aboutit.Inthe
1920s,
forexample,
amacabre seriesofexperiments
wascarriedoutby
Dr Duncan
McDougall
ofHaverhill, Mass.,
who decided toweigh
those of hispatients
who were in the process ofdying
from tuberculosis. To do so, heplaced
them— bed and all — on adelicately
balanced scale. . . and waited. As
death
occurred,
hediscovered,
in four out of six cases, aweight
lossvarying
between two and two-and-a-half ounces. The conclusion drawn was that
something
vacated thebody
on death and that whileobviously
invisible andintangible,
it was atleastsufficiently
solidto have measurableweight.
Dr
McDougall’s approach
had anelegant simplicity,
but I am not aware ofmany scientists who have
attempted
toduplicate
hisexperiments
—possibly
duetothe
difficulty
offinding
areliablesupply
of terminalpatients.
Therewas,The
Astral
Projection
vvunwuuic.differentroute —theDutch
physicists
DrsMalta andZaalberg
VanZelst.Working
out of theHague,
theVanZeists invented —again
inthe 1920s — avery curious instrument called a
dynamistograph.
Thisapparatus,
which had apointer
on alettered dial atthetop,
was, soits inventorsclaimed,
abletomakedirect contact with the
spirit
world. Left in a roomby
itself(and
observedthrough
a smallwindow)
the machine would bemanipulated by spirits
whospelled
outlengthy
messages. I am notentirely
clear how the Drs Van Zelstused this devicetomeasurethe etheric
body,
butthey subsequently
claimedtohave discoveredit was
capable
ofexpanding
by
about1/40,000,000
ofits ownvolume and
contracting by
some1/6,250,000.
It wascomposed
of‘extremely
small and
widely separated’
atoms, had adensity
176.5 timeslighter
than airand
weighed,
on average, 69.5 gr, ortwo-and-a-quarter
ounces.The
dynamistograph
sounds so like one of those ‘futuristic’ radio setsfeatured in the old Flash Gordon movies that it is difficult to take it
seriously.
And while Dr
McDougall’s
work wasinteresting, perhaps
evenimportant,
hismethodology
wasdistinctly
bizarre.Only
a decade or solater, however,
anotherAmericanscientist, DrHarold SaxtonBurr,
anatomy
professor
atYale,
embarkedon aseries of
experiments altogether
moreconvincing.
Burr was interested in the electrical
potential
ofliving things,
an area ofresearch even more
unpopular
in the 1930s than it istoday.
He set upmeasuring
equipment
which would be considered crude now, but wasnonetheless able todetect electrical field
phenomena
associatedwithtreesand otherplants,
manyanimals,
including humanity,
andevenslime moulds. Suchfields are not static. A voltmeter attached to a tree
will,
forexample,
indicate fluctuationsinresponsetolight,
moisture,
storms,sunspots
andmoonphases.
Overa
period
of years, Burrcametobelieve intheexistenceofalife-field
which,
in the words of Dr
Lyall
Watson, ‘holds theshape
of anorganism just
as amould determines the
shape
ofapie
orpudding.’
Inhis
Blueprint
for Immortality,
Burrremarks,
‘Whenwemeetafriendwehave not seenforsixmonths,
there isnot one molecule inhis face whichwas therewhen we last saw him. But thanks to his
controlling
life-field,
the newmolecules have fallen into the
old,
familiarpattern
and we canrecognize
hisface.’ Dr Burr’s theories were
largely ignored
by
the scientific establishmentthroughout
much of hisworking
life,
eventhough they
went along
waytowards
explaining
one of the mostpersistent mysteries
of cellularbiology.
Simply
stated,
themystery
is how certain cells in yourbody
‘knew’ how togrow into a
kidney,
while others grew into a brain. Pancreatic tissuegrafted
ontoyournosewifineverresultinthegrowth
ofa newpancreas onyour face.Sponges
sievedthrough
silktoseparate
theirconstituentcells will nevertheless reform asthey
were before. Moreimpressive
still,
the cells of twodifferent
sponges may be sieved and mixed
together
withoutdisrupting
the process-they
willre-formasseparate
individuals.Ithas
long
been evidentthat some sortoforganizing
principle
isinvolvedinliving
matter and scientists have devoted substantial time and effort ina vainattempt
to isolate chemical or othertriggers
of the process. In the absence offar been
greeted
with little scientificenthusiasm,
there is still someempirical
evidence fora‘mould which holds the
shape
of theorganism.’
Certain lizards are
capable
ofshedding
andregrowing
their tails. Others-notably
the little salamander - canregrow whole limbs.
(In
oneunpleasant
experiment,
a young salamander waspersuaded
toreplace
all of itslegs
six times inathree-monthperiod.)
In1958,
anorthopaedic
surgeon named RobertBecker tried tofindout
why
a salamander could do this whenafrog,
a similar sortofamphibian,
couldnot. Carefulmeasurementsenabledhimtodetermine that the ends of both animals’ limbs werecharged
with anegative
current of 0.000002amps—analmost undetectable flow. Becker thenwentontoamputate
the
right
forelimb of bothfrog
and salamander. When theoperation
wascomplete,
he discovered there was still atiny
electrical flowinthestump,
butthe
polarity
had reversed.As the
frog’s
woundshealed,
forming
scartissue,
thepositive
polarity
gradually
reverted to theoriginal
negative
flow. The salamander showed anentirely
differentpattern.
The electricalpotential
of the limb firstdropped,
thenroseto three times its normal
level,
turning
negative
inthe process. Thishigh
negative charge
was maintained until a whole new limb wasregenerated,
insideafew weeks.
As a surgeon, Becker was less concerned with pure research than
practical
application
- he had embarked on hisexperiments
in thehope
offinding
outwhy
fractured bones sometimesrefusedtoknit.Consequently
hedeveloped
atiny
battery
whichproduced
acurrentmimicking
that of the salamander. Whenimplanted
inthestump
ofafrog
amputee,
itregenerated
theentirelimbexactly
as the salamander had done. In1972,
the first mammal(a
laboratory
rat)~
succeeded in the
partial
regeneration
of a limbusing
a similar device. Sincethen,
Becker has shown that theright
sortofapplied
currentcanactually
closeholes inthe
heart, regenerate
nerve tissueand inhibit infection. Thousands ofpatients
world-wide have had the benefit ofbattery implants
to aid bonehealing
in difficult fractures. Thousands more,including
mywife,
have usedelectrical stimulationtoinhibit chronic
pain.
While orthodox science stifi seems reluctant to discuss the
theory, practical
experience
has veryclearly
established anelectricalaspect
tothe humanbody.
Technology
has advanced so far since the time that Dr Burr first tried tomeasurealife-field thataninvestmentoflessthan£100wifi
buy
youequipment
sufficiently
sensitivetodetect fluctuationsinthe electricalpotential
oftheskin.Ihaveone such device whichisno
larger
thanaballpoint
pen.Occultists have a
special
interest in the work of Burr andBecker,
forthe notion of a life-field which holds the
shape
of anorganism
runs veryclose to somevery old ideas aboutasecond
body.
The use of the word doubleto describe the
phantom
isdeceptive,
for itsuggests
something patterned
onthe
physical body.
But many occultists - andparticularly
Qabalists
- havelong
believedjust
theopposite. They
havethought
of thephantom
asthe
foundation
of thephysical,
thepre-existent
pattern
into which it grows.Esoteric doctrine is
quite
clear on thispoint,
forit holds that inthe case of anThe Astral
Projection
Workbookwhy
someamputees
feelpain
oritching
intheirmissing
limbs.There seems to me very little difference between Burr’s life-field and the
occultnotionofan etheric
body,
except,
perhaps,
inoneimportant
respect.
Dr Burrsuggests
the fieldisanintegral
part
ofaliving
creature, aphenomenon
ofliving
matter,possibly
eventhe factorwhich,
ultimately,
differentiates betweenthat whichis animate andthat which isnot.
Occultists,*
however,
believe that the life-field may — in the case of humanbeings
at least — betemporarily
separated
from thephysical body
withoutcausing
harmto either. And in the process, the life-field may become the vehicle ofconsciousnessandperception.
*Or some occultists. Dr
Douglas
Baker believes the ethericbody
cannever separatefrom the
physical body during
life and considers an even moresubtlebody,
the trueWhat
Happens
When You Leave
Your
Body
Although
members of theHermetic Order of the GoldenDawn(an
institution founded in1887)
weretaught
a method of ethericprojection, they
were swornto secrecy about the
technique. Consequently,
as late asthe middle1920s,
thepsychic
researcherDrHerewardCarrington
wasunabletofind any information atallonthesubject beyond
someexperimental
work carriedoutinFrance. The Frenchexperimenter
was a M. Charles Lancelin who was interested in theeffects of ‘animal
magnetism’
asadly
confusedsubject
nowlargely
dismissed notonly by
science, butby
occultists aswell.The
history
of animalmagnetism
dates back to the famous Franz AntonMesmer,
who believed asubtle fluidemerged
both frommetallicmagnets
andthehuman
body;
andcouldbe usedtocureavariety
of ifinesses.Hedeveloped
atechnique
of‘magnetizing’ patients
sothatthey
fellinto aconvulsive trance,from which
they
oftenemerged
free of former ailments. As ahealer,
Mesmer wasconspicuously
successful and for some time very fashionable. But whenthe French
Academy
of Sciences was moved toinvestigate
hisclaims,
thecommittee discovered
nothing
that ‘couldnotbeexplained by imagination.’
Butwhat
really
put
paid
toanimalmagnetism
wasnotthe frantic efforts of theEstablishment,
but theentirely sympathetic
work of a Mesmer admirer whowas
trying
tofollow hisexample.
The
Marquis
dePuysegur
triedtomagnetize
ashepherd boy
andfound thelad fellintothe
type
ofpassive
trancewe nowcallhypnotic.
Thisdevelopment
so confounded the historians of science that it is stifiquite
common to find Mesmer referred to as the father ofhypnosis,
eventhough
histechniques
produced
atotally
different kind oftrance.M.
Lancelin,
itseems,wasnotconfusedand‘magnetized’ subjects exactly
asMesmerhad done.Intheir
magnetized
state, hewasabletoextract,sotospeak,
the etheric
body
from thephysical body
andsetupanumber ofingenious
tests to show when this had been achieved. He believed a certaintype
oftempera
ment was necessary for success but his discussion of
sanguine, lymphatic,
nervous, and bilious
subjects
seemsoutmoded,
evenquaint,
today.
. . as, ofcourse, does the useof
‘magnetism’
itself.Dr
Carrington
summarized Lancelin’s work inabook called ModernPsychical
The Astral
Projection
Workbookment. Headmitted he found thematerial inbothbooks‘most
inadequate’,
butitrepresented everything
he could unearth at the time. Betterdays
were,however,
just
around the corner.InNovember
1927,
DrCarrington
receivedaletter fromanindividual namedSylvan
Muldoon,
who claimedtohaveforgotten
moreabout ethericprojection
than Lancelin ever knew. He
enlarged
on a number ofpoints
Lancelin hadmade and took issue with him on several others.
Everything
he said was, heclaimed,
drawn frompersonal
experience.
Muldoon was 25 years oldin 1927.He had had his first
out-of-body
projection
attheage of12.Carrington
wasimpressed.
Hevisited Muldoonand,
despite finding
himsoseriously
ill that his conditionwasconsideredterminal,
conductedexperiments
to test his
claims,
thenencouraged
him to write a book on hisexperiences.
Muldoon
did,
from hissickbed;
and TheProjection of
the AstralBody
(which
credits
Carrington
asco-author)
became a classic which is now in its fifthreprint,
andhelping
trainathirdgeneration
ofprojectors. Despite
theuseof thetermastralinthe
title,
DrCarrington
makes clearinhis introductiontothe book that Muldoonisdealing
withwhat I have termed ethericprojection.
‘Ishould like todraw the reader’s attention
particularly
tothe fact thatnowild or
preposterous
claims areanywhere
made in thisbook,’
he wrote,‘as to what has been
accomplished during
these “astraltrips”.
MrMuldoon doesnotclaimtohavevisited any distant
planets
-and returnedtotell us in detail their modes of
life;
he does not claimtohaveexplored
any vast and beautiful
“spirit
worlds”;
he does notpretend
to havepenetrated
thepast
or thefuture;
to have re-lived any of hispast
“incarnations”;
to have read any “AkashicRecords”;
to have travelled backalong
thestreamoftime and reviewed thehistory
of mankindorthegeologic
eras of ourearth. He assertsmerely
that he has been enabled toleave his
physical body
at will and travel about in thepresent,
in his immediatevicinity,
insome vehicleorother,
whilefully
conscious.’Muldoon himself remarked in a
letter,
‘I have never had a consciousout-of-body experience
whenI wasnothere ontheearthplane,
just
as much as I amright
now. Iwouldn’t know wheretolookforthehigher planes!~*
Despite
DrCarrington’s
difficultiesonly
a year or twobefore,
Sylvan
Muldoon was not the
only
one to claim a detailedknowledge
of ethericprojection.
The Occult Review of 1920 had
published
two articles on thesubject by
anengineer
named OliverFox. Their titleswere ThePinealDoorway
andBeyond
thePineal Door. The
pineal gland
is a smallbody
situated within the brain somedistance behind that
spot
on the forehead where Hindusput
the caste mark. Occultists believe it is the remnant of the fabulous ThirdEye
and the seat ofpsychical
abilities. Scientists are not so sure about thepsychical
abilities,
*Later in this workbook, you will be told whereto look for the
higher
planes
if youalthough
thereissomeevidence that thegland
remainslight
sensitiveand maybe an
evolutionary
remnant. It secretes a substance calledserotonin,
whichisassociated with
growth
and,
just
possibly,
withvisionary experience.
For Mr Fox, itwas theexitpoint
through
which his secondbody
vacated his first.Around
1902,
while Fox was a technicalstudent,
he had aspontaneous
experience
ofleaving
hisphysical body.
Ratherlikemyownfirstprojection,
hefound himself
standing
outside his home. Theexperience
wasvivid andreal,
but therewerecertain minor
changes
in his environmentthatpersuaded
him hewas
dreaming.
The realization didnotcausehimtowake up. On thecontrary,
the ‘dream’ became morevivid andhe wasfilled
by
a sensationofwell-being.
Hewas sotaken
by
this that he decidedtoexperiment
inanefforttobring
suchdreams under conscious control. His
early
attempts
to do sotriggered pain
inthe
pineal
area.Withtime and
practice,
hemanaged
toachieve the results hesought
andwaseventually
abletoleave hisbody
atwill.Hisexperiences
thereafterseemtohavebeen amixtureof etheric andastral
plane
projections.
Carrington
himself had discoveredyet
another source of informationby
thetime he came to edit Muldoon’s
manuscript.
This was thepublication,
inFrance, ofabook called Le Fantôme des Vivants
(loosely
translated as TheLiving
Phantom)
by
M. Hector Durville. LikeLancelin,
Durvile was interested inprojections resulting
from‘magnetic’
trances anddescribedafascinating
seriesof
experiments
which includedattempts
tophotograph
the ethericbody.
Whatwas
happening
to thesepeople
and to the many others in more recent yearswho have claimedtobe able to
separate themselves,
more orless atwill,
from theirphysical
bodies?The first-handaccountscan differsusbstantially, leading
to a real
degree
of confusion among those whoapproach
the literature for thefirsttime.
Look atthesetwo
descriptions:
‘Idozed offto
sleep
abouttenthirty
o’clock. . .andslept
forseveral hours.At
length
Irealized I wasslowly
awakening,
yet
I couldnot seem todriftback into slumbernor furtherarouse.
‘Gradually
. . . I became more conscious of the fact that I waslying
somewhere. . . and
shortly
I seemedto know that Iwasreclining
uponabed . . . I tried to move . . .
only
to find that I waspowerless
. . . as ifadhered to that on which I rested. . . If conscious at the
beginning
of anexteriorization, one feels
fairly glued
down,
stuckfast,
in an immovableposition.
‘Eventually
thefeeling
of adhesionrelaxed,
butwasreplaced by
anothersensation
equally unpleasant
-that offloating.
. .
My
entirerigid body
-I
thought
itwasmyphysical,
butitwasmy astral-commencedvibrating
ata
great
rate ofspeed
in an up and down direction and I could feel atremendous pressure
being
exerted in the back ofmyhead in the medullaoblongata region.
This pressurewas veryimpressive
and cameinregular
spurts,
the forceof which seemedtopulsate
myentirebody...
The Astral
Projection
Workbook‘Whenableto see, Iwas morethan astonished! Nowords could
possibly
explain
my wonderment. I wasfloating!
I wasfloating
in the very air,rigidly
horizontal,
afew feet above the bed. . .Slowly,
stillzigzagging
withthe
strong
pressure in the back of myhead,
I was moved towards theceiling,
allthe while horizontalandpowerless...
‘Involuntarily,
at about six feet above thebed,
as if themovement hadbeen conducted
by
an invisible forcepresent
in the very air, I wasuprighted
from the horizontalposition
to theperpendicular
andplaced
standing
upon the floor oftheroom. ThereI stoodfor whatseemedto meabouttwominutes, still
powerless
tomoveof myownaccord,
andstaring
straight
ahead.‘The~n the
controlling
force relaxed. Ifeltfree,
noticing only
the tension inthe back of my head. Itookastep,
when the pressure increased foraninterval,
and threw mybody
out at an acuteangle.
Imanaged
to turnround.
‘Thereweretwoofme! Iwas
beginning
tobelievemyself
insane. Therewas another “me”
lying quietly
upon the bed! Itwas difficulttoconvincemyself
that thiswasreal,
butconsciousnesswould notallowmeto doubt whatI saw.’Thiswas
Sylvan
Muldoon’s first ethericprojection
atthe age of12 inaroomatthe camp of the
Mississippi Valley Spiritualists’
Association inClinton, Iowa,
where his mother had taken him in an
attempt
tosatisfy
hercuriosity
aboutspiritualist
claims. Bizarrethough
it is, the account is at leaststraightforward
enough.
Butcontrastitwith thefollowing,
whichis Oliver Fox’sdescription
ofhow he achievedan
out-of-body
condition:‘I hadtoforce
myself through
thedoorway
of thepineal gland..
. Itwasdone,
whileinthetrancecondition,
simply by concentrating
onthepineal
gland
andwilling
toascendthrough
it.‘The sensation was as follows: my
incorporeal
self rushedto apoint
inthe
pineal gland
and hurleditselfagainst
theimaginary trap-door,
while thegolden light
increasedin brilliance so that it seemed the wholeroomburst intoflame.
‘Ifthe
impetus
was insufficient to take methrough,
then the sensationbecame
reversed;
myincorporeal
self subsided andbecameagain
coincident with my
physical
body,
while the astrallight
died downtonormal. ‘Often two or threeattempts
wererequired
before I couldgenerate
sufficient
wifi-power
tocarrymethrough.
Itfelt asthough
Iwererushing
to
insanity
anddeath;
but once the little door had clicked behind me, Ienjoyed
amentalclarity
farsurpassing
that of earth-life. And the fearwasgone. . .