Out of Body Journeys

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Transcendent Embrace Part one by Diane Skofda There are moments when the veil grows thin and a vast unseen presence joins our own. Its transcendent embrace ushers the mind into elevated awareness and the heart into unbounded love. Thereafter, whatever life may bring, we have no doubt that our soul belongs to something more than just this world. My own account of these wondrous encounters begins in my teenage years when I endeavoured to learn the ancient art of astral projection. Though my first successful attempt probably put me in danger, I experienced firsthand that consciousness is not confined to the body, but can roam free and enter other dimensions of reality. Through astral eyes, I beheld all of creation as luminously alive, aware and ever enfolding us in its own eternity. Out of body travels Have you ever Astral projected? Mrs. Cavallero's tone was so matter of fact she could have been asking me if I wanted more bread, and indeed at that very moment she handed me a platter of olive and cream cheese sandwiches. I turned to my friend Dana for a translation. Her mother was a theosophist and was always using words I didn't understand. It's when your spirit leaves your body and flies free, she said. Most of the time this happens at night. But your spirit always returns to your body because otherwise you would die right where you lay in your bed. She beamed at me with an isn't that wonderful kind of look. I felt I had learned quite a bit about this world during my fifteen years of life, but never had I heard anything like this. Leaving your body while you slept? A shiver ran through me. It wasn't fear, it was more like tremulous awe, the feeling you might have if, say, an alien spacecraft landed fifty feet in front of you, and as you watched a panel began to slide open. misses Cavallero launched into a little talk on the subject. Theosophists often use the terms astral projection and astral travel, she explained, but out of body experiences have been given many names across the ages. From the earliest times, shamanic healers believed they could send their souls into other dimensions and connect with special powers to help humankind. Sanskrit texts written over three thousand years ago teach that we possess not only a physical body and an eternal formless soul, but also a subtle body called the linga sarera. It survives death and incarnates us into our next birth. Followers of Plato believed that we live in many spheres of existence at once. Part of our being is astral. It reaches beyond the physical body and communicates with the celestial heavens. That's what the word astral means, you know, of the stars. Well, my teacher concluded, it's interesting to look at different theories, but what is the most important thing of all? To experience the wondrous abilities of the soul for ourselves. I nodded in silence, hoping to look more wise than dumbstruck. Mrs. Cavallero stood up and cleared the dishes from the table. Class seemed to be over, and Dana changed the subject to her Labrador retriever, who apparently had a mad crush on the Chihuahua next door. In the days that followed I did indeed find myself dumbstruck. My familiar worldview had bent into new strange shapes, as though I were peering into a curved mirror at the carnival. I am an ordinary person sitting here in my ordinary chair, I reminded myself once again. But there is more to the story. I am also Astral. I am of the stars. This notion was getting easier and easier to believe as a thousand lights of inspiration twinkled all through me. If I truly have a subtle body, how can my mind make contact with it? I wondered, and if indeed I can travel beyond my physical form, I need to be able to remember the experience. Otherwise it doesn't really count for much, does it? My way forward was becoming clear. I would learn everything I could about the ancient art of astral projection and then attempt my own out of body journey. With the hope and excitement of all beginners, I reached my hand into the cornucopia of knowledge and came up empty. At that time, during the nineteen fifties, only a few obscure works on the subject had been published, and one certainly could not walk into a bookstore and ask to see the metaphysical section. No, those of us interested in arcane subjects, as they were called, had to find the address of a specialty bookseller somewhere in the country and then mail a request for their publication list. Within a few weeks, hopefully, a thin pamphlet would arrive listing their works for sale. Some of the most appealing titles had already been crossed out with a thin hand drawn line, indicating they were no longer available. One made the best choices possible and then tucked neatly folded dollar bills into the envelope. We waited three or four weeks for the precious brown paper wrapped package to arrive. Being a spiritual seeker in those days required zeal, but mostly patience. In retrospect, I can see how this paucity of resources actually worked in my favor because the one and only book I was able to find an astral projection authored by Oliver Fox was the one and only book that could have opened my own psychic gateways instantaneously. Approaching the Arcane Art In nineteen twenty, British author Oliver Fox began publishing reports of his experiments in astral projection. Most of these articles appeared in an obscure journal called The Ocult Review. Titles like The Pineal Doorway, a record of research, and Dream Traveling, some additional notes, were read only by a few theosophists and metaphysicians. That all changed in nineteen thirty nine when Fox published his full length book entitled A Record of Out of the Body Experiences Rare is the metaphysician who holds a degree in electrical engineering, but Fox's background in science gave tremendous strength to his work. He studied astral projection through a series of self observing experiments, carefully documenting times, places, procedures, and outcomes of his trials. But the most important gift he gave us was to narrate the details of his own personal encounters. When someone says to us listen, something remarkable has happened to me, and I want to tell you everything that I saw and heard and felt, a door of reception opens in our minds. We want to listen. And something in us can recognize sincere, unembellished truth when we hear it. Truth, at least, in the context of the speaker's own world. If our psyche is ready to make use of the information shared with us, its impact is great. I felt the soft shock wave of the author's presence before I had even reached the end of page one. I guess I was ready. I learned that Fox did not merely lie down in bed one night and say I think I'll leave my body and take an astral journey. No, it took a long time for him to master that art. His first encounters came spontaneously during lucid dreams, when he suddenly became aware that he was dreaming and yet remained physically asleep. The author's account of his very first dream of knowledge, as he called it, must be told in his own words, because it combines precise detail and mystical wonder in a way that no retelling ever could. I dreamed that I was standing on the pavement outside my home. I could see the tall trees at the corner of the road and the top of the old grey tower beyond the forty steps. Now the pavement was not of the ordinary, but consisted of small bluish grey rectangular stones, with their long sides at right angles to the white curb. I was about to go into the house when, on glancing casually at these stones, my attention became riveted by a passing strange phenomenon so extraordinary that I could not believe my eyes. The stones seemingly all changed their position in the night, and the long sides were no longer parallel to the curb. Then the solution flashed upon me. Though the glorious summer morning seemed as real as real could be, I was dreaming. With the realization of this fact, the quality of the dream changed in a manner difficult to convey to one who has not had this experience. Instantly the vividness of life increased a hundredfold. Never had sea and sky and trees shone with such glamorous beauty. Even the commonplace houses seemed alive and mystically beautiful. Never had I felt so absolutely well, so clear brained, so divinely powerful, so inexpressively free. The sensation was exquisite beyond words, but it lasted only a few moments, and I awoke. Ellipsis Though I did not realize it at the time, I think this first experience was a true projection and that I was actually functioning outside my physical vehicle. Eager to have this kind of experience again, Fox tried different ways of inducing it. The most effective approach he found was to repeat certain instructions to the self just before sleep. We speak to the mind directly, saying words such as I am going to sleep now, but your critical faculty must not slumber. You must stay alert and notice everything that goes on in our dream. Be ready to pounce upon the smallest inconsistency because that is how we will know we are dreaming. Fox noted that this aim sounds simple but is very difficult to achieve. The mind wants to join with its dreams and regard them as the only reality, but practicing every night greatly increases our chances of success. Once we become lucid during a dream, we gain tremendous freedom. We can will ourselves to rise into the air, fly to different locations, visit a particular person, or even, as masters have reported doing, travel to other times and dimensions. After many trials and much practice, Fox learned how to initiate astral journeys without having to fall asleep and dream. He achieved the best results during those periods when his body was so relaxed that it felt disinclined to move. Usually this occurred right before going to sleep at night or in the morning when he was still in a liminal state between sleep and wakefulness. Then he followed certain procedures which eventually allowed him to step out of his physical form and travel around free at will. The author's descriptions of his subsequent journeys filled me with enthusiasm. I read them over and over again, trying to anchor the art into my personal being. Then one day I didn't feel like reading anymore. It seemed that the time had come for me to attempt my own out of body journey. That night I told my parents I was going to bed early, and after assuring them that no, I was not ill, I closed the door behind me. Already my mind felt elevated with a sense of sacred mystery. I would bypass efforts to court a lucid dream because my heart was set on projecting immediately. Fox had provided detailed instructions on how to proceed, and I had memorized them by heart. First one should lie in a comfortable position. I chose to curl up cozily on my side. While breathing rhythmically, I was supposed to concentrate upon an imaginary trapdoor within my brain. This would be the portal through which I could exit my physical body. The author himself pictured this door as being located a few inches behind the skull in the middle of the forehead. He sometimes called it the pineal gateway. One must withdraw consciousness from the rest of the body and gather it into a concentrated point of light that can pass through the gateway. To my delight, I found it easy to condense myself into a tiny point of awareness. It felt as though I dwelt in a small bright capsule somewhere around my head instead of being distributed throughout my entire body. My mind was uncannily clear. Wow, I'm doing well, I thought. Several minutes passed, and I was still floating gently in my capsule. Where was I supposed to go? Where was that trapdoor? Using all my will, I tried to direct my point of light to the right and then to the left, but found I had no control over my movements. Then a strange vibratory humming enclosed me. Its pitch was high, insistent, unsettling. Just as I wondered what kind of astral manifestation is this, the sound intensified and drilled right into my brain, shattering the spell and making me bolt upright in bed. Gone was my capsule. Gone were my crystal thoughts. I was my ordinary self again. The droning sound circled me once more. Blast it, I shouted as I batted away the intruding mosquito. Undaunted by the rather absurd outcome of my first trial, I repeated Fox's procedures again the next night, and the next and the next. But my attempts yielded no results at all. I wasn't even able to enter that mental point of light that had once encapsulated me so powerfully. After two weeks of dedicated effort, I thought it was wise to set aside my astral ambitions for a while until conditions unknown to me might shift in a positive way. Summer passed into fall and I was excited about my upcoming sixteenth birthday, believing I would be crossing the threshold into near adulthood. This belief proved to be both right and wrong. Like many youths with spiritual leanings, I possessed a certain maturity of soul that carried me into depths beyond my years. Each day opened new portals of insight and understanding that I held close to my heart in secret. How little people understand the quiet child. Seeing stillness and hearing silence, they assume nothing much is going on inside that person. Yet inside is where the brightest galaxies of thought and feeling and wonder may be turning. Despite having a soul that felt ageless at times, I lagged behind my peers in significant ways. Puberty had visited all my girlfriends long before it took any notice of me. Being prone to trip over my own feet and bump into doorways won me no awards for grace. My shy, introverted nature led me to behaviors that surely looked strange to others, if anyone had noticed, that is, such as walking down the school corridor as close to the wall as possible, so as to avoid face to face encounters. Meanwhile, other students were going out on dates, kissing in shadowed corners of the schoolyard, and talking in low confidential tones about matters I could not track. I often felt like a child watching the big kids play. But little did I know that just around the corner an adventure was waiting for me more daring than dating Rocketing to the Stars Shortly before the holidays in December I dreamed I was standing in my backyard. The windows of the house were properly dark for this late hour of the night, and every shrub was positioned right where it belonged. The moonlight was pouring through the pine trees above me in such a way that every needle was illuminated separately in a most wondrous manner. I looked down at my two bare feet standing in the thick Florida grass and suddenly wondered what am I doing out in my yard late at night in my nightgown and my bare feet? That's when it happened. I snapped awake, but instead of finding myself in bed. in bed I was still standing outside in the exact spot as before. Now it all made sense. I'm dreaming, I thought. And I know I'm dreaming. With ease I recalled the instructions in Fox's book for what to do next. Remember that you have control over your astral form, he advised, and take a small leap upward to prove you can leave the ground. Then you can float, fly, or direct your body anywhere you wish. I bent my knees as though springing off a trampoline, then hocked into the air, hoping I could stay levitated for at least a few moments. Vom my body shot into the night sky like a rocket. I was travelling at a speed unlike anything I had known in waking life and my velocity was increasing with each second. The shock of this inhuman experience filled me with a kind of sickening terror. Raising my eyes to see where the force might be taking me, I beheld a dark expanse strewn with diamond white lights of great intensity. I presumed they were stars and that I was heading into outer space. I looked down and expected to view twinkling cities on a miniature landscape below like an illuminated map, but only inky blackness met my eyes. I was still jetting straight up at impossible speeds, but at least my velocity was no longer increasing. This stabilization allowed me to calm down and try to make sense of what was happening. You are not in your physical body, I reminded myself so you cannot be injured or die. Remember that you have control over where you go and what you do like magic words a wizard might speak to transform one thing into another, I had found the formula that erased all fear I have control I repeated to myself I have control Empowered by this new perspective my spirit soared to heights of exhilaration matched only by the infinity above me. Time as we know it in waking reality is greatly altered during astral travel. The events I just described unfolded as clearly and sequentially as anything we experience in the daily world but whether they unfolded in one second or in many minutes of clock time I cannot say. Neither do I know how long I kept rocketing towards those crystal stars. They now seemed like living beings made of light. A feeling of sweet familiarity enveloped me. I was heading for a domain that felt more at home to my soul than any person or place I had ever known in life. Its loving luminosity beckoned me not urgently but reassuringly like a single porch light shining in a dark town. A memory came back to me then or at least it felt like a memory I knew that if I allowed my present velocity to carry me straight up, I would reach a soft gateway of some kind. Passing through would be easy then I'd be home My joy at this revelation was interrupted by a jarring discord. The effect was like hearing all the keys of a piano being slammed down at once in the middle of a beautiful concerto. I felt an alarming sensation unlike anything I had known before a taffy being stretched too thin sort of feeling pulling my head straight up and my feet straight down. I understood what it meant my flight was carrying me too far from my physical body and if I did not go back immediately that body would die where it lay. Instantly I stopped my flight in mid space. The abrupt halt did not create a violent counterforce as would have happened in the physical world. I merely found myself hovering in the darkness of a void, unable now to see even one star. A wave of loss passed through my heart I had just turned away from the most precious thing I had ever known. Yet I had made the right choice in fact I was feeling very anxious to get back to my sleeping form before some vital strand of connection between us snapped forever. My return trip must have been fast and light because immediately I awoke in bed We know when a dream is more than a dream. Its magnetic vitality penetrates the core of our being we have no doubt that something important has happened to us and the reality we leave behind seems more compelling than the one we enter upon awakening. Ordinary dreams tend to evaporate quickly after we open our eyes. Even when we write them down immediately we sense that a lot already has been lost. But encounters from the other realm impress our minds so vividly we can recall every detail of them even after many years have passed. I always enjoy inviting others to tell me about a dream they had that was more than a dream and watch how their eyes light up as the magic of that experience casts its spell all over again. I continued to lie in my bed for several moments but did not move a muscle. My body still felt a bit unsolid and I could feel the expanses of space yawning all around me. I knew I had to return to this world, so I pulled my mind away from the cosmos and concentrated on my own breathing. Its rhythmic steadiness calmed me and within a few minutes I was feeling like myself again. It appeared that I had suffered none of the negative effects sometimes reported by astral travellers such as paralysis or numbness or disorientation. The only unusual phenomena I experienced was my peculiar handwriting. I had expected my pen to fly across the paper as it always did when I took notes on my dreams. But now my hand insisted on forming letters in large blocky shapes that stood upright instead of slanting forward. I felt like someone who was doing her best to write in English characters even though her native script was made of triangles and parallel lines. The next morning I was brimming over with excitement, eager to talk about my first lucid dream but not just with anyone We have friends who share our worldly life and friends who share our other worldly life The first set is easily populated while the second set often lies empty Whom do you tell about rocketing to the stars and almost breaking the cord your body and finally getting back safe but then writing in Aalean alphabets Twittering conversations at my school lunch table would die like a switched off radio if I ventured even ten words into my account. My parents would listen kindly and then glance at each other with a should we call the doctor kind of look. Indeed, it is a precious thing to know someone who can be a sister or brother to your soul. I knew how lucky I was to have such a friend Dana Cavallero and I had met in our ninth grade history class. The chances of being assigned to the same classroom during the same period were not great in a high school where two thousand teens jam the halls. We later would say that Destiny itself had guided some administrator's hand to inscribe our names on the same roster. But destiny must do more than placing two persons in the same room. It must arrange for them to meet. This takes ingenuity if the persons in question do everything they can to avoid social interaction. In class I always preferred to sit on the front row at the very end next to the window. That way the teacher would look straight ahead and rarely glance my way. Dana on the other hand preferred to sit in a far corner in the back of the room. She didn't mind looking at the heads of other students as long as those heads did not turn around and look back at her positioned in opposite corners of the room each in our own private bubble my classmate and I had scarcely noticed each other for the entire semester If the gods wanted us to meet they had better come up with a plan and fast Diane and Dana come to the front of the class please The teacher's unexpected demand startled me. Anxiety spun my thoughts like a hamster wheel What happened? Why was I being called? For a moment I could not make my body get up and face the music whatever that music was going to be Dana must have lagged behind as well because all of a sudden I heard the teacher raise her voice Come on girls are you stuck to your seats I walked to the front of the room gazing fixedly at my shoes which I realized needed polishing As you all know she began the exciting International World's Fair just opened in Brussels. Brussels is the capital of Belgium overty countries are represented. Working in teams you will make a presentation on the World's Fair. Dana and Diane you are the first team you may go to your workstation Having settled down at the large quiet table in the back of the room I now felt at ease. My new partner and I gazed at each other without speaking. Being young, we had not yet adopted the convention of launching into bright chatter the moment that one met. We just waited in silence until one of us had something to say. I noticed for the first time what an unusual looking girl Dana was. She stood a head taller than the other students in the room, boys included and her hair was not bobbed in the pert Audrey Hepburn style so popular with teens in that era. Instead it was pulled back into a long dark braid that reached all the way to her waist and I had never seen a dress like the one Dana wore. Draped in graceful folds its fabric was printed with intricate designs whose colors blended into each other at certain places. Later I would understand that this technique was called batigue. My thoughts were interrupted by Dana's voice Of course the class presentations are going to be dreadful she said as though picking up a conversation we already were in Oh yeah it's going to be worlds fair facts blah blah world spare facts blah blah the end You're probably right I laughed. I asked myself how is it possible to feel so at home with a person that I've never met before? In a mysterious way she was familiar to my soul as though we had known each other for eons rather than three minutes. Immediately we decided that our presentation would be something special. Dana played the role of the ambassador from the Soviet Union and I was the representative from the United States we got into a royal argument about why each of our displays represented the highest level of technological achievement in the world. Our arguments were so convincing that we saw the merits of each other's country and became fast friends. Our little skit was a huge success and was the only presentation that won a round of applause from the class and the teacher did something we had never seen before she smiled from that moment and without even having to put it into words Dana and I recognized the profound bond between us and indeed we remained best friends until she departed this world fifty years later. I couldn't wait to tell misses Cavallero about my amazing out of body venture impatiently I looked forward to the next Saturday afternoon. Finally the day arrived sitting at the familiar wooden table with a cup of fragrant chamomile tea, I excitedly told my mentor about everything I had experienced. When I was finished she was silent for a moment and then said Diane, I think you have a true gift for astral travel. Few people I know at your age have journeyed so far and dramatically and remained conscious the whole time My heart swelled with pride and I'm sure I beamed from ear to ear. I felt so pleased and honored to be complimented in this way by a woman I respected tremendously. But when I looked up misses Cavalero was frowning. Diane, she said, what you did was very dangerous. Your astral body carried you away from your physical body so far and so fast that their connection could easily have snapped. When that happens you perish your consciousness survives of course because it is eternal but you would never be able to enter the body of Diane again She pointed her finger to the heart region of my chest. A sick feeling came over me. I recalled the alarming feeling of being stretched in two different directions as I shot higher and higher into space. What if I had ignored that alarm and pushed onward to the mystical gateway that beckoned me so sweetly an image flashed before me of my mother walking into the bedroom to say good morning, only to find her daughter lying motionless with ash grey skin. Even if my soul had found its true home in another realm I could not have endured the pain I caused my family. Tears overflowed my eyes as I thought about it. I didn't mean to scare you so much, dear, misses Cavallero said gently continue your astral projection experiments by all means. But the next time you rise in the air do it gently. If you start accelerating upward stop yourself right away you've already proven that you can control your flight so practice gliding in the air but not too high up you can enjoy astral travel without trying to reach the stars as though I were in court I solemnly raised my right hand and vowed never again to rocket straight up in that manner. To my own surprise it was a vow I kept for the rest of my life however I've always believed that when my last day on this earth is completed I will take that trip flying across the country with no airplane Nothing compares to that final day of the school year when everyone is shouting joyous goodbyes in the hallway and you jam all your chemistry notes into the trash can, ring binder and all I was so happy to have the sweet, easy summer stretching ahead. I looked forward to long afternoons in the Cavallaro sanctuary of metaphysical talks, arcane books, and the aroma of incense mixed with a touch of turpentine but a disappointment awaited me. Dana and her mother were planning to spend the entire summer on the coast of Maine. Mrs. Cavallero would be painting wild majestic seascapes and Dana would write letters to you of course she exclaimed with sudden inspiration. Yes we'll be like the great literary friends of centuries past who wrote hundreds of letters to each other and those letters were kept by future generations to read and enjoy. Except we won't be using a quill and ink I've tried it and believe me it slows you down terribly Though I felt pangs of loss to see Dana depart, our letter writing turned out to be a great blessing. Having a friend who eagerly awaited my letters brought out the scribe in me. I spent countless happy hours at my desk, sharing experiences from my daily life and my dream life. Dana and I shared everything from comical observations about people we knew to amazing poets and writers we had discovered. It's marvelous to be a beginner and never have to say oh yes Jan I've known about that author for years for us exciting new frontiers of philosophy, world religions and literature stretched in all directions just waiting to welcome explorers like ourselves. With renewed enthusiasm I dedicated myself to astral projecting while still awake and fully conscious. I decided to abandon the stressful pineal gland exit method because it just wasn't working for me. I needed a gentler approach. One night a memory came back to me that I thought might be useful. I recalled my childhood experience of learning how to float in a swimming pool. When I relaxed every muscle the water would hold me up effortlessly if I could recapture that sense of weightlessness as I lay in my bed, if I could recapture that sense of weightlessness as I lay in bed, perhaps my astral double would float up all on its own. For the next week I practiced relaxing deeply from my toes to the top of my head. I experimented with different visualizations to counteract the feeling of gravity holding me down. I was light balsa wood drifting on a river. I was ocean foam borne upward on a breeze. I was as weightless as a rainbow during these meditations I seemed to feel that my body was losing density and rising a little bit into the air. I was even able to hover suspended for almost a full minute until that is I made a mistake the feeling of floating was so realistic that I became convinced my body had been had actually levitated like yogis and other masters were able to do. The temptation to check this out was just too great, and I opened my eyes to take a look. Boom, I fell back into my physical form with a jolt. My practice continued in the same way for around a month, until one night I finally achieved the result I had so ardently hoped for. The hour was quite late because I had stayed up to read a novel that would not release me from its grip until I reached the end. I followed my customary procedure of imagining my body to be so light it floated upward all on its own. Immediately I felt myself rising like a cork in water. This time I made sure to focus all of my attention on the part of myself that was aloft rather than be distracted by any other consideration. That's when I became aware of a very curious thing. I could feel myself resting comfortably in bed at the same time that I was also floating above myself. The experience was having two bodies united into one unit rather like a double decker bus. Something told me I had better make a move before the two parts of me merged together again. Fixing my attention on the self that was floating, I directed that form feet first, straight ahead until I had cleared the bed. Then I sat up in midair and lowered my feet to the ground. To my surprise the carpet felt soft under my feet just as it ordinarily did. Only when I began to walk across that carpet did I realize just how non ordinary things really were. Every step I took was so buoyant it carried me almost twelve inches into the air before setting me down again. I felt energized in a way I had never known before. I experienced my body as a kind of electrical grid that whirled and hummed and pulsed with such energy that I had difficulty keeping my bearings. The energies were concentrated around my head making me feel like some kind of cosmic power station. Trying to control the bounce effect of my motion I placed each foot firmly on the ground. This worked well until I came to the door of my bedroom which was closed. Would I be able to pass through that door like a ghost gliding through the wall of a castle? Those who experienced out of body travel said absolutely yes. According to theosophical teachings of that era, the astral form was not made of physical atoms, but of a subtler matter belonging to another plane of existence. Because this matter vibrated at a higher rate it was said to interpenetrate the physical world without obstruction. Emboldened by this fine idea I took one quick step forward and pushed with both hands against the door. I expected to feel no sensation at all since my astral form would interpenetrate the physical structure. But to my surprise the cool smooth feeling of painted wood met my skin. I intuitively knew to relax both hands and just let them melt into the surface they touched. This approach worked so well I confidently pushed my face and body right through the yielding door. Exaltation sent me soaring I'm doing it I exclaimed to myself I am passing through a solid door with ease saying the words solid door tempted me to imagine what it would feel like to be standing inside a slab of wood. Wrong move a sensation of hardening cement began to grip my body I could not move what if I got trapped what if I could not get back to my physical form within the safety period making myself calm down I suddenly remembered what I had learned during my studies. I myself had caused the door to harden around me because I had imagined it to be so I had to change my state of mind in order to change the condition I was in a condition that at the moment had me trapped like a bug in amber. Imagination works best from the inside out rather than trying to hold an image of the door around me dissolving I needed to feel I was in a fluid medium that would allow me free movement in any direction I came up with the idea of standing in a large tank of water. Mobilizing all my will I summoned the experience of free, easy fluidity all around me. It worked I could move my fingers just a little bit and then my toes and very soon my arms and legs and whole torso were under my control. With little effort I flowed through the door and entered the hallway beyond. My buoyant steps were now starting to feel natural even enjoyable. I crossed the living room, passed through the kitchen and entered the Florida room. This was a porch enclosed by hundreds of narrow slanted windows that could be opened in various configurations to take advantage of the best breezes. Everything I saw around me was a perfect clone of the house I knew in waking life. No chair or plant or picture on the wall betrayed one false detail that might have announced this is only a simulation of the real physical room. Our boxer, Sandy, enjoyed sleeping in her own special corner of the porch I paused for a moment, gazing at her sweet, tawny form curled in slumber. I knew that she could not hear or see me since I was travelling in an astral vehicle which vibrated at a different frequency from her own physical body, but she surprised me. Sandy woke up, looked directly at me and came running so fast that her feet slipped on the glossy terrazzo floor. Curiously she did not jump up on my chest with her two front paws the way she had always done in the past. Rather she turned round and round in joyous circles at my feet. Many of us believe in the ability of animals to see and hear things beyond the range of human perception. What a rich and complex world they must live in if indeed their senses can register spirits of the departed, astral travellers and other entities whose nature we cannot guess. A curious thing happened to me as Sandy bounded around my feet. Her affection was so warm and real and palpable that I suddenly doubted whether I had left my physical body at all. The tile floors beneath my feet felt smooth and cool just as they always had I touched the sleeve of my nightgown as it lay across my arm and found it to be soft and cottony just as I would expect how can everything around me seem so perfectly solid and normal if I am in astral reality right now? I asked myself Was I sleepwalking? No, I've never done that before in my whole life I know I had a vivid dream, woke up and then, while still somewhat entranced, wandered out here into the porch. Of course Sandy sees me, I smiled to myself I'm standing right here beside her. I laughed then to realize how my own ardent desire to have out of body journeys had generated this fantastical scenario. Under the circumstances I thought it was probably better to just go back to bed, but Sandy was looking up at me with such longing in her eyes she wanted to go outside and play. I turned the knob of the back door and noted how the little lock popped out another indication of ordinary physicality I said to myself. Then I pushed open the door and followed my dog out into the cool, moist night What I beheld next shocked me so profoundly that I could only fall to my knees. The sky was alive with millions of lights glowing in hues of pale yellow, transparent rose and ice blue. Their crystalline purity was of a quality beyond this world. Unlike small distant stars we ordinarily see, these orbs were different sizes and loomed both near and far, filling the entire heavens with their splendor. Each star seemed to pulse gently in its own patterns, patterns that felt like communications of some kind. I had to turn my eyes away because the radiance was flowing into my soul in such a way that made me feel I myself was dissolving into light. The most astonishing feature of this vista was its three dimensional depth. As a youngster I had spent many happy hours looking at side by side photographs through a stereoscopic viewer or gazing at fanciful scenes in my toy viewmaster. Even then I sensed that augmented three D viewing hinted at some kind of mystery about reality that was beyond my grasp, but the sky I beheld now was of a different order. I seemed to have gained twenty D vision as I peered into configurations of interlocking complexity that stretched to infinity. The enormity of it all was too much. I heard my own voice gasp as I bolted upright in my bed. The next morning as I beamed a bright hello to my brother Ron and poured myself a glass of orange juice, my mother said Well you seem to be in a good mood this morning I only smiled and toasted her with my glass, wondering what I might say if she asked further questions. But the telephone rang, she dashed away and I retreated to my bedroom so that I could write Dana a long letter about the experience that had forever changed my view of the cosmos. When my friend's return letter finally arrived because I was waiting so eagerly, I found that she received my news with great enthusiasm, but perhaps not the overriding awe I had expected. Having been nourished from an early age on metaphysical wonders, she took out of body travel for granted and could recount many amazing experiences of her own. The next time you leave your body, Dana proposed, don't just stay around the house come and visit me in Maine. You know my address, although of course you don't need it. Just focus on standing next to me and you'll be there Although I was very excited to try this experiment I wasn't sure whether I'd really be able to project myself all the way from Florida to the Northeast coast. How long would that take? How could I ever find my way? Would I need some kind of an astral map? Then I remembered that distance as we know it has no relevance in the non physical world. From my reading of theosophical authors like C W Ledbetter and Annie Bessant, I had come to understand that the astral domain is not organized by physical distance but by states of consciousness. In their view it is thought that propels movement and emotional bonds serve as attractors to certain persons and locations. The moment I stepped into this new way of thinking I felt tremendous freedom and my heart filled with hope that this new experiment just might work flying across the country without an airplane about one week later I was feeling quite tired as I went to bed having spent the whole day at the beach and gotten a bit too much sun. I decided just to go straight to sleep rather than try to court astral travel that night. About ten minutes after lying down I felt myself spontaneously rise into the air I knew exactly what was happening and what I aimed to do. I sat up, lowered my feet to the carpet and stood there for a moment to gain my balance. Focusing all of my attention I said I want to be with Dana Cavallero in Bar Harbour, Maine I did not know what to expect next, but with no break in continuity I found myself in a large hollow room with high ceilings. My bare feet were standing on a wooden floor and there was Dana sitting up in bed leaning against a wooden headboard grinning at me. You did it she exclaimed you're here I can hardly believe it I said I just travelled fifteen hundred miles in about one second Can you see me clearly Diane? Your form looks a little bit watery I see you sitting up in the bed yes but it isn't crystal clear as though I'm looking at you through a wave of heat or an energy field of some kind. Dana, I wonder, do you think that you'd be able to feel my hand if I touched you? I don't know, she answered we can give it a try I reached through the thick atmosphere between us and touched her arm. A jolt pierced my hand and spread through my entire body with a wrenching shock. Dana jumped and screamed as well Oh God that was awful I know what happened? I don't think we're supposed to touch each other when we're in our astral form, she said. Are you all right? I'm fine, but I feel I have to get back now. Yes then you must go quickly but Diane we must remember everything that we just experienced let's write each other letters immediately all right I don't remember answering her because all of a sudden I was lying in bed with my eyes wide open The next morning before even getting dressed I sat right down at my desk and wrote Dana a long letter detailing everything I remembered. I described the large hollow room, the old fashioned bed and the way our view of each other was distorted through some kind of thick atmosphere. But most of all I talked about the shock that we had both received when we tried to touch. As I wrote I realized something that had not occurred to me until that moment. The jolt I felt was not like an electrical shock one might feel in the physical world it was deeper, more sickening, entirely alien. I knew it had the power to disintegrate my astral form. Fortunately though, no harm was done and as I cheerfully concluded in my letter we both learned valuable lessons for our continued astral travels. Around five days later I finally received the envelope I had been waiting for. My hand trembled a bit as I opened it, wondering if I would find any report of the experience that glowed so vividly within me. And if there were no mention at all of the visit, how was I to regard the reality of what felt like an absolutely true mutual encounter Unfolding the letter the first thing I saw was a page full of exclamation points This is a very good sign, I said to myself Dear Diane, I surely hope you remember what happened last night You came to visit me here in my room you were wearing a long blue nightgown that reached to your ankles. You looked a little thinner than I remembered you but then your astral body probably doesn't weigh that much haha It seemed as though your feet couldn't quite stay anchored to the floor because you were bobbing up and down just a little bit but then my view of you wasn't always sharp. It was as though there was a film between us and the outline of your form looked a little bit watery Diane here is the most important part of all You stretched out your hand and touched my arm. Oh my gosh we both got a terrible shock You jumped back and I thought that my arm might fall into pieces right there. Then you said you had to go and you disappeared I hope you got back all right I'm sure you did. If you haven't done so already please write me as soon as you can I'm just dying to hear your memories about last night because it could just be one of the most interesting astral meetings two friends ever had I have repeated the words we exchanged as faithfully as I can remember them. It is a source of sorrow that our letters which crossed in the mail were lost during the subsequent decades with their countless changes in both of our lives. But I knew our letters had crossed in the mail and that they contained uncannily similar reports of our experience. Having such undeniable confirmation boosted my confidence in my own abilities I now trusted the spontaneous nature of my out of body journeys rather than trying to engineer them according to my own will. I became an old hand at passing through solid objects without resistance, always remembering focus on fluidity and not solidity. I visited various friends during my journeys and sometimes they said they had dreamed about me on that very night. Enjoying both my worldly life and my other worldly life time passed quickly until one day I found myself standing in a cap and gown at my high school graduation ceremony. I had always entertained fond hopes that Dana and I would end up going to the same college perhaps even rooming together. However it was not to be I was heading to the University of Florida at Gainesville because of its exciting program in humanistic psychology and Dana who always excelled in everything she did had won a full scholarship to the prestigious Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. It's only a hundred miles away, she said, trying to comfort me and we'll write to each other every few days just as we always have Imagine how exciting it will be Diane to visit each other in our new colleges and of course we can always meet in the astral realm Although I would have cherished being on the same campus with my best friend, we both intuitively knew we had made The right choice for our destinies. Dana thrived in the small elite group of writers, artists, and creative visionaries like herself. For me, being in a large university offered more benefits than I could have dreamed. Besides the astonishing array of coursework available to me at every turn, I was able to find among the fourteen thousand people on that campus a small group of friends who shared my metaphysical interests and were excited about exploring their multifaceted domains. One of the most fascinating adventures involved something I had never done before. My roommate, Cynthia, said to me Next time you go on one of your night journeys, would you take me with you? I don't know if that's possible, I answered, but I'm willing to try if you are. About a week later, just at the twilight of sleep, I felt myself spontaneously rise from my body. Familiar sensations of weightless freedom made my heart soar with happiness. Then I remembered Cynthia's request. Approaching her sleeping form on the bed, I stood there for a moment, not quite knowing what I should do next. I didn't have to wait long because her astral body sat up and looked directly at me. Diane, what are you doing here? What's happening? I received these thoughts directly into my mind, rather than hearing them in spoken words. We're going to take an astral flight together, I said. Remember? I felt a wave of fear mixed with curiosity emanating from her. Oh there's nothing to be afraid of, I assured her. It will be glorious, I promise. All right, let's go, she consented. I took Cynthia's hand and rose up into the air. Her weightless form followed me like a leaf on the breeze. We passed through the lace curtain and thick glass as though they weren't even there. Then we cruised into the dark still night. I headed straight upward to climb above the palm trees and great oaks overhead. Reaching an elevation of what appeared to be about eighty feet, I stretched out into a face down position and glided forward as though I were born to the wind. Flying again in this way was so exhilarating I had to remember to hold on to Cynthia's hand. All of my previous astral flights had been solo, so this was a new experience for me. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that my friend had imitated my position of being stretched out flat, except that her free right arm was waving rather desperately in the air. How are you doing? I communicated to her. We're awfully high up, she answered. Are you sure we're not going to fall? Not a chance, I assured her. You feel physical, I know, but remember you are in your astral body, and it is lighter than a feather. Just enjoy the beautiful scene below you. Indeed, the campus looked wondrous in the moonlight with its vast lawns, crisscrossing walkways and buildings fashioned of bricks in russet red. How often had I passed my oak trees on campus without giving them much of a thought? Now for the first time I saw them for who they really were, luminous living beings who breathed benevolence into all the spaces around. As we passed above their crowns, these great beings acknowledged us and conferred their blessings by bathing our spirits in mists of verdant refreshment. Cynthia too must have been moved by the beauty of what we were witnessing because her right hand no longer was clutching at the air, but had stretched out into a gesture of reverent reception. It's so beautiful, Diane. We really are flying, aren't we? Yes, I answered, and we fly like this very often in our dreams. We just don't usually remember. I thought it would be fascinating to take Cynthia on a tour beyond the campus grounds, but I was beginning to feel that familiar tug on my psyche that said it's time to get back to your body. Ordinarily, I simply would have focused my will on the place I wanted to be and then returned there instantly. But now I wondered can my will alone transport another person to a destination? I did not know, and the last thing I wanted was to somehow leave my friend terrified. The safest course of action, I decided, was to escort Cynthia in a wide, easy curve and then head back to the dormitory by the same way we came. Approaching the building, we passed through the window like two rays of light, and then touched down gently on the floor. Before escorting my friend to her sleeping form, I said please remember everything that happened tonight. Oh my, we'll have so much to talk about tomorrow. Diane, she answered, I just had the most magical experience of my life. How could I ever forget? With my astral fingers crossed, I returned to my own bed and fell contentedly asleep. The next morning sunlight was pouring through our curtains, casting lacy designs on the wall. Cynthia had gone down to breakfast, and I couldn't help pacing back and forth a bit, wondering if she would have a special report to give me. When the door opened a few moments later, my friend walked in, said hello, and then sat down on a chair without speaking further. She just gazed into the distance as though mightily preoccupied. After a few moments I approached her. Hey, how are you feeling today? I asked. I don't know. I guess I feel a little dreamy. Cynthia, I wonder, did you have any interesting dreams last night? You know how fascinated I always am with this subject. Nothing comes to mind, she said. Wait a minute. I was flying. Diane, you were there too. I could see the Century Tower from above. We were so high up. I was really scared. I've always had a fear of heights, and yet I felt so happy. That was all I needed to hear. Excitedly I told Cynthia about our adventure from beginning to end. Many of the details I recalled were not in her memory, such as passing through the window, being blessed by the great trees, or touching down back in our dorm room. But clearly her psyche retained memory of an experience we both shared extending beyond the boundaries of everyday life. Our friends were elated with the report Cynthia and I delivered, and we all avowed to keep exploring the frontiers of consciousness in any way that elevated our spirits. Those who imagine that investigating psy phenomena must wear a long serious face should have seen our merry group laughing in genuine joy and gratitude to receive an oracle or channeled communication, offering just the right message at just the right time. Whenever we gathered for this work, it felt as though we were entering a temple fashioned of resplendent diamonds. Their light seemed to take residence within us, providing encouragement and guidance amidst the many uncertainties of life. Nor did that glow fade away after we graduated and went our separate ways in the world. Even many years later, friends told me that our times of metaphysical communion were among the most cherished of their lives. Their reports thrilled me. Not only did they echo my own experience, but that of countless individuals across the ages and from every spiritual tradition on earth. They too, each in their own way, had been touched by transcendent embrace and now would forever carry its imprint of luminosity upon their soul. Astral Afterthoughts With fondness, I think about that fifteen year old girl sitting with Dana at misses Cavallero's kitchen table, dumbstruck by the idea that consciousness can extend beyond the body and travel into realms unguessed. Little could she have known that a half century later these ideas would be widely explored by philosophers, scientists, and researchers from many different disciplines. Some emerging theories suggest that the physical brain may act more as a filter or a receiver of consciousness rather than its sole generator. It is proposed that mind may extend into and interact with the larger world in ways that neuroscience cannot fully explain. We now have an extensive body of research on NED's near death experiences that document the conscious verifiable reports of patients who experienced vivid perceptions and feelings after a cardiac arrest when their brain registered no detectable activity. Institutions like the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab and the University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies have published data on telepathy, remote viewing, memories in children suggestive of reincarnation, and other psy phenomena. Naturally, the language we use to make sense of these subjects has changed greatly over the years. Experiences that Oliver Fox a century ago called dream travelling today might be termed rim sleep intrusion or sleep border phenomena. Viewed through contemporary paradigms like these, the notion of travelling through etheric realms in a subtle body that is of the stars does sound a bit old fashioned. I have often wondered what the response might be if I were to approach a neuroscientist today and casually ask have you ever astral projected? I am grateful to have grown up spiritually in a mythos of such rich imagery and ardent feeling. The metaphysical ideas I embraced at that time sent my imagination soaring and provided encouragement for me to continue expanding my own abilities. This is the most important function of any conceptual framework we adopt. It offers us a dynamic operating system within which we organize, analyze, and build upon the knowledge we acquire. If the ideas are a good match for us at that time, gateways open all on their own, leading to new frontiers of discovery and achievement. Later, even beloved structures may fall away to make room for the new, more spacious views we now desire. In the meantime, our own direct experience lives as a shining testament to the mysteries we yearn to understand. For me, the greatest gift of my out of body journeys was being able to view creation through different eyes than those available to me in everyday waking life. Never will I forget viewing the night sky in my own backyard and beholding an expanse of living deities whose splendor brought me to my knees in reverence. Through astral eyes, familiar trees we pass by every day reveal themselves to be great luminous entities whose outreaching arms seem to hold all of creation, and as I rocketed into far reaches of supernal domains, I came in contact with a home to my soul that still shelters me to this day. These places of experiencing are not remote, arcane, or hard to access. Natural ports of entry to expanded consciousness are built into each of our psyches. They configure themselves in countless creative ways in order to accommodate our passage under various conditions and states of mind. Light from those portals is always glinting into everyday life, leading us to the diamond temple of who we really are. My out of body ventures led me into domains of beauty, love, and expanded awareness, but the most supernal experience of my life was still waiting for me fifteen years later. During a time of heartbreak, a mystical portal opened through the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Its transcendent embrace completely shifted my relationship with life and opened an unexpected path to my true vocation in the world. I am pleased to share these miracles in part two of my account.