The Mechanisms of Astral Projection (An Old and Rare Book)

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The chief, though by no means the only, evidence in favour of survival occurs in mediumistic communications-that purport to represent verifiable earth-memories, or distinctive characteristics, of persons who have "passed on". In addition, cases often include some definite evidence of appropriate purpose, as in the Chaffin Will case.

In The Supreme Adventure (James Clarke & Co. Ltd., 1961), the present writer gave reasons to believe that certain "communications" from supposed surviving souls; namely, those "communications" that purported to describe the experiences that had been undergone during the process of transition, were genuine and acceptable, inexplicable except on that hypothesis.

In The Study and Practice of Astral Projection and More Astral Projections (Aquarian Press, 1961, 1964), he showed that the different ways in which "doubles" are released from bodies of living people, l.e., whether the release was natural or enforced, can be correlated with differences in the "doubles" released, differences that are most readily explained on the hypothesis that these "doubles" were objective and not imaginary.

In Intimations of Immortality, he shows that different kinds of people (mediurhistic and non-mediumistic) release "doubles" that exhibit significant differences, these also are best explained on the hypothesis of an objective "double"

In Events on the Threshold of the After-life he shows that many people's "doubles" exhibit properties and features that differ from those of mental images in general and the likelihood of these "doubles" representing mental images of physical bodies is small.

In Experiences of the Threshold of the After-life he shows that the release of many people's "doubles" was accompanied by experiences that do not accompany the formation of mental images in general, with a similar implication.

In The Techniques of Astral Projection-Dénouement after fifty years (Aquarian Press, 1964) he showed that the most effective techniques by which people could release the "astral body" or "double" were communicated to mortals, via a medium who had no knowledge of and no interest in the matter, some fifty years before objective studies had indicated their effectiveness.

THE matter that is discussed below is of the first importance to every man, woman and child in the world. We must remember that, although human beings have existed for some 1,000,000-1,500,000 years, it was only in the last 300-400 years that the central fact of the working of the human body, namely, the circulation of the blood, was discovered: although fundamental, it was outside the knowledge of countless millions of people from the dawn of history until 1628. An analogous situation may well obtain does in our opinion obtain with regard to another fundamental matter, namely, to our total bodily constitution. Numerous people have claimed (as did St. Paul, II Cor. xii, 2; xv, 35, 44) that we sometimes leave the physical body in a second body (an "etheric", "astral", "psychical", "soul" or "spiritual" body), later returning to ordinary physical life, an experience popularly known as "astral projection". These people insist that this second body was "real" and not merely imagined; that it was temporarily projected or released from the physical body. Hundreds of examples of testimonies to this effect were given by the present writer in three books entitled The Study and Practice of Astral Projection, More Astral Projections and The Techniques of Astral Projection (Aquarian Press, 1961, 1964),

If these and similar testimonies have some basis in fact, as indeed the evidence indubitably indicates, millions of people are as unaware of their second ("astral") body as they are of the circulation of their blood. In other words, the fact that one is unaware of possessing a second body is no argument whatever against its existence. That must be decided on the basis of the evidence.

What does it matter? It matters a great deal. If a man can leave his physical body temporarily and continue to exist as a self-conscious being, the fact would provide a strong presumption that eventually, when he comes to leave his physical body permanently, ic., to die, he will then also continue to exist as a self-conscious being in that second body.

Certain psychical researchers have arrived at the same conclusion, as the astral projectors (most of whom were not scientifically-minded), ie, that the "astral" body is an objective reality. Thus, Dr. Hereward Carrington (Modern Psychical Phenomena, Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner Co. Ltd., 1919, p. 85) concluded, "A number of striking experiments seem to indicate, in the clearest possible manner, that, in addition to our physical body, we possess another body of the same shape, composed of a sort of etheric or semifluid substance-which has given rise to the sup-position that it is composed of matter of a different degree of density, or solidity, then the matter we know. The nature of this etheric body is now known; and many experiments have been conducted in an at tempt to detach it from the physical body, and with some success. It is presumed that this body survives the shock of death and that it is the seat of consciousness" Carrington pointed out that our possession of a second, "astral" or "etheric" body would explain not only the phenomena of astral projections but also those of apparitions that often occur in connexion with death, etc. Other psychical researchers take other views of this matter (see Appendix III).

Certain medical psychologists, however, regard astral projections as mere dreams; they consider that the "astral" or "etheric" body is nothing but the mental image that we form of the physical body. We all form mental images of our own bodies and they suggest that a sick man may imagine that he sees his own mental image of his own body. If this interpretation of the phenomena is correct, if the "astral" or "etheric" body is purely subjective, then these matters have no bearing on survival whatever.