CHAPTER 1
Enjoy This New Occult Frontier
'In the agonizing moment that seemed to last for ever, that moment before thetrain hit me, I finally realized this was a serious experiment. Question uponquestion raced through my astral consciousness. Were Gavin and Yvonne reallyreliable? Did the Canterbury Institute and the Church and School of Wicca knowwhat they were doing? Was the train going to kill me? Or would I come offunscathed, as they had promised? Was I crazy to place my trust in people I hadnever met, and in some rather glib statements in some lectures I had receivedthrough the mail?
'A few moments later I knew that everything was all right. Yes, the train hit meand my astral body went on a curving upward course through the engine, thetender, and the first freight car. The impact was slight. Just as had beenpromised, I was light as a feather. Now I was floating above the train withconfused memories of moving mechanical parts, gauges, a tank of diesel fuel,interspersed with lots of free space. This experience gave me the confidence togo further into the realms of astral travel, and now I believe I have exploredall except the outermost realms of time and the uppermost spiritual domains.
'I cannot thank you, the people at the Canterbury Institute, or the otherworkers enough for having added these new dimensions to my life. I am aChristian still firmly committed to my faith. Many things I have seen and donehave led me to a new understanding of the meaning of the Bible and of Jesus. Ican never express my gratitude for all you have done for me; and I wish youwell. May the bonds between all religions grow in love.'
The foregoing is an extract from a letter written by a paraplegic veteran. Oncehe was on the verge of suicide because he was, he thought, condemned for therest of his natural life to sit in a wheelchair and be tended by others. Astraltravel added a new dimension to his life, a dimension where he spends as muchtime as he can while his body remains in its wheelchair. In addition to theextensive experimental work this man has done for us, many times he has addedcomments such as, 'If only people knew the truth! If only people wouldexperiment as I have done! Not only would they lose their fear of the astralrealms, but they would also have a far more serene life and lose their fear ofdeath and dying.'
You can follow our friend into the astral realms. At the time of writing, evenmore subjects are conducting experiments for us and in that way are contributingto this work. We believe the instructions we give here are the mostcomprehensive, the easiest to understand and follow, that have ever been offeredto the public. They are not the results of one or two people's by-chance astraltrips; they are the result of a large body of trained subjects working withconscious intent for a common end. The participants come from all walks of life,and from all nations of the free world. You can astral travel too. You can do itwithout fear, for no one in all the thousands of letters and reports that wehave on file has ever reported any difficulty.
This book is intended as a practical guide, a book you can use to follow otherson to the astral. We recommend that you first read it through to get the generalgist and meaning. Then, and most importantly, you should read it a second timeand try out the instructions contained in each chapter before proceeding to thenext.
Re-evaluating Ancient Knowledge
The Pyramids and the Sphinx of ancient Egypt bear witness to the greatness ofthe civilization that existed in those far-off days. In Egypt was found theRhind Papyrus; on that papyrus are inscribed from ancient days all the degreesof latitude from the Equator to the North Pole. With today's modern satelliteequipment we find that the Egyptians' knowledge of the planet far surpassedanything they could have been expected to know from the apparent state of theirscience.
The ancient Mayans produced a calendar more accurate than the one we use today.The Mayans were able to chart the progress of the planets to an accuracy ofbetter than one day in six thousand years. Only since the invention of theatomic crystal clock have modern scientists been able to improve very slightlyon the accuracy of the Mayan calendar.
Other cultures in South America also had astounding knowledge and skills. Themonumental structures and city buildings made from cut stone by the Incas on thetops of mountains are a well-known enigma that remains to be explained. Modernconstruction equipment would have difficulty in duplicating the work of theIncas. When viewing those mountain sites, modern contractors shake their headsin wonder and amazement; and despite a millionaire's offer of funding, nocontractor has yet been found who would attempt to duplicate the work.
To the north, the Incas' Aztec brothers were pyramid builders. The basemeasurements of the Pyramid of the Sun near Mexico City are identical to thebase measurements of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh in Egypt.
In England ancient peoples built great stone or 'megalithic' monuments to a veryexact measure which astroarchaeologists call the 'megalithic yard'. That measureis based on the foot, which is not, as many suppose, derived from the anatomy ofsome long-dead king but is, instead, an astronomically perfect measure.
There are many other common beliefs shared by peoples who were separated fromone another by thousands of miles. Various theorists have propounded differenthypotheses for the very sophisticated scientific knowledge displayed by ancientpeoples. In recent years the ancient-astronaut theory has received a lot ofattention. In our opinion, there may indeed have been ancient astronauts;however, astral travel seems to us to be a far easier way for knowledge to havebeen transmitted from one ancient civilization to another.
It is our premise that this knowledge came from astral guidance and that thepeoples involved knew the realms where they could contact higher beings and getinformation from them. In support of this theory, ancient Egyptian writingsclearly show that they had knowledge of astral travel and that in healing theyregularly separated the patient's consciousness from his mundane body so thepatient would feel no pain while healing was being accomplished. Thus astralprojection seems to have been an ancient universal experience important enoughto be recorded in early writings.
During the Middle Ages men began to scoff at astral experiences; suchexperiences were not sanctioned by state-controlled religions. At about the sametime, eastern meditation was changed. No longer was the meditator allowed tofloat free (astral project); instead he was ordered to concentrate on a singlemantra. Later in 'scientific' western countries astral experiences were laughedat and then ruthlessly suppressed by the newly educated 'rational' middle class.Because of world-wide suppression of those experiences, the source of infiniteknowledge available to the Ancients was lost to us. Only in the last decade orso, with the new legitimacy of astral travel and its scientific testing by suchpeople as Dr Charles Tart of the University of California at Davis, has itbecome acceptable.
With the aid of this book, you too can tap into the knowledge that enriched thelife of the Ancients: astral knowledge which can be of vital importance in yourgrowth today. Do not try to evaluate astral travel with cold logic, for if youdo you will miss the whole point. The astral reality is not necessarily alogical place in terms of the physical world. We urge you to try the experimentswe suggest. Experience controlled astral travel for yourself. Expand yourawareness. Then judge the results for yourself.
The Light-Hearted Side of Astral Travel
Astral projection, or more simply, letting your spirit travel without your body,is one of the most useful and entertaining skills you can ever learn. You canwatch others in their daily lives facing and overcoming problems; you can learnwhat other people honestly think of you; you can find out what really happenedin history—and what is to happen in the future.
In their private lives people do the most amazing and amusing things. Theserious, staid pillar of the community is often one of the most relaxed peopleyou could ever wish to meet when he is in his own home. People have to relaxsometimes, and it seems that those who are the most uptight, the most self-consciouson the outside, are the most amusing when off guard. You can see lifeas it actually is. You can have great fun taking the starch out of your localvicar, perhaps by commenting in an offhand way on his most private and amusinghabits. That bank manager who's giving you a hard time over your loan will beinfinitely more relaxed with you if you can talk to him about his favouritehobby. You will not only know what his hobby is, but will also know exactly howhe feels about it.
You Have Already Astral Travelled!
You may doubt this startling claim, but you can prove it for yourself tonight.Demand an answer from your mind to a question whose answer you cannot possiblyknow. The question can be as simple as, 'What type of house does X live in?'having picked the X at random from the telephone directory. Write down the firstthing you feel about X's house when you wake. Now phone X. On your first attemptyou may find that X is unco-operative; but if you present it as a wager, mostpeople will go along with the gag.
The déjà vu (having been here before) experience is another common way you canprove to yourself that you have genuinely had astral-travel experiences. In mostdéjà vu cases, you get 'the feeling' just before you enter a room or go round acorner. Write down what you think you are going to see, or tell someone aboutit. Then walk round the corner. Now you can prove that you actually have beenthere before. Since in many cases it was totally impossible for you to have beenthere in the body, you have proved once again that astral travel is real.
You have already spontaneously astral travelled during sleep. Now, throughfollowing step by step the instructions in these pages, your trips can bedirected instead of random, useful instead of pointless. The purpose of thisbook is to show you how to control and use those previously unplanned trips.
Two Life-and-Death Cases
In the files we have many documented cases of people who effortlessly learned toastral travel. Some of these people became students because of the vivid butunexplainable things that happened to them—unexplainable, that is, in terms oftheir orthodox religious background. Here are two cases in which astralprojection meant the difference between life and death.
Case 1—Harry J.
Harry J. is a Missouri farmer. On his land there are many limestone caveformations. One day his twelve-year-old son persuaded Harry to take him into oneof the caves. Neither Harry nor Bucky knew very much about speleology, thescience of cave exploration; they just grabbed a couple of torches and a rope,and went off down into the caves. They got lost. They had no compass, and prettysoon the batteries in their torches began to fail. Wisely, they sat down toawait rescue. Meanwhile on the surface a heavy storm broke out, and in the cavewhere they sat the water quickly began to rise. In this situation Buckypanicked. He began to run away from the water. Harry grabbed at him but slippedand hit his head on a rock. He found himself free of his body. As he recountsit, the cave that had been pitch-dark was now eerily illuminated. In his newstate he 'knew' the way out and he drifted out through the entrance of the cave.A few moments later he regained consciousness back in his body. Now, even in thedark and in the rushing waters, he was able to guide Bucky through the maze ofcaves safely back to the entrance.
Case 2—Helga N.
Helga N. lives in a flat in Munich. A thalidomide baby, she does not have theuse of her legs. Perhaps as a kind of compensation Helga has the ability tospontaneously astral travel.
Normally her mother and father would be in the flat; but Helga convinced themshe would be all right with her friend Kaethe while the parents went skiing inthe Bavarian Alps. She knew they would benefit by a brief time away from theresponsibilities that stemmed from her handicap.
Helga and Kaethe were having a pleasant weekend when Kaethe's mother called tosay that her father had had a stroke. Could Kaethe come home, she urged, becausethe doctors did not expect him to last the night. Kaethe and Helga talked thingsover; Helga assured Kaethe she would be quite all right, provided only thatKaethe help her into bed. Kaethe did this and rushed off to her father'sbedside.
During the night fire broke out in a flat adjacent to Helga's. Thick chokingsmoke soon woke Helga. She coughed and cried out, but no one came, for the blockof flats was built in solid German fashion and sounds were not easilytransmitted through the walls. Realizing her fate lay in her own hands, Helgaastral projected herself and searched for someone who could be made aware of herplight. First she went to Kaethe, but Kaethe was so wrapped up in the crisis ather home that Helga could not get her attention. Helga tried other people sheknew, but everywhere she turned they seemed to be busy. Finally she had aninspiration. She rushed back to Kaethe's house and contacted Kaethe's father ashe lay there. With almost his last breathe he told Kaethe of Helga's danger andurged her to rescue her helpless friend. Helga watched as Kaethe got her coatand took the Strassenbahn (streetcar) to the block of flats, where she savedHelga's earth-plane life.
How This Book Can Guide You to a Better Life
Do these examples seem far-fetched? They are not. Our files contain hundreds ofsimilar examples of people from all walks of life who have gained by learning toastral project.
Whether you know it or not, you yourself lead a double life. The life you livein the world where you earn your living is matched with a similar life you liveon the other side of the invisible barrier that divides the astral world fromthe earth plane. Many people claim they do not live in that mysterious otherhalf of life, and they sincerely believe they do not. By getting them to try thetechniques spelled out in these pages, we showed them that they do actually livein both worlds. Your life in the plane of existence where you are reading thisinformation today may be chaotic or painful for you, but what is your life likein the astral? Upon examination you may find that your astral life is nearperfect. All you need to do is match your astral to your earth-plane life tobring the perfection of your astral to the earth plane and
OVERCOME MANY OF THE EVERYDAY PROBLEMS YOU MAY HAVE.
It works the other way too. If your mundane life is unsatisfactory, but youcan't work out why, you may find that you have some problems in the astralrealms. Checking on the astral for problems is an essential part of any attemptto make your life serene and happy.
Astral Projection Will Work for You
Do you dream?
OF COURSE YOU DO!
Do you daydream?
OF COURSE YOU DO!
Can you imagine yourself in a different place doing something different?
OF COURSE YOU CAN!
When you do these things, you are ALREADY doing all that will be required of youin this book. By simply extending your dream sequences and programming them, youwill be able to astral project. Many people do not realize how often 'dreams'are actually astral projections. For that reason and because the dream state isthe easiest from which to astral project, we are going to digress for a fewpages to discuss dreams.
Everyone Dreams
You dreamed last night. You may not have any memory of the dreams you had, butmodern research clearly shows that everyone dreams. Whether you remember it ornot, you dreamed. There are two basic reasons that may be preventing you fromremembering your dreams:
1. Too tired to remember—When you go to bed exhausted, you go into a deep sleepstate. In this state you dream, but the veil between the conscious and theunconscious minds is tightly drawn. The conscious mind is busy helping the bodyrecover from its exhaustion and repairing tissues. Signals from the lower levelsof the mind cannot be comprehended while the upper portions of the mind arepreoccupied.
2. Unexpected impressions—Many people expect only to see pictures when theydream, but people don't dream in pictures. Instead the impressions they get comeas:
a. sounds—This mode of dreaming is called 'auditory'. Psychics refer to peoplewho are open to sound messages as 'clairaudients'.
b. smells—Unusual as this may seem, it is a recognized mode of receiving dreamimpressions called nowadays 'olfactory'.
