Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt00147)

Dear Dallas
Thanks for your concern. Don't worry
Cass

"W.Dallas TenBroeck" <dalval14@earthlink.net> wrote:



APL 5 2005

Re: ASTRAL PROJECTION 

This may be of some value in considering this useful report on this strange
subject and its potential dangers:


TRUE PROGRESS

IS IT AIDED BY WATCHING THE ASTRAL LIGHT?

PERHAPS those who have engaged in discussions about whether it is more
advisable to become acquainted with the Astral Plane and to see therein than
to study the metaphysics and ethics of theosophy, may be aided by the
experience of a fellow student. 

For several years I studied about and experimented on the Astral Light to
the end that I might, if possible, develop the power to look therein and see
those marvelous pictures of that place which tempt the observer. But
although in some degrees success followed my efforts so far as seeing these
strange things was concerned, I found no increase of knowledge as to the
manner in which the pictures were made visible, nor as to the sources from
which they arose. 

A great many facts were in my possession, but the more I accumulated the
farther away from perception seemed the law governing them. I turned to a
teacher and he said:
"Beware of the illusions of matter."

"But," said I, "is this matter into which I gaze?"

"Yes; and of grosser sort than that which composes your body; full of
illusions, swarming with beings inimical to progress, and crowded with the
thoughts of all the wicked who have lived." 

"How," replied I, "am I to know aught about it unless I investigate it?"

"It will be time enough to do that when you shall have been equipped
properly for the exploration. He who ventures into a strange country
unprovided with needful supplies, without a compass and unfamiliar with the
habits of the people, is in danger. Examine and see." 

Left thus to myself, I sought those who had dabbled in the Astral Light, who
were accustomed to seeing the pictures therein every day, and asked them to
explain.

Not one had any theory, any philosophical basis. All were confused and at
variance each with the other. Nearly all, too, were in hopeless ignorance as
to other and vital questions. None were self-contained or dispassionate;
moved by contrary winds of desire, each one appeared abnormal; for, while in
possession of the power to see or hear in the Astral Light, there were
unregulated in all other departments of their being. Still more, they seemed
to be in a degree intoxicated with the strangeness of the power, for it
placed them in that respect above other persons, yet in practical affairs
left them without any ability.

Examining more closely, I found that all these "seers" were but
half-seers-and hardly even that. One could hear astral sounds but could not
see astral sights; another saw pictures, but no sound or smell was there;
still others saw symbols only, and each derided the special power of the
other. 

Turning even to the great Emanuel Swedenborg, I found a seer of wonderful
power, but whose constitution made him see in the Astral world a series of
pictures which were solely an extension of his own inherited beliefs. And
although he had had a few visions of actual everyday affairs occurring at a
distance, there were so few as only to be remarkable.

One danger warned against by the teacher was then plainly evident. It was
the danger of becoming confused and clouded in mind by the recurrence of
pictures which had no salutary effect so far as experience went. So again I
sought the teacher and asked:

"Has the Astral Light no power to teach, and, if not, why is it thus? And
are there other dangers than what I have discovered?"

"No power whatever has the astral plane, in itself, to teach you. It
contains the impressions made by men in their ignorance and folly. Unable to
arouse the true thoughts, they continue to infect that light with the virus
of their unguided lives. And you, or any other seer, looking therein will
warp and distort all that you find there. It will present to you pictures
that partake largely of your own constitutional habits, weaknesses, and
peculiarities. Thus you only see a distorted or exaggerated copy of
yourself. It will never teach you the reason of things, for it knows them
not. 

"But stranger dangers than any you have met are there when one goes further
on. The dweller of the threshold is there, made up of all the evil that man
has done. None can escape its approach, and he who is not prepared is in
danger of death, of despair, or of moral ruin. Devote yourself, therefore,
to spiritual aspiration and to true devotion, which will be a means for you
to learn the causes that operate in nature, how they work, and what each one
works upon."

I then devoted myself as he had directed, and discovered that a
philosophical basis, once acquired, showed clearly how to arrive at
dispassion and made exercise therein easy. It even enables me to clear up
the thousand doubts that assail those others who are peering into the Astral
Light. 

They compelled the disciple to abjure all occult practices until such time
as he had laid a sure foundation of logic, philosophy, and ethics; and only
then was he permitted to go further in that strange country from which many
an unprepared explorer has returned bereft of truth and sometimes despoiled
of reason. 

Further, I know that the Masters of the Theosophical Society have written
these words: 

"Let the Theosophical Society flourish through moral worth and philosophy,
and give up the pursuit of phenomena." 

Shall we be greater than They, and ignorantly set the pace upon the path
that leads to ruin?

BRYAN KINNAVAN PATH, July, 1890 

----------------------------

2


ASTRAL INTOXICATION


THERE is such a thing as being intoxicated in the course of an unwise
pursuit of what we erroneously imagine is spirituality. In the Christian
Bible it is very wisely directed to "prove all" and to hold only to that
which is good; this advice is just as important to the student of occultism
who thinks that he has separated himself from those "inferior" people
engaged either in following a dogma or in tipping tables for messages from
deceased relatives - or enemies - as it is to spiritists who believe in the
"Summerland" and "returning spirits."

The placid surface of the sea of spirit is the only mirror in which can be
caught undisturbed the reflections of spiritual things. 

When a student starts upon the path and begins to see spots of light flash
out now and then, or balls of golden fire roll past him, it does not mean
that he is beginning to see the real Self - pure spirit. 

A moment of deepest peace or wonderful revealings given to the student, is
not the awful moment when one is about to see his spiritual guide, much less
his own soul. Nor are psychical splashes of blue flame, nor visions of
things that afterwards come to pass, nor sights of small sections of the
astral light with its wonderful photographs of past or future, nor the
sudden ringing of distant fairy-like bells, any proof that you are
cultivating spirituality. 

These things, and still more curious things, will occur when you have passed
a little distance on the way, but they are only the mere outposts of a new
land which is itself wholly material, and only one remove from the plane of
gross physical consciousness.

The liability to be carried off and intoxicated by these phenomena is to be
guarded against. We should watch, note and discriminate in all these cases;
place them down for future reference, to be related to some law, or for
comparison with other circumstances of a like sort. 

The power that Nature has of deluding us is endless, and if we stop at these
matters she will let us go no further. It is not that any person or power in
nature has declared that if we do so and so we must stop, but when one is
carried off by what Boehme calls "God's wonders," the result is an
intoxication that produces confusion of the intellect. 

Were one, for instance, to regard every picture seen in the astral light as
a spiritual experience, he might truly after a while brook no contradiction
upon the subject, but that would be merely because he was drunk with this
kind of wine. While he proceeded with his indulgence and neglected his true
progress, which is always dependent upon his purity of motive and conquest
of his known or ascertain-able defects, nature went on accumulating the
store of illusory appearances with which he satiated himself.

It is certain that any student who devotes himself to these astral
happenings will see them increase. But were our whole life devoted to and
rewarded by an enormous succession of phenomena, it is also equally certain
that the casting off of the body would be the end of all that sort of
experience, without our having added really anything to our stock of true
knowledge.

The astral plane, which is the same as that of our psychic senses, is as
full of strange sights and sounds as an untrodden South American forest, and
has to be well understood before the student can stay there long without
danger. While we can overcome the dangers of a forest by the use of human
inventions, whose entire object is the physical destruction of the noxious
things encountered there, we have no such aids when treading the astral
labyrinth. We may be physically brave and say that no fear can enter into
us, but no untrained or merely curious seeker is able to say just what
effect will result to his outer senses from the attack or influence
encountered by the psychical senses.

And the person who revolves selfishly around himself as a center is in
greater danger of delusion than any one else, for he has not the assistance
that comes from being united in thought with all other sincere seekers. One
may stand in a dark house where none of the objects can be distinguished and
quite plainly see all that is illuminated outside; in the same way we can
see from out of the blackness of our own house our hearts - the objects now
and then illuminated outside by the astral light; but we gain nothing. We
must first dispel the inner darkness before trying to see into the darkness
without; we must know ourselves before knowing things extraneous to
ourselves.

This is not the road that seems easiest to students. Most of them find it
far pleasanter and, as they think, faster work, to look on all these outside
allurements, and to cultivate all psychic senses, to the exclusion of real
spiritual work.
The true road is plain and easy to find, it is so easy that very many would
- be students miss it because they cannot believe it to be so simple.


"The way lies through the heart";
Ask there and wander not;
Knock loud, nor hesitate
Because at first the sounds
Reverberating, seem to mock thee.
Nor, when the door swings wide,
Revealing shadows black as night,
Must thou recoil.
Within, the Master's messengers
Have waited patiently:
That Master is Thyself!

PATH, October, 1887

------------------------------

3

ASTRAL BODY -- Names in Older Systems

There are many names for the ASTRAL BODY. Here are a few: Linga Sarira,
Sanskrit, meaning design body, and the best one of all; ethereal double;
phantom; wraith; apparition; doppelganger; personal man; perisprit;
irrational soul; animal soul; Bhuta; elementary; spook; devil; demon. 

Some of these apply only to the astral body when devoid of the corpus after
death. Bhuta, devil, and elementary are nearly synonymous; the first
Sanskrit, the other English. With the Hindus the Bhuta is the Astral Body
when it is by death released from the body and the mind; and being thus
separated from conscience, is a devil in their estimation. They are not far
wrong, if we abolish the old notion that a devil is an angel fallen from
heaven, for this bodily devil is something which rises from the earth. 


It may be objected that the term Astral Body is not the right one for this
purpose. The objection is one which arises from the nature and genesis of
the English language, for …as its philosophers have not admitted the
existence of these inner organs, the right terms do not exist in the
language. So in looking for words to describe the inner body the only ones
found in English were the "astral body." 

This term comes near to the real fact, since the substance of this form is
derived from cosmic matter or star matter, roughly speaking. But the old
Sanskrit word describes it exactly -- Linga Sarira, the design body --
because it is the design or model for the physical body. 

This is better than "ethereal body," as the latter might be said to be
subsequent to the physical, whereas in fact the astral body precedes the
material one. The astral body is made of matter of very fine texture as
compared with the visible body, and has a great tensile strength, so that it
changes but little during a lifetime, while the physical alters every
moment. And not only has it this immense strength, but at the same time
possesses an elasticity permitting its extension to a considerable distance.
It is flexible, plastic, extensible, and strong. 


ASTRAL BODY IS OF ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC MATTER

The matter of which it is composed is electrical and magnetic in its
essence, and is just what the whole world was composed of in the dim past
when the processes of evolution had not yet arrived at the point of
producing the material body for man. But it is not raw or crude matter.
Having been through a vast period of evolution and undergone purifying
processes of an incalculable number, its nature has been refined to a degree
far beyond the gross physical elements we see and touch with the physical
eye and hand. 


ASTRAL IS THE MODEL FOR THE PHYSICAL

The astral body is the guiding model for the physical one, and all the other
kingdoms have the same astral model. Vegetables, minerals, and animals have
the ethereal double, and this theory is the only one which will answer the
question how it is that the seed produces its own kind and all sentient
beings bring forth their like. Biologists can only say that the facts are as
we know them, but can give no reason why the acorn will never grow anything
but an oak except that no man ever knew it to be otherwise…


POSSIBILITY OF ASTRAL TRAVEL

In the ordinary man who has not been trained in practical occultism or who
has not the faculty by birth, the astral body cannot go more than a few feet
from the physical one. It is a part of that physical, it sustains it and is
incorporated in it just as the fibers of the mango are all through that
fruit. 

But there are those who, by reason of practices pursued in former lives on
the earth, have a power born with them of unconsciously sending out the
astral body. These are mediums, some seers, and many hysterical, cataleptic,
and scrofulous people. Those who have trained themselves by a long course of
excessively hard discipline which reaches to the moral and mental nature and
quite beyond the power of the average man of the day, can use the astral
form at will, for they have gotten completely over the delusion that the
physical body is a permanent part of them, and, besides, they have learned
the chemical and electrical laws governing in this matter. In their case
they act with knowledge and consciously; in the other cases the act is done
without power to prevent it, or to bring it about at will, or to avoid the
risks attendant on such use of potencies in nature of a high character. 


ASTRAL BODY AND THE REAL SENSES

The astral body has in it the real organs of the outer sense organs. In it
are the sight, hearing, power to smell, and the sense of touch. It has a
complete system of nerves and arteries of its own for the conveyance of the
astral fluid which is to that body as our blood is to the physical. It is
the real personal man. There are located the subconscious perception and the
latent memory, which the hypnotizers of the day are dealing with and being
baffled by. 


ASTRAL GHOST OR SPOOK CAN BE EVOKED, MATERIALIZED

It is the spook of the spiritualistic seance-rooms, and is there made to
masquerade as the real spirit of this or that individual. Attracted by the
thoughts of the medium and the sitters, it vaguely flutters where they are,
and then is galvanized into a factitious life by a whole host of elemental
forces, and by the active astral body of the medium who is holding the
seance or of any other medium in the audience. 


PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECTION OF MEMORIES OF LAST LIFE

>From it (as from a photograph) are then reflected into the medium's brain
all the boasted evidences which spiritualists claim go to prove identity of
deceased friend or relative. These evidences are accepted as proof that the
spirit of the deceased is present, because neither mediums nor sitters are
acquainted with the laws governing their own nature, nor with the
constitution, power, and function of astral matter and astral man. 

The Theosophical philosophy does not deny the facts proven in spiritualistic
seances, but it gives an explanation of them wholly opposed to that of the
spiritualists. And surely the utter absence of any logical scientific
explanation by these so-called spirits of the phenomena they are said to
produce supports the contention that they have no knowledge to impart. They
can merely cause certain phenomena; the examination of those and deductions
therefrom can only be properly carried on by a trained brain guided by a
living trinity of spirit, soul, and mind. And here another class of
spiritualistic phenomena requires brief notice. That is the appearance of
what is called a "materialized spirit." 


MATERIALIZED SPIRIT

Three explanations are offered: 

First, that the astral body of the living medium detaches itself from its
corpus and assumes the appearance of the so-called spirit; for one of the
properties of the astral matter is capacity to reflect an image existing
unseen in ether. 

Second, the actual astral shell of the deceased -- wholly devoid of his or
her spirit and conscience -- becomes visible and tangible when the condition
of air and ether is such as to so alter the vibration of the molecules of
the astral shell that it may become visible. The phenomena of density and
apparent weight are explained by other laws. 

Third, an unseen mass of electrical and magnetic matter is collected, and
upon it is reflected out of the astral light a picture of any desired person
either dead or living. This is taken to be the "spirit" of such persons, but
it is not, and has been justly called by H. P. Blavatsky a "psychological
fraud," because it pretends to be what it is not. And, strange to say, this
very explanation of materializations has been given by a "spirit" at a
regular seance, but has never been accepted by the spiritualists just
because it upsets their notion of the return of the spirits of deceased
persons. 

Finally, the astral body will explain nearly all the strange psychical
things happening in daily life and in dealings with genuine mediums; it
shows what an apparition may be and the possibility of such being seen, and
thus prevents the scientific doubter from violating good sense by asserting
you did not see what you know you have seen; it removes superstition by
showing the real nature of these phenomena, and destroys the unreasonable
fear of the unknown which makes a man afraid to see a "ghost." By it also we
can explain the apportation of objects without physical contact, for the
astral hand may be extruded and made to take hold of an object, drawing it
in toward the body. When this is shown to be possible, then travelers will
not be laughed at who tell of seeing the Hindu yogee make coffee cups fly
through the air and distant objects approach apparently of their own accord
untouched by him or anyone else. 


CLAIRVOYANCE AND CLAIRAUDIENCE

All the instances of clairvoyance and clairaudience are to be explained also
by the astral body and astral light. The astral -- which are the real --
organs do the seeing and the hearing, and as all material objects are
constantly in motion among their own atoms the astral sight and hearing are
not impeded, but work at a distance as great as the extension of the astral
light or matter around and about the earth. Thus it was that the great seer
Swedenborg saw houses burning in the city of Stockholm when he was at

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