Book review: The Ten Minute Moment

Book review: The Ten Minute Moment

by Jurgen Ziewe

Click here to see a list of all my OBE book reviews

Back in April, 2013, I did a book review for Jurgen Ziewe's book, Multidimensional Man and I gave it a glowing review. It's fantastic. It's definitely a "must have" book for anyone interested in out-of-body experiences and where they can take you.

The sequel, The Ten Minute Moment, is not directly about OBEs, but there are several reasons why I felt I should add it to my "OBE Book Reviews". First, it is "A powerful experiment in consciousness" as the back cover suggests. Second, it does talk about OBEs and other transcendental experiences. Third, it makes a good addendum to the author's first book, which is about OBEs.

The author was kind enough to mail me a copy of this book, and although I received it several weeks ago, it's taken me a long time to read, despite the fact that it's a short book (138 pages, and much of that is taken by photos). The reason is: I deliberately read it slowly, carefully. I would read a page here and there, then set it down, giving it time to digest for a few days. Many times my inner voice--my intuition-- would step in and suggest I set the book down and let it settle. This isn't out of line: It took me more than a year and a half to read Yogananda's translation of the Bhagavad Gita because I would read a page or a paragraph, then set it down for the day to let the wisdom sink in. Many times I'd meditate on it as well. I also did this when I read The Bible.

In my review of Multidimensional Man, I described Jurgen Ziewe as the "Eckhart Tolle of OBEs." It was so subtle that I gave a lengthy explanation. In The Ten Minute Moment, it's not subtle; it's obvious: this book is chock full of wisdom that often lies hidden and might easily be overlooked: an unintended bi-product of the deeply spiritual experiences of the author. My point is: It pays not to rush through this book.

The only thing I didn't like about Multidimensional Man was its lack of a "how to" section. The author gave all these fabulous out-of-body narratives and even some "God" experiences, but he never gave any techniques on how to do it yourself. In The Ten Minute Moment, Ziewe bridges that gap: he gives tips and techniques, not so much for achieving OBEs per se, but for his unique forms of meditation. For that reason alone, the book is a great addendum to Multidimensional Man.

One important thing to understand is that Ziewe was not trying to achieve OBEs (in either book); he was meditating, trying for a God / Nirvana / Satori / Enlightenment experience. It's just that many times he slipped into an OBE state "by accident" instead of reaching his ultimate goal. So his instructions in this book are not geared toward OBE as the goal. In fact, he often resists the pull of OBEs because he's after something much better. An out-of-body experience is still an "experience." It's still "doing" as opposed to "being", or as Ziewe puts it:

"Light is just a space which exchanges the old physical space with the new non-physical one and despite its glory it means nothing as long as it is perceived as separate from me. Stillness is different even if it is a black void, but as it offers silence, belongingness and unity it is much closer to reality and more powerful than any external experience no matter how glorious." (p.27)

To say that the book gives instructions for meditating is very misleading (some would say incorrect), so I should explain. In fact, Ziewe doesn't give instructions at all. He doesn't suggest exercises in any conventional sense of the word. He doesn't tell you to focus on your belly button, or visualize energy rising up your spine to energize the chakras. He doesn't say to focus on your third eye, or to chant an inner Aum sound, or any conventional techniques. In fact, he doesn't advise you to "do" anything, really. He does something much more important: He takes your hand and walks you through exactly what he did, step by step. That's much more helpful, at least to me. And in so describing what he did, and what happened, he gently invites you to take his arm and be escorted to the doors of inner silence. For example:

"With my inner vision held suspended in the dark void within, my ears methodically collected all sounds as if they were pearls found on an exotic beach. As I gathered their treasure they found themselves strung on a colourful necklace stretching across the inner void." (p.85)

That description is much more than clever or artful writing. If you look under the covers, you'll notice it is very instructional: instead of telling you what to do in your meditation (doing), he tells you exactly the frame of mind or attitude to place yourself in (being). He teaches more by example than by recipe:

"The sun of love had now become the object of my meditation. The only way to focus on it was to surrender to it. Love can never be divided. To fully understand and appreciate love I had to become love, and surrendering to it was the only way. The moment I did it ceased to be a sun and became a stream, rising into the air and then cascading down in its blessing, taking me with it." (p.87)

The author is a word-artist (as well as an artist by trade), trying to draw you into the painting.

There is a "Nine-Step Meditation towards Awakening" sprinkled throughout the book at strategic intervals, but even those instructions are more geared toward being than doing. He uses descriptions like "I surrender to it and let it unfold." Or like "I simply allow Consciousness to reveal Unity to me." Instead of meditating on a word, he would "allow it to float through my awareness." It's almost as if he's describing himself in a cosmic river, but instead of paddling or kicking to move from place to place, he's simply allowing it to flow, allowing his awareness to be swept away with it, with a feeling of immense gratitude.

There is also a down-to-earth humanness to the book. Ziewe is not some high and mighty enlightened guru on a mountaintop. He's an ordinary man, with ordinary flaws. He doesn't always get it right; his meditations don't always produce the results he wants. He writes with an undeniable honesty that speaks to the heart:

"...humbly accepting what I am with all its limitations. There were no attributes that could make me into anything special, make me stand out, and in that I perceived the greatest blessing, to be as humble as the squirrel on my porch, as the bird feeding on the crumbs given to them. The pleasure was intense and so was the gratitude I felt." (p.44)

This book is not just about meditating and inner experiences. It's a journey, physical as well as spiritual, and even the physical descriptions touched a special place in my heart. Perhaps that's because there are many parallels between my life and the author's. Consider this:

• Ziewe and I are both published authors.
• Ziewe has had countless OBEs, and so have I.
• On page 71, he writes about consciously watching the process of entering a dream. I've done this too, and seen the entire process in detail.
• Both of us could be considered old-timers, in our 50s.
• Ziewe has a stable long-term loving marriage. I do too (21 years).
• We both value solitude and nature: This book takes place at a cabin in the middle of a forest, with a nearby lake. I actually live in a house in the middle of a forest, on a lake in Northern Minnesota.
• Ziewe feeds crumbs to the birds and squirrels. I have bird feeders and enjoy feeding the birds and squirrels right outside my office.
• Ziewe describes watching deer walking by. As I'm writing this account, I can actually see a deer walking by, just outside my window.
• Ziewe writes about his love of photography and walking around with his camera, taking pictures of the wildlife. I love photography too, and have taken countless photos. Anyone who's read any of the travelogues from my website will vouch for that.

It's almost as if Jurgen Ziewe and I are walking the same path. Right now, Jurgen is so far ahead of me spiritually, that I may never catch up. Maybe that's why I see his writing as such a beacon of light on my path.

This book is one man's personal journey: a journey into the wilderness and a journey to enlightenment. It's well written, descriptive and very informative, which is not easy to do when you're talking about transcendent and/or ecstatic experiences.

The Ten Minute Moment is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it.

Book review: Astral Dancer by Alison Wylie

Book review: Astral Dancer

by Alison Wylie

I've known Alison ("Ali") Wylie, author of Astral Dancer, for a few years now, thanks to facebook and other online sites. She's a fascinating woman and passionate about OBEs, but she keeps a very low profile. Like me, she is pretty quiet and reserved and doesn't do much to promote her book. In fact, I didn't even know the book existed, and I make it a point to: I've got one of the largest collections of OBE books on the planet.

So when my wife Kathy and I (along with three other family members) took a vacation to Italy in late September, I had a golden opportunity to meet the author in person. As part of our trip, Kathy had planned to spend a day in the town of Caserta, and I knew Ali lives in a town not far from there. And so we met her at the main attraction in town, the Palace of Caserta.

She (along with her husband and daughter) orchestrated an over-the-top picnic lunch for our meeting. I gave her a copy of my first book, Out of Body Experiences and she gave me a copy of her book, Astral Dancer. I only recently got a chance to read it. It's an interesting book, and unique in the genre.

Due to unfortunate train schedules, mishaps and other circumstances, I didn't get to spend much time talking with her; about an hour: just enough to learn that she's a wonderful, warm person, with an inner strength that she doesn't let show. That shows in her book as well.

Part One, "Danny's Story," is a strange set of interchanges and lessons involving Ali and Danny, who is kind of like another aspect of Ali. In my books, I wrote about my inner voice, and I suspect Ali is doing a similar thing with Danny, although with Danny there are more past-life and OBE connections. This is a journey of Danny's healing from past-life abuse, but it's about so much more: It's also about exploring different aspects of ourselves, karma, and awareness of our spiritual being and Higher Self, and spiritual growth, all facilitated by Ali and her OBEs.

After Danny's story ends, it is "the Beginning of all the Others", also known as Part Two. This is mostly narratives of Ali's OBEs, and there's a lot of them.

As I've done with all my OBE book reviews, I need to be honest and upfront about what I liked and what I didn't.

The only thing I didn't like about the book was that the lines seemed to be sometimes blurred between OBEs and dreams. In my writing, I've always tried to make a clear distinction between ordinary dreams ("unconscious and hallucinating"), lucid dreams ("conscious and hallucinating"), and OBEs ("conscious but not hallucinating"). In this book, it wasn't always clear to me what was what. It seemed like there were transitions from OBEs into and out of dreams, and back again. I found that a bit off-putting, but that's probably just me and my own rigidity. After all, even in waking physical life, our minds form our perceptions, and that's all we ever really perceive, so I shouldn't get hung up on that, right?
On the positive side, I love how Ali interprets her experiences; both dreams and OBEs. She clearly sees the spiritual lessons, and I admire that clarity of vision that most people lack. Her experiences--even negative ones--have a positive spin, and she explains them quite well.

I love how Ali always confronts negativity with a level head, without fear, and on her own terms. There are times in the book where it seems like she'd like to sit down and have a nice cup of tea with the Devil (if such a being exists), just to chat and ask him a few questions and find out what makes him tick. Most ordinary human beings would be terrified of out their wits at the prospect of confronting the ultimate symbol of evil, but not Ali Wylie.

Along the same lines, I love how she deals with negative energies and entities in her OBEs. She wraps them with love, joy and compassion, and in some cases, even directs them out a nearby window. Her gentle but mature nature shine brightly in this book.

Ali has some great ideas and great quotes throughout the book:

"We have to save our children, both in the literal sense and in the inner sense. We need to reconnect to our inner joy, to rediscover the wonder of life and of the world. Maybe if we all do this, humanity will find her inner child too."

I loved this quote too (but I would have made it two sentences!):

"There is always a choice, we can react from fear, from negativity and aggression or we can react from love, in peace."

The author doesn't focus much on techniques or recommendations. Instead, she focuses on the OBE narratives and what we can learn from them at a spiritual level. This book is as much about life lessons (learning from our dreams and other experiences and connecting with different aspects of our soul) as it is about the actual OBEs.

Where does she get the title, Astral Dancer, from? As she puts it:
"I do a lot of dancing in the Astral. I often throw my clothes off and dance gracefully, like twirling energy, to hauntingly beautiful music, or I throw somersaults and dance enthusiastically in the air." So if you ever have an OBE and you see a naked woman darting about joyfully in the air, it might be Ali Wylie! But all kidding aside, I get it: too often I've cast aside all my own lessons, goals and missions to soar and dart about wildly in my OBEs. The freedom you feel is exquisite, and the joy is sometimes just too explosive to resist expression.

In my reviews, I usually talk about the writing itself.

The book has some endearing British colloquialisms that I need to acknowledge. It wasn't excessive, but at times I didn't even recognize a word, and had to look it up in the dictionary. For example, she writes: "I put a pair of dark plimsolls on and start running." Plimsolls are apparently running shoes. Still, that gave the book character and a unique personality.

Being an admitted over-zealous grammar Nazi, I found some grammatical problems. Mostly these were just sentence fragments that should have, in my opinion, been broken into two sentences, as I pointed out above. However, that did not detract from the content; her meaning was clear. I don't recall any spelling errors, and only one typo.

I give Astral Dancer a thumbs up, but I wouldn't recommend it as your first exposure to the topic of OBEs. Make it your fourth or fifth book instead. The reason is: there are some pretty wild stories in there, and it makes the topic seem a bit weird for newbies.

Bob Peterson
13 November 2013

What if God's Grace Came in Packets?

What if God's Grace Came in Packets?

By Bob Peterson, Oct 14, 2013

In a song called Part of the Plan, Dan Fogelberg wrote:

I have these moments all steady and strong,

I'm feeling so holy and humble,

The next thing you know, I'm all worried and weak,

And I feel myself starting to crumble.

Often you trudge through your days, stuck in a thick mire of habits and obligations. You move forward, fighting the obstacles in your life, trying to give each day some meaning, some justification. Every move you make in your chess game is countered with a new challenge, a new threat. Your work seems overwhelming. Bills need paying. Dishes need washing. Clothes need laundering. Life is a struggle. Through it all, you worry. You feel inadequate, weak, and small.

But every now and then, something changes. You wake up feeling elated, strong, and confident. You know you're okay. Everything in life runs smoothly, comfortably. Even when things aren't working, you feel purposeful and knowledgeable; stronger than the tide that threatens to carry you out to sea. Surrounded by mindless, ignorant people, you feel nothing but love. Engulfed by a dirty, chaotic world, you feel nothing but empathy. Trapped inside a mundane world of physical objects, you somehow feel connected and spiritual. As a soul, you can sit back and laugh at the world's ridiculousness. You have an overwhelming love for God, and gratitude for no particular reason. You can feel it: it's God's Grace.

The next day, you're stuck in the mire again, but that sacred touch was enough to keep you going.

Psychologists say that we're all bipolar to a greater or lesser degree. Everyone has moments of being manic and being depressed, but for most people, the peaks and valleys are small and inconsequential. Still, these moments of grace seem to defy your normal ups and downs of life, like a reprieve. Or a gift.

What if God has a small pouch tied around His (or Her) waist, filled with packets of Grace? Every day, He reaches in with a mighty hand and pinches a carefully measured amount between his fingers. He reaches his enormous arm over the Earth and sprinkles that grace over the surface. If you're in the right place, God's Grace enters your body like a drug, revitalizing you, and spreading its messages of hope:

“Everything's going to be all right.”

“Everything is exactly how it should be.”

“You're right where you're supposed to be.”

“You're good enough.”

“You are loved.”

“You are a child of God; you are Love incarnate.”

Grace lingers for an hour, or a day. If you could see it, you would put it on the upturned palm of your hand, thank it for its gifts, then blow it away in the direction of someone who needs it more. Having done its job, the packet of God's Grace leaves you and bounces and skips joyfully across the surface of the Earth, looking for another life to touch. 

Still, it echoes and reverberates through your soul, until you need to be reminded again.

Review: Journeys Out of the Body by Robert A. Monroe

Journeys Out of the Body by Robert A Monroe

Book review by Bob Peterson

It has been 34 years since I read Journeys Out of the Body by Robert A. Monroe. This was the book that started me on my spiritual journey. It made a major impact on my life and changed me forever. I'll never be the same. Back then I knew absolutely nothing about OBEs. Now, after reading pretty much every OBE book I could get my hands on, hundreds of my own OBEs and writing two of my own OBE books, and I decided to re-read it and see how it stacked up.

Monroe opens with the story of how he started having OBEs. He didn't read a book like I did; it was purely by accident. At first he thought there was something wrong physically: he saw a doctor. Then he saw psychiatrists and other professionals, but nobody could give him any answers. In the end, he decided to just explore the state on his own.

He wrote about some of the physical evidence that led him to believe this was more than just a realistic dream: he was able to witness places and events while out-of-body that he could later verify.

Monroe talked about discovering three "locales". Locale 1 is "Here-Now" which is the OBE equivalent of our physical world. This is typical for beginners: seeing your bedroom and your house, etc.

Locale 2 is what most people might call "The Astral Plane". It's a completely non-physical environment. Many experienced explorers find themselves here.

Locale 3 is more intriguing. Monroe describes it as a parallel physical world with a different level of technology. On many occurrences, he entered the body of another man and lived his life in that world, often getting him into trouble. Sometimes this seemed to last for years (in that other person's timeline). Locale 3 is hard to fathom because it's never talked about in any of the other OBE books. I've never had a Locale 3 experience in any of my OBEs, but in my first book, I wrote about a childhood experience that might be the same thing. I wrote: "It was like waking from a dream; this world was a dream and I awoke to a reality more real and vivid than this world was." And at the time, it seemed like I spent many (think hundreds of) years in that place. In recent years, however, I have come across a few more people on the Internet who claim this has happened to them as well. Modern physicists postulate alternative realities, so maybe it's something like that. Whatever it is, it's worth exploring further. I might add that, as best as I can recall, Monroe didn't talk about this in his book Far Journeys nor Ultimate Journey. However, my memory of those books is equally old, so I need to go back and re-read them as well.

In this book, Monroe describes some pretty graphic and unusual OBEs. For example, he describes an OBE in which he slammed into a wall and was stuck for what seemed like an hour, trying to get around it. It's not unheard of in the literature: In Jurgen Ziewe's book Multidimensional Man he talks about taking great effort to penetrate boundaries that lead to other planes of existence.

At another point in the book, Monroe talks about touching his own physical body. He talked about probing his physical feet and face with his astral hands, from an OBE. This is something that's not mentioned in other OBE books as far as I recall: most books state that if you touch your physical body, or even think about it too much, you'll be drawn back inside. That's always been my experience as well, so I'm not sure what to make of this claim.

He also describes experiences in which he is being pestered by small, childlike beings that would attach themselves to his body in the OBE state. That's definitely never happened to me.

One of the more interesting experiments was when Monroe apparently induced an OBE while inside a Faraday cage; an electrically charged metal cage. He couldn't get out of it. I question whether he was confined by his own expectations rather than any laws of physics.

In chapter 15, Monroe talks about uncontrollable, almost irresistible sexual urges during an OBE. When he returned to his physical body, the urges went away. That also seems unusual; I've never had sexual urges in an OBE. When I'm out-of-body, sex is the last thing on my mind: I'm filled with the joy and excitement of discovery and exploration. Often I have to fight the urge to go soaring up into the sky like a rocket, hands in the air, screaming like a little kid on a roller coaster that fills the sky. The thought of sex just isn't there. Still, I did have one sexual encounter in an OBE, and Monroe's description was pretty accurate: it was just a simple, intimate, explosion / exchange of energy that involves your whole astral body. At one point, Monroe talks about encountering a society in which astral sex is as common and unattached as shaking hands. My encounter wasn't that casual.

In chapter 17, Monroe talks about the separation process. I found one thing very peculiar. He wrote:

"...it is most important for your own objective continuity that you remain in complete control. The only possible way to do this seems to be by staying close to the physical in the early stages."

That's peculiar, because it's the exact opposite of my experience. I side with OBE veteran Sylvan Muldoon, who described a "[silver] cord activity range" approximately 15 feet (5 meters) away from your physical body. If you're within that range, you're more susceptible to perception problems, eyesight distortions, lack of control, and being sucked back inside your body. Once outside that range, you're clear to roam, free as a bird. So I have no idea how Monroe was able to retain such control near his physical body--even touching it--while within such close proximity.

Monroe talks about the vibrations. He talked about how they can first appear like a blue ring of electrical energy. I had long forgotten that, but I wrote about the same thing in my first book. He also talked about how the vibrations start out rough, course and electrical, and as time went on, they became more refined and smooth; just a hum. That also matches my experience as well.

Another thing that struck me as odd is how easily Monroe describes leaving his body. He makes it sound as easy as opening a door and walking through. For me, it's never been that easy; I have to hold my mind still and focus for a very long time before I can actually exit.

I'd say Journeys Out of the Body is required reading for anyone interested in out-of-body experiences. It's objective, impersonal, and definitely very engaging. It's definitely not the end of the story; some of the most important books came out after this one. Still, this book did change my life, so it has a special place in my heart.

2013 Sep 13

Ghost Cats

Ghost Cats

by Bob Peterson

In a way, my out-of-body experiences make me a good paranormal investigator, since I've already conquered my fears of the unknown, fears of spirits and so forth. I've come face to face with "ghosts" so many times in an OBE that there's not a lot that can frighten me anymore. Plus, in those OBEs, I am a ghost!

A few weekends ago, the Minnesota Paranormal Coalition (MPC), hosted a paranormal investigation of the Palmer House hotel in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, and I joined in. Several paranormal teams from the MPC were there, but the investigation was led by a team called F.R.E.A.K.S (Friends Researching Entities And Known Spirits) and their team leader, Char.

I must admit I was apprehensive: I hadn't done a ghost investigation since around 1984, when I was president of the MSPR (Minnesota Society for Parapsychological Research). Back then, we did many ghost investigations (that's primarily what we did) but I got out of it after I graduated from the University of Minnesota. Since that time, the technology has advanced greatly. Now I'm a member of a team called Nightweb Paranormal Investigations, led by my friend Mikail Bumpus.

The subject of the investigation, the Palmer House, is a very old hotel, and reputedly very haunted. People see ghosts there all the time. It's even been the subject of popular television show "Ghost Adventures". I heard dozens of ghost stories about the place: There's room 22, which is very noisy, even when unoccupied (and the television turns itself on). There's the ghost of a little boy who sits on the stairs and sometimes rolls a ball. There's the ghost of a German fellow and lots of other ghosts in the basement. There's Annie, an affectionate old woman who haunts room 11. Lots of ghosts.

I think most people would agree: It's one thing to hear ghost stories, and it's another to experience it yourself. I only want to talk about what I personally experienced myself. Seeing is believing, so I know my camera's photos were not faked. I know my audio recorder was not altered. Besides, I haven't heard from the other teams yet.

There were a lot of investigators. That makes it difficult because there's too much talking and background noise to get solid evidence over all the noise. We split up into small groups, each of which walked around the place with cameras, audio recorders, video recorders, K-2s, and other gadgets, trying to make contact.


And what did I find? Ghost cats. I'm still waiting to hear what other investigators got, I got evidence of ghost cats.
The first ghost cat I noticed was on an ordinary photo from my Sony Alpha 1 digital camera of the hotel lobby sitting area. I took this photo myself and it's not been altered. At first glance, it looks like a normal photo, right?

Look closer. This is a 24-megapixel camera, so focus on the blue chair sitting on the very back wall, next to the sofa. Next to the curved railing, it looks like a ghost cat is sitting in the chair. Zoomed in, it looks like this:

I used a photo processing program called "gimp" to adjust the brightness and contrast (and nothing else), and it becomes a bit easier to see:

Incidentally, the photo I took before this one also shows some possible paranormal activity: It looks like the ghost of a little girl standing next to that same chair. But that's another story.

Later that night I joined a group of investigators in room 11, "Annie's Room." As standard operating procedure, I had my audio recorder going. At one point in the recording, there is a very clear "meow" and 17 seconds later, another very clear "meow." You can listen to the excerpt here:

http://www.robertpeterson.org/meows.mp3

I have a strong allergic reaction to cat dander, so I'm always on the lookout for cats. I guarantee you: there were absolutely no cats in any of the rooms while I was there, and I did not have a reaction. So whatever made these "meow" sounds was either a ghost cat, or one of the investigators (or their recordings.)

I contacted one of the investigators who was in the room with me, a guy named Jerry from SIM (Supernatural Investigators of Minnesota). I sent him a facebook message:

Bob: "Hey Jerry, remember Palmer House when you were doing the Ganzfeld experiment? I've been going over my audio recording and seem to have caught EVPs of two cat meows. You recorded that on video, right?"

Jerry: "Yes I did - plus I had a cat walking on my bed and video taped that too!"

Bob: "Wait. A physical cat? Or a nonphysical one? I don't remember any physical cat there."

Jerry: "A Ghost Cat!"

So now I'm anxiously waiting for the other evidence to pour in, including Jerry's video recording.

One nice thing about a ghost cat: It's clear to hear over the noise and talking of other investigators.

Note that we haven't examined all the evidence we gathered, so these are only preliminary findings.

2013 Aug 29

Adventures in the Afterlife by William Buhlman

Adventures in the Afterlife by William Buhlman

book review by Bob Peterson

I have to apologize for the length of this article, but I need to explain a few things so you don't get the wrong idea.

First of all, let me say that I love everything about William Buhlman. I remember many years ago when I got my copy of his first book, Adventures Beyond the Body. My wife Kathy and I were staying at a lodge in the woods of northern Minnesota, one of the perks of her job at the time. I had just bought Adventures and took it on the trip. Kathy wanted to go out boating and hiking, but all I wanted to do is read. And so we sat on the balcony overlooking the pristine lake and read our respective books side by side. I always prefer nonfiction, especially books on OBEs and consciousness, whereas Kathy prefers fiction, especially Stephen King.

I distinctly remember turning to her on several occasions and breaking the silence, saying, "I love this guy! Listen to this, Kathy..." and then I'd read another passage to her. I also told her, "If this book had been written a couple years earlier, I might not have written my book. He says a lot of the same things I said in my book, and a bunch of things I should have said!" (That was before I wrote my other three books).

A couple years later, I had the pleasure of meeting Buhlman on a trip to Colorado where he was doing a joint OBE seminar with Albert Taylor and Patricia Leva. They invited me along as an unannounced special guest speaker, and I was thrilled. I was surprised to find that Buhlman (who insisted we call him Bill) and I were a lot alike. It wasn't just the OBE thing. We had a very similar attitude toward life, politics, religion, spirituality and everything else. There was an instant bond there.

Not long after, Bill asked me to read his book The Secret of the Soul before it was released, and I even wrote an endorsement for the back cover.

So I was really looking forward to reading Bill's latest book, Adventures in the Afterlife. Unfortunately, Kathy and I were in the middle of some expensive projects (for example, painting our house) so I didn't want to spend the money to buy it. I figured I'd wait patiently a couple months when money wasn't as tight. Then, out of the blue and unsolicited, Bill sent me a copy of his book in the mail. It's funny how the Universe always conspires to make certain things happen, regardless of the circumstances.

Then I quickly discovered that most of Adventures in the Afterlife is fiction. Do you remember my first paragraph where I said I always prefer nonfiction? Well, this book isn't just fiction, it's visionary fiction.

Now I have to explain my feelings about visionary fiction. I've always preferred nonfiction, but when I read my first visionary fiction book, Illusions by Richard Bach, I loved it. I absolutely loved it, and I was hungry to read more like it. I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and it was okay, but I was already starting to lose faith in the genre. I read more: 2150AD by Thea Alexander, which was just alright. Then God on a Harley by Joan Brady. Blah. Then I read The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield and it felt more like a sales pitch than a work of fiction. I tried several others, but finally gave up: I became completely disillusioned with the entire genre of visionary fiction.

The problem with visionary fiction in general is that it never seems to have a captivating story line, a plot or conflict like "real" fiction. Even the characters seem flat and two-dimensional. Visionary fiction always seems to be a long boring series of statements like: "The master took me here, showed me X, and told me Y, and I learned Z, an important spiritual lesson." At the same time, you can't trust what it's saying: the fact that it's fiction means that it's not true; it's made up. So who cares what happens in the book? Even if it's based on real events, it's not true! In other words, the fiction spoils the lesson, and the lesson spoils the fiction. It's like baking brownies with garlic: I love brownies and I love garlic, but if you combine the two, the two flavors spoil each other: yuck!

Disillusioned, I told myself, There's got to be a better way! There's got to be a way to weave a set of spiritual lessons around an interesting, engaging, captivating plot! And so I took it upon myself to tackle the impossible: to defy the stereotype of visionary fiction. I wrote a novel called The Gospel According to Mike, and my goal was to tell a compelling story, and still be visionary fiction. I worked for years on that novel, weaving an intricate plot with interesting characters embroiled in conflict. But guess what? I failed too. In the end, my novel turned out to be not very "visionary" at all. I focused too much on the plot and made it too much like a "real" novel and didn't spend enough time on the spiritual messages. Sigh. Oh well. I gave it a good try though.

That should give you a pretty good idea about my feelings about visionary fiction: It frustrates the hell out of me. Needless to say, I started out extremely apprehensive about Adventures in the Afterlife, but I dove in and started reading it anyway, because hey: it's William Buhlman! I was pleasantly surprised.

In March 2011, Buhlman, was diagnosed with stage-four cancer of the tonsil and lymph nodes. It threw his life into turmoil and he faced the possibility that he might die. The main character of this book, Frank Brooks, is also diagnosed with stage-four cancer, and that's how the book begins: on a very real and sobering note.

The book reads like the diary of the main character, Frank, as he slowly deteriorates from cancer. This part of the book was very engaging; I was shaken, reading this heart-wrenching story. The cancer eventually takes his life and he begins his adventures in the afterlife.

After a long stay in what he thought was "heaven," Frank eventually gets fed-up and decides to explore outside the comfortable boundaries of his after-death society. This leads him to meet his spiritual guide, Remi. Remi takes him from place to place and teaches Frank all about how we humans keep returning to Earth, feeding our addictions and ego, and get trapped inside the illusion of the Earth plane.

The book's descriptions of nonphysical environments are very good; they perfectly match my experiences. But to be perfectly honest, it felt a little flat as fiction goes. As I said, that could just be me: I have a hard time with visionary fiction.

Then, surprisingly, two thirds into the book, the fiction ended and I got to "part 2" which is nonfiction. This is where I perked up and I started really enjoying the book. He hit the ground running, talking about our life-lessons and how we plan our lives. Once again, this perfectly matched my beliefs. For example, here's a quote I like:

As your awareness grows, lessons take on a deeper significance. You begin to witness the beauty of the universe. The synchronicity of spirit gives everything in life a new meaning and purpose. You feel a reverence for all things because you know that the characters around you are important vehicles for learning expressions of unconditional love. You take a deep breath and try to comprehend it all. The awesome intelligence behind this magnificent creation is amazing to behold--you realize that all are evolving through the use of form. (p. 175)

Very well put.

Chapter 7 of part 2 contains what Bill calls his "personal reality principles" and I really enjoyed them. I think mankind would make a lot faster spiritual progress if we all repeated these 33 important messages to ourselves, rather than our usual inner dialog of typical negativity.

The book was well written, with good grammar and spelling (with the usual number of typos). It's also well organized. Each lessons leads to the next, in a logical progression.

The visionary fiction part was off-putting to me, but despite my own biases, I liked the book.

This book is not about out-of-body experiences. If that's what you're looking for, read Buhlman's first book, Adventures Beyond the Body, instead. This book is about life after death, and our purpose for being here, and where we go from here. And really, those are some of the most important things we can learn from OBEs.

2013 Aug 8

Controlling Your Reality in an OBE

by Bob Peterson

Recently, Jess Golden posted a very good question in the Astral Projectors facebook group. She asked:

It is said that the astral realm is controlled by thought processes. I believe that. However I am having troubles. I did a test where I commanded (while I was in the astral) that a series of numbers appear. I said it loud and with conviction. However NOTHING happened!!!!!

What gives?!?!

Later on, she sent me a private message that said, in part:

I don't even know if I could manifest Green Eggs & Ham in the astral!

LOL. Okay, here's my take.

First I have to make clear: I've always maintained that there is a difference between out-of-body experiences and lucid dreams (many authors do not). And unless you've seen the difference, it's hard to tell them apart. In both experiences, you're awake, aware, lucid and out of your body. So what's the difference?

In a lucid dream, you're basically hallucinating (because that's what a dream is), and you're in complete control of your hallucination. So it's easy to create a series of numbers or green eggs and ham or whatever you want. You're probably floating above your physical body, but you're dream hallucination is still going on in front of your eyes.

In an OBE, you aren't hallucinating, so you have much less control over your environment. That's not to say that you're seeing our physical world, or even an echo of it (which some people believe). It does, however, seem to be some kind of objective reality.

Yes, many authors claim you can manipulate astral reality with a thought. I wonder if maybe some of these authors got that idea because they were experiencing lucid dreams rather than OBEs. That's best left for another article.

(By the way, you can transition from a lucid dream to an OBE by dispelling the illusion / hallucination of the dream. When you do, you will see the hallucination dissolve, and you will "wake up" in the out-of-body state.)


I wrote in my first book about how I struggled with these kinds of problems--trying to use thought power--all the time when I was first starting out. I'd try to get to a friend's house, and I'd follow the advice of all the books, and even try my own things. I'd visualize my friend. No movement. I'd think about them. No movement. I'd say their name. No movement. I'd voice my desire. No movement. I'd demand to get there. No movement. Sometimes I'd even try to fly and end up falling on my face in the middle of the street. The books said it was easy: Just think about the person or a place and *poof* you'll be transported there. Wrong. For me it was not that easy.

I often get asked if I've gotten better at out-of-body transportation since that time, and the answer is: a resounding yes. I was like a baby who wants to walk, but whose legs were too weak to do it. I needed practice, patience and I needed to exercise my astral muscles. Like a baby, I learned slowly by doing it, trial and error.

So how do you travel to a person? It's kind of hard to explain. It has a lot to do with intent, exerting your will, and focusing your consciousness. It's almost as if you think of that person, at their remote location, then you place your intent there, then you follow your line of intent to where you put it by exerting your will. I know that sounds cryptic, but like I said, it's hard to explain.

As for commanding things to appear: The fact that you're having trouble doing it is proof enough for me that you're having a genuine OBE and not a lucid dream. If it was a lucid dream, you would be able to easily change it by an act of sheer will.

I remember one lucid dream I had in which I found myself in a (hallucinated dream) hospital. I was walking down the halls, but I decided I wanted to fly. So I started flying down the hall, no problem. I was about to hit a wall, but with an act of will, I commanded the walls of the hospital to open up into a tunnel, then I flew down the tunnel. It was great fun, but eventually I got bored and dispelled the hallucination. After the dream dissolved, I found myself in an OBE state, comfortably floating above my body.

Now let's briefly talk about limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs can and will tie you down and prevent you from accomplishing your goals. In my opinion, this is true not only of the astral world, but the physical world as well. If you think, "I'll never be good at math" then you won't. If you think, "I'll never be rich" then you won't. The concept of "thinking outside the box" is important to your experiences in life, and I do mean that literally.

Likewise, in an OBE if you think, "This is nonsense; I can't fly" then guess what? You won't be able to fly in your OBE. Sometimes you have to combat your own self-doubt to get something to happen. Often all it takes is a suspension of disbelief and self-doubt.

Sometimes all you need is a crutch. One perfect crutch I've found is the invisible helpers. Don't be afraid to ask aloud, "Can I get some help here? I want to do X." Often an invisible helper will accommodate you and give you a helping hand. Sometimes that's quite literally. For example, there have been times when I've asked them to help me fly, and felt their warm hands gently grabbing my wrists and helping me lift off.

Once you prove it to yourself--with their help--that you can do something (like flying), the limiting belief is no longer an issue. Sometimes you just need to get out of your own way.

As for manifesting astral things, like green eggs and ham, I'd like to give you a word of warning. It has to do with something I wrote about in my first book, which I called "The fantasy trap." The problem is this: If you try to use your imagination to create an object, it can easily lead you to focus your attention on your imagination. Focusing your attention on your imagination can easily lead you back into another dream hallucination, which in turn, can suck your awareness into the dream state. Pretty soon, you can find yourself dreaming, and it's often not a lucid dream.

So my best advice is to set goals for your OBEs, try to stick to your agenda, try not to get distracted, and don't use your imagination for things like this, because you'll just spoil the OBE when you could be out there exploring.

2013 Jul 30