Astral Voyages
by Dr. Bruce Goldberg
Today
I'm reviewing Astral Voyages by Dr. Bruce Goldberg. The
subtitle is Mastering the Art of Soul Travel. Some copies have "Master the Art of Interdimensional Travel." The copyright is
1999. People have requested me to review this book for a long time, so here it is. As usual, I'll start with the bad points and end with the good points.
Credentials
I always like to start out by asking who is the author and what
makes them qualified to teach astral projection? In the case of Dr.
Bruce Goldberg, the answer is: he has extensive experience with
hypnosis, having conducted more than 33,000 past life regressions,
and he's used hypnosis to induce astral projection in more than
11,000 patients. He also claims to also have personal experience, but
he fails to give any of his own astral projection narratives in the
book. He does mention, however, that he's had OBEs in which he was
pulled back inside his body by his silver cord "several dozen
times" for getting too close to his body. (pg. 14). He also says
"I have practiced astral voyaging since 1971, and have trained
thousands of my patients to experience the techniques presented in
this book." (pg. 73)
I can tell you this much: he seems well-read on the subject,
because he references Monroe, Muldoon, Oliver Fox, and other experts
in the field.
Goldberg has made quite a name for himself as an author and
lecturer on several new age subjects. He's been interviewed on
several talk shows, such as Oprah, Phil Donahue, Leeza, Joan Rivers,
The Other Side, Jerry Springer, Montel Williams, Regis and Kathie
Lee, as well as appearances on CNN, CBS News, and others.
Assumptions
The first thing to note is that this book is published by
Llewellyn, and like most Llewellyn books, it completely buys into new age beliefs. It's
clear from the beginning that he believes in several "planes of
existence" and "astral bodies" and such, rather than
more modern views like: states of consciousness, how we interpret
sensory data streams, "stories of experience," and "body
schemas."
Goldberg apparently believes in 13 "planes of existence." The lower
six planes are:
The Earth / Physical
Plane
The Astral Plane
The Causal Plane
The Mental Plane
The Etheric Plane
The Soul Plane
He doesn't really say much about the "near Earth" area where you seem to visit an imperfect duplicate of the physical world. Many authors call that the "Etheric Plane" but Goldberg puts the Etheric plane much higher in his "plane hierarchy."
Where I Disagree
This is where the book gets weird. He teaches some really weird,
and dubious--eyebrow raising--things about the lower planes. For
example:
When describing the Astral Plane, he writes:
"The sound characteristic of this plane is the roar
of the sea." (pg. 62).
Wait, what? I've never heard the roar of the sea in the astral
plane, and I don't recall any other books on the subject describing
that at all. It's just...weird.
When describing the Mental Plane, he writes:
"The soil is blue and is used to build their roads,
which have a deep blue appearance. All souls here wear a white
flowing cloak and give the appearance of angels. The sound of running
water is heard on this plane." (pg. 64)
Say what? None of the other books I've read on astral projection
describe blue roads or the sound of running water.
With regard to "The Etheric Plane," he writes:
"Brilliant white lights dominate the sky of this
plane, and the sound of buzzing bees is heard continuously."
(pg. 64).
Come on, man. Odder still, he says "Most commonly these
sounds are detected in the right ear only." (pg. 68) Again, no one else in the genre make these claims.
Goldberg doesn't name the "upper planes." He just numbers them Plane 7 through 12, and plane
number 13 is called the "God Plane." He doesn't describe
these upper planes at all. So where does he get this "information?" Unfortunately, he doesn't say. Which leads me to throw it all
away as unverifiable "nonsense" passed down for
generations, or worse, it may have been "made up" a long
time ago by some ancient guru or cult leader in India who wanted to make himself
seem more knowledgeable. If it comes directly from his hypnosis patients, he should say so, rather than just presenting it as fact. Either way, it's stretched way beyond my
tolerance of credibility. Take it with a grain of salt, or better yet, a horse-size salt block.
This begs the age-old question: "How do you know which plane
you're on?" Goldberg writes:
"There are three methods to distinguish your
dimensional location. Your Masters and Guides or Higher Self can
inform you of which plane you are currently on. The landmarks and
uniqueness previously described can assist in your identification..."
(pg. 68-69)
So I'm supposed to look for those blue roads or listen for the
buzzing of bees? I'm sorry, but after 46 years of OBEs, I can accept some weird experiences, but I'm still too grounded and skeptical to accept this.
I agree with a lot of new age beliefs, but definitely not all. For
example, Goldberg writes:
"When you become an experienced voyager, the mere
thought of a location or person will instantly send your
consciousness to that location or individual." (pg. 15)
Similarly, he writes:
"...we can fly anywhere by merely thinking of a
location." (pg. 65)
And later on, he writes:
"One of the great advantages of voyaging to the astral plane is that our thoughts instantly materialize into reality and create an object or person." (pg. 179)
I've read similar things in other Llewellyn books, such as The
Llewellyn Practical Guide to Astral Projection by Melita
Denning and Osbourne Phillips, (which I haven't reviewed yet).
Contrary to this claim, as I described in my first book, I had lots
of problems trying to visit my friend Lisa ("LD"). After
leaving my body, I'd think of Lisa, I'd visualize Lisa, I'd imagine I
was with her, I'd try to fly to her, and yet, despite all my efforts, my consciousness was never
"instantly sent" to her as I expected. So I'm sorry, Mr.
Goldberg, but that's not my experience. My thoughts during an OBE definitely do not result in the creation of a person (or place) nor make me travel there.
Now, in a lucid dream, that's another matter. In a lucid dream,
you will often be transported to a person or place just by
thinking of them/it. You can manipulate your dream world with a thought. So naturally it makes me wonder if Goldberg, Denning,
Phillips, and the lot, were just having lucid dreams and not true out-of-body experiences. And I wondered the same thing in the 1980s
when I read other books that make these claims.
While I agree with a lot of what Goldberg says, I don't agree with
it all. Some of it is just outdated, and since been disproven. For
example, he writes:
"A blackout is experienced when the astral body
separates and eventually rejoins its physical component." (pg.
22)
Robert Crookall and several others wrote about the blackout. As I
wrote in chapter 17 of
my first book, I've had OBEs in which there was no blackout at the
beginning, and others in which there was no blackout at the end. In
some rare cases, I've had full-blown OBEs in which there was
absolutely no blackout on either end. It was a completely lucid and
conscious experience from physical to non-physical and back. I've
spoken with a few other people (one recently) who corroborated this.
A blackout is common, but not a certainty.
Here's another oddity:
"When spirits are in the normal conditions of astral
life, they appear as glimmering lights. When they wish to manifest
themselves to mortals, they assume (in order to be recognized) the
physical appearance similar, but often much younger, to that they had
in their physical body." (pg. 39)
I've seen spirits in the normal conditions of astral life, and
they appear normal to me. Yes, I've seen glimmering lights, but
normally, they appear normal, fully "there" even when they don't know I'm there.
But don't take my word for it. Take a look at Jurgen Ziewe's book,
Elysium Unveiled, where he
describes seeing people going about their daily lives in the astral
world. They appear normal, not as glimmering lights. I have, however, experienced what I call "Schrodinger's Astral Body," a phenomenon in which my astral arms and hands, or legs, don't seem to exist until I think about them.
Here's another curious statement:
"One group of not so happy campers you may encounter
are souls going through a near-death experience. These beings are
stressed, moody, and most likely will not be very sociable."
(pg. 46)
Well, I can't say I've ever met someone going through an NDE, but
I've read enough books about NDEs, and personally met near-death
experiencers (on the physical plane) that I know their experiences
are transformative and almost always positive, so positive that the
NDEr doesn't want to return to physical life. One of my friends, Don
Bisant (whose book, Death Dodger, is soon to be released) has
had three near-death experiences.
Here's another statement I disagree with:
"Demons represent pure evil." (pg. 58)
I'm sorry, but I don't believe in pure evil. I just don't. I never have. Yes, there
are negative entities. There are entities that may want to scare you.
I've seen some seedy creatures, but I still don't believe in pure
evil. Call me naive, but to talk about demons like this is just
fear-mongering, and fear is counterproductive to inducing OBEs.
Goldberg goes contrary to conventional wisdom with regard to
inducing OBEs. He recommends:
"Lie on your right side for best results, but
absolutely never lie on your left side--it will inhibit your
success." (pg. 75)
Well, that's wrong. In fact, science has shown the vast majority of OBEs happen to
people when they lie on their back. I've had OBEs facing every which
way, right side, left side, stomach, and back. To me, left side and
right side seem about equal, but I've had the most success lying on
my back, like so many other OBE authors.
Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs)
Goldberg also says some dubious things about Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs). For example, he writes:
"There are three classes of ASC, and they can be listed as follows:"
He then enumerates them as: OBEs, NDEs, and "COBES," which he describes as Conscious OBEs in which "the soul maintains a connection with the Higher Self at the precise moment of physical death."
If you've watched or attended one of my talks, you probably know I have only two "heroes" in my life: Leonardo Da Vinci, and the late, great Dr. Charles Tart, who wrote the foreword to my first book. Tart did laboratory experiments on OBErs like Robert Monroe. He also wrote, IMHO, the authoritative (and timeless) classic on ASCs, a large book titled "Altered States of Consciousness," which I've read from cover to cover, all 500+ pages of it. Believe me, there are a lot more ASCs than just OBEs, NDEs, and COBEs!
Conscious Dying
A few authors in the genre, especially those of Eastern mystical
traditions, stress the importance of maintaining consciousness and a
connection to your Higher Self during death, to avoid reincarnation. William Buhlman comes to mind. But none of them classify it as its own ASC. Perhaps it was just a poor choice of words and/or organization.
With regard to death, Goldberg writes:
"At the moment of death, our physical body, including the ego, clinically dies. Our subconscious mind or soul survives." (pg. 133)
Maybe it's just semantics, but my out-of-body experiences have shown me (and many others) that the ego, the small "me" that I identify with when I'm awake, does not depend on the physical body, so I don't think it "dies" at the time of death. Maybe he was referring to "ego death" which has become a popular concept in recent years, but I doubt it. He goes on to say:
"The NDE (near-death experience) requires the body to literally die for a few seconds to several minutes, as I discussed in the previous chapter." (pg. 133)
This is way too broad and simplistic of a description. Research on NDEs have stirred up a lot of controversy about this topic. Many skeptics argue that the vast majority of NDEs happen without the physical body being "that close" to death. For example, most NDEs occur during heart failure, but just because your heart fails doesn't mean your brain is "dead" or even inactive, and even if your brain waves go down to zero, that doesn't mean you are "brain dead" because they only measure what's happening on the surface of the brain and not what's happening inside it. What makes Eben Alexander's NDE so convincing is that while it took place, his cerebral cortex was completely shut down by meningitis. His body and brain were, for all intents and purposes, dead, at least more so than the vast majority of NDEs. But by no means does your body "literally die" to have an NDE.
Regarding Lucid Dreams vs. OBEs
Goldberg is unclear about the difference between OBEs versus lucid dreams. In some places, he seems to say lucid dreams are OBEs. He writes:
"When you have an OBE you are definitely aware that you are not dreaming. The lucid dreamer, on the other hand, is quite aware that they are dreaming. The difference is that of awareness and not of function. In both types of phenomena, the astral body may travel and document these voyages as is reported in remote viewing experiments. There is little doubt among researchers that information is somehow acquired by the projector/dreamer beyond that attainable by our five senses." (pg. 150)
My stance on the subject is clear and well-documented: I believe lucid dreams (and dreams in general) are OBEs in which the dreamer experiences a self-created hallucination, whereas OBEs seem to take place in some kind of "objective" world. For more information, see my blog article titled Are OBEs the Same as Lucid Dreams?.
Drugs
Goldberg writes:
"Those
that experimented with hallucinogenic substances (LSD, PCP, etc.)
actually generated a drug-induced astral voyage." (pg. 205)
I'm
sorry, but I have to disagree here. Hallucinogenic drugs induce, well,
hallucinations, and hallucinations are not real, not objective. I
believe if you take them, you can no longer trust what you see, hear, or
experience. Go natural.
One last point of disagreement. Goldberg writes:
"Your belief in your ability to leave your body is a critical prerequisite to purposeful astral projection." (pg. 227)
Well, that's absolutely false. When I first tried Robert Monroe's OBE technique in the fall of 1979, I was a complete skeptic. I didn't believe a word of what Monroe said. But I had an open and curious mind, and that's really all it takes. You don't need to believe in your ability to leave your body. You just need to attain the proper level of focus.
The Good Side of This Book
Despite its shortcomings, this book has a pretty good set of astral projection techniques. Some of them are unique to the genre, such as the "37-Degree Technique" in which you practice while your physical body is tilted at a 37-degree angle. This is similar to lying on your back in a recliner, but your feet are nearly touching the floor.
Techniques
Goldberg's techniques section is actually pretty good. The vast
majority of his techniques are based on hypnosis. In fact, he says "I
personally and professionally feel self-hypnosis is the most
efficient and easiest method to use for astral voyaging..." (pg.
111)
So he goes into great depth about self-hypnosis, creating scripts,
trance deepening, trance conditioning techniques, Ganzfeld techniques
(although he doesn't call it that--taping halved ping-pong balls over
your eyes to create a uniform visual field.), etc.
He also gives several solid OBE techniques:
He gives decent
"Shifting Focus Techniques" (pg. 86).
The Mirror Technique
(pg. 93)
The "Body of
Light" technique (pg. 102)
Astral doorways
Tattwa techniques
Contemplation techniques (several of them,
starting on pg. 112)
Other exercises include:
Focusing exercises
(pg. 82)
Relaxation exercises
(pg. 83)
Breathing exercises
(pg. 84)
Contemplation exercises (pg. 110)
Crutches
Goldberg talks about various crystals (pg. 96), various herbs and
oils (pg. 97). Some of this was new to me. For example, he talks about
an herb called "Deer's Tongue" that's like vanilla, that's
supposedly "will facilitate OBEs." (pg. 97) I've never
heard of it, and don't recall it from any other book on the subject.
He says of Mugwort: "This plant induces astral
voyaging." (pg. 98) but that's not my understanding. Mugwort is
known for its ability to induce vivid dreams, and it's known as the
dreaming herb. Some people drink it in a tea, while others put it in
a bag under their pillow. The first time I tried mugwort (many years
ago) it just gave me some vivid nightmares, with no lucidity.
Subsequent attempts didn't do anything at all for me.
Astral Sex
Goldberg has a whole chapter (chapter 12, page 169) dedicated to astral sex, and he treats the subject quite fairly, which not many authors talk about. Some of this comes from D.J. Conway, another Llewellyn author.
Also, with regard to sex, he writes:
"You are much more prone to an OBE following an orgasm than at any moment of your waking life." (pg. 171)
I wrote about that in my Hacking book, and also a blog article titled OBEs, Celibacy, Masturbation and the Sex Drive.
Astral Healing
Goldberg has a pretty good chapter on the topic of astral healing, which is a subject few authors talk about. This includes several astral healing techniques.
Time Travel
This is another subject that very few authors talk about. What fascinated me is his observations about traveling into the past and future. For example, he writes:
"...you may not be able to travel to a time three hours ahead of you, but a scene two days in the future might be relatively easy to attain. Some voyagers failed to venture ten days into the future, but found going ahead by one month child's play." (pg. 208)
He also talks about time distortion between the physical and the astral. In many cases, he notes that time in the astral seems to pass the same speed as waking life. And yet, there are exceptions:
"For instance, you might very well spend several days or weeks in the twenty-eighth century, while only a few minutes have elapsed on the physical plane." (pg. 209)
That reminds me of the childhood experience I described in my first book where my friend, Frank ("FD"), knocked me out with a bear hug. It seemed like literally centuries of time had passed, yet when I woke, only a couple minutes had passed. You can read my full account at this link: https://www.robertpeterson.org/obe-chapter-2.html
This book also offers some good advice for astral projectors. For example, he writes:
"One of the most efficient methods of stabilizing
the astral body is to look at a bright object." (pg. 22)
Well, that's kind of true. The trick here, as it turns out, is to
engage your non-physical senses as much as possible. Michael
Raduga recommends you touch everything in sight. In other words,
engage your non-physical sense of touch as much as possible. But
staring at (or into) any object, i.e. engaging as much as possible, your non-physical
sense of sight, has the same effect.
Conclusions
I give this book 3.5 stars out of 5. The writing is professional
and I found very few spelling or grammar mistakes. The book is 247
pages with a conservative font and decent margins, so there's ample content to satisfy. He has a good amount of exercises
and techniques, but also a good amount of misinformation. Some of the exercises are good, but many are based on
hypnosis, and a lot of people are resistant to hypnosis.
Bob Peterson
31 March 2026
----------------------------
If you want me to review
a book about out-of-body experiences or astral projection, send me an
email: bob@robertpeterson.org, but please check the index first to see
if I've already reviewed it. Also, I've got a huge pile of books I'm
planning to review, so don't expect a quick turnaround.
If you like my work, visit my website, robertpeterson.org, where you'll find lots of other free OBE advice and links.
