Review: I Have Seen It Tomorrow by Iris Krst

Review: I Have Seen It Tomorrow

by Iris Krst

Today I'm reviewing the book "I Have Seen It Tomorrow" by Iris Krst, which is a pen name. The author is apparently a woman from Slovakia who is fluent in 5 languages.

Like the majority of OBE books, it's a mixture of good and bad.

Although the title doesn't say it, this book is about OBEs. Kind of. Although some of the information comes from Krst herself, it's mostly about her husband John and his OBEs. Unlike most OBE books out there, there are no OBE narratives.
In fact, there are no OBE techniques in the book either. It's mostly just "information" or claims made by John about reality, based on his OBE observations, and relayed to Krst second-hand, and to us third-hand. It's kind of the opposite of Clary G. Valentine's book An Adjacent Place because Valentine wrote about his friend's OBE observations and how closely they matched with reality. Krst's book is about John's OBE observations and how he sees reality, based on his observations. But most of John's observations about reality are "way out there" and unprovable.


Unlike some books that try to describe what the afterlife is like based on OBEs, this is more like John's "Big Toe" (theory of everything). How he thinks the physical Universe works, based on his OBEs.

I'll be the first to admit I'm highly skeptical about any paranormal claims unless I experience them for myself firsthand. So I always look at people's OBE claims with a certain degree of doubt and skepticism, even though I've had many myself. I'm sure reading Susan Blackmore's book Seeing Myself just prior didn't help; if anything, it made me look at things with a more critical eye. Still, I've had so many OBEs myself that I can't dismiss anyone's experiences offhand, no matter how wild.

When someone makes a claim about the "astral plane," or "other worlds," or "the afterlife," or "non-physical existence," I respect that because I've seen it firsthand: Things are different "over there" and I've seen enough to know how different it really is. But when someone starts to make claims about physical reality, we can match that against observations of science, so my skepticism kicks in.

The seeds of my doubt were planted immediately when I found out the first chapter is called "I was fully conscious during my birth." It's a remarkable claim, if true, but it's a pretty wild claim. I believe we're all "conscious" during birth, but our brains and memories aren't organized enough to process the information. It gets even more wild:

"I remember being in my mother's uterus." (pg. 11)

John also claims to remember his past lives too. One thing that bothered me was that Krst writes:

"John has his OBEs fully awake." (pg. 6)

Earlier, she stated:

"It is my understanding that out-of-body experiences that happen when one is fully awake are the highest types of out-of-body experiences which not that many people are able to attain." (pg. 6)

Say what? She goes on to explain that John spends more time out-of-body than he does inside his body. Either John is a very remarkable person, or he has a serious dissociative disorder.

Now granted, a lot of people claim to have OBEs while still able to narrate physically what's happening. Monroe Institute "Focus Level" experiences, for example. But my OBEs are never like that. I can't think of a more confusing state to be in than one where I'm having an OBE and yet still fully awake. To me it makes no sense. In my mind, that would be more like Remote Viewing. More claims about John:

"I have been exploring Mars among other places. There is running water there, which I have discovered a number of years ago." (pg. 12)

Okay, exploring Mars or another planet seems like a good use for OBEs. Ingo Swann did similar things, and made some wild observations that later turned out to be true, but that was under strict laboratory conditions. And again, Swann's "OBEs" were more like Remote Viewing (RV) or Focus Level experiences than true "My body is elsewhere" OBEs.

NASA just admitted (after I got Krst's book) they found evidence of liquid water in a lake on Mars, and that's remarkable. But it's buried beneath a really thick layer of ice, at the South Pole. So what exactly does John mean by "liquid water?" Bear in mind that Mars is a very cold place. A "hot summer day" on Mars may get up to 70F (20C) near the equator, if you're lucky, but at night the temperature plummets to about -100F (-73C). In the summer! Winter is much colder. And the poles are much colder. And the equator (and most of the planet) is desert and rocks. So all the liquid water must have frozen and stayed frozen hundreds of thousands of years ago. Nothing liquid about it. A few hours of 70F isn't going to melt much ice after that kind of cold. I'm from Minnesota, so I know from experience (the coldest I've seen is -76F / -60C) Was John talking about the ice-covered liquid lake on the South pole of Mars? He didn't say. He said liquid water, which isn't going to happen on the surface, as far as I know.

More claims:

"Furthermore, when out of body and returning back to body you go backward in time, so while out of body you are in the future, so to speak, when returning back to body you are returning back to the present." (pg. 18)

That just doesn't make sense to me. Especially since he claims elsewhere (as do a lot of other authors) that time doesn't really exist out-of-body. Here's another quote that didn't make sense:

"Where does the extra power created by the co-vibrational sympathetic resonance come from? The resonant cavity created in the three main cavities of our physical body - the torso, the chest, and head, represents what religion calls trinity or triunion." (pg. 26)

Er, no, I can't even imagine that. The physical body is just a vehicle of expression or consciousness.

John also talks about extraterrestrials, which he calls ITs. That's not unheard of in OBE literature. For example, Darryl Berry talks about them in his book Travel Far (which I loved). But John says things like:

"You have to understand that the ITs do not possess any free will. They are free will themselves." (pg. 29)

What? Krst also writes:

"When I was pregnant with my second child, it is my understanding that different ET factions were fighting over my fetus." (pg. 8)

This, too, seems a bit over the top. More claims that don't make sense to me:

"There are many spots in the ocean which serve as gateways to other dimensions." (pg. 37)

In my mind, "reality" is a homogeneous whole and doesn't need gateways to other dimensions. We can already travel out-of-body, so doesn't that make us all gateways to other dimensions? I don't know. It's just confusing. I found this interesting:

"It seems that John experiences his own future as a non-physical form out of body first. Only after he does, he will experience the same as a physical mass, in reality, in the physical body. Consequently, John lives in two different time horizons and realities. He can easily skip from timeline to timeline and can jump from the present to the future or the past...For him, everything comes from the future. Thus the future affects the present...Energy from the future precedes matter and shapes the present. Effect precedes the cause. The law of cause and effect is seemingly broken." (pg. 40)

Based on my own experiences, I believe we carefully plan our future from the out-of-body state. These later manifest in reality. William Buhlman (and others) also talk about how physical reality is shaped by pre-existing structures and "thought forms" you can witness when out-of-body. So I can see where John might interpret that same concept another way. Either that, or I have the wrong idea. But if energy from the future affects the past and the law of cause and effect are broken, well, I'd have to believe scientists would know about it, or at least theorize about it.

Then again, John almost seems to change his story and doesn't make sense:

"And time itself moves backward, as your consciousness extends into antimatter space. In this space, left is right and right is left, you see objects upside down, and the present is predetermined by the future." (pg. 42)

Antimatter space? Is that like dark matter he's talking about? Okay, I can see where John gets this idea too. I've been in OBEs in which I totally lost my sense of spacial orientation, where the ceiling (or a wall) appeared to be the floor, so yes, everything appeared upside down, or on its side. I can see how he can believe that the present is determined by the future because, as I said, we pre-plan the future in our sleep, so we often see it there first. (See my blog article about Deja Vu for more info). But to me it seemed like John was just confused about what is happening.

But hey, we can scientifically test that, right? Just have John return from a lottery drawing of choice and tell us the winning numbers. It should be easy, given his claims. By the way, that is exactly what OBE author Eddie Slasher tried to do, as described in his book Explorations Out of the Body, with the Georgia Pick 3 lottery. Although he got some interesting results, Slasher failed it every time, and I highly respect him for his honesty, integrity, and candor about the subject. (I've never written a review of Slasher's book). I'm sorry if I sound overly skeptical: Again, I'll blame Susan Blackmore's book for having jaded me just a bit.

Krst also says things like:

"Recently, according to John, a special child was born on Earth whose genetic code holds a special key. It will play an important role in the development of the human race tens of thousands of years in the future. In the future, the special key from the child's genes will be used to produce a child made of a special metal, in a laboratory. John used the word metal because there is no name for the material from which the child will be produced. Metal is the closest word to it." (pg. 45)

What am I to make of this? Well, maybe John's talking about genetic engineering, or human hybridization, or robots, or something...but it's really not OBE related. Again, how can anyone possibly know whether or not this is true?

And that's the main problem I have with this book. It's not really about the OBEs, or about the non-physical world, or astral planes, or the afterlife, or anything like that. It's just a bunch of claims about reality that are impossible to verify. I can't wrap my science-oriented head around most of what John claims. Is that John's limitation or mine? I can't say. But this is the same problem I had with Astral Projection as a Bridge to the Spiritual World by Luiz Roberto Mattos. Mattos' book made claims about the non-physical world that cannot be verified, but Krst's book makes claims about the physical world that cannot be verified. Some of the information was interesting, and fantastic, if true. But it left me with more questions than answers.

On the plus side, the writing is actually pretty good, especially considering Krst is a non-native speaker. As far as grammar and spelling, I only found a few mistakes in the book.

I'll give it two and a half stars. Too much of it didn't make sense to me. I may be an out-of-body experiencer, but I'm still too grounded in science. Or too jaded by Blackmore.

Bob Peterson
21 August 2018

Review: Seeing Myself

Seeing Myself

by Susan J. Blackmore

Today I'm reviewing the 2017 book Seeing Myself by Susan J. Blackmore.

I've studied the brain and neuroscience as a hobby for many years now, and I have a lot to share. As you may have heard, I've been working on my fifth book, which is almost complete. I don't have a final title, but the subtitle right now is "The Science of OBE Induction." In other words, I use insights gained from science--what we know from neuroscience and the brain--to induce OBEs.

So when Susan Blackmore came out with Seeing Myself with its intriguing subtitle, The new science of out-of-body experiences, I knew I had to buy it and read it before I could finish my book in good conscience. I had to know: What wondrous new scientific insights does she disclose that I hadn't already talked about in my book? Unfortunately, not much. That's both a relief and a disappointment. Relief because I didn't need to revise my book "much" out of ignorance. Disappointment, because I so hoped it would bring me new insight.

Don't get me wrong: Seeing Myself is chock full of excellent scientific information regarding OBEs. It's just that I already knew most of the material.

First, some background.

I've followed the work of Susan Blackmore for many years, and I've read several of her books. I loved her 1982 classic Beyond the Body: An investigation of out-of-the-body experiences (which I've not yet reviewed). I like her approach and I like the way she thinks: like a scientist.

As the story goes, one night in 1970, when she was still in college, Blackmore was with a group of friends. Stressed out and sleep deprived, she decided to smoke some marijuana / cannabis / weed, and she had a very long-lasting and incredibly convincing out-of-body experience. Like many people, it changed her life. Seeing was believing. She embarked on a journey to find out exactly what OBEs are. She decided to become a parapsychologist and dedicated the rest of her life to studying the subject of consciousness. Not just scientifically; she also began meditating and has done that for more than 40 years. She earned her PhD and became a professor. Now she's a distinguished and influential psychologist, parapsychologist, visiting professor at the University of Plymouth, freelance writer, lecturer, and academic. She has rock solid credentials.

Over the years, she's done a lot of research, performed many experiments, written many scientific papers, and...get this: become a hardened skeptic. For decades, she set up randomly chosen targets in her kitchen and tried to get OBErs to identify them. Everyone who tried has failed. (I never tried because I never knew about them.) Finally she quit and gave up, convinced it's all just hallucinations.

She's squared off in radio interviews against professional OBE teachers like Graham Nicholls. But her skeptical beliefs are not unsubstantiated: she's done her homework, and done the research and hard work. Unlike many OBE books, she makes no wild or unsubstantiated claims. She backs up literally everything she says with solid scientific references and research. And she's fair. She gives serious attention to many of the ideas she's skeptical about. She doesn't poo-poo it or pay it lip service. In fact, I'd go so far as to say she knows more about OBEs than almost anyone on the planet, present company included. That's why I love her work and keep buying her books; even the non-OBE related ones.

Besides, skepticism is good. It's healthy. It keeps us from being too gullible and falling for crap that doesn't make sense.

Blackmore spends a fair amount of this book presenting evidence from OBEs that might suggest OBEs are "real" (veridical). She talks about the famous Wilmot case, and shoots holes in it. That's not surprising, since it's from the 1800s. She talks about Charles Tart's experiment with "Miss Z" and shoots holes in it too. She presents a few other cases and shoots holes in them too.

The problem I have is: In my opinion, the book doesn't present (and refute) enough of these claims. She could have given a hundred or more pages of claims, but doesn't. For example, on the "evidence for" side:

• She talked about Tart's experiments with Robert Monroe, and correctly mentions that he didn't identify the target of the experiment, but she failed to mention that Monroe came back with some pretty convincing veridical evidence of what one of the experimenters was doing. (For more information, read the chapter I wrote in Alexander De Foe's free ebook "Consciousness Beyond the Body").
• She talked about Eben Alexander's claims, but doesn't even attempt to explain how he could "experience" his NDE without a functioning brain neocortex.
• She failed to mention Akhena's many veridical OBE claims.
• She failed to mention Graham Nicholls' many veridical OBE claims.
• She failed to mention Preston Dennett's veridical OBE claims.
• She failed to mention the veridical claims in Rodrigo Montenegro's book.
• She failed to mention my own evidence from my first when my roommate, John ("JT"), perceived my non-physical body during one of my OBEs. 
• She talked a little bit about evidence from famous psychics like Ingo Swann, Blue Harary, and Alex Tanous, but she didn't give it enough attention, in my opinion.
• Now, of course, we can add Clary Valentine's book to the growing pile of evidence.
• The list goes on and on. Everyone who starts having OBEs tries to prove it to him/herself, and writes about it.

She doesn't really even present much of the "evidence against" that supports her position, such as:

• She didn't talk about Eddie Slasher's failed attempts at verification.
• She didn't talk about Frederick Aardema's failed attempts at verification either.

I would have thought these last two would especially have fueled her skeptical fire. So if her goal was to refute these claims, I think it fell short.

There's one more thing that bothered me. My previous article was about the recent joint conference of SSE (Society for Scientific Exploration) and IRVA International Remote Viewing Association where numerous presentations were given by serious scientists who are studying things like non-localized consciousness. While it's not directly related to OBEs, Blackmore is a parapsychologist examining the evidence of the non-physical, but she doesn't talk about that evidence at all. For example, she doesn't really say anything about the many Remote Viewing experiments. She doesn't talk about the experiments, meta-analysis and theories of Dean Radin, such as his classic book Entangled Minds. Oh, boy! Now that would be an outstanding new Blackmore book! To me, Radin's evidence for remote perception and remote influence are a lot more convincing than Blackmore's reductionism.

A lot of the book was dedicated to brain science with regard to OBEs. One by one, she goes through the features of typical OBEs and NDEs (Seeing tunnels and bright lights that don't hurt your eyes, life reviews, seeing the room from a different perspective, seeing your own body, silver cords, etc.) and explains how these things can be explained away by what scientists know about the brain. For example, she talks about the way the brain and eyes handle visual data in the V1 area of the visual cortex, and how science can explain the claims of seeing a bright light that doesn't hurt the eyes. She talks about hormones, brain chemicals, and how you can explain the accompanying feelings of euphoria and wonder. She talks about hellish NDEs and how you can explain that too with neuroscience. She talks about experiences of astral bodies, body images, body schema, and how our brains construct a working model of our experience, all with good scientific evidence.

When it comes right down to it: Science can explain just about any OBE feature using what we know about the brain. For example, she points out that science has never found any hard evidence of an "astral body" but it has found ample evidence for a detailed "body schema" inside the brain.

Blackmore's done the research. She's spent her whole life on it, and not short-changed it. So the theme in this book seems to be "I really wanted to believe, but I see no evidence to back up any claims of the non-physical." While at the same time, she argues that all these things can be explained away, given enough science.

I have two counterpoints to that:

First, you can't just discount and dismiss everything without an exhaustive examination of all the evidence. I firmly believe in the principle of the "White Crow": All it takes is one white crow to prove they exist, but no amount of evidence can prove they do not. Maybe she has examined all these cases I just mentioned, but just failed to address them? Even just a mention might have satisfied me.

If you can scientifically demonstrate non-localized transfer of information, such as the countless experiments done on remote viewing, telepathy, clairvoyance, remote healing, etc., then you can't dismiss the existence of a principle that extends beyond the physical body.

Second, I believe (as many scientists do) in Occam's Razor: If there are multiple explanations for something, the simplest is usually the correct one. In the case of OBEs, Blackmore's explanations rely on, in my opinion, a very complicated interaction between dozens of functions of neuroscience and brain function: the culmination of lots of different brain anomalies. To me it seems like a scientific house of cards. And yes, maybe the pieces can be made to fit together in some kind of intricate puzzle, but it's not the simplest explanation. The simple explanation is that "it is what it appears to be," namely, an experience of another level of reality, non-physical existence, or non-local consciousness.

I think one of her goals was to explain away her own dramatic first OBE--the one that resulted from smoking marijuana--in terms of science. But marijuana is a mild hallucinogen (as per Tart's classic book Altered States of Consciousness), so how can you trust your perceptions and experience under the influence? If you see a giant white rabbit while high on a hallucinogen, should you give it any more credence than any other hallucination? If it had happened to me, I'd write it off: regardless of how realistic it may have seemed, the simplest explanation is that it was just a hallucination caused by the drug.

But the glory of OBEs is that they usually happen to normal healthy people of every age, race, color, creed, and gender, as even Blackmore admits in the book (as per Gabbard and Twemlow's classic book With the Eyes of the Mind). Most OBEs do not occur under the influence of a drug. Even if you have an OBE after taking a hallucinogen, it doesn't mean OBEs are hallucinations.

She even spends some time arguing whether or not there may multiple types of OBEs, some of which may be hallucinations and others of which may be "real." In my opinion, she doesn't give serious enough attention to this argument. Especially since I've personally experienced more than one type!

The book is a bit of a downer because Blackmore seems to be saying "I've given up searching for evidence." She tries to put a positive spin on it. There's some amount of relief and acceptance in giving up. It's like the stages of grief. But it's still a downer.

Don't get me wrong. I love Blackmore's work, and I love all her books, including this one. It's very grounding for someone who doesn't know much about brain science. If you're a serious scientific researcher and want to know more about OBEs, this is an excellent place to start.

While this book tries to be the definitive answer on whether OBEs are "real" I think it falls short. In the end, no amount of contrary evidence will convince a true believer to switch sides. Likewise, no amount of veridical evidence from OBEs will convince a hardened skeptic. One thing's for sure: There's not enough evidence for either side to reach a definitive answer. More evidence is needed. Still, the science is great. It's a great summary of what science knows about OBEs.

The writing and editing are professional. I didn't find a single mistake in the book. The scientific references were over-the-top good. I'll give the book 4 stars.

Bob Peterson
26 June 2018

Review: Behind the Veil by Daniel Kelley

Behind the Veil

by  Daniel Kelley

Today I'm reviewing the book Behind the Veil: The Complete Guide to Conscious Sleep by Daniel Kelley. The author, Daniel Kelley, was kind enough to send me a copy of his book a couple months ago, and it's a good one. I put a lot of flags in the book, and that's a very good sign. The information is based on Kelley's twenty years of experience, so apparently he has good credentials.

Think of this book as the other side of the coin of my previous review. An Adjacent Place was all narratives and no techniques, whereas this one is all techniques and no narratives to speak of.

Kelley's goal is to teach you become a competent "Veiler." In other words, someone who lives life behind the veil. The theory is sound: most people spend 8 hours a day sleeping, so a third of their life is wasted. A true "Veiler" tries to squeeze 24 hours of consciousness, taking advantage of all stages of sleep.

So in one sense, this book isn't about Astral Projection or out-of-body experiences. It's about attaining conscious sleep. But it's a slow progression, and the ultimate result at the end is, in fact, astral projection.

The book is very systematic. It suggests a 120-day curriculum in which you learn new techniques every week, then put them into practice. Every week you become more proficient, and every lesson builds on the previous. So in that sense, the material is very well organized, concise, instructive, and even somewhat entertaining. Though I'm overly simplifying things, the progression goes something like this:

• Learn about dreams and the different dream types.
• Start keeping a dream journal.
• Develop internal energy (Chi / Qi) to fuel awareness.
• Make your dreams more vivid.
• Develop lucidity and make your dreams lucid.
• Develop conscious awareness during nREM sleep.
• Progress from lucid dreaming to astral projection.
• Progress from astral projection to astral travel.

Some of Kelley's techniques are fairly innovative and some are more traditional, but re-branded with a new name (or possibly an older name I'm not familiar with). It's almost like a movie with lots of twists and turns: It's very easy to miss things that are vitally important. For that reason, I actually recommend you read this book twice. The first time will give you a basic understanding, but you might get more benefit from the second reading where things may just "click" and make more sense.

Kelley won my heart right away. Early on, he states that he began practicing Tai Chi, and leaned toward Taoism, like I did in the early 1980s when I started having OBEs. I can't remember any other book in the genre that touts the virtues of Tai Chi. (Graham Nicholls teaches the "Push Hands" technique, and Robert Bruce teaches Taoist Chi / Qi circulation, so they're close).

Unlike most books in the genre, Kelley insists that not everyone is suited to be a Veiler. Like learning to play piano or any other skill, you can learn and practice the motions and techniques and make some accomplishments, but it really helps to have some level of built-in skill.

Throughout the book, he makes some very insightful observations. For example, he compares our consciousness to the weather. He writes:

"...the mind and it's [sic] objects are like the weather, whereas our overall consciousness is like the sky in which the changing weather occurs. The problem is that we tend to identify with the changing weather and forget that we're the unchanged sky." (pg. XX).

Kelley has obviously done a lot of research on consciousness, and presents a good amount of science regarding sleep. He talks about the details of brain waves, brain hormones, sleep cycles, and neuroplasticity: The ability of the brain to rewire itself. Kelley says:

"The take-home message is this: Unless you rewire yourself to make it happen, you won't succeed." (pg. XX)

He admits upfront that:

"Many of the methods offered here are pulled directly from the Taoist, Yogic, Tibetan, and Tantric traditions I've personally used in my own quest." (pg. XX)

He talks about Taoist meditation, embryonic breathing, Chi/Qi circulation; the same "microcosmic" and "grand circulation" orbits I learned in Tai Chi as an energy building exercise. He doesn't teach Tai Chi or Qi Gong per se, but he teaches the energy systems they use, and he goes into good detail about them.

He doesn't call out the WBTB (Wake Back To Bed) but he suggests a similar thing: wake up and practice at 4:00am.

He also stresses that:

"It's your consistent and firm intention to step behind the Veil that unlocks the mysteries behind it!" (pg. XX)

However:

"When trying to grasp the Trance state it helps to know that intention isn't the same thing as effort. An intention carries it's [sic] own energy and that energy has a movement all its own. Effort, on the other hand, is a form of tension.  Obviously, there's a place where effort is needed, but when it comes to the attaining of Trance, manipulating Qi, or going Astral, it only gets in the way." (pg. XX)

Kelley has some very unique ideas that are not found in other books in the genre. Here a some examples of unique ideas from this book:

• He says the ideal position is keeping the upper body at a 45-degree angle, much like a hospital bed. Too often, we're pre-programmed to fall asleep whenever we're lying down, so this helps to retain consciousness.
• Unlike other books in the genre, Kelley talks about the different veils. He says lucid dreaming is related to the "Veil of Dreams" whereas the veil related to astral projection is "The Veil of Ghosts." Cool name, but unfortunately he doesn't go into much detail about these labels.
• I have my own theory about the four OBE states, but Kelley sees awareness mostly as a progression of states. For example, he says the Physical has more in common with the Etheric, and the Dream has more in common with the astral.
• He recommends you completely ignore exit-symptoms. He says to pay no attention whatsoever to the vibrations, voices, or visions.
• He talks about "The Psychic Mote" which is a psychological wall that forms between the part of us that perceives subtle-realm experiences and the part that interprets those perceptions.
• He talks about how many people have simple blockages or bad habits that keep them from OBEs, such as drinking too much coffee, consuming too much alcohol, or eating too close to bedtime.
• He talks about neurotropic supplements like Huperzine, L-Theanine, etc.: a subject sorely lacking in most OBE books.
• He introduces an exercise called "Channeling Intensity" which is kind of like intensifying your awareness, feelings and raw emotions, so that you feel everything more deeply.
• Sharpening your imagination, trying to create a sense of realism. For example, don't just imagine a scene. Imagine you're staring into the scene.
• Working on intensifying your imagination one sense at a time: focusing on sight one time, sound another time, touch another time, etc.
• He talks about three different levels of lucid dreaming, LD-1, LD-2, LD-3.
• He talks about four different levels of pellucid dreaming: PD-1 thru 4.
• He talks about training the dissociative reflex.

Another thing that won my heart: In Week 6, he gives a technique that's basically the same as my technique of manipulating hypnagogic images.

Another thing I liked: In my first book, I described childhood experiences in which my consciousness would shrink to an incredibly small size, which terrified me: I remember watching a single grain of salt tower over me. Kelley described a similar thing:

"The image of a huge boulder rolling over a toothpick comes to mind, but that's not quite it. It's as if your very soul is rapidly shrinking to the point where at any moment it'll be extinguished. In its place grows a terrifying feeling of fear and amnesia followed by blackouts and a pervasive sense of danger." (pg. XXX).

The book is fairly big. I can't tell you exactly how many pages because--and this is the book's only shortcoming--it has no page numbers! But bear in mind I got a pre-release copy; the book has since been professionally edited. So I expect that to have changed. The book is about a half-inch (1.25 cm) thick, but wider and taller than most books. The footprint is about the same as Nanci Trivellato's book, but not as thick. So there's a good amount of content.

The writing is very good. Mature. The grammar, spelling and organization are almost professional quality. Only a few cases of "its" versus "it's" that should hopefully be fixed in the final version. Kelley obviously took a lot of time and care with this book.


I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. It's a great book, very innovative, and well worth the money.

Bob Peterson
29 May 2018

Review: An Adjacent Place by Clary G. Valentine

An Adjacent Place

by Clary G. Valentine

Today I'm reviewing the book An Adjacent Place by Clary G. Valentine.

I received a copy of this book from the author way back in July of 2017, but I never found time to read it until now. (I'm still working through my backlog!)
I love love love this book! I'm getting goosebumps just writing about it.

At the end of March, I reviewed a book called Astral Projection as a Bridge to the Spiritual World, and at the time I complained that the title was misleading: I had hoped for a book that used out-of-body experiences to visit the spirit world and bringing back information. Well, An Adjacent Place, gave me all that, and much more.

Why is the book titled "An Adjacent Place"? Many OBE authors talk about the "Real Time Zone" or the "Shadow World" or something similar; a place that's almost like Earth, but not quite. Many of the experiences in the book seem to have taken place there.


Just to make it clear: There are really no OBE tips or techniques in this book. It's pretty much autobiographical, all narratives, and supposedly all true. To protect their identities, the author changed the names of everyone in the book, including his own: He's writing under a pen name.

At the start of the book, it's February, 2014. The author, Mr. Valentine, is a Englishman living in the Philippines and he learns that his good friend, a Filipino woman whom he calls April has started to have "clear dreams." He's not sure at the time whether these are lucid dreams, out-of-body experiences, or something else, but they seem to be incredibly vivid to her. These experiences are preceded by a rushing energy sensation that starts are her feet and sweeps through her whole body. 

Valentine seems to be fairly skeptical (or sceptical, if you're British) and level-headed about April's experiences, but he takes them seriously and documents them. And he's smart enough to ask for lots of details from April.

April is a simple woman with a very basic education, a charming innocence, an almost photographic (or near-eidetic) memory, and above average artistic talent. So she's not only able to describe her experiences in vivid detail; she can actually draw them with reasonable accuracy.

Early in the book, April is taken out of her body and meets an old woman who introduces herself as Clarissa. Clarissa explains that she is April's maternal grandmother. April never knew her grandmother because her mother had a major rift or falling-out and they had become estranged. Naturally, April calls her mother and asks her grandma's name, what she looked like, etc. She's surprised to learn her grandmother's name was Clarissa, and looked exactly as her mother described. Hm. That's an interesting coincidence, right?

Soon, April is having "clear dreams" almost every night, and usually her grandma, Clarissa, is there to greet her and take her on out-of-body journeys. She introduces April to several more of her relatives she had never known. Her maternal grandfather, Ben. Her great aunt, Merissa. Merissa's elder daughter, Mely, and many others. She learns from her mother that these were also all real people who had passed on. Valentine figures that April must be dredging all this information up from her subconscious: things she had heard from her mother as a child.

Clarissa takes April on OBEs around the world to places she's never visited, like Clarissa's home town of Iloilo. They visit various homes, churches and landmarks and meet various people along the way. At Valentine's suggestion, April comes back with specific names, dates, and addresses. He's then able to verify that yes, these places do exist (or once existed), and these people were real people. What's more, April spends an hour or two drawing a church or landmark in great detail (the book's cover is one) and Valentine verifies the accuracy. Valentine takes more precautions, like checking web browser history and such, but apparently there's been no cheating.

Often, April doesn't know where she's going, and can't really pronounce the names of these places, so she gets Clarissa to spell them out. For example, they visit the town of Dyrehavsbakken, a place neither of them had heard of. Valentine is shocked to find out it's the name of a real place, and all the details of April's visit seem to match.

In one case, April thinks she's in the Philippines near an active volcano. She asks Clarissa to spell out the name of the place, and Clarissa spells out "G-U-A-T-E-M-A-L-A". It turns out they are near the Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala! Valentine has no idea where April is getting this information, but he starts to take more precautions to make sure she's not using her cell phone to look things up in the middle of the night.

Valentine decides to ask April to do some experiments and she agrees, just for the fun of it. He asks April to determine something neither of them knew: the name of Pluto's moon. He fully expects her to fail, but in the morning, he finds she had sprawled two things on her note pad in the middle of the night: "Charon 1978". He looked it up on the Internet and found out one of Pluto's moons is named Charon. It turns out 1978 was the year of its discovery! This is getting so good it's absurd. Okay, maybe she had heard it once and buried it in her subconscious.

He tasks her to find out the moons of Jupiter, and she comes up with the four largest moons: Europa, Io, Callisto, and Ganymede!

Soon she's visiting strange buildings in strange countries and coming back with very specific information, and in many cases, she makes detailed drawings. And Valentine finds out that, as far as he can tell, it's all factual. For example, in an OBE, she's taken to a building in some city neither of them know. She's introduced to a man who gives her many details about his life: his full name, the year he was born, the year he died, his wife's name, his children's names, etc., and it all ends up checking out. Then she sits down and draws an amazingly accurate rendition of the building from memory.

In many cases, Valentine thinks the information she gets is wrong, but further research later proves it's not. For example, she visits a royal palace in England, and does a beautiful drawing. Since it doesn't match any of the royal palaces Valentine knew, he thinks it's incorrect. But further research proves it to be an actual royal palace after all.

She visits royalty, talks to servants, and gets loads of stunning details, all verified.

This book is not some strange man making fantastic claims about his astral escapades, and their significance, from a position of superiority. He's not pushing an agenda nor selling anything. This is a level-headed ordinary guy who's absolutely incredulous and dumbfounded at what's happening to his dear friend.

The book kept me fascinated and I found it very hard to put down. Almost every page I thought to myself, "Wow, this is fantastic!" and it just kept getting better til the end. Several times throughout the book, I got chills up my spine.

The book is very well written. Valentine's writing style is very British, which means it's prim, and proper, and yet very approachable. Every sentence is well thought out and expertly crafted.

The book is 240 pages, with a smallish font and slim margins, which means there's a satisfying amount of content. I found only two small mistakes in the book, so the editing was professional quality.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and give it 4 1/2 stars.

Valentine tells me April has been having experiences since the book was published, and he now has enough material to write a sequel. I can't wait.

Bob Peterson
24 April 2018

Review: The Secret Life of an Astral Traveler

The Secret Life of an Astral Traveler

by Luna Star Van Atta

First of all, I want to give a big shout out to Grace Osora Erhart and Dale Ann Litalien, who led an awesome workshop Kathy and I attended last Saturday on drumming and active dreaming in the style of author Robert Moss. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was cool to actually meet someone who reads my blog! <3

Today I'm reviewing the book The Secret Life of an Astral Traveler by Luna Star Van Atta.

A few weeks ago, Kathy and I were driving through Sedona, Arizona, a haven for New Age people. As I drove past a shop called Sacred Light, I got the urge to go in. I turned around, drove back to their parking lot and went in.

Inside the shop, I noticed a sign that talked about an Astral Projection class! I thought, "Isn't it wonderful how the Universe always guides us to where we're supposed to be?"

I asked the woman behind the counter about it. She said, "The class is still going on. It should be almost over by now. If you want, you can just wait a while until the class is over."

Wait, I thought, the class is almost over? Maybe the Universe steered me in here too late after all. I said, "Crap! I wish I had known about this class; I would have signed up. Where do you find out about these things? I checked Kudos and meetup.com and never saw it." I never did get a good answer.

After Kathy and I waited in the store, looking at crystals and such, the cashier looked at her watch and said, "The class is probably over now, so you can go back and talk to Luna. But be careful not to interrupt the class if it's still going on."

We proceeded down the long hallway. When we got to the classroom in the back, the class had ended and the students were hugging and saying goodbyes. I introduced myself to the class instructor, Luna Star Van Atta, and gave her my business card. I explained that I had a blog about astral projection and did out-of-body experience book reviews, had done more than 70 of them, and if she gave me a copy of her book, I'd review hers too. She was happy to do it.

As we drove away, I wondered: Who is Luna Star Van Atta and why haven't I heard about her before? Why has her book escaped my attention? Still, the book is pretty new--copyright 2016--so I cut myself some slack.

The book opens with a bang: Chapter 1 is the very emotional, touching, and well written story about the death of the author's husband and soulmate, Michael Van Atta, from cancer. Then the book rewinds back to an earlier time.

Chapter 2 tells the story of Van Atta's near-death experience (NDE) and how it opened her up as a psychic and healer. It also inspired her to try to seek more out-of-body experiences, to try to reconnect to Source/God/Whatever label you want to give it. First she turned to J.H. Brennan's Astral Projection Workbook, then to other sources.

Finally she takes a class on remote viewing (RV) where she meets the RV teacher, Michael Van Atta, a student of David Morehouse. She states:

"Although he was teaching Remote Viewing, which is a military application of astral travel, he did not focus on the rigid military protocols." (pg. 36)

From then on she seems to treat OBEs as a form of remove viewing. I disagree. I wrote about this in other places, such as my review of the book Out-of-Body Workbook: The Ultimate 5-Step Guide to the Astral Projection Experience by Dr. Jill Ammon-Wexler. When I'm in an OBE, my physical body is just another inanimate object in the room. With remote viewing, I'm completely in control of my physical body. A bit further on, she says basically the same thing:

"Remote Viewing is basically a military term for a type of astral travel." (pg. 88)

On the next page she writes:

 "Morehouse defines Remote Viewing as: 'The learned ability to transcend space and time, to view persons, places or things remove in space-time; to gather and report information on the same." (pg. 89)

"There are only small differences between Remote Viewing and astral travel as far as I am concerned." (pg. 89)

I guess I shouldn't be so black and white. After all, it's all a matter of how much conscious awareness you place "there" versus "here" right? It's variable.

After a few more chapters it dawned on me: What Van Atta is describing are basically "Focus Level" experiences like the Monroe Institute teaches, but she's calling it astral projection.

At the RV class, Michael and Luna hit it off right away. There's just one small problem: Both she and Michael were married to other people. Ooops!

Luna finds out that she's actually pretty good at Remote Viewing, and so is Michael. So they basically start seeing each other--a love affair--in an agreed-upon location they designed in the astral plane!

Were they just fantasizing about each other? Maybe, but in many cases, they corroborated each other's stories of what they saw and what happened.

Eventually, after a lot of time passes, they divorce their respective spouses and marry each other. Then the real adventure begins.

That leads to some lively tales of psychic marriage, true intimacy, relationship building, astral romance, astral sex, remote healing, mediumship, and even using remote viewing to help the police solve murders and other crimes. (It helps when you get information directly from dead murder victims.)

Though the book is anchored in New Age philosophy,  there's a certain reverence, acknowledgment, and head-nods to God throughout.

There are no tips or techniques for achieving out-of-body experiences, or even remote viewing, so it's mostly just narratives. But the stories are good.

The book is average size, 199 pages, and decent font, so you won't feel short changed on content. The writing is very good, and I found very few typos and grammar issues.

I'm giving this book 3 stars out of 5. The book is entertaining and the stories are amusing, although the lines are too blurred between astral projection and remote viewing for my taste (but I'm a stickler for such things.)

Bob Peterson
10 April 2018

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Review: Astral Projection as a Bridge to the Spiriual World

Review:

Astral Projection as a Bridge to the Spiritual World

by Luiz Roberto Mattos

Today I'm reviewing the book Astral Projection as a Bridge to the Spiritual World by Luiz Roberto Mattos.

I received a copy of this book from a Facebook friend who thought I might like it. I'm going to be honest with you: I was disappointed. With a title like that, it had so much potential, but unfortunately, it didn't live up to it.

The premise is good: the author uses astral projection to visit the spirit world where there are unlimited opportunities to learn. On the back cover it says "This book is an autobiography..." so I expected some good OBE narratives.

It tells the story of how the author, Luis Roberto Mattos (nickname Beto) grew up in South America. He was influenced by the Spiritist religion (as in Allan Kardec), and studied metaphysics, yogic meditation, Rosicrucianism, and many spiritual traditions. Then he became interested in astral projection. He gave up eating meat, opting for very light evening meals. He gave up all his bad habits, alcohol, etc., and took up a spiritual life. Then he quit school to pursue his spiritual adventures full-time.

He meets a spiritual master named Sana Khan on the astral plane, who begins to teach him spiritual lessons. Unfortunately, the book quickly devolves into only that: the teachings of Sana Khan. Sana Khan teaches Beto lots of lessons about birth, life, sex, death, the afterlife, reincarnation, and how spirits interfere and influence the living. In a way it reminded me a lot of the movie Astral City, but from the perspective of someone who is still in-the-body.


For the most part, it's all pretty standard New Age teachings. Well, except for one or two things that contradict modern science. For example:

"There are four hundred million stars in the Milky Way, master," I said with some astonishment, demonstrating my awe at the immensity of our structure." (pg. 156)

According to google, there are 250 Billion stars (with a B) in the Milky Way Galaxy, give or take 150 billion. That's 940 times more. But who's counting?

Here are some other things I disagreed with: Mattos talks about how spirits need to be shrunk down in size in order to fit into the tiny human egg at the time of conception:

"And the Spirit will bind to the egg immediately after sperm penetration." (pg. 270)

I tend to favor what Jane Roberts / "Seth" says about the topic: That spirits heading toward birth only visit the womb from time to time. Mattos says the spirits are also affected with amnesia, and he talks about how abortion is a serious spiritual "outrage" (his word) like you're robbing a spirit of its incarnation and denying it an opportunity for spiritual growth. I prefer Seth's suggestion that all these things are carefully planned out in advance, including births, deaths, the lessons, and yes, even the abortions, at a "Higher Self" or "Oversoul" level.

The thing is: I didn't want New Age teachings. I already know all that stuff. I wanted to know about the author's astral projections: how he learned it, the techniques he used, the discoveries he made, what weird quirky things he encountered "over there." But the whole book was almost exclusively just discourse: Sana Khan took me to this place. He said this. He said that. The dialogue was flat; the author breaks up the dialogue by saying things like, "This is interesting, master."

It wasn't just that. It also lacked a feeling of authenticity. If you've had OBEs, you know what it's like. You can tell when someone is describing a real OBE: the strange otherworldly atmosphere, the foreign 360-degree eyesight, the strangeness of how gravity doesn't affect you, the fog floating around; all that "delicious eeriness" Michael Ross talks about. This book lacked all that. The author's OBEs all sounded too..."physical." Sure, he acknowledges the dialogues were telepathic instead of talking, but the dialog was too Earthly. The OBEs were too three-dimensional.

Maybe I'm being too critical. Maybe Mattos was just targeting an Earthly audience. Or maybe because he's from South America, it was just cultural differences (I thought the movie "Astral City" was too physical too, for example). Whatever it was, it didn't work for me.

Another problem is that the dialog was too long and detailed to have taken place in genuine OBEs. There's simply no way anyone (short of eidetic memory) would be able to remember and quote word for word what someone said in an entire half-hour lecture. Not even in real life, let alone from an OBE. I'm lucky if I remember just a few sentences.

Here's another tip-off: the author's story takes place over the course of several weeks, but night after night, without fail, he just effortlessly pops right out of his body to have his nightly lesson with Sana Khan. Anyone who's studied OBEs knows it's just not that easy; not even for the most proficient OBE experts: not William Buhlman, not Robert Bruce, not Akhena, not anyone. It was just too effortless. If Mattos wrote about struggling to achieve the proper focus, or occasionally losing focus during the process of separation, or getting sucked back into his body prematurely and having to leave it again, or having a cat jump on his body while he was out, it would be more believable.


There's enough content; just not enough OBE-related content. The book is 325 pages, each of which is a decent size. The font is somewhat big, so it's an average-sized book.

Except for the preface (not by the author) the writing was pretty good, but it needed weeks of serious editing and proof-reading. The book was obviously scanned in from an older printed manuscript. It's obvious because there were lots of mistakes that would be caught by any human proof-reader, but not by a computer spellchecker. For example, instead of the pronoun "I" the text had, in many places, the number "1." Or "he" instead of "The". Another example: anytime the original text had "rn" it was converted to an "m". So the word "modern" was printed as "modem" (like the old computer modulator-demodulator device). These are the hallmarks of OCR (optical character recognition) from a scanner to a document that was never proof-read. There were glaring mistakes on almost every page.

I'm sorry, but I can only give this book 2 stars out of 5. Most of the New Age teachings aren't bad, but this isn't an OBE book as much as it is New Age 101. There are no OBE tips, techniques, or pointers, except for eating light vegetarian meals.

If it was titled "The Lessons of Master Sana Khan" it would live up to its title. But really, it has almost nothing to do with astral projection.

Bob Peterson
27 March 2018

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Review: Vibrational State and Energy Resonance

Vibrational State and Energy Resonance

by Nanci Trivellato

Many OBE authors, such as Robert Bruce, talk about the manipulation of non-physical energy as an important component for inducing OBEs and other altered states of consciousness. It's not a new concept: The Chinese call it "Chi" or "Qi" and have done exercises like Qi Gong and T'ai Chi Chuan for thousands of years. Yogis in India they have other exercises to cultivate it, such as Kundalini Yoga.

Most of us also know that OBEs are often preceded by "The Vibrations" but what do we really know about them? What's the relationship between the Chi manipulation and the vibrations, and how do they fit together? Author/teacher Nanci Trivellato of the IAC (International Academy of Consciousness, an international non-profit organization dedicated to the scientific study of consciousness) tries to answer these questions in her book Vibrational State and Energy Resonance.

Last Spring, the author was kind enough to send me a copy of her book. Why haven't I reviewed it until now? Partly because (as I said in my last book review) I didn't spend much time reading last summer, but mostly, because it's huge. How big? It's almost 500 pages, and each page is larger than average. There's a LOT of information. That's not a bad thing, except it's highly technical and difficult to read, so I could only digest ten or fifteen pages at a time. In fact, it's so big, I may split this review up like I've done in the past.

I feel conflicted about this book. (I guess I say that a lot, don't I?) On the one hand, this book contains a lot of very useful information. On the other hand, it's so technical that it's difficult to read. I told one guy it's like reading a car shop manual from cover to cover. Better yet, it's like reading a technical computer manual. (Believe me, I've read a lot of computer manuals cover to cover. Like the CDC Compass 6400 Assembly Language reference manual. Or the Pascal Language reference manual. They were highly entertaining to me back in 1979. Until I discovered OBEs. But I digress.) So this book is like a technical manual. Trivellato tries to take a very scientific approach. That's good. Unless you're a layman, or expect the book to entertain you. So you should go into it with the right expectations.

A lot of the book is about VELO, an IAC acronym that stands for Voluntary Energetic Longitudinal Oscillation, which is a non-physical energy exercise designed to induce "The Vibrations," which they call the VS (short for the Vibrational State).

How does it compare to other metaphysical energy systems?

With Kundalini Yoga, you draw energy up through the spine to activate each of the chakras, and the Chi energizes and exits through the crown chakra at the top of the head. (Bob starts humming the song Serpent Is Rising by Styx, "Serpent is rising, uncoiling in your spine, bringing you light from the depths of your mind".)

Robert Bruce, author of Astral Dynamics, condones a system much like the one taught in T'ai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong, where energy starts at the Tan Tien (the belly-button energy center/chakra, two inches below the navel) and is circulated down to the root chakra, then up the spine, over the top of the head, and back down through the third eye chakra, the heart chakra, and back to the Tan Tien to make a complete circle.

Akhena (The "William Buhlman of France"), author of Out-of-Body Experiences recommends alternating the focus of the Chi between the root chakra ("The Fire") and the third eye chakra ("The Diamond").

With the IAC's VELO exercise, the energy is rapidly and repeatedly moved up and down the entire length of the body, creating an energy resonance. In other words VELO makes a smooth continuous sweep of the entire area from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. It's almost like you envision your body enclosed in a big tube, and the energy flows like sound waves up and down through the entire tube. NOTE: Trivellato spends a lot of time describing the technique technically and accurately, so if you just follow my description, you'll probably get it wrong.


In my own OBE practice, I usually recommend you imagine your physical body is like an empty bottle with water sloshing back and forth. Except for the speed, this reminds me a lot of VELO, so VELO is not that different from my technique.


I was surprised to find Trivellato references the writings of Robert Monroe, author of Journeys Out of the Body, as well as Waldo Vieira, with regard to some of the earliest writings about the vibrations.

You can induce out-of-body experiences (something they call "Lucid Projections") through the VS, but that's only one of the many benefits of performing the VELO. So a lot of the book describes the benefits of using the VELO, the positive effects it has on personal energy and health, how to do it correctly, and so forth. Trivellato loves bulleted lists of everything, including benefits.

Like the other IAC books I've read, such as Luis Minero's book Demystifying the Out-of-Body Experience, this book is overloaded with IAC terminology (lingo). Trivellato states:

"For the same critical reasons cited above, gratuitous creation of terminology is not appropriate." (pg. 36)

Despite that, this book contains more IAC lingo than ever before. I've complained about this in at least two other book reviews. To give you an idea, the book contains a glossary of terms that spans from page 409 through 447! That's 38 pages of glossary defining IAC terms like thosene (an acronym for Thought + Sentiment/Emotion + Energy), which is basically like an thought-form or energetic imprint.

Why do they need so many new terms? For starters, in the IAC world view, people have multiple vehicles of consciousness, similar to the teachings of Theosophy, but they call the physical body the "Soma," the astral body the "Psychosoma," the etheric body the "Energosoma," the mental body the "Mentalsoma," and so on. Put all of these vehicles of consciousness together and you get something they call the "Holosoma." Well, it's not quite that simple. Trivellato says that the Energosoma cannot be used as a vehicle of consciousness; that it's more or less an energy grid and foundation for the chakras and/or silver cord.

Thank goodness I had read other IAC books, so I could actually understand what I was reading, because the AIC terminology quickly leads to complex and hard-to-follow discussions of Intraconsciential restructuring, self-vibrostasiometry, Morphothosenes, Xenothosenes, Energometry, and a whole lot of other words you won't find in any English dictionary. So I hope you experience despertopolis and retain your holosoma rather than desoma after you exit the cosmoconscientiarium! Okay, I've made my point.


The book is all very technical. That does not mean it's bad, it's just not written for a layman. It is meant to be technical and informational, not entertaining.
Here's a good example of how technical the book gets:

"In other words, upon improving one's basal and/or inherent bioenergetic fluidity and one's condition in the current lifetime, by the same process of intervehicular transmission of information described above, this more balanced and fluid energy will reach the psychosoma with the ability to contribute, in some cases, to the gradual change of one's paragenetics and, consequently, to the liberation or improvement of the condition of one's manifestation." (pg. 53)

In other words, performing the VELO exercise helps you in many ways, including balancing your non-physical energies, protecting yourself from harmful energy influences, and so forth, presented like a technical manual.

But as Trivellato says:

"Don't allow yourself to be intimidated by the form in which information is transmitted. Use your discernment and see, beyond the words, the true content being communicated." (pg. 36)

If you can do that--ignore the terminology and find the message conveyed--then it is good information.

I do have a serious question, though: The IAC uses the prefix "para" to indicate the non-physical. So the astral body's brain is called the "parabrain." But the astral body itself is the "psychosoma." Why is that? Why don't they call it the parasoma? Or conversely, why don't they call the astral brain the "psychobrain?" I suppose that has too many bad connotations?

The book is organized into multiple parts:Part 1 is "Foundations for the Study of the VS" and it basically gives you the basics of the AIC beliefs.
Part 2 is "The Vibrational State Phenomenon" and it talks about the VELO, the vibrations and the phenomena associated with them.
Part 3 is "The VELO Technique" and it's all about the subtleties of the VELO technique: How to do it properly, common mistakes, etc.
Part 4 is "Attributes of the VELO."
Part 5 is "Advanced Topics."
Part 6 is "Vibrostasiology."


On page 28 there is an interesting discussion of the IAC and how it all started with the teachings of prolific OBE author Waldo Vieira. The group of people who followed and tried to expand Vieira's work were more focused on out-of-body experiences (which they call "Projectiology"). Eventually the IAC's research, techniques and beliefs diverged from the other people who followed Vieira's work. I get the feeling the IAC is more science-based, and they're more focused on the study of consciousness and energy than the OBEs themselves.

The IAC paradigm is:

"Founded on the underlying assumption that the consciousness is a primary component of reality, independent from matter and energy." (pg. 41)

So what is the book trying to convey? According to Trivellato:

"The goal of this book is precisely to contribute to increasing the percentage of success when trying to produce the VS." (pg. 76)

The bottom line is: According to Trivellato, regular practice of the VELO technique will help you maintain good energetic health, increase your amount of loose or free energy, as well as inducing the Vibrational State.

So how does the VELO cause the Vibrational State? According the Trivellato:

"The vibrational state happens when there is a great bioenergetic activation and looseness, producing a clear, intense, pleasant, and distinct sensation of vibration throughout the entire body, resulting from the resonance of all energetic centers [chakras]. In other words, it happens when the activation of these centers reaches a level that produces a feedback or "contagion" effect between them, generating a chain reaction that produces a simultaneous condition of increased vibratory amplitude and activation in all of the energosoma." (pg. 72)

I would have liked a more in-depth discussion about how the Vibrational State leads to and triggers OBEs, but that's about all she says about it.

In my opinion, the biggest shortcoming of the book (besides all the technical lingo) is that it didn't spend enough time comparing the VELO to other metaphysical energy systems. Only a mention or two in passing.

For example, I've read stern warnings about the improper use of Kundalini yoga that can lead to all kinds of negative (or at least powerful) energy sensations, like pain shooting up your spine, neck, or the top of your head. My T'ai Chi master (Sifu) used to warn us students about energy loss (and other dangers) if the Chi isn't moved in a complete circle, and only stopping at the Tan Tien.

Robert Bruce similarly warns about energy conservation, storing the Chi there. I would have loved to read a nice long chapter about all that, but this book doesn't really say much about any of those things. It did, however, discuss the shortcomings of other offshoots of Waldo Vieira's work, and how VELO is a superior technique. That was a good discussion.

After reading this book, I tend to think that in terms of electricity, circulating Chi is like DC (Direct Current) whereas the VELO is more like AC (Alternating Current): The reason our electrical grids all use AC is because AC travels better and DC causes too much power loss for long distances (and you can thank Nicola Tesla for that). Perhaps it's the same with Chi and maybe someday Nanci Trivellato will go down in history as the Nicola Tesla of OBEs. Only time will tell.

Still, I guess I can't really argue with anything the author says, except her assertion that the energy body (what most people call the Etheric body, but the IAC calls the "energosoma") cannot be used as a vehicle of consciousness. But that's not a point worth arguing.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. In other words, if the VELO technique works, and doesn't cause negative energetic side-effects, then I'm all for it. I've been using it for a while now, and so far it's been beneficial, with no bad side-effects. I don't think I've used it long enough to give it a fair assessment.

So I applaud Nanci Trivellato and the IAC for their contributions in helping us understand metaphysical energy/Chi and how best to manipulate it.

The writing, organization, and grammar were outstanding. Top-notch professional. I really only found one mistake in the entire 494 pages. That's amazing.

I'll give the book 3 out of 5 stars. I would have enjoyed it more if it had been only 200 pages, presented in layman's terms, and a lot less technical. But as I said, the book was meant to inform, not entertain.

Bob Peterson
27 Feb 2018

Review: How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain

How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain

by Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman

I haven't written a book review since July. I feel bad, but there are two reasons: First, I didn't read much this summer; I was swamped with other things. I always read more in the winter (Kathy works for H&R Block, which goes from January to April, and when Kathy works, Bob has more time to read!) Second, I did a few polls to ask whether people would rather have OBE articles or OBE book reviews, and the overwhelming response was for the articles.

A funny thing happened with this book. I started reading it last March. I got 98 percent of the way done, but when I got to the "good chapters" at the end, I stopped. Why? I wanted to go through them slowly and carefully, but I never found the time until late December.

This book is not about OBEs. It's more geared toward brain and consciousness research, and for that reason, I almost didn't do a book review. Still, it takes a completely unique approach to altered states of consciousness (as opposed to traditional OBE books), and I liked that. The book is an approach to "enlightenment" and altered states of consciousness from the point of view of a neuroscientist or a brain scientist, so in a way, that's even better. In fact, I liked the book so much, I flagged a lot of pages. That means a long book review (sorry!), but one full of good exercises, which I hope makes up for it.

First, the authors tried to define enlightenment. They broke it into two categories: big "E" (Enlightenment) and little "e" (enlightenment). The little "e" is for "eureka" moments of insight. The big "E" is for life-changing experiences that completely rewire your brain and alter your way of thinking: radical transformation. They' are not talking about experiences of divine oneness, unity, Nirvana, or Satori. They're talking about radical rewiring of the brain: The difference between an ordinary person and a person like Buddha or Christ.

The authors studied the enlightenment experiences and altered states of several groups of people, such as Buddhist meditators, Franciscan nuns, mediums, and Pentecostals. They had some fascinating observations. For example:

"What makes these experiences so different from contemplative meditation is the time factor. In our studies from Franciscan nuns and Buddhist meditators, it takes about fifty to sixty minutes to create these same kind of neurological changes. The Pentecostals and mediums took far less time, sometimes only minutes, to enter such altered states. This suggests that it may be very easy to prep the brain for transformation simply by picking up a pen and asking for advice from an entity or sage, living or dead, imaginary or real. By giving up habitual control, we may gain access to deeper wisdom within and beyond the boundary of everyday consciousness." (pg. 120)

For example:

"Another interesting finding arose from our research on automatic writing. My Brazilian colleagues analyzed what was actually written during the psychography practice and during normal writing. The results showed that the written content was much more complex during psychography. This is fascinating because you would think that more complex writing would require more activity in the usual language areas [of the brain.] But somehow the experienced mediums were able to produce more richness and variation--much like how a great poet composes a line of verse--even without the usual language areas." (pg. 122)

Later in the book (page 220) the authors give instructions on how to do automatic writing.

Some of their findings are surprising, but they match both my experience and my understanding from other research and self-study I've done. For example, it might be tempting to think that enlightenment might be associated with increased (or decreased) activity in a certain region of the brain, like the pre-frontal cortex. But their research suggests that enlightenment is associated with a sudden drop in activity in the pre-frontal cortex.

I can't stress this enough, so I'm going to repeat it in bold type:

Enlightenment is associated with a sudden drop in activity in the pre-frontal cortex.

I've read brain research papers that suggest OBEs are also associated with a similar drop. So it's not the activity, or lack thereof, but the drop itself that's important. This is a revolutionary concept, and we can definitely use that to harness not only enlightenment, but OBEs and other mystical states. It's as easy as this:

1. Increase the activity in your brain's pre-frontal cortex using some kind of brain and body exercises, then:
2. Cause a sudden drop in frontal lobe activity. And the authors give clear instructions how to accomplish that.

The book suggests several exercises and practices to produce these altered states. Often, these are given in easy step-by-step instructions, corresponding with different levels of achievement. For example:

 "Step 3. Now for the fun part: write down the craziest sentence you can think of. Imagine that you are a lunatic, or stoned, or drunk, and write down something ridiculous (for example, there's an elephant wearing a diaper sitting in my refrigerator). Keep writing down crazy, wild, silly sentences until you feel a sense of abandonment. It doesn't matter if you scribble gibberish or make up meaningless words. You are now exercising Level 4, creative imagination. This, by the way, is a common warm-up exercise used by many writers to break through writer's block." (pg. 124)

This quote struck home for me:

"...Now think about an issue or problem you are currently struggling with, and imagine that you are someone else--the world's greatest problem solver, like Freud or Einstein, or Harry Potter--and begin to write a response to your problem as if you were that other person." (pg. 125)

What's remarkable about that quote is it's almost exactly what I was doing when I first learned to speak to my inner voice, as described in detail in my book Answers Within. In fact, later in the book (in the context of learning to do automatic writing) they suggest exactly what I did that first time, right down to the letter:

 "If you still don't hear anything, ask yourself, 'What would ___________ say?" and fill in the blank with someone--alive or dead--who you consider knowledgeable and wise." (pg. 222)

Needless to say, this got my attention! Later in the book, they also talk about your inner voice and how it relates:

"Listening to your inner voices increases frontal lobe activity, but the exercises in the next chapter turn them off. In order to create the greatest neurological shift, we recommend doing mindfulness immediately before and after the intense practices we are about to describe." (pg. 208)

One of the exercises the book suggests is called Dhikr, which is an ancient Sufi practice, like a meditation or a prayer. I think I've mentioned elsewhere that the Sufis are an order of mystics from the religion of Islam. The most famous Sufi was Rumi, who is often quoted in New Age circles. Here is an example Dhikr meditation from another famous Sufi mystic, Hafez:

"I ruminate on God
And my old self falls away.
Am I a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or a Jew?
I do not know for Truth has set fire to these words.
Now they are nothing but ashes.
I ruminate on God
And my old self falls away.
Am I a man, a woman, an angel, or even a pure soul?
I do not know for Love has melted these words away.
Now I am free of all these images
That haunted my busy mind. (Hafez)." (pg. 164)

According to their research:

"Throughout history, spontaneous experiences of Enlightenment have happened to people in every culture. And as we have seen in previous chapters, many different states of consciousness can provide paths toward higher state of consciousness (Levels 5 and 6 in our Spectrum). But our research suggests that people who actively seek Enlightenment are far more likely to experience it than those who don't believe in the concept." (pg. 165)

Let me be honest here: A lot of the book is boring, even to me. Still, it has several very interesting ideas and new approaches to mystical states, and that makes it all worthwhile.

"But when we ask our students and subjects to listen to their intuition, we are guiding them into Level 4, creative imagination. The same person will often "hear" or receive a different definition, like this: 'I see enlightenment as a ball of light filling my consciousness.' or 'Enlightenment, for me, means to be free of my past.' Then, by reflecting on both the logical and intuitive answers, you engage in a more comprehensive form of self-observation associated with Level 5 awareness, where the brain processes information visually and symbolically rather than with abstract concepts and words. Sometimes this exercise alone can lead to a small 'e' enlightenment experience." (pg. 167)

According to the authors, it's important to want to change:

"First, you must genuinely desire insight and change, knowing that it could shake up some of your most cherished beliefs." (pg. 194)

It's always tempting to keep doing what you're doing and not change, because:

"...the human brain doesn't like ambiguity or surprises. It's willing to go after pleasurable experiences, but anything new and intense stimulates the danger circuits in your brain that are designed to shut down the higher states of consciousness, creativity, and imagination. But once you understand the process of resistance, it's easier to overcome. (pg. 196-197)

As far as trying a life-changing transformation for yourself, they recommend specific steps. Step 1 is "The desire to change and the life transformation inventory." Basically, you use your own memories to prepare your brain for positive change:

"Visualize all of the past events that in some small or large way made your life feel more meaningful and purposeful. Think about books you have read that changed your outlook on life, or a teacher that showed you a side of yourself you had not recognized. Think about the people who have inspired you, or opened your heart, or taught you how to feel more connected to yourself and others. Deeply recall previous spiritual insights along with those 'aha' moments that occurred while studying something new." (pg. 199)

Be cautious about negativity and counter it with something positive:

"As Barbara Fredrickson and other research psychologists discovered, if you want to build optimism and self-confidence, you have to maintain a 'positivity ratio,' where every negative feeling or thought needs to be offset by a minimum of three positive ones." (pg. 202)

Step 2 is "Preparing your body and mind." Here's where things get interesting:

"Super-slow movement will increase frontal lobe activity, but the following exercise, which involves relaxing your mind, will cause it to drop (remember, the greater the change, the more powerful the experience). (pg. 204)

So that might explain why slow-motion exercises like Tai Chi Chuan can help produce mystical states like OBEs (Remember that I practiced Tai Chi for 7 years and still do some of the exercises today).

"Very slow movements also rapidly increase frontal lobe activity, and if you do this before and after the more intense exercises described in the next chapter (which decrease neural activity), you'll generate more powerful shifts in consciousness." (pg. 205)

Here's another surprising finding: yawning can help change your state of consciousness.

"Try this yawning exercise right now and notice how it changes your conscious awareness of your body and the environment. Begin by slowly yawning ten times, even if you don't feel like it. Fake the first few ones, making a sighing sound as you exhale, and soon you'll naturally begin to yawn." (pg. 204)

Here's another exercise that I found very interesting:

"...All you need is a white sheet of paper. You can place it on your desk, or tape it to the wall, placing your chair in a way that you can comfortably look at it.
   First, close your eyes, relax, and bring yourself in the present moment by paying attention to the natural rhythm of your breathing. Do this for several minutes, and then open your eyes and gaze at the paper using your fullest concentration. Explore it and study as many details as you can: the edge, the size, the whiteness of the paper, etc." (pg. 218)

That reminded me of an exercise I sometimes do where I stare past an image on my computer monitor with my eyes open. Somehow I can go into a somewhat deep trance just by doing that. If I close my eyes, I'm knocked out of the trance.

Another exercise they suggest to "lower frontal lobe activity" is used by a lot of proficient meditators, including Jurgen Ziewe, which is repeating the sound of "Om" or "Aum" (One of my favorite meditations is Ziewe's "The Far Countries: Multi-Dimensional Man" meditation.)

They give several good suggestions, including things like Tai Chi.

"You now have a 'formula' for consciously raising and lowering activity in different parts of your brain, and if you alternate between slow and fast movements, slow and rapid breathing, and reciting sounds in either a melodic or monotone way, you can create the greatest increases and decreases in neural activity. You can, at will, deepen your consciousness or obliterate it, stimulate your brain or calm it down, thus giving you more conscious control over your feelings, emotions, and thoughts." (pg 226)

Jason Kish recently posted in one of the Astral Projection groups on Facebook that he recommends taking several rapid, deep breaths before lying down. That definitely fits. "Breathe deeply and relax completely" are the opening words of one of William Buhlman's guided OBE meditations.

On page 228, the authors give instructions for what they question might be "The most powerful ritual in the world?" It involves combining several elements of rituals, such as:

• Rhythmic body movements (like Tai Chi, Hatha yoga, or Qi Gong)
• Repetition of a meaningful word or phrase (like mantras)
• Counting your breaths
• Intense concentration and immersion in the experience
• Meaningful sounds

Do this for 10 to 50 minutes to reach a high level of intensity in which:

"...you might feel strong emotions or tingling sensations in different parts of your body. When you reach this point, begin to slow everything down: your breathing, your movements, your chanting, etc. You can even go super-slowly, noticing the tiny shifts in feelings and sensations. This will increase neural activity, and it is during this swing between high and low neural activity that Enlightenment experiences are most likely to occur. Don't spend more than an hour, and when you've finished your ritual, do another series of relaxation exercises." (pg. 229)

The authors also stressed that intention is important. You need to intend to have a mystical experience. The good news is that:

"I believe that Enlightenment is absolutely attainable by anyone. In fact, if the human brain is built to explore and understand our world, it would seem that the movement toward Enlightenment is an essential drive within every brain." (pg. 245)

Perhaps my favorite quote in the book is from one of the author's students, who made this observation:

"We are all like un-popped popcorn sitting in the bottom of a pot on a stove. Then the heat of transformation is turned up. One person will pop first, and just like a bag of popcorn, everyone else will be encouraged to pop." (pg. 248)

In other words, this isn't necessarily a solitary journey. By raising your level of consciousness, you affect the people around you and raise theirs as well. There's value in doing these exercises in groups.

I really liked this book because it's scientific, logical, no-nonsense, and gives outside-the-box exercises for radical transformation of consciousness. Some of it was slow, but I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars.

BTW, I'm still working on read Nanci Trivelatto's book and hope to review that next. But it's big and I'm still only halfway through it.

Bob Peterson
09 January 2018