Astral Projection Made Easy by Stephanie Sorrell

Astral Projection Made Easy

by Stephanie Sorrell

Book review by Bob Peterson

I've heard it said there are two types of musicians: the ones born with talent and the others have to work their asses off, studying, rehearsing and practising ten hours every day, just to be "good," or even just mediocre. It's the same way with out-of-body experiencers, and I'm the second type. As I said in my last book review, I was not born with any natural OBE talent. I've had to work very hard for my OBEs, and one of the ways I keep my subconscious engaged is to read OBE books. So I recently finished Stephanie Sorrell's book, Astral Projection Made Easy: and overcoming the fear of death. The "made easy" part really had some appeal.

Not long ago, I won a prize at work for doing an excellent job, and that included a gift card for a number of online stores. So once again I scoured amazon.com for books that weren't in my collection, and bought a bunch. I was expecting a massive, heavy box in the mail. Unfortunately, a very small box was delivered.

It was much too small because the books inside were small. Like Michael Beloved's book, Stephanie Sorrell's book was much too short. It's about half the thickness of Michael Beloved's book, and it is only 70 pages long (Beloved's was 140). Fortunately, this book has a smaller font and less wasted space, so word-for-word, the book probably is longer than Michael Beloved's book. Still, I've read chapters from other books longer than this.

Other than its size, I can't be negative about this book. The writing was clear, concise and well-organized. The OBE narratives were good. There just wasn't enough of it.

Like Beloved, Sorrell gives some good pieces of advice with regard to inducing OBEs: (1) Ensure that you won't be disturbed, (2) Wear loose clothing, (3) Be warm enough and comfortable, (4) Assume a proper position, preferably lying on your back. (5) Slow your breathing, (6) Relax your body, and so on.

As for her technique, there isn't much. She writes:

After some time and effort you will experience a 'hum' or 'buzz' in your head which will become weaker or stronger according to the level of your consciousness.

She gives some advice on how to handle that buzz. But in my opinion, that's more like advice than it is a technique. Then the book just abruptly ends. No wrap-up or conclusions; it just left me hungry for more.

So bottom line: I enjoyed the book a lot, but it was way too short.

It was an entertaining book and I do recommend it, but did it bring anything to light that "made it easy" as the title implies? No, not really. I guess I'll have to keep inducing my OBEs the old-fashioned way: with hard work, narrowing my conscious awareness into the tiniest of spaces.

25 March 2013

Astral Projection by Michael Beloved

Astral Projection by Michael Beloved

Book review by Bob Peterson

I've been actively studying (and practising) OBE since 1979. In that time, I've amassed a collection of more than 150 books on the subject (not counting peripheral topics like Near-Death Experiences, Remote Viewing, Lucid Dreaming, etc.) I collect them and I study them. Lately I've been writing book reviews on them as well. My point is, I had to buy Michael Beloved's book for my OBE book collection, and having read it, I decided to write a review like the others.

I write these book reviews for two reasons: First, I'm trying to give OBE fans some information as to what to expect before buying the various OBE books. Second, for my own sake: I can't remember all the highlights (and low lights) of all the OBE books I've read throughout the years; I wish I had done book reviews for every one, but I can't change the past. A few months ago, I decided it's never too late to start.

My blog readers know I don't candy-coat or pull punches. Some may say that because I'm an OBE author myself, I shouldn't criticize my competition. On the other hand, I have to be honest about my feelings. The fact of the matter is: OBE books are not created equal. Some are better than the others, and some are worse. So I have to be honest with you: I did not like this book. Maybe it's just that I had too high of expectations, especially since I've read (and reviewed) some excellent OBE books lately.

Here's what I didn't like about this book:

First, it was way too small. When I'm shopping on amazon.com and see a book cover, I imagine a nice thick book with lots of information. This one was only 140 pages, and the font size was bigger than normal type. Also, there are several large graphics that take up a lot of space. So it's a very small book, with very little information.

Second, it seemed very disorganized, like the author's mind was drifting from subject to subject without any order or cohesion. A lot of time he's not giving information as much as asking the reader questions. For example, pages 98, 100, and 101 (plus half of 99) are all questions that basically go unanswered. Questions like "What would that paradise be like?" and "How does an astral body deteriorate?" There are no answers; just questions.

Third, it makes unsubstantiated claims, without giving personal experiences to back up what it says, or references like Luis Minero's book.

Fourth, at times it doesn't even seem to make much sense, based on my experiences. To illustrate, here's an example paragraph from page 56:

I was conscious of astral projection since infancy. I was lucky. But that does not mean that you cannot have these experiences. Again I remind you that astral projection is not your deliberate action. It was not mine. It is not something that I commanded myself to do. It happened. Astral projection is happening but you have to achieve consciousness of its occurrence.

In the first sentence, he's admitting that he has natural-born OBE abilities. That's fine, but it isn't much use to someone like me who wasn't naturally talented, and had to work hard for all his OBEs. After all, if the author hasn't had to work for his experiences, and they just happen to him, how can he teach me his technique?

In the third sentence, he is saying that you can't produce OBEs through direct action; you just have to let them happen. You have to keep your mind "passive" to a certain degree when doing your technique, and maybe that's what he meant. But otherwise, that directly contradicts my experience: It took me years to learn how to focus my mind properly to achieve OBEs. It is something I command myself to do. It doesn't just happen.

Despite having said this, he goes on to suggest an OBE technique.

Maybe I just misunderstood him. Maybe it's just that his writing is unclear or that his English is not polished, but if I'm raising these questions, other people will too.

In the last sentence of that paragraph, he is saying that astral projection is happening but you have to become aware of it. I agree. In my experience, it happens to all of us in our sleep, and one technique is to learn to gain consciousness at that time. However, the author says nothing about sleep, and he doesn't offer a single suggestion as to how to achieve this "consciousness of its occurrence." He should have expounded on this. But the whole book is like this.

Things I liked about this book: Despite its shortcomings, the author does give some good practical advice, such as: (1) practice in a location different from your bed (because you're conditioned to fall asleep there). (2) Practice when you are fully rested (so you don't fall asleep) and free of stress. (3) practice in a dark room, or cover your eyes with a cloth. (4) Clear your mind of stray thoughts. (5) avoid painkillers and drugs that affect the central nervous system.

He also talks about the importance of visualization and he makes the (important) distinction not to confuse the visualization with an actual OBE: An OBE is a lot more realistic; visualizations are merely a means to an end.

His technique consists primarily of trying to mentally sink back to the back of your head, or to visualize yourself floating above your bed. He also gives some advice on how to handle pre-OBE sensations such as seeing clouds of energy, or hearing a high-pitch sound.

I'm not saying that this book is all bad. All I'm saying is that I've read much better OBE books. This one is much too short and disorganized. You'll do much better with authors like Fred Aardema, Luis Minero, Graham Nicholls, William Buhlman, Robert Monroe, and many others. They have more quantity, higher quality, better information and they're more entertaining.

17 March 2013

Demystifying the Out-of-Body Experience by Luis Minero

Review:Demystifying the Out-of-Body Experience

 by Luis Minero

Book review by Robert Peterson

I recently finished reading the book Demystifying the Out-of-body Experience by Luis Minero. Luis Minero is an instructor for the IAC, the International Academy of Consciousness. This is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization started by followers of Waldo Vieira. They have several spiritual centers across the world, and they teach out-of-body experience techniques.


As I've done for several other books, I'm posting my thoughts and feelings about the book so that others may benefit. My goal is not to praise nor tear down a competitor's book, but to give a fair assessment and assist others who might consider buying the book for their own research. I've done this with several other books, and readers of my blog know that I'm honest with my feelings. I don't pull punches. This is a somewhat long book, so I'm writing a long book review.

This was a very good book with very good information. Like all books, it had advantages and disadvantages, plus things I liked and things I didn't. Like Vieira's book, I tried really hard to find problems with this one, but in the end, I liked the book a lot (as I did Vieira's). First, what I didn't like:

First, in my opinion, it spent too much time on peripheral topics: More than half the book is about energy development, spiritual development, reincarnation, the study of consciousness (something they call "Conscientiology") and other side-topics, plus bibliography, glossary, and index. I would much rather have had more material directly relating to the OBEs themselves and what to expect. I wanted more "meat" to the book, and less side dishes.

Second, it read too much like a textbook. Especially the first half of the book made extensive use of "passive voice." I know this was intentional (it intentionally makes a book sound more like a textbook), but as a grammar Nazi, it drove me nuts. Will he please just use a pronoun? I like to hear personal experiences and personal perspectives, not matter-of-fact statements of how things work. (There are some OBE narratives, but I wanted more). But the further I got into the book, the better it got. It got more personal and less text-book, and that was good.

Third, I found his discussion of the Mental Body (or "mentalsoma," as he calls it) and the Mental Plane inadequate. He admits that experiences of the "mental plane" defy words; it's indescribable. Still, I wanted more information. As an out-of-body traveler, I've never experienced a projection out of my astral body into other mysterious dimensions or planes that are somehow "higher" than the astral. I wanted to learn what evidence there was for the existence of a mental body; people's descriptions of it. Minero says it "allows for the most lucid manifestation" but what does that mean? If it's such a hyper-lucid experience, why does it defy description? He says "Therefore, if, when we are projected with the mentalsoma, we are able to achieve 100% lucidity, then the recollection "should" be easier. In practice, however, the case is the opposite. Usually mentalsomatic projections are harder to recall than psychosoma [astral body] projections." He goes on to give explanations, but it still seemed lacking to me. I wanted a lot more information, more details, more firsthand accounts, otherwise it's not much better than Theosophists like Powell and Leadbeater who gave similar descriptions of multiple non-physical bodies beyond the astral with no substance to back them up; the reader is forced to take their word for it.

Fourth, it introduced too much arcane terminology. Readers learn about "velo," "thosenes," "holothosenes," "morphothosenes," "mentalsomas," "energosomas," "cosmoethics," "holomaturity," "penta" and on and on. The long list of new terminology seemed unnecessary, long and off-putting. Having said that, the use of new terminology is explained in the beginning, and it really does make some sense: The study of OBEs has been too long strangled by the stigmas of past terminology. For too long, we've been writing and talking in 19th century concepts: many terms (for example, "thought forms") are leftovers from Theosophy, Spiritualism and other traditions. Terms like "astral projection" and "astral body" are filled with questionable assumptions carried over from Occult traditions. Even common words like "death" are too emotionally charged to be put to good use, regardless of the context. So I do see the need for new OBE terminology. Still, it was off-putting.

The excessive terminology reminded me of my early years when I was checking out Eckankar (which is another topic), which seemed too much like a cult. Back then, when researching the difference between a religion and a cult, I remembered reading that a cult will try to suck you into their world by introducing their own terminology: it makes you feel special--like you're in on some secret--while alienating you from the rest of the world (because they don't get it). No, I don't view the IAC, Vieira, or Minero part of a cult; I'm just hyper-sensitive to the issue. (For one thing, cults typically teach that their path is the only way to God or that their leader is the sole representative of God on Earth. Eckankar taught that, but the IAC encourages people to do their own research and follow their own path: refreshing, in a world of preachers.) The book's use of strange terminology is effective, even if it is a bit too much for some people; now when I walk into a building, I find myself questioning the place's holothosenes!

Now for what I liked:

First, despite the early use of passive voice, Minero's book was very well written. His English was impeccable. The grammar was perfect. The information was useful and the book was very well organized. Everything was clear and concise, and followed logically from the last. The book was very well planned and executed. And he accomplished his goal: he demystified the OBE quite well. It could just have easily been a textbook about how your body's respiratory system works. (Read one of those medical books and I guarantee you'll get plenty of new terminology thrown at you!)

Second, unlike many OBE authors, Minero did not make unsubstantiated claims. He backed up everything he said with multiple references, and in some cases, personal experiences. At the end of every chapter, there was an extensive list of references. He's done his homework, and done it quite well. He's gone the extra mile, and is openly sharing the information. This is much more satisfying than many other OBE books, which make claims and you're left to judge their experiences and descriptions without any evidence or collaboration (you have to take their word for it).

Third, I really liked the fact that he acknowledged that our knowledge about OBEs is not static, but rather, dynamic and ever-changing. He acknowledged the need for further exploration, and stated that experience is the best teacher. He never claimed that our knowledge is complete or fixed; we will likely need to adjust our views as we gain more experience, just as science is supposed to adjust their theories to fit observations. This is another shining example of why the IAC should not be considered a cult.

Fourth, I liked the energy exercises and explanations. The "Velo" exercise is especially useful for people who are unfamiliar with energy work. The OBE exercises are straightforward too, although I wanted more substance here.

This book has a lot of information, and it's good information. If an OBE novice picked it up and started reading it, they might very well question many of the things that are written. Age-old concepts and assumptions are written as matter-of-fact as a textbook on physics. With new terminology thrown left and right, the innocent reader might ask him/herself, "Where in the heck did this assumption come from? Which hat is he pulling this rabbit from?" But having experienced OBEs myself for many years, I cannot argue with anything Minero has written (except where I have no experience like the mental body stuff). His experience perfectly matches mine, and given the same background, I could just have easily written the same things. The shining example of this is his description of nonphysical entities: astral guides and helpers (spirit guides, angels or whatever you want to call them). His description of what they're like, how they operate and how we interact with them perfectly matches my experience. Very well done.

All in all, I'd say this was a very good book.

Sneaking Past the Gatekeeper

Sneaking Past the Gatekeeper

by Bob Peterson

Many times as people fall asleep, something goes wrong and they are startled awake. As they start exploring the edges of consciousness, they learn to pay more attention to the process of falling asleep and it happens more often. Then they wonder, "Is this related to out-of-body experiences? And if so, can I use it to achieve OBEs?" The answer to both questions is yes, but it's hard to explain.

To explain what's happening, you must first have a basic understanding of what happens when you fall asleep. Almost all OBE authors agree that we leave our bodies every night, but we are almost always unconscious and completely unaware of what's happening. As you gain skill in out-of-body exploration, you learn to retain consciousness for longer and longer periods of time, and thus, you learn to witness the process of falling asleep. So this is not conjecture; this is all based on my firsthand observations.

First, you sink into a more relaxed state of mind, and your mind begins to wander. For most people, your consciousness slips away pretty quickly and that's the end of the information. If you retain consciousness beyond that, you start to see hypnagogic images: random images pop into your mind. For example, you might see a river, then a toaster. The hypnagogic hallucinations are not just visual: You will often hear random voices saying random things; not coherent sentences, but bits and pieces. For example, you might hear a man's voice say "...was at the corner when I saw for the first time..." and that's it. Then you might hear a woman's voice say "...was twelve years old when Missy first walked to the..." and so forth. Just random sentence fragments, along with random visual images. This is called the hypnagogic state of sleep.

Normally, as you drift into unconsciousness, your "subconscious" (for lack of better words) assumes more and more control. This is the "Gatekeeper" I'm talking about. Perhaps it's more correct to call it your "Higher Self", but I tend to think of my Higher Self as something that extends well beyond the subconscious. I call it the Gatekeeper because your subconscious is responsible for taking you out-of-body every night during sleep, and it has several defense mechanisms to prevent your consciousness from spilling over. One of its primary responsibilities is to make sure none of your conscious awareness gets through to "the other side." I'm not talking about a subtle, mindless robotic self as most people like to think about the subconscious. In my experience, this other self is highly intelligent, highly aware and highly complex. It is another part of you, but it has its own goals, motivations and will.

As you approach the hypnagogic state, you have three choices to induce an out-of-body experience (1) Hold onto a visualization while drifting down into the hypnagogic state, (2) Allow yourself to drift down into sleep naturally, then control and manipulate a naturally occurring hypnagogic image. (3) Sneak past the gatekeeper. The three methods range in level of difficulty and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of #1 is that it's easier to retain awareness and not succumb to sleep, but the disadvantage is that it's hard to visualize with enough detail. The advantage of #2 is that it's easy: you don't have to do any complex visualization. It takes advantage of your own natural hypnagogic images, but the disadvantage is that it takes discipline to remain alert all the way down to the hypnagogic state. The advantage of #3 is that it doesn't involve any kind of complex manipulation of images like #1 and #2, but the disadvantage is that it's more difficult than the other two.

Here are more details:

Choice 1: The object here is to never give your subconscious the chance to take control. Before you're in the hypnagogic state, you visualize a small object. The example I gave in my first book is to visualize a cube, but it can be any small object. Then you can start spinning the object to stabilize it (a visualization tends to disappear unless you keep it moving). Next, start swinging the object back and forth, and imagine a kind of gravity between you and the object. Finally, you mentally grab onto the object and let the momentum of its swinging motion pull you out of body. You do all this as you inch ever closer to sleep, while at the same time, you narrow your consciousness down into a tiny pinpoint of awareness.

This method is medium difficulty for several reasons. First, because some people aren't good at visualization. Second, it's difficult to actively use your imagination this way while remaining passive. Third, your visualization may directly compete with your own natural hypnagogic images. The details of this method are in chapter 24 of my first book, Out of Body Experiences: How to have them and what to expect, so it's beyond the scope of this article. (No, I'm not trying to sell you a book: it's available for free on my website, http://www.robertpeterson.org). This method works best for people who can't seem to go deep enough to actually see hypnagogic images.

Choice 2: you can wait for a suitable hypnagogic image to appear, then take take control of it. This is easier than choice 1, but you must have patience. It's difficult to take control of some images: a landscape, a mountain, a face, or even a train, for example. But it's easy to take control of an ordinary object like a bicycle, a coffee cup or a pencil. Like choice 1 above, once a suitable object appears in front of you, focus on it and start making it spin. Then start swinging it back and forth. Same thing as before. The difference here is that you're letting your subconscious have a bit more control during the process, but you have to train yourself to remain alert.

Choice 3: This is where things get interesting. This is what I call "sneaking past the gatekeeper" and it's not easy at all. Basically what you do is simply keep your mind completely still. Just watch what happens. Make your awareness so quiet and so small that it seems almost nonexistent. You can watch the hypnagogic images, but don't get wrapped up in them. If you do, you'll be pulled unconscious and start dreaming.

In a normal night, what happens next is this that your subconscious (Higher Self, Gatekeeper) waits patiently for you to lose all conscious awareness. Within a few (five?) seconds of losing consciousness, it propels you out of your body. Many times, this feels as if the floor dropped out from under you, and you feel like you're falling as much as six feet (two meters) down. Despite the sensation of falling, you're really being pushed upward out of your body. Then your subconscious starts "recharging" your energy while you float quietly above your body, unconscious.


(As a side note: People with little energy usually float above their body and recharge for long periods of time. People with a lot of energy don't need to recharge as much; their subconscious often takes them far away from their physical body and they do astral work, like healing or spirit rescues, all while the person is unconscious and unaware.)

So the trick to this OBE method is to make your awareness so tiny and insignificant that you fool your subconscious into thinking you are "out cold". When your subconscious detects no activity from your conscious mind, it does its normal routine: it pulls you out-of-body. Once that process is complete, you can literally wrestle conscious control away from it and voila: you're having an out-of-body experience. You return your consciousness back to its normal condition, and go about having a fully conscious OBE.

But beware: If you try to wrestle control too soon, your subconscious will abort the OBE. Bewildered, it will think, "WTF? How did he (your conscious awareness) get through?" and WHAM! you get slammed back in your body.

The trick is to not get drawn into the fantasy of the hypnagogic images that appear, and to keep your conscious mind so quiet that it fools your subconscious into thinking you're unaware.

What happens if you wait too long before wrestling control? You can consciously watch the creation of a dream. I've personally watched this happen, so again, I'm speaking from experience. As you watch, you can see the background being created, the characters being placed into the scene. Then they're made three-dimensional, given artificial personalities, and everything. Then your own body-image enters the dream-hallucination, which then seems to come to life. And voila: You're dreaming.

Now, this whole falling-asleep process can "go wrong" at several stages, and with different results. People often get slammed back into their bodies during the falling sensation, and that's all they remember.

Sometimes, you'll see an ugly or startling face appear and scare the hell out of you, and again, you'll get slammed back into your body. I've never been able to figure out if these are mischievous "spirits" or just an artifact of my own subconscious, but they're scary nonetheless. Don't let this discourage you. Regardless, your subconscious aborts the OBE and brings you back to full consciousness with no harm done.

If you have trouble visualizing, you may want to try this method. As in all OBE practice, you must have a lot of patience. It took me a very long time to be able to extend my conscious awareness that far into the dream cycle. Just try to go a little farther each night until you get the knack of it.


2013 Mar 03

Mirth

Mirth

 by Robert Peterson

Last night Kathy and I went to the Phoenix Exploration of Consciousness meetup.com group for the third time. This is a great group of people. For the first hour, they just eat and socialize. After that, they do a group meditation, and often it's with binaural beat technology, typically the Monroe Institute's hemi-sync technology. The goal is to induce Monroe's "focus level" experiences.

I've never had much luck with the hemi-sync courses, and I've never taken a class at the Monroe Institute. It's probably because focus level experiences have never been my primary goal in meditation, which has always been out-of-body experiences. Typically, the instructor or guide's voice does more to interrupt my journey than to guide me there. Nonetheless, I've been using the meetup as a chance to do some meditation and connect with friends.

The group meets at 7:00pm, socializes and snacks for about an hour, then everybody plugs their headphones into splitters and FM receivers, and goes through the hemi-sync meditation.

Last night I did not have an OBE, but I did get some interesting results. I was meditating, eyes closed, staring into the blackness in front of me. I was trying my best to ignore the voice on the recording, and do my own thing. I had visualized a vertical slit in the fabric of the blackness. It was kind of like a one-dimensional doorway, and I was trying to narrow my consciousness to the point where I could fit through that narrow slit-doorway.

Unexpectedly, the doorway started to bend so that it was no longer a straight line. It bent into a semicircle. I wasn't consciously manipulating it, so it surprised me. Then the slit, now a semicircle, formed the outside profile of an eyeball. Slowly, my visualization panned back and I could see more of the eye. At the same time, it rotated so it was looking right at me. Somehow, it seemed alive.

They say the eyes are the windows of the soul. As I looked at the eye, it seemed without gender; like a young child's eye. I saw so many things in that one eye: innocence, joy, laughter, boundless energy, playfulness, unconditional love. The best word I could come up with was: mirth. In this child's eye I saw unbridled bubbly mirth. But who was the owner? What child was this, and why was I seeing it now during my meditation?

To answer those questions, I wanted to see more of the child's face. I wanted to pan out to see more. As I backed up, I started to see a mischievous smile. Then I had an intuitive understanding: I was not seeing a child. I was seeing God! Or maybe a representation of God.

The realization hit me: I could never see all of God from this human form because God encompasses all of creation. I could only see as much as God cared to reveal to me.

Then I also realized: God has all this unconditional love, all this boundless energy, all this mirth. We all exist in the eye of God, and God has nothing but love for us. There is no angry, vengeful, judging Old Man with a long white beard. The seriousness and heaviness is all in the eyes of mankind. It's all child's play.

21 Feb 2013

Spiritual But Not Religious 

by Robert Peterson

Okay, I know this blog article may offend some people, especially religious people. If you're defensive about your religion, stop reading right now. 

On Monday, a facebook friend posted a photo of an iceberg. Above the surface, the iceberg showed one word: love. Below the surface were many words with negative connotations: Hate, greed, bigotry, misogyny, submission, homophobia, anachronism, indoctrination, child abuse, repression, genocide, slavery, murder, racism, fear, and lies. 

The photo didn't bother me. I interpret it this way: Many of the "religious right" purport to love everyone on the surface, but beneath the surface they harbour many of those negative traits. Jesus taught us to love. In fact, love is integral to the only two commandments he gave us: (1) love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind, and (2) love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:37). Yet many so-called Christians are more focused on discriminating against gay people or other groups than they are focused on God. But that's not what this article is about.

The facebook friend I mentioned obviously interpreted the photo differently because what he posted with the photo was:

Why there's a growing population of "spiritual but not religious" group.

And that really bothered me.

If I understand him correctly, he's saying that the group "spiritual but not religious" is growing because they have love on the surface but all these negative things on the inside? Boy, did he ever get it wrong.

Fighting the urge to speak my mind, and trying my hardest not to start a religious name-calling fistfight, I posted a simple reply to his statement:

No, it's because people are starting to see the truth and the truth doesn't fit the old religious paradigms.

Today, people in general are more scientific. As much as they are mostly still in the dark regarding religious topics, they at least have a better understanding of basic science, physics and anatomy. Science had trained them to look at things analytically, and some are starting to look at their religion with the same critical eye. And what they're seeing often doesn't jibe with what religious authorities are teaching. As much as they're told to "have faith", many don't accept religious stories blindly anymore. Nowadays you question when your thirteen-year-old daughter turns up pregnant and claims she wasn't having sex. You're skeptical when she gives you some wild story about an angel named Gabriel who allegedly said she's been selected by God to give birth to a special boy whose name means God Is With Us. You question that "miracle" a little bit more than you did two thousand years ago and wonder if it's covering up a deeper truth.

When the scientific method is applied to religion, you start to see through the misinformation. You can either ignore the evidence and desperately cling to the belief that people were better observers two thousands of years ago, or take a closer look. When you find a discrepancy, your choices are to lose faith, white-wash the data to fit your beliefs (as so many scientists today do), or to do your own homework. Sadly, out of laziness, most people take the first option, leaving us with a Godless society. But the evidence of God, the afterlife and a spiritual realm are abundant if you look for them.

It's only in the last 300 years or so that people have been free to share their own theories and observations, whether spiritual or scientific. Before that, you'd typically be excommunicated, condemned as a heretic, burned as a witch or otherwise tortured and executed (unless everything you said about your experiences perfectly matched the religious dogma of the dominant religion, in which case they made you a saint).

Case in point, Giodano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for insisting on something we now know is scientific fact: that the Earth travels around the sun. Better known Galileo Galilei said the same thing, and was also condemned as a heretic, forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

Organized religion has done more to quash scientific discovery than any other force on the planet, but tragically, it's done even more to quash religious discovery. It's systematically destroyed anyone who dares to share what they've learned through their own personal experiences and communion with God.

Isn't it ironic, then, that all the world's great religions were born from the religious observations--based on personal experiences--of people who contradicted their culture's prevalent religion? Great religious leaders like Jesus Christ, Moses, Mohammad, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, Zoroaster, Patanjali and the like, all followed the same pattern. They all meditated. They all communed with God. They all had religious experiences. They all went through the door and saw the other side. They all fought the religious paradigms of their culture and were brave enough to tell people what they saw. Some, like Jesus Christ, got killed for it.

After their deaths, their disciples took over. Full of good intentions, they spread the word. Not the original, but a twisted version of their master's words, morphed into self-serving political organizations. Without going through the door themselves, they tried to interpret the light coming through the keyhole, and make definitive statements about what is on the other side. Without that direct communion with God, they were lost trying to put physical interpretations on nonphysical events. And in most cases, they failed miserably. So they focused on herding their sheep rather than on God.

We all know why organized religions suppress the religious experiences of their followers: because at the core, they're political organizations. Maintaining power, control and self-preservation are more important to them than "the truth." But you know what? The truth has a way of getting out, despite their best efforts to hide it or keep it for themselves.

As technology advances, religious experiences are becoming more commonplace. Modern medicine has saved thousands from the brink of death, and these survivors have incredible stories to tell about what they saw in their Near-Death Experiences. And their observations don't fit the old religious paradigms.

At the same time, more people today are meditating, going within, becoming self-aware, learning to induce out-of-body and other mystical experiences. They're learning new techniques and sharing what they find. More importantly: they're developing their own personal relationship with God.

What they're finding is that their relationship with God and Spirit have very little to do with the religious organizations: the churches, synagogues, mosques and temples, and the people who control them. I believe God is within everyone's grasp and you don't need organized religions to show you the way. The information is out there. Maybe too much, in fact. Information--both good and bad--is available at our fingertips on our cell phones, tablets and computers through the Internet.

A hundred years ago, you never questioned your doctor. Today it's absolutely essential. People need to take personal responsibility for their health and question everything, not because health care is getting worse, but because the information--and misinformation--is getting out of control. 

It's the same way with priests, rabbis, imams and gurus: people must take personal responsibility for their spirituality, their religion and their relationship with God. They need to start questioning time-honoured religious traditions. If for no other reason, because knowledge trumps faith.

To aid them on their journey, the technology is also improving. Now, ordinary people--not just the religious fanatics--are employing Ganzfeld setups, mind machines, flotation tanks, infra-liminal technology, biofeedback, neurofeedback, and hemi-sync to explore the outer reaches of the mind. And what they're finding isn't much like what you find in the pages of the Bible, Talmud, Koran, Avesta or Bhagavad Gita.

That is why more people are becoming "spiritual but not religious."

There's nothing "supernatural" in this life. Nothing is defying the laws of physics. Any theories about reality must make room for everything we experience, both religious and scientific. A science that denies religious observations is just as absurd as a religion that denies the observations of science. Experience is experience and truth is truth.

I like to think that eventually, science and spirituality will meet in the middle. I hope that through direct observations like out-of-body experiences, they will both arrive at a unified view of reality that includes God and spirit as well as physics and biology.

I like to think that one day, we can all directly experience God and see things as Jesus and the others did. And I look forward to that day.

08 Feb 2013

 

What's In A Name?

What's In A Name?

By Robert Peterson

Does having the name Robert increase your ability to have out-of-body experiences? For some reason, many of the people associated with out-of-body experiences have the name Robert. Some have speculated (in jest) that it's because "Robert" actually contains the letters OBE: R-OBE-rt.

Robert Monroe is probably the most famous OBE expert of the 20th century. He founded the Monroe Institute and wrote three books on the subject: Journeys Out of the Body, Far Journeys and Ultimate Journey.

Robert Crookall studied OBEs for many years and wrote many books on the subject, including The Study and Practice of Astral Projection and Out of Body Experiences: A Fourth Analysis.

Let's not forget our favorite Aussie, Robert Bruce, who wrote Astral Dynamics and Mastering Astral Projection.

Robert ("Bob") Moser wrote a book called Mental and Astral Projection.

Robert Cornelius has an OBE book Astral Projection: Break Free in 16 Different Ways.

Then there are my (Robert Peterson's) books, Out of Body Experiences: How to have them and what to expect and Lessons Out of the Body.

Robert Bushman compiled a comprehensive OBE bibliography at http://obebibliography.info/

And let's not forget Robert Moss, author of books on lucid dreaming and shared dreaming like Dreamgates and Conscious Dreaming.


Okay, there are lots of OBE books out there. I own more than 150, and that's just books on out-of-body experiences. It doesn't include the many books I own on peripheral topics like Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), Lucid Dreaming. That's just OBEs. So yes, there are plenty of famous OBE authors who aren't named Robert: William Buhlman, Fred Aardema, Albert Taylor, Graham Nichols, Sylvan Muldoon, Oliver Fox (Hugh Calloway), Ophiel (Marcel L Forhan), Joe Slate and many many more.

I suspect it's all just a coincidence. But then again, many of us believe there are no such thing as coincidences.