Is Astral Projection under rated?

[faizan]

I've gotten way into Astral Projection lately. I've always been interested in mysticism and spirituality. Recently, I happened to realize that most of everything has to do with the "parallel dimensions" or the different planes of reality, including the Etheric and the Astral planes.

It took me, Mandi and my friend Andre lots and lots of research, thinking and abstraction to arrive at certain conclusions about reality.

The way it all works out is beautiful. You simply start by considering (for the sake of debate) the possibility that your dogmatic views about the world could be wrong. Any logical person can tell that odds favor that. With the thousands of belief systems that humanity subscribes to, the chances that you've struck gold by virtue of your birth are very low.

Realizing this is by far the most difficult and critical part of what I call the "Spiritual Treasure Hunt". Once you learn to accept this fact, you begin to realize how stuck up 999 out of a 1000 people are on what they think to be true. You begin to notice that everyone has their "glasses" through which they look at the world. To someone who has never see the world without his polaroid glasses, the world is polaroid. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Americans and Terrorists all share one thing in common: they use their own versions of polaroid glass to look at the world.

Like I said, its hard to understand and realize this until and unless you drop your own glasses and step out of your comfort zones to question reality. Once you do, you find yourself hunting for gold. You begin with no assumptions and keep an open mind for clues to the ultimate truth.

I've been on the hunt for a few years now. The beauty of the game is that at every step, not only do you realize something new that makes a lot of sense, but since you started from scratch and worked your way up, what you discovered explains everything that came before even better. You keep reading and discovering and even if something contradictory pops up, somehow, it integrates itself into what you have already learned. Keep in mind that one clue leads to another.

I won't try to describe exactly what I believe (at the moment) or how I got here, but I can assure you that its been one step at a time. In short, everything is about belief. If your will is strong enough, whatever you believe in can manifest. The templars put it this way: "Do what you wilt shall be the whole of Law."

The universe is governed by some pretty crazy laws that are not explained to you at home or in high school. There is a certain inertia that is at all times either with you or against you. If you want to accomplish X and your will is greater than the will of those who dont want X accomplished (or want to accomplish X themselves), X gets accomplished.

Getting back to Astral Projection.. the way you see the world is the way your astral world is shaping up right now. What ever you believe or think of actually manifests in the astral plane. On the astral plane, you can say: "Let there be light!" and guess what will happen! This is pretty crazy in itself but its true. Its like a hierarchy of planes where the natives of a higher plane can simply manifest their will on a lower plane. IF THE CHRISTIAN GOD IDEA WERE TO BE TRUE, the Christian God would be the only native of a higher plane. There is no-one to out will him and as so whatever he wishes manifests on our plane (i.e. The physical plane). Your will and your dogmatic beliefs can have some very interesting effects on the astral world. Not neccessarily, but mostly, the will of many is greater than the will of one. Its like a tug of war sometimes.

A couple months back, I met Joey Eppard, my favourite musician. I asked him if a song he'd written (Soul To Sell) was about enlightenment. He simply replied, isn't everything?

And from then on, I've come to see that almost everything is about enlightenment. By everthing, I mean pop culture, movies, music, art etc. And I've also realized that much art (consciously or unconsciously) has something to do with the astral planes.

I'm dreaming, I'm drowning
I'm wide awake
Breathing in, breathing out
The beast within (the body), the priest without (the body)

Now, I don't know for certain if those above lines by 3 (Joey's band) are about Astral Projection. I can only take a guess! Most esoteric knowledge and wisdom is disguised so as to render it meaningless to prying eyes. The Hermetics say that only the worthy understand. The worthy also start from scratch and work their way up to understanding. They're pretty much on a treasure hunt themselves. I'm not going to try to make you understand everything that I have to come to learn cause if you haven't followed protocol, you wont get the essence of what I say and you'll probably misunderstand me. However, I will tell you one thing. For those of you who are familiar with (or have heard of) the Jewish Tipharoth, also known as the tree of life, you might be surprised to know that the Tree of Life is a map to the different Astral Planes in disguise.

Take a look:
http://members.aol.com/maatmandala/page40.gif

And by the way, for my Christian friends, here's Genesis 3:22 (KJV):

"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever!"

River of Dreams/Billy Joel
In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the valley of fear
To a river so deep
I've been searching for something
Taken out of my soul
Something I'd never lose
Something somebody stole
I don't know why I go walking at night
But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore
I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is I've been looking for

[DH]

Thanks for sharing!  We have come to some very similar conclusions about reality, and it's nice not to feel like the Lone Ranger (I live around a lot of skeptics and flyblown cynics!).  I think that OBE is definitely underrated.  I have been on a consciously spiritual journey most of my adult life, and I nearly turned into one of those cynics until I discovered the worlds beyond the material world.  Now life makes more sense, and  it's exciting again since new (and really cool) things can be learned at any moment.  William Buhlman's writings have been particularly helpful to me as kind of a matrix for understanding the importance of OBE for personal fulfillment.  Keep learning and sharing and blessings upon you, DH

[Mydral]

Thank God its underrated.... just think what would happen if it would become popular. Just think about OBE in pop-culture..... the horror.
MTV shows with the name: "OBE my World"
Stupid teen idols talking about their experiences.......
"and oh my god, I so saw Brad Pit in my last OBE and made out with him"   
Another multi-million dollar business..... why wait years if a pill can give it to you? That business is already starting.
Oh and lets not forget some crazy group of people starting some kind of religious war because of it.... already have enough of those.

In short, I hope it will never get more attention than it has now.

[DarkIntellect]

LIK OMG WUT WOULD B SO WRONG WIT HAVING AN OBE SHOW ON MTV?? IT WOULD B SOOOOOOOOOOO KOOL!

[faizan]

Ahem. No thank you I wouldn't like MTV to take over the Astral Planes. And I'm sure most of us will share my opinion with regards to that.. haha..

Well, I think we all should try to recall from our own experiences references from music, movies and art which we think deal with the astral planes. We might all be a little surprised to see the volume of content that we can accumulate. It will also help to sway the more skeptical of our audiences...

Ever thought about Harry Potter on the Astral Plane? Could Hogwarts not be one of the "Institutions" on the upper planes? Station 9 and 3/4! What does that say to you? To me it says.. hey look, its right here..  right within your reach.. but you're missing it.. you see 9 and then 10.. sometimes, you should try to look into parallel dimensions.. haha..

[faizan]

Never mind. I think I see the sarcasm in your post, DarkIntellect. Haha..

Speaking of religious wars by the way, I have come to some really crazy conclusions about religions.. This has been in collaboration with my friend Andre. Everything has to do with the Astral Planes and which group/religion controls it.. or atleast controls the upper planes (eg. the 7 heavens in Islam) and so makes life miserable for the other groups/religions...

I think I'll go into detail later.

[Goober]

Faizan, I enjoyed your post quite a lot, you are quite a good writer.

  This inspires me to make a thread called "What EXACTLY do you believe, and how did you come to believe it?", or something similar. I might do that in a few minutes.

[Token]

Thanks for the post Faizan.  For me, along with just the fact that OBE is a lot of fun, I have come to learn for myself that this reality is not the only reality although for the moment it seems to certainly be the most persistant. Just the fact that I can stand in an OBE universe and say to myself "there is no difference between this and waking reality!"  is an eye opener for me and has totally change the way I view the whole of my experience as a conscious being.  That insight alone for me is worth the challange of having an OBE experience in the first place.

[faizan]

I agree with you. Just the fact that OBE's exist should make you finally begin to question what you consider real.. One thing that I keep telling people though is that spiritual finding is not necessarily a solitary experience. I don't think you can get even close to the truth if you go on a one-man mission to search for answers.. I think there are elements in our society that not only know, but are trying to convey this knowledge to us. But its a paradox. You can't deliver this knowledge to any moron who happens to pass by. Its reserved only for those who are worthy (and by that I mean those who have genuinely questioned and realized certain things).

I think there are a lot of artists, esoteric groups, secret societies that are "encoding" a lot of spiritual information in whatever they do. Movies, music, art is full of such messages. I mentioned a spiritual treasure hunt. You don't have to trek the slopes of Everest to find the clues to this treasure, you can discover these clues right in your living room. The movies you watch and music you listen to are encoded brilliantly with very subtle hints. I personally believe that the people in control of the media are aware of the reality (which has a lot to do with the astral planes). These people/societies promote art and then filter and pick up the ones that most subtly convey the messages that they want to get across. This holds true for film studios, music labels and even TV. There are a lot of great minds out there trying to convey many things to us. But people who view life through their paradigms, problems and dogma only see what they want to see. The "key" isnt becoming conscious of what you're observing, but become conscious of your consciousness. If you understood that, I think I've given away two years worth of treasure hunting!

I wrote a song a few months ago.. A part goes..

Who do you think you are? Fool me at your discretion
Take forgranted no one knows the answer to your questions
Sooner or later people die, but the wheels keep spinning on
Or did you think your world began, the moment you were born?



And by the way, I just found this.. It talks about Harry Potter and the Astral Planes in some detail.

http://www.steamshovelpress.com/altmedia20.html

You should try to understand that there's a reason as to why some books, movies and artists get picked up and make it big whilst others don't!

Good Luck [with your Hunt] and hope you make it!

Fizz

[faizan]

Oasis -Keep The Dream Alive

Four seasons, seconds, flicker and flash I'm alone
A lonely scream provides the scene, it's no home
Every night I hear you scream
But you don't say what you mean
this was my dream but now my dream is flown

Im at the crossroads waiting for a sign
My life is standing stilll but I'm still alive
Every night I think I know
in the morning where did it go
The answers disappear when I open my eyes

I'm no stranger to this place
Where real life and dreams colide
and even though i fall from grace
I will keep the dream alive
I will keep the dream alive

Four seasons, seconds, flicker and flash I'm alone
A lonely scream provides the scene, it's no home
Every night I hear you scream
But you don't say what you mean
this was my dream but now my dream is flown

I'm no stranger to this place
Where real life and dreams colide
and even though i fall from grace
I will keep the dream alive
I will keep the dream alive

na na na na na na na
na na na na na na na
na na na na na na na
na na na na na na na

[faizan]

Ozzy Ozbourne
Over the Mountain

Over the mountain
Take me across the sky
Something in my vision,
Something deep inside
Where did I wander
Where d'ya think I wandered to
I've seen life's magic
Astral plane I travel through

I heard them tell me that
This land of dreams was now
I told them I had ridden shooting stars
And said I'd show them how

Over and over
Always tried to get away
Living in a daydream
Only place I had to stay
Fever of a breakout
Burning in me miles wide
People around me
Talking to the walls inside

I heard them tell me that
This land of dreams was now
I told them I had ridden shooting stars
And said I'd show them how

Bridge:
Don't need no astrology
It's inside of you and me
You don't need a ticket to fly with me
I'm free!!

Solo

Over and under
In between the ups and downs
Mind on a carpet
Magic ride goes round and round
Over the mountain
Kissing silver in laid clouds
Watching my body
Disappear into the crowd

Don't need no astrology
It's inside of you and me
You don't need a ticket to fly with me
I'm free!