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
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