What is the Astral Dimension?
"The astral is the closest dimension to the physical. It overlays and permeates the world like a huge mind net, catching and holding all thought. Its contents are created by the collective consciousness of the world mind. It contains all the thoughts, memories, fantasies, and dreams of every living thing in the world. In it, the laws of sympathetic attraction, or like attracts like, causes this ocean of mind stuff to strata and settle into layers or pools. These pools of thought are more commonly called astral planes, astral worlds, astral sub planes or astral realms."
"The astral dimension is composed of astral matter and is aptly described as mind stuff. It is extremely sensitive to thought and can be moulded into any shape or form. These creations can be so perfect as to be indistinguishable from reality."
"The best way to explain this, mind stuff, is to draw a comparison between astral matter and unexposed, high speed photographic film. When this film is exposed to light, focused by the cameras lens, a perfect image of reality is instantly burnt into the film by the chemical reaction of the film to light. When astral matter is exposed to thought, focused by the lens of the mind, a perfect image of reality is instantly formed out of astral mind stuff by the reaction of astral matter to thought. The complexity and durability of any creation in the astral dimension depends largely on the strength of the mind doing the creating."
Dreams
"This is how the subconscious mind creates dreams: By tuning into the astral dimension during sleep, it can create any scenario it wishes. This is the subconscious mind's way of solving problems and of communicating with the conscious mind. It creates a series of complex thought form scenarios and projects them into the mind stuff of the astral dimension, where they become solid. The conscious mind then lives through and experiences these created scenarios in the dream state. In a way its like a movie projector (subconscious mind) projecting onto a movie screen (astral dimension)."
Thought Forms
"Any new object in the real world is assimilated into the astral dimension over a period of time. A thought form representation of it first grows in the lowest part of the astral, close to the physical dimension, becoming more and more permanent as time goes on. As with all thought forms, the more attention paid to it the quicker it grows."
"The higher up in the astral dimension, or the further away from the physical, the less thought forms, of the physical world, as we know it, are found. Physical things have to soak in to it for a very long time before they take shape, and are found, in the higher astral."
"Have you ever tried to move around a strange house in the dark? You bump into everything, right. But as you become familiar with it though, a mental picture of your surroundings forms in your mind, and you can find your way around it better. The longer you spend in this house the stronger this mental picture becomes. This is similar to how things are assimilated and grown, as thought forms, in other dimensions."
"The generation of thought forms in the astral also works in the reverse. If a physical object has been around for a very long time, it will have grown a lasting thought form impression in the astral. After the object is destroyed or removed, its thought form still endures. You may, for example, in the astral, find furniture in your house you don't have, jumbled up with your own. This is caused by the decaying thought forms of old stuff, belonging to previous tenants etc, still being there, years after the originals have gone."
"Old thought forms do not follow their physical counterpart around when they are moved. New ones begin to grow in the astral wherever it is while the old ones slowly decay. The longer a thing is in one place, the stronger the thought form will become in that place. This also applies to buildings, structures and geological features. You may project into a park and find a house, bridge, stream, hill etc that you know is definitely not there. These may have existed in times past. The higher up in the astral you go, the older the thought forms are, or the further back in geological time you appear to be."
"The rate of growth of a thought form depends largely on the amount of attention paid to it. For example, a famous painting; loved, viewed and highly thought of by millions, will have a much stronger thought form than that of a common painting that hangs in someone's bedroom and is only viewed by a few. The number of thought forms you find in the astral also depends on how close you are to the physical dimension. If you are very close, as in a real time projection or OOBE, very few thought forms, if any, will be found. In a real time OOBE you are not quite in the astral dimension but are existing as an astral form in the buffer zone between the astral and the physical dimensions."
Creative Visualisation Power
"The subconscious mind has VASTLY greater powers of visualisation than the conscious mind. It is like comparing a super computer to an child's calculator. In the astral dimension, during any conscious projection or lucid dream, where the conscious mind is aware, this difference can cause great confusion. The subconscious mind simmers beneath the surface during any projection. All that creative power is just bursting to get out, to create, and it will do just that any chance it gets. This difference in creative power, combined with the lifelong habit of normal frontal vision, is the cause of the "Alice In Wonderland Effect." Let me explain...."
Take these together:
The incredible creative power of the subconscious mind.
The weak creative powers of the conscious mind.
The sensitivity of astral matter to thought.
Spherical vision.
Left, right sense reversals.
And you have a recipe for total confusion.
The Alice In Wonderland Effect
"You project your astral body and look around your room. Everything appears normal, but suddenly, you notice the door is on the wrong wall? While looking around, you have seen this door with your rear vision, confusing your natural left, right, brain perspective. The brain can't assimilate this because your frontal perspective, and the position of the furniture, pictures, windows etc, are normal; but the view behind you is reversed. This tricks the subconscious mind into creating a door where it thinks it should be. When you look at this door, it appears real, even though you know it is in the wrong place. Once it has been created, it will not be uncreated, as that would be unacceptable to your conscious mind. i.e. solid doors don't normally have a habit of vanishing before your eyes."
"When you turn to where the door really should be, you will, usually, find the door there as normal. Now you may have two, or more, doors where there should only be one. If you go through the real door, you will find the rest of the house as it should be, hopefully. But, if you go through a false door, the mind knows its false and won't accept it opening to a normal part of your house that it knows can't possibly be there. So, if you open this door you will find something else. It is usually a corridor or passage, you don't have, leading off into other parts of the house you don't have either."
"From then on, if you go through this door, you are in Wonderland, where everything is possible, just not very plausible. What you are doing, in effect, is entering the astral dimension via uncontrolled creation, through this door you don't have, but now do. Once the subconscious mind starts creating like this it continues to do so at a geometric rate. It has to, for the conscious mind to assimilate the abnormal situation it is in. At some stage, in this creative maelstrom, the subconscious mind loses it completely and starts tuning in to other parts of the astral. At this point of the projection, all semblance of reality is lost and you fade into the astral dimension proper."
"There are many ways this "Alice" effect can happen during a projection, the above example is just one variation. It has been noted by many projectors that at sometime during a projection they seem to lose control of it. Objects appear, disappear, and generally everything gets a little strange. This is caused, basically, by the subconscious mind's vast creative ability being triggered. It starts making and unmaking things, and tuning into other areas of the astral and generally making everything difficult for the poor projector."
"To avoid the above problem: Concentrate on what you are doing while you are projecting and don't let your mind wander. The vision reversal problem can be minimised if you concentrate on your forward vision during projection, i.e., focus in one direction at a time. When you turn, follow the room around with your vision and don't allow it to flit from one view to another. The astral is not a good place to relax if you have serious plans."
"The vast creative power of the subconscious can, however, be utilised. It is an extremely valuable tool if you know how to use it. I will outline ways to do this, in the third part of this series, under the heading: "Virtual Reality Projection" where I will outline how to custom create your own personal astral realm."
"In the astral form you have an incredibly strong creative ability"
"Everybody, without exception, leaves their body in a low powered projection, when they go to sleep. I call this sleep projection. The astral body hovers a few inches above the physical like a balloon on a string, mimicking the sleeping position and going no further. Once the astral body has separated, it is free to create dreams. This is the natural (sleep, dream) process we are all familiar with. During this, you sink into the collective dream consciousness of the world. This `dream pool' settles into layers. According to what type of person you are, spiritual, moral advancement etc, you will tune in to a level you have affinity with. These levels are commonly called the `Planes' or sub Planes. There is nothing wrong with this analogy except that it can confuse things when you try to grasp the whole concept."
"If you become aware during sleep projection you can take some control over it as in a lucid dream, and move amongst the levels. If you do take control though, you cannot return to the real world and function as an astral form in it. You are in the topsy-turvy world of the dream pool or astral planes, where everything is possible, but not very plausible."
"When you do a `fully conscious' projection of the astral form you project into the physical world, not any astral world. This has long been misunderstood. What is usually thought of as astral projection today is better called `Lucid Dreaming' which is completely different."
"Many authors suggest we all race about the universe in AP every night. This is simply not true. You will find the world a lonely place in your astral form and will rarely see anyone else projecting there. If you do see someone, often they are just standing, confused and befuddled, caught in a `between' state of projecting and creating. This is what happens when you lose control during a conscious OBE. I call it `The Alice and Wonderland Effect' It is an effective barrier to the untrained mind."
"In the astral form you have an incredibly strong creative ability, normally used to create dreams. Once free of the fetters of the physical world, you can create an entire world, and often do. This creative ability is the problem, and the cause, of all the misunderstandings about AP."
"There is a natural barrier in AP just as there is with any other form of psychic ability. The `Alice' effect, limits projection time in the real world to a few minutes, in most cases, unless you can control your mind and energy level well. If there was not a barrier - think about it - millions of people flitting around the world every day and night, no privacy, no secrets. This would be a very unhappy world to live in."
"What happens during a fully conscious AP if you can't control your mind and energy? Well, at some point during the AP you will start to lose control over the experience and well known things will be found in wrong places. Doors, windows, furniture; extra rooms will appear etc. Your subconscious mind has started creating or you are tuning into a dream plane. Once this happens it is impossible to know what is real any more. Some of the dream pool levels, or planes, are a carbon copy of the real world. You may tune into one of them and think you are projecting in the real world - until you meet a Cheshire cat."
"One final thing, the Eastern concept of the levels; physical, astral, mental, buddhic, atmic etc are very real. They have been confused though and mixed in with the Western concept of astral projection. They are different levels of consciousness, not planes as such. When you AP you don't raise your consciousness, it is the same as when you are awake. These `higher' levels can only be reached by raising your consciousness, you can't just project into them. It is a different kind of `projection'. I have been in these higher levels but it is difficult to explain them, they really have to be experienced. They are normally reached during deep meditation."
"In order to reach these higher levels, some clairvoyant ability is required. This can be developed, or natural ability."
"The astral is the closest dimension to the physical. It overlays and permeates the world like a huge mind net, catching and holding all thought. Its contents are created by the collective consciousness of the world mind. It contains all the thoughts, memories, fantasies, and dreams of every living thing in the world. In it, the laws of sympathetic attraction, or like attracts like, causes this ocean of mind stuff to strata and settle into layers or pools. These pools of thought are more commonly called astral planes, astral worlds, astral sub planes or astral realms."
"The astral dimension is composed of astral matter and is aptly described as mind stuff. It is extremely sensitive to thought and can be moulded into any shape or form. These creations can be so perfect as to be indistinguishable from reality."
"The best way to explain this, mind stuff, is to draw a comparison between astral matter and unexposed, high speed photographic film. When this film is exposed to light, focused by the cameras lens, a perfect image of reality is instantly burnt into the film by the chemical reaction of the film to light. When astral matter is exposed to thought, focused by the lens of the mind, a perfect image of reality is instantly formed out of astral mind stuff by the reaction of astral matter to thought. The complexity and durability of any creation in the astral dimension depends largely on the strength of the mind doing the creating."
Dreams
"This is how the subconscious mind creates dreams: By tuning into the astral dimension during sleep, it can create any scenario it wishes. This is the subconscious mind's way of solving problems and of communicating with the conscious mind. It creates a series of complex thought form scenarios and projects them into the mind stuff of the astral dimension, where they become solid. The conscious mind then lives through and experiences these created scenarios in the dream state. In a way its like a movie projector (subconscious mind) projecting onto a movie screen (astral dimension)."
Thought Forms
"Any new object in the real world is assimilated into the astral dimension over a period of time. A thought form representation of it first grows in the lowest part of the astral, close to the physical dimension, becoming more and more permanent as time goes on. As with all thought forms, the more attention paid to it the quicker it grows."
"The higher up in the astral dimension, or the further away from the physical, the less thought forms, of the physical world, as we know it, are found. Physical things have to soak in to it for a very long time before they take shape, and are found, in the higher astral."
"Have you ever tried to move around a strange house in the dark? You bump into everything, right. But as you become familiar with it though, a mental picture of your surroundings forms in your mind, and you can find your way around it better. The longer you spend in this house the stronger this mental picture becomes. This is similar to how things are assimilated and grown, as thought forms, in other dimensions."
"The generation of thought forms in the astral also works in the reverse. If a physical object has been around for a very long time, it will have grown a lasting thought form impression in the astral. After the object is destroyed or removed, its thought form still endures. You may, for example, in the astral, find furniture in your house you don't have, jumbled up with your own. This is caused by the decaying thought forms of old stuff, belonging to previous tenants etc, still being there, years after the originals have gone."
"Old thought forms do not follow their physical counterpart around when they are moved. New ones begin to grow in the astral wherever it is while the old ones slowly decay. The longer a thing is in one place, the stronger the thought form will become in that place. This also applies to buildings, structures and geological features. You may project into a park and find a house, bridge, stream, hill etc that you know is definitely not there. These may have existed in times past. The higher up in the astral you go, the older the thought forms are, or the further back in geological time you appear to be."
"The rate of growth of a thought form depends largely on the amount of attention paid to it. For example, a famous painting; loved, viewed and highly thought of by millions, will have a much stronger thought form than that of a common painting that hangs in someone's bedroom and is only viewed by a few. The number of thought forms you find in the astral also depends on how close you are to the physical dimension. If you are very close, as in a real time projection or OOBE, very few thought forms, if any, will be found. In a real time OOBE you are not quite in the astral dimension but are existing as an astral form in the buffer zone between the astral and the physical dimensions."
Creative Visualisation Power
"The subconscious mind has VASTLY greater powers of visualisation than the conscious mind. It is like comparing a super computer to an child's calculator. In the astral dimension, during any conscious projection or lucid dream, where the conscious mind is aware, this difference can cause great confusion. The subconscious mind simmers beneath the surface during any projection. All that creative power is just bursting to get out, to create, and it will do just that any chance it gets. This difference in creative power, combined with the lifelong habit of normal frontal vision, is the cause of the "Alice In Wonderland Effect." Let me explain...."
Take these together:
The incredible creative power of the subconscious mind.
The weak creative powers of the conscious mind.
The sensitivity of astral matter to thought.
Spherical vision.
Left, right sense reversals.
And you have a recipe for total confusion.
The Alice In Wonderland Effect
"You project your astral body and look around your room. Everything appears normal, but suddenly, you notice the door is on the wrong wall? While looking around, you have seen this door with your rear vision, confusing your natural left, right, brain perspective. The brain can't assimilate this because your frontal perspective, and the position of the furniture, pictures, windows etc, are normal; but the view behind you is reversed. This tricks the subconscious mind into creating a door where it thinks it should be. When you look at this door, it appears real, even though you know it is in the wrong place. Once it has been created, it will not be uncreated, as that would be unacceptable to your conscious mind. i.e. solid doors don't normally have a habit of vanishing before your eyes."
"When you turn to where the door really should be, you will, usually, find the door there as normal. Now you may have two, or more, doors where there should only be one. If you go through the real door, you will find the rest of the house as it should be, hopefully. But, if you go through a false door, the mind knows its false and won't accept it opening to a normal part of your house that it knows can't possibly be there. So, if you open this door you will find something else. It is usually a corridor or passage, you don't have, leading off into other parts of the house you don't have either."
"From then on, if you go through this door, you are in Wonderland, where everything is possible, just not very plausible. What you are doing, in effect, is entering the astral dimension via uncontrolled creation, through this door you don't have, but now do. Once the subconscious mind starts creating like this it continues to do so at a geometric rate. It has to, for the conscious mind to assimilate the abnormal situation it is in. At some stage, in this creative maelstrom, the subconscious mind loses it completely and starts tuning in to other parts of the astral. At this point of the projection, all semblance of reality is lost and you fade into the astral dimension proper."
"There are many ways this "Alice" effect can happen during a projection, the above example is just one variation. It has been noted by many projectors that at sometime during a projection they seem to lose control of it. Objects appear, disappear, and generally everything gets a little strange. This is caused, basically, by the subconscious mind's vast creative ability being triggered. It starts making and unmaking things, and tuning into other areas of the astral and generally making everything difficult for the poor projector."
"To avoid the above problem: Concentrate on what you are doing while you are projecting and don't let your mind wander. The vision reversal problem can be minimised if you concentrate on your forward vision during projection, i.e., focus in one direction at a time. When you turn, follow the room around with your vision and don't allow it to flit from one view to another. The astral is not a good place to relax if you have serious plans."
"The vast creative power of the subconscious can, however, be utilised. It is an extremely valuable tool if you know how to use it. I will outline ways to do this, in the third part of this series, under the heading: "Virtual Reality Projection" where I will outline how to custom create your own personal astral realm."
"In the astral form you have an incredibly strong creative ability"
"Everybody, without exception, leaves their body in a low powered projection, when they go to sleep. I call this sleep projection. The astral body hovers a few inches above the physical like a balloon on a string, mimicking the sleeping position and going no further. Once the astral body has separated, it is free to create dreams. This is the natural (sleep, dream) process we are all familiar with. During this, you sink into the collective dream consciousness of the world. This `dream pool' settles into layers. According to what type of person you are, spiritual, moral advancement etc, you will tune in to a level you have affinity with. These levels are commonly called the `Planes' or sub Planes. There is nothing wrong with this analogy except that it can confuse things when you try to grasp the whole concept."
"If you become aware during sleep projection you can take some control over it as in a lucid dream, and move amongst the levels. If you do take control though, you cannot return to the real world and function as an astral form in it. You are in the topsy-turvy world of the dream pool or astral planes, where everything is possible, but not very plausible."
"When you do a `fully conscious' projection of the astral form you project into the physical world, not any astral world. This has long been misunderstood. What is usually thought of as astral projection today is better called `Lucid Dreaming' which is completely different."
"Many authors suggest we all race about the universe in AP every night. This is simply not true. You will find the world a lonely place in your astral form and will rarely see anyone else projecting there. If you do see someone, often they are just standing, confused and befuddled, caught in a `between' state of projecting and creating. This is what happens when you lose control during a conscious OBE. I call it `The Alice and Wonderland Effect' It is an effective barrier to the untrained mind."
"In the astral form you have an incredibly strong creative ability, normally used to create dreams. Once free of the fetters of the physical world, you can create an entire world, and often do. This creative ability is the problem, and the cause, of all the misunderstandings about AP."
"There is a natural barrier in AP just as there is with any other form of psychic ability. The `Alice' effect, limits projection time in the real world to a few minutes, in most cases, unless you can control your mind and energy level well. If there was not a barrier - think about it - millions of people flitting around the world every day and night, no privacy, no secrets. This would be a very unhappy world to live in."
"What happens during a fully conscious AP if you can't control your mind and energy? Well, at some point during the AP you will start to lose control over the experience and well known things will be found in wrong places. Doors, windows, furniture; extra rooms will appear etc. Your subconscious mind has started creating or you are tuning into a dream plane. Once this happens it is impossible to know what is real any more. Some of the dream pool levels, or planes, are a carbon copy of the real world. You may tune into one of them and think you are projecting in the real world - until you meet a Cheshire cat."
"One final thing, the Eastern concept of the levels; physical, astral, mental, buddhic, atmic etc are very real. They have been confused though and mixed in with the Western concept of astral projection. They are different levels of consciousness, not planes as such. When you AP you don't raise your consciousness, it is the same as when you are awake. These `higher' levels can only be reached by raising your consciousness, you can't just project into them. It is a different kind of `projection'. I have been in these higher levels but it is difficult to explain them, they really have to be experienced. They are normally reached during deep meditation."
"In order to reach these higher levels, some clairvoyant ability is required. This can be developed, or natural ability."