I own the entire series and love each one. Myst, was the original and is still my favorite, but Riven and Exile are also wonderful games especially if you like puzzles. No not the ones made of cardboard pieces.[;)] Mind wrenching logic puzzles.[:D] Oh the joy of successfully completing one of them.
First, a little introduction:
(http://sirrus.cyan.com/Online/Myst/Images/HiRes/LighthouseTop1-N%2033.jpg)
Myst was one of the first computer to use a CD rom. It was, at the time, the most graphically complex game ever. Its graphics were beautiful (as you can see from above). But most people played it because it was something NEW. You couldnt die, you couldnt fight anyone. Instead, the gameplay was set in a deep archiac world, filled with mystery, puzzles, and good and evil.
(http://sirrus.cyan.com/Online/Myst/Images/HiRes/OasisPath%208-S.jpg)
Now, this relates to Astral Experiances. How? Because part of the world of myst is the concept of ages. An age is basically a plane, or another universe. They were first created by the ancient race of the D'ni (pronounced dunney). To create an age, you need to write a book that describes EVERYTHING in the age in great detail. In the original game of myst, you only had access to 5 ages. (or was it 6, I cant remember). The point is, ages are very much like planes. If you havent played the game, go out and buy it! its around 10bucks on amazon. Or, if your feeling particularly rich, get its sequals, Riven and Exile.
This is some interesting stuff about the D'ni universe, and how they create the mysterous linking books:
Book: (kor)
Books relating to "the Art" are highly regarded in D'ni culture. The books themselves are special creations and the process for their construction is mostly unknown at this time. It is known that there were D'ni guilds for both creating the books (the actual page material, and the binding process) and for creating the ink used to write the books.
Descriptive Book: (kor-mahn)
When the D'ni created the original link to an Age, it was done through the writing of a Descriptive Book. This Book was written with all of the descriptions of the Age that would be linked to. The Descriptive Book is the primary Book defining a particular Age. The Descriptive Book is a requirement to create the founding link to any Age.
The manuscripts state that the D'ni believed that when the writer of an Age describes the Age, the Age is not actually created, but a link is established to a preexisting Age that most closely represents what has been written. The D'ni believed that all Ages were actually created by the Maker, and that the D'ni were imbued with a gift from the Maker to create links to the Ages.
As far as D'ni manuscripts are concerned, Descriptive Books are always written in the D'ni language, and always have been. It is not at all clear whether or not other languages could be used. There is some question as to whether there is enough room in a single Book for modern languages to describe worlds that the complex D'ni characters handle routinely.
Written contradictions in the Descriptive Books were a cause for great concern for the D'ni. From a young age, Guild students were taught to concern themselves with the details of what is described in a particular Descriptive Book, so as to avoid contradicting those details later on in the Book. Such contradictions could cause severe instabilities in an Age. D'ni culture is fraught with stories of contradictions discovered only after the preliminary scouts from the Maintainers Guild never returned. Such stories were used to impact young writers.
There are innumerable manuscripts that document making changes to Descriptive Books and their associated Ages, once the Ages had been visited. The procedure required meticulous attention to detail and was attempted by only the highest levels of writers. The problem seemed to lie in the synchronization of what was written in the Descriptive Book and what was actually observed on the Age itself. If changes were written into the Book that contradicted previously observed features of the Age, it was possible that the Descriptive Book would divert its link to an Age that more closely resembled the changes described. It would appear that the link to the "pre-diverted" Age would be lost, and it would be impossible to reestablish the original link.
There have been some restrictions discovered regarding writing bizarre Ages, Ages that would defy the laws of nature as the D'ni knew them. It seems this is to discourage books that might create links to unstable Ages.
Restrictions have also been discovered concerning man made objects written into an Age. It appears that some kind of initial experimentation by the D'ni was unsuccessful and unpredictable, and the restriction was established.
Linking Book: (kor-vahkh)
A Linking Book is simply written as a reference to a Descriptive Book. Although linking to an Age is possible through a Descriptive Book, it is often more convenient to write a linking Book that refers to the Descriptive Book. The original Descriptive Book can then be protected, to be used for reference or changes at a later date. Multiple Linking Books can be written that all refer to, and perform the same as a single Descriptive Book. In D'ni culture the Linking books were often much smaller than full Descriptive books, which presumably allowed for greater portability and which preserved paper.
A link to an Age cannot be created or changed by writing into a Linking Book. Linking books are written rather easily and quickly using a common combination of paragraphs and descriptions which refers to the original Descriptive Book. Linking books link only to the place where the Linking Book was written in a particular Age. Thus, there is a chance that a Linking Book could be rendered useless if the Descriptive Book with which it was associated were changed in a way that significantly changed the place to where the Linking Book linked.
If a Descriptive Book is destroyed, all Linking Books associated with that Age are rendered useless. Linking Books cannot be used to link to other places within a particular Age. D'ni manuscripts seem to infer that the act of linking actually requires some kind of dimensional transfer.
As you can see, Im really into this stuff.