Sylvan Muldoon and Hereward Carrington,

[Nick]

Hi Lysear,

The book is called The Projection of the Astral Body by Sylvan Muldoon & Hereward Carrington. It was first published in 1929 and is a classic. I agree, this is one of the best books on the subject.

The book states: "Sylvan Muldoon began projecting involuntarily at the age of twelve. He was fascinated by his experiences and began to experiment with the phenomenom. This book is the result of those experiments."

Hereward Carrington was a famous psychic researcher who did the editing of Sylvan Muldoon's account.

Very worthwhile reading and quite a lot of information on "...the astral cord...types of flying dreams-the fundamental laws and sensations of the astral world and its inhabitants-are all recorded in abundant detail"(from the book back cover).

Very best,

[Terry B]

I've found the method of inducing relaxation by trying to feel your pulse in a particular area of your body and then slowing it down (called how to induce incapacity) somewhere on the net 2 years ago but can't seem to find it anymore.

[Nick]

quote:I've found the method of inducing relaxation by trying to feel your pulse in a particular area of your body and then slowing it down (called how to induce incapacity) somewhere on the net 2 years ago but can't seem to find it anymore

I couldn't find anything on the net on this, however the book contains biofeedback type methods by which Muldoon would achieve a state necessary to project. He writes about slowing his pulse rate on page 197 of the book:

"...the ability to reduce the pulse-rate also enabled me to induce complete 'incapacity' of the physical body at will."

Then at Chapter 11 on page 211 of the book, Muldoon writes on How To Induce 'Incapacity'. He talks, in part, of "retiring for the night" then gives some breathing exercises, talks about the importance of feeling the "relaxation of the solar plexus so that you can consciously feel that it 'opens' like a flower - just below the spot where the ribs divide."

He next goes through a series of tensing and relaxing the muscles of the body. Then he writes to "concentrate upon the heart" and to focus on the pulsations "until you can both feel and hear them distinctly".

He next writes, "After you have acquired the ability to lie still, and both feel and hear your heart-beat within your chest...your next step is to be able to feel and hear the pulsations in any part of your body..."

After one develops the knack of feeling the "heart's pulsations in any part of the body, through concentration, the next step is to be able to reduce the speed of the pulsations, which is not difficult to do."  All of his step by step instructions are contained in Chapter 11.

One benefit of this method would seem to help one master the skill of concentration. The Chapter is quite comprehensive in the instructions. All I've given above are some brief excerpts. A worthwhile book still after all these years.

Very best,

[clandestino]

This book was the first I ever read on astral projection. But no matter how hard I tried, I could never get out of body ! It seemed so easy in the book...

Although I can't really remember the details, I think the technique Muldoon used was similar to the rope technique, except he merely visualized floating upwards and out.

[Lysear]

Can't remember what the book was called, but this was the first one that I read that really got me interested in projection. It is based on the personal experiences of the author Sylvan Myldoon (spelling?) I will try to get the title for tomorow. It looks in depth at the subject area and gives fantastic techniques on how to induce astral projection. One area that stands out for me is the method of inducing relaxation by trying to feel your pulse in a particular area of your body and then slowing it down. Although it was compiled in the 1920'2 (I think, it was a while ago anyway) it is still one of the best that I have read on the sbject.

sorry I'm not very good at writing book review, English was never my strong point at school, I am a historian!

[Pauli2]

I use a grade from 0 - 10 (10 being the best/highest)

The Projection of The Astral Body, 1929, Sylvan J Muldoon & Hereward Carrington

Grade: 9.5

Sylvan Muldoon wrote this book in his twenties. At that time he was often
sick, exactly by what illness is unknown to me, but he often had stomach pains
and had to stay in bed over many years. From his time in bed he started doing
OBEs, which he called Astral Projections.

The initial part of the book is written by H Carrington as he probably was
one of the persons at the time who knew most of the OBE litterateur.

Most of the well-known OBEers, like Monroe, R Bruce and Buhlman have their own
methods to go OBE and their own unique experiences of how an OBE commences.

Sylvan Muldoon is no exception. His OBEs often started with his astral body
lifting from his bed in horizontal position at no control of his own. At this
time he could do nothing and had to wait until his astral body had moved to
an upright position at the foot-end of his bed.

Muldoon also noticed that there was some kind of cord connected between
his physical body and his astral body. The thickness of the cord did
become reduced from 2 inches (when both bodies were close to each other)
to the thickness of a sewing thread/string (somewhere at 5 meters distance
from his physical body).

The range where the the cord gradually became thinner as Sylvan moved away
from his physical body, until the cord was as its minimum string diameter,
Muldoon called the "cord activity range".

The cord never became thinner than a string when he move further away,
outside cord range activity. Within cord range activity, Muldoon noticed
that his astral body was pulled towards his physical body and he had
to use some force to move away until he was outside cord range activity
with his astral body.

Muldoon had observed how the astral body separated from both himself and
others at sleep. Often the astral body stayed within a few feet or a few
inches (partly within the physical body) from the physical body.

Most of Muldoon's OBEs were spontaneous, but at some times he managed to
induce OBEs directly. But most often he managed to go OBE from an LD.

Muldoon claimed that there was a difference between the dream body, which
one has in a dream, possible in an LD, compared to the astral body which he
could move around with in the RTZ. (Muldoon didn't have a RTZ concept, so I'm
just using it as a convenience, thanks to R Bruce.)

So while Muldoon was dreaming in an LD and being in his dream body, he
figured out that his astral body was somewhere else, possible moving around
with a mind of its own.

And thus Muldoon figured out different ways to move his astral body out of the
"cord activity range", by methods which are described in his book. Once Muldoon
had used one of his methods to encourage his astral body to move away from his
physical body, Muldoon tried to move out of his LD, leaving his dream body.

Muldoon never knew if his astral body really moved, but by inducing certain
needs, he hoped that his astral body would move some distance from his
physical body. The reason for Muldoon not knowing if his astral body really
had moved away, was that Muldoon awareness for some time was stuck in his
dream body in an LD.

If Muldoon's astral body had moved out of cord activity range, for example left
his bedroom and gone to a lake, Muldoon could phase from his dream body
directly into his astral body at the RTZ. What happened to his dream body,
he never seemed to know. Perhaps it stayed in dream land?

So in a way Muldoon transferred his awareness from his dream body to his astral
body.

On the other hand, if Muldoon had failed to move his astral body far enough
away from his physical body (out of cord activity range), he would enter his
astral body from his dream body and he would then slam into his physical
body by the pull of the cord inside the cord activity range and Muldoon would
walk up in his physical body. Muldoon experienced a lot of body jolts.

It seems to me that almost all OBE experience of Muldoon are done in the RTZ,
but he seemed to know that some people visited other places.

Muldoon also quotes other skilled persons of his time, who manage to make
Moen-style retrievals, but it didn't seem to me that Muldoon ever made a
retrieval of his own.

Interesting to note is that Muldoon did experience the mind-split effect,
but couldn't seem to repeat the experience in any extent, but he quotes
a few other OBEers of the time who repeatedly did experience mind-split,
among others Dr Frederik van Eeden.

Muldoon makes a distinction between "dream consciousness" which he has in
an LD, and "real consciousness" which he achieves when he enters his astral
body.

Muldoon experienced some astral noise and some vibrational state.

----

The book holds a slower tempo compared to books of today.

The book contains lots of observations and methods to induce OBE, with
several other persons experiences quoted, partly thanks to H Carrington,
one of the authority at the time on OBE matters.

What lowers the grade is that references are lacking, names of people
are given, but the context from where the source exists are lacking.
Persons mentioned may have been as well known as Monroe or RB in our
days, but time has passed and a clear reference appendix is needed today.

Also, some scientific statements are outdated, for example Muldoon had
no knowledge of biological or medical findings like the existence of DNA.

Further, some of Muldoon descriptions and methods could be a little more
detailed as I had to do some re-reading of text that was a little spares
at places.

The book seems incomplete to me as Muldoon meets too little "dead" people
while projected.

Also, Muldoon could have used some concepts more consistently, instead of
switching between names of the same concept like "phantom" and "astral body"
to describe the same object.

LD of the time had various names, most often Muldoon uses the term "dream true".

For such a young writer so far back in time, Muldoon's work is still excellent.

I'm impressed how Muldoon's book hold a high quality all way through and
even improves at the second half of the book when the content becomes more
specific in details.



The Case for Astral Projection, 1936, Sylvan J Muldoon

Grade: 7.0


This book is not as impressive as Muldoon's first book, neither is it
a very thick book of about 180 pages.

The purpose of the book is to provide the reader with as many cases,
real occurrencies of astral projections as possible. At all times
Muldoon keeps his quotes short, sometimes less than a page and almost
no case descriptions longer than 5 pages.

Muldoon only provide one case of his own in this book.

The AP cases are from the time period starting with the second half of
the 1800ies until the mid 1930ies. Many stories are from persons, who
want to be anonymous.

The book starts slow, but gains in the long run. The cases become more
interesting and remarkable.

I think the book holds a good collection of experiences related to AP,
and recommend it for anyone interested in case studies from various
people.

Among the weak points of the book is the old language, things have
change since 1936 and I would also have wanted more specifics on actual
experiments or some kind of deeper theory about the astral, as some
people has entered worlds resembling Monroes higher Focus Levels.

Perhaps I would have wanted more specific references to the original
texts, where such references were possible.

[Szaxx]

Hi,
This was the only book on the subject I purchased, twice.
I let a few interested have the book and they kept it. I moved house a few times which was the problem.
The heartbeat slowing is a real help and in the morning especially I managed a rate of 48 beats per minute regularly. Following this I can get goosebumps to order even in hot weather. Not sure what use this has but its a laugh at times.
I would recommend it to anyone showing an interest.

[Pauli2]

I've updated my review with one of Muldoon's later books. If anyone has any interesting
info about the many old references, particular those from the SPR, I would like to hear what
texts you think are interesting to read and learn from today.

I also want to know more about "The Watseka Wonder" (Lurancy Vennum).

[CFTraveler]

I believe this is the book my mother bought me when I was very young, after I reported an OBE.  I have the feeling she read it to understand what I was talking about and then gave it to me when I was around eleven to then give me the words to know what happened.
Of course I'd have to reread it to verify it, but the name is very familiar and I know I haven't read it as an adult.

[Pauli2]

The Phenomena of Astral Projection, 1951, Sylvan J Muldoon & Hereward Carrington

Grade: 8.5


This was probably Muldoon's last book. I think he wrote some articles for papers,
but produced very few books. This last book of his and Carrington's still uses a
very old language which makes the reading somewhat heavy.

The book is a collection of various OBEs and related altered states. I think Muldoon
wanted to raise the interest of the reader to the phenomena of AP. For its time, this
book is very good when I compare to other writings during the first half of the 1900s.

The better and more interesting case studies can be found at the second half of the book.

It surprises me that so many of the later OBEs have the character of the mind-split effect,
where the OBE person sees her/his own body acting while OBE, sometimes moving back
to her/his body and being able to see the nonphysical body hovering in the air at some
distance.

At times there are no true mind-split, but just a bilocation, and at one time even something
which could be viewed as an odd "tripple"-location.

Almost all OBEs described in the book are of the spontaneous type, which make more scientific
oriented activities rather impossible.

There are more examples of OBEs which resembles Monroe looking surroundings
like the Park. The downside of this book is that almost all of the experiences are
in my mind cut too short. Perhaps the originators haven't been aware that it would
have been a good idea to be more detailed?

In this book people reports travels into the astral, meeting guides or dead persons
and having amazing experiences of the physical while OBE.

I think the purpose of the book was to encourage others, more scientific minded people
to do deeper research on the OBE phenomena.

Good as this book is, I give it a high grade, still today I only recommend this book for
those who want to do research on OBEs or want to read old books of historical reasons.

There are no descriptions on how-to OBE other than references to Muldoon's & Carrington's
first book (see my review higher up in this thread) and a few other authors.

It surprises me a little that Muldoon has included so few new OBE experiences of his own
in the book. I wonder what happened to his own further OBE activities.

[Lionheart]

It surprises me a little that Muldoon has included so few new OBE experiences of his own
in the book. I wonder what happened to his own further OBE activities.

It likely became more of a personal nature to him. Whereas it had meaning to him, but not the same to other people that might read it. You will find that most people that AP at first are excited and write down everything, but as you delve deeper you find that it really is "a personal journey".

[todd421757]

It surprises me a little that Muldoon has included so few new OBE experiences of his own
in the book. I wonder what happened to his own further OBE activities.

I would guess that Muldoon lost his ability to have an etheric projection. It is hard to keep continued success over a long period of time. It is a very difficult projection to have over a period of many years. The energetic conditions need to be just right. The timing is critical. Most people that have this type of projection are having the occasional spontaneous projection only. I believe Muldoon fell in that category, since his actual techniques were vague. He was sick for many years which may of helped him with the spontaneous projections. He may of recovered from those illnesses which made him have a harder time to project.

He admits in his first book that a conscious obe from start to finish was very rare for him. He called this type of projection a Super conscious projection.

[fowlskins]

necroing this post rather than starting another

ive been reading projection of the astral body by sylvan muldoon and hereward carrington and of all the books ive read on astral projection this one i find very good at explaining itself without the preconceptions and other baggage that gets tacked on
sure its very dated in places but for a book that was written so long ago i find it still hits the nail on the head about most things even if the science wasnt there to back it up at the time
its by no means perfect but i defiantly gained more positive things than i have from other more modern books on the subject

found it in one of my fav second hand bookshops its a 1970s reprint so it has a lovely retro cover as well

[omcasey]

A link, if anyone would like to read a glimpse: Projection of the Astral Body

[fowlskins]

My copy this version published 1968