Memory and OBE

[Rastus]

I think your saying you need a concious exit from AP/OOB to remember what you did there, so you can override what went on Etherically (in the flesh so to speak).  Your brain won't deal with 2 sets of memories, so it lets one go and retains the other, but a concious return will let you force the issue?

[Jarthur]

Hey michael,

Your question is an interesting one for me too because the distinction of bodies is something that bothers me.

I think the hierarchy of bodies is somewhat loose. They all seem to kind of blend in with each other to some extent.

In fact just defining any of the bodies is a heck of a problem in itself. After reading your question or rather musings, I went off on a search to see what I could scare up from my bookshelf of Rudolf Steiner's works and found "An Outline of Occult Science" and another on symbols (do books sprout legs or something, dang I had more than that).

In occult science he states "...One might also say that life belongs to the ether body, consciousness to the astral body, and memory to the ego." He's referring to conscious memory as opposed to subconscious. Later he goes on to say that in a way , the Ego is a part of the astral body and then says "If we desire an exact designation, we may call the human astral body the soul body:. The soul, in so far as it is united with this soul body, we may call the sentient soul."

So according to him, the astral body perceives what's happening but has no way of remembering it afterward. The ego has the ability to remember but you first have to develope an ability to remove your conscious self from sensory stimulus and make a connection with it. That connection is not automatic..

RB's idea of "downloading" memories from the astral to the physical seems logical except that it seems to me this forces a downgrading of the memories if it were only a function of the physical brain. I mean you would only remember events in metaphors because you're interpreting through a purely physical organ. There has to be a much higher principle involved if you want any accuracy.

I think that the better your connection with your "higher self" (which is not a once and for all set thing) or ego  the clearer and more accurate the memory of being obe will be. The really odd thing is that the higher self is also the guardian of the threshold according to Steiner and this makes beautiful sense but only with some thought. .

One of the most interesting observations that RB makes in "Astral Dynamics" I think, is the sparks of consciousness that rain down with the "astral pulse" and embed themselves in the etheric body, later to blossom as events in our lives.  I know the truth of this because I've observed it as a kind of astral rain. I'm sure this principle can be harnessed for the purpose of first, invoking the guardian, a very valuable entity, and then establishing a working relationship with him..

[Sampson]

I believe that memories of Oobe's or Astral projections that are presumed lost due to the mind split can on rare occasion be recoverable.

For me this depends on the memory being either activated by a similar incident occurring in the physical to that of the one in the Astral, RTZ or other dimension or likewise some other form of 'trigger' such as a picture, a scent, a taste, a sound or an object etc.

I have made a post in the Dream forum relating to just this topic concerning an experience I had a short while ago regarding a rare deep dream/projection re-call due to a trigger object.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13527

[michael]

..as we know Robert deals with this extensively in Astral Dynamics..I am thinking aloud here...read in one of Rudolf Steiner's books "Sleep and Dreams" (thoroughly recommend by the way)...that the ego and astral body leave the physical body and etheric(or life) body together....and..like Robert and others say Steiner mentions that it is vital to utilise the waking up and going to sleep periods to initiate OBE and/or  memory of it...so it appears that to remember dreams and OBE's we have to merge the returning or going out ego and astral body with the etheric body..which Steiner says is the body of memory...without doing this all memory of events outside the etheric/physical body will evaporate...I do not know where I am going with this..anyone else got any theoretical stuff and ideas on this???