Scientific research on astral planes?

[Bellend_1010]

Was there ever anything done on this? its my understanding that science seems to be a lot more open minded these days over paranormal things but was any research ever done on what the actual astral planes are? I been told that some scientists think the astral may be another dimension.

Can anyone point me in the direction of any scientific research on discovering what the astral plane is scientifically? I am trying to look for proper research done on this by maybe a reputed univercity or something if there is any. Anyone know any keywords for me to type in on this or forums to go to? thankyou.

[Xanth]

So far, the best I've read on merging the ideas of the physical and the metaphysical together is "My Big TOE" written by Thomas Campbell.

Some might argue it's not science... but then, science is but a subset of the knowledge required to understand everything as a whole.

[Summerlander]

In my opinion, Thomas Campbell is very scientific and he has developed a very plausible theory. I'm on his side. I love him. He's great. If I was a heterosexual woman...

Check out his Monroe Institute lecture and the history of when he and his team first met Monroe and agreed to be his scientists in trying to understand the reality of OOBEs.

http://www.my-big-toe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76&Itemid=83

Of course there's a wider reality out there and it can fit in with quantum theory. Altered states of consciousness can reveal to us what we wouldn't normally see. This man is on the right track. Pretty soon his theory will become mainstream. To me it is already acceptable. Be sceptical, sure...but be open-minded too!

Btw, thanks for those videos you showed me earlier with Robert Bruce, Xanth! I know that I tend to disagree with him but you showed me another perspective and for that I am thankful. If Bruce's "metaphors" work for him (using Campbell's terminology here) then so be it for him. We all have the choice to view the wider reality however we want to.

If one prefers the astral, mental, buddhic, atmic, monadic, adic model of categories...so be it. If you like Kepple's or Monroe's Focuses of Consciousness...so be it. As Campbell said, the metaphors will help you to make sense of a reality which is essentially "digital" information.

Xanth, you are one of my favourites and Kepple would have been proud. I was going to ask you if there's any chance of contacting any of his family members who might have followed his steps on the Wider Reality?

[dayglowdaisy]

I LOVE Tom Campbell's work and am on book two of the big TOE series.  I have also watched a bunch of his lectures and I think he's the bees knees   He really has a way of scientifically explaining the stuff science ignores.  I feel like mainstream science has gone the dogmatic way of religion these days, so a mind like Tom's is so refreshing.  I agree with Xanth and highly recommend his material.  The work he and Monroe were doing was the most "scientific" research done about the non-physical.  That is what lead me to wanting to do my own adventures.

[CFTraveler]

Even though Campbell and others are IMO doing great things in integrating science and esoteric philosophy, I still don't see 'mainstream' scientists doing anything but trying to disprove anything that attempts to integrate the two disciplines.

[Xanth]

Well, I'll tell ya... I made a post over on his forums and I posted it to my own website as well...
http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2011/03/18/being-lead-to-where-i-need-to-be/

I want to share it here as well:

I was just thinking about everything that's been happening to me as of the last couple years... and thinking about what I've been experiencing and how I came about the realization to have those experiences, and I feel like MBT is the culmination of this "being lead around".

It's not a culmination as in "I'm now at the top of the mountain", because that would be silly ... that would be assuming that there's no more to climb after this. It's more like being at the top of the mountain, and then realizing that you have to climb back down so that you can climb another mountain again... an endless number of mountains.

I started off my journey on a forum called SpiritOnline, then it went down... and I found myself over on another forum called the Astral Society... then that went down... after which I found myself over on the Astral Pulse. Throughout all this I struggled over 10+ years to learn how to do Astral Projection, to experience the non-physical for myself. Not knowing that over the course of all that, I was slowly setting up my foundation through learning to meditate. Well, when I stumbled upon the Astral Pulse I found a dude there named Frank Kepple... I read and followed him in his experiments with trying to follow in the foot steps of Robert Monroe and he felt he was rather successful in doing so. His data was really my launchpad for my current situation of exploring the non-physical, so for that I'm grateful.

I still post there, and am a moderator there actually. Through posting there, I've now stumbled across my next challenge, the next mountain for me to climb... "My Big TOE" (MBT), by Thomas Campbell. As I'm reading MBT, I'm realizing just how much my own experiences relate to the larger reality that's out there, and the reality that I find myself currently in, and I feel like I'm able to partake in it more. I'm learning more about myself, I'm learning how to control my emotions and my thoughts... making myself a better person, which is then reflected in the world around me. I'm able to see the GOOD in the world now, where before it was only "wow wtf is wrong with you!" kind of thing... just seeing the bad. I've made choices lately that have me reacting to situations in a more positive manner... although I'm still learning and still have a long way to go, as I've been prone to anger and being upset as well lately too.

But throughout this journey that I unknowingly set myself on the last couple years... as I reflect back on it, I see the trail of bread crumbs that, as Tom might put it, the system has left for me to grab in an effort to lower my entropy and bring myself into a greater state of consciousness. A more serene place... and I now starting to appreciate that, really, more than words could convey.

I guess I don't really have a point in posting this... except to just get that out there. )

As for Frank and his family... I have no idea who they are or where they can be found.  LoL
I, literally, know nothing of Frank outside of what I've read here.

[Xanth]

Even though Campbell and others are IMO doing great things in integrating science and esoteric philosophy, I still don't see 'mainstream' scientists doing anything but trying to disprove anything that attempts to integrate the two disciplines.

That is really the problem, isn't it?
The "center" trying to disprove the "fringe".

My Big TOE is definitely fringe material... and as Tom puts it, most big discoveries come from that perspective too.

[CFTraveler]

That is really the problem, isn't it?
The "center" trying to disprove the "fringe".

I don't see materialists as the 'center'- I see them as their own extreme.  The term center implies balance, and I think scientists like Campbell, Wolfe and Tart are more balanced that the 'mainstream' zealots like Dawkins, for example.

My Big TOE is definitely fringe material... and as Tom puts it, most big discoveries come from that perspective too.

And when they are finally acknowledged, they move on to the center, until the next 'fringer' comes in.
The problem is that, some 'scientists' seem hellbent on redefining what science is supposed to be to suit their paradigm, and those are the guys that get the most coverage.
But I'm done with my rant now.

[Volgerle]

I don't see materialists as the 'center'- I see them as their own extreme.  The term center implies balance, and I think scientists like Campbell, Wolfe and Tart are more balanced that the 'mainstream' zealots like Dawkins, for example.
And when they are finally acknowledged, they move on to the center, until the next 'fringer' comes in.
The problem is that, some 'scientists' seem hellbent on redefining what science is supposed to be to suit their paradigm, and those are the guys that get the most coverage.
But I'm done with my rant now

C'mon CFT, sometimes rants can be fun. 

You know this one already, since I posted it a day ago in the other forum. It fits here now, so I go at it again: It is a quote of a visionary scientist (for me: the T. Campbell of his days !!!), physics Nobel prize winner and one of the fathers or quantum physics, who had his own (hard) response to the "dogmatic mainstream" "scientists" of his time:

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
- M. Planck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck)

paraphrased short variants (taken from wikiquote):

"Truth never triumphs - its opponents just die out."

"Science advances one funeral at a time."

So... be patient and let's wait 'a while'. 

[personalreality]

So when have any of you put down my big toe and done some real soul searching into what the nature of reality means to you?

There is only one way.  My way.

[Stillwater]

Charles Tart is probably the biggest one for me who is trying to approach OBE from a scientific perspective, and doing it through an established experimental paradigm, in a thoroughly responsible fashion. The Monroe institute was partially scientific in its approach, but Robert Monroe just wasn't interested in proving things in as rigorous a scientific perspective as Tart, and he did not have the background to do it; the two were friends though, and he had respect for Tarts work. He has done less research as of late, but he is still active, and he published a book lately, titled in no uncertain terms, The End of Materialism .

I would also recomend some of his prior works, and he has indeed been prolific. He also, even more recently released another book in 2010, but I have not read it.

[Inico]

As regards My Big TOE, he speaks about probability a lot. The stuff said definitely struck a chord and some seriously new understanding, but I've gotten stuck as to one issue that I'd be happy to talk about with you more scientifically minded fellows.

If everything is influenced by probability, then how do particles and sciences that rely on objective measurements produce seemingly objective results? Shouldn't results vary due to the subjectivity influenced probability? Yes, doctors record these variations in placebo, but what about in the economy or mathematics?

How does probability affect existing matter according to My Big TOE? Shouldn't the physical universe be more chaotic then?

Anyway, again I'll link this since everyone ignored it and I feel it is HEAVILY related to what is said in My Big TOE. I consider finding My Big TOE to be a follow-up in my experience to the Holographic Universe. The ideas in the Holographic Universe eventually amount to what is said about the mind influencing reality, which is subjective, and how the universe is 'digital' etc etc etc. I bought the book and it explained it all very well. I will repost the link which summarizes the book for you.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_astral_chat/holographic_universe-t32591.0.html

[Summerlander]

Well...perhaps it used to be more chaotic...but it's been evolving and continues to evolve as though it is learning and as though it is intelligent. It may even be aware of the current level of entropy and be working towards perfection or something like it. But perhaps it has already achieved its entelechy but on this level it forgets that factor for the sake of experience...

Amit Goswami once said that there is an archetypal realm for this reality. In here things are more persistent as though consciousness forgets itself..."or it pretends to forget for the sake of play".

[c0sm0nautt]

I would just like to echo that Campbells work is fascinating, and is probably the closest to "science" you can come to when dealing with these subjective experiences (that is being a human being  ). 

[kurtykurt42]

There's no scientific research because we don't have advanced enough technology to measure other dimensions.

The only thing you'll find are theories and people's experiences.

[Summerlander]

Very true. ^^

We can have logical theories though. We also observe and measure our physical world and it is just as elusive. We don't have all the answers. In fact, the act of measuring our physical world on a subatomic level seems to affect the results...hence the birth of quantum THEORY.

If we know so little about our world, what makes us think that we'd get answers by measuring other dimensions (if we could). So far we can only rely on the data gathered from people's subjective experiences. No projector possesses the tools to measure the metaphysical realm because of the way in which they enter such a reality. Once they enter it, they become a part of it. They could manifest scientific tools there but these tools would be part of their mind, the results would not be accurate and would be biased. The tools would be made of the same thing as the rest of the environment...made of THOUGHT. The very act of observing the meta-environment and measuring it would affect it especially if our goal is to try to make sense of it all. We are attempting to translate something unknown into human logic.

Things are not so different in the waking state either seen as our observation of the quantum world appears to produce an outcome that will make sense to us and yet when we look away, what was once a finite probability reverts back to infinite possibility. Like the double-slit experiment: the photon is both a particle and a wave (there's human logic and then there is quantum logic). Quantum logic makes reality appear to be of an almost magical nature. It goes right back to what Campbell was saying, we need metaphors to explain the digital information perceived.

[Pauli2]

This is as close as I've heard anything scientific -> http://www.monroeinstitute.org/downloads/explorer-series-31-entities-energy-streams-and-information-services/

The "tape" is about channeling.