RIGHT- hold your horses. Before you read on, I need to say NOW that I am a fairly big cynic AND an atheist. That is all. Ok, off we go!
In case, like me, you don't know what astral projection is, or what it entails, here is a brief run down courtesy of the lazy man everywhere, Wikipedia. (I've highlighted the best bits, just cause I'm nice like that).
Astral projection (or astral travel) is an interpretation of out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it. Astral projection or travel denotes the astral body leaving thephysical body to travel in the astral plane.
The idea of astral travel is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife in which the consciousness' or soul's journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an...out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in his/her subtle body (or dreambody or astral body) into ‘higher’ realms." It is therefore associated with near death experiences and is also frequently reported as spontaneously experienced in association with sleep and dreams, illness, surgical operations, drug experiences, sleep paralysis and forms of meditation.
It is sometimes attempted out of curiosity, or may be believed to be necessary to, or the result of, some forms of spiritual practice. It may involve "travel to higher realms" called astral planes but is commonly used to describe any sensation of being "out of the body" in the everyday world, even seeing one's body from outside or above. It may be reported in the form of an apparitional experience, a supposed encounter with a doppelgänger, some living person also seen somewhere else at the same time.
Through the 1960s and 70s, surveys reported percentages ranging from 8 percent to as many as 50 percent (in certain groups) of respondents who state they had such an experience. The subjective nature of the experience permits explanations that do not rely on the existence of an "astral" body and plane. There is little beyond anecdotal evidence to support the idea that people can actually "leave the body".
Flip! I had heard of out of body experiences, and of course have seen the Hollywood bastardisation of 'going towards the light' in death scenes and so on....but I didn't know this thing had a name. Years ago, when exchanging creepy stories with a bunch of friends, one of my friends shared a story, which I now see was about astral projection. This man was a fair bit older than me, quiet, reserved and very intelligent. Certainly not in the same realm as some of the others sharing stories that day. I don't doubt for a second that everyone in the room who heard this story would remember it- primarily because the man who was telling it was so 100% 'not the type' that it seemed something....well...something to consider as reality, at the very least.
He spoke of a dream he once had, in a previous house with a previous girlfriend. He said he quite vividly remembered wearing what he was wearing, but flying over Belfast. As he flew closer to where his house was, he started to recognise the area, then the streets, then HIS street. As he saw his house, he flew to it.... he flew in the window, and landed at the bottom of his bed. As he recognised his own sleeping self, with his girlfriend beside him, he was startled. So startled in fact that he woke up, and swore he saw the briefest of an outline of himself disappear from the end of the bed, into the night. His girlfriend woke up as well, so violent was his reaction, and he was too scared to say to her.
Now, this is the sort of tale that I would usually scoff at, but it really was the person who told it that was the attention grabber. Imagine the most serious, grounded person you know, saying something like THAT....Hmm.
So anyway. Back to last week. It struck me that while astral projection as an experience reported by many people is an acknowledged phenomenon, obviously it cannot be proven. That said, maybe it was because of this story I once heard, that I realised not everyone who reported it was a crystal toting, energy chasing kafkan-ista (not that there is anything wrong with that, if that's you, well, rock on! Its just, your image, well, it doesn't hold a hell of a lot of weight with the old scientists.)
As a bit of a reluctant atheist (- quick recap- have no faith, but would really like to think that a spiritual aspect of the human existence exists, am at peace with the atheist position, but want to believe the human soul exists more than just nuturing a personality in a creature very genetically similiar to the next creature) this whole business of astral projection excited me.
I spoke to my atheist friend Jonny about it. He surmised along the lines of- certainly, if we accept that humans are nothing more than vibrating molecules, and there is a hell of a lot we don't understand, there is a potential for something like astral projection to exist. If we are only aware of the physical dimensions, there could potentially be other dimensions on which stuff is going on that we have NO idea. Perhaps astral projection is people inadvertently or subconsciously accessing some area of this, or using some dormant part of their brain... [Jonny would probably like me to also point out that his main position was one of extreme cynicism and he gave this opinion when pressed on by me, the girl who wants to believe in Santa, etc.]
Now that's interesting.
Today, a guy I know came into work. Now I have had many interesting chats with this man- he is jointly passionately about two things. Maths and music. One day, he absolutely fascinated me with loads of examples of proven maths theories that also appear in nature, and in music (I am pretty sure the harmonic seventh scale is there somewhere....) I figured he had a good open mind to a surreal chat, so I asked him what he thought.
Turns out, he also completely believed it was possible. As he said himself, if we are all nothing but vibrating particles, we are all inherently linked. We are all linked anyway by waves- I see the table over there through a transmission of light, etc. To say that we are not all linked to everything in some way, according to him, was naive. Interestingly, because I don't expect this sort of molecular-metaphysical discussion to appeal to religious people, he told me that he was not an atheist, not at all. He said that there was so much intelligence behind everything (and given his previous chats about mathematical links with....life... I can see he would know more about this than me) that it seems insane to think that there is no intelligence behind the intelligence. Good point. Still not convinced though- surely that's evolution?! All the same, the talk really excited me, and I shared with him something that I hope to blog about later this week- another mental response that cannot be explained or proven....
Anyway. I just thought it was interesting. I am still no closer to finding out what this phenomenon is about. But what was interesting is that their certainly seems to be a lot of thought about it. At any rate, my little dead atheist brain is not allowing me any night time or drug induced or fever induced flying trips in astral planes. Bummer.
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