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Studies performed in recent years proves that OOBE is a fairly common experience.The experience can occur under various circumstances and in abroad range of situations In old occult writings,the experience was described as mystical and unique,and sometimes even as dangerous.In contrast,in studies that were conducted in recent years,it transpired that the experience is so widespread that it might be one of the qualities that exist in all human beings, and it is possible to learn or acquire that exist in all human beings,and it is possible to learn or acquire the art of voluntarily activating the experience.In inquiries and debriefings that were conducted among people who had this experience in a natural way did not dabble in the occult or belong to any kind of New Age Trend A researcher who investigated the matter in depth together with a relatively large group of well-know researchers from severeal universities in the US,succeeded in finiding serveral general characteristics of OOBE,based on the inquiries and debriefings of a large number of people who had undergone the experience 79% of the responder who had this experience - had it in a calm emotional state and their bodies were relaxed when they had the experience spontaneously.The remaining 21% had a spontaneous experience while giving birth,as a result of anesthetic, or as a result of fierce stabs of pain during and illness or serious injury.Moreover he found that people who practiced meditation - displayed a great tendency to have spontaneous OOBE's
The fact that 79% of the people who had had the experiences - were not in any state of crisis,pain or distress may attest to the fact that the OOBE is a normal human experience and not one that is caused by a severe cirisis or a life-threatening situation,as was thought previously Most of the responders said that they had heard a thundering in their ears,like waves of noise,before the beginning of the experience.They felt themselves 'leaving the physical body' and saw their body remaining in the place it had been prior to the experience.Many passed through walls and ceilings during the extrasensory experience
But the fact that astonished the researchers more than anything,was the innocense of the responders regarding the expereince.About one-third of the people who had experienced an OOBE, in no way expected such an expereince, and many of them did not even know that such a thing existed.No less surprising is the fact that most of the people who underwent the experience - enjoyed it. 85% of the responders in a study that was performed in Kansas defined the experience as 'pleasant' of them about half defined it as 'extremely enjoyable'
Likewise it seems that the experience affected the world-view of many of the responders, as well as their views regarding life and death.43% of the responders defined the experiences as 'the most awesome thing that has happened to me in my life' Most of them were keen to have more OOBE's.Almost all the responders were certain that they had not been dreaming when they had undergone the experience The results of the Kansas study,which was performed by a group of Psychiatrists,presented the threee researchers with the following question. 1. Must the person who has the OOBE possess special personality traits ? 2. Must he be 'different' in something than the rest of humanity? Many researchers were interested in this question
A questionnarie that was sent to the homes of the subjects who had undergone the experience helped the researchers answer the question.The researchers were looking for answers to questions as 1. are people who OOBE's gifted with a more than normally active imagination? 2. Do they have a greater than normal ability to adapt? After the questionnaires were handed in,it was simple to answer these questions.After checking the answers,the researchers reached the conclusion that people who had undergone OOBE experiences,were in no way different than people who had not
These Pychological findings are of great importance, since many Psychiatrists tended to attribute the numerous strories of OOBE 's to various Psychotic Syndromes.After an in-depth study by the group of Psychiatrists in Kansas and other researchers,it was concluded that the Psychiatric Syndromes to which various Psychiatrists attempted to ascribe the experience - were completely different and the OOBE's did not attest to any Psychological or Physical problem in the slightest
Most Astral Travel Experiences occur spontaneously,that is,sometimes even with people who are not at all awared of the possibility of leaving the body.In contrast,many experts claim that it is an ability that can be acquired and there are even people who can go out on Astral Travel 'on demand'
The Parapsychologist,CharlesT.,conducted one of his studies on the topic with a woman who can go out on Astral Travel on demand.In the laboratory,she was hooked up to an ECG monitor in order to record her brain-waves,so that it would be possible to examine the states of the brain-waves that enabled her to leave her physical body.After being hooked up to the machine,she was asked to perform a complicated exercise - if she actually could leave her body,as she claimed,she would have to identify the title of hte book that was lying on a high shelf,near the ceiling.The woman succeeded in going out on Astral Travel by means of her will power,and identified the required title,even though her physical body did not move at all
One of the common reasons for the belief that Astral Travel occurs in states of distress or in situations in which the physical body cannot tolerate what is going on around it,stemmed from Ed Morrell's book 'The 25th Man'. As stated previously,in current studies,it has been found that only a relatively small percentage of OOBE's originate from some kind of physical suffering or state of distress Ed Morrell was an inmate of an Arizona prison about 60 years ago.During his 4 year prison term,Morrell experienced extreme abuse at the hands of the wardens who conspired against him - physical violence and lengthy periods in cramped,dark solitary confinement.However, fortunately for him,his soul/spirit found a way to get away from the physical tortures.Every time he spend a long time in solitary confinement,he would have an OOBE and his Astral Body would visit faraway and much more pleasant places Morrell had good control of the direction and destinations of his visits during his OOBE's.He could get to any place his soul desired and he met many people.After his release,he went to meet up with these persons and discovered that they really did exist in those places of his OOBE visits
In many cases of leaving the body,the person who is experiencing the Astral Travel relates to the Astral Body that leaves the Physical Body as a double.In such cases,the person himself is in a state of clear consciousness which even enables him to channel with the 'Astral double' and receive messages and information from him.The famous French writer,Guy de Maupassant,related that occasionally, while he was writing on of his stories,his Etheric Double would 'bother' him.This situation occured relatively frequently with Maupassant and he said that his 'double' even dictated some of his most successful stories
Certain strories about Astral Projections describe the presence of the Etheric 'double' in the company of friends and loved ones - while the person himself was in another place.The Swedish playwright, Strindberg,deeply missed his family after he had moved to Paris following his divorce from his second wife.During those moments of profound yearning,his body floated to Sweden,where he lingered next to his mother-in-law,who was playing the piano for a few minutes.Several days after the experience,Strindberg received a letter from his mother-in-law, in which she wrote that she had seen his double that evening
The America, Sylvan Muldoon,author of the book Spotlight on the Astral Body (1921),described the following event in the journal 'The Occult Review' in 1931
Mrs.B , an American,experienced Astral Journeys and could relate in detail what happened to her during these journeys.Most of the Astral Travel was involuntary,spontaneous and generally occured before dawn.Before actually leaving her Physical Body - Mrs B. usually experienced a sensation of the physical dulling of the senses.The sensations that preceded the OOBE includedd swift flashes of headache alternating with moments of a feeling of lightness.Her general feeling was that she had been caught in a powerful sweeping current.During the course of the OOBE itself,Mrs.B could not direct or navigate her Astral Body,but was conveyed involuntarily in a kind of sailing or floating manner.Uncharacteristically,her OOBE's were accompanied by sensations of discomfort and pressure,distress, a feeling of suffocation and sore throats.The unpleasant sensation would become stronger until it caused Mrs. B. to return to her body within a short time One of her journeys was unusual as compared to her other experiences.During the journey,she found herself in the parlor of a fancy house,luxurious and somewhat strange.From the living-room,her Astral Body floated up a staircase that was unique in its tremendous size,and from there,her Astral Body passed through an expansive hall into a room in which an elderly woman was lying.Mrs.B.'s Astral Body approached the old lady's bed with a kind of inexplicable hesitation - since she knew that during Astral Travel she was invisible.Suddenly,the old lady looked into Mrs.B's face as if she was seeing a ghost.Mrs.B. describes her feelings at that moment 'I felt embarrassed to be in that house,like a thief or a burglar,without an invitation.I moved backward with inexplicable fear,toward the winding spiral staircase,and instead of going down in a cirucular manner,I moved straight back.All at once,I felt myself falling down with a sharp sinking feeling in my stomach.Suddenly a long whistle deafened me and I found myself sitting in my bed,inside my Physical Body,breathless' The British researcher of Extrasensory Phenomena, Carrington, relates to Muldoon's stories with great faith and considers them to be a fascinating documentation that sheds light on the astonishing phenomenon Muldoon,who because of his many journeys and his documentation of them had been nicknamed 'the astral traveler' in the US,says that he could leave his Physical Body voluntarily and go out on journeys in his immediate surroundings and remain fully aware of what he was doing Muldoon's childhood had been spent in a house in which extrasensory phenomena were related to seriously.His mother was very interesed in Spiritualism and when he was 12 years old,she took him and his brother to a Spiritualist camp in lowa during the summer vacation.During their first nigh at the camp,Muldoon woke up with a feeling that he was somewhere else.He could not move his body,nor could he see or hear anything.It seemed as if his senses were not working.He only felt as if his body was floating,hovering up and down in the air rapidly,involuntarily,without he being able to control it.Suddenly he felt a blow on his head, and his body began to float in the air again,in zig-zag movements.While he was floating his senses gradually began to function.The first sense to 'return' to him was the sense of hearing and after that his sense of sight also began to function once more.When he could see again,Muldoon identified his surrounding,and understoon that he was floating near the ceiling of the house where he was staying the night with his mother and brother.He looked down and saw his Physical Body lying in the bed.He was anxious,because he was sure that he had died and that was why he could see his body below him,while he was ascending and floating near the ceiling.Instinctively,he hurried to wake his mother.He went to the second room and when he tried to open the door,it turned out that he was already on the other side.He had simply gone right through it.He went to his mother and touched her, in order to rouse her,but she did not feel him at all.No one in hte house sensed the frightened boy who was trying to wake them up with all his might.He felt that all his senses were functioning,except the sense of touch.He touched the sleeping people,trying to shake them,but they did not feel anything.The young Muldoon was shocked by the experience.He heard the wall clock chime twice,it was 2o'clock in hte morning.About 15min after the chiming of the clock,Muldoon felt that he was being swept and drawn to his body in the bed,floating vertically in the air and rejoining his Physcial Body.As he rejoined it,Muldoon woke up in his bed,covered in cold sweat and frightened
Another famous 'Astral Traveler' is Robert Monroe,who was born in Lexington,Kentucky.His interest in the Human Consciousness began in 1956,when he initiated a small research project for developing programs for the New York branch of his company.The aim of the research was to check out the possibility of learning while sleeping.In 1958,key data were found - an almost unknown state of consciousness,differentiated from and different than the Physical Body.The group of researchers coined the name 'OOBE' as the scientific definition for Astral Travel.Today this concept is used by scientists and researchers who are interested in exploring Astral Travel.In1973 the Monroe Institution was establish and began to hold study seminars meant both for the general public and for professional people in various fields whose interest was the ability to control human states of consciousness.The course of Monroe's life and the chronology of his professional success are very interesting in relation to his abilities to embark on Astral Travel.If you look at his life,it seems that his entire professional path - from the beginning,led him to developing and making the general public aware of the various states of consciousness In contrast to Muldoon and Ed Morrell,Monroe did not visit only known places on earth in the present,but also OTHER DIMENSIONS,which he called REALITIES THE 1st REALITY 1. The first reality - is the reality of our world - in which we live in the present THE 2nd REALITY 2. The second reality - is the world of thought,the mental world,which Monroe considered to be the natural environment of the Astral Body.In the second reality,Monroe saw what people are inclined to define as 'heaven and hell' and there he met the Spirits of people who no longer lived in the first (our worldly) reality THE 3rd REALITY 3. The third reality is the world of thought - the mental world - similar to ours, but its techonogical level and several of its properties were different from those that we know.In that reality,Monroe met people who looked like people who were in the first reality (our world as it is now and here),visited cities and saw roads and buildings that were similar to those that exist in the reality that is familiar to us.However, the customs,of the people in this reality were different,and it was based on a technology that was different from ours.For instance, in the 3rd reality, the use of gasoline did not exist,and it even looked as if the development of science in that reality different than what we know But Monroe would go out to visit this reality,adopting his other Astral Body,which was a 'physcial body' in the dimensions of that reality and live a different life than the life experienced in the reality that is known to us Today the idea of different 'realities' different dimensions,is no longer only the province of science fiction,but a possibility that is being seriously studied by several research bodies in the World of Physics and Sciense
info sources: All About The Sixth Sense - Tom Pearson
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