Principles: Projection, Attraction, Intersection, Integration (Assimilation)

I have a different take on the meaning of projection. I see it more as a projection on a screen rather than an extension outward. The projection is mental imagery upon an astral substance. We create the astral reality through our projections. We project thoughtforms upon a substance that can manifest them. If a movie screen gives us 2d images, then the astral gives us 3D images. Unlike the film projector, we can interact with these projections.

Like Attracts Like will attract other projections creating, at intersection, new environments. Integration is the outcome.

Frank's Delivery continued:

After riding along for a few blocks and enjoying the beauty of the scene, Frank drops me off a few blocks away. I am still in the familiar territory of the neighborhood but the details are changing. The houses no longer follow the uniformity of what in reality is an aging housing development. They are even more unique than what normal age, landscaping, repairs, additions and the like, will do them. In this particular area the houses are much smaller, and as I continue walking down the center of the side street, they appear to become smaller. I come to a dead end capped with a row of trees. Here the houses just single rooms, but with large picture windows at the entrance. In one house a man sits complacently looking out the window. Behind him are many trophies. In another house a woman sits in a similar condition. I detect a feeling of remorse coming from them but it is mild. If they are sad their detachment seems to modify it. At the line of trees I can go no further and I am immediately awake in bed.

Hypnogogic Image: Pencil sketch depicts a temple scene. People gathered at the landscaped grounds before the stairs leading up to the main doors. Instead of walking toward the stairs, more and more people simply appeared in place. The landscaping of rose buses and cedars sprung up as the people arrived. I was given no information about the purpose of the temple or its meaning.

Our brain and nervous system received information from the physical plane. It works to make sense and stays busy categorizing of is really just light and sound bouncing off surfaces into meaningful objects. It objectifies the reality. As ego we deem some objects to be significant to ourselves and thereby filter the millions of objects we see into a perception that is meaningful to us. I am sure that we filter differently according to our culture, family, experiences and other elements of personal history. You could say that reality is a fabrication of the brain.

Is dream time much different? Are we receiving information from an external source and processing it into meaning? My guess is that the information that builds these clear representations of reality come from another reflective surface outside the physical plane. This is what is called the astral plane, where the forms are similar but the basic rules change.

Underworld

After descending the stairs through the tunnel I came into a hall  carved into the rock. There were a few people who were standing around as if they were waiting. The looked like they may have been from the same family, that is, they were familiar to each other or related in some way other than friendship. They were dressed conservatively with simple clothing that appeared to be from modest styles from the 1950's. They did not seem to pay me any attention and I moved through the small group and down the hall. A second tier overlooked the hall. I walked toward it, but the scene changed as it would in dreams also typical in film editing.

Visiting the future

Or so I am told. I arrive at a vast stretch of ramshackle structures. They appear to be made of buildings that have since collapsed. Groups of college age people are around the structures. Some climb them. Some years ago I was using a visualization where I created a wooden structure that I would climb to enter different mental regions. It is my understanding that all astral levels are within us and we can recreate them through imaginative visualizations. Visiting these structures was after the period of time I was using the visualization. Photograph is a building in Goldfield Nevada. Photo was taken in 2015.

Lucid Dreams

My experience suggests that Lucid Dreams are another form of Astral Experience. We have a greater flow (amplitude) of consciousness which bridges the gap between dreaming and astral travel. The difference I see is that lucid dreams give us a type of shortcut. We go from low awareness to high awareness and we are able to manifest from the currents of energy and information we call the astral sphere. Accounts of Out of Body suggest that some people can leave their bodies and perceive the physical plane. I have not done that. I have only experienced the transition zone which is more of a representation of physical reality. I call it an interaction because it has qualities of both. The scene depicts flying over a rural scene in some unknown location. People gather below in a circle. I do not advocate standard dream symbols however Power Line certainly is a loaded term. It represents a source of energy or power.

Out of Body to Astral Travel

Different accounts of astral travel include stages. I like to call the first few stages the transition zone, an area that include properties of both physical and astral or dreamtime. Many people, myself included, describe sleep paralysis as the first indicator they will be moving into second body (astral body). Also there can be auditory sensations like people chatting. They also describe visitors touching their body as well as legs and or arms rising. Then there is roll out where we get out of bed. I would often crawl on the floor, but now I usually land on my feet. The area around the body I call familiar territory. The bed and room are the same in many ways while my physical body is usually covered by sheets. I may try to turn on the light switch but it never works. I will move through the house, but sometimes I go through the window. Glass can feel elastic. From there I will explore the area. Sometimes it is pitch black and I will have to command the light. Street lights will come on as well as window lights, but a blue sky might appear giving the area a daytime feel. They further away from the house, the more the environment will change. Mixed media drawing is from the dream journal. Shows different stages and a home visit. I usually do home visits - welfare checks - when I am out. Charcoal drawing depicts the transition world between sleeping body and astral.

2015 Astral Plane Lecture

Images of drawing and painting were done in 2015 for a  lecture on my personal experience of what is popularly known as the Astral Plane. A common definition calls it the first plane (sphere) beyond the physical realm and inhabited by spirit forms. Numerous accounts are available of journeys to this realm and the wide variety of imagery. 

My typical experience begins with a feeling of body asleep and mind awake, usually in the wee hours of the morning. I might have some sensations of pressure on my body and after a few moments I will get up out of bed. Sometimes I roll on the floor, sometimes I jump, sometimes I get up in what feels like a normal way. Looking around the room I notice subtle changes that indicate that although this is the familiar surrounded of the bedroom, somethings are just off. I will do a quick inspection and make the judgement that I am not in my physical body, but something akin to a dream body, that is, the body I take on when dreaming. Looking around for a few moments and the subtle and not so subtle changes (I thought the bookcase was on that side of the room,,,) I will then make an exit, either through the door, sometimes through the window, once through a mirror and a few times climbing a rope that appeared from the ceiling.

Hypnogogic Image: The Underworld: While at the Monroe Institute I had a powerful vision of being inside a cavern. Crossing the cavern was a suspension bridge and below there appeared t be thousands of people. Most of them appeared to be waiting with no particular purpose. There were also some very tall beings that seemed to serve as guards or guardians. There were three people standing on the bridge observing the scene and although my point of view was from a different location, I had the impression that I was one of the people standing on the bridge, receiving a tour of the place.

We continue on, up a hill and into a neighborhood of ranch style homes. We approach one that is built up on a hill. It has a stone embankment as well as a long set of stairs leading to the front door. We walk up and approach the door. We knock and a woman wearing a bathrobe opens the door. We enter and follow her to her bedroom where she sits on her bed. She does not seem fully awake and in some ways she appears to be in need of some attention. In the main room to our right, a man who I am told is her husband is doing a business deal. They are unaware of our presence. As it goes, all my journeys have stopping points. I want to stay but I feel the shift in consciousness and I am back in bed, awake. I would like to stay longer but I am taken back to the physical. Am I running out of fuel? What is the fuel? Can it be stored while I am awake? Questions that need to be answered.

A Factory on Mars.

I wake up on the ground at the edge of an aging industrial area. Similar to the appearance of a military supply depot.  It is illuminated by bright street lights but the appearance of the place is more like a prison at night. I am intuitively told to leave immediately and I do so. I run across an area of low sand dunes, similar to the landscape I flew over on the journey to the underworld. In the distance I see another complex similar to the one I just left. I feel safe in the dunes and I am told that I am on Mars and that I should go back to my home world. But why did I wake up in a place that I do not belong? Invited to visit briefly perhaps.

Mount Purgatory

The guides (beings such as the scientist I met at the Museum) suggest that locations where beings can make transisitions and transformation occur throughout the Earthy version of the Astral Plane. The Catholic Church may have removed it from the books but it does not remove it from the Astral Plane. Astral Rule: Nothing can be destroyed, only relocated - that is separated from its origin by space. But if there is a desire the object of the desire is created. So, if there is a need for an institution of transformation through purging of sin, one will be created. There is always more space.

Hypnogogic Imagery

My personal experience suggest that the Astral Sphere is a stream of information that we energize into reality through our consciousness. That said, Astral Projection could much more the simple leaving the physical body and flying around with perceptions intact. For example, meditation often brings what are commonly called "hypnogogic images." I have them quite often and varied duration and clarity. Often with sensations of movement such as flying, running, and falling.  The image depicting the black hole in the fence occurred while I was attending the Robert Monroe Institute for a one week residence course. Appearing in my center of vision was a scene of houses behind a high wall. A path through a wooded area led to an opening in the wall. It was an entrance to an unspecified underground location. A sign above it said, "KEEP OUT." I took the warning seriously and the scene dissolved.

I received a "packet" of information that told me the people in the houses were owned by a group of beings that lived below the housing development. My presence was not welcome. (A packet of information is a sense of knowing and being able to describe what has become known)

Frank's Delivery:

The journey began with mind awake, body asleep. With my awareness in the 2nd body, I roll out of bed and on to the floor. I get up and adjust to the surroundings. Same bedroom but slight changes. I try to flip on the light and nothing happens.  Looking around the room I notice changes and I decide to leave - the usual way - out the door, down the hall and outside the house. 

Outside it is dark and as I continue it grows darker. I am concerned that I will be stopped by the field of unconsciousness that acts as a barrier between our normal waking state and dream time. With some attention I am able to illuminate the scene. Night becomes day, and although it is winter, the trees take on leaves. I walk to the nearest street corner observing small changes in the shapes and size of the houses. At the corner I stop and a truck appears rounding the corner one block away. It drives in my direction and I thought it may be fun to step in front the oncoming truck and have it pass through me. Just a test. I stand in the way of the truck, but it stops. I recognize the driver. He is an old friend, Frank, who passed away some months prior. 

Attached to the truck is a camper shell with benches. Seated on the benches are elderly folk. Although sitting upright, they appear to be asleep. I bang on the window to get their attention but the remain in their unconscious condition. Frank signals that he must leave and asks if I should like to come along. "Of course," I say and I hang on to the side of the car as he speeds down the road past the familiar territory of my neighborhood.

Visiting Unfamiliar Locations

Landing in a small rural town. Buildings appear to be from the late 19th century, American. I walk inside one of them but then turn and run through the forest. I find myself at a cliff overlooking a more modern building. It is a Science Museum. Inside I meet a scientist, he shows me past lives on display in tall class cases.

Crystal Woman

At the end of a longer journey I walked into a small shop that sold new age type objects. At the back of the store the proprietor sat next to a table. Atop the table were numerous quartz crystals. I cannot remember if I entered from the Out of Body or Lucid Dream state.

​

Have a Cookie:

​Drawing depicts an extended journey involving multiple characters. I begin with the second body state and sit up in bed facing the window. I push through the window and stand in the back yard. I move away, and as I move away the surroundings change from the familiar to the new. I speculate that as I move away from the location of my physical body, the second body perceptions begin to dominate and it brings in information from other sources. For example, information is taken in from the physical surroundings of the body senses. It is given meaning through memory. The second body receives information through second body senses and projects meaning upon the surfaces it encounters. It is like a projector. It creates form and meaning from information that it receives - some of it from physical plane memories, and I can only speculate about other sources such as currents of consciousness.As I move away from the familiar I meet a friend and his dog. We travel together on foot until we come to a group of two story apartments. We decide to have a little fun and knock on doors to meet the residents. At the first apartment door, before we can knock, a short Asian woman answers the door. The joke is on us! She greets us warmly and says, "here, have a cookie." I accept it and eat it, but it is extremely bland and rubbery (like most of the food I have experienced in these zones.)
​

Jail Cells

I am still in the underworld labyrinth but now, instead of making the choice about where to move, I am being moved. I am taken to a long hall (long haul?) where, as I am told, leaders of the world are being led to jail cells. They are being escorted by very tall guards who have more rectangularly shaped heads. They look similar to the beings in the cavern I had witness during a visit to the Monroe Institute. One, who I recognize, is led to a cell where he calmly sits and reads a book. My take on this is that no soul is condemned, only guided through conditions that will help it along its own journey. One man was identified as Dick Cheney. He sat down quietly and read a book. But, is this not the land of the dead. The answer might be yes and no. After all, I am just visiting.

Trip to the Under World

(Shamans describe three world, the Lower World, the Middle World and the Upper World. I believe that I was invited to visit the lower world)

About 4 am I roll out of bed and fall to the floor. The floor feels hard and I stand up and look around. The scene however is different than normal and I realize I am in what Robert Monroe called the second body state. Usually I will walk out of the room in the normal way; through the door and down the hall. This time a window (possibly where a mirror is hung) appeared where there wasn't one and I passed through, head first, through the window. I flew a few feet over the ground and I noticed that the usual grassy lawns and landscaping were quickly changing to a desert like landscape. The sky was dark and covered by heavy clouds. I could see electrical activity in the distance. My sense was that there was a city some distance away. Crossing the barren ground,  I came to an opening that led down into the earth. Stairs were cut into the rock which made a normal descent rather easy - why fly when you can walk. I felt invited to enter and walked down the steep stairs.