According to cosmological and theosophical teachings, the astral plane (or the Subtle world) is located between two worlds - the dense and the fiery. In it, according to esotericists, angelic and demonic entities, pagan gods, spirits of nature and souls of suicides live. For a person who died a natural death, the astral plane is that unknowable area where, at the first stage of his long journey through the other worlds, his immortal soul falls.
Ancestral experience
Mentions of the subtle world and exciting travels in it are found in ancient Vedic books, Egyptian papyri, the Hermetic Kabbalah and even in the Old Testament (Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12). Chinese manuscripts of the 3rd century say that the soldiers of the emperor's personal guard possessed an amazing ability during sleep - to soar and contemplate not only the surroundings, but also the actions and even the secret thoughts of their enemies. This amazing ability associated with manipulating the astral body was achieved through years of persistent training under the strict guidance of sage monks who possessed sacred knowledge.
Even in Christian Europe there were frequent cases of communication with the astral. Medieval Nuremberg chronicles of the 14th century mention a certain Hans Steyer, a magician and alchemist, who appeared to the townspeople in dreams, sometimes accompanied by an unusual type of creature, communicated, warned of impending dangers. The famous and legendary Counts Cagliostro and Saint-Germain were fluent in astral travel techniques. The famous theosophist Annie Besant mentions this in her works of the late 19th century. She claimed that she had more than once communicated with their astral shells. In the XX century, colorful descriptions of subtle worlds were created by the famous philosopher, traveler and follower of agni yoga Nicholas Roerich and Russian writer Daniil Andreev. According to them, they have more than once experienced personal experience of visiting the astral spheres.
Shamanic practices
The famous English psychic and clairvoyant of the middle of the 20th century, Charles Webster Leadbeater, published several works in which he summarized the experience of interaction with the astral plane of representatives of traditional beliefs in Africa, South and North America and Australia. According to C. Leadbeater, in the subtle world and communication with its inhabitants, shamans draw vital and magical power. For this, they travel to the astral world with a certain frequency. The signal that the travel time has come is the so-called call of the guardian spirit. A minister of a pagan cult shows symptoms that outwardly resemble epileptic seizures or attacks of acute schizophrenia. Immediately after that, having retired, the shaman proceeds to perform a magical ritual, which enables his soul to go to another world.
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Charles Leadbeater divides astral travel techniques into sensitive and neuroleptic. When using a sensitive technique, the shaman enters himself into a trance (a state that is a prerequisite for visiting the subtle world) through certain rhythmic formulas performed on a ritual tambourine or drum that accompany his monotonous dance. In the neuroleptic technique, certain types of drugs of plant or animal origin are used, giving the effect of "expanding consciousness".
In the late 90s of the XX century, the Krasnoyarsk parapsychologist Georgy Matusov described another type of shamanic technique, which he called "the power of the place." In this case, the shaman goes to a place with a strong energy-informational field. For uninitiated people, such places usually cause painful physical or mental reactions. It is from there, without any additional influences, that the shaman sets out on his fascinating journeys.
Modern travelers
In the last century, sensitives, esotericists and parapsychologists have put a lot of effort into the development of theories of astral travel and their practical application. The works of M. Theon were devoted to this problem. A. Bailey, P. Yogananda, S. Aurobindo, M. Alfassa and M. Rainbow. In the mid-1970s, scientists at the Stanford Research Institute even introduced a special scientific term "remote vision", which characterized the ability of human consciousness (or rather, part of it) to go to a specific place, receive certain information, and then return back. A couple of decades later, Russian and Western researchers began to actively use more precise terms: "out-of-body experience" and "lucid dreaming."
In 2001, after a clinical death, the Tomsk engineer Boris Tkachev (surname has been changed) became closely interested in the phenomenon of astral travel. Having studied in detail a number of techniques and after consulting with practicing psychologists, Tkachev discovered the only one that he uses to this day. "Astral stalker", as Boris jokingly calls himself, begins preparations for a trip to the Subtle World in three days. During this period, he refuses alcohol and tobacco, eats only plant foods and tries to sleep no more than four hours a day. In the evening on a certain day, he lays down on a flat warm surface, turns on meditative music, closes his eyes and, mentally repeating verbal formulas-attitudes, begins to peer into the black space in front of closed eyelids.
According to Tkachev, the most important thing in the first minutes of such a meditation is the ability not to go into the world of dreams, which are usually followed by sleep. If one manages to keep consciousness on the shaky border of wakefulness, then already at about the seventh minute of such exercises, the dark space in front of closed eyes begins to fill with light. The experimenter feels a sudden lightness in the whole body and begins to clearly see the space around him, as well as by an effort of will to move the consciousness outside the body at any distance.
Lurking dangers
According to Boris Tkachev, the most difficult thing during astral travel is not the act of moving consciousness in space itself, but the ability to avoid meeting the so-called hunters - creatures who usually appear to the traveler in the form of a person dressed in a black fluttering robe. Their task is to push the human soul from the astral plane to the physical. In this case, rather painful techniques are used, resembling the effect of an electric discharge.
According to a number of parapsychologists, "hunters" do not harm either the physical or the spiritual substance of a person. However, in the astral world there are a number of lower entities that, during an astral journey, like parasites, are capable of attaching themselves to the subtle body of a traveler and making their way to our material plane. Such parasitic entities, called larvae or phantoms, upon returning the consciousness of the astral traveler to the physical body, begin to absorb its energy, causing physical ailments or mental disorders.
Another danger lies in the fact that at the time when a person's soul travels in the subtle world, one of the dark essences of the lower plane can settle into its empty physical shell, or, even worse, the restless soul of a suicide or a criminal who has departed to another world without due church rituals. In this case, it is sometimes said that a person has been changed - his habits, character and inclinations change so dramatically. This can become dangerous to others.
Among the possible troubles that lovers of astral travel may encounter is the danger of losing a large amount of energy, which is fraught with chronic lethargy and apathy. Astral stalkers can lose track of time while in the subtle world - this is sometimes expressed in such a mysterious phenomenon as lethargic sleep. There is a danger even of getting lost and forever losing the opportunity to return to your physical body.
The Church has never approved of such experiments. And today Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim priests believe that, carried away by such travels, a person betrays himself into the hands of the devil, thereby dooming his immortal soul to eternal hellish torments.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №42. Author: Sergey Kozhushko