Out-of-Body Experiences
All my free time I devoted to the study of the occult and my research. There was no shortage of recordings now, and I have a lot of material at my disposal - both successful Astral projections and trance experiences that ended before the split could occur.
• Autumn - Southampton: After lunch, with the intention of experimenting, I lay down on my bed and achieved a transition into the Trance State. Then I started to leave the body, experienced a split in consciousness, which continued until the time when I left home (in the astral body); passing through the closed doors and reaching the street, I no longer felt my body lying on the bed. I walked about a hundred yards, apparently unnoticed by any of the few people who were there, when, unexpectedly, some rather strong current caught me and carried me away at great speed. I was able to stop in a beautiful but unfamiliar territory. Probably, there was a school picnic there, as there were many children dressed in white playing games and drinking tea under the trees. There were also several adults there, in particular, I noticed one older gypsy.
Bluish smoke rose from the fire, and a beautiful amber sunset cast soft golden rays over the peaceful sight. I continued on my way until I came to some red brick houses, which probably limited the public area in this direction. The front door of the neighboring house was ajar, so I walked in, curious to see if the inhabitants would detect my intrusion. At the end of the hallway there was a staircase covered with an expensive carpet. I climbed on it.
Seeing the ajar doors on the first landing, I entered and found myself in a tastefully furnished room. A young lady, in crimson velvet robes, stood with her back to me and tied her hair, looking in the mirror. Through the window near the dressing table, I could see the glowing amber sky, and her luxurious chestnut curls gave off a reddish sheen in the rays of this amazing light. I noted that the bedspread was crumpled and there was water in the sink above the sink. “Well, lady,” I thought, “you slept too long, and now you are putting yourself in order for tea, but is it really lunch now?”
I was not averse to getting into her personal affairs, since she probably did not have an existence outside my mind, and from previous experience I knew that the likelihood of being noticed is very small. It so happened that I was just behind her and looked over her shoulder in the mirror. I wondered if I could see my face in the mirror. I stood so close to her that I could smell the pleasant scent that emanated from her hair, or perhaps from the soap she had just used. In the mirror I could see her face - it was very beautiful, it seems, with gray eyes - but mine was not visible.
Okay, I thought, you definitely can't see me. Can you feel it?"
And I put my hand on her shoulder. I clearly felt the tenderness of her velvet dress, and then she twitched violently - so violently that I, in turn, twitched too. Instantly my body began to pull me back and I woke up, immediately in a normal state, without a trance or feeling of numbness. No serious consequences. The western sky was blue when I went to bed, but after the trance ended, I saw that it was actually as beautiful amber in color as in my out-of-body experience.
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If we assume that prolonging the experience is the first thing, then the thought of touching the lady was definitely wrong. It often turned out that although I could be visible to people we meet in dreams, they quickly react only to touch. Moreover, if the shock from this touch is quite strong, my body calls me back, possibly due to the effect of recoil (repercussion).
• December 14 - Southampton: I was walking down some side streets in an area that was still an unexplored part of the vast London of Dreams, and I knew I was dreaming. I was on the street alone, although the sun was shining brightly in the cloudless sky. I found myself in a very large area; in front of me was a huge building - a miracle of architectural thought. Roughly speaking, the building was in the Gothic style, with many laces and grooves, countless small windows and countless niches with statues. Everything shone with an indescribable range of colors, consisting of thousands of subtle shadows and shades, in the rays of wonderful light.
This building was not just brick and stone, it seemed, it was a living being, with an immortal soul, and for me, it had all the attractiveness of a beloved woman. This building alone could have inspired the writing of a novel that could be called "The Spire of Glory," borrowing the title from Browning. On a massive pedestal beside him stood a gray, dilapidated statue (perhaps Queen Victoria), but this structure, although 50-60 feet high, seemed disproportionately small - just a dwarf - next to the incredible grandeur of this huge structure.
The statue looked very old. Since I really wanted to get to the top of this beautiful structure, I decided to take off, and began to make light rowing movements, which I considered necessary at that time, while I leaned back, as is done when rowing in a boat. At first I ascended slowly, but then, it seems, I was captured by some strong current and began to ascend at great speed and at an angle to the horizon. I remember flying pretty close to the face of the statue - spoiled by the weather, it looked disgusting and monstrous, as if it had been eaten away by some terrible disease; crumbling nostrils made the nose oddly sharp; as I climbed higher and higher, the small images in the niches suddenly became huge. Then, when I, in my diagonal movement, it seems, should have collided with a building, my body called me back,and I woke up. The fascination with this experience lasted most of the day.
Note: The above out-of-body travel took place at some level of the astral plane. In the course of my various investigations of this plane, I have found that the astral copy of the city, if any, appears to be much larger than the terrestrial one, since in addition to its present structures and features it is possible to find buildings, monuments, etc. not existing in the present on earth. Some of them probably existed in the past, while others, I tend to think so, are very powerful thought-forms, or perhaps astral heralds of future earthly buildings.
To the uninitiated, this may sound extremely ridiculous, but you should look at it from the other side: each undertaking has its own horoscope, which is the key to the occult forces that underlie its conception. If you can connect to the psychic imprint of the forces running, say, the technical college of city X, you can see new buildings occupied by this institution, for example, in a few decades - that's what psychometrics is.
Has it not been said for a long time that the Past, Present and Future are in fact one? The astral plane is an endless network of psychic imprints, and city X, as a whole, also has its own horoscope. I don't want to develop this topic. To an astral explorer, city X will seem at the same time both familiar and strange, an unusual mixture of familiar and unfamiliar, old-fashioned and new, and the general impression will be that the astral city X is much larger than the earthly one. As his experience grows, the researcher, making his nth journey to the astral city X, will continue to find the same things (non-existent on the earthly plane) that puzzled him in his first adventure.
• July - Southampton: At 9 am I went to bed with the intention of doing the dream travel experiment. The events took place in this way: I fell asleep and I dreamed that I woke up; this False Awakening was followed by a real awakening.
I dozed off again, this time I was able to enter the correct trance state, so I was absolutely aware of my position. Then I left the body (but could not see it on the bed) and walked to the door, crossing the room. The bifurcation of consciousness manifested itself quite strongly: I could feel myself lying on the bed and standing at the door at the same time. I headed into the hallway, then opened the front door and slammed it (of course, it was not a real physical door).
At this time, the duality of consciousness ceased, and I could no longer feel my body on the bed. With the intention of visiting some of my friends living nearby, I walked about a hundred yards up Foundry Lane to Shirley Avenue. I walked past a girl who didn't see me. But before I could get to Avenue, a force grabbed me and carried me away at great speed; in the end, I ended up in some strange town.
Unseen, I walked along the noisy streets, with curiosity observing unfamiliar buildings and people who did not pay any attention to me. In particular, I remembered one flower bed in front of the house, on which a miniature weather vane was located. I crossed a very dirty railway bridge. The green locomotives were shining in the rays of the bright sun, and I noticed how beautiful the puffs of smoke emanating from their chimneys were, puffs of pearl color against the azure sky. So I walked about a quarter of a mile, then I felt my legs begin to fill with weight. They got harder and harder. The body was struggling hard - a body lying in bed, maybe miles away. In the end, I could no longer withstand this call. It was like a stretched elastic cord connecting my two bodies suddenly came into action and brought me under its control. I flew back like a bullet at an incredible speed, entering my body so hard that the trance ended instantly and I woke up.
I fell asleep again, and I had several ordinary and uninteresting dreams in which I did not achieve awareness. Once again I woke up.
Again I entered the characteristic Trance State, fully aware that I was in it. I left my body in the same way as before and went out into the garden. Then I wanted to make my first attempt at "skrying" or "climbing through plans." So, I straightened, concentrating all my willpower in one effort - to rise. The result was truly amazing. Suddenly the ground went out from under my feet - it seemed to me, because of the suddenness and speed of my ascent. I looked down at my house, which was now no more than a box of matches; the streets were like thin lines separating houses.
I noticed that I was going downhill. With an effort of will, I aligned the direction of movement and continued to climb straight up. Soon, the earth disappeared behind white clouds. I climbed further and higher, with an ever increasing speed. I felt incredible loneliness. Up, up, up. My consciousness was perfect, except for one thing - I lost the sense of time. Whether I was out of my body for hours or even days - I could no longer understand this. The thought of premature burial began to haunt me. Up, up, up. Loneliness became frightening, only those who experienced it can understand how I felt.
The blueness of the sky was slowly fading away, but the brightness of the light did not noticeably decrease, at least. Now I saw one of the most awe-inspiring phenomena: from the zenith came a series of shimmering, bluish concentric circles of light, spreading out in huge ripples - like when to throw a stone into a pond. This sight actually scared me, but I did not lose my composure. Realizing that I had almost reached the limit of my strength, I decided to go down. Immediately, the opposite process began: the sky became blue again, through the curly veil of clouds the earth began to be seen, bringing me closer to the meeting. I went into the house and gently entered my body. Then I experienced a cataleptic attack, and it seemed to me that my wife was hugging me, desperately trying to bring me back to life. In fact, she was not at home.
I came out of the trance without much difficulty and got out of bed. It was noon, so the whole experiment lasted three hours. I didn't feel bad. Rather, I experienced an unusual feeling of bodily freshness and elation that continued throughout the day. The sun actually shone brightly throughout the experiment, and so did my out-of-body experiences.
Note: Upward travel, or skrying, should not be confused with the awkward ascent attempts I make in some lucid dreaming. In these latter, take-off was done by repulsive or rowing movements of the arms, with the body tilting backward as when rowing in a boat. In these cases, the attainable height was from 50 to hundreds of feet, and then the attraction of my physical body or some force like attraction forced me to sink.
When I reached the maximum height, I could turn around to face the ground below me, and then continue to row or use sheer willpower if conditions were favorable. In fact, I thought that the real driving force lies in the will alone, and the movements of the arms and legs only help concentration and it is possible to do without them if you fully realize your position. But skrying, it is necessary to carry out a huge effort of will alone, and the result obtained is completely different.
While trying to take off in a dream is quite harmless, real skrying, such as I did in the experiment described above, is, in my opinion, a rather dangerous action and should not be taken lightly.
Skrying is similar to sliding, but in a vertical direction. There is no downward pull like gravity, but only the call of the body. It is carried out by purely mental effort, with absolutely relaxed hands, and a characteristic feature, a tremendous speed of ascent. I was told that using this method it is possible to travel to other planets, but this is extremely dangerous for a person who is not under the guidance of an Adept. In subsequent skrying, I did not fly further than this first experiment. I tried to convince myself that a married man needs to exercise discretion when doing such research, but in reality I was simply afraid.
O. Fox