Otherwhere: A Field Guide to Nonphysical Reality for the Out-Of-Body Traveler by Kurt Leland

Kurt Leland’s Otherwhere is the first out-of-body memoir/guide (that I’ve read, so far) that discusses the importance of the individual’s consciousness in how the inner worlds are perceived.

It’s not a new idea, being repackaged and sold throughout time, lately in the New Age/New Thought movement, that one’s beliefs shape one’s reality. But, as Kurt Leland points out in other dimensions where thoughts literally are that reality, this individual viewpoint takes creation to a whole different level.

He suggests that what Robert Munroe, Jurgen Ziewe, and so many other consciousness explorers experience when they are in their various out-of-body states is archetypical energy, though he doesn’t use that terminology. Leland calls the perception of this energy: one’s own personal translation tables.

Rather than taking the figures that one encounters at face value or judging them based on ingrained religious beliefs, Leland encourages the Otherwhere visitors to examine what the figure does. It’s very similar to what dream interpreters teach about how to understand your dreams.

Like me, Leland believes that anyone can have out-of-body experiences. He has this to say about why more people don’t: “It’s my firm belief that what prevents people from having out-of-body experiences and exploring nonphysical reality on their own is fear of the unknown. In my experience, the best way to overcome fear of the unknown is to familiarize oneself with the personal accounts of people who have overcome that fear themselves. I believe that personal accounts of out-of-body experiences are far superior to how-to manuals in stimulating people to venture into the unknown.” Preface, xii

He goes on to say: “In my opinion, our fear of the unknown is really just anxiety about becoming unlovable as a result of having had unfamiliar experiences and being changed by them. If we attempt to explore nonphysical reality and succeed, we’re afraid that we’ll be rejected, disbelieved, or thought to be crazy.” pg 27. Time to get over that. Don’t you think? 🙂

Lelend uses lucid dreaming as his method of exploring other worlds (Otherwhere). I’ve explored a few books about lucid dreaming one of which you can read here. If you are interested in my explorations into nonphysical reality, you can read those here.

I found this episode of a woman that he encountered there to be very illuminating. In this passage, he is talking to his Otherwhere instructors about her: (the Instructor saying) “As you can see, my colleague and I intended every image in the dream to contribute in some way to the lesson we wanted you to learn.” (Leland asks) “What about the woman reading the book?” “As you recall, she was facing the door into Otherwhere. There are many people in the world who have an interest in exploring psychic phenomena. They love to read about other people’s adventures in altered states of consciousness. But if a door that would allow them to undertake such explorations on their own were to open, they would make up excuses not to go through. The most common one is that they don’t have time.” pg 99

Let’s not be that woman.

The importance of physical life- in this excerpt, Leland is listening to an instructor in Otherwhere: “While it’s true that I no longer feel regret about anything I’ve experienced during previous lifetimes on Earth, I wouldn’t say that I’m grateful to be among the dead. That would imply that life over here, in Otherwhere, has a greater value than life on Earth. From our perspective, that isn’t true. There are things that can be learned only here and not there. But there are also things that can be learned only on Earth. Learning is all that matters, and no lesson is more or less valuable than any other. pg 152

Keep on learning, check.

In this passage, Leland examines the availability of teachings on other dimensions: “There are many maps of nonphysical reality… scattered throughout the history of your art and literature. These can provide useful translation tables for orientation within nonphysical reality. Why should every individual who explores nonphysical reality start from scratch?” pg 158

Why indeed… with the modern age and the easy availability of formerly difficult-to-discover information through the internet and public libraries, one can stand on the shoulders of giants to begin your own personal studies.

Everyone is an artist: “Every human being is immensely creative. But unless that creativity is channeled into some art or craft, it will be used instead to generate illusion. It could be said, therefore, that every human being is an artist, at least in potential. Developing this creativity is an essential part of every person’s life purpose, even if it isn’t the main focus of one’s career.” pg 238.

I believe that too. I’ve read a bunch of books about creativity, one of which you can explore here.

“How you choose to represent to yourself the ways of gaining access to any zone of Otherwhere is up to you. The validity of such images lies in their usefulness, not in some kind of absolute truth. The only important thing is that you give yourself some way of identifying the zone into which you’ve traveled, so that you can return on future occasions. Whether this manner of identification is the name of a subway line or station, or the number on a gate in an alley, is your choice. The identifying function of such names or numbers is all that matters.” pg 262

Or, like in my own personal explorations, tarot cards.

Leland finishes his account with a modern version of Dante’s Paradiso in which, he traveled to Otherwhere and discovered different areas within that place where the dead came to terms with the life they had just completed. Absolutely fascinating stuff.

Then he talks about ways to remove your consciousness from the ordinary to experience what he and others (and me!) have experienced- whether that be through meditation, lucid dreaming, shamanic drumming, etc, and, the librarian in me loved this part, gives book lists for learning each type of technique. He saves consciousness explorers a lot of time, which is a kind thing to do.

I highly recommend Otherwhere for folks beginning their consciousness exploration or the experienced traveler. It is a how-to guide, a journal, and an encouraging, exploratory ramble through Otherwhere, a place where anyone can go, if they only set their mind and heart on doing so.

Thanks for reading!

Psychic Dreamwalking: Explorations at the Edge of Self by Michelle Belanger

Psychic Dreamwalking has some instruction on lucid dreaming, but it is interspersed with a lot of personal background information and some psychic vampire stuff. That didn’t bother me, even though it isn’t my particular realm of study. I’ve found that the mind is a very powerful tool for interpreting reality and people seem to believe all sorts of things that I find to not be compatible with my life experience. But, if that kind of thing annoys you, just stop reading Psychic Dreamwalking before Chapter 9 and you’ll avoid most of it.

I rather liked author Michelle Belanger’s opening dedication, “Prayer of the Dreaming”: “I commit myself to you, Lord Morpheus! Open wide the Gates of Dream. Grant me safe passage in your realm So I may return with tales to tell. -from the Introduction. She mentions that this prayer is based on The Dream King from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. I haven’t read that comic yet, but it has a great reputation. I’ll have to get to it sometime.

What is dreamwalking anyway?: “Dreamwalking is the art of sending forth a part of the self in order to make contact with others through the medium of dreams. Anyone can learn how to dreamwalk, and, as we explore the concept throughout this book, you will find that most people already do. … The lack of available information on dreamwalking exists in part because there is no consistent nomenclature for the technique. There are accounts of dreamwalking mixed in with experiments in astral projection, dream telepathy, and lucid dreaming, but they are rarely identified as such.” pg 1

It is so difficult in consciousness experimentation to come up with a vocabulary to discuss not only your experiences but to be able to communicate something very personal and individual with someone else who may have had completely different experiences and who are approaching the same topic from a different background. The name of the game in this book is “dreamwalking” which I find to be a rather poetic way to describe a universal phenomenon.

“But this the fundamental premise of dreamwalking: on some level, the dreamspace is real. It is not real in the sense that the physical world it (sic) real, but it is certainly as real as the astral planes described by writers like Madame Blavatsky and Dion Fortune. Like the astral planes, the dreamspace is a subjective reality. As much as it is a place we can go to, it is also a place that we shape with out (sic) hopes, desires, and fears.” pg 25

I think this is a part of the human experience that deserves a far broader investigation than experts and laypersons have given it so far. But there’s always time to get started! Who’s with me?

Belanger talks about Carl Jung a lot in this book. I wonder what he would think about dreamwalking…: “Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, a layer of myth and symbol deep within each of our minds that connects all of us in mysterious ways, hearkens back to the ancient notions that the dreamspace is a realm unto itself, a hazy place of twilight where men can sometimes meet with gods.” pg 36

It reminds me a great deal of the Dreamtime of the First Nations of Australia. This is not a new concept but one which, as I said before, deserves more experimental research than it has yet received.

The main technique that Belanger uses to access this world within dreams is one that I am very familiar with, namely building a gate: “The Gates of Dream are an archetypal image that I return to again and again in this book. Archetypes and symbols have some objective reality within the realm of dreams, and the Gates of Dream represent the point of passage from your personal dreams to the wider territory of the dreamspace. You can harness this archetypal image in your dream haven, creating a crossing-over point that can later serve as a focus for when you seek to dreamwalk.” pg 51

If you’d like to learn about my experiences with walking through gates, I invite you to explore my blog: https://thelightcongress.com/

Belanger touches a bit on shamanic practices, but not in depth: The shamanic dreamtime, as a realm of myths and images that is peopled by animal totems and celestial teachers, can very easily be equated to Jung’s collective unconscious, the psychological repository of humanity’s collective myths, dreams, and symbols. Many of the totems and other mythic figures encountered in the shamanic realms are Jungian archetypes transported from their existence as simple concepts to vivid, potent entities. … There is a kind of travel that occurs in dreamwalking, but it is, at first, an inward journey. This inward journey, however, can lead the dreamwalker elsewhere. Traveling within can sometimes lead you out. pg 67

I’ve explored a few books about shamanism. You can read those reviews here:

The Goddess and the Shaman: The Art & Science of Magical Healing by J.A. Kent

Spirit Hacking: Shamanic Keys to Reclaim Your Personal Power, Transform Yourself, and Light Up the World by Shaman Durek

The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner

In this passage, Belanger discusses the importance of lucid dreaming in various religious traditions: “From the monks of Buddhist Tibet to the 12th century Spanish Sufi Ibn El-Arabi, mystics the world over have proclaimed the benefits of lucid dreaming. For religious thinkers, lucid dreaming has long been seen as a way to illuminate both the nature of the Self and the nature of reality. Tibetan Buddhists were pursuing lucid dreams as early as the eighth century C.E. According to their philosophy, the mastery of lucid dreams was a necessary step in the pursuit of enlightenment. The ability to recognize the illusory nature of the dreamstate directly correlated to the ability to recognize the illusory nature of all things. pg 139 Fascinating in how the study of dreams can be applied to other areas of your life!

Belanger captured my feelings about psychic vampires very well in this passage: “Ultimately, you and you alone can judge the validity of your experiences. You should never surrender this right, but you should also not use it as an excuse to indulge in wish fulfillment. Make a thorough investigation of every experience and decide for yourself. pg 181. Cura te ipsum.

Though I feel that Psychic Dreamwalking contained a lot of superfluous information, there are some solid dreamwalking techniques in here. I think that the main hurdle to this practice is simply becoming lucid while dreaming in the first place. So, for now, I’ll stick with going into trance. But, for those who already have the ability to lucid dream, this may be something that you’ll want to investigate. Pick up Otherwhere by Kurt Leland for a first person account of dreamwalking or Multidimensional Man by Jurgen Ziewe.

Thanks for reading!

Trance-Portation Learning to Navigate the Inner World by Diana L. Paxson

“The goal of this book is to teach skills that underlie the spiritual practices of a variety of traditions, from the ceremonial to the shamanic. But acquiring the ‘gifts of the spirit’ cannot be an end in itself. They have to be used.” pgs xv-xvi

Author Diana Paxson pulls from a variety of spiritual traditions in an effort to teach readers the basics of going into trance.

The first few chapters are about how to prepare yourself, set up cues for trance work, and to do the exercises “safely” which include setting up wards and how to come back out of trance.

“All of the senses can provide cues for psychic or magical work. By repetition, we condition ourselves to move into a particular state when we experience a specific stimulus.” pg 64

The next chapters delve into what practitioners may find once they’re in trance and how to navigate this other state of consciousness. This includes how one might find guides, how to behave, and how to deal with the various entities that may be encountered.

The final parts of the book tackle the difficult topic of spiritual emergencies and give some suggestions for group trance work.

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

Overall, this book covers a wide variety of topics that spiritual practitioners may need when they begin the practice of going into trance. In that way, it could be an invaluable addition to your library.

On the other hand, I didn’t agree with all of the advice given. It didn’t make sense with my experience of the trance work I’ve completed and I think it might scare beginners away.

The particular advice that I’m referring to is the idea that if you come out of trance too fast that you might leave parts of your soul behind, which you will then need to retrieve before you are able to feel like yourself again.

I understand, from the book, that soul retrieval is a common enough shamanic practice. Still, I feel like we are doing beginners a disservice to plant in their minds the idea that this is something that could happen.

Why not instead say it is best to come out of trance slowly and leave it at that? Anyone who falls asleep knows that it is more pleasant to wake up slowly than to be shaken to consciousness. Do we leave portions of ourselves behind when we’re jolted awake by an alarm clock? I say no.

Photo by Aphiwat chuangchoem on Pexels.com

In addition, when Paxson talks about the kinds of entities one may encounter in trance, including animal guides or even gods, she gives them all of the foibles that go along with being a part of the human race. In the section about developing a relationship with a god or goddess, she talks about how practitioners may have to deal with divine jealousy.

I think it might be better to say, you bring your entire self with you when you go into trance. Your strengths and failings are on full display in your interactions with what or who you find there. Again, this avoids planting any negative expectations for practitioners while still providing ample warning.

Recommended with reservations for spiritual seekers who are looking to add trance work to their repertoire.

The Sidhe: Wisdom from the Celtic Otherworldby John Matthews

“I knew then that something was going to happen in Ireland. I had no idea then just what an enormous and irrevocable change it was going to make to my life.” pg 5, ebook

John Matthews received a call from a friend whose occupation is archaeology. The friend showed John into a barrow where he first saw the glyph that is on the cover of this book.

John claims that through meditation upon the glyph, he communicated with other beings whom he believes are ‘the Sidhe.’

“To truly know a thing is to become one with it. Just as to become one with it is to truly know it.” pg 27, ebook

He shares the communications that he had through the glyph throughout the text. At the end, he includes six exercises that the beings gave him and encourages readers to try the practices for themselves.

Readers could potentially experience the connection John felt.

“Drawn by this feeling, I lay down beneath the branches of the old oak, and, as I had done countless times before, stared up through the branches at the patches of blue sky that showed through. As I did so a sense of stillness and peace descended upon me.” pg 36, ebook

The Sidhe: Wisdom from the Celtic Otherworld reminded me of the multiple works of Abraham Hicks or Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul. There’s probably a reason for that.

It could be that the channelers are tapping into a similar place. In this book, John calls it the “great net” of creation. I’ve heard it called, “Indra’s net,” among other names in other sources.

Whatever it may be, I find it interesting that the communications received are similar enough to draw comparisons.

“Among the greatest gifts we have observed in your race is the desire to know and to explore. This hunger has propelled you far along the path of the day and the path of the night. Hence, your journey is indeed one of exploration, not only in time and space, but in the dimensions of Spirit.”

Of course, I had to try John’s method for myself. I’m always so curious about these kind of things.

Unfortunately, I fell asleep rather than having a memorable experience. I expect the fault was on my side, but perhaps I experienced something in my sleep- I just failed to remember it.

I do plan to give the meditation a try again in the future, when I’m not so sleepy.

I was fascinated with the way the glyph looks like a treble clef with multiple circles. When John began to describe the Sidhe’s connection to music, I felt that comparison made sense.

“Much of our time is spent in the making of music- though for us it is more serious than a pleasant pastime, since it is part of our creative process in more than an abstract fashion.” pg 69

Playing music is one of the few activities that put me into a flow state. Perhaps I should try meditating that way.

Anyway, I recommend this book for the curious or spiritual seekers. If you try the exercises within, please do share your results. Maybe some day, the world will have more answers than questions about these ineffable things.

Or, maybe, we’ll open yet another door for endless discoveries. Either way, I’ll be interested to see what comes next.

Thanks for reading!

Journeys Out of the Body: The Classic Work on Out-of-Body Experience by Robert A. Monroe

A ground breaking work into the mystery that is the out-of-body experience by a leading researcher in the field.

Ultimately, Journeys Out of the Body left me with more questions than answers, but, for the most part, I enjoyed the ride.

Charles Tart’s introduction is excellent: “… OOBE’s are a universal human experience, not in the sense that they happen to large numbers of people, but in that they have happened all through recorded history, and there are marked similarities in the experience among people who are otherwise extremely different in terms of cultural background. One can find reports of OOBEs by housewives in Kansas which closely resemble accounts of OOBEs from ancient Egyptian or oriental sources.” pg 8.

That statement reminded me of the near death experiences described in Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences: How Understanding NDEs Can Help Us Live More Fully by Penny Sartori. OOBEs like NDEs are a human experience rather than a cultural one.

Munroe points out a curious habit of society that I’ve noticed:“Many (in spiritual and occult circles) have deep professional jealousy for each other, and often are inclined to be suspicious of techniques and theories propounded outside their particular activity. They may even subtly deride or look with tolerant, superior amusement at results unrelated to their specialty.“ pg 37.

Why can’t we all just get along? I bet we’d learn more that way.

Munroe’s thoughts on the “natural” home for what he calls the “second body”, astral body, or body of light: “The Second Body is basically not of this physical world. To apply it to visits to George’s house or other physical destinations is like asking a diver to swim down to the ocean bed without scuba gear or pressure suit. He can do it, but not for long, and not too many times.” pg 75-76.

That was why Munroe believes that out of body experiences are so hard to substantiate. When explorers are looking for evidence from the physical world, it isn’t the natural place for that consciousness to be.

Munroe talks about going to an alternate dimension in his explorations. He quotes a college professor about the possibility of this: “Dr. Leon M. Lederman, professor of physics at Columbia University, has stated: “Basic physics is completely consistent with the cosmological conception of a literal antiworld of stars and planets composed of atoms of antimatter, which is to say negative nuclei surrounded by positive electrons. We can now entertain the intriguing idea that these antiworlds are populated by antipeople, who antiscientists are perhaps even now excited by the discovery of matter.” pg 100

I think that would make a great science fiction novel. Has anybody written anything like that?

I had imagined that learning about out of body experiences would be empowering and uplifting but parts of Munroe’s account didn’t really leave me feeling that way.

Take this journal entry in which he describes aliens and the loss of his belief system: “Then they seemed to soar up into the sky, while I called after them, pleading… By this time, it was getting light, and I sat down and cried, great deep sobs as I have never cried before, because then I knew without any qualification or future hope of change that the God of my childhood, of the churches, of religion throughout the world was not as we worshiped him to be- that for the rest of my life, I would “suffer” the loss of this illusion. Are we, then, just leftover laboratory animals? Or perhaps the experiment is still “in process.” pg 262.

Very, very bleak and, it just didn’t feel right to me. However, Munroe believes this is true and I felt very sad for him.

If you are interested in more information about OBEs, you may want to read Soul Traveler: A Guide to Out-of-Body Experiences and the Wonders Beyond by Albert Taylor or Multidimensional Man by Jurgen Ziewe.

If you want more one-on-one experiences with aliens, try The Key: A True Encounter by Whitley Shrieber.

Thanks for reading!

Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences: How Understanding NDEs Can Help Us Live More Fully by Penny Sartori

An extraordinary book by Penny Sartori who was a nurse, now doctor, and worked for years in the NHS.

She realized that with end life issues, there are many categories of experiences that are not discussed in medical educations but that happen often enough to be tacitly understood by practicing medical staff. Dr. Sartori compiled this book with the aim of helping other medical professionals understand near-death experiences and their potential effects on recovering patients.

Refreshingly, Dr. Sartori writes simply enough for a lay-person (like me) to completely understand the text and I found first-hand account after account fascinating, uplifting, and educational.

I’ve read about many near-death experiences and I’ve always gotten the feeling that there was something more there. As if, in reading the account, I was viewing a light behind a veil. Dr. Sartori calls this, “Ineffability.” “Ineffability: When people try to make sense of the (near-death) experience or try to verbalize it they find that words fail them. They have experienced something with which they have nothing to compare, and to try to find words to describe it is impossible.” pg 9

It’s nice to be able to put a word to that feeling.

At the end of the chapter about international near-death experiences, she has this to say: “It is evident that NDEs are worldwide phenomena and it has therefore been suggested that they are merely the effects of a dying brain. However, some cultures report components that are not present in other cultures, which would rule out materialist explanations. As some components are interpreted according to culture then it is reasonable to construe that the components may be interpreted symbolically through each individual’s cultural filter. This could suggest an underlying collective consciousness, as discussed by Carl Jung.” pg 83.

Most of the books I’ve read on this topic have had little to say about the commonality of NDEs among the world’s population. This is a good introduction to it.

About the power of love: “Hospice and palliative-care consultant Dr. John Lerma has reported that 70 to 80 percent of his patients waited for loved ones to leave the room before dying. He also remarked that he had witnessed patients who had been certified dead return to life as the pain of their loved ones had pulled them back from a place of peace and love.” pg 103 Mind blown.

Love literally brought people back from the dead.

About the science of spirituality and how that relates to religious texts: “Texts such as the Books of the Dead have many similarities to NDEs. For many thousands of years these have been reduced to myths but now they appear to be ‘maps of the inner territories of the psyche encountered in profound non-ordinary states of consciousness’. Maybe this is what is needed to reintegrate our spiritual roots with our huge advances in technology.“pg 191 I think that this may be true too.

And finally: “One thing I’ve come to realize over the past few years is that heaven is not a location – it is a state of mind and is within us all. We just have to go within and find it.” pg 191 Absolutely, Dr. Sartori.

If you enjoyed The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences, I would suggest reading, The Map of Heaven by Eben Alexander. You may also enjoy Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives by Michael Newton- a hypnotherapist explores between life/past life consciousness with his patients to heal current issues.

Also, if you want to explore the idea that heaven is inside of us, you may want to check out What if This is Heaven by Anita Moorjani.

Thanks for reading!

A Brief Tour of High Consciousness: A Cosmic Book on the Mechanics of Creation by Itzhak Bentov

If you’ve been following this blog for awhile, you know now that I really enjoy “fringe” non-fiction that chronicles out of body experiences and remote reviewing. This is another of those books.

If you’re not into those topics, my apologies in advance. 🙂

A lighthearted yet profound guide to the realms of higher consciousness and the ultimate nature of reality.
Goodreads

My research into consciousness exploration continues with A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness by Itzhak Bentov.

Having predominantly read books like this by artists (Jurgen Ziewe and Kurt Leland come to mind), it was refreshing to have a first person narrative by an engineer. Itzhak’s lens of perception is so different than my own- I loved it.

There is a part towards the end, What is a Hologram, and a chapter by another author, Essay on Cosmology by Edward Apgar, that I didn’t resonate with at all. But, perhaps for the most scientifically-minded, those parts will be your favorite.

Hologram image from nationaldefensemagazine.org

Itzhak has simplistic doodles scattered throughout the text which brings a “Randall Munroe” feel to the book- the use of simple pictures to illustrate complex and abstract ideas. This author definitely feels to me as if he was a bit ahead of his time in both his presentation and materials.

Bentov doodle from ritamarrpositivechange.wordpress.com

Itzhak’s explanation of “lens of consciousness”: “As consciousness evolves and information starts pouring in, the information is couched in a language best understandable to the person involved. For instance, a poet will be shown the nature of Creation in poetic images, an artist in visual symbols, and a mathematician in abstract equations; a nuts-and-bolts fellow like myself will have it shown to him as structure.” pg 5

I was reminded of Robert Monroe’s Journeys Out of the Body in which he puts emphasis on recording and comparing out-of-body experiences for consistency and real world applications to bring legitimacy to the practice.

I’ve heard that we’re all made of star dust and I really liked Itzhak’s description of it in this passage: “Stars collect into clusters or galaxies, and as they die, they explode and create cosmic dust, which again condenses into new stars and planets. Everything in the entire universe, including our bodies, is made of one cosmic substance. We contain atoms from the most distant galaxies and are thus connected to the whole universe.” pg 13

Stars in the sky from wikipedia.org

Everything is vibration: “In short, consciousness in a vibratory state manifests itself as our familiar matter, from which the different forms that we see around us are made. The table, the flowers, the scent of the flowers, and our bodies are all made of rapidly vibrating consciousness.” pg 20 Wild!

A discussion of how to interact with devas (an ant deva to be precise, which is kind of silly, I realize), which Itzhak describes as “The name given to a being that is the rudimentary consciousness of any structure”: “To negotiate with her, the currency of exchange is love. Just send the ant deva a lot of love, which will stimulate her evolution. Even ant devas need love, in order eventually to know their Creator.” pg 33

In my meditations, I’ve frequently experienced what Itzhak describes in this next passage. It was nice to finally have a reason why: (While in a meditative state) “Wiggle your body. This causes a disturbance, a vibration, to spread … (This is similar to a fly falling into a spider web. The vibration of the web signals the spider and it shows up to investigate its dinner.) The deva .. appears immediately, looking worried and saying something like “What do you want?” or “Who are you?” pg 35

I’ll close with this excerpt of Itzhak’s philosophy: “There is nothing absolute and final. If everything were iron-clad, all the rules absolute and everything structured so no paradox or irony existed, you couldn’t move. One could say that man sneaks through the crack where paradox exists.” pg 78

If you enjoyed this book, you may want to take a look at Otherwhere by Kurt Leland or Multidimensional Man by Jurgen Ziewe. If you liked the doodles of complex concepts and want more of that, try Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe.

Thanks for reading!

The Secret of the Soul: Using Out-of-Body Experiences to Understand Our True Nature by William Buhlman

The Secret of the Soul is a great title for beginners who are looking to understand this, sometimes confusing, other times frightening, skill that we all seem to possess — the ability to exit our bodies in a kind of vision or trance.

Some call this the “out of body experience” or OBE.

The first half of the book, Buhlman discusses OBEs, why they are important, and gives countless examples of actual OBEs that folks have had. The second part of the book gives concrete techniques and problem solving tips to assist readers in having their own OBEs.

One of my friends is a long distance runner who has had some OBEs during his ultra marathons. I thought of him in the section entitled “Combat and Trauma-Induced Experiences”: “It was while I was running in a marathon last year that I had a very strange experience. I was at about the eighteen-mile marker when I looked beside me and saw myself running. At first I thought it was someone who was my build and wearing the same shoes, but then I realized it was me!” pg 55

Buhlman has story after story like that.

If you’ve never had an out of body experience of your own, the sheer variety and number of people who have fills you with confidence that you can.

I also liked Chapter 4, “Transformational Experiences”: For thousands of years spiritual masters have taught that the act of withdrawing from the senses is essential in order to consciously experience our spiritual self. pg 61

And the testimony from that chapter: “This is bigger then anything I can imagine; how can I tell people without sounding like a nutcase? This changes everything I ever thought I knew or thought was true.” pg 68

That’s the thing about powerful transformational experiences. Until someone has one him or herself, there’s not really anyway to explain it.

Chapter 6, “Extraterrestrial Contact and Abduction,” was the first time that I’ve read about aliens alongside traditional OBEs. Buhlman writes: “After reading more than two hundred such letters (from his OBE survey), I noticed a startling similarity: The letters describing extraterrestrial contacts and abductions were almost identical to the thousands of letters I have received describing out of body experiences. In fact, I often could not distinguish between letters.” pg 89

In Chapter 7, A Brief History of Out-of-Body Experiences, the reader is given cultures from different time periods, all over the planet, that support and confirm the existence of out of body experiences.

These seem to suggest that OBEs are a “human” experience rather than a culturally specific one.

Take Emanuel Swedenborg’s words: “It has pleased the Lord to… open the interiors of my mind or spirit, whereby I have been permitted to be in the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world with people, and this now (has happened for) twenty-seven years.” pg 113

I was surprised at how many of the historical figures presented here as having OBEs were scientists… I guess in my mind I’ve always drawn a line between the artsy/mystic types and the scientists. Line erased. 🙂

I’ll conclude with a few statements from the Appendix of the book, which was compiled from Buhlman’s extensive survey of people who had had OBE’s: “Self-initiated out-of-body exploration is a direct and powerful method to experience our true spiritual essence. It is an effective method to accelerate our personal growth and evolution. … This is achieved by personal spiritual experience and exploration beyond the physical limits.” Appendix pg 253.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

If you’re looking for more books on the topic of out-of-body experiences, check out Otherwhere by Kurt Leland, Journeys Out of the Body by Robert Monroe, or Multidimensional Man by Jurgen Ziewe.

Thank you for reading!

Less Incomplete: A Guide to Experiencing the Human Condition Beyond the Physical Body by Sandie Gustus

Like Journeys Out of the Body by Robert Monroe, Less Incomplete is about out-of-body experiences and how to have them.

Unlike Monroe’s book, there’s less personal narrative in this one and more about ethics and practical exercises for the out-of-body state.

So, in that way, it wasn’t as fun to read, but for people who are just starting out, I could see this book being an excellent place to start. I had never heard of Dr. Vieira and his work with the IAC (International Academy of Consciousness), so now, I have another resource to investigate too. Hooray!

Sandie’s reasons for writing the book: “…Vieira’s own books are notoriously sophisticated, technical and intellectual in style… My endeavor, with this book, is to make his work available to a wider nonacademic audience by presenting it in a language and format that everyone can understand follow, without compromising the integrity of his ideas in any way.” pgs 14-15

I feel like she really succeeded at that.

A simple explanation of other dimensions: “… when thinking about where the extraphysical dimensions are, we can say that many of them coexist and share space with the physical dimension. They are all around us. They are right here, right now. This fact is much easier to understand when we remember that we are also sharing space with innumerable invisible artificial electromagnetic waves, such as those used to broadcast television and radio and to transmit data across mobile phone networks and between aircraft and military installations.” pg 39

Other dimensions sound so normal when she puts it that way.

Sandie stresses the importance of exploring consciousness for evolutionary reasons: “If we take into account the broader, more detailed picture of what it means to be a consciousness… it is clear that physical life, rather than being meaningless or arbitrary, provides us with a sophisticated, challenging environment that is rich in opportunities to better ourselves and to mature- in other words, to evolve.” pg 162

I think it’s fun too.

Consciousness exploration is a chance to evolve, certainly, but it’s also a way to play, explore, and simply exist in a way that is entirely different from regular reality. That’s my only criticism of this book, I feel like it takes itself too seriously at times.

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Pexels.com

I was having trouble fitting my visions/meditations into the paradigm provided by this book until the chapter on Lucid Projection Techniques, section Projection through the Mental Body Technique: “Targets for a projection in the mental body are notional concepts that are outside the boundaries of ordinary life. The point of them is to break out of the boundaries of what’s known. The experience is epitomized by having an epiphany- suddenly you consider the concept of infinity or spirituality or oneness and you have an expansion of consciousness in which you grasp the whole idea. pg 254 Bingo.

Vieira doesn’t seem to have a high opinion of remote viewing: “Vieira describes it in Projectiology as “a daydream with some flashes of awareness or clairvoyance at a distance.” pg 270

I was surprised by that. It seems like, in this sort of research, one would want to consider all modalities for their possible contributions to the topic.

If you’re looking for more books on how to do out-of-body experiences, you may want to consider Soul Flight: Astral Projection & the Magical Universe by Donald Tyson, Soul Traveler: A Guide to Out-of-Body Experiences and the Wonders Beyond by Albert Taylor, and, one of my favorites, Otherwhere: A Field Guide to Nonphysical Reality for the Out-of-Body Traveler by Kurt Leland.

Thanks for reading!

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Tag: out of body experience

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The Secret of the Soul: Using Out-of-Body Experiences to Understand Our True Nature by William Buhlman

Less Incomplete: A Guide to Experiencing the Human Condition Beyond the Physical Body by Sandie Gustus

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