Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Ekstasy: Out-of-the-Body Experiences

Ekstasy: Out-of-the-Body Experiences

by David Black

Today I'm reviewing Ekstasy: Out-of-the-Body Experiences by David Black. The copyright is 1975.

David Black is a researcher who became interested in out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and did some very serious research on the topic in the early 1970s. After the obligatory introduction to the topic, he gives a detailed history of the OBE, which is as good as, if not better than, the one in Anthony Peake's more recent book The Out of Body Experience.

Black's research brought him literally to the doorsteps of some of the foremost scientists who studied it. Scientists like Dr. Janet Mitchell, whom I idolized in my Trip Report from the 2018 SSE/IRVA conference. One of my heroes, Charles Tart, Prescott Hall, Karlis Osis, Melvin Morris, Gertrude Schmeidler, Andrija Puharich. Big time name dropping. He explains the scientific tests that were done in various laboratories, what the conditions were like, and the outcomes.

He talks about some of the greatest adepts the subject ever had to offer. People like Stuart ("Blue" AKA Keith) Harary, Ingo Swann, and Alex Tanous. He met with Robert Monroe after Journeys Out of the Body was written, but before Far Journeys or Ultimate Journey, although he discussed other subjects with Monroe like "loosh." If you don't know what that is, it's too a long story for this blog.

What's great about this book is that Black shows a personal side to all the people he met during his research. I can't stress this enough. If you want to hear the personal side of these people, there's no better book. Black is all about the research and the people doing the research: both the scientists and the adepts.

He does his utmost to bring the reader into the lab and explain what was going on, in a personal way. For example, he talks about what the people looked like, the clothes they were wearing, their mannerisms, their outlook on the experiments, and other personal details.

For example, Chapter 8, "Blue," is dedicated to Harary, but he goes into great detail about who Blue was (at the time) and what he was like. He talks about how Harary grew up "on Long Island, East Meadow, out in Hempstead, near Levittown" as well as tidbits about his parents and his childhood. He also talks about the experiments done with Harary, such as the one with his two kittens, Spirit and Soul, who were part of an experiment when they were two and a half months old. I won't leave you guessing:

"During the control periods, the kitten ["Spirit"] continually ran around the cage and maeowed [British spelling] thirty-seven times. During the time Blue had the sensations of being out of his body, visiting the kitten, the animal stopped running around the cage, did not maeow once, and seemed to be attentive to a presence in the enclosure that no human in the room could perceive." (pg. 76)

In chapter 9 Black talks about another interesting experiment (different lab, different scientists) in which Harary was instructed to go out-of-body and visit a snake in a cage:

"When Blue visited the snake in his out-of-body state, it stopped its typical maneuvering around the cage and started literally to attack. It sort of bit at the air, viciously, for about twenty seconds. Twenty seconds which were right in the middle of the time Blue, without knowing what was going on in the laboratory, claimed to be out of his body and in the cage with the snake." (pg. 80)

Chapter 11 talks about another famous out-of-body adept, Ingo Swann, who was born on September 14, 1933, in Telluride, Colorado, as Ingo Swan and he added the second "n" himself. Swann had some very interesting and amazing lab experiments. For example, he could raise or lower the temperature at a distance:

"Swann sat about three feet in front of a Dynograph which was used to record the temperatures of four thermistors [sensitive scientific digital thermometers] that had been taped to pieces of either bakelite or graphite to facilitate his possible PK. Each thermistor recorded independently of the others, and all were extremely sensitive. All four were sealed within Thermos bottles so that there would be little likelihood of their being affected by any force other than Swann's apparent paranormal abilities."

"...Seven of Ingo's ten scores are statistically significant, and five are highly significant. . . .Each of the significant differences is in the direction specified by the instructions; that is, the recordings show more change to hotter temperature in the test periods with "Make it hotter" instructions than in the test periods with "Make it colder" instructions." (pgs. 95-96)

Another of Swann's interesting experiments is when he used his mind to visit a visual target in a lab:

"Swann, sketching what he saw on each side of the partition, achieved a perfect score: eight tries out of eight. The odds against this happening by chance are approximately 40,000 to 1." (pg. 97)

The scientists took a lot of care to try to determine if Swann was actually "seeing" visually at a distance or whether it was "just" ESP or clairvoyance. This also gets into long complex arguments about whether this was really just "Remote Viewing" or whether he was actually "out of body." According to David Black:

"Swann smoked cigars and sipped coffee while he was 'remote viewing.'" (pg. 115)

Later in the book, it talks about another amazing experiment with Swann done at Stanford Research Institute:

"In the preliminary work, using a shielded magnetometer, Mr. Swann apparently demonstrated an ability to increase and decrease at will the magnetic field within a superconducting magnetic shield." (pg. 112)

Black also talks about author D. Scott Rogo, who was both a researcher and an out-of-body experiencer, who was apparently influenced by the spirit medium, Mrs. Keeler, whom I recently referenced in my previous book reviews.

Next up, Black talks about another famous out-of-body adept, Alex Tanous. Again, he gives personal details like:

"Tanous, quietly mysterious, with hypnotic eyes, looked like an MGM mystic. Part of his magnetism was an appeal to vanity. He gazed at you with rapt attention, all the furrows in his brow tending down to a point about the bridge of his nose as though they were caused by a pulled drawstring...He was born in 1926 in Van Buren, Maine, a small town on the New Brunswick border." (pg. 101)

Tanous took place in experiments that involved optical targets, like Ingo Swann.

"According to [Karlis] Osis, Tanous's out-of-the-body consciousness appeared able to adjust to its environmental situation--in certain cases, for example, he had to move his point of view higher to peer into the window of the illusion box. This ability to interact with the world in a disembodied state would not be manifest if he were receiving information through ESP." (pg. 106)

You won't really find any OBE induction techniques in this book, but there are a few scattered hints. For example:

"The experience is hard to describe," said Andrija Puharich, "but it's certainly not a trance. It's like intense concentration. The essence of it is learning how to switch the body onto automatic pilot. You switch the heart system, the brain system, the respiratory system, all those systems that keep you from getting out of your body, onto automatic pilot, and you're free." (pgs 201-202)

Here's another hint:

"Most of the conditions that can induce the out-of-the-body experience seem to involve this typical movement from a state of greater to one of lesser excitement. Dick French tended to have his feelings of being out of the body when he lay down to rest after doing exhausting physical work." (pg. 203)

Black also echoes a key point of my own book Hacking the Out of Body Experience:

"And the conditions of sensory deprivation which [John C] Lilly used to spark his out-of-the-body episodes probably work in a similar way. The disorientation which results from blocking off sensory reference points prompts the subject to construct temporary reference points which mimic those usually given by the senses; and, since consciousness then begins operating in relation to those temporary points of reference, it feels, perhaps is, freed of the body, which it then objectifies." (pg. 204)

I loved this book, but then again, I've always loved the experiments and the science behind it. Some people might find it boring, but I loved how Black made the people and experiments come to life with every page. The down side is the lack of techniques.

The book is 243 pages, with good font and margins. There's plenty of good content. I give this book 4 and a half stars out of 5.

Bob Peterson
12 March 2024

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If you want me to review a book about out-of-body experiences or astral projection, send me an email: bob@robertpeterson.org, but please check the index first to see if I've already reviewed it. Also, I've got a huge pile of books I'm planning to review, so don't expect a quick turnaround.

If you like my work, visit my website, robertpeterson.org, where you'll find lots of other free OBE advice and links.

Return to the index of my OBE Book reviews



Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Review: Astral Projection by Arundell Overman

Astral Projection

by Arundell Overman

Today I'm reviewing Astral Projection: Flying Lessons for Witches by Arundell Overman. The book was published in 2021, although there doesn't seem to be a copyright notice.

At first I was put off by the cover art: A Halloween-style purple crone witch flying on a broom with her Familiar cat, accompanied by flying bats. Really?

But the book started out really good. I was impressed by Overman's approach and knowledge, and he wrote from personal experience. So right away, the reader learns his level of experience and some of the things he encountered.

How many OBEs has he had? He doesn't exactly say, but he does offer this:

"For every time I did get out of body, there were at least ten failures. So, when I say that I have had a hundred out of body experiences, that means I must have tried the technique a thousand times." (pg. 27)

And actually, that sounds about right to me. My success ratio is about the same: 10 failures for every successful OBE. So if you "fall off that edge" or awareness, don't get discouraged; get back on the horse and try again.

Early on, Overman joined and started studying the techniques of the famous occult organization Golden Dawn (think "secret society"...or maybe not so secret) "20 years ago" which tells me he has considerable experience. According to Overman:

"The Golden Dawn practices so much astral projection that they have been accused of "astral tourism," just going to various planes because they can, to look and see what is there." (pg. 12)

He claims to have studied "over 1,000 pages of material" from the order, and from it, successfully astral projected many times using ritual-based techniques such as the famous occult "Body of Light" technique. He shares some of this information, despite the fact that initiates are supposedly sworn to secrecy.

The book also contains an interesting ritual in which he spent 36 hours in a coffin, only coming out to pee when he had to. This led him to an intense out-of-body experience in which he thought he was physically flying.

This OBE made such an impact that Overman later built his own coffin and tried to replicate it, with mixed success.

The use of sensory deprivation is not new to the astral projection world, and the use of social isolation is reminiscent of Native American "vision quest" rituals.

Unfortunately, the book didn't live up to its promise. Halfway through the book, Overman talks about friends who were "witches" and that led him to the books of author D.J. Conway. He includes three long excerpts of Conway's book "Flying Without a Broom" which are more or less guided meditations. But since the book is only 59 pages, they take up a large percent of the book. He tried to replicate two of Conway's experiences, with interesting results.

Overman agrees astral projection is different from ordinary (non-lucid) dreaming, but he says:

"In an astral projection however, there is no loss of consciousness. You are wide awake the whole time. This is a distinct difference between dreaming and astral projection." (pg. 50)

That disagrees with other books. For example, Robert Crookall, who studied and collected more than a thousand OBE narratives, found that out-of-body experiences were almost always accompanied by a momentary blackout both before and after the OBE.

The vast majority of my own OBEs also had a short blackout either at the beginning or at the end, but I've also had a small number of OBEs in which there was absolutely no blackout: I had no loss of consciousness from start to finish.

But what about lucid dreams? Overman says:

"Most magicians I have spoken with agree that a lucid dream, a dream where one knows they are dreaming, is the same as an astral projection." (pg. 51)

I've always maintained that OBEs are different from lucid dreams in several ways. For more information, see my blog article Are OBEs the same as Lucid Dreams?.

I give this book 2 stars out of 5.

On the good side, the writing and editing are professional quality, it's based on personal experience, and it contains some solid astral projection techniques, even if they're from Golden Dawn and DJ Conway.

On the bad side, it's way too short to be of any value: only 59 pages in a small format with lots of unnecessary white space, and some of that comes, apparently, from D.J. Conway's book. This just made me want to re-read Conway's book. So look for that next Blog Tuesday.

A quick search of the Internet shows that Arundell Overman has lots of books out there, so I guess he's just pumping out lots of short books to make money from lots of royalty sources.

Bob Peterson
20 February 2024

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If you want me to review a book about out-of-body experiences or astral projection, send me an email: bob@robertpeterson.org, but please check the index first to see if I've already reviewed it. Also, I've got a huge pile of books I'm planning to review, so don't expect a quick turnaround.

If you like my work, visit my website, robertpeterson.org, where you'll find lots of other free OBE advice and links.

Return to the index of my OBE Book reviews



Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Review: Psychic Travel

by Christopher Dane

Today I'm reviewing Psychic Travel by Christopher Dane. It's kind of a vague title, but the back of the book says "The awe-inspiring, eye-opening world of out-of-body experiences." The copyright is 1974 by "Eugene Olson" which might be Dane's real (non-pen) name?

If I had to describe this book succinctly I'd say it is all "Sensationalized Grocery-store Tabloid-style astral projection narratives." It's all fast-food OBE stories, one after another. These are supposedly true stories about out-of-body experiences, but they're certainly embellished by the author the way the movie "Titanic" sensationalized the events of April 14, 1912. In fact, some of the OBE narratives are even excerpted from the "National Enquirer," a United States tabloid known for its sensationalist "JFK Abducted by UFOs!"-style nonsense.

All of the narratives are short, just a page or two, sometimes three, which makes the book easy to read, but they all lack depth.

Most of the stories are about out-of-body experiences, but several are near-death experiences as well. A few delve into bilocation, autoscopy (doppelganger), and even some death-bed apparitions.

A few of these stories are about well-known astral projection authors like Oliver Fox, and some were lifted from Robert Crookall's books and the famous book Phantasms of the Living.

On the one hand, Dane echoes the words of Fox:

"Once this stage had been reached, the student must guard himself against the appearance of apparitions and frightening sounds. These should be ignored. One should especially resist the illusions that will come and seek to interrupt the student, breaking his trance." (pg. 53)

Good advice, and I gave the same advice in my article about the "Guardian of the Threshold." But later, Dane does some fear mongering himself. For example, he quotes one of Brad Steiger's books which cautions the reader:

"And there are always evil entities which one must truly be on guard against during the projection experience. These creatures of darkness are always seeking a passive living body to invade and inhabit." (pg. 135)

Let me assure you: this is a non-issue, and as Fox says above, "should be ignored." I don't believe for a minute that an astral entity can take over your body while you're away.

In fact, I've been astral projecting more than 40 years and in all that time I've only felt "unsafe" less than a dozen times, and most of those OBEs I aborted due to an over-abundance of caution.

One of the book's chapters is titled "Sex that is out of this world" but it didn't sound very authentic. Frankly, it sounded like complete fiction to me. Maybe some editor somewhere suggested Dane could sell more books if he added a chapter about astral sex, so he pulled this out of his imagination.

The chapter isn't even about astral sex. It's more about a man who has a physical sexual encounter with a supposedly bilocated promiscuous woman. In other words, a woman who allegedly could leave her body and bilocate to the man of her choice for sex. The subject of astral sex is another topic for another day, but if you're curious I did write about it in my FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about halfway down.

Dane also talked briefly about Dr. Charles Tart's lab experiments with "Mr. X" (later revealed to be Robert Monroe himself) and "Miss Z", but there are much better renditions of that information in other books.

The book is 192 pages, with small footprint and tight margins. I'm only giving this book 2 stars out of 5. It's not exactly "bad." It just isn't good. There are much better books out there.

Bob Peterson
06 February 2024

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If you want me to review a book about out-of-body experiences or astral projection, send me an email: bob@robertpeterson.org, but please check the index first to see if I've already reviewed it. Also, I've got a huge pile of books I'm planning to review, so don't expect a quick turnaround.

If you like my work, visit my website, robertpeterson.org, where you'll find lots of other free OBE advice and links.

Return to the index of my OBE Book reviews



Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Swinging Arms Technique

Swinging Arms Technique

by Bob Peterson

The admins of the "Astral Projection - Techniques" Facebook group (myself included) decided to share some of our favorite astral projection techniques to the group.

In this blog article I'll share a technique I call the "Swinging Arms" technique, or perhaps a better name is "Kettlebell" technique. I used to do this technique a lot in 2018 when I spent a winter in Sedona, Arizona where there are a lot of hiking trails, but I still use it occasionally. Here is what I'd do:

  1. In late afternoon/early evening, go hiking on a trail for about 45 minutes. Sometimes at the top I'd stop and meditate on a large flat rock. I used to work until 3:00p.m. (15:00), and go hiking after that.
  2. Come home, take your shoes off, and lie face up on a couch / sofa (a recliner works too).
  3. Close your eyes and get comfortable, rest your hands on the tops of your hips. You may want to use a eye mask to block out the afternoon sunlight.
  4. Take two or three deep breaths in and exhale naturally. Try to ignore all your physical senses.
  5. Drift toward sleep but maintain focus and don't fall asleep. Just try to clear your mind and still your thoughts.
  6. As vividly as you can, imagine you are swinging your arms up and down. Swing them so hard (in y our imagination) that it causes your entire (imaginary) torso to move along with the arms. If you want, imagine a weight, like a kettlebell (shown above) at the end of your arms that increases the pull.
  7. Focus on the movement of your imaginary arms to the exclusion of everything else. Tell yourself the swinging arms are your real arms.
  8. When you start to feel as if you are really moving, just go with the movement and let it propel you forward, out of your body.
  9. At that point you may suddenly feel the vibrations sweep in and fill your whole body, and your body may feel like it's not moving anymore. Follow the directions given in my article What Should I do When the Vibrations Hit?.

Feel free to adapt this technique according to your needs. For example:

  • With this technique mid-afternoon seems to work best for me, but you can adjust the time as needed.
  • A couch or recliner may be most effective, but you can do this from your bed or a comfortable chair if you have no other choice.
  • A nature trail (with uneven surfaces) works best for me, but if you live in a city, sidewalks may also be used.

Bob Peterson,
23 January 2024

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Review: More About the Spirit World

Review: More About the Spirit World


 by Frederick Sculthorp

Today I'm reviewing More About the Spirit World and Experiences in Astral Projection by Frederick C. Sculthorp. The copyright is 1975.

This is an obscure, hard-to-find book that's been out-of-print for many years. As a matter of fact, it was so rare that when I found a copy in a local library way back in the 1980s, I actually made a photocopy with a copy machine for my book collection!

This is actually the sequel to a much older book written by Sculthorp titled Excursions to the Spirit World, which I still have never procured in book form. I'd still like to get a copy, so contact me if you've seen one for sale for a reasonable price. I recently got a digital copy of the book, so I may read that very soon.

My previous two book reviews were by author Robert Crookall, who documented the early history of astral projection and out-of-body experiences. Sculthorp was considered by Crookall to be an astral projection expert on the same level as Sylvan Muldoon, Oliver Fox, Yram, and others. So reading Crookall's books made me want to read Sculthorp's books.

This book is mostly just astral projection narratives: personal out-of-body experiences by the author. If I could sum up the book, I'd say it's a collection of "reheated leftovers." It has the feel of "In my first book I forgot to say these things, and document these OBEs, but they are equally important." Kind of like my second book, Lessons Out of the Body. Ouch.

Sculthorp's OBE narratives seem genuine enough. He describes many of the same things I've encountered. He makes several interesting observations. For example:

"I have found that in the spirit world water can flow, is buoyant, and can be drunk, but it does not wet my spirit clothes if I enter it." (pg. 2)

Here's another example: 

"In my out-of-the-body experiences in the Spirit World I have often been taken to cities where life goes on just the same as on earth." (pg. 20)

Indeed, so have I, and many others. It reminds me of some of the narratives from Jurgen Ziewe's Vistas of Infinity or William Buhlman's Adventures in the Afterlife.

Although he describes himself as "Not a churchgoer" (page xii) Sculthorp also describes a couple of OBEs in which he claims to have seen Jesus Christ delivering lectures, and also personally interacts with him. His descriptions are strangely similar to some of Paul Twitchell's descriptions of "The [Eck] Master" which almost seem to be semi-personalized to the experiencer him/herself. (There are only a handful of authors who claim to have seen Jesus Christ face-to-face, myself included.)

Strangely, Sculthorp often references the works of a channeled entity named "Zodiac" whom I've never heard of (and I've got a lot of books on channeling and mediumship!). It doesn't have much to do with OBE, but I guess he was a fanboy.

One of the most interesting things I found in the book is Sculthorp's description of what seems to be a lecture delivered by an iPad, Smart phone, Tablet, or a device similar to what we have today in 2024. Bear in mind this book was published in 1975, (most of the author's OBEs were many years prior), but the iPad wasn't invented until 2010:

"We went over the building where the corridors were also thickly carpeted and stopped at an open door of a room where a lecture was in progress. I looked for the lecturer, but no one was addressing the people and all were looking at an instrument on the table. It had an upright wheel over which there was a "chain" of oblong tablets linked together. When I looked at the instrument (the spirit body emits a ray or surge of enquiry) I gathered that it was delivering a lecture, with each tablet containing a subject and, of course, ready for use when required--a kind of spirit tape-recorder." (pg. 22)

Doesn't that just sound like an iPad or Galaxy Tab showing a selection of podcasts on youtube or spotify? Yes, tape recorders were around in the 1970s, but they were very big, clunky, and analog.

Unfortunately, all this book did was make me want to find and read a copy of his first book, Excursions to the Spirit World, which I'm sure is better.

The book is 43 pages, with small font and tight margins. There's barely enough content to satisfy. I'll give this book just 2 stars out of 5. Maybe his earlier, more successful, book is better?

Bob Peterson
9 January 2024

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If you want me to review a book about out-of-body experiences or astral projection, send me an email: bob@robertpeterson.org, but please check the index first to see if I've already reviewed it. Also, I've got a huge pile of books I'm planning to review, so don't expect a quick turnaround.

If you like my work, visit my website, robertpeterson.org, where you'll find lots of other free OBE advice and links.

Return to the index of my OBE Book reviews



Monday, December 11, 2023

Review: The Techniques of Astral Projection

The Techniques of Astral Projection

by Robert Crookall

Today I'm reviewing The Techniques of Astral Projection by Robert Crookall. The copyright is 1964. It's very old and hard to find. (I was born in 1961. I guess that makes me old and hard to find too!)

Robert Crookall was a British geologist who loved to scientifically study astral projection (out-of-body experiences) long ago. He wrote several books about it when very little was known about the subject. His groundbreaking book The Study and Practice of Astral Projection, which was the subject of my previous book review, radically increased our understanding of OBEs. Since his books predate Robert Monroe's and most other Astral Projection books, I was curious what Crookall had to say about OBE induction techniques.

Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to my expectations. In fact, it didn't say much at all about astral projection techniques at all.

Crookall tried to track down the source of some of the earliest techniques used to induce astral projection. He investigated the books and articles of Sylvan Muldoon, but Muldoon credited technique articles written by Prescott Hall. Upon further investigation, Crookall discovered that Hall got the techniques from a spirit medium by the name of Mrs. Minnie Keeler who credited her spirit "communicators" for the information.

So to describe this book succinctly: this book is a detailed comparison of "astral projection best practices and exit techniques" excerpted from the "communications" of Mrs. Keeler, against early astral projection experts: Dr. Charles Lancelin, Sylvan Muldoon, Yram, Oliver Fox, Frederick Sculthorpe, and others. And to sum it up: they match pretty closely. In other words, Keeler's "spirit communicators" generally recommend the same things as the early experts.

The remarkable thing is that Keeler's "spirit communications" seem to actually predate most of those astral projection experts' books and articles. This makes me wonder: Since Keeler was not an astral projector herself, how did she acquire so much detailed knowledge about it? Maybe it really was firsthand information from spirits of the dead? Nobody knows.

If the name Minnie Keeler sounds familiar, it may be because I referenced her in my 2018 blog article, Dietary Considerations, which I included as chapter 71 of my book, Hacking the Out of Body Experience.

But you don't need an entire 111 page book to describe their recommendations. A simple article will do. In fact, I can summarize them all right now:

These suggestions (translated to English) are from Dr. Charles Lancelin's [French] book Methodes de Dedoublement Personnel (I own a copy, but I can't read French, so don't expect a book review!):

  1. Arouse and "super-charge" the subconscious mind by giving yourself affirmations and verbal suggestions, preferably right before sleep: "I have the will!," "I have energy!," "I have the power!," etc. [Muldoon also said that motivating the subconscious is of paramount importance].
  2. Imagine that the astral body loosens from, and eventually leaves the physical body.
  3. On the day of the attempt, little food should be eaten.

Yeah, I know it's pretty lame as instructions go. And Muldoon even berated Lacelin for being so vague. Most of the suggestions from Mrs. Keeler's "spirits" are visualizations, excerpted here from pages 27 - 29:

  1. The withdrawal of the attention from the physical world. The would-be projector is recommended to create mental images of lights, e.g., to concentrate on imaginary ripples or flashes of light.
  2. The loosening of the Astral Body from the physical body. "Image oneself as a point in space floating, or as a piece of cloud or as steam."
  3. The initiation of movement in the Astral Body. (1) The image of oneself as flying, (2) The image of a twirling star suspended in space, (3) The attempt to visit the Himalayas in imagination, (4) The image of ploughing [I.e. plowing a field by hand before tractors and machines were used], (5) The image of rocking or of swinging [which is my favorite technique].
  4. Frequent use is made of the image of a circle, or a series of circles, of smoke rings, etc.
  5. The image of a cone is used: contracting to a point or expanding from a point, passing through a water-spout, or hourglass-shaped space. [In more modern terms: think worm-hole.]
  6. Imagine being caught in a whirlpool.
  7. Imagine being carried along a wave.
  8. The image of "paying out a coil of rope," or being drawn up by means of a rope.
  9. The image of oneself whirling [spinning, like the Dervishes] or of whirling objects.
  10. The image of a tank gradually filling with water, on the top of which one floats as a point of light...the object is to find a small hole in one side of the tank through which one passes out.
  11. The image of water...drawing water from a well, considering the physical body as a pool of water, or dwelling on the image of a pool of water. [Note that I often start out my technique by imagining my consciousness is a liquid sloshing back and forth inside my physical body.]
  12. The image of a mirror, or the manipulation of one's own image in a mirror.
  13. Concentrate upon the image of the calyx of a lily.
  14. Imagine yourself "steaming" out of your body as if from a limp hot cloth.

It surprised me how many of these techniques are suggested by more modern astral projection authors. Many of the spinning/moving techniques were suggested by D. Scott Rogo.

Here are some more exit techniques, excerpted from pages 70 - 71:

  1. Concentrate a yard or two in front of my body and to "try and get towards that place."
  2. Concentrate on a spot above your head, instead of in front, and to try and rise from your body.
  3. Concentrate one foot seven inches above your head.
  4. Imagine breathing through your ears and to tell about, from time to time, what you see.
  5. Sit erect, not touching the chair back, and to concentrate on a horizontal bar above the line of sight; to hold breath when there is a feeling of rising; but in general to be more passive and to let the spirits do the work.
  6. Brace hands and feet and contract muscles of stomach in order to force the Astral Body out; and to imagine the physical body falling.
  7. Imagine ascending a flight of steps which tip toward you, then to take hold of a silk rope and jump off, kicking the steps away, and filling the lungs at the same time.
  8. Try moving forward horizontally in a straight line.
  9. Imagine revolving rapidly on tiptoe, finally springing up.
  10. Imagine a disc three inches in diameter revolving rapidly seven inches in front of your eyes.
  11. Imagine sitting in a swing with long ropes, swinging back and forth and sending impulses in the same direction as the swing at the end of each swing. 
  12. Imagine flying slowly and steadily in any direction.
  13. Imagine being a soap bubble, blown in any direction.
  14. Imagine going to the Himalayas through the air.
  15. Imagine a point two feet in front of your throat, and to see it coming towards you until you merge with it and become a point.

Like the previous list, many of these techniques are given by more modern astral projection authors. In my first book I stressed the need to be completely passive (as per #5). Many authors suggest imagining climbing a rope (as per #7, although Robert Bruce added the twist of using only tactile, not visual, imagination). The spinning disc technique (#10) was mentioned by Graham Nicholls. The swinging technique (#11) is very similar to one in my first book.

In short, Mrs. Keeler's "spirit communicators" suggested most of the modern astral projection techniques long before they were found in any astral projection books. That's not to say any of these authors plagiarized the works of Mrs. Keeler or of Prescott Hall. I stumbled upon many of my own techniques through personal experimentation.

The book is fascinating from a historical point of view, but not very useful from a practical point of view. It's 111 pages with small font and slim margins.

I'll give the book just 2 stars out of 5. The book is well written, the grammar is perfect, and I only spotted one typo. But there are a lot better technique books out there now.

Bob Peterson
12 December 2023

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If you want me to review a book about out-of-body experiences or astral projection, send me an email: bob@robertpeterson.org, but please check the index first to see if I've already reviewed it. Also, I've got a huge pile of books I'm planning to review, so don't expect a quick turnaround.

If you like my work, visit my website, robertpeterson.org, where you'll find lots of other free OBE advice and links.

Return to the index of my OBE Book reviews


Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Inner Ear Muscle Technique

Inner Ear Muscle Technique

by Bob Peterson

I know it's been a long time since I posted an article to my blog. What can I say? I've been busy doing things like an unbelievable list of home repairs, planning retirement, setting up health insurance, and actually retiring! Then packing up and driving back to Florida and other things. I'm still trying to get my feet underneath me. I've always said that once I retire I'll have more time for things like my blog, but so far it's been complete chaos. But enough excuses. Without further ado:

In the past I've talked about how the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) of the brain formulates a "Story of Experience" based on the data it gets from the physical senses. To induce an out-of-body experience (OBE) you need to "derail" the rTPJ, force it to jump its tracks, and introduce an alternate "story of experience".

The brain's rTPJ is located close to the auditory area of the brain, and one component of its "story of experience" is based on our sense of balance, which comes from the inner ear. If your inner ear becomes infected, plugged, damaged, or altered by drugs (such as caffeine) it can affect your sense of balance, and that affects your story of experience. These are known as vestibular problems.

But people with vestibular problems tend to have more out-of-body experiences than people who don't, and you can take advantage of that.

One technique to induce mystical states of consciousness that dates back at least to the twelfth century is the spinning dances of the "Whirling Dervishes" (Mevlevi or "Sufi" order of Islam, centered mainly in Turkey) which force a temporarily altered story of experience.

It turns out that some people have the ability to move the muscles in the inner ear, and that can be leveraged to alter their vestibular system to induce an OBE.

This technique comes from someone in the "Astral Projection" group by the name of Ælfweald Ó Brolcháin who writes:

Since I was a child I could make a humming like noise in my ears. I never thought much of it but I would do it sometimes for fun, maybe to the beat of a song. I forget exactly how I figured this out but I did. I have seen many others online who can do the same thing with the ear humming...

There is a muscle in the inner ear called the tensor tympani. Some people can contract it voluntarily and make a humming or roaring like noise. Very similar to what many people hear right before or doing AP.

One night I was sleeping and awoke enough to become aware I could possibly [astral] project. For some reason and I’m not even sure why I had the idea, I tried it. I made the humming noise and held it which I can do for some time. I was surprised with what happened next. I successfully left [my body] but it was much more intense and I was way more aware than any time I’d done it before. I could even come back at will and shoot back out by just tightening the muscle.

I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences with this technique.

Bob Peterson,
28 November 2023