I have a pretty godless point of view and yet I do find that this practice is at best counterproductive and at worst, dowright dangerous. IMO using drugs such as psilocybe mushrooms, ecstasy and LSD is actually LESS dangerous than such things. But equally counterproductive.
I dont think its dangerous physically, because even if you were to connect to another level of consciousness your mind is tied to your body...you'll wake up. If this wasnt the case Im sure we'd hear more about people in a comatose state because they lost their way home on an astral voyage.
When these topics come up, psychoactive drugs inevitably come into focus because of their effect on one's perception of reality (again rasing the question 'What is reality?"). However, this area of interest is best kept to private discussion. Its against board policy to discuss such things due to their legality.
If we postulate that we are looking at the universe in an upside-down manner, multidimensionnaly-speaking, meaning that we are trying to understand a multidimensional reality out of observing only 3 of its many dimensions, it must follow that whatever remains when minizing the importance of these 3 dimensions constitutes a starting point towards the "rest" of the universe. It is quite understandable to want to go "out" and find out about what's "out there" but this view of things says we must go "in" and not "out". Interestingly this ties in very well with quantum physics.
It is my take that mind will connect with Absolute reality when it takes the shape and size of a dot, that is a nullification of the importance of the physical senses while still observing matter, life, etc. I find that Astral Voyage is a way to do the reverse, that is to observe other planes with the brain's function of sight, hearing, etc.
Excellent points Grunt. I spent some time researching astral projection after having a somewhat disconcerting 'accidental' experience myself, and found this site:
www.astralpulse.com
Interstingly, after lurking around their forum for a bit it seems the modern viewpoint on this is not the 'OBE' (out of body experience), but going inward into your consciousness until you 'come out the other side'.
Its all very strange, and like I mentioned before sometimes difficult to get through because so much of it seems centered on mysticism (although some of the discussions on the astral pulse site are surprisingly scientific in nature) - but they suggest an interesting point...our bodies are bound to this '3d' reality. We cant travel faster than light, lest we stretch ourselves into infinity and deconstruct
. But the mind doesnt obey these rules. What are thoughts? What is consciousness? What is a 'soul'? Its not a form of measurable energy, so scientifically you can't 'prove' that it exists. And maybe it doesnt!
Are these constructs that are bound to this reality as our physical selves are, or are they connected to the multiverse, and our bodies, or all matter for that matter
, just a vessel for them to exist in this 3 dimensional space?
I find that quantum physics has different laws because as the scale gets progressively smaller, the phenomena are less and less 3D and more and more "other-D". By reducing the scale of observation, the depth, width and height of the field of observation shrink, bringing us ever closer to a simple dot, which by definition is the end of 3D space. Whereas it had been previously thought that we would find nothing below a certain treshold, except discontinuousness, I am utterly convinced that the "door" to the rest of the universe is through the dot.
I agree with you, and thinking about it makes my head hurt.
BV