In my experiences with the transphysical levels, there is always a sense of distance between the living and the other levels. Their reality, while reachable and perceivable, is not a natural environment for us; it always seems a difficult journey to make. It reminds me of the myths and stories of those who would attempt to enter the underworld and the many trials and dangers they might face. These stories seem like metaphorical ways of emphasizing the distance between the worlds. It also seems as if the widespread shamanic worldview of the upper, middle, and underworlds reflects the out-of-body journeys of healers from across the globe. In many ways, the healers, mediums, and psychics that we have now are the shamans of our modern societies, framed in a media-driven world, yet somehow still appealing to the age-old needs and fears of humanity.
These modern shamanic practitioners also deal with our fears of the dark side of the spirit realm: our superstitions and belief in dark forces. The notion of negative beings is important—not because I believe that you will have anything to worry about, but because many people fear such things. Let’s start by making it really clear: after many years and many hundreds of out-of-body experiences, I have never encountered anything harmful. I have also never had anything negatively affect my body or sense of well-being in any way whatsoever. There are those who believe in various forms of spirit possession and other types of negative influence, but if you take the view (as I do) that we are dealing with expansive interconnected consciousness, these ideas are soon revealed to be nothing more than a modern form of superstition. I sincerely hope that no one reading this book will be burdened with such ideas. However, if you do feel that your beliefs and fears may hold you back, you may find that working with some form of prayer, blessing, or affirmation before beginning might be helpful. You may also find it worthwhile to work in person at a workshop, or in a one-on-one session with a teacher, so you have support present. Others may find that calling upon some kind of protector, be it God or a spirit guide, is a useful means to feel more secure about leaving the body safely.
Spirit guides
Guides are one of the most amazing and at the same time puzzling aspects of both out-of-body and near-death experiences. They are found in narratives across cultures and in virtually all types of experience. Who or what these strange messengers are remains a mystery. Could they be an aspect of our unconscious, a form of collective consciousness, a human who has passed on, or a higher form of life? The answer to this is presently unclear, and may only ever be known on a personal, subjective level. But it seems clear that they are positive and often helpful in the actions and forms they take.
I have come across several accounts of people being helped out of their body by a being, or sometimes several beings. These beings would often become familiar to the person being guided, to the point that there would be an exchange of information and often advice being given. These descriptions go right back to the earliest works on the subject of OBEs and are still being described in current writing on the subject. For example, in the work of Rosalind McKnight, who learnt to have OBEs during the early days of Robert A. Monroe’s research, the beings she encountered seemed to want to relate through her a whole array of information about the nature of life on Earth and our place in the scheme of the universe.
In my own experiences, too, I have found myself in several situations in which a being would offer guidance or suggest something to help me with circumstances in my life. One such incident took place on the transphysical level; I was in a level of reality that appeared full of yellow light, much like sunlight, but far more vivid and pervasive. I approached a figure that, though human in form, had a quality like he or she was only appearing in this form for my benefit. We sat communicating in some way, but while I was there the content of our communication seemed unimportant. I remember looking down at a river, also illuminated with golden light, and watching as other figures passed by, some with a full spectrum of colour flowing through them.
The being I was with smiled as I looked back, while looking deep into my eyes with a totally otherworldly quality, like I was fascinating to him in the same way a biologist might observe some intriguing detail of nature. The whole experience of being in the presence of this entity reminded me of another experience that took place during one of the few lucid dreams I’ve had. In the dream, I was having a reading from a kind of fortune-teller who was using a unique form of divination. She had the same quality as the being in the level of golden light described above. She looked deep into some part of me that I was not even totally aware of myself. When I awoke from the dream, I had the sense that I’d connected to something beyond normal reality and that the dream had simply been an access route for my awareness.
Even in my spiritual practice outside of the area of OBEs, I have encountered guides or what appear to be more advanced beings. Two of these came through to me while I was in deep trance, much like channeling, and seem to represent the essence of my spiritual understanding. They were called Shah and Mai, and those interested to learn about them can read more in my first book, Avenues of the Human Spirit. For the purposes of this book, I will simply say that they represented something akin to my higher self.
The whole idea of consciousness being extended does beg the question: Can other forms of consciousness impact or influence our awareness? It seems to me that this can be done to some degree, but the field of channeling seems complex; it would be extremely hard to differentiate between the unconscious mind of the person channeling and a separate entity or consciousness. However, just as the evidence supports telepathy and psi in general, I see no reason why we would not be capable of experiencing a full spectrum of consciousness. Maybe in the future new developments in science will open up yet more expansive and awe-inspiring levels of consciousness that we can’t even imagine now.
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another reality: multi-dimensional visualisations
Back in the 1800s, a group of occultists in England founded the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Among their many rituals and beliefs was an approach called “traveling in the spirit vision.” This was essentially a series of techniques designed to achieve a mild form of astral projection. Within this system, they used a group of images known as the tattva symbols, each of which was a simple shape, such as a square, a circle, a triangle, a crescent, and an egg, symbolizing earth, air, fire, water, and the aether, respectively, as well as combinations of each of them. The members of the Golden Dawn borrowed these designs from Hinduism, but adapted them to a different purpose. This system was later popularized in books on astral projection by modern writers such as J. H. Brennan, who wrote the foreword to this book.
The process involved the would-be traveler making a set of these colourful symbols on cardstock, which he or she would then use as an aid to meditation for an extended period of time, until the image became imprinted on the retina and the symbol seemed energised. The resulting negative image would seem to flash as your eyes adjusted. After a time, you were instructed to imagine the symbol beginning to grow until it was the size of a doorway. You would then allow the surface to dissolve in your mind’s eye before shifting your awareness through the shape, so it acted like a portal.
Once on the other side, you would meet with a guide who would show you the nature and spiritual meaning of that particular symbol. As in other guided meditation systems, you often gain a piece of information or guidance that has particular importance to you, either spiritually or in a magical sense. Once you reached the point at which you felt you had seen enough, or the energy was drawing you back, you were supposed to retrace your journey exactly until you passed back through the portal and closed it behind you. You would then go through the whole process in reverse until you felt comfortable and grounded again. The result of these journeys through the tattvas was often very powerful and could be compared to mild OBEs, in some cases.
A Tattva Vision
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br /> One of my first tattva experiments with the fire triangle, Tajas, felt like an extremely vivid waking dream. I remember lighting a candle and sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding a small card onto which I had painted the red triangle. I sat staring intently at the surface. At first, the texture of the paint and the canvas-like card distracted me from focusing completely on the symbol, but after a while the triangle began to almost burn into my eyes. I slowly let my eyes close and my hands drop into my lap as the red of the triangle began to pulse and shift in my mind, as if it was somehow conscious and reacting to my internal dialogue. I focused again, this time with the intention of bringing the image into line and not losing the purpose of the exercise. The image seemed to become a dark bluish tone, the negative of its original red, and began to grow in size.
Soon the shape seemed to take up my whole awareness and floated just a few feet in front of me like a grand painting. Yet the surface was not fixed and static; it became shadowy and vague, like there was something in the distance obscured by mist. In an attempt to see what was there, I shifted my awareness forward and in an instant I felt myself falling through space. I found myself in an open, natural environment with trees and colourful flowers all around. The grass seemed to have a golden hue to it, like an aura highlighting its outline, and the sky faded from turquoise to rich shades of mauve and pink.
As I stood there taking in the sheer beauty of the scene, a figure began to approach from the horizon. He seemed otherworldly to me as he stopped a few feet away. His eyes didn’t seem to have the expression and empathy that we expect from a human being, and his clothing and appearance in general was slightly fantastical, with rich patterns and unusual forms. Looking at him, I remembered that the tattva instructions also recommended a test, a way of finding out if this part of the universe or aspect of my unconscious was truly a guide and benevolent or something more sinister. I traced a symbol in the air as the book I was reading had advised me and waited to see how he would react. At first nothing, so I continued to focus on positive, life-giving energy, before directing it straight at him. At this point he grew and expanded with the energy. It was clear that, far from harming him, it was transforming him, showing clearly that he was a guide, just as the book described.
At that he turned and, gesturing with his strange blank eyes, we began to walk. I seemed to be able to move with a new freedom and lightness, like I was being helped, and even lifted slightly from the ground. The scenery too seemed to reflect my guide’s changed nature, and all around creative new forms of life and colour began to appear. As we moved, I also felt like some kind of knowledge was being transferred to me, as well as the ability to draw from reserves of creative energy that I didn’t know I had.
Finally, after what seemed like an unknowable, timeless period, this strange being turned and indicated that we should return the way we had come. As we did so, it was as if everything that we had seen or disturbed on our way to that point was also rolling back, returning to its original state before I had come here. All the life seemed to morph and change as we passed, like it was returning to a state of pure energy. Finally we were back where we had met, at which point I turned to offer some kind of thanks, only to discover that he had vanished, along with much of the scene that was now becoming little more than a shadow again. Moments later, I felt my awareness drifting back to myself and my sense of the room and the flickering candle returning.
Three-Dimensional Tattvas
When I started studying the various methods of astral projection in my teens, tattva system experiences like the above had a strong impact on me. However, they didn’t seem to initiate a full out-of-body experience; there seemed to be something missing. In the late 1990s, the idea dawned on me that these astral doorways only operate on a two-dimensional level—they are simply flat images. What was needed was something that would impact the mind and the unconscious with a full three-dimensional approach. I had no idea at the time how much potential this would have and how many other areas it would open up.
Tajas, the fire triangle, had been the most powerful in my personal experiments, so I decided to work with the idea of making it three-dimensional. Obviously this would result in a pyramid, a shape that is already loaded with symbolic meaning and a whole range of beliefs dating back millennia. I experimented with ways I could work with the pyramidal structure to create the best results. Then, in a visualisation experiment in which I pictured two triangles in front of me, I noticed a very interesting and unexpected element to this way of working. The energies from the first tattva doorway seemed to influence those from the second. As I focused on them, this effect seemed to increase. First, a blending of energy or influence and meaning took place, then a new portal or doorway seemed to form from the combination of the first two. This had radical implications: there was a growth process going on, almost like the shapes mimicking nature and reproducing themselves to create new and unimagined energies or forms. I discovered that the more complex the shape, the more complex and fascinating the resulting energy and psychological impact would be.
The pyramid
This opened up amazing possibilities. What would happen when I added additional tattvas and formed the full pyramid? Whether this was just a psychological impact of the complex visualisation, or something operating on another level, wasn’t the key element. An energetic foundation was being formed that would lead to more powerful experiences. As I added the other sides of the pyramid in my visualisation, the effect did indeed magnify. Each side seemed to have a new and fascinating impact on the previous sides. Once all the sides were “open,” I was surrounded by an energy that seemed to be enhancing itself exponentially, drawing me into the experience. The result was an energy of a totally new order to any I’d experienced before. I felt renewed by it, even rebuilt.
When I first taught this new approach to others, I noticed that it had a powerful impact on them as well. The first time was at a meeting in the open air in an area of South London. We made our way up the hill to a clearing surrounded by trees that would serve well for this kind of work. We all took up our positions in a small circle and, after a basic introduction to the process, I began to guide the group through the visualisation. I kept the description as simple as I could, vividly describing the formation of one triangle at a time. I waited until the image was clear and radiating in my mind before moving to the next step. I looked deep into the triangular form and began to see the surface dissolving away until a sense of a landscape, location, or energy form became apparent.
The first triangle already seemed to have an amazingly healing and powerful feeling about it. I felt anticipation at the prospect of looking into the second and subsequent shapes. As soon as I sensed everyone was ready, I began to describe the second triangle. Now, as its surface began to dissolve, I sensed a pure energy, and with each subsequent doorway, this clearer, more crystalline feeling continued to grow. The energies from the first and second triangles seemed to blend and enhance each other in ways that I could never have predicted. It was a blend of healing, sensation, and the many emotions of life, from inspiration to love to joy. I felt a stream of light and connection running through my body, from my feet straight up through the top of my head. I had not felt anything comparable since an OBE in which I felt I was at one with all the minds in the universe.
With each subsequent triangle, a new movement and particular interaction was taking place, until finally they formed a whole, a pyramid, and I was drawn into its swirling energy. It felt like being drawn into a whirlpool of light and pure force. A moment later, I felt like I was several feet away from the group, looking back at myself standing rooted to the spot. It was more like being in two places at once than a standard out-of-body experience, and I was still able to guide the others as we began to reverse the process and go back, carefully shutting each doorway the way we had opened it.
Afterward, we all felt rooted by an energy that seemed to be comi
ng right up through the earth. We all took quite a while to properly ground ourselves and “close down.” We spent a further few minutes discussing how we felt before beginning the short journey down the hill toward the road. It was clear, as I looked out across London as I descended, that I’d found a way of working with human psychology and whatever energy or interconnectedness might exist that would have almost limitless potential.
The process did not end with the pyramid form. I began to explore other structures, such as the cube and the sphere. If you take a moment to think about it, the sphere is a three-dimensional form but also has no sides as such. This makes it the most powerful shape in many ways to use as a visualisation or meditational aid. It seems that the more challenging the form of the visualisation, the more it can impact us in a way that stretches and pushes our mental skills (seepage 189 for a technique based on the pyramid).
The sphere
There are many connections between the sphere and the transphysical level. Many, including myself, have experienced what appeared to be spirits in the form of orbs or spheres. The chakras have been described as spinning wheels of energy within the body. In Dante’s classic poetic work The Divine Comedy, we see the other world ordered like spheres within spheres. Some scientists even envision a multi-verse of spherical universes like bubbles rising to the surface of a vast lakelike meta-universe. All of these notions fit well with the sphere visualisation that I have developed (see page 189).
The real power of the sphere is the fact that it is the only form or shape that has only one side, no beginning, and no end; thus the approach that I took with the pyramid and other shapes becomes redundant when applied to the sphere. It took me a lot of practice envisioning a sphere in my mind to get the idea of this single-surfaced form opening on itself, much like the other shapes in the multi-dimensional system, but once I did, I found that a whole new level of energy and mental agility was achieved. It may take you weeks or even months to be able to hold the idea of the sphere opening its whole form like a doorway, but once you can do this, you will be able to take this method to the next level.
Navigating the Out-of-Body Experience Page 13
