THE ASTRAL REALM & ASTRAL PROJECTION In esoteric cosmology, a plane other than the physical plane is conceived as a subtle state of consciousness that transcends the known physical universe. The concept may be found in religious and esoteric teachings such as; Vedanta (Advaita Vedanta), Ayyavazhi, shamanism, Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Kashmir Shaivism, Sant Mat/Surat Shabd Yoga, Sufism, Druze, Kabbalah, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Rosicrucianism (Esoteric Christian), Eckankar, Ascended Master Teachings, etc....which propound the idea of a whole series of subtle planes or worlds or dimensions which interpenetrate themselves and the physical planet in which we live, the solar systems, and all the physical structures of the universe. Most occult and esoteric teachings are in agreement that seven planes of existence exist; however many different occult and metaphysical schools label the planes of existence with different terminology.... Physical plane The physical plane or physical universe, in emanationist metaphysics taught in Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, Hinduism, and Theosophy, refers to the visible reality of space and time, energy and matter: the physical universe in Occultism and esoteric cosmology is the lowest or densest of a series of planes of existence..... According to Theosophists after the physical plane is the etheric plane and both of these planes are connected to make up the first plane....Theosophy also teaches that when the physical body dies the etheric body (aura) is left behind and the soul forms into an astral body on the astral plane. The astral plane, is where consciousness (spirit/soul) goes after physical death. According to occult philosophy man possesses an astral body. The astral plane (also known as the astral world/realm) was postulated by classical (particularly neo-Platonic), medieval, oriental, and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions. According to occult teachings the astral plane can be visited consciously through astral projection, meditation, and mantra, near death experience, lucid dreaming, or other means. Individuals that are trained in the use of the astral vehicle can separate their consciousness in the astral vehicle from the physical body at will.... The Theosophist author Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa wrote that....When a person dies, they become fully conscious in the astral body. After a certain time, the astral body disintegrates, and the person then becomes conscious on the mental plane. Occultist George Arundale wrote: In the astral world exist temporarily all those physical entities, men and animals, for whom sleep involves a separation of the physical body for a time from the higher bodies. While we sleep, we live in our astral bodies, either fully conscious and active, or partly conscious and semi-dormant, as the case may be, according to our evolutionary growth; when we wake, the physical and the higher bodies are interlocked again, and we cease to be inhabitants of the astral world.” Some writers have claimed the astral plane can be reached by dreaming....Sylvan Muldoon and psychical researcher Hereward Carrington in their book The Projection of the Astral Body (1929) wrote: When you are dreaming you are not really in the same world as when you are conscious — in the physical — although the two worlds merge into one another. While dreaming, you really are in the astral plane, and usually your astral body is in the zone of quietude. In his book Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda provides details about the astral planes learned from his resurrected guru... Yogananda reveals that nearly all individuals enter the astral planes after death. There they work out the seeds of past karma through astral incarnations, or (if their karma requires) they return to earthly incarnations for further refinement... Once an individual has attained the meditative state of nirvikalpa samadhi in an earthy or astral incarnation, the soul may progress upward to the illumined astral planet After this transitionary stage, the soul may then move upward to the more subtle causal spheres where many incarnations allow them to further refine until final unification... To put it simply. Nirvikalpa is a state in which the practitioner realizes that he/she is one with God. A state of non-duality. This one word Nirvikalpa describes the whole truth, that the God is within you. As he is everywhere and infinite, he is in you as well. The logoic plane (also known as the Monadic plane) is the highest plane, it has been described as a plane of total oneness, the I AM Presence. Joshua David Stone describes the plane as complete unity with God. ASTRAL PROJECTION (or astral travel) is an interpretation of out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an astral body separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it Astral projection or travel denotes the astral body leaving the physical body to travel in an astral plane. The idea of astral travel is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife in which the consciousness or souls journey or ascent is described in such terms as.... an... out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in his/her subtle body (or dreambody or astral body) into ‘higher’ realms. It is frequently reported in association with dreams, drug experiences and forms of meditation.... A common Theosophical belief is that one may access a compendium of mystical knowledge called the Akashic records through astral projection 2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. According to Bob Bruce of the Queensland Skeptics Association, astral projection is just imagining, or a dream state. Although there is rigorous mathematical support for parallel universes....The psychologist Donovan Rawcliffe has written astral projection can be explained by delusion, hallucination and vivid dreams.... In Ancient Egypt Similar concepts of soul travel appear in various other religious traditions, for example ancient Egyptian teachings present the soul as having the ability to hover outside the physical body in the ka or subtle body. Ancient Egypt had more than one heaven, and most of their heavens were subdivided into sections or parts akin to, and probably best equated with the astral plane. the astral plane has many different levels...This is also true in Egyptian heavens of the astral plane. The Book of the Dead (a misnomer as the egyptians never called it that), lists the sections of the Heaven of Osiris. As you read the book, you also see that there is a specific way to get to the heaven and through it. There is an ancient Egyptian writing from a scribe that says, in effect: If you dont use the specific directions to get to a particular heaven, you wont get there but to a false heaven. You have to follow the directions by the ancient Egyptians in order to make it to one of their specific heavens.....For example, one of the ways to get to the Horus heaven is to project to the Nile, and do certain things in order for a boat with a hawk on it to come over to the bank and pick you up to take you to the Horus Heaven.....One of the things you have to do, and not the only thing, in order to get into the Heaven of Isis is to change your astral body into the shape of a bird (a swallow) Here is a direct quote out of the Egyptian pyramid texts; “Re‘ and Thot, take (the traveler?) with you…….that he may sit on that which ye sit,………that he may voyage in that wherein ye voyage” (210) and they go off to the night sky to “reeds” and “marshes”. Then, very clearly, “thou didst not depart dead; thou didst depart living,” (213). They travel “regions” and “secret places” and he has to “beware of the ocean”. The “dew of the stars” purifies him.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 09:53:53 +0000
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