Thank you all for your support, I'm going to dive right in!!
Methodology and Research.
These studies into the methods and techniques of Advanced Projectors are going to be a bit detailed. These pioneers into the study of ObEs are/were all quite successful on their own, and their studies can only be seen as a reflection of their passion for truth. These guys are Physicists, Doctors, etc,, all professionals and very analytical (Western) thinkers. (Though you wouldn’t know it if you heard them talk about their OBEs.)
I’m going to skip past Galilao and past Newton. I’m even going to fast forward past Jung and Freud for the time being.
Franz Anton Mesmer (1779) postulated a universally distributed and continuous fluid that could be received, stored and propagated by organisms, and affirmed that this principle was able to cure nervous and other disorders. Years later, J. H. D. Petetin (1808) referred to this concept as “animal electricity”. In addition to explaining what were later referred to as psychic phenomena, from the beginning the magnetic force was postulated to be related to bodily functions.
Herewood Carrington took the ball out of their hands, and ran with it, causing a radical change in thinking, regarding the human body and its energetic makeup. A lifetime of research and exploration into the human body, and ‘psychic’ phenomenon, and the energetic body was enough to inspire more incredible works to come
Herewood Carrington:
In 1880, a man named Herewood Carrington was born in the UK. Carrington led a lifetime of investigation into psychic phenomenon and Spirituality. His research is held in the Princeton University’s Manuscripts Division, or you can request them here: http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/C1159 Carrington was an avid researcher into the claims of psychic phenomenon which led him to the conclusion that science does not have the research methodology to begin intelligent studies into certain phenomenology. In fact, in 1921 he wrote a paper called The Problem of Psychical Research http://www.unz.org/Pub/CarringtonHereward-1921 which basically outlines the problem that science has with regards research methodologies into non-physical phenomenology, starting with the question; “Is Psychical Research a Science?”. A question which is, of course depends on the legitimacy of the phenomenon. And when it comes to OBE, there is much legitimacy. In 1908 he wrote a book called ‘The Coming Science’ http://www.unz.org/Pub/CarringtonHer...02?View=ReadIt that gripped the minds of many future scientists. The Coming Science was a prediction of the blending of physics and science with spirituality, and a challenge to future explorers who intend to show the legitimacy of subjective experiences, even OBE. It was completely fringe at the time, but his efforts have come full circle today. His efforts did not go unnoticed.
One of his more relevant (to this discussion) views can be found here: PSYCHIC PHENOMENA AND THE VITAL FORCE: HEREWARD CARRINGTON ON “VITAL ENERGY AND PSYCHICAL PHENOMENA” http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/cli...al%20Force.pdf
Published in 1921, it is one of the earliest attempts by a Westerner to begin to explain dynamic Subtle-energies and their source,, here is the abstract:
Excerpts from an article by Hereward Carrington, entitled “Vital Energy and Psychical Phenomena”, and published in 1921 in the Psychic Research Quarterly, are reprinted. The article is discussed in the context of previous and later publications on ‘vital forces’. Carrington argued that metabolic processes, and life itself, were produced by a vital force that did not depend on the body for its production: this force could be projected from the body and cause physical phenomena, such as movement of objects and materializations. Carrington continued to speculate along similar lines in later years. While his views are in some ways inconsistent with the non-physical ideas developed by later parapsychologists such as J. B. Rhine, they remain a valuable window to past aspects of parapsychological theory.”
The evolution of how what we consider to be vital/subtle/bio-energy will become paramount in my study!!
Carrington established that if there is to be realistic research into these phenomenon, then a radical change would be necessary in how we approach objective, scientific research regarding mostly SUBJECTIVE phenomenon. I could not agree more.
Here is the problem: If we want to study the OBE in a lab setting, who is doing the studying, the ‘projector’, or the guy/gal taking notes and observing? Certainly we cannot simply allow for a subjective experience to be considered to be a scientific fact, (we can’t just take the projectors word for it, not with science.) So the guy/gal in the lab doing the studies cannot make an objective observation one way or another, they are forced to go off of testimony..
On the other hand, the ‘projector’ has experienced something that he cannot put into words, much less put into scientific words. The projector no longer requires validation of the experience, so thus ends his participation in the scientific model.
Either way, Carrington was (is) correct, if we are to move forward, it is going to take a radical change in what we currently consider to be ‘scientific’ methodology. That does NOT mean that we turn our backs on logical thinking altogether… lol… Heavens No!! I think that we are presented with an interesting challenge. And that is for each individual to become both the guy/gal in the lab, (open minded skeptic) AND the ‘projector’. Once one has been out of their bodies, there becomes no doubt of the legitimacy,, and the guy/gal in the lab will become an experiencer, instead of an observer. This is a profound change in how we approach science. Again, this is going to take the power out of the hands of ‘science’, and put it back into our own hands, and this is not preferred within the great halls of Sciencedom…
Over the life of his research, Herewood Carrington wrote books and papers on such topics as; Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, The Despair of Science, and the phenomenon of death. He was a man ahead of his time. And his work dovetails us into another story. A story of a natural astral projector named Sylven Muldoon. Carrington and Muldoon were the authors of one of the most popular, and early explorations into the OBE. It is called The Projection of the Astral Body. It is a bold exploration of the OBE, and It will be referenced throughout this exploration…
Sylven Muldoon: [More to follow]
Love to all
Jake.