The Art and Practice of Astral Projection

by Ophiel

Overview

Gives all the necessary theory and directions to enter the astral plane, function there, and return with memory available.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609257071
Publisher:	Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date:	01/15/1974
Series:	Art & Practice Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	130
Sales rank:	551,128
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Ophiel, who died in San Francisco in 1988 at age 84, was an eclectic teacher and thinker, with an uncanny ability to make esoteric ideas understandable and available to all. His Art&Practice series -- Astral Projection, Cabala Magic, Clairvoyance, The Occult, Talismanic Magic -- introduces readers to both theory and practice. The Art and Practice of Astral Projection has sold more than 60,000 copies.

Read an Excerpt

THE ART AND PRACTICE OF ASTRAL PROJECTION

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By Ophiel

Red Wheel/Weiser LLC

Copyright © 1974 Estate of Edward Peach
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60925-707-1

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CHAPTER 1

Little System

There is no subject, of the Occult, that has attracted more attention from Occult students than the subject of Astral Projection. No greater achievement, in Occult arts, seems more desirable than that achievement of being able to leave the physical body — in full consciousness — "travel out" in the material, and the immaterial world, invisible, undetectable, able to go anywhere and everywhere without let or hinderance, observing persons, actions, events, freely — then returning to the physical body with full memory of the "trip-projection". In addition, to this generally accepted concept of Astral Projection, Occult novels and semi-serious-occult literature are full of wonderful stories of students, who had mastered this Art, and their adventures as they roamed around the earth and even went to other planets!!! Truly the ability to project Astrally is something greatly to be desired.

But what drives the poor ordinary occult student mad with frustration is that when he looks in those same occult books to find out HOW TO LEARN TO PROJECT he finds nothing about that part of the subject. No Directions! Not even a basic occult theory to guide him. All that the occult books generally have to say is that when he is "ready" he will find out how to do it or they might say that when he finds his "master" the master will teach him how to do it.

To the real earnest occult student, anxious to make true progress in this Art, this kind of talk is for the birds.

It should seem that there would be some ordinary information available, on this subject, so that the earnest student could at least prepare himself somewhat along these lines until his master shows up; or, if the master never comes, to be able to try to learn at least the basic rudiments of the Projection Art by himself.

Now I want to be honest with you from the start so that you will always trust me to give you sound Occult knowledge and safe practices, — in this book, and in the others I hope to write and I hope you will buy and read. So I will tell you now that knowledge on any Occult subject, that you are seeking, is available now somewhere in an Occult book; and not necessarily out-of-print or high priced either. There seems to be some kind of an Occult law about this. I am telling you this so that you will understand that I am not claiming to be the sole giver-out-of-occult-knowledge that so many other teachers claim to be. So I will repeat again-any and all Occult knowledge that you are searching for is down in occult books somewhere and many of these books have been in print for 500 years or more!

Therefore to get accurate Occult knowledge and practices you must search for them. There are three factors that govern this search however. One factor is that you have to look for the right books and put out some money to buy them. Two factor is that you must have a minimum amount of Occult experience and knowledge to be able to recognize true Occult Knowledge when you see it printed. And factor three is that you must have a minimum amount of Occult experience to be able to apply this knowledge to make the best use of it. Thus accurate Occult knowledge, including the knowledge of Astral Projection, is scattered throughout many different kinds of books and you will have to cover the field and read many of them to get out all the pieces and put them together yourself. This is the only time when a teacher, like me, can help you. I have covered this field for 30 years and, by hard work, I have accumulated the necessary Occult knowledge and practices. I can give you both the knowledge and practices as fast as you can learn them.

In this little book I am going to give you all the necessary information about the Art of Astral Projection, as well as simple and concise directions, on how to practice the Art in a safe and sane manner. I am going to give you not just one method but four methods. These four methods will differ from each other in ranging from the very easy to the very hard and with various degrees of intensity of application needed. You will learn each method progressively in turn and the experience you gain in the first method will carry over into the other following methods. If you will give close attention to the text and follow directions carefully, and patiently, you should learn a great deal about this Art and many of you will master it. Everyone will need some personal instructions and you will find, in the last section of this book, directions how to contact me personally for this personal instruction. In studying this book and in following instructions you are on the right path for results. I respectfully suggest that you stick to me for the teacher and the book for the master until you have finished it and achieved some degree of success in this Art.

There are some other important things that you should know, and understand thoroughly, before you start actual work on the systems of projection that I am giving you in this book. Most of the troubles and disappointments that come from Occult studies are due to a misunderstanding of the following matters. Please read and study the following information until you understand it throughly. THEN FOLLOW IT.

First — I want you to understand that work in and on the Occult is of the nature of an Art, and must be considered and practiced as such. Do you know what an Art is? as against a trade? Let us consider, for an example, a painter of pictures as against a painter of houses. At first glance there is a slight similarity in that they both use paints and brushes and apply this material to a surface, and, in a way, they are both called painters. Then the similarity ceases. As you know the painter of houses can be almost anyone who has the strength and physical ability to be able to move a brush full of paint material against a surface of some kind. The artist — painter does not require strength of much capacity as he applies paint to a rather small surface. The painter of houses does not use his own ideas as to how the house should be painted but follows directions of others. A painter of pictures follows no one's directions but follows his own ideas entirely as to what to paint down on his canvas. Almost anyone can learn to paint a house but only a few can be an artist — painter. One house painter paints like most any other but no artist paints like another artist but is very different and individualistic. A house painter must please others with his work but an artist pleases only himself and may displease everyone else. A man can be a real artist only if he can open his inner being and let the basic creative instincts come out and express themselves, regardless of what others think, or want, and regardless of the consequences.

So to practice Astral Projection, and/or the Occult Arts, you have to have two things — One, Have something of the Soul of an Artist in you and then be able to let it out in expression. Everyone has a little of the artist in him and in practising the Occult Arts you must strive to let it out as freely as you can. You must do as the artist does — perfect a technique of an Art — and then let your inner being out to use the technique. In the degree that you can do this is the degree of your successful powers of welding the Occult Forces, We cannot all be Leonardo da Vincis but we can all learn something about Art and we can learn to express it in our own little way, which may turn out to be a lot or a little, but always more than nothing. And you might perfect this Art of Astral Projection yourself to a great ability.

And the Second thing is — You should know that no thing in the physical-world-universe is what it is supposed to be, or is, according to what people think it is. This is especially true about the Inner Planes. Everything about the Inner Planes is different than what it is supposed or thought to be. Different from what the churches say it is — different from what the spiritualists say it is. On the one hand there are certain widely held ideas that are true and also there are certain fundamental things that are true. On the other hand there are many widely held ideas that are not true and many fundamental conceptions that are not true. In many cases when the theory is wrong the thing still works. In many cases things do not work because basic theory is wrong but would work if a little knowledge was introduced. Many times a thing works, as I said, BUT NOT BECAUSE OF THE REASON THAT IS GIVEN FOR IT WORKING AND WITH THE RESULTS THAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT.

The Occult Art of Astral Projection is definitely one of the above designated things. Astral Projections do work BUT NOT WITH THE RESULTS YOU EXPECT, because the Inner Planes are not what you thought they were or were taught they were. THE INNER PLANES ARE QUITE DIFFERENT THAN WHAT THEY ARE THOUGHT TO BE. So I suggest you forget what you have been TOLD the inner planes are like or speculate on what you are going to see and experience — learn the Art — practice the Art — and follow where the results lead. You will then KNOW what the inner planes are like from first hand personal knowledge and not from hearsay.

At this point I will make the second reference to the last section of this book. In the last section of this book I intend to refer to many things of an advanced nature in connection with the four systems that I am giving you now. However I do not intend to give material of an advanced nature in this book at this time. I will make some references to advanced work with each of the systems as we go along and it will be necessary for you to contact me personally (1960) to get this advanced work as I will have to be satisfied that you are ready for it but only that you do not undertake something that you are not prepared to handle, and not that I want to withhold information from you or sell it to you for a high price. In case that this book lasts for many years, as I hope it will, I will try to arrange for a successor to carry on after me.

With these preliminary things out of the way we are now ready to take up the practical study and practice of the Art of Astral Projection. I am going to divide the instructions into two parts — The Basic Theory Part and the Basic-Practical-Working part.

Part 1. BASIC THEORY—

As I said it is not my intention, nor is it possible in this little book, to go too deeply into the entire subject of Occult Knowledge. I will therefore confine myself to the basic-occult pertaining to the Art of Astral Projection and will give you all that is necessary to lay a sensible foundation for the practical work to follow. I am assuming that, as you have bought this book, you have some knowledge of the Occult already. I will, therefore, make a rather short review of certain limited Occult knowledge, at this point, and I trust these things will be familiar to you. If they are not familiar to you then it will be necessary for some of you to read up — research along these lines. If the material is familiar to you it would still be a good idea for you to review this basic material again anyhow sometime before you start active practice.

The Theosophical books written by Anne Besant and C. W. Lead-beater are full of information about the inner planes and man's inner bodies. To mention a few — "The Hidden Side of Things" "The Chakras" The books by Col. Powell — "The Etheric Body", "The Astral Body" "The Mental Body", The Causual Body". Most all the books published by the branch of the Theosophical Society whose headquarters is in Adyar, Madras, India and whose American Headquarters is in Wheaton Illinois — contain valuable information about the inner planes. There will be a number of helpful books listed at the end of this book. Get and read as many of them as you can.

So we will assume that you are an Occult student who has studied for some time along these lines and thus you should have learned that a man is more than just a physical body and another "thing" called a Soul. You should have learned, or at least heard, that a man consists of a number of "things" called "Bodies" A Physical body, an Etheric body, an Astral body, (a higher Astral body and a lower Astral body) a Mental body and a Causal body. And probably some other "things" too.

Now it is true that the noun "body" applied to these "bodies" does not mean the same thing as it does when it is applied to the physical body. But there is really no other good word to use except "centers of consciousness" which is true but then there is also a certain kind of organization about each of these centers and for that reason they can be called bodies too. The English language is not very rich in words describing the higher things and for this reason there is much confusion about the finer points of many meanings. In this book I will put these marks "—" before and after a word and when I do this you are to give it another look as to its meaning.

As you can then see, for yourself, a man is not just a physical body and a something called a "soul" He has, or it appears that he has, several different kinds of other body-centers, called bodies too.

At this point we might as well start looking at that thing which is called a "Soul" and see if we can pin "it" down and take a look at "it". As none of these other bodies can rightly be called a soul (body) they do not appear to be the soul that we are looking for. The soul must be something above all of these other bodies. As there is no very good definition of a Soul in Occult literature that fits the facts, as one who knows about it from experience of the inner type, we turn to the dictionary and see if we can find anything there to help us.

The dictionary is not of much help either. The dictionary says that the word Soul means Spirit and when we turn to Spirit we find that the dictionary says the word Spirit means Soul!!!! (also it is rather strange to find that the word Ghost means Soul and/or Spirit!)

Therefore to get on with our study I will tell you that we have to turn to Alchemy to get the meaning of the word Soul. The word Soul means Spirit and the word Spirit means AIR!!! However this is not ordinary Air but means the Quality of Air (no relation to the physical Air other than in a very superficial wav) The quality of Air is MOTION — or AIR IN MOTION. ANYTHING THAT MOVES IS ALIVE THEREFORE THE QUALITY OF LIFE IS MOTION — not motion as such but MOTION IN THE SENSE OF LIFE-MOVEMENT — the ability to life-live and move.

So therefore the SOUL QUALITY of a man is living, the ACTION OF LIVING and of course this quality does go beyond the bodies that are merely the vehicles of living-life.

So you can see plainly that the basic meaning of Soul and Spirit are grossly misinterpreted and are used wrongly by all religious bodies. As Soul and Spirit are wrongly used and as they have no bearing on the Art of Astral Projection, which is what we are studying here, these two words will not be used in this book any further. I would also suggest that you be very careful as to how you use them in the future as if you are going to learn Occult Knowledge you have to say exactly what you mean at all times.

So let us start out again in our study of the Art of Astral Projection by asking ourselves — What, exactly, is meant by the term "Astral Projection" What, exactly, are we talking about when we use these words?

The ordinary everyday idea of this term "Astral Projection" is — A man separates "something" of himself from his physical body and with this "something" goes "out" somewhere, and then returns to his physical body with full memory knowledge of where he has been and what he has done. This would be the ordinary idea about this term Astral Projection.

In the case of an advanced Occult Student who has made such a successful Astral Projection — what has happened — theoretically and practically???

Well we now know that he did not travel "out" as a "spirit" in a "thing" called a "spiritual" body, so what did he travel out in? and what was "it" called? It also follows that it was not to or on a thing called the "spiritual" plane that he went to or traveled on. Yet it appears that it was with some kind of an inner body and to some kind of an inner plane that he went to and with.

Now here is a very important matter. In fact the following information is the heart of Astral Projection. I discovered this myself and therefore I am free to tell you about it freely.

It should be relatively plain to you, by now, that a man consists of more than one "body" and also that there exists more than one plane. You, as a man, possesses a number of bodies thru and in which you function, and have functioned, all your physical life. Each of these bodies has a "plane" corresponding to it and thru which it draws certain things that make up your life on this physical plane. Therefore you are no stranger to these bodies and to these planes! It is said that in and during sleep you have always left the physical body and done many things and went many places. This is an old Occult doctrine. (In the second system that I give to you in this book this sleep projection will be made much clearer to you so if you don't fully understand the above wait until you study the second system).

IF THE ABOVE IS TRUE WHY DON'T YOU REMEMBER YOUR NIGHTLY PROJECTIONS?-THE REASON WHY YOU DON'T REMEMBER IS THAT THE BULK OF YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS IN THE PHYSICAL BODY AND REMAINS THERE MOST ALL YOUR LIFE UNLESS YOU CONSCIOUSLY TRANSFER IT ELSEWHERE!!!!
(Continues...)

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Excerpted from THE ART AND PRACTICE OF ASTRAL PROJECTION by Ophiel. Copyright © 1974 Estate of Edward Peach. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

SECTIONS          

1. Little System          

2. Dream Method          

3. Body of Light Method          

4. Symbol Method          

5. Last Section          

6. Addenda