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Mar. 24, 2005 One of the contributors to useless-knowledge.com has written an article on OBE (out-of-body experiences), which also go by the name astral projection. I don´t know if this article was written to contradict what I had said about the subject in my article, "Magic, Superstition and Religion", or whether this is a merely coincidental. But I thought I´d write some additional thoughts on the subject. Over the years, I've come into contact with many mystics, practitioners of witchcraft, users of psychedelic drugs and schizophrenics who claimed OBE, along with other paranormal powers, like telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, precognition and so forth. My inclusion of the word 'schizophrenic' in the list does not at all mean that I dismissed all these people as crazy, at least, in the beginning. I allowed that schizophrenics, while generally dysfunctional, might possess paranormal abilities denied ordinary people. Maybe certain categories of lunatics could read minds or foretell the future, I speculated. I listened to their tales respectfully for a decade or two, as I came into contact with them here and there, finally recognizing that they did not possess any such powers. Similarly, one might surmise that cattle don't have to speak because they're telepathic, but of course this is nonsense. Users of psychedelic drugs, which I confess that I myself tried many years ago, do believe that they enter another dimension, one of such enchanting beauty and haunting magic that it seems that it must be the true world, of which the ordinary world is only a poor copy. In this deeper, richer, fuller world, all sorts of mystical truths seem to be laid bare before us. We can communicate with the wind and the trees, run with the stars and read the expressions in the face of the Moon. We can hear the voices of our ancestors from the depths of the night. We have the gift of tongues. We can fashion objects with a ray of thought, as if we had a supernatural chisel in our hands. We may consult the dead, see ghosts in the darkness and hear the echoes of antiquity in the rocks by the sea. We can sense our oneness with the peaks and the vales. We can do all these things--until the drug wears off. Then, we're back to ordinary reality, hungry, tired, dirty, down. The only way back to nirvana is another dose. Even so, for a year or two, you can convince yourself that you'd found the key to life, the portal to seventh heaven. My real story here though concerns a French Algerian derelict named Bernard, and his wife, Penelope, whom I knew before 1970. They took LSD, mescaline, psilocybin and a variety of other drugs, and were "into" all sorts of mysticism: the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Oracles of Nostradamus, the Rosicrucians, the Urantia book, astrology and so on. Bernard was generally an ignorant penniless simpleton, but somehow he was able to persuade people that he had insights and intuitions that others only dream of having. He could read minds, leave his body and foretell the future, at least, so it seemed. He was so glib at making it sound as if he knew what he was talking about that one could easily get carried away momentarily, as if entranced, hanging upon his words. His wife, Penelope, who, but for Bernard, would probably have been a typical pretty little all-American housewife, trod in Bernard's footsteps, a would-be seeress and sybil. She too was always talking about OBE and other psychic phenomena. One day, according to a mutual friend, one Donald Lutz, while he was entertaining Bernard and Penelope at a dinner--they were always guests, never hosts--Penelope suddenly felt dizzy. Her spirit must have been tossing around in her body, so that she developed a kind of nausea resembling seasickness. She said she just had to lie down, as she was about "to leave her body". Donald led her into his bedroom and let her lie on his large double bed, while he and his wife continued to visit with Bernard. A while later, when Bernard felt it was time to take his leave, he and Donald went to fetch Penelope, who was supine on the bed. She felt better. Her spirit had returned to her body, and she was ready to go home with Bernard. Later, Donald discovered that, while Penelope's spirit had been wandering around in the Milky Way, her body had been busy pilfering little things. Some coins were gone. A cigaret lighter was missing. A couple bars of soap had disappeared. A paperback novel had been taken. By that time, of course, I had already come to understand that OBE are impossible, but for a few months Bernard had me half-believing him. Having your mind or your spirit leave your body is something like having your vision leave your eyes or like having your digestion leave your stomach. It just doesn't happen. If you sincerely think it happens, you are deluded. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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