Excursions to the Spirit World
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Excursions to the Spirit World A report of personal experiences during conscious astral projection by Frederick C. Sculthorp With an Introduction and a short Survey of the subject by Dr. Karl E. Müller, Dr. sc. tech. E.T.H. President of the International Spiritualist Federation Originally Published by THE GREATER WORLD ASSOCIATION 3 Lansdowne Road, Holland Park London, W.II INTRODUCTION Accounts of visits to the spirit world, such as are published in this book, are certainly most interesting, the more so because many people might think such visits to be impossible. It is not the first time, however, that a living person has reported such an experience, at least as an exceptional occurrence. A classic example is Plato's story of a soldier, who after having been unconscious for several days, claimed to have been in the Beyond and related all that he had observed. Similar happenings have also been reported in more recent times, but their exceptional character marked them as curiosities rather than as reliable facts and a source of knowledge. Since the advent of modern Spiritualism, however, leading to Psychic Science and now to Parapsychology, many strange experiences, such as apparitions, telepathy, clairvoyance, premonitions, etc., have been established beyond doubt. Investigations of modern times have also shown that the human personality is a rather mysterious being and more complicated in its “psychic structure” than is usually assumed. Thus many occurrences, formerly regarded as mere superstition must now be accepted not only as possible but as proven facts, although it must be admitted that Psychic Science is still in its infancy. What is referred to, in a general way, as astral projection may be classified into different stages or degrees. In a typical exteriorisation the person has a feeling of becoming separated from the physical body - perhaps even seeing that body lying in bed, having a strange sensation of overwhelming freedom and increased mental powers, sometimes being able to walk through walls into adjoining rooms or apartments. When such an experience is extended to walking in the street or flying to distant localities we have an excursion which is often called travelling clairvoyance in scientific publications, because the person is then able to perceive what happens in that distant place. The term “travelling clairvoyance” does not seem to be recommendable because there is also a “clairvoyance into the distance”, quite different for the clairvoyant person experiencing it, and these two should be clearly distinguished. The excursion may not be confined to earthly surroundings, but may extend to the spirit world or astral world, thus becoming an astral travel or astral projection in the proper sense of the term. Sometimes this term is understood to mean a projection in the astral body or spirit body of man, which would justify its use for the whole group of such experiences. The whole field of exteriorisation and astral projection covers a vast variety of observations which are not only of a subjective nature, but sometimes are connected with physical changes at the distant place. The spirit body of projected persons has been observed by other persons, which proves the phenomenon to be real (in the usual meaning of the word) and not merely a subjective experience. Further it will be seen from the examples related in this book that the projected person cannot always remember the whole experience from start to finish; also, apart from memory, there seem to exist various types of consciousness, perhaps connected with different memory-states. For a simplified explanation man may be regarded as consisting of two parts, a material or physical part and a spiritual or immaterial part, normally interpenetrating each other. At death the two parts separate permanently, the material part to decay, the spiritual part to survive consciously; living then in the spirit world. On this basis, astral projection or exteriorisation may be explained as a temporary separation of the spiritual part from the physical body, this temporary separation being of a special kind because the subject remembers in the normal waking consciousness all or part of the experience gone through during the projection. Exteriorisation connected with travels to earthly places some distance away, both spontaneously and experimentally, have often been reported and may be regarded as proved to be a reality. Excursions to the spirit world are more difficult to corroborate, but this book gives examples of confirmation. In addition, if a person has had repeated experiences of projection and of clairvoyance, thus learning to distinguish and to know what an excursion “feels” like, we may trust him to know also the difference between a projection to earthly surroundings and one to the spirit world. We may thus accept such reports as reasonable testimony and subject them to a comparative study in order to see how far they agree with each other. A difficulty arises in so far as spiritual experience may be either of a symbolical nature (similar to dreams of the same kind) or else be due to a spiritual reality. The symbolical experience is quite personal and individual; also it may be much influenced by preconceived opinions. From this point of view accounts from saintly persons of old or from mesmerized subjects suffer from being coloured by their own religious and dogmatic convictions. Even Swedenborg, an outstanding scientist and impressive personality was mainly concerned with religious implications and for that reason his descriptions must be studied with caution. Some of his statements are corroborated by modern observation but in many instances their symbolical character is obvious. That is why modern reports by people with inquisitive minds, not bound to any dogmatic ideas of any Church and interested in psychic science are more reliable from the start. In any case, all teachings received from the spirit world depend not only on the person receiving and reporting them, but naturally also upon the character of the spirit teacher. Psychic science comprises two main sections: Animism and Spiritism. The former involving anima, the soul of the living man, the latter comprising facts where the action of spirits is indicated. All serious and independent investigators who have carefully studied, not only one particular kind of phenomena but the whole field, know that man has a spiritual part which survives bodily death. Both, survival after death and communication with the so-called dead must be accepted today as well- established facts. By Spiritualist methods it is possible to receive descriptions of the spirit world from the spirits themselves. There are many books dealing with this question. A comparative study of this material shows that the spirit world consists of a number of widely differing states or spheres. However, it is most important to obtain additional information by means of astral projection, because it is an independent source of knowledge belonging to Animism, though rather close to the borderline between Animism and Spiritism. In view of these considerations the experiences described in this book are of unusual importance to Psychic Science and to anybody interested in the subject. The projectionist in this case, Mr. Frederick C. Sculthorp, started his investigation with an unbiased mind, in a spirit of healthy inquisitiveness and unrestrained curiosity, wanting to find out the truth for himself. My contact with Mr. Sculthorp resulted from our common interest in astral projections. On his side out of his wish to exchange ideas with other students of the subject, on my side more the collecting of experiences on account of their theoretical importance. When our correspondence started in September 1956 I soon satisfied myself that his experiences were not only genuine astral projections, but also that he was a good observer and a sincere narrator, capable of giving a truthful and sober account of his visits to the astral or spirit world. I have not experienced conscious astral projection myself - if I except some curious incidents to be mentioned later. Thus in our mutual exchange of ideas and observations by correspondence, my contributions had to rest upon what I had learnt from books and also on the facts I had collected from several acquaintances who have had projections for some years, either visiting earthly localities or having contact with the spirit world. Since the year 1957 I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Sculthorp several times and I am glad to confirm the impression gained through our correspondence, that he is devoid of fantastical ideas, a man with both feet on the ground and very “matter of fact”. I feel almost proud to have persuaded him to write down his experiences - which in many ways are certainly unique - for publication; he finally consented on the condition that I would contribute a general survey on the subject, which is now included as an appendix. What Mr. Sculthorp has learnt by his many visits to various spheres in the Beyond made him a happy man in a quiet and unassuming way, and in his modesty he would never have thought of presenting his experiences to the public. On the contrary, he was afraid he might eventually shock the feelings of many who cherish certain ideas about the next world and might not find them all confirmed by his report. However, the enormous variety of conditions in the various spheres has to be considered and these reflect all kinds of human thought and all stages of development. In any case, his report represents a most valuable addition to our knowledge of the spirit world as gained by means of conscious astral projection. Dr. Karl E. Müller. Zurich, July 1961. CHAPTER ONE EMBARKING ON A STRANGE ADVENTURE How it started Before telling of my conscious astral projections, which I have experienced for more than twenty years, it will be necessary to describe how this curious faculty of mine started and how it came into full sway.