ROBERT CROOKALL B.Sc. (Psychology), D.Sc, Ph.D. Late Principal Geologist, H.M. Geological Survey, London, formerly Demonstrator in Botany, University of Aberdeen PRACTICE ASTRAL PROJECTION THE CITADEL PRESS 6 5 4 Copyright © 1960 by Robert Crookall All rights reserved. Published by Citadel Press A division of Lyle Stuart Inc. 120 Enterprise Ave., Secaucus, N.J. 07094 In Canada: Musson Book Company A division of General Publishing Co. Limited Don Mills, Ontario ISBN 0-8065-0547-8 Manufactured in the United States of America PREFACE RIGHTLY or wrongly - as the reader may decide - the writer con­ siders that many, though not of course all, accounts which people give of having temporarily left their Physical Bodies in some sort of 'Spiritual Body' are basically true. If true, these experiences are of great importance. In the first place, they provide material towards the answer to the Psalmist's question, 'What is man?' Secondly, they point unmistakably to man's survival of bodily death (since they are identical with those given by the 'dead' - see Appendix V). Thirdly, they suggest that our entrance into the 'next' world is no more (and no less) a religious matter than entrance into the physical world at birth. In the various attempts that have been made to date to demonstrate the reality of out-of-the-body experiences reliance is chiefly placed on (i) cases in which the claim that a person is exteriorized in a Rouble', or Psychical Body, seems to be corroborated'by the fact hat his apparition was seen by others, and (2) cases in which the experience is repeated experimentally. These evidences have not proved convincing to many. On the other hand, we suggest that the cumulative evidence here adduced, though necessarily of an indirect nature, serves to establish the reality of out-of-the-body experiences quite as firmly as the theory of evolution is established (see Appendix IX). Although a number of authors give methods for inducing astral projections, the present writer considers that, in general, these or any other psychic experiences, should not be forced in any way. If they come naturally and unsought it is a different matter. There is a time when an egg-shell can break and the chick emerge in comfort and safety. Readers who have had out-of-the-body experiences, or who may encounter additional examples in print, are invited to send details to the writer. (A stamped addressed envelope would be appreciated.) The accounts should be exact, nothing being omitted and nothing inserted in an attempt to make them agree with those already published. Differences between narratives may be of great significance. R. CROOKALL 12 Woodland Avenue, Dursley, Glos., England. v 'He that answereth a matter before he heareth,it is a shame and a folly unto him - Solomon,Proverbs xviii,13. 'A presumptuous scepticism that rejects facts without examination of their truth is, in some respects, more injurious than unquestioning credulity' - Humboldt. 'We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard' - St Peter and St John, Acts iv, 20. 'How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? [In addition to the carnal, or Physical, Body] ... there is a Psychical and a Spiritual Body' - St Paul, I Cor. xv. 35,44. 'Self-projection is the one definite act which it seems as though a man might perform equally well before and after bodily death' - F. W. H. Myers. 'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars... WHAT IS MAN? - David, Ps. viii, 3. 'Nothing is too amazing to be true' - Michael Faraday. (But Faraday rejected supernormal phenomena: being committed to a sect with rigid Biblical views, he separated science from religion.) 'Sit down before fact as a little child. Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads - or you shall learn nothing' - Prof. T. H. Huxley. (And he fulfilled his own prediction, since he failed to adopt his own advice. Huxley also wrote, 'Supposing the [psychic] phenomena to be genuine they do not interest me'.) 'Call it a sin to let slip a truth' - Robt. Browning. (But he did it him­ self. Browning failed to realize that D. D. Home was as honest as he himself and that the phenomena he produced were genuine.) 'Neither the testimony of all the Fellows of the Royal Society nor even the evidence of my own senses would lead me to believe in thought-transmission. ... It is clearly impossible' - Prof. Helmholtz. 'The very thought of thought-transference is "puerile" ' - Sir Ray Lankester. (Yet Profs. C. D. Broad, H. H. Price, J. B. Pvhine, Hornell Hart and many other eminent scholars are now convinced of its reality.) vi CONTENTS Page PREFACE V ANALYSES OF CASE HISTORIES 1 A. - NATURAL OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCES 3 I. PEOPLE WHO NEARLY DIED, Cases 1-21 3 II. PEOPLE WHO WERE VERY III, Cases 22-30 20 III. PEOPLE WHO WERE EXHAUSTED, ETC., Cases 31-39 24 IV. PEOPLE WHO WERE QUITE WELL, Cases 40-119 36 B. - ENFORCED OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCES 118 1. FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS 118 a. Caused by Anaesthetics, etc, Cases 120-145 118 b. Caused by Suffocation, Cases 146-147 131 c. Caused by Falling, Cases 148-152 132 2. ACCOUNTS BY OTHERS 134 a. Caused by Anaesthetics, etc., Case 153 134 b. Caused by Hypnosis 135 CONCLUSIONS 140 APPENDICES 145 I. History of the Subject 145 II. Additional Details (Natural Experiences) 160 III. Incomplete (or incompletely-remembered) Natural 177 Experiences (Cases 154-160) IV. Certain 'Dreams' as 'Incomplete Natural Experiences' 183 V. Statements of the 'Dead' regarding their Experiences 187 VI. Statements of the 'Dead' regarding our Sleep-state 203 VII. Arnold Bennett's Resume of Theosophical Teachings 210 VIII. 'Thought-forms' 219 IX. Evidence, Direct and Indirect 226 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 229 INDEX TO CASES GIVEN IN THE TEXT 233 vii THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF ASTRAL PROJECTION Analyses of Case Histories SHAKESPEARE caused one of his characters to mention 'that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns'. Yet the world's literature contains innumerable incidental accounts of people who claimed temporarily to leave the body, to be conscious apart from it, and to 'return' and recount their experiences. The person who takes pride in his 'commonsense' oudook on life naturally regards such narratives as representing mere dreams. The present writer, who has studied them systematically over a period of many years, does not. He invites the reader to compare the accounts given in this book, to note the comments made [in square brackets] and to consider whether the concordances and coherences that occur can be explained except on the assumption that the narratives are, in fact, descriptive of genuine experiences. A brief history of our subject is given in Appendix I. Many of these Case Histories were sent personally to the writer and are new to the literature. A questionnaire was submitted to correspondents and addi­ tional details were obtained (Appendix II). People often have incom­ plete (or incompletely-remembered) experiences of this nature (Appendix III), while many 'dreams' are obviously not fantasies but partially-remembered, out-of-the-body experiences (Appendix IV). The writer has studied the supposed experiences of people who had left the body permanently (i.e., died): he found that those who said that they died naturally described one series of experiences while those who said their death was enforced described another, a more restricted, series (Appendix V). Some of the 'dead' gave explanations of these differences. Their explanations are reasonable. Moreover, in some cases, they agree with the findings of psychical science. We therefore conclude that the accounts of the after-death experiences which we examined are very probably, indeed almost certainly, genuine. They are not, as is often supposed, mere products of the 'subconscious mind'. The present book analyses the experiences of people who claim to leave the body temporarily. It is found that those who did so naturally typically describe one series of experiences, while those whose exterior­ ization was enforced typically describe another, a more restricted, series. It is further found that there is a remarkable correspondence between i 2 THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF ASTRAL PROJECTION the accounts of those who claimed to leave the body permanendy and those who claimed to leave it only temporarily. This correspondence in independent narratives seems explicable only if both sets of narra­ tives are substantially true. No alternative explanation seems possible (see 'Conclusions', p. 140). We now proceed to the Case Histories. A. - Natural Out-of-the-Body Experiences (I) PEOPLE WHO NEARLY DIED CASE NO. I - Miss Elizabeth Blakeky MISS BLAKELEY'S narrative was published in Prediction for .March, 1953. As a child she feared death. Her experience changed her whole oudook on life. She became certain that, 'The soul exists and is indestructible'. Miss Blakeley became seriously ill. One evening she fell into a deep sleep, awaking to find the room in darkness. She continued, 'This awakening was not like the usual drowsy wakening from the sleeping state. The consciousness was strangely calm and clear. I was no longer in pain. ... Gradually the consciousness, which normally suffuses the whole body, became condensed in the head. I became all head, and only head. Then it seemed that 'I' had become condensed into one tiny speck of consciousness, situated some­ where near the centre of my head.... [Cf. Appendix V, Statement No. 13.] Then I became aware that I was beginning to travel further upwards. There came a momentary blackout [shedding the physical body, see Appendix V, Statement No.