Thread: Astral Projection and Death

I don't think my astral projection experiences were anything like what death might be like, but I suppose its different for different people. Generally speaking, I think a person is still using their physical brain when astral projecting. Somewhat along the same lines, I've never understood why people think they'll have access to 'all the answers' when they're dead. Loss of brain function usually makes a person less aware of answers, not more aware. Granted we have transcendent experiences that show us something about heaven or a more timeless part of ourselves, we still focus and understand those experiences through our bodies. And if we're capable of being more aware of those things without our bodies, I don't see what keeps us from being more aware of them now. No doubt there are holes in my reasoning here, but I don't see what the reasoning is that supports the opposite view at all.

No holes in your reasoning - it's just a matter of perspective

I'm leaning toward JohnnyBoi's point of view though. The best piece of writing that I can recommend, the thing that made the most sense to me is the set of graphic novels written by Alan Moore called 'Promethea' The story is not as important as the journey it takes you on. So anybody who thinks this body, this life is all there is should pick up the book with an open mind and take a read. I'm not saying it's the truth- it just makes allot of sense, in the same way that Einstein's theory of relativity did when he first penned it.

Personally though, I think the universe is big and complicated enough to accept everybody's theories as truth.

I don't know about an afterlife but it seems logical that, once the brain ceases to function, so does perception of the external world. If dreams are nothing but schemas arising from what the brain has stored during the course of a lifetime and from an evolving creativity as synaptic connections develop, then I guess that upon death, unconsciousness is more likely than a lucid dreamscape for an afterlife.

In saying this, I am not stating that an afterlife is impossible. We can think of death as going back to the pre-birth state. Before we were born, we were dead in every sense. We were absent from life. So, in a sense, this physical life we lead is a "post-death" life. Which makes me wonder...if we were born after being absent from life then perhaps we can be born again after we die. Whether there is a transitional metaphysical "life" before rebirth is another matter. I'm not worried about the possibility that death might be the end though. If that is the case, once we are dead, we don't experience, there is no us and therefore we don't suffer, we don't worry, we won't know anything...there is no us. Why worry?

Well you cant know what happens when you die until you actually experience it.
But, I don't think that Astral Plane is a final destination in the end.

Many philosophies talk about 4 planes of existence. Physical, Astral, Mental aaaand...I don't know the English name of the fourth (first) one but its the Plane of Archetypes.
So when you die in Physical world, you remain in the Astral plane for some more time. Then your Astral body dies, and you move on to Mental plane. And so on, until you reunite with God (in a wider meaning).
Even Christian philosophy talks about the area that you pass after you die (filled with demons, but for them everything is filled with demons )

I think that we cant understand death while we are alive.
That is like being two dimensional and trying to understand the third dimension.

P.S
To avoid any confusion I DON'T claim that its this way. This is purely theoretical.

English speaking people often use the word noetic for the the top plane. The four planes map to the bottom or 'manifest' half of the zodiac, with the noetic plane being the line between cancer and capricorn, and the physical plane being at libra. I think that the conceptual and perceptual division into the 4 planes is largely a result of using the zodiac as a model. Its our collective thoughts about afterlife our built around the zodiac, not nature itself, except insofar as nature reflects our thoughts. Of course I'm missing a huge part of the picture, but that's how it looks to me based on the fragments I do have. I think that we can partially understand death while alive, since our experience is not contained entirely within the 'physical plane' even while alive.

I agree with summerlander that the after-life is likely to be a lot like the before-life. I think that the before-life is not nothingness though, or rather it doesn't have to be thought about in a way that makes it appear like that. It has an imaginative and cognitive component, though its focused through the physical body that will be born later. The thought of it being before or after life doesn't capture it adequately. Similarly, dreams are more than what arises from previous experience. Its also possible to dream in relation to experiences which are not past experiences, and about things that transcend sensate experience, which is why I say we know something about death even while we live. I think its true that "the kingdom of heaven is within you", even if our thinking isn't qualified in a way that allows us to experience it. Its not somewhere we go later. Likewise for hell.

Originally Posted by floatinghead

No holes in your reasoning - it's just a matter of perspective

I'm leaning toward JohnnyBoi's point of view though. The best piece of writing that I can recommend, the thing that made the most sense to me is the set of graphic novels written by Alan Moore called 'Promethea' The story is not as important as the journey it takes you on. So anybody who thinks this body, this life is all there is should pick up the book with an open mind and take a read. I'm not saying it's the truth- it just makes allot of sense, in the same way that Einstein's theory of relativity did when he first penned it.

Personally though, I think the universe is big and complicated enough to accept everybody's theories as truth.

Have you ever seen "What Dreams May Come," or read the book by Richard Matheson? I think it might go a long way toward illustrating what you and JohnnyBoi are talking about.

Originally Posted by Sageous

Have you ever seen "What Dreams May Come," or read the book by Richard Matheson? I think it might go a long way toward illustrating what you and JohnnyBoi are talking about.

By the way, when he wrote that Matheson was a student, and arguably a devotee, of Percival's Thinking and Destiny. Percival was president of the New York Theosophical society for most of his writing career.

Originally Posted by shadowofwind

By the way, when he wrote that Matheson was a student, and arguably a devotee, of Percival's Thinking and Destiny. Percival was president of the New York Theosophical society for most of his writing career.

I did not know that -- for me he was just a name in the movie credits. On reading the book, though, I should've made the connection -- the book is a tour de force of theosophical ideals. Matheson was probably a devotee...