Do people in vegetative states astral travel?

I apologize in advance for the rambling, incoherent musings but this has been on my mind for some time despite the difficulty I have in articulating them now. Seeing as people here are especially insightful and open-minded, I thought I'd give it a try. I would love your thoughts. If you have read Adventures Beyond the Body, that would be a plus.

According to William Buhlman, our consciousness continues outside of out physical bodies. The brain, he says, is not the center of consciousness, the body is but a temporary vehicle of consciousness. Your astral or energy body, what Buhlman claims is the less dense, higher frequency embodiment of you, is really a distilled form of your consciousness. If your physical brain is damaged, where does this consciousness go? Is your astral body really independent of your cognitive capabilities here on this physical plane? What if your are born blind, deaf, and severely brain damaged and therefore have no concept of this "reality"? What would be your reference point?

I sometimes think of what kind of consciousness people like Terri Schiavo might have experienced. Medically speaking, there might not have been anything there -- but maybe her consciousness was still attached to this physical form and therefore there was still a silver cord tethering her consciousness to it. I like to entertain the notion that she, or others like her, are really living rich and extraordinary parallel astral lives while their derelict physical bodies act as a kind of fulcrum that keeps the two planes separate and stable. Can this be the real Matrix? This would not be Buhlman's idea of the highest level of consciousness (pure energy, formless, free of paradigms) but a more of a lower astral plane where things still resemble physical forms, are more dense and less "thought responsive".

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but maybe her consciousness was still attached to this physical form and therefore there was still a silver cord tethering her consciousness to it. I like to entertain the notion that she, or others like her, are really living rich and extraordinary parallel astral lives while their derelict physical bodies act as a kind of fulcrum that keeps the two planes separate and stable. Can this be the real Matrix? This would not be Buhlman's idea of the highest level of consciousness (pure energy, formless, free of paradigms) but a more of a lower astral plane where things still resemble physical forms, are more dense and less "thought responsive".

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I think coma victims usually are literally not in there. Just like a car can be vacated so can a body. There are cases where people come back but there are also other cases where someone different wakes up in them as well as they awaken as if a newborn baby not knowing anything about our world or how to work their body. Recently, on TV, I remember one American woman in a coma that woke up remembered nothing of "her" life but was just like everyone else but for one thing, she had a heavy Irish accent. She had different likes and dislikes even loving some foods the woman was supposed to hate. Except for her outer appearance she was a totally different person.

And yes we have a way of discounting these obvious aspects but we have ways to discount anything and everything, thus being able to discount this does not make it any less real.

Hmm...that is an interesting question, I've wondered things like this myself. It sounds perfectly probable to me. I'll have to read up on the subject some more.