Astral projection (out of body experiences)

[shadowofman]

I suppose I should restate my position and concede to your point.

 

The debate is whether or not this thing is dependent on the body. We don't need to learn anything new to know that it is. 100%!

 

I do not actually believe that a biological brain is required for a mind to exist. What I mean to say is that a mind requires a network. Anatomically, we have a network of neurons. But a mind is also likely to be able to exist in other forms of a network.

 

Think of it in terms of the internet. Your brain is the internet with about 100 billion computers online. And what we call our mind/soul is the world wide web of information. No one doubts the existence of the www, but it also is not a physical thing able to exist without the network of computers which creates it. If all the computers were to burn or all your neurons to rot, the phenomena would cease to exist.

 

The only way for it to continue, would be if the soul was uploaded into a new network. Maybe one that is natural yet unknown, or a synthetic one. There may be a day when all of us do continue on after death by becoming a part of the collective synthetic network we call the internet.

[kuma]

There are no ghosts. If anyone were to observe something of the sort, then a more logical conclusion is that they are mistaken.

 

So you think psychic mediums like John Edward are all fakes?

[witabix]

I don't know if this qualifies as an OBE but when I had my first heart attack I was in work. It was a Tuesday morning and I had been feeling unwell for a few days. I went to the bathroom because the feeling suddenly started getting worse.

 

I stood in front of the handbasin and looked into the mirror in enormous pain, uncomprehending, not knowing what was happening. I watched the reflection change to black and white and the background became misty. I realised I was dying, but I still stood there watching my face come into sharp focus while everything else faded out into black still not knowing what could be happening to me. I was forty years old and very fit and strong. The manager came in, looked at me asked what was happening and then called another employee to take me to hospital which was only two minutes away. It was ten o'clock in the morning.

 

I remember arriving in hospital and walking into casualty, I don't know what was holding me up at that point, sheer willpower I think. I was laid down and given two armfulls of opium. The pain went and I slowly faded out. Dark figures moving around me is all I can recall and distant voices.

 

I woke up later that day. Lying in exactly the same bed my mother had died in four years earlier, from a heart attack. I am not a spiritual man by any means, and I understand the science of probability very well, there are only six beds in that ICU but there is something inside my head that says my mum was there to keep me going.

 

The doctor had told my family that if any one wants to see me they had to get there within the next 12 hours.

 

That was ten years ago, maybe that doctors watch has stopped?

[shadowofman]

So you think psychic mediums like John Edward are all fakes?

 

I can't tell if your question is sarcastic or not. So with a sigh and a face palm.....absolutely!

 

I wish someone would give me two armfulls of opium.

[kuma]

I can't tell if your question is sarcastic or not. So with a sigh and a face palm.....absolutely!

 

I wish someone would give me two armfulls of opium.

 

No, it wasn't sarcastic. When I watched J. Edward's show, I thought it was fascinating. Oh, well.

[skydiveaddict]

I don't know much about astral projection but it's tickled my interest. Anybody have any experiences or thoughts they'd like to share?

 

For those who don't know what it is, I'll quote good ol' wiki:

 

 

 

Edit: Just thought I'd add, I read about astral projection in one of Paulo Coelho's (author of the alchemist) books called Veronika Decides to Die so that's what intrigued my interest.

 

 

I don't know much either. Do you mean "out of body experiences"?

[shadowofman]

No, it wasn't sarcastic. When I watched J. Edward's show, I thought it was fascinating. Oh, well.

 

John Edwards employs a skill that anyone can learn quite easily. Though some are better at it than others. It's called cold reading. Read the wiki and with practice, you to can become a psychic yourself. Amaze your friends, or scam your very own grieving widows.

[shadowofman]

I don't know much either. Do you mean "out of body experiences"?

 

Similar. "Out of body" means that the "soul" has left the body but remains here on the prime material plane with the body, but separate.

 

Astral Projection is the idea that your "soul" separates from your body and enters an entirely new invented plane of existance called the astral plane. Everyone would have there own idea as to what this exactly means, what happens there, etc. It's like an imaginary plane of dreams. Key word, imaginary.

[witabix]

John Edwards employs a skill that anyone can learn quite easily. Though some are better at it than others. It's called cold reading. Read the wiki and with practice, you to can become a psychic yourself. Amaze your friends, or scam your very own grieving widows.

 

Yes I am always thinking of the scam angle in this kind of stuff, but I suppose if that is all the comfort some people can get then let them away with it.

 

It is possible that some of the 'mediums' are evil self aggrandising monsters, people have to be aware of that.

[shadowofman]

But I do not believe people get anything out of it. I believe most people walk in feeling optimistic and then walk away feeling like they have been scammed. It's easy to observe these mediums doing a great service from a third person perspective, but when your in the victims position, the entire experience is very empty.

 

Houdini was just one example of this. He spent the rest of his life exposing these con artists.