Lehal Library

the consciousness in the astral world and in the world of everyday consciousness. Actually both 'astral' and 'etheric' derive from the terminology of Theosophists who adapted concepts from Hindu metaphysics to an occult setting, and there is little to choose between the nuances of either. They do not fully represent the complex viewpoint of Hindu metaphysics, where individuality and matter are regarded as the appearances of limitation in the Cosmic Soul, and it is preferable to study these concepts at source for deeper understanding of the different phases of consciousness and relative reality which the experiences of 'astral projection' imply. But the term 'Astral Projection' is certainly useful for general discussion since it has come into popular use. The real difficulty is that the term covers a complicated group of related out-of-body phenomena. Sometimes the consciousness of the individual travels in a subtle body through the everyday world we know, sometimes through a so-called 'astral plane' where familiar reality is inextricably interwoven with the world of imagination and a different kind of time and space, sometimes it is a spirit world that is explored, where the dead meet and converse — sometimes all of these worlds melt into each other. There are cases where the subtle body may be seen as a phantom by those whom the individual projector visits. There are other cases where a double is projected ahead, the individual consciousness remaining in the physical body (some people call this 'travelling clairvoyance'). The British pioneer Vincent N. Turvey achieved the fantastic feat of retaining consciousness in three different body states simultaneously! While smoking and talking with friends, he projected two subtle doubles to different destinations, each relaying verifiable information. This case is described in Turvey's book The Beginning of Seership, first published 1911, and now also reissued by University Books.