h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello,
about eighteen months ago, I had a dream where I was floating in the top corner of a living room.
In this living room was a settee with a person who I didn't know sitting on it, a fireplace and over the fireplace was what looked like a painting or it could have been a mirror.
Now, I saw in the painting/mirror a person who was looking down at the figure on the settee and I watched that person as he/she watched the other person.
I felt afraid for the person who was sitting on the settee as I knew that they were unaware of being watched though I felt safe myself as I sensed that I too was unseen.
The dream turned into a sort of a nightmare then when the person in the painting/mirror suddenly turned and looked directly at me.
My only recollection afterwards was as if I was pulling myself back and I suddenly awoke and put it down to a nasty dream.
Upon relaying this experience to a friend a few weeks ago, as I never fully forgot about it, they told me that I had astral travelled and that the person in the painting/mirror was another astral traveller who I had probably also scared.

What are your opinion's out there and should I pursue this?

I can't answer your question, i'm afraid but that's a scary story to ready just before bed. Hate mirrors

I can't answer your question i'm afraid, but that's a scary story to read just before bed! I Hate mirrors

I tend to think it probably really was astral travel, but what do you mean by pursue it?

I probably wouldn't do that...

Sounds exactly like a dream to me.

Ive experimented with altered states of conciousness, through yogic meditation also through ingesting herbs and synthesised chemicals and felt them come upon me unbidden during periods of physical or emotinal stress and trauma.

It is all just within us though. There is no such thing as an astral plane. The different dreams we have are echoes of experiences we have had but may not conciously be able to recall. Vsions wehave are in a similar way ideas that form without concious thought and are called "eureka moments" if they are useful or "flights of fancy" or "daydreams" if they are not practical sucesses.

The entry on astral projection is a little disingenuos and sometimes more than a litttle misleading.

Spangled Man says:
"The astral plane is a real place. It's kind of like a parallel world where our inner selves, or souls if you like, go to escape the confines of our physical 'shell'.

So is it a paralel world or not not why isnt spangled man sure? Also he doesnt begin to explain where our innner and presumable outerselves are seperated. Forinstance if your physical self is blind then is your "soul" visiually impaired inanyway too?


"It's worth mentioning here that not everyone believes in the concept of astral projection.

It's also worth mentioning that this is a well worn cheap trick to diss the opinons of and people who disagree with you. By simplying dismissing people who do not concur with his view of Astral Projection as people who dont beleivine in the concept he is lying. I do believe in "the concept of Astral Projection" just as much as I believe in "Coronation Street", but Im also smart enough to work out both are nothing more than fiction.

"Lucid dreaming is the correct term for 'consciously dreaming',"

Here Spangled Man is trying to make himself look like some kind of expert by telling us how to speak, well he's wrong both of the terms are acceptable to describe the phenomenon.

"dreams are usually about events that have happened to you during the day, you are likely to dream about sitting at your desk at work or walking down the street towards your house. These kind of dreams are the 'sorting out' dreams, where everything you have done is categorically filed away in your mind

For someone who attempts to tell others how to use language the writer has the common ability of such people to quickly show himself up by using language badly himself. Categorically - means irrefutably, anyone with a mind and who has everhad the well known sensatino called "a change of mind" will tell him that there is no such thing as "categorically" when it comes to thoughts and ideas...although I might have a dream that changes what I think about this


"These kind of dreams are the 'sorting out' dreams, where everything you have done is categorically filed away in your mind or sent to the recycle bin; hence when you wake up you can only really remember the parts of yesterday that affected you.

This is just nonsense. Ive had lots of dreams with no easily discernable link to my life and been able to remeber details of songs, poems and visons that have no clear bearing on my life what-so-ever. As for a "recycle bin" What is he on about? His microsoft inpired revelations is nothing of the sort humans have a huge capacity for memory but only variable control over recall. Somethings we remeber better than others but the brain does not have a recycle bin.


"There are three main stages that you will feel happening as you begin to leave your body:
You will begin to feel like you're moving, similar to being in a car. This is literally your inner self beginning to move out of your body."

Erm no it is not. It is your mind being more conciously aware of your sense of balance organs as you make a concious effort not to concentrate on your other sensory receivers such as sight and hearing. You get the sensation of floating because you perceive the inputs that you dont normally conciously noticed in much more magnified sense.


"The next thing you'll notice are lights and colours in front of your eyes. This is just the transition into the astral world.

Wrong again. It is just the normal function of the human eye and brain. Try looking at a bright light and then close your eyes for a while you wil see a slowly dimming halllo tye picture of the previous sight but slowly you will begin to see little coloured lights, but you are not moving into a parralel universe you are just experienceing something normal but which is not normally focused on.

"The final stage gets a bit bizarre! You will actually hear voices of people either coaxing you on or telling you to stop. If you get to this point then you've pretty much achieved astral projection. Whatever the voices say just ignore them as they will act as a distraction and you'll be back to square one

What is really bzarre is that these voices spek in a language that Spangled man can understand. Maybe the entity that these voices eminate from has a special power due to being in the paralel astral world and can tell what language to adress people in or it could all just be in his own head?

Spangled man also tells us about his body feeling heavy and slowly reaquainting yourself with our body when you come bcak from the astral plane. Sensations more than adequately explained by scientist who have systematically studied sleep. It is infact the case that while going into sleep and waking the body is disconnected from voluntary impulses from the brain. This feels odd when you are aware of it usually in a the few last moments of being awake or last minuets of sleeping before waking. It give rise to the sensation of running without moving or screaming but making no sound. Disturning and scary as they may be they are much better than the alternative which is sleep walking and talking in your sleep.

Im not debunking spangled mans entry out of malice. Id like to be able to use methods like the ones he mentions to give sight to the blind etc... but the truth is that a lot of such paranormal ideas are justa pearl of fancy layered onto a tiny grain of truth. People who spend their times pursuing such nonesense are wasting their times and their mental capacity which could be used to do things that a really useful.

one love

Such cold clear cut scientific logic.

We have been brainwashed not to listen to our instincts and look at the world in a logical, scientific, no-nonsense manner; If astral projection is another talent of the human being, do you think the 'authorities'/ controlling powers throughout the world want everyone to switch off their TVs and stop spending money on the latest must have and sit quietly and meditate to far off lands? Of course not! We live in a material world, fueled by capitalism, money is power etc etc..

It is said that in the centre of the brain is the pineal gland which is the mechanism for this 6th sense, or 3rd eye. The name comes from the pine cone after it's resemblance of one. Why is there a large 'statue' of a pine cone in the Vatican? The pine cone can be found in almost every religion, there is also a pine cone on the Pope’s Staff.........
Interpret how you will, everyone has their own beliefs.

Indeed we do all have different beliefs.

You for instance seem to think that this whole pine cone business is something to seriously think about. Something worth thinking about because there's a statue of one in the Vatican, because the pine cone symbolism appears in religious symbolism across the globe. So upon this peer pressure you base your views and try to suggest that Ive been "brainwashed" to think in certain ways.

Something doesnt add up in all this and its your idea that the part of our brain of corresponding to the pine cone is the key to all this astral travel malarky. Well Im guessing that you've disected a human brain yourself...or at least seen one being diessected...at the very least looked at pictures in a respected book you'd find in a library (and not just in a home printed pamphlet handed out by a hippies).

What doesnt add up is that in your first sentence you reject the notion that scintific explanations are the only sound ones with which to know ourselves and the universe then without any irony at all accept the finding of science that thinking takes place in the brain.

I keep being told that Ive been brain washed by people that just dont seem to realise that brain washing is a good thing as it gets rid of some of the smellier rubbish out there that some people parade as knowledge.