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Will We Need A New Definition Of The “Astral Plane”?

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Historically the higher dimensions have until now been referred to as Astral Planes which goes back to Plato and Aristotle. In the nineteenth century it was redefined by the Theosophist and C. W. Leadbeater who conducted joint investigations into the nature of the Astral and Mental Planes. Though the subject of man’s survival after death and his ability to move out of the body into a parallel universe has always been looked upon as something of a mystic or occult phenomena related more to religion and superstition than to reality. The gap between nineteenth century positivistic science which clearly defined the world in terms of its external relationships and occultism which tried to understand reality via an inner awareness has been insurmountable. Science never looked kindly upon occultism. Concepts such as an Astral or Mental Plane were simply regarded as a fanciful mystical or religious idea. Because of its heritage a terminology such as “Astral Plane” doesn’t sit easily with modern science, although the Astral Planes are nothing other than the multidimensional universe as hypothesized in current string theories.

As twenty-first century scientific fields converge further, rendering their dividing lines increasingly hazy, it is important to align investigations into consciousness and multidimensional realities with the terminology of science. As soon as scientists researching into consciousness and the workings of the mind begin to look to their quantum physicists colleges for new input in order deal with such paradoxical phenomena as lucid dreaming and Out-Of-Body projection, it will become important to agree on a common language. The words “Astral Plane” and “Astral Travel” are a throwback to nineteenth century mysticism and now totally inappropriate.

We are not only dealing with multiple dimensions when out of the body, but also with multiple states of consciousness, which appear to be inseparable from our other dimensional experiences.

As an increasing number of scientists experience Out-Of-Body and Lucid Dream phenomena (which may well be a result of our increased exposure to the accelerated flow of information), they will be looking to established sciences first to find explanations.

In my experience we are not only dealing with multiple dimensions when out of the body, but also with states of consciousness, which are intricately interwoven with other dimensional experiences. This makes it very difficult to explain the phenomena in a traditional scientific framework. I am somewhat relieved to be viewing my experiences as an artist and as such I feel more aligned to poetry and aesthetics than to scientific discipline, which I believe, gives me the freedom to think out of the box and explore phenomena encountered with a kind of unprejudiced mind.

It will be the most creative scientists who will reap the greatest benefit from their out-of-body excursions, as they become aware of what a powerful information mining tool they have unearthed. Information which can lead to astonishing breakthroughs in all fields of science and can potentially be of immense commercial value. It is this which sooner or later will usher in a new race between the competing economic powers. Inevitably the discovery of a more fail safe way of entering an Out-Of-Body or lucid dream state will be searched for, instead of meditation, focusing techniques or drugs. Such a discovery will be on par with the discovery the DNA.

From then on, harvesting the information buried in an almost infinite subconscious, which is exponentially larger than the physical universe, will put mankind at the dawn of an evolutionary leap, which will put the most inventive science fiction novel to shame.

Already progress has been made in creating images from brainwave pattern, which are a first steps in recording images directly from the brain. Science of the future will undoubtably go a whole step further and will endeavour to enable us to broadcast moving images from a parallel dimension via Out-Of-Body travellers.

Far fetched? Seasoned OOB-travellers will find it hard to be convinced that what they experience is less real than what they experience in their physical reality, especially when the experience is of a much higher sense of awareness and clarity of consciousness than experienced in waking physical life..

In a recent article in New Scientist it is indicated that it could soon be possible to induce Lucid Dreams (which many OBEers regard as a launching platform into super dimensional reality). It should then be possible to design and conduct shared experiments and verify the phenomena via more traditional scientific methods.

Our twentieth century ways of thinking may very well soon appear as the last dying cognitive habits of Neanderthal man.

For now we will have to lay new groundwork for the new sciences of consciousness and the higher dimensions which are intricately linked, by gathering reports and take note of the experienced phenomena to find some kind of consensus. It will not be possible to research into our multidimensional universe without changing our thinking and eventually evolve it to a higher level of consciousness. Our twentieth century thinking will appear as the last dying cognitive habits of Neanderthal man. A new illuminated mindset will have to be developed in order to penetrate deeper into the undisclosed mysteries of our multidimensional universe, a  thinking which merges with the object of enquiry and looks from the inside out, an atomic identification which unfolds as if follows the natural mechanics of the object of enquiry.

In a Sunday Times Article from the 13th of June 2010 Lord Rees of The Royal Society suggests that “...that the inherent intellectual limitations of the human brain mean we may never resolve questions such as the existence of parallel universes, the cause of the big bang, or the nature of our own consciousness.”

We appear to have reached the limits of our physical brain, which deals mainly in semantics. In exploring higher states of consciousness we will find ourselves in a position to leave these limited methods of research behind us. We will enter a new innovative and intuitive way of understanding, utilising spontaneous awareness of reality without the cumbersome burden of logic and analytical thought. Alongside it new ways of communication will be developed making ample use of our right brain hemisphere and eventually embracing non-verbal forms of communication, although this will take time to evolve.

It is easy to see how this will revolutionise our society in every aspect from education, parenting, morality, science, technology, communication, economics and culture.

Jurgen Ziewe

http://www.multidimensionalman.com/Multidimensional-Man/Astral_Plane_vs_science_of_consciousness.html