Discourse on the Astral Light. Electronic version ISBN Astral means "starry," and was used both by ancient and medieval Notions of space and time, magnitude and position, and density and force might be entirely different. is one form of the quest for the philosopher's stone, the great magic agent.
Table of contents
- Robin G. Howard
- Chapter 17 The Astral Plane and Its Inhabitants--Spooks, Elves, Vampires, etc
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- The Astral Plane.
- The Astral Light
Such things as weather, storms, and earthquakes also stand in need of the astral light to complete the explanation. Science may assign meteorological phenomena to a number of secondary causes, such as convection currents in the atmosphere, deflected by the earth's rotation; and they may trace them farther back to magnetic conditions, and even to fluctuations in the magnetic field caused by what goes on upon the sun. A knowledge of the astral light enables us to carry the chain of causation a step farther.
Moreover it supplies a link between the mental and moral atmosphere of mankind and the terrestrial phenomena which are so often suspected of being related to them. Earthquakes are attended by various mechanical phenomena, such as subsidences and the slipping of faults; but it is at least an open question whether these should be regarded as causes or as effects. Besides it is well known that most animals and some human beings can feel the approach of an earthquake before it happens. If the earth is a vast globe, subject to continual contraction through loss of heat, the great wonder is that it remains as still as it does; and we wonder if it is not perhaps held still.
The theosophical teaching is that the astral light is subject to tensions, caused by the thoughts and emotions of mankind; and that such tensions find sudden relief, thus agitating the crust of the earth. As to meteorological phenomena in general, it is obvious that, however many physical causes we may assign to them, they are still left in the category of "chance. Earthquakes occur most frequently in particular regions, but it is natural that when anything is shaken it should give way in its weakest spots, where the rocks are displaced or broken or where there is a dynamical tension due to inequality of pressure.
There should nowadays be enough machinery at the disposal of science, in the way of sunspots and electromagnetic influence, to carry the explanation of earthquakes a step farther than mere mechanism; but still there would be a lack of links to connect them with mental and moral phenomena. We have spoken of the need for the astral light in order to give a scientific explanation of nature, of the impossibility of explaining evolution without it, and of its role in showing the connection between human acts and the results which we reap from them.
We have now to show how necessary the idea is for a rational understanding of history. In history, as elsewhere, the current views may be roughly divided into the theistic and the rationalistic.
According to the former it is Providence which directs events; the latter seeks to represent history as a causal chain in which past events determine future events, or as a kind of evolution. It is very evident that, if history were such a chain of cause and effect, with no influence entering it from without, it would resemble a stream slowly winding down hill, and could not possibly rise to any higher source. The Providence idea is much the better of the two; without Providence we must fain introduce vague unknown influences grouped under the word "chance," a word which is merely a confession of ignorance.
History is the complex drama of human souls, each one growing and evolving, and all interacting with one another, the whole movement being fed by a continual fount of inspiration from within each individual. And the most potent effects are seen to be produced by a comparatively few individuals of extraordinary power, who give birth to new ideas, initiate movements, inaugurate new eras of thought, becoming the center of groups and passing on their work to their followers.
But what we are considering in this place is the function of the astral light in the historical process. Thoughts mold events, but the astral light is the medium between thoughts and events. Hence the action of thoughts on events is not immediate and direct. The astral light acts as a great storer and accumulator, receiving impress from thoughts, and gradually transmitting that impress to events.
As each individual bears about with him his character in the form of habits impressed upon his own astral substance by his past thoughts and acts, so on the large scale there are national characters and racial characters, due to deep impressions in the astral light and these may be called habits on the large scale.
The tremendous force and fixity of such habits — or fashions, prejudices, or racial characters — is well known. In what do they inhere? What answer can science give? The intimate biological study of heredity has given us a notion of germ-cells handed on from generation to generation, whose function it is to preserve the type amid temporary variations. Here then we have a ghost of an explanation, but the germ-cell is a very small apex upon which to balance so great a weight; at best it is a detail in the process. These tendencies inhere in nature's great storehouse, the astral light.
It surrounds the earth like a mighty atmosphere in which we all live.
Robin G. Howard
Each race and nation has its own astral light, and the whole of humanity has its astral light. This stores up impressions tenaciously and enduringly, and it takes a great deal to change them. How else explain the well-nigh indelible characteristics of nations, lasting through the centuries and handed on with every succeeding generation? We are all born into such a ready-made atmosphere, and it takes a strong individual character to contend against it and modify its influence. Many unaccountable happenings in history find ready explanation in this way.
Take for instance the famous gunpowder plot in the reign of James I of England. Historians are at a loss to explain why a group of gentlemen of excellent character should incontinently decide to blow up the king, the royal family, and the whole of the House of Lords, House of Commons, and various government executives in one vast massacre, which would have left the nation at the mercy of mob law and might well have brought the separate national existence of England to an end; and should have actually placed the powder and stationed the desperado with his matches, only to be thwarted at the last moment by what seemed a mere accident.
What influence could make people depart so far from their natural character as to commit an atrocity of such unparalleled magnitude? The answer is found in the state of the human mind in those times. Europe was mad over religious controversies; France was split into rival creeds, bent on mutual extermination — the massacre of St.
The infection had spread to England. It was what we should call a "psychic wave. From time to time the astral light grows surcharged with influences from human thoughts; and as nature tends ever to restore equilibrium, relief is found in violent outbursts or psychic cataclysms, which are strictly analogous to epidemics of disease. The immediate consequences are disturbing, but the result is purification. It is not to be supposed that there is any world, any plane of great nature, not inhabited and peopled with living beings, even as is our own familiar physical plane.
The whole universe teems with living beings, appropriate to their particular spheres. If human beings such as we could not live on the planets, this is no reason for inferring that there are no humans at all there; and the same with the other planes of nature. As physical beings live on the physical plane, so astral beings live on the astral plane, adapted to their habitat as we are to ours.
It must, however, be confessed that this is a ticklish subject to deal with, and one of which it may be said with some truth that ignorance is bliss. For, as has been said, we are mercifully protected by our physical bodies from too close contact with the pernicious influences of the lower astral light, and to remove that protection prematurely is to court disaster.
Yet on the other hand, knowledge may protect; so we must try to hold a just balance between these opposite maxims. To direct people's attention to pernicious astral denizens may be equivalent to encouraging them in the very thing they ought to avoid; for the morbid imagination of weak people may conjure up hobgoblins that have no existence outside that imagination, and cases of obsession are much better cured by a diversion of attention to healthy pursuits than by a morbid introspection or psychoanalysis of the slums of consciousness.
Nevertheless it is of benefit to know that many of the impulses which we dignify by attributing them to ourselves may be actually the result of evil promptings from entities which are not ourselves at all but merely intrusive elements. It will place us on our guard and enable us to defeat them by taking our stand firmly on our own selfhood. Following the disintegration of the physical body, there is a temporary survival of the astral and lower psychic parts of the human constitution; and that in some cases this may persist for a long while, perpetuating its life by vampirizing the living, such contact being caused by weakness and intemperance in the living, or perhaps inadvertently courted through spiritualistic practices or dabbling in "psychism.
So here is one kind of denizen of the lower astral light. The existence of earth-bound spirits, ghosts, larvae, etc. Intercourse with such creatures is harmful both to them and to us, for they should be allowed to die out naturally and not be kept in an unnatural existence. Next we may consider that class of beings known by such names as elementals, fairies, nature spirits, nymphs, etc. It is found that classical antiquity believed in nymphs, dryads, and other beings inhabiting rivers, mountains, forests, trees, etc.
This kind of belief is called animism by our "wise men," and defined as the practice of attributing life to nonliving things. But these wiseacres have put the cart before the horse. It is they who have attributed inanimation to living things. The ancient and popular view is right. Everything in the universe is a living being of one kind or another. To the ancients a tree was a living soul, which they called a dryad or some similar name; the visible tree was merely the outer garment of this living being. The dryad did not inhabit the tree, but was the tree. So with other nature spirits; the astral light is the home of these beings, all of whom are on the path of evolution, each in its appropriate stage.
It would be absurd to limit the number of kinds of animate beings to those alone who happen to be on the plane of physical matter. But this is a large subject and we must leave its special treatment for another occasion. As for elementals, no physical action can take place without them; they constitute a necessary factor among those components which contribute to the performance of an action, and are represented in science by gaps which have to be provisionally filled by words of vague meaning, like "force" or "affinity. A more suitable expression would be the dispositions, instincts, or proclivities of matter.
For mind lies behind all, and physical phenomena are merely the expression of mental states. Hence there must be in the astral world the elementals of all actions in the physical world. When we hum a tune we create an elemental, which is quite apt to worry us by insisting on being sung at inappropriate moments; as though we were haunted by a fly settling on us. This little illustration will suggest fruitful thought as to the nature of habits.
Our actions generate elementals, endowed with our own vitality and tending to come again to repeat themselves and to be revitalized. Thus we get an idea of an elemental as a being which can only do one thing, and whose whole life consists in doing that thing over and over again. If this is not a good explanation of habits, we should always be ready to hear of a better. Since the astral light teems with influences put there by human thoughts and emotions, and since there is constant reaction of the astral light upon human beings, then it follows that the astral light must play a very important part in determining human conduct considered as a society.
The appearance of epidemics of disease simultaneously in widely separated regions is but imperfectly accounted for by the theory of minute germs transported by people or blown on high air currents. And even so, we have still to explain the origin of such epidemics, whose incidence is so little connected with physical events and so unpredictable that we can only fall back upon such weak words as "chance" and "casual.
A familiar analogy is provided by physical science. We cannot transmit a sound wave through the air from Europe to America, but we can transform that sound wave into radio waves, then transmit them, and then reconvert them into sound waves. Similarly, epidemics may be transmitted, and their transmission explained by regarding them as being conveyed on astral currents and reproduced as physical diseases elsewhere.
But apart from physical epidemics there are astral epidemics, or perhaps we should say psychic epidemics; and in the case of these also the usual physical explanations do not suffice to explain all the facts. The propagation of such epidemics is of course greatly increased by word of mouth and the influence of the press, but these material means will not explain all the phenomena; for we find waves of opinion, emotion, enthusiasm, sudden crazes, appearing without assignable cause in widely separated places at the same time.
History furnishes us with strange instances of epidemic hysterias, and in the present day we may find great religious revivals sweeping over countries, or a war fever spreading over the world. What is called crowd or mass psychology is well known and shows the existence of something which is much more than the mere sum-total of the minds of the component individuals, for these individuals are swept away against their own judgment.
It has been said that "thoughts are things," and it is true. Ideas float into our mind, and we cannot tell where they come from; we work them over in our mind, and they pass from us, we know not whither. Of course there is a constant interchange of thoughts between people, and thought-forms are passing on currents in the astral light, like objects floating in water; we suck them in, and pass them out again in modified form. And not merely thoughts, but emotions — or, better still, thought-emotions; currents of energy which cause emotions in us and prompt to action.
Which of us can claim to be master of his thoughts and emotions, immune against influences coming from an unseen source, able to stand independent of this general atmosphere in which we are immersed? Truly, our individual separation grows thin when we think of this thought-atmosphere which we all share, from which we receive, and to which we give. And think of the responsibility which is on each one of us! No person can sin alone; the privacy of his thoughts cannot shield him from guilt. A thought is an act, and every act produces consequences. As they drifted close to us my friend put forth his will-force and captured one, which then remained floating in mid air.
Presently I shall show you an experiment with this astral form, but first observe that being such as it is, it is fresh and full of the animal life of the earth plane, and has not the collapsed appearance of those you saw before, which had once contained a soul and which were there in a state of rapid decay yet. And mark this carefully: Astral forms must draw their life from a higher source from soul germs in fact , or they soon cease to exist and crumble away.
These magnetic life currents are of a more etherealized degree than those known to scientific mortals, being in fact their spiritual counterpart, and as such they act upon these cloud masses of human atoms in the same way that electricity acts upon the freezing moisture upon a window pane, forming them into the semblance of men and women as the electricity forms the freezing moisture into a likeness of trees, plants, etc. I say animal life as applied to those types which are lower than man. I cannot show them to you now, because your powers of sight are not yet fully developed, and also because we are traveling too rapidly to enable me to develop them for you, but some day I shall show you these, as well as many other curious things relating to the astral plane.
Chapter 17 The Astral Plane and Its Inhabitants--Spooks, Elves, Vampires, etc
I may tell you that atoms may be classed under different heads, and that each class will have a special attraction for others of its own kind; thus vegetable atoms will be attracted together to form astral trees and plants, while animal atoms will form into the semblance of beasts, birds, etc. In some cases, where the human beings from whom the atoms come are very low in the scale of humanity and nearly akin to animals, their atoms will blend with those of the lower forms of life and create grotesque horrible creatures which resemble at once animals and men, and having been seen by clairvoyants in a semi-trance condition are described as nightmare visions.
These astrals being, as I have said, created from the cloud masses of human atoms, and never having been the envelope of any soul, are very little more permanent in their nature than the frost flowers on a window pane, unless the power of some higher intelligence acts upon them to intensify their vitality and prolong their existence. Astral atoms, whether of trees, plants, animals, or human beings, must not be confounded with the true spirit or soul-clothing atoms which constitute the real spirit world and its inhabitants. Astrals of every kind are the intermediate degree of materiality between the gross matter of earth and the more etherealized matter of the spirit world, and we talk of a soul clothed in its astral envelope to express that earth-bound condition in which it is too refined or immaterial for earth existence, and too grossly clad to ascend into the spirit world of the higher spheres, or to descend to those of the lower.
In the case of a soul whose desires are all for higher things, the link is soon severed and the astral envelope soon decays, while with a soul of evil desires the tie may last for centuries and chain the soul to earth, making it in fact earth-bound. In some cases the astral of a soul of very evil life will have absorbed the lower or higher spheres. But see to what use it can be turned when acted upon by my will power and animated for the time being by my individuality.
These astrals, however, are only capable of being made use of upon the astral plane. They could not move any material object, although they would be visible to material sight at the will of the mortal using them. There are other astrals more material in substance who could be used to penetrate into the earth itself and to bring forth its hidden treasures, the precious metals and the gems deeply buried from the eyes of men.
It would not, however, be lawful or right for me to explain to you the power by which this could be done, and those magicians who have discovered and made use of such powers have sooner or later fallen victims to those powers they could summon to their aid but rarely continue to control. You will, therefore, see how the idea has arisen that men on earth, in seeking to see their departed friends, draw the spirits back into earthly conditions and do them harm. Many an ignorant spirit who is good and pure himself, has committed the mistake of relating himself in one of these fresh astral shells when he would have turned away from those which he knew to have been left by another spirit, and has found to his cost that he has thereby made of himself a prisoner upon the earth plane, till a higher intelligence comes to his aid and releases him.
To a spirit above the astral plane an astral envelope appears almost as solid as iron, but to one below it these fragile shells are like a cloud or vapor. The lower the soul the stronger is its envelope and the more firmly does it hold the soul, limiting its powers and preventing it from rising into a more advanced sphere. A spirit above the earth plane, anxious to show himself to a clairvoyant of the lowest or first degree of power, will sometimes enter one of these shells which he at once stamps with his identity, and in that way the clairvoyant will truly see and describe him.
The danger lies in the fact that when the good spirit of limited knowledge seeks to leave again the astral shell, he finds he cannot do so; he has animated it and its strong life holds him prisoner, and it is often difficult to release him. In similar manner the too complete, too long continued control of an earthly medium by a spirit, has been found to create a link between them which becomes at last a chain. To a spirit of the lowest spheres an astral envelope is but a convenient, all too evanescent cloak with which to hide his own degraded spirit body, and thus impose upon clairvoyants unable to see the vile spirit underneath; but to a good and pure spirit the astral envelope is as a suit of iron capable of imprisoning him.
You must know by this time how wonderfully the thoughts of mortal men and women are mirrored upon the atmosphere of the astral plane, and as pictures they can be read and answered by spirits possessing the knowledge of how to read them. All spirits have not the power, just as all men and women on earth are not able to read a newspaper or a letter. It requires intellect and education with us as with those on earth. The spirits, then, of which men should most beware are not so much the poor ignorant half developed spirits of the earth plane and lower spheres, whose degraded lives have made them what they are and who are often glad of a helping hand to raise them, but it is of the intellectually evil, those who have great powers alike of mind and body and who have only used them for wrong purposes.
They are like ignorant chemists and liable to bring destruction and harm upon others as well as on themselves in their experiments in search of knowledge. This good and wise spirit guardians do in a great measure, but if the children are continually hovering near the danger, and try at all sorts of odd times and fashions to get just another peep at the dangerous thing, it is impossible but that some of them will get scorched. I would have all men use the powers of those who have been carefully developed under wise guardians, and I would have all assisted to cultivate them who are truly anxious to develop their powers as a means of doing good to others.
But when you consider how manifold and how selfish may be the motives of those mediumistically endowed, you will see how exceedingly difficult it would be to protect them. Perhaps my ideas are colored by the circumstances of race and my earthly education, but I confess I should wish to limit the practice of mediumship to those who have proved their readiness to give up more material advantages for its sake. I would, in fact, rather see them set apart as a body who have no share in the ambitions of mankind.
But enough of our discussion. I am now about to let this astral shell go and draw your attention to another type of the same class. As he spoke he made a swift upward motion with his hands over it and uttered some words in an unknown language, whereupon the astral--which had hitherto floated on beside us--stopped and seemed to waver about for a few seconds until an advancing current of magnetism caught it, and it was swept away from us like a piece of driftwood upon the waves.
As I turned from watching it I saw a small cluster of dark, weird, horrible looking forms approaching us. Also, this book is not a recapitulation or even summary of the extensive documen- tation which exists in my two prior books. Moreover, a nearly page book of government documents and tran- scripts of over 60 top- secret witness testimonies to official government projects and events is available in "Disclosure".
These books may be obtained at www. It is time for one chapter in human history to close and another to open. Do we have the courage to embrace this new world, the hallmarks of which are univer- sal peace, enlightenment, and a genuinely high technology civilization on earth that is sustainable for thousands of years? The retrograde forces that are attempt- ing to hijack humanity to a time of war in space, global destruction, environmental ruin and cultural insani- ty must be supplanted, through the courageous acts of others, with an entirely new way of being.
It is time for you to know - and for all of us to act. For it is only through the collective actions of those who yearn for the good future that awaits humanity that we can leap across the abyss of impending destruction and secure a world ready to take her place among the cultures of the cosmos, enlightened and at peace.
The first of these illuminates the events that set the stage for all to follow; it covers my childhood through early adult life, up to The third part moves into the future, gazing into a time when the fulfillment of the promise of humanity will be realized - a time that will endure for , years.
In order to first give you a frame of reference, I'll share some important statistics. In , the world community eradicated smallpox off the face of the earth. The World Health Organization predicts that by the end of , we will reach the last remote villages of Africa and Asia and we will wipe out Polio. These are accom- plishments that should bring much gratification to us all as citizens of this world. Yet, it is with restrained joy that I celebrate these feats. Because, sadly, by the time you read the first chapter of this book approximately 1 5 minutes , the fol- lowing will happen: It is all connected to control, power, religious ideology, and greed.
We know that the technologies have existed for many years to alleviate Small-Pox and Polio much earlier, plus the diseases I mentioned above, as well as other ills that plague the world community We know that technologies have been around that can supply the world with an abundance of energy without using up our valuable natural re- sources. Unfortunately, the people who have access to these technologies have not shared them with us. I mention this not to depress you, but because it is a reality Yet it is a reality that can be changed. It's all you'll need. The verbal wrangling between myself — Dr.
Steven Greer - and a press agent, proved worthwhile on May 9, She kept her word, and my instinct proved to be on target! We watched the ball- room fill to capacity: The witnesses had stepped forward to relate their personal experiences with ex- traterrestrial vehicles ETVs; akaUFOs and extraterrestri- al life forms.
This information has been kept secret from the masses for years. It was also a milestone in my personal journey, having moved from a career as an emergency room doctor living inAsheville, N. C into anew role - the unlikely cou- rier of a message that is insisting to be heard. It was one more step along the sometimes rocky path I'd stumbled upon as a nine-year old playing on the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina.
A sunny afternoon in saw me out roaming with the usual group of neighbor- hood urchins. We were typical Southern kids, wandering about in search of all manner of adventure - something to build, or see, or take home. Little were we pre- pared for what suddenly appeared in the southwest sky: It was seamless, totally silent - and unlike any- thing we'd ever seen. After hovering for a short time, it instantly van- ished. We felt this was something truly unusual. My family, predictably, passed off the incident as a childish musing.
But my cohorts and I knew we'd seen something way beyond the ordinary It was my first encounter with an "ETY" the term used by the National Security Agency for extra- terrestrial vehicles, also commonly known as UFOs. Since that day, my sense of connection to that spacecraft has endured. Events over the next few weeks strengthened the tie: I experienced a series of lucid dreams and night encounters with beings who were not from the Earth.
Because I was sim- ply a young boy I was able to take it "all in stride" - it seemed a natural result of the incident with my three friends. I believe the ETs were focused on instilling in me an awareness and acceptance of things beyond the world I could see. My in- nocence allowed me to view this without prejudice, although I didn't speak pub- li- cly about it due to the potential ridicule until a few years ago. But this early connection was life-altering. It was clearly the dawning of a larger search for truth that grew stronger as I matured.
My interest and curiosity about these matters intensified, although I didn't have another direct ET encounter for years. Until around the age of twelve, I would collect relevant articles from such magazines as "True", "Argosy" and "Life" as well as books about UFO encounters, and accumulated a large stash in my closet!
The idea of knowledge of people from other planets enthralled me, and fed into the sense of wonder and joy I felt when looking at the night sky Fear never entered my mind - it seemed as comfortable as home. So my approach to the idea of extra- terrestrials was that their existence is understood, or a "given," and that these be- ings are aware of our evolution on earth. This sense of familiarity with the great 17 expanse of creation has always induced a sense of joy and peace, even as a pre- schooler.
When out in nature, I gained this sense of something awake and divine beyond everyday existence. I believe there was always something, like a hand on my shoulder, helping and guiding me toward a perception of awakeness, a myste- rious conscious presence that would open to me when I looked at the sky or played out- doors. There is a Persian expression: Father was half Native American, his mother a Cherokee.
But I was raised in a family that was extremely troubled. Children from such difficult backgrounds generally follow one of two life paths: I took the latter course, through the grace of God and the intervention of the seen and unseen world. In reality, I have perhaps never known of a more traumatic, dysfunctional family situation than ours. Most people are unaware of this back- ground; they see me as a successful physician and public figure albeit somewhat eccentric at times! As a young adult, I once attended the movie "Mommy Dearest" with my twin sis- ter. Afterward, we looked at each other and said, "My God, that would' ve been the best day of our childhood!
Because of parental alcoholism, and home conditions that often attend it, we children also lived with elements of abandonment, neglect and abuse. I remember, as a little pre-schooler, eating cigarette ashes, sand, and dirt when nothing else was around.
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As a medical doctor, I now realize this was at least providing some of the mineral supplements my body needed: I was frequently very sick, especially every win- ter, with terrible pneumo- nias and bronchitis. My lungs still have scar tis- sue from those bouts. However, blessings often become apparent through hardship. The challenges made me one tough bird! Any bitterness I might have har- bored from childhood has dissipated through the realization that this made me strong - a survivor.
By the time I reached high school, I vowed to take hold of my life and turn it around, and did. Through some of those years I was actually self-supporting, with my own apart- ment. I held down a job in a local restaurant, working each night until 1: I managed to main- tain an A grade average, becoming an Honor Society student involved in numerous school activities. My budding sense of responsibility extended to my three sisters.
I often unin- tentionally referred to them as "my daughters", so strong was my protective, car- ing instinct for them. Having parents who were anti- role models, I learned how not to do things. The challenges brought the realization that we all create our own future, and transcending the limitations of birth, poverty, abuse, or any other hard- ship is possible through the exertion of human will. I was far too busy during high school to become enthralled with the stuff of pop culture that absorbed many teenagers from the late '60s through early '70s.
I sim- ply didn't have access to the luxuries most middle class kids took for granted, and basic survival was a constant preoccupation. Carousing with drugs and alcohol was out of the question! Instead, I began to read the Vedas the ancient, sacred literature of India and study Sanskrit. On my own I learned about meditation and the concept of tran- scendence, which fit quite comfortably into my psyche. I'd been raised outside the confines of formal religion. My parents did not involve me in church as a child in fact, they were emphatically atheist.
The lack of attachment to an institutional doctrine left me open to ideas that might have been outside the comfort zone of someone growing up in a conventional religious tradition. The result is that I moved naturally into the realm of meditative experiences and higher consciousness, without tutoring from outside parties.
I taught myself prayer and meditation, from reading as well as direct experience. These pursuits, coupled with my school in- volvement in environmental and peace issues, created a new layer of experience and growth in conscious- ness for me. It was at this point the experience I now call "non-locality of consciousness" made itself known. When I could find free time, I loved to bicycle out into the countryside seeking this connection.
I'd lie in a field, and practice those techniques that had emerged from inside me. I'd find myself traveling to observe other parts of Charlotte, or to see other areas of the Earth, or going out into space and seeing it clearly This became routine. At the age of 15, a beautiful, unstoppable force was opening up inside of me, independ- ent of any sort of tradition.
It manifested completely from within. And then, in the spring of , 1 injured my left thigh. I had made plans to bi- cycle from Charlotte to the barrier islands on the North Carolina coast, a mile trip. I neglected the injury and went ahead with my plans, traveling the en- tire distance to the coast in one day, then returning to my small efficiency apart- ment, in Charlotte. A horrible infection developed in my leg, and spread through my body 19 I was so sick!
Because of a too demanding work and school schedule I was run down even before this happened. I was also poor, so seeing a doctor was out of the question. As a physician, now I know what happened to me: I became septic, which means my bloodstream was infect- ed, accompanied by a very high fever. There was also skeletal muscle break down, overloading my kidneys.
All these are potentially fatal symp- toms, and I was spiraling to that point: It brought me to a near-death experience, find- ing myself suddenly released from my body I was carried out into the depths of space, where I already felt at home. Then I experienced what I now understand to be God conscious- ness, where my indi- viduality became faint as it merged with the effulgent, unbounded, pure, infinite Mind. There was no duality. It lasted for what seemed to be an eternity because a normal sense of time disappears in that state of being.
I could see all of creation, the vastness of the cos- mos, and it was beautiful beyond words. There was nothing frightening about it - only infinite awareness, joy, and the perception of an endless perfect creation. Eventually, two brilliant, scintillating lights approached out of the stars. I now un- derstand them to be Avatars: They were not anthropomor- phic or anthropocentric, but appeared as brilliant points of light - pure, conscious energy These were the twin Avatars for our era.
As the Avatars approached me, I entered a state of oneness with them. It was in- credibly beautiful. Then there was a conveyance of knowledge in a pre-verbal form; before and beyond words. It's as if when you say "apple," within the word is the actual image of the apple, which could be astral a light form.
And within that conscious image is the pure idea form of the apple itself - its essence. That is how information was being transmitted to me. I have no sense of how long this union with God lasted. I was affect- ed by the beauty of it all, yet very overwhelmed at the same time. Eventually, the episode moved into more of a linear style of communication. One of the Avatars said, "You may come with Us or return to Earth. I would have been very happy to remain in that state of awareness, in that place of the place- less. But I somehow knew the highest response of human will is acceptance of the Divine will, and said, "Okay, then.
Then I sort of lost consciousness, and fell back into my body, just sort of whoosh.
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I was back in my body, but must have been out long enough to lose conscious connection with all of my neural centers, although my senso- ry input was working. I remember clearly, as if it's today, seeing the maple tree outside the little apartment, moving in the wind against a street light. But I couldn't move! I thought, "Oh, great. Here I am, back in this messed-up body, paralyzed. As it turned out, that was a temporary phenomenon. Today it is understood that in prolonged near-death experiences it takes some time to be reconnected to the physical body.
I then felt a being in the room sent there to test my will to live. It was somewhat frightening, but perhaps a necessary experience that forced me to use my willpower to remain here. There was this force that seemed to be pulling me back out. So I would go back out of my body and then return. I had to exercise volition to re- main in the physical body and keep my astral body of light and conscious body inte- grated with it. And after about half a dozen tries, I nailed it and remained here. I then became fully awake and regained my motor skills.
As they say in Britain, I was quite 'gob-smacked'! This experience altered my life like nothing before, changing everything I had been taught - that there was no Divine Being or conscious existence after the death of the body I now know from direct experience this is false. God does exist, as do His Messengers. For me, nothing would ever be the same. I'd learned that death is not to be feared, that, in fact, there is no death - only a transformation from one state into another.
As I got up and re-integrated with the world, I remained in this state of incredi- ble bliss, a rarefied state of higher consciousness where the unbounded quality of cosmic awareness, was still awake in me. Enclosed in a room, I could be infinitely aware at the same time. The mystics call this cosmic consciousness - a state I con- tinued to experience some time thereafter. Interestingly, my diseased leg spontaneously healed. I didn't see a doctor or re- ceive antibiotic medication during the entire episode.
I was hungry for any- thing that would give me an ability to experience higher conscious awareness at will. It appeared that the TM course would be the avenue to take. I quickly realized that without its ceremonial trappings, TM is a sim- pie process. It consists of sitting with a thought mantra or sound in order to transcend conscious, linear thought and move into unbounded aware- ness. Sitting next to my teacher, we began the technique.
What followed seemed bi- zarre to him, but felt normal to me. I entered complete tran- scendental conscious- ness - full samadhi. So I was there once more - in the state of cosmic awareness. It was very beautiful, and the technique worked for me so easily because the channel was already open, due to my near-death episode the previous March. The teacher looked at me afterward and said, "Ifcu went there, didn't you?
This opened up an even more extraordinary view of the world and of myself. I could now re-connect to the very pure state of Earth, nature, and divinity that ex- ist untainted by human corruption. I was rediscovering the purity and innocence of that awareness I had as a young boy, but understanding it more fully I left the following summer to attend Appalachian State University in Boone, N. I selected ASU based purely on its wilderness location in my beloved Blue Ridge Mountains, for which I have a deep affinity I believe this feeling comes from a ge- netic connection based on my Cherokee heritage.
I wanted to spend every moment possible out in those mountains, in every kind of weather, being totally connected like a spirit walker in nature. I was eager to practice my newly acquired meditation skills and to continue having the experi- ence of connecting with Divinity Thus, at the threshold of my adulthood, I'd gone from growing up in a home with no prayer - not even knowing about it or about 22 the experience of communion with God to experiencing cosmic consciousness.
I'd found all of this on my own. The absence of religious upbringing was actually a blessing in dis- guise. I think there's an inverse relationship between religiosity and spirituality, with only a few rare exceptions.
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- Too Far From Home: A Story of Life and Death in Space.
Having been spared the religiosity, I could simply search for the truth, without the baggage of embellished doctrines. What happened that fall was an extraordinary amplification of that near-death occurrence about six months earlier. I was on Rich's Mountain, about 5, feet above the town of Boone. At the top, there was a fire tower at the end of a gravel road that was closed at its base. One crystal clear afternoon, I decided to go to see the sunset from atop this mountain.
I reached the top in time to sit in meditation at sun- set. Before starting, I glanced towards the southwest and saw an extraterrestrial vehi- cle. It was some distance away, but was just like the one I had seen as a nine year old. For some reason, my reaction at that moment was, "It's them again" - and I didn't really think much more about it - I simply accepted the fact that they were here. Then the ship winked out, just like the one I'd seen years before.
I then began meditating and had a beautiful, deep experience in unbounded Mind. Afterward, I opened my eyes and it was pitch dark, with the stars all visi- ble. Imagine being at that altitude in the crystal clear dry air, viewing the Milky Way and countless stars! Standing there, suddenly a thought not my own came to mind: When I began the walk down, I noticed a glow off the edge of the mountain and sensed someone was there. Suddenly, on my right, an extraterrestrial biologi- cal life form appeared and touched my shoulder so firmly that it was like a strong finger touching me.
I looked down and saw the imprint on my jacket: Somewhat childishly, my first thought was, "What does this creature want with me? Its gender was male. He was quite peaceful and non-threatening, with beautiful, deer- like eyes. Then I suddenly found myself transported onto the craft. We were just out in space, sitting. I recall that the craft became completely translucent. It felt like I was floating in space with nothing around, as if the whole craft was made of fiber optics, and its shell could disappear.
Space was visible all around us. It appeared that we were there for one pur- pose; meditating to- gether They were interested in me because they wanted contact with a human being experiencing cosmic consciousness as we do, participating with them. At this point I taught them what that state is like for us. We shared it together - an incredible encounter, entire- ly different from stories usually circulated about extraterrestrial contact. It was a very non-local experience, with time, space, and relativity in a realm un- like what's normal for us.
The Astral Plane.
In that state of consciousness sec- onds, hours, or years no longer matter, because time and space have been transcended. This infinite eter- nity is the true nature of the mind, the awake self within all of us. While with these beings, we co-created a code for humans communicating with them. We utilized not only sounds and light but also non-local conscious- ness and directed, coherent thought to communicate with extraterrestrial beings and their electronic devices.
This was October of , during the time of the Yom Kippur war. It was clear to me that the ETs wanted humans to move beyond mutually as- sured destruction and into a peaceful civilization that could co-exist with space in harmony Earth needed to find people to be ambassadors for this objective. And so, I offered to do this, and to help teach the same to our fellow humans. Nothing more, just that. Then very suddenly I returned to a "regular" state of awareness and found my- self back on the gravel road near the fire tower, a little further down the path from my previous spot, but still at the top of the ridge.
I thought, "Oh, my God, how wonderful. Erwin Schrodinger was absolutely correct when he said the total number of minds in the universe is one. There is one conscious mind, and we are It. So, there are only one people in the universe, and we are they No 'alien' or human; just an unbroken, perfect, seamless conscious life in the universe, and we are all a part of it. I'm reminded of a saying from the Sufi tradition: We're not just this puny form. The entirety of the universe is folded within us. And that's really what I experienced with the ETs.
They know that the only chance for peace on Earth — never mind the cosmos — is for humans to understand there's no real difference amongst us. It doesn't matter 24 how we look- consider the variety in physical appearances that exists on Earth alone! What really matters is that within us lives the same singular light of con- sciousness, infinite, eternal and always present, whether we're open to it or not at any given moment in time.
It is the basis of our relationship with each other and with the uni- verse. This is enduring and eternal — and that is what we experienced in its absolute, purest form. It was beyond beautiful. And there was absolutely nothing frightening about it. It didn't matter that I was only They didn't care about such things as age, race, family of origin, or wealth.
They cared about the fact that I was pure- hearted enough to see the truth clearly and unattached to the materiality of this world. I could discern the universal aspect of teach- ings in various cultures that hu- mans have learned through the ages, because truth is one and the same in any lan- guage. What we created together that day proved that humans can be, each of us, connected to each other and to the unbounded awareness of the universe, but also to these other civilizations, if we simply understand the fact that we're awake.
If you are awake, reading this or hearing this right now, the awake-ness whereby you're hearing it is a singularity And it isn't divid- ed. We divide it into our own egos and intellect, but in reality, the light of awareness is the same in every being, in every star. And the entire cos- mos is suffused in this same light of Be- ing. There is this great Sun of awareness reflecting and refracting in everyone, yet still singular. So, if you return to that and if you experience it, none of these life forms seem far away or unusual-or alien - because they really are not.
There is really one people in the universe, and we are they There is a sin- gle conscious being shining in all of us. It can never be divided, no matter how much we try. We may want to divide it, but it's always one. It's always a singularity, always perfect. The extraterrestrial beings that are here understand this, because they cannot travel through interstellar space without understanding non-locality And understanding non-locality necessitates a high level of knowledge and en- lightenment.
In a real sense, then, the heart of compassion and the foundation of peace is found in the reality that we are all one. Without that experience, intellectualism is all that's left - and it never lasts. So, I came to realize at a rather young age that the world's problems are essentially spiritual, therefore the solutions must be spiritual as well.
And so it has turned out to be. I found myself back on the mountain under the beautiful, starry sky, only to expe- rience another strange phenomenon. I was perhaps yards further down the gravel road. As I started down the mountain, I found that with each step, I was in a state of near- weightlessness, as if walking on the moon! It was more like floating than walking. There was a strange, magnetic, anti-gravitational effect around me, making me lighter It wasn't a product of my imagination; my physical body was light. I was just happy as a lark! It was incredibly blissful. As I got closer to town, the phenomenon faded, and my weight returned to normal.
Upon reaching the little town of Boone, it looked so deserted I thought there had been a nuclear war! I thought it was about 9 or 10 o'clock at night - everything should have been open. Remember, it's a little college town up in the North Carolina mountains. I thought to myself, "What in the world is going on? I wonder if the Yom Kippur War got out of control and there was a thermonuclear war and I'm the last to know?
My cosmic experience had lasted three or four hours! After this amazing evening, I decided to practice all I had learned, taught and shared with the extraterrestrials. Every night before going to sleep, I would lie down and put myself in a meditative state. I would enter unbounded Awareness, then expand the sense of conscious mind around me, filling the room, knowing that it was omni-present. On the wings of that omnipresent sense of Awareness, I would expand upwards into space, seeing the stars and space, filled with the sense that it was awake.
And I was one with that awake-ness, which placed me out there, in space. Then I would send a thought like a beacon to the extraterrestrial beings, to an- nounce my presence. In a somewhat childlike way, I'd say, "I don't know if you remember me, but my name is Steve.
And here I am - let me show you where I am. In this higher state of consciousness I would turn it around, and instead of seeing outward into the vastness of space, look back - and show the ETs my location on earth. Then I would zoom in to show them my location in Boone, North Caro- lina; then to my exact spot in that building. And with that, I would fall asleep. For months my experiences were really quite extraordinary From October '73 onwards, there began an unprecedented wave of UFO sightings in those mountains.
I did this as a way of beta-testing the system, to see if what we had co-created and agreed upon on the ship would actually work. There were newspaper 26 reports of forest rangers seeing these huge ships hovering over the mountains, down in Shining Rock Wilderness to the south, and over in the Linville Gorge area. I continued to do this until one day, in the local paper, a story appeared about a guy driving nearby on a road outside Morganton, North Carolina. As ETVs travel, it was only seconds away from me. This boy, who looked a lot like me, was driving on that road, and the car suddenly stopped.
There was a ship hover- ing by the road, with an ET at the boy's window! The driver was completely freaked out. I saw this as an indirect way for the ETs to say, "You know, we're get- ting this.
I think, until I figure out what I'm supposed to do with this, this is enough. However, people need to understand why I gave up an established medical career - and the quarter-million dollars per year that came with it - to make known what I know to be true. Cer- tainly not because it's "only a theory"! While still in this state, asleep, I continued to have some kind of ongoing dia- logue with these extraterrestrial beings. My roommate told me quite some time later, that for a number of months he would awaken late at night, and would hear me speaking quietly in my sleep.
He said, "You were speaking, but with a language not of this world. Somehow, I was in a state of conscious- ness where I could connect to the language used by the ETs. And he was hearing that very clearly He said, "Absolutely, it was not an Earth language. In , 1 left the traditional college at Boone to enter teacher train- ing at Mahar- ishi International University in Iowa.
My experiences dur- ing the training there were really quite extraordinary, in part because I remained independent in terms of the institutional, dogmatic aspects of the group. However, there was an enor- mous amount of profound knowledge being discussed. I immersed myself in the study of the Vedas and the Sanskrit language. I was enormously impressed with the amount of knowledge in the Vedas - how the expe- rience of consciousness and universal awareness was articulated.
This experience enabled me to have a time and place to be completely dedicated to the development of higher states of consciousness. One of the most profound things I absorbed was the unfolding of the cosmology This came not so much from didactic learning as from direct experience, which 27 included the astral or causal thought realms and the realms of light. Once one understands the structure of creation and begins to experience it in detail, it becomes very understandable how people can have dreams of the future, alter their physical body to levitate, or to de-materialize and re-appear in another place.
All the things you've heard about in what are considered mythological stories or so-called miracles become more comprehensible. They are also completely attain- able by every single conscious human being. All beings will one day be capable of experiencing these things. The ability is our birthright- not just humans, but every conscious being in the universe.
We are all children of God and all of these gifts and states exist within each of us. That year, I began to have experiences that brought the infinite Being into this world. I could see a rock and know that it also contains pure awareness. Within the rock is the energy and the frequency of a light form, an astral form that gives it structure and its crystalline matrix form. And within that is the idea of it, and within the idea is the primal thought that created all things. And within that is pure, quiet conscious mind. In fact, the totality of everything is nothing but pure con- scious awareness, phasing, resonating and playing in different forms and in differ- ent ways.
Much of the knowledge that goes with this has to be realized from experience. The good news is that everyone, at some time in their life, has experienced that type of integration and oneness. They just have to remember it.
The Astral Light
My intention is to try to describe it in a way that will help you remember. If I could accomplish this from my personal background- having grown up with a total absence of exposure to the world of spirituality, then anyone can! As all of this began to unfold, I dedicated myself for a number of years to teaching meditation and higher states of consciousness.
During those years, I took an advanced course in the Catskills, in New York. On that retreat, I fasted and spent several hours a day in meditation, in a really beautiful, quiet state. Walking down a corridor, I would try to see what was around the corner. Almost every time, I would see what was there or who was com- ing. And I wasn't trying to guess until I got it right. It was like staying in a steady state of consciousness and actually seeing it. I practiced this a great deal. It became routine for me to be able to go to sleep and see a distant place or event, and know what was going to hap- pen the next day Now, this is no mystery, if you understand the omnipresent nature of conscious- 28 ness.
Because it is omnipresent, it is beyond the restrictions of time or space, which means that you can break those bonds through entering this state of aware- ness. And when you do, you will find yourself able to see things one isn't "supposed to be" able to see. Space and time are obliterated, and you are free to really see. One day during this retreat I wondered about some of the so-called siddhis or spiritual powers described in the Vedas.