Preparations for out of body travel

Question:

I'm not sure what you mean about "purification". I have read and have been told that one must be careful about astral projection because of the "evil" that may be encountered in the different planes of existence, and that you have to prepare and brace yourself with “guides.” Being brought up a Catholic, I have to admit this does scare me. Let's just say that developing psychic abilities was looked at as touching the "darker side" of life and the world of the devil.

I know that there are people that practice black magic—that does frighten me because I don't know if I would be able to recognize those people. The devil does show himself in all shapes and I don't really want to encounter him in all his glory or open doors that I won't be able to close. Perhaps the purification you speak of would arm someone with protection?

I just feel that our minds have the power to explore and visualize a lot more than we are now able to do. If we could develop that ability, the ability to grow spiritually, well then maybe our lives would be fuller.

Reply:

Purification is the process of facing and releasing fear, which is related to what eastern religions sometimes call identifying our suffering, so it is the process of bringing our darkness into the conscious mind so that it can be understood and healed.

Since we already astral project unconsciously, we are also already facing dark entities. But it is still important to be careful when cultivating this kind of consciousness, not because we will necessarily be exposed to greater dangers, but that we need to move slowly so we don’t get ahead of the transmutation process. We have to gently expose ourselves to the awareness of our own darkness; else we can become overwhelmed by it. It is for this reason that I don’t believe in consciously putting a lot of effort into inducing out of body travel. When you simply focus upon the purification aspect, and relinquish control to a higher power, the super conscious experiences will take place in the proper time. That way, we may add them into our lives while maintaining an emotional balance.