The astral ”dream state” can evolve spontaneous, or evolve out of a lucid dream (see my article What are lucid dreams and lucid dreaming?). In an astral ”dream state” you know, that you lie in the bed in this chamber and are sleeping, alternatively dreaming. In the lucid state you know, that you are dreaming, while you are dreaming. But you dont know, that this happens, while you in fact lie sleeping in your bed. However in the astral state you also know, that you lie in your bed sleeping. The sleeping body, the bed and the room is included in the astral ”dream state”. The consciousness is often located outside the body, observing the sleeping body from outside (read more about the astral plane in my article Paranormal phenomena seen in connection with spiritual practice).
The temptation to here, either to become afraid, or experiment with various possibilities (astral travels, clairvoyance, telepathy etc. etc.) is huge. You are suddenly Peter Pan. It is a very forceful state. The creativity and the reality creating ability are much more free than in the lucid dream state. However you are still on the plane of the collective images of time, which work in sequences in past and future, and there is danger for, either that you remain here, in the fascination and the enthusiasm, whereby your spiritual development stops, or that you directly end up in a spiritual crisis (see my article Spiritual Crises as the cause of paranormal phenomena).
In spiritual practice the most appropriate is to use the astral state to begin to practice the continuous supporting exercises (I have developed these in my book Meditation as an Art of Life – a basic reader). For example you can centre the astral consciousness in the Hara centre of the sleeping body, or in the heart centre.
If you as a sleeper remember to use such an opening spiritual seen correct, this can give your total development a considerably lift forward.
But in order to do this it is of vital important that you examine the nature of astral states. Let´s therefore look a bit further into it.
An aspect of lucid dreams is as mentioned the astral state: astral projection or astral travel (out-of-body experiences). In both ordinary and lucid dreams the dreamer, in the vast majority of cases, is not aware that, and where, the body lies and is sleeping. The astral state is characterized by, that the consciousness knows that the body is sleeping and can watch the sleeping body. The consciousness is here located outside the body, floating over the body in a not all too long distance. This consciousness is called the dream body.
Dalai Lama has this to say about awakening our dream body and using it for spiritual progress and development: "There is said to be a relationship between dreaming, on the one hand, and the gross and subdue levels of the body on the other. But it is also said that there is a 'special dream state.' In that state, the special dream body (the astral body) is created from the mind and from vital energy (prana) within the body. It looks like the physical body, but is of a finer and transparent substance. Through training it is possible to learn to send the dream body out of the body; it then works completely as an extension of the physical body, because the senses and the consciousness of the body seems to follow”.
This special dream body is in other words able to dissociate entirely from the gross physical body and travel elsewhere, and experience the astral worlds of the collective time.
So, the astral state of mind can implicate a so-called astral body, or a dream body, which is able to leave the physical body while it is sleeping. It is called astral travel, or astral projection, because it is a kind of projection of the mind, which goes out over the borders of the five senses, though these also seem to follow. With this astral body you can travel elsewhere, both on earth, to other planets, into the astral worlds, into the kingdom of death, and into countless heavens and hells.
The personality, when it is in this astral state, can receive supernatural information through such astral worlds, and their images and symbols, partly from the collective images, partly from the universal images (see my article Paranormal phenomena seen in connection with mystical experiences).
One way of developing this special dream body is first of all to recognize a dream as a dream when it occurs. Then you find that the dream is malleable, and you make efforts to gain control over it. Gradually you become very skilled in this, increasing your ability to control the contents of the dream so that it accords to your own desires. Eventually it is possible to dissociate your dream body from your gross physical body. In contrast, in the normal dream state, dreaming occurs within the body. But as a result of specific training, the dream body can go elsewhere.
So, these not quite ordinary states, are caused either by goaloriented conscious training, or for example by Near-death experiences, threatening psychosis, shock, high fever or similar dramatic circumstances. In rare cases they can occur undramatically and spontaneous.
In the astral state the creativity of the consciousness is, as mentioned, set even more free than in the lucid dream state. Controlled astral states give, among other things, access to clairvoyance, telepathy and astral travel (astral projection). This has to do with, that time and its images still work in sequences in past and future, though on a much more fascinating collective/astral level.
But in spiritual practice it is of vital importance, that you begin to practice Hara, if there should occur an astral state. This consists quite simple in stopping the fascination of the experiences and their temptations, and instead focus the awareness in Hara, and therewith lead the awareness into your self. This will lead the consciousness towards the more universal images of time, which work in synchronism with the Now. The goal is to realize the illusoric nature of dreams and thought distortions (see my article A dictionary of thought distortions).
If you remain in, or explore the astral worlds of the collective time, which the astral state gives access to, then you in other words distract your awareness in past or future. This can cost awakenness and life energy, if you are not under guidance of an enlightened master, and can in addition cause Ego-inflation and other spiritual crises.
It is in other words very important that you do not move accent from awake day to dreams and sleep, do not use drugs or one-sided development techniques, which promise you great experiences concerning either lucidity or astrality.
You have to have patience. Even for people with a regular and well ordered practice (2-3 hours every day) there can pass weeks, months or years between the reflections into the processes of dreams and sleep. However if practice is appropriate, the spiritual consciousness will with time automatically penetrate the nightlife´s vegetative forms of consciousness.
For a deeper going investigation of astral projection, read my article What is Dream Yoga?
0 comments:
Post a Comment