OCCULT VIEW

Are out-of-body and near-death experiences true or are they simply a trick of the mind?  Throughout all cultures individuals have experienced the strangeness of the OBE.  These are so widespread science has taken an interest in the topic and has done some studies on it.  Most scientists claim the out-of-body experience is imaginary, only in the mind, and can be duplicated by stimulating parts of the brain.
 
It’s nice science has looked into this and they have their theories.  Is there any proof the out-of-body experience is an objective reality?   That consciousness can actually exist outside the physical body?  The many out-of-body stories contain powerful evidence, except these stories are not subject to the scientific method and thus can’t be replicated thru experimentation. 

An example of such a story was my father’s own out-of-body experience he had as a child.  In 1943 my father was 12 years old.  His family was living in Europe during World War II.  During these difficult times my grandfather’s family, as war refuges, ended up moving to a small village. 

Soon after they moved to this village my father got ill with the mumps and came down with a high fever.  During his high fever he lost consciousness for hours. 
Worried about their son, my grandparents called a doctor from another village for help. 

During his unconsciousness, my young father had an out-of-body experience.  He recalls hovering over his body.  He saw his parents and a doctor he never saw before.  They were putting wet towels on him trying to lower his fever.  He said he watched from overhead without any real thought to what was happening; he was just an observer.

Next, his awareness rose much higher.  Suddenly he was high above the village.  He was looking down as if he had an aerial view of the town.  He saw the entire village, all the streets and houses in detail.  What was odd was this happened at night, and the village did not have streetlights.  I asked dad how did he see anything if it was dark.  Dad said that was very peculiar.  He saw everything even in the dark. 

This is an interesting detail.  What does that say about the OBE?  The participant does not view with world with the physical senses. The disembodied consciousness can seemingly see in the dark, so perhaps it is viewing events with some “astral sight”.   It does not need light striking the optic nerves.

How long did this OBE last?  Dad said he did not know.  He recalls awakening and was back in his body, but barely able to think straight.   He drifted in and out of consciousness, but by the morning his fever broke.  Later the child began to recall the experience, and wondered about it.  As a child my dad liked to draw pictures.  The child decided to draw a map of the town from what he remembered of his aerial view. 

My young father never saw a map of this small village, and no maps seemed to have existed.  These old villages did not have straight, logical streets but curving streets and confusing ways.  Being curious about his experience, my young father decided to follow his hand drawn map and see if it was accurate or not.  To his amazement, he discovered his map was!   He found places on his map that he was did not know about but saw from ”above”.  What he was able to recall from his overhead view of the village was real.  He really wondered about this, but World War II was going on and soon they were on the move again.

A child had the curiosity to document what he saw during an out-of-body experience, and discovered it was accurate.  This suggests that the out-of-body experience is literally true.  Perhaps science will one day be able to recreate the actual event and study it for real.   If one day we have evidence of the reality of the OBE, it will change what we understand about the universe and its laws of nature.

Recently I was discussing the topic of angels with someone.  The topic of angelology is large.  One question we pondered …why were all angels male?  All the Biblical angels had masculine names.  Where were the female angels?  Which lead me to expand that question to spirits in general.  Do spirits have a gender?  On the surface it would seem a spirit, being a non-physical entity would not have a gender.  Sex is a physical biological function for the reproduction of a species.  Why would a disembodied incorporeal spirit need a gender?

First let’s look at what religious traditions have to say about the possibility of spirit gender.  Traditional religions are clear that angels are sexless, neither man nor woman.  And humanity will become like the angels in the afterlife.  Here is a passage from the bible concerning this:

“‘In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her.’ But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”" (Matthew 22:28-30)

This would seem to settle the topic from a religious viewpoint.  Yet, Jesus retained his male aspect after his resurrection.  Also intriguing are the Marian apparitions. When the Virgin Mary appeared to individuals (like at Fatima) she clearly retained her womanhood.  Does this mean what we were in life, we retain in the afterlife?  What about those who believe in reincarnation?  People who subscribe to reincarnation have reported that in past lives they often lived as different genders.  Different religious viewpoints come to different conclusions. 

Outside of religious thought, we can look at people’s first hand experiences with ghosts and out-of-body near-death experiences.  People who have encountered ghosts report that these spirits are clearly male or female.  Look at the story of the ghostly hitchhiker, Resurrection Mary, a famous Chicago area ghost.  Resurrection Mary was reported as a young woman seen walking alone down a street (Archer Avenue) near a local ballroom, and is offered a ride by a passerby.  When the car passes Resurrection Cemetery down the road, she asked the driver to stop and left the car only to vanish, or even vanished while in the car.  There were dozens of actual reports of Resurrection Mary over the decades; it was not just an urban legend.  Resurrection Mary and other ghosts clearly retain their sexuality identify after death. 

Looking at near-death experiences, those who go through this experience feel they still resemble their physical body.  Here is an example from a previous post of mine:    http://occultview.com/2009/01/14/near-death-out-of-body-experience/    Also interesting, when the tunnel of light is encountered (a typical part of this experience) there are reports of being greeted by their dead loved ones.  Their deceased greeters appear as they did in life, but appear young and vigorous, not old or decrepit as when they passed away.  And they still appear as men or women.

Spiritualist and occult philosophy has a viewpoint about this.  According to these ideas, we have a physical body and a spirit/soul.   We also have something that is in-between these two…an invisible, ethereal double.  The ancient Egyptians called this concept the ‘Ka”, or life force.   This life force was an invisible double of our body.  At death, the Ka leaves the body.  Then this Ka “dies” and the Ba (the Egyptian name for the soul) is released to travel outside the realm of time/space.  This Ka double could be called our ghost.  Our ghost-double closely mirrors our physical self, including our sexual identify.   Some suggest that sexuality is not only a physical phenomena but also a spiritual one.   It is said our body’s life force connects with another’s life-force during sex,  sharing this life energy as well.   And what about the Soul, the Ba?  Does the soul retain any aspect of sexuality identify?  I have no clue about that. 

A step further into the unknown: can non-human incorporeal entities have sex with humans?  There is a strange passage from Genesis that suggests this is so.  This passage below is often interpreted as angelic entitles actually copulating with mortal women and breeding children.  Hard to get my mind around that one.

” There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. ” (Genesis 6:4)

In mythology non-human beings have a strong sexual identity, and often have intimate affairs with mortals.  Fauns, satyrs, nymphs, the fairy folk are all male or female. There are many stories in our folklore of non-human entities having something resembling sexual interaction with living people.  This was a common theme in faerie phenomena with many tales of the faerie being intensely interested in human sexuality.  Look at the stories of changelings, where the faerie steal away human children and replace them with something else, or faerie abduction of someone taken away into fairyland for sexual purposes.  Why would an immaterial being want such relationships with us? 

This still happens today, but it is called something else.  It is called the UFO alien abduction phenomena.  These reports very often include sexual experimentation on those abducted by these beings.  It seems like these entities’ primary purpose for contact with humans has something do to with reproduction.  These beings may not be flesh and blood alien from outer space, but the same entitles that were once called the faerie, and can appear in any form they wish.  They seem to steal away someone’s “Ka” for their own purposes and then return it.  Again, why?  We’d have to ask them!

A final thought.  The idea about a realm invisible to the physical world is not just speculation.  Science has already recognized something similar to this.  It is called dark matter.  We have no clue what this dark matter is, but it has a detectable gravitational influence on a cosmic scale.  The vast majority of the matter in the universe consists of this invisible dark matter; it holds our galaxies tighter preventing them from flying apart.  The idea of an invisible reality outside our perception may not just be a fantasy.

Are ghosts real?  Throughout history people have had countless experiences with ghosts.  I’ve known people who had their own personal experiences.  These stories are true; the ghost experience is real.  The real question is…what exactly are ghosts?  Are they only a common type of hallucination? 

The occult view has its own theory of death.  According to occult theory, all living things have an ethereal body double that matches our physical body.  The ancient Egyptians called it the Ka.  Today we’d call it our aura, or chi, or life force.  This ethereal double is not our mind or soul, but seems to be the conduit or interface between the soul and physical reality.  Maybe it’s the pathway wherein the spirit and brain connect; where spirit, matter and the quantum force of electro-magnetism interact inside our neurons.

When we die, this ethereal double is separated from our physical body.  During near death experiences, this is the experience of observing one’s body and surroundings.  It does not have to be a death experience; there are stories of crisis apparitions, someone in deep distress can suddenly appear to loved ones far away.  Since the ethereal double (or ghost) exists inside of time and space, it is able to observe and interact (in a limited way) with physicality.  It is interesting that ghost phenomena can be largely interpreted as manipulation of the electromagnetic force, albeit with a purpose.

However, when separated from the physical body, the ethereal double cannot long survive and the double/ghost itself will “die”.  What follows is the part of the near-death experience where the deceased enters the tunnel of light.  This is the passage from our world of time and space and matter, into the endless world of Spirit beyond.  Shedding of our double, the soul forever departs our universe for whatever is after. 

ORB

Sometimes, after death, a person does not want to move on.  It could be because of some turmoil or tragedy, tasks left undone, regrets, or entrenched attachment to this world.  In their ethereal state, they might even think they’re still alive, but in a somnolent dream-like state.  Ghosts seem to attach themselves to a place, replacing their attachment to their body.  Their degree of self awareness will affect if and how they interact with our world.  Many ghosts are invisibly sleepwalking around us right now and we’d never know it. 

FENCE ORB

In my Jan. 14 ‘09 blog, I wrote about a friend’s true near-death experience.  He did not get to the point of seeing a tunnel of light.  But he did encounter other ghosts in the hospital.  By examining these near-death experiences, we get valuable clues about how the “other side” works.  For instance, it seems ghosts can communicate with each other.  I’ve been to a haunting investigation where it seemed that multiple entities inhabited a location.  I suspect that ghosts might be drawn to others of their own kind.  Who wants to wander bodiless alone?  And a more powerful ghost might attract a following of other lost souls, even dominate them.  As time goes by, the ghost will lose its original human shape and eventually end up as a circle of ethereal energy…an orb.  

In my opinion, once a soul leaves it’s “ghost” behind, it leaves earth for good.  Can a medium contact the dead?  Maybe a medium can whisper to earthbound ghosts, but not the ghostless dead.   However…it just might be possible for our loved ones, outside of the circles of time/space, to contact us.  Someone with mediumistic abilities once told me that a man and a woman were watching over me.  She described my grandmother, but as a beautiful young woman, and deceased friend with uncanny accuracy.  I like the idea.  Maybe, just maybe, our loved ones do watch over us.  When the dead enter their tunnel of light…their loved ones are there waiting to greet them.  How did they know to show up in the first place?  They must know what we are doing!

I think near-death out-of-body experiences are the most fascinating, enlightening and important events.  I had the privilege to know someone who had such an experience.  His name was Glenn, and he was a close friend of mine who suffered from the same type of cancer that killed famed football player Walter Payton…bile duct cancer. It is a pretty rare form of cancer.  He told me his story after his experience.

The operation to remove the tumor was radical, called the Whipple Procedure. They were successful in removing the small tumor, but my friend nearly didn’t survive the operation itself. He was in intensive care for three weeks, and nearly did not make it.  Immediately after the operation, my friend had complications; there was an infection inside him that would not go away. The doctors brought him back to the operating room to try to find it. 

He was in intense pain; they put him under.  Then…he saw himself on the operating table. He was looking at himself from several feet away, and the doctors seemed very worried about him, as if he would not make it.  Glenn was outside of his body. My friend had been in such intense pain for so long, now he was totally free from it. He was watching what was happening before him as the doctors worked on him, with a sense of detachment. 

Then he noticed something.  He saw two people standing beside him, watching his body on the hospital bed sympathetically. The two were a sad looking adult man and little girl.  Somehow my friend knew that the man was the little girl’s father.  And they were not alive either.  Glenn felt that the two had died together, perhaps in a car accident, many years or even decades ago.  The style of their clothing was not current.  And Glenn had a knowing that the father felt so guilty about causing the death of his daughter that he could not leave his life behind.  And the daughter so loved her father she would not leave his side.  Glenn remarked that time seemed different on the other side and if we pause before going to our final destination, time slips by.

My friend turned and spoke to them out of concern.  He asked them what were they doing here…and told them that they should not be hanging around a hospital.  He told them that they were no longer alive, and they should leave this place and go on to where they were meant to go.  The man listened to Glenn and Glenn seemed to get across to them, because suddenly he had a feeling of peace come over him, like he had done the right thing.  Then the spirits of the father and daughter vanished. 

Yet…he sensed other figures in the distance, dark shapes wandering the hospital corridors.  Other lost souls.  Hospitals are really the most haunted of places. Then Glenn was suddenly outside the hospital.  He said he was walking the hospital grounds with such a feeling of peace.  Then…he heard a Voice.  Not a literal voice, but an impression, telling him “it’s not your time yet…you have to go back”.  He did not want to return to his body, he wanted to stay and be at peace.  Then, then next thing he awakened in terrible agony, back in his body in the hospital room.

Three years after his first operation, I learned what was meant by the Voice.  It was his time, but not quite yet.  Three years after his near-death experience his cancer returned.  I recall it was a truly gloomy rainy day when I went to visit him in the hospital.  He was in a coma.  I talked to him wondering if he could hear me, if he knew I was there.  But I knew that from his experience, he no longer feared death.  He had long abandoned any grudges or grievances he had, he became a changed man.  And the next day when he passed away, I knew he would be happy he did not have to return a second time.

Glenn

Glenn told me this story several times. I asked him afterwards…what was he wearing?  Do spirits wear clothing?  Glenn said he recalled that he seemed to be perfectly dressed, with a freshly pressed shirt (Glenn was always a fashionable guy).  Could it just be a hallucination I asked?  No he said, he had plenty of hallucinations and delirium during his hospital stay, and this experience was utterly different then anything like that.  He said if he had a choice, he would not have returned.  Physically he withered from the consequences of his operations.  He used to be a robust 250-pound man, now he was 140 pounds.  But at the same time, he had attained a renewed inner peace and generosity of spirit.  And we both wondered what was meant by what the Voice said…it’s not your time…yet. 

Three years after his first operation, I learned what was meant by the Voice.  It was his time, but not quite yet.  Three years after his near-death experience his cancer returned.  I recall it was a truly gloomy rainy day when I went to visit him in the hospital.  He was in a coma.  I talked to him wondering if he could hear me, if he knew I was there.  But I knew that from his experience, he no longer feared death.  He had long abandoned any grudges or grievances he had, he became a changed man.  And the next day when he passed away, I knew he would be happy he did not have to return a second time.