It is quite new for us not to hear the same sentences over and over time:
During the night my spirit left my body.
There were indistinct entities, strange protectors standing in a row.
I changed my dimension, I went to different worlds.
There is a single common link between all of these:
The places the speaker saw were virtually the same.
Grey figures, corridors, guardians, tunnels, seeing one’s own body from above…
Philosophically we have to wonder here:
Is it really “a trip to other dimensions, or are different films projected into the minds of people whose brains are all conditioned by the same stories?
Subjectivity, Collective Narratives, and the Claim of Reality
Philosophy had this question for a very long time:
What does it take to consider an experience real?
* Is it sufficient to say, “I was the one who experienced it, so it is real”?
* Or, should the experience be such that others can also verify it under the same conditions?
Very often the following scenario is depicted in stories of astral travel:
1. Firstly, the person absorbs a great number of stories:
* Grey entities, guardians, tunnels, light portals, etc.
2. Afterward, they hatch these stories in the mind.
3. In a half night/half day state of sleep (or in a combination of concentration, fear, and happiness),
* The brain retrieves the things it already is familiar with and plots out a picture.
4. Upon waking up, the person announces:
The same thing happened! Astral travel is real!
However, what is going on here, in fact, is that:
The brain takes the images that have been previously implanted in it
and creates a self-deceptive private cinema.
This event is subject to the person’s viewpoint.
To put it simply: the event took place, but only within that person’s brain.
Philosophically, it makes a very obvious separation:
This is what I saw = subjective reality
We can all see / measure / test this under the same conditions = objective reality
In the case of astral travel stories, the second element is absent.
The only thing that really is common is this:
The already known stories being reproduced once more in the subconscious of new people.
Collective Unconscious or Collective Script?
At this point, some persons will argue that:
“But the fact is that everybody speaks of similar things, so it must be real!”
No.
If you take a little time to think about this, you will find it very simple to dispute this argument:
* What if everyone in a certain country were to watch the same horror movie series.
Following this, they would all start to see similar monsters in their dreams.
Would we thus say, “Ok, those creatures must be real then”?
Not really.
We would see it in this way:
Common images = common dreams = common symbols.
The grey figures, guardians, tunnels described by so called astral travelers today are exactly the product of that mechanism:
* These very same astral clips have been repeatedly fed to the global brain through books, videos, stories, and forums for quite a long time.
* After that scenario, somebody lies down, shuts their eyes, choses to breathe fast, their pulse follows suit, they are caught with a mixed feeling of slight fright and pleasure, and the brain associates these clips into a movie.
* That individual then declares:
“I went to a different dimension.”
What is sometimes referred to as collective consciousness could be just this:
The same tales being dumped into one collective pool and being recreated in the minds of millions of individuals independently.
It is capable of being a collective fantasy construction.
It does not necessarily have to be an ultimate universal truth.
The Mind Must First Be Convinced, Then It Shoots the Film
Almost all astral travel accounts describe a similar pathway:
1. Focus:
The individual is in the dark, in silence, and is totally focused on one
intention.
Senses of the body start to fade.
2. Expectation:
Inner monologue such as, “It will be me who leaves my body.
It will be me who I can see from the outside.”
Becoming a mental command.
3. Emotional loading:
* A little bit of fear
* A little bit of joy
* Curiosity “Is it going to happen for sure?”
The mind does not joke with it:
“It must be something really important that is happening here.”
4. Hallucinatory / dream like scene:
At the very threshold of sleep and wakefulness, when the brain’s perceptual doors relax, the charged images take the stage:
the experience of one’s body being left behind, shadowy entities, a tunnel…
And the next day, the person states:
This happened, therefore, it must be real.
Not really.
A more correct phrase would be:
My mind underwent this experience, hence it was a real experience to me,
however, that does not imply that it is a universal truth applicable to everyone.
The difference between these two statements is exactly what we call philosophical maturity.
Philosophical Critique: Knowledge or Belief?
In philosophy, calling a statement knowledge, the classical view, requires three components:
1. Belief (Does the person believe it?)
2. Truth (Is the claim actually true in reality?)
3. Justification (Is there solid support for it?)
Considering the case of astral travel claims:
* There is belief:
“I went out of my body, I saw grey entities.”
* However, there is neither truth nor solid justification, because:
* The event is not open to verification or replication by others.
* Moreover, there exist very reasonable psychological explanations for it:
dreams, hallucinations, sleep paralysis, dissociative states, etc.
Therefore, philosophically we should say:
Astral travel is a personal belief and a subjective experience, but in this form, it is not knowledge.
To put it more simply:
“I saw it” is not an automatic indicator
That thing exists universally and objectively.
The Psychological Ground: What Does It Rely On?
Now the question is what the brain mechanisms could be that support such extraordinary stories.
1. Hypnagogic States (The Threshold of Falling Asleep)
Such vivid images, sounds, or presences can be the brain’s productions right before sleep and shortly after awakening, but these are not fully dream or fully wakefulness.
In this condition:
* The body seems to be very heavy,
* Movement is at times impossible but one may feel that he is floating,
* The feeling that something is in the room is quite common.
It is a transition place which the brain invents totally by itself.
2. Sleep Paralysis and the Sense of Something in the Room
During sleep paralysis:
* There is an inability to move the body,
* The process of waking up is initiated in the mind,
* The feeling comes that: “I’m in my room, but my body isn’t responding.”
Trying to resolve this paradox, the brain may generate:
* A presence made of darkness,
* A heaviness on your chest,
* Shadows of figures in the bedroom.
This is a standard neurophysiological process, it does not have to be considered a spiritual entity.
3. High Imagination + A Convinced Mind
For some people, the following points could be true:
* Highly imaginative,
* Quickly reaching trance-like states,
* Emotionally very sensitive.
If such people come to firmly believe in something, their mind can become an inner cinema to dramatize the idea.
This is not pathological insanity.
Rather it is the vast creative ability of the mind.
However, that creative power is still far from being able to assert:
This must be an objective universal reality.
4. The Need to Be Special and Chosen
If you look under many astral narratives, the following idea is often there:
“I am not an average person. I am the one out of the many who can see beyond the veil.”
Suppose an individual has:
* Been feeling invisible,
* Not receiving the seriousness he deserved,
* Being made to feel normal,
* Feeling undervalued in life,
Then to say “I do astral travel,” would be a way to satisfy a psychological need:
“I am functioning at a higher level of consciousness. I am different from the rest.”
This is a psychological compensation mechanism.
It satisfies the emptiness, it gives a feeling of power.
5. The Cocktail of Fear + Curiosity and the Addiction to It
When the feeling of fear is accompanied by that of excitement,
the organ releases a number of substances such as adrenaline, dopamine, and everything in between.
During night time, when in bed with a restless mind, thoughts like these come to one’s mind:
“Will I be able to leave my body again tonight?”
“Will I see the grey entities again?”
The brain behaves as if it were an “astral series” to keep up with this expectation.
The individual considers it as spiritual growth, whereas in fact, most of the time, it amounts to:
An interweaving of fascination, desire to escape, crave for being special,
and illusion of being in control.
Reasoned Stand, Not Against Belief
We are not considering one’s belief system to be inherently foolish here.
It ipso facto is to doubt the stories that keep peddling subjectivity under the guise of objectivity.
If a person equates each imaginary scene in his mind to a universal fact,
then sooner or later:
* Every dream = a sign,
* Every hallucination = a message,
* Every feeling = an absolute truth.
However, in truth:
Sometimes you are merely tired.
Sometimes you are merely frightened.
Sometimes you have just eaten too much content.
And your brain has simply used the leftover popcorn of your mind to create an intergalactic movie.
This does not make the experience worthless.
It simply acknowledges the experience as:
A deeply personal experience, however not necessarily an absolute universal truth.
We should not take astral travel to mean: The physical body wandering somewhere outside,
instead, the mind wandering somewhere inside and then fooling itself,
is not only more coherent from a philosophical point of view and psychologically more honest as well.
And probably the healthiest phrase that we can conclude with is the following:
“I am impressed with what I’ve encountered, however, I will not be selling it as a universal truth unless I have passed it through the filter of reason.”