Astral Perceptions in Trance States

 

In the trance-like state that is occasionally observed before OBE (so-called IBE state), different sensory perceptions can occur that sometimes are frightening. The most inquiries in OBE letters that had to do with fear concerned these preparatory stages. The IBE state is often almost indistinguishable from the waking state wherefore tactile or acoustic perceptions are especially alarming.

In this state, medial people can also come in contact with ghosts but commonly these sensory experiences in spiritual immersion are of a hypnagogic nature.

Although it is hard to tell whether a specific event is of hypnagogic or subtle nature, there are approximate guidelines.

Differences between IBE perceptions and hypnagogic impressions in the state of falling asleep:

  • While we have a clouded awareness in the hypnagogic state (of falling asleep), we often are wide awake in an IBE state.

  • While hypnagogic perceptions are often very short, IBE perceptions are persistent and we can check and test out the situation.

  • The most common IBE perceptions are the hearing of voices, the feeling of being touched and the feeling of someone else's presence. Optical perceptions are rather rare. In hypnagogic states and false awakening on the contrary, visual perception dominate.

Perception of Spirits
Presences can be felt or seen in the room. Clairvoyants are specialized on this form of perception. The psychics get in a light trance for that.

Lady visitor (own experience):
I sat in the armchair and practiced the spiritual immersion. Everything around me was still dark but then I felt the presence of a female person. I could clearly feel her warmth and erotic aura. She even touched me on my shoulder. Then I heard the rustling of her clothes. Provocatively, she let the clothes slide off her body one by one and dropped them on the floor. At first I was curious for an erotic adventure but then scientific curiosity came over me. I wanted to know what happens to the clothes after they part from the ghost and no longer are part of its appearance. I wanted to know if the clothes would vanish as a result. I frisked the floor with my hands to find the woman's attire. Then I felt a wave of anger coming from the lady. The next moment the apparition was gone.”

Visit from my deceased brother-in-law:
I already was in spiritual immersion for a while and had my eyes closed. Then I saw my deceased brother-in-law entering the room. At the time I had no experience dealing with decedents. I felt very uncomfortable even tho my brother-in-law looked exactly like he did in life. He entered and looked at me. Certainly he wanted me to help him because he felt very bad in his lifetime. I think he could sense that I was capable of becoming “double conscious” with the help of yoga.
I was naive and inexperienced and so I became frightened. I radiated that his visit gives me the creeps and that I wanted him to leave.
He seemed to understand that I was frightened. He didn't want to scare me so he left out of consideration. He disappeared like he came – in a silent and noiseless manner. Later I regretted my stupid behavior.” (Gauri)

A prankster spirit:
I lay in bed and was in the state of deep relaxation. I began talking to my otherworldly soul partner. Like always I told him that I love him etc.
Suddenly, I clearly heard someone saying: “blah blah blah”. I immediately felt where the sarcastic commentary came from. There was a ghost standing right next to my bed and apparently he had been listing to my thoughts. Now he was expressing how he feels about these loving thoughts. I didn't know if I should laugh or be serious. The spirit wasn't evil. He just enjoyed to prank others.” (Gauri)

Astral and worldly perception at once:
Last night my astral friend O. was very present. I was happy and immersed over several hours in his vibration without being much distracted. In the morning I woke up to write an e-mail to Gauri and then went back to him.
Haro later came to join us. My consciousness was partly still in the world beyond. Haro thought I was sleeping tight because I lay deeply relaxed and with a smile on my face on my side. He was amused about my wry smile but at the moment I didn't knew that. I just felt the loving look he gave me and how he continuously tried suppressing a laughter. This suppressed laughing felt unnatural and seemed to cost lots of energy. I noticed it as some strange stuttering. I could perceive his restless thoughts and read them. At the same time I felt O.
That was an odd cleavage. Later Haro told me that he had a hard time suppressing his laughter and therefore only laughed in his mind. I perceived that as this strange stuttering. He also confirmed the thought-fragments I overheard.” (Michaela Fetovski)

Energetic Phenomena

  • Kundalini Phenomena: waves, heat, vibrations, hearing of sounds (from rushing to howling) and voices, light flashes, skin tingling
  • Poltergeist Phenomena: crackling of wooden furniture, diverse para-physical phenomena from telekinesis to spontaneous teleportation
  • Ectoplasm flowing out, Mediumistic Field: A subtle smoky to gooey substance flows out of the mouth especially. Manifestations form and knocking contact is established in seances with the help of this substance. This relatively thick fludial substance evaporates commonly and forms a foggy aura around the person. This aura appears as a bright field to earthbound spirits and attracts them. Earthbound spirits quickly realize that they are able to use this force field to manifest more densely (hearing of voices, Poltergeist phenomena, etc.). The predominant portion of these spirits are malicious and try to impress or intimidate the mediumistic person with dense manifestation. Right from the start, this display behavior is a lie since the energy comes from the medium.

Final Conclusion:
Loosening, “taking off” and “stepping out” occur with people with mediumistic disposition. These phenomena interact with the own energetic body. Detailed information about energetics can be found with the keywords: Kundalini, Chi, Ki, Prana, etc.

Ectoplasm (or Bioplasm)
Ectoplasm is a very dense etheric liquid that is responsible for manifestations and diverse forms of Poltergeist phenomena.
Ectoplasm results from an inner alchemistic process that takes place in the abdominal region. It can be released in different ways.

  • A fine mist can be transpired by the entire surface of the body.
  • In its densest manifestation ectoplasm is a honey-like, slowly flowing liquid that leaks from body openings (especially mouth). It evaporates on the edges of the orifices.

The color of ectoplasm is light-gray to dark-gray. It doesn't have to be homogeneous but can contain granules. In some rare cases ectoplasm could been photographed. There were also measurements (electrical conductivity) taken on ectoplasm that yielded very different result without informative value (Albert Freiherr v. Schrenk-Notzing, 1862-1929, Munich, physician and parapsychologist).
When searching for photographs of ectoplasm the following keywords are suitable: ectoplasma, ectoplasm, teleplasma

Seeing with Closed Eyes
This is an ability that is rarely mentioned in the literature. Hereby meant is a shadowy and plastic seeing with closed eyes. I myself had this ability for some time. When I went to the toilette at night I had my eyes closed and could see anyways (even better than with open eyes in the dark). It was some kind of game to me. I could see the edges where walls and ceiling meet and also the doors with their structures. I could see so well that I stopped exercising caution. I just went to the door and grabbed the handle. One day I saw the door shifted. It was 40 cm closer than I perceived it. A bump of the head was the consequence. From this day on I started fumbling for the doors again and lost the ability due to lack of interest and practice.
In some cases I came in contact via email with astral travels that also experienced this rare form of seeing. From several thousand mails not more than three concerned this phenomenon. That's why I would call this ability a rare one.

From: Forum Post
A reoccurring phenomenon baffles me for quiet some time now: I wake up at night and can see the room around me through my closed eyelids as if I had my eyes open. (Every time my vision becomes sharper and I can perceive more and more details...) I would really like to talk about that with someone because I couldn't find anything about it on the internet so far!”

Another Forum Post
Hello, for 2-3 years now I am woken up by a nice phenomenon. It starts with me becoming conscious while I am still sleeping. I can see my room and also look around. When I open my eyes (unfortunately often very soon after I come in this state) I look in the same direction at the same spot where my vision ended. It is like I could see through a third eye but I definitely know that I'm asleep. After that I am always perplexed.
I occupy myself with lucid dream and dreams in general but I couldn't find anything about my phenomenon anywhere.
I don't think that I am dreaming because it happens nearly every morning and sometimes also when I am falling asleep. I enjoy staying in the state between sleep and waking and always try to keep it up as long as I can. I like to devote myself to the hypnagogic images and to float around in other worlds.
It would be nice if someone would put in his oar. This has been a burning question to me for a very long time now. I am especially interested in whether I can sustain this state and how.”

 

© Alfred Ballabene (Vienna) translated by Seth