Customer Reviews

Astral Projection and Psychic Empowerment : Techniques for Mastering the Out-Of-Body Experience

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'd like to comment on the book. -please forgive possible grammar errors, english is not my native language-

I had been meditating for a long time before I read the book. So I don't know if reading it had anything to do with the fact that I had an OBE experience afterwards. Anyway it would be fair to say I was as prepared as I thought(...) I could ever be.

Now in retrospect I see a few serious failings in the book Mr. Slate wrote, stuff everybody should be aware of. First of all, the book is overly optimistic and praises the OBE experience uncritically. It seems like there are no risks what so ever.

Slate even recommends OBEs as a psycological healing device! He does not calrify at all whether it might be potentially damaging to some people. This is incredible considering he calls himself a licensed psychologist. I personally would definately not recommend OBEs to anybody who is not mentally 100 % healthy.

In fact the experience is anything but a nice recreational hobby or a toy arsenal. It deals with our basic belief systems and views of the world. The reader must have a strong psyche to cope with changes in such believes and views. Slate has also written the book as if spiritual/religios aspects had nothing to do with OBE. In reality you can not choose to have parapsychological experiences of x kind, but not of y kind.

There is for example no information or guidance in the book that would prepare the reader to encounter spirits while out of the body. This happened to me and it really scared me.

There is some, but not adequate, talk about protecting oneself. He recommends that the reader should imagine himself protected by higher positive energy and light. This is partly right said, but in my opinion not good enough. The key is to ask or pray for that protection, not to assume it already is there.

There is, by the way, no mentioning why it is important to protect oneself. I found out later that some of the people who have had OBEs have met with unfriendy and even evil spirits in the astral realm. It would be important to inform readers of the dangers, even if they are not common or probable.

In my view the reader should clarify to himself what kind of higher power he believes in (for example in goodness/light). If he believes the meaning of life is to, say, become a better person, he should try to develop himself in that direction. He should be aware that positive thoughts create positive energy & vice versa.

Only after beeing totally at peace with the spiritual/religious side of the life is it at all wise for the reader to experience with OBEs.

When I first saw this book, I liked it a lot. The structured course of OBE that the book describes looked attractive. The language is scientific enough, but easy to understand. No illiterate New Age or occultist jargon. The Ph.D. title of the author adds confidence.
I started reading. One of the first chapters describes a method, or a strategy, as the author likes to put it, of achieving an OBE. It looked rather brief and incomplete. So, I thought, the details will come later. I continued reading, ... continued reading, ... waiting for details, ... but they never came up!

He has this 7-day OBE development plan. Who can learn OBE in 7 days?!!! In this plan, you are supposed to have an OBE on the second day!
All the techniques in this book usually consist of several steps. Here is a typical technique, taken from day 2 of the "plan" (pages 163-164). I tried to use his techniques, but consider this. Here is a typical "strategy":
Step 1. Preparation... This step is mostly relaxation, and it's OK.
Step 2. Affirmations... That's OK too.
Now, here comes the main part. Next paragraph is copied from the book entirely.
Step 3. Mental Imagery. Envision your astral body as a vaporous form rising from your physical body as sleep ensues. In that projected state, view your physical body at rest enveloped in a protective glow, and allow your astral being to float farther away from your body.
Step 4. Astral travel. Discover whatever in the astral plane...
Step 5. Re-entry...

That's it!
In Step 3, it implies that after following the instructions of the first sentence, you are still in the physical body, imagining. But in the second sentence, you are already in the astral body, seeing your physical! HELLO??? Is that all? What is happening in between!!!? Other authors dedicate pages and whole chapters for this transition, but not Slate. This step is what is the OBE projection is all about, and with which most people encounter frustrating difficulties. Yet, the description of this step is basically absent in this book. This omission makes the whole description of the method useless.

Also, he describes several experiments, when some of his student subjects achieve OBE in 7 minutes. Duh... Who are those people? Are they Descended Masters, or super psychics? What are they doing in a college?

Slate makes more emphasis on using OBE for empowering, not how to achieve it.

Overall, this book was a waste of money for me. Maybe it can be useful for someone who wants just to read something about OBE to get general idea.

This book was one of the poorest on this subject that I've read. It comes from a scientist who has no personal experience. Better information can be found for free on the internet.

An excellent book for anyone interested in astral projection. The book is well Written by a foremost expert in the field . I would describe the book as having highly effective OBE induction procedures with many excellent applications. I would rate it as a 5 star book.

An important book as it catalogs and details the full range of experiences one can have by astral traveling and the relation to psychic developement. Within the experiences reviewed, the author includes many step by step procedures to intiate the out of body experience as well as covering a deeply reasoned meaning or way of thinking about astral travel. The author is clearly a master astral traveler and has a knack for relaying a technical foundation of not often cataloged experiences. The only drawback to this book is that it reads like a technical manual and most of the time can be tedious to read.

I'm not sure that the author really understands what an OBE is! He describes it correctly but the methods he advocates are essentially guided imagery and remote viewing. The novice might find this book frustrating because the author's instructions really don't produce classic OBEs as easily as assumed in the text. The larger portion of the book is given over to "psychic empowerment" techniques. All in all, a misleading book.

Since I can remember, I have been interested in pshycic phenomenon and many exersizes in this book get one in the right state of mind for paranormal experiance. The tips for OBE's however don't match up. According to the other experts, noone or thing can enter your body when you leave it. It has to do with the silver cord theory. The possibility of possession hinders many beginners from progress due to fear.

Individuals interested in the field of parapsychology (specifically astral projection) will find this book gratifying. The author portrays the subject with the ease of one of the "great masters." A must-read for all those interested in parapsychology

If you've ever dreamt of flying ... soaring through the clouds and into the great mystery of the cosmos ... read on. Because you are about to discover what is possibly the first real answer to the question, "How do I find out what all this means?" - the question of existence.

Out-of Body experiences (OBE's) provide the ability to stretch your present limits of awareness, reach beyond the ordinary, and access distant distant sources of growth and enlightenment. By developing your out-of-body skills, you discover new meaning for your present existence, and the magnificent realities that lie ahead. Each OBE is a promissory note that assures your immortality, not simply as a nebulous energy system, but as a conscious entity whose evolution is a never-ending marvel.

At another level, OBE's can energize and empower you to tap into the therapeutic resources of higher astral planes. Through the out-of-body experience, all the healing resources of the self and the universe become available. They can empower you to overcome lifelong fears and phobias, resolve distressing conflicts, achieve crucial personal goals, and actualize your highest potentials. Astral Projection and Psychic Empowerment brings you a seven-day plan outlining the procedures and exercises necessary to take that extraordinary leap into the great beyond.

In the years of my study in parapsychology, there has been many titles on this subject,but none have been as helping and as detailed as this one, Dr. Slate is one of my favorite authors who, unlike most, take the study into new levels which have been previously untouched. Though most are skeptical on 'out of body' experiences once you master the art, you can find yourself breaking away from your current self of mind, and traveling deep into the cosmos, imbrace it, for it can guide you through the essence of reality, time, and space.