43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tripping The Astral Fantastic, May 2, 2002
This review is from: How to Travel to Other Dimensions (Paperback)
"How To Travel To Other Dimensions" is the product of two different writers from two very different eras. The first and more recent section of the book is written by a person using the pseudonym "Dragonstar," who begins with a thirteen page "instruction manual" on how to learn to induce an out-of-body-experience and navigate the Astral Plane with ease while under your own control.
Dragonstar also includes personal testimony from one of his/her students, who talks about initially being a skeptic in regard to astral body travel, but, after having spent a year practicing the techniques taught by Dragonstar, managed to learn to free her astral body and travel anywhere in time and space at will.
As if all that were not fascinating enough, the second and much longer section of the book, written by an occultist named S. Panchadasi shortly after the turn of the 20th Century, nearly takes your astral breath away. Panchadasi wrote what was intended to be a brief educational work about what the student of the occult would find when visiting the various levels of the Astral Plane. As a tour guide into the next realm, Panchadasi succeeds beautifully in capturing the imagination of the reader and opening whole new vistas to the uninitiated.
Even if you are not already a student of the occult, which is also true of this reviewer, the journey Panchadasi takes the reader on is spellbinding and unforgettable. From Panchadasi we learn that there are seven levels of reality, most of which are unknowable to mere mortals. But it is possible for mankind to enter the neighboring Astral Plane and see wonders beyond belief.
Those wonders include a thorough and believable explanation of the many facets of the afterlife, which is marvelous in its spiritual realism. The author describes the many different congregations in heaven, illustrating the principle that every faith has its own adherents on the Astral Plane where the various rituals and sacraments are still conducted. In other words, the Christians go to a Christian heaven, the Buddhists go to a Buddhist one, and so on. There are also many shades of moral gray there in the afterlife, not simply the all or nothing of our familiar concepts of heaven and hell. Panchadasi tells us that no one religious concept of what happens to the soul after death is completely correct, but that most of them contain at least part of the truth.
Panchadasi also shows the beginning occultist the darker side of the Astral Plane reserved for those who cling to the wickedness of their life on Earth even after death. They can only see the debauchery going on in the material realm, but can't reach out and touch it and participate in the physical evils anymore. This inability to cross back over to their former wickedness is a torment to them, and often a soul will repent at such a moment and begin to climb to a higher order of the Astral Plane. Those who never experience that crucial change of heart often are simply annihilated after a time, but they are not sent to eternal torment, as in the more conventional concept of damnation.
Panchadasi's writing style is charmingly old-fashioned and pleasant to read. The quaint formalness makes for an exquisitely sincere authorial voice that we rarely hear anymore, and the gentleness with which the author takes us from hell to heaven and back again may seem quite amazing to modern readers on this side of the millennial dividing line. You can read the entirety of "How To Travel To Other Dimensions" in a couple of hours, but as Panchadasi says, you will want to keep it and refer back to it often to fully get the meaning of the teacher's words and to re-experience the journey through the Astral Plane again and again.
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed, February 5, 2003
This review is from: How to Travel to Other Dimensions (Paperback)
I've read several books on Astral Travel. This book was a disappointment with less than 100 pages in large print. At one point, the author refuses to discuss separation techniques because those are reserved for the advanced occultist. Then author(s) uses the rest of the book to discuss astral travel after separation. This book is pure occult fantasy. I suggest books authored by Robert Monroe, Robert Bruce, or Robert Peterson
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Might be good for you, May 28, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: How to Travel to Other Dimensions (Paperback)
Buy this book if you're interested in reading about the astral plane. As far as technique goes, "Astral Dynamics" by Robert Bruce is far and away superior.
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