Customer Reviews

Soul Flight: Astral Projection and the Magical Universe

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As with others of the author's books, this one is peppered with historical persons and accounts all put under the one-eyed esoteric microscope of the author reinterpreting the experiences of these people and basically applying his understanding of what happened to them as if it is better than their own. As with others of the author's books this one spends time wandering down Golden Dawn lane and especially up Crowley alley. As with others of the author's books this one also makes sweeping statements about the `reality' of certain occult matters. In this volume the writer attacks what he, with his typically reductionist voice, terms the `theosophic' view of astral projection and tells the reader that it is `completely wrong'. Telling the reader that, in other words, there is no `real' astral `travel'. This author has a habit of presenting his personal findings as if they were watershed improvements upon the methods and understandings of the great esoteric explorers of the past, perhaps to place himself within their company. By and large he dismisses the authentic out-of-body experiences, and understandings of those experiences, of countless humans over many centuries as quite simply, mistaken. According to the author, it's ALL in the mind. And then he proceeds to attack previous understandings as being too materialistic whilst contrarily making the conservative error of thinking of the material world as something fundamentally outside of the mind and therefore a place that the `mind' (which to the author is indistinguishable from the soul) cannot visit apart from the body. Then at the same time he states that the mind creates all reality. Confused? From a Gnostic point of view the mind creates nothing - it is seen as neither a maker nor a creator, it remains an interpreter, a translator, a messenger (or an ignorer), between the perceived levels of being. It is not soul and it is not spirit, it is between the two.

His narrative voice, as in his other works, is usually belittling towards and dismissive of women, no matter how renowned, Blavatsky included, which adds to the ponderousness of the text. His argument for there being `no travel in astral travel' is that experiments on remote viewing and out of body, whilst yielding results of accuracy that rise above chance, don't reach one hundred percent accuracy. Well, take five people, show them a physical event and get each of them to tell you what happened, likelihood is that they will have five at least slightly differing reports. The fact that the majority of reported ghost sightings are of people who are still living, in no small way supports the OUT of body astral projection understanding. On the whole, from this reader's point of view, this is a book on pathworking and, like his other books, has useful if not original or innovative ritual and meditative tools to improve one's efforts. Apart from this one comes away with the impression that the author has possibly spent years trying to have a genuine OUT of body experience and has perhaps failed. The long and the short of it is that if you have a genuine out of body experience you KNOW it is NOT all in the mind. If you are interested in out-of-body astral travel as opposed to magically supported pathworking and inner level exploration IN body, then this reader would recommend 'Leaving the Body' by a genuine researcher, the late D. Scott Rogo, and the works of William Buhlman, especially Secrets of the Soul.

Here is the contents of the book :
Introduction : The Astral World
Part One : History
Chapter One : Shamanic Soul Flight
Chapter Two : Witches' Flying Ointment
Chapter Three : The Land of Fairy
Chapter Four : Religious Bilocation
Chapter Five : Spiritualism
Chapter Six : Theosophy
Chapter Seven : Golden Dawn
Chapter Eight : Remote Viewing and the CIA
Chapter Nine : UFO Abduction
Part Two : Practice
Chapter Ten : Uses of Ritual
Chapter Eleven : Astral Doorways
Chapter Twelve : The Tarot
Chapter Thirteen : Pathworking
Chapter Fourteen : Runes
Chapter Fifteen : Training for Soul Flight
Chapter Sixteen : Astral Guides
Chapter Seventeen : Etiquette in the Astral World
Chapter Eighteen : Astral Self-Defence
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

The astral body is not separate physical envelope for the consciousness, but is a part of the mind, and it never leaves the mind. The astral world is not a place in space; rather, it is a dimension of the mind that resembles very closely the dream state. I agree with this statement.
He also sure that ancient ritual techniques is necessary to help you astral projection safely on all level.
Using this book, you can skip part one, and start practice with part two. I found that this book can help you to acieve astral projection. Many methods here... maybe one of them works for you. Ritual, crystal gazing, a lunar accumulator, mirror portals, tarot trump as doorays, tarot trumps as astral keys, rising on the planes, golden dawn pathworking, using a rune key, diet, mantra, symbol visualization, guides.....
Buy this book, you will not regret it. For complementary about to handle problem when astral projection, read William Buhlman's "Adventures Beyond the Body". For dictionary ? Waldo Vieira's "Projectiology". For understanding astral and dream world ? All non fiction books by Robert Moss.

This book is different than all the other books I've read on astral travel. Donald takes a different approach to how we can think about and obtain OBEs, and gives some fascinating and excellent history on how and why OBEs were used throughout history.

I particularly like his shamanic approach to achieving an OBE, and his focus on the importance of ritual. Ritual is something I've struggled with, but in reading this book I can understand the importance, and his methods are simple instead of extravagant.

This is a very well written, entertaining, and educational book that I believe will help many obtain OBE's. I think I've succeeded in a possible OBE through the Shamanic path, and have no doubt that Donald's methods are helping me in my journeys.

Dana

I bought this book a while back because I wanted a fresh perspective on Astral Projection. Donald Tyson supports that astral projection is an experience within the mind, and not outside the body. Whether you agree or not with his concept, this book deserves a look.

After an introduction about The Astral World, Tyson divides his work into two parts: Part One: History and Part Two: Practice. If you are interested on this book because of the practice, you can go ahead to Part Two. However, as the author suggest at the end of the introduction, you may want to take a look that the history. In my opinion, if you miss that part, you may be missing the most interesting part of this book. This is not to say that the practice section is bad, but this book is mainly a summary of history and a collection of techniques in a single volume.

Part One consists of nine chapters and cover the basis, starting with shamanism, going through spiritualism, crossing over Golden Dawn hermetics, presenting the CIA's remote viewing projects, and confronting UFO Abductions. This last chapter was the one that captured my attention, as I was very interested about Tyson's opinion on this subject and how he tied it to Astral Projection.

As I mention earlier, Part Two is not bad, but Part One captivated my interest more. Part Two guides us through several tools and techniques to bring about Astral Projection. Since I'm interested on Tarot and Runes a like, these chapters sealed the deal for me. In these chapters Tyson describes how to use Tarot Trumps or Runes as doorways to the Astral Worlds.

In all, I liked this book for what it is, an overview on Astral Projection history and techniques. It may not be as good as other books that tackle a specific ideology/technique, but that should not be a surprise.

Excellent condition, and good service which is appreciated, and why I give a high rating. I do like this book. Much of the material is same as most Golden Dawn material, but, I like Tyson's style in way he presents it. However, far as his notion that Astral Projection is only mental not physical, is very debatable and an opinion with no evidence. The Occult masters taught two types of projection anyway, the mental and the astral. Often the mental proceeds the astral. One has to actually have the experience to draw a conclusion far as which they believe, and majority I know as well as myself, who have had it, tend to believe OOB's, NDE's involve beyond just the mental. Again, its a matter of perspective and a lot has to do with the person's concept and experience in other realms.

This book may not be liked by the traditional practioners of astral work, and I am not quite sure where I fit in, but the book is very well done. The ideas are not just thrown out there, but are well supported by his own theories and the works that he has used to gather his ideas.

Clear precise practices are shown as to how to work with his theories and perhaps find a better way to reach the astral realms for people who have had difficulties the other ways.

Would recommend to anyone who has a library of paranormal works and pracitices and happenings.

I'm always interested in books about spirit flight...what some call "astral projection" or an Out of Body Experience. This book had some good points, such as the actual exercises and techniques for making this work for you, but I found the philosophical viewpoint of the author (and his pronouncements) to be far too short-sighted and authoritarian.

The author indicates at the beginning of the book, that if you believe your spirit leaves your body that you are WRONG. The idea is that our consciousness is bound to our brains. Even though, most shamanic spiritual practitioners around the world would dispute that.

Yes, the book has the idea that our minds are so much more than what they think we are...yet this sets the entire universe in the mind of the beholder and makes it seem like we are just fooling ourselves that anything exists beyond that. Certainly, it can be argued that all we know of the world outside out bodies comes through our minds, what our minds choose to tell us about the outside world, which is certainly biased at times and clearly filtered. And which would then make the astral world and the material world just as likely to exist.

Still, there is also the philosophy that we do leave our bodies during astral or spirit travel and get the chance to finally perceive the "real" reality or multiple levels of reality that otherwise cannot be perceived by the mind alone. Of course, people's experiences may differ...but who can really answer and state that their way is any more real or proven than anyone elses. Some people may not appreciate how the author comes across with the impression that his way is the only right way.

I'd recommend this book for the practices and techniques in general to learn how to open yourself up to this sort of spirit flight, but definitely forewarn them about the strong bias of the author. Perhaps, it would work in conjunction with some reputable books about shamanic practice around the world.

When I started reading the book I was first taken aback by the author's apparent position that OOBEs are not journeys out of the body, but merely an aspect of mind. I thought he was taking the typical scientific reductionist view that the brain is the root of all consciousness. But as I read on I realized that he was actually approaching the whole concept of consciousness and mind from a much greater point of view. That the mind is in fact everywhere and that at root we are all One. When this is understood, it becomes obvious that the impressions of travelling out of body are simply necessary for navigation in relation to the limitations of physically based thinking.

This does not mean that out of body travel is not 'real' it simply means that Mind is bigger than you can think.

I've been astral travelling for many years and I can verify that his basic premise is sound. Thinking that you have to somehow squeeze yourself out of your physical body is a major obstacle that prevents you from experiencing the astral in its more subtle aspects. Imagination is the key (which is why the basic training of all magicians is in the imaginal realm).

The only weakness was a tendency to pad the book with too many examples. I would have liked more personal experiences, explaining how astral travel can be used to enhance one's spiritual and material development.

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