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Real Man's Views-This Article is courtesy of Real Man and can also be found on his website, The Skeptic vs. The Believer
Dig around the new age philosophy long enough and youre bound to come across the topic of astral travel. What is it, you ask? Astral travel is the supposed ability to literally travel outside your body to another plane of reality. According to believers, this is where we all go after we die. The idea is quite a popular one, especially in new age circles, but is there any real reason to believe that it exists? No. There is no evidence for the existance of an astral plane, however, it may have its roots in reality.
Lets start off by first recognizing that there is no evidence for this phenomenon.
The typical believer will often mention kirlian photography and call it proof. First, and
LESS importantly, this would not be proof of an astral plane. This would be EVIDENCE of a life after death. second, we know the substance shown in kirlian photos to be an EMF emitted by your nervous system. The sheer ignorance here shows the kind of people who believe in this, but thats an ad-hominem attack, and means nothing. Another common defence is anecdotal evidence, but that, like the ad-hominem attack, also means nothing.
On the other hand, anecdotes, while they do not meet the burden of proof, are certaintly worth investigation when in such large numbers. So what could be causing them all? Are they all lying? Well some, of course, but most likely NOT all. There are three things that could be mistaken for astral travel, hallucinations, dreams, and remote viewing. What? REMOTE VIEWING? That doesnt exist. Well, well get into that later.
First, well examine hallucinations. Of course, hallucinations are very rare, well,
moderately rare, so it would seem, on the surface, unlikely that this would be the reason for any sizable portion of these misconceptions. Looking a little closer though, its really not that far fetched. If you do a little research, youll find a wealth of publications and website which, most of which happen to list various techniques for achieving astral travel. What does this have to do with anything? Get this, most of the techniques involve staying up for days at a time! Going into trance states! STARVING yourself! Many people even claim that astral travel can be aided by the use of drugs! PARTICULARLY ACID! All of these are well known to cause hallucinations (especially the acid of course).
On the same note, there are the dreams. 85% of astral travel experiences are
reported to happen either during or just before or after entering into a sleep! What do
people have to say to this? Thats its just to life like to be a dream, and thats about all. Granted, thats not much of a defense, but even poor defenses need to be broken through. Have you ever heard of lucid dreaming? If not, it is defined as a vivid and lifelike dream in which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming, and can control the dream. Not surprisingly, the astral plane is also supposedly controlled by your thoughts, according to most travelers.
Now, for remote viewing. There are many people out there who are skeptical of it, and the purpose of this essay is not push believing in it on you, but I will briefly present a little of the evidence for it (If you dont know, remote viewing is the ability to view objects outside the range of the ordinary five senses). Experiments are done all around the world and have proven, rather conclusively, that remote viewing is, in fact, a reality. From Russian 30 years ago to the PEAR research done at Princeton university. Research is everywhere and undeniable. In fact, even hard-boiled skeptics such as Ray Hyman have admitted to finding evidence of telepathy, and James Randi was sued for falsifying lab reports. If youve seen all the evidence, and you still arent convinced, then you never will be. Getting back on topic here, it seems only natural that it would be mistaken for a spiritual experience.
So what is it that keeps astral travel alive? Fear of death? The desire to have a
deeper purpose in our lives? Perhaps just the sheer curiosity of such an anomaly. Either way, none have a bearing on whether or not such a place truly does exist. The facts speak for themselves, there is no astral plane, period. |
