…so eventually the human eye sees the whole picture on the television screen. As the picture at the transmitter varies, so does the picture that you see on the television screen vary. In much the same way thoughts go from our transmitter, that is, the brain, and reach that sheath covering the aura. Here the thoughts seem to impinge (ramme) and form pictures, which a clairvoyant can see. But we see not merely the pictures of present thoughts, we can also see what has been!

It is easily possible for an Adept to look at a person and to actually see on the outer covering of the aura some of the things that the subject has done during the past two or three lives. It may sound fantastic to the uninitiated, but nevertheless it is perfectly correct.

Matter cannot be destroyed. Everything that is - still exists. If you make a sound the vibration of that sound - the energy which it causes - goes on forever. If, for instance, you could go from this Earth quite instantly to a far, far planet - you would see, provided you had suitable instruments - pictures which happened thousands and thousands of years before. Light has a definite speed, and light does not fade, so that if you got sufficiently distant from the Earth (instantly) - you would be able to see the creation of the Earth! But this is taking us away from the subject under discussion. We want to make the point that the subconscious, not being controlled by the conscious, can project pictures of things beyond the present reach of the conscious. And so a person with good powers of clairvoyance can easily see what manner of person faces him. This is an advanced form of psychometry, it is what one might term "visual psychometry." We will deal with psychometry later.

Everyone with any perception or sensitivity at all, can sense an aura, even when they do not actually see it. How many times have you been instantly attracted, or instantly repelled by a person when you have not even spoken to him? Unconscious perception of the aura explains one's likes and dislikes. All peoples used to be able to see the aura, but through abuses of various kinds, they lost the power. During the next few centuries people are going once again to be able to do telepathy, clairvoyance, etc.

Let us go further into the matter of likes and dislikes: every aura is composed of many colours and many striations of colours. It is necessary that the colours and striations match each other before two people can be compatible. It is often the case that a husband and a wife will be very compatible (forenlige) in one or two directions, and completely incompatible in others. That is because the particular wave form of one aura only touches the wave form of the partner's aura at certain definite points and on those points there is complete agreement and complete compatibility. We say, for instance, that two people are poles apart, and that is definitely the case when they are incompatible. If you prefer, you can take it that people who are compatible have auric colours, which blend and harmonise - whereas those who are incompatible have colours, which clash and would be really painful to look upon.

People come of certain types. They are of common frequencies. People of a "common" type go about in a body. You may get a whole herd of girls going about together, or a whole group of young men lounging on street corners or forming gangs. That is because all these people are of a common frequency or common types of aura, they depend upon each other, they have a magnetic attraction for each other, and the strongest person in the group will dominate the whole and influence them for good or for bad. Young people should be trained by discipline and by self - discipline to control their more elementary impulses, in order that the race as a whole may be improved.

As already stated, a human is centred within the egg - shape covering - centred within the aura, and that is the normal position for most people, the average, healthy person. When a person has a mental illness, he or she is not properly centred. Many people have said, "I feel out of myself today." That may well be the case, a person may be projecting at an angle inside the ovoid. People who are of dual personality are completely different from the average, they may have half the aura of one colour, and half of a completely different colour pattern. They may - if their dual personality is marked - have an aura which is not just one - egg shaped, but has two eggs joined together at an angle to each other. Mental illness should not be treated so lightly. Shock treatment can be a very dangerous thing because it can drive the astral (we shall deal with this later) straight out of the body. But in the main shock treatment is designed (consciously or unconsciously!) to shock the two "eggs" into one. Often it just "burns out" neural patterns in the brain.

We are born with certain potentialities, certain limits as to the colouring of our auras, the frequency of our vibrations and other things, and it is thus possible for a determined, well - intentioned person to alter his or her aura for the better. Sadly, it is much easier to alter it for the worse! Socrates, to take one example, knew that he would be a good murderer, but he was not going to give in to the blows of fate and so he took steps to alter his path through life. Instead of becoming a murderer, Socrates became the wisest man of his age. All of us can, if we want to, raise our thoughts to a higher level and so help our auras. A person with a brown muddy coloured red in the aura, which shows excessive sexuality, can Increase the rate of vibration of the red by sublimating the sexual desires and then he will become one with much constructive drive, one who makes his way through life.

The aura vanishes soon after death, but the etheric may continue for quite a long time, it depends on the state of health of its former possessor. The etheric can become the mindless ghost, which carries out senseless hauntings. Many people in the country districts have seen a form of bluish glow over the graves of those who have just been interred. This glow is particularly noticeable by night. This, of course, is merely the etheric dissipating away from the decomposing body.

In the aura low vibrations give dull muddy colours, colours which nauseate (vemmelse) rather than attract. The higher one's vibrations become - the purer and the more brilliant become the colours of the aura, brilliant not in a garish (grell) way, but in the best, the most spiritual way. One can only say that pure colours are "delightful" while the muddy colours are distasteful. A good deed brightens one's out - look by brightening one's auric colours. A bad deed makes us feel "blue" or puts us in a "black" mood. Good deeds - helping others - make us see the world through "rose tinted spectacles."(rosafarget syn).

It is necessary to keep constantly in mind that the colour is the main indicator of a person's potentialities. Colours change, of course, with one's moods, but the basic colours do not change unless the person improves (or deteriorates) the character. You may take it that the basic colours remain the same, but the transient colours fluctuate and vary according to the mood. When you are looking at the colours of a person's aura you should ask: -

1. What is the colour?

2. Is it clear or muddy, how plainly can I see through it?

3. Does it swirl over certain areas, or is it located almost permanently over one spot?

4. Is it a continuous band of colour holding its shape and its form, or does it fluctuate and have sharp peaks and deep valleys?

5. We must also make sure that we are not prejudging a person because it is a very simple matter to look at an aura and imagine that we see a muddy colour when actually it is not muddy at all. It may be our own wrong thoughts which makes a colour appear muddy, for remember, in looking at any other persons aura we first have to look through our own aura!

There is a connection between musical and mental rhythms. The human brain is a mass of vibrations with electrical impulses radiating from every part of it. A human emits a musical note depending upon the rate of vibration of that human. Just as one could get near a beehive (bikube) and hear the drone of a whole lot of bees, so perhaps could some other creature hear humans. Every human has his or her own basic note, which is constantly emitted - in much the same way as a telephone wire emits a note in a wind. Further, popular music is such that it is in sympathy with the brain wave formation, it is in sympathy with the harmonic of the body vibration. You may get a "hit tune" which sets everyone humming (nynne) it and whistling it. People say that they have "such - and - such a tune" running constantly through their brain. Hit tunes are ones, which key-in to the human brain waves for a certain time before their basic energy is dissipated.

Classical music is of a more permanent nature. It is music which causes our auditory waveform to vibrate pleasantly in sympathy with the classical music. If the leaders of a nation want to rouse up their followers - they have to compose, or have composed, a special form of music called a national anthem (hymne). One hears the national anthem and one gets filled with all sorts of emotions, then one stands upright and thinks kindly of the country, or thinks fierce thoughts of other countries. That is merely because the vibrations, which we call sound, have caused our mental vibrations to react in a certain way. Thus it is possible to "pre - order" certain reactions in a human being by playing certain types of music to that person.

A deep thinking person, one who has high peaks and deep hollows to his brain wave form, likes music of the same type, that is, music having high peaks and a deep wave form. But a scatterbrained (vimsete) person prefers the scatter - brain music, music that is more or less a jingle - jangle and on a chart would be represented more or less accurately by just a squiggle.

Many of the greatest musicians are those who consciously or sub - consciously can do astral travelling, and who go to the realms beyond death. They hear "the music of the spheres." Being musicians - this heavenly music makes a vast impression upon them, it sticks in their memory so that when they come back to Earth, they are immediately in a "composing mood." They rush to a musical instrument or to lined paper, and immediately write down, so far as they remember, the notations of the music which they heard in the astral. Then they say - remembering no better - that they have composed this or that work!

The diabolic (djevelsk) system of subliminal (underbevisst) advertising, in which an advertising messages flashed on the television screen too quick for the conscious eyes to see, plays upon one's semi - awareness while not impinging upon the conscious perceptions. The subconscious is jerked to awareness by the flow of wave patterns reaching it, and the subconscious, being nine-tenths of the whole, eventually drives the consciousness to go out and purchase the item which was advertised - even though consciously - the person concerned knows that he or she does not even desire such a thing. An unscrupulous group of people, such as the leaders of a country, who had not the welfare of the people at heart, could actually make the people react to any subliminal commands by using this form of advertising.

In previous lessons we have regarded the body as being the centre of the etheric and the aura; we have moved from the body outwards, discussing the etheric and then on to a description of the aura with its striations of colour, and forward to the outer auric skin. All this is extremely important, and you are advised to go back and re - read the previous lessons, for in this lesson and lesson nine we arc going to prepare the ground for leaving the body. Unless you are clear about etheric and aura - and the nature of the molecular structure of the body - you may run into some difficulties. The human body consists, as we have seen, of a mass of protoplasm. It is a mass of molecules spread out over a certain volume of space in much the same way as a universe occupies a certain volume of space. Now we are going to go inwards, away from the aura, away from the etheric, and in to the body, for this fleshbody is just a vehicie, just "a suit of clothes - the garb (klesdrakt) of an actor who is living out his allotted (tildelte) part upon the stage - which is the world."

It has been stated that two objects cannot occupy the same space. That is reasonably correct when one thinks of bricks, or timbers, or pieces of metal, but if two objects have a dissimilar vibration, or if the spaces between their atoms and neutrons and protons are wide enough, then another object can occupy the same space. You may find that difficult to understand so let us put it in a different way, let us give perhaps two illustrations. Here is the first:

If you get two glasses and you fill them right up to the brim with water - you will find that if you tip a little sand - say, a teaspoonful - into one of the filled glasses, the water will overflow and will run down the side, showing that in this case the water and the sand cannot both occupy the same space, and so one has to give way. The sand, being heavier, sinks to the bottom of the water thus raising the level in the glass to the point where the water overflows.

Let us turn to the other glass, which also has been filled with water to the brim - filled to precisely the same level as the first glass. If now we take sugar and we slowly sprinkle sugar into the glass, we find that we may be able to put even six teaspoonflils of sugar into the glass before the water overflows! If we do this slowly -we wilt see the sugar disappear, in other words, it dissolves. As it dissolves, its own molecules occupy spaces between water molecules, and thus it does not take up any more space. Only when all the space between the water molecules has been filled with sugar molecules, does the excess sugar pile up on the bottom of the glass and eventually cause the water to overflow. In this case we have clear proof that two objects can occupy the same space.

Let us have another illustration; let us look at the solar system. This is an object, an entity, a "something." There are molecules, or atoms, which we call worlds, moving about in space. If it is true that two objects cannot occupy the same space, then we could not send a rocket from the Earth into space! Nor could people from another universe enter this universe, because if they did so they would be occupying OUR space. So under suitable conditions - it is possible for two objects to occupy the same space.

The human body, consisting of molecules with a certain amount of space between atoms, also houses other bodies, tenuous ("tynne") bodies, spirit bodies, or what we call astral bodies. These tenuous bodies are precisely the same as to composition (sammensetning) as is the human body, that is, they consist of molecules. But just as earth or lead or wood consists of a certain arrangement of molecules - molecules of a certain density - spirit bodies have their molecules fewer and further between each. Thus it is quite possible for a spirit body to fit into a flesh body in the most intimate contact, and neither occupies space needed by the other.

The astral body and the physical body are connected together by the Silver Cord. This latter is a mass of molecules vibrating at a tremendous speed. It is in some ways similar to the umbilical cord, which connects a mother to her baby; in the mother -impulses, impressions, and nourishment flow from her to the unborn baby. When the baby is born and the umbilical cord is severed, then the baby dies to the life it knew before, that is, it becomes a separate entity, a separate life, it is no longer a part of the mother, so it "dies" as part of the mother and takes on its own existence.

The Silver Cord connects the Overself and the human body, and impressions flash from on to the other during every minute of the fleshbody's existence. Impressions, commands, lessons, and at times even spiritual nourishment come down from the Overself to the human body. When death takes place, the Silver Cord is severed and the human body is left like a discarded suit of clothes, while the spirit moves on.

This is not the place to go into the matter, but it should be stated that there are a number of "spirit bodies." We are dealing with the flesh - body and the astral body at present. hi all in our present form of evolution there are nine separate bodies, each connected to the other by a Silver Cord, but we are concerned now more with astral travelling and matters intimately connected with the astral plane.

Man, then, is a spirit briefly encased in a body of flesh and bones, encased in order that lessons may be learned and experiences undergone, experiences which could not be obtained by the spirit without the use of a body. Man, or the flesh - body of Man, is a vehicle which, is driven, or manipulated by the Overself. Some prefer to use the term "Soul," we use "Overself" because it is more convenient, the Soul is a different matter, actually, and goes to an even higher realm. The Overself is the controller, the driver of the body. The brain of the human is a relay station, a telephone exchange, a completely automated factory, if you like. It takes messages from the Overself, and converts the Overself's commands into chemical activity or physical activity, which keeps the vehicle alive, causes muscles to work, and causes certain mental processes. It also relays back to the Overself messages and impressions of experiences gained.

By escaping from the limitations of the body, like a driver temporarily leaving an automobile, Man can see the Greater World of the Spirit and can assess the lessons learned while encased in the flesh, but here we are discussing the physical and the astral with, perhaps, brief mentions of the Overself. We mention the astral in particular, because while in that body, Man can travel to distant places in the twinkling of an eye. Man can go anywhere at any time, and can even see what old friends or relations are doing. With practice, Man and Woman - can visit the cities of the world and the great libraries of the world. It is easy, with practice, to visit any library and to look at any book or any page of a book. Most people think they cannot leave the body because in the Western world they have been so conditioned for the whole of their life - to disbelieve in things which cannot be felt, torn to pieces and then - discussed in terms which mean nothing.

Children believe in fairies; there are such things, of course, only we who can see them and converse with them call them Nature Spirits. Many really young children have what are known as invisible playmates. To adults the children live in a world of make - believe, talking animatedly (ivrig) to friends who cannot be seen by the cynical adult. The child knows that these friends are real.

As the child grows older parents laugh, or become angry at the idle imaginations. Parents, who have forgotten their own childhood and forgotten how their parents acted, even beat a child for being "a liar," or being "over - imaginative." Eventually, the child becomes hypnotised into believing that there are no such things as Nature Spirits (or fairies), and in turn these children grow up - have families of their own - and discourage their own children from seeing or playing with Nature Spirits!

We are going to say quite definitely that the people of the East and the people of Ireland know better; there are Nature Spirits, never mind if they are called fairies or leprechauns - never mind whatever they are called - they are real, they do good work, and Man, in his ignorance and boastfulness in denying the existence of these people, denies himself a wondrous treat and a marvellous store of information, for the Nature Spirits help those whom they like, help those who believe in them.

There are no limits to the knowledge of the Overself. There are very real limits to the abilities of the body - the physical body. Almost everyone on Earth leaves the body during sleep. When they awake, they say that they have had a dream, because here again, humans are taught to believe that this life on Earth is the only one that matters, they are taught that they do not go travelling around when asleep. So -wonderful experiences are rationalised into "dreams."

Many people who believe, can leave the body at will, and can travel far and fast, returning to the body hours later with a full and complete knowledge of all they have done, all they have seen, and all they have experienced. Nearly anyone can leave the body and do astral travelling, but they have to believe that they can do this, it is quite useless for a person to put out repelling thoughts of disbelief, or thoughts that they cannot do such a thing. Actually, it is remarkably easy to astral travel when one gets over the first hurdle (hinder) of fear.

Fear is the great brake. Most people have to suppress the instinctive fear that to leave the body is to die. Some people are deathly afraid that if they leave the body they may not be able to get back, or that some other entity will enter the body. This is quite impossible, unless one "opens the gate" by fear. A person who does not fear, can have no harm whatever occur to him. The Silver Cord cannot be broken when one is astral travelling; no one can invade the body unless one gives a definite invitation by being terrified.

You can always - ALWAYS - return to your body, just the same as you always awaken after a night of sleep. The only thing to be afraid of is of being afraid; fear is the only thing which causes any danger. We all know that the things which we fear rarely happen!

Thought is the main drawback after fear, because thought, or reason (fornuft), poses a real problem. These two, thought and reason, can stop one from climbing high mountains; reason tells us that a slip will cause us to be cast down and dashed to pieces. So thought and reason should be suppressed. Unfortunately they have bad names. Thought! Have you ever thought about thought? What is thought? Where do you think? Are you thinking from the top of your head? Or from the back of your head? Are you thinking in your eyebrows? Or in your ears? Do you stop thinking when you close your eyes? No! Your thought is wherever you concentrate; you think wherever you concentrate upon. This simple, elementary fact can help you get out of your body and into the astral, it can help your astral body soar as free as the breeze. Think about it, re - read this lesson so far, and think about thought, think how thought has often kept you back - because you thought of obstacles, you thought of unnamed fears. You may, for instance, have been alone in the house at midnight with the wind howling outside, and you may have thought of burglars, you may have imagined someone hiding behind a curtain ready to jump upon you. Thought - here - can harm!! Think of thought some more.

You are suffering from toothache, and reluctantly you go to see the dentist. He tells you that you have to have a tooth extracted, you are afraid it will hurt; you sit there in the dental chair in fear. As soon as the dentist picks up his hypodermic (sprøyte) to give you an injection, you automatically wince (krymper deg), and perhaps even turn pale. You are sure it is going to hurt, you are sure that you are going to feel that needle going in, and afterwards there will be that horrid wrench as your tooth comes bloodily out. Perhaps you are afraid that you are going to faint with the shock, so you feed the fear, you make your tooth hurt more and more by thinking and concentrating the whole of your thought power upon the site of that tooth! All your energy is devoted to making that tooth ache more, but when you idly think, where is the thought then? In the head? How do you know? Can you feel it there? Thought is where you concentrate, thought is within you only because you are thinking of yourself and because you think thought must be within you. Thought is where you want it to be, thought is where you direct it to be.

Let us look at "thought is where you concentrate" again. In the heat of battle, men have been shot or stabbed and have felt no pain. For a time they may not even have known that they were wounded, only when they had time to think about it - did they feel the pain and perhaps collapse with shock! But thought, reason, fear, are the brakes that slow up our spiritual evolution, they are but the weary clanking of the machine slowing down and distorting the commands of the Overself.

Man, when uncluttered by his own stupid fears and restrictions, could almost be a superman with greatly enhanced powers, both muscular and mental. Here is an example; a weakly, timid man with perfectly shocking muscular development, steps off a sidewalk into a heavy stream of traffic. His thoughts are far, far away, perhaps on his business or upon what sort of a mood his wife is going to be in when he gets home that night. He may even be thinking of unpaid bills! A sudden hoot from an approaching car and the man - without thought - springs back into the sidewalk with a prodigious (enorm) leap which would normally be quite impossible for even a trained athlete! If this man had been hampered by thought processes, he would have been too late, the car would have knocked him over. The lack of thought enabled the ever - watching Overself to galvanise the muscles with a shot of chemicals (such as adrenalin) - which made the subject leap far beyond his normal capability and indulge in a spurt of activity beyond the speed of conscious thought.

Mankind in the Western world has been taught that thought, reason "distinguishes (kjennetegner) Man from the animals." Uncontrolled thought keeps Man lower than many animals in astral travel! Almost anyone would agree that cats, to give just one example, can see things that humans cannot. Most people have had some experience of animals looking at a ghost or becoming aware of incidents long before the human became so aware. Animals use a different system from "reason" and "thought." So can we!

First, though, we have to control our thoughts, we have to control all those weary tag ends of idle thought which constantly creep past our minds. Sit down somewhere where you are comfortable, where you can be completely relaxed, and where no one can disturb you. If you wish, extinguish the light - for light is a drawback in a case such as this. Sit idly for a few moments - just thinking about your thoughts, look at your thoughts, see how they keep creeping into your consciousness, each one clamouring (skrikende) for attention, that quarrel with a man at the office, the unpaid bills, the cost of living, the world situation, what you would like to say to your employer - sweep them all aside!

Imagine that you are sitting in a completely dark room at the top of a skyscraper; before you there is a large picture window (panoramavindu) covered by a black blind (rullegardin), a blind which has no pattern, nothing which could prove a distraction. Concentrate on that blind. First of all - make sure that there are no thoughts crossing your consciousness (which is that black blind),and if thoughts do tend to intrude (trenge på), push them back over the edge. You can do so, it is merely a matter of practice. For some moments thoughts will try to flicker at the edge of that black blind, push them back, forcibly will them to go, then concentrate on the blind again, will yourself to lift it - so that you may look out at all that is beyond.

Again, as you gaze at that imaginary black blind, you will find that all manner of strange thoughts tend to intrude, they try to force their way into the focus of your attention. Push them back, push them back with a conscious effort, refuse to allow those thoughts to intrude (yes, we are aware that we have said this before, but we are trying to drive the point home). When you can hold an impression of complete blankness for a short time, you will find that there is a "snap"(smell) as if a piece of parchment is being torn, then you will be able to see away from this ordinary world of ours, and into a world of a different dimension - where time and distance have an entirely fresh meaning. By practicing this, by doing this, you will find that you are able to control your thoughts as do the Adepts (innvidde) and the Masters. I

Try it, practice it, for if you want to be able to progress you must practice and practice until you can overcome idie thoughts.

In the last lesson we dealt in the concluding stages (avsluttende etapper) with thought. We said "thought is where you want it to be." That is a formula which really can assist us to get out of the body, to do astral travelling. Let us repeat it.

Thought is where you want it to be. Outside of you, if you want it so. Let us have a little practice. Here again, you will need to be where you are quite alone, where there are no distractions. You are going to try to get yourself out of your body. You must be alone, you must be relaxed, and we suggest that for ease you lie down, preferably upon a bed. Make sure that no one can intrude and ruin your experiment. When you are settled, breathing slowly, thinking of this experiment, concentrate on a point six feet in front of you, close your eyes, concentrate, WILL (tving) yourself to think that you - the real you, the astral you - watches your body from some six feet away. Think! Practice! Make yourself concentrate. Then, with practice, you will suddenly experience a slight, almost electric shock, and you will see your body lying with eyes closed - some six feet away.

At first it will be quite an effort to achieve this result. You may feel as if you are inside a big rubber balloon, pushing, pushing. You push and push and strain, and nothing seems to happen. It almost seems to happen. Then at last, suddenly, you burst (sprekker) through, and there is a slight snapping sensation almost as, in fact, puncturing a child's toy balloon. Do not be alarmed, do not give way to fright, because if you remain free from fright you will go on and on, and - not have any trouble whatever in the future, but if you are afraid you will (sprette) back into the physical body and will then have to start all over again at some other date. If you bounce back into your body there is no point in trying anything more that day for you will rarely succeed. You will need sleep - rest - first.

Let us go further, let us imagine that you have got out of your body with this simple easy method, let us imagine that you are standing there looking at your physical component and wondering what to do next. Do not bother to look at your physical body for the moment, you will see it again quite often! Instead try this: - Let yourself float about the room like a lazily drifting soapbubble, for you do not even weigh as much as a soap bubble now! You cannot fall, you cannot hurt yourself. Let your physical body rest at - ease. You will, of course, have dealt with that before freeing your astral from this fleshly sheath. You will have made sure that your flesh - body was quite at ease. Unless you took this precaution, you may find when you return to it that you have a stiff arm or a cricked neck. Be certain that there are no rough edges that would press into a nerve, for if, for example, you have left your physical body so that an arm is extended over the edge of the mattress, there may be some pressure upon a nerve which will cause you "pins and needies" later. Once again, then, make sure that your body is absolutely at ease before making any attempt to leave it for the astral body.

Now let yourself drift, let yourself float about the room, idly move round as if you were a soap bubble drifting on vagrant (vandrende) air currents. Explore the ceiling and the places where you could not normally see. Become accustomed to this elementary astral travel because until you are accustomed to idling (drive-) about in a room - you cannot safely venture (driste seg) outside.

Let us try it again with somewhat different wording. Actually, this astral travel affair is easy, there is nothing - to it so long as you allow yourself to believe that you can do it. Under no circumstances, under no conditions should you feel fear, for this is not a place for fear, in astral travel you are journeying to freedom; It is only when back in the body that you need to feel imprisoned, encased in clay, weighted down by a heavy body which - does not respond very well to spiritual commands. No, there is no place for fear in astral travel, fear is quite alien to it.

We are going to repeat astral travel directions under slightly different wording. You are lying flat on your back on a bed. You have made sure that every part of you is comfortable, there are no projections sticking into nerves, your legs are not even crossed, because if they were, at the point where they cross you might have a numbness after just because you will have interfered with the circulation of the blood. Rest calmly, contentedly, there are no disturbing influences, nor are you worried. - Think only of getting your astral body out of your physical body.

Relax and relax yet more. Imagine a ghostly shape corresponding roughly to your physical body, gently disengaging (frigjøres) from the flesh body and floating upwards like a puffball (røyksopp) on a light summer's breeze. Let it rise up, keep your eyes closed otherwise, for the first two or three times, you may be so startled (oppskremt) that you will twitch (nappe/rykke), and that twitch may be violent enough to "reel in" the astral to its normal place within the body.

People frequently jerk in a peculiar manner just when they are failing asleep. All too often it is so violent that it brings one back to full wakefulness. This jerk is caused by a too rough separation of the astral body and the physical body, for, as we have already stated, nearly everyone does astral travelling by night even if so many people do not consciously remember their journeyings. But back to our astral body again.

Think of your astral body gradually, easily separating from the physical body, and drifting upwards to about three, - or perhaps four feet above the physical. There it rests above you swaying gently. You may have experienced a sensation of swaying (gynging) just when you are failing asleep; that was the astral swaying. As we have said, the body is floating above you, possibly swaying a little, and connected to you by the Silver Cord which goes from your umbilicus (-navlen) to the umbilicus of the astral body (insert fig. 8 - under).

Do not look too closely because we have already warned you that if you become startled (skremt) and twitch - you will bring your body back and have to start all over again on some other occasion. Suppose you heed (tar hensyn til) our warning, and do not twitch, then your astral body will remain floating above for some moments, take no action at all, hardly think, breathe shallowly for this is your first time out, remember, your first time CONSCIOUSLY out - and you have to be careful.

If you are not afraid, if you do not twitch, the astral body will slowly float off, it will just drift away to the end or the side of the bed - where quite gently, without any shock whatsoever, it will gradually sink so that the feet touch, or almost touch the floor. - Then, the process of making "a soft landing" over, your astral will be able to look at your physical and relay back what it sees.

- You will have a quite discomforting sensation of looking at your own physical body and we point out now that it is often a humiliating (ydmykende) experience. Many of us have a completely erroneous - idea of what we look like. Do you remember when you first heard your voice? Have you heard your voice on a tape recorder? For the first time you may have frankly disbelieved that it was your voice, you may have thought that someone was playing a trick on you, or that the recorder was faulty.

The first time one hears one's voice, one disbelieves it, one becomes appalled and mortified (ydmyket). But wait until you see your body for the first time! You will stand there in your astral body with your consciousness quite fully transferred to your astral body, and you will look down upon that reclining (-liggende) physical body. You will be horrified; you will not like the shape of the body nor the complexion, you will be shocked at the lines on the face and by the features, and if you advance a little further and look into your mind, you will see certain little quirks and phobias, which may even cause you to jump back into the body out of sheer fright! But supposing you surmount (overvinner) this first frightening meeting with yourself, what then? You must decide, where you are going, what you want to do, what you want to see. The easiest system is to visit some person with whom you are well acquainted, perhaps a close relative who lives in a neighbouring city. First it should always be a person that you frequently visit, because you have to visualise the person in considerable detail, you have to visualise where he or she lives and precisely how to get there. Remember this is new to you - new to you doing it consciously, that is - and you want to follow the exact route which you would follow if you were going in the flesh.

Leave your room, move to the street (in the astral, of course, but do not worry, people cannot see you), traverse the path which you would normally take - keeping fixed before you the image of the person, whom you want to visit and how to get there. Then, very very speedily, far more quickly than the fastest car could take you, you will be at your friend's or relative's house.

With practice you will be able to go anywhere, seas, oceans and mountains will be no bar, no obstacle, to your path. The lands of the world and the cities of the world will be yours to visit.

Some people think "Oh! Supposing I go and I cannot get back. What then?" The answer is - you cannot get lost. It is quite impossible to get lost, it is quite impossible to harm yourself or to find that your body has been taken over. If anyone comes near to your body while you are astral travelling - the body relays a warning and you are "reeled in" (spoler inn)with the speed of thought. No harm can come to you, the only harm is fear. So do not fear, but experiment, and with experiment will come a realisation of all your hopes, all your ambitions in the realms of astral travel.

When you are in the astral stage consciously, you will see colours more brilliantly than you do in the flesh. Everything will shimmer with life, you may even see particles of "life" about you like specks (flekker). That is the vitality of the earth, and as you pass through it you will pickup strength and courage.

A difficulty is this; you cannot take anything with you, you cannot bring anything back! It is, of course, possible under some conditions - and this comes with much practice only - that you materialise in front of a clairvoyant, but it is not easy to go to a person and carry out a diagnosis of their health condition, because you really need to be able to discuss things like that. You can go to a shop and look over their stock and decide what you want to go and buy the next day, that is quite permissible. Often when you visit a shop in the astral, you will see the flaws (feil) and the shoddiness of some of the goods, which are high, priced! When you are in the astral and you want to return to the physical, you should keep calm, you should let yourself think of the flesh body, think that you are going to go back and that you are going to get in. As you think this there will be a blur (slør) of speed, or there may even be an instantaneous shift from wherever you were - to a spot three or four feet above your reclining body. You will find that you are there, drifting, undulating slightly, just as when you left the body. Let yourself sink down very, very slowly, it must be slowly because the two bodies have to be absolutely synchronised.

If you do it right you will sink into the body without ajar, without any tremor, without any sensation other than that the body is a cold and heavy mass.

If you should be clumsy and you should not exactly align your two bodies, or if someone should interrupt you so that you go back with a jerk(rykk), you may find that you have some headache, some almost migraine type of headache. In that case you have to try to get yourself to sleep, or force yourself out into the astral again, because until your two bodies are back in exact alignment, you cannot get rid of the headache. It is nothing to worry about be - cause a quite definite cure is to go to sleep, even for a few moments, or consciously to get out into the astral again.

You may find that back in your flesh - body you are stiff. You may find that the sensation is much the same as putting on a suit of clothes which got wet the day before and now is still wet and dank (klam). Until you get used to it - it is not altogether a happy sensation coming back to the body, you will find that the glorious colours which you saw in the astral world have dimmed. Many of the colours you will not see at all in the flesh, many of the sounds that you heard in the astral are quite inaudible when in the fleshly body. But never mind, you are upon Earth to learn something, and when you have learned that which was your purpose in coming to Earth, you will be free of the ties, free of the bonds of Earth, and when you leave your fleshly body permanently, with the Silver Cord severed, you go to realms far above that of the astral world.

Practice this astral travelling, practice it and practice it. Keep away all fear, for if you have no fear - then there is nothing to fear - no harm can come to you, only pleasure.

We have said "There is nothing to fear except fear." We must emphasise (understreke) again - that provided a person remains free from fear, there is no danger whatsoever in astral travelling, no matter how far nor how fast one goes. But, you may ask, what is there to fear? Let us devote this Lesson to the subject of fear and what there is that should not be feared!

Fear is a very negative attitude, an attitude which corrodes our finer perceptions. No matter of what we are afraid, any form of fear does harm.

People may fear that in going into the astral state they may not be able to return to the body. It is always possible to return to the body, unless one is actually dying, unless one has come to the end of one's allotted span upon Earth, and that, as you will agree, has nothing to do with astral travelling. It is possible, we must admit, that one can be so afraid as to be paralysed with fright, and in that case one just cannot do anything. In such a condition a person may be in the astral body and may be so utterly terrified that even the astral body is unable to move. Of course that delays the return to the physical body for some time, until the sharpness of the fear wears off. Fear does wear off, you know, a sensation can be sustained only for a certain time. So a person who is afraid - merely delays a perfectly safe return to the physical body.

We are not the only form of life in the astral, just as humans are not the only form of life on Earth. In this world of ours, we have pleasant creatures like cats and dogs and horses and birds, to mention just a few; but there are also unpleasant creatures like spiders (edderkopp-) bite or snakes that poison. There are unpleasant things like germs, microbes and other harmful and noxious things. If you had seen germs under a high powered microscope you would see such fantastic creatures that you would imagine that you were living in the days of the dragons of fairy tale fame. In the astral world there are many things stranger than anything you can encounter on Earth.

In the astral we shall meet remarkable creatures or people or entities. We shall see Nature Spirits; these, by the way, are almost invariably good and pleasant. But there are horrible creatures who must have been seen by some of the writers of mythology and legend, because these creatures are like the devils, the satyrs, and other various aspected fiends (djevler) of the myths. Some of these creatures are low elementals, who may later become humans or they may branch out into the animal kingdom. Whatever they may be, at this stage of their development they are thoroughly unpleasant.

It is worth pausing a moment here to point out that drunkards (drankere), those who see "pink elephants" and various other remarkable apparitions, are indeed seeing precisely that type of creature! Drunkards are people who have driven their astral body out of the physical body and into the very lowest planes of the astral world. Here they meet truly fearsome creatures, and when the drunkards later recover - as much as he ever does ! - his senses, then he has quite a vivid (livlig) memory of the things that he saw. While getting thoroughly drunk, is one method of getting into the astral world and remembering, it is not one which we would recommend - because it takes one only to the very lowest, to the most degraded planes of the astral. There are various drugs now in use by the medical profession principally in hospitals for the mentally sick which have a similar effect. Mescaline for example - can so alter one's vibrations, that one is litterally ejected from the physical body and catapulted into the astral world. Here again, this is not a method to be recommended. Drugs and other forms of getting out of the physical body are truly harmful, they cause harm to the Overself.

But let us return to our "elementals." What do we mean by elementals? Well, elementals are a primary (-grunn-) form of spirit life. They are a stage up from thought forms. These thought forms are merely projections from the conscious or unconscious mind of the human, and they have merely a pseudo life of their own. Thought forms were created by the ancient Egyptian priests in order that the mummified bodies of great pharaohs and famous queens could be Protected from those who would desecrate (skjende) the ancient tombs. Thought forms are constructed with the idea that they shall repel (drive tilbake) invaders, that they shall attack by impinging (innvirke) upon the consciousness of those who would intrude, and, in impinging upon the consciousness, to cause such extreme terror that the would-be burglar flees. We are not concerned with thought forms, for they are mindless entities, which are merely charged by long-dead priests and set to accomplish certain tasks, the guarding of tombs against invaders. We are concerned for the moment with elementals.

Elementals, as we have stated, are sprit people in the early stages of development. In the spirit world, the astral world, they correspond roughly to the position occupied by monkeys in the human world. Monkeys are irresponsible, mischievous (skøyeraktige), frequently spiteful (ondskapsfulle) and vicious, and they have no great reasoning power of their own. They are, as one might say, just animated lumps of protoplasm. Elementals, occupying about the same status in the astral world as monkeys in the human world, are forms which move about more or less without purpose, they jibber ("er umulige") and put on strange horrifying expressions, they make threatening motions at an astral travelling human, but, of course, they can do no harm. Always keep that in mind; they can do no harm.

If you have ever been so unfortunate as to go to a mental hospital and see really bad cases of mental derangement (sinnsforvirrete), you will have been shocked at the manner in which some of the worst cases there come up to one and make threatening, or possibly meaningless, gestures. They slobber (sikler) and drool, but if they are faced with determination (fasthet) - they, being of a very inferior (lavere) mentality, always retreat.

When you move through the lower astral planes you may meet some of these people, some of these strange, outlandish creatures. Sometimes if a traveller is timid (engstlig), these creatures cluster around and try to fluster (skremme) one. There is no harm in that, they are quite harmless, really, unless one is afraid of them. When one is starting astral travel you will often get two or three of these lower entities congregating (samle seg) nearby - to see how one "makes out," in much the same way as a certain type of person always likes to look at a learner driver taking a car out for the first time. The spectators always hope that something gory or exciting will happen, and sometimes if the learner driver is flustered he, or, more usually, she, will collide with a lamp post or something else to the great delight of the spectators. The spectators, as such, mean no harm, they are just sensationalists trying to get a cheap thrill. So with the elementals, they are merely out for "cheap" entertainment. They like to see the discomfiture (forvirring) of humans, therefore, if you show any fear, these elementals will be delighted and will keep up their gesticulations, their fierce (barsk/bister) and threatening approaches. Actually, they can do nothing whatever to any human, they are more like dogs who can bark only, and a barking dog does no harm. Furthermore, they can only annoy (plage) you so long as you, through your fear, permit them to.

Have no fear, nothing whatever can happen to you. You leave your body, you soar into the astral plane, and about ninety or ninety nine times out of a hundred you will not see any of these low entities. Again, you will only see them if you are afraid of them. Normally you will soar up and beyond their realm, they are clustered right at the bottom of the astral plane in much the same way as worms cluster at the bottom of a river or sea.

When you move up into the astral planes you will meet many remarkable occurrences. You may in the distance see great and brilliant gleams (glimt) of light. These are from planes of existence presently beyond your reach. Remember our keyboard? The human entity, while in the flesh, can be aware of only three or four "notes," but in getting out of the body and into the astral world - you have extended your range of "notes" a little upwards, you have extended that range enough to become aware that there are greater things ahead of you. Some of these "things" are represented by the bright lights, which are so bright that you cannot really see what they are.

But let us content ourselves for the time being with the middle astral. Here you can visit your friends or your relations, you can visit the cities of the world and see the great public buildings, you can read books in strange languages, for - remember -in the middle astral plane all languages are known to you. You will need to practice astral travel. Here is a description of what it is like, a description which can be your own experience with practice.

The day had grown old and the shadows of night had fallen, leaving the purple twilight, which gradually grew darker and darker - until at last the sky turned indigo, and then - black. Little lights had sprung up all around, the whitish - blue lights which illumined the streets, the yellowish lights which were the lights within the houses, perhaps they had been tinted somewhat by the blinds or curtains through which they shone.

The body was resting in bed fully conscious, fully relaxed.. Gradually there came a faint creaking (knirkende) sensation, a feeling as if something was drifting, shifting. There was the faintest of faint itches (svak kløe) throughout the body, gradually there came a separation. Above the prone (liggende-) body - a cloud formed at the end of a gleaming Silver Cord, the cloud started as an indistinct mass something like a big blot (klatt) of ink floating in the air. Slowly it formed into the shape of a human body, it formed and rose to about three or four feet where it swayed and twisted. Over some seconds the body of the astral rose higher, then the feet tilted. Slowly it sank down, so that it was standing at the foot of the bed, looking at the physical body, which it had just left and to which it was still attached.

In the room the flickering shadows crept into the corners like strange animals at bay. The Silver Cord was vibrating and shining with a dull silvery - blue light, the astral body itself was slimmed with blue light. The figure in the astral looked about and then looked down upon the physical body resting comfortably on the bed. The eyes were now shut, the breathing was quiet and shallow, there was no movement, no twitching, the body appeared to be resting comfortably. The Silver Cord did not vibrate - therefore there was no evidence of any unease.

Satisfied, the astral form silently and slowly rose up into the air, passed through the ceiling of the room and through the roof above, and out into the night air. The Silver Cord lengthened but did not diminish in thickness. It was as if the astral figure was a gas - filled balloon tethered (tjoret) to the house, which was the physical body. The astral figure rose until it was fifty, a hundred, two hundred feet above the rooftops. There it stopped, floated idly, and looked about.

From houses all along the street and from streets beyond, there were the faint, blue lines, which were the Silver Cords of other people. They extended up and up, and disappeared into some illimitable distance. People always travel by night whether they know it or not, but only the favoured ones, the ones who practise, come back with the full knowledge of all that they have done.

This particular astral form was floating above the rooftops, looking about, deciding where to go. At last it decided to visit a land far, far away. Upon the instant of decision, it started into fantastic speed, whirling almost with the speed of thought across the land, across the seas, and as it crossed the sea below - the great waves leapt up with the white crests at the top. At one point in its journey it peered down at a great liner racing across the turbulent sea with all lights on and the sound of music coming from the decks. The astral form sped on overtaking time. The night gave way to the evening before; the astral form was catching up on time, night gave way to evening and evening, in its turn, was overtaken and became late afternoon. Late afternoon was outstripped and become noon itself. At last in the bright sunlight the astral figure saw that which it had come to see, the land so far away, a dearly beloved land with dearly beloved people. Gently the astral figure sank to the earth and mixed unseen, unheard among those who were in the physical body.

Eventually there came an insistent tugging (pågående rykk), a twisting of the Silver Cord. Far, far away in a different land - the physical body which had been left behind, was sensing the break of day and was recalling its astral. For some moments the astral lingered (nølte) on, but at last the warning could no longer be ignored. Up into the air rose the shadowed form, poised motionless for a moment like a homing pigeon (brevdue), then sped across the skies, flashing across land, across water, back to the place of the rooftop. Other cords were trembling too, other people were returning to their physical bodies, but this particular astral form sank down through the rooftop and emerged through the ceiling over the slumbering figure of its physical. Lightly, slowly, it sank down and positioned itself precisely above the physical body. Slowly, gently, with infinite care it descended and merged into that physical body. For a moment there was a sensation of intense cold, a sensation of dullness, of leaden weight pressing down. Gone was the lightness, the feeling of freedom, the bright colours experienced in the astral body, instead there was cold. It felt as if a warm body was putting on a wet suit of clothes.

The physical body stirred and the eyes opened. Outside the windows, the first faint streaks of daylight were showing above the horizon. The body stirred and said, "I remember all my experiences of the night."

You too can have such experiences, you too can travel in the astral, you can see those whom you love, and the greater the ties between you and those whom you love - the more easily you can travel. It needs practice and more practice. According to old Eastern tales, in the days of long long ago - all mankind could travel in the astral, but because so many people abused that privilege it was taken away. For those who are pure in thought, for those who are pure in mind, practice will bring release for the leaden, cloying weight of the body, and will enable one to go wherever one wills.

You will not do it in five minutes, nor in five days. You must "imagine" that you can do it. Whatever you believe you are, that you are. Whatever you believe you can do, that you can do. If you really believe, if you sincerely believe that you can do a thing, then you can do that thing. Believe, believe, and with practice you will travel in the astral.

Again, have no fear for while in the astral no one can harm you no matter how fearsome, no matter how terrifying is the aspect of lower entities whom you may, but probably will not, see. They can do nothing to you unless you are afraid. The absence of fear ensures your absolute protection.

So will you practice, will you decide where you are going? Lie down upon your bed, you must be alone in your bed, of course, and tell yourself that this night you are going to such - and - such a place to see so - and - so, and when you awaken in the morning, you will remember everything that you did. Practice is all that is necessary to make this attainable.