23. ASTRAL TRAVELING SALES PITCH

"Star Light, Star Bright, First Star I see in Sight,
I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight."
                          -- Wiccan Wish Craft

     In Bram Stoker's novel, The Jewel of the Seven Stars, (1903),
Mr. Trelawney elucidates : "The astral body, which is a part of the Buddhist belief, long subsequent to the time I speak of, and which is an accepted fact of modern mysticism, had its rise in Ancient Egypt, at least, as far as we know. It is that the gifted individual can at will, quick as thought itself, transfer his body whithersoever he chooses, by the dissolution and reincarnation of particles."

     

     Sounds like vamping to me! So, what exactly does one do with the astral, iridescent, light body? Get into a lot of trouble hanging out at the wrong places, for one. Dr. Robert Monroe describes intimately detailed, harrowing, OBEs (Out of Body Experiences) in his chronicles, Journeys Out of the Body, and Far Journeys. 

     The film, Waking Life, by Richard Linklater, condenses the didactic philosophy of lucid dreamers. While dreaming, our astral body feeds on starlight / moonlight, like hungry vamps collecting teleported manna. Our brains access and transmit wavelengths, similar to TV, radio, and satellite antennae. As the Head of Astral Projection Studios, we project the screen, direct the show, write the script, and play every part......as our star clones surf waves of the Zuvuya (the Mayan word for interdimensional threads of Galactic Memory).
     Brainwave oscillations are indicators of specific states of relaxation, and/or focused mental activity, and are measured in Herz, or cycles per second. Delta waves (.01-4Hz) signify deep sleep (our nightly pacification of the Jungian collective unconscious), the realm of Sleeping Beauty, hibernating animals, and breast-fed babies. Theta waves (4-8Hz) are associated with the sub-conscious, and include peak spiritual experiences, REM (Rapid Eye Movement), and lucid dreaming (children play make-believe and adults role-play in Theta); we daydream "in Alpha" (8-13Hz), effecting a relaxed, detached, awareness (with possible hypnagogic or guided imagery), while Beta waves (13-30Hz) find us alert, in learning mode, or, to our detriment.....overthinking things. Oscillating / scrolling faster in prayer wheel mode, Gamma brain waves (25-100Hz) are indicative of higher perception and Mahatma-order miracles. Research has demonstrated Tibetan Buddhists meditating on compassion generate off-the-chart Gamma waves (finally, a Sign of Intelligent Life on the planet!).
     M and I took advantage of the "We-Are-the-Robots"1 techo-brain-machine-craze (you missed that one?) in the Eighties, to purchase a Hemisphere Synchronizer, or Hemi-Sync device, from the Monroe Institute (we saw it advertised in Omni magazine). As I fondly recall, it involved wearing black wrap-around shades (already big fans!) beaming flashing sequences of colored lights, synchronized to alchemically-recorded, binaural beeps; crossing left / right headphone channels, providing stereo relaxation into, for example, the famed, Theta brainwave, ZONE.

     Operating on the same premise as seminal artist, code-writer, Beat Hotel Godfather, and occult-seer, Brion Gysin's transcendent Dream Machine (which primarily modulated in 10Hz Alpha oscillations), Hemi-Sync offered a variety of settings (cycles per second) to induce alertness, or to soothingly drowse, creatively co-opting time considerations for space gratification.
     We became addicted to the deep, dark oblivion, our new toy afforded. The beeps receded sonically into our cortexes, as we tranced into astral light realms, in a sound version of the flotation tank sensation. With the addition of subliminal, hypnotic, auto-suggestions, or Sankalpas (Sanskrit : "imagination-envisioned wishes") by, you guessed it, Soul Power Grand Central Marketing, Inc., superhuman brain swells registered in the affirmative. The Hemi-Sync experience took off in hyper-space, after we discovered audio tapes by Musaios, the brilliant scholar / Egyptologist, who revived an ancient rite called The Lion Path (You Can Take It With You), whose basic premise "raising to initiation by the grip of the Lion's Paw" is a meditation referencing our "Internal Starlight" (as Egyptians lovingly term Sothis, or the planet Sirius A (while denoting Sirius B Horus)). 
     Musaios masterminded recordings of the signature tones / harmonics of the planets in our Solar System and beyond! Each planetary vibration's unique, hauntingly eerie, and a potent aural implant! Layers of Symphonic Mars! Venus! Jupiter! We absorb the cosmic dust of Saturn's Rings, the swirling fluff cotton candy stars are made of......Way-Out There.....in Here, Man (illuminating the Mind's Eye). 
     Your lucid dreamer / Imagination Specialist hosts elaborate ways of dematerialization into the Astral World. The key to unlimited destinations exists at the press of a button......inside a Willy Wonka Glass Elevator, if you so choose. Another technique is to master self-hypnosis, peripherally lifting up your "dream hands" as the command to fall under. Sculpt a Time Machine to your fancy by visualizing a light / energy grid with infinite dimensions. Dial in the Year.........

     Hint : You are the Center of the Universe! Lightspeed Comet! Tardis Spacehopper! Crystal Spectographer! I prefer taking an organic approach, allowing my portmanteau to fall through the Earth, or rise sky clad against a backdrop of the stratosphere, Valkyrie-like, casting a light shadow on portals of lucid, quicksilver desire, on the UFO's mirrored, quicksilver patina. Short-cut through the Milky Way, implant a fabricated memory, or wormhole a roundtrip ticket to catch up to your Pleiadian Family. It's all so implausible it can only be Real!
     An attractive party favor of the dream light body is the realization it's physically You, covered in astral goo, or Not! You can morph into anything or anyone; shapeshifting potential galore! Warning : try not to get possessed by who or what you've turned into, or a battle for control of your body may ensue. It's best to brush up on banishing spells / exorcisms beforehand....to use, heh heh, on yourself! Don't-Forget-To-Remember-Who-You-Are, and What-You-Are-Creating (shaping light into phantasms of Imaginary Desire). Take the odd peep at your body lying in calm repose. It's a twin-win. FLY! The sky's unlimited! (beware of black holes - the ultimate sucking entities!). Nothing's denied, everything's allowed, and you'll cross that bridge by becoming its troll. Magic incantations, instantaneous access, triple-happiness-wish-granting-delivery service, into Anansi-weaving Reality, wearing nothing but an ethereal, pulsating, umbilical cord, floating and spinning, warping the Space / Time continuum, beyond fear and gravity.......

         O, There, beyond thee Dweller Upon the Threshold2 , 
                             Go We, Astral Godstars.3 

1 Kraftwerk, "We Are the Robots"
2 Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, Zanoni
3 Psychic TV, "Godstar"