Berserk2
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These 6 criteria can of course be greatly expanded, and I would appreciate your suggestions on other validation principles.
(1) The only case of an OBE in which someone identified a random 5-digit number concealed near the ceiling is open to the charge of possible cheating and, in any case, could not be replicated by the adept (Miss Z). In general, lab tests of OBE ability have been appallingly disappointing. (I have read several books on such research.) It will not do to rationalize this failure by claiming that astral matter does not coincide with physical matter; so verification is impossible. Swedenborg proves this cop-out wrong.
(2) A woman (Maria) experienced an OBE when she was just 5. She was led down a path lined with trellises containing gigantic beautiful flowers. In her 50s, she painted a picture of the scene and told her doctor about it. He asked for a copy, framed it, and hung it in in office, together with 10 other paintings. Another female patient was drawn to it because she had been to the same locale during her NDE. Both women were just 5 during their NDE! So they apparently went to a portion of Paradise for newly arriving 5 year-olds. This implies that "geographical" criteria can serve as verifications for genuine spirit planes even if they are mental.
It has been claimed that Robert Monroe created a TMI-There in Focus 27 at a site with a special crystal. Astral travelers have given inconsistent descriptions of the site and the crystal. These astral partnered explorations should be viewed with skepticism. They are precisely what would be expected from a purely imaginative lucid dream adventure. And there is evidence of geographically consistent descriptions of NDE travlers who have not influenced each other's NDE.
(3) Many Christians and no doubt others claim that during their NDEs theBeing of Light and the colors of Paradise were bright like the sun, though this did not hurt their eyes. Brightness seems to be one indicator of a higher vibration heaven. Correlation studies are needed to determine what factors, beliefs, insights, and experiences are a function of brightness of the plane. Robert Bruce admits that he has merely glimpsed the higher heavens thruogh an apparent "portal."
(4) If OBEs are real, it should be possible to contact a discarnate soul and ask him to reveal the same cryptic thought independently to several different astral explorers. If these explorers have not consulted or been influenced by each other, they should be able to visit the same spirit and get the same message without consultation. The fact that such replicated experiments have not succeeded casts seriously doubt on the genuineness of the astral travel in question.
(5) Claims about a House of Knowledge in Focus 27 should summarily dismissed unless verifications can be obtained. For example, the size an shape of the buillding, the "landscaping," the geographical context (surrounding buildings and scenery) should all be indepedently verifiable. And previously unknown verifiable facts should available from the House of Knowledge itself. It won't do to rationalize that different adepts have different perspectives. Swedenborg and the best NDEs have established common features that can be independently identified.
(6) It should be possible during astral travel to ask discarnate spirits to outline 10 consecutive different activities they might typically perform on their plane. How odd it seems that even something as simple as this has little attestation. Even the seeds of a coherent astral lifestyle are evidently too much for our limited imaginations masquerading as portraying genuine spirit planes.
The alternative to such rigorous criteria is to pander to the New Age Ghetto by embracing all sorts of unverifiable experiences and believing that mutual affirmation from the gullible herd is suifficient grounds for belief. We must always begin our quest by asking: what would we expect if all these astral claims were a cruel hoax based solely on an overactive imagination fueled by wishful thinking. Sporadic minor ESP experienced during alleged astral travel simply does not pass the smell test.
Don
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