Astral Projection and other metaphysical nonsense

[Jacob Cliff]

Before I get ridiculed, I will have to clarify: in no way am I a spiritualist or some vape-mongering post-leftist – I am, and have been for a while, an atheist opposed to all superstitions and metaphysics.

I do, however, have a great many friends who are very – I don't know what the word is, hippie-ish? Interested in astral projection, lucid dreaming and the likes (that sort of stereotype). Out of curiosity, I tried to "astral project" just to see where these people come from – and while I did not successfully do it all the way, I did undoubtedly have a feeling of "detaching myself from myself" and "lifting" out of my body. I don't believe in a soul, I don't think, but this was weird and it did feel spiritual (or at least as close to "spirituality" as I've ever gotten).

I'm only putting this on the forum because I don't want to fall into some metaphysical trap that leads to disillusionment from Marxism. As cliché as it sounds, that feeling did change my outlook own some things.

I know I may be sounding like I'm talking rubbish, but if you haven't tried this, try it, and if you have, then please give me an explanation for this that doesn't include some spiritualist, new-age metaphysical stuff. This was a profoundly strange experience that did match how others "talk about" on the Internet – intense vertigo, "feeling as if I'm moving away from my body," peace, vibrations, etc.

Just want an explanation that is scientific.

[Zoop]

If your epistemological outlook is grounded in materialism, then I don't see how you would have difficulty explaining it materialistically. It isn't difficult. It's an illusion created by the brain under specific circumstances - these circumstances give rise to the feeling of the out of body experience.

[Aslan]

Before I get ridiculed, I will have to clarify: in no way am I a spiritualist or some vape-mongering post-leftist – I am, and have been for a while, an atheist opposed to all superstitions and metaphysics.

I do, however, have a great many friends who are very – I don't know what the word is, hippie-ish? Interested in astral projection, lucid dreaming and the likes (that sort of stereotype). Out of curiosity, I tried to "astral project" just to see where these people come from – and while I did not successfully do it all the way, I did undoubtedly have a feeling of "detaching myself from myself" and "lifting" out of my body. I don't believe in a soul, I don't think, but this was weird and it did feel spiritual (or at least as close to "spirituality" as I've ever gotten).

I'm only putting this on the forum because I don't want to fall into some metaphysical trap that leads to disillusionment from Marxism. As cliché as it sounds, that feeling did change my outlook own some things.

I know I may be sounding like I'm talking rubbish, but if you haven't tried this, try it, and if you have, then please give me an explanation for this that doesn't include some spiritualist, new-age metaphysical stuff. This was a profoundly strange experience that did match how others "talk about" on the Internet – intense vertigo, "feeling as if I'm moving away from my body," peace, vibrations, etc.

Just want an explanation that is scientific.

Spiritual stuff such as that is just electro-chemical signals in your mind. It is just a euphoric feeling that people have from that that creates this image of the world.

And that goes from spiritualism to hierarchical religion, its just chemicals in the mind..

[reviscom1]

An empirical examination of the evidence suggests that you had a spiritual experience, doesn't it? ;)

If you were to go all spiritualist, I don't see why that would lead to disillusionment from Marxism, which is concerned with common ownership of the means of production and the dictatorship of the proletariat, not spirituality.

[Jacob Cliff]

An empirical examination of the evidence suggests that you had a spiritual experience, doesn't it? ;)

If you were to go all spiritualist, I don't see why that would lead to disillusionment from Marxism, which is concerned with common ownership of the means of production and the dictatorship of the proletariat, not spirituality.
Well it certainly would contradict it — Marxism is nothing without a materialist conception of history.

Perhaps it was just "chemicals in the brain," but it was fantastically strange.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Perhaps it was just "chemicals in the brain," but it was fantastically strange.

Why would chemicals in the brain not be able to make you feel profound things that are in fact not profound? They do that all time, even in the absence of (external) drugs. It's just your mind making the connections that make you think it's profound and mesmerising and whatever. Those epiphanies don't "really" exist.

[Ele'ill]

What's everyone's opinion on crystals?

[Guardia Rossa]

My friend and his friend had taken LSD. One saw gnomes, other saw turtles on the street.

Both can assure you that gnomes and wild packs of urban turtles don't exist.

[Jacob Cliff]

This was a dumb question fueled solely by thrill of the experience, can a mod remove this??

[BIXX]

Why? I actually think that this could be salvaged and taken in a more interesting direction regarding the meaning people draw from various experiences and a more general sense of self formation.

[Jacob Cliff]

Why? I actually think that this could be salvaged and taken in a more interesting direction regarding the meaning people draw from various experiences and a more general sense of self formation.
Fair enough

[OGG]

As cliché as it sounds, that feeling did change my outlook on some things.

What views changed? If you don't mind me asking, just curious.

[Palmares]

Okay, so I'm not superstitious but this weird thing just happened: this thread mad me think of a passage in Assata Shakur's autobiography, and I opened the book to the exact page I was looking for... Spooky (or totally coincidence and/or related to my having previous knowledge of the location of the passage and the book likely opening to that location because I focused on that section for a bit when I read that passage).

But anyway... the passage from Assata's book if anyone is interested:


My first encounter with Eva was when she came over to the bars and sat down outside my cell and told me she could astro-travel. She called it something like astro-space projection.
"I can go anywhere I want to, whenever I want to," she told me. "I've just come from Jupiter."
"How was it?" i asked her.
"Oh, it was fine. They had these cute little people. They were purple with crocodile skin and blue hair. You can go anywhere you want to," she told me. "You just have to project yourself."
"Can you show me how to project myself the hell out of here?"
"Oh, that's easy," she said, "I do that all the time. As a matter of fact, I'm not here now."
"No," i said, "that's not good enough. I want to project my mind and body out of here."
"You'll be in jail whereever you go," Eva said.

[JaffaRed]

I do, however, have a great many friends who are very – I don't know what the word is, hippie-ish? Interested in astral projection, lucid dreaming and the likes (that sort of stereotype). Out of curiosity, I tried to "astral project" just to see where these people come from – and while I did not successfully do it all the way, I did undoubtedly have a feeling of "detaching myself from myself" and "lifting" out of my body. I don't believe in a soul, I don't think, but this was weird and it did feel spiritual (or at least as close to "spirituality" as I've ever gotten).
I tried to do this with similar results - in a sense this is self-hypnosis, entering a trance-like state. Though in most cases this practice worked like a very relaxing mindfulness meditation, causing me to fall asleep if I was tired at the moment... This can radically alter your perception to an unimaginable degree. It is not really spiritual, but one of the many amazing things our brain - the product of hundreds of millions of years of natural selection - can do.

I also had experiences like this without trying - this is called "depersonalization" or "dissociation", which means that you don't really feel "present" in your body. In my case, it is the result of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - this is a very common result of how your brain processes traumatic memories.