Man Outside Himself The Methods of ...

Man Outside Himself The Methods of Astral Projection by H.F. Prevost Battersby, Astral Projection & Lucid Dreaming

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H. Prevost Battersby
This book gives a vivid account of the evidence for this
amazing phenomenon. It reviews the literature and describes
the experiences of the modern pioneers of Astral Projection
and the various methods by which they achieve their results.
Among the experimenters dealt with are Oliver Fox, Sylvan J.
Muldoon, Ralph Shirley, Hereward Carrington, Vincent N.
Turvey, Eileen Garrett and "Yram," here identified for the first
time as Dr. Marcel Louis Forhan.
Man Outside Himself
is one of the key works on astral
projection. Its author made his mark in military and sports
journalism, but psychic science was his lifelong interest. This
book is his most important work in the field.
The new introduction to the American edition is by
Leslie Shepard, whose name appears on many works on the
occult and the supernatural.
CITADEL PRESS
A
division of Lyle Stuart Inc.
120 Enterprise Avenue
Secaucus, New Jersey 07094
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FOREWORD
THERE
always seems to be an inevitable time-lag between
the discovery of a new fact and its accepted addition to the sum
of human knowledge. This is not surprising where, as in many
professions, the fort of ignorance is defended by an organized
body of men financially and otherwise concerned to buttress
the ideas on which their own reputations have been founded.
Unfortunately, though its corporate opposition is not so
closely woven, the same embattled front is to be found in the
ranks of science; indeed, it is astonishing how averse is even
the unprofessional mind from abandoning convictions which it
has often only imperfectly acquired.
There may be novelty for some in the records which have
been collected and classified in this volume, but there is really
nothing "new" in the knowledge that a man can leave his body
and return to it at will. The West has been aware of that for
more than a thousand years, and the Orient for thousands of
years longer. But it is only in the present century that the
technique of this aerial adventure has been studied, and that
attention is being paid to its encouraging disclosure and its
disconcerting implications.
One is surprised, when investigating the subject, to
discover how widespread is this ability of man's slighter self to
escape from the imprisonment of the flesh, how easily, in many
cases, the prison doors are opened, and how almost as a
commonplace the escape is treated.
On the other hand, the uncertainty of these etheric
travellers as to what has happened, their dread of ridicule, or
even of being treated as slightly "wanting", has immured much
of their experience behind a veil of secrecy. Even when
conscious of the authenticity of their travel, and where it has
been checked by "a cloud of witnesses", one meets, over and
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over again, the pathetic injunction not to disclose names, as
though there were something shameful in such an adventure.
Science, when shown something it does not understand,
demands, and demands rightly, "Can you do it again?" Well,
the persistent practitioners of etheric travel can do it again, and
have, under scientific observation, often done it again; but,
save in the case of trained sensitives, cannot always do it
exactly to order.
That deficiency, however, can be supplied by putting the
detachable section of a subject at the command of someone
who is capable of controlling it and despatching it on a
required mission.
In this volume will be found instances of how, under
hypnosis, such missions are accomplished.
The hypnotist can, when his patient is in deep trance,
detach what is assumed to be the subconscious from the
entranced personality, and send it, for perhaps hundreds of
miles, on a quest, the distance, direction and contingencies of
which are alike unknown to himself and to his patient, and
indeed, occasionally, to anyone on earth; since the
subconscious may be pursuing events which have only matured
on its arrival.
All the while, the entranced subject in his arm-chair is
reporting, moment by moment, the progress of his quest, the
people he is meeting, the drift of their conversation, the plots
they are hatching, the purpose they have proposed — in fact
everything, and more than everything that, could be recorded
by an invisible dictaphone.
Here, then, are the exact conditions that science demands.
A laboratory test, that can be repeated as often as required; and
the only mechanism needed a competent hypnotist and a
serviceable subject. All the stock explanations are excluded;
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fraud is impossible, since the scientist can devise on the instant
his own test; telepathy is excluded, since the test can include
events which have not yet occurred, and the etheric traveller
will be reporting these as they happen, which no mortal could
have foreseen. He can describe a street accident as it crashes
beside him, or — for let us face all the implications — reveal
the conclusions of a Cabinet meeting.
Alex Erskine who, as a professional hypnotist, was as
famous as he was beloved, tells us how, in order to discover the
channel by which, despite the vigilance of a renowned London
doctor, a lady patient of his was obtaining drugs which were
compassing her ruin, he despatched the subconscious of one of
his subjects to the lady's bedroom.
If that sort of thing can be done, as done it was on this
occasion, with convincing results, there seems no reason why
the P.M.'s sanctum in 10 Downing Street should offer more
impediment to etheric intrusion than a boudoir in Mayfair.
Anyone acquainted with Jewish history will recall an
occasion when the council chamber of Ben-hadad, King of
Syria, was similarly invaded by the spirit, or subconscious, as
Erskine
has it, of a Jewish prophet. Every time the king had
attempted a raid on Israel he found that his plans had been
betrayed to his intended victim, and in despair he cried: "Will
ye not shew me which of us is for the King of Israel?" "None,
my Lord, O King," was the reply; "but Elisha, the prophet that
is in Israel, telleth the King of Israel the words that thou
speakest in thy bedchamber."
The prophet's etheric double may have journeyed to
Damascus just as the double of Mrs. Eileen Garrett journeyed
from New York to Newfoundland, as will be told later. Or, like
Erskine, he may have used as a subject the "young man" to
whom, in beleaguered Dothan, he imparted the gift of second
sight.
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