Where the previous experiment equipped readers with the basic tools to incite a psychic awakening, this experiment makes good on the promise by providing detailed guidance on how to achieve a complete separation and projection of the psychic body.

1. The monograph recommends that students undertake a ritual purification before engaging in this psychic technique. Followers are asked to wash their hands and imbibe water to reinforce a sense of respect and awe towards the Cosmic. According to the Class Master, this should enhance the student’s psychic abilities.
2. Before assuming the correct posture, students must intone the following invocation,

“May the Divine Essence of the Cosmic infuse my being and cleanse me of all impurities of mind and body, that I may enter the Celestial Sanctum and attune in pureness and worthiness. So Mote it be!”

• The initial steps for achieving a psychic projection are the same as those found in Experiment No. 43. (The full text can be read at amorconline.com)
• Once the prescribed chanting has been completed, students are told to concentrate on the thymus while inhaling deeply through the nose. They should then hold their breath for as long as comfortably possible.
• Upon exhaling, students should intone an elongated “Ra” sound.
• With this exhalation, students should concentrate on projecting their bodies through the motion of the sound. In total, the sound should be repeated 7 times, by which point students should become integrated with the Cosmic.
• Contact with the Cosmic is concluded through a Celestial Sanctum, which is to be spoken as follows:

“May the God of my Heart sanctify this attunement of self with the Celestial Sanctum.”

According to the Class Master, this technique will take some time to develop properly. With focused practice, however, students should be able to project their bodies for several minutes at a time.

Guided Imagery

According to scientific estimates, 55% of the world strongly favors visual concepts and imagery, while the remaining population is more geared towards kinesthetic and auditory information processing. Guided imagery is a mind-body intervention technique that was developed to take advantage of this collective preference for interpreting external experiences through internally generated visual cues.

According to clinicians and researchers, this alternative therapy has proven efficacy in reducing instances of nausea, fatigue, anxiety, pain, stress and depression. It can also help induce more positive emotions within patients. While guided imagery isn’t recognized by any National Health body as a form of conventional medicine, the American Cancer Society does consider it to be a beneficial adjunctive treatment when prescribed alongside standard chemotherapy and medicinal programs.

While approaches towards guided therapy differ, in general, the technique is characterized by a systematic process of creating detailed images in the brain while simultaneously relaxing the muscles of the body in a progressive order. In essence, these subtle methods work to suggest a state of detachment in the mind from bodily emotions and preoccupations. With continued practice, this state becomes easier and easier to access through certain internal visual cues or auditory triggers. Although guided therapy can work in isolation, it’s considered most effective when administered by a figure of authority such as a therapist.

In her book “Beyond the Body: An Investigation of Out-of-the-Body Experiences,” Susan Blackmore (whom we referenced in the previous analyses), had this to say about individuals who reported instances of astral projection.

“[they] have been found to score higher on measures of hypnotizability and, in several surveys, on measures of absorption, [a] measure of a person’s ability to pay complete attention to something and to become immersed in it, even if it is not real, like a film, play, or imagined event.”

Now consider this ability in light of an intense ritual of guided imagination dictated by a revered figure of spiritual authority. It seems clear that with the right incitement, certain personality types will undergo far more intense experiences than their peers. Perhaps, they may even imagine themselves in far-off fantastical settings, or in closer more familiar locations.

Lack of Oxygen

According to a Dutch Study conducted into the near-death experiences of 344 clinical cardiac arrest patients, 12% reported seeing phenomena such as lights at the end of the tunnel, or recently deceased relatives. Researchers have drawn a clear link between these incidences and the lack of adequate oxygen supply to the brain; and they go on to posit that OBEs occur when this lack of oxygen is paired with a gap between the stimuli occurring in the brain and the visual, kinesthetic and auditory messages the patient receives from without. 

It’s interesting that Rosicrucian Order AMORC’s own ritual practices involve long periods of withholding your breath and a particular focus on the cardiac region of the body. Coincidentally, these practices are also combined with strong mental imagery which seems to be primarily focused on producing a prescribed response. In fact, students are told that if the prescribed response isn’t achieved then this is entirely a failing on their own part, and that more practice is required.