Nexus - 1103 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

OutT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE A Powerful Tool for Self-Research OutT-OF-BoDY EXPERIENCE A Powerful Tool for Self-Research Out-of-body experiences are common to all humanity, but producing them at will and remaining lucid whilst outside the body requires ideal physical conditions as well as strong desire, concentration and determination. ecades ago, the limitations of communications infrastructures provided something of a buffer between impactful world events and our sensibilities. Today, however, exposed as we are to real-time broadcasts, mass media and multi-media, more and more of us are finding it difficult to avoid reflecting upon the merit of our existence, the level of maturity of humankind and, as a natural consequence, the theme of evolution. Fortunately, advances in sciences have enabled us to make sense of certain elements of our existence. Recent breakthroughs in technology and communication are doing so much to improve our levels of education and discernment that our questions about existence and evolution are becoming more precise and challenging. However, science, for all its sophisti- cation, remains unable to provide us with a verifiable explanation of what happens to us after we die, for example. Religion has traditionally played an important role in addressing enigmas such as these, and until quite recently religious perspectives were widely accepted, contributing much to the alleviation of our anxieties about death and the afterlife. But as our levels of knowledge and acumen increase, we are becoming less willing to accept unchallengeable "absolute" truths and mystical interpretations. As a result, people all over the world are now searching for more precise, logical and per- sonally confirmable answers to the age-old existential questions such as: "Where did I come from?", "Where will I go when I die?", "What is it like there?", "Who else will be there?" and "What is the purpose of my life?" In response to this growing demand, a veritable plethora of "routes to enlightenment" has sprung up in the marketplace. Some of these are espoused through cleverly marketed prod- ucts such as lectures, workshops, books and videos, the international commercial successes of which attest to a worldwide demand of massive proportions. Many of these methods, philosophies, theories and practices, however, exact a degree of faith on behalf of the indi- vidual and cannot be authenticated by objective means. With so many alternatives on offer, we've almost reached the point where we need a course on what course to take. So how do we discriminate what has value from what has not? How can we really know what the relative truth is? And is it enough simply to believe in something because someone else does, because it appears to make sense or because it gives us a warm fuzzy feeling inside? For the time being, science, through its conventional paradigm, has limitations and has developed no means by which to answer these questions or those mentioned earlier, as it is unable to confirm the existence of life in other dimensions. In search for better means to achieve substantiated and verifiable answers, some scientists are looking into the out-of-body experience (OOBE), documented throughout history since ancient Egypt, as an effective tool for allowing personal verification of what lies beyond that which we can perceive with our physical senses. By employing a more updated ontological model and scientific paradigm for research, sci- entists can investigate the existence of nonphysical dimensions, employing a variety of methods that include the analysis of detailed, consensual information from accounts of per- sonal experiences of lucid OOBEs. Experimental research conducted by a number of scien- tific organisations further corroborates the reality of the OOBE phenomenon. In light of this knowledge, the objective of this article is to detail further why the OOBE is such an important tool, underscore that the OOBE is a universal phenomenon well within the capabilities of every human being, explain some facts about the OOBE based on decades by Sandie Gustus © 2004 Director Marketing & Communications - UK International Academy of Consciousness London, UK Tel/fax: +44 (0)20 7723 0544 Email: London@iacworld.org Website: http:/Avww.iacworld.org APRIL — MAY 2004 NEXUS = 53 by Sandie Gustus © 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com