Observations placeholder
Muldoon, Sylvan - Fear of ‘possession’
Identifier
000061
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Projection of the Astral Body – Muldoon and Carrington 1929
I shall now explain how fear exerts both a negative and positive effect upon projection, depending upon the circumstances under which the fear manifests.
When I first experienced conscious projection of the astral body, I’ll admit, I used to be afraid, not during the projection, that is the strange part, but before going to sleep. The wonder of it gripped my mind beyond words; gripped me more than anything else ever gripped me.
I somehow conceived the idea (mostly as the result of hearing others tell about it) that fiends, murderers and all sorts of devils lurked on the astral plane, waiting to get into people! One prominent Spiritualist informed me that some devil might influence me while projected, or that he might get into my physical body and prevent me from getting back into it again!
I admit that I was frightened - so frightened at first that I was afraid to go to sleep at night. I had the whole phenomenon firmly fixed in my mind, and would always begin to think of it, to vision it, just as soon as I went to bed, because of my fear that I should project and would be apprehended by some astral monster !
And what did this fear do ? It made me project all the more, for my mind was so saturated by the knowledge of what took place, and intensified by fear: fear which externalised my neuric energy, as it does everyone else's, making me still more subject to extensive separations - that, no sooner would I fall asleep than I would be dreaming of projection.
And every single time, the astral body would be pulled out by the suggestion coming from my mind. Many times I would become conscious, emerging from the dream state ; and many times I would merely dream the action out - with the body participating. Repercussions were a nightly occurrence. But the fact which baffled me the most was this: Why was I so terribly frightened when in the physical, or when first awakening within cord activity range (which would cause repercussion) while, when free - that is, when waking outside cord activity range - I would have no fear whatever?
This was one of the observations that impressed me the most forcibly - why the fear disappeared. It was like a player before a football game, or a prizefighter before the fight began.