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Fox, Oliver - The dangers of the OBE
Identifier
011638
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
A Record of Out of the Body Experiences – Oliver Fox
I think this much can be said with certainty; no one with a weak heart should seek practical acquaintance with the phenomenon of separation; and very excitable, nervous people would do well to leave the subject alone. We are dealing with what is essentially a mental exercise or process, and it is easily conceivable that an ill balanced mind, lacking in self control, might become temporarily or even permanently deranged.
Possible dangers, including those of an ‘occult’ description, may be enumerated as follows:
- Heart failure, or insanity arising from shock
- Premature burial
- Temporary derangement caused by the non coincidence of the ‘etheric’ body with the physical body after the experiment. This might render the experimenter temporarily incapable of distinguishing between waking life and dream life
- Cerebral haemorrhage – I have been told that a too intense concentration may lead to the bursting of a blood vessel in the brain
- Severance of the cord, which means ‘death’
- Repercussion effects upon the physical vehicle caused by injuries to the astral. Such results are extremely rare and are similar to stigmata phenomena and the production of birthmarks by cravings and frights
- Obsession – I do not think we should dismiss this possibility too lightly, especially in the case of a person of known mediumistic tendencies. Although I have had no experience of it myself, I should not be surprised if this danger was a very real one