SfatInfo

by Vlad T. Popescu

It is fashionable and also spectacular to project on an “astral” plane, which is promoted by the majority of spiritual schools, yet this is less explained and it is rather tacitly left as an appanage of those who have “evolved”. For this reason, many “run” after it, as they consider it a sign that initiations have been successful, that they have evolved, that they are on the right path and, most of all, that they are different from the others.
Those who “project” are pleased to describe angels, superior beings of “light”, spiritual guides, but also the way someone looks like on an astral plane, how he or she is equipped, how he or she acts.
Moreover, one speaks about swords of light, crossbows, shields, helmets, which are used and have a sure effect, yet masters don’t mention where all these images come from and why they are consistent enough to influence people and objects. There are confessions and descriptions of real battles fought on an astral plane and if this level of “vision/awakening” is reached, this is regarded as “enlightenment”.
For those who have not experienced this state yet and have not reached this level, I shall briefly describe the “popular” astral world. 
At the beginning of deep meditation, only as fugitive images, then only during an incipient alpha state and permanently in case of those on a more advanced level, you can see yourself in an imaginary / virtual mirror as a medieval knight with armour, sword and shield, for example. An entire hermeneutics has been developed for deciphering such “astral double”; vibration and “length” of light swords are measured and the result is equated to the “power” of such person. Clothes and poise are described and any belonging to a monastic or esoteric order, to a certain civilisation that is or was historically determined, is interpreted as a dominant trait of the person involved. 
Still, it is not only yourself that you see in this manner – I have started with the image in the mirror because it is useful for subsequent description -, but the entire universe. You see the others in the same way and sometimes it comes to astral fights in which wounds are inflicted, heads are cut off and in which, on the other hand, all this aftermath of fight is healed. 
For those who have not been through such things, everything seems to be a kind of delirium that is more or less mystical, because apparitions of Jesus, Buddha, Qwan-Yin or other similar entities are described in the same manner.
Are these visions real? The answer is affirmative. Those that see don’t lie, as they describe their visions correctly. Moreover, with differences that are acceptable, they describe in a similar manner third characters that are either real or spiritual.
Are these visions products of imagination and of the subconscious? The answer is likewise affirmative.
How is this possible? How come they are simultaneously real and imaginary? Let us explain them one at a time.
The person’s aspect, which consists of apparel and weapons or any other requisites, is given by the individual cultural background (or, for those who are not shocked by the concept of reincarnation, by the most significant past life, which defines what we are). This is a latent image of what we have been, yet also of what we wish to be; it is an image to which we associate our virtues and flaws, because, in our subconscious, we are more sincere and objective than in our consciousness.
When, by meditation, agreements and initiations, we reach a point of better opening our subconscious, we evaluate and interpret by such images a cultural and spiritual heritage that is reposited in our subconscious. In any case, when we reach enough skill, this attire can be altered, both for us and for the others, and the base for this is made up of the criteria that we set.
How come the others see this image? When you interpret yourself in a certain manner, you transmit your image to the others telepathically (even though you have not reached a level of “astral projection”, the information exists and it is stored).
Likewise is formed the image of spiritual beings, ascended masters, positive and negative entities. We are steeped in a cultural space from which we continuously accumulate information. (one must not forget that “projectors” or “seers” are those who are preoccupied with spiritual matters - especially they, who have permanent contact to religious, esoteric and other images). We have icons, descriptions, we accumulate liturgical texts and all this information is stored in our subconscious. When we finally come in touch with such entity, we confer it the image inculcated in us.
What is spectacular and even unbelievable for those who have not been through this, is the fact that, when I raise the sword in my mind and I cut someone’s arm, even though I am not in that person’s presence and I cannot tell him or her about it, that person’s arm aches up to the point of getting numb.
Those who achieve real awakening, who see through what we have called the “uncreated light” and perceive the projection of superior dimensions, know that there is something else beyond and that this “astral” image, this archetypal imagery are not meant for anything else but for allowing us act upon reality. And this depends on each individual’s strength.
The closest comparison may be that of a mechanical hand upon which we act in order to handle hazardous substances from a distance. 
If I have good control on astral images, then, by acting through their agency and upon them, I determine a concrete action in the immediate irreality. And I transmit my intentions and wishes correctly.  
Astral projection is therefore useful; it is an efficient technique (disease entities, connections, etc. can be as well seen, in the same manner as matters described before), yet it ought not to be regarded as the end of the road.
The contents of a vision may seem accidental or without reason, especially because it entertains complicated causal relations to the unconscious. The schemata that we practise mediate the road from intuition to concept, but it is not these schemata that are to become the object of our knowledge and projection. The purpose is supposed to be the evaluation of immediate irreality.

Organ seeing in Qi Gong
Apart from astral projection, by which they connect to spiritual beings in the Buddhist Pantheon in a way that resembles that which has been described above and having the same significance, Qi Gong practitioners (and not only they), especially therapists, use this kind of organ visualization for diagnose and treatment.
This is a method in between remote viewing and astral projection. 
This technique is simple and efficient and it is as pragmatic as the majority of oriental techniques. Practitioners start by perfectly learning the structure of internal organs, after anatomy drawings, by dissections and other methods, until they can easily imagine a human body with all its organs. In this way, they make up a “model”.
While concentrating on the patient’s organs, collecting information by various means, scanning with the palms or “thinking” about the patient, practitioners transfer this information to the model in their mind and thus, they can visualise and manage such information. 
After receiving such data, the liver of a virtual model becomes bigger, fatter or whiter - in other words, different in the sense of the information received from the patient.
Everything resembles a system of network games, where the server (the patient’s body) conveys minimal information to the software application on a computer linked to a network (body model), and the computer, starting from received data, reproduces the virtual space of the “game”, based on what is already installed in it.
Information is transferred both ways. The Qi Gong practitioner acts mentally on the model and then transmits back the information, in order that the real organ could “comply” with the received instruction.

From „Near Irreality“, DAO PSI Publishing House, 2007

English version by Ioana Gavriliu