IAC

Having been fortunate enough to experience many "average" out of the body experiences, over many years. In recent months, I found it absolutely exhilarating to experience three overwhelming incidences of "tunnel effect" projections which usually occur during "Near Death" experience or visions.

The first occurred one evening after I had indulged in my usual practice of trying to encourage an out of the body experience by using an affirmation "I will remain conscious" prior to going to sleep.

After falling asleep, I woke up to find myself rising in the air (I had fallen asleep on my stomach) with an enormous roaring sound echoing all around. It sounded like being in the midst of a thunderstorm. I was fully conscious and naturally thrilled to be experiencing yet another out-of-body experience.

I decided to see how I looked in my bedroom's dressing table mirror. I saw myself dressed in pyjamas and a dressing gown and I was considerably shorter than in real life. I was conscious that this was yet another example of "astral plane distortion" which frequently occurs during projections.

Finding myself staring down a tunnel whose walls consisted of vivid black and white squares. At the opening of the tunnel there seemed to be a swastika shape. Then I found myself moving backwards through this tunnel at an enormous speed with all the sensation of a roller coaster being present. This was an extremely enjoyable feeling and I wished that it could have continued for hours.

Then I decided I would like to visit a scene of a former home approximately thirty miles away. I immediately found myself floating above the street of my former home and after a few seconds found myself moving at great speed along the road leading back to where I currently live.

I then had a semi-conscious projection (and was aware of it as such) with various members of my family acting out surreal situations. My arms were crackling and sparkling with blue sparks and I had the sensation that they had some sort of power, after which I found myself back in my physical body. As usual, I noted the time and proceeded to write up the report of my astral journey, in a diary, I keep for that purpose.

A few weeks after this episode I woke up one evening with a strange "tingling feeling" in my head. I became aware, looking down a tunnel with strangely coloured walls. It was decidedly zigzagged, disjointed, and not as clearly patterned as the previous example. At the opening of the tunnel there was a window, where a lot of what can only be described as massive television like "snowy interference" was occurring. There was a shape of some being, like a Catholic Priest or Pope behind the window. Accompanying this was an indistinct fuzzy sound. I found myself unable to move and then remembered to use a "spinning technique" and then found myself spinning round towards the floor and then rising to look at my slightly distorted bedside clock face. I noted the time and then found myself in the midst yet another semi-lucid projections which entailed members of the family acting out incidents which had correlations with things they were at that time and earlier on during the day busily involved in.

I "awoke" in my astral body again and I told myself to lift my astral arms and hands (para-arms and para-hands) so that I could see them. I was excited to note that they were transparent and I brought them together to clap, and experienced this in slow-motion, as if my parahands were moving through treacle. Then I tried to speak to my wife who was fast asleep beside me and whom I could see perfectly normally. My voice sounded like I was speaking through a container of water - all bubbly, slow and indistinct. Again, I used the spinning technique so that I could move - succeeding, I noticed the time and found myself looking at the world from my physical body.

The third example of a tunnel effect during an astral experience happened when I found myself waking up with the predominance of all sorts of spinning sensations. Instead of a clearly defined tunnel there was a strange pattern of wavy and bending white lights in the corner of my bedroom. I decided to raise my legs (which were facing in that direction) and noticed with some excitement again, that they were transparent and rather slow in motion, like the previous experience. I then raised my astral arms and hands and found that they were identical in texture and appearance as before. Noting the time on my bedside clock which, again, had a slightly distorted shape, I "woke up" in my physical body and checked that the time was the same as from my astral viewpoint - which it was- and then I proceeded to note this down in my "astral diary".

I have pondered for some considerable time to try to understand why these tunnel visions had occurred. The possible causes were my usual attempts, prior to sleep, at attaining an astral projection by trying to programme myself to wake up and find myself in my "astral mode". I had used, various meditation/concentration techniques sporadically, that were outlined in Robert Monroe's book "Journeys Out of the Body", whereby one concentrates prior to sleep on an imaginary point between the eyebrows.

I had also used examples of techniques given in V Van Dam's "The Psychic Explorer" such as imagining a spinning triangle. Israel Regardie's meditation technique as outlined in "The Middle Pillar" was also used. However, I feel that these practices were not very well done or consistently applied.

As meditators will readily admit, it is extremely hard to keep up these periods of concentration. The mind persistently wanders and I feel that I am a particularly good case of a bad meditator! I am increasingly aware of such "tunnel effect" visions occurring and being reported by many people in all sorts of contexts.

Michael Ross
Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
Scotland