Talk:Astral plane

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Does anybody really believe this? There is really no need to invoke something like an 'astral world' (meaning non-physical, I guess) to harbour feelings/emotions, as suggested in the article, as they are just physical brain functions... Srd2005 20:10, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Yes - see astral projection. ··gracefool |☺ 00:56, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC)

And regardless of whether or not one believes in the objective reality of the Astral, this is still a concept worthy of consideration regarding the history of ideas. Not everyone believes in a supernatural deity, but there are still wiki entries on God etc. Anyway I improved the page by replacing some vague sentences with more specific ones; also included references to Theosophy etc M Alan Kazlev 02:31, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Also see mind-body problem. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 03:48, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

Lucid Dreaming takes place on the Astral Plane? I would consider Lucid Dreaming to be an induced state of conciousness rather than a part of the Astral Plane? Surley it is what differenciates it from Astral Projection?

[edit] Paramahansa Yogananda commented on this.

The existence of the Astral plane is often mentioned by the Hindu guru, Paramahansa Yogananda. In his Autobiography of a Yogi, this is mentioned quite comprehensively. Should this piece of information be included more into this article? I think a mere summary of this is not enough. --Siva1979^{Talk to me} 18:09, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

sure - go for it! If the Rosicrucians (or rather, Max Heindel, representing only one of a number of Rosicrucian schools) have a section then Yogananda should as well. There is a lot more that can be written anyway - e.g. the Theosophical and Neo-Theosophical interpretations, Max Theon, Alice Bailey, Rudolph Steiner, Robert Monroe, Ann Ree Colton, pop New Age interpretations, etc etc; all of which can (and hopefully one day will) be given their own section here M Alan Kazlev 02:27, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Who knows, proceeding from what Manly P. Hall once wrote [1], if the Ones that Heindel represents, as the Ones that Blavatsky represents, hopefully one day, which figures soon [2], may clarify the Rosicrucian Way to those whose lack of faith in their hearts and whose illusions in their minds prevents them from seeing:

"Wherefore there shall cease all servitude, falsehood, lies, and darkness, which by little and little, with the great world's revolution, was crept into all arts, works, and governments of men, and have darkened the most part of them... But the work itself shall be attributed to the blessedness of our age." [3] --88.214.143.49 18:58, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, then I have to start doing a more comprehensive research on the views Yogananda had about the astral plane. Moreover, from a brief overview, most of the Theosophical interpretations on this is somewhat similar to Yogananda's. Although it is impossible to scientifically prove the existence of the astral plane, their views on this must not be ignored as they are very credible sources on this area of study. On a side note, there is a HIGHER plane which Yogananda often mentioned and it is the Causal plane which is more subtle. --Siva1979^{Talk to me} 02:38, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, re the similarity, this is because the Theosophical ideas (from the Theosophical Society Adyar, which seems to be big in India) were adapted into or incorporated with Vedantic concepts. I have noticed a number of gurus and spiritual teachers of the 20th century have used terms like astral and causal in this context, identifying them with traditional Vedantic concepts like sukshma and karana. Obviously it is a two-way street, regarding cross-fertisation of esoteric and spiritual ideas; the Theosophists were originally inspired by Vedanta etc, they then formulated this in terms of westren esotericism, this in turn was incorporated by the Hindu yogis and teachers, where it has become part of their living tradition (the Theosophical teachings themselves are basically just theoretical and intellectual).

And yes, all this cannot be scientifically faslsified, but to use empirical method to try to justify occult, esoteric and spiritual realities is highly misleading, as Jorge Ferrer has persuasively shown in his book Revisioning Transpersonal Theory. M Alan Kazlev 02:26, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External links

Links removed, at least for the time being:

• Gnosticweb Mysticweb Astralweb Articles and Courses on the Astral Plane & Lucid Dreaming

Reason: Copied from Talk:Astral_projection#External_links

I would add that sites making commercial publicity (e.g courses, seminars, free or paid) should not be accepted at this article. From my point of view, this article (and other related articles) - which tries to bring the most accurate data and perspectives on themes not common and also not easily understood in current-day society - should include only selected external links to articles, studies, research and forums who may bring some indepth value to the present article; otherwise, it may misguide users leading them into no end illusions and more or less serious "disappointments" (being the less harmful ones 'money exploitation' and 'power submission to individual(s) or organization(s)'). Regards, --88.214.143.49 18:25, 22 June 2006 (UTC)