Transcendent Travels In The Mysteries of the Unknown series from the editors of Time-Life, subjects ranging from the occult to UFO phenomena are examined. Time-Life does a particularly good job of this, as they're not trying to sell anybody on one viewpoint or another. Their intent appears to be purely journalistic. Bye Bye Body Psychic Voyages (Volume four of the series) covers a range of out-of-body and past-life experiences. Although these may seem like fairly new phenomenons, they are not; they've just received a lot of press in the last couple of decades with the practice of celebrities hocking their experiences through best-sellers like A Bridge Across Forever, Dancing in the Light and Out on a Limb. In fact, one hundred years ago spiritualism had a heyday in America that makes the New Age movement look like a garage sale. At that time one Helena Blavatsky - a Russian spiritualist with a questionable background - founded the Theosophical Society which studied and documented a wide range of cases of psychic phenomena. In 1877 she published Isis Unveiled, a book she claimed was inspired by astral visions. According to her, disembodied spirits from beyond wrote the book; she was merely their instrument. Although it had its fair share of critics, the book did achieve modest success and put terms such as "astral projection" and "astral body" on the psychic lingo map. Though the concepts Blavatsky offered to modern society were new to the West, elsewhere they were old hat. Ancient Egyptians, for instance, had a term for the astral body; they called it ba, and depicted it in paintings and engravings as a bird with a human head. In India the pineal gland has been thought of for centuries as the third eye, where spirit and body join. It is believed that this gland interacting with the pituitary produces true spiritual illumination and makes astral travel possible. More recent interest has resulted in the attempt to monitor the phenomenon through scientific experiments, achieving mixed results. In 1958, a businessman named Robert Monroe had his first out-of-body experience (OBE). An average man of 43, he had no particular interest in occult phenomena, and the experience caused him to doubt his own sanity. After speaking to a psychologist friend who assured him in Eastern cultures there was nothing unusual about floating out of one's body, he began documenting his experiences. The result was a book called Journeys Out of the Body, published in 1971. Shortly thereafter he founded the Monroe Institute for Applied Sciences, dedicated to teaching techniques for achieving OBEs. Though not without his detractors, Monroe's meticulous documentation of his experiences makes a compelling argument for the existence of the phenomena of OBE. Standing in the Shadow of Death It's intriguing that near-death experiences (NDEs) have such universal descriptions. They nearly always involve a white light, a tunnel and the feeling of an unsurpassed peace. Occasionally too they involve guides, or loved ones that have already passed on. A fascinating near-death experience examined in Psychic Voyages is of an army private who in 1943 was pronounced dead after his fever soared to a searing 106.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Private Ritchie returned to his body after flying for a time and encountering a "man of light" who called himself the Son of God. So unusual were the circumstances of Ritchie's return from the grave, the commanding officer of the attending hospital signed an affidavit stating just that: Ritchie had made a miraculous return from death on December 20, 1943. . . . most - if not all - cases of past-life regression can be explained by cryptomnesia . . . memories which the subject is unaware of in a normal state of consciousness. Other NDEs documented include the son of an Italian Prince in 1589, whom when after returning claimed he'd just visited heaven, was told by the attending priest to go back. The boy then closed his eyes and died. With numerous other accounts of NDEs shared here, the reader - if inclined to believe in such phenomena - might find them conclusive of life after death. There are scientists on hand to caution against that, though. The scientific approach to such phenomena argues that NDEs are simply the result of the mind playing games. According to science, the visions described in testimonials are no more than hallucinations. It's a worthy argument, but completely speculative. The scientific community has no conclusive proof what happens to consciousness after death, and they're argument that anyone who's come back from the dead really wasn't in the first place, is weak. The conclusive proof - by their standards - lie with the person who doesn't return; the one unable to give an accounting. Stepping Into Old Lives Reincarnation has been a touchy subject for at least two thousand years. There is evidence that the belief in reincarnation may date back as far as 12,000 years. Ancient Egyptians believed in it, as did many Greek philosopher-mystics. Even some early Christians embraced the belief, notable among them a man named Origen who lived in the third century and devoted his life to teaching a kind of neoplatonic Christianity. It was his belief that God aided men in experiencing His grace by reincarnating us with new challenges and obstacles to overcome. Origen was posthumously condemned in 400 AD by Pope Anastasius. Of course the religion we're most likely to associate reincarnation with is Hindu. According to its doctrine of transmigration, souls must travel through various lives - both as man and animal - in order to achieve Brahma, the all-encompassing divine principle. Once achieved, the person exists in a state of unity with all things. Benjamin Franklin is said to have believed in reincarnation. As evidence is an epitaph he wrote promising to come back "In a New and more Elegant Edition, Revised and Corrected by the Author." Other famous reincarnationists include Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and George S. Patton, the latter of whom believed he'd lived in the past as a Roman legionnaire. However, most cases documented here are of regular people like Monica (not her real name) who through hypnosis connects with a past life as an Arizonan named Ralph Wainwright. Wainwright was raised on a ranch, and as a young man took a job as a deputy sheriff. He avoided wearing a hat at all costs, thus was known as "the sheriff without a hat." Monica credits these past life experiences for her current likes and dislikes. For instance, she can't stand confinement - an influence of the ranch - and finds wearing hats maddening. In another case, involving a man named Ray Bryant, the subject recounted explicit details of a past life as a soldier during the Crimean War. His descriptions of battles contained accurate information not found in any history books, but were confirmed through letters from a soldier in the war; letters that were never published. Bryant's account also contained some erroneous information which casts a pall of doubt on the authenticity of his case. According to Ian Stephenson, professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, most - if not all - cases of past-life regression can be explained by cryptomnesia. Cryptomnesia, it is believed, are memories which the subject is unaware of in a normal state of consciousness. Under hypnosis, the subject can readily recall these memories as if they're their own. Stephenson contends that the memories come from information the subject's gained at one time or another (most likely through television or reading) and subconsciously filed away in a place inaccessible to the conscious mind. These memories, he insists, are from the subject's present life, not a past one. It's a compelling argument, and in some cases he's proved conclusively that cryptomnesia was responsible for false memories. Other cases, though, have proven inconclusive and it is those cases - for good or bad - that continue to fuel the practice of regression therapy. Astral projection, near-death experience and reincarnation have a common denominator: out-of-body experience. Perhaps the same drive that put Man on the moon is behind our fascination with this phenomena; as a species we're never satisfied with sitting still. The editors from Time-Life do well in covering these subjects. They offer a balanced examination of the topics, careful to include detractors alongside promoters. This ultimately leaves the final analysis where it should be; in the readers court. posted 04/01/01 TOP