| Spiritual Humour |
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| Up, Up and Away |
| I almost had an out-of-body experience last week, and I thought to myself, �Why did I have that sixth glass of whisky?� The four corners of the room were spinning and I felt my consciousness slipping elsewhere.
This was, of course, a spiritual experience only in the sense that it was bought on by too many spirits, but it got me thinking about genuine out-of-body experiences, (OBEs) those times when people consciously slide out of their body and go astral travelling; I wish I could do it. I could secretly visit my neighbour�s house and find out what he did with my hammer-drill and orbital-sander. The only time I can say with any truthfulness that I have had an OBE was when I was a child. However, back then I naturally believed that I was dreaming. It�s only looking back as an adult that I realise I can recall every single moment as if it were yesterday, and observe that the feelings I had were different to dreaming. My experiences were always the same; I would float out of my body and leave it sleeping in the bed. I can remember gliding towards the ceiling and looking back at myself, observing how much easier it was to move about without the constraints of gravity. Next, I would float silently down the stairs and look around the doorway, into the living room, where my mother, father and sister would be sitting having supper. At this point I would try and speak. �Hey, look at me, aren�t I clever? I can fly.� They would have been so impressed. Especially as they were always telling me I wouldn�t amount to much. How proud they would have been to have a self-levitating son. It would have been so useful for cleaning the upstairs windows. However, just as I opened my mouth to speak I would feel a strong pulling from behind, dragging me backwards up the stairs. I�d grasp tightly on to the doorframe hoping to avoid being drawn back, but it was always to no avail. Some people report being connected to their body during astral travel via a golden cord or silver thread, mine was more like a bungee rope as it would |
| pull me back into my body with a violent thwack. This part was always a bit strange and not always comfortable. As I grew older my nightly Peter-Pan impressions happened less often and eventually they stopped.
I suppose a number of people will claim they were only dreams and perhaps some psychosomatic symptom of a disturbed childhood - reaching out to my family and being rejected. The fact is I had a very happy childhood; my parents positively encouraged me to participate in family life. To keep me amused they invented a game called �Carrying the families dirty washing to the laundrette.� Every Saturday I would sit and watch it spin around for hours on end. Now and again my father�s paisley Y fronts would appear at the glass amidst the foam and scum; they�d toss around for a couple of minutes and then disappear. Those pants haunted my dreams for years; I believe in reincarnation and I�m sure they�ve come back as my neighbour�s cat. I also found other ways to amuse myself: I stole my sister�s chemistry set and constructed a homemade bomb (Oh, how my parents laughed when I blew-up granddads shed). I ate some bird pooh! I daubed raspberry jelly up the French windows. (Although, in all honesty this last incident occurred when I was 22)! You see� an ordinary 1970�s childhood. However, I�m convinced my nightly expeditions weren�t dreams and as far as astral travel goes, I admit the bottom of the stairs couldn�t be classed as a long-haul-flight, but to me these experiences were real. So, if the soul comes in to the body at birth and then leaves again at death, why should we think it strange that it has the ability to pop in and out when it feels the need to? As the soul is separate from our body, it�s not unusual for the soul to travel externally from it. After all, our earthly body is something that our spirit finds useful: a tool to carry our consciousness. Anyway, my spirit needs topping up and I�m struggling to get the cork out of the bottle; so must fly� |
| Spiritual Writer Nick Richardson takes us on a humorous 'Flight of Fancy' as he explores the concept of astral travel |
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