Voyages to the Other Side

By MonticueConnally

Astral Travel

One day as I was lying on the couch, I felt energy between my eye brows and above my head. The vibrations of the energy between my eyebrows grew really intense. I focused on the intensity and felt a slight pain in my head which was accompanied by a slight sizzling sound. Fully conscious; I felt a sensation that was like I was being squeezed into a small hole. This was an unpleasant sensation, and I also felt discomfort in my lower gut and kidney area. All of a sudden I was shot through what I can only describe as a cosmic tunnel. All around me was darkness and what appeared to be stars zipping past me at light speed. I found myself in a cabin. I attempted to walk but fell gently, and slowly. I could barely control my limbs which were much lighter than usual. I quickly realized that I was using my light body, or what is commonly referred to as an astral body.

I was having a hard time using this astral body and I stumbled around the cabin in an uncoordinated yet feather-like fashion. My motions reminded me of moving in virtual reality: a computer simulated environment. I experienced virtual reality as a child and had great difficulty enjoying the experience. I looked around the virtual game world wearing the virtual goggles and reached for things using the virtual gloves but the movements in the game didn’t exactly mirror the intent of the movements that I was making. The timing was a bit off and reaching any objective was quite frustrating. My astral experienced proved to be quite similar to that. I realized that I wasn’t even using the same parts of my mind to move this body. The parts of the mind that I used, while in my physical body, were much easier to access. To use this astral body I had to concentrate my will more intensely. It was sort of like a child having to stand on his tip toes to flip a light switch. I eventually learned to move gracefully and noticed how stable the environment was. The realm and its laws behaved very similar to that of the physical.

I was abruptly overcome with thoughts of worry. I wondered if I would I ever see my family and my familiar surroundings  instant. It was as if a subtle part of my physical being had summoned the return. In retrospect, I wasn’t exactly sure if my astral or light body had journeyed to a cabin in the physical realm or some place in the astral realm. Either way, I was glad to be safe and in familiar surroundings.

There was no grogginess upon returning. I felt that I had never been sleep. I promised myself that the next time I astral traveled, I would use this new found knowledge and the skills acquired to explore more of my environment. With the blessings of the experience came the realization that the afterlife was no longer questionable. We go on living even after our fleshly robes have been removed.

Doorway

Another time I was transferred to an otherworldly astral realm. I immediately began to chase a small man around a dirt road. He was swift but I was fast enough not to lose him. I was not sure why I chased him; I just had some feeling inside my gut to do it. I ran past two women with dark skin wearing long colorful garments. One wore yellow with red décor, and the other wore maroon. The woman in the maroon turned to the other woman and said, “If he wants to catch Exu (Ayshoo), let him catch Exu.” They gave his name, and this excited me as I began to gain on him. I had always wanted to meet Exu the untamable West African God of trickery and the crossroads. Perhaps I could gain in wisdom if I were to catch him.

He ran into a small one room house. I ran in after him and just knew that I had him cornered. His back was to me. I tried to walk up to him, but as I walked there was some sort of field around him that seemed to keep him at the same distance no matter how close I got. He then began to grow. It didn’t make sense. I was so close to him, but yet so far at the same time. Perhaps he wasn’t growing and I was just seeing his true size. I attempted to get near enough to speak to him. By the time I was “close” enough to touch him, he towered over me with the size of a tall building. He then turned and looked at me. His energy was hot and dry, and his gaze was hard. The vibration he gave off was over bearing. He then jumped and made the ground tremble upon landing. He gave off sounds that I could only understand as some strange language as he spoke. I felt something grab both of my wrists, like invisible chains from beneath me, and I could not move. This was not a good thing because I couldn’t take being this close to him. His aura alone was almost crushing me. He could have truly harmed me if he wanted to. He took up most of the space of the room as he looked upon me with fiery intensity. He then looked up and jumped through the ceiling into what appeared to be a portal to another dimension. Despite my fear, I wasn’t finished with him yet, so I tried to jump as well. Exu was obviously a master at this sort of thing. His huge presence jumped a tremendous height without any effort. I wasn’t so attuned to realm jumping, and I was also being held down by the invisible chains. I tried to jump anyway but ended up falling through a watery dream-like realm, and back into my physical being. I then opened my eyes, and I was incredibly hot with the feeling that great pressure had been applied to my wrists. There was also a burning and tingling sensation on the arm and wrist that had been closest to him. There was no grogginess once again. With astral travel this is always the case for me.

Although I have tried, I have never been able to astral travel at will. I have to be invited or summoned and then I accept the invitation via my will. Perhaps this is best, especially if it be my own spirit guides who call. This way, I can be sure that I will be safe on this journey. I know when I am invited. It is when I lie down and feel the presence of energy between my eyes. I feel the tingling sensation in my head, and afterwards I become energized enough to jump through a small portal. It is as though my aura has to be tuned and charged before I can make the leap.

One time I received this type of charge-up invitation while my girlfriend (at the time) lay next to me. I focused on her while I attempted to jump through the portal. We came slamming back to the “ground” hard. Her energy was incredibly heavy probably because she had no idea what was going on. If she could have been conscious enough to jump too, we could have made it to the next realm. When we hit the ground I was still charged, so while holding on to her I made another attempt. My whole body jerked and my light body seemed to explode with energy as I’d try to jump again. But, we fell again. I did this for some time until I tired and the energy invitation boost ran out. Feeling defeated, I opened my eyes and I turned to her. She looked at me freaked out and said,

“What the heck did you do to us!?”

“I tried to take you with me but you were too heavy.”

“We floated and bounced all around the room! That was amazing! Can you do it again!?”

I did all the work, so her experience was slightly different than mine. What she experienced as bouncing and floating was the result of my attempts to jump us through the portal.

It was good to finally have someone near that had experienced what I had experienced, but could never explain. I tried to make it happen again, but I couldn’t do it without the invite. One night they “invited her”. She accepted and never wanted to go back; she told me that it was too intense. I understood. It could be a scary experience, especially for someone with limited esoteric experience. She believed that she had developed some of my sensitivity through our continuous contact. I agreed. I believe that traits and sensitivities can be passed through sexual intercourse and continuous contact. Before our sexual involvement my girlfriend was like my anchor to this world. When things were too spiritually intense I could grab on to her, and be somewhat desensitized. Now she had potential to go to realms that had been closed to her before.

Once I went to my ancestral altar and asked to be spiritually cleansed. I Put myself in a trance like state and lay back on my bed. I immediately felt the invitation. I accepted and was swept away to a watery fall; I was lifted way into the sky by invisible hands and then brought down and dipped into a nearby body of water over and over again. The feeling was very refreshing! I received most of the astral invitations when I was doing a lot of chakra work. I was studying from a book called “Opening to Spirit: Contacting the Healing Power of the Chakras and Honoring African Spirituality” by Caroline Shola Arewa. I began to build altars representing  certain chakras and meditated in front of them for hours at a time. I started with the lower chakra and would only build the next altar to the chakra “above” it when intuition told me to do so. So I would easily spend a month or two meditating on one chakra center. During this period I did not eat any meat, and I drank lots of water. If you are interested in astral travel I would recommend meditation, a vegetarian diet and working with high vibration crystals and herbs. Be sure to keep a strong connection to your guides and protectors. One can be injured while traveling the astral realms. I was once attacked by an astral being that looked very angelic. It was very attractive and I ran to it expecting some sort of blessing. It was a painful and humbling experience. The pain in these realms is different, but very real. When the being struck my astral head it was the equivalent of being hit in my physical head with a brick. My emotions were effected as well. I felt a deep and immediate grief almost instantly. In the astral realm be sure to stand in your power, deal with the familiar, follow your guides and take nothing unfamiliar at face value.

I had no idea that when I laid on that couch ten years ago that I’d be thrust into an alternate reality. The realities of the astral realm experiences are nothing like dreams. The rules limitations, freedoms and structures remain consistent, and the conscious mind is very present. Everything from how you move to whom or what you talk to is on purpose. When you return to physical reality it is as if you merely blinked your eyes. There is no after effect as with sleep; there is no yawning or adjusting to being awake. In astral travel, you are lucid and aware the whole time. These astral realms mirror our world in many ways, and contain various beings with different agendas and skill sets. I have visited some of these realms and can never doubt the existence of them. Once you visit you won’t be able to either.

Blessed Be…

Monticue