The Projection of the Astral Body

«the writer is well acquainted with the phenomenon, having indulged in hundreds of projections during a period of twelve years—projections both of a pleasant and a disagreeable nature, while completely conscious and partially conscious» — declara su base experiencial: cientos de proyecciones en doce años

«The greater part of the material contained in this work is from his own experience» — y de dónde sale el material del libro

«I noticed a pronounced increase in the resistance of the cable. It was pulling with a stronger and stronger tug» — el cable tira más cuanto más lejos: su doctrina del «cord-activity range»

«I began to zigzag again under this force, and found presently that I was being pulled backward toward my physical body» — y el efecto que describe cuando esa tracción vence

«Again I was in the grip of a tremendous, unseen, directing power» — cómo nombra la fuerza que lo devuelve

«Food is material, like the physical body, and builds up the body because the cosmic force operates upon it ; not because it produces energy in itself» — su teoría de la energía, apoyada en el doctor Lindlahr

«The astral cord always stretches from one body to the other, regardless of the space or distance between them» — la regla que da al cordón: no se rompe ni se agota con la distancia

«The less space that lies between the two bodies the greater is the thickness of the astral cable, the greater is its magnetic pull, and the more difficult to hold the stability of the phantom» — la ley del «cord-activity range»: a menos distancia, más grueso el cable y más difícil sostener el fantasma

«This form of paralysis, called “ noctural paralysis ” by some writers (the present writer contends that it is astral catalepsy» — disputa el término: otros dicen «nocturnal paralysis», él sostiene que es catalepsia astral. «noctural» es errata del original

«As a rule the paralysis lasts but a short time ; should it be prolonged, it excites much mental disquiet. Fatigue, nervousness, general ill-health may provoke it» — la descripción clínica que cita, y sus causas

«1. Falling Dreams. 2. Flying Dreams a. The swimming dream. b. The (upright) flying dream. c. The giant stride dream. 3. The Body and Head-flapping Dream. 4. The Head-thumping Dream. 5. Dream of Moving Toward a Phantasmal Object» — su taxonomía de sueños repetidores, que adjudica a la exteriorización astral

«But my search proved fruitless, and eventually I concluded that I could not find that "some one.”» — Muldoon cuenta en el prefacio que buscó a alguien capaz de producir la proyección a voluntad y no lo halló; de esa falta de maestro sale el método por cuenta propia que el libro expone

«Although we are living in the twentieth century we still have with us the intolerance of the Middle Ages, and I am not optimistic enough to believe that a great many will read without prejudice what I have to say.» — y por qué anticipa rechazo: sostiene que la intolerancia medieval sigue operando en el siglo XX contra este orden de asuntos

«I am well aware of the fact that one must first experience conscious astral projection before he can believe in it, and I confess that I should not accept it as true myself, perhaps, had I not experienced it and know it to be true.» — su regla de acceso, aplicada primero a sí mismo: la creencia en la proyección consciente no precede a la experiencia, la sigue

«You cannot have objective proof. You must experience it, then you will have the proof.» — la respuesta que da a quien le exige prueba objetiva: sostiene que esa prueba no existe y que la única disponible es experimentarla uno mismo

«Thus argument is useless—as useless as arguing the matter of a first cause or a last effect!» — de ahí que declare inútil la discusión teórica, y la empareje con la de la causa primera

«I stand on a clear-cut issue. I say experience it.» — cómo resume su postura: no argumenta la proyección, la manda experimentar

«You want proof, and I say you can have it—but you must experience it.» — y la forma en que ofrece la prueba: la concede, pero solo por la vía de la experiencia propia

«I have related many of my experiences ; however, the experiences I have given do not in any way represent all which I have had ; a book this size could scarcely hold the accounts of all of them.» — reconoce el límite del volumen: los casos que da no agotan los que declara haber tenido

«On the other hand the Materialist believes that it is superstition if anyone believes that the mind can exist apart from the brain.» — adjudica al materialista la posición inversa de la que él denuncia: llamar superstición a la mente separada del cerebro

«The broad, general teaching is that every human being “ has ” an astral body just as he has a heart, a brain and a liver.» — Carrington abre la introducción fijando el alcance de la tesis: el cuerpo astral se posee como se posee un órgano, no como privilegio de algunos

«In fact, the astral body is more truly the Real Man than the physical body is, for the latter is merely a machine adapted to functioning upon the physical plane.» — y le da la primacía sobre el cuerpo físico, al que reduce a máquina adaptada al plano físico

«But it must not be thought that the astral body is held to be the Soul of man either.» — Carrington marca de inmediato el límite de la identificación: el cuerpo astral no es el alma

«It is said to be the vehicle of the Soul—just as truly as the physical body is a vehicle—and constitutes one of the essential connecting-links between mind and matter.» — sino su vehículo, y con eso lo pone a hacer de bisagra entre mente y materia

«To the Materialist, of course, who regards mind merely as a product of certain brain activities, such a theory would appear superfluous and nonsensical.» — reconoce que para el materialista, que hace de la mente un producto del cerebro, la teoría entera sobra

«But the present book is not addressed to Materialists.» — y de ahí el destinatario que Carrington declara para el libro

«It is addressed to those who believe in the reality of certain supernormal (psychical) phenomena, and in the theoretical possibility, at least, of the astral body.» — a quienes ya conceden la realidad de algunos fenómenos psíquicos y al menos la posibilidad teórica del cuerpo astral

«I have concluded either that Lancelin does not project at all, or that his subjects are not in the clear conscious state while exteriorized.» — la disyuntiva con que Muldoon cierra su objeción en la carta que Carrington reproduce: o Lancelin no proyecta, o sus sujetos no están en estado claramente consciente al exteriorizarse

«every last detail that takes place from clear consciousness in the physical, out, into the astral with that same unchanged consciousness and back into ‘ coincidence.’» — lo que Muldoon opone a esa carencia: haber recorrido el trayecto entero sin que la conciencia cambie, de la coincidencia a la salida y de vuelta

«But the thing I marvel at most is that so little is said about the astral cord —the very foundation of the whole phenomenon.» — dónde pone Muldoon el centro del asunto, y es el término que usará todo el libro: el cordón astral como fundamento del fenómeno entero

«Is it possible that none of Lancelin’s subjects ever examined this cord, nor even saw it ? . . . Nothing is told as to how this cord works, how it stabilizes the phantom, or throws it into instability.» — lo que le objeta a Lancelin: que sus sujetos no examinaron el cordón ni se dice cómo estabiliza o desestabiliza al fantasma

«He says that the astral body emerges from the solar plexus —which is anything but true.» — y la corrección de fondo: adjudica a Lancelin el plexo solar como punto de salida y lo niega

«He says nothing of the form the phantom takes ; how it moves in coming out; how a cataleptic state ensues while the phantom is under control of the subconscious mind, and is still conscious.» — la lista de lo que echa en falta, donde asoma ya su propia doctrina: la forma del fantasma, cómo sale y el estado cataléptico bajo control de la mente subconsciente

«I say, and can prove it, that the nearer dead a person is, the easier it is to project.» — su tesis del factor de morbidez, enunciada ya en la carta: cuanto más cerca de la muerte, más fácil la proyección

«I could go on telling you many more things about astral projection ; but I suppose that after all was said you would reply, ‘ Prove it.’ But it cannot be< so readily proved !» — y cómo desactiva de antemano la exigencia de prueba, que da por insatisfacible. *be<* es basura del OCR

«He asserts, merely, that he has been enabled to leave his physical body at will, and travel about in the present, in his immediate vicinity, in some vehicle or other, while fully conscious.» — Carrington resume lo que Muldoon reclama para sí, y lo acota: salir a voluntad, en el presente y en su vecindad inmediata, plenamente consciente

«It need hardly be pointed out that, if this were once definitely accepted, it would enable us to account for a large number of otherwise baffling phenomena very readily—haunted houses, apparitions seen» — Carrington enumera lo que, concedida la premisa, quedaría explicado de un golpe: casas embrujadas, apariciones y fenómenos afines

«Now, quite apart from such collateral evidence, there have always been individuals who have asserted that they could leave the physical body at will, and travel about in some “ astral body ” for a longer or shorter period of time—retaining consciousness throughout.» — y separa esa evidencia colateral de la otra vía: quienes declaran salir del cuerpo a voluntad conservando la conciencia

«The difficulty has always consisted in furnishing proofs of such claims.» — Carrington nombra el obstáculo permanente de esa segunda vía: la prueba

«Should a number of (otherwise sensible !) persons come forward and assert that they too have succeeded in voluntarily projecting their astral bodies, this question would at once assume a very different status.» — la condición que, según él, cambiaría el estatuto de la cuestión: que otras personas sensatas declararan haberlo conseguido también

«In my opinion, it is this . . . notion of a subtle body, which for so many centuries has played the dominant rile in the traditional psychology of both the East and the West, that is most deserving of being retried, reviewed and revised, to serve as a working hypothesis to co-ordinate and explain a very large number of these puzzling psychical phenomena.» — el epígrafe con que la portada declara su marco teórico: Mead propone el cuerpo sutil como hipótesis de trabajo para coordinar los fenómenos psíquicos, y no como doctrina cerrada. *rile* es lectura del OCR por rôle

«These self-projections represent the most extraordinary achievements of the human will, and. are perhaps acts which a man might perform equally well before and after death.» — el segundo epígrafe, de Myers, que empareja la autoproyección con un acto ejecutable antes y después de la muerte

«AUTHOR OF “ YOUR PSYCHIC POWERS : AND HOW TO DEVELOP THEM ” “HIGHER PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT ; ” “ MODERN PSYCHICAL PHENOMENA,” ETC.» — la portada consigna bajo los dos nombres las obras psíquicas previas de Carrington, que es de donde viene el aparato del volumen

«LONDON: RIDER & CO.' * PATERNOSTER HOUSE, E.C. First Published Reprinted . . February, 1929 August, 1929» — el pie de imprenta y las dos tiradas del año de aparición

«To all such students this book will, I .am assured, prove a veritable mine of valuable and unique information.» — Carrington presenta el volumen a ese público como una mina de información única, que es la función que se adjudica en el libro

«I always felt that it was all most inadequate ; it epitomized everything that I had been enabled to unearth, however, dealing with this important subject.» — Carrington juzga inadecuado lo que él mismo había reunido antes sobre el asunto: ese hueco es el punto de partida del volumen

«Why, Mr. Carrington, I have never read Lancelin’s work, but if you have given the gist of it in your book, then I can write a book on the things that Lancelin does not know !» — la frase de Muldoon que, según Carrington, origina el libro: la carta llegó ofreciendo escribir sobre lo que Lancelin no sabe

«I once thought of writing a book upon this topic, but abandoned the idea when everyone told me that I was ‘ crazy,’ and found that no one would pay any attention to it.» — Muldoon declara haber abandonado antes la idea de escribir sobre el asunto por el descrédito con que lo recibían

«He makes no claims he cannot justify ; he advances no theories which are not based upon actual experiences ; if he does not know a certain thing, he frankly says so.» — la fianza que Carrington ofrece por su coautor: que no afirma lo que no puede justificar y que declara lo que ignora

«Indeed, this is a most difficult thing to do, in view of the fact that the experience must of necessity be subjective; and it is an open question whether such proofs have been furnished even in the present book.» — la reserva que Carrington deja escrita sobre el volumen que presenta: da por cuestión abierta si la prueba se ha aportado siquiera en este libro

«Any impartial reader will agree, I think, with the conclusion that it would be impossible for Mr. Muldoon to have written as he has—to have acquired this knowledge—without in some sense experiencing what he claims to have experienced.» — el argumento con que Carrington avala el volumen: sostiene que no se podría haber escrito así sin haber experimentado en algún sentido lo que Muldoon declara

«I shall not now stop to consider the work of M. Lancelin, as I have already summarized it quite fully in my Modern Psychical Phenomena, and in Higher Psychical Development, and Mr. Muldoon has dealt with it at considerable length in the present volume.» — Carrington reparte el trabajo con su coautor y lo dice: no resume a Lancelin porque ya lo hizo en sus propios libros y porque Muldoon lo trata largo en este volumen

«It may be added here that all these dangers are more imaginary than real, and are dealt with very fully in the present book.» — Carrington remite al cuerpo del volumen para los peligros que Fox enumera, y los declara más imaginarios que reales

«It is hardly necessary to say that these extracts have been made with Mr. Muldoon’s permission.» — la nota con que Carrington declara la procedencia y el permiso de las cartas que reproduce

«So states St. Paul, in his first ‘‘Epistle to the Corinthians.”» — la autoridad con que Muldoon abre el capítulo, antes que cualquier otra

«I wish to state that, if you are one of this type, looking for proofs that can be measured and weighed through the medium of your limited mind and five senses, you will not find them in this book.» — Muldoon declara por adelantado lo que su libro no ofrece: pruebas medibles y pesables para los cinco sentidos

«Despite my criticisms, however, I have found Dr. Walsh’s book, The Psychology of Dreams, to be a highly informative and interesting - work, and I would advise the reader to procure it, if interested in dream phenomena.» — el juicio con que Muldoon cierra su discusión de Walsh: pese a las objeciones recomienda *The Psychology of Dreams*, que es la fuente de la que sale buena parte de este capítulo