Astral Projection: A Record of Out-of-the-Body Experiences

«In the spring of 1902, when I was midway between my sixteenth and seventeenth birthdays, I started a three years’ course in science and electrical engineering at the Hartley Institute» — fecha su punto de partida a los dieciséis años

«concentrating upon dreams was that I found in some of them a Beauty and Divinity which I most ardently desired but could not find on earth» — el motivo que declara para volcarse a los sueños

«I knew nothing of astral projection, nor had I the slightest inkling of the surprising turn events would take so soon» — y su ignorancia previa del asunto

«I set out in search of Beauty, and in the end I proved, at least to my own satisfaction, that I possessed an immortal soul» — cómo enuncia lo que dice haber alcanzado, acotado a su propia satisfacción

«Also it may help to settle the question as to whether my projection experiments have been made possible by some congenital psychic abnormality; but it must be remembered that, although generally dismissed as nonsense and make-believe, psychic experiences are by no means uncommon in early childhood» — Fox plantea su infancia como prueba de una posible anormalidad psíquica congénita y él mismo desactiva el argumento: las experiencias psíquicas de la niñez, dice, no son raras.

«The first of these I have named the dream of the Double. In this dream my mother and I would be sitting together in the dining-room; and nearly always it was evening, and the oil-lamp would be burning and perhaps a cozy fire blazing on the hearth. At first things seemed quite normal, but soon a strange change came over the peaceful scene. My mother would stop talking and stare fixedly at me with her beautiful, compelling eyes, and at the same time the lamplight and the firelight would grow dim, while another light—golden and coming seemingly from nowhere—filled the room» — Fox nombra la primera de sus dos pesadillas recurrentes, el sueño del Doble, y le pone como señal fija el cambio de luz: las luces del cuarto bajan y entra una luz dorada sin origen.

«Then the door would open and another mother, dressed in exactly the same way to the smallest detail, would enter and walk towards me» — la duplicación que da nombre al sueño: la segunda madre entra por la puerta vestida igual hasta el último detalle.

«It seemed to me at the time, and for many years after, that my fear found its origin in this dilemma: I was confronted with two mothers, as alike as two peas, and I could not tell which was my real mother» — la explicación que Fox se dio durante años y que en el mismo párrafo declara insuficiente, porque no le explica el pánico.

«I incline now to the view that these “double” dreams were different from the ordinary nightmare, that my body was in a deeper state of trance than is usual with normal sleep, and that some degree of separation had occurred, so that my consciousness became invaded by the terrible unreasoning fear so often associated with this trance condition» — la hipótesis que prefiere ahora, enunciada como inclinación y no como hecho: trance más hondo que el sueño normal, algún grado de separación, y el miedo irrazonado que atribuye a esa condición.

«Just once my wife was the principal character, and once I saw my own double. In the latter case I seemed to glimpse my Twin of Darkness, for I looked very old and incredibly evil; but it is interesting to note that, though shocked by the wicked appearance of my double, I did not feel afraid of it» — el único caso en que el doble fue el suyo propio, al que llama su Gemelo de Tinieblas; consigna que le chocó su aspecto y que aun así no le tuvo miedo.

«The other nightmare, which I regard as having peculiar significance, was much rarer and took many forms, though the same underlying principle was manifest in each. I have called it the fear of Extension» — Fox nombra la segunda pesadilla recurrente, el miedo a la Extensión, y aclara que lo que se repite es el principio, no la escena.

«The earliest example I can remember of this dream is an unending procession of coal-men emptying sacks of coal on to a pile which slowly grows higher and higher. Something in me seems to be linked with the mounting black column and is gradually being stretched tighter and tighter. There is a terrible sense of fate, of inevitability: the coal-men will never cease emptying their sacks, the black column will never cease mounting to the sky, and the torment in me will grow and grow until» — el ejemplo más antiguo que recuerda del sueño de Extensión: algo suyo queda ligado a la columna que crece y se estira con ella, con sensación de fatalidad.

«Suddenly he took a threepenny-bit from his pocket and held it between his finger and thumb across the table for me to see. “A little threepenny-bit!” he exclaimed, “but it will grow and grow and grow and nothing can ever stop it!” His voice grew steadily louder until it ended in a scream: “It will grow and grow and grow until it cuts the world in two!”» — el último ejemplo que recuerda, hacia los dieciocho años, con su abuelo y una moneda de tres peniques como objeto que se expande.

«The illusion was that I could not remove my hands and that the table and chair were very slowly separating and stretching me, yet at the same time I knew with one part of my mind that they were not really moving» — la variante despierto, hacia los cuatro o cinco años; Fox subraya que una parte de su mente sabía que nada se movía, y a eso atribuye que no llegara al pánico.

«I think that these Extension nightmares also were probably the result of an abnormal physical state—the body being in an unusually deep trance—and invaded by the fear peculiar to that condition. Here, too, some degree of separation of the vehicles may have taken place, the exteriorization arousing in my consciousness the idea of strain or extension. The waking Extension experiences were obviously produced by self-hypnosis» — su lectura de la Extensión, con los límites puestos por él mismo: probable, pudo haber ocurrido; solo las de vigilia las declara sin reservas producto de autohipnosis.

«This chap Fox seems to have knocked the bottom out of his projection experiments already! In early childhood he was dominated by the ideas of the Double and Extension, and all the rest follows from these two facts. His seeming out-of-the-body adventures have been purely imaginary» — la objeción psicoanalítica que Fox se pone en boca de un lector hipotético para responderla, no una cita de nadie.

«However, one has only to turn to The Mystery of the Human Double, by the Hon. Ralph Shirley, to see what a large amount of corroborative evidence has followed the publication of my article, “The Pineal Doorway”, in the Occult Review for April, 1920» — la respuesta que da: remite al libro de Ralph Shirley por el material corroborante reunido tras su artículo, que fecha en abril de 1920.

«While in my opinion the experiences narrated in this chapter are of undoubted interest for the light they throw upon my psychic constitution, I do not think they can fairly be said to invalidate the results of my research» — Fox concede que el capítulo dice algo de su constitución psíquica y niega que eso invalide lo que sigue; lo enuncia como opinión suya.

«Personally, I am disposed to look to my horoscope, to which I refer later, for the true explanation of those forces which were to manifest in my life, producing first the Double and Extension dreams and later the experiments which form the subject of this book» — dónde busca él la explicación última: en su horóscopo, presentado como inclinación personal y remitido a un tramo posterior del libro.

«Sometimes, just before falling asleep, I would see through my closed eyelids a number of small misty-blue or mauve vibrating circles. Now I should describe this structure as somewhat resembling a mass of frog’s eggs, and only just on the border line of visibility» — el fenómeno hipnagógico que describe como círculos vibrantes en el umbral de lo visible, comparados con una masa de huevos de rana.

«At first these circles would be empty, but soon a tiny grinning face, with piercing steel-blue eyes, would appear in each circle, and I would hear a chorus of mocking voices saying very rapidly, as though in tune with the vibration, “That is it, you see! That is it, you see!” Always they said the same thing, but I have never been able to trace the origin of these words or to fathom their meaning, if any» — las caras y la frase que las acompañaban, con la abstención expresa: nunca pudo rastrear el origen de esas palabras ni averiguar si significaban algo.

«The vibrating circles appeared, empty at first, and lo and behold, they became filled by little glass ink-pots! And there was no nightmare! Thereafter I performed a feat of childish magic. When the empty circles came I would give the command, “Let it be ink-stands!”» — el recurso infantil con que aprendió a desviar la pesadilla: mandar que los círculos se llenaran de tinteros antes de que aparecieran las caras.

«This queer incident forms a good illustration of the power of suggestion, but it has a deeper significance also; for in my out-of-the-body experiences I have noted on several occasions, beneath the golden glow suffusing the room, this barely visible, vibrating curtain of circular cells» — Fox enlaza el episodio infantil con lo que dice haber visto después fuera del cuerpo: la misma cortina vibrante de células circulares bajo el resplandor dorado.

«In my drowsy condition I used to watch these mounting spots as they traversed the dark space and became lost in the outer brightness, and sometimes things would suddenly “go wrong”. The light of the gas-flame grew dim and that mysterious pale-golden light from nowhere suffused the room. I would hear strange noises, crackling and snapping noises, while little shafts of blue flame, like miniature lightning, darted from the corners of the room» — Fox describe cómo miraba fijamente el mechero de gas hasta que sobrevenían el atenuarse de la luz, la luz dorada sin origen, los ruidos y los destellos azules.

«And then came the apparition: a man with a grotesquely horrible face, a wolf with eyes of fire, a lion, a huge serpent, a great black bear standing erect so that it reached the ceiling—I saw all these at different times. And I just yelled and yelled» — la lista de apariciones que dice haber visto en distintas ocasiones al cabo de esa secuencia.

«The apparition would stay quite still, glowering at me, and I could hear my mother running up the stairs in answer to my frantic SOS; but as soon as she turned the door-knob, the fearsome beast vanished and things “came right” again» — el detalle que él retiene como dato: la aparición se disipaba al girar su madre el picaporte, no antes.

«She, of course, thought that I had been dreaming, and impressed upon me that it was only a nightmare. Well, I know now that it was not» — Fox consigna la explicación de su madre y la rechaza en primera persona, sin argumentarla en esa línea.

«These experiences, which were quite rare and probably finished with by the time I was six, were undoubtedly the result of self-induced trance caused by staring at the gas-flame. Such apparitions, lights and sounds are common happenings in that trance condition which forms the prelude to a conscious projection» — la lectura que sí da: trance autoinducido por mirar la llama, y ese cuadro de apariciones, luces y ruidos como el preludio ordinario de la proyección consciente.

«There is one thing, however, which still puzzles me: I cannot understand why my shouts did not break the trance» — la pregunta que deja abierta sobre su propio caso, sin resolverla.

«It may be that my memory is unreliable in respect of the precise point at which the apparition vanished, but I do not feel that this is the explanation» — considera la salida fácil, el fallo de memoria, y la descarta por impresión propia, sin dar por cerrado el punto.

«A funny little fellow dressed in brown—rather like those garden gnomes one gets a little tired of seeing nowadays—clambered up on to my bed and smiled at me reassuringly. He pointed to a screen that stood near, and then a bright circle of light appeared which is now suggestive of a magic-lantern, although I do not think I had ever seen one at the time this happened» — el único episodio grato de la serie; Fox acota la comparación con la linterna mágica advirtiendo que entonces no creía conocer el aparato.

«The chief point of interest here is the circle of light; for in the years to come I was to see it again, though without the gnome and the farmyard scene, and other investigators have noted a similar phenomenon» — qué retiene de ese episodio: el círculo de luz, que dice haber vuelto a ver después y que atribuye también a otros investigadores, sin nombrarlos.

«Immediately I heard the most delightful sound, like a grand fanfare of celestial silver trumpets. I opened my eyes again in amazement and lay blinking in the morning light; for the night was over! It had passed in a seeming second, and after nearly fifty years this still remains the only experience I have had of this nature» — la noche que dice haber pasado en un segundo tras oír las trompetas, caso único en casi cincuenta años y que él mismo declara sin relación con la proyección.

«if only in imagination, a very gracious lady whose beauty time shall never dim. She comes across the years to greet me, and all the little golden curls that crowned her brow are radiant in the sun» — el cierre del capítulo no es una visión sino un recuerdo, y Fox lo marca como tal: la dama que ve en Finsbury Park la ve, dice, aunque sea en la imaginación.

«I suppose that I was abnormal in three ways, which I will describe very briefly in order to complete my picture of this transitional stage which links the (at the time) incomprehensible happenings of early childhood with the real start of my research» — Fox anuncia el plan del capítulo: tres anormalidades suyas que sirven de puente entre la infancia del capítulo anterior y el arranque de su investigación.

«When I was thirteen I lost my mother, and my father followed her within six months. The Finsbury Park days were over, and I went to live with my grandparents at Southampton. I was too young to realize the irreparable calamity that had befallen me; but it did at least change my attitude towards death, of which I had been rather afraid till then. Although dying might be a painful business, I felt that beyond the grave I should surely meet my mother, and that thought robbed the mysterious next world of most of its terrors and greatly stimulated my interest in the after-life» — la primera anormalidad: la orfandad a los trece años, que él pone como origen de su interés por la otra vida y no de un temor a la muerte.

«I read Light, and Stainton Moses. With the aid of a sympathetic school-friend I even dabbled in table-turning and planchette, but the results were neither convincing nor particularly edifying. I soon abandoned these experiments, but continued to read anything on Spiritualism that came my way» — sus primeras lecturas y ensayos espiritistas, con el balance que él mismo les pone: ni convincentes ni edificantes, y abandonados pronto.

«My second abnormality was almost a shameful thing, and clear proof that Fox was really mad; for I was a poet, and people who should have known better predicted a great future for me» — la segunda anormalidad, enunciada con la ironía sobre sí mismo que recorre el libro.

«I doubt now whether those early poems were altogether the work of my unaided consciousness» — la duda que le queda sobre la autoría de aquellos versos.

«Then all at once the words would seem to form in my brain and I would sense the underlying rhythm» — cómo describe el proceso de escritura, que precedía un malestar y una inquietud.

«His original articles in the Occult Review in 1920, for which he is justly considered the pioneer in this field, were entitled “The Pineal Doorway,” and “Beyond the Pineal Door.”» — el prologuista data los artículos originales y da sus títulos propios

«In the text of this book, too, I find no passage in which he speaks of it as “Astral Projection.” I think the term was imposed upon him by his English publisher» — el prologuista adjudica el título «Astral Projection» al EDITOR, no a Fox

«this was really a “Pineal Door” projection, and the painful business of getting through the “door” was accomplished while I was unconscious on the physical plane» — usa su propio término, *Pineal Door*, dentro del cuerpo del libro

«My next discoveries were the False Awakening and the Trance Condition—the latter being really a much milder form of the cataleptic state already described and merging into it if the trance grows deeper, as later experience was to show» — nombra dos estados y los relaciona con la catalepsia

«I would seem to wake and remain quite under the impression that I was awake, and then some abnormal happening would show me I was in a state of trance» — la descripción del falso despertar, que es su criterio de control

«it is an extremely rare occurrence for two people to share apparently the same dream-experience and for both to remember it on awaking» — la cautela que se impone sobre los sueños compartidos

«Red Kestrel Books 2019, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder» — la línea de copyright fecha en 2019 el ejemplar que trocemos, de Red Kestrel Books; el año que registra el encabezado de esta ficha (2016) no sale del libro.

«Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit» — la nota de esa misma editorial declara que conserva la ortografía y la gramática de Fox, y que las notas y aclaraciones añadidas son de ella y no del autor.

«Astral Projection was originally published in 1962 by University Books Inc., New Hyde Park, New York» — la portada de este ejemplar data la edición de la que desciende en 1962 y la adjudica a University Books; es la edición estadounidense que prologa John C. Wilson.

«O Soul, thou quivering, radiant bird! Wing from thy prison-house: God bids thee speed. Wisdom and love beyond the spoken word Await thee, freed» — el epígrafe en verso que la portada imprime sin firma, entre el nombre del autor y la dedicatoria a su esposa; el libro no dice de quién es.

«I owe my knowledge of this book to Hereward Carrington. In his introduction to Sylvan Muldoon’s book on the same subject, Dr. Carrington says of it: “The only detailed, scientific and firsthand account of a series of conscious and voluntarily controlled astral projections which I have ever come across is that by Mr. Oliver Fox, published in the Occult Review for 1920.”» — Wilson declara que llegó al libro por Hereward Carrington y reproduce el elogio, que Carrington escribió en su introducción a Muldoon y que se refiere a los artículos de 1920, no al libro.

«The book itself bears no date of publication. But, as the reader will note on page 117, there is a comment by the author dated March 1, 1938, so that the book must have been published thereafter. It appears to have been published just the once, in England» — Wilson consigna que el volumen inglés no lleva fecha y la infiere por una nota interna del autor de marzo de 1938; la fecha que corre como de composición es deducida, no impresa.

«If I had any control over the situation, I would prefer not to use the term “Astral Projection.” Much more simple and accurate is to use the term “Out of Body Experiences.”» — Wilson dice que él mismo preferiría no usar el rótulo del título y propone en su lugar el de experiencias fuera del cuerpo, por simple y por exacto.

«As far as I have been able to ascertain, Oliver Fox, himself, never uses the term “Astral Projection.”» — Wilson acota su hallazgo a lo que pudo averiguar y no lo enuncia como hecho cerrado.

«(As he explains in this book, one should not think that he is using the term pineal anatomically.)» — Wilson advierte, entre paréntesis y remitiendo al propio libro, que el término pineal de Fox no es anatómico.

«The point is that the term, “Astral Body,” which was made so popular by Mr. Muldoon, properly belongs to the doctrine of Theosophy, where it has quite another meaning, being one of five bodies, and not at all the most spiritual» — Wilson devuelve el término cuerpo astral a la doctrina teosófica, donde dice que es uno de cinco cuerpos y no el más espiritual, y adjudica su popularidad a Muldoon.

«One must recognize, however, that at least for the present Mr. Muldoon’s use of the term “Astral Projection” is the one most familiar to people today, and one will have to be content with it» — tras objetar el rótulo, Wilson lo acepta por uso corriente y acota la concesión al momento presente.

«In this use of the term, the Astral Body is the Double, or the ethereal counterpart of the physical body, which it resembles and with which it normally coincides. Each of us has one» — la definición que Wilson da del cuerpo astral en el sentido corriente que acaba de conceder: el Doble etéreo que se parece al cuerpo físico y coincide con él, y que atribuye a todos.

«The interested reader will find a quick summary of all this in Hereward Carrington’s introduction to Sylvan Muldoon’s book. Those who wish to go further will find a considerable amount of material in two books that we have published: F. W. H. Myers’ Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death and Mrs. Sidgwick’s Phantasms of the Living. There is also a short section, giving typical cases, in G. N. M. Tyrrell’s Science & Psychical Phenomena & Apparitions, which he entitles “Out-of-the-body” experiences» — la bibliografía complementaria que Wilson ofrece para los casos espontáneos, dos de ellos de su propio sello; adjudica *Phantasms of the Living* a Mrs. Sidgwick, y así se consigna.

«All these cases include very little conscious, experimental work in inducing out of the body experiences. It is for this conscious, experimental approach that Sylvan Muldoon is justly famous in his The Projection of the Astral Body» — Wilson separa el corpus de casos espontáneos del trabajo experimental deliberado, y en ese segundo grupo pone a Muldoon.

«There is an almost excessive modesty in Mr. Fox’s writings on this subject. It is plain that he feels deeply the need not to underline those of his experiences which carry more evidential weight than the others, he records his failures and inconsequential experiences at well nigh equal length» — Wilson explica por qué el libro se lee flojo: Fox no jerarquiza sus casos por valor probatorio y da igual espacio a los fracasos.

«Mr. Fox provides a quite precise methodology for inducing out of the body experiences. How unique this is in the literature is known to those of us who have had to chew a great deal of straw without result» — el argumento con que Wilson justifica reeditarlo: bajo la descripción casual hay un método preciso, y eso lo declara raro en la literatura.

«Inevitably, however, he has had to indicate his own Theosophical background. But we can share his experiments and experiences without embracing his Theosophical views» — Wilson reconoce el fondo teosófico de Fox y propone separar el experimento de la doctrina que lo enmarca.

«To put it even more plainly, out of the body experiences are facts no matter how each one of us explains them to himself. No genuinely open minded person has questioned this since Myers’ Human Personality and Mrs. Sidgwick’s Phantasms of the Living» — Wilson declara hecho la experiencia misma, con independencia de cómo se explique, y data el consenso en Myers y en el volumen que atribuye a Sidgwick.

«technique for inducing them offered by Oliver Fox. But whatever one’s final conclusion, his technique merits our study» — y deja abierta la técnica: se puede discutir, dice Wilson, y aun así merece estudio.

«Thank you so much for reading our book, we hope you really enjoyed it. As you probably know, many people look at the reviews before they decide to purchase a book» — la plana final del ejemplar es una petición de reseña firmada por Red Kestrel Books, aparato de la edición de 2019 y no del libro de Fox.