Near Death Experience and Astral Projection - Is a Body still a Body?

ODDITIES OVERLOOKED IN 'OUT OF BODY' EVENTS:

This is a topic which I've been meaning to touch upon. There are numerous books and personal accounts on the subject of astral projection - be they near death experiences (NDE), out of body experiences (OBE) or even types of lucid dreaming and false awakenings. Nevertheless, with all the wealth of material available, there are certain tidbits which surface now and then, only to remain generally un-remarked upon, largely because we are so focused upon the paranormal forest in front of us, that we have a rather unfortunate tendency to ignore the individual trees. It is specifically these tidbits, these hints of higher strangeness, that may help unravel the mystery surrounding experiences of a seemingly non-physical nature.


One such hint that grabbed my attention comes from a book entitled, "My Seven Minutes in Eternity" by William Dudley Pelley. In essence, the author undergoes an NDE or OBE, to find himself in the presence of deceased acquaintances in an unearthly place of beauty and light - pretty ordinary stuff, so far. However, as Mr. Pelley is initially faint and shaky during this 'transition' to the other side, his 'body' (or semblance thereof) is at first held supported in the arms of one of his 'friends'. This friend, though, suggests the author take a dip in the pool (familiar motif) to help him feel better and cleanse himself of any after effects. Meanwhile, the deceased friend then proceeds to clean and wipe his own hands off on a towel, as if he had been dirtied or contaminated by the direct 'hands on' contact with the still-living Pellee!

Now, if we are going to attach any veracity to any portion of the author's account, then we must also take on faith the actuality that such an event as the 'hand cleaning' did in fact occur. The equation, shorn of labels and common vernacular, goes something like this:
a) living person experiences an unknown type of trauma
b) living person (called person 1), finds himself entering an unfamiliar environment
c) This environment contains persons (2 & 3) familiar to him, although both are 'deceased' in terms of person 1's normal, waking environment
d) person 2 comes into direct contact with the 'body' of person 1
e) person 2 cleanses himself after such contact
f) person 2 suggests person 1 cleanse himself in a pool (full body immersion?)


As bizarre as the above may seem, it only appears to be strange because we may likely be laboring under a false set of pre-conceptions regarding the physical nature of Here and There, death and the physical body, and all the other dichotomous black and white misconceptions which we have taken as truths regarding the conditions of reality.

To continue along this line of reasoning: it is implied by the author's account that, even in this other environment, his 'body' was somehow perceived to be 'contaminated' and his friend sought to rid his own form of any possible exposure, from which we may surmise that these 'contaminants' were most certainly transmittable. How does one contaminate the dead? This is excellent food for thought, as it forces us to revise our concept of astral and physical. Are we speaking of germs or bacteria capable of surviving into what we think of as the Astral plane?


There's much more to be said, but it's after 3 a.m. and I'm ready to catch some sleep. But before I go, I'd like to point out that this 'cleansing' and 'immersion' into a shower, pool of water, liquid, tank and so forth is also a fairly common feature in many accounts of Gray Alien close encounters. Interesting, I think. And when someone tells you that close encounters, alien abductions and astral projections are a recent (post 1950) phenomenon (and myth or modern confabulation), please bear in mind that the above book I mentioned was first published in 1929.