“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now Seth said: “Our friend [meaning me] attempted to choose a different battlefield last night. He decided to think of all negative feelings as enemies, and to give them form in another plane of reality where he could do battle with them. This was not an astral plane, but a lower one.

“But this fact is Ruburt’s safeguard in his out-of-body travels—as long as he remembers it. The words ‘May peace be with you’ will get him through any difficulty in other layers of reality—for as he formed that image, others also form images and he could encounter them. To wish them peace will give them some comfort, for they do have a kind of reality. To fear them is to put yourself into their realm of reality, and then you are forced to fight on their terms. There is no need for this.”

Then, in my astral body I went flying through the hall, which had a high-domed ceiling. Laughing at what I considered a great practical joke, I swung low above each man in turn and whisked off his turban. My partner handed me a feather—apparently he could see me clearly, and I could manipulate physical objects. Waving the feather through the air, I flew back and forth again several times so that, watching the feather, the men could follow my progress above them.

This does not mean that we do not sometimes leave our bodies and travel in our dream or astral bodies to other physical locations. According to Seth we do so often, whether or not we remember. Some of my students, for example, have frequent out-of-body experiences from both the waking and the dream states, and on several such occasions we seem to have met in my living room.

I traveled through the air so quickly that everything was a blur. Then I found myself on a strange city street. I was determined to find out where I was, so I walked around the block looking for street signs. The area was one of hotels and large shops. I saw two street names and finally decided to enter the lobby of one of the hotels. Here I found a bookshop and walked over to the shelves to look around. There were three books by Jane Roberts on ESP, and at the time of the experience (1967), I’d written only one.

I didn’t know what to do or say. “Look, I’m really in an out-of-body state. This is an astral projection!” They’d never believe me. But what about the three books with my name on them and the clerk’s knowing smile?

“You just aren’t that good at it yet,” one of them said. And I really got angry. Whether I was astral-traveling or whatever, these people were really having a good laugh at my expense.

“Look,” I said, “I’m in my astral body. My physical body is home in bed.”