As people begin to explore the Spirit Worlds, an internal conflict almost inevitably arises. The spiritual explorer often anguishes over the question of proof. Profound spiritual experiences are often so outlandish and extraordinary that it’s hard to relate it to anything they have previously known. They want to believe that what they are experiencing is real, but how do they know they aren’t making all of this up? What if it’s all in their imagination?
Imagination is actually the key to success on the astral planes. The astral plane, or the Spirit Worlds, is the realm of ethereal spirit, where our own spirits can travel and interact with other energy forms that dwell there. People with weak or under-used imaginations really struggle to get there and sustain the imagery long enough or vividly enough to truly interact with that environment. We should consider a strong imagination to be a necessary asset when exploring the Spirit Worlds. In a very real sense, it is all in the imagination, but that doesn’t mean that the experiences aren’t valid. Imagination is the stage on which the experience is set.
Self-doubt is the real killer. In any aspect of spirituality, there will always be the question of credibility and verification. I'm the kind of person who has always felt a strong need for proof. The phrase "you must have faith" never set well with me as I progressed on my spiritual search. I prefer rational reasons and explanations based on data. However, I recognize that some things will never achieve the level of verification that I've always craved. As I've continued in my practice, I've gradually become okay with that.
Some things in life resist proof. I've learned to live with that. I practiced for many years fully accepting that the astral was a self-created universe, and that I was the master of my own creation. I fully believed it was “simply” my imagination, but I was fine with that interpretation because my experiences were still useful to me. Used as the tool it is, the imagination is humankind's method for interacting with and creating reality. I still found great value in my Shamanic work on the astral, even though I rationally believed that it was all just a product of my imagination. We're given an imagination for a reason. It's the gateway into our own souls.
In order to be successful in my practice, I had to let go of the doubt and begin to trust that what I was experiencing had value. Whether or not the Spirit Worlds were real, the things I was learning while there were still valid to my life in the World of Form. No "faith" is necessary to get benefits from following spiritual practices. If my imagination creates a Spirit Guide that helps me solve a pressing personal problem, why should I care if that Spirit Guide is real or not?
With that said, however, there is occasional anecdotal evidence that accumulates over the course of practice that slowly changed my agnostic view to one of amazement. I gradually found that information received in the astral can be often be confirmed in the mundane world, and sometimes you can actually share experiences with others in the astral. This astounding truth caused me to reevaluate how I perceived my experiences.
I once shared an intentional Shamanic journey with another person. We had been working together rather intensely for several months (he was one of my Shamanic students), and we attempted to meet on the astral. He and I lived several states apart, several hundred miles away. We had never met in the flesh, but we wished to see if we could meet astrally. We set a time and date, and then began our journey, with the intention of finding each other. We both wrote privately about our experiences afterward and compared notes. When we did so, we both described going to the same place, and seeing many of the same things. The correlation of details seemed to stretch beyond the bounds of coincidence and into the realm of amazing.
It was an eye-opening experience, and it finally convinced me that the astral plane has an existence independent of myself. Wow! What a shift of world-view! It truly deepened my respect for the world around me. Since then, I’ve met many others who describe places and spirits that are familiar to me from my own travels. I have less difficulty in believing that we share in the experiences of the Spirit Worlds. Individual imaginations may shape the experience, but there is an independent, verifiable reality that shines through.
Knowing that the spirit teachers I've met in the astral have an independent reality was quite astonishing to me, coming from my "agnostic" prior view. Now, when I meet Crow or Hawk in the Spirit Worlds, I know that this is a being who continues to exist whether I go there to visit or not. When I meet another person who has had experiences in the astral, I listen attentively, because they are describing a place I might one day visit.
It's a whole new perspective on the practice, and it no longer involves any lingering doubts. Time and again, I've had experiences that can be validated in the mundane world. My imagination gets me there, and then I get out of its way. When I give my imagination free rein, it will take me exactly to where I need to go. Once we get ourselves to the astral, there is often a very strong sense of being guided from there. We reach a point where the experience seems to come from outside of our imaginations. Our imaginations may create a scene, but then the scenario shifts and something unexpected happens. That's when the experience is no longer purely a product of our own minds.
So, do we make it all up? Yup. Sure we do. Does that mean it's not real? Apparently not.
~Flame RavenHawk
April 13, 2004