Flight Patterns: or, How Astral Projection Launched My Spiritual (But Not Religious) Journey

A personal essay detailing the author's early experimentation with astral projection, leading to his identification with the "spiritual but not religious" movement. Miller's experience began as an adolescent reading "The Projection of the Astral Body" by Sylvan Muldoon and Hereward Carrington, and later included a physical and spiritual crisis with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Eventually he became a student of "A Course in Miracles," a popular and contemporary spiritual path. This important and revealing essay discusses the differences between extraordinary spiritual experiences and the demands of a daily discipline... "In a day-to-day sense, the spiritual journey can seem an awful lot like the nonspiritual trek through life, as we struggle to make a living, make sense of our relationships, stay reasonably healthy, and either contribute or least do no harm to the common good. But keeping in mind the spiritual backdrop of our mundane reality can nonetheless provide a deeper sense of continual progress, regardless of the ups and downs we experience daily."