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survived only amongst the initiates of certain small secret fraternities. Such beliefs did not again
become fashionable until the burgeoning of the spiritualist and theosophical movements in the second
half of the 19th century.
It is only in the last fifty years, however, that certain techniques of astral projection, derived from the
writings of Oliver Fox, Sylvan Muldoon and Hereward Carrington, have become widely known in the
western world. The first-named of these writers discovered for himself what he called 'the pineal
doorway' while the second developed a mode of astral projection involving reducing himself to a state
very near to physical death.
In spite of the admiration which that extraordinary personality Dion Fortune expressed for the writings
of both Fox and Muldoon - some of the subjective experiences undergone by the hero of her novel Sea
Priestess are clearly based on those of Muldoon - there is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of
serious occultists would regard the methods advocated in them as being undesirable. Not only
physically undesirable (although of course, it is apparent that there are material risks involved in
subjecting one's body to a death-like trance), but spiritually undesirable, for such uncontrolled
projection without adequate protection can sometimes result in the astral traveller finding himself in
one of the so-called 'astral hells', undergoing the dangers of a possible obsession by some hostile
entity.
Even more dangerous is the short-cut practice of using drugs as a key to open the astral doorway. This
was probably the method used by the witches of the Middle Ages, for it is likely that the 'flying
ointments' with which they anointed their bodies before attending the Sabbath were neither more nor
less than mixtures of hallucinogenic substances designed to induce a dissociation of consciousness.
Similar methods were used, sometimes with tragic results, by some of the French occultists of the
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890s, notably Stanislas de Guiata, and are today being employed by some of the 'head' occultists who
are prominent in the occult revival. Here are the recipes of two 'ointments of astral projection'
currently popular in such circles:
Lanolin (2) - 5 ounces
Hashish - 1 ounce
Hemp Flowers - 1 handful
Poppy Flowers - 1 handful
Hellebore - 1/2 handful
Alcohol - 1/10 oz
Laudanum - 1 1/2 oz
Betel nut - 1 oz
Tincture of cinquefoil - 1/5 oz
Tincture of henbane - 1/2 oz
Tincture of belladonna - 1/2 oz
Tincture of cannabis - 8 oz
Cantharides - 1/5 oz
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