Does experiencing Astral Projection change your view on Christianity
This is a response I wrote to a reddit post by a Christian struggling to integrate the experience of astral projection with his religious beliefs.
I attended seminary and have a graduate degree in philosophy of religion and ethics from a well-known theologian school where I spent over 4 years studying under some of the leading christian thinkers in academia (not bragging, just giving context to my background knowledge).
Modern Christianity is limited in their understanding of what I call The First Edition of God's Word. No, I am not referring to the Bible, that's the SECOND EDITION of God's Word.
I am talking about the First Edition which is explicitly mentioned in the Bible, yet Christians seem to have glossed over.
I'll give you a hint, it is first mentioned in Genesis 1. More specifically, Genesis 1:3 "And God said..."
"And God said"
"God SAID"
The first edition of God's word is not the written word, but His spoken word! In other words...
The First Edition of God's Word is CREATION and all the laws which govern it!
How does this relate to astral projection? Well...
Modern Christians, Theologians, and preachers (and this probably relates to other religions as well) are too fixated on the Second Edition of God's word and completely neglect the First when interpreting scripture. And any theologian will tell you the importance of Hermenuetics for reliable (and biblical) interpretations. And one thing hermenuetics emphasizes is taking into account the entirety of God's word when formulating an interpretation. Another way of saying this is DO NOT ISOLATE any particular passage or verse from the whole when performing interpretation.
And modern theologian and preachers violate this very standard by isolating the Second Edtion from the First Edition of God's Word when interpreting scripture (i.e. they ignore or downplay the natural laws governing God's Creation). They probably do this out of fear, (religious) pride, or simply not knowing better. In any case, this is a violation of the Hermenuetic principle used by theologians. And any interpretations or teachings which directly or indirectly impede belief in something INCLUDED in the First Edition of God's Word can be deemed unbiblical.
At the same time, something like astral projection has no bearing on the core/essential/foundational beliefs of any religion doctrine. The only time it would is if the central doctrine of a religion is "Astral projection is fake", then experiencing astral projection first hand would change ones view on that religion.
How does this relate to your original question?
The reason you might have had a change in your religious views after discovering astral projection is likely due to the fact that you learned the Bible from people who failed to take into account BOTH EDITIONS of God's Word. Because God's Word never conflicts with each other. And astral projection completely aligns with Christian doctrine (or any religious doctrine) IF the doctrine takes into account the First Edition of God's Word.
Should Astral Projection change your core doctrine belief? No because...
it should, and will, only expand your understanding of the written word of God (you probably now better understand the mechanism behind the visions recorded in the bible and what Paul meant when he claimed to travel to the different levels of heaven). And now that you know this, you have the opportunity to educate the Church because obviously God gave you this experience for a reason. And this is something the Church desperately needs.
(anyone reading this) Feel free to DM me anytime about this topic. I am in the process of building a website to post ideas like these. So if that interests you then you may want to bookmark or follow my account.