If you want to learn to Soul Travel, do this technique tonight. Before sleep, shut your eyes and place your attention on the Spiritual Eye. It’s right above and between the eyebrows.
Then sing HU. Fill your heart, mind, and body with warm love.
This feeling of love grants the confidence to venture into some new, unexplored area of your spiritual being. A way to fill yourself with love is to call up a warm, comfy memory, like a child’s hug or a mate’s kiss.
Just so the feeling warms your heart with deep love.
Now, eyes still shut, look into the Spiritual Eye for the holy person who is your ideal, whether Christ or an ECK Master. In a gentle voice say, “I give you permission to take me to the best place for my spiritual good.”
Then chant HU, God, or some other holy word.
Next, see yourself in a familiar place, like a special room in your home. Be assured that the guide who comes is a dear, longstanding friend.
Do this session five or six times over as many days. Record your experiences with this spiritual exercise in your dream notebook or journal.
—Eckankar’s Spiritual Experiences Guidebook
How To Soul Travel
Experiences with Past Lives, Dreams, and Soul Travel
Deborah, from New York, tells of meeting “Bill,” a bioengineering professor, and “Liz,” his eleven-year-old daughter. Both had sleep disorders. Bill had trouble getting to sleep at night, and when he did sleep, he slept poorly. He was always on edge. Liz, his daughter, was a sleepwalker. Here you’ve got a dad and daughter, both having problems with sleep.
So Deborah told him about singing “HU.” And when he got home, he told his daughter how to sing “HU” to calm things down.
Now, Bill’s belief system had been that when you die, that’s the end of it. You’re gone like a puff of smoke. Poof! The life you lived here has no more significance than a puff of smoke. And this had always scared him. He thought, “There’s got to be more than this.” But worse, he felt he was passing on this legacy of fear to his daughter, and that’s why she was sleepwalking.
One day, Bill mentioned his sore neck to Deborah. She asked him, “Has it ever occurred to you that it could be from a past life?” A lot of us have had some problems with the powers that be in the past. And then in this lifetime, we suffer neck pains and the like and wonder, “Where is that from?” Well, it could be from hanging around the wrong places, like trees and scaffolds. Or sometimes, from the executioner’s blade—all those cheery things. Somehow we crossed the powers that be, and then in this lifetime we say, “Oh, my neck hurts.”
Bill went home and told Liz, even though he thought, “Boy, this’ll really scare her.”
Well, Liz seemed delighted. For some reason, “past life” rang a bell inside her like she knew it was true. There was something to this.
So they did what Deborah said: “Do the technique of singing “HU” when you’re trying to go to sleep. Just imagine an open door, and walk through it.”
It was a good beginning, because now Bill could at least fall asleep. Then in the middle of the night he’d wake up, wide awake as ever. That bothered him, except there was one benefit that hadn’t been there before: If something had been puzzling him, he now saw the answer to it. This was something that hadn’t happened before. So it was a good beginning, but he still has a ways to go.
His daughter did this HU technique too. As she sang “HU” and walked through the open door, she began having these wonderful dreams. She slept completely through the night sometimes. The first time this happened, Bill sent an email to Deborah, saying, “It works. She’s having really good dreams.”
Then Liz had a dream where she was snowboarding. She was going down a hill on a board, and she said it was so real. It was more real than things out here, and it was just a lot of fun! Deborah said, “If you’d like to try to repeat the experience tonight, you can do that again, but this time, take my dog with you. Invite my dog to go along.”
Next morning, Deborah got another email from Bill. He said, “Liz did just as you said. She invited your dog, and everything in that Soul Travel experience was exactly the same, except your dog was running down the hill with her.”
Deborah had explained to Bill that Soul Travel is you living and being aware in full consciousness at a finer level of existence than you already are at. So this was quite an experience for both father and daughter, and the lessons were good too. They learned to play the “HU: A Love Song to God” CD. They said, “Hmm, that’s worth it.” And then they chant “HU” every night.
A woman I’ll call Donna found Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ after her son Justin’s death in a motorcycle accident.
She was very close to her son.
Devastated by her loss, Donna was unable to find comfort at church. She regularly cried through the entire service.
If only there were a way to feel closer to God, then maybe He would help her understand why the accident had occurred. More important, where was Justin now? Was he all right? She constantly prayed for help.
Five months later, while at her lowest ebb, she had an experience that changed her life. At first, she thought it was merely a dream, but it was actually Soul Travel .
Donna awoke in vivid consciousness in the other worlds. A bespectacled woman with grey streaks in her dark hair met her, and they talked for a few minutes. “Do you know my son Justin?” she finally asked the woman.
“Of course I know him,” said the woman. “He lives right over there in that white house.” The scene was a normal setting of cottages, such as near a lake resort.
Donna and Justin had a long conversation. He assured her his health was better than it had been on earth.
Then looking closely at her, he said, “I know what you’re doing to yourself. Please stop. You’re only hurting yourself.”
Before they parted, she asked to hold him in her arms, since she didn’t get a chance to do so before his death. Laughing, he said, “OK, Mom.”
Soul Travel had put her right there with her loved one. She could actually feel him in her arms. Then she awoke.
Justin’s scent still lingered with her, and a peaceful, happy feeling lasted for weeks before it began to fade. Donna was now determined to learn where he was. Somewhere on earth, she knew, somebody had the answer.
That’s when her sister introduced her to Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ. The first book she read was by Paul Twitchell, the modern day founder of Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ. It convinced her that here was the answer to her prayers. Here was an explanation that made sense.
So she does the Spiritual Exercises of ECK daily. And she directs her efforts to seeing the Light and hearing the Sound—keys to the secret worlds of God.
The Search for Truth
Stories like this may inspire one to search for truth and love too, but finding them depends upon doing the right thing. For those in ECK, it is doing the spiritual exercises. They are in the ECK books and discourses and take twenty minutes a day.
Simply a love song to God or a conversation with Divine Spirit, they can help you find a new appreciation for life. Many people develop their own spiritual exercises, once they catch the knack of it from the ECK teachings.
Here are questions Sri Harold Klemp has been asked about Soul Travel and exploring the worlds we experience on our Soul Travel Adventures.
Read on for clues that may help you.
Why is it so important in Eckankar to learn Soul Travel?
Soul Travel, in a broad sense, is of much value because it is a link to the expansion of consciousness. The rule of destiny holds that people at some time will begin to awaken to who and what they are. A knowledge of past lives may also open to them by way of dreams or déjà vu. A few catch a glimpse of future events.
Note that Soul Travel means moving into the higher realms of God, to places people haven’t yet dreamed of. Soul Travel reveals a majesty and security that abounds in the arms of God alone.
For this reason, Soul Travel transcends astral or mind travel, and rote prayer, elevating one into profound spiritual areas. Whenever Soul reaches the far orbits of the inner planes through Soul Travel, the human heart opens to God’s all-consuming love.
It is our very purpose to discover that love.
—Eckankar’s Spiritual Experiences Guidebook
What are the inner worlds like? What will I see?
Those of you who are able to visit the higher worlds of God know there are places which beggar the largest mansion on earth. Some of the buildings and homes in the other worlds are of such beauty and size and light that anyone who gets there is in awe of the wonders that exist in creation.
These things exist. Anything that any human being can create here is a paltry, shabby, thatched-roof shack in comparison to the buildings in heaven.
If you have the ability to go to these other worlds—either in the dream state or through Soul Travel—you can have the experience and learn these realities for yourself.
You’ll find that the bounties of God are much greater than the four corners of this little earth. This earth is just a tiny little pebble in God’s worlds.
It’s a surprising thing, sometimes, that God even knows where this pebble is located in Its worlds.
It’d be like trying to find a certain grain of sand on the beach.
But that’s the language of love. God’s love is so great that It created every kind of abundance for those people who would make an effort to look for it and find it.
The language of love is the love God has for us and that we have for each other. We try to show this to those we love in some small way that gives this love back to God.
I was very curious about Soul Travel when I was new to Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ and wanted to experience it for myself.
So, with great anticipation, I practiced my nightly spiritual exercises, hoping I would leave my body and travel the inner worlds as Soul.
But most of the time, I just dozed off to sleep and woke up the next morning with little recollection of any experiences. Still, I patiently wrote down in my journal whatever I learned from my dreams. This went on for a long time.
Then one night, it happened!
I was lying in bed, feeling very relaxed. Quietly, I began to sing HU, an ancient love song to God. As usual, I started dozing off to sleep.
All of a sudden, I had the sensation of feeling feathery light, as if I was floating on air. I knew my body was in bed, and yet there I was—floating!
With my eyes closed, I looked around with my inner vision. There were trees everywhere. Then I knew I was out of the body.
Slowly I floated toward the kitchen, and I found I was in the middle of a forest. The wall that separated the bedroom from the kitchen was gone. I looked toward what was supposed to be the kitchen window.
Instead of seeing the street, I saw a river surrounded by shrubs and trees and heard the sound of rushing water.
Happily, I said to myself, This is fantastic! I’m out of my physical body. This must be Soul Travel!
Then I accidentally wiggled a toe on my right foot.
Immediately I was back in my body in bed. I remained awake for a while, trying to comprehend this incredible and awesome experience. It was so real!
As I lay there, I thought, So this is what Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ is all about. It is a teaching to realize and know one’s True Self!
I had proven that I am Soul, a spiritual being that is separate from the physical body. It was the beginning of my conscious spiritual journey back home to God.
A Spiritual Exercise to Try
Some of you want Soul Travel, which is usually an advanced state beyond the dream state. Again, sit on your bed or on the floor, shut your eyes, and look into your Spiritual Eye. This is located at a point just above and between the eyebrows. Don’t expect to see anything there; just chant HU, the holy name of God.
Then spell out Soul Travel, chanting each separate letter: S-O-U-L T-R-A-V-E-L. Do this about three times out loud and then three times quietly.
In using this technique, you will find the path to the other worlds illuminated by Soul’s own light, much like the headlights of a car, cutting through the darkness of night, illuminate the road ahead. The Nirat technique utilizes the seeing power of Soul.
Sit in silence, with the attention fixed on the Spiritual Eye. Put your attention on the Light of God, the white light within the door of the Spiritual Eye. This is the subtle gateway to the Astral world, the first door you will pass through on the way to the higher worlds.
With your attention fixed on this door, look obliquely—not directly—at whatever appears on the screen of the mind. If you look at it directly, it will disappear. But if you look at it from an angle, the image of the light will stay.
Now very softly begin to practice the zikar, the repetition of the holy names of God. Sing the word for each plane that you must pass through in order to reach the Soul region. These are Alayi (Physical Plane), Kala (Astral Plane), Mana (Causal Plane), Aum (Mental Plane), Baju (Etheric Plane), and Sᴜɢᴍᴀᴅ (Soul Plane). By these sounds you are able to lift yourself up through the corresponding planes into the Soul world.
The Light of God appears on all planes, but the light that should interest you most is the Blue Star. It will come into focus after the technique has been practiced for a certain length of time. This star represents the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, the Living ECK Master, who will later appear in his radiant body.
Sometimes the Master appears as a Blue Star, sometimes as a misty, pale-blue light. The star or light will lead you gently through the various planes into the Soul region. You must trust It completely, never being doubtful or hesitant about following It, nor wondering where It may lead you.
As Soul gets collected and concentrates on the Spiritual Eye, you will have some preliminary experiences of the inner sounds and sights. These occur before Soul is settled down and actually traveling in the inner worlds. You may hear sounds similar to a moving train, whistles, or stringed instruments. Then you will hear sounds like the tinkling of small bells, progressing to the ringing notes of a large bell. Following this are lights similar to the glowing of charcoal, then lightning, and finally the gigantic star.
Then you are able to see a whole starry sky. You see the Lightning and Moon Worlds, and you are ready for the ascent. You may see forms as mist, smoke, suns, fire, winds, fireflies, lightning, crystals, and moons. Your attention may be scattered at this point, but bring it back and focus again on a single point.
If you want to learn to Soul Travel, do this technique tonight. Before sleep, shut your eyes and place your attention on the Spiritual Eye. It’s right above and between the eyebrows.
Then sing HU. Fill your heart, mind, and body with warm love.
This feeling of love grants the confidence to venture into some new, unexplored area of your spiritual being. A way to fill yourself with love is to call up a warm, comfy memory, like a child’s hug or a mate’s kiss.
Just so the feeling warms your heart with deep love.
Now, eyes still shut, look into the Spiritual Eye for the holy person who is your ideal, whether Christ or an ECK Master. In a gentle voice say, “I give you permission to take me to the best place for my spiritual good.”
Then chant HU, God, or some other holy word.
Next, see yourself in a familiar place, like a special room in your home. Be assured that the guide who comes is a dear, longstanding friend.
Do this session five or six times over as many days. Record your experiences with this spiritual exercise in your dream notebook or journal.
