Robert Crookall. Techniques of Astral Projection. London: The Aquarian Press, 1968.
(220 x 140 mm) pp. 87. Some minor staining throughout. DJ intact, with pen-written 1964 on cover. Some chipping. Bound in blue publisher’s cloth, some edge ware. Pen-written ownership inscription dated 1969 to front fly leaf. Rubber stamp ‘Property of ASRAP (?)’ throughout. Overall GOOD condition.
Robert Crookall (1890–1981) was an English geologist from Lancaster who, after a scientific career including lecturing in botany and working for the Geological Survey of Great Britain, retired in 1952 to focus on psychical research.
He became well known for collecting and publishing hundreds of accounts of out‑of‑body experiences (OBEs), deathbed visions, and related phenomena, which he interpreted as evidence of astral projection and survival after physical death.
Crookall proposed that humans possess a ‘vital body’ that can separate from the physical body — connected by a so‑called silver cord — and that this, along with layered non‑physical realms (physical, etheric, psychical, spiritual), explained these experiences.
He published many books on these topics from the 1960s through the 1970s and was influential among Spiritualist‑oriented audiences.
However, mainstream parapsychologists have criticised his work as overstated with loose definitions and too few solid cases, cautioning that his conclusions go beyond what the evidence reliably supports.
This work contains descriptions of various techniques by which the ‘double’ or ‘astral body’ may be projected from out of its physical counterpart & was described by Duke Professor Hornell Hart as, ‘the most promising pioneering now being done in psychical research.’