Out-of-body experience -- Sources

Source texts from the books by Jozef Rulof for the article ‘out-of-body experience’.
By Ludo Vrebos, based on the books by Jozef Rulof.
These sources presume the prior reading of the article ‘Out-of-body experience’.

Out-of-body experience during an operation

People can also experience a out-of-body experience during an operation:
Many people who had undergone an operation had disembodied, and they were helped in the spirit.
Very little was known about this on earth.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
Jozef Rulof indicates that, as a result of their own experiences, these people can endorse the phenomenon of out-of-body experiences.
Question from Mr Reitsma: ‘Can the narcotic sleep, therefore during the operation, work adversely on the spirit, the soul?’
Jozef says: ‘No, sir, that is not possible.
Yet there is a question of influence, but that dissolves; the doctor cannot arouse any disorders.’
Question: ‘Can the soul now leave the body?’
Jozef replies: ‘Yes, of course.
Many people disembody during the anaesthetic.
A woman experienced this and said to the doctor in her sleep, when he removed her appendix (the woman told me herself): ‘Doctor, look, that old man on the street is almost lying under the tram.
Oh, help, help, an accident will happen!’
The doctor looked out the window ... and yes, the old man was almost under the tram.
This woman was, as a spiritual personality, outside her organism because of the anaesthetic and the academics still do not know whether the human being has a soul.
A conscious soul then, as a human being ‘behind the coffin’.
And this woman already saw and experienced this, as a result of which she experienced that truth herself through my books and vouched for this.
This happens more often and is the truth!
However, only then, when you possess that sensitivity, or you will only experience your anaesthetic, this imposed sleep.’
Questions and Answers Part 1, 1950

Unconscious out-of-body experience as comfort

Numerous people dream that they have spoken to their loved ones while sleeping.
That is possible and happens between the fourth and fifth grade of sleep.
Here they disembody, but remain unconscious. They do not know how the wonder happens.
Their loved ones waken them during sleep, however, they ensure that the organism continues to sleep, and bring them back to the body.
Great deals of people have experienced their support in this for the earthly life.
A mother loses her only child and suffers so much under it that madness awaits her.
She therefore succumbs because of her sorrow.
Then her own mother intervenes, helped by a master, and now the earthly mother experiences the unity with her child.
For her God came to her that night.
God wakened her and said:
“Look, my child, who is here?”
The mother races to her child and embraces it.
In the morning, she knows everything, but still thinks that she has dreamed.
Yet, she recovers as a result of it. This mercy gave her back the resistance.
Thousands of people experience something else, but all of them experience the temporary release from the organism during sleep and enter the astral life between the fourth and fifth grade.
However, they must be assisted by an astral personality, otherwise, it will not be possible.
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
Jozef Rulof is called ‘André’ in his books.
The spiritual leader of Jozef Rulof, master Alcar, explains to André that the human being would remember the unconscious out-of-body experiences better if, when waking up, he could concentrate on what comes up from his subconscious.
Yet not all dreams are fantasies, as you have noticed.
When someone is aware of this, and on awakening his mind is filled with thoughts of those he lost, then the deep sorrow will ease off considerably, and he can be sure that he was in the spheres during the night.
The pain in his soul will then turn into a quiet longing.
After his return to earth he will always carry within what his spirit consciously experienced in the Hereafter, and so the supernal happiness which he was granted can release him from much suffering, even if he is generally unaware of this.
That is why he will not easily accept this holy truth.
The material human being can’t easily picture himself in spiritual situations.
Do you feel what I mean, André?
If he focussed his thoughts on the things which occupy his mind in the morning, so consciously get through to him, and let them ascend from out of his subconscious, then he will remember a lot and become aware of the subconscious.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
When André disembodied from his earthly body, he sees even more disembodied people in the hereafter.
These people meet their deceased loved ones, as a result of which their deep sorrow in missing them is mitigated:
Who would believe him?
Nobody, for this was altogether too mighty, too incredible for people on earth.
Yet, he experienced all this, he had departed from the body and left his material organism.
He saw more beings from the earth over here but they would presently be unaware that they had been here.
Yet, in their sleep, as they would say, they had heard beautiful music and, however strange it was, spoken to their father and mother who had passed away a long time ago.
This was nevertheless reality and one day they’ll see it.
When they enter here to stay forever, they’ll see that they have been here before more than once.
He clearly recognized those who still lived on earth.
Great was their happiness.
Look how they radiated!
Man wasn’t aware of that either when he woke up in the morning.
No, life on earth suppressed everything; everything dissolved therein and obscured that picture.
It was splendid to see them this way.
Fathers and mothers were together; a mother visited her child.
This, too, was a mercy, a very great mercy.
They could cope with life again and that deep grief had mitigated in the morning.
The Origin of the Universe, 1939

In a deep grade of sleep

Out-of-body experiences take place in a deep grade of sleep.
In order to be able to understand the out-of-body experience, master Alcar gives an explanation of the grades of sleep:
As I just said, sleep encompasses seven levels.
The first, second and third levels denote the conditions in which man is at rest and withdraws the consciousness of feeling from matter, which means that feeling is transferred to the spirit.
The powers of concentration have then passed over into the spirit, which corresponds to the attunement during semi-sleep.
This sleep isn’t deep, it is proportionate to the condition of the physical body.
If the physical body isn’t in a state of normal health, the person is easily aroused from his sleep, as his sleep is disturbed by some illness of the nerves or other organs.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
It is only in the fourth grade of sleep that our feeling becomes more separated from our material body and the spiritual body of feeling can leave the body:
In the fourth level of sleep the spirit withdraws from the material world and the physical body is released from all disturbing factors.
Those who are in this condition will sleep peacefully and will hardly awaken with a start, as the stage of semi-waking consciousness will have been surpassed.
In this condition man is aware of the life he has lived, depending on the state of health of the physical body, because the material garment will not allow the body of sensitivity to depart.
But this also encompasses thousands of attunements that each depend on man’s development in the spirit.
So it’s clear that the nervous system will react to the body of sensitivity, even when the person is in an unconscious state, equalling sleep.
The spiritual body is and remains as it lives and feels in matter.
So when the physical body is below its normal level of health, the powers of concentration return to matter and the body of sensitivity will pass through the third, second and first level of sleep and return to the condition of life where consciousness is keeping watch.
This is when one wakes up and the physical organs start functioning normally again.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
A healthy earthly body is therefore necessary for leaving the body:
If a medium is not in normal sleep, and if there are material disturbances, you will certainly feel that the master cannot even release this life from the organism. There is now disharmony between soul and material.
The great mediums must therefore always sleep well, or they would destroy themselves, and we cannot start.
If physical ailments are present, even the most trivial, it closes us off and there is no question of further development.
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
During their earthly life, most people do not reach any deeper than the fourth grade of sleep.
And it is only in the transition to the fifth grade of sleep that the door to a possible leaving the body opens slightly:
The fifth (level) coincides with the attunement in which the spirit and the physical body split up, and feeling is transferred to the spirit which enables disembodiment.
Only then can the spiritual body leave matter behind and go wherever it wants to.
The spiritual body has then transcended the semi-waking consciousness and the spirit has entered the conscious spiritual realm.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
The sixth and seventh grade of sleep have no added value for leaving the body .
Master Alcar explains that one or two people who reach these grades of sleep as a result of concentration cannot leave the body after all, if this person is not attuned in feeling to the spiritual life.
If that person is mainly attuned to the material body, the material will attract him, as a result of which he cannot master any spiritual treasures.
Master Alcar tells André the following about this:
There aren’t many people on earth who have reached the sixth level.
This is an enhanced capacity of spiritual concentration which can be attained after a long period of study.
Those who possess these powers and are able to govern matter by will power and concentration get more benefit from one hour of sleep than others do from eight hours, which is the time people normally need.
This condition transcends that of disembodiment.
Nonetheless, they cannot disembody if they don’t possess the necessary spiritual attunement.
If they tend towards matter, this will attract them and disable the spirit.
They will attune according to the way they feel and want.
So their inner attunement to spiritual life abides by a spiritual law.
Concentration has brought them this far, but they’re unable to acquire the treasures of the spirit like you can, since your feeling finds attunement in the spirit.
However, your attunement harmonizes with the fifth level, and it borders on the sixth.
We have already done these experiments together and you know their wonderful results.
So it will be clear to you that a person can only consciously disembody if he attunes in the spirit and actually possesses that attunement.
The seventh level of sleep equals apparent death.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
You can read more about apparent death in a separate article.
Our sleep appears to be deeper than we thought:
I could fill entire books on the subject of sleep and dreams if I had to dissect and analyze every transition of feeling.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936

Conscious leaving the body: from beginning to end

The out-of-body experiences of Jozef Rulof were made possible by his spiritual leader Alcar.
At first, Jozef could only experience the beginning of leaving the body consciously:
Soon after he lay down on his bed he felt that strange sensation coming over him again.
When he disembodied he always turned cold, starting at the soles of his feet.
It felt as if life had withdrawn from that part of the body.
During séances his spirit would often stand beside his body, and when he came round out of the trance he was always able to remember everything that had happened and he knew exactly what he had seen.
As a spirit he had seen his body sitting there, and he also saw the kind of light he radiated.
These disembodiments were to him the most convincing way of proving that life doesn’t come to an end.
He could see everything, only the light was different from what his physical eyes took in.
Alcar told him later what this meant, and how the connection with humans was brought about from the side beyond.
When this insensibility had progressed beyond the knees, he would never have noticed anyone prodding or pinching him. This was followed by a drowsy feeling.
Which told him that his spirit was about to leave the body.
It would slowly draw upwards, and when it had moved out of the lower half of the body, his thoughts would get dimmer, until his spirit had freed itself entirely.
Alcar said that this could happen either slowly or in a flash.
He sank deeper and deeper.
He could barely hear the din on the street. It seemed to pass him by from afar.
Up to this moment he was aware of everything around him.
But then all went quiet and he had no more thoughts.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
Later, Alcar could allow him to experience the complete becoming released consciously:
He was conscious of everything that was happening around him.
He clearly saw a blue haze hanging in his room which got denser and denser.
It floated above his head and remained suspended there.
He felt a strange sensation in his feet which made him understand that Alcar was about to release him from his physical body.
It tingled at first, and then he got a feeling as if something was being removed from his body.
He felt something slowly rising within, and drawing upward. Then his heartbeat increased and his blood­ circulation speeded up.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
Alcar asks André to not forget anything about this out-of-body experience:
Now he heard Alcar, who requested him to listen.
‘Your complete concentration is required, André’, he was told.
‘Listen carefully and don’t forget any of the things you are about to experience.
When you tell the people all the things you’re about to experience, it will make it a lot easier for many to depart from earthly life.
I want you to consciously undergo and witness all the emotional states and transitions, as well as this disembodiment.’
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
In this way, André gets to know the important role of his solar plexus:
André’s heart started beating faster and faster.
He also felt how his spiritual body kept drawing upwards, which made him hear his beating heart from afar.
It was a strange and very remarkable sensation to him.
He presently heard Alcar’s voice, who had caught his thoughts on this.
‘This, my son, is because the separation between the spiritual and the physical body has begun.
While man still lives in his material garment, his sense of feeling is located in the spot we call the vital centre: the solar plexus.
But now the spiritual body has crossed this point.
The heartbeat, which is audible at quite a distance, increases because the spiritual body has passed the conscious vital centre.
And from this moment on the power of feeling is transferred to the spirit.
Is that clear to you?’
André understood it all, because he felt, heard and saw.
Alcar continued: ‘Only those can disembody in this way who possess the necessary sensitivity.
Besides, this needs attunement to spiritual conditions.
All this will facilitate and speed up the process of disembodiment.’
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
André gets to know his spiritual senses which are formed by the feeling:
Again André felt himself ascending.
Alcar continued: ‘We have now reached the height at which we can leave the physical realm and enter the spiritual. However, you will remain in this condition for a short while because I want to make a few things clear to you.
You will have noted that feeling is the essential aspect of man as a being.
Feeling is life and life is love, enabling man to be one with God, which makes him Divine.
From this moment on, my son, look around, your feeling is transferred into the spirit.
You will now be able to perceive merely through the power and the radiance of love, because love is light on this side.
So love is feeling and therefore man will possess light and happiness in accordance with his inner feeling and his attunement.
At the moment you’re afloat between two worlds; your spiritual body is still connected with matter, but already feels and lives within the spirit.
That is why you still hear your heart beating from a distance, which makes its beats sound like echoes in the spirit.
This is a mighty happening André, which only few who still dwell on earth experience.
Now try to see, and you will perceive how matter is enveloped in a dense haze.
Everything looks different from the way you perceive it normally.
That’s because your senses belong to your physical body, but this will present no obstacle to the spirit.
On this side feeling encompasses all the senses!
The sense of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting; in short, everything is one in the life of the spirit, and that oneness is feeling.
The body of feeling is therefore the essential part.
This is what man ought to develop in order to pass on to a higher state of existence.
All matter is now blanketed in a grey haze.
You can perceive this best by looking at the walls, the paintings and all the other objects.
They consist of a crude spiritual substance which you can’t yet see through, because your feeling of awakening consciousness is half-spiritual and half-material.
So the transformation of all matter is caused by you floating between two worlds, which makes matter take on a half-conscious state of life, and reduces your power of perception into matter.
My concentration and also your power and attunement enabled me to keep you on this level.
We will now cross the point of awakening in the spirit.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
Alcar allows André to experience the contradicting force of the fluid cord, the connection of feeling between the material and spiritual body:
Pay attention, André, you’re passing on to a different condition.’
André got the feeling that his spiritual body was being pushed upward, but also that something prevented him from rising.
He felt this clearly and thought it very strange.
‘What you feel now, my son, is the opposing force in this process.
It’s the force of attraction of your physical body, which is caused by the fluid cord that connects both bodies.
It’s also clear that your feeling is more material than spiritual, and there’s the additional problem that you still live on earth.
These are factors which oppose earthly man in his endeavour to transcend this turning point from matter into spirit.
The fluid cord possesses that power in accordance with the attunement which feeling finds in the spirit.
So, man passes on in compliance with his feeling.
Every being has his own attunement and that’s why no transitions are ever alike.
Is that clear to you?
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
We will now pass on to a different condition.
Here you will learn to understand that the fluid cord is the opposing force in this process.
I will avert my concentration from you which will make you return to the previous state.
Watch carefully, André.’
André felt himself returning to his previous condition.
He clearly heard his heart beating and all the material objects became visible to him.
He was also able to distinguish his spiritual perceptions from the material ones.
Nothing could ever convince him more vividly of everlasting life than this.
If ever an image could convince him of intelligent thinking after death, then this did.
It was magnificent.
For the first time he felt how immense spiritual powers are.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
André can now see through the earthly material:
I will set up my concentration again, which will raise you to a higher level.’
André felt himself ascending and a different feeling took hold of him.
‘We have now reached the point where the separation starts and your material consciousness passes into the spirit.
You’ll be able to feel this clearly.
All the same, your spirit is still connected with your material body; but now take a look at all material things!
Everything that belongs to the earth is transparent.
You can look straight through things, the grey haze has lifted.
As I just told you, this is because your feeling passed into the spirit.
So we’re about to leave the physical body behind.
You perceive according to the power of love within you because, as you know, on this side love is light.
For those who feel no love in the spirit or don’t possess it, everything will be darkness.
I hope, my son, that you understand everything now.
It’s impossible for me to make these situations clear to you in any other way than you just experienced.
But you will understand everything because you see, hear and feel it.
And this experience is granted to only a few on earth.
Therefore I ask you fervently, my boy, not to forget any of the things I will yet show you.
You’re going through all this for the sake of thousands.
I want to try to reach the people on earth in this way.
I want to make it clear to them that the transition to this world means only happiness, if they develop spiritually.
It’s in man’s own hands.
It’s for him to decide whether he will find either happiness and love in this life, or deep darkness.
On this side we only know of one law, one proverb, which says: ‘To own a lot of love means wisdom in the spirit.’
This applies to you too, André.
If you didn’t possess this power, it wouldn’t be possible for me to show you all this.
Love is knowledge, nothing but happiness in the life after death.
No being will be able to enter a higher sphere if it knows no love. This is what I will teach you and let you experience on this journey.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
And then Alcar completely releases André:
I will now release you completely.’
André felt how he was freed from his body.
He was now floating above his own garment.
He had consciously left his body, received more wisdom in the spirit and had got to know life.
How mighty love was.
This could only be achieved through love.
His material body was lying there as if he had already died.
Yet it was alive.
The fluid cord kept both bodies together.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
From then on, André does not need to lose consciousness for a single second during an out-of-body experience:
Disembodiment, this conscious departure from the body, was the most wondrous of all the gifts his leader made him experience, because it enabled André to consciously dwell in the life after death.
Formerly, Alcar would put him in trance before he disembodied, but meanwhile, he had made enough progress to maintain his own consciousness, so that he could now follow the things that were taking place in both his own life and the spheres.
He didn’t lose consciousness for a single moment, and this was the condition in which he entered life in the spirit.
Mental Illnesses seen from the Other Side, 1945
Although the consciousness is not lost for a single second, there is a question of a heightened spiritual-astral consciousness.
He now experienced two separate conditions.
When he experienced his earthly life normally and consciously – Alcar called this the ‘day-conscious self’ – he would step out of that consciousness into the realm of the spirit, where he had already become familiar with many of its laws.
However, he also possessed a consciousness of his own in this other, spiritual life, which was identical to the earthly one, yet was now completely independent of all material.
Two different worlds, which he experienced from within one single condition.
He was conscious in both worlds, but he acquired the enhanced, astral awareness through his master.
Mental Illnesses seen from the Other Side, 1945
The more feeling can be removed from the material body, the more consciously Jozef can perceive and think in the astral consciousness.
In addition, a particular amount of feeling must always remain in the material body, to watch over the body:
When they were disembodied?
(Gentleman in the hall): ‘Yes.’
And they slept there?
Sir, so many people disembody; then they dream, but something also happens.
And they have been out of their bodies during the night while asleep, they experienced something else there, of course; under supervision.
That is supervised.
The spirit itself, the life of feeling of the human being while dreaming ...
And whatever happens while asleep, there is still always so many percent in that state, in that body, which watches over something, watches over a great deal.
What is that now?
When you sleep, ladies and gentlemen, and you are dreaming a lot and you make journeys ...
In Ancient Egypt ...
I also experienced that, when I left my body, then something always remained, something in that which continued to watch out. You have all read that, you know.
We needed a lot of help because we started to touch the laws consciously.
We went to the moon, to the hereafter, so then you start to think consciously, and then even more feeling must leave that body in order to be able to experience that in the spheres. Because if you come there at five percent you will not see anything, then you still have your eyes closed.
And the more ...
If you go over the fifty then your eyes awaken, open.
So the life in every cell of your body, heart, blood, brains, that takes care of and watches over the castle, that castle, that body.
Questions and Answers Part 4, 1952
Alcar describes the end of the first astral trip:
This is the end of your first journey, and you made it by leaving your body.
Be strong, we’ll go more often, we’ll make more journeys and let’s hope they all succeed.
Now before you return to your body I will release you from my fluid and my strong will power, because if I happened to forget, you would experience something strange tomorrow.
If I didn’t release you from my fluid, it would penetrate into your physical body and that would hinder you in your earthly work, as you would feel strongly.
Of course I must prevent this and see to it that you wake up peacefully after this first journey.
When you descend into your body you will experience a minor shock which can’t be avoided, in spite of all my precautions.
After you wake up, everything you heard and beheld in the spheres will gradually come back to you.’
Suddenly André felt himself getting terribly tired.
‘What does this mean, Alcar?’
‘It means that I have released you from my fluid and my strong will power.
You were tuned in to the spheres and now your spiritual body is once again prepared to descend into your material body.’
He felt shivery, and all at once the fatigue was gone.
‘All right, André.
I have now demagnetized you, like I did when we left.
It’s good-bye now!
Here’s your garment, your material casing.’
Again André knelt down before his spiritual friend, thanking him for everything that had been granted to him.
Suddenly everything turned dark in front of him, and he no longer saw his leader.
Again he felt that he was rising. It was just as if he were being lifted up.
This was followed by a descending sensation.
Then he remembered nothing more.
He awoke with a start, jumped up and saw that it was only seven o’clock in the morning.
‘Oh’, he thought, ‘that leaves me a bit of time.’
His body felt clammy and his forehead was sweaty.
He had the impression that he had slept tightly, because his eyes felt heavy, and he also felt a band around his head.
But soon he fell back into a deep rest.
After a while his mother came to wake him and he went downstairs feeling physically relaxed.
The whole morning went by quietly.
He heard nothing, all was peaceful around him. But in the afternoon, while he was daydreaming a bit, he suddenly saw Alcar standing beside him.
‘André’, he heard him say, ‘are you tired?
Listen, I have something to tell you.
I suppose you know that you were with me in the spheres last night.
That’s why you feel that band around your head. It will disappear soon enough.
Tomorrow everything will come back to you again.
By then it’ll be easier for you to concentrate and to understand the things we saw together.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936

Spiritual body of the soul

What part of the human being leaves the material body during an out-of-body experience?
What ‘parts’ does the human being actually consist of?
In the article section ‘Conscious leaving the body: from beginning to end’, it is described in detail how the spiritual body rises up from the material body.
That spiritual body is now also called the body of feeling because it is formed by our feeling.
When André experiences his first out-of-body experiences, his spiritual body is still not strong.
This is why master Alcar places his own stronger spiritual strength as a protection around the spiritual body of André:
Too much emotion wouldn’t have done you any good, as I just said. It would have caused a shock to your material body, which you have now left behind, and you would have been forced to return into your body in a flash. You would have noticed some kind of disturbance.
But I prevented this from happening.
Now that I have shone my light on you and surrounded you with my spiritual energy, my fluid, you will be able to master all your emotions.
Within this aura you’re ready to enter the Hereafter.
Without it your spiritual body wouldn’t be able to handle things.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
The spiritual body of the disembodied human being has an own aura.
When it is wrapped with the fluid of the spiritual protector it receives a double aura:
‘You know, André, you’re ahead of many other brothers and sisters in beholding the Hereafter.
But don’t think you’re the only visitor, because when we’re in the spheres you’ll notice that more people from the earth will come.
You will then see with all of them that they are inhabitants of the earth.
It’s the double aura that singles them out, just as your own double-light envelops you now.
This energy is transparent. That’s why your spiritual body is visible right through my own aura.
And this will make you recognize those who are now visiting the spheres in the company of their protectors, just as you are.
I’m making this clear to you because without this spiritual irradiation nobody can enter the Hereafter from the earth.
In this double irradiation there is one that shows up more clearly than the other.
The dimmer one belongs to the spiritual body of the physical human being.
You will see many who are taken along to the spheres, like you, while they still dwell on earth.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
You will find more information in the article ‘spirit and spiritual body’.
The soul is our eternal core, our deepest being.
In the following quotation, Jozef Rulof calls our soul ‘the divine particle’.
Jozef also calls the spiritual body the ‘spiritual closure’ of the soul.
As a coat closes off our body, we can also view the spiritual body as a closure or containment of the soul.
Leaving the body therefore takes place just like dying with the spiritual body and with the soul.
In some quotations, we can therefore read that the soul disembodies, in other quotations it states that the spirit or the spiritual body leaves the body.
This word use is according to whether the writer focuses on the soul or the spiritual body at that time.
However, in both cases it is about the same process: the soul surrounded by the spiritual body disembodies from the material body.
The soul is the Divine part.
The spirit is now the spiritual closing off of the soul.
Questions and Answers Part 1, 1950
In the hereafter, we live as a soul with a spiritual coat, our spiritual body.
In the following quotation, ‘organism’ refers to our material earthly body.
And the astral world is the same as the spiritual world and the same as the hereafter.
Here astral is therefore the same as spiritual, and is in contrast to the material life on earth.
Yes, the organism here encloses the spirit and the soul, but the spirit encloses the soul for the astral world and this world is therefore our spiritual life!
Questions and Answers Part 1, 1950
On earth the soul uses its spirit (in other words: its spiritual body) to move the earthly body:
God created this marvellous earthly body for the soul, and the spirit, which is the personification of the soul as a human being, activates the organism with which it is connected via thousands of links.
The body is a temple for the soul, where it must dwell during its physical existence.
Mental Illnesses seen from the Other Side, 1945

Connection with the material body

During the out-of-body experience, the spiritual body remains connected in feeling with the material body by means of the fluid cord.
I want to show you how you can still remain attached to your body during our absence.
Look, you see the slender ray of light protruding from your left side, that’s the fluid cord which connects your spirit with your physical body.
It’s the thread of life, hardly visible, and yet you can distinguish it from the light which your body radiates.
If this cord were severed, you would be unable to return into your body.
But no matter how far we move away from here, you will still remain connected, even if the cord is no longer visible.
And yet this invisible cord is material man’s thread of life.
We also call it life itself, because it’s one with matter.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
The material body is in a very deep sleep, and looks pale during the out-of-body experience:
André had now gone over to the head of the bed and saw himself lying there. He appeared to be dead.
He looked very pale, but his breast moved steadily up and down.
From an earthly point of view it would have been difficult to determine that it was only a physical body lying here, left behind by the spirit.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
During an out-of-body experience not all the feeling leaves the body:
When I disembody, my body lies there, there is still twenty-five percent feeling in it, as apparent death, it is completely empty, and yet full, there is twenty-five percent feeling for the blood circulation, you will feel, or the heart would stand still, and remain still, and then you would instantly be out of this world.
Questions and Answers Part 4, 1952
At the beginning of the mediumship, the twenty-five percent of feeling that has still remained in the body is not sufficient to allow the body to react to external events.
If Jozef’s wife, who is referred to in the following quotation as the Viennese, was to touch the material body of Jeus (Jozef) during an out-of-body experience, accidents would happen, because during an out-of-body experience the material body does not have enough vitality to take care of this touching.
The body would then ask for more feeling in order to be able to act, it would therefore call back the disembodied spirit abruptly, which can lead to disturbances in the body.
This is why a spiritual student of Alcar watches over the material body of Jeus when it leaves the body.
But now look, you are living in the spiritual world and you are also an astral personality!
Come now, Jeus, we will go to Crisje.
The girl from Vienna cannot interrupt you; my pupil will remain here and will look after your body.
However, if the girl from Vienna should wake up and say something to you, or touch you in this condition, accidents would happen, disruptions would take place and we have prevented that now.
You will also get to know my pupil soon.”
Jeus of Mother Crisje Part 3, 1952
When Jeus later will leave his body during World War II, as many as ten astral helpers will be necessary in order to ensure that the Viennese will not wake up due to the roaring of the bombs flying overhead:
Ten minutes later he lies down, no V2s and no V1s can still reach him and ten astral personalities watch over the girl from Vienna, his wife, so that she will sleep peacefully that night and will not touch him, or the blood will fly over his lips again.
Lectures Part 3, 1952
However, master Zelanus, a spiritual student of master Alcar, explains that the greatest danger does not come from the earthly world, but from the dark astral world:
I will remain with his body in order to watch over this precious instrument.
I will watch out that no other powers, astral beings, disturb the peace of this life in his absence, because dark beings are leering at Jeus, they want to destroy what was built up by good things and which Master Alcar worked on for thirty years.
That would not happen so easily, because Jeus is only open to good things, but his body is tuned to the earth.
Jeus does not yet possess that concentration to watch over all of himself, but that will also come and only then will I travel along too, but then we will be faced with the Cosmology!
After all, Jeus has taken up the battle against evil, and he has to be destroyed, evil is leering at his life, as a result of which Rudolf Steiner and Pythagoras also lost their beautiful temples and which ancient Egypt has known the wrong side of!
We have to take this into account because there are still people who are open to wrong, to destruction.
Jeus of Mother Crisje Part 3, 1952
Master Alcar explains that these dark intelligences want to break the fluid cord in order to rob the medium of his precious earthly body:
My helpers must especially guard against the danger that threatens from our side, because certain intelligences want to rob the people who have disembodied by breaking their fluid cord.
But my friends will take care of everything and will warn us in time.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
In addition, there are also dark spirits or demons who want possession of an earthly body.
If the medium has one character trait that is attuned to the darkness, a dark spirit can gain contact with the disembodied medium and possession can follow:
If characteristics are present in this life, which have attunement to the dark spheres, then we are already powerless, because we cannot conquer them.
During disembodiment, the demons approach and have connection with the earthly life because of this, and we are powerless and cannot do anything.
That attunement can therefore not be experienced between life and death.
Anyone who commits a bad deed is no longer even suitable for the highest mediumship. That deed attunes the medium to the dangers in the astral state.
I tell you again: one in millions, who separates completely from the material life, because the possession of the Great Wings is a divine gift.
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
The ‘Great Wings’ refer to the gift of leaving the body.
Master Alcar allows André to experience that during an out-of-body experience André has more control over his own material body than he would think:
One evening he was visited by a doctor who came to call in his help.
A member of the family, who was temporarily in medical care, had quietly left the institute, and he was very worried about it.
He had brought along a passport as an ‘influence’, which André was to use to try to find her.
He prepared himself and waited to see what would happen.
Shortly afterwards he felt Alcar releasing him from his physical body and he heard his leader speak to him.
‘Pay attention, my son, to everything I will show you in this condition.
We experience now a similar condition as the one when we found the man who took his own life. However, in this condition you will experience how you can perceive at great distance while you remain linked up with your physical body and can convey the things you perceive to your physical body.
I told you about it when I explained the event that had to do with Frances.
This is a very mighty happening, André, which the scholar will neither feel, see nor hear, in spite of his presence, for the simple reason that he isn’t familiar with these laws.
I therefore request your full attention and concentration on your own condition.
I will remain in my own attunement, so that nothing will distract you.
You will experience something beautiful, which will only be visible and audible to you, because, as a disembodied spirit, you will be leading a spiritual life.
At the moment, you feel released from your material garment and you can perceive on this side.
But not only do you see; although you have now left your physical body, you are nonetheless capable of using your vocal organs to speak.
And this way of speaking is very wondrous.’
André looked at the spot where he heard his leader speaking from, and wondered how this could be possible.
The power that governed the human body had, at this moment, disembodied.
Had he understood Alcar clearly enough?
He immediately heard his leader.
‘I have spoken very clearly, my boy, I’m dead serious about this, no matter how incredible this may seem to you.
Concentrate on your vocal organs and try to tell him something.’
André wanted to talk but he couldn’t utter a word.
Thousands of thoughts swirled through his mind.
After all, he was out of his body; matter was on its own, and the spiritual body ruled matter.
Again he heard Alcar speak: ‘Are you still in doubt, André?
Didn’t I clearly tell you that this would seem wondrous to you too?
Try to concentrate.’
André was thinking what he would tell the doctor.
‘Listen’, he began, but the word ‘listen’ gave him such a start that he completely forgot to go on talking.
How wondrous it was; he heard his own body talking while he was standing next to his physical body.
Its mental power had abandoned it, yet could talk outside the physical body.
His voice, the sound he produced, was slightly softer, yet clearly understandable.
He sensed that the doctor heard no difference in tone.
At the word ‘listen’, which he had caught, the doctor asked: ‘Can you already see something?’
André understood every word he uttered and promptly continued.
His thoughts were now focussed on one point and he replied: ‘I already see a connection’.
The doctor immediately interrupted: ‘For heaven’s sake try to find something out about her.
Exert all your powers, you would be doing me an enormous favour.’
It went smoothly this time, and André continued by saying that he would do his best to get to know something about her.
He was extremely happy to be allowed to experience this miracle.
What a power of wisdom he was learning, how great spiritual forces are.
There in front of him he saw his physical body resting, and his spiritual body was carrying on a conversation with matter, it had control over the physical body through concentration and strong will power.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
When Jozef has disembodied, master Zelanus can use the earthly body of Jozef in order to write books or to give lectures.
Taking over the earthly body can then take place via the solar plexus, but also in other ways:
This is the cosmos in you, that is the solar plexus.
And with the disembodiment I can go into it just like that; on Sunday mornings, you do not see it of course, but when we come on the stage, then Master Zelanus sometimes enters me to the left, and then I go backwards, and then he takes over me just like that; he steps in and he stands in, he has me.
And then he goes again, when he stands like that, for a moment ... With one footstep he can ...
You should ask him one day whether he will do it. He sometimes does it in Amsterdam.
He says: ‘Now watch out, now I am leaving.
Now I will move my foot, and then André will take over him’, and then he comes onto the ground and I continue immediately. I go directly ...
That is a deep world, but that deep world was brought together as it were by a flash of thinking, concentration.
So at a millionth second that tremendous will of the human being goes, it takes over that body. Because that is something.
That is still a hundred times worse than if you ... five thousand steam trains and electric trains together ... They are not as strong as the will of the human being.
If it is working spiritually, it is almost impossible to gauge that. But later they will also have instruments one day – in a thousand years, or five hundred years, perhaps a hundred years – and there is an instrument standing there, and then the human being starts to think and by means of thinking that human being bursts, for example thousands and thousands of houses, boulders yonder, suddenly just like that.
The human being is so strong with his will.
Questions and Answers Part 2, 1951
When leaving or taking over the material body it is very important that the vitality of the material organs remains at full strength for every second:
And I immediately take that over and then I immediately start to think, first on the physical, hands and legs and eyes, then I slowly return and then I let the light return and then I start to see, and then I go away.
Bu then a tremendous amount happens.
And that will, that disembodying, you can do that through the knees and through the legs, through the feet, through the head, but the easiest, the universal mystical way is: forward backward left right. That is just like the cross like that, you go out like that.
Bu then you must already have that spiritual personality on all the systems, or you will continue to hang like that of course.
He must take over everything, thinking, eye light, the feeling.
My eye membrane can suddenly die off because of one trance, then a disturbance comes.
For example, if you take the light away from noble organs somewhere, then you will feel, then that immediately dies off; that is a disturbance, that is just like a haemorrhage.
That means, there are organs ... If I withdraw my life from that finger, that is finally already ... But brain parts, the light in the eyes, if you can deny that life, you, for a moment, then you will feel, that will fall apart, and that will collapse, that will dry out as it were to the second, and you will have a disturbance, you will have a haemorrhage, or your light will suddenly be weakened.
That can all happen with that nice talking in Diligentia, with painting, with healing, with writing and with everything.
A hundred million dangers.
I could have – I still do not understand it myself – I could have been mad already. That is not possible, because the consciousness was there; but then I would already have been round the bend as a child.
But that is not possible.
But disturbances, physical disturbances ... That is perfectly simple; if that master cannot do all of that, then he will break you physically and mentally.
Questions and Answers Part 2, 1951

Jozef Rulof’s fight against sleep

Jozef is not handed leaving the body just like that.
Before he leaves his body, he must already transfer feeling to the spiritual life.
However, during the days before an out-of-body experience he must also continue to think for his earthly life, because otherwise his earthly conscious will dissolve:
André received word from Master Alcar that the time had come for him to disembody.
André had prepared himself for this great event and felt ready for this wondrous happening.
All the same, it had not been very easy to get ready, because he had to adapt to life in the spirit which he could only achieve through meditation.
He thought of his master night and day, and pondered on all the things related to life after death.
His mind was constantly set on tranquillity, and in the meantime, he felt that he had moved away from the material world.
However, once he had reached this condition, earthly life became harder for him.
He was now at odds with one and all, because people no longer understood him.
An overpowering sensitivity got hold of him, yet he must try to stand firm, otherwise, life on earth would rap him on the knuckles too, and he would break down.
This had to be prevented; otherwise he would not be suitable for this kind of work.
He must, under all circumstances, be able to cope with his own life and with the tremendous situations in life after death.
Passions and material violence came rushing at him during this period of increased sensitivity.
It wasn’t easy to stand up to, and no-one was able to help him in this situation.
There wasn’t a single person whom he received any support from; André had to work his way through this on his own.
He had to keep on tuning in to the spheres of light; otherwise, his master would not be able to reach him.
If he became obstinate, there would be no disembodiment at all.
He must remain his own steady self in all things, or else he would deprive himself of this blessing, and that was something he wanted to prevent at all costs.
The first days were always the hardest for him.
He would remain suspended between two worlds, the earthly and the spiritual.
But once he had reached the spiritual, everything worked itself out and all earthly things lost all power over him.
Nevertheless, it was remarkable how he was still able to do his work. He could receive people and talk with them, while none of them sensed that at the very most; only twenty percent of André’s vital power and personality were present on earth.
During those moments, he actually spoke from a different world, the world to which his master belonged.
Now that he was tuned in to the higher spheres, his conscious self drifted off, and the physical laws that governed matter lost their grip on him.
At this point the other condition began to dominate, and he was able to see through the material worlds.
He was now more spirit than human being.
For a short while he consciously stepped into the great unknown on the Beyond, although he was still on earth.
He now dwelt fully consciously in the hereafter, and took in all he beheld.
Mental Illnesses seen from the Other Side, 1945
He also had to build up, step by step, the spiritual remaining awake during an out-of-body experience.
After all, the body is in a deep sleep.
During the first out-of-body experiences, he remained awake in the spirit by means of the concentration and strength of master Alcar.
However, he must build up that being awake independently, in order to be able to develop spiritually.
That development takes place during out-of-body experiences whereby the spiritual painter Wolff and other spiritual painters use the material body of Jeus in order to paint.
Master Alcar removes his powers and thoughts from Jeus, then sleep overcomes him.
He must now fight to try to stay awake.
But if Wolff happened to be a dark personality, you can certainly feel this as well, then there would also be a lot of danger and Jeus would be possessed by evil.
That is not the case now, he knows that, he can see it; his master is light, life, and love.
Master Alcar continues in this way.
Through his painting, he manages to make Jeus stay awake in his world.
Every sitting brings him a higher consciousness.
At the same time, he receives a painting.
Jeus of Mother Crisje Part 3, 1952
Jeus (Jozef) needs months in order to build up the spiritual conscious which enables him to remain awake for an hour during an out-of-body experience.
To remain awake during an out-of-body experience that lasts a whole night, Jeus had to fight against sleep for three years:
Months pass, during this time; he reaches the stage that he can stay awake in the astral world for an hour.
Meanwhile his personality changes, he learns the laws for and of human sleep and manages to possess the wisdom as a spiritual knowledge.
Jeus fights to stay awake and experiences a spatial world in an afternoon, he is released from this body, but it concerns everything about Mother Earth and all her laws!
In a few months Master Alcar is ready.
The actual development will take three years for Jeus and he will have to accept it soon.
He will not get a single bit of consciousness for free!
The fight against human sleep is awe-inspiring, and it must now be conquered.
When he is dead tired from fighting, he lies down in his master’s sphere to go to sleep, but a moment later his master continues.
WhenJeus can finally stay awake, he can follow the painting.
He now enjoys this event along with Wolff, he can even talk to Erich Wolff, although that also demands concentration, but it is possible.
Master Alcar has Wolff, and Jeus, under control.
And this is now experienced fifty times, each time he leaves his body consciousness is laid down, and that will become a foundation for the ‘Great Wings’, Jeus departing from his body, as Ramakrishna was also able to do, however now under his own power, through his own study in the mighty East!
Because of this Jeus gets to know the seven grades of sleep and he will conquer them!
Jeus of Mother Crisje Part 3, 1952
When the medium as an instrument in the hands of the masters can finally remain awake, his training for the spiritual life begins.
That is not obvious either, because he has still not learned to think for his spiritual body:
The instrument now learns the astral walk, and he is separate from the earth, has discarded gravity and veers to the right and to the left because his tuning is not yet spiritual.
The medium therefore has to master concentration.
The master keeps him awake, but that being awake only lasts a few seconds, then the medium feels dead tired and falls asleep because the organism is asleep.
That power has to be conquered if the master wants to be able to give the medium spiritual food in his own world, which has to be brought by him as wisdom to the earth.
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
Throughout the 27 books, the intensive development of Jozef Rulof is described from the first spiritual contact to the fully conscious remaining awake for a long time during an out-of-body experience.

Purpose of leaving the body

Master Alcar explains that he allows Jozef to leave his body in order to convince mankind of an eternal continued existence:
There’s another thing: everything you will experience as a disembodied spirit is meant to convince mankind of our continued existence.
Pay attention to everything and remember what you see, what I will show you in the spirit.
When you return to earth you will spread the message.
Bear in mind that your gift is not your personal property, so call forth and exert all your necessary powers, because our time is precious.
You will make good use of your life down there.
Don’t idle away a single hour.
Let others make of their lives what they want to, and don’t let yourself get dragged along the dark paths that messed up their lives.
Don’t listen to their professed wisdom which they draw from books and never put to practice.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
This purpose is already centuries old.
In the temples of Ancient Egypt, the masters already gave the priests spiritual knowledge to spread on earth, during their out-of-body experiences.
Master Zelanus speaks in the following quotation about ‘this side’, because he speaks as a spiritual personality from the Other Side:
Conscious disembodiment is the beautiful gift, which you as a human being can receive from God.
The priests of ancient Egypt experienced this gift and elevated it to a great height. Yet, this divine gift has remained in the hands of the Other Side.
If the priest had disembodied, then he lived on this side and the astral wisdom could be received.
The master on this side took the priest to the laws, explained the divine wisdom to him and he also passed this onto the people at the séance.
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
The very greatest mediums from ancient Egypt knew and received this mediumship, because they also served and had a task to fulfil for mankind.
They also disembodied from their material garment through the masters on this side and brought spiritual wisdom to earth.
Their hieroglyphics show how far they came.
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
In Ancient Egypt the wisdom received was still symbolized.
Nowadays, the wisdom can be passed on in simple language.
Our medium is now asleep and yet conscious.
Can you feel this?
Do you understand what it means?
Can you sense the tremendous thing about this state?
Is it not the highest for you as human being on earth, the highest that God can give you?
In ancient Egypt, the very greatest mediums lived in his state and they were born for their task.
Those mediums brought wisdom to earth, and the Other Side is now busy elevating you into life after death.
We analyse the astral and occult laws for you, the Egyptians could not deal with this, even though these priests had reached a great height.
We are now going even deeper!
In ancient Egypt the priests symbolized the writing received, we now make it childishly simple for you, you will not find one learned word in this whole book.
We do not bombard you with material wisdom, because every law speaks to your own inner life.
Now we are childishly simple in language and style, but nevertheless, supernaturally sensitive, the writing received places you before the laws of God!
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
Not long ago, a medium still ended up at the stake for receiving spiritual wisdom:
Finally, it is so far that we can pass our wisdom on to you.
Not long ago our mediums were burnt alive.
That spiritual poverty has had to make way for a higher consciousness.
For that we pass on our wisdom naturally and simply to you.
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
In Ancient Egypt, people wanted to possess the leaving the body themselves, but that became their downfall.
Under the assignment of the spiritual establishment for which master Alcar serves, the masters now keep control of leaving the body:
The Western medium therefore did not get hold of anything, because the Other Side learned at that time.
The Western medium experiences our life, we bring our wisdom to the earth, but take care of everything.
Our instrument knows that he is nothing, does not possess any gifts, because his master has them in their hands.
The Egyptians wanted to master the spiritual gifts and that became their misfortune, and was the destruction of ancient Egypt!
God’s blessing rests on our work!
Yet, the gods of ancient Egypt became hazy.
We serve the only God.
The Egyptians loved thousands of gods and were still unconscious in this as well.
At the very last moment they learned to know your God there, yet it was precisely too late.
Our instrument sits down and immediately sinks into the psychic trance.
His master first had to develop that trance, but the master also has this organism going to sleep and disembodying in his hands, the medium only possesses the feeling!
The Egyptian medium wanted to possess disembodiment and master it, and numerous priests experienced it, but they came to grief as a result of it.
We now prevent all that misery!
It is as pure as your conscious is in the own grade, that we have kept all those difficulties in our own hands, because the greatest mediums of ancient Egypt lost themselves.
It is also true that there are not thousands of these mediums living on earth, if this was the case, a war in a spiritual level would start, and great chaos would emerge.
We bring evolution and not revolution!
This says enough; these mediums are born for their task.
These mediums serve for spiritual order in our life.
And the masters decide who is suitable for this purpose and will be born on earth for this task.
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
During a contact evening, a listener brings up the difference between his own possibility of reading in the books by Jozef Rulof about the spiritual and divine laws of the hereafter, and the possibility of Jozef Rulof of experiencing these laws himself by means of leaving the body.
Jozef replies that we can experience the trips in the hereafter by identifying ourselves with André, his spiritual name in the books.
The listener points out that accepting those laws by reading about them is very different after all:
‘ ... but in order to experience the divine laws inwardly, is something entirely different than that we people, the audience, accept those laws, isn’t it?’
You say, look, you mean by this, if you read those books, then you do not experience those laws.
No, that is also logical.
(Gentleman in the hall): ‘I can only read.’
Look, I experienced them.
But you can experience them the same as me, with that difference: you do not need to make those journeys, you make them with us.
You do not need to deal with that either.
But you can experience what is there.
You must only try not to behave in an occult way, because then you enter insanity.
If you now want to disembody ...
That word, those books which you get there, ‘A View into the Hereafter’ – and you start to follow that, those journeys, - if you definitely read that, and do not add anything, sir, then you will experience that journey with the masters.
And you just crawl into André.
Because I am not any different ‘beyond the coffin’.
And nothing else happened either than what we experience and tell there.
Questions and Answers Part 4, 1952

Thought out-of-body experience

Without Alcar, André would only be able to make a thought out-of-body experience:
You wouldn’t be able to disembody without my help, because your powers aren’t adequate.
So you would get no further than a departure in the mind.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
A thought out-of-body experience can return to the own past:
Question from Mrs H. Smits v.d. Wall-Perné: ‘My husband and I live in a bed-sit.
One evening I went to bed early.
My husband wanted to read the paper for a bit.
After a while I looked round the room and I saw myself sitting in my own chair.
I thought I was awake and I saw everything clearly.
How do you explain this?’
Jozef says about this: ‘Madam, this is a thought disembodiment and nothing else!
I can prove this to you!
I know all these laws.
Because, if you had really disembodied, therefore had been out of your organism, you would be able to explain it yourself.
This is not true and therefore means, that you were still in your organism after all and from there, therefore from your rest, your bed, you saw that, which is an image of yourself; you attuned to the past.
You saw yourself, yes, of course, that is possible, but you experienced this event a moment before and your thoughts went there and in this way you saw yourself there again.
I now think about my youth and see myself walking in the woods.
I am now walking there and talking to my dog; we are running too and yet I am still here, but I see it very sharply.
Can this now be seen?
This is a thought disembodiment, or a transfer of your thoughts to the event of then and the parapsychologist calls this: seeing in time and space!
But it is nothing else than this event; you returned to the past.
It is therefore not clairvoyance.
And, madam, all those fortune tellers experience this and it is nothing special.
But they ask their money for this and you are consciously made a fool of.
Read the books ‘Spiritual Gifts’ and you will get your answer!
In this way you can experience your whole life again and you can also see yourself, but it is from yourself and not from the Other Side.
It is therefore of course not a spiritually occult phenomenon.
Satisfied, madam?’
‘I thank you, I accept it, you are right!’
Questions and Answers Part 1, 1950
The desire to serve is a necessary condition for the actual leaving the body:
What is disembodiment?
When do earthly people depart from their body?
André had become familiar with it.
Once again he was about to experience this spiritual wonder.
He had an inherent desire to serve and convince mankind of eternal life.
This was the most sacred gift for the earthly being that God could bestow on him.
Millions of people believed that they were not yet in need of such holiness, but those who became aware of it were grateful to his master and sent him flowers.
Most of them added a little note that read: ‘From a thankful soul’.
André cherished an ardent faith, and he had built up a strong feeling of self-confidence.
These character traits were vital to disembodiment.
He had a great desire to do good.
Mental Illnesses seen from the Other Side, 1945
However, many people do not let their fantasies be taken from them:
Since his wish to serve was pure, the conscious astral world in these moments drew him up, and he was released from his organism.
He slipped out effortlessly, and in the other world, his master awaited him.
Many people told him that they were able to disembody, but he could fathom their inner life, and he saw that they didn’t know what they were talking about.
These beings merely experienced a disembodiment, which they conjured up in their fantasies.
They would prefer matters to be otherwise, but they lacked the appropriate feelings.
They had dreams in which they spoke with their loved ones, but when André asked them about the astral laws, they were stuck for an answer and remained silent.
People of that kind didn’t disembody; they knew nothing about life after death.
His master assured him that millions of conscious people on the Beyond would rejoice if these persons were really able to disembody, because the more the earth received, the more humanity would profit.
It would change life on earth.
During all his years of service to the Beyond, he had spoken to hundreds of people who claimed to have disembodied.
Yet there wasn’t one amongst them who could tell him anything about the laws on the Beyond, and then he knew them for what they really were.
He would have loved to meet people on earth who had truly experienced disembodiment.
It would have given him a chance to discuss those awesome, wondrous laws with them, but in each case he came to the conclusion that they were making things up.
The more he experienced, the more he understood these so-called mediums, which were not mediums at all.
These people were not aware of the dangers involved, and yet they talked about all these matters as if they had passed exams and were qualified.
Darkness reigned in their lives.
They subsided into their own unconscious self.
They imagined that they could disembody and dwell in the hereafter for a while.
It was all a lot of rubbish to him, as well as to others.
These so-called mediums would go to pieces if they were really to experience these laws.
It would drive them insane on the spot.
It made no difference whether André briefed them and explained the occult laws; they refused to let him take their fantasy world away from them.
‘Do as you please’, he thought, ‘keep on living in your own fantasies and stick to your illusions, but do not rob me of my time’.
If these people were shown out too quickly to their liking, he was said to be loveless, and even lacked good manners.
“Marvellous”, Master Alcar would say, “let them curse and shout as much as they want, André.
We will show them on this side that their experiences amount to mere lies.
But first they will need to die!”
None of these people knew what they were doing, and they destroyed more than they pieced together.
These people were after sensation, eager for the gifts, but mainly bent on being something special.
Mental Illnesses seen from the Other Side, 1945
Many people want to possess spiritual gifts:
Right at the start of André’s development, Alcar had told him that mediums who were really able to disembody were to accomplish a spiritual task, but nothing of the kind showed up in any of these people.
Those who disembodied needed to possess all the physical and the psychic gifts that empowered the Beyond to work.
However, none of these people ever showed any signs of these gifts.
Besides, they had received their training from an earthly magnetizer or a clairvoyant.
This completely disqualified them in André’s eyes, because no person on earth could ever impart this spiritual treasure to others.
Orientals might very well be capable of disembodiment, yet these people, who lived in a no-nonsense Western world, couldn’t even fathom their own self.
Nevertheless, these magnetizers and clairvoyants claimed to possess those spiritual gifts; André, however, would promptly expose these people too, because he knew this to be impossible!
Training of that kind remained in the hands of the Beyond.
Even André would not be able to disembody if his master didn’t want him to; he was merely an instrument and would remain so.
In the long run, all these mediums merely fooled themselves.
They wanted to possess these gifts, yet they would never be able to develop them, because they had no knowledge of the laws that were involved.
Alcar had told him long ago that he would later instruct one of his helpers, who was his most advanced pupil on the Beyond, to write a book about all the spiritual gifts.
It would enable these people to get to know themselves and would put a final end to all their fantasizing.
No longer would they be able to hide, because every­one would see right through them.
Those people had no notion of death, although their disembodiment ought to have acquainted them with it. After all, they went through death to eternal life!
Mental Illnesses seen from the Other Side, 1945
The book mentioned in the previous quotation was written by master Zelanus via Jozef Rulof, and the title is: Spiritual Gifts.

Why do my out-of-body experiences fail?

Jozef Rulof replies to a written question during a contact evening:
You also ask: ‘Why are my disembodiments unsuccessful?’
Jozef now replies: ‘Do you wish to disembody, sir?
Consciously, therefore disembody yourself?
Well, then I will warn you!
I tell you, if you do not want me and cannot accept me, Rozenburg will be open to your life.
And Rozenburg here in The Hague, you will certainly know that, is a madhouse!
And I tell you now: you cannot do that!
You think now: I would like to see that, you shrug your shoulders, because you want to experience, possess that; I repeat, you will go mad!
I will soon be proved right.
If you do not want to listen to me, then just go ahead!
Not one human being in Europe disembodies consciously.
I cannot do that either; my master has that most wonderful of all the gifts in his hands, as all the other gifts, for that matter, I am only an instrument!
All those mediums, who are in trance, disembody!?
But they are not released from their organism, because they do not possess those gifts, the feeling!
And yet they say that they are out of their bodies, a spiritual personality comes to their life, doesn’t it!?
But he knows nothing about all these laws and must therefore be an unconscious being.
They are own thoughts and nothing else!
And you want to leave your body under your own power, conquer life and death by means of thinking?
You will destroy your nervous system, sir, and achieve nothing; an occult school is needed for this and there is not any in Europe.
You need thirty lives in order to come that far.
It is certain that there are people living in Europe, who are occultly gifted, but now it is the ‘possession’ from the past life.
And if you do not possess those feelings and that knowledge, sir, you will not be it either, or ... your emotional life would say it itself!
Therefore you are not it, because you ask me: why not?
If you can disembody, you will already know it!
Ramakrishna had it, magicians did not even have it, or any fakirs.
Read the books and travel the world, if you do not believe me and you will get to know that truth!
I repeat, if you continue with this, your nerves will be destroyed and you will end up in a madhouse, because you cannot experience all those millions of worlds, you need lives for that purpose!
Read those books and you will reach head-bowing, because the law of ‘gifts’ will tell you and then you will also understand that I am right.
I will not deny you anything, I will give you something!
It is perilous to want to see ‘behind the coffin’.
I did not want and never wanted this myself and never understood either that it is so difficult.
And the difficulty is that the human being who disembodies, must deal with the life of the Other Side with those millions of laws of life, while still in the material organism, and this is the division of the personality.
Now you must be able to deal with and analyse everything here and keep going, not make any mistakes, not be broken, be strong inside, be able to bear everything predominantly sensitively and yet consciously.
You live in hells and heavens at the same time, depending on what you will experience there.
Once free from the organism, you cannot return anymore and this became fatal for numerous yogis, fakirs and magicians.
It became their fall, therefore the dying here, or they went mad or psychopathic – therefore spiritually sick – because they had lost the power over their organism.
They were attacked by thousands of astral personalities!
Who can deal with all of this, if there is no master, who takes care of you and brings you through all those spiritual worlds?
My master told me: ‘You will not get all the gifts in your hands, I must keep them and you will never disembody under your own power, because that is succumbing.‘
If the Masters did not want us to disembody, nothing would happen either.
And yet we conquered the universes.
But the struggle continues, you may not weaken the developed concentration for a second, or you will be lost.
However beautiful everything becomes or can be, sir, if you want to look ‘beyond the coffin’, this earthly life will be destroyed, because you did not receive those gifts and are therefore now faced with your own struggle.
I bow to the masters and tell you from the bottom of my heart: I am nothing under my own power and advise you to wait.
If no one comes, who releases you, then never try to achieve it yourself, because you will succumb!
The great Ramakrishna succumbed many times, he walked into the ‘Ganges’ and wanted to make himself one with Mother Water: water is motherhood and if his first follower Vivekananda had not got him out, had not saved him in time, Ramakrishna would have drowned, not consciously, but unconsciously, because he no longer knew that he still lived on earth.
This also happens to me, there is always danger for this life!
You dissolve here, there is nothing more of your own life and personality, the character, which still finds attunement to the earth.
All those feelings have had to make way for the astral laws and this is the dissolving, the being released from the material laws.
But you still live here and you have to act for this life, but you have then lost this acting, because the whole inner self is spiritually attuned.
If Ramakrishna has made a journey, he could sometimes not talk for weeks because of his emotion, the spiritual life had completely taken him by surprise and when he wanted to talk, the blood ran over his lips.
It becomes pandemonium, if all those millions of thoughts cannot be conquered.
I also had to prove this, otherwise the master would stand still!
I was told beforehand that I would succumb for the Cosmology and that was understandable.
I am still here, I was able to keep going.
The worst is over and because I made it through, it is now possible to answer all your questions.
Questions and Answers Part 1, 1950
What is clairvoyance?
What is feeling and thinking?
What is wisdom, what is disembodying, and what is everything?
I reached the universal grade with all those gifts.
And I do not have any gifts, ladies and gentlemen, because I still have nothing in my hands, only what I learned.
And I give you that.
Master Alcar has the gifts in his hands.
He sees.
He hears.
He paints.
He writes.
He disembodies.
Questions and Answers Part 4, 1952

Very first leaving the body on earth

Jozef Rulof considers leaving the body as the highest gift:
I am clairvoyant and clairaudient, a painting, healing and writing medium, but to be able to depart from the body, that is the most beautiful of all gifts.
To be able to stay there and to see their lives, oh, that is so wonderful!
Those who came back from the Dead, 1937
As a result of this, he can tell from his own experience about the spiritual world:
Is it not wonderful to tell people about an eternal life, as you experienced yourself?
Those who came back from the Dead, 1937
In conclusion: this article only gives an introduction to the concept of leaving the body .
The 27 books by Jozef Rulof give a description of what Jozef has seen, heard and felt during his out-of-body experiences, as a result of which we receive a wonderful idea of our spiritual and cosmic life.