Who was Robert Crookall?

by Bob Lepak ((lepak@adelphia.net)) Copyright © 1996, Bob Lepak, all rights reserved

Dr. Crookall, a geologist, became a well respected investigator of out of body experiences. He produced numerous manuscripts which were extremely well referenced. In his writings he had a predilection for digressing and, consequently, often repeated himself within individual books. In fact, much of the same information is found in several of his books, however, the approach he utilizes for many of them differs. To the average reader many of his books could be considered a bit on the laborious side but his consistent attention to detail was outstanding.
Often he broke his writings into separate sections that dealt with specific aspects of the out of body experience. Topics found throughout his writings include (1) Testimonies from astral projectors, deathbed observers, clairvoyants, the pseudo-dead (NDE´s ?), mediums and the supposed discarnate, (2) Cooperation between the living and the newly dead, (3) Comparisons with major religious literature, (4) Stages of astral projection, (5) The astral cord, and (6) Various types of nonphysical bodies and realities. He used a number of terms that are vestiges of psychic and astral projection literature from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Based on information he collected Crookall deduced the existence of at least four planes or realities. He believed that we each possess a specific body designed to operate best in each of the separate realities. That is, each body interpenetrates the others but has the ability, under proper circumstances, to leave the successively denser bodies behind and journey into the plane that it is best suited for. He referred to these withdrawals by various names such as births, dissociations, sheddings and loosenings. In his hierarchy the densest matter is that which makes up the physical body which obviously operates in the physical world. Next is the more subtle body called the vehicle of vitality, also called the etheric or vital body. Even more subtle is the soul body, also called the emotional or psychical body. At the top of this progression is the spiritual body. This has also been called the divine, cosmic or celestial body.
He believed that the vehicle of vitality was a vital link between the physical body and soul body. According to him this may be the subconscious self and the part that operates in most dreams. The corresponding world for this body he often called Hades, Sheol, Bardo or Greyworld. However, he did not consider this body to be a vehicle of consciousness. He believed that the soul body possessed a super-conscious mind which is responsible for psychic phenomena like telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis and other phenomena. He believed the spiritual body was the eternal self or oversoul that was responsible for mystical experiences, transcendence and selflessness. The place of animation for this body is the true heaven.
While the foregoing may seem a bit tedious I would direct your attention to the easiest of his works to digest. For the most part they contain numerous brief anecdotes about individual out of body experiences. Dr. Crookall collected them over many years and often went to great lengths to get follow up information. They are quick to read. The books are :
Astral Projection : A Record of Out of Body Experiences; Casebook for Astral Projection; The Study and Practice of Astral Projection; and More Astral Projections, Analyses of Case Histories. All of them are listed below.
A word about the list of publications that follows. It has been compiled from many sources and is as accurate as I can get it for now. You can see that many books have been reissued. Many are now available from, or at least listed with, various online book companies. The capitalized titles are those I am still looking to obtain. If anyone knows of any other Crookall publications I would greatly appreciate the detailed information, including where you found it and where it may be available. If you find any errors feel free to let me know. Also, if you have any biographical information it would be welcome. Please email me if you want.

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PUBLICATIONS BY ROBERT CROOKALL
Crookall, Robert, Casebook for Astral Projection, 545-746, Citadel Press, 1972, Reprints 1980 (ISBN : 0806560061) and 1986 (ISBN : 0806507306).
Crookall, Robert, DREAMS OF HIGH SIGNIFICANCE, Darshana International, Moradabad, India, 1974.
Crookall, Robert, During Sleep - The Possibility of Co-operation Between the Living and the Dead, Theosophical Publishing House, London, 1964 (ISBN : 0821601709).
Crookall, Robert, ECSTACY : THE RELEASE OF THE SOUL FROM THE BODY, Darshana International, Moradabad, India, 1973.
Crookall, Robert, Events on the Threshold of the Afterlife, Clues as to the Greatest of All Enigmas, Darshana International, Moradabad, India, 1967.
Crookall, Robert, EXPERIENCES ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE AFTER LIFE, Darshana, International, Moradabad, India, 1969.
Crookall, Robert, Intimations of Imortality, James Clark, London, 1965.
Crookall, Robert, LIFE, CHEAT OR A SACRED BURDEN ?, Darshan a International, Moradabad, India, 1976.
Crookall, Robert, MORE ASTRAL PROJECTIONS, ANALYSES OF CASE HISTORIES, Aquarian Press, London, 1964.
Crookall, Robert, Out of the Body Experiences, A Fourth Analysis of the Mystic Arts, Citadel Press, 1970, Reprint 1986, 1992 (ISBN : 0806513837).
Crookall, Robert, OUT-OF THE BODY EXPERIENCES AND SURVIVAL, Churches Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies, London, 1969.
Crookall, Robert, OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCES AND SURVIVAL, In : Pearce-Higgins, JD and Whitby, GS (Editors), Life, Death and Psychical Research, pages 66-68, Rider, London, 1973 (ISBN : 009115809), Samuel Weiser (ISBN : 0091158117).
Crookall, Robert, Psychic Breathing, Cosmic Vitality from the Air, Newcastle Publishing Company, 1979, Reprints 1981, 1985 (ISBN : 0878770801), Borgo Press, 1985 (ISBN : 0893706809).
Crookall, Robert, The Interpretation of Cosmic and Mystical Experiences, James Clark, London, 1969 (ISBN : 0227677293).
Crookall, Robert, THE JUNG-JAFFE VIEW OF OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCES, World Fellowship Press, 1970 (ISBN : 0902742000).
Crookall, Robert, THE MECHANISMS OF ASTRAL PROJECTION, Darshana International, Moradabad, India, 1968.
Crookall, Robert, The Next World - and the Next, Ghostly Garments, Theosophical Publishing House, London, 1966.
Crookall, Robert, The Study and Practice of Astral Projection, Citadel Press, 1960, Reprint 1988, Lyle Stuart 1977, (ISBN : 0806505478).
Crookall, Robert, The Supreme Adventure, The Analyses of Psychic Communication, James Clark, London, 1961, Reprint 1975.
Crookall, Robert, The Supreme Adventure, The Analyses of Psychic Communication, Lutterworth Press, Reprint 1987.
Crookall, Robert, The Techniques of Astral Projection, Denouement After Fifty Years, Aquarian Press, London, 1964.
Crookall, Robert, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE ?, Gerrards Cross, England : Smythe, 1968 (ISBN : 0900675845).

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Bob Lepak, March 10, 1996
((lepak@adelphia.net))
Copyright © 1996, Bob Lepak, all rights reserved >>> Ring-Tor (Engl.)<<< Ring-Tor (German main index)

Field Reports.

From the blog of Michael Prescott.

The Supreme Adventure: Analyses of Psychic Communications, by Robert Crookall, was published in 1961. It consists of reports describing the dying process, culled by Crookall from various books about mediumship.
There are two points of particular interest about this material. First, even though it was collected from a variety of sources spanning many decades, it displays a remarkable set of similarities. Second, it anticipates descriptions of the dying process reported by near-death experiencers -- descriptions that were not popularized until the mid-1970s.
Of course, some near-death experiences were reported before that date. In fact, in some of his other books Crookall himself collected accounts that he classified as out-of-body experiences, but which today would be called NDEs. (The term "near-death experience" was not coined until 1975, with the publication of Raymond Moody's book Life After Life.) But in the years before the development of advanced medical technology, NDEs were rare , and the distinctive elements of an NDE do not appear to have been widely known. It is therefore of some interest that so many mediums, ostensibly conveying messages from the deceased, indicated the very same elements that would later be understood as characterizing an NDE.
A preview of The Supreme Adventure can be read on Google Books; the book itself is available from Amazon and other online retailers. Trying to summarize all this information inevitably does a disservice to Crookall's work, because its most interesting aspects are the repetitive similarities among the various accounts, and these details must be lost in any brief recap. Still, an overview at least gives the flavor of the book.
Crookall divides his accounts into "natural death" and "enforced death," pointing out interesting dissimilarities between the two. For our purposes, we will limit the discussion to natural death.
Here are the main features of the natural dying process, according to Crookall:
1. The call. The dying person consciously or unconsciously calls out to departed loved ones, who arrive to assist in the transition.
2. The life review. Crookall: "Communicators often declare that, in the early stages of transition, they experienced a panoramic review of their past earth-lives." This review is impersonal and nonjudgmental.
3. Leaving the body. The messages spoke of rising out of the body and floating in the air, then passing through a tunnel or passageway, while experiencing an expansion of consciousness. (Much more about the tunnel accounts is found here.) The deceased persons frequently met friends who had passed over before them. They also reported seeing "a cord of light" connecting the spiritual body to the earthly body -- a cord that snapped at the moment of irrevocable physical death.
4. The sleep, or the second death. For a short time after death, many communicators indicated that they existed in a half-conscious or unconscious state, which was apparently necessary to recharge their energy and help acclimate them to their new environment.
5. The awakening. After the sleep, communicators described coming back to full consciousness. As one said, "Death really is just a sleep and an awakening." (p. 39)
6. The judgment. This experience is held to be separate from the earlier life review, which is nonjudgmental. Crookall calls the judgment "an emotional and a personally-responsible review of the past earth-life which, with average people who die natural deaths, occurs within a few months (reckoned in our time) of 'passing'.... The 'Judgment' takes place after the 'second death' (which occurs, with average men who 'pass' naturally, some three or four days after their transition)." One communicator is quoted as saying, "The judgment-bar is the innermost of yourself." (p. 43)
7. The assignment. Each spirit gravitates toward the sphere of existence that is most closely aligned with his or her personal development.
Crookall notes that many communicators go on to describe conditions in these celestial spheres: "'Communications' of the unverifiable type deal with innumerable subjects -- the supposed conditions of the after-life, the 'spheres', 'planes' or environments in which the 'dead' live, their occupations and activities, their relationships to each other and to us mortals, the methods by which they communicate with us, their 'lecture halls', 'libraries', 'hospitals', etc. Many who have made a study of the numerous independent accounts of such matters have pointed out that they exhibit remarkable similarities and that, although they cannot be taken as literally true and exact descriptions, they must, presumably, refer to reality of some sort. A study of such matters will not, however, contribute towards a demonstration of survival." (p. 5)
Perhaps not, but it is, at the very least, interesting that some modern NDErs, who presumably had no acquaintance with mediumistic messages or spiritualist teachings, describe the afterlife environment in much the same terms, right down to the lecture halls, libraries, and hospitals.
Getting back to the specific steps enumerated by Crookall, we can see that the most obvious similarities with NDEs are found in #1 (the call), #2 (the life review), #3 (leaving the body), and #6 (the judgment). These similarities include: a panoramic review of one's past life; separating from the body and hovering over it; moving through a tunnel; and meeting deceased loved ones, who often are reported to assist in the transition. At least one communicator said there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and in general, the tunnel experience seems to be reported as an interval of darkness followed by new light. Crookall regards the tunnel experience as something like an extended blackout.
The biggest difference between these mediumistic communications and NDEs is that, in NDEs, the early life review is frequently seen as an opportunity for passing judgment on oneself, while in the accounts collected by Crookall, judgment does not take place until a second, later life review. Whether or not this difference is significant is debatable. One might speculate that the NDEr is allowed to learn from his life review ahead of schedule, while he has the opportunity, before being sent back to his physical body. Since his "death" is only temporary, he would not get the chance to go through the extended life review if it was delayed.
Note that the most distinctive feature of the NDE life review -- the sense that one is not only re-experiencing one's own life but also directly experiencing the effect that one has had on others -- is reported by some mediumistic communicators in their description of the judgment: "Each incident brings with it the feelings not only of oneself alone but of all those others who were affected by the events." "One is faced with the effects emotionally of all one's actions." "All the pain he had given to people he experienced himself, and all the pleasure he had given he received back again." "He becomes aware of all the emotions aroused in his victims by his acts... He becomes purified through his identification with the sufferings of his victims." "I have been shown the effects of all my acts upon other people's minds. Their thoughts were shown to me." (pp. 42-45)
Of course, NDErs do not report the second death (#4), subsequent awakening (#5), or permanent assignment to a particular plane (#6). But this is to be expected, since these events -- according to the mediums -- take place only after the silver cord has been cut and death is irrevocable.
The impression I get from comparing these reports with NDEs is that the NDEr is something like a visitor on the celestial plane. He does not have the opportunity to become fully acclimated to his environment (which is the purpose of the second death), nor is he permanently assigned to any particular spiritual sphere. Whisked out of his body before the appointed time, he is allowed a reunion with departed loved ones, a chance to commune with his higher self (or God, or however we look at the "being of light" who appears in so many NDEs), a chance to learn from his past life, and a glimpse of his future home. But he does not go through all the steps that would accompany the full and final dying process.
Nevertheless, the early steps taken by the NDEr dovetail pretty neatly with the accounts provided by mediums. Despite any differences, there are obvious parallels between the two sets of reports.
The recurrent similarities in mediumistic communications could perhaps be explained as the product of the general environment of spiritualism; the mediums, it might be said, simply picked up these ideas from spiritualist literature and then perpetuated them. But most people who've reported an NDE are not spiritualists, and probably have no knowledge of esoteric writings. It is more than doubtful that the average cardiac arrest patient who describes an NDE has spent any time poring over the works of Swedenborg or Blavatsky, or reading the obscure books cited by Crookall -- books like Philip in Two Worlds, by Alice Gilbert (1948) and Shadow Land by Mme. d. Esperance (1897), to choose just two of the titles in Crookall's extensive bibliography. Yet the NDErs consistently report many of the same details, sometimes in almost the same words.
I think it's because the mediumistic communications, or at least a great many of them, are genuine, as are the NDE accounts. There are commonalities between them because they are reports of the same reality -- a reality the rest of us will get to explore for ourselves soon enough.

December 03, 2009 in Mental mediumship, NDEs, Robert Crookall | Permalink | Comments (25)

Dreamtime

A while ago, I posted some thoughts on Robert Monroe's out-of-body experiences. I remarked that many of his astral adventures had a dreamlike or nightmarish quality, and I wondered if maybe he was experirncing hypnagogic hallucinations.
That's still possible, but more recently I've become aware of the very large body of esoteric literature purporting to describe the stages of transition from this life to the next. One of the points consistently made by this literature is that the earliest stage of transition often involves immersion in a dreamlike environment. In this netherworld, the experiencer encounters beings and objects that are actually projections of his own mind - his hopes, beliefs, and fears. Adding to the confusion, the experiencer is typically in a trancelike state that impedes clear thinking.
Robert Crookall, who compiled many accounts of the afterlife from a variety of sources, maintained that it takes some time - usually about three days - for the deceased person to fully liberate himself from the remnants of his physical being. During this stage, the person's mind is clouded and his perceptions are unreliable.
I have not read the Tibetan Book of the Dead, but from what I understand, it warns against being deceived by exteriorized manifestations of one's own mind during initial postmortem experiences.
The topic is somewhat hard to address because different writers use different terminology. Terms like etheric body, astral shell, soul body, spiritual body, etc. are employed with a multiplicity of overlapping meanings. But the general point seems to be that when the physical body dies, the nonphysical body remains attached or connected to it for a time, and during this time there can be confusion and misperception. Part of the purpose of esoteric works like the Book of Dead was to caution people not to be taken in by these illusions.
Robert Monroe's more bizarre OBEs might best be understood this light. Similarly, the psychic predictions made by some near-death experiencers - which frequently fail to come true - may be seen as products of mental confusion rather than legitimate insights. We might also consider other dreamlike or phantasmagorical qualities of some NDEs as examples of this transitional state. When skeptics point to NDEs in which fantasy figures like Santa Claus make an appearance, one possible response is to observe that such encounters are fully consistent with thousands of years of esoteric teaching.

June 27, 2008 in Robert Crookall | Permalink | Comments (99)

Befogged

Many people complain that mediumistic communications are disappointingly trivial or obscure, and that the purported communicators forget basic facts they should remember. In his fascinating 1961 book The Supreme Adventure, Robert Crookall explores several explanations for these anomalies. One of them is that the communicators, in order to make contact with earthly minds, must "lower their vibrations."
"Their minds," Crookall writes*,

are then more or less dulled and their descriptions may, in some respects, resemble those of the temporary inhabitants of Hades conditions [a transitional state immediately after dying] : they may complain of being "befogged", "semi-conscious", "drowsy", "dreamy", "suffocated", "not all there", etc., and their mental condition may affect their memories and therefore their messages. Jane Sherwood transmitted a typical statement on this subject. "Coming back is difficult... One has to lower one's vibration -- something like going into a trance or being drugged or finding oneself again in the misty, half-alive state."

He goes on to cite the researcher Richard Hodgson, who

compared the condition under which a discarnate communicator contacted a mortal friend with that of two mortals who were obliged to communicate with each other by employing a messenger who was dead drunk!... On one occasion, [the discarnate] Myers, communicating, said it was "like entrusting a message on which infinite importance depends to a sleeping person"; on another it was like "dictating feebly to a reluctant and somewhat obtuse secretary".
Mrs. Gladys Osborne Leonard was told by a communicator that "sometimes the spirits who are not ordinarily in touch with the earth conditions would find themselves overcome by a sleepy, dreamy condition when actually entering physical vibrations...."

And he makes reference to a case cited by Hereward Carrington.

A communicator said that he had performed a certain act during his earth-life. Actually, it was known that he had not performed this act -- but he had made the same statement when, in the course of passing, he had been in a delirium. The suggestion is that, in order to attune with the medium and communicate, he had had to lower his vibrations in near-earth level: this caused him to re-enter the pre-death delirious state and so he mechanically repeated a statement which was, nevertheless, erroneous.

To buttress his point, Crookall assembles a lengthy collection of quotes, some of which I reproduce here. These quotes are taken from a variety of sources, including popular books and more academic studies. First, here are quotes attributed to discarnate communicators.
"When we come to you a portion of ourselves rests. We are in a drowsy state... it makes it easier for us to pick up the earth-vibrations and talk to you."
"When we plunge down into your atmosphere we feel stifled at first and can't think -- but improve with practice."
"I am, as it were, but semi-conscious while communicating it communicating thus.... It is one of the reasons for fragmentary communications."
"In my own sphere and place it would all be clear, but I now find a difficulty with my memory which is curious..."
"As I speak to you, I am not manifesting with complete consciousness. Much of which I am normally aware is indistinct to my vision. I am troubled by the miasmas of earth."
"Only a part of the consciousness [of the communicator] is getting through to earth conditions".
"In all these matters my memory is perfectly clear when I stand free and unhampered in the spiritual atmosphere, but somehow when I return into earth's atmosphere, so many things become hazy and incomplete."
"In certain circumstances we are only able to communicate with a fraction of our mentality here, which means that the messages get through to you in a hazy state... There are degrees and layers of consciousness... the whole personality" is not engaged in communicating -- that which communicates is "ourselves as we were on earth", the greater and higher levels being asleep.
"I am more awake than asleep, yet I cannot come just as I am in reality." (This was the discarnate "George Pelham" speaking to Dr. Hodgson through the medium Leonora Piper.)
"You [mortals] to us are more as we understand sleep and, in order for us to get into communication with you, we have to enter into your sphere, as one like yourself, asleep. This is why we make mistakes..."
"When we... desire to communicate through some sensitive, we enter a dream (or subjective) state... If we are but slightly entranced we are detached from the memory of concrete facts in our past life... we are frequently unable to communicate through the medium's hand or voice many exact facts about our past career on earth, sometimes not even our own names.... My perceptions, when adjusted to earth, are not rapid in their working.... When we seek to communicate, we... slow down our processes of thought... I may compare the experience with a passing from active life into a still, sleepy world..." (This was the discarnate "F.W.H. Myers" communicating through Geraldine Cummins.)
"It is not my whole self talking."
"If you will wait for me, I will remember all... I seem to lose part of my recollection... I intended to refer to Uncle John, but I was somewhat dazed... Strange, I cannot think of the word I want... I am working to keep my thoughts clear."
"Our first reaction is that of being encased, feeling very limited... In the process of entering the medium, we lose much of our thoughts, ideas and knowledge, all so clear to us a moment or two previous to our contact with the body, and so, on many occasions, the controlling spirit cannot answer some seemingly simple questions from the sister concern.... The feeling of being limited and encased fades away after a few times of trance."
"All your mind is not in your brain at one in the same time: you have your conscious and your sub-conscious mind. He [the communicator] also develops a conscious and a sub-conscious section when he comes here... The part left outside the medium's mind forms, for the moment, his sub-conscious mind. When you wish to recall what your conscious mind has lost, you try to obtain it from the sub-conscious... It is more difficult for him than for you, because a smaller portion of his mind is operating in the medium... You see, therefore, why he cannot, while controlling, think so clearly or remember so much as you can." (This was Gladys Osborn Leonard's control "Feda.")
"It is so suffocating here. I can appreciate their [i.e., former communicators'] difficulties better than ever before."
"After you die the soul suddenly seems to expand... When we communicate with you, we have, in a sense, to form a body; a body that will compress the soul again to the dimensions of that before we cast off the [physical] body.... The whole thing is a strain. When we speak to you we are in an unnatural condition."
A discarnate named Nellie, communicating through Mrs. Piper, said that the discarnate Myers was "much more lively" and "much more wakened up" in his normal spiritual life than when he was speaking through the medium.
In addition to these and other quotes from mediums, Crookall cites the conclusions of researchers. James Hyslop wrote,

The general supposition which, to the mind of Dr. Hodgson and myself, explains the persistent triviality of the communicating spirit at the time of communicating (not necessarily in his normal state in the spirit world) is in a sort of abnormal mental state, perhaps resembling our dream-life...

And Hereward Carrington wrote,

They [i.e., discarnate communicators] experience great difficulty in holding their thoughts together connectedly during the process of communication... This does not mean that they are ordinarily in this confused state, but (very often) as soon as they come in contact with the medium's psychic atmosphere and magnetism, they become confused and their minds tend to wander as they would in delirium or in a state of trance... It is because of this that many of the messages we receive commence well but dwindle off into incoherence and triviality.

Besides lowered vibrations, Crookall suggests other reasons for unsatisfactory communications. These include the likelihood that many communicators are earthbound spirits in a state of confusion, that some apparent communications result from the medium reading a discarded "astral shell" or reading the minds of the living, and that communicators may not know which parts of their messages actually get through.
He concludes,

Mortals, not unnaturally, expect communication with departed souls to be as simple and straightforward as is conversation between mortals. But it cannot be so: conversation is simple, communication is complex. It is particularly complex in those cases in which the communicator must retard his mental activities in order to attune with the medium.... A man whom we knew in earth-life to be of a well-informed and clear-thinking type may communicate inaccurate or vague statements: he may, nevertheless, be doing his best to get through. The claim that a communicator may forget details of his past life -- even his own name -- is paralleled by what can occur in partial anesthesia or hypnosis. The argument often advanced, therefore, "That can't be X -- it must be either the sub-conscious mind of the medium or an ignorant impersonating discarnate personality" is not necessarily sound.

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*All quotes are from pp. 216-224. In quoting Crookall, I have omitted some of his italics and single-quote marks, because I feel he overuses them.

January 01, 2008 in Robert Crookall | Permalink | Comments (35)

The tunnel

Lately I've been reading The Supreme Adventure: Analysis of Psychic Communications, by Robert Crookall. In it, Crookall collects many accounts of the dying process from a variety of sources and examines them to see if they tell a more or less consistent story. His idea is that if the details of the story are consistent and cannot credibly be explained by collusion or coincidence, then there's good reason to believe that these details are true.
One particularly interesting detail is the well-known "tunnel" through which the spirit is said to travel after leaving the body. This imagery became famous in the 1970s when the term near-death experiences was coined by Raymond Moody, but Crookall's book precedes Moody's by 14 years and contains the same imagery.
Crookall writes,

A common symbol used in describing the act of shedding ... the Physical Body is that of passing through a 'tunnel' (or a 'door', 'passage', 'tube', 'shaft', 'hole', 'funnel', etc.): this is clearly related to the 'momentary coma' [experienced upon separating from the body], though lasting somewhat longer and, perhaps, with some dim consciousness, of existence if not of environment. There are many considerations which strongly suggest that in this symbol a genuine experience of a surviving soul is indicated.

He then lists a number of statements "by people who left the body other than by death and who use identical symbols" -- that is, by people who had out-of-body experiences (astral projection) or, in some cases, what we would now call near-death experiences. (Where possible, I have given the date of the published account.)
"I seemed to float in a long tunnel. It appeared very narrow at first but gradually expanded into unlimited space." (1952)
"Suddenly there appeared an opening, like a tunnel, and, at the far end, a light. I moved nearer to it and was drawn up the passage." (1950)
"A constant preliminary to the loss of consciousness is the symbolic passing through a pitch-black tunnel." (1953)
"I was falling ... down a dark, narrow tunnel or shaft ... Sometimes the speed is so tremendous that one gets the effect of tumbling through a hole into a new sphere."
"I find myself going down a long dim tunnel ... At the far end is a tiny speck of light which grows, as I approach, into a large square, and I am there!"
"In one of my own experiences I seemed to pass through a tunnel in a dream-like state and emerged through the opening at the end into a scene of bright sunlight." (1956)
"I was hurried off at great speed. Have you ever looked through a very long tunnel and seen the tiny speck of light at the far end?... Well, I found myself... hurrying along just such a tunnel or passage." (1935 near-death experience)
Crookall includes a 1946 mystical experience:
"I closed my eyes and watched a silver glow which shaped itself into a circle with a central focus brighter than the rest. The circle became a tunnel of light proceeding from some distance on in the heart of the Self. Swiftly and smoothly I was borne through the tunnel."
And a number of statements from people who had an out-of-body experience under anesthesia:
"I was in a long tunnel with a light at the end... I knew that if I could only get to the light at the end I should understand everything." (1935)
"I seemed to float down a dark tunnel, moving towards a half-moon of light that was miles away."
"On being given ether I was moving, at a terrific rate, through what seemed to be a tunnel."
"I found myself in an avenue of trees, slowly moving farther and farther from my body... I continue to advance along the avenue towards a brilliant light at the end of it." (1955)
"I found myself proceeding along a straight black tube with hardly any room to move." (1894)
What is most interesting is that these statements agree with communications through mediums.
"I remember a curious opening, as if one had passed through subterranean passages and found oneself near the mouth of the cave... The light was much stronger outside."
An alleged discarnate who said he helped people make the transition said he tried "to make this passage through the tunnel as happy as possible." (1931)
Another communicator said he traveled through a "dark tunnel" while leaving his body. Yet another spoke of "traveling down a tunnel".
A 1926 communicator said: "I saw in front of me a dark tunnel. I stepped out of the tunnel into a new world."
These ostensible communicators also seem to agree that returning to the physical body can require going through a tunnel. This is true even if the discarnate entity is trying to temporarily enter the body of a medium.
"Do not look at me too critically: to try to transmit through the organism of a medium is like trying to crawl through a hollow log." (George Pelham, communicating through Mrs. Piper to Richard Hodgson)
Another discarnate compared entering a medium's body to getting into "a sort of funnel" (1948).
One would-be communicator failed to get through: "He was able to see the light in the darkness of a long funnel. But he doubted so much that it went out. He was frightened for fear he would never find his way back." (1936)
Interestingly, Crookall notes that the tunnel symbol "is also used for describing the experience of reentering the Physical Body" in what we would today call near-death experiences. "This also is felt as a brief coma, 'blackout', or passage through a 'tunnel' (depending on the duration of the experience)."
One NDEr said, "I turned away from the bright light... and entered a gloomy tunnel. I fought my way back to a tiny light in the distance... When I got back to the light, I found myself back in bed."
Crookall even quotes an account given by Plutarch in A.D 79 (On the Delay of Divine Justice) in which a certain Aridaeus suffered a severe fall and was momentarily startled out of his body. Surviving the fall, he felt himself reenter his physical shell. "Then, as though he were suddenly sucked through a tube ... he lit [i.e. alit] in his body."
However, Crookall notes that most people appear to have only a momentary blackout, rather than the full tunnel experience, when they reenter their bodies. He cites a 1923 study of out-of-body experiences in support of this statement. Modern studies of NDEs also find that the tunnel phenomenon is more commonly remembered when leaving the body than when returning, and that the return is often much more rapid.
It appears, then, that the tunnel phenomenon is not easily explained as a neurological quirk. Neurology might explain the experience of the tunnel in NDEs, when the brain is presumably shutting down. It does not explain the tunnel imagery in more routine out-of-body experiences, such as astral projection experiments, when there is no physical damage to the brain. Nor does it explain the persistence of this imagery in mediumistic communications ostensibly originating from the deceased, who are describing their own passage - either their passage out of the body upon death, or their passage into the medium's body for purposes of the séance.
And remember that all of the above quotes were collected prior to 1961, the publication date of The Supreme Adventure. This rules out the conjecture that the tunnel with a bright light at the end is merely a "meme" originating in Raymond Moody's 1975 bestseller Life after Life and popularized by the media.

December 18, 2007 in Robert Crookall

Ref link http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/robert_crookall/

The Supreme Adventure, by Robert Crookall

The Supreme Adventure, Analyses of Psychic Communications, Robert Crookall, 1961, James. Clarke & Co., Ltd.

Summary The author of this book, Dr. Crookall, has gathered and analyzed communications from the spirit world which were available from a wide variety of written sources, primarily through mediums, over many decades prior to 1960. He organized a series of statements about the death experience and the afterlife. For each statement the correlation among information drawn from these many sources was high. The collective results are:

• An afterlife description with a high degree of credibility because so many sources contributed the same information even though they were independently produced.
• Strong evidence for the existence of an afterlife for the same reason--an intellectually consistent set of statements derived from many independent sources.

This book provides an interesting alternative to the use of medium communications to produce evidence of the reality of the afterlife through individual sittings. In the latter case, the potential for telepathic contact with the sitter or the ability of the medium to tap into some universal source of knowledge--however unlikely these paths may be--are used by skeptics to discount the possibility of spiritual communication.
Statements Relating to the Total Natural Death-ExperienceThe following statements are described in the book, with numerous sources defined. They provide a basis for comparison with other descriptions of the afterlife contained in references identified on this website:
Statement No. 1a: Experiences in the immediate hereafter may be affected by dominant or habitual thoughts and feelings, and by strong expectations or fixed ideas developed during earth-life.
Statement No. 1b: Man possesses a 'body' that cannot be seen by the physical eye or touched by the physical hand. It consists of a 'vehicle of vitality' and a Soul Body, both of which interpenetrate the physical body. The Spiritual Body interpenetrates the Soul Body.
Statement No. 2: A person, having knowledge of their imminent crossing over, will issue a 'Call' to friends and relatives who have gone before. This is not true for those who pass suddenly without prior awareness.
Statement No. 3: Excessively self-centered individuals, who do not issue a 'Call', will be met by certain discarnate helpers who voluntarily undertake such services and are specially trained in such duties.
Statement No. 4: A fixed idea that there is no after-life acts like a post-hypnotic suggestion and no 'Call' is sent to departed friends.
Statement No. 5: In the early stages of transition from earth life, individuals will experience a panoramic review of their past earth-lives.
Statement No. 6: About an hour before the cessation of breathing and heart-beat, a dying man has often almost completely vacated his Physical Body and stands nearby, perfectly conscious and happy, although he may appear to others to be in a pre-death coma.
Statement No. 7: Natural death involves neither physical pain nor fear.
Statement No. 8: Being brought back to the body from the verge of death, by stimulants, etc., does involve pain and fear. Those who thus 'return' from the brink of death to earth-life do so with reluctance.
Statement No. 9: Some of those who were conscious of vacating the body had a sensation of 'falling' or of 'rising'; others described a momentary 'coma', 'darkness', 'blackout' or 'passing through a dark tunnel'.
Statement No. 10: Many of the newly-dead do not, for a time, realise that they have shed their Physical Bodies.
Statement No. 11: Death was "not what was expected": the process seemed 'natural', there was 'no abrupt change' in the self; the new environment was 'familiar', 'earth-like', 'substantial' and 'real'; the new body, superficially at least, resembled the physical body.
Statement No. 12: Although several who died thought, at first, that they might be dreaming, most knew that they were not.
Statement No. 13: The double that leaves the Physical Body at death consists of the whole of the vehicle of vitality plus that portion of the Soul Body that was immersed in it.
Statement No. 14: A cloud-like mass first collects above the dying man. It usually floats horizontally over the recumbent body and is variously described as 'luminous', 'grey', 'smoke-like', 'steam-like', 'vaporous', 'cloudy', 'shadowy', 'misty' and 'hazy'.
Statement No. 15: This exteriorised mist gradually assumes definite shape and finally resembles the vacated Physical Body (though it looks younger and brighter).
Statement No. 16: In the majority of cases the distance of the exteriorised double above the vacated Physical Body varies from directly above to about four feet.
Statement No. 17: Many communicators describe how, immediately after death, they saw both their own Physical Bodies and the self-luminous 'double' in which they stood.
Statement No. 18: Many of the newly-dead also saw and heard friends who had 'gone before'.
Statement No. 19: Many say that the newly-discarded Physical Body at first remained attached to the vehicle of vitality (and the latter to the Soul Body) by something resembling a 'cord' (as well as by numerous 'threads', such as intertwine to form the 'cord').
Statement No. 20: Until the 'silver cord' snaps, decomposition does not commence in the Physical Body.
Statement No. 21: In the natural death of average men the 'cord' may break immediately after, or within a few minutes or hours of, 'visible death'.
Statement No. 22: After the 'cord' is 'loosed', the average man who dies naturally enjoys a recuperative sleep (often with dreams) lasting for three or four days (of our time).
Statement No. 23: The post-mortem sleep of the aged is due to mental fatigue and to a vehicle of vitality which is depleted of vital force. Once the vehicle of vitality has been shed from the total double, the former gravitates to the Physical Body. The two decompose simultaneously.
Statement No. 24: The after-death 'sleep' may be lengthened and deepened by certain features: (1) a prolonged and severe last illness, (b) an exceptionally difficult and strenuous earth-life, (c) excessive grief on the part of 'living' friends, (d) the fixed idea that there is no after-life, and (e) exceptional unteachability.
Statement No. 25: Those who had a post-mortem sleep may have a brief partial awakening.
Statement No. 26: Many do not describe a 'partial awakening': their awareness of a stable environment emerged simultaneously with their assurance of personal identity, and of having survived the death of the body.
Statement No. 27: Many communicators complained that the excessive grief of still-embodied friends depressed and hurt the newly-dead. It hindered their progress into happier conditions.
Statement No. 28: The first wish of many of the newly-dead was to assure their still-embodied friends of their survival and well-being.
 Statement No. 29: The newly-dead greatly benefit by the prayers of 'living' friends.
Statement No. 30: Suitable mortals, and especially potential psychics, cooperate with certain discarnate souls in helping other mortals, the dying, the newly-dead and those long-dead who are delayed in "Hades" conditions.
Statement No. 31: Where a man's transition was natural, certain experiences may aid him to realise the fact: (a) the sight of his own vacated body, (b) the sight of those whom he knows pre-deceased him; (c) the loss of his ability to make himself seen or heard by mortal friends, and (d) the acquirement of new abilities, i.e. to defy gravity, pass through walls, etc.
Statement No. 32: The 'next' world of average men is 'semi-physical' in nature; it is intermediate between our earth and the 'Heaven' of the Scriptures.
Statement No. 33: The immediate 'next' world of average men is 'earth-like' and 'familiar'.
Statement No. 34: The newly-dead man experiences a second review of the past earth-life, one that is of an emotional, selective and responsible nature.
Statement No. 35: After an initial period of adjustment each person 'goes to his own place' in the 'Spiritual' ('super-physical') 'Heavens'. Although, we are told, these 'Heaven' conditions are beyond time, space and form and are indescribable except in poetic and symbolical language, they are far from being 'unreal': on the contrary, they are more 'real' than the physical world.

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