Contents

Astral Projection

A New Age Leader’s Encounter with Terror


Randall Baer was a leader in the New Age Movement. His two books were, for the most part, "channeled" through (dictated by) spirit guides during meditation. The first was long considered the top book in the field of crystal power in New Age circles. The New Age magazine, East-West Journal, pronounced his second book on the same subject "light years beyond the rest."

Early in his teens, deep religious questions propelled him on a quest for answers. But his questions seemed to meet only with intolerance and irritation from (apparent) Christians he knew. Sensing that the answers were not to be found there, he began searching elsewhere. From early drug induced unitive (oneness with the universe) and out-of-body experiences he progressed to non-drug induced experiences. He acquired "spirit guides" or "inner counselors" ("familiar spirits" in biblical terminology). He found that the "divine glance" or the bestowed mantra of an eastern master he had studied and meditated under would produce in him an experience of instant bliss. He received "channeled" instructions from spirit beings such as the claimed "Universal Masters" directing him to his part in the believed coming New Age, the "Golden Age of Oneness." From similar instructions to meditate with the use of crystals he was catapulted away to even more expansive realms of "extra-natural light the likes of which I had never before perceived," he says (25). He became obsessed with these experiences. "The mind blowing cosmic power, the glittering good feelings, and the amazing revelations experienced during these times completely captivated me," he writes (53).

Then the truly unexpected happened. In his own words:

 
One night . . . my spirit was roaming some of the farthest reaches of "heavenly light" that I had ever perceived. . . .

I was surrounded by a virtually overwhelming luminosity—it was as if I was looking straight into the sun. Waves of bliss radiated through my spirit. I was totally captivated by power.

Suddenly, another force stepped in. It took me by complete surprise. In the twinkling of an eye, it was like a supernatural hand had taken me behind the scenes of the experience that I was having. I was taken behind the outer covering of the dazzling luminosity and there saw something that left me literally shaking for a full week.

What I saw was the face of devouring darkness! Behind the glittering outer facade of beauty lay a massively powerful, wildly churning face of absolute hatred and unspeakable abominations. . . .

For a moment that seemed like an eternity, I realized that I was in major league trouble, for this devouring force was now closing in on me.

In absolute stark terror I felt powerless to stop what appeared to be inevitable doom. Horror filled me like a consuming flame.

Then, miraculously, the same supernatural hand as before delivered me from the jaws of this consuming darkness, and hours later I found myself waking up the next morning. . . .

At that point . . . I only knew that some force greater than that of the devouring darkness had . . . shown me the real face of the New Age "heavens" and "angels" that I was so deeply involved with. . . .

An openness to reconsider my New Age involvements arose in me out of desperate need. This openness would help me, over the following months, to find a Way, a Truth, and a Life that I had never known before—Jesus Christ (55, 56).

I was taken behind the outer covering . . . . What I saw was the face of devouring darkness! Behind the glittering outer facade of beauty lay a massively powerful, wildly churning face of absolute hatred and unspeakable abominations. . . . this devouring force was now closing in on me.