Excursions to the Spirit World by Frederick C. Sculthorp

I first heard about this book in the August 25, 2023 edition of The Friday Afterlife Report published by Wendy Zammit. “THE EARTH-LIKE ASTRAL WORLD: Back in 1961, Frederick C. Sculthorp described his out-of-body excursions into the astral world (the lower regions of the afterlife) in a book that is almost identical in detail to accounts by Swedenborg and those in "Life in the World Unseen" dictated by Mons. Hugh Benson to Anthony Borgia. He says that it takes time for a person's astral body to synchronize with the vibration of a particular level which may explain why some out-of-body experiencers feel that they don't have a body. Read the section "Reunion with my Wife" in Chapter 1 of Frederick C. Sculthorp's ‘Excursions to the Spirit World’.”

That brief blurb was enough to capture my attention! I have read many other books about Astral Travel and taken a few classes and workshops to learn how I too could become an Astral Pilot! But unfortunately for me, so far I have not been able to do it! Some people seem to have a natural ability to perform this sort of activity even as a child by accident and then as they grow up they are able to refine their ability and gain more control.

In Excursions to the Spirit World, we encounter an author who has developed his abilities to go astral traveling quite naturally over the years. He claims to be a simple shop keeper and carpenter living in London who somehow develops this unusual ability after his wife dies. After reading many books on Psychic Science, as they called the study of Mediumship and related topics in those days. Mr Sculthorp eventually decides to try his hand at astral traveling and after much practice found he could actually visit the spirit world on demand!

One of the things that I enjoyed the most about this book is the intimate nature which he uses to describe his encounters in the astral realms. And each chapter seems to start with him reclining in his easy chair at some point during the day or evening upon which he would go out of body in most attempts.

In the Introduction, Dr. Karl E. Müller states; “What Mr. Sculthorp has learnt by his many visits to various spheres in the Beyond made him a happy man in a quiet and unassuming way, and in his modesty he would never have thought of presenting his experiences to the public. On the contrary, he was afraid he might eventually shock the feelings of many who cherish certain ideas about the next world and might not find them all confirmed by his report. However, the enormous variety of conditions in the various spheres has to be considered and these reflect all kinds of human thought and all stages of development. In any case, his report represents a most valuable addition to our knowledge of the spirit world as gained by means of conscious astral projection.”

He offers some advice to the novice: “I have mentioned that many people have experiences in the astral during their nightly sleep without knowing it. The following exercise I have found very helpful in bringing these experiences into the physical memory. The advice is: When wakening in bed, keep perfectly still and try to think back. The difficult thing is to remember to keep absolutely still. When I have been successful in this exercise, I have felt myself encompassed by an aura containing the night's experiences which can be noted by the physical mind. The slightest movement seems to break some gossamer-like thread connecting the two minds. If broken it is very annoying because no further recollection can be made.”

This amazing book was published in 1961 and is extremely rare to find as a print version unless you are prepared to pay anywhere between $100 and $400 to get a copy! That's why I was lucky to obtain a PDF version online to satisfy my curiosity! And furthermore it was mentioned that there was a volume II of similar material out there somewhere published by the same author which was available only in print, not as a pdf or a kindle version. I was lucky enough to find a copy for only $2 in London, the catch was that it cost me $17 to have it shipped to Wisconsin, and when it finally arrived I was somewhat disappointed to find that it was not much larger than a pamphlet! But at least now I have a hard copy with similar material as the first book.