After watching for half an hour or so, I paused it and asked what she thought. “I want to believe him, but I just don’t know” was what she said. And I agreed with her.
It is hard to allow belief or acceptance on a matter that can seem so radical compared to what we are used to. And some of the stuff that is proposed is really confronting, because it goes against what we are conditioned to think.
I do not think you have to believe on the basis of limited exposure, and to try to do is to put unreasonable pressure on yourself. That can lead to the safe option being to just walk away.
In fact for anything that is new we have to become accustomed to it, going beyond the reflex to react and reject. In this case astral travel is hardly new, but people openly talking about it is. They all have individual experiences, and it is only when we have a perspective on them can we make a decision about what is possibly valid. One person's report of a trip to Paris will fuse general truths with personal angles. After hearing ten reports we get a better idea of the general truths.
When I listened to Monroe's 'Far Journeys' as an audiobook I was routinely confronted, fearing it was a fantasy. And again in 'Ultimate Journey' I had to settle my anxiety and just let myself flow with the narrative. We have to dare to expose ourselves to unexpected knowledge if we want to know more than our cultural thought bubble allows us to know.
The only time I was out of my body and conscious of being so I got as far as the kitchen sink, at which I stood stupidly as I watched my hand repeatedly pass through a glass and then do the same thing with the tap when I decided I need a drink bad enough to forgo the glass. Then I thought. "Shit! I am out of my body!" At which point I woke violently in my bed, shocked and intrigued. That modest taste was enough to alter my way of thinking.
There is nothing like direct experience, it is true. But allowing yourself to hear and see what others have to say, 'as if it is true', but without committing yourself to believing it is true, can be transformative. I guess its a bit like going to a movie, suspending disbelief, getting totally immersed, and then afterwards knowing it was just a movie - and yet still moved or influenced.
I mention this because I am surprised by the number of people who feel uncomfortable treating an idea or proposition as if they have to marry it from go, rather than taking a 'suck it and see' approach. You don't have to 'believe' an astral traveller in terms of his content. You may have to allow that astral travelling is real and this guy did it. You can review your information later and form an opinion based on knowledge of the whole story and what you think of it.
I think we need to trust our capacity for critical discernment after we have listened to the whole story, and its okay to decide you have no bloody idea whether the guy is talking complete bollocks or not. Reserve judgement. Keep inquiring.
Or you can simply say, "I am going to research this subject and I will let you know what I think in a couple of months."
Maybe its an academic bias, but researching astral travel is just the same as buying car. You may not doubt cars are real, and you believe you want one - but you are not going to believe what the first salesman tells you. But, to be honest, astral travel can be like being offered a hovercar, and that can be a freak out. Its still a car, and you still want one. But this? Same deal. Regular car or hovercar, research it.