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Are people meeting in the astral at a place called "the board"?

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07:10 / 04.03.06

I heard from a friend today about a rumour that there are people who are either astrally projecting or otherwise using their dream states to access a shared reality called The Board.

What they do there is akin to some kind of RPG game but in "real" life.

Has anyone heard of this?

13:46 / 04.03.06

No, and it sound like a ripp-off from Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Darkover" books.

To me, until proof to the contrary, it falls on the "too good to be true" category

16:57 / 04.03.06

Too good to be true?
Imagine all the assholes on the web invading your dreams. Absolute horror.
Are there any mods on this "Board"?

18:07 / 04.03.06

Yes, we are. If you send me $50, I'll tell you how to join.

Unconditional Love

18:26 / 04.03.06

Ah! the bored.

19:05 / 04.03.06

Bring it on, man, I need to practice my dream-fighting techniques

LVX, can I pay you in chocolate biscuits? I hear they're kinda magic.

enough joking, is there anything to this claim after all? for real?

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

20:02 / 04.03.06

"The Board", for everyone too pretentious to just use WoW or SecondLife.

LVX, the cheque is in the mail. I assume you accept currency from the 23rd National Bank of Lemuria? While I'll admit, the Vril note IS slightly bulky, made as it is from processed crystal, I've been assured that it is equally valid in all major lost continents, as well as at least four Chinese takeaway places on the Plateau of Leng.

03:16 / 05.03.06

Can I use it at the ATM?

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

03:27 / 05.03.06

An Atlantean Transfer Machine as used in the Old Continents? Sure.

Nowadays? It might be a bit difficult. Bit its still good!

Less searchable M0rd4nt

10:58 / 05.03.06

*headdesk*

Yes, of course there is! If a gang of people had put in the hard work and training needed to perform teh Astral Projection!!23! simultaneously as a group, then the first, and perhaps only, thing they'd do is use those abilities to go LARPing.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:56 / 05.03.06

I think that's the interesting question for me here - why would one LARP on the astral plane? What would you get from that that you couldn't get from playing WoW with a headset and mic?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:40 / 05.03.06

LGBT-friendly guilds?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

13:43 / 05.03.06

The short answer is that you wouldn't. If the length and breadth of your imagination and ambition is to use the astral plane to live out your fantasies of being a Level 20 Fighter/Thief then you're unlikely to make much progress as a magician. Certainly not the kind of progess that would enable you and your buddies to share a simultaneous astral experience (assuming that's even possible. I've never done it so I can't say).

21:22 / 05.03.06

Has anyone heard of this?

No, and I think the person who told is you is repeating someone elses unsubstantiated lie and/or fantasy.

21:30 / 05.03.06

I haven't heard of "The Board", but it sounds a bit like the Lucid Crossroads project.

That's for lucid dreaming, technically, not astral projection, but who can tell the difference these days?

00:16 / 06.03.06

I haven't heard about "The Board" per se and while the notion does seem a bit pretentious, I'm not willing to dismiss it off-hand. The idea of a internet-connected group working with an astral temple was proposed by Herbert J. Brennan (Servants of the Light) a number of years ago and I believe a few groups have used his template to create such a construct.

Most people don't know the astral plane from Adam's off ox (my opinion). Even though I've been working with guided meditations and pathworkings for many years, I feel as if I'm only beginning to scratch the surface of what is to be found on the "next floor up". It takes a lot of work to be able to find the known signposts (hell, it takes a lot to even know that there are signposts) so I tend to be somewhat skeptical of what people claim to be doing while tooling around without their bodies. On the otherhand, there could be many talented folks out there who can fly where I have to crawl . . .

In any case, I'd be interested in knowing what "The Board" turns out to be.

-- Woody

01:47 / 06.03.06

"I want to take 'stupid newbie barbelithian', for $200

Most people don't know the astral plane from Adam's off ox

"Who's Dead Megatron"?

To me, so far, "astral plane" is just a hearsay thingy. I'm starting just now exercising my Dreaming (gave up on recreational drugs for that very reason a month ago - with a recent slip in Carnaval), so get back to me in a couple o'years and I'll be able to tell you people if I have any talent after all or am doomed to just watch History unfolds from the sidelines. Any tips would be much appreciated, though

btw thanks for the link, Nina

--

03:49 / 06.03.06

Wow, someone poses an innocent question and they get teared apart by the snobs as "stupid". Glad to see this place hasn't changed any.

*

03:56 / 06.03.06

No one has called anyone stupid, except DM to himself, and that was unwarranted. I think there has been a fair amount of ridicule at the idea of people meeting in the astral to LARP, when there are certainly easier ways of doing it. That doesn't reflect on the OP's intelligence, especially since ze's just repeating something ze heard a rumour of.

--

04:02 / 06.03.06

Yeah, but the whole ridicule thing seems unwarranted to me. That's the problem with this place sometimes, everything's always just a big joke. Rather then look at an idea from all the angles, it just seems like (most) people here were just dismissing it out of hand with mockery. Frankly, the notion of role-playing is a good paradigm in regards to explaining the astral plane to, say, a novice. After all, this is terminology that the youth of today are very familiar with. But it's not "traditional", therefore, not worth one's time and intellectual curiosity, eh?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

05:14 / 06.03.06

No, role-playing is not a good paradigm for explaining the astral plane to a novice. In fact, I can hardly think of a worse paradigm.

If you're actually getting onto the astral and not just trundling around inside your own head, then it's real. As in, you're actually in physical danger if you piss off the wrong entity, or if you go somewhere you shouldn't. I've been injured whilst faring forth and brought those injuries back into the real world with me. It's not a Disney ride.

And if you are just trundling around inside your own head, then that's dangerous too. The danger here is becoming just another solipsistic armchair mage, using supposed astral journeying as wish-fulfillment rather than actually getting some real work done.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

05:17 / 06.03.06

And for fuck's sake, Sypha, when was this place afraid of non-traditional terminology? When did we develop an allergy to metaphor? I for one find that comment deeply insulting.

I realise you hate to have anything remind you of the flaws in your own practice--or lack thereof--but that doesn't mean you get to descend from on high and attack people who care enough about what they're doing to excerise a little rigour.

*

05:43 / 06.03.06

Frankly, the notion of role-playing is a good paradigm in regards to explaining the astral plane to, say, a novice.

That's not what was under discussion.

05:59 / 06.03.06

Yeah, but the whole ridicule thing seems unwarranted to me. That's the problem with this place sometimes, everything's always just a big joke.

Sypha, the problem with you and your life is that nothing is ever just a big joke. To you.

Point: unwarranted generalising hurts. Avoid, please.

On the subject of astral travel, lucid dreaming and the like, you might have had something meaty to contribute to this discussion if you hadn't quickly "lost interest" in maintaining constructive engagement with those who'd taken the time to attempt a not dissimilar experiment with you.

07:15 / 06.03.06

Wow, someone poses an innocent question and they get teared apart by the snobs as "stupid". Glad to see this place hasn't changed any.

That was a joke I made on myself, is all. And I thought it was funny.

What does LARP means, after all?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

07:20 / 06.03.06

Live Action Roleplaying. You dress up like your character and stuff, it looks great. But it's not what you should really be using astral travel for.

07:48 / 06.03.06

Megatron and Sypha may have been responding to something I said, and then deleted, possibly.

08:02 / 06.03.06

larping!...that's funny.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

08:39 / 06.03.06

Also, this: Wow, someone poses an innocent question and they get teared apart by the snobs as "stupid" is inaccurate. Nobody's torn zoemancer apart. They've layed into the idea of this "Board" thingy because it's a bloody stupid concept, but that could harldy be said to reflect on the topic starter, who's not involved with the project (if it even exists). Opinion was sought, opinion was offered. What's the problem?

09:54 / 06.03.06

Well gosh and shucks, y'all -- I guess it was rather stupid to fire off a first post containing an opinion. ;-) I appreciate the sentiments of my defenders, however.

Perhaps I did make a rather broad generalization but it was an opinion based on experience and I stand by it. We all have access to "an" astral plane but it's more of a "personal astral" and doesn't contain much of the information that the "real astral" (if you will) does. Without it great deal of practice -- and guidance from more experienced hands, however, it's nearly impossible to know that we're just standing in our own garden ('cuz it can seem like a big place) and not out where the shared dreams, constructs and architypes hang out.

-- Woody the newbie

10:16 / 06.03.06

I don't think anybody was going off at you, Woody. Sorry if any of the above reads like. I liked your post, and particularly the fact that you reference your personal experince.

Sypha/The Ascetist is going off because.... well, that's him. It's all to lengthy to relate, really.

10:28 / 06.03.06

Woodsurfer: Hang on a minute? Just read the thread through again to make sure, but nobody above actually seems to even respond to your post at all - let alone attack and defend it...

However, this is barbelith, and when you forward opinions - any opinions - you should really be prepared to have them engaged with, shot down, picked apart, shaken up and fed back to you. Don't take it personally. This is a discussion forum, people disagree here all the time, and by that disagreement we hopefully all come to view our ideas on magic from outwith the blinkered comfortable lenses that we all habitually wear. That's the point. I'd rather have my ideas examined, questioned and peer-reviewed by people who know their stuff, than engage in a mutual back-slapping club.

Back on topic, and speaking for myself, I don't disagree with any of the points you make about astral traveling, but with no evidence for "The Board" beyond rumour and hearsay, and extrapolating from my own experiences with magic and its nature, I'm inclined to think that rumours of a bunch of "adepts" accessing shared astral space for live action roleplaying is either bullshit or fantasy.

11:06 / 06.03.06

Never mind. This will teach me to look before I leap. Thanks.
-- Woody

12:08 / 06.03.06

Please don't be discouraged to post. I think the points you made were valuable and added to the thread. People were only getting a bit snarky earlier because a recurrent troll turned up and started taking pot shots.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:31 / 06.03.06

Yes, please don't take it personally. People were mostly reacting to Sypha (currently The Asceticist), not to anything you said.

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