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The Flight of the Ba - By Robert Waggoner © 2007 In the world view, or cosmology of Ancient Egypt, a person existed in three forms, according to Jeremy Naydler, author of Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred": 1) the physical body known as shat, when in the form of a corpse, However, the Ba has a much deeper and perhaps, direct relevance to lucid dreamers, inasmuch as an Egyptologist like Naydler states that "...the Ba is the person but in another form. The Ba could be defined as an individual in an out-of-body state." He goes on to reflect, "The Ba is usually translated as "soul", but this is a misleading translation since the Ba was activated only in non-ordinary psychic states....Such psychic states typically characterized sleep, the after-death consciousness, and the nonphysical mode of consciousness attained through initiation....The Ba, then, was the way in which the human being manifested in these specifically spiritual circumstances. Literally, the Ba means a "manifestation"...the human Ba is a manifestation on the spiritual plane." (pg 200-1). When I first read his book, Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred, I was struck by the concept of the Ba being the part of one that flies during sleep, trance and after-death states. In many Egyptian temple scenes, the Ba flies in two main situations: first, over the sleeping body, and second, the Ba flies over the tomb of the dead body. Many of us have had that experience, whether we call it an OOBE or a lucid dream, of flying around our sleeping body. In some cases, we go explore the nearby neighborhood, flying through houses and visiting associates or places. For many of us, we could brush this aside as an "imaginary" journey, except for those occasions where we later verify information obtained about places or people during this journey. Did our awareness actually visit these places, or did we telepathically pick up the information, or simply make a lucky guess? The Ba's flight around the tomb seems familiar to those of us who have read about NDEs (Near Death Experiences) in which many NDE-ers report looking back to see the dying physical body. I recall talking to a WWII soldier of his experience of being given medicine that caused his awareness to shoot out of his body (apparently he had a severe allergic reaction). As he curiously flew around the hospital tent watching nurses rush around his lifeless body below, he saw one inject him with something else and suddenly his awareness slammed back into his body. He said he had no idea then that awareness could leave the body and fly about. Did his Ba prepare for the afterdeath journey? Interestingly, ancient writings suggest the Ba could be developed towards greater purity, as stated in an Old Kingdom text, "The wise feed their Ba with what endures." The Ba also shows up in some hieroglyphics flying above or flying with a person's khaibit, or shadow. The author suggests that the relationship may be one in which the Ba can proceed towards spiritual growth or it can get caught in the things of the earth; however, Naydler admits an incomplete understanding of the meaning of the khaibit, and does not relate it to Jung 's concept of the shadow. In some regards, the ideas of the transformation of the Ba, or spiritual self, into the akh, or "shining form" seem re-expressed by Buddhists, like Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. In his book, The Yogas of Dream and Sleep, he suggests that a central purpose of lucid dreaming involves preparation for the after-death state. Simply stated, upon passing away, a person with sufficient awareness to resist the pull of desire back to the human condition into another incarnation can potentially instead, move towards complete illumination or enlightenment. The practice of lucid dreaming assists the newly deceased person in coping with the after-death conditions/experience more consciously, in order to set aside human desires and focus upon spiritual illumination. For lucid dreamers, trance journeyers and OOBE-ers, the Ba may represent in a historic sense, the first depiction of a "mobile awareness" separated from the physical host. Interestingly, this mobile awareness, this Ba, seems naturally connected to flying - a common and seemingly universal part of lucid dreaming. Though thousands of years separate us from the Ancient Egyptians, perhaps some of their ancient knowledge remains in our collective unconscious and innate sense of flight.
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January 27, 2009
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