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closest state still free of conscious awareness. Possibly, conscious existence in two worlds - wakefulness and the phase - will be as commonplace for men and women of the future as being aware only during wakefulness is today. However, there is also a completely opposite theory which maintains that phase ability used to be inherent, but is gradually disappearing. It points to the frequent ease with which younger children enter the phase, but later lose the ability with age due to its neglect. ESOTERIC AND MYSTICAL EXPLANATIONS Although the general tone of this learning material has so far kept to a sufficiently materialist tack, it is not theorizing about the phase that brings people together, but its practice. Practice is indisputable, while theory always leads to contention. For that reason, it makes no difference at all what the practitioner considers the nature of the phenomenon to be, including if he sees esoteric or mystic motifs in it. Everyone has the right to their own outlook and it is by no means the aim of this book to influence any life philosophy or encourage it towards some theoretical bent. What's most important is that the reader be able to get real practice with the phenomenon. Unfortunately still, there is no clear definition of the phenomenon in esoteric culture, nor an unambiguous term for it. Depending on the esoteric practice, the phase state is alternatively lumped in with astral projection or out-of-body travel, and sometimes with lucid dreaming. Postulated is some essence (the soul or astral body) leaving the physical plane and finding itself somewhere in a) the physical world, b) the dream world, or c) the astral plane, etc. Meanwhile, the number of worlds that can be visited varies depending on the mystical school. For example, the astral plane can be the higher one or the lower one, or also the mental plane, etheric plane, and so on and so forth. In some mystical schools this is considered a higher experience in terms of one's personal practice and state of being, while in others it is equated to the physical world, and is but a layer between more ethereal