The Dreamer of Muscoy and Astral Projection -- Part I

A while back I told you of someone from my childhood I called the Dreamer of Muscoy, Douglas Q. McMasters. In the 1960s, Doug was the barber in our community of Muscoy California, but Doug was so much more. I wrote here of the flying saucer that Doug designed and my father built and how I spent part of my childhood going to a secret barn at night and sitting in the cockpit of the saucer, pretending to fly it, while my father looked over the latest plans with Doug.

In that previous writing I called Doug bohemian, but I'm not sure that really does justice to a man of Doug's amazing and varied abilities. As previously described, Doug was an inventor and a pretty damn good one at that. He was also a top-notch hypnotist, pulling off some stunts that still have me scratching my head four plus decades later. He also practiced astral projection. A couple of years ago which doing research for a possible book I asked my Dad and my brother Jack about Doug and astral projection.

My father said that one day while he was getting his hair cut, Doug told him that he had been successfully experimenting with astral projection. My Dad asked what that was and when Doug said he could leave his body and travel just using his mind, my father was very skeptical. Like a lot of barbers I have known, Doug liked to talk while cutting hair and he could carry on a conversation on just about any topic, but my father thought that this time Doug was simply pulling his leg and he told him so. Doug said that he could demonstrate this ability and even prove that he was doing what he said he was doing.

When my father's haircut was finished, Doug took his place in the barber chair. He began to relax and went into a trance-like state for about 20 minutes. When Doug finally came out of the trance he said that he had traveled to our house and that he can prove he was just there.

My father is still pretty skeptical as Doug begins to describe in detail a number of items that he says are sitting on the coffee table in our living room right now. He points to the phone and says, "Call your wife and ask" which my father immediately does. He asks her what items are on our coffee table and her list matches Doug's list exactly.

My Dad still didn't believe that Doug had actually astrally visited our house; he always assumed there was some trick to what Doug had done. But my brother Jack believed him and one day Doug said he would teach Jack what he needed to know to perform astral projection. Whether or not Jack could properly use the instruction was totally up to Jack and out of Doug's hands.

More on that next time when we all learn how to get away from ourselves in Astral Projection 101.