Crookall, Robert (1890-1981)

Geologist with the National Coal Board in London, England, who was an early British authority on astral projection or out-of-the-body travel. Crookall was born July 31, 1890, in Lancaster, England, and was educated at both Westminster College and Bristol University. He examined the evidence that people can leave their physical bodies and reenter them after traveling unseen in subtle bodies. In his many books he collated hundreds of cases from various individuals and established the characteristic features and implications of this strange phenomenon.

Crookall concluded that the accumulated evidence for outof-the-body travel validated religious concepts of the soul and an afterlife. He promoted his views in a number of books through the 1960s and 1970s. The mass of data he collected is impressive, but his objectivity has been questioned and he tended not to consider alternative explanations of the astral travel experience. Crookall died in January 1981.

Sources:

Crookall, Robert. Casebook of Astral Projection. Secaucus, N.J.: University Books, 1972.

——. During Sleep: the Possibility of "Cooperation." London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1964.

——. Interpretation of Cosmic & Mystical Experiences. London: James Clarke, 1969.

——. More Astral Projections. London: Aquarian Press, 1964.

——. The Study and Practice of Astral Projection. London: Aquarian Press, 1961. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1966.

——. The Supreme Adventure: Analyses of Psychic Communications. London: James Clarke, 1961.

——. The Techniques of Astral Projection. London: Aquarian Press, 1964.