Essays & Articles

Remote Viewing Through Bardon's Hermetic Training

My own preparation path for remote viewing, built on Franz Bardon's exercises in the order he gives them — mind training, self-knowledge, equilibrium and protection come before any outward perception.

Introduction

Why I made this guide

A few years ago, I came across Frabato the Magician by Franz Bardon and read it in one go. Every word resonated with me, and afterward I read all of his books. I am not a magician in this lifetime. Bardon's training takes many years, and for me even the fifth step may take decades. I hope to reach further in my next life as I keep learning and practicing.

While working through Franz Bardon’s Initiation into Hermetics (IIH), I looked at several remote viewing courses. They teach how to perceive data from a target, but none of them talks about what happens when a viewer connects to the astral during a session — the dangers there, or how to protect yourself — something Bardon treats as essential. Most mix pieces of Ingo Swann’s protocol, psychic work, Monroe Institute practices and talk of entities, without the foundation that holds it all together.

This guide is my own way of practicing RV, built on Bardon’s exercises in the order he gives them. For me, that order is the safety system: balance and mind training come before any outward perception.

What this guide is — and isn’t

This is my preparation path, not a protocol. I learn and use established RV protocols — Swann’s Coordinate Remote Viewing (CRV) or simpler methods — from their own sources. Part 9 shows where each skill I train here fits into a protocol.

The central problem of RV, as I see it, is telling perception from imagination. Bardon’s training strengthens both concentration and imagination, so I add two things he assumes but RV needs explicitly: self-knowledge as a filter for overlay, and blind feedback to measure results.

Step numbers refer to IIH; I’ve checked them against my own copy.

A note on translations: Bardon wrote in German, and the English translations are mostly accurate, but some details are not — especially the letters, sounds and frequencies in The Key to the True Kabbalah. Where precision matters, I recommend the original German editions with an AI translation for checking.

Part 1 — Foundations: the three bodies

The practitioner works with three bodies, and each plays a different role in perception.

Planes, not dimensions

Mainstream RV and spiritual teaching often talk about “dimensions” or “realms.” Bardon calls them planes or spheres, and each body has its own:

• Physical body → gross material plane
• Astral body (soul) → astral plane
• Mental body (spirit) → mental plane

They are not separate places stacked above each other. They interpenetrate, and I live on all three at once. Bardon says they are held together by two links: the astral matrix, which binds the astral body to the physical, and the mental matrix, which binds the mental body to the astral.

What tells the planes apart is how they relate to time and space:

What the astral plane holds, according to Bardon (IIH, “The Astral Plane”):

• Degrees of density. The deceased stay here only for a time. The more perfect, noble and pure a being is, the finer the degree it dwells in. Its astral body gradually dissolves until it is adapted to the vibration of that level, or becomes identical with it — and how far this goes depends on the maturity it reached on earth. Those whose astral bodies have dissolved through their maturity move on to the matching region of the mental sphere; a being returning to earth “dies” in the astral to be reborn here (The Practice of Magical Evocation). An abandoned astral body can persist for years and be taken over by demons — which is why apparitions at séances can deceive. Religions call these heaven and hell, which Bardon says is only symbolic.
• Elementals: beings with one or a few qualities, sustained by similar vibrations that people send out.
• Larvae: not real beings but forms created by intense emotional thinking. They live from passions in the lowest degree of the astral plane and try to stir those passions in people.
• Beings of the four elements: salamanders (fire), sylphs (air), undines (water) and gnomes (earth), linking the astral plane with the physical elements — plus others such as satyrs and forest maidens.
• Positive and negative beings in each element. In The Practice of Magical Evocation, Bardon adds that “in reality there is no good or evil” — Providence created nothing evil; some beings simply have good influences and others bad.
• A reflection of the Akasha: everything past, present and future can be found there; how much one perceives depends on one’s maturity.

So the astral is not only a place of fear and entities. What I meet there depends largely on my own state — like attracts like.

What the mental plane holds, according to Bardon (IIH, “The Mental Plane”):

• The sphere of the spirit. Just as the body has its earthly plane and the soul the astral plane, the spirit has its own: the mental sphere, with all the spirit’s powers. Like the other planes, it arose through the four elements from the Akasha.
• The mental matrix. A subtle substance, the finest form of Akasha, binds the mental body to the astral body and carries thoughts and ideas to the spirit’s consciousness.
• The sphere of thoughts. Every thought comes from a basic idea in the world of ideas (the Akasha of the spirit), takes a definite form, and reaches consciousness as a thought-form or plastic image.
• Inhabitants: thought-forms; the deceased whose astral bodies have dissolved, living in the region that matches their perfection; and elementals — beings created by people’s repeated, intense thinking, with a small amount of consciousness and an instinct of self-preservation.
• Larvae form here too: strong emotional excitement — fear, worry, fright, hatred, greed — makes a person lose mental substance, which forms larvae. Their shape is always symbolic: love as a heart, hatred as a lightning bolt or arrow. Bardon says sensitive people form them more easily, and that mass psychoses come from them.

For RV, this is the plane of mental wandering (Part 8): my mental body moves here, and what I perceive must be checked against reality, because my own thought-forms live on the same plane.

Bardon uses “dimension” more narrowly — for example, the depth point as the fourth dimension of an object (IIH Step V).

What consciousness means here

In mainstream RV, “consciousness” usually means the aware part of me that perceives the target. Bardon is more precise. In the spirit (mental body), he places four qualities, one for each element:

So for Bardon, consciousness is the earth principle of the spirit: the “I” that holds will, intellect and feeling together. Because the spirit belongs to the mental plane, consciousness itself “knows neither time nor space” (IIH Step IV). That is why it can be transferred into an object or placed at a distant target.

He also distinguishes normal consciousness, active when awake, from the subconscious, which works most strongly in sleep and at its edges (IIH Step II). Autosuggestion works through the subconscious; RV perception is recorded by normal consciousness. A weak memory or slow thoughts, Bardon says, show the earth element dominating, and point to training consciousness more.

Group consciousness: Swann, Monroe and Bardon

All three describe a shared field beyond the individual mind, in their own words.

Ingo Swann (Psychic Literacy, Ch. VII; Psychic Sexuality)

• In his childhood town of Telluride, one person’s “itch” about an avalanche was ignored, but when several people felt it, the town compared notes and acted — and was usually right. Impressions “communally shared can correct each other.”
• Information about large future events, like Aberfan or the Titanic, “leaks” into human consciousness in bits and pieces through many people, so psychic “networks” of information probably exist.
• We are individuals “only to a certain degree”; beyond that we are part of larger energies that affect our consciousness.
• He describes Jung’s collective unconscious as shared by everyone “in a universal group mind kind of way.”

Robert Monroe (Journeys Out of the Body)

• An “invisible nerve network” links each of us to everyone we have met. Thoughts travel along it all the time, mostly below conscious awareness.
• The stronger the emotion behind a thought, the stronger the signal, whether good or bad. When this happens consciously and at will, it is called telepathy.
• In Locale II, “like attracts like”: we are drawn to whatever matches our own deepest feelings.

Franz Bardon (IIH)

• Akasha is the causal principle in which everything is recorded — past, present and future.
• The mental sphere is full of thought-forms and elementals built up by people’s repeated, intense thinking.
• The subconscious carries impressions that do not pass through the senses into normal consciousness.

What this means for my practice:

• A source of data: the field is why several viewers on one target can correct each other, as in Telluride.
• A source of overlay: collective images, cultural archetypes and strong public emotions can color a session the same way my own soul mirror does.
• A responsibility: if thoughts and emotions travel, then what I send out matters too — which is Bardon’s reason for keeping thinking pure.

How each body can distort or support a session

My practice: the three-body check

Before every session I take one minute and write a line for each body:

1. Physical: rested? comfortable? anything aching or distracting?
2. Astral: what is my mood right now? anything I’m hoping for or afraid of?
3. Mental: is my mind busy? do I have any idea or expectation about the target?

If any body is clearly off — exhausted, upset, or already guessing the target — I postpone the session. The note also becomes my baseline for afterward (see “If you’re an empath” in Part 6).

Part 2 — Calming the mind (IIH Step I)

A still mind is the precondition for any signal; in RV terms, this is the cool-down. Bardon builds it in three stages:

1. Thought observation — watch thoughts arise without following them, starting at 5 minutes.
2. Holding one thought — keep a single chosen thought, dropping all others.
3. Mental vacancy — hold the mind empty of thought for a set time.

Goal before moving on: about 10 minutes of vacancy without interruption.

My practice: daily schedule

Following Bardon (IIH Step I):

1. Thought observation twice a day, morning and evening. I start at 5 minutes and add about a minute a day until I can follow my thoughts for 10 minutes without drifting.
2. Holding one thought — one chosen idea, rejecting all others, working up to 10 minutes.
3. Emptiness of thought — lying or sitting relaxed, eyes closed, for 10 minutes without forgetting myself or falling asleep.

I don’t move to the next exercise until the previous one is mastered; Bardon allows about two weeks to a month per stage for an average student.

Signs of progress: at first thoughts rush past chaotically; with practice they slow down and come “as if from afar,” until only a few appear.

Common obstacles:

• Falling asleep: if I’m tired, I stop and practice at a fresher time, rather than drift off.
• Constant interruptions: I count them with a string of beads or knots, moving one for each break, and watch the number fall over the weeks.
• Impatience: rushing is pointless; the result depends on regular practice, not speed.

I log each session in my magical diary: duration, interruptions, and anything notable.

Part 3 — Observation (IIH Step II)

Accurate description is the core output of an RV session, so it is trained before perception at a distance.

• Eyes open: study an object for a few minutes, then describe it in raw terms — shape, color, texture, size, temperature.
• Eyes closed: recall the object and describe it again; compare against the real one.
• Rule: describe, don’t name. “Round, smooth, cold, metallic” before “a bowl.”

My practice: from objects to scenes

Bardon’s version (IIH Step II) is the core of this part:

1. Eyes closed: I look at a simple object — a knife, a pencil, a matchbox — memorize its shape and color, close my eyes and hold it in imagination. When it fades, I call it back. Goal: 5 minutes without interruption. I start with no more than 10 minutes of practice and build up to half an hour.
2. Eyes open: I imagine the object hanging in the air in front of me, three-dimensional and almost touchable, with nothing else in view. Goal: 5 minutes without disturbance.
3. Describing: after each round I write a raw description — shape, color, texture, size, temperature — without naming the object, then compare it with the real one.

Progression:

• Simple everyday objects
• Objects with more detail or texture
• A familiar room, then a garden, square or landscape (IIH Step III)
• Photos of unfamiliar places, described before looking at their captions

The photo stage is where this becomes RV practice: I describe what I see in raw terms, and only afterward check what the place actually is.

Part 4 — Sense concentration (IIH Steps II–III)

RV impressions are multisensory, so every sense is trained, not only sight.

1. Each sense alone: visual, auditory, touch, smell, taste.
2. Two senses at once, then three.
3. Whole subjects: objects, landscapes, places, animals, people.

My practice: each sense alone (IIH Step II)

For each sense I hold the impression for 5 minutes, first with eyes closed, then open, counting interruptions on my string of knots. The key rule: only that sense — when I imagine a bell ringing, no picture of the bell may appear.

My practice: senses combined (IIH Step III)

Then I hold two or three senses at once for 5 minutes, using Bardon’s examples or my own:

• A wall clock: see the swinging pendulum and hear its ticking.
• A gong: see it struck and hear the beat.
• A small stream: see the water and hear its sound.
• A cornfield in the wind: see it moving and hear the rustling.

Finally I hold whole scenes — a familiar village, square, garden or forest — then animals and people, as vividly as if I were there.

What a weak sense tells me: Bardon notes that a sense that is hard to evoke points to a neglected element — sight to fire (will), hearing to air (intellect), feeling to water (emotion), smell and taste to earth (consciousness). I note my weakest sense and give it extra practice; it often shows up as a gap in my session data too.

Part 5 — Self-knowledge: the soul mirrors as an overlay filter

Knowing your own psyche is how you recognize its products in a session. Ingo Swann called the mind’s habit of naming and interpreting “analytical overlay”; Bardon’s introspection gives the tool to catch it.

• Build the black and white soul mirrors (IIH Step I), sorted by element.
• Add an overlay list: your recurring images, fears, wishes and favorite symbols.
• In sessions, flag any impression that matches your list.

My practice: building the soul mirrors (IIH Step I)

1. List every fault. Morning and evening I spend a few minutes on self-criticism, recalling past situations, and write down every weakness, however small. Whenever I catch one during the day, I note it at once. This takes one to two weeks.
2. Sort by element. Bardon’s examples:
   • Fire: sudden temper, jealousy, hatred, vindictiveness, anger
   • Air: frivolity, boasting, self-importance, gossip, wastefulness
   • Water: indifference, coldness, giving in, negligence, shyness, inconstancy
   • Earth: taking offense, laziness, sluggishness, melancholy, irregularity
   • Anything I can’t place yet goes under “indifferent.”
3. Grade by strength. Each element’s list is split into three groups: faults that appear at the slightest occasion, those that appear less often, and those that appear only rarely.
4. The white mirror. I do the same with my good qualities (fire: courage, determination; air: joy, optimism; water: calm, compassion; earth: conscientiousness, responsibility).

The mirrors show which element dominates in me — and that tells me where my sessions are most likely to be colored.

My practice: the overlay list

Alongside the mirrors I keep a separate page for overlay — what my own mind tends to produce:

• Recurring images and symbols: shapes or places my mind likes (e.g. pyramids, temples, faces).
• Fears: things I’m likely to “see” when anxious (dark places, presences).
• Wishes and interests: topics I’d love a target to be about (ancient sites, UFOs, sacred places).
• Recent influences: films, books or news from the last few days.
• Element tendencies: e.g. a strong fire element may add drama and intensity; strong water may add emotion.
• Collective overlay: archetypes and images from the group field (see “Group consciousness” in Part 1) — widely shared symbols, cultural myths, and strong public emotions around current events.

In every session I mark impressions that match the list. They aren’t automatically wrong, but they need stronger confirmation at feedback. After each reveal I update the list with whatever overlay showed up.

Part 6 — Equilibrium and grounding

For Bardon, protection comes mainly from a balanced personality, not a ritual shield. Imbalances and fear are the weak points through which outside influences get a hold.

• Elemental balance: transmute the weaknesses found in the soul mirrors.
• Opening: a fixed routine to begin each session.
• Closing: a fixed routine to return fully — body awareness, breath, movement, a short note.
• Sleep paralysis: see the subsection below.

Sleep paralysis

What it is. During dream sleep the brain switches off the body’s muscles so we don’t act out our dreams. In sleep paralysis, the mind wakes up while that switch is still on. You are conscious but cannot move or speak, usually for a few seconds to a couple of minutes. It happens while falling asleep or waking up, and many people experience it at least once in their lives.

What it can feel like:

• Being unable to move, apart from the eyes
• Pressure on the chest or difficulty taking a deep breath
• Buzzing, vibrations or loud noises
• A strong sense of a presence in the room, sometimes with figures or voices
• Intense fear

It is frightening but not physically dangerous, and it always ends on its own.

Why it matters for RV. Deep relaxation, practicing when tired, and wake-induced techniques make it more likely. Monroe’s “vibrations” began in this border state. In Bardon’s terms, it is a moment when the bodies’ connection is loosened while the will is weak, so calm matters most here.

What to do in an episode:

1. Remind yourself: “This is sleep paralysis. It is temporary and it will pass.”
2. Don’t fight the paralysis; struggling increases fear.
3. Breathe slowly and steadily, even if it feels restricted.
4. Focus on one small movement: a finger, a toe, or blinking. Once one part moves, the rest follows.
5. Afterward, sit up, turn on a light and use your closing routine.

Lowering the risk:

• Practice when rested, not when sleep-deprived.
• Keep a regular sleep schedule.
• Avoid practicing lying flat on your back if episodes recur; sit upright for RV sessions.

If episodes become frequent or distressing, or come with strong daytime sleepiness, pause practice and talk to a doctor.

How this relates to remote viewing

RV itself is a waking, structured practice, but the deep relaxation it uses borders on sleep. Viewers can slip unintentionally into hypnagogic imagery, dreams, sleep paralysis or out-of-body states, which is where fear and encounters with entities arise.

Grounding protects you in two ways: it keeps you safe in those border states, and it keeps your session data clean. Knowing which state you are in tells you how far to trust what you perceive.

Entities

In these border states people often meet figures or presences. Bardon distinguishes two kinds, and the response to both is the same.

• Your own creations: forms built up by habitual thoughts and emotions. Monroe met clinging beings that took the shape of his daughters and concluded they were his own products.
• Independent beings: what Bardon describes as real inhabitants of the astral. Your imbalances — fear, desire, curiosity — are what draw them and give them a hold.

The response:

1. Don’t feed fear or fascination; stay still and calm.
2. Don’t follow, bargain or engage.
3. Use the return signal and close fully (opening and closing routines below).
4. Afterward, check your soul mirrors: what in you matched what you met?

A rule for RV: never take target information from a voice, guide or entity. It cannot be checked, and it bypasses your own perception. Swann’s protocol treats anything that tells you the answer as overlay; note it as a break and return to raw impressions.

Can beings control me — and can I control them?

This is what many channelers and viewers run into without knowing it. Bardon describes both directions.

How beings can gain control of a person:

• Larvae feed on passion (IIH, “The Astral Plane”): they try “to awaken and kindle the passions that lie dormant in man,” then feed on the emotion. “A man laden with many passions drags with him… a whole army of such larvae.”
• They use your weak points (The Practice of Magical Evocation): a negative being knows “the most vulnerable points” of a person. The fearful it frightens into obeying; the proud it tempts with promises and pushes toward a pact.
• Passive contact leads to dependence (Evocation): mediums and spiritists who keep returning to the same being — through clairvoyance, clairaudience or automatic writing — can fall into an “indirect pact.” Bardon calls this worse than the sorcerer’s position, because the person “has no control over the being… or over the effects caused by it.” Many, he says, paid with serious illness of mind, soul and body.
• Even good beings: one “should not allow himself to be dependent on any being, be it an angel or higher intelligence,” or one gradually takes on that being’s vibration and nature.

Can a practitioner control beings?

Yes — but in Bardon only at the end of the path. The magician who has created an elemental keeps “absolute power” over it, so he does not “become the plaything of his self-created beings.” The perfect magician “can never be forced to do anything by any being whatsoever,” except Divine Providence. That authority comes from full equilibrium and connection with the Creator, not from technique. The methods belong to Bardon’s later steps, not to RV preparation, so they are not part of this guide.

What this means for my practice:

1. Before mastery, the danger runs toward me, not from me. I don’t try to command anything.
2. Seeking information from beings is exactly how dependence begins — which is why I never take target data from a voice, guide or entity.
3. My protection is the same as everywhere in this guide: knowing my weak points through the soul mirrors, balancing them, staying calm, and closing fully.
4. Warning signs: a voice or presence I start to rely on, return to, or feel I need; promises of special knowledge; fear used to make me obey. Any of these means I stop and return to the foundation work.

If you’re an empath

I’m an empath: I feel other people’s states easily. In Bardon’s terms, feelings belong to the soul, so sensing someone else’s feelings is my soul registering theirs — the simplest form of astral perception. I don’t have to “go” anywhere; everyone lives on all three planes at once.

The gift has a cost: sensitivity without boundaries means I absorb what I feel. In one session the fear, pain and urge to cry came into me. So I add a few things to my practice:

1. Know my baseline. Before a session I note my own mood and body state in a line, so afterward I can tell what was mine and what wasn’t.
2. Feel it, don’t become it. I observe a feeling and record it as data — “grief at the target” — instead of letting it turn into “I am sad.”
3. Close every session fully, even short ones: body awareness, breath, movement, a short note.
4. Clear what I picked up. Bardon’s water practice (IIH Step I): wash my hands or face with the firm conviction that everything foreign passes into the water, then pour it away.
5. Strengthen equilibrium. Balance in the soul mirrors is what lets me feel others clearly without carrying their states afterward.

If I still feel heavy or not myself hours later, I pause practice and ground myself in ordinary life first.

Practice: knowing when I’m dreaming (reality checks)

This practice trains me to notice when I’ve slipped out of waking focus into a dream or another border state (see the table under “How this relates to remote viewing”), and to respond calmly instead of with fear.

A reality check only works in a dream if it is a real question while awake, not something said automatically out of habit. Quality of each check matters more than the count.

By day — the check (10–20 times)

1. Tie checks to triggers you meet often: walking through a doorway, picking up your phone, feeling surprise or strong emotion.
2. Stop and ask sincerely: “Is this a dream?” Expect that it might be.
3. Look at your hands for a few seconds. Do they keep their shape and number of fingers?
4. Add a second check, since one can fail: read a line of text, look away, and read it again; in dreams text often changes.
5. Notice your surroundings as if for the first time, then answer from what you observed.

By day — rehearse the response

Decide in advance what you will do once you recognize the state, and rehearse it with full sense imagination (Part 4):

1. Calm: stop, breathe, stay still — Monroe found stillness made disturbing beings drift away.
2. Transform: replace the threat with a chosen image held in all senses, e.g. falling becomes flying in a clear, sunny sky.
3. Return: a fixed signal to come back, such as feeling your physical body and moving a finger.

At night

• Before sleep, set the intention: “Tonight I will look at my hands and know I am dreaming.”
• Keep a journal by the bed and write down every dream on waking, noting any dream signs that repeat.
• Review the journal weekly and add your recurring dream signs to your daytime triggers.

Autosuggestion (IIH Step II)

A short formula, repeated at the edge of sleep, programs the subconscious to recognize the state and respond calmly.

• Formula: “Is this a dream? If yes, I am calm, clear and in command.”
• Rules: present tense, positive wording (no “not” or “won’t”), and one formula at a time until it works.
• When: in bed just before falling asleep, and on waking while still drowsy.
• How: repeat it in a whisper or mentally, counting with a string of 30–40 beads or knots so the counting needs no attention.
• Link to the day: say the same formula during each daytime hand check, so day and night reinforce each other.

Note: transformation works on images your own mind produces. For anything that does not respond, rely on equilibrium, will and return, not on force.

My practice: opening and closing routines

Opening (about 3 minutes):

1. Sit upright in my usual posture — not lying down, to keep sleep paralysis away.
2. Three-body check (Part 1): one line each for body, mood and mind.
3. A few slow, conscious breaths (IIH Step I).
4. A short intention: “I perceive only the target, I stay calm, and I return at will.”
5. One to two minutes of emptiness of thought, then I take the target reference.

Closing (every session, even short ones):

1. Write “end” and the time on the page.
2. Feel my whole body — feet, hands, weight on the chair — and take three deep breaths.
3. Move: stretch, stand up, walk a few steps, turn on a light.
4. Wash my hands or face with the conviction that anything foreign passes into the water (IIH Step I).
5. Write a line comparing my state with my opening baseline.

If a session was disturbing: I close slowly, without anger, and do something ordinary and grounding — calming music or tones, a walk, food, talking to someone. I don’t start another session that day.

Part 7 — Transplantation of consciousness (IIH Step IV)

This is the Bardon exercise closest to RV: moving awareness into something else and perceiving from there.

1. Into an object — feel its size, weight, material.
2. Into an animal — its senses and state.
3. Into a person — only with respect for their privacy; Bardon frames this ethically.

Transfer of consciousness vs. astral perception

I keep these two apart, because they work at different levels and give different kinds of data.

In my sessions: transfer gives me clean structural data — “flat-topped, hard, cold, rising and falling.” The astral layer gives the living, emotional part — “sacred,” “terrifying,” “something aware of me.” Both can be real, but the astral layer is far more open to overlay and emotional impact, so I record it separately and check it against feedback.

An everyday example: when I look at a person, I can sometimes feel their state of being and sense how they do things. That is closer to astral perception than to transfer — sensing the soul’s coloring rather than becoming the person. Bardon describes this in the magic-mirror work: think away the body, and the aura and character traits appear. I treat these impressions the same way as session data: interesting, but worth checking, since ordinary intuition and body language mix in easily.

My practice: transfer step by step

Following Bardon (IIH Step IV):

1. Objects: I look at an everyday object, memorize its shape, color and size, then imagine myself transformed into it. I feel bound to where I lie, feel my purpose, and observe the room and the other objects from my position. Goal: 5 minutes without interruption, with my body completely forgotten.
2. Larger and living forms: flowers, plants, shrubs, trees.
3. Animals: a cat, dog, horse, bird or ant — first still, then walking, running, flying or swimming. Goal: 5 minutes.
4. People: only for practice, with respect for their privacy.

How I measure success:

• I can hold the transfer for 5 minutes without slipping back into my body.
• Right after, I write what I perceived from the object’s position — what was “in front of me,” what touched me, how heavy I felt.
• Where I can, I check: is that really what is visible from where the object stands? Does its surface really feel that way?

How I avoid projecting my expectations:

• I describe the object’s own qualities, not my opinion of it.
• I apply Bardon’s test (Part 8): imagine the opposite. If the opposite comes just as easily, it was imagination.
• I practice with objects placed by someone else, so I don’t already know their surroundings.

Part 8 — Mental wandering and mirror clairvoyance (IIH Steps VIII–IX)

In Bardon’s order, mental travel comes before astral separation; it is safer and more controllable, and it suits RV better.

1. Mental wandering within your own room, then the house, then known places.
2. Unknown places, checked afterward.
3. Clairvoyance through the magic mirror.

Bardon’s test for fact versus imagination: when you perceive someone during mental wandering, deliberately imagine them doing something different, even the opposite. If that is just as easy, both images are still imagination, and the exercise must be repeated until you can tell perception from imagination with certainty.

Astral projection proper is outside this guide’s scope.

My practice: mental wandering milestones

Bardon’s sequence (IIH Step VIII), each mastered before the next:

1. Preparation: imagine my mind in the shape and size of my body, in front of a mirror.
2. Beside my body: stand next to my body and observe it closely — face, breathing, clothes, chair.
3. The room: perceive the objects around me as clearly as with physical eyes.
4. Walking: move step by step around the room as if I still had a physical body — no big leaps at first.
5. Beyond the door: the next room, then short distances outside.
6. Known people nearby: visit friends or neighbors and see what they are doing.

How I verify each stage:

• After every exercise I “slip back into my body like a garment” and immediately check what I perceived against reality.
• For visits, I confirm later what the person was actually doing, and apply the opposite test.
• I log hits and misses, as in Part 10.

What to expect: Bardon warns of strong drowsiness at first, because the bond between the mental and astral bodies loosens. I resist it actively; it fades as the practice becomes habit. If I keep falling asleep, I stop and practice when fresher.

Part 9 — Bridge to an RV protocol

Each stage of a protocol depends on a skill trained earlier in this guide. The stages below follow CRV in simplified form; other protocols use similar steps.

Why I leave the ideogram until the end: in CRV the ideogram usually comes first, but for me a drawn shape turns into a name almost instantly — a triangle becomes “pyramid,” and the session follows my interpretation instead of the target. That is analytical overlay before I’ve perceived anything. So I start with raw impressions in words and draw the ideogram only after I’ve finished.

Probing

In many protocols the viewer locks onto one aspect of the target — a building, a moving object, a person — holds the signal, and probes it for more detail. Three Bardon skills prepare this directly:

Depth point (IIH Step V): Bardon also trains placing consciousness at the exact center of an object, feeling as small as a poppy seed, until the object becomes a whole universe. With practice this gives the ability to see through an object and grasp its structure — a direct preparation for probing a target from within.

Practice drill (with a known object or photo):

1. Hold attention on one aspect for 2–5 minutes, without naming it.
2. Probe one sense at a time: surface, temperature, sound, smell, movement.
3. For a moving object, probe direction and speed; for a structure, probe inside and outside.
4. Release it cleanly, pause, then move to the next aspect.
5. Compare your notes with the real object.

Person targets: probe only practice targets where the person has agreed, as Bardon frames transplantation into people ethically. Person targets also carry strong emotion, so overlay risk is higher — check your overlay list (Part 5).

Three levels of contact

1. Observing: look at the target from outside — shape, colors, layout.
2. Probing: move attention around and through it, testing each sense.
3. Becoming: identify with it fully, as in Bardon’s transplantation — you are the building, the moving object.

At the third level, keep a dual awareness: inside the target, yet still aware of your body and the pen in your hand. Use your return signal and closing routine afterward, especially with person targets.

Recovering a lost signal

The signal usually drops through excitement (“I’ve got it!”) or analysis (naming the object).

1. Don’t chase it. Breathe out, let go, and return briefly to mental vacancy (Part 2).
2. Anchor on paper. Sketch what you had — landscape, water, object, and where it sits.
3. Return to the target reference. Re-read or rewrite it; it is the thread back to the target.
4. Touch the spot on your sketch. Pen on the object, ask one simple question: “What is this made of?”
5. Re-enter through the feeling. Recall the sensation you had — cold, wet, heavy — and let the image return through it.
6. Approach, then enter. Move closer from the landscape, observe, probe, and only then go in.
7. If it is gone, take a break. Declare a break, rest a minute, and restart from the target reference. Forcing it produces imagination.

The Part 4 exercise — looking at an object, looking away, and rebuilding it in all senses — trains exactly this skill.

Readiness checklist before starting a protocol:

• Mental vacancy held for about 10 minutes
• Objects described in all five senses without naming them
• Overlay list built from the soul mirrors
• Opening and closing routines practiced until automatic
• Reality-check habit established, with a dream journal
• Practice log kept for at least several weeks

My practice: choosing a protocol and keeping the foundation

Starting out: I begin with simple blind photo targets and a light structure — cool-down, raw impressions in words, sketches, overlay check, summary, ideogram at the end, feedback. A full protocol like CRV I learn from its own trained sources, not from fragments.

Keeping Bardon alongside RV: RV doesn’t replace the training; it rests on it. My daily minimum:

• 10 minutes of emptiness of thought
• One sense or transfer exercise
• A few minutes of soul-mirror review, morning and evening

My rhythm: no more than one session a day while starting, and never when tired or upset. If session quality drops for a week, I go back to the foundation exercises for a while.

Part 10 — Feedback and verification

Only blind, checkable targets show whether you are perceiving or imagining.

• Targets chosen by someone else: photos in sealed envelopes, or a random-target pool.
• Compare session notes to the target only after the session is complete.
• Score each session and log it; look at trends over months, not single hits.

During a session you can also apply Bardon’s own test (Part 8): after an impression, imagine its opposite. If the opposite comes just as easily, mark the impression as likely imagination.

My practice: scoring

Before the reveal:

1. List my raw descriptors (colors, textures, shapes, sounds, sensations).
2. List my interpretations separately (what I think it is).
3. Mark impressions that match my overlay list.

After the reveal:

• Mark each raw descriptor: hit, partial, or miss.
• Score: hits plus half the partials, divided by the number of descriptors.
• Score the interpretations on their own, so a wrong guess doesn’t hide good raw data.
• Note which overlay items appeared, and add new ones to my list.

I review totals monthly. Single hits mean little; trends over months mean a lot.

My practice: setting up targets alone

• Friend-made pool: a friend collects photos, puts each in a sealed envelope with a random number written outside, and keeps the list. I pick a number, do the session, then open it.
• Random selection: I pick from the pool with a random number generator, so I can’t choose.
• Online target pools and practice apps, where targets are revealed only after I submit.
• The rule: I never see the target until my session is written and closed.

Part 11 — Safety and closing

Don’t skip steps; Bardon’s warnings about rushing apply fully here.

Bardon’s warning on forced clairvoyance (IIH Step IX): clairvoyance forced by fixation (crystal, a point, a shiny surface), incense or drugs, instead of developed through mental and astral maturity, is one-sided and pathological. He links it to illnesses such as weak eyes and nervous disorders. Develop perception through the full training, not shortcuts.

Signs to pause practice:

• Disturbed sleep or frequent sleep paralysis
• Feelings of unreality or being “not fully back”
• Fear or fascination that pulls you into practice against your will
• Neglect of ordinary life, work or relationships

If these persist, stop practice and talk to a trusted person or a doctor.

Bardon’s own warnings that guide me

• Master each step before moving on (IIH Step I): passing to the next stage without mastering the previous one is useless.
• Haste harms later (IIH Step X): any rushing in development is useless and later has a detrimental effect; gaps make the higher work impossible.
• Don’t practice when tired (IIH Steps I–III): if fatigue sets in, stop and practice at a fresher time; don’t fall asleep during exercises.
• Drowsiness in mental wandering (IIH Step VIII): resist it actively; it comes from the loosened bond between the bodies.
• Pure thinking (IIH Step VIII): a trained imagination creates strongly animated images, so I keep my thoughts noble and transform my passions.
• Forced clairvoyance (IIH Step IX): shortcuts through fixation, incense or drugs make perception one-sided and unhealthy.
• Don’t look into my own future (IIH Step IX): Bardon warns that seeing one’s own future out of curiosity robs one of free will. I don’t use RV on my own future.
• Silence (IIH Step III): “silence is power” — one of Bardon’s four pillars. I share the method, but I keep the depth of my own experiences to myself where it serves me.

Protection

• The Protection tones in my Tone Player. After a disturbing session, a few minutes of listening with headphones brought me back to a calm, happy state. I use it as part of my closing routine (Part 6), together with grounding and Bardon’s water practice.

Appendix — Practice log and reading list

Practice log

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Reading list

Franz Bardon:

• Frabato: Ein Okkulter Roman; Frabato the Magician (1971)
• Der Weg zum Wahren Adepten (1956); Initiation into Hermetics (1962) 
• Die Praxis der Magischen Evokation (1956); The Practice of Magical Evocation (1967)
• Der Schlüssel zur wahren Quabbalah (1957); Key to the True Qabbalah (1971)

Ingo Swann:

• Natural ESP and his CRV materials; Psychic Literacy and Psychic Sexuality for his views on psychic networks and the group mind

Robert Monroe:

• Journeys Out of the Body, for comparison