One of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Egypt's Great Pyramid is thought
by Egyptologists to have been built by the pharaoh Cheops (Khufu), a 4th Dynasty ruler of Egypt,
somewhere between 2589-2566 BC. It is situated on a plateau on the
edge of the desert about five miles west of Giza, and marks the
zenith of pyramid-building in respect of both size and quality. It
has been estimated that in its original complete condition the
pyramid contained about 2,300,000 separate blocks, each averaging
around two and a half tons in weight andreaching a maximum of
fifteen tons. It has been established that the original
measurements of the base of the great Egyptian monument were north,
755.43 feet; south, 756.08 feet; east, 755.88 feet; west, 755.77
feet. When complete the pyramid rose to a height of 481.4 feet, the
top 31 feet of which are now missing.
Ancient Egyptian monuments,
especially the Great Sphinx and the Great Pyramid, have a mystery
and a fascination that fuel not only the imagination, but
controversy too. Connections with Atlantis, aliens, and ancient
astrology have all been enthusiastically suggested in numerous books
and even more enthusiastically denied out of hand by Egyptologists
in others. One of the first people in the modern era to take an
active interest in the mystical side of ancient Egypt and its
monuments was English journalist Paul Brunton.
Paul Brunton
in Egypt
Brunton (1898-1981) was a British philosopher,
mystic, and traveler who left a successful journalistic career to
pursue the his own spiritual quest, living among yogis, mystics, and
holy men, and studying various Eastern and Western esoteric
teachings. In his book A Search in Secret Egypt, he describes
how, when travelling in Egypt in the 1930s he resolved to spend a
night alone in the King's Chamber inside the Great Pyramid.
'To sit, awake and alert, for twelve hours
in the King's Chamber, while the slow darkness moved across the
African world', as he put it. Apparently, Napoleon, when conquering
Egypt in the 1790s, had also spent a night alone inside the
chamber.
However, Brunton immediately met with problems
when asking for permission from the Egyptian government, who owned
the Great Pyramid. After being sent back and forth between the
Egyptian Department of Antiquities and the Police Department he
finally secured written permission for his eccentric request from
the Commandant of the Cairo City Police.
So, early one evening he reported to the Mena
Police station, signed a book which made the police solely
responsible for his safety until the following day, and was led to
the Pyramid by a police constable, who gave instructions to the
armed guard outside the building. Brunton was then locked inside the
structure with an iron grill. He would be one of the last to get
permission to spend the night inside Egypt's most famous
monument.
Astral Projection
inside the Great Pyramid
Once inside Brunton made his way slowly through
the galleries to the King's Chamber. The Chamber is constructed
entirely of granite, and measures 34 feet 4 inches from east to
west, 17 feet 2 inches from north to south, and is 19 feet 1 inch in
height. The only object inside the King's Chamber is a lidless
rectangular granite sarcophagus, situated next to the west wall of
the chamber and aligned north-south. This once perhaps contained the
king's body enclosed within an inner coffin of wood. Brunton sat by
this granite coffer and put out his light. He had fasted for three
days before the experience to make himself more receptive to
whatever he might encounter during his vigil. He waited in the total
silence and darkness, as remote from the outside world as if he were
on the moon.
Hours passed slowly by and in the increasing
cold of the chamber Bruton began to feel that there were hostile
forces around him, eerie shadows crowded in on him from all sides
and a dark apparition advanced menacingly towards him. All the
legends of evil ghosts haunting the areas around the pyramids told
to him by Arab villagers came to his mind. Soon there was a circle
of antagonistic beings surrounding him, 'monstrous elemental
creations, evil horrors of the underworld' as he described
them. Despite being seized by panic Brunton resisted the
temptation to turn on the flashlight and decided to see it through.
It was this determination that saved him. The elementals disappeared
quite suddenly, and all was dark and quiet again. Soon
afterwards phantoms of a different aspect appeared - benevolent
beings in the ceremonial dress of ancient Egyptian high priests. The
ancient apparitions led him through secret passages within the
Pyramid to a Hall of Learning, equating to a mystical journey within
the mind.
This mystical experience also involved an astral
projection. Brunton describes feeling paralyzed, his own spirit
leaving his physical body and going to the 'regions beyond death'.
He felt as if he were passing upwards through a narrow hole (also
described in shamanic tradition) and becoming a pure mental being
with a sense of existence many times more vivid than when in his
physical body. He described gazing down on his prone lifeless form
and noted a train of faint silvery light projecting itself from his
spiritual to his physical body. This 'cord' is mentioned by many
people who have experienced astral projection. He was given various
information by his ancient guides, including the fact that the
Pyramid was built in the time of Atlantis, and that the Pyramid's
secret chambers and ancient records were all contained within
himself.
He returned to normal consciousness quite
suddenly, convinced that he had undergone some kind of initiation
ceremony. Interestingly enough, it was the
belief of occultists like Madame Blavatsky that priests of the
Egyptian Mysteries used the Great Pyramid to initiate candidates
into the experience of astral projection and the truth of life after
death.
This experience of Paul Brunton in the Great
Pyramid is of course impossible to prove or quantify, and of no
value to Egyptologists. But perhaps, on that strange night in the
King's Chamber all those years ago, Paul Brunton came closer
to finding the true secret of the Great Pyramid than
anyone.
Sources & Further
Reading
Brunton, Paul. A Search in Secret
Egypt. London, Rider. 1969.
David, Rosalie. Religion and Magic in
Ancient Egypt. London, Penguin Books. 2002, pp102,
394.
Edwards, I.E.S. The Pyramids of Egypt.
London, Penguin Books. 1993 (revised edn.)
Gordon, S. The Paranormal. An
Illustrated Encyclopedia. London, Headline, 1992,
pp270-275.
© Copyright 2005 by
Brian A. Haughton. All Rights Reserved.
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