Crookall, Robert (18901981)
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
