What would you do with the power?

Assuming each individual does have the ability to project their conciousness, the question would become - Now that you know you have the ability to astrally project your conciousness and percieve things beyond 'normal senses', what will you do with that ability?

Furthermore, assuming that you yourself _have_ projected your conciousness here - that this is indeed how you arrived here for that very purpose of 'exploration' (and thereby empowerment through knowledge), then what would you do with that knowledge? The answer would be that you would BE AWARE. Of your real self and of your 'purpose'.

The generic answer being that one would make an honest attempt to alter their reality (or 'change the world') into something more in alignment with what they would percieve to be its proper state. This of course could include a literal cornucopia of alterations on the realm.

Would one be responsible enough to use their power at all?

Well I would of course have my list - the top of it including ending sex/slave trade of people. (puting an end to the forced trade of sex through forms of slavery) Then there would be ending kidnappings, ending child abuse, etc. . . .

But here comes the loop, because by doing any of these things I presumably wouldn't actually know that I wouldn't be adversly effecting other things which lie outside my scope of understanding. How would I know that I wouldn't be altering something on another level - a level to which I am presently oblivious - thereby altering things that I have 'no business' changing?

. . . when you view from this angle it becomes quite the conundrum.

Ahh yea I umm, ok hmm. First I would say yes, one could actually do that - put an end to the sex trade, or change the world, through astral projection. Even though that's not even what I meant initially. (So I guess I cheated in answering the question because what I meant was to give myself unlimited power to change the world which was not exactly the question.)

Before I read your next paragraph about recon missions I was going to reply that one would not need to physically manipulate anything but only to gather information. Because projecting gives you access to information that would not otherwise be available. So what I was going to propose would be exactly what you've written:

This alone could possibly grant you more power to change your world than physical manipulation might - as they say it is all about informaion, lack thereof or control thereof.

I don't even have to think about it.  If I could astral travel I'd go back to "the fall" and see what the f*ck happened to us.  If we knew those details, it would simplify so much.

There's no knowledge, no skills, no magic wand to stop the world's ills.  We can't change anything others do, but we can change ourselves.  When we change ourselves, the whole world transforms.  The way to heal others is to heal ourselves, and the way out is to go within.

Pictus,

Not yet. I'll make that my first recon mission!

BTW, thanks for the link... pretty pictures!

Aren't you worried about being detected? Apparently they have these devices in place. Some even say they can trap the essence of the astral-traveller...perhaps sending back a "walk-in" to take your place for intelligence gathering. I would be extremely careful before scouting out such places, but then again, the threat to yourself could be overblown...nothing more than propaganda. I guess you'd find out.