I think with the right training from a child more is possible then what we now have.
i totally agree, when you are a child i think you are open to so much more than as an adult, like a blank canvas, the older you get, the more cluttered it becomes. i think on a whole this is down to society & mankind though, and until the mindset of the masses changes, we won't push the limits of what the mind can do because we have so many other things that take priority, like work, food, etc.
i do however honestly feel that a lot of the 'spiritual/paranormal' experiences people say they percieve on the outside are actually coming from within, i.e. projecting fantasies, allowing minds to drift idley, it's possible to go so deep into your imagination for just a second that you have to readjust your vision to the real world when you snap back in, or check the time because you don't know how long you were gone... i think some people want to believe some things so much that they convince themselves it happened, when it really only happened in their head.
i don't doubt that the mind appears to be inexplicably powerful, but who are we to guage what power is? the mind may well just be a giant illusion and we're all the decieved.
i do however strongly believe that there is another world wound into ours, existing right at the edge of what our senses allow us to percieve, i would bet my life that it is there, and though i do question a lot of what people say, i think that is the only way to understand.
speaking of out of body experiences... i regularly go to bed at night and in my dreams see myself from the outside, as an outsider looking in, be it just in motion doing things, i have come across my dead body in more settings that i could count, i see myself in the mirror, i creep up on myself in my own bed, or just look down on me, BUT these are dreams, aren't they? it can happen when i'm asleep dreaming or just day dreaming, however it is not something i can bring on by thinking about it, if i could i would question whether i was imagining it on purpose, but because it occurs naturally i don't have to, i think it is mostly just my mind organising my thoughts, even though it seemed to be something else.
anyways.