Astral Projection

What is astral projection?

People call it many things like a dream body, astral body, energy body, Buddhist light body, Taoist diamond body, Egyptian ka, Tantric subtle body, Hindu body of bliss or in Christianity, the experience of different heavens. The subtle body is a universal human experience, and apparently part of our standard human design like toenails and kidneys. It is this subtle body that projects astrally and is active during unconscious and lucid dreaming; astral projection and dreaming often go hand-in-hand as “out-of-body” experiences, or OBEs.

The subtle body, when cultivated, can survive the physical body as a matrix for consciousness, and astral projection and lucid dreaming are part of spiritual training paths for subtle body cultivation.

Is astral projection real?

Practitioners of astral travel insist that the experience must be real because it seems so vivid, and because some of the experiences are similar, even for people from different cultures. But it is not surprising that many people who have astral projected have similar experiences, after all, that is what the term "guided imagery" is: when an authority tells another what they should expect from the experience.

It may be a profound experience, but the fundamental problem is that there is really no way to scientifically measure whether or not a person's spirit leaves or enters the body. The simplest and best explanation for out-of-body experiences is that the person is merely fantasizing and dreaming. Because there is no scientific evidence that consciousness can exist outside of the brain, astral projection is rejected by scientists.

Why has astral projection not been proven scientifically? Some claim it is because mainstream scientists are closed-minded and refuse to even look at evidence that does not fit their narrow worldview. However, in science those who disprove dominant theories are rewarded, not punished. Proving the existence of psychic powers, astral projection or alternative dimensions would earn the dissenting scientists a place in the history books, if not a Nobel Prize.

Scientifically testing the validity of astral travel should be quite simple; for example, you might hide ten unknown objects at different locations and then ask a person to project their consciousness to each place and describe exactly what is there. Either the descriptions match or they do not.

According to researcher Susan Blackmore, author of "Beyond the Body: An Investigation of Out-of-the-Body Experiences," people who experience astral travel "have been found to score higher on measures of hypnotizability and, in several surveys, on measures of absorption, [a] measure of a person's ability to pay complete attention to something and to become immersed in it, even if it is not real, like a film, play, or imagined event." Out-of-body experiencers are more imaginative, suggestible, and fantasy-prone than average, though have low levels of drug and alcohol use, and no obvious signs of psychopathology or mental illness.

In 2021, the Medical Science journal Cureus published a paper entitled "Astral Projection: A Strange Out-of-Body Experience in Dissociative Disorder" which examined a purported case of Astral Projection in a 15 yr-old boy. The paper detailed the many possible causes of out of body experiences, stating: "The literature on the cause of OBE mainly entails various neurological conditions like epileptic seizures and migraine, deficient visual, vestibular, and multisensory processing, near-death experiences, and psychedelic drug use.

These peculiar experiences have been described as secondary to the psychopathology of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, personality disorders, depersonalization, anxiety, dissociative disorders, and depression". When discussing the particular case the paper was examining, the authors stated that the patient had frequently ran away from home, as well as having "shown decreased social interest, irritability, and persistent sadness of mood for the past two to three months" according to the report.

Having ran away, the patient would often assume the identity of an 18 year-old electrician and it was during one such event that he had what appeared to be an out of body experience. They concluded that due to his circumstances the patient was mostly likely in a dissociative state and that in this case: "astral projection can be construed as a part of the dissociative experience"

Yet there are other possible causes of out-of-body experiences and astral projection. In 2017, a study reported on by The Atlantic analysed some 210 patients who suffered with vestibular disorders. The Vestibular system within the inner ear is responsible for providing the body with its sense of balance and issues relating to this system can result in a sense of floating. Questioning the patients, it was discovered that some 14% reported out of body experiences compared to the 5% without any form of vestibular issues.

We need not resort to such artificial tests, since the real world provides countless opportunities for astral projection to be demonstrated beyond any doubt.

Out of Body Experiences and Astral Projection

An OBE can be intentional or involuntary, as with near-death experiences, when people report finding themselves floating near the ceiling of their hospital rooms, perhaps observing medical staff attempting to revive them. Trauma, illness, or water and food deprivation, as with Native American vision quests, can trigger OBEs. Lucid dream states are opportunities for intentional OBEs. They may be spontaneous, and astral projection a conscious choice, though some would argue otherwise.

Essentially, the OBE begins with an experience of leaving the body and consciously observing it from a detached perspective. With practice and lucidity, awareness can be directed to locations or activities like flight. If you have had vivid dreams of flying, you may have had an OBE. Some say that we have regular OBEs during sleep, often hovering a few inches over our physical bodies.

Neuroscientists are puzzled, while the experience is no longer dismissed by medical professionals, science holds the view that OBEs involve neurological or brain dysfunction. After his own experience, Dr. Raymond Moody MD became interested in near death OBEs, and for decades interviewed hundreds of experiencers and collected data, defining common qualities of OBEs. Moody identified nine common elements of a near-death OBE, some experiencing all, some, or only two or three.

Benefits of an OBE

The tantrics mastered lucid OBEs and dream states to overcome the fear of death by learning that we are not our bodies. They also discovered that the physical body can experience deep healing during OBEs, as the mind can be tough on the body. Rather than losing time to practice meditation during sleep, yogis continued working through the night while the body rested.

Some athletes learn lucid dreaming to practice and visualize their game. By working in a dream or out-of-body, not only do they visualize, they have a felt sense of their practice, and can actually acquire the muscle memory for winning habits. Others benefit from the opportunity to explore past lives as well as accelerated personal development.

Astral Projection Methods

There are literally dozens of methods to learn conscious OBE and astral projection. There are two approaches; one is to keep the mind awake while the body falls asleep. It is tricky, as the mind wants to do what the body is doing. The goal is to take the body into deeper and deeper states of relaxation without drifting into unconsciousness. Yoga Nidra is one method. Once the body enters the sleep state, practitioners simply roll out of their physical form.

Ancient yogis would tie two frogs together before sleep. Once tied, the frogs would continuously croak. A yogi would then use the sound to anchor awareness as the body drifted into sleep, and either leave the body, or enter lucid dream states. If, during a dream, the yogi could no longer hear the frogs, he/she knew lucidity had been lost, and could wake again within the dream. One could use the same method with sound instead of the frogs.

How to Astral Project/Travel

Monroe Institute Steps

Bob Monroe, founder of the leading research organization in the field of human consciousness called The Monroe Institute, penned a body of work titled "Journeys Out of the Body" in 1971 in which he provides a detailed outline for how to astrally project one’s self in seven steps:

Step 1: Relax, both physically and mentally.

Step 2: Enter a hypnagogic state, or half-sleep.

Step 3: Deepen the state by prioritizing mental sensation over physical sensation.

Step 4: Pay attention to the presence of vibration in your environment, which becomes apparent in a state of deep attention.

Step 5: Incur the vibration in your physical body, and relax into its presence. The purpose of this is to gently jiggle the subtle body out of the physical body.

Step 6: Focus your thoughts on leaving the limbs and the torso, and try to do so one at a time.

Step 7: Known as “lifting out,” focus on effortlessly drifting out of your physical body.

The Astral Projection Rope Technique

From the work of Robert Bruce, founder of the Astral Dynamics movement, the rope technique is regarded one of the most accessible astral projection methods.

Step 1: Relax the physical body by visualizing each muscle.

Step 2: From your space of relaxation, enter a vibrational states; this should feel like an amplified version of a cell phone’s vibration mode pulsations coursing through the body.

Step 3: Imagine a rope hanging above you.

Step 4: Using the astral, or subtle, body, attempt to hold on to the rope with both hands. The physical body remains completely relaxed.

Step 5: Begin to climb the rope, hand over hand, all the while visualizing reaching the ceiling above you.

Step 6: Once you are aware of your full exit of the physical body, you are able to explore the astral plane.

A Nootropic Approach

Nicotine has specific actions on brain chemistry. Considered a cognitive enhancer, nicotine is gaining fans among biochemical brain hackers.

Many, using nicotine patches to quit smoking, have inadvertently discovered what happens when they forget to remove a patch before sleep. Nicotine can induce hyper-realistic, but bizarre dreams that are so outrageous that many simply say to themselves, “Omg. This MUST be a dream. It’s too nuts to be anything else.” And voila, lucidity is attained. This is not an endorsement of the method, as many report nightmares when using nicotine.

Lucid Dreaming With Habit and Repetition

We attain lucidity the instant we recognize we are in a dream state. Some people train by asking themselves, several times a day for days or weeks, “Is this a dream?” The question eventually gets stuck and are hard to unstick.

The premise is that the question begins to habitually repeat by itself, and that eventually the mind will ask during a dream. When the dreamer answers, “Why yes, this IS a dream!” they achieved lucidity.

The best opportunities for becoming lucid within a dream are during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. This stage happens in the first two hours after we fall asleep and before we wake up. By waking and going back to sleep during the night we increase REM sleep time.

Some use the sleep/wake method by setting interval alarms during the night, getting up for a few minutes, and going back to sleep with an intention of keeping the mind awake. If awakened during a dream, immediately go back to sleep; if possible, re-enter the dream with lucidity.