Astral Projection or Astral Travel - Out-Of-Body Experience (OBE)

Astral Projection or Astral Travel - Out-Of-Body Experience (OBE) 

Astral Projection or Astral Travel, is an interpretation of Out-of-Body Experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an "Astral Body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it. Astral Projection or Travel denotes the Astral Body leaving the physical body to travel in the Astral Plane. 

Astral Projection or Astral Travel is an out-of-body experience achieved either awake or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation. People who say they experience astral projection often say that their spirit or astral body has left their physical body and moves in another dimension known as the spirit world or astral plane. The concept of astral projection has been around and practiced for thousands of years, dating back to ancient China. It is currently often associated with the New Age movement.
The idea of Astral Travel is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife in which the Consciousness or Soul's journey or "Ascent" is described in such terms as "an Out-of Body Experience, wherein the Spiritual Traveller leaves the physical body and travels in his/herSubtle Body or Dream Body or Astral Body into Higher Realms". 

It is therefore associated with Near Death Experiences and is also frequently reported as spontaneously experienced in association with sleep and dreams, illness, surgical operations, drug experiences, sleep paralysis and forms of meditation. 

It is sometimes attempted out of curiosity, or may be believed to be necessary to, or the result of, some forms of spiritual practice. It may involve "travel to higher realms" called astral planes but is commonly used to describe any sensation of being "out of the body" in the everyday world, even seeing one's body from outside or above. It may be reported in the form of an apparitional experience, a supposed encounter with a doppelgänger, some living person also seen somewhere else at the same time. 

Through the 1960s and 1970s, surveys reported percentages ranging from 8 percent to as many as 50 percent (in certain groups) of respondents who state they had such an experience. The subjective nature of the experience permits explanations that do not rely on the existence of an "astral" body and plane. 

The theme is treated in anthropological or ethnographic literature on witchcraft and shamanism, in classical philosophy and in various myths and religious scriptures. 

According to classical, medieval and renaissance Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and later Theosophist and Rosicrucian thought, the Astral Body is an intermediate body of light linking the rational soul to the physical body while the astral plane is an intermediate world of light between Heaven and Earth, composed of the spheres of the planets and stars. These Astral Spheres were held to be populated by Angels, Demons and Spirits. 

The Subtle Bodies, and their associated planes of existence, form an essential part of the Esoteric Systems that deal with Astral phenomena. In the neo-platonism of Plotinus, for example, the individual is a microcosm ("small world") of the universe (the macrocosm or "great world"). "The rational soul...is akin to the great Soul of the World" while "the material universe, like the body, is made as a faded image of the Intelligible". Each succeeding plane of manifestation is causal to the next, a world-view called emanationism; "from the One proceeds Intellect, from Intellect Soul, and from Soul - in its lower phase, or Nature - the material universe". 

Often these bodies and their planes of existence are depicted as a series of concentric circles or nested spheres, with a separate body traversing each realm. The idea of the astral figured prominently in the work of the nineteenth-century French occultist Eliphas Levi, whence it was adopted and developed further by Theosophy, and used afterwards by other esoteric movements. 

There are 5 Subtle Bodies in Astral Projection the conscious mind leaves the physical body and moves into the Astral Body to experience. In astral projection you remain attached to your physical body by a 'silver umbilical type cord'. Some people are able to see the cord when astral projecting. To astral project, as with all out-of-body experiences, one must feel totally relaxed, clothing fitting comfortable, reclining is best. Often a comforter is best over the body as the physical body sometimes gets cold when you travel out. 

Techniques for experiencing an OBE (Out of Body Experience) Astral Projection. 

You should know that there are hundreds if not thousands of different techniques to get your soul out of body. One technique that works for some people, may not work for others. It is recommended that you try one for little while, and move on to a different one if you don’t succeed. 

The Rope Technique: This technique has been formulated by Robert Bruce and is one of the most effective techniques around. A key ingredient to this projection technique is an invisible, imaginary ROPE hanging from your ceiling. This ROPE will be used to exert dynamic pressure at a single point on your astral body to force its separation from the physical. 

Reach out with your imaginary HANDS and pull yourself, hand over hand, up the strong, invisible, imaginary ROPE hanging above you. You will feel a slight dizzy sensation inside you as you do this. This feeling of vertigo will intensify the more you pull on the rope. 

The 7 Step’s Rope Technique For Astral Projection 

• Step 1: Relax: Relax your mind and body. You may choose to meditate or perform a series of very deep breaths. In and out, always very slowly. Make sure you inhale deeply and that your breaths are not shallow.
• Step 2: Get Into a Hypnotic State: After you feel fully relaxed, you need to enter a hypnotic state where your mind is at the edge of sleep and no further. Now lie down and focus on an object. Stare at it until you can visualize it perfectly even with your eyes closed.
• Step 3: Get Into a Deeper State Of Relaxation: Now it’s time to enter a deeper state of relaxation. Your eyes are still closed and you are still visualizing your chosen object. But now you look around you with your eyes closed. Gaze into the darkness. Once they disappear you’ve entered a deeper state of relaxation. You will be so relaxed that you are no longer aware of your physical body. Once you reach this level, it’s time for step 4.
• Step 4: Enter a State Of Vibration: This is the most vital step and it’s when you enter into a state of vibration. This state may take longer if you are new to this. When you do begin to feel the vibrations, your astral body has begun to leave your physical body. Just acknowledge this and feel the vibrations.
• Step 5: Control the Vibrations: Focus on the vibrations as they travel throughout your body. Using your willpower, control them with your mind. As you feel them, try to control the frequency of the waves as well as stopping and starting them. Once you master changing the frequency and you are sure that you can induce them when needed, you’re ready for step 6.
• Step 6: Imagine The Rope: Here is where you will exert your control and willpower. Imagining that there is a long rope hanging right above you. Without opening your eyes or moving your physical body, visualize yourself reaching up towards the rope. Once you grab a hold of the rope, bring your hand back into your physical body, slow down the vibrations, and end the session. After you become fully alert and awakened, move on to step 7.
• Step 7: Rinse and Repeat – Now Let’s Do The Whole Body: Now that you’ve done a partial separation you’re ready to try the whole body. Repeat the previous 6 steps but this time, don’t stop at just one hand. Imagine your other hand coming out of your physical body and reaching for the rope. Slowly place hand over hand on the rope as if you were pulling yourself up. 

The Monroe Technique: Dr Robert Monroe, one of the foremost authorities on Astral Projection devised this method. You have to first relax your body. This is a very important step. 

Then try to go to sleep, but don’t fall asleep. Maintain your awareness between sleep and wakefulness. This is known as the hypnagogic state. Then deepen this hypnagogic state and start to clear your mind of unwanted thoughts. Simply look through your closed eyelids at the blackness in front of you. 

Then you must enter an even deeper state of relaxation. The next step is to induce vibrations throughout your body and intensify them. These vibrations have to be controlled and intensified further. This is the moment when the Astral body will separate from the Physical body. You then simply have to “roll-over” and you will find yourself out of your body. 

OBE From Lucid Dreams: Lucid dreams are dreams in which the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming. In a Lucid Dream a person is already “out” of his body. 

In order to achieve Astral Projection from Lucid Dreams, you have to first become obsessed with OBEs and you must really DESIRE it. You must read everything you can about it. You must think about it every free moment that you have. 

Displaced-Awareness Technique: Close your eyes and get into your usual trance-state. Try to sense the entire room, at once. Feel yourself just above your shoulders and seeing all around. Be very passive about what is going on. 

Then imagine that your Astral Body is slowly rotating by 180 degrees. Once you finish your mental rotation, your astral head should be where your physical feet are, and your astral feet would be where your physical head is! With this firmly in your mind, try visualizing the room from this new direction. 

The Jump Technique: The Jump Technique, when done well, can wake up anyone in their dreams and make them Lucid. However, it does need to be done well. 

We repeatedly need to ask ourselves during the day whether we are in a dream or not. It is important that we do this not just for the sake of asking ourselves the question, but because we really want to know where we are. We should really doubt that we are in the Physical. So in order to prove where we are, we jump as if we were going to fly. If we are in the Physical, we will land back on the ground. But during a dream, when we jump, we will defy gravity and float. 

When this is done for a few days, you will soon find yourself in a dream in which you are jumping to check whether you are in a dream or not. As soon as you jump, you will find yourself floating, thus triggering a Lucid Dream and an OOBE. 

Muldoons Thirst Technique: This is not one of the most pleasant or effective methods designed by Sylvan Muldoon. 

In order to use this technique, you must refrain from drinking for some hours before going to bed. Throughout the day increase your thirst by every means you can. Keep a glass of water in front of you and stare into it, imagining drinking, but not allowing yourself to do so! 

The Stretch Out Technique: Lie down, shut your eyes and relax your body. Imagine your feet stretching out and becoming longer by just an inch or so. Once you have this picture in your mind, let your feet go back to normal. Do the same with his head, stretching it out an inch beyond its normal position. Then, get it back to normal. Then alternate all between head and feet, gradually increasing the distance until you can stretch out both your feet and head to about two feet or more. At this stage imagine stretching out both at once. This exercise will make you feel dizzy and often start the vibrations. 

After some practice, you will experience floating sensations and you can then tell yourself to rise up towards the ceiling. You are out! 

The Hammock Technique: Visualize yourself lying in a bright white hammock, stationed between two palm trees on a secluded beach. Imagine the feeling of swaying in the wind, and recreate that feeling now as you visualize yourself swaying from side to side in the hammock. Repeat this visualization for as long as it takes to bring forth the vibrations, and when you feel the vibrations, just “roll-out” of your body. 

The Bible contains mentions of Astral Projection

Carrington, Muldoon, Peterson, and Williams claim that the Subtle Body is attached to the physical body by means of a psychic silver cord. The final chapter of the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes is often cited in this respect: "Before the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be shattered at the fountain, or the wheel be broken at the cistern." Scherman, however, contends that the context points to this being merely a metaphor, comparing the body to a machine, with the silver cord referring to the spine. 

Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians is more generally agreed to refer to the astral planes; "I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows) such a one caught up to the third heaven..." This statement gave rise to the Visio Pauli, a tract that offers a vision of heaven and hell, a forerunner of visions attributed to Adomnan and Tnugdalus as well as of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Astral Projection in Islamic Mysticism 

Many sects and offshoots belonging to Islamic mysticism (who practices magic) interpret Muhammad's night ascent—the Isra and Mi'raj—to be an out of body experience through nonphysical environments, unlike the Sunni and Shia Muslims. In view of the references from the Qur'an and Hadith, the Sunni and Shia Muslims reject this saying the Isra and Mi'raj, the night journey – mentioned in the Qur'an and Hadith was physical yet spiritual. He was taken to the Masjid Al Aqsa, where he performed prayer leading all previous prophets and then taken to the heavens in a journey. The mystics claim Muhammad was transported to Jerusalem and onward to seven heavens, even though "the apostle's body remained where it was. The magic practicing is forbidden in Islam and the witches are punished by death penalty." 

Astral Projection in Ancient Egypt 

Similar concepts of soul travel appear in various other religious traditions, for example ancient Egyptian teachings present the soul as having the ability to hover outside the physical body in the ka, or subtle body. 

Astral Projection in China 

Taoist alchemical practice involves creation of an energy body by breathing meditations, drawing energy into a 'pearl' that is then "circulated". "Xiangzi with a drum as his pillow fell fast asleep, snoring and motionless. His primordial spirit, however, went straight into the banquet room and said, "My lords, here I am again". When Tuizhi walked ... with the officials to take a look, there really was a Daoist sleeping on the ground and snoring like thunder. Yet inside, in the side room, there was another Daoist beating a fisher drum and singing Daoist songs. The officials all said, “Although there are two different people, their faces and clothes are exactly alike. Clearly he is a divine immortal who can divide his body and appear in several places at once. ..." ... At that moment, the Daoist in the side room came walking out, and the Daoist sleeping on the ground woke up. The two merged into one." 

Astral Projection in India 

Similar ideas such as the Lin'ga S'ari-ra are found in ancient Hindu scriptures such as the YogaVashishta-Maharamayana of Valmiki. Modern Indians who have vouched for astral projection include Paramahansa Yogananda who witnessed Swami Pranabananda doing a miracle through a possible astral projection and Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) who practiced it himself. 

The Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba described one's use of astral projection: 

In the advancing stages leading to the beginning of the path, the aspirant becomes spiritually prepared for being entrusted with free use of the forces of the inner world of the astral bodies. He may then undertake astral journeys in his astral body, leaving the physical body in sleep or wakefulness. The astral journeys that are taken unconsciously are much less important than those undertaken with full consciousness and as a result of deliberate volition. This implies conscious use of the astral body. Conscious separation of the astral body from the outer vehicle of the gross body has its own value in making the soul feel its distinction from the gross body and in arriving at fuller control of the gross body. One can, at will, put on and take off the external gross body as if it were a cloak, and use the astral body for experiencing the inner world of the astral and for undertaking journeys through it, if and when necessary....The ability to undertake astral journeys therefore involves considerable expansion of one’s scope for experience. It brings opportunities for promoting one’s own spiritual advancement, which begins with the involution of consciousness. 

The Yogic tradition is an elaborate system of meditation and astral projection and most other Chino-Tibetan systems are derived therefrom through Buddhist channels. Astral projection is one of the Siddhis considered achievable by yoga practitioners through self-disciplined practice. 

Astral Projection in Japan 

In Japanese mythology, an ikiryō (生霊?) (also read shōryō, seirei, or ikisudama) is a manifestation of the soul of a living person separately from their body.Traditionally, if someone holds a sufficient grudge against another person, it is believed that a part or the whole of their soul can temporarily leave their body and appear before the target of their hate in order to curse or otherwise harm them, similar to an evil eye. Souls are also believed to leave a living body when the body is extremely sick or comatose; such ikiryō are not malevolent.

Astral Projection in Inuit 

In some Inuit groups, people with special capabilities are said to travel to (mythological) remote places, and report their experiences and things important to their fellows or the entire community; how to stop bad luck in hunting, cure a sick person etc., things unavailable to people with normal capabilities. 

Astral Projection in Amazon 

The yaskomo of the Waiwai is believed to be able to perform a "soul flight" that can serve several functions such as healing, flying to the sky to consult cosmological beings (the moon or the brother of the moon) to get a name for a new-born baby, flying to the cave of peccaries' mountains to ask the father of peccaries for abundance of game or flying deep down in a river to get the help of other beings.

Astral and Etheric

The expression "Astral Projection" came to be used in two different ways. For the Golden Dawn and some Theosophists it retained the classical and medieval philosophers' meaning of journeying to other worlds, heavens, hells, the astrological spheres and other imaginal landscapes, but outside these circles the term was increasingly applied to non-physical travel around the physical world. 

Though this usage continues to be widespread, the term, "Etheric Travel", used by some later Theosophists, offers a useful distinction. Some experients say they visit different times and/or places: "etheric", then, is used to represent the sense of being "out of the body" in the physical world, whereas "astral" may connote some alteration in time-perception. Robert Monroe describes the former type of projection as "Locale I" or the "Here-Now", involving people and places that actually exist: Robert Bruce calls it the "Real Time Zone" (RTZ) and describes it as the non-physical dimension-level closest to the physical. This etheric body is usually, though not always, invisible but is often perceived by the experient as connected to the physical body during separation by a “silver cord”. Some link "falling" dreams with projection. 

According to Max Heindel, the etheric "double" serves as a medium between the astral and physical realms. In his system the ether, also called prana, is the "vital force" that empowers the physical forms to change. From his descriptions it can be inferred that, to him, when one views the physical during an out-of-body experience, one is not technically "in" the astral realm at all. 

Other experients may describe a domain that has no parallel to any known physical setting. Environments may be populated or unpopulated, artificial, natural or abstract, and the experience may be beatific, horrific or neutral. A common Theosophical belief is that one may access a compendium of Mystical knowledge called the Akashic Records. In many accounts the experiencer correlates the astral world with the world of dreams. Some even report seeing other dreamers enacting dream scenarios unaware of their wider environment. 

The Astral environment may also be divided into levels or sub-planes by theorists, but there are many different views in various traditions concerning the overall structure of the astral planes: they may include heavens and hells and other after-death spheres, transcendent environments or other less-easily characterized states.