What is Astral Projection?

Astral Projection (sometimes called Astral Travel) is defined as the ability of the soul, spirit, or consciousness to leave the physical body and travel through different dimensions of reality, space and time. This has been referred to in many circles as a type of out-of-body experience. Practitioners and proponents state that the astral body or soul leaves the physical body while in a meditative or relaxed state and experiences new dimensions of the astral plane which has some similarities but otherwise vast differences to physical reality.

The typical astral experience involves the feeling of floating or rising out of the body while in a near sleep (hypnagogic), deep meditative state, or a spontaneous trance. Typical testimonies state that as the astral body or spirit begins to float out, the experiencer feels as if they are still in physical reality and can see their surroundings as well as their own external body.

The ethereal traveler finds him- or herself in an apparently surreal domain, analogous to the 'other worlds' experienced by traditional peoples, but which have no parallel to any physical setting or to consensus reality. Many new agers and occultists refer to this domain as the astral plane or the astral dimension.

Environments here may range from populated to un-populated, artificial to natural to completely abstract environments and from beautific to horrific. Here, normal physical laws often do not apply and humans can often, for example, float or fly. Quality of physical detail ranges from crude and un-detailed and depressing to bright, vivid and fascinating as detailed, among other writers, by Robert Bruce in his Astral Dynamics (1999) Travelers may travel from one realm to the other.

Projectors may find access to visions of the past or future and to the Akashic Records accessible from here. It's been said that space and time don't exist on the astral plane nor the higher planes - but no explanation is given as to how forms and entire environments can exist without spacial dimensions, nor why there can be a sequence of events and yet no such thing as time.

Many travelers have theorized that people having dreams actually travel to the astral realms, unaware, and, again as reported in Astral Dynamics, travelers have reported seeing dreamers enact dream scenarios on the astral plane, unaware of the more extensive and varied non-physical environment surrounding them.

The history of astral projection is somewhat obscure and difficult to trace. Ancient Egyptian teachings mention the ability of the body to separate from the soul and hover nearby. But it wasn't until the nineteenth-century that the concept of an etheric travel appeared in Theosophical texts. The popularity of the topic then began to spread amongst occultists.

In the early twentieth-century occult researchers Hugh Callaway, Hereward Carrington and Sylvan Muldoon popularized the subject in their books Astral Projection, and, The Projection of the Astral Body. These characterized astral projection in its modern form of floating out of the body in a etheric state, a silver cord connected between the spirit and body and moving between different dimensions.

When Muldoon was 12 years old he apparently woke up in the middle of the night and felt a strange, unmovable state. His body then began to vibrate when suddenly he was floating above his own bed. Looking down he could see his own image asleep with an odd silver cord connected between the sleeping image to the back of his floating body's head. Confused at this point Muldoon tried walking around his home but found himself walking through doors and through the bodies of sleeping people. Searching for some minutes he was slowly pulled back to his body, felt odd vibrations again and suddenly woke up.

Over time Muldoon was able to experience many astral projections each time refining the process. Oddly, he noted that the ability to travel outside the body seemed to be dependent on the physical vitality of the body. If one was weakened or sick they could travel easier and longer distances. But, no matter how far a spirit would travel the body would always pull the projector back at some point.

Astral projection has been tied to the near death experience (NDE) as the same state of an etheric body floating above the physical body. Travelers claim that once the cord is cut between the bodies that is the point of death - yet, in NDEs as the astral body leaves it can be pulled back if a person is resuscitated.