3. HOW ASTRAL PROJECTION WORKS

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it” – Buddha

As you may have gathered by now, astral projection is a practice that allows human beings to have spiritual experiences intentionally and consciously. The astral body or etheric body is thought of as the soul and in esoteric practices as the astral plane. It is through the astral plane that people are able to explore other worlds during astral projection. The astral plane is the home of the soul as it finds its way to the next life or final resting place after death as well as the home for other spirits and angels.

The practice of astral projection allows the soul to travel beyond the physical and material world just by using the mind. While in the astral plane, the soul ventures into etheric realms, transcends space and time while in a state likened to having a dream the only difference being that you are awake and aware of what you are doing. It has been made clear in the previous chapters that people astral project while dreaming without being aware that they are astral traveling. Also, even when a person astral travels in their dreams, it is not guaranteed that they will recall their experience after waking up. The difference between astral projecting consciously and projecting without awareness is that you remember every encounter you had during your astral journey. Hence, astral projection is likened to consciously evoking the dreamlike state.

Once the conscious dreamlike state is evoked, the goal of the projector is to transcend the physical through the mind. Meaning that, your physical body remains the same as you transcend through time and space in the mind. Astral projection may not be classified as a scientific theory because it involves the use of esoteric matters like the astral plane and etheric body. But, as illustrated, the theory has been explored by a wide range of science researchers some of whom found some interesting evidence to prove that astral projection is indeed real. For instance, according to research findings that were published in the Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, researchers examined the brain of a female projector through MRI while she was in astral plane mode. They documented that some unique parts of the brain remained active during her astral journey. As such, though scientific research may not prove that the soul leaves the body during astral projection, it is clear that some interesting brain activity occurs during projection that point towards the projector being conscious and having an alert state of experience.

In support of this, ancient astral projection experts maintained that all human thoughts create forms. The forms in turn create a life of their own that attracts similar thoughts, repels opposing thoughts, makes up dreams; facilitates therapy, clairvoyance and apparition of the dead. As such, astral projection starts by learning to concentrate deeply in a bid to produce powerful thoughts that can leave the mind that created them and advance to exist in another world through the astral body.

According to the theosophy teachings, humans are continuing beings that enter and leave different bodies at different times in their lives; this happens occasionally when a person is in a high mental plane. These different bodies are sevens and are also referred to as the vehicles of consciousness. Note that, different bodies are used in different universal regions from the physical world to the spiritual and subtlest realms and beyond. Therefore, aspiring projectors must understand that the eternal self that travels to the different worlds and times is the sole owner of its astral vehicle and can be trained to exist in the seven bodies/ vehicles with absolute consciousness.

The seven vehicles of consciousness include; the physical body, the vitality or etheric body, the astral body, the causal body, the mental body, the cosmic or Buddhic or diamond body and the eternal, celestial or nirvanic body.

The physical body is made up of ordinary matter and it is conscious of the laws of time and space. Spiritually, it is interwoven with the vitality vehicle or the etheric body that is responsible for the transmission of energy between the higher bodies and the physical body. As such, it is able to survive briefly after death as a graveyard wraith or ghost because it is a replica of the physical body but in the form of ether. As such, in order for a projector to be in their vehicle of consciousness where the astral body does all the seeing, thinking and feeling, they do not need to be in their physical body. To some extent, this explains the astral projection theory because it defines how the astral body leaves the physical and etheric bodies to travel through times and space.

Out of Body Experiences

Out of Body Experiences (OBE) occur when a person’s consciousness separates from their physical body. A typical out of body experience is characterized by a person floating up from their physical body as illustrated in the previous chapter. OBE’s happen in three ways: through dreams, consciously leaving the body, and when a person is in a near death experience.

OBE that occurs through dreams is referred to as lucid dreaming. When this occurs, a person can recognize that they are of their physical body but still in the physical realm. OBE that occurs consciously is what is referred to as astral projection because it is as a result of practice where a person learns how to leave the physical body voluntarily. OBE as a result of a near death experience occurs when a person is leaving the physical body at the verge of death.

It is possible to explore the feeling of near-death experiences by practicing lucid dreaming and astral projection. In such a scenario, you get to understand death through natural connections that you have to the astral realm. This should be done through the normal sleep process and you should not alter the natural state of your physical body, or be stressed. Of importance, you should never attempt to have an OBE through practicing a near death experience as it may end up being fatal. You may leave the physical body and never come back.

Dreams are associated with OBE because they happen in the same place as OBEs; you are always out of the physical body when dreaming. However, you may not be in a position to see where you are during a dream because they project subconsciously in the mind. The psyche is usually locked into world models and images that the mind creates unconsciously and you do not have the ability to question the situation neither are you self-aware. However, dreams are indispensable tools to humans because they reveal to us crucial details about our lives and ourselves that we would otherwise never know existed. By learning more about yourself through dreams, you unlock your psychological and spiritual awareness level, you are able to understand the main principles of lucid dreaming and astral projection.

The Different Out of Body Experience Dimensions

As aforementioned, during an OBE the psyche gets from the physical dimension into another dimension. That is to say, humans are multidimensional. The four main dimensions are: width, depth/height, time and length. The different dimensions meet at the minute level yet they all exist here, now and interpenetrate each other without mixing up. The dimensions are seven in total: the core three are length, height and width, then time, eternity that is beyond time and comprises two planes, the mental and the astral plane. The electronic world is the sixth dimension that also has two planes: the buddhic and the causal planes. The spirit is the seventh dimension.

The absolute is beyond the seven dimensions and that is where all life and its dimensions spring from. When people have nightmares, they happen to have gone to the infra- dimensions that harbors the inferior zones. This dimension is accessed through an opening in the astral plane that is referred to as the mouth of hell and is also what is referred to as hell by most religions.

In this book, we’ll cover astral projection of the fifth dimension because it is the easiest dimension to go to. The sixth and seventh dimensions are hard to get to because they require a silent and concentrated mind, something that most of us may not be in a position to do with ease. Conversely, the seventh dimension can only be accessed by people whose level of consciousness is already at the spirit dimension. During a near death experience, a person is usually in the sixth dimension where they see a bright light as a result of spiritual realms crossing between the fifth and sixth dimensions. Most safe OBEs happen in the astral plane but it is possible to experience the other OBE planes and dimensions once you become highly enlightened and are able to create different bodies that allow you to project to the different dimensions safely.

Benefits of Out of Body Experiences

Having a voluntary out of body experience changes your view of life and death completely. Though most people want to learn astral projection to have some random experiences of the astral world or do it as a hobby, it would be a total waste of time and opportunity to view the experience as a superficial encounter. It is advisable to purpose for a fundamentally worthy experience when traveling to the astral realm.

In light of this, with a successful OBE to the astral realm, you can meet positive spiritual beings who are willing and ready to offer guidance and teachings that will enlighten you. You get to learn more about yourself, your past lives, discover secret knowledge about life and death, determine where and what your spiritual obstacles are and also your inner defects that hold you back from being the best version of yourself. When you learn and master the awakening process, you are able to monitor your progress spiritually by knowing the steps you take, discover your real-life purpose, get premonitions about what will happen in future and know what happens during and after among other things that you cannot learn while in the physical plane.

By practicing astral projection, you get access to crucial knowledge that is denied to people in the physical world. If you want to get much knowledge and enlightenment, you have to take a spiritual enlightenment path that is never easy. This means that you must view your trips to the astral plane as opportunities to learn and do something meaningful for yourself. Also, the time you get to spend in the astral plane is limited. Therefore, you must project with a purpose and get right on to fulfilling the purpose once you get to the astral world.

As mentioned, you can learn a lot about death and life after death through astral projection because the dead always go to the astral plane dimension when their spirit leaves the physical body before advancing to other dimensions and regions. As such, beings of all nature ranging from malevolent and spiritual exist in the fifth dimension which is the astral plane. But, religious apparitions, mythology, divine visitations and visions originate from higher dimensions where powerful spiritual beings are based. If you astral project enough times, you are bound to meet all kinds of beings whether you believe they exist or not. All beings you meet offer a new and unique learning opportunity about the astral world. Through out of body experiences, you are able to see things that happen beyond the physical world some of which you only hear about and dismiss them as propaganda.

Chapter Summary

• Astral projection occurs when the spirit leaves the physical body and travels to the astral plane.

• The main forms of OBE are lucid dreaming, conscious projection and near death experiences.

• Astral projection offers the opportunity to learn and grow spiritually.

• In the next chapter you will learn about the basics of astral projection.