Lesson 1: Introduction to Astral Projection

Imagine this: As you drift to sleep, your physical body becomes weightless, and your consciousness shifts to an energetic body called the astral body or soul body. The astral body leaves the physical body to travel along the spiritual astral plane. You travel quickly viewing the world above you as your physical body appears as an empty shell on the bed below, the silver cord connecting your astral body to the physical. With a start you look back at your inert body, and you return to the body with a "jolt" or falling sensation. This is astral projection, which allows you to travel the world and view it through your soul astral body, and learn about different events that can help guide you in your physical life.  





Astral projection is a technique that allows a person to separate their soul body from their physical body. By relaxing the mind and allowing the physical body to rest, the mind's awareness (or consciousness) is shifted to the soul body. Astral projection happens each night when a person falls asleep. At the moment of sleep, the soul body leaves the physical body and travels on the spiritual plane called the astral plane. While the soul is traveling on the astral plane, the person may feel a sense of weightlessness that is the soul body separating from the physical body. The soul body separates from the physical body allowing the physical body to rest until the morning when the person wakes and then the soul body returns to the physical body and the person feels refreshed. Astral projection allows a person's soul to journey to different places to learn things that can help them with their spiritual growth in this lifetime. People have astral projected before but sometimes are unaware of it, this is unconscious astral projection. Unconscious astral projection happens when the person drifts off to sleep. The person may experience a temporary "blackout," where when they start to drift off they see a black screen in their mind, this is the soul body leaving the physical body. The soul body rises above the physical body and aligns itself horizontally. The physical body is now immobile and is seen as an empty shell. The soul body, also known as the astral body is made of spiritual energy and can travel places just by thinking about it. Since time is dynamic in the astral realm and there are no boundaries, just simply thinking about a place allows the astral body to travel there in an instant. Often with initial astral projection, the person manages to separate their astral body from their physical body and watches the astral body align itself horizontally above the physical body. The person feels a sense of weightlessness and they observe their physical body lying on the bed connected by a silver cord. The silver cord pulsates with energy and is like an umbilical cord connecting the spiritual astral body to the physical body. Fear often results in the astral body returning abruptly to the physical body and the person may experience a "jolt" or a sensation of falling. Sometimes people are afraid as they look on their physical body that they won't be able to return to it, so the fear causes them to return quickly to their physical body. This often happens with the first astral projection. As the person becomes more familiar with astral projection through practicing out of body techniques they can consciously astral project and travel to places they want by thinking about it. Some typical sensations of an astral projection are at the moment of sleep the person experiences a spinning or a lifting out of their body and they may blackout for a moment before the astral body separates from the physical body and upon separation the physical body is immobile and the conscious awareness is shifted to the astral body and the person feels weightless. For the first time astral projection happens, the person finds their astral body horizontally directly above them a few meters above the physical body connected by a silver cord and then after a few minutes fear will jerk the astral body back into the physical body. If you ever had dreams of flying, then you have astral projected. And if you have had a falling sensation, you just returned to your physical body. Astral projection is a technique that everyone can do and it is natural. People have been unconsciously astral projecting in their sleep and having dreams that are astral travel. But with practice the person can learn to consciously astral project and travel where they wish. Just by setting an intention that you want to leave your physical body and travel the astral plane with your astral body allows your mind to start tuning in and is a good way to work on building your practice to consciously astral projecting.
Some people may be afraid of leaving the physical body because they feel their body might be hurt if they leave it unprotected. But this is not the case, upon any sign of danger like a loud noise, the astral body returns immediately to the physical body and the person is up and alert. This is because part of your consciousness remains on the physical plane and allows you to be aware of it. When you enter a calm state through meditation and relax your body and set the intention to astral project your brain waves are in the alpha state, still alert to external stimuli but you are more relaxed. In our normal waking hours, when we concentrate on things throughout the day our brains are in beta state. But when we take time to relax, our brain waves flow longer wavelengths we are still focused and alert in our meditations and astral projection preparation but our consciousness is allowing us to relax and relieve some tension and not think as much. We are still aware of the surroundings around us in the alpha state allowing us to return to our physical bodies if we feel alarmed.
Also some people are afraid that the silver cord may be severed and they won't be able to get back to their physical body. The silver cord can not be cut maliciously because it is an energetic cord that only the person who is doing the astral projection can see. Also the silver cord connects the astral body to the physical body and as long as the cord is connected the person can return to their physical body. The silver cord will not fray away or be cut but may diminish in size as the astral body moves further away from its physical counterpart. The silver cord stays connected to the physical body as the astral body travels on the astral plane. And if the astral traveler wishes to return to their physical body they only need to think it in their mind and they will return.
The astral body is spiritual energy that gives the physical body lifeforce, humans are spiritual beings having a human experience on Earth. Since the astral body is made of energy, just thinking about things in the astral realm can cause things to happen. Energy follows thought, so if a person imagines themselves as a specific way that they want to look like their astral energy body will be like that rather than resembling their physical body. Since the astral plane is the spiritual plane of energy, thoughts can shape things. Astral projection can allow the person to work on healing past things and also look to the future because time is dynamic and the astral body can travel to different places and different times. The person can let go of past sadnesses by revisiting an event and working on healing from it through astral projection. Astral projection allows a person to grow spiritually because it allows them to heal from the inside any part of their life and as they heal on the inside, the outside physical world and their physical body can heal. People who struggle with finding love on the physical plane may be able to imagine an astral lover on the astral plane and create more love into their life which can help them in connecting with a physical lover. The spiritual astral plane and the physical plane can influence each other and astral projection can help in spiritual growth.


Astral travel is a unique experience that can provide people with insight into the nature of the universe. Reality is not limited to the physical world people live in, but also extends to a spiritual realm known as the astral plane. Human beings contain energy, and their conscious mind helps create the lifeforce that sustains the physical body. People's conscious thoughts are energy, and they shape the reality around them. During astral travel, the conscious mind leaves the physical body and travels to the astral plane. When a person astral travels, the energy in their conscious mind creates an astral body that separates from the physical body and moves into the astral plane. The astral body, also called the soul, is the energy that sustains the lifeforce of the physical body. As a person falls asleep, the conscious mind begins to relax, and awareness drifts towards the astral body, which separates from the physical body. Astral projection is a natural experience that occurs each night when a person falls asleep. As the mind relaxes and the person begins to fall asleep, attention is drawn upwards towards the third eye (the region between your eyebrows), and the mind's energy is shifted to the third eye region where your psychic vision lies and the person begins to see the view of themselves through their third eye. At the moment of sleep, the mind relaxes, and the person experiences a temporary "blackout" where their body becomes rigid and their vision darkens as the mind's energy moves outside of the physical body and creates an astral body that is attached to the physical body by a silver cord. The person has experienced astral projection since the astral body separated from its physical counterpart allowing the physical body to rest, while the astral body travels on the astral plane. Astral projections that occur each night upon falling asleep are known as unconscious astral projections because the person is not consciously aware they are on the astral plane. With practice, people can learn how to become aware of their astral projections and learn to travel to different places by thinking about it and setting an intention to astral project.  



The concept of astral projecting, or astral traveling, dates back to Ancient China, which was thousands of years ago. People who practice astral projection, or astral traveling, tend to be fully aware of their surroundings, therefore, they have full control on where to go and when to return to their physical bodies. These astral projecting practices are usually known as out of body experiences (OBE) or near death experiences (NDE) which both involve the person leaving their body and hovering around like a spirit and while doing so, that person has the ability to stand beside, above, on top, or in front of their physical body while it is still in bed or sitting down. Now, these OBE's are the most likely to occur while you are either meditating, when you are asleep, or when you are practicing lucid dreaming exercises, which we will get to later. The scary part about astral traveling is the fact that you can travel around the world within seconds and then return to your physical body. Doing this requires great practice and great skill. There have been reports of people doing this without even knowing or practicing it, however, your ability to do this task can grow stronger with tons of practice. We will go over some astral projecting exercises later in the course. Many physicists often tell astral projection practitioners that the conscious, otherwise known as dreaming, the mind contains a spirit, or astral plane, in which results in falling dream or suddenly waking up with a falling sensation or a sudden jerk. Adding on to this, many dreams cannot be recalled, therefore this makes the experience of astral projection a subject of subjectivity. It is uncertain whether each natural or physical object obtains an "astral" counterpart, or if a spirit truly uses incarnation into the physical body and this is what may result in an astral projecting, or if the phenomena are something else altogether. Astral traveling, furthermore, touches on life itself and also what may happen after death. Overall, there are two natural thoughts on astral projecting, the mystical model and phasing model. The phasing model states that it is impossible to leave your physical body, also stating that the astral planes and physical worlds are just points on long spectrum consciousness. On the other hand, the Mystical Model includes a large variety of belief systems and astral maps. However, they are put together by the belief that astral projecting, or astral traveling, takes place outside of the actual physical body.