Astral Projection
- “Astral projection or travel denotes the astral body leaving the physical body to travel in an astral plane. 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/her subtle body (or ‘dreambody’, or ‘astral body’) into ‘higher realms’. It is frequently reported in association with dreams, and forms of meditation…. Some [people] have reported perceptions similar to the descriptions of astral projection, induced through various hallucinogenic and hypnotic (including self-hypnotic) means.”
The Astral Body
- “The ‘Astral Body’ (to give it the popular occult term) is a sort of psychic or spirit body, which is the body one exists in during the ‘Out of Body Experience’ (OBE) or ‘Astral travelling’. This body can thus separate from the lower bodies and journey to other worlds and realms, taking the consciousness with it. After death and separation from the physical body, the personality continues to exist for a period of time in the astral body.
- “The Astral body corresponds to the Egyptian Ba, which is the principle able to leave the body and the tomb and also return to it at will, and the Tibetan Bardo body. As well as the imaginal world (corresponding to the world of Asiyah according to Hayyim Vital, and the Ishraki Barzakh or ‘Interworld’), the astral body can attain to the more material heavens, but the higher spiritual realms are beyond its reach. For that it is necessary to move to a more subtle ‘vehicle of consciousness’.”
Other Worlds: Out-of-Body Experiences and Lucid Dreams
- Lynne Levitan and Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D.: “The worlds we create in dreams and OBEs are as real as this one, and yet hold infinitely more variety. How much more exhilarating to be ‘out-of-body’ in a world where the only limit is the imagination than to be in the physical world in a powerless body of ether! Freed of the constraints imposed by physical life, expanded by awareness that limits can be transcended, who knows what we could be, or become?”
World of Lucid Dreaming
- “Anything you can conceive of comes true. You can take control of your dream and warp The Matrix like Neo. Fly and soar over cities like Iron Man. Slow down time like the dream levels of Inception. Have sex with celebrities. Fight like a ninja. Re-live childhood memories. Base jump. Survive death.
- “But a lucid dream is not merely a fantasy playground. Dream theories suggest it’s a chance to interact with other parts of your psyche (by talking to different dream characters) and even your co-conscious inner self (by talking to the very fabric of the dream). Once you know how to become lucid in dreams, you will discover a strange new world — an entire universe, no less — of which you are fully aware and can manipulate with the power of thought.”
The Mysteries of “Lucid” Dreaming
- Vaughan Bell: “Studies led by neuropsychologists Ursula Voss and Martin Dresler have shown that the brain activity during lucid dreaming bears the core features of REM sleep but is distinct from both non-lucid dreaming and the awake state.”
