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Astral projection is also known as an out-of-body experience and it is an event that can occur to a great many people at various times. These events will commonly occur during a major trauma although many people report having experienced such events through their own sheer willpower.

This is the more commonly known astral projection. Many people have claimed to have out of body experiences and many more people have claimed to be able to perform astral projection. While the basic techniques for these abilities are the same, they can differ slightly depending on the person. However, some question the validity of the claims of these abilities.

For hundreds of years, a great many people have experienced this phenomenon known as the out-of-body experience. Many people have experienced these sensation while they sleep but managed to ignored it. It was their belief that what they saw and experienced was nothing but a common dream. Yet, most out of body experiences are commonly felt while undergoing a major trauma such as a surgery.

There have also been scores of accounts of out-of-body experiences occurring during frightful near-death situations. In all of these cases of out-of-body experiences, the person experiencing them notes that he/she is able to see and hear everything occurring in the real world even though they were not conscious at the time.

Out-of-body experiences have also been known to occur due to the prolonged use of psychedelic or common dissociative drugs. Yet, there are a number of techniques known to induce the common out-of-body experience most have read about. A traditional example of this is the employment of visualization during a relaxed and meditative state of mind. Various studies have occurred recently designed to show that similar experiences to out-of-body experiences might be induced directly through stimulating the brain.

Among the most common forms of all out-of-body experiences is the process of astral projection. During astral projection, a human being develops the ability to leave the body and visit other physical places as well as the world of astral planes or even higher planes of existence.

In the renaissance Neoplatonist and Rosicrucian philosophy, there is the belief that an astral body in body is created by light that links the “rational soul” and the physical body together. Such philosophy also professes the notion that the astral plane is a world created of the exact light and exists between Heaven and Earth. This metaphysical light is comprised of the spheres of stars and planets that are commonly believed to be the home of angels, demons, and spirits.

According to many ancient Egyptian beliefs, the soul presents the common ability to hover, or float, outside the body in the “Ka” which is also referred to the subtle body. This has also been known as the astral body. In most common beliefs in astral projection, the astral body is associated with a “silver cord” of psychic energy that is linked to the physical body.

The Chinese Taoists had devised a unique alchemical practice which centered on creating a body of energy by way of breathing meditations, pulling energy into something known as a “pearl” and it then is circulating the pearl through the body to cradt the body of energy.

During out-of-body experiences, many people have accounted that they willed themselves to leave their bodies. Others have reported that they had found themselves coming out of their bodies as if being pulled, while others state that they didn’t realize that they had left their bodies until after they were already out. Several people have even stated that they wanted to get out of bed and when they tried to reach for the door, they could not touch it. Upon this sensation, they looked in the direction of their bed and realized that they were still lying down, apparently asleep.

Neurologists have tried to explain these events by saying that they are triggered by a mismatch of the visual and tactile signals. Most out-of-body experiences occur during the time between REM sleep and the time before waking. During most occasions of out-of-body experiences, the subject goes into a state called sleep paralysis. During the rime between sleep and awake, sleep paralysis can continue and dream imagery becomes mingled with input from the senses.

Many scientific studies however have been undertaken in the field of astral projection and out-of-body experiences to show that this is a very real phenomena. Research facilities in a number of different countries such as the Monroe Institute in Virginia and the prestigious Projectarium at the International Academy of Consciousness in Portugal and the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience in Switzerland have explored the subject with a number of interesting results.

Since the time of the ancient Egyptians out of body travel has been recorded by various cultures. The Egyptians called the astral body or soul, Kha and produced images of the astral body hovering just over or beyond the real body. Often it was depicted as translucent, airy and haloed.

Fascinated by the astral body the ancient Egyptians experimented with various techniques in order to control the ability to travel in the astral body to other planes of space and time, while their physical body stayed put where it lay. This is also known as astral projection. Perhaps, during such experiences they learned the skills required for building the pyramids, using the materials they had on hand. The building of the pyramids is something that has long been a puzzle to scientists.

It’s recorded that meditation, nearly to the point of sleep, was the first component of out of body travel for the ancient Egyptians, followed by then concentrating on nothing but the visions one sees while his or her eyes were closed. Often, flashes of lights and patterns appeared, which the ancient Egyptians attributed to the beginnings of the astral body’s journey to other planes of time and space.

Upon passing through this meditative state, the astral body would reach a phase of emergence, which would create a tingling and humming within the physical body. Then they would experience the feeling of heaviness. The ancients believed that the feelings of tingling, humming and then heaviness was a sign of the astral body pulling away from their physical body. This would then initiate the journey of the astral body to unknown planes of existence.

They accomplished this in different ways yet the most common was that of walking out of the physical body by using the astral body. Beginning with the minds eye, followed by the shoulders, chest, hips, legs, knees and then the feet. This continued until there were two separate entities, that of the physical body and that of the astral body.

This separating of bodies, then allowed the astral body to pass freely through solid objects, it could also hover and fly about without being effected by the lack of oxygen or changes in the atmosphere.

The ancient Greeks also recorded instances of out of body travel, and expanded on the strictly meditatively-induced state of the ancient Egyptians to include out of body travel by way of physical or mental trauma. The ancient historian Plutarch of Queroneia, for example, cited the case of Arisdeu who, after suffering blunt trauma to his head after a fall slipped into a coma for three days.

During this time the experience of Arisdeu included seeing his immobile physical body on the ground, although he was able to freely move about. He was able to travel out of body to previously unimagined places. After adapting to this new environment, the spirit guide of Arideu met him and assisted him and then advised him of the projection of his astral body into other dimensions.

Although, he was eventually pulled back into his physical body, while in his altered state he did learn and explore. Once returning to his physical body, he did spend the rest of his life using the knowledge he found during the time of his out of body experience.

The ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks aren’t the only ones with recorded history of out of body travel. Native American history is also full of several accounts of similar experiences, often featuring spirit animals and/or guides meeting and advising an individual’s astral body. For centuries, Native Americans have burned certain plants and inhaled their smoke in order to ease the mind into the state necessary to begin out of body travel.

The human body has the ability to explore different horizons of time and space. This has been recorded since the beginning of time. We are able to channel our consciousness into a spiritual body. However, many modern individuals have forgotten this wonderfully natural gift. Many have forgotten how to alter our consciousness to the point that we can release it from the confines of our physical limitations. However, with practice we can join with our spiritual guides and self on the higher planes of existence.

The door is within each of us, we simply need to remember how to reconnect with the higher more spiritual side so that we are once more about to journey out of body to those higher planes. The possibilities are unlimited. It is a natural process and once we rediscover this inside ourselves we can gain in the potentials of understanding our higher self.