onsciousness may be perhaps the biggest mystery that the human mind can comprehend. It’s something that we can all agree is real and relatively tangible, however, when it really comes down to it we simply don’t know what it is, where it comes from, or where it goes once our physical bodies die off. In humankind’s continued efforts to get to the bottom of this mystery there have been many people who have attempted to figure out this mystery and teaching themselves to how to astral project.
Wikipedia defines astral projection as "a term used in esotericism to describe the intentional out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of a soul or consciousness called an “astral body” that is separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it throughout the universe".
While this definition may be tough to wrap your head around it’s a concept that isn’t new. It’s quite possible that there have been people in every single civilization from the dawn of man up until now (and most likely forever) that have pondered about the nature of their waking existence. While the world seems to chug along with a firm sense of pride in knowing all that they know, the deeper you go the less sense it all seems to make.
Astral projection fits snugly in the realm of mystery by supposing that our consciousness is separate from our physical bodies and can therefore be experienced outside of the body and many different accounts of how to astral project have been documented over time.
Astral Projection Perspectives
The concept of astral projection can be a divisive one as there is no scientific evidence to support this phenomenon even exists. However, science cannot answer all the questions we have about the human experience, that task is left to us who are living out our lives and questioning it along the way.
Many different cultures and religions have their perspective on the existential, and while many of them are impossible to compare, there seems to be a scarlet thread that weaves all of these perspectives together in some form or another.
The western perspective on how to astral project and components of what could be considered existential is well documented in philosophical writings from the medieval and renaissance eras thinking that an astral body is an intermediary body operating on an intermediary plane that exists between Heaven and Earth. These bodies, and the planes of existence on which they can operate, have traditionally been depicted as a series of concentric circles with a different astral body in each.
There have even been what is thought of as biblical references to the notion of astral projection in Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 12:2) as he states “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows."
Hinduism, Japanese mythology, Taoist practices, Amazonian civilizations, and even ancient Egyptian teachings all share similar references to some intermediary existence where consciousness is experienced outside of the physical body.
Try it yourself
YouTube is filled with instructional videos, lectures, and auditory guides on astral projection as well as people sharing their experiences of what they believe to be astral projection. There is no magic method that can be easily replicated to ensure an astral projection. However, with dedicated practice, many people have had similar experiences and you too could have one.
If you want to know how to astral project you can try one of the many guides available through books or videos. These methods differ from one to another but all seem to share the same kind of steps. Those steps involve relaxing the body and mind to a point where physical awareness becomes minimal to a point where the focus on the mental sensations completely takes over.
Bob Monroe, a practitioner of astral projection and founder of The Monroe Institute, offers a detailed guide on how to astral project in his book “Journeys Out of the Body”.
- Relax, both physically and mentally.
- Enter a hypnagogic state, also known as a state of half-sleep.
- Deepen the state by prioritizing mental sensation over physical sensation.
- Pay attention to the presence of vibration in your environment, which becomes apparent in a state of deep attention.
- Incur the vibration in your physical body, and relax into its presence. The purpose of this is to gently jiggle the subtle body out of the physical body.
- Focus your thoughts on leaving the limbs and the torso, and try to do so one at a time.
- Known as “lifting out”, focus on effortlessly drifting out of your physical body.
Astral Projection Rope Technique
Some techniques work better for some people more than others and the rope technique is a common method by which people have been said to astral project. This technique is comparable in some sense to the above method but differs by relying heavily on an easy to follow visualization.
- Relax the physical body.
- From your space of relaxation, enter the vibrational states; this should feel like an amplified version of a cell phone’s vibration mode pulsations coursing through the body.
- Imagine a rope above you.
- Using the astral, or subtle, body, attempt to hold on to the rope with both hands. The physical body remains completely relaxed.
- Begin to climb the rope, hand over hand, all while visualizing reaching the ceiling above you.
- Once you are aware of your full exit of the physical body, you are able to explore the astral plane.
