Spiritual Reality - Journey within

Astral Travel

Astral travel is an interpretation of out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it. Astral projection or travel denotes the astral body leaving the physical body to travel in the astral plane. Reality is created by thought projection (consciousness) into the physical. There are 5 subtle bodies. In astral travel(also known as astral projection) the conscious mind leaves the physical body and moves into the astral body to experience.

In astral projection we remain attached to our physical body by a 'silver umbilical type cord'. Some people are able to see the cord when astral projecting. When you astral project you are consciously aware of things you encounter while out of your physical body.

Some people can astral project naturally. Others are afraid to remove their consciousness from the physical body and never learn to astral project.

Astral projection (or astral travel) is an out-of-body experience achieved either awake or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation. People who say they experience astral projection often say that their spirit or astral body has left their physical body and moves in another dimension known as the spirit world or astral plane.

It is sometimes attempted for its own sake or may be believed to be necessary to, or the result of, some forms of spiritual practice. It may be reported in the form of an apparitional experience, a supposed encounter with a doppelgänger, some living person also seen somewhere else at the same time.

Through the 1960s and 70s, surveys reported percentages ranging from 8 percent to as many as 50 percent (in certain groups) of respondents who state they had such an experience. The subjective nature of the experience permits explanations that do not rely on the existence of an "astral" body and plane. There is little beyond anecdotal evidence to support the idea that people can actually "leave the body".

The Process of Astral Travel:

Psychics often say that the subconscious (or dreaming) mind contains the spirit or astral body, resulting in falling dreams or waking up with a falling sensation or sudden jerk. Most dreams are not remembered by the conscious mind, making the experience of astral projection a subject of subjectivity. Believers in astral projection point out, though, that most ghost sightings often define the ghost as a lucid or transparent apparition walking the earth.

In Meditation, after receiving abundant Cosmic Energy the Consciousness that is spread everywhere in the body, starts moving towards a point. While Consciousness is moving, we experience jerks in the physical body, rotation in the physical body. Movements may be experienced in different parts of the body or some times, one may experience as if the whole body is rotating. We feel as if our body is floating. We don't 'feel' the hands and legs.We 'feel' lightness of the body like feather.

These are known as ASTRAL MOVEMENTS.

By doing more and more Meditation, we get more and more Cosmic Energy.

The Consciousness forming like an Astral Body, starts rotating very fast which causes heavy movements in physical body. After the movements, the Astral body starts coming out of the physical body with a link called Silver Chord. Silver Chord is nothing but a high vibrant consciousness which transfers the messages from physical body to astral body and vice versa.

With this, we do ASTRAL TRAVEL.

Astral Travel is a travel of our Consciousness to known and unknown frequencies.

By doing Astral Travel we get highest knowledge and understanding of the SELF.

In Astral Travel, our Astral Body can pass through all physical materials, all elements like earth, water, fire, wind and ether. Astral Body can go to all other frequency dimensions with out any limitations. After coming out of the body, Meditator 'sees' his own physical body. By this he gets great understanding. He understands that he is not only the body, but he stays in the body. This is a great understanding.

Beliefs & Views:

It is unclear whether every physical object has an 'astral' counterpart, or if a spirit literally uses incarnation into a physical body and this is what results in astral projections, or if the phenomena is something else entirely. Astral projection also touches on life itself and what happens after physical death.

There are two general schools of thought on the nature of astral projection. These can broadly be defined as the mystical model and the phasing model.

The Phasing Model, which was defined by Robert Monroe, holds the belief that it is impossible to actually leave your body in the truest sense of the word, and that the astral planes and the physical world are merely points on the long spectrum of consciousness. When a person projects, they actually "phase" into another area of consciousness and the locales it contains. This can be likened to tuning a radio to another station. One of the initial signposts representing a phase shift away from physical reality has been labelled the state of focus 10 (mind awake/body asleep).

This viewpoint can be seen as a logical progression of the philosophy that external reality is actually an internally created state

The Mystical Model includes a large variety of belief systems and astral maps, but they are tied together by their belief that astral projection takes place outside of the actual physical body. In this model, a more subtle energy body is believed to carry the consciousness outside of the physical body. In their book Projection of the Astral Body, Carrington and Muldoon detail how consciousness is transferred into a secondary "energy" body (the etheric body) to allow travel into the astral planes. This idea is also described by other authors such as Robert Peterson in his book Out of Body Experiences: How to have them and what to expect (chapters 5, 17, 22), and Robert Bruce in his book Astral Dynamics (pages 31-33, 404-410, 538). Bruce expanded on this idea in his book Astral Dynamics, stating that higher planes of existence are reached through the progressive projection of subtler energy bodies from previous projected bodies (pages 33-42). The subtle body is attached to the physical body by means of an energetic connection which usually takes the appearance of a silver cord 'plugging' into the chakra system like an umbilical cord. Robert Peterson describes this in chapter 13 of his book Out of Body Experiences, Robert Bruce in his book Astral Dynamics (pages 27, 52-53, 84, 397-403,544) and by Carrington and Muldoon in their book Projection of the Astral Body.

Kinds of Projections: The Astral & the Etheric

Some experients say they visit different times and/or places: "etheric", then, is used to represent the sense of being "out of the body" in the physical world, whereas "astral" may connote some alteration in time-perception.

This etheric body is usually, though not always, invisible but is often perceived by the experient as connected to the physical body during separation by a “silver cord”. Some link "falling" dreams with projection.

According to Max Heindel, the etheric "double" serves as a medium between the astral and physical realms. In his system the ether, also called prana, is the "vital force" that empowers the physical forms to change. From his descriptions it can be inferred that, to him, when one views the physical during an out-of-body experience, one is not technically "in" the astral realm at all.

Other experients may describe a domain that has no parallel to any known physical setting. Environments may be populated or unpopulated, artificial, natural or abstract, and the experience may be beatific, horrific or neutral.

A common Theosophical belief is that one may access a compendium of mystical knowledge called the Akashic records. In many accounts the experiencer correlates the astral world with the world of dreams. Some even report seeing other dreamers enacting dream scenarios unaware of their wider environment.

Hence we may formally put:

Astral Projection - The traveller finds him- or herself in an apparently real domain, analogous to the "other worlds" experienced by traditional peoples, which have no parallel to any physical setting or to consensus reality, described by New Agers and occultists as the astral plane or "the astral". Environments here may range from populated to unpopulated, artificial to natural to completely abstract environments and from beautiful to horrific. Here, normal physical laws often do not apply and humans can often, for example, float or fly. Quality of physical detail ranges from crude, non-detailed and depressing to bright, vivid and fascinating as detailed, among other writers, by Robert Bruce in his Astral Dynamics.

Travelers may travel from one realm to the other. Projectors may find access to visions of the past or future and to the Akashic Records accessible from here. It has been said that space and time do not exist on the astral plane nor the higher planes, but no explanation is given as to how forms and entire environments can exist without spatial dimensions, nor why there can be a sequence of events and yet no such thing as time. Many travelers have theorized that people having dreams actually travel to the astral realms, unaware, and, again as reported in Astral Dynamics, travelers have reported seeing dreamers enact dream scenarios on the astral plane, unaware of the more extensive and varied non-physical environment surrounding them. Some also claim common movements in dreams, such as falling or feeling like you are walking through quicksand, is the astral body in action.

Etheric Projection - In contrast to "astral" projection, the traditional understanding of out-of-body experiences involves the projector (or traveller) moving about in usually invisible or ghost-like form in a mundane physical reality -the etheric body. This world may, however, have minor differences between the physical reality world we know if strict mind control is not maintained. Proponents of the writings of Robert Bruce sometimes refer to this practice as "Real Time Projection" (RTP) and the mundane world as the "Real Time Zone" (RTZ). From the Real Time Zone, travellers can access "the astral" or remain in the RTZ and witness real time happenings.

In Western theosophy, each subtle body is functionally distinct. Since the etheric body and astral body are not the same, according to several sources, they can not possibly represent the same kind of psychic activity.

Mental Projections:

Mental projection is projection of the astral body to the mental plane via utilisation of mental energy while within the astral or etheric to phase into the Mental, or a different process used to project directly into the Mental Plane. The active subtle body of the mental plane is the mental body, which constitutes the intellectual consciousness of the projector in general. The environment is generally highly colorful and kaleidoscopic in nature, like the astral, and shifting consciously. The difference is that even mathematical functions and thoughts will manifest seemingly physically. The buffer zone between the astral and mental planes is known as the Akashic Records, and appears as a library of knowledge of past, present, and future possibility. There are many theories as to why the perceptions of these records and the mental plane in general differ from projector to projector, but the general consensus is that the Akashic records will appear differently, like a computer or library to different people at different times, and that the future is always sketchy and can often change mid-viewing to the projector.

Roman Catholic View:

Astral Projection is a forbidden practice for Roman Catholics because the soul; containing all reason, thought, memories, emotion, attitudes, and beliefs; leaves the physical body during a wake state, and this can cause bizarre belief systems to develop, based on improperly interpreted sensations from the reality elevated from, and parallel to three dimensional reality.

The soul in an agnostic state; that is indifferent toward The Holy Trinity, or Triune God - God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit; is left without protection, roaming the atmosphere, and perhaps some distance beyond this in a spiritual ghetto that surrounds the earth: The Third Heaven. The Third Heaven is ruled by spiritual hosts of wickedness in the high places, which will send demons to deceive those who will not keep to the domain of the world.

A human soul, when detached from the physical body, during a waking state, without the protection of The Roman Catholic God, Jesus Christ, is very vulnerable to molestation by demons. Roman Catholics refer to escorted travel in the spiritual dimension, an anointing. Jesus Christ is The Anointed of God, Who, while in human form was constantly aware of All Truth, regardless of the shortcomings of the human sensory channels. He was, therefore, constantly in a state of Astral Projection, or anointing. The anointed of God will prophesy Truth directly from God, perform miraculous healings, order the atmosphere to obey them, stop rain from falling in a certain area, pass through solid objects, and/or become invisible when threatened.

Techniques of Astral travel:

Robert Monroe - Monroe Technique:

Robert Allan Monroe (1915 - 1995) was a psychic researcher and author of

a method he called Hemi-Sync (hemispherical synchronization) to induce mental states that are favorable for inducing out-of-body experiences. Hemi-Sync is a system which aims to balance the brain waves of both of the brain's hemispheres or lobes through cooperative processing of auditory stimulus. The stimulus, together with meditative instruction, is provided via headphones. The method is based on a concept known as binaural beats.

Monroe gave a detailed description of the "second body". It has weight, is visible under certain conditions, produces a sensation of touch just like the physical touch, and yet it is very plastic and may adopt any form required of it.

Possibly, suggests Monroe, the second body is a reversal of the physical. He even relates this to his ideas that it may consist of antimatter, although what he means is obscure. As for a cord, he tried feeling it on some of his excursions, but it was not an important part of his experience. Finally he suggests that the second body is related in some important way to electricity and magnetism. In experiments in a Faraday cage he found that he could not pass through the walls when a current was passed through them, but when it was turned off he could (though sufficient details are not given to assess the explanation fairly). He suggests a "third force" to add to electricity and magnetism which is used by the second body and fundamental to thought.

Many people confuse this phenomenon with astral travel; however, etheric travel is mainly related to that which can and does exist, physically. During this type of experience, there are no fantastical worlds, or self-absorbed encounters; the majority of the experience can be validated.

Step by Step detailed description of Monroe Technique can be obtained from Monroe, Robert - Journeys Out of the Body (1971). reprinted (1989) Souvenir Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0285627536

Silva Method:

Jose Silva, founder of the Silva Method, claimed to have developed a program that trained people to enter certain brain states of enhanced awareness. He also claimed to have developed several systematic mental processes to use while in these states allowing a person to mentally project with a specific intent. According to Silva, once the mind is projected, a person can allegedly view distant objects or locations and connect with higher intelligence for guidance. The information received by the projected mind is then said to be perceived as thoughts, images, feelings, smells, taste and sound by the mind. The information obtained in this manner can be acted upon to solve problems.

It is a self-empowerment system to shape beliefs, augment personal success and view distant objects or locations and connect with a higher intelligence for guidance. Jose Silva developed pseudoscientific explanations of brain function and its relationship with a higher consciousness in the 1960s.

According to its proponents, the technique aims to reach and sustain a higher state of mental functioning, called alpha state, where brainwave frequency is eight to thirteen Hz. The method also uses visualizations and affirmations. Advocates attest to healing, better attainment of goals, ESP and cure from addictions.

Simple Astral Travel Technique:

It can be called as the Brahma Kaal Technique since it is to be practised at 4 in the morning.

It involves getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning - a little extra effort, but it is by far worth it. The reasons for waking up at 4 in the morning are:

- We will be drowsy and it will be easier to clear our head.

- We will drift off to sleep much faster.

- We will have gotten up for a purpose; our body and mind will be tuned to what we are trying to achieve.

We must keep an open mind while attempting to project. Any negative thoughts or feelings will certainly hold us back. Stay positive, open, and willing.

The technique is as follows:

· Set the alarm for 4 o'clock in the morning.

· Allow oneself to drift asleep.

· At four in the morning, the alarm will wake you up. Get out of bed turn on the light, and splash water on your face. Dry your face with a towel.

· After about two minutes, get back in bed. Lie on your back.

· You will most likely be feeling groggy and tired. Your mind will be eager to get back to sleep.

· Close your eyes, and clear your mind. This should be easy because you are so tired.

· Now, imagine you are standing somewhere in your room. Perhaps in the far corner. Vividly see yourself standing there. Know that you are standing there, and that your body is still lying on the bed. Focus your whole mind on this concept.

While working on that, begin a simple affirmation in your head. "I am going to astral travel. I am going to leave my body." Say it in your head, over and over, while imagining you are on the other side of the room.

While you are doing this, you will begin to drift back to sleep. Slowly, your mind will begin to cloud. Make sure that the concept of standing elsewhere in your room is the last thing that goes through your mind before you are asleep.

You may experience one or more of the following sensations:

- Floating

- Sinking

- Vibrations

- A bright white/blue light

- A rushing or popping sound

- Strange noises; someone calling your name

- A jolt

If you experience one or more of these sensations for the first time, it may be frightening. But know that they are positive signs; signs that let you know you're about to project.

Almost always, upon feeling a strange sensation, the person trying to project gets such a fright that he/she is jolted back into their body. If this happens to you, allow yourself to fall asleep and try again the next night, knowing presently that there is nothing to fear.

If you find yourself outside your body, do not stay out for too long the first time. Float about your room, become used to the physics of the astral plane, and then will yourself back into your body.

Once you do, imagine the possibilities. Imagine being able to effectively part from your body and travel to another world where time, space, gravity and many other “laws” that exist in the 3rd dimension can no longer limit you. Imagine being able to tap into a sea of infinite wisdom, and use it to both elevate your spirituality, and your physical experience in tandem. It is believed astral projection can give you sensations, emotions, intuition and knowledge that you’d never otherwise have access to—and that’s why many call it the ultimate spiritual experience.

Suggested Further Readings:

1) Astral projection. (n.d.). Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7). Retrieved June 21, 2008, from Dictionary.com website.

2) http://www.skepdic.com/astralpr.html Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert Todd Carroll, article on Astral Projection, retrieved August 24, 2007.

3) Astral-Projections.com"Secret Guide To Instant Astral Projection

4) Journeys Out of the Body by Robert A. Monroe, p 60. Anchor Press, 1977.

5) Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc, 1999. p 25-27, 30-31

6) Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Mysteries (Chapter IV, The Constitution of Man: Vital Body - Desire Body - Mind), 1911, ISBN 0-911274-86-3

Author:

Anuj Srivastava

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