Astral projection

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"The Separation of the Spirit Body" from The Secret of the Golden Flower, a Chinese handbook on alchemy and meditation

Astral projection (also known as astral travel, soul journey, soul wandering, spiritual journey, spiritual travel) is a term used in

physical body and travel throughout the astral plane.[2][3][4]

The idea of astral travel is ancient and occurs in multiple cultures. The term "astral projection" was coined and promoted by 19th-century

Theosophists.[2] It is sometimes associated with dreams and forms of meditation.[5] Some individuals have reported perceptions similar to descriptions of astral projection that were induced through various hallucinogenic and hypnotic means (including self-hypnosis). There is no scientific evidence that there is a consciousness whose embodied functions are separate from normal neural activity or that one can consciously leave the body and make observations of the physical universe,[6] and astral projection has been characterized as a pseudoscience.[7]

Accounts

Ancient Egyptian

ka, or subtle body.[8]

Indigenous traditions

Amazon

The yaskomo of the

newborn baby, flying to the cave of peccaries' mountains to ask the father of peccaries for abundance of game, or flying deep down into a river to seek the aid of other beings.[9]

Inuit

In some

mythological) remote places, and report their experiences and important matters back to their community. Those abilities would be unavailable to individuals with normal capabilities.[10] Among other things, an angakkuq was said to have the ability to stop bad hunting luck or heal a sick person.[11][12]

Hindu

Similar ideas such as the

Yogavashishta-Maharamayana of Valmiki.[8] Modern Indians who have vouched for astral projection include Paramahansa Yogananda who witnessed Swami Pranabananda doing a miracle through a possible astral projection.[13]

The Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba described one's use of astral projection:

In the advancing stages leading to the beginning of the path, the aspirant becomes spiritually prepared for being entrusted with free use of the forces of the inner world of the astral bodies. He may then undertake astral journeys in his astral body, leaving the physical body in sleep or wakefulness. The astral journeys that are taken unconsciously are much less important than those undertaken with full consciousness and as a result of deliberate volition. This implies conscious use of the astral body. Conscious separation of the astral body from the outer vehicle of the gross body has its own value in making the soul feel its distinction from the gross body and in arriving at fuller control of the gross body. One can, at will, put on and take off the external gross body as if it were a cloak and use the astral body for experiencing the inner world of the astral and for undertaking journeys through it, if and when necessary. . . . The ability to undertake astral journeys therefore involves considerable expansion of one's scope for experience. It brings opportunities for promoting one's own spiritual advancement, which begins with the

involution of consciousness.[14]

Astral projection is one of the

self-disciplined practice. In the epic Mahabharata, Drona
leaves his physical body to see if his son is alive.

The ikiryō as illustrated by Toriyama Sekien.

Japanese

In Japanese mythology, an ikiryō (生霊, also read as shōryō, seirei, or ikisudama) is a manifestation of the soul of a living person separately from their body.[15] Traditionally, if someone holds a sufficient grudge against another person, it is believed that a part or the whole of their soul can temporarily leave their body and appear before the target of their hate in order to curse or otherwise harm them, similar to an evil eye. Souls are also believed to leave a living body when the body is extremely sick or comatose; such ikiryō are not malevolent.[16]

Taoist

Taoist alchemical practice involves creation of an energy body by breathing meditations, drawing energy into a 'pearl' that is then circulated.[17]

Taoist sleeping on the ground woke up. The two merged into one.[18]

Judaic and Christian

Book of Ecclesiastes is often cited in this respect: "Before the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be shattered at the fountain, or the wheel be broken at the cistern."[21] Rabbi Nosson Scherman, however, contends that the context points to this being merely a metaphor, comparing the body to a machine, with the silver cord referring to the spine.[22]

James Hankins argues that Paul's

third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows."[24]

Western esoteric

According to the classical, medieval, renaissance

Theosophist and Rosicrucian thought, the 'astral body' is an intermediate body of light linking the rational soul to the physical body while the astral plane is an intermediate world of light between Heaven and Earth, composed of the spheres of the planets and stars. These astral spheres were held to be populated by angels, demons, and spirits.[25][26]

In the Neoplatonism of

Eliphas Levi
, whence it was adopted and developed further by Theosophy, and used afterwards by other esoteric movements.

The

planes of existence are depicted as a series of concentric circles or nested spheres, with a separate body traversing each realm.[29]

Terminology

The expression "astral projection" came to be used in two different ways. For the

Theosophists,[31] it retained the classical and medieval philosophers' meaning of journeying to other worlds, heavens, hells, the astrological spheres and other landscapes in the body of light; but outside these circles the term was increasingly applied to non-physical travel around the physical world.[32]

Though this usage continues to be widespread, the term, "etheric travel", used by some later Theosophists, offers a useful distinction. Some experimenters 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. Robert Monroe describes the former type of projection as "Locale I" or the "Here-Now", involving people and places that exist:[33] Robert Bruce calls it the "Real Time Zone" (RTZ) and describes it as the non-physical dimension-level closest to the physical.[34] 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.[35]

According to

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.[36]

Other experiments 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.[37]

The astral environment may also be divided into levels or sub-planes by theorists, but there are many different views in various traditions concerning the overall structure of the astral planes: they may include heavens and hells and other after-death spheres, transcendent environments, or other less-easily characterized states.[33][35][37]

Notable practitioners

My Religion, Helen Keller tells of her beliefs in Swedenborgianism
and how she once traveled astrally to Athens:

I have been far away all this time, and I haven't left the room...It was clear to me that it was because I was a spirit that I had so vividly 'seen' and felt a place a thousand miles away. Space was nothing to spirit![38]

In occult traditions, practices range from inducing trance states to the mental construction of a second body, called the "body of light" by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), through visualization and controlled breathing, followed by the transfer of consciousness to the secondary body by a mental act of will.[39][40]

There are many 20th-century publications on astral projection, although only a few writers continue to be cited. These include Edgar Cayce (1877–1945), Hereward Carrington (1880–1958),[41] Oliver Fox (1885–1949),[42] Sylvan Muldoon (1903–1969),[43] and Robert Monroe (1915–1995).[44]

Robert Monroe's accounts of journeys to other realms (1971–1994) popularized the term "OBE" and were translated into a large number of languages. Though his books themselves only placed secondary importance on descriptions of method, Monroe also founded

altered states of consciousness.[44]

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) discusses his teacher Don Juan's beliefs about "the double" and its abilities in his books Tales of Power (1974), The Second Ring of Power (1977), and The Art of Dreaming (1993).[45] Florinda Donner, a student of Castaneda, further describes methods of using the double to access the physical world while dreaming and access the dream world while in a waking dream state in her 1992 book, Being-in-Dreaming.[46]

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) gives lengthy and detailed explanations and experience of astral projection in his 1988 non-fiction book Travels. Robert Bruce,[47] William Buhlman,[48] Marilynn Hughes,[49] and Albert Taylor[50] have discussed their theories and findings on the syndicated show Coast to Coast AM several times.

Scientific reception

There is no known scientific evidence that astral projection as an objective phenomenon exists,[6][7][4] although there are cases of patients having experiences suggestive of astral projection from brain stimulation treatments and hallucinogenic drugs, such as ketamine, phencyclidine, and DMT.[4] Subjects in parapsychological experiments have attempted to project their astral bodies to distant rooms and see what was happening. However, such experiments have not produced clear results.[51]

Psychologist

Donovan Rawcliffe wrote that astral projection can be explained by delusion, hallucination, and vivid dreams.[52] Arthur W. Wiggins wrote that purported evidence of the ability to astrally travel great distances and give descriptions of places visited is predominantly anecdotal and considers astral travel an illusion. He looks to neuroanatomy, prior knowledge, and human belief and imagination to provide prosaic explanations for those who experience it.[53] Robert Todd Carroll writes that the main evidence to support claims of astral travel is anecdotal and comes "in the form of testimonials of those who claim to have experienced being out of their bodies when they may have been out of their minds."[54]

See also

  • Bilocation – Alleged supernatural ability to be in two places at once
  • Dream yoga – Tibetan meditation practice
  • Eckankar – Religious movement founded in 1965 by Paul Twitchell
  • Hypnagogia – State of consciousness leading into sleep
  • Lucid dream – Dream where one is aware that one is dreaming
  • Luminous mind – Term used in Buddhist doctrine
  • Merkabah mysticism – School of early Jewish mysticism
  • Remote viewing – Pseudoscientific concept
  • Scrying – Practice of seeking visions in a reflective surface
  • Simulated reality
     – Hypothesis that reality could be a computer simulation
  • Sleep paralysis – Sleeping disorder
  • Tattva vision – Subject related to ESP
  • Teleportation – Transfer between two points
  • Worship of heavenly bodies – Worship of stars and other heavenly bodies as deities
  • Yoga nidra – State of consciousness between waking and sleeping induced by a guided meditation

References

Citations

  1. ^ Myers 2014, p. 52.
  2. ^ a b Crow 2012.
  3. ^ "Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, Preview Edition", Dictionary.com, n.d., archived from the original on 31 July 2016, retrieved 9 July 2016
  4. ^ a b c Park 2008, pp. 90–91.
  5. ^ Zusne & Jones 1989, p. [page needed].
  6. ^ a b Regal 2009, p. 29: "Other than anecdotal eyewitness accounts, there is no known evidence of the ability to astral project, the existence of other planes, or of the Akashic Record."
  7. ^ a b Hines 2003, pp. 103–106.
  8. ^ a b Melton 1996
  9. ^ Fock 1963, p. 16.
  10. ^ Hoppál 1975, p. 228.
  11. ^ Kleivan & Sonne 1985, pp. 7–8, 12, 23–24, 26–31.
  12. ^ Merkur 1985, pp. 4–6.
  13. ^ Wikisource:Autobiography of a Yogi/Chapter 3
  14. ^ Meher Baba 1967, pp. 90, 91.
  15. ^ Clarke 2000, p. 247.
  16. ^ Chopra 2005, p. 144.
  17. ^ Chia 2007, pp. 89ff.
  18. ^ Erzeng 2007, pp. 207–209.
  19. ^ Muldoon & Carrington 1929, p. [page needed].
  20. ^ Peterson 2013, chapters 5, 17, 22.
  21. ^ Ecclesiastes 12:6
  22. ^ Scherman 2011, p. 1150.
  23. ^ Hankins 2003.
  24. ^ 2 Corinthians 12:2
  25. ^ Dodds in Proclus 1963, Appendix.
  26. ^ Pagel 1967, pp. 147–148.
  27. ^ Gregory 1991, p. 12.
  28. ^ Gregory 1991, pp. 15–16.
  29. ^ Besant 1897, p. [page needed].
  30. ^ Cicero & Cicero 2003, p. [page needed].
  31. ^ Powell 1927, p. 7.
  32. ^ Judge 1893, ch. 5.
  33. ^ a b Monroe 1977, p. 60.
  34. ^ Bruce 1999, pp. 25–27, 30–31.
  35. ^ a b Bruce 1999, p. [page needed].
  36. ^ Heindel 1911, p. [page needed].
  37. ^ a b Monroe 1985, p. [page needed].
  38. ^ Keller 1927, p. 33.
  39. ^ Greer 1967.
  40. ^ Crowley 1988, ch. XIII: "The Body of Light, Its Power and Development".
  41. ^ Pettit 2013, p. 93.
  42. ^ DeKorne 2011, p. 11.
  43. ^ Rickard & Michell 2007, pp. 106, 123–4.
  44. ^ a b Biddle & Thompson 2013, p. 176.
  45. ^ Kramer & Larkin 1993, pp. 74–85.
  46. ^ Donner 1992.
  47. ^ "Robert Bruce – Biography & Interviews". Coast to Coast AM.
  48. ^ "William Buhlman – Biography & Interviews". Coast to Coast AM.
  49. ^ "Marilynn Hughes – Biography & Interviews". Coast to Coast AM.
  50. ^ "Albert Taylor – Biography & Interviews". Coast to Coast AM.
  51. ^ Blackmore 1991.
  52. ^ Rawcliffe 1987, p. 123.
  53. ^ Wynn, Wiggins & Harris 2001, pp. 95ff.
  54. ^ Carroll 2003, p. 33ff.

Works cited

Further reading