ASTRAL PROJECTION is one of the common phrases that describes when a person leaves their physical body and travels in the physical plane or the non-physical planes. Technically speaking, "ASTRAL" projection should only refer to trips that take place on a certain plane of existence, but as it's become commonly used to describe the entire experience, I will use it as such here as well, so when you see the word astral, please note that it is probably not the most correct use of it. I am certainly no expert in the field, my first-hand experience is quite limited. However I am an avid reader in this area and I have built a strong and thorough understanding of the experience, that I created from finding similiar and identical concepts in a multitude of books, stories, first hand accounts, etc. I also bring a lot of my own theories to the table that are created from both my creative and logical half.
I have decided to divide this article up into the following sections, I put them into scientific catagories as I thought it would help people unfamiliar to the idea to identify with it more.
Geography - where the hell am I and where do I go from here?
Physiology - I feel allright, but i'm pretty sure I don't have
a head at the moment.
Psychology - how not to lose your mind, and what do those things
over there think of me?.
Zoology - What the hell is that, and can it eat me?
Summary Charts - for the graphically minded people, like
myself.
Depending on "where" you go, this can be quite confusing. Let's start with the overall.
there seems to be seven "worlds" out there. The lowest being our physical. What do I mean by lowest? Essentially I mean the most "physical". I have never heard of someone speaking of a world more physical then ours. And I think it unlikely, if not impossible. And if it does exist, than most likely, nothing lives or can live there.
As far as I have been able to determine there has never been any true bleed-over between these worlds (conciousness moves between them, but I think that is more a shifting of focus, than moving.) Except for the connection between the physical and the etheric. The physical is physical, the astral is astral, etc.
Ok, these are the various worlds (domains, levels, dimensions, planes, etc etc etc etc)
1) PHYSICAL:
If you don't know this one.... you've got more problems than I know how to deal with.
1.5) ETHERIC:
The etheric is an extension of the physical, it is those things that affect our world, but
don't seem to be "in" it. light, magnetism, and ghosts are things that appear to
exist here. Also when someone leaves their body but remains "in" the physical
plane, this is where they are. It does not really seem to be a plane unto itself, it seems
more to be somewhere 'halfway' between the physical and astral planes.
2) ASTRAL:
The astral plane is the next plane. It is the first place that people normally go when
they die (unless you consider the etheric a plane). It is also where we dream. It is a
seemingly endless place. Everything is affected or changed by thought and emotions. The
dreams we have are created their by our subconscious. It is sometimes considered the plane
of lower and middle emotions.
3) MENTAL:
4) BUDDHIC:
5, 6, and 7) {MULTIPLE NAMES}:
There are some descriptions about planes above the buddhic, but I have not found a good
correlation between stories as I have in the earlier planes. Except for the fact that when
you start going higher you come to a place/state of mind in which you are closer to the
creator. Identity of self is lost in this even more so than the buddhic. It might be that
in our current state, we can't really understand much of these areas.
As stated in the Geography section, there are about 7 "worlds". On each world we have a different body. Yet each one is connected to the other, and truly not seperate. If this pisses off the logical part of your brain, read up on hyperdimensional physics (i have an article i wrote on it in my science stuff section too).
The physical body is, of course, the most recognizable to us. It is a very complicated mix of bones, nerves, muscle, skin, organs, and all kinds of other stuff. The components in the other bodies appears to be much simpler. most of them appear to be comprised of a relatively small number of pure energies.
All of the other bodies also appear to be comprised of as much thought as energy. each of them, from numerous accounts, can be manipulated at will. shapeshifting, in a manner of speaking. I have heard many stories of people becoming animals, other people, even inantimate objects.
The astral and the etheric at times seem to be a completely different body. But many believe that they are actually one in the same. When you are in the 'etheric' you are in the astral body. The only difference is that the astral body has taken on more matter. The more matter, the closer it is to the physical. There are some techniques that are claimed to allow someone to have a more 'physical' experience.
It is also sometimes believed that after a certain point (higher on the planes) the idea of having a body becomes pointless. You would become more of a moving point of view. I have read some stories of people traveling on the lower planes with no body, this seems possible to me, as it seems the only reason we have a body in these realms is to make our conscious selves feel more secure.
On the lower levels things seem to mimic the physical more closely. A good example of this is sex. In regular and lucid dreams, which generally takes place on the lower end of the astral, people have experiences of sex with other entities or thoughtforms in a physical sense. While most people who claim to have been on a higher part of the astral (or higher plane) claim the experience was more like a sharing of energy and not really resembling the physical act.
The psychology of the projecting person is very useful to understand when trying to project. It is not unlike dreaming. the dreaming mind is very different from our everyday mind, it seems to think differently. I have always believed that dreams take place more in another body, possibly the etheric, or astral. Many projection accounts seem to support this, I have read many stories of people waking from a dream into their astral or etheric bodies to find they were acting out the dream in that body.
There are a plethora of creatues in the various dimensions. Most can't harm you at all, some can hurt you psychologically if you are not prepared, but I have yet to hear of a first hand account of someone being directly hurt by any being there, in any severe or permanent way.
There are a few types of "creatures" that can exist in these worlds:
thought-forms:
these are "beings" that are not self-aware. They are created by an entity, by
the force of their thoughts. These creatures are usually quite unresponsive, and behave
not unlike a robot. They do what they are created to do, and incapable of any true
thought. It may however, be possible to create a thought form that is self-aware, I've
heard of such things and it seems to me if something like this is created it no longer
falls into this catagory but into one of those below. you can usually sense a thought-form
is less there than other beings, but if you are not that sensitive, you can usually see it
in their eyes and expression.
"astral" travellers:
Ok, if you're out here, then likely you will run into other people. Some may be unaware of
what is going on. The easiest way to deal with them is to ignore them and move on, dealing
with someone who is not aware has a tendancy to pull you down a bit on the awareness.
however if it is someone you know, or you just want to talk to someone, you can try to
"wake" them up. This can be hard to do, and chances are, you will just startle
them and they will go straight back to their physical bodies. The bodies can have an
infinite variety to them, an "astral" traveller can have a normal human body, an
animal body, a body of a mythological creature, anything they can imagine. However there
is usually a familiarity to such "people" no matter how they look.
Guides:
Nearly everyone who projects regularly, says they have a guide. They come in any shape and
size. They sometimes seem to be the same as us, but just more advanced. Possibly they were
all people at one point and have just gotten farther along spiritually. It seems almost as
if they are our guardian angels, everyone seems to have at least one that is
"assigned" to them. If you are having problems with projecting of any sort, it's
not a bad idea at all to ask for your guides assistance. They have been known to literally
try to pull people out of their bodies, offer words of encouragement and wisdom, and
protect people in seemingly dangerous situations.
Ghosts:
Let's define this word first. I define a ghost as someone who had a physical life and,
upon losing that life refuse to let go of it.There are some other things to consider here,
it is possible that some or even most "ghosts" are actually strong thoughtforms
that people have created before, during, or after dying. This would coincide with the
tendancy of ghosts to be single minded to an extreme, acting out there death and/or doing
things that they habitually did while alive.