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What Is Astral Projection?
While we’d love to give you a specific answer, even the practitioners of astral projection haven’t agreed on one true definition.
For some, it’s nothing more than lucid dreaming. For others, it’s an experience that’s just as real as taking a walk outside your house. And, though a lot of people can vouch for either definition, it’s hard to confirm which one is true as most practitioners can only cite anecdotal evidence. On top of that, different cultures and religions have different ideas on astral projection, so its meaning can really vary from person to person.
However, while the complete definition does vary, most practitioners can agree on what the basic experience of it is. Essentially, astral projection is an out-of-body experience where the astral self (or the soul) separates from the physical body and travels on the astral plane, the part of reality where souls reside.
While you’re there, you can do a bunch of things that you can’t do on the physical or material plane, which is the part of reality where we reside most of the time. For one, you can make contact with other souls on the plane or even other kinds of beings like angels. You can even travel to wherever you want as you’re no longer contained by physical limits.
But, as amazing as those abilities sound, being a soul on the astral plane doesn’t make you all-powerful. When you’re existing as just your astral self, you won’t be able to interact with anything in the physical or material plane. On top of that, any movement in the material plane can actually pull you back into your physical body. This just goes to show how fragile astral projection can be.
That being said, with limits like those, you might start to wonder why people perform astral projections at all. But, as you’ll soon learn, performing astral projections can actually lead to some positive changes in your life.
Why Do People Perform Astral Projections?
While astral projection may not necessarily lead to any practical positive change, a lot of practitioners continue to swear by the practice due to how it can change your mindset and your relationship with spirituality.
As the existence of the astral self suggests life after death, a lot of practitioners have taken comfort in the idea that they’ll continue to exist past their physical deaths. Also, the idea of an immortal existence has helped give meaning to a lot of people’s lives as a larger existence provides context to the actions that they take in their current lives. On top of all of that, the practice has also helped people surpass mental limits like lingering fears due to a wider understanding of reality.
While none of these benefits is explicitly practical, they all help enrich the everyday experience and help people lead better lives. With all that being said, though, there is one practical reason why people choose astral projection over other similar practices – it’s safe.
Reports of astral projections gone wrong seem to be limited to the occasional scare or to the exacerbation of latent mental health problems. But, other than that, there doesn’t seem to be any other dangers to the practice. In fact, there haven't even been any reports of deaths or bodily harm due to astral projection.
That being said, even if you’re assured of your safety with the practice, it’s still important to understand how the practice is properly done.
How To Astral Project
Unfortunately, learning how to perform astral projection is easier said than done. Just as there are many different definitions for the term, there’s also an uncountable number of techniques for astral projection. But, at their core, these techniques are just variations of the same set of steps that aim to bring the body to a relaxed state while keeping the mind conscious, with the only difference lying in the specifics of the process.
With all that being said, though, it’s still not as simple as choosing whichever technique you want. In fact, even though entire books have been written on these techniques, not one can serve as a foolproof guide as the effectiveness of each technique varies from person to person. For some people, guided meditations with narration and music work best. For others, it’s lucid dreaming techniques. You can try both of those out for yourself, but you’re still going to have to experiment to see which technique will work best for you.
If you’re having trouble performing astral projections, though, you can always turn to depictions of the practice in a film like Dr. Strange for help. Though it does exaggerate some aspects of astral projection, it’s pretty accurate according to a practitioner from the astral projection Reddit board:
“Some of the projection scenes are surprisingly accurate, especially his first projection at the temple place (they even got the vortex right, although the one I see is white not colorful).”
Of course, some of you might find it suspect that the best visual guide to astral projection is seen in a fictional movie as opposed to a documentary based in reality. For as accurate as the portrayal is, it does beg a very important question.
Is Astral Projection Real?
It’s hard to say for sure.
On one hand, there isn’t any hard, scientific evidence that astral projection is real. And, though a study has shown that there’s a biological basis for the out-of-body experience, there still isn’t any solid evidence for the existence of the astral self or the different planes of reality.
On the other hand, though, there has to be some truth to astral projection given how widespread the practice is. If it truly weren’t real, it would’ve probably died out a long time ago. Plus, it’s also possible that we just don’t have the proper equipment yet for studying astral projections scientifically.
However, at the end of the day, it’s really your call whether you choose to believe in it or not. At this point, given what we know, it’s really just a matter of whether you believe in those who have done it before.
Conclusion
While we may never know if astral projection is truly real, we do know that it’s a practice that has helped improve the lives of millions of people. And, seeing as there aren’t any inherent dangers to the practice, it can’t hurt to try it out at least once.
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