Astral projection; lucid dreaming; out-of-body experiences; near-death experiences and even sleep-paralysis. These are some common descriptions of phenomena that hold one thing in common. The person experiencing these things seems to be detached from their normal everyday body while retaining full conscious awareness.
It is my own experience that leads me to think that all these things are one and the same. When I first learned how to “astral travel”, I would leave my body to lie in it’s place while I adventured around my neighborhood. It did not take me long to realize that I could fly in this state so that became my preferred way of exploring the world. As the rest of the world slept, I would be swooping through the night skies above. If you haven’t done this yourself, I can barely describe how delightful and real the experience is. At that time, I believed that my soul was actually separated from my body and flying around in the real world.
I would do the visualization exercises required while I lay in bed. Many times I would drift off to sleep but once or twice a week, I would successfully get “out and about”. After a short time, I began to notice glitches in the world around me. Sometimes something small, like a brass latch on a door that I knew to have a wooden knob. Or sometimes something larger, like a building in a place that there shouldn’t be one. I soon learned that if I gave these things attention, my astral foray would transform into a lucid dream. In other words, what I had thought to be the real world in my astral travels turned out to be a imperfect simulation of the so-called, “real world”.
Also, because both astral travelling and lucid dreams occurred on that knife-edge between sleep and wakefulness, I discovered that both of these alternate worlds existed in my own imagination.
“Aha!”, I hear you say. “If it’s just your imagination, then it’s not even real.”
The problem with this line of thinking is revealed by the use of the word, “Just”. It shows a sort of arrogance brought about by the assumption that you know what “Real” is.
Anyway, philosophy aside, I will tell you the technique that works for me to achieve this out-of-body experience.
First of all, I find it works best after a good night’s sleep. If you try it upon first going to bed, chances are you will fall into regular sleep because you are tired. So pick a time when you can awaken naturally but still lay in bed.
Lay flat on your back, close your eyes and begin to relax all of your muscles. Start with your toes and gradually work your way “up” through your feet; your ankles; calves; thighs and buttocks’. Tell yourself that you no longer exist below the waist. Withdraw your consciousness from your legs until they feel like senseless blocks of wood. Now relax your fingers; hands; wrists; arms, first lower then upper, followed by your shoulders. Like with your legs, withdraw your awareness of them and consider them lifeless. You now consist only of your torso and your head. Now put your attention down to your waist and do the same with the muscles in your belly and chest and pay special attention to your back. Feel the vertebrae fall loosely to the mattress below. Withdraw your consciousness out of your body until it too is no more than a block of wood. You now consist of only your head. Now relax your neck muscles. Continue to the back of the head and then around the ears. Now relax all the muscles in your face paying special attention to those around your eyes. Now withdraw your consciousness from your head. It too is now just a senseless block of wood. You now consist of only a mathematical point of awareness floating in the void.
The next step is harder to master but is very powerful once you do. In your minds eye, picture the ceiling above you. Do not open your eyes! Just imagine it. Now, in your imagination, spin around your horizontal axis. The direction doesn’t matter. Feel and see yourself turning to face the edge of the ceiling and then the wall to your side followed by the floor beneath your bed and continuing around to the opposite wall and then back to the ceiling. Practice this as many times as you can slowly until you can really feel like you are actually doing it. It may take several sessions to make the experience feel real to you. When it does, speed things up! Spin in place as fast as you can imagine and then through an act of deliberate will, float up toward the ceiling. Once you sense that the ceiling is close to you. Stop spinning.
You’re out!
The first few times you accomplish this, you may see your body laying on the bed below and you will fix your attention on it. After all, it’s a novel experience. However there is a powerful pull for you to return to that body and giving it attention strengthens that pull. You will then “snap” back into it. The sensation of this is exactly like waking up from a lucid dream. You may feel like you failed at that point but it’s okay. The most serious roadblock is now gone. Now you know that it is possible to do and you know you can do it again.
Whatever label we give to this experience, it is your individual awareness being separated from your physical body. It is you visiting another world. It is a world where your rational mind is diminished but where your true spirit shines. It is the underworld. A place where seeds can be planted that will sprout and grow into this reality. It is both a playground and a school. Once you have access to this underworld, you may find it useful to plan your excursions ahead of time and set up experiments such as remote viewing a real place in this world or communicating with different types of entities. You imagination really is the limit.