Astral Projection, as defined on the official Btvs site, is the theory that while one sleeps one has another body -- an astral body -- that can travel through time and space.

Did that definition only pique your interest? Do you want to find out more? If you don't, stop reading here :) Astral projection is also referred to as out of body experience, and these are events in which one's consciousness (or astral body) is separated from one's physical body. This is often experienced by people who have near death experances.

People who have had out of body experiences usually describe one or many of the following things:
-seeing their own physical bodies
-having "ghostly" bodies that can pass through solid objects
-seeing their ghostly bodies
-floating or flying
-seeing places or events out of their eyesight

If you don't believe in near death experiences, you may want to do some reading on the subject. The reports are astoundingly similar, and patients can often describe details occurring during the time they were unconscious that they couldn't possibly have known any other way. An example follows:

"I heard a whooshing sound in my ears," he told the doctor. "I felt like you feel when you go over a bump in a car going real fast and you feel your stomach drop out. The next thing I knew, I was in a room, crouched in a corner of the ceiling. I could see my body below me. . . . I could see doctors and nurses working on me. My doctor was there and so was Sandy, one of the nurses. I heard Sandy say 'I wish we didn't have to do this.' I wondered what they were doing. I saw a doctor put jelly on my chest. My hair was really messed up. It seemed greasy, and I wished that I had washed my hair before coming to the hospital. They had cut my clothes off, but my pants were still on. I heard a doctor say, 'Stand back,' and then he pushed a button on one of the paddles. Suddenly I was back inside my body. One minute I was looking down at my face. I could see the tops of the doctors' heads. After he pushed that button, I was suddenly looking into a doctor's face."

Many people try to do astral projection themselves, instead of being thrown into it by an near-death experience. According to DeGracia, the factors that affect one's ability to have out-of-body experiences are:
-intelligence
-personality
-emotional make up
-social upbringing
-belief systems

The two main ways of inducing an out-of-body experience are becoming lucid in a dream or putting yourself into a trance. There is also a third way which involves visualization.

The term lucid dream refers to a dream in which you know you are dreaming. To help induce a lucid dream, it is recommended that you ask yourself "Am I dreaming?" frequently throughout the day (about every 15 min) in hopes that you'll continue asking yourself that question during sleep. When you're aware that you're dreaming, you can wake out of the dream and have an out-of-body experience.

For people who aren't convinced that their experience was real, there is a different method which does not use dreams as an intermediary device. This is called trance method. Someone who would like to do astral projection should relax and try to put the body to sleep while the mind remains alert. You can think of anything you want as long as you stay alert. It is said that the best time to try this is right after awakening, when you can make your body stay in a relaxed state.

The third method requires great focus and concentration.
1)The first thing that must be done is to relax the physical body, because if it isn't relaxed, you'll be thinking about it too much. One method for doing this is to tighten each muscle until it is slightly fatigued, and then to let it go and relax.
2) The next and most important thing is to focus the mind. The best state of mind is one that is quiet, passive, receptive and observant. This makes it easier to visualize images for longer periods of time.
3) The next step is to wander to the edge of consciousness. Start falling asleep, wake up...and make sure you're really awake...then start to fall asleep again, this time going further towards sleep. Do this until the body is very relaxed and the mind is passive.
4) Next, visualize a small object (a sphere or something) about six feet in front of you. When you can see the object clearly, visualize it swinging just a tiny bit toward you, then swinging away. Slowly increase the distance the object sways. Feel the object pulling your astral body as it swings away. As the object swings very close, grab hold of it with your mind and let your consciousness be pulled with it as it swings away.

After you are separated from your physical bodies, there are many different possibilities to explore. If anyone has read The Body Snatcher by Anne Rice, you might get some ideas from that. Anyways, if you do manage to do this, have fun. Don't ask me about it, this is all just research and and not experience :)

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Tyler Uebele's essay on Astral Projection
The Mind Travel Plus Homepage

© Copyright Sabrina Wish 1998