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Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’ve gotten interested in astral projection, and I’m planning on trying it sometime soon, but first I have a few questions. Is astral projection traveling into a spirit world like the afterlife? Where are you when you’re out of your body? If I were to try it with my friends, would we be able to meet up somewhere?
– Christine

Dear Christine:

Naturally, no one can give you definitive answers on the nature of metaphysical reality, so what I offer you here is based on what I’ve learned from others and experienced from projecting myself.

First, when we talk about other dimensions like the astral plane, using the term “where” is rather confusing. Instead of picturing these dimensions in some other place, we might imagine them as a different form of the space we are already familiar with.

Let’s say that the physical world is like ice, and when we raise the vibration/temperature of that ice, it melts and becomes water. It’s now fluid and we can see through it, though from the right angle, we can perceive its presence. This water is a bit like the etheric plane, which is one vibrational step above the physical.

When we heat the water further, it becomes a cloud of steam. It’s still there, but is now invisible to us. Where the water just pooled on the floor and the ice was stuck in one spot, the steam can travel to the ceiling and the highest, farthest corners of the room.

This is one way to conceptualize the etheric and astral planes, which are dimensions higher in vibration than the physical. They exist right here, only at a higher vibration. (There are higher planes than the etheric and astral, but for now, let’s stick with these three.)

Just as we have a physical body in the physical plane, we subtle bodies that exist in other planes. One step higher than the physical is our etheric body, and one step higher than that is our astral body. (These subtle bodies can be seen in our auras.)

The etheric plane is so close to the physical that those of us who generally have a high vibration are often aware of it. For example, whenever we catch a glimpse of a spirit in our peripheral vision or see an aura, we are perceiving things with our etheric eyes. This is why to see auras, we can’t be focused on both the person and their aura. When one is in focus, the other is out of focus because we are shifting our consciousness between our physical body and our etheric body.

Most of the time, what we call astral projection is actually etheric projection. When we project etherically, we become like the water mentioned above: we remain in the physical plane but step outside ourselves. Like water melting off of ice, we can look back at our bodies from a new perspective.

During etheric projection we seem to be in the physical reality we’re familiar with. For example, if we project while in our bedroom, we may separate from our body to find ourselves hovering above our body on the bed. We tend to feel very restricted during etheric projection, like we have to remain very close to our bodies. If we do travel, we won’t go far. We may feel lighter than we do physically, but still not be able to fly around like we’re weightless. This is sort of like being in a state between water and steam – if we try to go too far, we condense on surfaces and become water again.

Astral projection involves the transfer of our consciousness beyond the etheric to our astral body. This is much more difficult because it requires us to raise our consciousness to a higher vibration. (The higher the metaphysical dimension, the higher we must raise our consciousness to explore it.)

The astral may have many similarities to physical reality, but it can also seem wild and different. We are actually in the astral plane when we dream every night, so we are all quite familiar with the amazing and unusual things that can happen in this realm.

Yes, this does mean that we all project into the astral every night. In fact, while we’re sleeping, our consciousness shifts into our etheric bodies so we can recharge our life force energy. We’re sort of like ipods that can only run for so long before they need to be recharged; after we’ve played for hours, we have to plug back into Source.

After we’ve soaked up a good amount of energy via sleep, we can rise a bit higher in vibration and wander off in our astral bodies to have adventures. This is why REM activity picks up so much in the early morning hours: we’re charged up from all that deep sleep and ready for action.

The difference between a regular dream and astral projection is how conscious we are during the experience. If we purposefully leave our bodies to travel in the astral, we call it astral projection. If we remain conscious that we are out of our bodies and thus maintain some control over the experience, that’s astral projection. Obviously, this is not the case during regular dreams. In fact, experienced astral projectors have reported being in the astral and witnessing dreamers play out dream scenes, oblivious to the fact that they are dreaming.

The astral is indeed where many spirits reside, at least for a while. It may even be that spirits who have moved beyond the astral can visit with us there. Many people encounter loved ones in Spirit in their dreams, and some very experienced astral projectors purposefully leave their bodies to visit with the spirits of friends and family on a regular basis.

As for meeting up with friends who are also projecting, controlling where you go while out of the body can be both very tricky and very easy depending on various factors.

Making this happen via will power takes tremendous skill. For example, back when I practiced astral projection a lot, I would always set an intention to go visit someone I knew so I could later check to see if what I saw them doing was valid. Every time I got out of my body, however, I totally forgot about my plans because I was so caught up in the experience. Much to my later frustration, I spent a number of sessions endlessly springing up to touch the ceiling because I was totally fascinated with the feeling of being in my etheric body.

The easiest way to connect with a friend or spirit in the astral is to simply to set that intention and ask Spirit or your higher self to fulfill it. If you don’t achieve your goal while consciously projecting, odds are good you will at least have some amazing “dreams” that involve the person you want to visit.

The astral is like a newly discovered continent: we don’t have great maps yet, so we have to be willing to experiment to discover its nature and establish routes and meeting places. I believe that thanks to trailblazers like you, in the future we’ll have many more answers about the nature of other planes of existence, as well as reliable, effective ways to get out of our bodies and explore other worlds.

– Soul Arcanum

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