My Personal Experience on the Astral Plane


NOTE: The original, traditional term, "astral projection," is known to some people today as an "out-of-body experience," or OBE. I shall however, keep with tradition and preserve the traditional terminology of "astral projection" throughout this section.



When we are asleep, we all astral project at times; we are just unaware of it. However, to "willfully and consciously" astral project with pure conscious intention and purpose is quite another matter.

I have "willfully and consciously" astral projected several times. One of my most memorable events was my first "willful and conscious" experience.

I was renting a mountain cabin, perched on a cliff 3,000 feet above Santa Barbara. It was a time in my life when I had the time and place to learn and experiment in occult matters. One night, while laying on my bed, I left my body. I felt a thousand tingling sensations everywhere. The air was a fine, gray, misty, ether-like substance. It seemed like I could actually see the molecules in the air. I felt the sensation that everything was in fast motion. Although I suspected I was out of my body, I was unsure. I didn't look back at my body because I never thought to do that; instead, I thought I would put this experience (experiment?) to a test.

I will never forget the emotional feeling I felt when I put my hand through the door of the cabin. Then, with great excitement, I stepped though the door and onto the deck. I stood there and looked down at the city lights off in the distance, three thousand feet below. I thought, 'Now comes the real test.' In a leap of faith, literally, I closed my eyes and leaped off the end of the deck like Superman. With outstretched arms, I felt myself soaring up into the sky. A few seconds later, I opened my eyes and saw myself high above the mountain canyon. 'Wow! It really is true!' I thought, excitedly.

I stopped ascending and hovered in the air for a moment, looking down at the tiny lights of the city, wondering, 'What should I do now?' Maybe search for people I know and see how they are doing? Then I looked up and saw the moon above me and thought, 'I will fly to the moon.'

Up I soared, but as I flew higher and higher, I started feeling a little apprehensive. High in the atmosphere, I entered some clouds, became disoriented, then somewhat scared. It was at that very moment when I felt scared that I returned to my body. What seemed like a split second later, I awoke with a start. For the next hour or so, I laid on my bed in wonderment and tried to process in my mind what I had just experienced.

 

Several days later, I was able to "willfully and consciously" leave my body again. This time,'I will visit somebody — I will visit my Mother,' I thought, 'then I will call her afterwards and describe what she was doing and wearing to prove I had visited her.' What a great idea! I thought. So off I flew, again, like Superman.

I headed east, traveling at a leisurely pace about 50 feet off the ground. I remember looking down at the ground below, passing over some agricultural fields. The people (Mexican migrant workers?) working in the fields below looking up at me as I flew overhead.

I soon realized I would never reach my (Indiana) destination traveling at the speed I was currently traveling, so I "thought" to myself to speed up and instantly my speed picked up dramatically.

A few moments later (about half way to my destination?) I heard a noise in the far distance. My pace slowed. As I started paying more attention to this continuous noise, I wondered,'What is that noise?' Suddenly, I came to a stop. Now the noise was in my ears. What was it? I wondered. Then, what seemed like a split second, I zoomed way back into my body.

I awoke with a great start and a jolt! My alarm clock was ringing on the table next to my pillow and it was loud. It was 6:00am. I immediately reached over and turned the alarm off and then laid there in total shock and amazement for the next several minutes. As I laid there, I reflected on where I had just been, what I had seen, and what I was attempting to do. I felt a great disappointment that my experience had been interrupted because of my stupid alarm clock.

"Why feel disappointed?" you may ask. "You succeeded in astral projecting."

Yes, that's true, but it's not easy to "willfully and consciously" astral project like I had just experienced. It's quite a difficult task to accomplish correctly; in fact, all of my previous attempts (with one exception) had resulted in failure.

Anyway, those were two, happy, good "conscious" Astral Projection experiences. I had several more after that, but the first ones are always the most memorable.

Now I want to tell you about the one astral projection experience that changed my opinion of Astral Projection and the Astral Plane forever.

UPDATE: 19 JULY 2008. I found my actual written account of my next astral projection experience below.

20 June 1983, 1:15am.
About a year later, I had left my mountain cabin and I was living in the city of Santa Barbara. I was reading Edgar Cayce on Atlantis before retiring for the night. I laid in my bed and closed my eyes. A few relaxing minutes later I drifted into that space between consciousness and sleep. My body was completely relaxed; it felt very light. I floated (rolled) towards the side of the bed in hopes of rolling off the bed (this was my technique to get out of my body) but instead I floated upwards.

My body was vibrating and tingling. I opened my eyes and found myself sitting up in my bed. It was difficult at first but I managed to pull myself out of the bed and stand up. My body was vibrating very heavily as I left the bed. At that moment I knew I was in the astral. The room was brighter than normal and the air was ether-like. I turned to look at my body laying in my bed and saw a lumpy object under the covers. Instead of confirming my body's presence in my bed, I decided to walk through the bedroom wall; that would confirm everything, like it had that memorable night at my mountain cabin.

I succeeded in placing my hands through the wall so now I was sure I had "willfully and consciously" successfully astral projected. I thought I would visit the people in the house and tell them what they were doing so I could prove that I had astral projected. Then, just as I was about to walk through the door, someone or something grabbed my neck from behind. Something was holding me back. Whoever or whatever it was, had me by my throat, as if trying to strangle me.

I turned and fell to the floor. I tried to get up but all my efforts were in vain. Suddenly, I couldn't breath. I started making sounds as if I was choking, albeit I felt no pain or suffering. 'Something is very wrong,' I thought, scared. I turned and tried to crawl back to my bed but I still could not move; The only thing I could manage to do was turn my head and see the foot of my bed.

I intuitively felt whoever or whatever was holding me down was trying to "KILL" me, or something must be wrong with my physical body. I was scared, very scared. I wanted to return to my physical body. But I couldn't move.

After struggling with this strange paralysis and choke hold for what seemed like about 10 seconds, I finally decided to just completely relax and "will" myself back to my body. A few seconds later, I felt the weight of my physical body. I woke up and immediately felt my face. I remember recalling my name to be sure it was still me inside my body. It was.

Never had such a heavy, solid matter (my body) felt so good. I awoke scared and relieved at the same time. Although it is said that there is a thin, silky thread that connects our astral body to our physical body, I have never seen it, so I have my doubts as to its existence, but nevertheless, had my astral body been severed (somehow someway) from my physical body, that would have been the end of my life on this physical plane; my physical body would have died. People would have said I mysteriously died in my sleep.

I never "willfully and consciously" astral projected again.

Lesson: To "willfully and consciously" astral project is dangerous. When we "unconsciously" astral project, which we do all the time when we are asleep, unbeknownst to us, we have with us (for lack of a better word) "spirit guide(s)." These guides are with us to protect us during our adventures. However, when you "willfully and consciously" leave your body, these (your?) spirit guide(s) are not necessarily around to protect you, hence, you expose yourself to the dangers that inhabit the astral plane, and there are a lot of bad/evil-minded entities on the other side (more on that later.)

I think what may have happened to me was that some astral entity was trying to take over or possess my physical body. Could this be how someone can become "possessed?" Maybe this idea of being "possessed" is a real possibility after all. Imagine, all of a sudden your personality changes for no apparent physical reason (auto accident, etc.) How could someone explain it? Drugs? Alcholism? Bi-polarism? Satan? Possession?

In any case, I learned afterwards that before you attempt to astral project, you should always ask for protection. Good advice. Perhaps this is an example of why you should learn these occult mysteries with a Master and not by yourself, or on your own.

My advice to you: Be careful; Astral Projection is serious business. It is not a game or something to play around with.

 

NOTE: The information on the following pages will reveal descriptions of the various Astral Planes, which have been collected from a variety of sources over many years of my life. I cannot attest to the accuracy of the information but from what I have learned/read, the information probably paints a fairly good picture of the various activities on the various planes. In any event, I suggest that you try not to take everything in print as "literal fact" but rather see/read between the lines and try to grasp the conceptual idea.

And remember, that at the end of my Astral World Tour, it is said that there are still higher planes of existence beyond the Astral: the Mental Plane and three (3) Higher Planes beyond that. So it appears the Astral World is not our final destination in the great cosmic scheme of life/existence.

Most of the detailed descriptive information of the Seven Astral Planes was gathered from the book: The Astral World by Swami Pachhadasi

Enjoy the tour.
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