Astral Projection or Out of Body Experience

Astral projection is defined as an experience in which we live in an altered state of consciousness as opposed to our normal waking state of consciousness. Maybe the closest experience we can relate to it is dreaming. Although some scholars disagree, astral projection is also called:

• lucid dreaming
• out-of-body experience (OOBE)

For the purposes of this article, we will not touch upon scientific views about OOBE (this one is shorter), but focus on what the occult has to say about it.

As a matter of fact, the term "astral projection" itself comes from occult views of this experience and implies the projection of one's self to the astral plane.     Occultists teach that the universe is a series of planes of matter and that the physical world we perceive with our senses is but one of a series of, usually seven, planes. Occultism teaches that,

• our consciousness transcends our physical body
• each of us is an immortal soul who has temporarily incarnated into the physical world
• the universe is a series of planes and each plane is a world unto itself
• each of us has facilities for interacting with at least 4 of these planes. These facilities are called "vehicles" or "bodies" and we have four of them:

1. a physical body for interacting with the physical world (or plane),
2. an astral body for interacting with the astral world/plane,
3. a mental body for interacting with the mental world/plane,
4. a buddhic body for interacting with the buddhic world/plane.

To an occultist, the act of astral projecting entails transferring one's consciousness to the astral body and exploring the astral plane. According to our common social beliefs, we are either atheists/materialists who do not think there is any such thing as a "soul", or we were raised with simple-minded ideas about God, Heaven and Hell.[1]

The senses of our physical body; our hearing, vision, taste, feeling, senses of heat and balance, smell, these senses define for us the physical world, and by definition, only allow us to perceive the physical world. Occultism, simply put, holds the view that there are energies that exist which we cannot perceive with our physical senses.

So far, this does not contradict the materialistic view as there are energies that can only be detected by machines like x-rays, radiation, etc. However, occultism goes beyond that and deviates considerably when it says we can perceive these energies without the aid of machines. By using our four bodies mentioned above, each on its own respective plane, the occultist claims not only these energies can be seen but there are whole worlds, full of life and activity, that is beyond the realm of science.

In occultism, each plane is typically a world full of all kinds of strange and exotic places and creatures with sights and sounds that dwarf anything we know of here in the physical world. Planes are also called dimensions, aethyrs, lokas and realms and they are:

1. Physical Plane (which includes the Etheric Plane)
2. Astral Plane
3. Mental Plane
4. Buddhic Plane
5. Atmic Plane
6. Anupadaka Plane
7. Adi Plane

Humans can access only four of these planes.

[1] Donald J. DeGracia, OOBE Class Notes

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