Travelling on the astral plane

Astral travelling (or astral projection, if you prefer) is a subject millions of people are fascinated by. Type either of those keywords into a search engine and you will come up with dozens, if not hundreds of results from sites that purport to be able to teach you how to astral travel. Before you jump in and take the course at the top of the list, take a look at what several have to say. Then you'll be in a much better position to decide whether or not you want to take their advice.

These astral travelling websites are roughly divided into two categories: those that are free and those that charge a fee. Common sense might tell you that the free ones will be more honest than those that charge for their services, but when you compare half a dozen of them with each other, they often seem to have different agendas. Some of them are written by passionate devotees of a group and tell you on no uncertain terms that the Archangel Michael or someone else is the only guide you can call on for help when you are astral traveling. Others describe the astral planes in minute detail. Just when you think you know the "truth" about the 7 astral planes, you go to another site and learn a different set of "truths" from another authoritative source.

Those sites that charge for their services are often similarly biased. They will offer in depth, step-by-step procedures and online help services, but they, too, will tell you "We are the only ones who know the ancient secrets of astral travel."

By the time you've finished reading what a dozen different "experts" have to say, you can be forgiven for thinking that there is no such thing as astral travel and that its proponents are all either deluded fools or charlatans. While there are plenty of both, that's not the end of the story.

Our materialistic Western culture is perhaps the first one in history that has not believed that astral travel was possible. Every culture, from the Australian aboriginals to the great cultures of the South Pacific, the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Middle East have left records of astral projection. They have called it by different names, but by any name it's called, in essence it is the same thing. We are spiritual beings inhabiting human bodies and if we learn how, we can leave our bodies and explore this world or the astral worlds at will. In most cases, the astral planes they describe are inhabited by people and creatures very much like the ones they are familiar with here on earth. Does this mean that, as our modern "experts" say, that astral travel is a figment of the imagination? Not at all. What it means is that the astral planes are only limited by your imagination, collective or individual.

The only way to understand astral projection is to do it yourself. You can learn how to do it online, but instead of sticking with one site's lessons, compare several. You will see that the methods they teach all have certain things in common. One of them is that a quiet mind is required. Another common teaching is to set your alarm to wake you up a couple of hours earlier than you normally wake up. Then, when you drift back off to sleep, you can more easily retain consciousness in the sleeping state and free yourself from the restraints of the body. In both these instances, the main requirement is that your brain be quiet.

Many serious researchers suggest that the Theta brainwave state is the gateway to astral projection. This is the dreaming state of consciousness. By somehow inducing the theta state consciously, you can first learn to be awake and lucid while dreaming and then learn to leave your body altogether and astral travel.

In recent years, brainwave entrainment CDs have become very popular and there's a lot of evidence to suggest they can be a great aid if you're having trouble learning to astral travel. If you seriously want to have an out-of-body experience, but don't feel comfortable with committing yourself to any particular teacher or group, make a list of the most common techniques for inducing astral travel and give them a try for a few weeks. You can also choose from any number of inexpensive brainwave entrainment CDs designed for lucid dreaming or astral travel and see if they help. No matter how authoritative they sound, take any teaching that claims to offer the only true path with a grain of salt. Astral travel is meant to free you and ultimately guide you to deeper levels of truth, not bind you to more illusions.