Astral projection…Uhhhhh. What?
Pretty much what I thought when I came across the term. But, I was interested. I’ve always been a little too interested in lucid dreams, so, naturally, I wanted to know what kind of new, crazy mind hacks are out there.
From my deep dive into a very detailed series about astral projection on Tik Tok, (shout-out @sj.wilson, whose videos I pretty much binge-watched for 30 min) I learned that astral-projection, or astral-travel, is a form of lucid dreaming where you are in an extremely relaxed state of near-unconsciousness, usually right before you fall asleep at night, during which your soul literally leaves your body.
Yeah, you heard that right; you can look down on your body while it’s sleeping. Bit weird ya?
And that’s not the crazy part. According to these astral-projection experts, you can pretty much will yourself, or your “astral body” to go anywhere you want to go, and you’ll go there. Hello Santorini!
When your “astral body” (woah), takes over, you enter into a sort of liminal space, called an “astral plane” where you can go pretty much anywhere. When a person is in their astral body, they still retain some of their conscious thought. So, unlike dreams, you can control what you want to see and do in this space.
There are a ton of specifics to know before astral-projecting, such as feeling 100% relaxed and not being fearful of the outcome. Being scared of entering into an astral-projection state will not allow a person to successfully astral-travel. You really need to want it.
Also, apparently, during astral-projection, you’ll be connected to your physical body by a mystical silver cord… (double-woah)
So why is astral-projection “trending?”
Well, even though it’s becoming a popular topic now, theories of astral-travel and similar concepts have been circulating since Biblical times. Topics such as the silver cord and the soul existing, at times, outside of the physical body can be seen in Egyptian hieroglyphs, as well as in ancient Chinese practices and Hindu scriptures.
With the rise of self-improvement and topics like manifestation in today’s world and on digital platforms such as Tik Tok and Twitter, astral-projection is another topic that lets us learn more about ourselves, as well as exercise control over our lives.
Astral-projection is described as a sort of limitless escape into the hidden corners of the mind and at the same time a kind of magical playhouse where we can go “visit” amazing places, or even revisit past events that have already happened. It’s said that you don’t even need to have been present at those past events — you can go witness the moon landing or go see the Titanic in theaters, whatever floats your boat. (no pun intended).
It’s easy to see why people would want to learn about or even try astral-projection — controlling what you see and basically Apparating around space and time? Sounds kind of awesome.
