So, I am meditating and everything, preparing myself to AP. I know it takes years and years to master it, but I am pretty good at lucid dreaming, and I think that *might* help. And I think I MAY have done it in my early childhood, for I have memories of events that never happened according to family members.
I do have a few questions I need answered.
First, what is the Astral Plane like? Is it like Earth at all? Second, can you meet up with people who are also doing AP at that moment, or is it only you?
Third, does it hurt leaving your body? I imagine it feels like the drop on a rollercoaster. Ha-aha...
Fourth, is similar to lucid dreaming?
Fifth, is it possible to go to the Astral Plane on accident?
Reality is created by thought projection (consciousness) into the physical. There are 5 subtle bodies In astral projection the conscious mind leaves the physical body and moves into the astral body to experience. In astral projection you remain attached to your physical body by a 'silver umbilical type cord'. Some people are able to see the cord when astral projecting. To astral project, as with all out-of-body experiences, one must feel totally relaxed, clothing fitting comfortable, reclining is best. Often a comforter is best over the body as the physical body sometimes gets cold when you travel out.
When you astral project you are consciously aware of things you encounter while out of your physical body.
Some people can astral project naturally. Others are afraid to remove their consciousness from the physical body and never learn to astral project.
Astral projection (or astral travel) is an out-of-body experience achieved either awake or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation. People who say they experience astral projection often say that their spirit or astral body has left their physical body and moves in another dimension known as the spirit world or astral plane. The concept of astral projection has been around and practiced for thousands of years, dating back to ancient China. It is currently often associated with the New Age movement.
Psychics often say that the subconscious (or dreaming) mind contains the spirit or astral body, resulting in falling dreams or waking up with a falling sensation or sudden jerk. Most dreams are not remembered by the conscious mind, making the experience of astral projection a subject of subjectivity. Believers in astral projection point out, though, that most ghost sightings often define the ghost as a lucid or transparent apparition walking the earth.
It is unclear whether every physical object has an 'astral' counterpart, or if a spirit literally uses incarnation into a physical body and this is what results in astral projections, or if the phenomena is something else entirely. Astral projection also touches on life itself and what happens after physical death.
There are two general schools of thought on the nature of astral projection. These can broadly be defined as the mystical model and the phasing model.
The Phasing Model, which was defined by Robert Monroe, holds the belief that it is impossible to actually leave your body in the truest sense of the word, and that the astral planes and the physical world are merely points on the long spectrum of consciousness. When a person projects, they actually "phase" into another area of consciousness and the locales it contains. This can be likened to tuning a radio to another station. One of the initial signposts representing a phase shift away from physical reality has been labeled the state of focus 10 (mind awake/body asleep). This viewpoint can be seen as a logical progression of the philosophy that external reality is actually an internally created state
The Mystical Model includes a large variety of belief systems and astral maps, but they are tied together by their belief that astral projection takes place outside of the actual physical body. In this model, a more subtle energy body is believed to carry the consciousness outside of the physical body. In their book Projection of the Astral Body, Carrington and Muldoon detail how consciousness is transferred into a secondary "energy" body (the etheric body) to allow travel into the astral planes. This idea is also described by other authors such as Robert Peterson in his book Out of Body Experiences: How to have them and what to expect (chapters 5, 17, 22), and Robert Bruce in his book Astral Dynamics (pages 31-33, 404-410, 538). Bruce expanded on this idea in his book Astral Dynamics, stating that higher planes of existence are reached through the progressive projection of subtler energy bodies from previous projected bodies (pages 33-42). The subtle body is attached to the physical body by means of an energetic connection which usually takes the appearance of a silver cord 'plugging' into the chakra system like an umbilical cord. Robert Peterson describes this in chapter 13 of his book Out of Body Experiences, Robert Bruce in his book Astral Dynamics (pages 27, 52-53, 84, 397-403,544) and by Carrington and Muldoon in their book Projection of the Astral Body.
