Astral Dream State - by Shirley Sokol
It seems that our world of traditional scientists often place things they cannot yet prove into the category of pseudoscience. This would include remote viewing, astral travel, out of body experiences, paranormal activity and many more events considered “unexplained”. Astral travel can be explained, yet, it has been seen differently throughout history from both the western and eastern worlds. It seems to me that not everything in the past, present or future will have evidence that all can see, hear, nor may they have opportunity to collect tangible data in order to report that indeed it is real. If it involves the power of opening up parts of the mind that most have not or elevating one’s intuition to a level of communication and connection with others living or not, analyzing how it happens may come one day, but until you experience it yourself, you may never really understand.
Although astral travel is an ancient form of consciousness and has reportedly been demonstrated and discussed in many cultures around the world, including the Inuit Eskimo, Hindu, Christians, Native Americans, Japanese and Taoist, and more…scientists still cannot or have not tried to capture when consciousness’s fly. Astral projection overall is considered an altered state where the “OBE”, out-of-body-experience will have your spirit visit our plane or different planes outside our dimension, all while staying connected to your physical body by a “silver cord”, otherwise considered your spinal cord. Unfortunately, todays scientists who may be more anxious to receive honors for disputing a theory rather than prove it true, have yet to conduct “out of the box” experiments. Instead, many have looked into the idea of projecting one’s spiritual body to other planes within the brain and not outside of the body. Questions such as, are their different planes or realms, and if so, what are they, is a good place to start, as well situational tests with placing items in our own realm to see if the traveler can find them.
Then National Library of Medicine’s take on this subject matter is that it is most likely a dissociative disorder. An excerpt from a paper edited by Alexander Muacevic and John R Adler states:
“OBEs are perceptual disturbances where the subjectively experienced location of the perceiving self is altered. It is characterized by a unique sense of visuospatial orientation and the presence of a real and parasomatic component. Dissociative experiences are very unusual and can present in different forms, which in turn can lead to reality-altering perceptions in the patient. The etiopathogenesis behind them could be psychopathological, neurological, social, or environmental, and secondary to their cultural relevance and acceptance; they could be presented in clinical settings and at times may remain undetected. One of the variants of dissociative experience is the OBE. OBE can be understood as a state of depersonalization/derealization that manifests as feeling disconnected from one’s body/surroundings, unusual body experiences, and psychedelic drug use. These peculiar experiences have been described as secondary to psychopathology of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, personality disorders, depersonalization, anxiety, dissociative disorders, and depression.
Delving into the psychopathological angle of OBE, we found increasing support for the theory that attributes the origins of OBEs to the mismatch and deficient working of neurocognitive processes that maintain self-awareness, which in turn creates distortions in the sense of agency, presence, and embodiment. The malfunctioning of multisensory integration can lead a person to transcend into a state of dissociation and associated perceptual distortions, which are construed as strange projections of self out of the body. Dissociative disorders represent a tussle between conscious and unconscious, when a person is unable to successfully repress a traumatic experience, or when a repressed memory or experience comes out of the cocooned barrier, leading to an altered state of perception and self-experience, which is described by the patient as OBE.”
On the other end of the spectrum, let’s look at other perspectives as to what astral projection really is when considered a state in which consciousness can operate independently from the physical body and traverse the astral plane. Healthline notes (according to Letara Buckley) that there are distinct differences between the two: “An astral projection usually involves an intentional effort to send your consciousness from your body. It usually refers to your consciousness travelling out of your body toward a spiritual plane or dimension.
An OBE, On the other hand is usually unplanned. And rather than travelling, your consciousness is said to simply float or hover above your physical body.”
It is not recommended to try astral projection unless you do your due diligence with research and perhaps training. There must be something to it, as the Stargate Project conducted by the CIA in the 1980’s concluded that it was considered real by the US government. If you decide to look into this state of consciousness further, it may be helpful to you if you have anxiety issues, strengthening your psychic abilities, seeking breakthroughs in self-discovery or enhance your spirituality. Many have wondered what the difference between lucid dreaming is compared to astral projection. Letara Buckley offers a simple list of those differences:
LUCID DREAMING
You can control things around you.
You often cannot read texts when lucid dreaming as the part of the brain that would normally decipher text is less active at this point.
You may also lose your sense of smell and other senses when lucid dreaming - or they certainly won’t be as sharp.
You may have little interaction, or you will control the actions of other entities around you.
ASTRAL PROJECTION
Starts by consciously leaving the body and seeing the body beneath you.
You don’t have as much control of the environment or interactions within that environment.
You can clearly read and see text.
All your senses should function correctly.
Entities will react to you.
When the CIA project was active, participants were trained step by step on how to reach a state of higher consciousness in order to continue to the top level, which was astral travel. Only a small percentage could reach that stage. When they did, part of the process included spiritual protection placed on the participant in case unwanted interactions with entities occurred.
Personally, I have had lucid dreams, but I have never been an astral traveller. If I considered doing so, I would certainly do my research and then arrange to have an experienced leader in the field work with me, as a part of me would be nervous about who I may meet out there, as well as assuring I follow the silver cord to return to my physical body. Do we really know how many realms are out there? If so, have you travelled to any of them?
If you have had an OBE or went on an astral projection trip and would like to share your experience with our viewers, please email us at sjv.journey@gmail.com. Until then - safe travels.