Since the time of the ancient Egyptians out of body travel has been recorded by various cultures. The Egyptians called the astral body or soul, Kha and produced images of the astral body hovering just over or beyond the real body. Often it was depicted as translucent, airy and haloed.
In their fascination of the astral body these ancient people used various methods of controlling their ability of out of body travels to other planes of space and time, all the while their physical body stayed put. It is possible that practising astral projection, they learned the secret skills needed to build the ancient pyramids using the materials they already had. Even today scientists are baffled as to the construction of the pyramids of the ancient Egyptians.
Meditation is the first element that the ancient Egyptians used for out of body travel. They recorded this as concentrating on nothing more than the visions they would see with their eyes closed and being nearly asleep. The flashes of patterns and lights that they would see represented the beginning of their journey to another plane in space and time while traveling in their astral body.
After passing this state, the astral body entered into an emergence phase. This caused the humming and tingling of the physical body and then the feeling of heaviness followed. The feelings of tingling and then heaviness the ancients believed was the feeling of the astral body pulling away from the physical body, while initiating the unknown out of body journey to other planes.
This could be accomplished in various ways. However, the most common practice was that of simply walking out of ones physical body. This would begin through the minds eye, then followed by the shoulders, chest, hips, legs, knees and then the feet until two entities of a astral body and physical body appeared.
This separating of bodies, then allowed the astral body to pass freely through solid objects, it could also hover and fly about without being effected by the lack of oxygen or changes in the atmosphere.
The ancient Greeks also recorded instances of out of body travel, and expanded on the strictly meditatively-induced state of the ancient Egyptians to include out of body travel by way of physical or mental trauma. The ancient historian Plutarch of Queroneia, for example, cited the case of Arisdeu who, after suffering blunt trauma to his head after a fall slipped into a coma for three days.
While in the coma, Arisdeu had the experience of seeing his physical body lying there immobile on the ground, yet he could move about freely, hover, and travel out of body to previously unimagined places. Once acclimated to his new environment, Arideu was met and was assisted by his spiritual guide, who then advised him regarding the projection of his astral body into other dimensions.
While in this altered state he was able to explore and learn, although he was forcibly pulled back into his physical body. There he spent the rest of his life applying what he had learned during his out of body experience.
The ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks aren’t the only ones with recorded history of out of body travel. Native American history is also full of several accounts of similar experiences, often featuring spirit animals and/or guides meeting and advising an individual’s astral body. For centuries, Native Americans have burned certain plants and inhaled their smoke in order to ease the mind into the state necessary to begin out of body travel.
The human body has the ability to explore different horizons of time and space. This has been recorded since the beginning of time. We are able to channel our consciousness into a spiritual body. However, many modern individuals have forgotten this wonderfully natural gift. Many have forgotten how to alter our consciousness to the point that we can release it from the confines of our physical limitations. However, with practice we can join with our spiritual guides and self on the higher planes of existence.
In order to reopen this door to higher planes within us all, we have to remember how we can reconnect with our higher, spiritual selves. Once we are able to do this, we are able to use our out of body experiences to reach the higher planes of existence. This natural process is unlimited in its possibilities. When we are able to rediscover this natural part of us that so many have forgotten, we open ourselves up to the potentials of traveling the astral plane and understanding our higher, spiritual self.
