Various cultures have recorded out of body travel, including the ancient Egyptians. Kha is the word they used to describe the soul or astral body, while they also included images of the astral body as if hovering just above or even beyond the physical body. The astral body was depicted as a haloed, airy translucent being.
The ancient Egyptians were fascinated by the astral body, and experimented with many methods of controlling it in order to visit other planes of time and space while the physical body stayed behind. It is suspected that it is through astral projection experiences such as these that they were able to learn the skills necessary to build the pyramids using only the materials they had at the time, which is something that still baffles scientists to this day.
The first component of out of body travel for the ancient Egyptians involved meditation, it is recorded. Followed by focusing on nothing except the visions seen with the eyes closed, while nearly at the point of being asleep. The ancient Egyptians associated the flashing patterns and lights as a sign of the beginning of the journey to other planes of space and time by the astral body.
Upon passing through this meditative state, the astral body would reach a phase of emergence, which would create a tingling and humming within the physical body. Then they would experience the feeling of heaviness. The ancients believed that the feelings of tingling, humming and then heaviness was a sign of the astral body pulling away from their physical body. This would then initiate the journey of the astral body to unknown planes of existence.
They accomplished this in different ways yet the most common was that of walking out of the physical body by using the astral body. Beginning with the minds eye, followed by the shoulders, chest, hips, legs, knees and then the feet. This continued until there were two separate entities, that of the physical body and that of the astral body.
Once separated, the astral body was then not only free to pass through the solid objects that restrained the physical body, but to hover and fly as well without being affected by the changes in atmosphere or the lack of oxygen.
Examples of out of body travel is also recorded by the ancient Greeks. They simply expanded on the state induced by meditation according to the ancient Egyptians. They also recorded out of body experiences that were caused by various types of mental or physical trauma. Plutarch of Queroneia an ancient historian mentions a person named Arisdeu after suffering from a blunt head trauma, which occurred by falling and who then slipped into a three day coma.
At this time, Arisdeu tells of the ability to see his physical body laying on the ground yet he was free to move around without it. In astral form he tells of his ability of out of body travel to go to places that were not conceivable. He was met by his spirit guide while in astral form. His spirit guide assisted and advised him concerning astral travel in other existing astral planes.
Although, he was eventually pulled back into his physical body, while in his altered state he did learn and explore. Once returning to his physical body, he did spend the rest of his life using the knowledge he found during the time of 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.
Since the beginning of recorded time, human beings have been able to channel their consciousness into a spiritual body, which is then capable of exploring the limitless horizons of space and time. But in today’s technological age with it fast-paced culture, many of us have lost touch with this ability to alter our consciousness to the point that we can release it from the confines of our physical limitations, and with practice, join our spiritual guides and counterparts on a higher plane 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.
