I.       WHAT IS ASTRAL PROJECTION?


A.      Introduction:

Before saying anything else I would like to thank and congratulate everyone who is taking this class. Whether you know it or not, by taking an interest in achieving the types of experience we will discuss here, you are opening yourself up to a greatly expanded view of yourself and the life and world around you. Hopefully, by the end of this class you will have a deep appreciation of what I mean in saying this. I wish everyone the best of luck!


B.       What Is Astral Projection?

Just what exactly is astral projection? Well, we can get very academic and erudite about this, and we will do this to some extent below. But for now, for starters, what we want to do is lay out a definition of astral projection that is practical. There are numerous ways we can view and define astral projection, but the most central point is that it is an experience, a special type of experience. No matter how you look at it, astral projection is an altered state of consciousness.

So, what is an altered state of consciousness? Well, it is a state of consciousness that is NOT our normal waking state of consciousness.

There is one altered state with which we are all very, very familiar and that is the dreams we experience when we sleep at night. Dreaming itself is an altered state of consciousness. And, as we will see as we progress, dreaming and astral projection are very closely related states of consciousness.

Now, astral projection goes under a variety of names. Some other names for the astral projection experience are the following: 1. lucid dreaming, and 2. out-of-body experiences (OOBEs). Some people will debate that astral projections, lucid dreams and OOBEs are different things. We will discuss these distinctions below. However, I want to stress that such distinctions amount to splitting hairs, and are not that important. For our purposes, I will use these 3 terms interchangeably. That is, whether I say "astral projection", "lucid dream" or "OOBE", I am referring to the same thing. Actually, I will probably use OOBE a lot since it is the easiest to type.

What is really important is not what we call the experience, but LEARNING FOR YOURSELF HOW TO ACHIEVE THIS EXPERIENCE. And everything I will stress here is geared to this all important end.

So, for the sake of gearing all this to helping you actually have an OOBE, there are two main things we will focus on: theory and practice. You need to understand both. Either alone is useless. Theory by itself is just empty talk. Practice without theory just leads to confusion, and in The case of OOBEs, it can lead to real psychological danger as well. By themselves, OOBEs are NOT dangerous. However, if you don't know what you are doing, they can be. So, you need the theory to understand what is going on, and you need the practice to put the theory into action.
So, in this course, we will cover both: theory and practice. However, as you will see, I personally lean much more towards the practical, and this is what I will stress throughout. We will pay lip service to theory, but again, theory is useless without putting action behind the ideas.

Finally, I want to say this: I will attempt in these lessons to make the information I provide as self-contained as I can. That is, I want to really try to provide a comprehensive overview of OOBEs and really give you your money's worth. However, there is just a tremendous amount of information related to OOBEs. For example, some related topics are the following: human psychology, dreams, occultism, religion, mysticism and science. I hope, that after reading these notes, you will get some idea that all of these topics are related to OOBEs. I am providing an annotated bibliography of books that I feel provide useful study. And I really encourage everyone to look through this bibliography and to actually read some of the books listed there. The more you know about OOBEs, the better. That's all there is to it!


C.       Different Views of Astral Projections.

So, having said my introductory remarks, let's look at the various ways people define astral projections/OOBEs/lucid dreams. Basically, we can divide up the various viewpoints as follows: 1.occult views, and 2. scientific views. Within each of these broad views are a number of sub-viewpoints, and we will mention each of these at least briefly.

1.       Occult Views

Within the camp of occult views, we can divide this into Western and Eastern occult views. However, what is nice here is that Eastern and Western occultism are very similar. One may find differences in small details, but the general viewpoints are very similar. 

Now, the term "astral projection" comes from occult views of this experience. This term
implies that what the experience is the projection of one's self to the astral plane. Occultists teach that the universe is a series of planes of matter and that the physical world we perceive with our senses is but one of a series of, usually seven, planes. This is one assumption of the occult view of the world. Here is a list of the important ideas in the occult world-view that will allow us to understand what the term "astral projection" means:

1. Occultists teach that our consciousness transcends our physical body.

2. Occultists teach that each of us is an immortal soul who has temporarily incarnated into the physical world.

3. Occultists teach that the universe is a series of planes. Each plane is a world unto itself.

4. Occultists teach that each of us has facilities for interacting with at least 4 of these planes. These facilities are called "vehicles" or "bodies" and we have four of them: a physical body for interacting with the physical world (or plane), an astral body for                                                                                                    interacting with the astral world/plane, a mental body for interacting with the mental              world/plane and a buddhic body for interacting with the buddhic world/plane.

Before we go into these ideas in more detail, let me say this. To an occultist, the act of astral projecting entails transferring one's consciousness to the astral body and exploring the astral plane. And also let me say that, as far as theory goes, this is the theory I ascribe to. Generally speaking, the occult ideas are the most practical ideas you can use to understand what is happening to you when you have an OOBE. So, let's go into these ideas a little deeper and spell out their implications. For further reading on these topics, see the books by Charles Leadbeater and Annie Besant in the bibliography.

First thing that needs to be said: the occult ideas fly in the face of everything we've been taught about what it is to be a human being here in America in the late 20th century. According to our common social beliefs, we are either atheists/materialists who do not think there is any such thing as a "soul", or we were raised with simple-minded ideas about God, Heaven and Hell.

Occult ideas challenge both of these viewpoints, and the beauty of learning to astral project is that you put yourself in a position to determine who is right and wrong on these issues. So, if the following ideas are unfamiliar to you, please be prepared to have your concepts about reality greatly expanded!

The basis of occult teachings is this: the senses of our physical body; our ears, eyes, taste, feeling, senses of heat and balance, smell, these senses define for us the physical world. That is to say, our physical senses, by definition, only allow us to perceive the physical world. However, according to occult teachings, THERE ARE ENERGIES THAT EXIST THAT WE CANNOT PERCEIVE WITH OUR PHYSICAL SENSES. In a nutshell, this idea underlies all of occultism, including whatever particular school of thought you like best (i.e., Theosophy, Hermitics, Paganism, Alchemy, etc., etc.).

Now, the idea that energies exist that we cannot perceive is no big news. Everyone knows about x-rays, about radioactivity, about ultra-violet radiation. These energies we can detect with machines, but not with our physical senses. However, where the occultist "goes over the edge", so to speak, is with the claim that WE HUMANS CAN PERCEIVE THESE ENERGIES WITHOUT THE AID OF MACHINES. However, to understand this we need to go into the ideas of the vehicles/bodies, ideas that fall under the heading of "occult anatomy".

Occult anatomy is the idea stated above, that we humans have more bodies than we can
directly perceive: that we have, not only a physical body, but an astral body, a mental body and a buddhic body, as well. Each of these bodies exists on its respective plane. So, before we can go off about the bodies, we must discuss the idea of the planes.

The occult planes of nature can be thought of as occult physics. For the idea of the planes posits that there are whole worlds of energies beyond the ken of our perception, energies of which modern scientists are completely ignorant.

Again, we are flying in the face of common knowledge. Sure, scientists grant that there are x-rays, radioactivity, ultraviolet radiation, and even infinitely minute worlds of subatomic particles and neutrinos. But to say that there are whole worlds, full of life and activity and strange creatures, that exist beyond the ken of our physical senses is a complete absurdity to the modern scientist.

However, this is exactly what the planes are. Each plane is a world, a giant world full of all kinds of strange and exotic places and creatures with sights and sounds that dwarf anything we know of here in the physical world.

I should point out too that there are other names you might hear of that refer to the planes. Such terms are: "dimensions", "aethyrs", "lokas". "realms". Each of these terms essentially means "plane" or "world".

Now, again, and to keep your interest at this point, let me remind you that once you learn to astral project for yourself, then you can determine whether or not this is all so much fantasy and bs. Keeping this in mind, let's define these planes a little better.

In the most commonly accepted schemes of the planes, it is taught that there are seven
planes and that we humans can access the 4 lowest planes. The common names of the seven planes are:

         1. Physical Plane (which includes the Etheric Plane)
         2. Astral Plane
         3. Mental Plane
         4. Buddhic Plane
         5. Atmic Plane
         6. Anupadaka Plane
         7. Adi Plane

Now, let's define each of these planes.

1. Physical Plane. 

This is the world you are sitting in right now. The physical plane is the familiar world of our everyday life. In the occult scheme, there are aspects of the physical world that are invisible to our senses, and these invisible aspects of the physical plane are called the "Etheric plane". 

Above I mentioned x-rays, radioactivity, ultraviolet radiation and subatomic particles. In the occult world-view, these energies are "Etheric" energies, and again, this simply means these are energies of the physical plane that we cannot perceive with the senses of our physical body. 

As we will discuss below, and is actually quite important to the endeavor of astral projecting, occultists claim we have a body made of Etheric energies and they call this our "Etheric body". It is very likely that many of you will actually have experiences in your Etheric body once you start attempting to project. Again, this will all be explained in due course. 


2. The Astral Plane. 

The astral plane is described of as a world of emotion and desire.

On this plane our emotions and desires are actually living creatures. Also, according to occultists, the astral plane is where people go immediately after they die. "Dead people" (actually, "discarnate" people) do not stay forever on the astral plane, it is only a temporary stop after death.

In this regard, the idea of "purgatory" is related to the idea of the astral plane. Also on the astral plane are a whole host of creatures and inhabitants that are native to that plane, such as faires, devas, and other such things.
 
Believe it or not, according to occultists, the astral plane is also where we go at night when
we dream. When you are in a dream, you are quite literally in the astral plane. This is a very
important idea, and later on, when we begin discussing techniques for astral projecting, you will
see how important this idea is.


3. The Mental Plane. 

The mental plane is the world of all thoughts and ideas. On the mental plane, thoughts are REAL OBJECTS, and these objects are called "THOUGHT-FORMS". "Thoughts are things" is a common idea in occultism, and this idea refers to the fact that thought-forms exist as real live things on the mental plane. The mental plane is a dynamically brilliant world of ever-shifting abstract landscapes of color, sound and sights that would probably make the ordinary person go stark raving mad if they could actually see the mental plane for what it is.

The mental plane overlaps substantially with the astral plane, and there is every good chance you will see numerous thought-forms as you learn to astral project. However, chances are very good that you will NOT ever perceive the mental plane as distinct from the astral plane, so chances are good you will never see the stuff that could make you lose your mind. The reason this is so is because it takes a lot of talent to get to the mental plane. I personally have never been there and am only describing to you what I have read about it. Again, we will say more about this throughout these notes.

4. The Buddhic Plane.

According to occult ideas, this is the highest plane that we can access as humans, within the context of what we understand as a "human being". In effect, the buddhic plane is the realm of our soul. The energies of the buddhic plane that we use in our daily life are the following: inspiration, great creativity, compassion, wisdom, will-power. It is by these types of behaviors that the buddhic plane "leaks" into our regular physical lives.

In and of itself, the buddhic plane is supremely abstract and extremely powerful. Just like the mental plane, it is very unlikely that you will ever go to the buddhic plane in a projection. It takes even more talent to focus your consciousness exclusively on the buddhic plane than it does for the mental plane.

However, learning to access the energies of the buddhic plane will be critical for your continued success astral projecting. In a nutshell, the buddhic plane represents everything that makes human life good. The more of this you have in your aura (we will discuss aura below), the "lighter" you will be in your consciousness, and therefore, you will be able to travel through a broader range of the planes than otherwise. On the other hand, the less buddhic energy you have in your aura, the harder it will be for you to astral project, and as well, you will project into ugly regions of the planes, and in general, probably hurt yourself in the attempt to project. Maybe not hurt yourself physically, but emotionally and mentally.

Before going on about the "highest" three planes, I want to digress on what will be an important theme throughout these notes, and this is the place to do it; in the context of the buddhic plane. In effect, the buddhic plane is related to morals, wisdom and creativity. These are very important qualities no matter what activity you want to undertake. In this regard, astral projection is no exception.

Now, above, I said astral projection is only dangerous if you are ignorant about what is going on. Now it is time to explain what this means. You have to realize straight up that astral projection takes you into realms where the subjective becomes ABSOLUTELY REAL. 

All your ideas, fears, fantasies, become real things outside of you when you project. See, when you project, you will be somewhere, and in this somewhere (whether we call it a "plane" or whatever) all the things you think are subjective will become objective! 

What this means in practical terms is that, when you astral project, you will confront yourself, your own personality, in ways that are totally different than how you relate to yourself when awake here in the physical plane. For example, if you have phobias in your personality, these may become monsters that try to attack you in your astral projection. 

Such an experience will more likely than not scare the **** out of you, and, if you don't understand what's going on, such an experience may completely scare you away from astral projecting ever again. So, its EXTREMELY important that you understand that, in a sense, during a projection, your personality is "outside" of you, and not "inside" of you as it appears to be here in the physical world. In a very strong sense, astral projecting is a form of therapy, of self-therapy.

When you initially begin to project, the first things you will encounter will be things of your
own creation. Some authors refer to this as meeting the "dweller on the threshold". Again, this
"Dweller" is all the petty, all the bad, all the fear that you have in you. I'm not lying about this either - it has happened to me. It's a stage you very likely will encounter. In a sense, all these negative elements of your personality are like a wall or room in the astral plane, that you will go to when you first begin to project. It is imperative that you realize that this is YOU. 

There is nothing to be afraid of because it IS you. 

You have complete control over these elements. YOU CAN BANISH THEM SIMPLY BY UNDERSTANDING THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE. Your consciousness of your self is like a healing fire that can burn away these negative elements by understanding them. Once you confront these negative aspects of your self, they will disappear and you will have grown with new self-insight. This growing is called "maturing", and occurs because of buddhic plane energies. It takes will-power to confront these things in yourself, and it takes wisdom and compassion to see them for what they are and to accept them.

So, one way or another, anyone aspiring to astral project will very likely be confronted with this "dweller on the threshold". By dealing with it, you get past it, and you grow. And then, after this first stage is passed, your experiences on the planes will not be as contaminated by personal factors. As the personal factors become less a part of your astral projection experiences, then your experiences there will reflect more clearly these planes as they objectively exist, uncontaminated by your subconscious influences. 

This process is like cleaning off a window. The cleaner the window is, the better you can see through it. Likewise, when you project, the cleaner your personality is, the better you will be able to see through it into the planes.

Which leads me to state an important idea I have not stated yet, and that is that the planes are extremely plastic. They are molded by your slightest emotion, desire or thought. The second you think something, a little piece of the mental plane is shaped exactly into your thought pattern, making a thought-form. This is exactly why your initial experiences projecting will be so extremely colored by your personality.

So, that's it for an introduction to the moral side of astral projecting. Unlike almost any other activity we humans know of, you CANNOT be a moral retard and succeed at projecting.

You can be a moral retard (i.e. have no moral values whatsoever) in art, science, business (where you actually have an advantage!) or other activities of life, but you cannot if you want to succeed astral projecting. If you DO try to project and at the same time stay morally poverty stricken, well, it is then that astral projection can be dangerous. It is just built like this.

Though morals seem like subjective gobbly goop in our physical life, they are, in reality, the laws upon which our entire human existence is based. Just as we need to know the laws of gravity to build a spaceship, we likewise need to know the laws of moral behavior to succeed at ANY occult task. The only time occultism is dangerous is if you use it in an amoral fashion.

And don't worry, you don't need to follow a particular creed or dogma or anything like that. The beauty of astral projecting is that you will find out EXACTLY what YOU need to grow. You are unique, your needs are unique and so will be your projections. The messages they will contain will be EXACTLY what YOU need at whatever stage you are at in your life. Simply trust the process, go with it, and it will work fine.

All you have to do is be honest with yourself. 

So, that said, let's get back to describing the planes:

 
5. Atmic plane. 

On this plane, what we think of as "human" no longer makes any sense. There are no individual personalities on this plane. Seth, from the Seth material by Jane Roberts, reflects what the Atmic plane is like. Here, consciousness exists as the simultaneous experience of a number of incarnations. Sure, we can say the concept easy enough, and even understand intellectually the idea. However, the actual direct experience of this state of consciousness is totally outside of our scope. Over our head! If you can get your consciousness to focus on this level, then "you" will no longer exist! Good Luck!

6. Anupadaka Plane. 

Even more abstract than the Atmic plane. Here everything bleeds into everything else. Extraordinarily abstract! Again, we might conceptualize the idea of everything being a part of everything else, but on this plane, that's the way it is! No dualisms either - all the contradictions are inside of each other! Mind Candy! Overload!!!!! Again, good luck out here!

7. Adi plane. 

God is here. If Atmic and Anupadaka were weird, well, this is the weirdest of 'em all. Completely beyond anything we humans can say, do, feel, think, etc. Yet, Adi is the very essence of everything. Look for the billboards with all the great mystic's names on them! I can say this though, the more buddhic energy you have in your aura, the better a feel you get for Adi.

So, that's a rough run down of the 7 major planes of our universe according to occult doctrine. Again, if you've not heard these ideas before, then it's quite a mindful to swallow all at once - and what's worse, I'm not done with the occult ideas yet! For those of you familiar with these ideas, forgive me if I've left out a detail or two from your favorite schemata. It was not my intention to be all encompassing here, but simply to provide enough background for later discussions. 

And I'd like to quickly say that I've included attempts at defining the Atmic, Anupadaka and Adi planes simply because I'm sick of seeing lists of the planes that state simply "we cannot understand these last 3 planes" or "beyond human comprehension". Sure, in terms of our direct experience, these statements about the 3 highest planes are true. However, as my experience with occult matters has progressed, I have developed the above intuitions about the nature of these planes, and, you can take them for what they are worth to you.

So, according to occult ideas, there are these 7 planes. We can't see them, but they are there nonetheless. And, to repeat, occultists use these ideas to explain the nature of both death and dreams, as well as astral projection and all other psychic powers, including clairvoyance, psychometry and whatever other favorite psychic powers you want to add to the list.

So, we have defined the planes. Now let us define the vehicles or "bodies" we possess for interacting with the planes.

According to occult theory, we have 5 bodies. These are:

         1. The Physical Body
         2. The Etheric Body
         3. The Astral Body
         4. The Mental Body
         5. The Buddhic Body

Now, when we define these bodies, we must define them from two perspectives at the same time. The first perspective is how these different bodies manifest in our normal waking life, and the second perspective is to define these bodies in terms of focusing your consciousness exclusively in that body and using it as a vehicle for perceiving its respective plane. 

Also, it's important to say at the start that, in all reality, these five bodies are one body. These bodies operate simultaneously and are highly integrated. While we are awake here in the physical plane, we haven't the slightest clue that we have these five bodies because they each work so smoothly together that all we recognize is our unified perception and experience. In actuality, these 5 bodies represent the major FUNCTIONS we have as human beings. From the standpoint of our normal waking life, it is almost arbitrary to define the human being in terms of these 5 bodies. 

However, it is in their utility for explaining altered states of consciousness that the definitions of these bodies will be found to be very useful. Thus, once we get more into the specifics of astral projecting, we will see how useful this scheme of 5 bodies is.

And what we will see too is that defining human nature in terms of these 5 bodies will put us in an excellent position to understand very clearly our normal life here in the physical world. So, having said this, let's discuss each body in turn.

1. The Physical Body. 

This is the body that we know. This is the body with eyes and ears, hands and feet, internal organs, a brain and nervous system. This is our organic body made of molecules and electricity, pulsating with the living energies of the Earth and Sun.

The best way to think of your physical body is that it is like a TV set. As a TV set allows you to tune into specific channels, likewise your physical body allows you (i.e. your consciousness) to tune into the physical world. As a matter of fact, this is how you should think of all 5 bodies. Each body is a "tuner" that allows us to tune into the plane corresponding to that body. So, your physical body perceives the physical world of 3-D space and 1 dimensional time.

I said above that we need to view each body from two perspectives: 1. in terms of normal waking experience, and 2. in terms of altered states of consciousness. 

For the physical body, it is the only body we directly perceive while awake in the physical world. And when we are in an altered state of consciousness (such as dreams), we no longer perceive the physical body. There are exceptions to this last statement, but in general, it is true. Once we get into techniques for inducing astral projections, you will see that one way to "leave" your body entails losing consciousness of your physical body while at the same time gaining consciousness of your astral or Etheric body.

2. The Etheric Body. 

As was stated above, occultists consider the Etheric plane to be the invisible aspects of the physical plane. So then, it follows that our Etheric body is then the invisible parts of our physical body. To give you an idea of what our Etheric body may look like consider this. Hopefully you have seen how grains of iron will line up around a magnet, aligning with the magnetic field lines. 

Well, both our hearts and our brains are very electrical organs that are constantly emitting electrical fields. These fields emitted by the heart and brain are invisible toour senses, but are easily measured by machines (which is what the EKGs and EEGs used by doctors are). If you could literally perceive these electrical fields that come from your brain and heart, you would be seeing part of your Etheric body.

Also, there is electricity constantly pulsing along the nerves throughout our entire body. Again, we cannot directly perceive these flowing nerve energies, but they are there nonetheless. And again, these nerve energies are a part of our Etheric body. As a matter of fact, though some may debate this, the acupuncture charts of Tantra traditions are charts of the flowing of energies through the Etheric body.

Some occult teachings describe the Etheric body as being made of a blue glowing substance.

Now, from our the point of view of our waking experience, the Etheric body is the basis of all sensation and perception. When you feel something with your hand, smell something, see something or whatever, these sensations are registering in your Etheric body. This is why you do not perceive things happening in the physical plane when you are asleep or unconscious. 

See, it is a mistake to think that your physical/organic body perceives things. Your organic body is like a lens that focuses sensations. These focused sensations then register in your Etheric body, which means they are brought into your awareness. The physical/organic body is a machine that conveys sensation. The Etheric body is the body that registers and interprets sensation.

Now, from the point of view of altered states of consciousness, it is possible to move about in the Etheric body independently from your physical/organic body. This is very difficult to do though. You can always tell that you are in your Etheric body because you feel very heavy and it is very hard to move. Also, it is likely that if you are in your Etheric body, then you will be in a dark, and sometimes, scary subplane. (More on this point below). Robert Monroe describes moving in his Etheric body, but does not call it such.

Also, it is likely that you have experienced having your consciousness focused in your Etheric body, but did not know it. This usually happens right when you are waking up or falling asleep. Have you ever had the experience of waking up in bed and trying to move, or trying to talk but not being able to do so? If so, you might have even felt scared. If this has ever happened to you, what is actually going on here is that you are actually not awake. Instead, you have "woken up" on the Etheric plane in your Etheric body by accident. For those of you that have had such experiences, be happy, because these were actually Etheric projections! We will learn below how to cultivate the ability to do this, and also what to do when you find yourself in this position.

3. The Astral Body. 

From the point of view of being awake here in the physical world, your astral body is the emotions and desires you feel.

You know how sometimes you get real distinct "vibes" from people? Maybe someone makes you feel creepy, or another person uplifts you and makes you feel good, and yet other people seem to drain you of your energy?

Well, these "vibes" are in actuality you sensing that person's astral body. When you get angry, or sad, happy or feel any emotion, you are feeling your own astral body. When you sense these emotions in another person (which is called "empathy") you are feeling that person's astral body.

Now, again, some people will argue with this, saying that emotions are a part of the brain, contained in the nerves of the limbic system. However, I again will say that these brain regions that relate to emotion are gateways between the physical body and the astral body. Feeling emotion is not dependent upon having a physical/organic body. After you die you will continue to feel emotions because emotions originate in your astral body.

Now, in terms of altered states of consciousness, when we start getting into the meat of astral projection, the vast majority of your OOBEs will occur in your astral body. This is the body you use at night when you are dreaming and your physical body is asleep. Thus, the world you will be in when you astral project will be extremely similar to the world you are in when you dream at night. We will have much more to say about the astral body and its properties as we proceed.

4. The Mental Body. 

During normal waking life, you perceive your mental body as your mind. You think thoughts, see images in your imagination (your "mind's eye"), can hear songs and voices "in your head". All of these phenomena are occurring in your mental body. Again, you can argue and say that all of these things occur in your brain, and that, if you did not have a brain, then you would not think thoughts, see things in your "mind's eye" or hear things in your head. 

And again, I will counter and say that the brain is a CHANNEL, a "machine" that allows these mental events to manifest on the physical plane. If you have no brain, you cannot express your mental behavior on the physical plane. However, having no physical brain does not prevent you from expressing your thoughts and ideas on the astral and mental planes.

And to repeat again, once you learn to project for yourself, you can decide who is right in
these kinds of debates. Below we will discuss these types of debates a little more, but for now, all I'm trying to do is convey occult ideas about human anatomy.

From the point of view of altered states of consciousness, shifting the focus of your consciousness to your mental body will allow you to directly perceive the mental plane. I've already stated that this is very difficult, and that I have never done it. In the bibliography I reference books by people who describe what the mental plane looks like. It is supposedly extremely beautiful, but I suppose this depends on what level of the mental plane you perceive.

 
5. The Buddhic Body. 

We've discussed the buddhic body already in the statements I made about morals and astral projecting. To repeat here: In our normal waking life, buddhic energy manifests as: creativity, novelty, spontaneity, wisdom, compassion, will power, sudden insight, great genius, great leadership abilities, deep spirituality. 

Other times, buddhic energy may manifest as death, disease and decay (this is the Hindu image of Shiva the Destroyer). Whatever your situation demands for growth, this is what the buddhic energy will manifest as. Ideas such as "God", "Tao", etc. refer to buddhic energy. However, religion is not buddhic energy, though it may be a channel for it. One very powerful source of buddhic energy is the Grateful Dead. 

Buddhic energy is the underlying essence of LIFE. It is everywhere and permeates everything we know. As far as being human goes, there is nothing more powerful than buddhic energy. We can think of buddhic energy however we please. It does not matter what we call it or what we think of it. Buddhic energy is the energy that moves our very minds. Mystics speak of the ineffable essence that underlies and unifies all reality. This ineffable essence is buddhic plane energy. 

In terms of altered states of consciousness, it is extremely unlikely that anyone reading this will learn to focus their consciousness onto the buddhic plane. It is simply too subtle to do so. It IS possible to take LSD and feel the buddhic energy while you are awake here in the physical world. However, though this is not as difficult as focusing directly onto the buddhic plane, it takes great mastery over the LSD experience to be able to use it to perceive the buddhic energy that fills every nook and cranny of all life.

Now, ironically, though it seems the buddhic energy is the hardest to attain, it turns out to be the energy you should most desire to attain. Frankly, astral projecting is nothing compared to attaining buddi, or learning how to have buddhic energies play through your being. Earlier I mentioned that there were Eastern and Western views of occultism, and till now have made no attempt to distinguish between them. However, when it comes to opening yourself up to buddhic energy, Eastern occultism has always been crystal clear about this, whereas Western occultism is not always so clear. Eastern occultism is yoga, and the purpose of yoga is to become enlightened.

Becoming enlightened is exactly the same as opening up to the buddhic energies. This process
goes under many names: enlightenment, samasamadi, mysticism, cosmic consciousness, satori. All these words refer to the same thing.

However, it is not my purpose in these notes to digress on mysticism.

To conclude this brief overview of occult anatomy, I would like to define the word "aura", which I used above and will have occasion to use throughout these notes. The word "aura" is a generic term and can refer to any one of the nonphysical bodies by itself or in combination with the other nonphysical bodies. I use the term to refer to all the nonphysical bodies at once. Some people use the term to refer specifically to the astral body. 

"Aura" is a vague term. I prefer, when speaking, to call a specific body by its proper name. And again, if I want to refer to the four nonphysical bodies (i.e. Etheric, astral, mental and buddhic) simultaneously, I will use the word "aura".

So, we have gone over occult physics and occult anatomy. All of this to give some idea of the occult interpretation of the astral projection/OOBE experience! What I have done above it to lay out in a barebones outline the elements of the occult worldview. And a barebones outline it is. Again, readers that want more detail should consult the bibliography. What I have covered above, though, is sufficient for our purposes here.

To summarize, occultists teach that there are 7 planes and that we have bodies for perceiving 4 of these planes. By this view, altered states of consciousness are explained by the fact that we shift our conscious awareness from the physical plane/body to one of our other, nonphysical bodies and perceive events occurring on the respective plane. This is indeed one of the valid theoretical approaches to explaining astral projection. And, as I've already said, we will find this is the most useful view to take. Below I will go into other theories of what astral projection is, but, when we start attempting to be practical and put the various theories to the test of practice, we will find ourselves returning to the occult theory again and again to explain what happens to us when we are "out of body".