Through astral projection, it’s said that someone essentially wills an OBE to happen, with common anecdotal experiences including feeling a vibration as your soul leaves your body, seeing your body lay in bed, and even traveling around your home, neighborhood, and beyond. (Some people even say astral sex is possible with another person astral projecting at the same time.) Your soul never completely disconnects from your body, believed to be always connected by a “silver chord.” And speaking of, accounts of an astral plane, astral projection, and this silver chord can be seen throughout numerous traditions, from Hinduism to Buddhism, Christianity to Kabbalistic teachings, and more. According to Graham Nicholls, an OBE researcher and author of Navigating the Out-of-Body Experience, one theory is that an OBE is “a construct or schema that is based upon sensory information not coming from the ordinary senses1 (extrasensory perception, if you will).” When this happens, he explains, the self or one’s consciousness seems to be able to function and perceive independently of the physical body. While OBEs have most definitely been researched and proven to be a real phenomenon2, astral projection hasn’t gotten that far, at least in the scientific community. There is, however, one 2014 case study out of the University of Ottawa’s School of Psychology, in which a woman who said she could astral project was put under a fMRI machine. The patient was physically stationary for an hour but guided in and out of astral projections in which she was prompted to move her nonphysical body in different ways. Researchers monitored the activity in different regions of her brain throughout the exercise and found that they did show activity that correlated with motion1 during the times she claimed to be astral projecting. “The existence of such a case and its presentation raises the possibility that this phenomenon may have a significant incidence,” the study reads. “This would be reminiscent of the discovery and eventual study of synesthesia.” Eben Alexander, M.D., a neurosurgeon, has also been the subject of research on out-of-body experiences and astral projection. In 2008, an inexplicable brain infection left Alexander in a weeklong coma. When he awoke, he claims to have had profound memories of a journey deep into another realm. Since then, he’s dedicated his life to exploring the mysteries of human consciousness. Though his near-death experience was not voluntary, it did cause Alexander to think astral projection was possible. He tells mbg he now uses binaural beats-based audio recordings to travel beyond the five senses and explore nonphysical aspects of consciousness. The problem when it comes to declaring astral projection “real” or “fake” is that much of the information about it is anecdotal. Pinning down human consciousness within the realm of modern science has proved a very difficult (and potentially impossible) task. Plus, she adds, there is no real way to definitively measure astral projections or compare them to a control group. Not to mention, studying these things requires someone with funding to have interest. And to that end, most people don’t know how to astral project, so rounding up a solid sample size for research would be difficult. These are some reasons why, she says, “There tends to be this split between science and spirituality,” adding, “I don’t think you can prove or disprove astral projection or out-of-body experiences.” More generally, though, Nicholls says you can help induce OBEs through techniques that break down your sense of self. For example, he suggests visualization methods, breathing techniques, and even physical exhaustion, to get to the state of deep relaxation necessary to astral project. Once there, you can follow this sequence:
