- Part 1
Introduction - What is Astral Projection
( By Robert Bruce )
This version has been completely rewritten and updated, with thought to
all the questions and comments received since its first posting. I
have tried, by applying my experience as a projector and mystic, to
solve some of the basic problems people are having with projection.
This has become an interactive work thanks to all the constructive
feedback and experimentation it has inspired on the Internet.
There are certain aspects of the astral dimension and the projection
process that are very complicated. Much of it is misunderstood and it
can all be very confusing at times. This series of articles attempts
to shed a little light on the subject, and hopefully, explain what its
all about. The theories and conclusions in this Treatise are largely
drawn from my own projection experience. It is the goal of this
Treatise to develop greater understanding and new, simpler and more
effective techniques for projection. The ideas, theories and
techniques discussed here are constantly under development and are
subject to modification and change as new discoveries and insights come
What is the Astral
The astral is the closest dimension to the physical. It overlays and
permeates the world like a huge mind net, catching and holding all
thought. Its contents are created by the collective consciousness of
the world mind. It contains all the thoughts, memories, fantasies, and
dreams of every living thing in the world. In it, the laws of
sympathetic attraction, or like attracts like, causes this ocean of
mind stuff to strata and settle into layers or pools. These pools of
thought are more commonly called astral planes, astral worlds, astral
sub planes or astral realms.
The astral dimension is composed of astral matter and is aptly
described as mind stuff. It is extremely sensitive to thought and can
be moulded into any shape or form. These creations can be so perfect
as to be indistinguishable from reality.
The best way to explain this, mind stuff, is to draw a comparison
between astral matter and unexposed, high speed photographic film.
When this film is exposed to light, focused by the cameras lens, a
perfect image of reality is instantly burnt into the film by the
chemical reaction of the film to light. When astral matter is exposed
to thought, focused by the lens of the mind, a perfect image of reality
is instantly formed out of astral mind stuff by the reaction of astral
matter to thought. The complexity and durability of any creation in
the astral dimension depends largely on the strength of the mind doing
This is how the subconscious mind creates dreams: By tuning into the
astral dimension during sleep, it can create any scenario it wishes.
This is the subconscious mind's way of solving problems and of
communicating with the conscious mind. It creates a series of complex
thought form scenarios and projects them into the mind stuff of the
astral dimension, where they become solid. The conscious mind then
lives through and experiences these created scenarios in the dream
state. In a way its like a movie projector (subconscious mind)
projecting onto a movie screen (astral dimension).
Any new object in the real world is assimilated into the astral
dimension over a period of time. A thought form representation of it
first grows in the lowest part of the astral, close to the physical
dimension, becoming more and more permanent as time goes on. As with
all thought forms, the more attention paid to it the quicker it grows.
The higher up in the astral dimension, or the further away from the
physical, the less thought forms, of the physical world, as we know it,
are found. Physical things have to soak in to it for a very long time
before they take shape, and are found, in the higher astral.
Have you ever tried to move around a strange house in the dark? You
bump into everything, right. But as you become familiar with it
though, a mental picture of your surroundings forms in your mind, and
you can find your way around it better. The longer you spend in this
house the stronger this mental picture becomes. This is similar to how
things are assimilated and grown, as thought forms, in other
The generation of thought forms in the astral also works in the
reverse. If a physical object has been around for a very long time, it
will have grown a lasting thought form impression in the astral. After
the object is destroyed or removed, its thought form still endures.
You may, for example, in the astral, find furniture in your house you
don't have, jumbled up with your own. This is caused by the decaying
thought forms of old stuff, belonging to previous tenants etc, still
being there, years after the originals have gone.
Old thought forms do not follow their physical counterpart around when
they are moved. New ones begin to grow in the astral wherever it is
while the old ones slowly decay. The longer a thing is in one place,
the stronger the thought form will become in that place.
This also applies to buildings, structures and geological features.
You may project into a park and find a house, bridge, stream, hill etc
that you know is definitely not there. These may have existed in times
past. The higher up in the astral you go, the older the thought forms
are, or the further back in geological time you appear to be.
The rate of growth of a thought form depends largely on the amount of
attention paid to it. For example, a famous painting; loved, viewed
and highly thought of by millions, will have a much stronger thought
form than that of a common painting that hangs in someone's bedroom and
is only viewed by a few. The number of thought forms you find in the
astral also depends on how close you are to the physical dimension. If
you are very close, as in a real time projection or OOBE, very few
thought forms, if any, will be found. In a real time OOBE you are not
quite in the astral dimension but are existing as an astral form in the
buffer zone between the astral and the physical dimensions.
In the physical body we have 220 degrees of vision, i.e. we can only
see in front of us, but not behind, above and below at the same time.
In the Astral body we have MORE than 360 degrees of vision and can see
on all sides at once. This is Spherical vision. During projection,
habit forces us to focus our attention in one direction only, where we
feel the forward part of our vision is. The view behind, above, below,
left and right is still there, and seen all at once, but it can not be
assimilated by the brain, all at once. This goes against the brains
lifelong habit of frontal vision. Spherical vision is like being one
huge multi faceted eye that can see in all directions, up, down, left,
right, front, back, but all at once!
In the astral body you do not have any physical organs, i.e., eyes.
You are a non-physical point of consciousness floating in space. You
are also unaffected by gravity and other laws of physics. In this
state there are no ups or downs, backs or fronts, left or rights. It
is only lifelong habit that tries to force this perspective on you
It is important to understand spherical vision, if you are to operate
competently in the astral. This is especially so when you project, in
real time, close to the physical dimension. Spherical vision will
often cause you to think you are in a mirror image dimension, or a
reversed copy of reality. This means your house, for example, will
appear to be reversed, back to front. This is caused by you losing
your original natural viewpoint during projection.
At some point during the projection you have become disoriented and
taken a different viewpoint from normal, i.e., you have rotated or
turned upside down or inside without thinking. This reverses your
natural left right, up down viewpoint. This tricks the subconscious
mind into reversing the place you are in so your conscious mind can
As you don't have a physical body in the astral, if you want to look
behind yourself you don't have to turn around, or move at all. You
just change your viewpoint to the rear. This, when done without
moving, causes the mirror image effect, in a way its like looking in a
mirror to see behind.
The diagram below illustrates this reversal of viewpoint without
turning, note left and right do not change:
i.e. If viewpoint (A) becomes viewpoint (B) without turning, then Left
and Right are not reversed. This causes the subconscious mind to use
its creative power to correct the view by reversing it, or parts of it.
This is easier and causes fewer problems for the conscious mind than if
it had to try and accept a reversal of left and right.
A similar effect can be had by lying down and looking above your head,
or standing on your head and trying to pick the left and right sides of
things. This causes a slight confusion in your sense of left and
right, i.e., you have to consciously calculate which is left and right
from your reversed position. This slight confusion is all that is
needed to trick the subconscious mind into creating something easier to
Your brain is unable to assimilate this reversal and thus gives you a
new perspective according to what it feels is left and right at the
time. Once you consciously notice this anomaly it is too late to
reverse it. The brain cannot accept a conscious change of left and
If you understand spherical vision though, and happen to get reversed
sometime during a projection, it is no longer a problem. You can take
it into account and function normally, rather than thinking you are
wasting your time in some strange mirror dimension, i.e., if you had
plans to do something in the astral you still can. All you have to do
is, take your left right coordinates from the building or structure
around you, and ignore your own sense of left and right completely.
Everything you see while you are in the astral dimension is directly
perceived by the mind. It is a simple matter for the subconscious mind
to twist or reverse, all, or even part of, your conscious perception of
reality during a projection.
Note: This reversal of viewpoint can happen many times during any one
real time projection.
Creative Visualization Power
The subconscious mind has VASTLY greater powers of visualization than
the conscious mind. It is like comparing a super computer to an childs
calculator. In the astral dimension, during any conscious projection
or lucid dream, where the conscious mind is aware, this difference can
cause great confusion. The subconscious mind simmers beneath the
surface during any projection. All that creative power is just
bursting to get out, to create, and it will do just that any chance it
gets. This difference in creative power, combined with the lifelong
habit of normal frontal vision, is the cause of the "Alice In
Wonderland Effect." Let me explain....
Take these together:
1. The incredible creative power of the subconscious mind.
2. The weak creative powers of the conscious mind.
3. The sensitivity of astral matter to thought.
4. Spherical vision.
5. Left, right sense reversals.
And you have a recipe for total confusion.
The Alice In Wonderland Effect
You project your astral body and look around your room. Everything
appears normal, but suddenly, you notice the door is on the wrong wall?
While looking around, you have seen this door with your rear vision,
confusing your natural left, right, brain perspective. The brain can't
assimilate this because your frontal perspective, and the position of
the furniture, pictures, windows etc, are normal; but the view behind
you is reversed. This tricks the subconscious mind into creating a
door where it thinks it should be. When you look at this door, it
appears real, even though you know it is in the wrong place. Once it
has been created, it will not be uncreated, as that would be
unacceptable to your conscious mind. i.e. solid doors don't normally
have a habit of vanishing before your eyes.
When you turn to where the door really should be, you will, usually,
find the door there as normal. Now you may have two, or more, doors
where there should only be one. If you go through the real door, you
will find the rest of the house as it should be, hopefully. But, if
you go through a false door, the mind knows its false and won't accept
it opening to a normal part of your house that it knows can't possibly
be there. So, if you open this door you will find something else. It
is usually a corridor or passage, you don't have, leading off into
other parts of the house you don't have either.
From then on, if you go through this door, you are in Wonderland, where
everything is possible, just not very plausible. What you are doing,
in effect, is entering the astral dimension via uncontrolled creation,
through this door you don't have, but now do. Once the subconscious
mind starts creating like this it continues to do so at a geometric
rate. It has to, for the conscious mind to assimilate the abnormal
situation it is in. At some stage, in this creative maelstrom, the
subconscious mind loses it completely and starts tuning in to other
parts of the astral. At this point of the projection, all semblance of
reality is lost and you fade into the astral dimension proper.
There are many ways this "Alice" effect can happen during a projection,
the above example is just one variation. It has been noted by many
projectors that at sometime during a projection they seem to lose
control of it. Objects appear, disappear, and generally everything
gets a little strange. This is caused, basically, by the subconscious
mind's vast creative ability being triggered. It starts making and
unmaking things, and tuning into other areas of the astral and
generally making everything difficult for the poor projector.
To avoid the above problem: Concentrate on what you are doing while
you are projecting and don't let your mind wander. The vision reversal
problem can be minimized if you concentrate on your forward vision
during projection, i.e., focus in one direction at a time. When you
turn, follow the room around with your vision and don't allow it to
flit from one view to another. The astral is not a good place to relax
if you have serious plans.
The vast creative power of the subconscious can, however, be utilized.
It is an extremely valuable tool if you know how to use it. I will
outline ways to do this, in the third part of this series, under the
heading: "Virtual Reality Projection" where I will outline how to
custom create your own personal astral realm.
When you project the astral body close to the physical world you do not
have a body as such. But, the mind cannot accept this and so provides
a thought form one made out of etheric matter. If you try and look at
your body, say your hands, you will find they start to melt very
quickly. They look pale and odd, and in a couple of seconds your
fingers start to melt away like ice under a blow torch. They shorten
into pale stumps, then the rest of your hand and arm starts to melt
away too. This melting effect only seems to happen when you
deliberately try and observe a body part or consciously create
Deliberately observing an astral body part like this, uses the
conscious mind, which, having poor creative powers, can't hold complex
shapes together for very long and it is this that causes the melting
effect. If you happen to notice parts of your body, in passing, during
projection this melting effect will not be seen.
Created Thought Form Objects
You can use your conscious mind to create objects while projecting.
The duration of these, thought form, created objects depends on the
strength of your creative visualization ability. It also depends on
how much time and effort you put in to a creation.
This same melting phenomena happens with any conscious creation done in
the astral dimension. If you create for example, a sword, it will
appear in your hand just as you imagine it, briefly, and then melt away
just like the hand did. If you concentrate on it you can hold it in
shape, but as soon as your concentration wavers so does the creation.
This is similar to any other visualization you do in the real world.
It is difficult, and you have to concentrate to hold the visualization
in your minds eye. Once your concentration wavers, so does the
visualized image. This illustrates the vast difference between the
creative powers of the conscious and the subconscious mind.
To make a lasting thought form object you have to trick the
subconscious mind into creating it for you. I will deal with this
subject, in greater depth, later in the series.
How does Projection Happen?
During sleep, the energy body, also known as the etheric body or
vitality sheath, is put on charge. It expands and opens in order to
accumulate and store energy. The energy body can, normally, only do
this in its expanded state during sleep. Once expanded, the chakras
trickle power, in the form of etheric matter, into the energy body.
During this recharging process the astral body separates and tunes into
the astral dimension where it can create and experience dreams.
If this separation is done consciously, or if you become aware after
it, you can take some control over it. It then becomes an OOBE, astral
projection or lucid dream.
The main differences between an OOBE,
astral projection and a lucid
The OOBE (out of body experience) is a real time projection close to
the physical world. This often occurs as part of a near death
experience. This is where a person is knocked out of their body as a
result of some kind of severe trauma, i.e. car accident, surgery,
heart attack, child birth etc. OOBE'ers are aware of things happening
in the real world, in real time; such as conversations and events
centred around, or near to, their physical body. In many cases, these
events and conversations are accurately reported by the person after
they have returned to their body.
Note: The OOBE is slightly different from astral projection or lucid
dreaming because of its real time, objective aspect. This is caused by
the astral body containing a large amount of etheric matter, which
holds it close to the physical world.
There are two main causes of real time OOBE:
1. A person's body is near death, or thinks it is, which causes
large amount of etheric matter to be channelled into the
astral body in
preparation for the death process.
2. The person has active chakras which are doing a similar
thing i.e. channelling etheric matter into the astral body.
Having active chakras
can be a natural ability, or it can be
developed by training.
Note: You can project consciously, and have a real time OOBE if enough
etheric matter is generated by the chakras. In an OOBE, reality is
perceived as objective (real) and time is normal (real time).
Technically, when you project into the physical world in real time as
in an OOBE, it is really into the boundary area of the buffer zone,
between the physical and astral dimensions. If the astral body
contains enough etheric matter it can exist only slightly out of phase
from reality. This means the projection is in real time and so close
to the physical dimension as to be indistinguishable from it.
Note: I have checked this many times, by projecting, in real time,
during the day and scouting my local area for road works, accidents,
incidents etc, then verifying the accuracy of my findings afterwards.
There are strong natural barriers to conscious, real time projection,
the OOBE, in the physical world. The amount of etheric matter
generated and channelled to the astral body, is one of them. It limits
the duration of any real time projection to the degree of chakra
development and control.
The Astral Projection
This is where the astral body is projected into the astral dimension,
where things are quite different from the real world. Time is
distorted and extended, i.e., an hour in the astral can be like a few
minutes in the physical dimension, depending on what part of the astral
you are in. Reality is fluid and changeable.
The Lucid Dream
This is where a person becomes fully aware that they are dreaming
during a dream. They either take some kind of conscious control over
the course of events, or they convert the experience into an astral
projection. Lucid dreaming is more similar to an astral projection
than to an OOBE, as time and reality are distorted.
Astral Projection Or Lucid Dream?
Many astral projectors black out before making a conscious exit from
their body and return to awareness in the astral dimension. You become
aware after the actual separation from the physical body and are
usually already in the astral dimension. If you miss the conscious
exit from your body you are technically having a lucid dream, not an
astral projection as you have become aware after separation.
All three types of projection are closely related, i.e., they all
involve the astral body separating from the physical and experiencing a
reality separate from the physical body.
Robert Bruce Home Page
Attn: Joshua "Illinois" Shapiro
9737 Fox Glen Dr. #1K
Niles, IL 60714
TEL : (847) 824-1822
Last Modified by Illinois: 11/20/04