Out of body travel has been recorded in the annals of history, dating back several centuries to the times of the ancient Egyptians. They called the soul, or the astral body, “Kha,” and often reproduced images of it hovering over or beyond the flesh-and-blood body. It was shown to be airy and translucent, and often haloed by light.

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.

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.

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.

The techniques for accomplishing this varied, but the most common practice seemed to be to simply “walk” out of oneself, beginning through the mind’s eye, followed then by the shoulders and chest, hips, legs, knees, and finally the feet until there were two entities - a physical body and the astral body.

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.

After some time exploring and learning what he could about this altered state of existence, he felt himself forcibly pulled back into his physical body, where he then spent the rest of his life trying to apply the information he learned while on his out of body journey.

Other ancient cultures recorded their findings of out of body travel similar to that of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. For instance, the history of the Native Americans includes various full accounts of such happenings to their people as well. Their accounts include the meeting of their spirit guides and totem spirit animals. These entities also advised them concerning the astral plane and the astral body. For centuries, the Native Americans have used specific plants for burning and inhaling in order to relax the mind to the point of being more receptive to out of body travel on the astral planes.

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.

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