How to Improve Astral Techniques Spiritual Meaning

Astral travel and astral vision are ways to see things while outside of your body.

Astral vision can be used to find items that are lost and is often used in techniques like remote viewing. Astral travel is a form of vision where you allow your entire spiritual entity to leave the body for a given time and literally travel without your body. Both sensations are innate to the human psyche; however some will find the task more difficult. Both of the techniques are interlinked and you need to develop your astral senses to be able to travel and to see the world around you in your astral form.
 

Getting Started:

Astral travel is much like an outer body experience. Essentially they are one in the same experience for the body, however usually the traditional explanation of the out of body experience or OBE is something that will happen to you, rather than making it happen. When you begin traveling you will need to make a planned and concerted effort and there are going to be a few things that you will want to do to prepare and protect yourself.

First, you want to become aware of your astral body. To do this you will start with some focusing exercises.

Visualization:

Practice this until you are completely comfortable.

Lie down in a quiet place and allow your body to completely relax. If you find your mind wandering or you are falling asleep, re-center your mind. You can focus on a colored star or a bubble or something simple to visualize in your mind. When you can imagine your chosen icon then you will want to keep your eyes closed and imagine moving it around in the room you are in. Think about first-person video games or movies where you can see from the perspective of flying. Inspect the room you are in, your own body, and your surroundings. Focus on the colors of the room – Do they have a hint of color to them? Can you see the items in the room with concise edges or are they fuzzy? Try to notice small details that you didn’t notice before you entered to the room as you look at the room from a new angle.

Some people will pick up on this right away, while others will take weeks or months. This is not something you push yourself into and do not be tempted to go to the next step without making yourself comfortable with this one! You are not in a race and everybody will get it to some degree in their own time. The goal is to feel comfortable and to be able to take some recall with them.

Visualizing sounds like it is just imagining something and often people will say that this doesn’t feel “real”. This isn’t necessarily the case. The visualization aspect is very important so that you can train your mind to see in your astral body. It is sort of like when a baby comes out and their vision is not quite able to focus. At first it is blurry and they see color and then over time it sharpens. Your mind’s eye needs to be allowed the time to do this as well.

If you find you are having difficulty with the above exercise then you may want to try some other simpler exercises on top of that one. Take smaller steps and work in one to five minute increments visualizing items that you are familiar with.

Candle visualization:

Once relaxed and centered light a candle before you in a dim or dark room. It doesn’t matter what the candle color is – only that it has a good wick for a decent flame. Allow your mind to wander with the candle and focus your energy into it and allow your mind to dance with the flame. Take note of the movements of the flame and the energy that the fire holds. Stare into the flame for at least one minute. The flame will bore into you and when you close your eyes, you will see the candle in your mind’s eye. Keep the flame in sight and continue to see it dance and light the darkness. You will be seeing the candle in real time and continuing to see the flame even with your eyes closed. When you start to lose the image of the flame, open your eyes and restart the vision process over again until you feel reconnected.
 
Remember that you will always want to clear your mind before a visualization which will enable your mind and body to relax. A great book to get your started with these techniques is ‘The Spiral Dance’ by Starhawk.

When you feel you are ready for more advanced work then you can develop your astral body.

WARNING:

Before doing any astral work – especially if you are inexperienced in the work you must always protect your physical body! The best way to do this is to cast circle around your body before you get started and to ensure that you are working in a clean and clear space. Astral travel can be a dangerous working if done improperly and protections precautions should always be taken!

Your astral body is essentially you… in your astral form. This body, like your physical body, is already created but it often takes time to realize the shape and form. It also can feel odd at first as your body is closely connected with your physical form. You want to work on extending this body out of you by feeling your inner self push out from your outer self.

At first you will likely feel resistance unless you are either trained or naturally adept but as time goes on it will become easier and easier. The process is much like visualization in that you will be releasing your vision, but this time with your complete astral body attached. Lay down and come to a relaxed state through breathing and meditation. When you are ready and able you want to raise yourself directly out of your body like your inner shell that is essentially you in spirit which floats over your entire body. You will create a virtual astral body double with the energy from your back lingering to the front side of your body.
Feel yourself hovering over your relaxed body and allow yourself to sit in an upright position. Be aware of the spiritual force that is still attached to your body. Bear in mind that the first time you try to make yourself aware of your connection you are likely to slam (literally) back into yourself. This is normal, do not be scared by the sudden movement backwards. If it doesn’t happen – that’s okay, there is nothing wrong. It is good to note though because often people will be startled by the experience and not want to try again.

Just do it over and over again until you can feel the connection back to your body, but are able to keep yourself floating outside of it while connected to it.

Once you are out of your body, still connected, you will have the ability to pull your complete astral body away from your physical body. It is important while learning to do this that you stay close and you stay near until you are completely familiar with tethering your bodies together!

You are in control of your astral body and the form that you take. Unlike the physical body which is solid, the astral body is able to be molded into any form you choose. You are able to accomplish a great many things, like making yourself into a golden goddess with flowing lavender hair and an intricate patterned dress. It may feel difficult at first, but it is not impossible in the realm of the Astral. Stick with what you know at first and you will find that your body will naturally resemble how you see yourself anyway.  

Tying yourself to your Body

When you are secure in your body and you can easily levitate in and out of it you will want to work on your cord that ties yourself to your body. Different traditions have varied ways at accomplishing this. Some will say that you want to create a colored cord that you tie to your astral body and then connect it to the physical body. You will want to be sure to create this out of the energy that is already connecting your physical and astral forms. You have mental control over color and the importance of this is so that even when you are far from your body you attain some connection and do not get lost. Choosing a color that you enjoy is suggested because the familiar will bring you comfortable back when the time is right.
Practicing with the cord and your form will further help you to improve your astral vision and traveling techniques.

Improving Your Astral Experience

Once you feel comfortable with all of the above, you are then ready to take flight. You have the freedom to see beyond your physical form. For some time you will be able to only see short distances. However, you can increase your range and focus with some more practice and a few tricks.

Sensory deprivation

Sensory deprivation can increase the focus and the experience of your astral self. Often we are too connected to the physical world and it inhibits our ability to trust and know what we need to about our astral form. Being too connected to the physical plane can deter your ability or block it all together to be able to have an astral experience. Consider ways in which you can block out the physical world before traveling by eliminating light, sounds, and smells from the area in which you are starting from.

Meditating regularly

Meditating gives your mind a chance to take a break from the physical plane. Maintaining a schedule for meditation keeps your spiritual self fresh and allows your body time to rest. You may want to try guided meditations as well to help you create the experiences in your astral form that you are looking for. There are guided verbal meditations that will help you work on your astral form, astral temple, and astral vision.

Using triggers to activate your astral self

Chimes or bells can be used to trigger astral activities much the same way that a hypnotist will use a ticking clock to induce their patient to a hypnotic state. This is especially effective for people that have a difficult time disassociating their visualizations with true astral experiences. You may also want to consider using a singing medicine bowl to train your mind while focusing and allow the sound to drift you into an astral state. Sound triggers do not always work for everyone and you will want to experiment to discover which sound works best for you.

Use the Buddy System

Some people are held back by fear or anxiety about being in an astral state. Having a friend with you in the room physically or in astral form can allow for the confidence and security needed to go astral freely.
 

Journal

Like a dream journal, an astral journal gives you the opportunity to recall your experiences and to learn from mistakes. A journal is an important part of astral traveling especially if you become very sleepy (as some people do) after going into an astral state so that you can remember how you achieved the state and what you did. While you are learning how to see and travel in the astral realm it is also helpful to journal so that you can track what methods work best for you.

 

Focus and care for your chakras

Chakras are the gateway to the soul and an energy source for your physical and psychic wellbeing. Blocked chakras can cause a psychic backup and make any astral experience difficult or impossible. A key note about chakra work (and how you can usually tell if you need a chakra tune up) is if you find that after doing or attempting astral work that you are extremely sluggish, have physical body pain such as a migraine or muscle spasms, or trouble focusing that you would want to attend to your chakras. Chances are that one or more chakras are out of whack and need your attention.