Learn · Astral projectionCommon questions
Is astral projection safe?
In my experience, the fear most people carry, of leaving the body and not being able to come back, is nearly the opposite of the truth: returning is the one thing a beginner can’t stop doing. The real obstacle on this road is fear itself, and fear can be understood and taken apart, layer by layer.
What people are afraid of
Most of the questions I receive about this come down to a few fears: that you’ll leave your body and not be able to get back, that something could enter the body while you’re away, that you’ll meet something dark out there, or simply the unknown. I know the fear that can stand at this threshold, and I won’t wave it away. But each of these fears, looked at closely, turns out not to be what you think it is.
You already leave your body every night
Begin with the plainest fear, the fear of leaving the body. You already do. Every night your consciousness withdraws from the body so completely that a whole night goes by like nothing, and every morning it returns and finds the body where it left it, breathing, warm and unharmed. The only thing a traveler does differently is to stay awake for a departure we have all been making, fast asleep, since the night we were born. Nothing new is being asked of your body. It is being asked of your attention.
People sometimes ask whether leaving the body leaves it open for a dark spirit to step in. You’ll find a lot of misinformation and fear-mongering about this. We all leave the body every night when we go to sleep; astral projection is simply becoming conscious of what is already happening. If anything, practicing consciously means that at least you are aware of what you are doing, and of what is influencing you, at night.
Coming back is the easy part
The commonest fear on this road is the fear of not getting back, and it is the one with the least behind it. In my experience the truth is nearly the opposite.
Returning is the one thing the beginner cannot stop doing. The smallest fright, the smallest excitement, a sound in the house, a thought about the body — any of these snaps you home in an instant, which is why the whole first year of this work is spent learning to stay out, not learning to get back.
Every experienced traveler knows you can end an experience simply by willing yourself to wake up, and for a beginner even closing your eyes out there is often enough to send you back. You are tethered to your body the way a kite is tethered to a hand: you can be on the other side of the galaxy and still be connected to it.
What about the darker places?
I won’t pretend that frightening experiences never happen. They do. But out of all my experiences, the negative ones have amounted to perhaps five percent, most of them in my first few years, and none lasted more than two or three minutes. Compared with the positive and transcendental ones, they become of little interest. And even after the worst of them, I came back to my bed and was fine.
What decides where you go is your state. The inner worlds don’t respond much to what you want; they respond to what you are. An anxious and fearful state of mind is drawn, as if by gravity, toward regions that are heavy, dim and anxious themselves. Let me say plainly what those regions are, so the words don’t frighten you.
They are not punishments, and no one is sent there. They are the levels of the inner worlds that match a troubled state of mind, the way a grey mood matches a grey day, and a person leaves them the moment their own state changes.
A clear and calm state rises just as naturally toward brighter worlds. There is no judge at the threshold sorting souls, only resonance. And what is met without fear changes its shape: I have watched a menacing figure lose its menace the moment I stopped being afraid of it.
In January 2021 I crossed out of a frightening dream with the fear still in me, and I was carried downward, into a ruined city of smoke and red light. When I felt myself sinking even lower, I turned upward, chanted Om, and within a minute I had gone from the lowest region I have ever visited to one of the highest. What carried me was not courage. It was a change of state. The danger is a state, and a state can be changed in a breath. That is why I say there is no such thing as a truly negative experience: every frightening night of my life has taught me something the pleasant nights could not.
Fear is the real obstacle
Fear is the greatest barrier to astral projection, as it is to almost anything worth doing in life: a new job, a new country, asking someone to marry you. It is the same fear everywhere, so you can learn about it from anyone you consider courageous.
Fear is never logical. It comes from imagining a reality you assume exists, from thinking you already know how something will play out, when your mind can’t imagine what it hasn’t yet experienced. Fear only arises from a lack of understanding.
So don’t fight it. Observe the fear and see it for what it is, without judging it and without identifying with it. It is an energy moving through you, like a faster current in a river; watch it and let it go by. When we resist fear, it only gets worse. It isn’t you who is fearful, only a part of you, and it will pass. It doesn’t matter that you feel fear. What matters is not being controlled by it.
Above all, develop love for the truth: a genuine longing to discover what lies beyond this reality, strong enough to far outweigh any fear. As Joseph Campbell put it, the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
Watch the talk on YouTubeHow to Overcome Fear of Astral Projection & Spiritual AwakeningVibrations, voices and sleep paralysis
Many people meet their fear right at the moment of separation: vibrations, a roar or voices, the sense of a presence. I see these as tests from your own subconscious, the guardian of the threshold, checking whether fear will overwhelm you. They are most common before a first full experience, and they diminish as you get past them; I don’t really feel that fear anymore. Recognize it, don’t give it much attention, and carry on with your intention.
You don’t need to experience sleep paralysis, or try to induce it, in order to astral project. If it comes, I see it as a doorway rather than a trap. Each time I have had it, I have left the body from it, simply by getting up in the astral body instead of trying to move the physical one. In my view, it is often fear that keeps people stuck there. Observe the fear, let it be, and simply get up.
How I protect myself
The best protection I know is not a technique but a state of being: a level of consciousness that naturally emanates love for all beings, where fear is far from your natural state. The attention you gather, day after day, is itself your protection.
A lamp does not negotiate with darkness. It simply burns, and the darkness arranges itself accordingly.
The ordinary things matter: meditating daily, living and eating well, being happy, wishing others well. Every night before sleep I visualize a circle of fire around me while mentally reciting a mantra of protection my teacher taught me, and I barely have negative experiences. You don’t need the mantra: you can simply visualize a circle of fire or light, and add a prayer asking the angels, masters and guides of the astral plane for protection, with positive emotions and complete faith.
And if you meet something with ill intent out there, don’t just stay passive. Do something:
- Wake up. You can end an experience simply by willing it.
- Ask for help, sincerely and from the heart: the masters, angels and guides of light, or your own higher self. That is always your backup plan.
- Chant Om and turn upward, or simply intend to be somewhere else.
- Afterward, come back to the body and seek understanding, not fear.
A gentle way in
The preparation for the night is the day: small things, done softly, every day. Sit for ten minutes with your attention on the breath. Keep the last hour before sleep quiet, with the lights low and screens away. Hold the practices warmly and the results with an open hand. The fruit falls when it is ripe, never an hour sooner.
There is one situation where my advice is different.
In rare cases of individuals who successfully astral project but describe entities attacking them every time they project, my advice is to stop; you’re probably not ready, for now. Instead, focus on your physical life and meditate profoundly.
Comprehend your suffering, and find happiness, peace and positive emotions in your life. And if a big experience shakes you, come back to the here and now. Accept it, come to terms with it in your own way, meditate, and be gentle with yourself.
What the fear is really about
Underneath all these fears there is one more: the fear of the self coming apart, of not being you anymore. It is really the fear of death, wearing a nightgown. I can only tell you what I have found. On the far side of sleep I have never once been less myself. I have been more: clearer, calmer, more awake, more certain of who I am than I usually manage in the daylight. What dissolves out there is not you. It is the noise you mistook for you.
If you often experience sleep paralysis, have trouble sleeping, or are going through a hard time with your mental health, please speak with a doctor. These practices are meant to be gentle and are not a substitute for medical care.