There are many people who astral project without being aware that they doing so and this is because astral projection is a natural ability which all people have. What we need to learn is how to do it while we?re conscious so that we have control over it.

Let's assume that you are already familiar with the astral plane and you know what astral projection is. The purpose of what follows is to tell you about a few different ways of engaging in astral projection. If you know which methods work best for you, you can know the powerful experience that is astral projection.

The first technique is a relatively simple process consisting of five steps which can be done in bed when you?re about to sleep.

*As you are lying down to go to bed, instead of just letting yourself try to drift off to sleep, use muscle tensing and releasing to enter a deep but conscious state of relaxation. Starting with your feet and toes, tense and then untense every muscle one at a time in your body, working all the way up through your facial muscles. If you feel this is uncomfortable or you feel heavy, that's normal–you aren't used to deep relaxation.

*Perhaps the most difficult part of step two is actually not falling asleep as you becomes more and more relaxed. In order to deepen and slow down your breathing, we follow a technique which is also used for meditation. This involves taking a slow deep breath and at the same time, feeling the air actually move its way down into your lungs. As you then exhale, you once again pay attention to the feeling of moving air leaving your body, ensuring also that you exhale all the air you have. To avoid falling asleep, try focusing mentally on an imaginary dot on the centre of your forehead.

*The third phase is to focus on the concept weightlessness regarding your astral body as well as the real weight of your physical body. By this stage your physical body will be feeling heavy so try to picture it as being a huge lump of clay, heavy and difficult to move. Additionally, you need to focus on how light your astral body feels by comparison. Imagine it to be a large bubble starting to float away up into the air, or even some feathers drifting away on a gentle breeze. Still with your eyes closed, visualize your astral body starting to separate from your physical body and drift away, taking in the feeling of complete weightlessness. Acknowledge to yourself, that your physical body is extremely heavy and almost impossible to move; your astral body on the other hand, has absolutely no weight at all, free to drift on the wind.

*For many this is the exciting stage as they claim to see the entire room they?re in from a different perspective in spite of the fact that their eyes are shut. In most cases, there tends to be a form of purple light filling the room and it?s at this point that you should focus on the light in the centre of the ceiling.

*Envision yourself pulling the drawing imagine that you are pulling the ceiling light into you. As you're doing this you might well get the sensation that you're floating. If you feel this, you can likely look 'down ' at your own physical body lying still on the bed.

If you?ve experienced this unique phenomenon, well done. You?ve successfully managed to astral project and are now in a position to start exploring with your astral travels. As I?ve mentioned before, different techniques work for different people so if this technique hasn?t worked for you, go ahead and attempt using this next technique.

This second tactic is known as the gazing technique and as with the technique discussed above it should also be done when you go to your bed. As the name implies, all you need with this method is an object to gaze at, be it a picture hanging up, the moon if it?s visible through the window or even some form of pendant such as a crystal.

Of course, you must make sure you can gaze at the object as you lie in bed. Now, essentially you're going to stare at this object. If you feel your attention wandering, bring it back to the object. You should soon begin to feel your eyelids getting heavy. Just keep staring; eventually your eyes will close but you should still be able to see the object as if your eyes are still open. Don't turn your head; keep 'staring '. You'll come to a point where you want to sit up or stand up, and if you feel yourself do this don't be alarmed if you can see your own physical body lying asleep on the bed.

These methods, like anything else, will probably require you to practice them over and over for a little while until you get results. So don't give up and don't let yourself become frustrated or discouraged as these feelings will just inhibit you from doing astral projection.

You see, no matter what methodologies you attempt with astral projection or any new spiritual discipline, it's your own subconscious mind which is the main obstacle. Your subconscious mind must feel like it's perfectly alright for the astral body to temporarily depart from the physical body. To this end you can do some affirmations for several minutes every day to re-program the subconscious mind. Remember that all affirmations must be stated in the positive and they cannot be lies. (I.E. do not talk as if you have already astral projected; talk as if you have made the decision to astral project and you know it's perfectly natural to do so).

Being able to astral project after the on the first attempt is simply not possible for some people as their mind needs to be conditioned. Fortunately there are some very powerful tools which can do this for you in a very short space of time.

One of the shortcuts is hypnosis. A good hypnotist can tell you what you are experiencing as you enter into the right state of mind, so you don't have to worry about what you 'should ' be experiencing.

Audio technology has now developed 'binaural beats ' which you can use to deeply relax and open up your subconscious mind to new spiritual experiences.

Once again, astral projection is actually not difficult–it's a natural capability born into you. You just need to use the right tools to get it done, and then you can astraly travel the cosmos!