Every person in the world ? man, woman and child is born with the ability to astral project. This is a very real ability and practice is the only difference between those who rarely astral project or do so with difficulty and those who can astral project at will. Astral projection is something which has an extremely long history, just like yoga and meditation. There are many different names that astral projection goes by and a lot of different ways to astral project.

Lucid dreaming, for example. You already know what lucid dreaming is ? this is when you are conscious within a dream and able to direct the course of the dream. This takes practice to do reliably, but it is as simple as saying to yourself 'I am dreaming' while you are in the middle of a dream.

Doing this lets you take the reins in your dreams ? but it takes a while to master this, making it not the best way for beginners to astral project.

Astral projection is very real and you have already done it before, whether you realize it or not. When you awake from a dream remembering every single detail, this was not a dream; you were astral projecting.

Being able to astral project begins with self-affirmation. You need to believe that you have this ability. You?ll have to eliminate all of the doubt that?s been preventing you from astral projecting.

Using relaxation techniques can help you to prepare your body and mind to astral project. Meditation is the best way to get started. You need to find a meditation technique which works for you in getting you into the relaxed state needed for astral projecting.

One good way to start your meditation (and astral projecting) is to sit in a comfortable chair in a quiet room where you will not be interrupted or distracted. You need to clear all thoughts from your mind and focus on your breathing. Breathe slowly and deeply. Feel your tension and worry leaving your body with each exhalation. Before long, you?ll be nearing the deeply relaxed state necessary to astral project.

Breathe slowly, taking deep breaths in through your mouth and exhaling through your mouth. Your breathing should become deeper and slower as you become more and more relaxed.

Starting from your toes and working your way up, relax each part of your body. There are two ways you can do this. One is to tense, then relax each part of your body as you move upwards, the other is to visualize the tension leaving each part of your body as you exhale.

You?ll begin to feel heavy and limp as you release all of the tension and negative energy. After you have relaxed your entire body, then it?s time to move on to the next step in starting to astral project.

You?ll find yourself so relaxed that it may be hard to stay focused; you might even be close to falling asleep! To prevent this and to stay working towards your goal, repeat a phrase to yourself. It doesn?t matter what this phrase is ? anything that you can repeat to yourself easily will do the trick.

The human mind will wander when it is unoccupied by anything else; this can break the concentration necessary to astral project. To stay on track towards astral projecting, just keep repeating your phrase.

In order to astral project, you?ll need to reach an altered mental state. This can be done by simply repeating your phrase. You can also use the ?body of light? technique, which many practitioners find to be helpful. In this technique, you need to visualize your body transforming into a body of light.

There are a few sings to be aware of that you are successfully starting to astral project. You?ll feel like you are moving while your body stays in place. You?ll start to see colors and lights, even with your eyes closed. The third sign is hearing voices ? these voices may urge you to stop what you?re doing or provide encouragement to keep going; this will let you know that you are astral projecting.