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.

One of these techniques is lucid dreaming, something which is very familiar to most of us. Lucid dreaming is the ability to become conscious within a dream and take control of the happenings within it. All you need to do to begin lucid dreaming is to tell yourself ?I am dreaming? while you are in a dream.

Lucid dreaming lets you take control of what happens in your dreams; but it can take a while to be able to do this on a regular basis. This means that it is not an ideal way to astral project, at least for those who are new to the practice.

All of us have astral projected at some time in the past; maybe even many times, as it happens. When you awake from a dream and are able to remember every detail vividly, down to the very smallest elements, you have had an experience of astral projecting. You may have had this happen to you many times ? this shows you that you can astral project!

Being able to astral project all begins with knowing that this is something that you have the ability to do. Astral projecting is an inborn ability in all of us. You need to eliminate doubt from your mind; this can be keeping you from being able to astral project when you want.

Relaxation techniques like meditation can help you to astral project successfully. Meditation is an especially good method of preparing yourself to astral project. You?ll just need to find a regular routine of meditation which works for you.

One simple way to meditate is sitting in a comfortable spot in a quiet room free of distractions. Get comfortable and clear your mind of all thoughts. Focus on your breathing, which should be slow and deep. As you exhale, visualize all of your worries leaving your mind along with your breath. You?ll soon be in a state of deep relaxation ideal for astral projection.

Your focus should remain on your breathing. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. As you become more relaxed, your breathing will become deeper and slower.

Starting from your toes and working your way up, relax each part of your body. You can do this by gently tensing, then relaxing each part as you work towards your head or simply focus on relaxing each part as you exhale.

You?ll start to feel heavy as you become relaxed. After you have relaxed your entire body, you?ll be able to begin the next step towards astral projecting.

Your body and your mind will be completely relaxed and it would be very easy to fall asleep, but don?t! To stay alert, you can repeat a phrase to yourself. It doesn?t matter what this phrase is ? it could be as simple as 'walk the dog, walk the dog'.

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 three signs to watch for that will indicate that you are beginning to astral project. One is having a sensation of motion, followed by 'seeing' light and color (even though your eyes will be closed). You will then hear voices telling you to stop or to continue ? this is a sure sign that you are astral projecting.