I had the great pleasure of seeing Dr Strange this weekend – the 3D version highly recommended.
There’s a great scene where The Ancient One, sublimely played by Tilda Swinton, pushes the astral component of a sceptical Dr Strange out his body. Benedict Cumberbatch expresses shock and bewilderment at being thrust ‘out of his body’.
See 1 minute into this trailer for this particular scene …
While much of the film is fantasy, the existence of the astral world and both our gross and subtle bodies might be more ‘real’ than is thought. Components of the astral world may comprise some of the missing dark matter and energy whose whereabouts has the scientists somewhat perplexed these days.
In order to access the astral world, you don’t need a Large Hadron Collider. We are all able to sense and experience the astral plane daily. Here’s five ways to do it, noting the last one is not recommended.
1. Dreaming
We slip into the astral plane each night naturally when we dream. This is especially so when we travel in our dreams and experience what are called lucid dreams.
Sometimes we can feel like we are flying when we have an out-of-body experience. When this happens, you can sometimes look down on your sleeping form.
For a pre-dream meditation to ease you into the Astral Plane, listen to The Perfect Way to End Your Day on Insight Timer
2. Meditative Visualisations
Some guided meditations can take you to imaginary places and mystical worlds. Sometimes these are called shamanic journeys.
Such meditations that give the most intense experience occur when the person who recorded the meditation was deeply entrenched in the astral world themselves at the time of the recording.To experience an intentionally light state of astral travel, listen to either of these two Visualisations for free on the Insight Timer app.
3. Remote Viewing
There are many tales of espionage organisations using native indigenous people to train operatives in the skills of ‘seeing at a distance’.
For a safe ‘remote viewing’ experience, I have produced a jet lag reduction meditation which works by gently separating the gross and subtle bodies. The subtle body gets sent ahead to your destination. When the gross body catches up by actually flying, the two join again and the effects of jet lag are minimised.
4. Being in The Zone
The Astral Plane is a conduit and gateway to what is known as the collective consciousness. This is thought to be an even higher dimensional plane where all thought and knowledge – past, present and future – reside.
When we get into the flow state referred to as ‘the zone’, we forge a connection with astral. This flow state is where performers and athletes perform at their peak. Actors sometimes call it ‘channelling’. It is where writers, artist and musicians connect with their Muse.
The key to accessing our Muse, lies in getting into the meditative state with our eyes open. This visualisation on Insight Timer, takes you through a safe and repeatable procedure that also gets both halves of our brain working in synchronism.
5. Near-Death Experiences
While Dr Strange was undergoing CPR, we saw him floating outside his body. As I mentioned, experimenting with NDEs is not recommended. If you are interested in knowing more, have a listen to this podcast with PMH Atwater who is one of the world’s leading experts on NDEs – and has had three herself.