Editing Astral projection (section)

==Accounts==
===Ancient Egyptian===
[[File: BD Mummy and Ba.jpg|thumb|The ba hovering above the body. This image is based on an original found in [[The Book of the Dead]].]]Similar concepts of soul travel appear in various other religious traditions. For example, [[ancient Egypt]]ian teachings present the soul (''ba'') as having the ability to hover outside the physical body via the ''[[Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul#Ka .28vital spark.29|ka]]'', or subtle body.<ref name="Melton 1996" />

===Indigenous traditions===

====Amazon====
The ''yaskomo'' of the [[Wai-Wai people|Waiwai]] is believed to have the ability to perform a soul flight that can serve several functions, such as healing; flying to the sky to consult [[cosmology|cosmological]] beings (the Moon or the Brother of the Moon) to obtain a name for a [[newborn]] baby; flying to the cave of [[peccary|peccaries]]' mountains to ask the father of peccaries for abundance of game; or flying deep down into a river to seek the aid of other beings.{{sfn|Fock|1963|p=16}}

====Inuit====
In some [[Inuit]] groups, individuals with special capabilities, known as [[angakkuq]], are said to be able to travel to ([[Inuit mythology|mythological]]) remote places, and report their experiences and important matters back to their community. Those abilities would be unavailable to individuals with normal capabilities.{{sfn|Hoppál|1975|p=228}} Among other things, an angakkuq was said to have the ability to stop bad hunting luck or heal a sick person.{{sfnm|1a1=Kleivan|1a2=Sonne|1y=1985|1pp=7–8, 12, 23–24, 26–31|2a1=Merkur|2y=1985|2pp=4–6}}

===Hindu===
Similar ideas such as the [[Linga sarira|Liṅga Śarīra]] are found in ancient [[Hindu]] scriptures such as the ''[[Yogavashista|Yogavashishta-Maharamayana]] of [[Valmiki]]''.<ref name="Melton 1996">{{harvnb|Melton|1996}}</ref> Modern Indians who have vouched for astral projection include [[Paramahansa Yogananda]] who witnessed Swami Pranabananda doing a miracle through a possible astral projection.<ref>[[Wikisource:Autobiography of a Yogi/Chapter 3]]</ref>

The Indian spiritual teacher [[Meher Baba]] described one's use of astral projection:

{{blockquote|In the advancing stages leading to the beginning of the path, the aspirant becomes spiritually prepared for being entrusted with free use of the forces of the inner world of the astral bodies. He may then undertake astral journeys in his astral body, leaving the physical body in sleep or wakefulness. The astral journeys that are taken unconsciously are much less important than those undertaken with full consciousness and as a result of deliberate volition. This implies conscious use of the astral body. Conscious separation of the astral body from the outer vehicle of the gross body has its own value in making the soul feel its distinction from the gross body and in arriving at fuller control of the gross body. One can, at will, put on and take off the external gross body as if it were a cloak and use the astral body for experiencing the inner world of the astral and for undertaking journeys through it, if and when necessary. ... The ability to undertake astral journeys therefore involves considerable expansion of one's scope for experience. It brings opportunities for promoting one's own spiritual advancement, which begins with the [[Involution (Meher Baba)|involution]] of consciousness.{{sfn|Meher Baba|1967|pp=90, 91}}
}}

Astral projection is one of the ''[[siddhis]]'' ('[[Magic (supernatural)|magical power]]s') considered achievable by yoga practitioners through [[self-discipline]]d practice. In the epic ''[[Mahabharata]]'', [[Drona]] leaves his physical body to see if his son is alive.

===Japanese===
[[File:SekienIkiryo.jpg|thumb|upright|The {{Transliteration|ja|[[ikiryō]]}} as illustrated by [[Toriyama Sekien]].]]
In [[Japanese mythology]], an {{Nihongo||生霊|[[ikiryō]]|also read as ''shōryō'', ''seirei'', or ''ikisudama''}} is a manifestation of the [[soul]] of a living person separately from their body.{{sfn|Clarke|2000|p=247}} Traditionally, if someone holds a sufficient grudge against another person, it is believed that a part or the whole of their soul can temporarily leave their body and appear before the target of their hate in order to curse or otherwise harm them, similar to an [[evil eye]]. Souls are also believed to leave a living body when the body is extremely sick or comatose; but such {{Transliteration|ja|ikiryō}} are not malevolent.{{sfn|Chopra|2005|p=144}}

===Taoist===
[[Taoism|Taoist]] [[alchemy|alchemical practice]] involves creation of an energy body by breathing meditations, drawing energy into a 'pearl' that is then circulated.{{sfn|Chia|2007|pp=89ff}}

{{blockquote|[[Han Xiangzi|Xiangzi]] ... with a drum as his pillow fell fast asleep, snoring and motionless. His primordial spirit, however, went straight into the banquet room and said, "My lords, here I am again." When Tuizhi walked with the officials to take a look, there really was a Taoist sleeping on the ground and snoring like thunder. Yet inside, in the side room, there was another Taoist beating a fisher drum and singing Taoist songs. The officials all said, "Although there are two different people, their faces and clothes are exactly alike. Clearly he is a divine immortal who can divide his body and appear in several places at once. ..." At that moment, the Taoist in the side room came walking out, and the [[Taoist]] sleeping on the ground woke up. The two merged into one.{{sfn|Erzeng|2007|pp=207–209}} }}

===Judaic and Christian===
[[Hereward Carrington|Carrington]], [[Sylvan Muldoon|Muldoon]], Peterson, and Williams say that the subtle body is attached to the physical body by means of a psychic [[silver cord]].{{sfnm|1a1=Muldoon|1a2=Carrington|1y=1929|2a1=Peterson|2y=2013|2loc=chapters 5, 17, 22}} {{Bibleverse||Ecclesiastes|12:6|NIV}} is often cited in this respect: "Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well". Rabbi Nosson Scherman, however, contends that the context points to this being merely a metaphor, comparing the body to a machine, with the silver cord referring to the [[Vertebral column|spine]].{{sfn|Scherman|2011|p=1150}}

James Hankins argues that {{Bibleverse|2|Corinthians|12:2|NIV}}, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows", refers to the astral planes.{{sfn|Hankins|2003}}

===Western esotericism===
{{main|Body of light}}
According to the classical, medieval, renaissance [[Hermeticism]], [[Neoplatonism]], and later [[Theosophy (Boehmian)|Theosophist]] and [[Rosicrucianism|Rosicrucian]] thought, the 'astral body' is an intermediate [[body of light]] linking the rational soul to the physical body while the astral plane is an intermediate world of light between Heaven and Earth, composed of the spheres of the planets and stars. These astral spheres were held to be populated by angels, demons, and spirits.<ref>[[E. R. Dodds|Dodds]] in {{harvnb|Proclus|1963|loc=Appendix}}.</ref>{{sfn|Pagel|1967|pp=147–148}}

In the Neoplatonism of [[Plotinus]], for example, the individual is a [[Macrocosm and microcosm|microcosm]] ("small world") of the universe (the macrocosm or "great world"). "The rational soul...is akin to the great Soul of the World" while "the material universe, like the body, is made as a faded image of the Intelligible".{{sfn|Gregory|1991|p=12}} Each succeeding plane of manifestation is causal to the next, a world-view known as [[emanationism]]; "from the One proceeds Intellect, from Intellect Soul, and from Soul—in its lower phase, or that of Nature—the material universe".{{sfn|Gregory|1991|pp=15–16}} The idea of the astral figured prominently in the work of the nineteenth-century French occultist [[Eliphas Levi]], whence it was adopted and developed further by Theosophy, and used afterwards by other esoteric movements.

The [[Subtle body|subtle bodies]], and their associated planes of existence, form an essential part of some esoteric systems that deal with astral phenomena. Often these bodies and their [[planes of existence]] are depicted as a series of concentric circles or nested spheres, with a separate body traversing each realm.{{sfn|Besant|1897|p={{page needed|date=January 2024}}}}