The Astral World is a parallel, subtle vibratory universe with a predominant vibrational frequency higher than that of the Physical World, but lower than that of the Causal World. It encompasses all the so-called heavens and all the so-called hells. In the inner universe of the human being the astral world is reflected in the dynamics of emotions, desires, feelings and thoughts that belong to the sphere of personality – an area between the concrete experiences of the physical world and the transpersonal aspects. Descriptions of its qualities come from saints, advanced yogis, clairvoyants, sages and prophets, the alchemists of the Middle Ages, and more recently it was brought to the public attention by the theosophical movement. It is depicted both as a paradisiacal realm of miraculous beauty, home to astral beings of ideal elevation, goodness, harmony and gentleness, and, in some of its parts, as a nightmarish, frightening setting for the wicked, selfish and sinful.
Advanced yogis can consciously visit the astral realms in deep meditation – i.e. performing Laya Yoga, or while deeply relaxing, after a perfect sublimation of energy. In the popular tradition, the reality of the “fourth” (astral) dimension can be found in expressions such as: “double vision” or “sixth sense”. There are also growing numbers of testimonies of being outside the body in near death experiences, such as surgeries, accidents, or other eco-somatic experiences, in normal, daily circumstance, in which a human being finds themself projected outside their own body.
The vehicle for these travels into the Astral World is the subtle body – an exact replica of the physical body, but which is subtle, made of immaterial light. It is described in many ways – energy body, “nervous” body, vital body, double, mortal soul, body of feelings or sensations, body of consciousness, dream body, desire body, thanatic body. During sleep, the astral body of a normal human being or, even more easily, of an advanced yogi will sometimes perfectly consciously detach itself and will naturally travel hundreds or even billions of light years away into the Astral World, while still remaining connected by a silver cord to the physical body. The subtle, astral body is also the one that witnesses the experience of death and the ineffable states that follow after the death of the physical body, at which moment the silver cord breaks completely and the astral body is released.
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