In my latest article, “I Have Flown Out of My Body and I Know Death Is a Lie,” we have established that the idea of leaving your body is not an illusion but a forgotten science that humans have practiced for thousands of years and is today being proven as valid by neuroscientists. Furthermore, I have shown that you are not merely a product of your mind, nor are you simply a physical form.
Additionally, I also made a promise.
With this article, I am fulfilling those promises. While this document does not provide any additional historical information, it will provide you with detailed instructions on how to create conscious out-of-body experiences. Within its contents are five unique, solid, and systematic approaches to creating an out-of-body experience. I have integrated methods developed by the Monroe Institute with the Tibetan yogis’ dream-portals into a single, comprehensive training program that provides you with a complete system for having an out-of-body experience. Some methods will work better for certain people than others; however, I am certain that at least one method will work for you.
The one remaining question is: Are you ready to take to the skies?
Part I: The Science of the Gateway State
The hypnagogic threshold — the surreal liminal space between waking and sleep, with a figure suspended between two worlds
As one gets ready to leave their physical body, it is very important to recognize the specific moment of consciousness in which such departure becomes possible.
Today, in the field of neuroscience, this window of consciousness is referred to as the "hypnagogic state."
Described by researchers at Harvard Medical School as "creativity's sweet spot," the hypnagogic state represents an intermediary stage between wakefulness and sleep. Electroencephalograms indicate that, in the hypnagogic stage, the brain is extremely active, almost identical to the way the brain looks when it is in REM sleep (deep dreaming), even though one is not yet completely unconscious. The visual cortex also starts producing high amounts of visuals (images and videos) without a visual input. At this point, the body has begun to lose its muscular strength; however, a thread of awareness, if carefully preserved, remains intact.
This is exactly the point at which every major tradition has described leaving the body (soul travel) using different terminologies. Traditions such as those in Hinduism and Buddhism speak of the hypnagogic state as the entranceway to the Yoga Nidra or the state of "yogic sleep." The tradition of dream yoga from Tibet characterizes the beginning of the practice as Mi-lam. Taoist sages have traditionally called this state Zuowang (sitting forgetting) in their inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi. The current terminology (hypnagogic trance) used by Western esoteric traditions, such as that indicated in Robert Monroe's book "Journeys Out of the Body," refers to OBEs incorporated with the use of a modern term - hypnagogic trance - despite the practice of this trance being well-established in traditional shamanic cultures. The use of trance by shamanic cultures has required the use of the rhythmic beat of a drum to produce and maintain the trance throughout the astral travel experience, a term documented by Mircea Eliade in his work "Shamanism."
The knowledge derived from scientific sleep studies illustrates that when OBEs (out-of-body experiences) are created, they do not originate from deep REM sleep; they originate as the result of entering the liminal threshold (hypnagogic) with a clear and awake mind and a paralyzed body. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews published on 2/12/2024, confirmed that sleep-induced OBEs are caused by both REM intrusions and confusion in the REM state, which indicates that while the brain is producing dreams, the conscious mind remains intact. The ancients knew this intuitively, and this was considered to be the case; contemporary science is now catching up to this realization.
Part II: Preparing the Ground - Mind, Body, and Space
The Egyptian Ba-bird, a Tibetan monk, and a shamanic figure — soul flight across ancient civilisations
The Primacy of Intention
Every tradition that has preserved the art of soul flight agrees on the following principle: Intent is the fuel for the journey. According to the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, saṃkalpa - a strong one-pointed resolve - is the foundation for any high-level siddhi, including the ability to leave one's body at will. Robert Monroe has stated from an empirical perspective that practitioners who focus on a single-pointed intention just before sleep will have a much greater success rate based on his thousands of documented out-of-body experiences (OBE).
It is not just a matter of being positive or hopeful, but of cognitive preparation; it allows the subconscious to maintain a thread of conscious awareness during the transition to sleep, rather than allowing it to become completely unregulated as it does in the natural state. William Buhlman has researched and taught OBE techniques at the Monroe Institute for over 40 years and recommends writing your intention in a journal each and every day: "Now I have a fully conscious out-of-body experience." The act of repeating this over time creates a deep-seated conditioning within the mind.
Confronting Fear: The Only Real Obstacle
Fear is the major reason that prevents achieving a conscious OBE and not lack of techniques. The vibrational state described below can be startling at first. It begins with the intense buzzing or electrical feeling from head to toe, sometimes colliding with loud noises, a pressure in the chest, or a spinning sensation. Most people have no idea what is going on; therefore, when they encounter this, they panic and return immediately to full waking consciousness.
These sensations are completely natural and safe, and they represent the natural physiological process of the astral body separating from the physical body. During this period of separation, the silver cord which connects the astral body to the physical body will always be present. You cannot become lost; you cannot be possessed by another being while your physical body is vacant. You will always return to your physical body.
Once you understand this visceral feeling of the vibrational state as being safe, the experience becomes exhilarating, rather than frightening. It is the signal that you are about to experience an out-of-body experience (OBE).
In a 2025 study published in Frontiers In Psychology and conducted using in-depth phenomenological interviews of OBE experiencers, the researchers found that every single participant described their experience as being "more vivid and real than everyday reality", and most attributed the experience to the development of non-local consciousness or expanded consciousness as opposed to being mentally ill. Another study performed at the University of Virginia found that 71% of OBE experiencers felt they received something of lasting value as a result of their OBE and that 40% felt it was the best thing that ever occurred to them. Therefore, it can be said that the only obstacle between you and one of the deepest experiences available to a human being is fear.
Creating Your Practice Space
William Buhlman's advice, gained through forty years of experience, is a simple, yet counterintuitive one that has held true for a long time: avoid practicing in bed. The subconscious mind equates a bedroom with deep sleep (unconscious). So as soon as you lie down in that setting, your mind starts to shut down, rather than stay alert. A sofa, recliner, or somewhere else dedicated for meditation will be better suited for this purpose. In many cases, practitioners will set up a little altar or surrounding meaningful objects for the purpose of reinforcing their intention with visual and sensory cues and to signal to their deeper mind that this area is for conscious exploration.
Optimal conditions include:
- Time of day: Morning hours (approximately 4-6 hours after your first sleep cycle) are the most productive time of the day for lucid dreaming practice. At this time, your body has completed its deepest sleeping cycles, so REM periods occur much more frequently and last longer. At this point, you are naturally closer to the hypnagogic threshold.
- Environment: The ideal environment is dark, quiet and maintained at a comfortable temperature (not hot).
- Posture: The classic posture for practice is to lie flat, with the arms resting alongside your body, but some practitioners find that lying on their right side, as discussed in some Tibetan Dream Yoga texts, provides similar benefits.
Part III: The Techniques - A Comprehensive Practical Guide
The following techniques are drawn from both ancient tradition and modern research. They are not mutually exclusive; many practitioners combine elements of several methods. The key is to experiment and discover which approach resonates most naturally with your own consciousness.
Technique 1: The Early Morning Method (William Buhlman / Monroe Institute)
This is arguably the most reliable method for beginners, because it exploits the natural REM-rich sleep architecture of the early morning hours.
- Set an alarm for approximately four to five hours after you normally fall asleep.
- When the alarm sounds, get up and move to your designated practice space. Remain awake for fifteen to twenty minutes - enough to fully clear the fog of sleep without becoming fully alert.
- Lie down in your practice space. Saturate your mind with your intention: “Now I have a conscious out-of-body experience.”
- Close your eyes and begin to visualize yourself walking through your home - moving from room to room, examining familiar objects in detail.
- Hold this visualization as your last conscious thought as you drift back towards sleep. The goal is to maintain the thread of awareness as your body crosses the threshold into the hypnagogic state.
- When vibrations arise, do not react. Simply observe them with calm curiosity and allow them to intensify.
Technique 2: The Rope Technique
The Rope Technique - a luminous astral body climbs a glowing rope of light upward from a sleeping physical body
This technique is rooted in the ancient concept of the “cord of life” and is refined by modern practitioners. It uses tactile imagination to pull the astral body free.
- Perform a full body relaxation, systematically releasing tension from your feet upward to your crown.
- Once deeply relaxed, imagine a thick, solid rope hanging from the ceiling directly above your chest.
- Without moving your physical hands, reach up with your imaginary hands and grip the rope.
- Begin to pull yourself upward, hand over hand, feeling the resistance and the texture of the rope.
- As you climb, you will likely feel the vibrational state intensify. Continue climbing. The sensation of rising will gradually shift from imaginary to genuinely felt.
- At a certain point, you will feel a distinct “pop” or “click” - the moment of separation. You are now free.
Technique 3: The Monroe Vibrational State Method
The vibrational state - electric blue and violet energy waves radiating from a figure lying in deep stillness
Robert Monroe’s original method, documented in Journeys Out of the Body (1971), remains one of the most systematic approaches ever developed.
- Relax completely. Allow the body to become heavy and still.
- Enter the hypnagogic state by focusing on a single point just behind your closed eyelids, approximately six inches in front of your face.
- When visual imagery begins to appear - colours, shapes, or scenes - do not engage with it. Simply observe.
- Begin to notice a faint buzzing or tingling sensation, usually beginning in the extremities or the base of the spine. This is the vibrational state beginning to form.
- Rather than trying to force the vibrations, simply invite them. Mentally “reach out” to the vibrations and allow them to flow through your entire body.
- Once the vibrations are strong and steady, issue a silent command: “Roll now” or “Float up.” Your astral body will respond.
Technique 4: Lucid Dream Conversion (Tibetan Dream Yoga Method)
A figure steps through a luminous portal from a vivid dreamscape into the radiant astral plane beyond
There are many ways to access a higher state of awareness through dreams, but the method developed by Tibetan Buddhists known as mi-lam (Dream Yoga) may be the most elaborate and effective of all. The basic practice with this approach consists of asking yourself throughout the course of each day, "Am I Dreaming?"- and then doing a reality check by attempting to push your finger through your palm. If you are awake, you cannot do this; however, if you are asleep and dreaming, you will be able to do so.
Once you develop the habit of questioning your reality on a daily basis, you will carry that habit into the dream state. Therefore, when you experience a particularly vivid dream, and you do a reality check and push your finger through your palm, you will realize that you are actually dreaming. You will become lucid in the moment and recognize that you are experiencing a lucid dream.
From within a lucid dream, the transition to a full OBE is straightforward:
- Stabilise the dream by rubbing your hands together vigorously or by spinning in place. This engages the tactile senses and prevents the dream from collapsing.
- Announce your intention clearly: “I am now leaving my body. I am entering the astral plane.”
- Visualise a doorway or portal and step through it with the firm intention of moving beyond the dream environment into a state of pure, expanded awareness.
- The environment will shift. The quality of light, the sense of space, and the depth of your awareness will all intensify markedly.
Technique 5: The Affirmation / Intention Method
This is by far the easiest way and is very effective for many practitioners - especially those who are naturally receptive to suggestion. This method does not require any type of visualisation or elaborate techniques, only one focused intention without any fluctuations. Simply drift off to sleep with a focused intention of, "Now I have a conscious out-of-body experience". Don't think about how this will occur, don't analyse the process, simply hold the intention as a quiet, confident certainty just as you would for the sun rising in the morning. As you fall asleep, keep repeating this intention; many practitioners have found that, after consistent practice, they simply awaken with their bodies left behind, as their subconscious mind has learnt to separate from the body without any conscious thought needed.
Part IV: The First Flight & What to Expect
A luminous golden astral body soaring above a night city, silver cord trailing back to earth, galaxies above
The Moment of Separation
There is a clear moment of separation. It usually precedes a vibrational state and is almost always marked by an audible internal noise (rushing, roaring, or high pitched); after which there will be a “pop” or “click,” followed by a wonderfully light and liberated feeling of having left the body. You have departed.
Most people's initial response will be to look down at their physical form. Most practitioners describe seeing themselves lying peacefully upon the place of practice; and while this experience may appear odd, it is also extremely comforting. The physical form appears exactly as one would anticipate: calm, breathing, undisturbed.
Navigation and Movement
You can move in a state of being outside of your body solely via thought and intention. There is no physical exertion or action required when you want to move; it is simply an intention of moving forward (to move forward) or an intention of flying (to go up). The astral body will follow your order of consciousness immediately and accurately.
Oftentimes people throughout all eras of history and in every culture that recalls such experiences, report the non-material space they inhabit while in an out-of-body experience (OBE), to be more realistic and true-to-life than the tangible world around them. The colours appear brighter and the sounds louder and richer; the feeling of existing in the OBE is significantly increased compared to the physical world's experience; thus making the experience of being in the physical world, pale or not as vivid, than being in the OBE.
According to the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, the dream state is more "real" (more true to self) than the physical world experience due to its being closer to the true self.
Verification
The most straightforward way for someone who experiences an OBE to validate that experience in terms of objective reality is to specify a target in advance of the experience; for example, it could be an object located somewhere in another room, or a playing card that has been turned upside down and placed on a shelf or a piece of paper upon which a number has been written, sealed in an envelope, and kept out of sight during the OBE. Once you have achieved an OBE, you will want to make every effort to either read or observe the target you have selected. After you have returned to your physical body, take a moment to document your findings and compare them with the details of the actual target.
This is the same process that was utilized by Dr. Sam Parnia in the AWARE studies when he placed hidden visual targets on top of the beds of patients experiencing cardiac arrest while they were being resuscitated. Although the results of the AWARE studies continue to be analyzed and researched, a number of individuals have already described accurate interpretations of what took place during their cardiac arrests from above the ceiling where they could view everything taking place, and these interactions are also being supported by eyewitness testimonies from hospital employees that provided these patients with medical care during their resuscitations. You, too, can perform an equivalent experiment from the comfort of your home by following the same methods that Dr. Sam Parnia employed.
Part V: Deepening the Practice - The Ancient Curriculum
Ancient teachings provide an entire curriculum for individuals who wish to continue their development after the initial experience has occurred and create a disciplined daily practice.
The curriculum consists of daily intention setting, similar to the ancient Egyptian idea of heka (magical intention) and contemporary Use of Journaling/Affirmations as the means to condition the subconscious mind.
Body relaxation is achieved through Modern (Western) Progressive Muscle Relaxation, i.e.. The use of techniques to achieve "mind awake" and "body asleep" for some practitioners is also referred to by the Indian term “yoga nidra”.
The reality-testing techniques taught in Tibetan Dream Yoga have similarities to contemporary practices. Contemporary practitioners perform similar daily reality checks to prepare themselves for lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences.
The use of rhythmic sound used in shamanic drumming and similar practices has found its modern equivalent in the use of "Binaural Beats". Binaural Beat Auditory Tones are used in modern times, at either Theta or Delta frequencies, to entrain the brain into the appropriate hypnagogic state.
Breath Control Techniques used by practitioners of Pranayama (in the Indian tradition) have a contemporary equivalent. Modern techniques such as Box Breathing and Holotropic Breathwork alter states of consciousness and reduce attachment to the body.
Contemplation of Death/Impermanence, a central theme found in Plato's Phaedo and Tibetan Buddhism's concept of practicing following one's soul's transition after death (the Bardo Thodol), is a contemporary practice known as Mortality Salience Meditation that assists individuals to reduce fear and increase motivation towards working for finding a purpose in their lives.
Dream Interpretation (Oneiromancy) was a common practice in ancient Mesopotamia. Today, keeping a dream journal and cultivating a consistent dream recollection practice is a much more simple but effective habit for creating a greater capacity for recalling and achieving lucidity in dreams.
The Tibetan Buddhist tradition explicitly states that the practice of Dream Yoga is to be viewed as a preparation for the ultimate out-of-body experience; death itself. The Bardo Thodol or Tibetan Book of the Dead provides practitioners with instructions for successfully navigating the out-of-body states that follow physical death, and the descriptions of how this is achieved are nearly identical to the methodology for navigating the Astral Planes during life.
Therefore, it is the belief of practitioners of the Tibetan tradition that to consciously navigate the dream state and to be awake during sleep is to be prepared for the experiences that the practitioner will encounter when passing through the final portal.
Conclusion: The Discipline of Wings
A meditating figure with luminous wings of consciousness unfurling, seated on a cosmic cliff overlooking a swirling universe
The out-of-body experience is not a party trick and it is not a curiosity. It is, as the ancients understood, the most direct available evidence that you are not your body, and that the consciousness reading these words is vaster, older, and more resilient than the biological machine it currently inhabits. The techniques described in this article are not new. They are the distilled inheritance of thousands of years of human exploration, preserved through the most rigorous possible testing ground: the direct, personal experience of countless practitioners across every culture and every age. They have been refined, cross-validated, and, increasingly, corroborated by the best available clinical and neuroscientific research.
What is required of you is not talent, not special gifts, and not decades of monastic training. What is required is patience, consistency, and the willingness to sit quietly at the edge of sleep and hold, with gentle but unwavering firmness, the intention to remember who you truly are.
The veil is thin and it always has been.
References
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