How to Astral Travel: Techniques from Monroe, Muldoon, and the Esoteric Traditions

Robert Monroe did not set out to leave his body. He was a pragmatic Virginia radio executive who, in 1958, began experiencing spontaneous separations during relaxation. Over the next three decades, he developed systematic methods for inducing the experience at will, trained thousands of participants at the Monroe Institute, and published three books documenting his findings.

Sylvan Muldoon was younger when it started. As a twelve-year-old in 1915, he woke to find himself standing beside his bed, looking down at his sleeping body. By the 1920s, he had developed reliable techniques and co-authored The Projection of the Astral Body with psychical researcher Hereward Carrington.

William Buhlman came later, surveying thousands of experiencers and testing techniques systematically. His 1996 book Adventures Beyond the Body provided the most data-driven approach to date.

What all three discovered, and what the esoteric traditions had always taught, is that astral travel is a learnable skill. The methods differ in detail but share a common structure. This article gives you every major technique, step by step, so you can find the approach that fits your temperament and neurological style.

For background on what astral projection is and what the astral plane contains, see our complete guide to astral projection.

Prerequisites for Astral Travel

Before attempting any technique, build these foundational skills. Skipping them is the primary reason beginners struggle.

1. Physical Relaxation. You must be able to relax your body to the point where you lose awareness of it. Progressive muscle relaxation (tensing and releasing each muscle group systematically) is the standard training method. Practice this daily for two weeks before attempting projection techniques. When you can reach full-body stillness in under 10 minutes, you are ready.

2. Sustained Concentration. You need to hold a single point of focus for at least 10 minutes without drifting into sleep or distraction. Meditation practice builds this directly. Breath counting, mantra repetition, or trataka (candle gazing) all develop the required concentration muscle. See our guide to third eye practices for concentration techniques that also activate the ajna centre.

3. Dream Recall. Keeping a dream journal trains the bridge between non-physical experience and waking memory. Write down everything you remember immediately upon waking, even fragments. Within two weeks, your dream recall will sharpen dramatically. This same neural pathway carries astral memories back to waking consciousness.

4. Emotional Stability. Fear is the number-one obstacle to projection. The vibrational state, sleep paralysis, and unusual sounds and sensations can trigger panic in unprepared practitioners, which immediately terminates the process. Regular meditation builds emotional equanimity. Understanding what to expect (covered below) removes the element of surprise.

The Monroe Method: Focus 10 to Separation

Robert Monroe developed a systematic approach based on "Focus levels," numbered states of consciousness with specific characteristics. The Monroe Institute continues to teach this system today.

The Rope Technique (Robert Bruce)

Developed by Australian researcher Robert Bruce and published in Astral Dynamics (1999), the rope technique is widely regarded as the most effective method for beginners because it provides a strong tactile focus.

The rope technique works because it engages the body awareness centre (the proprioceptive system) in a way that conflicts with the physical body's stillness. This conflict between imagined movement and physical immobility creates the conditions for the astral body to separate along the line of intended movement.

The Target Technique (William Buhlman)

William Buhlman found that the simplest and most reliable technique involved choosing a specific location and focusing on it as you fell asleep.

Buhlman reported the highest success rates with this technique in his surveys of thousands of practitioners, partly because it sidesteps the challenge of remaining awake through the hypnagogic transition. Instead of fighting to stay awake, you let sleep take you while holding a strong intention that carries the astral body to its target.

The Muldoon Thirst Method

Sylvan Muldoon's original technique, documented in The Projection of the Astral Body (1929), used the principle that strong desire motivates the astral body to separate from the physical.

Muldoon observed that the astral body is driven by the same desires as the physical body. By creating a strong, unsatisfied desire (specifically, thirst), he found that the subconscious mind would project the astral body toward the desired object.

While this technique sounds unusual, the principle behind it is sound and is supported by the esoteric understanding that desire is the motivating force of the astral body. The Theosophical tradition names the astral body the kama rupa (desire body) for exactly this reason. Muldoon simply found a practical way to harness this principle.

Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)

The WBTB method exploits the natural sleep cycle to create optimal conditions for projection. It is the most practical method for people who struggle to maintain awareness through the initial relaxation phase.

The WBTB method works because it catches the brain at the REM-sleep threshold, when the astral body is already naturally loosening from the physical. This is the same principle behind the WILD technique used in lucid dreaming, and many practitioners find that WBTB attempts produce either lucid dreams or full astral projections depending on the depth of awareness maintained.

Esoteric Preparation Methods

The classical esoteric traditions did not teach astral projection as an isolated technique. They embedded it within a comprehensive system of inner development.

Rudolf Steiner's Approach: In How to Know Higher Worlds (1904), Steiner outlined a path of development that produces supersensible perception (including what would now be called astral projection) as a natural consequence of inner growth. The core exercises include: concentration on a single object for extended periods, meditation on symbolic images (a seed growing into a plant, for example), self-observation (reviewing the day's events in reverse each evening), and the development of six essential qualities (control of thought, control of action, equanimity, positivity, open-mindedness, and balance of all five).

The Hermetic Approach: The Hermetic tradition prepares the student through study of the cosmological map (the seven planetary spheres, the three planes, the principle of correspondence) combined with meditative work on Hermetic symbols. The student learns to hold the caduceus, the ouroboros, or the planetary glyphs in inner vision, building the capacity for sustained concentration that later supports conscious projection. This systematic approach, tracing the full arc from the Corpus Hermeticum to modern application, is the core curriculum of the Hermetic Synthesis course.

Yogic Preparation: The yoga tradition uses pranayama (breath control) to still the body and mind, dharana (concentration) to develop one-pointed awareness, and pratyahara (sensory withdrawal) to disconnect consciousness from physical input. These three practices together create the conditions for what the Yoga Sutras describe as the development of siddhis, including the ability to separate consciousness from the body.

Kundalini and energy work: Some traditions emphasize the development of the subtle energy body as preparation. Working with the chakra system, raising kundalini energy through the central channel (sushumna), and activating the third eye centre all refine the astral body and increase the likelihood of conscious projection. Crystals such as amethyst (third eye activation) and clear quartz (energy amplification) are sometimes used as meditation supports during this preparation.

Common Obstacles and Solutions

What to Expect During Your First Projection

Your first conscious projection will likely be brief, disorienting, and astonishing in roughly equal measure. Here is what practitioners commonly report.

Before separation: You will feel the vibrational state (intense buzzing, humming, or electrical sensations), hear unusual sounds (roaring, rushing wind, voices, musical tones), and experience sleep paralysis (temporary inability to move the physical body). All of this is normal and indicates that separation is imminent.

During separation: The moment of exit can feel like floating upward, rolling sideways, sinking through the bed, or simply finding yourself standing beside your body. It may be accompanied by a "pop," a whooshing sensation, or a feeling of rapid acceleration. Some practitioners report a moment of darkness between separation and astral vision activating.

Once projected: You will perceive your environment with unusual clarity. Colours may glow. You may have 360-degree vision. Your physical body may be visible on the bed (though not always). Movement responds to thought. The experience typically feels "more real than real," a description that recurs across thousands of accounts.

Duration: First projections are usually short, lasting seconds to a few minutes. Excitement, fear, or thinking about the physical body triggers immediate return. With practice, projections lengthen and stabilize.

Return: Return is automatic and instantaneous. You may feel a jolt as the astral body reconnects with the physical. Lie still for a moment and record every detail immediately. Memory of astral experiences fades quickly, much like dream memory.

A 30-Day Practice Schedule