Astral projection (or astral travel) is a term used in esotericism to describe a willful out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of a soul or consciousness called an “astral body” that is separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it throughout the universe.

The idea of astral travel is ancient and occurs in multiple cultures. The modern terminology of ‘astral projection’ was coined and promoted by 19th century Theosophists.

It is sometimes reported in association with dreams, and forms of meditation.

According to classical, medieval and renaissance Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and later Theosophist and 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

Biblical:

Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians is more generally agreed to refer to the astral planes;

“I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows) such a one caught up to the third heaven…

“ This statement gave rise to the Visio Pauli, a tract that offers a vision of heaven and hell, a forerunner of visions attributed to Adomnan and Tnugdalus as well as of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Ancient Egypt

Similar concepts of soul travel appear in various other religious traditions. For example, ancient Egyptian teachings present the soul (ba) as having the ability to hover outside the physical body via the ka, or subtle body.

Japan

Japanese mythology –  Traditionally, if someone holds a sufficient grudge against another person, it is believed that a part or the whole of the – r 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; such ikiryō are not malevolent.