Astral Projection and OBE?

[TheExplorer]

Hi all! For a long time, I thought that OBE was leaving your body, and traveling Earth, alone. And that Astral Projections were traveling to a whole other plain of living with diverse creatures. Although, on my short time here, my view has turned into a combination. Is OBE traveling Earth with other beings?

TL;DR

Are Astral Projections and Out of Body Experiences on Earth, the same thing?

[Xanth]

In the "classic" definition of the terms, yes.  They're "different" experiences in the "where" part you are.

The more modern day definitions lump them together into anything that describes you experiencing a reality while seemingly not in your physical body.

To me, there's really only two kinds of experiences... ones that happen "here" and ones that happen "not here".  They're all projections of varying levels of conscious awareness.

[TheExplorer]

Alright, so let me get this straight.

OBE - Traveling the Earth, ALONE, out of your body.

Astral Projection - Traveling the Astral Plain, with OTHERS, out of your body?

This forum confused me a lot. . .

[Xanth]

Alright, so let me get this straight.

OBE - Traveling the Earth, ALONE, out of your body.

Astral Projection - Traveling the Astral Plain, with OTHERS, out of your body?

This forum confused me a lot. . .

The subject, itself, is confusing.

Don't worry about labeling.  Just go and have experiences. 

[Tim R]

OBE is how the psychologists call it and astral projection is how the occultists call it.

[NoY]

or astral projection is a projection to the astral and they are all OBE


:NoY:

[Astral316]

Alright, so let me get this straight.

OBE - Traveling the Earth, ALONE, out of your body.

Astral Projection - Traveling the Astral Plain, with OTHERS, out of your body?

This forum confused me a lot. . .

Generally speaking, that's the gist of it. As you learn about this stuff you'll find that terminology is more of an art than a science. The mechanics behind non-physical travel and the metaphysical in general aren't known, so all we have is our own first hand observations to compare and derive commonalities. Always keep this in mind... when you're reading about terms or astral locales or individual experiences... it's not inherently "that way"... it just *appears* "that way." Any assumptions beyond that are pointless, since again, we don't know.

[AstralBeginnings]

I think that the term OBE is misleading.  When the early pioneers of this art coined the term, I think it was likely because they felt they WERE their body, and therefore when they experienced a conscious shift, they felt that because their body was lying in bed they must have been "out of body".  In reality, as others have mentioned, we are consciousness and while in normal physical reality, our consciousness is focused "in" our physical body "WE" are really everywhere, just our focus is different.