Hi Nexians

Just wanted to chat about something I've been thinking about lately, namely the similarities between astral projection and the DMT experience.

Please share your thoughts! Let's get a discussion going!

Well... What similarities do you see?

Astral projection is a rather vaguely defined concept. Mostly what people mean by it is going into a trance state and then going on some kind of "dream quest", either in a dreamscape, or having the sensation of flying around in consensus space as a disembodied spirit...

The DMT experience definitely gives one a feeling of being torn away from your body and location in space and time, so I guess that's one similarity... Personally however, the experiences I have had through meditative techniques like trance breathing were pretty "human", as opposed to the markedly "alien" nature of DMT visions.

This pretty well reflects my experience. I've experienced the launching part and early stages of an OBE/astral projection a few times, and the feeling of acceleration and falling on these occasions was very tangible, vivid and "real" feeling (and a tad unnerving)...and highly distinct to me from dream sensations. The feeling of lift off and acceleration I experienced has definite similarities to the DMT blast off. Other times, pre launch I experienced powerful electrical like vibrations in my body...again very tangible and powerful feeling (but not painful). These electrical type vibrations also share some common ground with DMT.

For me though, that's where the similarities end. While DMT is fully capable of seemingly blasting one out of their body, the experiential terrain is very much more alien...the space encountered is a whole different realm...to any I've experienced in my [limited] experience of OBE's...so I feel they differ a lot more than they overlap.

Thanks for the replies guys!

PsyDuckmonkey, to answer your question, the similarities I see are these: Both states can produce OBEs, both states involve experiencing seemingly freestanding realities external to consensus reality, both states involve interaction with entities external to oneself. This communication is usually telepathic in nature. Both states are very lucid. Apparent time travel can be experienced in both states, living past lives, childhood memories etc.

Bancopuma, I've also experienced the early stages of astral projection a number of times. I've experienced sleep paralysis a number of times also. For me it's always been a sense of heaviness in the body with pretty intense vibrations in the pineal gland area. Isn't it crazy that the human body can do things like these?