ASTRAL TRAVEL RETREAT

First, and all experienced travellers attest to this, you lose the fear of death. It's a thing. It seems that having this fuller experience of yourself, which is endemic to the astral experience, gifts you of this release. You just know your an immortal soul, literally. You experience this realisation firsthand. It's nothing to do with believing, thinking, or dogma. It's a knowing. And for some reason this affords you a tremendous lightness of being. Just like that! It's instant. The first time you experience yourself outside of your physical body, consciously, you just know. If I could jump from the rooftops and announce the gloriousness of astral wakefulness to the world, this realisation would be it.

Second, the experience of and knowing of (once again) the existence of actual guides as beings. What can I say? Amazing! Ridiculously amazing and far out. And very New Agey! Yet true! They're there. We all have them. Astral awareness seems to gift us with a clearer perception and working relationship with them. And you learn to cultivate that relationship. Every day I talk to them. Not only that, one of them is an ex-human who seems to age alongside me in earth years. She's there! She pops up every now and then (as in my mind wakes up and perceives her, while my physical body sleeps) and she offers her piece, perhaps some advice to a life matter, or astral technique, and she's real. As real as day. The notion of free will alters over time, with these experiences, and you learn to trust the tides of life. You experience this reality from an expanded perspective which is phenomenally liberating.

Third, the experience and knowing of past, or other, lives. Massive. For some reason, your sense of self receives a kind of karmic rinse when you experience this. Brought up as a catholic, this notion certainly wasn't on my radar. It seems a lot of our collected trauma (generational and karmic) is flushed from our systems when we experience past lives. It just happens. That's what I've felt. And once again, it's nothing to do with being clever. A visceral and energetic release simply occurs on the experience of it. Puzzling, but also utterly beautiful and liberating!

Fourth, the meeting and interaction with archetypal entities and beings that mirror your shadow aspects. Wow. This is something that just happens out there. And they'll confront you in some way. You see when we astrally project—as in poke our mortal awareness into these higher vibratory frequencies of ourselves—we naturally 'resonate' the signal we're carrying (our energetic signature, if you like) into these realms that immediately manifest beings, creatures, archetypal entities as embodied aspects of our unconscious states that need healing. And once again, it's a thing. It's part of the whole win-win scenario of astral wakefulness. The awakened astral mind, body, whatever you want to call it, is an aspect of our truer, higher self, calling us to evolve to the next level. In the beginning, I'd be afraid of these sometimes scary entities. I'd whack em. Cuss em. Recite all sorts of strange liturgy. Until it dawned on me what they were, instinctively, in the astral. And them I began to merge with them, as strange as that sounds. It just happened. And I felt this enormous bliss surge through me when I lost the fear of them, of these deep, unknown places of myself, in fact. And once again, liberation follows.

Fifth, and the last one I'll mention for now, is the awakening, or lucidity, of your dream body, or mind: essentially, being able to lucid dream is a wondrous side effect of astral awareness. They're fingers on the same hand. Recognising the parallels and patterns of dream lives and third dimensional lives gifts you great insights into the nature and dynamics of reality. You begin to release the drama of realities, which in turn enables you to recognise and dissolve karmic patterns, debt, immediately. And this is where the true power of astral awareness, manifestation, begins to step in. You see, the astral realms are the preemptive realms—beyond time and space. And it's here where you're able to shape, in very real and physical terms, your present, your future, your life.