I’ve been astral projecting since I was a little girl. Back then I didn’t know what I was doing was spiritually leaving my body at night and then returning before morning. As an adult, I realized a LOT of the weird things that happen while I’m sleeping are symptoms of my astral body leaving my physical body and then re-entering my physical body before waking. Talking to some friends online, we came up with a list of astral projection symptoms including the infamous shaking bed syndrome and sleep paralysis.

First, What IS Astral Projection?

Astral projection seems to get quite a bit of attention online in the spiritual community. There’s a whole community of people who talk about nothing but astral projection. But what IS astral projection, exactly? It is the state in which your astral body (what some might consider part of the spirit or soul) leaves your physical body and goes to other places or dimensions. Then returns to the physical body. Typically this experience happens in one’s sleep, but it can also happen during meditation, trancework, and other states of altered consciousness.

The point to this article is to discuss the sometimes-terrifying and almost-always strange symptoms an individual may experience before and after astral projecting.

Astral Projection Symptoms: Leaving and Returning To Your Physical Body

Is it an easy process when a part of us leaves our physical body to go exploring at night? No. It may seem like it’s simple, because many of us aren’t aware that it’s happening. But think about it – we are literally allowing a part of ourselves to separate from our whole being. Then return, as it pleases. There’s BOUND to be some kind of symptoms or strange experiences. Here’s a few that maybe you experience from time to time:

1. Lifting Up, Flying or Floating As An Astral Projection Symptom

Have you ever been falling asleep and felt like your body was beginning to fly or float up off the bed? Or like someone or something was lifting you up? This is probably one of the most common astral projection symptoms and isn’t necessarily as scary as it is odd-feeling. It’s simple to explain – your physical body is feeling in-sync with your astral. So when your astral body goes to separate, your physical body feels it lifting up and out. You might also have had many flying dreams over your lifetime.

2. Falling

My daughter is a natural astral projector and she explains her feeling of leaving her body as “falling down a rabbit hole”, similar to what Alice in Wonderland experiences. Many of us get this feeling and sometimes it comes along with a hypnogogic dream/hallucination of falling into a hole. Walking and having your foot fall into a pothole. Falling off a building, etc. I believe this is a symptom of leaving one’s body BUT could also be a feeling of re-entering one’s body too. Either way, some of us are jolted awake by it.

3. Voices During Astral Projection

Sometimes they’re friendly. Sometimes they’re not. And sometimes it sounds like a conversation is going on in your living room or right outside your bedroom window. While I believe this is sometimes an individual’s clairaudience kicking in, it can also be a symptom of astral projection. When our astral bodies are “out and about”, we will hear at a greater extent and hear sounds in other planes of existence. This comes off sometimes as a whisper in your ear. OR you may hear someone shout your name.

4. Shaking Bed Syndrome

Now this is where we get into whether these symptoms are a medically-induced side effect OR spiritual in nature. Every once in a while, I begin falling asleep and/or wake up to my bed noticeably shaking under me. Could it be your partner or dog making the bed shake with their leg or snores? Sure. And could it be you are shaking in your sleep without realizing it? Yes. But if you’ve ruled these things out, this experience is a little scary. But don’t worry! I truly believe this is another symptom of leaving and/or re-entering your body. Energy causes weird things to happen…and when we are powerful enough to astral project and return, the energy has to go somewhere. So it makes things around us shake or tremor, on occasion.

5. Exploding Head Syndrome

It sounds downright terrifying, doesn’t it? Don’t let the “scientific name” scare you. While doctors deem this a “sleeping disorder”, to me it’s truly another astral projection experience. What is exploding head syndrome? Well, have you ever been woken up by a loud bang, knock, or thump? Like a bomb went off in your house or like someone’s breaking into your house? And your husband has no clue what sound you heard as he’s still sound asleep? Yep. The loud bang you hear that jolts you awake in the early morning hours is likely the sound of your astral body slamming back into your physical body!

6. Sleep Paralysis: An Astral Projection Symptom and Nightmare

One of my least favorite astral projection symptoms is sleep paralysis. This is when your eyes open, and your mind is waking up, but your body hasn’t caught on yet and is still frozen. Scientifically, while we sleep, our brain sends a signal to our bodies to not act out our dreams. What happens in sleep paralysis is that our bodies are still in that mode and have to catch up to our waking brain. So, essentially, we wake up and feel paralyzed.

During this time, you may also have “hypnogogic hallucinations” or open-eyed dreams in which you see terrifying creatures or things that may sit on your chest, strangle you, etc. You scream and nothing comes out. You try to move and you can’t. It’s one of the worst experiences of my life. The first time I ever had sleep paralysis was the worst. Because I didn’t know what it was. As time’s gone on, I have sleep paralysis at least once a year and now I’m pretty used to it. So it’s not as scary as it used to be. And again, while there’s a scientific explanation, I believe this is also directly connected to astral projection. Talk to a large body of astral projectors and a good majority of them also experience sleep paralysis.

Is it possible that the dreams we have during sleep paralysis aren’t dreams at all but actual psychic attacks on our physical bodies? Most of the time, they are not psychic attacks. However, I have experienced that before and it’s a whole different tone…you’ll be FULLY awake and feel held down. You’ll be laying there at night and have intrusive thoughts, etc. There’s a difference between sleep paralysis symptoms and actual spiritual attacks at night. Learn more about spiritual attacks here.

What To Do To Manage Astral Projection Symptoms

I’m not going to lie to you, astral projection symptoms don’t ever completely go away, unless you can stop yourself from astral projecting every night. And the truth is, most of us do it without even knowing it. It’s like our astral selves have a mind of their own. For real. So is there anything we can do to manage the fear and discomfort that sometimes accompanies these experiences? YES. Here’s a few things I do:

• If I wake up and the bed is shaking, I try breathing slowly and calmly reminding myself that I am safe and loved. That this is simply energy flowing
• During sleep paralysis “attacks”, I do the same thing as above and just try to focus on staying calm and remembering it’s going to end soon
• If you’re feeling particularly out of sorts or scared, perform a full cleansing of your home focusing on the bedroom and on your own aura
• Then set up spiritual wards of protection around your bedroom
• In addition, placing a cup or bowl of water under the bed “soaks up” negative energy that may linger (this awesome tip thanks to my friend Allorah over at wayfaringwitch.com)
• Keep a stone for grounding purposes next to your bed. When you wake up from astral projecting, hold the stone in your hand and allow that extra energy to naturally come down

At some point, you’ll identify your own personal astral projection symptoms. Once you know what they are, you’ll know what to expect. And it does get easier and less scarier in time. I recommend keeping a dream journal to log your experiences. This will help you identify patterns in astral projection, as well.

More on Dreams:

• Dream Spell: Increase Psychic Dreams With a Simple Spell Bag
• 10 Herbs and Crystals for Astral Projection
• How to Start Lucid Dreaming