The following are recent questions I received from readers concerning the phenomena of astral projection, bilocation and déjà vu.

Ryan said he has experienced on several occasions being in a place very familiar to him, although he has never been to those places before. He said he became afraid because he saw on a TV program that this happens to people who have near-death experiences, or those who are gifted. When he sleeps, he feels as though he is awake and traveling somewhere.

Maria Theresa had similar experiences. According to her, “I dreamt of a certain house I have never been to before, and this happened to me twice. I even said in my dream, ‘I’ve been here before.’ How would you explain this?”

On another occasion she said, “I dreamt I was in a room, aware of what’s happening around me. Then in my dream I woke up and did something else. I realized I was not yet awake, I was still dreaming. This happened to me four times in a single dream. What does this mean? Why does it happen?”

Finally, here’s a text message I received from a former student of mine, an architect, who discovered his highly developed psychic abilities after attending my ESP seminar:

“I recently did remote viewing to check on a house in Makati where paranormal activities were happening. According to the owner, several of those present saw me enter the house, go to the second floor and then vanish.

“I was in Parañaque at the time this happened. How is that possible? I was told this was not astral travel but bilocation. More weird things have been happening to me lately.”

Here are my replies to the above cases:

Ryan’s experience of being familiar with a place he had never visited before is called déjà vu, a French expression meaning “already seen.” A déjà vu experience may happen either in a waking or dreaming state.

There is nothing to fear about this phenomenon. It happens to many people. It also happened to me when I went to Grenoble in Southern France and when I was in Cairo, Egypt. The places were very familiar to me, as though I had been there before.

Can happen to anybody

Déjà vu can happen to anybody, and not necessarily to one who is gifted or has had a near-death experience. There’s nothing to worry about.

This is the same phenomenon that happened to Maria Theresa, although in a dream state.

Her other experience seems to be a case of astral projection. In her dream, she said she woke up but realized she was still asleep. What happened here is that she woke up in her astral body, that’s why she was aware of what was happening around her, but her physical body was still asleep. She was going in and out of her physical body.

Again, there is nothing to be afraid of, because this is not as rare as people may think. It seems rare only because very few people talk about such experiences, which they consider weird.

What happened to that psychic architect is something else related to the above. He was performing remote viewing, which is projecting one’s consciousness to another place he has never been to before, and describing in detail what’s there. But instead of projecting only his consciousness, he unintentionally projected his astral body, as well. That’s why he was seen by the people in the house he was remotely viewing. When this happens, i.e., being seen in two places at the same time, it is called bilocation.

One’s physical body is in one place, but his astral body is somewhere else. Again, bilocation is not really something to be afraid of. It is quite natural, but many times we are not aware we are projecting our astral body elsewhere.

Send in your questions about strange phenomena you have either witnessed or experienced to my e-mail address, [email protected].

Attend the next Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation seminar on June 15, 1-7 p.m., and the next Basic ESP and Intuition Development Seminar on June 29-30, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at Rm. 308 Prince Plaza I Legazpi St., Greenbelt, Makati City. Call 8107245/ 8159890 or 0908- 3537885; e-mail [email protected]. Visit our website www.jimmylicauco.com.