I have written several articles in the past about astral projection (or out-of-body experience) and what happens when we are out of our physical body, but I failed to discuss the astral cord in detail and its significance.

The astral cord (also called the silver cord) is a band of elastic energy that connects the astral body with our physical body, like an umbilical cord.

Very few individuals who have gone out of their physical body have actually seen the astral cord. I myself have never seen it during my astral projections. And I have never ventured out of the room when out of my body. Others have traveled far and wide, even into outer space and other planets.

Actress Dina Bonnevie, whom I know to be a very sensitive and highly developed psychic woman, has seen her astral cord during such out-of-body travels. She was then studying at the Ateneo de Manila University when, one evening, she suddenly woke up and floated out of her body. She remembers looking at her physical body lying asleep on her bed.

The following is how Dina described her first astral projection, in an interview in the Oct. 3, 1989, issue of Mr. & Ms. magazine:

“’How come I am awake, yet I see myself down there? That meant I was out of my body. Then I saw myself going out of the window. I saw the houses, the streets, the buildings. I flew away from the city, away from the Earth.

“‘I was heading toward the moon, then to another planet. I don’t know what planet that was. Then I said to myself, ‘What am I doing here?’ When I looked down, I saw a silver thread connecting my body to the place where I came from—my bedroom where I was lying in bed. But every time I looked down, I couldn’t see anybody. Then I remembered the silver line, the silver thread!’

“Dina wondered what would happen if the silver thread snapped. Yet she was already so far from the house. She thought she might not be able to come back. At that instance, as if at a snap of a finger, she was back in her room.”

Silver cord

The silver cord cannot be cut or broken, unless it is time for the person to die. That is one good definition of death: when the silver cord is broken.

The King James version of the Bible mentions the silver cord and what happens when it breaks at death.

Ecclesiastes (12:6-7): “Remember your Creator before the silver cord is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

There are several ways a person goes out of his body: through the head, through the navel or through the feet. But, according to one spiritual sect (based in the United States), one should project out only through the head, otherwise he or she may go to the lower astral plane. This sect refers to astral projection as “soul travel.” It teaches members how to project out of the physical body through the head.

I don’t believe it matters much how one goes out of their body, because it usually happens spontaneously and unintentionally. Astral projection is a natural, harmless phenomenon that happens to almost everybody without their knowing. Where one goes in the astral plane depends on one’s consciousness, not how he goes out of his physical body.

When you wake up and find yourself out of your physical body, don’t panic or struggle to get back; the more you struggle and panic, the more difficult it might be for you to get back. The best thing to do is to be calm and quiet and think of slowly going back to your body and you will surely get back. INQ

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