From the most ancient tribal societies to the modern civilized societies of the 21st century, human beings have recorded the departure and subsequent return of a subtle body from the physical body. All such recordings have a remarkably high degree of consistency in describing the many different aspects of the phenomenon, thus giving us an idea of the universal character of this capacity of leaving the body.



Dean Sheils compared the beliefs of over 60 different cultures by referring to special files kept for anthropological research. Of 54 cultures 25 (or 46%) claimed that most or all people could travel outside the physical body under certain conditions. A further 23 (or 43%) claimed that a few of their number were able to do so, and only three cultures expressed no belief in anything of this nature.

From this evidence, we can conclude that some form of a belief in out-of-body experiences is very common in various cultures.

Some Eastern religions include specific doctrines on the abilities of other bodies and the nature of other worlds.

Early evidence of the OOBE appeared in ancient Egypt between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago. The Egyptian priests were aware of the existence of the astral body and they called it the Ka. The Ka could wander about at will. It was independent of the man and could go and dwell in any statue of him. The early Egyptians left inscriptions and drawings on walls of temples and buildings.These inscriptions clearly depict the human soul abandoning the physical body.

The Tibetans believed in the Bardo body, which could leave the physical body while still alive and it could be directed by will. It was believed to be an exact duplicate of the human body, from which it is separated in the process of death.

According to them, the Bardo body is made of psychic material, invisible and etheric. Due to its nature, this body is able to pass through matter, which is only solid and impenetrable to the senses.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is used as a funeral ritual, and is read out as a guide to the recently deceased. It contains an elaborate description of the moment of death and the stages of mind experienced by the deceased.

Ancient Greeks believed in a Double body, which housed the soul. References to OOBE later appeared in Greece through the writings of a number of philosophers including Plato, Herodotus and Hermotimus of Clazomene.

Plato believed that what we see in this life is only a part of what the spirit could see if it were free from the physical. Chained in a gross physical body, the spirit is fettered; separated from that body; it can converse freely with the spirits of the departed, and see things more clearly.

Aristotle, Homer and Plotinus taught that the spirit could leave the body and that it is capable of communicating with other spirits. They believed that all souls could be separated from their physical bodies. This 'doctrine of the subtle body' runs through Western tradition.

In Christianity there are references to a spiritual body. Some religious works can be seen as preparing the soul for its transition at death. Cases of conscious projections are also well documented even in the Bible, for example in Ezekiel III: 14; the Apocalypse of John 1:10'11 and 4:2; and in the Epistles of Paul of Tarsus, e.g., II Corinthians 12:2.

During the Middle Ages, OOBE was studied and practiced secretly. Information gathered was not made available to the general population. This need for secrecy contributed to the fabrication of various myths and untruths about the dangers of Astral travel that persist even today.

The phenomenon of the out-of-body experience therefore is ancient and universal. We can see that different persons throughout history had experienced this, independent of culture, education, financial situation, religion, credo, sex, or age.

From this historical perspective, and from studies and personal experience of thousands of people, the most solid conclusion that can be drawn is that human beings are more than just their physical bodies. When one experiences a conscious OOBE, one has irrefutable evidence that the physical body is merely a temporary "house" through which one's consciousness or awareness manifests in the physical dimension.