Are you interested in ESP, spiritual or metaphysical insights, enlightenment, healing, contact with a higher level of intelligence, or simply a new experience? Then you're likely to find the contents of this brief article very interesting.

The concepts of "astral projection," "soul travel" and "spirit walking" date way back to very ancient times. Anthropologists feel 95% of cultures worldwide believe in some form of out-of-body experience, perhaps making it a universal phenomenon.

Although mainstream science often dismisses such experiences as impossible according to the laws of physics, many studies estimate 14% to 20% of us have experienced a conscious OBE at least once in our lifetime. Some researchers believe lucid dreams are a form of OBE, and others insist that we have an OBE every night.

Many believe Edgar Casey entered into an out-of-body (OBE) state to obtain his healing insights.The famous inventor Thomas Edison used such a "mind awake-body asleep" state of consciousness to work on his many inventions. Edison would place a silver dollar on his head and sit in a chair with a metal bucket in his lap. If he drifted into sleep, the coin would fall into the bucket and restore his alertness.

Albert Einstein would enter into a hypnagogic state by sitting in a chair with his arms suspended over the side while holding a small smooth stone in each hand. If he fell to sleep he would drop the stones, waking himself. Artist Salvador Dali was said to use a similar method to gain the odd visions that inspired his paintings.

WHY would YOU want to have such an experience? Actually there's is a very high probability you already have! Ever have the sensation of suddenly "falling" while asleep? This could have been a re-entry into your body following an involuntary OBE.

Out-of-body experiences, remote viewing, and astral projections let you observe the world from a different point of view. Such experiences are often very vivid, resemble everyday waking experiences more than dreams, and always leave an unforgettable impression on the person who experiences them.

Many different experiences are often lumped together as "out-of-body experiences," including:

•Lucid dreams, where you seem to be conscious while dreaming.

•Clairvoyance, involving a "mental-only" awareness of a distant object or location.

•Sensations of separation from your physical body, floating above it, and looking down upon your physical form or a landscape.

•Near death experiences.

•Projecting and traveling outside of your body to different locations in physical time and space.

•Bilocation, or a sense of your actual physical body being in two places at the same time.

People who have had such experiences say they produce a profound sense of awe and wonder, and changed their life forever. Why? The experience gave them a direct experience of what ancient mystics called the Akashic records, and today's scientists call the one consciousness at the core of all reality

Dr. Roe, a parapsychologist based at the University of Northampton, says it's entirely possible to project your mind to a distant location and observe what's happening there. "Our results are significant," Roe says."Remote viewing is something that should be taken seriously." His early findings suggest that up to 85 per cent of us possess clairvoyance - the ability to "remote view." And he believes that with only a minimum of training, we can each sharpen our psychic skills.

Professor Brian Josephson, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist from Cambridge University, agrees with Roe: "[His] experiments have been designed to rule out luck and chance. I consider the evidence for remote viewing to be pretty clear-cut."

Our human consciousness is awakening to a new level of self-discovery. We are seeing ourselves as more than just our physical bodies, and as connected to the universe through a web of limitless consciousness.

A colleague of Einstein, the late David Bohm, had a sense that the universe and everything in it - including you and me - are part of a grand cosmic interconnected web - the same vision of reality held by the ancient wisdom traditions.

In terms of quantum physics, you are an artist creating your own ever-changing reality from out of the stuff of the conscious universe. So then - why would you NOT want to temporarily put aside the limits of your physical being and travel into this universal web of consciousness and unlimited wisdom?

As a doctor of psychology and pioneer brain/mind researcher, I find the benefits of these experiences are deeper than most people realize. Like any deeply transformational metaphysical or deeply religious experience, you gain a whole new understanding of the nature of life - and a new set of beliefs and goals for your life. You'll probably even find that your everyday worries and concerns are less important.

Whether you're interested in expanded ESP or intuitive capabilities, spiritual or metaphysical insights, enlightenment, healing, contact with a higher reality or level of intelligence, or simply a new experience - both in-body remote viewing and out-of-body experiences are powerful personal development and growth tools that can move you forward.