This book is considered by many to be one of the best available guidebooks on how to astral project. Muldoon wrote this book because he saw a real lack of a “how-to” guide from the literature of his day (1929). In the preface he writes, “I am optimistic enough to believe that no one can give the methods which I have outlined a conscientious and thorough trial, and not obtain results.” I can vouch for the veracity of that statement.

The book is about 50% method and 50% background and contextual information. The informational sections of the book include: accounts of several of his own experiences, brief surveys of the relevant literature of his day, descriptions of the trajectory of the withdrawing astral body, attempts at explaining some paranormal phenomena, and reporting on his investigations into the “astral cord” that binds the astral and physical bodies together.

The essence of Muldoon’s formula for producing an astral projection is:

1. Incapacitation of the physical body
2. Intense stress of the mind

In other words, you must desire something so intently that when you are asleep and remember the thing in your dream, the will to get up and go get the thing is overwhelming and overpowering. At the same time, the physical body must be so quiescent and subdued that it is essentially unresponsive to the mind’s will. When these two things are generated together, then what moves up and out of bed is not the physical, but the astral body. This showed me that even biological needs could be used for the driving force of desire in producing out of body projections.

He suggests an experiment with thirst. I followed his instructions one night and went to bed thirsty and after having ate some salty snacks. Exactly what he said would happen did happen: I found myself in my astral body at my sink trying, and failing, to turn it on to get some water to drink.

The most solid piece of advice I found in this whole book was the following:

                “Develop a strong habit of the study of astral projection, make a routine of the practice of the art, desire the ability to project in your astral body so strongly that your mind is dominated by ‘astral projection.’ Induce complete passivity of the physical body, and ‘rise’ to sleep, visualizing the route the phantom (astral body) invariably takes, on projecting. That is the way to project at will.”

I did exactly this for a while and the result were incredible.

I was reading this book every chance I got, soaking it all in and thinking about it deeply and intently. For a few nights in a row I tried out the method of visualizing and feeling myself floating up and out of my body. A few days later I read the section on “incapacitating” the physical body and combined it with the visualizing and feeling. The results were startling that night.

At first, I was dreaming, and because what was happening in my dream was so absurd (I’ll spare you the details), I suddenly became fully aware that I was in a dream. I was fully conscious, as conscious as I am right now, writing this review. Once “awake” in my dream, I got excited and asked myself, “Well, what should I do now?” My answer came quickly: “Meditate!” So, I began to meditate. I quickly entered the “vibrational” or “hypnagogic” state and remained collected and relaxed, enjoying the sensations and welcoming them to spread throughout my body. After about 30 seconds, it suddenly struck me: it’s time! And with all my will, I rolled out of my bed and landed on the floor. I stood up and looked around. At first, I thought I was in my physical body, but after a few seconds, I realized I had done it! I was standing next to my bed in my astral body, completely conscious and aware. I couldn’t hold that awareness for long, however, and quickly slipped back into dream state. But, as many people who have experienced astral projections say, I have absolutely no doubt about what I experienced. The methods in this book really work.

I found that there were many things in this book that I hadn’t read anywhere else. For instance, with great depth and detail, the author discusses the working dynamics of the “astral cord”. In his experience, the cord is responsible for passing vitality to the physical body when the astral is “out” and connects the two by attaching to the pituitary gland of each. (Of personal note, during the time I was reading this section, I had a very vivid dream where I looked down and saw a silvery, thin, and brittle line emerging from my solar plexus and disappearing into the distance ahead of me). He then introduces the concept of “cord-activity range”. This is a range of about 15 feet. When the astral body has left the physical, but remains within cord-activity range, the cord is quite thick (as thick as a silver dollar) and exerts a great deal of influence over the astral body. The cord can shift the astral body around, move it back up over the physical body, and sometimes rapidly pull it back into the physical body. It is important for an astral traveler to get outside this cord-activity range as quickly as possible. Once outside this range, the cord becomes much thinner and has much less influence over the movements of the astral body. The projector is then “free”. As long as this cord remains intact, the astral will always return to the physical body -one need not worry. “Death” results when this astral cable is severed or broken for good. In that case, the astral body becomes entirely free from the physical body and the person cannot return to it even if he/she wanted to.

Another new concept I encountered in this book is the idea that the energy we derive from food is not as crucially important as we westerners think it is. In fact, according to Muldoon’s research, food is mostly used as raw building material for the construction and maintenance of our physical bodies. The bulk of the energy used in animating our bodies and minds is accumulated from the space around us by our astral bodies when we are exteriorized from our physical, whether we are aware of being exteriorized or not. Furthermore, fasting promotes astral projection because the body becomes deprived of one source of energy (food), so it must compensate by ejecting the astral body in order to accumulate more of the “cosmic” energy from the surrounding space. Yogis and mystics from the east have been known to go with little or no food for months, or even years.

One thing that could have been better was if he had ended the book before he began writing about the “crypto-conscious mind”. It becomes clear after a few pages that he is using this as an umbrella term under which to categorize all the dynamics of projection and the subtle world he does not yet understand.

In closing, this book provides a lot of good material, advice, and instructions for helping you induce astral projections in your daily life. Despite its minor peculiarities, this book is very much worth a read for anybody that wants to get serious about astral projection.