Supernatural Sunday: A brief look at... Astral Projection & Bi-location

Astral Projection works on the theory that all living beings have an astral body separate to the physical body. The astral body is also frequently referred to as the "etheric" body - for the purposes of this post, astral and etheric can be considered interchangeable.


Astral projection is a massive subject, so this post will focus on sightings of living people as apparitions by others. Also known as bi-location, this has occurred a number of times an in front of multiple witnesses.





These appearances are different to the tradition doppelganger, or body-double, commonly believed to be evil or a death omen.


Some people appear to be able to practice bi-location at will; one of the most famous in more recent times was Padre Pio, a Capuchin priest from Italy now venerated as a saint by the Catholic church. Other reported cases include  St. Anthony of Padua, St. Gerard Majella, St. Pio of Pietrelcina, St. Severus of Ravenna, St. Ambrose of Milan, Maria de Agreda, and Martin de Porres, and even a pope - Cyril VI of Alexandria.

Padre Pio (1887 - 1968) suffered stigmata. Levitation and bi-location were reported by witnesses.

The phenomenon is not restricted to Christian mystics; tales are found in the Talmud and references to the concept of tei al-ardh are found in the Quran.


In the secular world, sightings or feelings of being accompanied - and comforted - are often reported by groups or people in extreme physical and mental conditions. Reports of being accompanied - known as the third man factor - have come from Ernest Shackleton, Peter Hillary, Anne Bancroft and Reinhold Messner.

Ernest Shackleton and his team all agreed on the sensation of being accompanied by another person.

There are numerous eyewitness accounts of people seeing loved ones or acquaintances when the actual person was somewhere else entirely. While these often appear involuntary compared to the religious mystics who claim to be able to bi-locate at will, the majority appear to be unaware they have appeared somewhere else or done anything unusual, and the photo's claiming to capture the phenomenon appear to be explainable as double exposure.

But it sure makes you wonder, doesn't it?

*******************************************

J H Sked is the author of WolfSong & Basement Blues.
You can find WolfSong on Amazon, Sony  e-bookstore, Nook and Smashwords. Basement Blues is on Amazon and Smashwords