When you have those dreams of flight, this is very similar to the experience of astral travel. The feeling of being airborne is much like the way that your astral body travels through the astral plane. All you need to do is focus on the place you want to be or on the things which you want and your astral body is there in the blink of an eye. When your physical body and mind are at rest, your astral body is free to roam the universe.

Although it can happen while you are asleep, astral travel and dreaming are two distinct things. Dreaming is something which plays out entirely in our brain; it is one of the ways that your mind replays the day's events and works thorough things. You may or may not remember your dreams, which is one marked difference between dreaming and astral travel.

Those times when you awake and can remember in perfect detail everything from your dream, this probably wasn't a dream at all, but your memory of astral travel! It's a good idea to start keeping a journal to document these experiences. Not all of them are going to make sense at first, but like a sculptor chipping away at a block of marble, they will take shape and tell you something eventually.

Dreams are beneficial for the mind, since they allow it to make sense of your daily life. Astral travel fulfills a similar function for your spiritual being. No two individuals have the same astral travel experiences and the benefits of the practice also differ between people. This is why keeping an astral travel journal is helpful; comparing your experiences to those of others is meaningless and it is only through your own experiences that you can make sense of things.

While many of the beneficial effects of astral travel vary, one which is universal is an improved self awareness and a sense of where you fit into the larger universe. Having this knowledge brings inner peace and well being. In most people, memory and general alertness are also heightened since astral projection uses parts of the brain which often go undeveloped there are very real benefits of astral travel for your intellect as well as your spirit, it seems.

In many people, astral travel leads to the surfacing of other latent psychic abilities. After gaining some experience with astral travel, a lot of people claim to have developed telepathy and the ability to sense spirits near them.

Astral travel lets you see things and go places you never would be able to otherwise; including inside your own psyche; and the reward is that psychic abilities and mental acuity begin to bloom.

People who start off as skeptics about astral travel are often convinced of its merits once they begin to gain experience with astral projection and start enjoying its beneficial effects.

The psychic and mental benefits entirely aside, there is a recreational element to astral travel as well. It's undeniably fun to be able to leave your body and see new sights.

With all of the positives of astral travel, its surprising that everyone doesn't do it. However, a lot of people are under the impression that these abilities are within the reach of only a few especially gifted people. However, every one of us can develop this ability if we choose to do so.

Everyone of us can astral travel; even if you thought it was only a dream, you have done it before and you can learn to do it consciously.

You should begin by simply allowing yourself to naturally have astral travel and writing down your experiences. After doing this for a while, you'll be able to begin trying to make astral travel happen consciously. It takes practice, but the benefits of learning to do so, as well as the experience itself are a great reward for your efforts.

All it takes is practice and there are many great resources which can help you prepare for astral travel. With a little time and effort, you can enjoy inner peace, self awareness and all of the other great things which learning to astral travel can do to improve your life.