The Astral Plane is another level of existence beyond the physical plane.
The term "astral plane" has also more recently come to mean a plane of existence where souls and spirits reside.
The word "astral" (like celestial) means of or like the stars and is used in reference to the astral plane because astral matter does not require a light source to make it visible -astral matter gives off its own light, like stars do.
According to Occult, Theosophical, and New Age teachings, the astral plane can be visited consciously with the astral body through means of meditation and mantra, lucid dreaming, or other forms of training and development. The common human being normally separates his or her consciousness and astral vehicle from the physical body every night as he or she sleeps. Clairvoyants can see the astral vehicle floating a few inches over the sleeping physical body. This separation of the astral vehicle from the physical body every night is necessary for the human being to receive and process energies coming from higher, spiritual or more subtle planes of existence allowing the individual to awake the following day with his or her energies renewed. Human individuals that are spiritually advanced or trained in the use of their astral vehicle, can separate their consciousness and astral vehicle from the physical body at will and remain fully aware of the circumstances, using this capability at night to perform altruistic services or receive esoteric knowledge and training while in the astral plane.
The astral vehicle remains connected to the physical body during the separation through a so called “silver cord”, mentioned in Ecclesiastes 12:6. All physical things have astral and other more subtle or spiritual counterparts that interpenetrates them.
