The Best Astral Projection Books for Beginners

The best book to start astral projection is William Buhlman's Adventures Beyond the Body — it is the clearest modern step-by-step guide for a beginner. For the foundational account that began the modern field, read Robert Monroe's Journeys Out of the Body; for the most complete technical manual, Robert Bruce's Astral Dynamics. Below are six books for the beginner, what each one teaches, and the order to read them in.

Astral projection — the out-of-body experience, or OBE — overlaps with lucid dreaming but is not the same thing. In a lucid dream you know you are dreaming; in an OBE the experience is of leaving the body and moving through a space that feels separate from it. The literature is older and more first-person than the lucid-dreaming canon, and the quality varies widely, so where you begin matters.

Where Beginners Should Start

1. Adventures Beyond the Body — William Buhlman (1996)

The most beginner-friendly book in the field. Buhlman lays out a clear progression of techniques, sets honest expectations, and includes a structured programme to work through. If you want one book to actually get you started rather than to read about the subject, this is it.

2. Journeys Out of the Body — Robert Monroe (1971)

The book that launched the modern study of out-of-body experience and gave it much of its vocabulary. Monroe, a businessman who began having spontaneous OBEs, documents his experiences with a sceptic's care; the Monroe Institute grew out of this work. It is more account than manual, but it is the foundation everything else builds on — read it for the map of the territory.

3. Out-of-Body Experiences: How to Have Them and What to Expect — Robert Peterson (1997)

A practical, plain-spoken how-to written by a careful long-term practitioner, and long available free online. Peterson is unusually honest about the difficulty and the dead ends, which makes his techniques more trustworthy than the books that promise quick results. An excellent companion to Buhlman.

Going Deeper

4. Astral Dynamics — Robert Bruce (1999)

The most thorough technical manual in print — Bruce covers energy work, the mechanics of projection, and troubleshooting in exhaustive detail. It is more than a beginner needs on day one, but it is the reference you grow into once the basics are working. Dense, but unmatched in scope.

5. The Projection of the Astral Body — Sylvan Muldoon & Hereward Carrington (1929)

The historical classic, pairing Muldoon's first-hand experiences with Carrington's psychical-research framing. The language is of its era, but a remarkable amount of what later writers teach is already here. Read it for the lineage and for Muldoon's striking accounts.

6. Multidimensional Man — Jurgen Ziewe (2008)

A contemporary experiential account from a practitioner of several decades. Ziewe is less concerned with technique than with reporting, in vivid detail, what sustained exploration reveals. A good counterweight to the how-to books — it answers the question of why anyone pursues this in the first place.

Is Astral Projection Safe, and Where Do I Begin?

The consistent message across the serious books is that astral projection is psychologically safe for most people — the common difficulties are fear and sleep disruption rather than danger — though anyone with a history of dissociation or significant anxiety should approach it gently and not in place of professional care. Start with Buhlman for the method and Peterson alongside it for an honest second voice; read Monroe for the bigger picture; grow into Bruce. Like lucid dreaming, the practice rewards patience far more than intensity.

Astral projection sits close to lucid dreaming, and many practitioners arrive through one and into the other. For the dreaming side of the same territory, see our guide to the best lucid dreaming books.

Our own catalogue explores this intersection of the physical and the beyond first-hand. Start with Insights to the Spiritual World by Austin M. Collings.