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Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Astral Body

Tagged: Theme.

An occult term used in Supernatural Fiction to describe a detachable aspect of the Soul or spirit. The Astral Body is more or less identical in "substance" to the Aura, except for the circumstance that it is often found – in fiction at least – to project itself, or to be projected (see Astral Plane). Many people who have undergone near-death experiences have described themselves as floating in an Astral Body over their corpses, to which they have still been joined by a kind of psychic rope that has, in due course, enabled their Astral Body to haul itself back "into" their physical body. The image is a potent one, and turns up fairly often in fiction. [JC]



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