The Bible does not mention astral projection. The term did not exist until the late nineteenth century, when Theosophical writers coined it, and no biblical text describes a technique for leaving the body deliberately.
What the Bible does contain is a handful of passages describing people who were somewhere other than their bodies, at least in some sense. Those passages are the whole argument. One side reads them as scriptural precedent; the other reads them as something categorically different from what modern practitioners are doing. Both sides are working from the same short list of verses.
Here is that list, what each passage says, and where the disagreement actually sits.
The passage everyone cites: 2 Corinthians 12
This is the text that carries almost all the weight. Paul writes:
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
Three things in it matter, and they cut in different directions.
Paul does not know whether he was out of his body. He says so twice, plainly. Anyone claiming this passage proves the soul can leave the body is claiming more certainty than Paul himself had.
But he treats it as a real possibility. He does not dismiss the idea as impossible or forbidden. He simply says he cannot tell which it was. That is a meaningful concession from an apostle writing to a church.
He was “caught up”. The Greek is harpazo - seized, snatched, taken by force. It is passive. Something happened to Paul. He did not do it, did not practise for it, and does not offer instructions.
That last point is the hinge on which most of the disagreement turns.
Other passages read as leaving the body
Ezekiel 8:3. Ezekiel describes being taken by a lock of his hair and lifted “between the earth and the heaven”, brought to Jerusalem “in the visions of God”. The phrase “in the visions of God” is doing real work - the text itself frames this as a vision given by God rather than a physical or self-initiated journey.
Revelation 1:10 and 4:1-2. John is “in the Spirit” and hears a voice saying “come up hither”. Again the initiative is external, and the language is visionary.
Acts 10:9-16. Peter falls into a trance on a rooftop and sees the sheet lowered from heaven. The Greek word is ekstasis - literally standing outside oneself, the root of “ecstasy”. It describes an altered state, though not explicitly a journey.
Acts 8:39-40. Philip is “caught away” by the Spirit and found at Azotus. This is usually read as bodily translocation rather than an out-of-body experience - his body moved too.
Ecclesiastes 12:6. The silver cord. This is the source of the phrase, but in context it is a poem about growing old and dying, not an anatomical description. We trace how it became a doctrine in our article on the silver cord’s origins.
Read together, a pattern is hard to miss. Every one of these experiences is initiated by God and received by the person. None is sought, practised or induced.
The passages used to argue against it
Critics rarely argue that these experiences did not happen. They argue that deliberately pursuing them belongs to a category scripture prohibits.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 is the central text, forbidding divination, observing times, enchantment, witchcraft, charming, consulting familiar spirits, wizardry, and necromancy. Astral projection appears nowhere on that list - the practice as we know it did not exist. The argument is one of classification: that seeking supernatural experience through technique falls under the same heading.
Leviticus 19:31 and 20:6 prohibit turning to mediums and spiritists.
Isaiah 8:19 questions why the living should consult the dead.
1 John 4:1 instructs believers to test the spirits rather than trust every spiritual experience.
2 Corinthians 11:14 warns that Satan can appear as an angel of light - frequently cited against benign-seeming encounters during out-of-body states.
Whether these apply is a judgement about categories, not a quotation. Nobody can point to a verse naming the practice, because none exists.
Where the disagreement actually sits
Strip away the verse-trading and the real division is narrow and clear.
Given, or sought? Nearly everyone agrees the biblical figures had genuine experiences. The question is whether an experience God grants is the same kind of thing as an experience a person cultivates through relaxation, sleep timing and technique. Critics say the difference is everything: one is revelation received, the other is access sought. Sympathetic readers reply that scripture nowhere forbids the state itself, only the occult apparatus around it.
What is encountered? Those who consider the practice dangerous generally accept that something is met and doubt it is benign. Those who consider it neutral tend to view the content as the mind’s own. This is not a dispute about verses at all - it is a prior disagreement about what the experience consists of.
How different traditions answer
Evangelical and Pentecostal. Generally the most opposed. Deliverance ministries frequently classify astral projection with the occult and treat encounters during it as demonic. Prayer, renunciation and scripture are the recommended response.
Catholic. No specific teaching names astral projection. The Catechism’s treatment of divination and magic (2116-2117) is what the question is usually referred to, warning against practices that attempt to command hidden powers. At the same time, Catholic tradition has a long history of mystical experience - Teresa of Ávila’s raptures, accounts of bilocation among the saints - which is not treated as occult because it is understood as given rather than sought. The distinction is, again, initiative.
Mainline Protestant. Positions vary widely; many treat it as a matter of individual conscience.
Orthodox. Broadly cautious about sought spiritual experience in general, on the grounds that spiritual deception is a live risk and discernment requires guidance.
Christian practitioners. A minority hold that the experience is natural, that scripture does not prohibit it, and that Paul’s uncertainty leaves the question open. They are a minority, and they know it.
So is it a sin?
That is a question for your own tradition and conscience, and it would be dishonest for a site like this to hand down a ruling.
What can be said accurately:
- No verse names it. Any answer, in either direction, is an argument from classification.
- The prohibitions are real but general. They target divination, necromancy and consulting spirits. Whether the practice falls inside them is exactly what people disagree about.
- The clearest scriptural distinction is initiative. Every biblical out-of-body or visionary episode is given, not induced.
- Fear is not a good reason to decide either way. A great deal of writing on this topic is designed to frighten. Frightened people make worse decisions, and the state most often mistaken for spiritual attack is sleep paralysis, which has a well-understood mechanism.
If your tradition teaches that this is forbidden, that is a serious answer from a serious source and worth respecting. If you are trying to work out where you stand, the passages above are the actual evidence, and they are fewer and more ambiguous than most articles on either side suggest.
Common questions
Is astral projection mentioned in the Bible?
No. Not by that name or any equivalent. The term dates to the late nineteenth century.
Did Paul astral project?
Paul describes being caught up to the third heaven and explicitly says he does not know whether it happened in or out of the body. He presents it as done to him, not by him, and gives no method.
Is astral projection demonic?
Some Christian traditions teach that it is or that it opens the door to deception. There is no verse that says so, and no way to settle the question by evidence. What can be said is that the frightening features people report - immobility, a sensed presence, pressure on the chest - are also the standard features of a documented sleep phenomenon.
What about the silver cord in Ecclesiastes?
Ecclesiastes 12:6 is part of a poem about ageing and death. Reading it as a description of a cord linking body and soul is an interpretation applied later.
Can Christians astral project?
Some do and consider it compatible with their faith; many traditions teach otherwise. There is no consensus, and anyone presenting one is representing their own tradition as the whole church.
Is it witchcraft?
Not inherently - it is an experience rather than a practice, and the biblical terms translated “witchcraft” refer to sorcery and spell-casting. It is, however, used within modern witchcraft traditions, which is where the association comes from. We separate those two claims in is astral projection witchcraft?
Is it the same as being “in the Spirit”?
The biblical phrase describes a state of receiving revelation. Whether it is the same underlying experience is precisely the disputed question. Comparable claims appear well outside scripture, including in the ancient mystery schools.
Sources and further reading
- 2 Corinthians 12:1-4; Ezekiel 8:1-3; Revelation 1:10, 4:1-2; Acts 8:39-40, 10:9-16; Ecclesiastes 12:6 (King James Version).
- Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Leviticus 19:31, 20:6; Isaiah 8:19; 1 John 4:1; 2 Corinthians 11:14 (King James Version).
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2116-2117, on divination and magic.
