- Giles: “Uh, the boy's been in a coma for week. How can this be possible?”
- Buffy: “What, am I knowledge girl now? Explanations are your terrain.”
- Giles: “Uh, well, um, there's astral projection, uh, the theory that while one sleeps one has another body, a-an astral body, which can travel through time and space.”
- — Buffy Summers and Rupert Giles[src]
Faith and Angelus' astral bodies must witness several events of Angel's life
Astral Projection was the supernatural occurance wherein the consciousness of being who's in a state of slumber or comatose, left their body, into an "astral body" where they could travel into the real world or in different planes of existence, throughout time and space.
Astral Projecting
A number of reasons could cause astral projection, such as the influence of a Hellmouth, The Powers That Be, mystical substances or a curse. Magical practitioners could also voluntarily achieve astral projection via spells.
Astral bodies were capable of traveling into into people's minds, their dreamspace, the real world where they could interact with the environement or into the "astral plane" which resided alongside the physical plane, allowing any astral bodies to witness real world events but were incapable of interacting with the physical world as well as being noticed by physical elements, though, they were able to possess people's bodies in order to do so. According to Skip, when most people went 'astral', their astral body would often manifest as an idealized version of themself.
Instances of Astral Projection
- In Sunnydale 1997, Billy Palmer manifested as an astral body after he was beaten into a coma. Along with his consciousness, the nightmares of the people of Sunnydale manifested in reality.
- During her 21st birthday, Cordelia Chase entered the astral plane after a vision caused her to be knocked unconscious. During her time as an astral body, she was unable to be seen or heard and was rendered intangilible, but could communicate by possessing Angel. Her astral body then taken by Ship who showed her what life could be like if she never joined Angel Investigations. She was eventaully returned to her body when she decided to became part demon.
- In Los Angeles 2003, after dosing herself and Angelus with the mystical drug known as orpheus, Faith Lehane and the said vampire entered a mystical walk in Angel's mind, witnessing past events in his life. During these trials, they were unable to interact with any of the scenery and this period took a close when Angelus began to fight Angel, cumulating to the point Angel's soul was restored.
- A year later, the comatose Cordelia again became an astral body and used her last day on earth to assist Angel and his team in preventing Wolfram & Hart's failsafe being released by Lindsey McDonald. This time, Cordelia's astral body could interact with the world but confirmed dead after her time was up.
- After the destruction of Sunnydale, Willow Rosenberg traveled to the Himalayas via astral projection. Since she was on a different plane, she could not return to L.A. to help Winifred Burkle who was dying.
- When Amy Madison placed a magical curse on Buffy Summers whilst she was sleeping, preventing her from awakening until she was kissed by someone who loved her, Buffy astral projected into her dreamspace, consisting of all her thoughts, feelings, memories and dreams where she was guided by Ethan Rayne.
- Willow took a mystical walk on an astral plane, a tradition for witches. The features of this journey were largely based on Willow's own subconscious.
Appearances
- "Nightmares"
- "Birthday"
- "Orpheus"
- "You're Welcome"
- "Shells" (Only mentioned)
- The Long Way Home, Part Three
- Goddesses and Monsters