Astral Body
The astral body is, in theosophical and Western esoteric tradition (Helena Blavatsky, 1888), the subtle vehicle of consciousness that supposedly separates from the physical body during sleep, meditation or near-death experiences, allowing astral travel. Concept derived from older Hindu (sukshma sharira) and Greek-Egyptian (Hellenistic Plato) doctrines.
Astral travel
Practitioners describe the astral body as a luminous double, connected to the physical body by a "silver cord". Robert Monroe (Journeys Out of the Body, 1971) popularized the technique in the West.