Astral Travel Clarification

Email Question:

When we dream in our sleep the astral body moves to the astral world, what lets us retain our capacity to breathe?

Answer:

First let me rephrase the question to sort the bodies involved:

When dreaming while the physical body sleeps and the astral body moves to the astral world ,what allows the physical system to continue breathing even though we are not conscious of it during astral awareness?

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The same system which supports non-deliberate breathing continues to operate breathing in the sleeping physical body. Most of the time, 99%, we do not operate the breathing impulses. These operate on their own. Hence our absence from the physical body during astral experiences does not cause a shut down of the breathing mechanism because for the most part while in the physical system, being conscious there, we do not operate, control or even regulate the breathing. Most human beings go through their entire physical lives without focusing on breathing, even though in yoga there is a system of regulation known as pranayama.

In Western terminology, the physical body and to some extent the emotional and mental functions have both voluntary and involuntary operations. The involuntary functions are the responsibility of nature. These continue without our input usually.