Astral Plane - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The Astral Plane is referred to in the songs "The Doorway" by Neurosis, "Gonna See My Friend" by Pearl Jam, "Mary Jane" by Megadeth, "Stormrider" by Iced Earth, "Over the Mountain" by Ozzy Osbourne, "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright, "New Invaders" by Iris, "Legend of a Mind" by The Moody Blues, "Forest of Legend" by Vektor, "Vatos of the Astral Plane" by Fatso Jetson The two songs "Astral Plane" and "Astral Plane Pt Deux" by Morphine Machine are specifically about it. "Astral Plane" is the name of song on the debut album of Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers and the astral concept informed the lyrics of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. An early piece by the progressive rock band Yes was entitled "Astral Traveller".
• Rap artist Method Man references Astral Plane in the song 'Bring the Pain'. "I came to bring the pain, hardcore to the brain, let's go inside my Astral Plane". Parts of the song were also used for the chorus of rap artist Tupac Shakur's 'No More Pain'. Shakur studied and analyzed books about Telepathy and the supernatural as a teenager.
• The avant-garde heavy metal band maudlin of the Well created music, lyrics, and atmosphere that dealt predominantly with the subject of astral projection. The band tried to find music rather than compose it. This was done through practicing astral projection and lucid dreams, from which the band were purportedly able to "bring back" pre-existing music from the astral plane (as stated by Toby Driver in the liner notes included with the reissued Bath and Leaving Your Body Map).
• The American progressive metal band Mastodon constructed its fourth LP, Crack the Skye, as a concept album dealing with astral planes, with astral projection as a primary plot point.
• "Astral Planes" is the fourth addition to The Smashing Pumpkins 44-track album "Teargarden by Kaleidyscope."
• In the Marvel Universe, the astral plane plays a significant role in the stories of many characters. Doctor Strange has practiced astral projection since his inception in 1963. Illyana Rasputin was able to astral project her own consciousness in New Mutants (Series 1) #15. Other mutants such as Professor X, Emma Frost, Jean Grey, and other powerful psychics, have access to the astral plane. Professor X imprisons the Shadow King on the astral plane. There are beings who live there such as Cassandra Nova. The Hulk is capable of seeing astral bodies.
• In the DC/Vertigo Universe, the Astral planes are used for travel and magic by a certain number of individuals such as Doctor Fate, Zatanna, and Doctor Occult, though use of astral projection is mostly illusionary.
• In the standard Dungeons & Dragons RPG planar cosmology, the Astral Plane is a dimension coexistent with all others (or all non-elemental planes in some editions of the game), used as a means of transportation between planes.
• The Astral Plane is the final level of the computer game NetHack.
• The Apple II and PC video game Windwalker identifies the Astral Plane as a dimension through which a character called the Alchemist can summon demons, influence dreams and cause evil.
• The Astral plane is featured as a level in the video game X-Men Legends.
• The video game Psychonauts revolves around a young psychic named Razputin, who uses a form of astral projection to enter the minds of several in-game characters, taking him into mental worlds based on their memories, imaginations, obsessions, and even manias.
• The Astral plane as well as other planes of existence such as the etheric are featured prominently in the Deverry Cycle of fantasy books by Katharine Kerr.
• Parts of the parody poetry book An American Parody by Vince Chesner is said to have been written and inspired during visits to the Astral world.
• The Astral Plane is featured in the surreal 2000 comedy film The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz.
• It is a major part of the musical The True Story of the Bridgewater Astral League by The World/Inferno Friendship Society.
• It is featured in the television show Charmed, in which it is described as a realm of "spirits and energies" and a place where time does not progress.
• Ghostbusters 2 visualizes what might happen if negative forces from the astral planes entered the physical plane.
• Do the Astral Plane is the name of a song by Flying Lotus
• In the horror film Insidious, a young boy after astral projecting and transcending into a part of the astral plane called "the Further", where tortured souls roam looking for a vessel to take over, most likely symbolizing hell, is left in a coma-like state, where his astral body is stuck in the astral plane.
• In the massively multiplayer online video game Allods Online, players traverse multiple layers of the Astral, the thin, chaotic void of energetic empty space between remnants of the planet Sarnaut. Players can use astral ships to travel between the dangerous astral space to large floating remnant islands, known as allods.