Flying dreams are dreams of flight, interpreted in spiritual traditions as evidence of the soul’s ability to separate from the body, a phenomenon known as astral projection. This experience, recorded for millennia across cultures, suggests that during sleep, consciousness is not confined to the physical form.
Where the Idea of Soul Flight First Appears
The earliest written record of flying dreams comes from Mesopotamia. In the Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2100 BCE), the hero dreams of flying over the land, an omen of his coming trials. The Sumerians saw such dreams as the god Enlil granting the dreamer a view of the world from the divine perspective.
Ancient Egyptians went further. They believed the ba (the personality soul) could leave the body during sleep and travel as a bird-headed spirit. Tomb paintings from the New Kingdom (1550–1070 BCE) show the ba hovering over the mummy, wings spread. For the living, a flying dream meant the ba was exercising its natural freedom. For the dead, it was a sign the soul had successfully traversed the underworld.
Plato, in the Phaedrus (circa 370 BCE), described the soul as a charioteer driving two horses, one noble and one unruly. When the soul remembers its divine origin, it grows wings and rises toward the heavens. The philosopher did not call this a dream. But later Neoplatonists like Plotinus (204–270 CE) explicitly linked the winged soul to the experience of nocturnal flight. They taught that during sleep the soul could ascend to the intelligible realm, free from the body’s weight.
Synesius of Cyrene, a 4th-century bishop and student of Hypatia, wrote in his treatise On Dreams (circa 405 CE) that during sleep the soul “leaves the body and travels through the heavens, seeing things that are hidden.” He argued that dreams are not random images but the soul’s true activity while the body rests. Flying dreams, he said, reveal the soul’s natural state: weightless, unbounded, capable of seeing truth.
That history explains why flying dreams have never been dismissed as mere fancy. What follows is what different traditions have made of them.
What Flying Dreams Actually Mean in Spiritual Terms
The core meaning is consistent across cultures: the dreamer is experiencing a temporary separation of consciousness from the physical body. This is not a metaphor. In shamanic traditions from Siberia to the Amazon, the shaman’s first journey is often a dream of flight. The Evenki people of Siberia call this “soul wandering.” The dreamer sees their own body from above, feels the wind, and knows they are somewhere else.
In Western esotericism, the same phenomenon is called astral projection. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (founded 1888) taught that the astral body can be consciously projected during sleep. Flying dreams were considered spontaneous projections, often a sign that the practitioner’s spiritual senses were awakening. The sensation of flying — the rush of air, the ground falling away — is the astral body detaching from the etheric double.
But not every flying dream is a full projection. Some are symbolic. Carl Jung (1875–1961) interpreted flight as the liberation of the psyche from the ego’s limitations. He noted that flying dreams often appear during periods of personal transformation, when the dreamer is breaking free from old patterns. The height of the flight matters: skimming the treetops suggests partial freedom; soaring above the clouds indicates a major spiritual shift.
A concrete detail: in many accounts, the dreamer reports a specific sensation in the chest or solar plexus — a pulling, a warmth, a sudden release. Tibetan dream yogis call this the “wind energy” moving through the central channel. They train to recognize it and use it to enter lucid flight.
How Cultures Have Used Flying Dreams
The practical use of flying dreams falls into three categories: divination, healing, and spiritual training.
Divination. In ancient Greece, dream incubation temples (asklepieia) were built for healing, but visitors also reported flying dreams that revealed hidden knowledge. The 2nd-century physician Galen recorded a patient who dreamed of flying to a mountain where a herb was shown to him; he woke, found the plant, and was cured. The dream was treated as a reliable source of information.
Healing. Among the Temiar people of Malaysia (documented by anthropologist Kilton Stewart in the 1930s), flying dreams were used to retrieve lost soul parts. A sick person would be asked to describe their dream. If they flew, the shaman would interpret the direction and altitude as clues to where the soul had wandered. The community then sang the dream back to the dreamer, reinforcing the flight and guiding the soul home.
Spiritual training. Tibetan Buddhist dream yoga, codified in the 8th century by Padmasambhava, treats flying dreams as a milestone. The practitioner first learns to recognize the dream state (lucidity). Then they learn to transform the dream body into an “illusory body” capable of flight. The goal is not pleasure but mastery: the same skill used to fly in dreams can be used to traverse the intermediate state after death (bardo). The practice involves specific visualizations before sleep, imagining a tiny flame at the heart that expands into light, lifting the body.
A less known tradition: the 17th-century English astrologer John Dee recorded his own flying dreams in his spiritual diaries. He believed they were visits from angels who taught him the Enochian language. Dee’s method was to write down every detail of the flight, including the geometry of the landscapes seen from above. He treated the dream as a map of the celestial spheres.
The three terms overlap but are not identical.
Lucid dreaming is the awareness that you are dreaming while the dream continues. You can be lucid and not fly. You can fly and not be lucid. Flying dreams often trigger lucidity because the sensation is so unusual that the mind recognizes the dream state.
Astral projection is the experience of consciousness operating from a point outside the physical body. In a flying dream, you may feel your body lift, but you may not see your physical body below. True projection typically includes the “cord” (a silver thread connecting the astral body to the physical) and a sense of double location. Not all flying dreams include this.
Shamanic journeying is a voluntary, waking technique using drumming or rattling to induce a trance state. The shaman “flies” to the upper world. But the experience is often described as identical to a flying dream: the same wind, the same perspective, the same freedom. The difference is intention. A flying dream happens spontaneously. A shamanic journey is called.
The Golden Dawn distinguished between “astral travel” (conscious, willed) and “dream flight” (unconscious, spontaneous). They taught that a flying dream could be turned into astral travel if the dreamer recognized the flight and took control. This is the same principle as Tibetan dream yoga: use the dream as a launchpad.
Common Misconceptions About Flying Dreams
Misconception 1: Flying dreams are always positive. Many dreamers report fear during flight, too high, too fast, unable to land. In medieval dream manuals, a dream of falling after flying was a warning of pride. The soul that rises too quickly risks a crash. The sensation of being chased while flying appears in accounts from the 12th-century monk Aelred of Rievaulx, who interpreted it as demonic temptation.
Misconception 2: They are merely wish fulfillment. Freud (1900) argued that flying dreams represent sexual desire or ambition. But this ignores the cross-cultural consistency of the experience and the fact that many flying dreams occur in people who have no conscious desire to fly. The spiritual interpretation has stronger historical and ethnographic support.
Misconception 3: Flying dreams are dangerous. Some traditions warn that the astral body can be lost or attacked. The 19th-century occultist Éliphas Lévi cautioned against “forced” projection, saying it could exhaust the nervous system. But spontaneous flying dreams, even intense ones, are not considered harmful in any major tradition. The Tibetan view is that they are signs of progress.
Misconception 4: Only advanced practitioners have them. Flying dreams are common. Surveys from the 1960s (by dream researcher Calvin Hall) found that 60% of people report at least one flying dream in their lifetime. The spiritual meaning does not depend on the dreamer’s skill. It depends on what the dreamer does with the memory.
FAQ
Are flying dreams a sign of astral projection?
Not always, but they often indicate that the astral body is active. If you feel yourself lift and see your physical body below, it is likely projection. If you simply fly through a dream landscape, it may be a symbolic flight.
Why do I have flying dreams when I am stressed?
Stress can trigger the body’s “fight or flight” response, which may manifest as flight in dreams. Spiritually, it can also mean the soul is seeking escape or a higher perspective on the problem.
Can I learn to have flying dreams?
Yes. Techniques include setting an intention before sleep (“Tonight I will fly”), visualizing a familiar place from above, and practicing lucid dreaming induction. Tibetan dream yoga offers specific methods.
Flying dreams are not curiosities. They are the soul’s report from its nightly travels. Whether you treat them as psychological symbols or literal journeys, the sensation of flight is a reminder that consciousness is not bound to the body. For a deeper look at how to work with these dreams, see our guide to lucid dreaming. The term astral projection appears throughout the library. And for the full framework of dream interpretation, visit the dream interpretation hub.