History Main / AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost

* Neal Shusterman's ''[[spoiler: TheSkinJackerTrilogy'' (''Everlost'', ''Everwild'', and the soon-released ''Everfound'')]] has this as a plot point.

* ''GhostDad'' involves Bill Cosby's character, apparently a ghost, actually being in a coma at the end.

* This is the plot of JamesHerbert's Nobody True.

* Neal Shusterman's [[spoiler: TheSkinJackerTrilogy (Everlost, Everwild, and the soon-released Everfound)]] has this as a plot point.

* In {{The 4400}} episode "Audrey Parker's Come and Gone", the title character suffers from a variation of this. Her 4400 ability is to astral project, but while she's on one of her projections, she's murdered. Her disembodied self is able to persist for a little while outside of her body, allowing her to act as a "ghost" who communicates through machines.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'', [[spoiler:specifically in ''TheDresdenFiles/GhostStory'', Harry Dresden himself believes he is a ghost allowed to return to help his friends; turns out he is having an OBE while Queen Mab and Demonreach heal his body]].

* In {{The 4400}} episode "The Life and Death of Aubrey Parker", the title character suffers from a variation of this. Her 4400 ability is to astral project, but while she's on one of her projections, she's murdered. Her disembodied self is able to persist for a little while outside of her body, allowing her to act as a "ghost" who communicates through machines.

* The ghost in ''TheTimeOfTheGhost'' by Creator/DianaWynneJones turns out to be one of these.

* The ghost in ''TheTimeOfTheGhost'' by DianaWynneJones turns out to be one of these.

* For part of SeanWilliams' ''Changeling'' trilogy, the protagonist is assisted by the ghost of a friend who he thinks he saw die; later, he learns that she survived, but has been in a coma ever since, and is able to restore her.

* In a sketch on ''TheBennyHillShow'' Benny plays a man who literally dreams of going out partying at night, getting away from his harridan of a wife. Then one day he's out in the daytime he happens by the very same place he goes in his dreams. Amazed, he knocks on the door. A bunch of women answer.

* In ''Literature/KaraNoKyoukai'', [[spoiler:the ghostly antagonist of the first chapter/movie turns out to be an out-of-body experience of a bedridden, blind girl named Fujou Kirie]].

* A girl in SeireiNoMoribito ends up this way after drinking wine with a magical flower in it.
* In the midst of all the actual ghosts in ''PsychicDetectiveYakumo'', one apparent ghost turns out to be the projected spirit of a terminally ill but still-living girl, whose anxiety about her impending death causes her to project her spirit to other people at night while she's sleeping.
* ''PsychoBusters'': The hero initially mistakes the astral projection of one of his soon to be allies for a ghost. A [[OutOfClothesExperience sexy naked]] ghost.
* A minor character in ''KurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'' uses her astral form to impersonate a ghost to make the inhabitants of an apartment think it's haunted.

* Given how often DoctorStrange uses AstralProjection, this sort of thing is inevitable. As a master of the art, he never mistakes himself for deceased, though others (even the ones in the know) will comment on his 'creepy ghost.'

* In TheDresdenFiles, [[spoiler:specifically in ''Ghost Story'', Harry Dresden himself believes he is a ghost allowed to return to help his friends; turns out he is having an OBE while Queen Mab and Demonreach heal his body]].

* In TheDresdenFiles, [[spoiler:''Ghost Story'' in particular, Harry Dresden himself believes he is a ghost allowed to return to help his friends; turns out he is having an OBE while Queen Mab and Demonreach heal his body]].

* In TheDresdenFiles, [[spoiler:in particular, the ''Ghost Story'', Harry Dresden himself believes he is a ghost allowed to return to help his friends; turns out he is having an OBE while Queen Mab and Demonreach heal his body]].

* This is the plot of JamesHerbert's Nobody True.

* At least one episode of ''TheGhostWhisperer'' featured this; a "ghost" turns out to be a hiker who was in a coma and occasionally flatlining, during which times he was able to appear to Melinda. Eventually he prevents the doctors from reviving him so that he could become a full ghost in order to help Melinda save his brother.

* At least one episode of ''TheGhostWhisperer'' featured this; a "ghost" turns out to be a hiker who was in a coma and occasionally flatlining, during which times he was able to appear to Melinda. Eventually he prevents the doctors from reviving him so that he could become a full ghost in order to help Melinda save his brother.

* In ''Anime/KaraNoKyoukai'', [[spoiler:the ghostly antagonist of the first chapter/movie turns out to be an out-of-body experience of a bedridden, blind girl named Fujou Kirie]].

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "Day of the Daleks", the ghosts the Doctor is asked to investigate turn out to be projections of time travellers from the future.

[[folder:RealLife... kinda]]
* In a famous UrbanLegend, a woman has a recurring dream where she is wandering around a strange house. One day while she is driving she sees that house with a for-sale sign out front. She goes in to look at and finds out that it is extremely underpriced. When she asks the realtor why, the realtor says the house is haunted, but she doesn't have to worry about that, because ''she'' is the one who is haunting it!

* Given how often DoctorStrange uses AstralProjection, this sort of thing is inevitable.

* One of the hauntings dealt with in ''{{Supernatural}}'' sometime in season three turns out to not be a spirit, but the projection of a girl in a coma.

* In {{Natsuneko}}'s ''Blue Line'', [[spoiler:the ghost of Yuria's "dead" little sister Yui turns out to be her OBE while her body lies in coma in the nearby hospital]].