History Main / AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost

!!Examples

* In ''LightNovel/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]].

* Happens to Ash Ketchum and Pikachu in the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode "The Tower of Terror" ([[TooSoon which infamously spent a few years off the airwaves due to its title alone]]) after getting struck by a falling chandelier. As the three Ghost Pokemon show them what it's like to be ghosts, Ash befriends Haunter and, after being reunited with his body, asks him to help him against Sabrina back at Saffron City.

* A minor character in ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'' uses her astral form to impersonate a ghost to make the inhabitants of an apartment think it's haunted.
* [[spoiler:Koichi]] in ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' is stated by Crusadermon to only be a ghost. [[spoiler:Since the Digital World runs on NarniaTime, his body back in the human world hasn't died yet.]]

* [[spoiler:Mavis Vermillion]] in ''Manga/FairyTail'' is eventually revealed to be an astral projection rather than a spirit like most of Fairy Tail thought. [[spoiler:In fact, she's actually an immortal trapped inside of a Lacrima crystal for nearly 100 years using the projection to interact with her guild.]] [[WalkingSpoiler And that's just the first part of revelations about the character in question.]]

* Given how often Comicbook/DoctorStrange uses AstralProjection, this sort of thing is inevitable. As a master of the art, he never mistakes astral forms for spirits of the deceased, and he has to make a conscious effort to render himself visible to normal sight. When he does so, other (non-mystic) characters will often refer to his astral form as his 'creepy ghost.' He uses this effect on one occasion to convince a bank robber he will be haunted forever unless he releases his hostages and surrenders. It works . . . apparently the "criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot" trope is not franchise-specific.

* Harry Potter does this in the Fanfic/{{Dangerverse}} fics

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/JustLikeHeaven'', it turns out that Elizabeth (Lauren in the book) is actually in a coma, and the protagonists have to get her 'ghost' back into her body before the hospital takes her off life support.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''
** [[spoiler:Specifically in ''Literature/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 a previous novel, he used a FlatlinePlotline loophole to create a temporary ghost ''of himself'' as an ally.
* André Maurois' short story "The House". A woman repeatedly dreams of a house. One day she finds the house she's been dreaming of but the people who live there are frightened of her. When she dreamed of the house she appeared there as a ghost. The story was made into a segment of the ''Series/NightGallery'' show.
* This is the plot of Creator/JamesHerbert's ''Nobody True''... at first. [[spoiler: As soon as we get to know the main character properly it becomes an inverted example; he comes back from one of his out-of-body experiences to discover that someone has murdered him in his bed while he was otherwise occupied, and spends the rest of the book trying to figure out [[WhoDunnitToMe who did it]] and why.]]

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

* Neal Shusterman's [[spoiler: [[Literature/TheSkinJackerTrilogy Skinjacker Trilogy]] (''Everlost'', ''Everwild'', and ''Everfound'')]] has this as a plot point.
* The protagonist of ''Strong Spirits'' fears he's trapped as a ghost when he returns from an astral foray and can't find his body. Luckily, his friend stops the authorities from autopsying the "corpse" long enough for him to track it down.
* In the ''Literature/TowersTrilogy'', Xhea is tasked with dealing with a ghost, Shai, who claims that she is not dead, only sleeping. Xhai initially thinks Shai is just in denial, but soon notices that she is different from ordinary ghosts. [[spoiler:Shai is in fact technically still alive, just separated from her body. She later becomes an actual ghost once her body dies]].

* Given a twist in ''LightNovel/RokujyoumaNoShinryakusha'', where CuteGhostGirl Sanae turns out to be a mass of spiritual energy that split off from a powerful [[PsychicPowers psychic]] and was concentrated enough to retain her personality and appearance. In book 11 she and the human Sanae are forced to recombine, after which [[SplitPersonalityMerge she acts like the timid "Sanae-san" around family and the energetic "Sanae-chan" around her friends]]. [[ResidualSelfImage She still takes on Sanae-chan's younger appearance while astrally projecting]], though in later books she learns how to [[SplitPersonalityTeam leave Sanae-san behind in her body]] as a LiteralSplitPersonality.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Soap}}'' ended with [[CutShort many plot threads hanging]], including Jessica about to be shot by a firing squad in Central America. Next season, she shows up on spinoff ''Series/{{Benson}}'' as a ghost which only Benson can see. But then she finds out she's not really dead, she's just in a coma in a Central American hospital.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In the serial "Day of the Daleks", the ghosts the Doctor is asked to investigate turn out to be [[LaResistance time-travelers from the 22nd Century]] making "an unstable transfer" into the 20th. (The rebels need a "stable point" which exists in both 20th and 22nd centuries. Auderley House no longer exists in their time, but a nearby tunnel does.)
** In "Army of Ghosts," the ghosts appearing all over the world are actually an [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin army]] of Cybermen trying to come to Earth from their home dimension.

-->Lead woman: You can't come in here!
-->Benny: Why not?
-->Woman: This place is haunted!
-->Benny: ''dismissive'' Who by?
-->Woman: YOU!
* One of the hauntings dealt with in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' some time in season three turns out to not be a spirit, but the projection of a girl in a coma.
* At least one episode of ''Series/GhostWhisperer'' 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 ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'' 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.
* An elderly woman on ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' believes that she's seeing the ghost of her dead husband in her apartment. What she's really seeing is her husband's double in another universe. As a widower, he's having much the same experience.

* In one episode of "Series/TheXFiles", a quadruple amputee was using astral projection to commit a series of murders.
* KoreanDrama ''Series/WhoAreYou'' is an ISeeDeadPeople story about a cop who wakes up from a six-year coma and finds out that she can now see ghosts, who give her help in solving their murders. But episode 13 establishes that she can also see the astral projections of people in comas. That quickly becomes plot-relevant when her old boyfriend, believed to have been killed in the stakeout-gone-bad that put her in a coma, is revealed to have also been in a coma for all these years.

* Korean drama ''Let's Fight, Ghost'' uses the trope for a mid-series twist when it turns out that rather than being dead, Hyun-ji has actually been in a coma for the past five years. Unfortunately for her budding romance with Bong-Pal, when she awakens she has no memory of anything that transpired while she was a "ghost."

* In the second level of VideoGame/GhostHunter, there are some strange ghosts which the capture grenade does not work on. Later on you find out that they are astral projections of the local hillbillies.

* In VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}, There are rumors around the school that Fuuko Ibuki is really a ghost since she never seems to actually attend classes, but she's actually an AstralProjection due to her body being comatose since her first day of high school.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Jake is being visited by the ghost of his father in a dream, when his brother shows up. Jake is disturbed because of how this means that his brother is dead, but his brother laughs it off and tells him he's just astral projecting.

* Creator/DennisWheatley's ''Literature/TheKaOfGiffordHilary'' sees this happen to the title character. The fact he ''isn't'' a ghost - he's been prematurely buried and he is trying to alert people to this - is the beginning of his woes.

* Creator/DenisWheatley's ''Literature/TheKaOfGiffordHilary'' sees this happen to the title character. The fact he ''isn't'' a ghost - he's been prematurely buried and he is trying to alert people to this - is the beginning of his woes.

* Creeator/DenisWheatley's ''literature/TheKaOfGiffordHilary'' sees this happen to the title character. the fact he ''isn't'' a ghost - he's been prematurely buried and he is trying to alert people to this - is the beginning of his woes.

* ZigZaggedTrope in ''Series/TheMagicians''. Penny astral projects out of his body shortly before he dies and becomes something similar to a ghost. He meets another Traveler who did the same thing and thinks he's a ghost, but Penny points out that since they both astral projected, they're on the astral plane.

* Given how often Comicbook/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.'

* Harry Potter does this in the {{Dangerverse}} fics

* ''Series/{{Soap}}'' ended with [[CutShort many plot threads hanging]], including Jessica about to be shot by a firing squad in Central America. Next season, she shows up on spinoff ''{{Benson}}'' as a ghost which only Benson can see. But then she finds out she's not really dead, she's just in a coma in a Central American hospital.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "Day of the Daleks", the ghosts the Doctor is asked to investigate turn out to be [[LaResistance time-travelers from the 22nd Century]] making "an unstable transfer" into the 20th. (The rebels need a "stable point" which exists in both 20th and 22nd centuries. Auderley House no longer exists in their time, but a nearby tunnel does.)

* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8990725/1/Sanctuary Sanctuary]]'' is a {{TheWorldEndsWithYou}} AU fic, where it is eventually revealed [[spoiler:that Shiki is in a coma, rather than dead as everyone had assumed.]]

* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8990725/1/Sanctuary Sanctuary]]'' is a {{TheWorldEndsWithYou}} AU fic, where it is eventually revealed [[spoiler:that Shiki is in a coma, rather than dead as everyone had assumed.]]

* 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.

* The "ghost's" body "merely" lies in a ConvenientComa, but they don't know that and fervently believe themselves to be actually dead (especially if they NeverFoundTheBody). A soul-body reunion in the end can help avoid what would otherwise become a DownerEnding.

[[folder:Comic Booka]]

* Subverted in ''Literature/DarkestPowers''. [[spoiler:Liz]] is in denial over her death and believes that she is an astral projection because she can move objects. It turns out she ''is'' dead but activated her PubertyPower - telekinesis - posthumously.

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* In one episode of "Series/{{The X-files}}", a quadruple amputee was using astral projection to commit a series of murders.