Breath & Energy · “Breath Is the Bridge”
Faraon Mantra
To carry awareness across the threshold of sleep by chanting the mantra ‘FA-RA-ON’ while drifting off, aiming (in his system) for a conscious out-of-body or lucid-dream experience he calls departure in the ‘astral body.’
Faraon in 4 lines: Lie on your back, knees raised, feet on the bed. As you drift toward sleep, slowly chant FA-RA-ON (drawn out), aloud then mentally, while vividly picturing Egyptian pyramids. Stay relaxed — no mental tension — and let the mantra carry you across the sleep threshold while awareness stays lit. Functionally a lucid-dream / OBE induction; the “astral travel” interpretation is his framework, not verified.
What it is
Samael Aun Weor taught that ordinary dreaming is an unconscious “astral projection,” and that the Gnostic’s task is to make it conscious — to keep awareness intact while the body falls asleep.
His best-known method for this is the mantra “FARAON” (Spanish for Pharaoh), chanted in three drawn-out syllables — FA-RA-ON — as one drifts toward sleep, paired with vivid visualization of Egyptian pyramids.
In his framework the aim is to “awake far away in the internal worlds,” aware and functioning in the astral body. Read soberly, it is a hypnagogic attention technique: a rhythmic mantra and image used to ride the edge of sleep without losing consciousness, the same threshold targeted by lucid-dream and out-of-body methods.
It leans on sustained attention (The Inner Creates the Outer), presence at the sleep threshold (Everything Happens in the Now), vivid imagination (The Inner Creates the Outer), and sound as an operative focus (The Inner Creates the Outer).
The Method
From Dream Yoga and the Gnostic-movement teaching of the Faraon practice:
- Lie down and relax. On your back in bed, bend the legs and place the soles of the feet on the bed, knees raised vertically. (Samael’s posture is intended to keep a thread of attention so you don’t simply black out.)
- Chant FA-RA-ON, prolonging each syllable. Sound it as FAAAA… RAAAA… OOON…, drawing out the vowels. Chant aloud and softly at first, then mentally as drowsiness deepens.
- Visualize the Egyptian pyramids vividly while you chant — a single, steady image to hold awareness as the body sinks toward sleep.
- Avoid all mental tension; let yourself fall asleep. “Avoid any mental tension and get asleep.” The trick is to slip across the sleep threshold with the mantra and image still running, rather than gripping the mind awake.
- The claimed result. In his system you will, “without knowing when or how,” find yourself awake and aware in the astral body in the “internal worlds.” Functionally, what is cultivable is a lucid dream or out-of-body experience at sleep onset.
- Repeat nightly; expect a long apprenticeship. First successes typically take weeks of patient attempts. (Sourcing note: the FA-RA-ON syllabification, the knees-raised posture, the pyramid visualization, and “avoid any mental tension and get asleep” / “awake far away in the internal worlds” are short attributed quotes/paraphrases from the Gnostic teaching of the practice. The “astral body” framing is Samael’s.)
Source & Lineage
The Faraon mantra and Samael Aun Weor’s broader dream/astral teaching are collected in Dream Yoga: Consciousness, Astral Projection, and the Transformation of the Dream State and scattered through his lectures (he also gave other astral mantras, e.g.
La Ra S). The approach blends Tibetan dream-yoga themes (consciousness through sleep) with Western astral-projection ideas and his own Egyptian symbolism. Within his path, conscious astral travel serves the larger aims of investigating the “internal worlds” and one’s own psychology — and it dovetails with retrospection and self-observation.
He is a controversial 20th-century esotericist; this entry describes the technique and frames the astral claims honestly. → (Samael Aun Weor; cf. Tibetan dream yoga, modern OBE work).
Common refinements
Trying too hard. Effort and excitement keep you awake or, if you do cross over, snap you back; Samael’s “avoid mental tension” is the key instruction.
- Letting the mantra stop. Awareness usually dissolves the moment the mantra and image lapse; keep them running, shifting to mental chant as you sink.
- Expecting fast results. Weeks of patient attempts are normal; impatience breeds discouragement.
- Over-literalising. Treating every vivid scene as a verified visit to a real place invites self-deception; hold the experience without over-claiming.
- Refinement: Combine with a brief retrospection beforehand and a plan to “check” lucidity once aware; on waking, lie still and recall the experience before it fades.