Followers of the Mao Mountain Shang Qing Sect will use the meditations originated by the mystic Nun Wei Hua Cun to call out the spirits that reside within each person's body. Once those spirits have exited the body and have been duly saluted or appeased, the ensuing emptiness experienced by the initiate is higly conducive to meditation. Most Zhengyi Sect Taoists believe that the world is inhabited by an endless variety of spirits, energies, minor dieties, ghosts, etc. It is possible through various magical methods to defeat, catch, or control these beings. If such a process goes badly for the practitioner, however, he or she will pay a horrible price, and may be destroyed by the energies unleashed.
Many Taoist meditations enable the practitioner to leave the physical body.
Various stars, such as the North Star, are favored destinations. Heavenly realms are also frequently visited. Taoists believe that such travels are not merely psychological, but are actual travels. Taoists have claimed for centuries that their mystical practives have enabled them to attain unbelievably old age - that they can live to be hundreds of years old. They also hold fast to the belief that they can slough off their physical bodies and permanently escape to other realities once their earthly alchemies have been completed.