Flyin' by the seat....

[fredhedd]

welcome to the forum.

i know how you feel about the validity of all of this stuff.  i definetly am or was the most skeptical person i know, especially when it came to this stuff.  i dismissed all of it until i had one of these experiences.  i've learned not to discount anything.

that's really great that you are having al lof these experiences.  most people on this forum have to work very hard to see half of what you see.  i couldnt say why your experiences have been more frequent lately.  i would suggest taking a look back and trying to notice any differences in your lifestyle.  anything at all might give a clue.  

the really good dreams are the ones that you can't tell the difference in.  last week ihad a dream that i could levitate from some meditation i'd been doing in my dream.  i've been working on lucid dreaming lately and increasing my dream recall  so i knew a few reality cks to do.  i tried the one where you ck the text of something to see if it changes when you look away, and the one where you turn the lights on or off to see if they change.  neither one of them worked out for me.  the text stayed the same after three glances and the light switched off.  these were supposed to be cks that never failed.  i ended up believing that i wasn't dreaming and i went to a friends house to tell him that i learned how to fly.  the dream lasted about an hour and w/ me waking up dissapointed.  even the not so good dreams are hard to tell the reality of though.  everything comes in through your senses and that whole bit so how do you really know anything?

it seems like you've already crossed over the hardest part.  now you don't know anything instead of knowing it's not real.  


i rememeber reading something about the dream world being part of the astral and them being one in the same but just different aspects something blah blah ...you should be able to find something about it if you search for it.
spending hours at this site researching everything is the best thing to do right now. you'll find anything you want to know and probably some other stories that are similar to yours.  happy flying

fred

[cheesy80s]

Thanks Fred,

I come from that generation who clearly remembers Shirley McClain's crappy TV movie about astral projection. So perhaps I expected my real OBEs to be as smooth as a motion picture, when in reality, perhaps they're disjointed and confusing. I read on here that the astral world -- again, having a hard time swallowing this -- is controlled by thoughts, and that thoughts amount to physical reality. So, perhaps until I can think clearly and control my thoughts, my projections will be disjointed.

[Meg]

I agree with you on that one. I've been spontaneously projecting since I was young too,  and I've also been making freakishly big strides with my OBEs the last few months (including the difficult acceptance thing!) I've gotten to the point where I know I just need to take a step back and learn how to do it properly - When I'm out, its such chaos!! I have so little control over my movement, recall etc. So I've just been taking it easy... The last few times I've woken with pre-exit symptoms, I've been concentrating on the sensations of my exit and I will just go and sit on the end of the bed for a while, try very hard not to get zapped back in, and try to focus on what is around me.  It's not as exciting as zipping up into the air or flying madly past exciting places, but I figure the astral word is not going anywhere and I do have the rest of my life (for a start) to learn how to experience it properly.

Good luck.

Meg

Meg

"...listening like the orange tree..."  - John Shaw Neilson

[cheesy80s]

Hey Meg,
I suppose what's helping me to accept the credibility of OBEs is my only recent readings on the subject. In the past month, I've read two books on astral projections, and much of what the authors' described happens in experiences mirrors my own (i.e., vibrations, bronze-hued glows in the rooms).
What I find very odd though are noises. Sometimes, my experience is completely silent. Other times, I hear popping and clicking sounds that dissapate once I exit my body.
Now, being the forever skeptic that I am, I have read that sleep paralysis (the psychological phenomenon where chemicals in the brain cut off physical reactions during dreams) has similar symptoms to an OBE, and may be confused as such. But I just can't fathom that "waking dreams" are as accurate as some of the details of things I see in my short OBEs.
Oh well, my research goes on.

quote:Originally posted by Meg:
I agree with you on that one. I've been spontaneously projecting since I was young too,  and I've also been making freakishly big strides with my OBEs the last few months (including the difficult acceptance thing!) I've gotten to the point where I know I just need to take a step back and learn how to do it properly - When I'm out, its such chaos!! I have so little control over my movement, recall etc. So I've just been taking it easy... The last few times I've woken with pre-exit symptoms, I've been concentrating on the sensations of my exit and I will just go and sit on the end of the bed for a while, try very hard not to get zapped back in, and try to focus on what is around me.  It's not as exciting as zipping up into the air or flying madly past exciting places, but I figure the astral word is not going anywhere and I do have the rest of my life (for a start) to learn how to experience it properly.

Good luck.

Meg

Meg

"...listening like the orange tree..."  - John Shaw Neilson

[Tom]

During REM sleep the brain shuts down signals for voluntary muscle activity from the neck down with one exception. You can still control your breathing. If you hold your breath or change its pattern it will also change in the physical body. I have used this to wake myself up before by holding my breath in a dream. Stephen LaBerge used pre-arranged eye movements to signal lucidity. By moving his dream-eyes he moved the physical ones. The trick about breaking sleep-paralysis by moving your big toe probably would not work from a dream, although I have not tried it.

Whether you decide that OBE is objectively real or not you can still enjoy it. Proving things is only for dealing with other people. The first thing you should do is to develop the experience without judging it. When you can have projections in the real-time zone lasting long enough to experiment with, you can make arrangements with a friend to have something set up for you to look at from the real-time zone. Even then, other psychic abilities like precognition, telepathy, and clairvoyance might be hard to rule out.

[cheesy80s]

Hello all. First time user, but needing much help here.
My rational mind is screaming at me right now that I am beginning to believe in this stuff. Quite honestly, most of my life, I'd write off my astral experiences as very lucid (redundant, I know) dreams.
But after this year, I just can't sweep it under the carpet anymore. And now I need some major help from all you kind souls out there.
First, let me say that I have never willingly had an astral projection. I have had many since I was around 8, but never instigated by myself. Instead, they have been spontanious. Recently, I have begun experimenting with different astral projection methods, but to no avail.
Last night, after 1.5 hours of meditation and Chakra method, I....fell asleep. But by around 4 a.m., I had a spontanious experience.
These experiences have freefalled in recent months: Whereas I would maybe have two or three a year, I'm now having one a week at least.
Why is that?
Another question: sometimes I truely think I'm dreaming instead of having a genuine experience. And not all have been pleasant.
For instance,  sometimes the room around me is lit in a brilliant bronze hue, like someone has a lamp on. But other times, last night in particular, the room is just as dark as it would be in the real world.
What is that about?

Also, my experiences never last more than a minute or so. I seem to not have the stamina to stay conscious in them, and find myself reverting to sleep. Last night was a rare exception. I had a string of five experiences, awaking after only a minute or so. BUT I was able to immediately instigate the vibrations once I emerged, and then again tinker with another projection.
In one of my instances, some sort of shadow was at the foot of my bed screaming at me in almost a comical voice. Scared the bejeves out of me.
Normally, I'm never able to leave my room either. Last night, I strongly willed myself into the backyard, and thought I ended up there, but I remember I seemed to hover just over the lawn, and when I looked up, I saw a brilliant night sky. But that was strange -- it was overcast all night. So, was that a dream?

I'm sorry I rambled. Acceptance is all very new to me, and I'm still skeptical. But the vividness of just launching from my body, the realism.....it just couldn't be a dream.

Any and all suggestions and sharings would be much appreciated. Either here or at my email:
cheesy80s@yahoo.com

thanks much