Telling how close you are to projecting

[Aprentice]

Ok thanks Cube, I get as far as the strong heart chakra sensation almost every attempt with the rope method, so thats quite reassuring.
Only thing is up to this point its hindered me from going further, because the intensity of it causes my trance to weeken and can cause me to physically tense up.
I've not heard of the triangle method before, is it in Astral Dynamics (I've only just purchased a copy of this book, I've been practicing with the free information available up till now).
By the way your website has inspired me to reniew my borderline sleep attempts, which I had virtually given up on due to always falling asleep before achieving anything.

[cube]

Here's a link to the triangle method:

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6762

There may be a trick to avoiding tensing up but I don't know it. As far as I know it's really a matter of doing it so many times that it doesn't make you tense up. You could also try finding something else to focus on so that it's easier to ignore all the sensations, for instance counting breaths.

I hope the timer methods help your borderline sleep attempts! I'm always interested in finding out what does and doesn't work for people so if you find tweaks that make things work better for you please post back!

[GANAMOHA]

cube am i close if i have the clearest images that ive ever seen to where i almost think my eyes are open thats how clear they are but theres no sound but after i heard what you said about noise i tried thinking really loud if that makes any sense and i could hear my thoughts crystal clear like an echo? is this what you mean?

[cube]

If you've got clear imagery you can 'push' yourself into it, that's called phasing. The levels of imagery go from being vauge, to being clear, to being both clear and animated:

http://www.saltcube.com/out-of-body/chat-forum/viewTopic.jsp?t=watching-impressions&x=24

If you've got animated imagery you're ready to press yourself into it. I call this phasing pressure. You kind of push yourself out from the middle of your head and chest and ooze into the imagery.

It sounds like you're super close, you're as close as you can be without actually doing it.

(p.s. please use more punctuation! )

[Aprentice]

Thanks for the link cube. Your artical on useing hypnagogic imagery to phase into the astral was really usefull by the way, and allowed me to phase 100% into the astral for the first time (I've posted the experiance in the astral consiousnes forum).

[astralspinner]

Meditating earlier today, I got the most distinct trance sensations I've yet experienced - specifically, the "feeling gigantic" ones.

Despite this being the first time I ever felt this, it felt incredibly familiar - I could have sworn I'd been in this state before, even though I had no memory of it.

Would I be right in thinking that we pass through all these sensations as we go to sleep, so I experienced it when I was too near sleep to consciously remember? Or is there some other reason something I've never consciously experienced felt so familiar?

[cube]

It's possible, I really don't know for sure. However I have a feeling there are a lot of possible paths we can take when we fall asleep so while it's likely you've been in that state before as you describe, it's also possible that we can fall asleep without going through the feeling gigantic phase.

[Laggy]

Hey Cube, thanks for responding to everyone's posts! This must keep you busy!

I have a question.  I have projected about 3 times before (RT projection) but they were not willful.  Recently, when trying to project, after getting to a deep focus 10 (at least this is where I believe I am after reading descriptions on this phase) I have felt a VERY, VERY COLD sensation quickly rush up my right arm, almost taking my breath away.  The sensation then slowly pushed its way through my body, but was dissipating somewhat as it went.  This has happened on two occasions recently, once on from the left arm, and once from the right.  I have never seen coldness being a description of projection progression.  Is what I've described a part of this progression you mention?

[cube]

Hi Laggy, to be honest my main hope in posting all this is that if I post what I think I know about stuff then people will point out things that are wrong and I will eventually find out how things really work.

For me the coldness is all over my body and seems to be because relaxation has made my heartrate drop. If I use an extra blanket then it's not much of a problem. I've never had coldness localized to a specific area like you describe, except maybe in my feet to a degree.

I can only speculate what the coldness you have is from, in his psychic defense book RB talks about finding cold spots where negs hang out. I really have no idea if that applies to your case, in fact I'm not totally sold on the idea that negs exist at all but I'm also not convinced they don't exist.

I would like to hear other people's opinion on this because I don't have a lot of experience with localized coldness.

[cube]

One of the most difficult things to do is to know how close you are to exiting and unless you've done it a few times you don't know what's going on until after you've done it.

You can use these charts to sort of tell about how far you've gone depending on what phenomenon you're sensing at the time:

I also posted these at my forum at http://www.saltcube.com/how-close