How to use intent?

[david14433]

I hear quite a bit that you have to use intent for AP (astral projection) and other basic things. Is that easy to use or cultivate. Can it be exercised? Does it need to be exercised? Any thoughts on this would be great.

[david14433]

When I say using intent for astral projection I mean using it for things like going inward and moving about. You know actually putting intent into action. Is it kinda like using desire or will? Thanks.

[personalreality]

This is a great question.  

Intent is the power that fuels your reality.  The necessity of intent may or may not be known when someone is undertaking a practice, but it still plays an important role.  Intent is the way that you communicate to the interconnectedness of consciousness the direction in which you wish to manipulate your reality.  

Part of my point in that statement is that it is not necessarily required to form a specific intention in AP practice.  Either way you will be putting intent into your practice, but you don't have to consciously create an intention.  The act of showing interest in Astral Projection (or anything really) is putting your intent into action.  When you show interest in something, that is a created intent, a very natural act.  When you do this, the universe (collective, subconscious, higher self, whatever you call 'the great mystery') gets the message and helps move the situation of your reality into congruence with your intent.  So for example, say I want to increase my intuitive awareness, I might undertake a divination practice like reading Tarot cards.  This is the basic form of an intent and it tells my subconscious that I want to open my intuitive channels and so my subconscious helps clear the way so I can perceive intuitively.

With regard to Astral Projection, doing something like joining an Astral Projection forum, practicing AP, reading AP books, etc. is the most basic form of putting an intention out into your reality.  This act gets the energetic ball rolling which in turn moves your reality to align with what you want.

These cases are what I've been calling basic or natural intent.  There is another level of working with intention which comes up in the realm of magickal practice.  Let me clarify that I'm using magick to mean the manipulation of reality via personal power in mind and focus, i.e. the ability to influence your reality through direct and focused attention.  This is what intention does on varying levels, depending on your active involvement.  

As you develop your personal power you can put more energy behind your intent and you can begin to make it more specific.  Now, intentions used in magickal practice are often formulated into a verbal/written statement, but that's not the whole picture.  What is different about this route of intention work is that instead of just wanting something and sending out a generic intent associated with your interest, you actually stop and consider the various perceptual aspects of your intent and fine tune it to be as specific as possible.  You then verbalize this intent, but as is the case in all magickal work, it's not just the words but the emotional perception that the words symbolize.  Language pales in comparison to the information present in your perception and emotional experience.  All of your experience in reality is filtered by your perceptual experience and your personal power as well.  It's not called personal power because it's yours, it's called that because it is subjective power in that it is power relative to your perceptual experience.  I know that may sound confusing, but the key to any kind of magickal work it to recognize that no two paths are the same.  Your practice works because it has your energetic imprint on it with your deepest perceptual feelings.  It is this emotional/perceptual energy that moves reality.  So when you form a specific intention, along with the words, you are also including an energetic imprint of your feelings regarding the intent and that's what is doing a lot of the work.

Here's an example:

I burned a 7-Day Ritual Candle for help with my projection a few months back.  I spent a couple days forming my intention (though I don't remember what it was now).  It was something to the effect of "I project easily from a conscious state", though it was more specific and less ambiguous.  The important part is that I spent a few days really examining how I felt and trying to connect with those feelings to form a proper verbal intention.  Once I had that I carved it into the candle and proceeded with the ritual (there were other things involved, like candle color, glitter color, picture in the bottom of the jar, oil, pennies, etc. in the ritual).  I had my first conscious exit a week later after trying for nearly a year straight without success.  

By forming a specific intention and taking the time to charge my intention with my emotional energy I was able to transfer a great deal of my personal power or my ability to manipulate my reality into the candle.  This candle then became a vessel to hold my intention and continuously "repeat" it to the universe for me.  

Intention is also a good partner for affirmation.  There is a post that I did in the Magic section that deals with Sigilry which is like an advanced form of affirmation work.  Check it out: http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_magic/affirmations_sigils_and_the_subconscious-t30844.0.html

[personalreality]

In regards to locomotion in the astral, it's basically the same as walking in physicality. 

Do you do anything special to walk?  No, you just walk.  That's about the extent of it.

Things like flight or walking through walls can be tricky though because you don't really have any sense memory to compare it too.  It's like driving a car becomes almost unconscious after you do it a while, but that first time driving you are super aware of everything you're doing.  It was tough in the beginning.  Same thing in the astral.  You're not used to flight so it can take a little practice before it becomes second nature.  The trouble is really in thinking about it too much, trying to hard.  You just have to let go and do it without thinking about it.

[david14433]

Wow, thanks a lot that really helps out. I think I will try to use some affirmations and maybe some other things to help build an intent to AP.

[Tiny]

Dear david14433,

the way I view intent is as follows: setting the intention to do or get something (the same as asking something to happen) and then becoming passively receptive to it or allow it to happen. This is significantly different from desiring something to happen. Desiring something leads to attempting to enforce something.


kind regards,

Paul

[nickspry]

For me, intent is the most important part when attempting projection. In fact I'd go as far as to say it's the one factor which governs all the others in any technique. Astral projection is all about maintaining consciousness by overriding the minds natural desire to lose consciousness and fall asleep, and that takes intent. Phasing for instance is simply the intention to remain aware. Concentration is the intention to keep the mind fixed on one subject. It's simple willpower, and if you add a dash of expectation you dont need anything else in my opinion.