Forced Astral Experience?

[NewlyAwakened]

Last night I had a wonderful nights sleep with great dreams. I woke up the next morning, wide awake, in great spirits and surprisingly not tired at all which is rare. However, my partner was still asleep and I thought I would lay in bed a while longer and wait until we were both awake.

Only about 15 minutes after waking up, I laid my head down and felt that unmistakable "astral" feeling. My body was vibrating, my ears were ringing, and I felt my body start to paralyze as I began to see the room clearly only with Astral Eyes. I've tried to astral project for years. I've only had one successful attempt however, and woke up immediately when I saw myself floating above the bed. I've always gotten too frightened, or couldn't relax enough to actually get passed the vibrations.

Today was different, however. It was so intense and fast that I had absolutely no problem projecting. Once I was successfully in the astral, I had a brief moment thinking "FINALLY! AND I DIDNT EVEN HAVE TO TRY!" But that short feeling was indeed short lived.

Once I sat up in my astral body, I saw a group of men walking into the door, and that's where the real story begins.

All my life, people have had sightings around me of men of a certain style of dress and look. Oddly, as a child, I insisted upon dressing this way as well. But beyond dress, I've had other connection to the unseen. As a child, I had some psychic ability. However, it frightened my strict Baptist grandfather and my abilities were deemed both impossible and evil. I would also have a bad habit of procrastinating to go anywhere. But each time, my mother's wrath turned to bewilderment when we found out that we had just missed a wreck by the same amount of time I procrastinated. After being shamed by my grandfather though, I quickly lost them. Recently however, things have changed. My best friend and I simultaneously "relived" a past life we had together. Seeing everything both in the physical present reality and also a distant past even to the point of events coinciding in both realms.

But for the last few weeks, as a full-time college student and a working professional, the paranormal has been an intriguing luxury for which I haven't had time to even think about. It's been about two weeks since I've even contemplated past lives or the supernatural. Right now, I've only had time to build my life and work for my future.

The men I saw today were dressed exactly as others have seen them around me, and as I have always loved to dress. One of them, an obviously important figure wearing an impeccable suit and tie, said "I want to talk to you about X" (I leave the subject blank as not to bias objective opinions, as my work is in a very opinionated and controversial arena). I've been writing an paper for my job. I had decided to write on one subject, but this man was talking to me about another. It was obvious that this was intended to be the subject of my paper, though the subject wasn't my strong-suit. That said, it was also one of the most brilliant and insightful discussions I've ever heard as far as the topic goes, and likewise, has the potential to very powerfully increase my success. However, after hearing it, I became almost too excited. I knew I was astral projecting, and I didn't know who these people were or this man giving me such insight was. So I woke up accidentally.  I wasnt frightened at the time, in fact, I was excited. I even tried to apologize from my physical body, and thank the man for his insight.

As I did that (now not only wide awake but heart pounding with an adrenaline rush) I felt it happen again, only this time more intense. It felt as if I was being drug into the Astral. This definitely frightened me, but I couldn't fight it and I figured I should see what was so important. I saw two men, dressed the same. They seemed to be trying to make me feel more comfortable and less frightened. I briefly thought I was dying, and ended up accidentally projecting myself into an Astral hospital bed. Only the two men were sitting in chairs right next to my bed. One read the newspaper while the other, the same man who had talked to me earlier, watched over me. Once again, I knew I was most certainly not dreaming, not even lucid dreaming. It was classic OBE. Regardless, I was still not enjoying the experience and continued fighting it. Once I judged my surroundings, I looked at the man who had talked to me (I had seen him look multiple different ways in the first experience depending on the subject) only to see a face with virtually no features. However it was clearly smiling, pleasant and attempting to be sympathetic to make me feel comfortable.

But at this point, there was no smile to comfort me. I remembered that the way I ended up screwing up every attempt at astral projection was by controlling my breathing. I started using all my power to try to control my physical body, especially my breathing. I managed to snap myself back to my body, but couldn't become conscious. The last thing I heard was his voice basically begging me to stay. In fact, right as I started to snap back into the physical realm, I saw both men look very puzzled and even shocked that I was able to go back. When I came back, I heard ringing in my ears, and my body was still vibrating. It took all my force and might to get my body to move. It felt like I was still being pulled back into the astral. It took roughly 5 solid minutes just to be fully able to control my body and stay conscious and not feel the pull anymore.

Initially, my concern was that these beings were demonic or at least evil in some form, possibly wanting to keep me out of my body, especially when the force with which I was being pulled was compared to the pleading me to go back. However, I was really never frightened by anything except for the fact that it was against my will.

In fact, when I floated the idea for my paper, it was clear that it may very well be putting me in the position of a major promotion. Also, my friend who had experienced the past life event with me wasn't surprised by my story (he's the only person I can talk about this with). Last night, he had nightmares about life so intense that he had marks on his hand from his fingernails cutting his skin from clenching his fist. And we've both had a lot of experiences in our lives connected to our dreams, which usually interrelate.

I've read both on the internet and in some books that some traditions use forced and unexpected astral travel as a type of initiation to meet one's guides etc. I've knowingly communicated with my guides before. And given my highly professional field and my past experiences, it wouldn't surprise me if my guides have been preparing me for this, and protecting me for whatever my calling to serve mankind may be. But I can't guarantee that.

Should I be worried? Was it my guides? Was it an astral traveler who may have somehow known about my field? Or was it something more worrisome? Advice and input would be great!