How does Sleepwalking effect AP?

[Curious1]

Hi everyone,

I research AP almost every single night. I enjoy reading materials on AP before I go to bed at night in hopes of keeping my mind on that track, possibly inducing a LD or AP. 

I came across an interesting article tonight that talks about Sleepwalking and AP. I am a very active sleepwalker. I probably sleepwalk/talk 3-4 nights a week. It is something that I have done since I was a child. It really does not bother me, or least it has not until I came across this article. I'm not sure what the rules are on the site regarding posting links to other sites/articles, but I thought this one in particular was well written and contained some really interesting information regarding sleepwalking/AP. I apologize if I break a rule by posting. But I'm curious if anyone has some insight on the information I read in this article.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1669/is-it-possible-to-do-astral-traveling-while-sleeping

Please read and let me know what you think about it. If what I am reading is true, then does that mean that is is HARDER for me to successfully have an AP experience? Please let me know. Thanks.

**Regardless if this information is true, I am still going to continue working at this until I achieve my goal!!**

[Xanth]

This is sleep walking from my perspective.

Sleep walking is you experiencing this physical reality while you're basically unaware of it.
Basically, you have a dream awareness while you're physically aware experiencing this physical reality.

Interpretationally, you're experiencing something else entirely... but it's all happening within this physical reality.

The question in the article you posted:
I was wondering if a person can really do astral traveling or have an out-of-body experience while sleeping. If it is possible, how can one develop this supernatural ability? Or have I been watching too many Richard Simmons tapes (he is after all a supernatural manifestation)?
It's a loaded question making loads of assumptions containing many belief-based conclusions about what astral projection is and how one can do it.

As far as I'm concerned, you're projecting when you're dreaming.  So to me, the question itself makes little sense.  It's also not a supernatural ability... it's a very normal ability while people simply don't understand.

Just keep practicing and you'll be fine.

And I'll let you in on a secret... I've been sleep walking pretty much all my life, and I project just fine. 
Take that as you wish.  lol

[Curious1]

Thanks Xanth, that lowers my concern quite a bit. I never thought that my sleepwalking could be holding me back with AP until I read that article. Because you see, I have been really having a tough time dealing with this for awhile.

I wish there was a way I could use my sleepwalking to my advantage. I get up and walk around quite a bit. When I was younger I plugged in a iron and placed it on my parents bed while they were sleeping. The bedspread actually caught on fire. Thank god no one was hurt. When I was in the military, I spent time in the desert and I was diagnosed with having night terrors because I dove from the top rack of a bunk bed and landed on a M-60 machine gun, cutting my leg open in the process. After that night I was not allowed to sleep on the top rack ever again.  I would imagine that weird creatures would be coming after me at night and I would wake up while kicking my shins off of the corner of my metal wall locker. I thought I was kicking some kind of demon dog. I woke up and discovered my shins covered in blood and in serious pain.  I have scars all over my legs because of this. Last year I dove from my bed and went head first into the wall, leaving a big hole and giving myself a concussion in the process.  There are countless other instances, but those are just some of the standouts. Anyways, after reading that article, I felt like I was screwed because as you can see I have a pretty extensive history of sleepwalking. I would much rather experience AP than to have another sleepwalking episode, unfortunately I will probably have one tonight. Don't worry, my wife has gotten good at telling me to shut the hell up and then falling back asleep, so at least I will not disturb her too much.

Who knows, maybe all of this sleep walking is some past life regression. I guess I'll find out someday.

[Xanth]

That's pretty bad.  I think my worst episode was when I was younger, living with my parents... I had apparently walked downstairs in the middle of the night and opened the front door, then went back to bed.

Quite often (even still to this day), I'll "wake up" and find myself in different rooms of the house.  Thankfully I've never done anything very bad...

But yeah, in regards to Projection, it's fine. 

[catmeow]

Hi Curious1,

I enjoyed the article you linked, and the author's reasonable skepticism.  By saying that sleep walking is the opposite of AP, all that the author meant was that in the former, your body is awake whilst your mind is asleep, while in the latter, your body is asleep while your mind is awake. I don't think that sleep walking is any barrier to AP, per se, although it may be harder to achieve. This is simply because many of the techniques involve lulling your physical body to sleep, and then rolling out of bed, leaving your physical body paralysed in bed whilst your astral self rolls onto the floor. You might end up in the curious state where you are active astrally, and your physical body mimics your astral.

So the one word of serious caution I would point out, and with your history may be likely, is that your physical body might act out whatever it is that you are getting up to in your astral adventure. This means that if you launch yourself out of your first storey bedroom window, for a nice little bit of flying around, as I like to do, there is the distinct possibility that you might actually do this physically, and end up badly hurt, physically.

What I would do in your case is never launch myself out of an upstairs window, but always go downstairs and launch from ground level.

Just saying!

[Curious1]

This means that if you launch yourself out of your first storey bedroom window, for a nice little bit of flying around, as I like to do, there is the distinct possibility that you might actually do this physically, and end up badly hurt, physically.

What I would do in your case is never launch myself out of an upstairs window, but always go downstairs and launch from ground level.

Just saying!

Haha I never even got that far to think that there would be a possibility that I could operate both bodies (Physical/Astral) at the same time. I live in a single story home, so thankfully there will not be any danger of me getting hurt if I am successful with an OBE and happen to sleepwalk.

If I am successful I will  make sure I check to make sure my body is safe in bed before I launch for the stars.

[catmeow]

Pleased to hear you live in a single story house! Good luck with your astral travels!