Good - When you reach the hypnogogic stage you are very close to the astral, in fact they are visual perceptions of the astral, when you go slightly further you may percieve all kinds of strange sounds. These sensations occur as your physical body counterparts are dropping off to sleep - what happens when you are transitioning to the astral is your body falls to sleep while your mind stays awake, but because you are not used to percieving with the astral senses it can take a little to get used to these new sensations and until you train your mind to get used to them you will keep being 'drawn' back to the physical ie, body waking up.
The good part is that if you can train your mind to objectivly percieve the phenomena as it comes and goes it will become more and more real until you find yourself in the lower regions of the astral (normally F22 in phasing terms). This will feel very similar to your lucid dream experinces but you will have a hightened degree of awareness when you arrive in the astral, compared to coming to awarness by emerging from a dream - unless of course you have developed techneques for raising your awareness to the level of your waking awareness through that method, which is also quite possible if you know how, as well as learning to 'astral project' directly from a lucid dream.
Phasing is also another method to transition to the astral that requires a slightly different technique.
One method that i used when i first leart the technique that you are trying to master is as follows.
arange to sleep where you can be watching a video.
for the hour leading up to when you plan to go to sleep, watch a cartoon that has no advertisements and is about an hour and a half duration.
for the first 3/4 of an hour watch the movie and get emotionally involved as possible ie laugh at the funny bits.
ensure the volume is quiet enought that it wont startle you as you are drifting off to sleep.
then roll over where you have been sitting (preferably in some sort of bed) and let yourself drift off to the hypnogogic state, just listening pasively to the sound of the movie in the background.
you will find a similarity between the type of imagery you percieve and the cartoon you have been watching, albit in a warped sort of way.
keep this up until the hypnogogic imagery forms all around you.
Try not to panic when you realize you are in the astral as this will usually abort you back to physical or you will flick to various astral locations and normally loose awareness, ie fall asleep.
Hope this helps.
The good part is that if you can train your mind to objectivly percieve the phenomena as it comes and goes it will become more and more real until you find yourself in the lower regions of the astral (normally F22 in phasing terms). This will feel very similar to your lucid dream experinces but you will have a hightened degree of awareness when you arrive in the astral, compared to coming to awarness by emerging from a dream - unless of course you have developed techneques for raising your awareness to the level of your waking awareness through that method, which is also quite possible if you know how, as well as learning to 'astral project' directly from a lucid dream.
Phasing is also another method to transition to the astral that requires a slightly different technique.
One method that i used when i first leart the technique that you are trying to master is as follows.
arange to sleep where you can be watching a video.
for the hour leading up to when you plan to go to sleep, watch a cartoon that has no advertisements and is about an hour and a half duration.
for the first 3/4 of an hour watch the movie and get emotionally involved as possible ie laugh at the funny bits.
ensure the volume is quiet enought that it wont startle you as you are drifting off to sleep.
then roll over where you have been sitting (preferably in some sort of bed) and let yourself drift off to the hypnogogic state, just listening pasively to the sound of the movie in the background.
you will find a similarity between the type of imagery you percieve and the cartoon you have been watching, albit in a warped sort of way.
keep this up until the hypnogogic imagery forms all around you.
Try not to panic when you realize you are in the astral as this will usually abort you back to physical or you will flick to various astral locations and normally loose awareness, ie fall asleep.
Hope this helps.