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Interesting stuff!

It seems like a dark place, but I would build mine to look like Black Temple from World of Warcraft, complete with Illidan inside.  Although Illidan wouldn't attack me and I wouldn't have to kill him.  Cause I kind of <3 him.  That reference may be lost on those of you who never played WoW.  But yeah.

Come on, more people should reply!  I like hearing stories and descriptions of places

So last night I was reading about astral home space.  A (persistent or seemingly persistent) place that you create for yourself in the astral.  I thought this was a very neat concept and was wondering if any of you have created astral home spaces and what they look like.

Just curious 

ask them

In my experience they are there to answer questions you might have.

Well then, my work appears to be cut out for me!

If a stranger came up to me in the street and interfered with me, then punched me when I told them to go away... well now come on that's just not right.  Of course I am inclined to be more trusting of strangers in the astral because there is no motive for crime there.  But the principle wouldn't be very different.  I welcome a helping hand.  I do not welcome interference or control.  If I feel interfered with, I feel like I have the right to command someone away, and it should not be assumed that such command would be rude by any means.  I am a very polite lady!

Good theories, I think.  And thanks for all the responses. 

My "who the hell are you" attitude stems from the fact that many authors that I read make guides sound like people who have power over you, which I don't like.  If an astral passer by happens to see that I look lonely and in need of a road sign, that's fine.  I just don't like the idea of being controlled by them, i.e. made to perform tests, sent back to the physical, have my astral experience tampered with, etc, like some of the stories I've heard.

If astral guides are in fact just helpful people, that's great.  I love helpful people.  Just a few weeks ago when I was moving, and old jovial man saw that I was having trouble navigating the complex I was planning to move to and he came out of his house to guide me to the right apartment I was looking for.  I was so overjoyed by this strangers willingness to guide me, I actually had a physical feeling of lightness in my chest.  But if a spirit/astral guide intends to 'interfere' in an annoying way or interrupt me or in any other way take control of me, then I'm like "who the hell are you?"  I would probably command them away at that point, but again, according to my readings, they don't seem much like people who would heed such a command.

Have you ever had so much going on that you've heaved a huge sigh of relief when someone has said, "Hey, buddy, do you need a hand?"?

Think of them as beings who see your need and feel like lending a hand.

Ok so they're not like some graduate of the Night School for Spirit Guides appointed to your case like a social worker?  Ok, I like that a lot better....

ask them

I will, if I am ever given the opportunity to meet one.

I especially don't like how author John Magnus makes it sound like they can control you.  He says that they will set up obstacles and try to teach you sneaky lessons, and that they have the power to send you back to the physical or otherwise interfere with your astral activities.  Which is like... no.

I can't seem to reconcile this concept with my belief system.  I have always been of the belief that there is no higher sentient power.  This does not include the power of the universe as a whole, I mean that I believe that each individual is their own god, so to speak.  There are no outside forces that can make choices for you (fate) or punish or reward your bad or good behavior, respectively (karma). 

I kind of believe that everything a person experiences and is comes from within them. I mean I'm not saying people can't be influenced/inspired by outside forces, but I just don't believe in any decision-making power above one's own self. 

So what's the deal with astral/spirit guides?  Who are these people/entities?  Who elects them into power?  How do they know what is right for you?  The only way I can accept this concept as holding any ounce of validity is by assuming that a spirit guide is a part of your own (higher?) self.  I can totally see that working.  The mind just creates another "being" for you to interact with in order to make the concept of interacting with a consciousness separate from the one you are currently using, easier on your mind.  So technically it's a fragment of your own consciousness, made to look like another entity in order to ease the experience, since it is how we interact with people in the physical (it's familiar).

But as far as spirit/astral guides being another entity entirely separate from yourself that tries to teach you things and tell you how stuff goes... I just can't accept it.  I would be like "Excuse me... just exactly WHO the hell are you?"

Bow chicka wow wow...

I remember when I was 3... and yes, I actually DO remember this, not being a smart butt.... when my mother would try to put shoes on my feet, I would squirm away and go off and bang my forehead against the floor in protest.

When I was 6, I thought... Man I was stupid when I was 3. 

When I was 12 I thought, man I was so stupid when I was 6. 

So on and so for, until now.  Last year I thought, Man I was such a dumbass when I was 21.  Now I'm 25 and KNOW EVERYTHING!

When I'm 30 I will look back and think, jesus christ I was an idiot when I was 25.

I know that none of this helps you where you are now, but it's something to look forward to.  When stuff gets you down, try to imagine yourself when you're 25 or 30 when everything is better, more calm, and more in your control.  Because when you're 25 or 30, you'll be looking back on the age you are now... fondly

Thanks for the grats!  It was pretty amazing.  I've been counting the seconds until I can go out again and explore.  Maybe next time I can get through my own ceiling.  What kind of world is there where a girl can't even float through her own ceiling!?!? lol

Amazing post.  *buys you a beer*

I just had my first conscious exit AP (actually my first AP ever) just this morning, and if I had read this post before that, I would have been like "Wait, what?"  but I totally and fully understand, support and agree with everything written here and would strongly advise any beginners to AP to read this first.

I totally know what you mean about experiencing the milestones and how breaking that barrier the first time makes subsequent times so much easier.  With my experience from this morning still so fresh in my mind, I feel like I could project right out of my computer chair lol.

Also

I was always looking for something, waiting for something all this lead to frustration and nothing more.

That was my exact problem as well.  Always looking for something, waiting for something, expecting something.  Sniffing around like a drug dog when I should have just been letting go.

Ok so like this morning, I woke up cause my fiance went to the restroom.  I laid awake in bed for a while then eventually drifted off to sleep.  Shortly after, I opened my eyes, then quickly though "No wait!  I could totally AP!"

As if by sheer will, I got the strongest vibes ever, then just started to will myself into a sitting position.  It was tough, kind of like I was surrounded by peanut butter instead of air.

When I was about halfway up, I was like "Some vision would be nice" then suddenly I saw the corner of the ceiling right in front of my face.  I kind of floated out of the bedroom and down the hall, where I tried to float through the ceiling there.  Nope.  Just kindof smashed my face up against it.  I floated on into the kitchen where I think I scared my cat.  I looked at the fridge where the noise came from and saw 3 of my cat in positions that seemed to follow it progressively as it might have been heading back down the hallway towards the bedroom.  Kind of like progressive snapshots of his movement.  I floated forward a bit more into the living room where I though "I should go visit someone!"  but I couldn't think of anyone to visit.  I felt my awareness start to blur between where I was in the living room and my body back in bed.

Then I woke up, heavily disappointed, but I was way too excited to try again and just got out of bed. 

But moments after, I started to wonder if it was just a dream.  It felt more real than anything I've ever felt in a dream, lucid or otherwise.  Maybe I just can't accept that this was really it?  IS IT REALLY THAT COOL?!?!?!

I think I might be tricking myself into thinking more is going on than actually is.  I seem to be able to achieve the floaty hands from a wide awake state just from laying still and relaxing for long enough.  I am starting to think that maybe my limbs are just becoming heavy and tingling because I haven't moved them for a while and it's a purely physical effect.  Similar to sitting on your hand for a while and it falling asleep.

However last night when I was in the heavy tingly limbs state (mentally wide awake) I noticed that every time I swallowed or took a deep breath, I would have a wave of tingling that would start near my ear and go all the way down one side of my body in a sweeping motion.  Usually the left side, occasionally the right, and more seldomly, a mix of both.  I also had a lot of trouble getting my hands to float by will like I could the first night.  Like they were stuck.

Again I am convinced that this (the wave of tingling) is purely a physical effect, possibly the result of just laying so still for so long because I never appear to enter any other state of mind aside from totally awake and aware. 

I know that I'm very analytical of my state of mind when things like this happen.  I have never perceived a state of mind other than totally awake or totally asleep, and this is discouraging.  When I try to meditate, I manage to quiet my thoughts for mere seconds before I start wondering IF thoughts are entering my mind, which is a though in and of itself.  Then I have to start over.  I developed this little trick that seems to help more and more each time I try it, but thoughts eventually creep in.  I imagine a glass bubble around my head, like a diving helmet, and thoughts are like little puffs of light that float towards my head but when they hit the surface of the glass bubble, they bounce off and dissipate.  This only works for as long as I really focus on the glass bubble.  Sometimes it helps me to sustain visualizations if I "touch" an object that I'm visualizing, so I can sustain the glass dome a bit longer if I imagine that I am holding it in place with my hands.  As soon as I lose focus though, my mind swarms with random thoughts and I have to start all over.

Sent you the link in a PM

Exactly. It's more common than what people think.

Gloaters.  I've been working at this for almost a decade and have had a fair share of "weird stuff" but no full on AP session where I can fly and do other neat stuff   Mode 1 seems to be the coolest.  Frolicking around the physical without physical bounds or limitations?  Zomg can you say space exploration?!

/sad

The words "new thread" in my previous post are a clickable link to the other thread

Hi
If its relevant, post it.
I'm interested in feedback on this for further studies. There's more to this still.
Thanks for the reply.

I put it in a new thread

Hm, so I guess my next question is, what's the next step from the floaty hands?  I guess there is a gap between symptoms and exit where I just don't know what to do.

Well at least I'm not the only one with floaty hands, and now I'll know for future reference that I'm not like.. hallucinating lol.

So, Mode 1 OBEs are like real time?  As in, floating around the physical plane in your astral body?  That seems way cooler to me than floating around the astral plane, possibly due in part to my mischievous/explorative nature   I would love to visit other parts of the world/other worlds and see them as they actually are.

There is this guy right here who claims that all of the music on the album I'm about to link came "down to" him.  He writes:

"The compositions came down to me. I did not know what I was doing at all! All I know was that I played the notes randomly following my senses! So I thought to entitle the album Spirit to explain the best, why and how they were composed!"

I guess he is probably talking about the same thing you guys are experiencing.

Anyway, here is the link http://zusician.weebly.com/

So I was trying this technique mentioned in this thread when something strange that has never happened before, happened.

Let me start off by describing the implements that I use to help with this technique.  I use a really soft squishy pillow rolled up under my neck to keep my head looking straight up at the ceiling. My legs are straight out, and I put another pillow over my abdomen to rest my hands on.  I like this position because despite its apparent tendency to induce nightmares, it's super relaxing and I can breath really easily.

So anyway, one night after preparing my position, I was laying in bed just letting my thoughts flow.  I was really relaxed and comfortable, but wide awake.  My body started to go numb and get heavy.  Not like paralysis, I knew that if I moved a body part, I could, and that it would stop being numb, just regular numbness.  My mind started to get more and more blank, however I never actually fell asleep or entered a trance (as far as I know) when I started to feel my fingertips rising up off the pillow.  I immediately focused my awareness on this strange feeling, and I was trying to push it further.  Eventually I got it to where my palms came up off the pillow.  Keep in mind I'm not talking about my actual physical hands, they were flat on the pillow.  

As soon as I lost my focus, I also lost the sensation of my fingertips floating.  So I regrouped my focus and concentrated on my hands. I could pull them up off the pillow by my fingertips by sheer will alone.  But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't lift any further than my wrist.  I tried to lift my forearms, but they wouldn't budge.  

Somewhat discouraged, I decided to try and see if I could willfully induce vibes from this state.   Nothing.  Just a night of weird floaty hands, then sleep.

So what's the deal, in your opinion?  What would you call the ability to lift parts of your (non-physical) body by will, but only to a certain extent?  What do you think the mental state I was in was all about?  This is about the closest I've ever come to having any conscious astral experience that I can clearly remember, so this is huge for me.

Yeah I tried again and was certain I fell asleep in the right position.  I did have a pretty disturbing dream where my teeth were rotting out very very painfully (one of my most hated types of dreams) but I wouldn't call it my worst nightmare ever.

Also in another part of the same dream, I was at a club and took some kind of drug that induced a remote viewing type of scenario where I was at my house in the dream, but knew that my body was back at the club.  I can't tell how much of it might actually have been a lucid dream or maybe I was just dreaming of lucid dreaming?  Hard to say, but my confidence that there is more to this sleeping position is somewhat strengthened. 

I'll continue to experiment with it.

Oh dude, I just remembered something.  I was reading over this post to my boyfriend and it reminded me about something else that happened while trying to employ this sleeping position.  I'm going to start a separate thread about it thought so I don't thread jack this one.

Yeah cause I just woke up after trying this last night and I know I had a dream, but from what little of it I can remember it wasn't a nightmare.  There was one part where the floor of the house I was in was covered in about 4 inches of water but that's just more inconvenient than anything.

Why not try some of the techniques used to recall APs/LDs?  I don't know any off the top of my head, but there are plenty of techniques out there to help strengthen your recall of such experiences.  If it works, you could possibly buy yourself a few moments to hum the tune into a digital recorder, or if you are proficient with writing music, jot it down on music paper.

I spend every night in bed with someone with an insufferable case of RLS.  If that doesn't give me nightmares, I doubt this will.  But I'll give it a shot anyway, just for the fleeting possibility that something cool may come of it.

Within reasonable limitations, I'll try just about anything once.

This comes from the main original site in which you can find more of this info

http://www.spiritwatch.ca/

I really like the content. It's so good that I can't stop reading. It has many parts that didn't make it into the books of LaBerge.

I sincerely wish I could peruse this site.  Judging from your comment, it seems like it's full of good reads.  However, since I am a professional web designer.... I can't look at it. 

I simply won't.