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Hello, fellow AP'ers.  It's been awhile since I've dabbled in AP, and have recently attempted to again.  This post may be a little long, but I'm really concerned and someone taking the time to read it would be greatly appreciated.
I've managed a full conscious exit only a handful of times in my life.  Most of my experiences have been from lucid dreams.  These conscious exits were years ago and since then, I had quit practicing from lack of results and from a few scary experiences that I think are related to what is going on now.  There was a demon that appeared shortly after my first successful projection.  It took months for me to see it.  At first, he would walk around downstairs.  Open and shut cabinet doors.  Turn the television on.  It is only me, my mother, and my dog in the house and I am 100% positive that this was not an intruder (the first few times I heard footsteps, I grabbed my .45 and checked the house) or her or the dog because every time I looked, both her and the dog were in her room with the door closed.  I was terrified to continue to project, that I might see this demon completely unveiled in the spiritual realm.  I finally saw it appear at the foot of my bed.  It was blacker than black.  Two dimensional, with claws, fangs, and glowing red, lifeless orbs instead of eyes.  It did not speak to me, merely stared at me.  This was all a matter of years ago.
Several months ago, I was smoking (weed) with a friend.  I have anxiety issues and it always seemed to help.  This one time in particular, I managed to black out from full waking consciousness.  I felt separated from my body, like I was slightly ahead of myself, but experiencing both my astral and physical body at the same time, and yet my ability to act would switch rapidly between the two.  I was stuck partly out of my body and yet in my body at the same time.  According to my friends who witnessed this, it appeared that I blacked out repeatedly and went into seizures.  I stumbled around, muttering nonsense.  My eyes would suddenly roll back in my head and I would fall to the ground.  Then get back up and it would happen over again.  This went on for two hours.  During this whole period, it felt as if something was holding me partly outside of my body and I was fighting to regain control.  Everything happened so fast that I don't remember it well but the next thing I knew I was in the emergency room with a concussion, bruised ribs, bruised vertebrae, sprained neck, sprained jaw, various lacerations and contusions.  I thought it was just the weed having a negative effect with my anxiety issues.  I've stayed away from it since.
Which brings me to recently.  Two nights ago, I managed to project (almost) again.  It was the quickest conscious projection I have ever managed (about five minutes).  I managed to get my upper torso and right arm out of my body.  I experienced a split point of consciousness again (one from my physical body, and one from my astral body) and suddenly it felt as if my astral body was being pulled away from the physical.  It was much more powerful than floating out.  I was being dragged out.  I panicked, and tried to reenter my physical body.  I was stuck again.  My upper torso and right arm were outside of my body, and yet I was experiencing both points of view.  I began to have a panic attack when I physically stood up, with my astral body still partly out of my physical, and tried to shake myself around, slapped my face a few times.  It took about a minute this time to "merge" my two points of consciousness. 
My question to anyone who is experienced, do you think that this demon/ shadowman is related to me being unable to merge back with my physical body?  Is something trying to possess me and keep me out of my body?
I have spoken to several demonologists, and they believe that there is an evil entity related to this.  Two of them were practicing energy gathering exercises and he was showing me one where he used my energy to direct it back into my hand so I could experience it.  He got shaky, and backed off and told me to remind him to never touch my energy again.  One of my friends said he was unable to see a distinct color in my aura.  He said it looked more like someone had taken a glass tube and blown a thick, black smoke into it.  This same friend took a picture of me sitting in a chair through the reflection in a glass.  I wasn't sitting in the chair!  He then had another friend sit in the same chair, and took a picture through the reflection in the same window and my friend was able to be seen sitting in the chair.The demonolgist that I spoke to has a daughter who is very highly empathetic.  When I approached him and her, his daughter got extremely edgy and teared up (before I had spoken a word to him) and she ran away.  He later told me that she felt extreme anguish and had a vision of me as a small child in a small room that resembled a bathroom, clinging onto a cabinet and something was trying to drag me away.  She avoided me the whole time I was speaking to him.
Can anyone tell me what is going on?  I'll admit, I'm terrified and this problem is bigger than I am.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

One night I suddenly became lucid in my dream.  I was downtown in my city, almost right next to where I was sleeping in an apartment building.  I suddenly looked up at the (glowing blue?) night sky and decided, "Hey.  Let's go to the moon."  I crouch down and do a cool Neo/Matrix jump and propell myself skyward.  After a few seconds of travel, I was nearly out of the atmosphere.  At this point, something weird happened.  I suddenly became conscious of my physical body, and it was hyperventilating.  As I got higher and higher, I moved slower and slower, and breathed faster and faster.  My vision started to close off, and I could feel myself falling... falling... back into my body.  Does anybody have a clue what caused this?  Was it simply my belief that I can't "suck vaccumme" that screwed me over?

Thanks,
Mjolnir Knight

I remember when I was little, like six or eight years old, and I would be trying to fall asleep, it would feel as if I were getting tossed back and forth rapidly.  It felt as if I were the ball in a game of paddleball.  I wouldn't always "bounce" back and forth in the same plane.  Sometimes it would be front to back, left to right, or up and down.  I always wondered what these were, and I thought they were normal.  I would also be able to see the "3-d blackness" that I have now become accustomed to.  Would what I experienced be involuntary vibrations, or were they just nothing.

Thanks,
Mjolnir Knight

Sorry for not posting much on this forum or being much of a valuable contribution...  but maybe you all can provide me some answers nonetheless.
I've been having somewhat of a problem lately, and today in school was the third time it happened.
To let you know, I've only TRUELY projected one time, but have had multiple OOBE's, and I remember that one time that I projected on my first try as vividly as if it were yesterday.
I was sitting in English in sixth period and, seeing as it was the third day back to school (and that teacher's first time there of the year, long story) not doing very much.  Just listening her talk to us about rules, the books, how the year would go, yada yada yada.  All of a sudden, I felt my heart starting to beat faster and faster.  At first I thought that I was having a heart attack, but nothing else was happening.  My breathing stayed fairly normal...  Then I started to feel a cool sensation spreading across my face and neck, and I started to feel intense vibrations.  The teacher's voice started to subside, almost as if listening from underwater.  All of these things were things that I experienced in that one waking projection, and countless other tries.  Then, almost as quickly as it started, these symptoms went away, leaving me kinda shaky and physically exhausted.  That is the third time that has happened spontaneously in just a few months.  Once at the movies watching Pirates 3, once just sitting there and watching Deja Vu at my dad's house, and once then in the classroom.  All of them were similar, if not identical, to each other and my one waking astral projection.
What I'm wondering is if that WAS a near OBE, and what caused it.
My hypothesis is that since I haven't really tried to project in quite some time, nor have I been able to, that there has been a buildup of astral energy, so to speak, within me, kinda like filling up a water balloon too much, and these experiences were it escaping.
I don't know what to think.

Thanks,
Patrick

Firstly, I'll start off with this.  Both me and one of my friends got really interested into OBE's and LD's.  I'll leave it to that.  My friend said that he had a series of lucid dreams in which I was a part of (he said that I wasn't conscious and that he could tell the difference between a LDing person and a normal sleeping person... never could figure out if he was telling the truth) and he said that there was a person from California who was sort of haunting us in our LD's.  He would find us and attack us and such...  But don't shoot me, I'm just the messanger.  I'm not saying this is true.

Then, one night, I believe I met him for the first time.  Well, not quite face-to-face and I couldn't tell if my mind had made him up or if it was really him.  I had woken up in the morning and had fallen back to sleep and I was thrown instantly into a lucid dream.  (This is one of those dreams that, at the time, you think it is real life.)  Instantly, I knew something was wrong.  I was downtown and there was nobody.  Everything was quiet.  I looked upwards and the sky was a dark blood red.  Then, I heard it.  A single, large nuclear weapon fell from the sky.  Up on a building (for some reason I just knew it was him) was the person that my friend had been talking about.  I saw the bomb whizzing down and I turned, finding myself just outside my friend's house.  He was outside and I tried to yell for him to "take cover" for the little good it would do against getting vaporized but, just like in the movies, everything was silent.  The bomb hit the ground and detonated.  I saw the blinding flash of yellowish-red light and the shockwave from the blast threw me backwards into a concrete wall.  I suddenly felt hoplessness wash over me (keep in mind, I thought this was real life).  Then the heat, well, vaporized me.  (For some strange reason, I chuckled when I wrote that.)  It was one of the more painful deaths I have met in my LD's (or, at least perceived pain... it always seems VERY real).
After waking up, I found that I couldn't move and had the worst case of sleep paralysis in my life.  I was COMPLETELY paralyzed, unable to move for a good five minutes.  I simply lay there helplessly untill the alarm clock went off and jarred me awake.
I just felt like sharing that with you all, see what you make of it.

Patrick

I know this might seem like a total noob question, but I have never truely had it answered anywhere else.  I have noticed something about why I can't project anymore (actually, I haven't been able to ever since my 1st try which was a total success; I have had lucid dreams, however):  The first time that I projected, I concentrated on things other than myself and what I was feeling.  I had several very stong mental images that were cycled through my head as if automatically.  I visualized myself floating away from my physical body (1st), I saw myself soaring over the clouds (rather cliche, but 2nd nontheless), and I saw myself floating peacefully through the cosmos (3rd).  Not for one second did my mind wander to my physical body.
Nowadays, I find myself inadvertantly drawn to my body and the sensations that I undergo leading up to a projection.  I concentrate on the vibrations, the heavy feeling, the numb limbs... almost uncontrolably.

Basically the point of this thread is, to all of you expierenced projectors, what do you concentrate on?  Do you keep a focus on your body, or far away?

Thanks to all,
Patrick

I had a really peculiar expierence just last night.  It really began when me and my friend decided to go down to the woods at dark to see if it really was haunted (it has been a question if entities from lower planes manifested in the woods for some time).  We traveled through the greater part of the woods then came out and sat on the hill.  Since my eyes had adjusted to the dark and my senses were heightened, I just then noticed all the stars in the sky.  I decided to lay back, despite the damp grass, and just look.  Then, I simply focused on one star, wondering what would happen if I concentrated on it.  Slowly but surely, the entire world seemed to melt away.  Every single other star vanished.  The sharp outline of the trees was gone.  I began to feel a falling sensation, the same that I have felt during several of my other astral projections.  I felt myself being pulled away from my body when... "Patrick, are you asleep?" brought me back to reality.
I don't know, guys.  It might turn out to be a promising technique.  Tell me what you think.  I know I didn't fully project, but I was almost there.  It only seemed right that it fit into this category.

mjolnir_knight

It has been almost a year now since I discovered astral projection.  It was the first quarter of eigth grade when I was surfing the internet in the morning and I came across Jonas Ridgeway's forum.  I read the posts, began to believe.  That night, I tried to project and found it to be an instant success.  Within twenty minutes, I felt intense but pleasurable vibrations, started to see through closed eyes, heard buzzing, and floated out of my body.  I was elated.  The next day when I got from home from school, I tried again.  I got the vibrations, but no projection.  I tried again and again, but was constantly met with failure.  Since then, I have only been able to project three times.  Those were from sleep paralysis state, so they were increadibly easy.  I have also had a handful of lucid dreams.  But no projections.  Projection use to be the main thing on my mind.  Now it has become a mere afterthought.  I am believing less and less in astral projection nowadays, but I have been kept going by the thought of that first wonderful projection.  As much as I want to believe, I am rapidly becoming a skeptic.  I try to stop myself, but my logic and scientific side says no.  It says that projection isn't possible.  I wish that I could project again, but I simply can't.  If there is anything that anyone could do to save me, I would really appreciate it.  I have read the greater portion of the recent posts on this forum, have read almost anything that I could get my hands on.  This really sucks.  I don't know.  You all might be seeing less and less of me now that my life has become busy with highschool.
Any replies are appreciated.  Sometimes it's just nice to know that someone is there for you.
Thanks,
Patrick

I had awoke from a good five hours of sleep (my body has seemed to have programed itself to wake up around seven) and naturally I was still very tired.  So I started to go back to sleep.  Seeing as I was pretty darn tired, I started to drift off rapidly.  Then, just as I was reaching the boundary of sleep (I now believe that I had effortlessly achieved a mind awake/ body asleep state), a very random idea popped in my head.  You know how in a dream, something that would normally sound extremely ridiculous in real life sounds perfectly suitable?  (My friend dreamed that there was a mass of birds flying overhead and thought that an astroid had hit the earth)  This was a moment like that.  Or, maybe, it was one of those lightbulb moments.  I'm hoping the latter of the two.  I thought that since I was so close to sleep, therefore closer to the astral plane, and also in a deep hypnogogic state, that whatever I imagined would come true.  At that instant, I also thought that if I could trick my body into sleep, but put all of my effort into staying awake, I would project.  I tried it by thinking of the first thing that came to mind and that was the most vivid: a scene from the novel I was writing.  As I imagined, I could literally see the scene, but I put all of my concentration into staying conscious. (If you have ever had surgeory, it is a bit like trying to fight the anesthetic.  Not that it's impossible, but that's kind of what it is like.)  Literally within seconds, I got immensely strong vibratoins, I fealt as if I was being rocked back and fourth, I heard a roaring in my ears, then a buzzing.  I was starting to project, then my cat jumped on the bed.     I wanted to KILL it. 

So, basically all you have to do is this:  either stay up very late (2-3 AM) and naturally wake up or set your alarm clock to wake up in 4-5 hours;  begin to fall back asleep normally and catch yourself when you are about to fall asleep (believe me, it's easier to do when you are this tired than when you are initially falling asleep);  when you believe that you are able to hallucinate, imagine something briefly to test it (don't think about it too long, you will fall asleep);  if you are able to see what you imagined, than congrats you are almost there; now, imagine the most vivid thing that you can, but at the same time, put ALL (I mean ALL) of your concentration into remaining (don't worry if you don't put much effort into imagining your object or scene [I actually found it easier to imagine a scene] your subconscious will fill in the details of it [NOTE: it helps if you have seen or imagined it many times before; you can even imagine yourself projecting if you wish, but I haven't tried it]);  hopefully, if you can replicate my results (minus the cat) than you will be off on your astral adventure in no time.

-Patrick

I have had my fair share of sleep paralysis, and 9 out of ten times I have been able to project from them either by thinking it or rolling out of my body.  This morning, however, it was different.  I woke up from an extremely long and vivid lucid dream to a deep state of full body sleep paralysis.  The phone ringing had woke me up, but it stopped.  So, I tried to project.  First I took the lazy route by trying to think my way out, but that didn't work.  Then, I tried to roll out.  This time I fealt like I weighed a thousand pounds.  I wouldn't budge no matter how hard I tried.  Finally, I was able to see through my eye lids and I groped out and grasped ahold of the bed post and I could see my arm, a light shade of blue.  I pulled and pulled, but I wouldn't budge.  It finally ended by me waking myself up from boredom.

mjolnir_knight

Yes, I need some assistance.  I better tell the whole, but short, story.  I learned of astral projection almost a year ago.  I remember I was surfing the internet and I came across it.  It hooked me instantly and I read as much as I could on the subject that day.  That night, while still knowing very little, I decided to give it a try.  I really didn't expect much to happen.  However, to my extreme suprise, I began to experience the famous vibrations in about ten minutes.  They were surprising at first, then I just decided to keep on doing what I was doing (visualizing myself rising up from my body) and ride them out.  Within another thirty seconds, but it seemed forever, I felt and say myself rising up from my body.  It was euphoric for I had never experienced such bliss in my life.  I remember thinking back to my body and I could see both from my astral body and my physical body all at once.  From my physical I could see my astral and from my astral I could see my physical.  I continued to move upwards, but I couldn't believe it; I thought it was a dream.  To make sure, I thought about returning to my body and I was back and opened my eyes, awestruck at what had just happened.

Now, here I am almost a year later and that was the only projection that I have been able to achieve from a hypnogogic state (going to sleep).  I have managed to have fully fledged lucid dreams and five projections from sleep paralysis, but every time that I tried to project from the hypnogogic state my abilities lessened and lessened.  It got to a point that I thought that it was bogus and I had just been dreaming.  Something sparked in me yesterday, however, and I decided to give it another go.  I got SOOOOO close, almost to the point of projection, but I can't exit.  I have read through the techniques section, I have read the FAQ's, I've read almost everything on jonasridgeway.com, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  (PS, I used the rocket technique where you concentrate on the pulsing in front of your eyes and you begin to sway back and forth and are rocketed from your body.  I got a VEEERRRYYY strong swaying sensation, all my chakras were open, but the feeling began to recede and ended the attempt)

If anyone can help, please do!  Any advice is appreciated.
Sincerely, Patrick

For over a year now, I have been having what I will describe as chronic Deja Vu.  The frequency of my Deja Vu's can vary among 0 to five or more times a day.  It truly gets annoying.  I have noticed now that the Deja Vu's are getting clearer and more detailed.  It use to be that I would simply remember the setting.  Then I would remember people and what they said.  Then it went on to exact passages from books.  Now it's to the point where I remember (if there's a clock in my Deja Vu) the exact time, what people said, what is written on nearby objects, etc.  Some of them will last up to a whole minute of Deja Vu.  An interesting thing that happens is that once a Deja Vu starts I will know exactly what is going to happen for the next X amount of time.  And no matter what I do to avoid doing what the Deja Vu says, I always end up doing it anyway.  Can anyone tell me what is happening to cause this?

Thanks, Patrick

I was having a lucid dream one night (it was induced by Freddy Kruger.  He had appeared in my dream and it brought me to consciousness.  I then killed him with a pistol that I thought up.) and my consciousness happened to wonder to a sci-fi movie that I had seen the other day.  The scene that I had remembered was a Squad leader led his men out of a bio-weapons lab and right into the gun sights of several dozen men armed with AK-47's and clothed in white lab coats.  Yep, you guessed it:  thirty men in white lab coats brandishing AK's appeared in the field in my dream.  And ya know what?  They opened fire.  Not only did I learn to stay focused in the astral, but I realized that it takes a long time to die in the astral.  As I was filled with bullets, my view slowly started to turn red as pain filled my body, then I returned to the physical.

mjolnir_knight

I sometimes get a strange sensation when I am in a relaxed state.  I wouldn't consciously instigate it, it would just happen naturally.  If I am relaxed and headed towards sleep, I would often get a sensation that I am shaking back and fourth in every direction as if attached by a rubber band to midpoint on my physical body.  Sometimes they were subtle, but often they were very strong motions.  What was this?

Thanks, Patrick

I have to admit, I do like weapons very much.  I own several firearms, know a lot about them, and play airsoft/paintball.  But several of my recent LD's/OBE's (I can't tell which because I had complete control and they were exceptionally vivid) have been disturbing and have involved me dying a brutal death.  Here are three that I will recount.

1)  (Note, at the time I had no clue that this was a dream.  Only after I came back to my body did I realize that it wasn't "real")  In the middle of the night, around 1 AM, I woke up for some reason.  Immeadietly I heard two supressed pistol gunshots coming from downstairs.  I sat bolt upright in bed and grabbed the only remaining 12-gauge shell that I had left (I had it in my pocket when I was at the shooting range and forgot that I had it).  I then dashed into my mom's room for my shotgun, loaded the shell, and pumped the shotgun.  By now I heard men stomping into the house.  I ran downstairs and into the family room (The gunshots came from the back room where the kitchen was) and into the dining room where I saw a reflection in the mirror of a man holding a shotgun.  I leaned around the corner and fired my only shot at him.  It hit and killed him, but another man with an MP-40 (German submachine gun) raised it, ready to fire.  I beat him over the head with the butt of my shotgun, grabbed his gun, and fired at the third man.  There was one invader still alive.  Both him and I raised our weapons and fired at the same time.  I remember a searing pain rush through my skull, then I woke up in my bed, thankfully, safe and sound.

2)  (This one I can't remember the details, so bear with me.)  I remember that, in my LD, I was cleaning my room when I heard the front door bust open and men rush in (three of them).  I immeadetly ran into my mom's room and grabbed my P22 pistol, jammed a magazine into it, and cocked the slide.  I ran out to the hallway looking down the staircase and saw a man holding a pistol (I can't remember what kind).  I raised my weapon and fired two rounds.  He fell down the stairs, dead.  The second of four men came running up the stairs with a sub-machine gun (Once again, I can't remember what kind) and fired a short burst at me.  I ducked around the corner as bullets tore through the wall.  I leaned out again and tried to fire two rounds, but it jammed after the first.  He fell to the ground, injured.  A third person ran at me with a Remington shotgun as I tried to unjam the slide.  "Screw it," I thought as I beat him over the head with the pistol, knocking him out.  The last person ran up the stairs as I retreated into my room.  I jammed a fresh magazine home, finally unjammed the slide.  He burst through the door, a Smith and Wessen .500 Magnum Revolver in hand.  He fired a single round into my head, killing me.  I woke up in bed, scared senseless.

3)  (This one rivals the first one in disturbing level because of how vivid it was.)  My friend was over at my house and there had been a report of an escaped murderer from the local prison.  We were carrying a box of some sort up from the basement into my room on the second floor, when the front door burst open (we were already in my room).  There was a mad yelling as the murderer dashed up the stairs.  My friend and I ran into my mom's room to grab my pistol.  We locked the door, trapping him in the hallway (the doors are pieces of crap, they are really flimsy) so he starts to bang on the door.  We grab my P22 and a handfull of ammo, trying to load several rounds into the magazine.  Suddenly a machete jammed through the door.  It retracted and was forced through again.  After this happened two more times, he kicked down the door.  I struggled to load the pistol, but it was too late.  He jumped on top of me and repeatedly jammed the knife into my chest.  I woke up half a second later, with a searing pain in my chest.  It fealt exactly as if I had been stabbed.

Does anyone have any ideas on why these extremely vivid lucid dreams are occurring?  Thanks.

I was wondering if another human, or another entity for that matter, could consciously prevent you from projecting.  Any ideas?