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I was trying to stay conscious the other night as I went to sleep and eventually I started to feel my energy body trying to jerk away at my chest.  It was kind of like a short build up of energy and then a quick spasming up feeling but sometimes my physical body would get caught up in it too and my physical chest would jerk up also.  I doubt that happens when I fall asleep normally, so was it because I was conscious that my physical body thought it should join in too?

I had an idea.  I think it's true that the more people concentrate on the same thing the more energy is given to that thing/idea/goal whatever.  A friend and I once bought a lottery ticket, just picked random numbers and then continually concentrated on making those numbers the ones which came up until the drawing.  Three of our six numbers came up which I found encouraging...but it still only got us %5, what we had paid for the ticket in the first place.  Haha.  Anyway.  What if I got a bigger group together to do the same thing.  We'd randomly select somebody to get a ticket and then everybody concentrate on making their numbers happen.  If they win the prize is split among the group.  Even if we had a bunch of members everybody would still get quite a lot of cash and we could wash rinse repeat.  Does anybody think this is a good idea?

I was lucid dreaming and started asking to see my guide.  I've never met him/her/it/them whatever and was curious.  I was inquiring mentally and after a few tries and nothing happened I decided to speak the request out loud.  As soon as I tried to talk either the sensation of my mouth moving or hearing the sound out loud or both brought me back to my body.  Does talking out loud have this effect with anybody else?

Nothing profound here.  I just like to mention my progress among peers out of curiosity for possible input.  I've been doing tactile awareness exercises for maybe half a year now, slowly progressing up my body only as fast as I am able to feel the sensations.  I recently started doing it along my spine and head.  A few times I was able to feel stronger than normal sensations, though still nothing shocking, and it made me slightly nauseous.  Also, last night as I was drifting off to sleep I felt a sharp, rather painful, energy sensation in my tongue.  Odd place to feel energy...I was almost asleep so I didn't react but I remembered it when I woke up this morning. 

I made an observation and I'd like to see what you guys think about it.  My girlfriend falls asleep extremely quickly when she's really tired.  Last night she was sitting on the couch talking with me and then started to get sleepy, that eyeballs starting to roll up in your head but you're still talking kind of instant sleepy.  She pretty much turned off like a light bulb and was only out for two seconds at most and then came to and told me about a dream scene she'd just had.  She hadn't spent much subjective time in the dream, only a couple seconds, but it was a pretty complex situation she described to me.  It just struck me as odd that she got out/phased over (which ever way you like to think about it) and constructed a dream that fast.  Then I remembered something I read about a year ago that mentioned dreaming and said that "the dreaming" is always going on, even when you're awake.  It had seemed like a strange and unlikely idea to me at the time but it makes sense now.  She was able to slip into such a complex dream so quickly because it was already going on.  Her consciousness just shifted over to being aware on that level for a second.  So the dream is constant; we just shift our awareness over to it when we sleep.  That's confusing to think about though because if it's true, it means that a part of my mind is currently on some kind of crazy random astral dream adventure at this very moment as I'm typing that I'm completely unaware of and will never remember or have any knowledge of.

Jarrod here again.  I've been doing awareness targeting as explained by Robert Bruce on my feet for a few weeks and for the past...about three days there has been a spot on the bottom of my left foot where I constantly feel some energy, just the same kind of feeling, a slight pressure, that follows my point of awareness around when I'm practicing, but I feel it in that one spot pretty much all day when I'm not even paying attention to my feet at all.  Anybody have any experience with things like that?  Just a random development anomaly?

A question for more experienced people: Does practicing mindfulness in your daily life increase the frequency of your lucid dreams?  By "mindfulness" I mean being as aware as possible in the present moment.  That's basically practicing lucidity...and it makes sense to me that if one becomes more mindful in their waking life then that will carry over into their dreams and increase their normal level of lucidity, thus prompting more moments of "Oh...I'm dreaming."

I'm not really looking for a solution to a problem, just thought I'd share an interesting one with you guys here on the AP.  I've been practicing awareness targeting in my feet.  I use a slight stirring motion with my finger to help the tactile awareness feeling in my feet, not moving my finger on my feet, I mean just moving it around slightly somewhere else to help me imagine that it's moving on my feet so I can imagine the feeling better.  It's like using your hands to talk with I think, just makes it easier.  Recently though I've been being distracted from trying to feel my awareness in my feet by a feeling coming from the motion of my hand.  I can feel energy around my hand strong enough to hinder the small stirring motions of my finger which distracts me and moves my focus to my hand.  Simple enough problem to solve, just stop moving my hand when I practice.  I thought it was a cool problem though, you know, accidental energy. haha

I've been doing energy raising and chakra stimulation as described by Robert Bruce for a few weeks now and I have some questions I'd like to ask more experienced people.  Currently I can't actually feel much of what's going on when I do these exercises.  I can feel a slight sensation like a more prolonged shiver (rabbit running down your spine) but nothing definite or precise or localized.  I've never been very energetically sensitive.  I can make rather week psiballs and feel them pretty well with my hands but that's the only way I can feel energy really well.  Does energy raising and chakra stimulation still work if you can't feel what's going on?  I mean, is it just the focus that's required, or do you need to feel it too?  Can I expect my sensitivity to energy to increase as I keep doing these exercises?  And is a person's level of sensitivity to spiritual energy directly connected to their level of chakra development?

I'd also like to clarify my understanding of the actual chakras themselves.  So, there are 7 major chakras in the upper body and many more little ones running all the way down to your feet.  The natural path of energy through your body is up through your feet and out your head.  And you can develop them with energy work or dealing with your emotional issues or even through physical practices like yoga.  The major chakras and their correlations go thus:

Name         Physical location      Emotion it deals with     Emotional blockage                                                            Element
Base          - base of spine         - survival                   - fear                                                                              - Earth
Sacral        - groin area             - pleasure                   - guilt (concerning own perception of self)                             - Water
Solar Plexis  - stomach              - will                          - shame (concerning how others see you)                              - Fire
Heart         - heart...duh           - love                         - grief                                                                              - Air
Throat        - throat                 - truth                        - lies/deception (of self and others, relative to own perception) - ?
Third Eye    - center of forehead - insight                      - illusion (relative to absolute truths)                                    - ?
Crown        - top of head           - ?                         - ?                                                                             - ?

Is all that pretty much right?  Sorry to ask so many questions

I have a question about no-thought meditation.  What exactly is the aim?  I can do it and have no verbal thoughts, but there are still other subtler thoughts that are harder to get rid of and stay conscious.  Like a vague question you're just barely aware of; wondering how long you've been sitting here, or a slight annoyance at the bee buzzing around your head, not things that I really dwell on but they're still there.  Is the aim just to silence the verbal thoughts in your mind, or is it to stop all levels of thinking absolutely?

I also have a question about the trance state.  The first time I did the breath awareness meditation and counting on the out breaths I reached a point where something shifted, like everything got all big and quiet and it no longer took much effort to focus on just the breathing and the counting.  Was that what is called a trance?  Since that first time I haven't been able to reach it again.  I can feel myself getting close but I never shift over into that state.  I think it's because I'm expecting something now, and that expectation is somehow blocking me from getting there.  The first time I did it I wasn't expecting anything.  Do any experienced meditators have any insights or tips about the trance state?

Well I'll just start out with the basic situation.  I became fascinated with astral projection when I was 17 and tried to have one for a couple of years but didn't have much success.  I got to where I felt astral sensations all the time if I were tired , even when I wasn't doing anything special, like just driving down the road (not the best time to have your astral head decide to start shaking about) or just laying on the couch with my eyes closed and lazily listening to my family talk at a family gathering.  The sensations I got then were pretty common I think, varying kinds of vibrations and quick startling jerks.  But randomly one day when the vibrations were at their peak my heart started beating rapidly and that forced me to start breathing quickly and ended the attempt.  Every time I tried after that the same thing happened and eventually I just kind of stopped trying.  I'm 23 now and decided to start training again a few weeks ago.  At first I didn't get much of anything and then the same old heart rate thing started happening again.  I found that I could actually force my body to ignore that though and it would kind of settle down.  Now I've heard that it's not really the heart that's beating rapidly but the heart chakra.  Maybe it starts that way with me but it does actually affect my physical heart to start beating faster and causes a kind of panic reaction.

I started doing some things besides just trying to astral project like I always did.  I started doing meditation and energy raising to try to get myself more...in shape for it so to speak.  I do the breath awareness meditation (I used to practice no thought meditation when I was 17 and got fairly good at it I think) and count on every outbreath.  I've gotten to a point a couple times when my awareness kind of shifts and everything gets all big and empty and it stops being difficult to focus on just the counting.  I think that's a trance.  I've done energy raising like Robert Bruce describes several times, once while in that trance state and I could feel it slightly better.  The only only energy I've ever been able to actually perceive was my own spirit during pre-exit sensations and I can make rather weak psiballs and feel them with my hands.  Also, a few nights ago I read something on a post on here about asking for help from your higher self just using focused desire instead of words, so I did that.

The night before last I didn't get enough sleep and took a nap in the afternoon yesterday and had a freakin' awesome near astral projection.  But the sensations were very different than they used to be and even different than they were when I first tried again a few weeks ago.  I had drifted off into a...kind of dream but something happened in the dream to bring my awareness back to myself and very strong exit sensations started, only they were less tactile and I couldn't actually describe how they felt, just that my astral body felt it was trying very hard to separate.  I tried to stay passive but they settled down but my spirit was actually still trying to roll out of my body.  I tried to let it happen but it didn't.  Today almost the exact same thing happened again.  I was very sleepy and lay down for a nap.  It happened this time before I fell asleep though and the exit sensations felt just like a lot of energy and a shift of awareness and I could feel my spirit trying to roll out after they settled down again.  I didn't intentionally try for either of those experiences and in both it was like my subconscious/higher self automatically knew what to do (trying to roll out of my body)

So I know that's kind of a long and convoluted question, but if anybody on here with more experience than me has any comments or input they are extremely welcome.

Hi all.  I already introduced myself in another forum but seeing as this one is for introductions, I copy pasted    I'm 23, from Alabama/Florida but am currently in Hong Kong doing an exchange program.  I've been totally fascinated by everything psychic/spiritual/magical etc you get the picture since I was 17.  I've always been extremely enthusiastic about and interested in AP because it seems like the best way to learn by personal experience, experiencing the spirit world directly you know.  I could do energy work much easier there since I can't feel it very much physically, maybe help to heal my family, just generally explore and find things out, and so forth.  But I've been trying various methods on and off for about 6 years with almost no success.  I had a couple 2 or 3 second projections and got snatched back to my body and I lucid dream occasionally but it always wakes me up pretty quickly.  I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about these topics but would love to verify what I think I know with actual experience    I know I've got a lot to learn, and no matter how much experience I ever have, that will never change.

Hi.  I've been trying to have an out of body experience with various different methods for several years but haven't been able to.  Since pretty much the same thing can be achieved by lucid dreaming, I figure maybe that's the route for me.  I can manage to have a lucid dream on rare occasions but the realization usually just wakes me up. I read somewhere about people actually helping each other to lucid dream.  One person would astral project or get to the real time zone from lucid dreaming and go to the other person's body while they were asleep, then just locate their spirit body and inform them that they're dreaming.  I'm not sure about the specifics like whether or not the helper had to know where the other person was physically or not.  Does anyone here have any experience with that, or would anyone like to give it a try?