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Hey everyone, I just wanted to ask a question.

Recently during meditations, I don't necessarily project, as far as I'm aware, but as my meditations come to an end, I'll feel as though I've been rotated 180 degrees.

Typically when I meditate, I'll lay on the ground with my head facing away from my desk, which happens to be pointing north. As I start to "come to" from deep meditations, I've had numerous instances where I feel as if the whole room I'm in has been mirrored. Objects that I know are on the right side of my body "feel" as if they're now on my left side, and I sense as though my head is now pointing south and is almost under my desk. Upon opening my eyes, I'm back in my original position and my room hasn't changed whatsoever.

Has anyone else encountered anything like this? What would you interpret this as?

Has anyone else dealt with this?

I had a very vivid, powerful AP on the 30th, and I've felt drained and depressed since.

It's my understanding that AP taps into your energy. Does anyone have recommendations for dealing with this? Since this AP, I've tried to meditate every morning for the past 4 days, but I'm struggling to reach that deep, meditative state.

Any suggestions?

Hey everyone. I reached out to omcasey for some advice on suggestions they had given me, and they recommended asking my questions on the board so others could possibly benefit from them. I took some time and came up with some questions, but I realized that it might be helpful to make this a sort of interview for anyone with AP experience who is willing to share. Also, if anyone else looking for advice thinks of questions that I haven't addressed, feel free to ask them.


How often do you meditate?


When you AP, is your intention specific or different from meditation, or is it a result of meditation?


(This question is more specific to omcasey, but feel free to answer if you'd like) You've mentioned yogic breathing practices in one of my earlier posts. Do you follow other yogic studies, and if so, which ones?


Do you feel that certain physical practices or conditions affect one's ability to AP (diet, physical activity, tiredness, etc.), and what have you found to be most effective in your AP practices?


In my few AP experiences, my biggest obstacle to overcome is remaining calm and not getting overexcited during the buildup of vibrational energy, and the shock of the one "violent" spontaneous exit I experienced, during which it felt as though I was being shot out of a cannon.  Have you dealt with any similar obstacles in your AP journey, and what have been your most effective solutions to dealing with this?


How long have you been APing, and would you say that you can AP at will? If so, how long did it take you to achieve this?


What was the biggest block you've had to overcome in your AP journey, and how did you do it?


I look forward to your feedback, and hope this post helps anyone with similar questions.

I'm curious if anyone else has used the Gateway Method tapes.

They were crucial to my introduction to spirituality and my exploration of OBEs. My first OBE was partially induced through a combination of Yoga Nidra and following the Gateway Method. It was very brief, but it solidified my belief as a former skeptic that there is definitely more to our existence beyond the physical universe surrounding us.

As I progressed through the tapes, I felt less and less in terms of developing my Out of Body exploratory abilities. I got busy and distracted by daily life, and I made the mistake of trying to explore other methods to increase my abilities and possibly develop the skills to manually induce OBEs.

It got to the point where I stopped the tapes altogether, and I noticed recently that I had gotten back into all of the old bad habits that I had left behind when I started this journey of spirituality and exploration. This prompted me to get back to the basics, and I decided to refresh myself on the tapes from the beginning.

I started today, and I was not expecting the results I received.

I had to stop the tape on my first attempt because I heard my dogs barking and my daughter had woken from a nap. During this meditation, I followed the instructions and made a point to listen as though I was brand new to the tapes. At one point, I saw something. I was on a beach, looking at the ocean. I could hear the waves rolling up to the shores. A woman then appeared before me. She looked as though she had just come out of the ocean. She seemed to be in distress, and she was soaking wet. Her hair was long and dark, and was covering the sides of her face. She stood maybe 2-3 feet in front of me. She said nothing, but her mouth hung open. Her skin seemed pale, and her eyes a bit sunken. I didn't sense any malicious intention from her. She simply stood before me, breathing and looking into my eyes. I wasn't afraid, but I was caught off guard by her presence.

This was happening during the "Orientation" tape, where you are introduced to the very first step of reaching the meditative state that most Out of Body exploration is expected.

On my second attempt to listen to the tape in its entirety, I saw other things  throughout the progression of the tape. It was as though I was watching someone play a game similar to Age of Empires, where you progress through different periods of the civilizations of mankind. The "game" was in the very beginning where early man was divided into small groups of essentially cavemen. I saw them from above, in a third person perspective. It appeared as though I was seeing them on screen, like in the game. At one point, my field of vision shifted, as though I had turned my head. I realized that I hadn't been looking at a computer screen, I was looking through a window. To my right I saw a large computer console of sorts. It was maybe 12 feet tall, spanning from floor to ceiling. I saw numerous control panels on the large console. It was like the scene in The Truman Show where the director is observing Truman from above, but we were observing early man.

Again, this was all during the "Orientation" tape, where you are introduced to the basic concepts of The Gateway Method. I didn't see anything remotely close to any of this during my first time listening to the tapes, and I'm curious where this will take me.

I will continue this "refresher" course, but I was curious of anyone's thoughts or experiences with The Gateway Method.

I'm interested in learning more about Chakra meditation, but I have no idea where to start. I can find information, and I know the 7 main Chakras, but anything past that has been confusing.

How can I discern whether Chakras are blocked? Is it intuition?

When you meditate on a specific Chakra, how do you do it?

Any advice or references would be greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to get some insight.

Lately I haven't been making much progress in my spiritual journey, and I'm trying to press through this. I'm feeling like I'm in a bit of a slump, and I've been struggling to meditate at all.

Things have gotten pretty busy for me lately, and I feel like stress and life in general has hindered my progress. There's a ton of stuff going on in my life, but I wasn't to find balance to at least maintain what I've developed and achieved so far.

Things are pretty chaotic, with trying to sell my house, move across country, secure a new job, help my wife get situated in her new job, and taking care of our almost 1 year old daughter.

I've used meditation to cope with stress in the past, but I can't even manage to find time to meditate lately. The times I do find, I usually struggle to make any progress or even stay awake.

I know this journey is a marathon and not a sprint, but I don't want to lose any progress I've made. Part of me recognizes that all of these moving parts that I'm stressing about are moving pieces in the Gateway Method Patterning I've done within the past year, but things have been tough. It's as if there's something making this goal as difficult as possible every step of the way. I'm hanging in there, but I'm looking forward to reaching a point where I can just breathe and at least maintain my progress in my journey.

Typing this out in itself is helping me process everything going on, but I'm so appreciative of the experiences I've had so far, and there's a part of me that's worried that my journey is stalling.

Does anyone have advice about finding some balance in the turbulence of life on this journey?

A few months back, I was meditating, and saw a woman I've never met before. It was the first time I've ever seen a person during a meditation.

At first, I recognized that I was at my workplace. I had my daughter there with me, which was very strange because I work in industrial maintenance. My daughter was small, maybe 5 months old at the time of the projection/meditation. She was in her infant car seat.

I saw a woman next to us, looking at my daughter. The woman then turned and looked me in the eye. This was the clearest, most vivid thing I had ever witnessed during a meditation, and I had only seen still images of things up to this point. It felt like I wasn't just seeing a scene play out in my consciousness. She LOOKED at me. I felt a connection to this person, and my nerves got the best of me. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end outof excitement and shock, and it stirred me out of focus and my meditation ended.

I was so excited, and overwhelmed by this experience that I went on an AI image generator to try to generate a picture of this woman, and eventually got a result. I still have the picture I managed to generate of her, whoever she is. The picture is attached.

I didn't see her again until 3 days ago, in a dream. I didn't realize it at first, but thinking about the events of the dream led me to realize that it was the same person or entity.

It was a bit of an odd dream. I was with my dad and older brother, and we were at some kind of big race event. The three of us were there to compete in different events. We were borrowing vehicles to compete. The owners were friendly, but I don't know any of them. My dad raced first. He did a quarter mile drag race in a heavily modified school bus. I distinctly remember that he managed to get a 10.7 second time, a whole second faster than the next best time. Then it was my turn to race in a motorcycle event.

A woman was letting me use her motorcycle for the event. She has her hair tied up in a bandana, and was very friendly. She explained that she has personally modified the bike, and was clearly very proud of it. The motorcycle was hardly recognizable. It looked like something out of a Mad Max film, aggressively modified for off road use. I had difficulty riding it, and I was struggling to get it to run properly. As the steam went on, I grew frustrated because I was losing badly. The race was to see who could travel the furthest distance in 30 minutes, and I was wasting time stalling the bike. It gradually dawned on me by checking the bike that this motorcycle had started out as the same motorcycle I currently own.

The thought rebounded in my mind as if on repeat, "this is JUST like my bike." I lookedat the frame, the engine, and saw things that I had replaced on my own motorcycle. My mind raced and the thought became " wait, this IS my bike." Then I recognized her face from my meditation and immediately woke up.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this, meeting the same stranger multiple times? Who might she be, and what is the significance of seeing this woman repeatedly?

I decided to start posting new AP/Dream journal entries here. I have a bunch of older ones, but I decided to start from today and post newer entries moving forward. This is from today.

13 Jun 24
Binaural Beats meditation

I decided to do a simple meditation on my Shakti mat with binaural beats playing. I put on my headphones and sleep mask and laid down on the floor. I struggled to initially focus. The mat was initially uncomfortable, which is normal. My mind was wandering and thinking about things that have already happened recently and cannot be changed or improved by thinking or worrying about them. I decided to try a mental chant of sorts. I thought to myself, "I am ok, I am safe, I am calm" over and over.

I noticed that it helped me gain focus. As I focused, I relaxed into the mat. I had some very vivid glimpses of things. I'm not sure if they would be considered hypnagogic hallucinations, but they weren't just random flashes of light or images.

I saw a first person perspective of where I was exactly in the room I was laying in, but I was sitting up instead of laying down. I saw the bed to my left, my guitars to my right, and I saw my hands in front of me. During one of the brief glimpses, I had a bolt in my hand that I had been installing on an airplane at work the previous day. I tried to not focus too hard on what I was seeing, but I was so surprised to see the exact item I had been handling. I felt it in my fingers.The experience lasted a few moments, between a few seconds to a minute, but I tried to savor and enjoy it as much as I could without being too focused on what was going on. I'm not sure if that was the right choice, but it felt right at the moment. I made a point not to look around the room and to just focus on what was in the center of my view, the small bolt I was holding.

After that, I don't recall much. Eventually, the binaural beats playlist I was listening to started to play a specific track that was incredible. I felt buzzing throughout my body (nothing like the powerful "electric current" I felt in a previous experience) that intensified with the music. The sensation was indescribably powerful and close to euphoric. I didn't want it to end.

The meditation lasted roughly one hour.

I've been doing a lot of suggested reading and thinking lately after receiving some awesome insight and advice here on the forum.

One of the major ideas that I was told was to incorporate my AP experiences into my waking life. It got me thinking about how AP can change or enhance a person's life.

Personally, I went from believing that our time here was finite to understanding that there is more than just that which can be scientifically proven currently.

I've started to feel what the "energy body" is, and my experiences have helped me understand that your outlook can directly affect your life experiences.

What about you guys? How has AP personally changed your lives?

Hey all,

I have to ask. How do you develop the patience to allow things to reveal themselves to you? This has been the most difficult part of this journey for me.

My head has practically been spinning since Saturday night when I had my most powerful, profound experience yet. Since then, I've been looking back on my journals of previous accounts. As things progressed, I made the mistake of dismissing previous experiences as "astral projections" due to subsequent experiences revealing more and more of the potential of this journey. I'm a bit mad that I let myself make this mistake along the way, but I guess my realizations count as progress.

I've been reading books (Monroe's Journeys Out of the Body, Raduga's The Phase, and I just started William Buhlman's Adventures Beyond the Body), practicing yoga nidra meditations, The Gateway Tapes, binaural meditations, and trying to simply set intentions to help induce AP.

It's like the Dunning-Kruger effect, where each experience shows me how much more there is, andhow little I currently know. My issue is that with each experience, I just want to go further. It's my understanding that the more you try, the more difficult it can become, but I'm struggling to let it happen on its own.

I started on my journey almost a year ago, and I just want to immerse myself in this. I feel like I need a teacher. My experiences have changed my whole outlook on everything I know, but my biggest struggle is figuring out how to let it happen.

The solidarity of this, and the trial and error nature of this journey has been difficult. I feel like I'm dying of thirst in a hot desert, and each experience is a small sip of water that's barely enough to keep me going.

Any advice? Part of me just wants to talk about it with someone.

Last night, I can't tell if I had an AP experience or if it was a vivid dream. There were parts of the experience that I could physically feel and it continued after I "woke up" at a certain point.

Immediately after the experience, I got up to use the bathroom and made a point to write this down.

"
31 May 24
23:20

Unguided/Spontaneous

I have never felt "vibrations" like this before. It was beyond anything I've ever felt. I'm not sure if I should be writing this in the dream journal or here.

I laid perfectly still. I sorted my way through the "monkey brain" stage (quieting random thoughts).

I felt as though I was with (my childhood best friend's name). We were somewhere tropical. I was staying at "his house" (or wherever he was staying).

I'm still buzzing from the experience. It's difficult to write at the moment.

I was in a bed and I felt an almost static charge building. There was a period where for a brief moment I heard static, and almost some kind of distorted voice on a radio. Then the charge surged, and it was the most powerful thing I've ever felt. It came in waves, but they were long. It was intense, but I liked it.

I was pulled during a few surges, going head over heels out of the bed I was in. (best friend) saw this after the first one. He asked if I was OK. I reassured him that I was fine. After that we were "driving" and traveled away from where our beds were. It was night time.  It felt like we were in some kind of Hawaiian island. We reached a point in the road where we looked out into an abyss. The abyss was not intimidating or frightening. A massive surge of energy built up and flowed through me.

I started explaining to (best friend) what I was feeling, and I told him about my meditations and my pursuit of AP. He asked why I hadn't told him about it sooner, and I explained that I didn't want to be judged or seen as crazy, which he understood.

Then to our left, we heard a child crying. We saw the child standing in front of a home and we both decided to leave. It was almost a feeling of fear, but more along the lines of "I don't want to know what's about to happen next, let's leave". As we were returning to where the beds were, I realized not to abandon the child/spirit and thought, "I'm sorry I can't help you, I love you."

Then I sort of woke up, back in bed next to (my wife's name), but felt another massive surge of energy. It subsided, and I got up and wrote this down.
"

Now, I'm just going to put a few additional notes here.

First of all, I credit most of this to Lumaza's "Doorway". I had decided to give it a shot, but last night was the second attempt I was making at trying it. I was just focusing on absolutely clearing my mind and never even got to the point where you visualize the Doorway and ask yourself questions about it. Thank you, Lumaza for sending your link.

Secondly, to those who are familiar with the "vibrational" stage, I'm a bit annoyed with the terminology being used here. Calling that insanely powerful feeling a "vibration" is like calling an atomic bomb "a really big firework". It felt less like "vibrations" and more like sticking a fork into a 220V outlet. Don't get me wrong, the feeling was immense and powerful. It was bliss. I loved it, and could feel each wave building to a crescendo. It was a wild experience, and I hope I get to experience it again.

Now, my question is, what was all of this? Did I have a vivid dream, an AP, or a bit of both? Please let me know what you think. Any insight or input would be appreciated.

I found the forum a few months ago, but decided to join to maybe ask for advice.

I've been doing the Gateway Tapes, hatha yoga, chakra meditation, and yoga nidra with some results, but I want to refine my techniques. The information here is great and looks promising. I'm glad this forum seems to cover all the bases in a constructive way.

I feel like I've stagnated in my progress lately, but I'm trying to not get discouraged. I try to avoid trying the same techniques over and over, so as to not "burn out" from lack of progress.