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Thanks all for the welcome. I tried again for a projection last night but I think I was simply too tired for it. I was reading a few articles, both here and elsewhere, about the need to have a good sleep the night prior to attempts. Another thing I find difficult is that I sleep in the same bed as my partner.. and she can get a bit clingy at times.. which is nice.. I am sort of torn between enjoying her physical, emotional and spiritual "closeness" and practising. So I think I will just need to not force the issue but keep practising whenever I can.

I've decided that today I will spend the day trying to "control my body from outside".. that is, try to perceive that rather than being in direct control of my body, that I am either behind, above or beside my body and actually just "guiding" and observing myself.. will see how it goes. I think of it as a kind of practise of being aware that there are multiple consciousnesses at all times and that the focus can be "phased" from one to the other.. Of course I will be mainly in the physical but I think by doing this, it will send messages to my subconscious to get used to the idea of passive observance and the ability to guide rather than control.

There are just so many "conceptions" of the planes that trying to find the one that makes the most sense, or for that matter "relevance", to another person is tricky. For example:

http://wisdom.lifestreamcenter.net/Planes3.gif

This one shows the same layers (or planes) of awareness (I don't use the word "existence" because all planes/layers exist at the same time and we are, in my belief, connected to all of them and therefore exist within them at all times) that CFTraveler has highlighted, however in their descriptions of those layers, they point to a Christianity based belief system. Maybe they have done this to make it easier to understand for someone with a belief structure like that.

Another way to look at it is from a Kabalistic point of view:

http://criticalkabbalist.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/four_worlds1.jpg

In the end there is only really one "truth" and these are mere guides and "translations"/"interpretations" of the layers of awareness into whatever spiritual "language" makes sense to the audience both in terms of the person(s) who experience it and those who they are relaying the information to.

For example, a very simplistic form of interpretation that doesn't really push its belief structure on the people receiving the relayed information, would be something like this:

http://lucidcrossroads.co.uk/imagesNEW/ASTRALPLANES.gif

With the fear (I am still in that stage where I am trying to overcome it also), it's a little like walking down a dark alleyway. You know there is no one there (or behind you) but the moment you think of it, you start to get aware of a presence there even though there really isn't anyone there at all. Unfortunately the damage is already done and your heart rate quickens, adrenaline starts to flow and you are having your "flight or fight" response to basically nothing but fear itself....

...I totally understand.. and that's all it is.. you've projected a negative thought and it's basically rebounded at you and exists only because you are thinking about it. I know these things myself.. but it doesn't really make it any easier to deal with when you're "in the moment".. *sigh*

He's agreeing with him.. he's saying "ditto" / "I couldn't have said it better myself".. that kinda thing.

It may be the excitement but I don't feel it in that way. I started to hear the "rain on a tin roof" noise building up.. I felt the rigidity of my body but centred more around my head and jaw more than anywhere else and I just kinda freaked out.. not in a girly scream kind of way.. but just felt like.. hrmm.. like I was caught under a big wave at the beach and couldn't get out from under it.. like a panic to get to the surface before I ran out of breath. That's the best analogy I can think of to describe the "panic" I was feeling at the time. It was like, "I'm stuck.. but that's ok.. let's go with it.." and then as I went with it, I guess my survival instinct kicked in and I just had to "get out".. so not fear in the "horror movie" sense of things.. nor fear of "things that might get me".. or even fear of death really.. it was more of a fear of the unknown and unfamiliar feelings and situation I was in.

EDIT: Also, I regret that I wasn't able to stay chilled.. I know there will be more times to try in the future but there was my chance to take, the chance I had been pushing for over the last 4 or 5 days.. and I effectively chickened out..

From what I understand.. there are many "lessons" to learn in projecting.. and we are all at different stages and no one's experiences are entirely the same nor take the same path.. We each start out with our individual "take" or "world view" and then must overcome a lot of preconceived ideas about what we expect. So there is no right or wrong.. just experience. And remember, there's a first time for everything as well as anything is possible.

Thanks for the welcome. I did find another couple of forums but none as active as this one.. so I am hoping I have found the right place.. hehe..

As for believing it.. I truly do already believe in it.. but for me, at this stage, the one thing holding me back is the fear barrier. I try to rationalise my fear, read more and more about the topic and now come here to communicate with others on a similar journey to myself.. but in the end, it is going to need to me "relaxing" and "chilling out".. not forcing the issue and trying to stay calm.. I think that once I've had my first truly substantial OBE, when I've overcome those "launching/exiting" fears, I will be much better equipped to start exploring the topic in more depth.. but right now I am, despite my previous attempts and experiences prior to this renewed set of trials, just starting out.

I guess that is why you should have multiple "exit" techniques at hand.. so you can use whicher technique feels more intuitive to your current situation/position. If you're on your back, you can easily use the rope-climbing or any "pulling up" technique.. but from the side or front, maybe there is a better technique that is more "appropriate".. for me though, if I was on my side.. I would still be comfortable with a rope pull.. just the rope would be attached to the wall rather than the ceiling. Not that I am all that experienced..

As for the stomach position.. maybe a "swaying" or "rocking" type technique would be more suitable? I don't know..

There's no reason why you can't go "down".. That's my point.. it's relative to the direction you are facing.. but when you do the technique.. down (in the physical) will actually be up as it relates to your body position and subsequent technique

I honestly don't know the answer to this one.. whenever I think of AP or OBE, I always think of travelling to other dimensions or planes of existance rather than exploring the physical world and universe.. so I've never really thought about a specific physical place I'd want to visit. Anything off the earth would be a bit weird to me at this stage and anything within the earth would be equally weird (I mean centre of the earth or bottom of the ocean kinda stuff) to me.. maybe later when I actually more familiar with OBEs, I will begin to feel differently.

It's all relative isn't it though? I was thinking about this issue this morning as I analysed my experience last night. Am I moving "backward", or "down".. or "north".. I was laying on my side during my experience and I was 6 inches or so "behind" myself.. so technically I guess I was moving backward.. but when I think about it.. I could just as easily describe it as moving "away" and direction is not really relevant.

(For my background, please see my introduction post: http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_members_introductions/newbie_from_australia-t34972.0.html )

OBE #1: 25 August, 2011 (Time: Unknown but in early hours of morning)
I can't remember the specifics of the dream I found myself in other than the fact that I was confused to have found myself in a house that seemed to be my home from a feelings point of view but logically I knew that it wasn't the same physical house/apartment I lived in. I began to try working out how I got there and who I was, wondering whether I was suffering from some kind of memory loss. I could remember my full name, date of birth and my address (though the address I thought of was an old address where I lived 10 or so years previous). It didn't make sense to the logical part of my brain and as I stood up, in my dream, to study the area in more detail I had the realization that I was dreaming. "Of course!" I thought to myself, "It's so obvious now. I am dreaming. How could I have not noticed that before? How silly of me." My consciousness and awareness grew and the thought, "I should be fully conscious for this." entered my mind. I felt I should be able to be fully conscious and remain in the dream state.

Instead of remaining in the dream, I found myself back in my bedroom after a few moments but instead of being fully aware of my physical body, I still felt the same kind of awareness as I had just moments ago. I felt sure that I was simply in a heightened state of awareness but in my physical body all the same. As I lay there for a few moments, I noticed a sound very similar to that of heavy rain on a tin roof building up in my ears. I somehow recognized at this point that I was about to have an OBE. What I didn't realize was that I was already having one. The whole experience up to this point, not including the subjective dream state, had lasted only a matter of 10 or 15 seconds.

As my awareness and understanding of what was happening increased, I also noticed a couple of other things that were happening along with the sound in my ears, which I somehow knew was a sound inside my head and not coming from an external, physical, source. The first thing I became aware of was that my head and neck but more specifically my jaw was completely paralyzed but more than that, they felt held in place by some unknown force. Even when I didn't try to move, it felt like there was some force surrounding them to keep them rigid. The second thing i slowly became aware of was that my perception, in relation to my body, was displaced. My physical body was laying on my side facing south but it felt like I was about 6 inches north of that position in the same bodily position. I could clearly see the room in front of me, that is facing south toward my bedroom wall and bedside table. I can't recall how clear the sight was but I knew what I was seeing and at the same time I instinctively knew that my physical eyes were still shut.

At this point I was a little wary of the situation and the rigidity of my jaw was concerning me to an even greater degree but without consciously thinking it, I wanted to try and see what would happen if I went with the flow of things. I began to focus on the sound in my ears but from a feeling point of view rather than audio, I could feel the strong fizzing almost electric feeling of the "sound". I started to attempt pushing this feeling from my head down through my body but quickly grew fearful of the unknown and unfamiliar feelings and situation that was happening so fast. Without much effort I tried to open my physical eyes just like i had done many times when  I had a bad dream. I was immediately back in my physical body opening my eyes, looking at the same wall I was just a moment ago but with my physical eyes. There was no sense of movement or loss of consciousness; I was just astral one moment and physical the next. I made the connection more real by moving my body and my right arm to reach over and touch my partner laying in bed beside me.

One interesting thing I realize as I write this, is that while I was fully astral at the time I had woken from the dream, I still had full awareness of my physical body as well. It was like there were two applications running on the computer but only one had my full focus but both were still running at the same time without any interruption.

EDIT: As per what I said in my "Intro" post in the other forum, I have been making use of "affirmation" and "prayer" techniques to convince my subconscious that I am wanting to have OBEs. One other thing, which may have led to this experience, was another technique I had read about where you spend the day asking yourself "Am I dreaming? If not, how can I tell?". I didn't do this all that regularly at specific intervals as the author of the technique recommends but I would have done it at least 10 times during the day leading up to this experience. So it's possible that while I was dreaming and at that point when things started to not make sense logically that my "Am I dreaming?" question came to the front of my awareness and triggered me to realise I was infact dreaming. As this is just the first, of what I hope to be many, experiences; I can't say for sure.

Sounds very interesting and I have to be honest that I am a little jealous of your natural ability to do this. Based on your description of the previous events, these sounds like a "Clairvoyant" ability rather than a projection of the astral form. You think of a place or thing and then you can immediately "remote view" the place but have limited movement. I'm not saying it isn't still amazing and wonderful because it truly is a gift to be cherished! Just trying to put a "label" (hehe) to what is happening so that you might be able to explore the subject of "clairvoyancey" as it relates to OBEs.

Heyas All,

I am posting here to introduce myself and give a bit of background before I start posting about my experiences in the other sections of this forum.

When I was young (like 5 years old, or there abouts) I had many "strange" experiences. Unfortunately a lot of the details of those experiences have been lost over time. There are definitely some out of body and other "deep mind" memories I have but as I say.. the details are lost to me at this time. I remember one dream-like experience when I was very young that had me floating around my room; other experiences of being awake and seeing but without actually opening my eyes and experiences of being in "other" places and dimensions but rather than "seeing" those things, it was more of a "sensing" thing. For example, there is this memory of not so much "Falling" as moving downward through a tunnel of strobing lights where the space around me would continually get smaller and smaller but I would never reach the end; this is my mind is what I consider a "deep mind" experience.. not sure how else to describe it. I know that it sounds like a dream but these days I know the difference between dreams, lucid dreams, OBE's and "deep mind" experiences.

I had a pretty standard childhood from my perspective. I had friends in the neighbourhood; fought with my siblings; got in trouble for doing things I wasn't supposed to do and all the normal and regular things that happen. All of the "childhood" experiences I had were not by choice and just happened on their own. Once I reached the ripe old age of 13 (haha) I started to explore spirituality and the occult in general. Starting with mainstream Wicca and Shamanism I couldn't get enough information to satisfy my curiousity and intelligence. I read a lot of books including ones on topic of many well established religions not just ones that pertained to the esoteric.

It was during these few years that I read a book called "Journeys Out of the Body" by Robert A Monroe. By that time I had already a reasonable understanding of different layers of perception and the "astral plane" had come up, in many different forms and names, in many of the books I had read. Reading his book made me feel that it was possible that I too might be able to experience these things for myself. Even then, I remembered my childhood experiences and made the connection to them at that point also. I tried to have OBEs at around that time and had multiple partial successes but I could never truly let go of my fears and insecurities about the weirdness and disorientation of the experiences.

I discussed the experiences and topic with other people around me at the time who were into the same kinds of things I was and the one thing that really stood out as to why I should not be doing it was that I was using recreational drugs regularly. On one hand, how could I trust that the experiences were really happening or not just a drug related experience and on the other hand, I felt impure and guilty about the drug use and felt that it put me in the wrong frame of mind to have "positive" OB experiences rather than guilt ridden, impure experiences.

It's been almost 20 years since that time, and over a decade since I stopped using recreational drugs, and I have just now started to reading about OBEs again. I am of a completely different mindset these days and more grounded than I was back then. It's less about the "magick" and more about the experience now. I want to explore the greater truth and gain insights into the omniverse that I exist in, on all levels.

Last night I had my first genuine experience since trying again, which I will go into detail about in another post, and so I decided that I should find an active forum to share my experiences and get assistance with my journey. I've written out the experience, including the dream state that it began from, on my iPod to make sure I remember all the details as a dream diary kind of thing and will continue to record my experiences as they happen.

I have been using "affirmations" to convince my subconscious of my desire to have OBEs as well as "prayer" techniquies to my higher and inner selves for the same reason. I have only been doing that for a few days and already I have had my "first" experience. Even though I've had experiences in the past, during early childhood and teenage years, I am recording this one as my first.