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Kryptonite by Three Doors Down

I took a walk around
the world to ease my troubled mind
I left my body lyin'
somewhere in the sands of time...

This question of mind regarding identity and ego, for me is also a question of how the obe state relates to that which we will encounter after death.

It's interesting to note that most religions and spiritual paths and mystical schools at some point involve the idea of banishing the ego.  The ego is what binds us to this phsyical existence inside of this body we're in.

In this life I'm Rob.  I'm 42 and I have an aging Mom, an old Dad who has passed on, a wife about my age and two kids in elementary school.  I'm a middle-class, white American.  My job is a run-o-the-mill technology job.  And as I pass through this physical existence the role I play, at least consciously, is strongly tied to these characteristics and with regard to my family my ego/identity depends strongly on my parents being old than I and my kids being younger.

But clearly, 100 years from now, when my parents and I and my kids have all passed on then our age relativity need not exist.  i.e. after death my parents will not be perpetually senior citizens, while my wife and I remain in our forties and our children remain children.

And if I have lived other lives (and even if I haven't), then presumably at some point after death, I will shed the identity of "Rob" and recognize my existence as a spirit in a broader scope in which this life was just a chapter, and my current relationships something vastly different than those of son, husband, and father as they appear while in the physical.

So I guess for me, as I progress down this path, I hope to be able to understand who I am when I am not "Rob" and to understand my existence from a more distant perspective.

Kiwibonga,

Thanks for that post.  That is quite interesting in that although I've had obes for a few years I haven't really worked at all on improving my awareness/technique.  Also, aside from a few times when I went from a lucid dream to obe, all of my obes have occurred when I've awakened from a dream in a state where I could then project.  i.e. none from a waking trance state.  Thus my level of lucidity has been similar in all of my obes.

I'll ponder a bit on those thoughts regarding the relationship between my waking mind and that "background mind".  

Kiztenzen,

I guess what you're saying then is that as you practiced and got better at this you were then more in control while obe, so that the difference in your consciousness between your normal waking state and obe state was something you could be aware of.  

I guess in that sense, using kiwibonga's terminology, you are able in the obe state, to see both the contents of that background mind and your conscious mind and reconcile them per se to a higher degree.

Astir,

I don't suggest that all "creatures and entities" are of our own creation, but when I'm honest with myself I have to admit that I (and all humans), in the end, are not psychologically capable of making the distinction.

I haven't scratched the surface in understanding all that my brain does and how it works, but I have a sneaky suspicision that my mind, coupled with my spirit are perfectly capable of making me sense things that aren't there.  I also believe they're capable of sensing things that "are" there, but not detectable by my regular five senses - or by science for that matter.

So, admittedly, I'm incapable on a conscious level of determining whether things incountered in dreams and other altered states of consciousness are seperate from me or not.

However, when trying to make sense of what I see and experience around me, I find Jung's theories very compelling, but less romantic per se, than other theories I've read.

That said, - one thing that's always bothered me in "searching for truth" is that there are tons of different perspectives out there from Jungian pscyhology, to Theosophy/Anthroposophy, scientific viewpoints, biological theories of consciousness, various religious dogma - that all seem to make a certain amount of sense and yet often seem to flatly contradict each other.  But a few days I began reading a book by Samuel Sagan called "Awakening the Third Eye" - and in it he made a point that I found quite refreshing.  He pointed out that in his experience he has found great wisdom from highly enlightened people, whose "schools of thought" or perspective on existence are entirely irreconcilable with each other!

I've contended for a long time that enlightenment has to do with facilitiating an internal spiritual transformation inside oneself as opposed to "knowing the answers" but his comment also seemed to drive home the point for me that even the most spiritually enlightened don't know all of the answers.

I like Andre Gide's (French Nobel-prize winning author around 1900) quote: "Trust the man who is seeking the truth, but beware the man who claims to have found it."

All that to say, - I don't know whether beings that we perceive as external to us really are or not.  : )

I'll offer what is probably a less popular interpretation, - but here goes...

I think that although there are other entities out there, that most of the situations and entities that we encounter are actually of our own creation, - personifications of our own concerns, issues, or fears.

Carl Jung would suggest that characters and situations in our dreams rise up from our unconscious, and that their purpose is to communicate with our conscious selves by symbolicly playing out various psychological/spiritual issues for us.  Jung advocated a technique he called "Active Imagination" which sounds to me like Astral Projection, and he characterized the various entities encountered during Active Imagination as similarly, personifications of things in our pscye.

William Buhlman in "Adventures Beyond the Body" makes a similar point.  At one point he describes encountering an ugly, large rat-like thing, while out-of-body and mentions that rather than running from it he embraced it and tried to emote love towards it.  I forget the exact details, but the just of it was that when he did this he found that this "thing" transformed and he could see that it wasn't an enemy but rather a lesson he had to learn or an issue that he had to face up to.

So, my first assumption would be that this thing you encountered was a personification of some issue you were wrestling with at the time (perhaps even unconsciously), such as lonliness, etc.  If that's the case, and you're in a whole different situation now I don't think you'll encounter that same thing.  And although it's easier said that done, the next time you encounter something that you perceive as evil or scary, if you can – ask it what it is and what it represents.  Maybe it's not something separate from you or outside of you.

Good luck : )

I'm curious to hear others experiences on how much of your identity you seem to retain while out of body.

Most of my obes begin with me projecting to RTZ, and once I'm out of my body I almost always begin with a few common thoughts.  First I almost always think something to the effect of "Good!  I'm out again!"  and after that I usually remember to try to increase my lucidity, and I usually think something like, "What should I do know?" or "Now, what was it I was going to try to do?"

I'm clearly aware that I'm "me" and that I'm out of body again, and I think back to plans I had made in the physical regarding what to do or where to go.  However, it strikes me as very interesting that beyond that, I seem to take very little of my identity with me.  My name, my job, what I did yesterday or will do tomorrow, what day of the week it is, etc. - these things never cross my mind.  Although I might see my wife there in bed, or pass my kids' rooms, they don't enter my thoughts beyond that.

In short, although I am "me", I am pretty darn detached from anything having to do with my normal, physical existence.   It seems that although I am conscious of my existence and am operating based on my "will" I seem to have left most of my ego / identity behind.

So, who exactly am I, when I'm out-of-body?  

Curious to hear others experiences and thoughts on the subject.

A year or so I had a dream where there were a bunch of bees buzzing in/around my head.  I was a little freaked and tried to get the bees away.  I woke up with vibrations that were just going away and realized that the vibrations had manifested themselves in my dream as bees buzzing in my head.  So by trying to get the bees off of me in my dream I was actually getting rid of the vibrations!  By the time I woke up they were faint and receding and I couldn't project.

Then last week in a dream I was going down some steps in the back yard of a home when suddenly there were bees buzzing around my neck.   For a split second I panicked, and then told myself to relax so I wouldn't get stung.  And then - lightbulb - I got lucid and figured out "...wait a minute, these are vibes, not bees..."  At that point I woke up and was able to focus on the vibes a bit and project.

So now I'm hoping that on more occasions when I'm dreaming, that vibes will manifest themselves in my dream either as bees or some other type of buzzing and I'll be able to recognize it, become lucid and obe from there.

Here are my recommendations:

First, I'd recommend asking yourself probing and even painful questions (and attempt to be perfectly honest with yourself in answering them) in order to your shyness, your nature and how they intersect.  Don't just give quick answers - roll the questions around in your mind, meditate on them.  Visualize yourself in a variety of circumstances and try to understand the underlying *why* of what you do?  Continue this self-discovery over time, as you will change in various ways through the process.

Sample questions:

Am I shy in other/all circumstances? Am I shy around people I know real well?  Am I shy when I am alone with someone or only in groups?  Am I shy around women in all environments?  Am I shy around all women - even those I have only a platonic interest in? Have I always been this way?  Does it run in my family? What role does fear play in my shyness? - i.e. am I afraid of rejection/failure when I approach someone? Is my shyness related to worries over what others might think of me? In what ways am I insecure?  What is my own self-image?  What things do I like and dislike about myself?  What things about myself can I change? What are my earliest recollections of my being shy? What influences growing up contributed to my being shy?  

I think the value in this approach is to better understand how much of your shyness is due to your nature and how much is learned behavior.  When you know that you can set realistic expectations regarding what changes can be made without going against your own nature (a certain recipe for unhappiness / angst).

Hopefully, in this process you will uncover a lot of things about yourself that you never really thought of before - some pleasant, some unpleasant.  And hopefully you'll come to accept yourself "warts and all".

Second, - gather some information- books, etc. on shyness and exercises to overcome it (to whatever degree you can given your nature).  

Also, ask friends, parents, etc. that you trust for their opinion.  Perhaps talk to a therapist or get involved in a support group.

Third, when you get a better handle on your shyness and yourself, play to your strengths.  Maybe nightclubs aren't the right place for you to meet women.  Maybe your nature is more suited toward talking to women in an environment that's more conducive to a more gradual approach (such as in a class or something) rather than walking right up to them in a noisy, crowded nightclub where there is no pretext other than hitting on them.

: ) and above all, heed the lesson from the scorpion story:

A scorpion needed to cross a river and asked a frog if he could ride across on his back.  The frog said, "No, if I let you get on my back you might  sting me and then I'll die."

The scorpion responded, "I won't sting you because if I do I will fall in the water and drown."

The frog relented and let the scorpion climb on his back, and began to swim across the water.  Before long the scorpion did sting him.  As paralysis began to set in and the scorpion fell into the water, the frog managed to ask, "Why did you sting me?  Now we are both going to die."

To which the scorpion simply responded, "It's my nature."

Not necessarily.  Typically, once I'm out I realize "I'm out again - Great!" and then I go about doing whatever I do, and it never leaves my mind that I'm out-of-body.

I've never done it with music, but it could be that at certain point - after you've induced a light trance - that the music could be a distraction.  Perhaps if you figured out how long it takes with the music to get into a light trance and then make a CD that only has that many minutes of music on it.

Also, - I've never listened to that Nirvana 2, but are there certain tracks which are more conducive to allowing you to relax into a light trance, and others that might jar you out of it?  If so, then of course, lose the more disruptive ones.

I've often read accounts where people say that while projecting they saw Christ's Crucifixion or some other historical event such as the sinking of the Titanic.

I would argue that while projecting you will encounter a reality similar to other altered states of consciousness such as meditative states, drug-induced trips, religious visions, and even dreams - which is a "reality" of your own creation or at least a hybrid reality that might involve some astral recording of an event that is used as raw material by your mind to recreate the event in a manner that is suitable for your purpose but is not the "true" event.  

I believe that many religious writings such as the various prophecies in the Bible (Ezekiel, John's Revelation, etc.) fall into this category - religious visions or experiences occurring during altered states.  As such they are highly symbolic and I believe, are creations of the individual's true SELF or soul, and as such contain valuable information pertaining to that person's spiritual journey.  The problem comes when they get distributed widely and people begin to believe that the vision is "true" or has some hugely important information that is significant to the future of the entire human race.

There are many "Christian" books out there containing such visions and the authors gather a little following who eagerly await their next vision. But the visions are so symbolic as to be useless for providing spiritual direction to a body of believers.

So my particular take on the "truth" contained in any Astral Projection is that it is not a Universal, historic truth but rather the experience symbolically represents information important to the spiritual development of the individual who experienced it - and not beyond that.  Incidentally, this is the general approach of Jungian dream analysis and books on that subject give a specific process for working with dreams / visions to figure out the meaning, although one would only want to go down that path if they bought into the Jungian concept of "Individuation".  It's also interesting to note that Jung developed a technique that he called "Active Imagination" which appears to be extremely similar, if not the same as, Astral Projection. He described it as a technique for exploring one's unconscious as well as the "Collective Unconscious" for the purpose of bringing about one's Individuation.

Stookie,

When I purchased Theosophy, I put "How to Know Higher Worlds" on hold at the library and I notice it's come in so I'll pick that up today.

Right you are regarding religions tendency to put our focus on things external to us (preacher, Bible, activities) rather than things internal.  This feeds in to our inherent tendency to look for the easy way (sit in church, listen passively) rather than searching inside ourselves (ambiguous, less-structured process) for what Christ called the "narrow path".  

Also, if one sees Theosophy as being not a religion, but the "common truth behind all religions" then religions themselves are doctrinal constructs that spring forth from each cultures innate desire to seek God.  As such they get people on a spiritual path, but also invariably become dogmatic and are succeptible to the politics, powerplays and such that all human organizations fall victim to.  In that regard they serve a useful purpose, but I suppose when each person is ready they jump off the religious treadmill and pursue the less structured, esoteric spiritual path.  And I guess a certain amount of confusion is just part of the process. : )

I wonder if you'd be able to somehow do a "quick exit" the instant you feel the first one of these vibes.  i.e. tell youself ahead of time that the second you feel the first one you're going to immediately roll out of our body.   The fact that you're getting those vibes means that you might be in a state compatible with exiting, so program yourself to do it quickly before your efforts get derailed by the continuing vibrations.  - Just an idea.  Good luck.

Stookie,

Funny you should mention Rudolf Steiner.  I just heard of him (and Theosophy and Anthroposophy) last week and just finished reading "Theosophy" by RS.  Quite high-level so I'm going back now to read it more slowly and pick through the various points.

Personally with Christianity I'm at the "Where do I go from here?" point.  I've been a Christian for 25 years but over the last 10 my faith has gone from a literal one to viewing the New Testament as more or less a metaphor of the process of inner-transformation.  I like the description of "Theosophy" as the commonality or truth behind all religions - but it brings up the question as to whether a religion is needed (as a construct) at all for spiritual growth?

I'd be curious to hear your views on spiritual growth v. religion.

I am a Christian of sorts, and I say "of sorts" because I believe that orthodox Christian dogma has deviated extremely far from Jesus' original teachings.

An orthodox Christian will tell you that AP is "of the devil" or unwise.  This is because, without realizing it, they are ruled by subtle forms of guilt and fear.  They have been taught to "stay in line" with what their religious leaders tell them - come to church, give us your money, accept what we tell you.  In short, - be good little sheep.

However, most religious traditions tend to have a typical "exoteric" message which is for the masses and a hidden, mystical or "esoteric" message which is meant for those who are spiritually ready for the "real truth".  Jesus and Paul both alluded to this in the Bible.  Although the "exoteric" messages of the different religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc.) appear irreconcilable with each other their corresponding esoteric traditions (Esoteric Christianity, Kabballah, Sufiism, etc.) teach a very similar-sounding message.  This is because the exoteric messages are rigid, dogmatic and based on written laws (like the Bible) whereas the esoteric traditions essentially assert that spiritual enlightenment doesn't come from a book but from the Spirit of God.  As Christians we start down this path by looking inward (Jesus said that the "Kingdom of Heaven is within you") and relying on the Holy Spirit for guidance and enlightenment rather than on a literal reading of the Bible.

If you want more information search the web for Esoteric Christianity, Christian Mysticism, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Contemplative Prayer, Gnosticism, etc.  Be prepared to read a lot of things that sound like heresy to the typical Christian.

As this relates to AP, I would suggest that we as beings are physical and spiritual and whether we are experiencing the physical, waking world or the non-physical realms have to do with how and upon what our consciousness is being focused.  When we AP we are not so much "leaving our bodies" as we are focusing our consciousness elsewhere.  We live in a universe in which we are awash in all kinds of energy.  Our typical five senses tune into a teeny-tiny selection of this energy and our brains use that information to create a physical construct which we experience as the physical world.  

When we begin to develop other sensory organs we sample other parts of the energy around us and we tune in, so to speak, to other non-physical realms.  Our brains take this energy and typically put it into a form that makes some sense to us, although it might be a distortion.  Folks on hallucinagenic drugs might see spiritual snakes, insects, aliens, or clowns - but those are just constructs that their brains are forming to make sense of the energy they are experiencing.

So, when we AP we are temporarily focusing our perception/consciousness on energy other than that that makes up our physical bodies and the physical universe. After a little while our consciousness returns to our normal waking mode - i.e. it goes back to taking its sensory input from our normal five senses.  When we die, we no longer have a physical body and physical senses to go back to.  

And also, in my opinion, there is a big difference between death and AP in that we are part of a much larger spiritual plan which calls for us to incarnate many times on our way to spiritual perfection.  When we AP, we get a glimpse into the non-physical realms but we typically are not completely lucid and I personally think that we don't what the heck to make of the energy we experience.  When we die and no longer have physical bodies and sensory organs our spiritual journey continues - we are met by spiritual entities that help us along and orient us to our new environment and we remain there growing and learning until such time (a concept that doesn't quite apply) that we incarnate again.

In this sense there isn't a "here" and a "there" - the entire universe is infinitely vast and also infinitely close to us (thus the concept of non-locality in physics).  So the dead who hang around "here" as ghosts are probably those who energetically will not move on to a more spiritual state - perhaps because they can't "let go" of something in this physical world.

By the way, - for what it's worth I would assert that the 2nd coming of Christ is metaphorical and refers to the process of enlightenment eventually coming to each individual soul (which, when it does will show us that there is no such thing as seperateness and "individuality" - when Christ said "The Father and I are one" and he wants us to be "one with him like he is one with the father" it alludes to the reality that we are all different manifestations of the same consciousness - God - i.e. everything that we experience is simply God, dreaming the dream of creation). : )

I'm not that experienced at this, but interestingly enough the technique you linked to is the exact one that's worked for me the most.  I read a few books and tried the techniques in them, but what ultimately led to my first and several more OBEs was this technique.

That said, here are a few suggestions:

1) Keep trying.  It's not going to work the first time.  Try this technique every night for a month.  I had tried a variety of techniques for several weeks with no result.  The very first time I tried this one I got vibes so strong (after only about a minute) it felt like someone was driving a tractor-trailer through my body - but I didn't end up getting out of my body that time (and I've never got vibes like that again).

2) This technique worked best for me when I did it after waking up in the middle of the night.  I'm a light sleeper so I tend to wake up a few times during the night.  If you wake up during the night, do this technique for ten minutes or so or until you fall back to sleep.  For me, sometimes I got vibes with this technique but more often than not I feel asleep and then awoke again either with vibrations or already out of my body (for example once I awoke and instantly felt as if I was being spun/flipped lengthwise and I ended up on the floor beside my bed out of my body).

3) The times when I was successful with this technique were the times when I really felt a physical falling sensation - like being in an elevator.  Other times I did the technique but didn't feel anything and that led to nothing.

4) This technique seems to bring on the vibrational state AFTER you're already in a trance state or the mind awake/body asleep state.  So, if you're not doing this when you've just awakened, then first do some sort of breathing exercise or something to get into a light trance.  And then after you do this technique - if you're successful and get vibrations then you need to mentally focus on "encouraging" the vibrations to spread throughout your body and then you need to do some sort of exit technique.  On those times when I didn't just pop out of my body I've typically been able to just sit up and step out of my body but you can try rolling out or floating out or whatever.

5) There's nothing magical about this particular technique so try others if this doesn't work.  The mechanics of all techniques are similar: First do some sort of technique to get into a light trance or hypnogogic state, Then do this technique or something similar to loosen the energy body and bring on vibrations, and then do some sort of exit technique to get out.

Good luck.  I also think it helps if you think, read and in other ways focus on your intention to have an OBE.  If you do that for a period of time your intention programs your subconscious to do this.  Also, you might want to explore lucid dreaming at the same time.    : )

One thing to be careful of when caculating statistical chances is that you will invalidate your results if you define your method after the fact.

For example, if your stated goal is to guess what the cards are, including both suit and number, then before you even attempt it you can state that there is a 1/52 chance of correctly identifying the first card and a 1/51 chance of correctly identifying the 2nd card.  Multiply those and you get a 1/2,652 chance of identifying both cards.

However, after the fact if you do not obtain your stated goal and instead redefine your goal you are "moving the goalposts" to fit your results!  If you had stated the objective beforehand to identify the suit of each card properly then your chances would have been 1/16.  

But you can't define your goal after the experiment is over.  If you could then you technically would be successful if you properly identified one as a face card, one not.  And an 8 does look a bit like a three, and well a diamond is the same color as a heart, etc.  

I have tried this experiment before with mixed results, but won't accept my results as verification unless I nail it - number and suit.  Even then, since I'm just using one card I have a 1/52 chance.

That's my take on the statistics of it all.

I read an interesting discussion on-line (if I could remember the location I'd post the link) of a Christian mystic describing his meditative practice that he has followed for 20-some odd years, the spiritual benefit of it and generally what his take is on the ultimate "truth".

His ultimate conclusion regarding the nature of our existence is that everything that we perceive in the universe, including our own existence is merely "God, dreaming the dream of creation" - of course, by "God", he is referring to the unfathomable creative force behind everything.  This philosophy would indicate that we are merely dream characters in God's dream.  

So are we real?  Proponents of "A Course in Miracles" (ACIM) would contend that we are in fact, not real and neither is anything we perceive.  The famous physicist David Bohm, proposed that the entire universe is merely a hologram being projected from something that we can not know (the mind of God, perhaps?).  

Throughout spirituality, science and psychology there are a variety of thought systems that in one way or another suggest that we are not as "real" as we would like to think.

I personally found Astral Dynamics to be overkill for the beginner going for that first OBE.  

I read "Adventures Beyond the Body" by William Buhlman and tried the techniques in there for about three weeks before having that first OBE.  But when I did, the technique that seemed to work for me wasn't even one from the book, but rather one I read on the web.

I think what's more important than which book you read or even what technique you use, is that you immerse yourself in OBE/AP stuff.  Think, read and ponder it day and night.  Read stuff daily, write and speak affirmations, ponder it some more.  Whatever it takes to soften up that psychological resistance the conscious mind seems to have to projecting.  Additionally, pick a routine for relaxing and then getting into a trance state, and do the routine regularly.  That's what worked for me.

After you've succeeded in projecting once or twice, then the more detailed information in Astral Dynamics might prove helpful and interesting (although I've never found it particularly compelling).

Sounds like you were out for a few seconds before being pulled back into your body.  I'm not too experienced at this but typically I find that when I get out in the RTZ (real time zone) I'm not very lucid - vision is hazy and the whole experience becomes very dreamlike fairly quick.  In Buhlman's books he recommends that when you first get out, state forcefully "Clarity Now" and/or "Awareness Now" - multiples times if necessary to become more lucid.  It has worked for me, but it sounds like in your experience it was a bit to early for that - but remember it for next time in case it might come in handy!

Catmeow,

When I was in college I tried skydiving a few times.  On my first time I had a "static line" attached to my rip cord that would automatically open my chute after I had fallen a short distance (about 80' I seem to recall) from the plane.  I was supposed to count slowly to 5 after jumping and then check to see that my chute had opened correctly.

As soon as I left the plane I blacked out and didn't regain consciousness until my chute had already opened.  The instructor, explained later, that this is not that uncommon - that the brain just "checks out".

So, I guess under certain circumstances the brain just decides to "check out a little early".

On several occasions I've recollected an AP upon waking that occurred during a dream.  These APs seem the same as others that didn't involve dreaming, but were they a real AP or just a dream?  Here's an example:

Last night, upon waking, I recollected the following:  I was having a dream about being in a church with my wife and some others.  It was time for bed and I was tired and so I went into a bedroom in the church to sleep.  I was a bit annoyed that my wife, instead of coming with me, chose to stay up with the others.  I drifted off to sleep and the next thing I know I woke to vibrations (was I really having vibrations or dreaming I was having them?) and I sat up and out of my body and floated out to where my wife and several others were having a conversation in the church.  I floated into the middle of their group and they saw something and began freaking out a bit.  I tried to explain that it was just me but they apparently couldn't recognize that it was me and couldn't hear me.  I figured I had better go get back in my body and straighten the situation out with them.  I went back to my body and woke up.

That's all I remember and I don't remember whether I woke up in the dream or for real in my bed.  

So, did I actually AP or just dream of it?  And is it possible to wake up (in real life) and then AP back into a situation you were just dreaming about?

Curious if anyone else has these types of experiences?

Voice,

Interesting about your encounter with your "friends".  Some people will contend that there are all of these entities "out there" that are seperate from us and that some are evil (demons), some nice (angels), etc.  And then on the other hand some philosophies assert that there really is nothing seperate from ourselves, but rather we are all manifestations of the ultimate consciousness and that we perceive ourselves as seperate is just our misperception (or sin).

Carl Jung would suggest that any characters we encounter in our imagination, astral projections, dreams, etc. are just personifications of things that we've repressed in our psyche and that by acknowledging them and making peace with them we are re-integrating our psyche in a journey toward spiritual wholeness that he called Individuation.  Thus as Jesus said, "The kingdom of Heaven is within you." and Frank would assert that when projecting we are not going "out of our bodies" but rather inside, Jung would assert that all of those things we encounter are just projected personifications of parts of ourselves that we're not consciously aware of.

Jung, as a therapeutic technique, advocating something that he called "Active Imagination", which when you read the description sounds exactly like Astral Phasing.  I'm wondering if Frank, or anyone else here, has pondered more thoroughly than I, Jung's Active Imagination visa vie Phasing - are they the same thing?  And if so, then what light does that shed on the "purpose" of Astral Projection? i.e. Jung would probably say that from an evolutionary standpoint, the very reason that we are able to "project" is that it is the soul's way or provision for us to communicate with the collective unconscious and that the purpose is for us to follow the signs that are leading us back into oneness with God (the Universe, everything).

Jung contributed a lot to the body of what is today taught as psychology, such as the psychological ideas of archetypes and personality types, but I think the respectable world of psychology politely ignores the primary focus of his teachings which had to do with the spiritual journey back to our source.  Anyway, - he had a fascinating take on the human spirit and the relationship between psychology, spituality, religion, mythology, occult, etc.  He was big on dream analysis also, and I'm guessing that he would suggest that an astral experience would be the same as a dream for analysis purposes.  He proposed a multi-step process for getting at the symbolic message in our dreams and determining what message they are trying to send us regarding our personal journey of individuation.

Almost,

I recently re-read the whole Chronicles of Narnia to my 8-year-old daughter (and will probably start soon with my 6-year-old) and I my daughter and I really loved that passage and their dilemma regarding whether to ring the bell or not.  The sensible thing of course would be to leave without ringing it, and yet then you are reduced to the role of an observer rather than a participant in the adventure.

Seeing as ringing the bell was really the event that put the plot into action, I liken it to the Biblical account of Eve eating the apple.  Sure, they could have been good little children and just looked at the forbidden fruit forever, but what fun would that have been.  Eating the apple set into motion a great cosmic drama, which is now playing itself out - God's wonderful dream of creation!  And I find it so funny that a typical Christian, who would do the sensible thing and not ring the bell, would be aghast at the assertion that God fully intended for Eve to eat the apple and that rather than being a bad thing (original sin) it was merely God's way of "getting the ball rolling".  Of course I just see the creation story in the Bible as a symbolic representation - not literal - of how we as spiritual beings became seperate from God in the first place, and the Biblical story as being symbolic of God's plan for bringing us back.

Also, much of what C.S. Lewis wrote seemed to me to indicate that he harbored mystical beliefs - out of line with the orthodox Christian environment in which he is typically seen.  The whole idea of the Wood Between the Worlds in the Magician's Nephew even seemed to me to be a possible reference to Astral Projection - the idea that one could somehow leave our physical world and get to a calm, intermediate kind of place from which one could then journey to any one of an infinite number of worlds...

(Remeber, that Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you".)

Also, since we exist within time-space we perceive events as occurring in a particular order.  But suppose every instant - past, current and present were a particular point in the time-space continuum and our true consciousness when outside of time-space is that of God - able to perceive everything as a single, timeless, cohesive whole.  But, while  inside the "box" of time-space, our consciousness is a machine, if you will, that experiences a subset of all the points in time-space (think linked-list here, for you software folks), in a particular order that causes us to perceive that we are an individual entity living out a particular life (physical or otherwise).

In that case, experiencing a snippet of what we perceive as a "past-life", is really simply temporarily adjusting our focus to a point in some other "life" and following that linked-list of points in time-space for a period of time, before returning back to our own "life".  

In our current form we can not fully understand all of creation, so we use our limited senses to come up with palatable metaphors such as the various religions, philosophies, and sciences.  None of them are completely true, but they are essentially scaling the mountain of truth from different locations.  Thus, whether we choose to characterize the scheme of the universe as a religious heirarchy, scientific construct, protocal stack, etc.  - they are all just different ways of using our limited sensory abilities to take a small sip from the ocean of energy that we are awash in, and then to shoehorn it into some type of construct that our brains can handle.  Unfortunately, much of the meaning contained in that swirling mass of energy around us, is lost when we filter it through our senses into a format that our physical brains can understand.  But that's life inside time-space for ya!