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It is as real as anything else you can experience. 

By the way, before anyone suggests that we only experience this because we have read the details elsewhere, and that is why it all happens for people, I started having this happen to me when I was very little, and had not heard or read anything about any of it. In fact I spent the first 7-10 years of my experiences to myself thinking that either everyone else had this sort of stuff happen to them, and just did not talk about it, or that I was nuts- or a combination of the two.  So, I was not copying anything I had read about. I had to work through it totally on my own.   

When this experience was actually happening, it was very intense.  It has now faded, and some memories with it.  When it started, I had an extreme feeling that I was paralyzed.  It was not the sort of paralysis associated with SP. It felt like even my non-physical body was paralyzed. I remember thinking right after it all subsided that it felt as if my nervous system had been torn out of me from the inside.  It seems odd to say that now, but at the time it is what I had thought of.  Not that there was any pain with this, but just a lack of any sensation that I could move in any way, at least not above my waist.

I tried to kick my legs out and away and eventually was able to separate.  I drifted out and up, screaming for help.  I was either paralyzed, or dead, and someone had to help me.  Eventually, I felt the presence of at least three entities. One held on to my shoulders from behind, while the other two worked on my two arms from in front, or just to my side. The main entity while holding me by the shoulders was trying to calm me down, telling me that I was just fine.  They all worked on me for a few minutes, and then I found myself waking up, but not really waking up it seemed.  I woke up and found that I still felt I could not physically move.  So I tried to make some sort of noise to get attention so whoever was there could help me.  I remember trying to get one arm to knock the headboard of the bed.  And then I woke up again, finding myself in the same position as before, still unable to move. 

I ran through what had been happening, and decided to try to move over onto my back. If I could do that, I could prove to myself I was really awake, and that I was not paralyzed anymore.  I tried to move to my back, and found myself waking up a third time.  What the heck is this? Every time I wake up, I think I am awake, but I end up having to wake up yet again. I ran through any number of tests and determined I must be awake.  I tried to move again, and you guessed it. I woke up yet again.  This time it turned out I was really awake, but even still, I laid there for quite some time before I tried to move. My arms felt extremely fatigued.  And what if I tried to move them and could not? 

I eventually went over to my back, and noticed the clock. It seemed like 45 minutes or so had elapsed since I had seen the clock.  I felt totally wiped out, and still was not moving my arms much.  I felt very heavy.  The rest of the night was uneventful, and now I am not sure what any of this means.  The multiple false awakenings are interesting. I have had them before, but I do not think I have had that many layers to come back through.  I remember thinking during the experience that I had to post this one because it was so different feeling than anything I have had happen before.  And I was worried that if I was really paralyzed I would not be able to type it, and would have to tell someone else to post it.  It is funny what you think of at certain times. 

Practice.  The transition is an experience, nothing more.  The more you do it the less 'shocked' your conscious awareness is and the quicker it goes, until it becomes barely noticeable.  That's why most projectors stop having symptoms such as vibes and such after some time.
So, to make it not be so traumatic, do it a lot.  I'm sure this applies to many things in life.

One thing I want to mention- I have been having OOBE since I was a kid. And while becoming aware of SP, I was usually completely freaked out- And then that was followed closely by the vibrations everyone speaks of. . . I just want to put out there that for me, I learned to bypass the awareness of SP- or at least I can go past it so fast that I do not dwell on it most times.  But, I think the vibrations are still a necessary part of the OOBE for me.  If I do not pay attention to how they start, and get them to a particular level, I do not have a successful projection.  And if I return to my body after one trip, I usually will try to rev the vibrations up again and do a second projection, and maybe a third.  Sometimes, those later experiences can be the best of the cluster.  If the vibrations fade too much for me, I go nowhere and usually turn over and go to sleep. 

I would say it was complete nothingness as though the only thing there was my awareness and the suction feeling. Like being nowhere at all.

samara, I know the feeling.  I have had what you describe happen at odd times most of my life- like the essence of my being is being drained out of me.  I am not sure how it is related- but it must be. Even for me, it still scares me and I got over fear of SP and OOBE long ago. 

I missed this somehow...excitement I guess!   Well, here I am...finally.  I've been peeking for awhile now trying to understand all that happens to me.   I understand some people have trouble having OBE's and most of my life I wished I couldn't.   I've learned this is what was meant for me and I hope to learn a lot more.  I also hope to contribute in a positive way.   Peace, love, and light!  Q:)

Hi Quiet Dreamer
I also have had this gift for most of my life, and I also spent quite a few years wishing I could get it to stop.  As a teenager, I finally got past that. Now as a somewhere past middle aged person, I wish they would happen even more frequently.  Oh well- the OOBEs  I have are still nice. 

What made you finally decide to do it? i know nothing can harm me but its just how overwhelming everything is and if you do come across a demon the image is still disturbing.

Why did I do it? I did not feel like I had a choice.  Whatever this was had been tormenting me (if you read the earlier selections of blog) for years. I just came to the conclusion that if I did not face whatever was causing the sleep disturbances I was having, that I might go insane. I felt like it was a threat.  It turned out that my "guide" if that is what it really is, had been trying to get my attention. When I ignored it, or tried to stop the experiences, it just tried harder to break through.  Like I said, 'he' was genuinely pleased that I finally acknowledged that 'he' was there, and even more pleased that I was "sitting" there waiting for it to show itself. 
As for demons?  I have never seen one. I may be scared at times, but most of the time now, and since this experience, I have had confidence that nothing bad could happen.  It does not mean I have not been scared at times, but these are few and far between and usually because I rush into the experience, or am not ready for it when it happens.   

What was your(or anyone's) first projection like? i'm planning on projecting today, i feel ready. Any tips on staying calm?

                       
                             
                   

Well, I have a blog out there if you want to see. It covers my progress from a very early stage beginning with SP. This one here was a breakthrough where I met my main guide, I guess you cold say.

http://otherrealityblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/confrontation.html

Tips to stay calm? Well, not really. You will have to see it and react.  But, remember that as real as it may seem, there is nothing that can really hurt you physically.  That has been my experience anyway. 

I remember reading this one story about a guy that astral projected when he was like 5 and got lost. Some elders found him and locked his astral abilities. Anyway, when you are separating from the body what do you see???not when you are separated but after the vibrations and you start lifting and stuff.

If you ran into the elders at that age, I am sure you would be freaked out enough to lock your own abilities.  But, as intimidating as they may be at any age, they are on your side.

In the beginning seeing what was around me seemed to be important.  But it is not so much now. Like others, I did see what seemed to be a view of my room, but some details were not as they really were- I would see a digital clock in place of my regular analog dial one- things like that.  At times, I seemed to be someplace entirely different.  At times, I lifted out and watched first my bed, and then the room, and then the house and city etc all recede from my view.  At some point, I would turn, or would be turned if I was being brought away- in the direction I was traveling.  Usually, the turning did not happen until I was nearing my destination.  Sometimes I can see through the entire trip. At other times I do not see anything until I arrive at my chosen destination. 

Are things clearer?  At times the places I go seem more real than this life.  It is like there is sharpness to the detail- or like you can see the object and its essence at the same time, instead of just the object as we do in everyday life.  One thing I remember thinking early on was that it felt so natural to be in that state that it felt familiar to me, and I could not believe that I had fought against the experiences starting as I had for many years. 

hey tl, have you gone to any temples or met up with any teachers? what would you say happens in a normal projection? Is it possible to receive attunements in the astral?

also, what is the most important thing to have, in order to project? would you say the ability to focus? I'm thinking that if you have less than honorable intentions when you project, u'll be shot right out into reality. What do you think?

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the one time that I did project, I thought to myself, wow everything is so clear. I then looked into the mirror and my face was really distorted, chewing gum, and I had an afro. My clarity was fading as I went outside so I asked my higher self to bring me clarity. It never works. Also the mirror wasn't actually in the same place as reality. is this a lower form of projection?

I am not TL, but I remember at least once being at a temple-like setting.  Not a temple as a college or other place of learning with temple-like atmosphere.  The elders, or whoever they were- were very intimidating to me at the time, but I was nervosa for no real reason. They seemed pleased with me, at least right then.  There are other times I have met with similar beings when I felt they were not as pleased.   

I want to astral project so badly but i just can't get over the fear of the unknown and how it's going to feel, i just can't grasp the idea. Any help/tips would help a lot.

Fear is a powerful thing to deal with, but it is only like that because you give it that power. Yet, you would not jump into a swimming pool and expect to swim if you did not know how to swim, and were afraid of the water.  So, start slow.  Get to the vibrations, and learn to move them around and change them in your own experiences.  Still afraid to jump out of body?  Then just reach out one hand.  Get used to that, and then reach out the other, or kick your legs out.  Get used to it n a way that makes sense to you. Reading what others have to say will not tell you what you will have to do to deal with the sensations and any related fear. 

She was heavily into a science related major in college, and is now a professor somewhere out there. Even back then though, you had to be able to prove something to her in a way that would not go against her training.  This sort of dream freaked he out a bit.

When I was married long ago, my wife had a dream that she could not deal with, and went way beyond her scientific training.  Here is how I described it at the time.
 
"She did have one odd dream when I knew her. It was totally of
circumstances that made no sense to her at the time.  In fact, she had
not told me about this dream- odd as it seemed- until she started seeing
certain parts of it happening in real life.  Long story short, it
involved a car crash that we were in. But she could not resolve the
circumstances of the crash. We were with people she did not know at the
time, on a road we seldom drove- and we were not driving.  We were
getting a ride from people I knew, but she had not met yet.  Anyway,
somewhere in the night she realized her dream was starting to happen. She totally freaked
out and made us drive instead of getting a ride from my friends- so we
would not be in the circumstance she had dreamed.  Even so, we did
find ourselves on that same road on the trip going home.  And although
we made it home in one piece, it was not without a close call.  Someone
came close to hitting us, pulling out into traffic after not coming to a
full stop from a side road.  Maybe my friend would not have seen this
car if he had been driving.  Maybe her having told me about it just made me extra
alert to people doing odd things. . ."

I did make a trip to that hospital a couple of years ago.  I had no way to know exactly if it was as I had seen it, but it had a similar feel to it as my experience.  It all happened a long time ago though, and I did not have the sketch anymore, only feelings- almost like déjà vu.  Too bad the wife was not into it to check the sketch at the time. And for whatever reason, at the time, I never thought to try to go to the hospital to see for myself. I guess when she refused to talk about it anymore; I took that as verification enough.   

Here is another older experience of mine, where I may have entered a dream of someone else.

I was looking for a friend of mine once while OOB. I could not find him so I tried to find his wife to see if she could direct me to him.  I flew off and eventually I went into a building where I found my friend's wife. The building appeared to be a hospital. I knew she was a nurse, so this did not surprise me.  She was behind a counter talking to another woman.  She was surprised to see me there. Shortly after I started talking to her, I heard a dog barking and the experience ended. As I was leaving I asked for some sort of proof of where I had been. I heard a woman's name spoken to me.  I assumed I had seen my friend's wife while she was working. When I mentioned the experience to my friend the next day he said his wife had not worked that night, but he would mention the experience to her.  It turns out this night, she had had a dream that she was at work in the hospital talking to her supervisor, a woman with the same name as the name I heard a I ended my experience.  I had drawn a sketch of the layout of the hospital to show my friends wife. She took one look at it and told him she never wanted to talk about this again. 

I had this experience and submitted to Alt-Out-of Body Nov 1998

I was visiting family about 200 miles from where I was living and working at the time.  I had just
decided I did not want to watch Saturday Night Live . . . so the time locally
was just after 11:30 PM.  I lay down and was listening to the TV I could
still hear in the next room. Vibrations started. . . I could still hear
Saturday Night Live.  I separated and decided to try and visit a friend back
in the town I was currently living.  I concentrated on this person.  I could
not see anything, but I felt as if I was moving.  Finally I stopped. I still
could not see.  Then I heard a voice call out my name.  I could not see, but
I heard the voice repeat my name.  Then the voice was more agitated and said
"Who is that. ?  Richard is that you?" Then I saw brightness.  The
experience ended.  I could still hear the TV in the next room.  Only a few
minutes had elapsed. 

I did not think much more about the experience until
the next afternoon when I got back home.  My roommate greeted me at the
door very excited and nervous.  The first words out of his mouth were that
he had seen a ghost in the house the night before.  I asked him to describe
what he had seen.  He said that a bit past 11:30 the night before he had
gotten up to get a drink of water. Walking into the kitchen he thought he
saw someone who had just come in through the sliding door near the kitchen.
He said at first glance he thought it was me . . . that maybe I had come home
early, so he called out my name.  Before this I thought it was just
something he had imagined.  But when he said he thought he had seen me and
called out my name, I began to think otherwise.  He went on to say that
whoever it was did not say anything, so he repeated my name, and then said
"who is there?"  When he got no answer, he said he turned on the light.
When he turned on the light, whatever he thought he had seen vanished.
So . . . to me it seems I was there.  What I heard in my experience is what
he relayed to me he had said.  I did not prompt him for this experience.  He
was still so freaked out the next afternoon that he just had to tell
someone else.  It was dark.  He turned on the light. What he had seen then
vanished.  When I saw brightness, my own experience ended.   He thought he
had seen me.  The day and time match.  While he was not my target, the
person I was trying to get to was a friend of the person I was trying to get to at the time.

Onemansjourney
It sounds more OOBE like than lucid dreamlike- but I agree that sometimes it is a fine line between when one starts to go into more dreamlike situations.  Some of the places you go do not seem real compared to how you think they should be. That does not mean it is a dream- Sometimes things are just different.  And the reason you could not go to Mars? It sounds like you just may not be ready for that kind of a jump. To illustrate, from your experience, you said you went up the stairs and walked through your door. You are still thinking too solidly.  You do not have to walk anywhere in an OOBE,or worry about going throgh doors. As you found out, you can just think it to make it so.  That is the kind of mindset you need to go otherworldly places.  Do not think in terms of physical limits.  If you really want to go to Mars, you can.
I would be curious if you told your friend about your experience.  In my past, when I tried to go to a friend who was also trying to go OOB, we had some interesting similarities on nights one of us was successful in getting out.  The absolute details may have varied, but the feeling of the experience was there. As example, I had an OOBE once that I was showing him how to shine energy out of my hand up into the trees.  He reported to me that he had had a dream that we were in a park near his home, and we were shining flashlights into the trees. 

astrowytch- That is another thing for me anyway and a few I have known over the years- This experience is so hard to take sometimes because it does seem more real than this physical world. That makes the fear even harder to deal with. The threat you feel feels like a real threat. You still have to face your own fear, but I can say that is all my experiences, however real they feel and how threatened I felt, nothing bad ever happened in real life. It was all left out there, wherever that is. . .

Hello astrowytch

Everything you mention is completely normal, even the fear.  You can read about this experience, and determine you want to do it, but when it comes down to actually doing it, you are always faced with the fear of the unknown. It is how you deal with the fear that determines your success.  When you think of it, fear is the most reasonable thing to expect.  That part of your mind that is in control of your physical life does not want to give up that control.  One way it tries to ensure that loss of control never happens, is to make sure that you fear doing this thing more than your desire to do it. That way, it wins, and it maintains its control. It is one of the more difficult hurdles to becoming able to project. 
How do you overcome the fear?  For each one that will no doubt be different.  I overcame my fear by direct confrontation.  I got tired of the almost continuous spontaneous bouts of SP along with the whooshing noises (and worse) and all sorts of bad sensations that literally made me fear I was losing my mind. You see, I did not ask for this ability.  It just started happening to me as a small child.  So, once I felt an "Ah Hah!" moment during the SP episodes, and I sat up in bed to confront the thing causing all this torment.  And guess what?  It came, and it was happy that I was aware of it enough to be sitting there waiting for it.  "It" took me away, and explained quite a lot to me. Before you ask- No, I do not remember much of that. The entity told me I was not to remember until a certain time in the future- which has not happened yet, sorry to say.  But the thing is, once I had this experience, the bad part of the SP stopped happening, and the vibrations became easier to deal with.
More details of this and other experiences in my life are in my blog.  This one has the heading "Confrontation". 
Good Luck!!   

It did have the awareness "feel" that an OOBE would have had. 

I had a dream last night that I was flying with eagles out over a forest
along the coast somewhere.  I could feel the wind.  I could see the ocean in
the distance.  There were two large birds with me.  ( It would be funny if
we were actually vultures. . . but that is not how I viewed it at the time)
I was totally aware of being there. . . It did not occur to me at the time
that it was a dream.  It did not seem odd that I was there. No feeling of
trying to escape, just a joy of feeling free to fly.  I did not think of it
as an OOBE. No OOB sensations preceded it.  I just was soaring with a few
friends until it just faded away. It left me feeling very much at peace.

Thank you astralmugee for answering. Your experience sounds very extraordinary, especially because it lasted at least 30 minutes. Mine only last 3 seconds at the most. I don't think it is a visualisation, because they are started with the intention of seeing something in particular. My images just happen out of the blue, while I am trying to fall asleep. They are in the hypnagogic state, but then with the full 3 dimensional feel and sight and the sensing of the atmosphere that goes with the image. I also get the normal hypnagogic images, they are more like watching a film, not at all the feeling that you are right there. I have had 3 of these 3-D experiences now since December 2008, that is when I started to get more interested in obe's and lucid dreaming. 

Timandra
You know, if your experience, brief as it was, was not an OOBE but some other precursor- you are bound to have some very intense OOBEs when it does happen.  The description of your experience lacks a few key indicators of OOBEs. But, hey- Who is to say? It could just be a different type of OOBE than most are commonly having.   

Hello everyone,

My name is Timandra, and I am from the Netherlands. I look forward to exchanging experiences, ideas, questions. I have had a few AP's, but never induced, and several other experiences that have to do with obe's. I read as much as I can about obe's and lucid dreaming and find it so interesting and intriquing. And I love to read other people's experiences. Greetings from the Netherlands,
Timandra

Hello Timandra

I have not had much luck inducing an OOBE either. In fact, I spent the first number of years trying to fight my way out of having the experiences.  I wish I had that time back sometimes, since the experiences come rather few and far between now a days. I have written them up in blog form. See the blog in my signature. . .

I started on my AP journey 4 months ago and I have had a dozen or so consciously induced OBEs however the funny part is that I can have an OBE one night with a specific technique and then the very next night try the same thing and have no OBE.

This is true for me also. If I try to have an OOBE, sometimes a certain thing I try works. The next time, nothing happens. I always figured that meant that no matter what technique I tried, the only way I would have an OOBE is if it was going to happen on its own.  If I try and it happens, I have success. If I try and it does not happen, it is not a failure- it is just not meant to happen at that point.  Sometimes I do not even try, and it happens anyway.

OK so last night I laid down to go to sleep and the vibrations started almost immediately, which is a bit strange for me as I usually have to relax a bit more, and they started in my head instead of feet. I was able to get them to move to my shoulders then they just quit. This is the second time this has happened, starting in my head, how do I get them to move down through my whole body, and why do they start in my head?

I am no vibration expert but I would say it is better to have the vibrations start in the head. If nothing more, if the higher chakras are involved- the higher up they start the better. I know mine usually start in my head.  Initially, I would try to move them around my body- At the time it was just for practice, and to get used to the sensations. But, totally without knowing anything about chakras at the time, I think was unknowingly activating my chakras by doing this. Then one night, when vibrations started, I pushed them to my toes, and back to my head, and back to my feet numerous times- with the intensity building at every cycle.  Eventually, the power built up to a point I could not take it anymore, and it burst out of the top of my head.  Now- I am not saying that should be a goal. At the time I did it quite by accident, and had no idea what it might have meant.  Quite a few years later, I had a friend who was into meditation tell me it sounded like an experience of kundilini rising. I am still not sure if that was it, or even totally what that means. But, I think it has to do with activation of the various chakras.  Info on kundilini rising is here-   http://www.dharma-haven.org/oas/kundrise.htm  but, it is usually something people try to do with training.  Anyway- it only happened the one time.  If you experiment with pushing the vibrations from head to toe, you may have this happen too. But, if I had a choice as to which area was better to start the vibrations- head or feet, I would choose the head every time.  

Can i ask what your goal is? What/where is "someplace else"?
No worries if you choose to keep it to yourself..

Peace,
Newmethod

I guess a place would work if you have a strong emotional tie to it, but for me, it has always been easier to have good expereinces if my goal was a person with whom I shared a strong tie of some kind.  I would put all of my focus on that person, and the whole OOBE would take care if itself.