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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33261483/ns/technology_and_science-science/

I've been trying to astral project on a regular basis again now that I'm home from school, and no longer have school-related distractions to deal with. However, I haven't even succeeded in reaching the vibrational stage again. I think that my sudden focus and frustration has caused me to dream about projecting. Two days ago, I had the following experience sometime between 6AM and 2PM, after falling asleep:

I vaguely remember feeling like I was leaving my body, and I have a clear memory of passing through a closed door. I ended up on the first floor of my house, floating slightly above the floor through the rooms. I passed my mother, who was sitting at the kitchen table, and my dad, who was in the living room. I did this about three times, and I recall my dad making some sort of gesture, either a wink or a smile, as if he could see me. I found myself outside my house later, and it looked drastically different from the way it looks in real life. IRL, it's two stories tall, painted gray, white, and dark blue, and obviously quite old, due to the distinctive architecture. I saw what looked like the back of a single-story white duplex or ranch house, with no doors. I continued walking down the street, and none of the houses looked like they normally did: they were all smaller and painted in bright, obnoxious colors. The rest of the events were very fuzzy, involving people I did not know, in a surreal environment. I can't remember the details.

I've read on the forum that there are guides that instruct how to astral project from a dream instead of a waking state, and I'm still confused as to whether or not I did so. I've had other "dreams" like this before, that started out in a familiar environment (e.g. my bedroom in my house), but continued into a very strange, dream-like environment. Based on what I've described, have I started to project while asleep, only to fall back into a dream? Or was I dreaming all along?

I'm sorry, guys (esp. zareste).  I'm not trying to challenge anyone or disprove anything. I was just a little disconcerted by the article, as I tend to get if someone/something tells me that something I put effort into is wrong, or at least misunderstood. I was only looking for advice on how to take this sort of information, or if anyone could give good reason as to why the article might be a little less than valid (which CFTraveler did; thank you).

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-life-after-death.htm

I apologize if this has been posted before. Does anyone have any thoughts, comments, or experiences relating to this information?

In regards to your guide, I have a question. I have been using almost the exact same technique as you, but have never gotten past the vibrational stage, if I'm lucky enough to get there at all. I have a lot of trouble relaxing my chest and face, since I'm constantly aware of my lungs expanding and contracting, as well as my breath coming in and out through my nose. Do you have any advice on these areas?

I suppose if continuing to learn astral projection means putting up with the occasional freaky invisible thing perched on my chest, I can grin and bear it.

However, while I -do- experience a sort of paralysis during AP attempts, it is quite different from the sort of thing I described in my first post. When I get very, very relaxed, I get the sensation that my body has become very heavy, and is sinking into the bed. Unfortunately, it is -very- easy to ruin all my hard work by twitching an itchy foot, or moving an arm that's in an uncomfortable position. Then the sensation goes away completely, and I have to start all over again.

The randomly occurring paralysis that I sometimes wake up to is totally involuntary, uncontrollable, and impossible to snap out of until my brain reaches fully waking consciousness. The weight I feel does not come from within, as if my body is becoming denser, but comes from the sensation of something crushing me from above. It's what is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

I don't mean to be overly repetitive or argumentative. I'm just trying to make sure we are referring to the same thing by the same term; I have categorized these experiences as two separate kinds of events, so you can imagine how unusual it seems to me for something that I thought was totally unrelated to AP to actually have something important to do with it.

When you experience sleep paralysis, can you simply not move, or do you also feel as if something is on your chest, pressing down on you? 

I never connected sleep paralysis with astral projection at all, actually. It's always been a totally random event for me, never connected with any of my conscious astral projection attempts. In fact, I think it started before I'd started reading about astral projection. I've known people who've experienced sleep paralysis and have never heard of AP. I did a little online research, and it seems like nearly every culture in the world has its own name and folk legends associated with sleep paralysis, while I think it's safe to assume that astral projection isn't quite as well known among the masses (at least, that's what I judge from personal experience). One thing I have noticed is that I only experience this when I'm sleeping on my back. I suppose I could stop it on my own by switching to my side, but I find sleeping on my side rather uncomfortable, so I was looking for alternative solutions.

What little experience I do have with astral projection is rather limited, though. I have, on a handful of occasions, while following the basic tips of lying on one's back, relaxing completely, focusing inward, etc, entered the vibrational phase. However, it took what felt like over an hour's worth of concentration to achieve this, so much that I thought to myself "Well, I've proved that I can get this far, but I'm tired, so this is as far as I'll go tonight." Of course, I could kick myself now for not taking the opportunity to go further. It can also be somewhat discouraging for me, since I can't count how many times I've tried astral projecting that way, only to end with me falling asleep, exhausted, due to trying not to move in spite of being hyper-aware of everything in my concentration to stay awake.

I do admit, though, that I have a certain fear of the unknown which could further hinder my attempts. I once entered the mind awake/body asleep faze totally by accident during a nap in the middle of the day (funny how I got the furthest I've ever been without really trying)! I had my right arm covering my eyes, with the bridge of my nose nestled in the crook of my elbow, which probably sounds bizarre, but it's just another way that I block out light so I can sleep. A tiny speck of light was visible though, through a small gap between my inner elbow and my nose, and I distinctly remember watching it as I felt myself slowly rising up out of my body, through my own arm! It was really weird. I didn't feel any vibrations at all this time. I was excited and really wanted to totally leave my body, but I heard weird sounds and noises that scared me, so back I went.

Erm, I'm afraid I might have strayed a bit off topic, but I hope this helps give you a good idea of my background in the subject.

Well, both, if possible. It's quite unpleasant, and I can't see anything very productive in letting them continue.

I have a question regarding how to reduce the occurrence of this phenomenon, if anyone has managed to do that. I occasionally suffer from what I like to call "uneventful" sleep paralysis, during which I reach semi-waking consciousness and find that I cannot move. For some reason, I always forget that this has happened before and I panic, and try thrashing my shoulders in an attempt to roll over, but of course, that only leads to more stress because I still cannot move. Eventually, I do snap out of it and fully wake up, and give my upper body a few good twitches just to make sure. This only happens a few times a year, so while not a problem per say, it can be rather bothersome.

Over the last year or two, I've been noticing that the more frightening form, wherein you feel the "hag" on top of you, has been occurring more often. A few nights ago, I awoke in the wee hours of the morning unable to move, with the feeling of some small creature walking onto my chest. Like every other time I've experienced this, I'd been sleeping on my back, with my blankets covering my face and head, which I do to conserve warmth and keep out any light that might prevent me from sleeping. Because of this, I wake up seeing the underside of my blanket, but can't see the thing I feel on top of me. This time, I could actually hear the thing panting, and I vaguely remember hearing a scratching sound, like that of a dog scratching its ear with its hind leg. Obviously, given that description, it sounds like I was being accosted by a chihuahua, which is hardly terrifying, but seeing as I can never remember that the situation has happened to me before and that it isn't "real," it is always quite stressful and disturbing.

Can anyone offer any advice? Also, I apologize if this is in the wrong section; I thought this fit under the category of "dreams" more than anything else.

Thank you for your response, MustardSeed. By "similar conversations," do you mean you've discussed OBEs with Hindus and Buddhists, or tried to convince such people that they were not really Hindu/Buddhist? 

[warning]

Greetings, all!

This is my first post, although I have lurked off-and-on throughout the past couple of years. I've recently found myself in a bit of a quandary; warning, this is not a short post:

I finally got around to joining lucidipedia.com after procrastinating for time. I already had some experiences with lucid dreaming, so I thought of it as a good stepping stone into the realm of OBE and phasing (along with being interesting on its own), which I had read about on a number of different forums, but never fully accomplished. The gentleman who runs lucidipedia, Tim Post, stated in his introductory pages that he will make frequent references to research by the Lucidity Institute, which I see has been mentioned a few times on the Astral Pulse forums. I visited the website, and under the section "LUCID DREAMING LITERATURE," the 9th chapter from the institute's book, entitled "Dreaming, Illusion, and Reality" caught my eye (that being the title of the -chapter-, btw, not the book). The selection contained some rather unsettling conclusions about the nature of OBE that I had already held to. Here's the link, for those of you willing to read the whole thing: http://www.lucidity.com/LD9DIR.html

Obviously, that's a lot to read, so for those looking for the gist of it, I'll try summarizing the main points. Essentially, the claim is that lucid dreaming is actually a "higher" state than having an out-of-body experience, because those people are so convinced that they are not merely dreaming, when their experiences contain elements commonly found in regular dreams. Two of the main examples given are that of a man whom, after going OBE in his bedroom and observing his "physical" surroundings, looks back to his bed and sees the body of his mother, who had died many years before, rather than his own, as is common. Another was of a different man who blew out a candle in his room during his OBE state, only to wake up the next morning to see that the candle was burned down to the stump, suggesting that his astral manipulations did not affect his physical surroundings, supposedly "proving" that the OBE state is little more than your average dream, and that OBE-ers are rather deluded in their thinking.

Given the many OBE experiences held by the members of this forum, I was hoping somewhat could offer up any insight regarding this. I had very high hopes for my future OBE experiences, and this apparent "debunking" is rather disturbing.