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I wasn't making any assumptions about anything. Just asking a simple question.

 

Hi everyone,

Has anyone ever experienced anything like spirit guides or angels when astral projecting?

I have never astral projected so I have no experience with this. I'm just curious if other people have seen or experienced other beings while in the astral plane, and specifically ones that are there to guide or help. I'm just curious if this kind of thing exists.

What are your thoughts?

Gruff, sorry to hear you're having trouble with this as well, due to anxiety. Yes, it does seem the more we want it, the higher the expectations become and this in itself can make it harder to achieve.

I have actually given up trying at this point. I realized that 7 hours a week of concentrated effort on something I continuously failed at was not just frustrating but also a waste of time. I thought, what else could I spend 7 hours a week on? There are so many things. My failed attempts at AP started to feel like I was trying to learn to play a musical instrument by just reading a book every day for an hour. Yet I could never play the instrument. I could memorize all the theory, all the notation, whole songs by spending hours studying it on paper, but without picking up and playing the instrument, there was no mastery and true understanding of the instrument.

Or another analogy I thought of was trying to learn to rock climb by just reading books about it. But I could never climb a rock in reality. (because of my anxiety, I believe) Maybe my anxiety is a mental equivalent to some kind of physical disability that would prevent me from climbing the rock. So I could spend endless hours memorizing rock climbing techniques, but without being able to actually climb and experience it, it doesn't really mean much.

It's frustrating, because it felt like I had developed a new hobby (due to the time I spent hopelessly attempting it/reading about it) but it was a hobby I couldn't practice. I'd rather, at this point, do something with my time that works, like actually learn an instrument, actually learn to rock climb in real life, etc.

I agree that meditation can be the key out of the anxiety and mental blocks to astral projection. For me, personally, I'm just going to continue with my meditation practice, because that is what truly helps my life, it's something I can actually do/achieve, and it helps my anxiety (as opposed to my attempts to AP that just made my anxiety worse). If I ever spontaneously AP during a meditation, then great, but in the meantime, I've given up all expectations and plans to do it.

Thanks for the replies, they're really helpful.

Phasing does sound pretty difficult so hopefully it's kind of a matter of practice makes perfect. And to do it in a detached way where you actively try but don't try and just observe is also tricky, but I'll keep giving it a go. Also it does sound like a wise thing to find different methods in the meantime that are easier. I'll keep looking around.

I might just try to give up all expectations to astral project and pretend I don't care (even though I do!)

So the morning way is the best... I've cut down to 1 cup of coffee per day, which has been painful, lol. I'll try more in the morning and see what happens. I can see how being less analytical that time of day would help, it's just the problems with concentration. My pre-coffee brain is like a jackson pollock painting.

Thanks for the tips on affirmations, escapevelocity, and for the ideas on how and when to do them. That's massively helpful. I tried affirmations for the first time the other day and I almost laughed, I felt so silly saying things like "I am confident and succeed at everything." But if affirmations work, I will give them a try. I really do think my past fear of ghosts has made me extra anxious. That's interesting hearing your take on how affirmations work with the higher self.

Bluebird I also agree with your advice about medication. I think it's a good idea to consider anything that's helpful. I have also taken lexapro and it was the one drug to really help me. I was on it for 2 years. I am living abroad at the moment in a country that unfortunately has both a crippled health care system as well as a cultural bias against long-term meds. After 2 years they just took me off of them unexpectedly, even though they were helping me. I am planning to move back to my home country in about a year or so, and might look into something like lexapro then. That's good to hear lexapro doesn't affect dreams, as I might try lucid dreaming again at some point. (not holding my breath but you never know!)

Anyway, thanks again for the tips guys, I feel inspired again. I must admit yesterday I considered just giving up. I ran across the quote "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" and I thought, is this what I'm doing? Trying to AP night after night and yet it's always the same result, basically no result... but I guess the trick is to keep learning about different techniques and trying to improve our methods, until hopefully someday it will work.

Hi everyone,

I've lurked here for a while but finally decided to start posting as I am just kind of stuck with this astral projection thing.

To give you an idea, I've been trying to project for around 7 months now, for about an hour each day. I gave up for a week in frustration, but then couldn't resist and started trying again.

Throughout this time I've been getting mainly vibrations or internal tingling/buzzing and feelings of floating, sinking, or spinning. Other times I feel extreme pressure in my head and sometimes see lights to various degrees. I rarely hear noises but I listen to binaural beats/isochronic tones the whole time (I have chronic tinnitus in my ear and it seem to distract me without some auditory aid).

No matter what I do, I can't seem to astral project at all. I just can't separate, I never have. I have also tried lucid dreaming, but after about 6 months of hitting brick walls with that, I gave up.

I have thought about some problems I'm encountering. The biggest problem I think I have is anxiety, though sometimes it's excitement. I am already an anxious person (I have tried pretty much every type of help for this and meditation has probably helped the most) But I thought I might look into other herbal anxiety remedies, cutting out sugar and most caffeine out of my diet, and eating as healthy as possible. (I already exercise and don't drink)

I've never tried affirmations but I wonder if that would help with the anxiety, although I have no clue what affirmations to use. Anyone ever tried that and did it help with your projection? I also am trying to step up my concentration meditation to help detach from anxiety. For the last month I've been doing this before projection attempts (which I've started trying the phasing method to do), but it hasn't really helped the anxiety I get when I get the "exit symptoms." When I start getting really extreme vibrations or see lights I just start sort of hyperventilating from fear and sometimes my heart feels like it's going to explode it beats so fast. How can I not focus on this strange experience?

I think I also have a fear of ghosts. When I was a teenager my stepdad was into the occult and he did lots of spell work. I developed a really strong fear of ghosts around that time. Later on, I became an atheist and my fear of this kind of thing vanished. Then I decided I was an agnostic, I just didn't know what did or didn't exist (I try to be open minded). Now, with this mindset, ghosts may or may not exist. I wonder if the old fears of the paranormal are returning to my mind when I attempt projection now. Sigh.

For this, I thought maybe I should also try affirmations ("ghosts can't hurt me" kind of thing) or even self-hypnosis. I read something where Robert Bruce said that if you can no longer project due to a scary experience, self-hypnosis could make it possible again. Anyone ever tried this?

My other main problem I think is insomnia. If I try to project right before sleep, I completely wake up and sometimes am awake all night. If I try the "wake back to bed" method, I just wake up and can't go back to sleep. I find that despite my insomnia, when I finally do sleep, I'm like a corpse in the morning, where I can't mentally wake up or concentrate at all. So far, my projection attempts upon waking from a full night's sleep result in being totally scatterbrained and I can't focus much at all. I thought maybe my addiction to coffee is partly to blame for this. Should I stop drinking coffee? (I only have 2 cups in the morning) I kind of feel like my brain doesn't start working until I have that first cup of coffee.

I can't for the life of me take naps. I just lie in bed awake. I believe my insomnia has sabotaged my lucid dreaming attempts. But I got hope when I read that you can astral project from wakefulness. Is this true? Is that 180 degree switch in phasing really a state of wakefulness? If so, maybe there's hope for me.

The solutions I can think of for insomnia are really identical to that of anxiety, it's like the two go hand in hand. Anyone here suffer from insomnia and have you found anything helpful for it?

Anyway, I pretty much just attempt projection in the evening, several hours before bed, from a state of wakefulness. That seems to prevent insomnia. But I can't help but wonder how much this method is hurting my chance of projecting. It seems like most methods I read tie projecting in with sleep somehow.

The other problems I seem to have is that I don't know when to actively attempt "separation." I have read that when you get vibrations that's your cue to start flying up or climbing a rope or rolling over etc. But sometimes I have prolonged vibrations. I even get them a few minutes into my attempt, though they vary in degree and are sometimes more an internal buzzing. I just don't when to try, I don't have an instinct that says "do it now" I don't know. If I wait and try to separate later I just refocus on my body. If I try to separate quickly the same thing seems to happen.

Also, how does one separate? I mean, I've read about phasing where you concentrate on the blackness in front of you, and then you focus on shapes that appear in the blackness. But how do you then
a. know suddenly when to separate, especially if you're trying not to focus on the symptoms
b. know when to switch your concentration to your separation method in order to separate. For instance, to mentally detach from my body I can try to focus on a shape completely, but then if I try the climbing a rope method, doesn't my attempt to separate break my focus and thus my detachment from my body?

Sheesh, sorry this is so long. Don't worry if this is too long to reply to lol. Perhaps I should start keeping a journal.

Anyway, this is a really interesting discussion board. Glad I found it.

Take care everyone.