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Totally not connected to AP but to the 'X amount of spiders crawl in our mouth while we sleep throughout our lifetime' myth... Spiders would climb anywhere but your mouth. They are hard wired to avoid anything that emits carbon dioxide... in account that it's a perceived threat by a predator.

Just thought I'd mention that.

My name when I first started.

over the years it's changed from imagining a song.. counting sheep... imagining a runaway conversation... always sound based. Weird considering I have a photographic memory.

I spent months worrying about my breathing. Like I would separate and be overly concerned about what my lungs were doing.. because they sure as hell weren't doing it right when I was perceiving myself floating 5 feet the the left while embedded in my bedroom wall. I mean.. I don't feel myself breathing.. but I do... but when I try to inhale I am fighting it and I can't move. I got over it completely when I found out what SP is doing to the body.

When you enter this state all your bone connected muscles (striated muscles) are essentially paralysed... not so they are numb... just so you can't voluntarily move them. All your vital functions that luckily don't require your conscious participation such as your blood vessel valves, digestive system, heart and BREATHING are - like Szaxx said - taken care of and aren't striated muscles so therefore aren't effected by the paralysis.

We use two systems to breath. Our rib cage and our diaphragm. The rib cage uses muscles called the intercostal muscles.. basically your 'spare rib' meat. These are there so we can extend our lung capacity to take deeper breaths when exert ourselves. These are bone connected and paralysed during SP. This is what gives the sense of constriction and sometimes a dragging a sinking feeling or one of being pushed down... or sat upon - giving cause for tales of demons sitting on the chest.

Your diaphragm isn't bone connected and during REM (SP) is on automatic pilot. Its doing its own thing.. keeping you alive while your outer chest cavity is paralysed.

If you watch anyone while asleep... notice how they breath from the diaphragm.. and also notice that when they wake and their striated muscles kick in they normally take a deep breath or sigh. (Coincidentally you can trick yourself into thinking you are ready for SP by breathing from your diaphragm and copying your sleep based breathing rhythm; record yourself sleeping so you can find out your breathing rhythm, then simply imitate this while you practice. Works a treat.)

Once you start fighting your breathing you will stay grounded physically... just let go.

I'm a professional Ninja... of the togakure-Ryu school of Ninpo.

When I'm not doing secret ninja missions - which to be honest doesn't really pay the bills these days since the shogunate was dismantled back in the day - I make strange and interesting things for films and stuff.

I am a repairman. 

No... you are THE Repairman.

This is an old British documentary about Sleep Paralysis. It's really well made. 1982

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmbpOucNVn4&list=PLlFk-YSDC_3LTd1n_01aIsGaxTv1Q4cW7

There's some brilliant retro-knowledge... Since this was made there's been so much more research. Anyway... it's just a good film.

I'm intrigued what the reactions will be.

The white pulsing in your eyesight and/or psychedelic patterns with eyes closed are called Phosphenes. They are basically your retina and visual cortex powering down.

That's a good eye there Beedeekin, even for a guy who makes a living doing such things.

It's hard to get an edited pic past me. It's actually quite sad really. So sad I had to point it out on an image that at the end of the day is quite a lovely meme.

The first thing that alerted me was the look on her face. She looked either smug, wry or 'made' to stand there. Like.. the picture didn't suit the face. Then the font then the obvious difference in colour and pixelation

Actually... just done a google images search and found the original....



Kind of ironic... if it said internet and not wikipedia. 

Again.. lovely message on the one above.

^ beat me to it.

Yeah... I thought everyone knew. Szaxx is a 137 years old. 

Such a lovely message... and very photoshopped to say the least. That old woman did not write that. If fact.. she has nothing to do with that image whatsoever.

Congrats.

I hate classifying.. but this is a fantastic example of how connected the different types of projection are the same.

Obviously I can only go on the information you have supplied... but it appears that you had a classic AP (found yourself in an altered version of reality)... then OOBE (rise out of body and seeing yourself).. then back into AP again involving the mirror and Honda Accord.

I find a lot of my Lucid Dreams/dreams and many APs take place in my old home town. Same location different entry point.

Hey Blue Fox... welcome.

You will never understand everything about AP. In fact... even after 30 years and thousands of very deep and profound experiences you will never understand everything... I will even go as far as to say that you won't understand a fraction of everything... a small fraction.

I would say... try not to learn 'everything' about it before trying it. Half the problem with people who want to learn is that they have filled their heads full of nonsense by the time they 'take the leap'.

aaaaaaaaaaaanyhoo

That sounded very APish.

You were making conscious decisions. This is quite indicative of being in a fully conscious nonphysical state.

The girl's head between your legs turning nasty is your fear, that's all. Whether she was real or imagined... your own fear of the unknown got the better of you and bit you in the butt.  pun intended.

It's nice to know you threw her head against the wall and didn't recoil in fear.

One thing I have personally found out is that when you consciously intend to AP these weird changes and alterations in content are less apparent and the experience is much less illogical.

I do find it curious that people 'quit'. I wouldn't know how to begin quitting.

Never.

I must have been born with a permanent totally impenetrable Psychic attack shield... this also extends to anything remotely negative it seems.

I like your little Giff avatar pic thing HindSight... just been staring at it. 

The only difference is your point of view.

If the 'astral' or nonphysical reality was soup... then AP, LD and OOBE are just a cup a bowl and a ladle.

Hey MoonDust. Welcome to the Pulse.

Care to share the experience in a bit more detail?

Ugh  

So there is a 'Bzzzzzt' in the meat brain just before we croak. This says nothing about NDEs. It's just a recording taken of the meat before it starts decomposing.

Anthony Peak seems to like it because it may be a DMT surge type thing. May be.

1) The only golden rule is that you have been awake all day when you take the nap and that you are tired. Book reading is great for pre-nap exercise because it tires the eyes and it's easy to nod off.

Your idea should be fine.

2) HAHA... hit up some Skyrim... 

Do what you want. just don't drink any alcohol or get whacked up on caffeine.

3) Not really.

The method I give is purely a way of replicating how I did it when I started. I used to come home from school... nap in the evening around 7/9pm... induce later.. wake up next morning go to school.. come home from school... nap in the evening around 7/9pm... induce later... and so on.

Think on the fact that I didn't want SP when it started.. so I didn't actually induce it.. it happened because I was expecting it.

The visuals aren't actually that common. It's the implied fear that works at the nerves. The implied presence and sensations. Good to hear you are just working through them.

Wow.. it reads like the index page on Erowid.com. 

Szaxx is spot on there.

"If known, have any of the drugs I've done affected my ability to Astral Project permanently?"

I very much doubt it. I've abused myself over the years. I've found that specific ones effect it at the time... but not in the long run. So 'Temporarily?' Yes.

Also.. you are still young... if you have caused any 'mis-wiring' then it will rectify itself anyway.

'Are any of these drugs beneficial or helpful towards projection?'

Not really. They are handy in pointing out alternative realities but that's where the book stops. They just don't cut the mustard compared to the real thing... and this is from experience.

Don't worry about the helping with your 'life' thing or taking up time. It's actually 50% of the reason I do it.. is to help people and their ensuing 'life'. Comes with the territory.

It looks like you have your head screwed on tightly - regardless of what you might think - so you have the right 'mind set'.

If you want to learn it I suggest you quit drinking around the time of practice.

That's pretty much bang on the money; to KNOW it is illusionary. Once you know this... KNOW this... Use it and abuse it.

You can do it without a gap but it requires a slightly different approach. You wake from the sleep and without really becoming aware you are fully awake you slip into nonphysical awareness (SP). I've never fully grasped this one myself and this usually happens for me by accident.

Here's what I've found over the years with myself and others. I've been meaning to type up a little article about this.. but I'll stick it here anyway.

* When you wake from the sleep (by alarm or naturally) you must wake immediately. Get up and don't press the snooze button. If you do roll over and sleep you will have a vivid dream... or it may - like I said in my opening paragraph - result in SP if you had piece of mind.

* If you woke from a dream.. or remember a dream upon waking. The chances are you didn't hit the 'sweet spot'. The 'sweet spot' is during the end of your slow wave sleep stage just before you slip into the REM stage.

* Having sleep for 5 hours means you are going through the sleep cycle about 4 times; Slow wave sleep of 30 to 90 minutes - REM stage for 5 to 20 mins (this is debatable). So talking in hours doesn't make any difference. It would also work if you'd had 90 mins of sleep... or an hour and a half... or 4 hours... its all to do with interrupting your sleep cycle at the right time. 5 hours might not be right for you... maybe it's interrupting your slow wave stage too early.

* The time between waking up and attempting to induce can be from 15 minutes to 5 hours. But... this is based upon getting your slow wave sleep interruption just right and what time of the day.

* If you decide to do it on a morning... as long as you woke from a non-dream sleep, the window of opportunity can extend from half an hour after waking  to the afternoon around 1pm. Once you get past this point the chances of reaching the state are diminished. Which means that if you want to do it later all you need to do is take a slow wave sleep nap.. and wake from it. You now have another 5 hour window of opportunity.

so

Theoretically If you were really really disciplined.. you could do this.

* Wake up early from a non-dream Slow-Wave-Sleep.

* anytime between half an hour and lunchtime you can induce your OOBE.

* When you go to bed set your alarm so it wakes you in 90 mins.

* Stay awake for 45 mins.

* Induce your OOBE.

Sleep

* Wake up early from a non-dream slow wave sleep.

and repeat.

*EDIT*

I can't answer your actual question. It seems that when you interrupt and deny yourself REM by waking before you slip into it unconsciously, it seems that you have caused an imbalance which keeps your mind/brain on the brink of REM for an extended period of time. The period of wakefulness seems to help you to become alert so that when you do lay down and decide to sleep it notices the transition into REM stage and thus you experience SP.

I thought about this for awhile and thought about how unfair it is, if true, that a skeptic can have an easier time than an open-minded person with sincere desire.

The only thing that I can think of is that a skeptic might give it a real chance since they want to prove that it doesn't work and therefor has no expectations. Well, I think expectations are a real killer for achieving an OOBE.

Just my thoughts but you may be right.

You are spot on. I also think it's because the skeptic - normally someone just not interested but curious what their mad mate Ben is talking about - is just following the instructions I give them rather than second guessing me and incorporating what THEY think is best for them.

Basically what I just said is exactly the same as what you said. 

You can separate when they are intense and you can separate when they are calm. You can separate as soon as they hit or you can wait for the waves of vibrations to crescendo and fall a few times before you separate. It does't matter.

Sometimes I wait for them to die down because they are too aggressive and it's distracting... at other times I use the distracting buzzing and vibrating as an aid to separate.

If you keep a cool head and focus you can prolong the SP/vibrations and attempt separation many many times.

It actually sounds more like you woke up in Sleep Paralysis and you were separating and then gave up. Sometimes there is a dragging back, elasticated, magnetic feeling pulling you back down.

Maybe you were actually physically fighting the paralysis.

Thoughts?