Some questions

[shekter]

I've been interested in astral projection and the like for ages, but it's really an on/off interest. Except for these past few weeks... I've been seriously trying every day.

Now, I haven't actually had a projection--at least I don't remember having any, but I do have some questions regarding meditation. And I hope this is the right area to be posting. I saw the word meditation among some other words...

And now... The questions.

~ I've read that you have to relax your body completely before you try to calm your mind. Now, will having a body that is not completely relaxed hinder me later on, or is a somewhat relaxed body okay? Do you just feel "loose" when totally relaxed or is the feeling different for each person and depending on the technique?

~ When I'm sitting, random songs pop into my head and stay there. For a long time. When I'm meditating I have no music playing, and when I do meditate, it's at a time of the day when I have yet to hear any music. Will the "sticky music" cause any problems for me? Or will it be okay if I can learn to ignore it?

~ And this is somewhat odd. I'm not scared of what I saw, but still, I think it might make me feel better to know what it means. When I was meditating, I came across myself down in the sewers. This "other me" made it known that he didn't want me to be meditating/projecting. Now, I don't think I have any conscious fears of projecting, but could this "other me"--whether it be my imagination or not--cause problems?

~ And some strange feelings I've had.
--I've had "less there" feelings, and I'm guessing this is part of that Focus 10 or something. Where you lose sensations?
--One time, it felt as if my heart was beating really fast, so I "woke up" to find that my heart was beating at it's normal rate, everything fine here.
--The one time that I took the Progressive Relaxation seriously, I had a weird flowing sensation in my lower left leg.
--One night, I had the feeling that either my body was larger, the room was larger, or both. I'm leaning towards the answer of, "Both."
--And today two waves of tingly-ness overcame my body.

All while meditating or while trying to meditate.

[Heather B.]

Hi and welcome to the forums!

I'm probably going to be of limited help here... I'm really just learning myself.  I don't practice meditation, but I do practice at phasing.  Basically, I lie still, close my eyes, and let my mind slip away from my body, my physical senses, and the world around me.  I know that probably sounds oversimplified, but I don't really know how to explain it... it just sort of happens.  

But I can tell you, that sometimes my body does interfere--if I'm sore, if any little muscle is tense, or if there is any sudden, unexpected stimulus--I loud noise from outside, my cat jumping on me, etc.  In which case, I snap back instantly, sometimes so abruptly that I feel disoriented or even shocked.  I don't really have a certain method for relaxing though.  Generally when I practice, it's at the end of the day, and my body wants to relax anyway, so I just let it go.

I've never experienced the "sticky music," but I think for me, that would be very annoying and distracting, and would keep me from moving my awareness away from my body.  I hate any time when I get a song or songs going around in my head.  I find that listening to white noise really helps... like the a/c, or sometimes, I can tune in to what I can only describe as an "inner silence" in my head.  

It sounds like you have some unconscious objections to meditating and projecting.  The unconscious mind can really sabotage you... that happens to me all the time.  It can be really hard to come to grips with, because, as you experienced, it truly can seem like a completely different, autonomous "person" inside of you, often totally at odds with your conscious mind, usually hidden in the dark depths, or "sewer."  It's interesting that you use that word, because I often use it to describe the unconscious mind.

The "less there" feelings sound like what I experience all the time.  I think they do represent an initial phase, the shifting away from the physical.  If you want to phase, you need to be "less there."

The racing heart feeling, and the expanding body probably has something to do with your heart chakra being stimulated--I don't know anything about chakras, but this phenomenon has been mentioned on the forums... I don't know when or where, but if you do a search for "heart chakra" or chakras, you should find plenty of information.

The flowing sensations and waves of tingling... When I tried practicing the traditional OBE style of projection (with totally no success), I would get these sensations quite a lot.  I think it has to do with your body shutting down and your mind trying to "cut loose."  Since I've gotten into phasing, however, I don't feel them.  I think that with OBE, you are much more attentive to your body and your mind's relative position to it, while with phasing, you withdraw your attention from the body, and really don't give a darn about what it's doing.  I mean, those sensations may be still occuring, but you're not paying them any mind whatsoever.

Well, I hope I was somewhat helpful... I think I can guarantee you that everything you're feeling and experiencing is "normal" in the sense that you're not the only one who experiences them.

Good luck with meditation, projection, and whatever else you practice at!

[shekter]

Hi, Mrs. Murphy. Thanks for the welcome and all!

I've been thinking about this for the past few days, trying to think of ways to try to get rid of these unwanted fears. I'm going to go and check the book I'm using to see what she says about vanquishing these demons. But, out of curiosity, how did you overcome those dreaded subconscious fears?

And I keep confusing unconscious for subconscious.

But I'm glad to hear that I'm on the right track with all these strange sensations. And I'm going to go run a search on heart chakra, see what I find. I'm glad to hear it's nothing to worry about.

And I realized something else today. I think I'm trying too hard to be successful. I find holes down without a problem, but when I begin to fall, I think I try to force my way back to the sewers because that's when I was the most successful in "going deep." And as I climb down, I drown out the sticky music--it always comes and it relentless--with my little mantra--"I am going down the hole," and eventually, I'm nearly screaming over the music. Probably a bad thing, right? When I try again, I think I'm going to just try and "let go", see where that gets me.

Thanks again!