A few issues I need advice on

[2jttz]

Ok so Iv been trying to project here for abit, and One of a few things always happens, I either start faiding in an out of dreams desperately trying to keep my mind from letting it self fall with my body, then wake up hours later... Obviously unsuccessful lol

Or when I don't fall asleep I have a hard time getting my upper torso to fall "asleep" due to my breathing technique I think? I get the legs and the hands but from about my mid rib cage up I'm still pretty aware of along with my head, after trying for an hour or two I just end up more frustrated than anything

Last not least I think this is the most frustrating thing that happens..... I get random itches that even if I just leave them be will continue itching and I think just distracting me

Any way to combat these problems?


Thanks
-Zach

[2jttz]

Also I apologize if I sound flustered, its 747 in the morning right now where I am and I started my projection excersize at 12 or 1 lol that's seven hours... Lol how long do y'all normally meditate for, I may start doing 20-30 minute sessions (I don't normally do it for seven hours I must have just lost track of time maybe because I kept restarting my meditation/projection technique cause the the reasons in the above post)

[Lookedynamixhales]

Hi there i can't offer anything of much value as i haven't successfully fully left my body with the meditation techinique all though i have upon awakening ?anyway from my closest stages i have got half my body out and i just floated ...what i found helpful is ignore your natural thinking process stare into the darkness and focus on it try to think of as little as possible including itches...i breath slowly through my nose and pause then out my mouth, i zone in on the buzzing sound in my ears focus on that till my chest feels warm then shortly after that i feel like i can see in a black depth and then i focus on that till i tingle ? anyways that could be useless to you but thought i'd share it normally takes me 10 - 20 minutes in them stages.

[Lionheart]

Ok so Iv been trying to project here for abit, and One of a few things always happens, I either start faiding in an out of dreams desperately trying to keep my mind from letting it self fall with my body, then wake up hours later... Obviously unsuccessful lol

Or when I don't fall asleep I have a hard time getting my upper torso to fall "asleep" due to my breathing technique I think? I get the legs and the hands but from about my mid rib cage up I'm still pretty aware of along with my head, after trying for an hour or two I just end up more frustrated than anything

Last not least I think this is the most frustrating thing that happens..... I get random itches that even if I just leave them be will continue itching and I think just distracting me

Any way to combat these problems?

#1. Try to AP from a comfortable chair. You have trained yourself all your life that your bed is for sleeping. Keep doing what you are doing. You will find that one time when you do what you are doing, it will work, you may wake up consciously aware of your surroundings and then you can experiment and explore.

#2. Practice, practice, practice!   Try to create visuals to keep your mind occupied. You are supposed to be letting go of your physical focus. Don't focus on your body, focus on anything but that.

#3. Scratch the itch, if you don't it will consume your entire focus and drive you nuts, lol. The key here is to be relaxed.

[Lionheart]

Also I apologize if I sound flustered, its 747 in the morning right now where I am and I started my projection excersize at 12 or 1 lol that's seven hours... Lol how long do y'all normally meditate for, I may start doing 20-30 minute sessions (I don't normally do it for seven hours I must have just lost track of time maybe because I kept restarting my meditation/projection technique cause the the reasons in the above post)

You meditate for as long as it takes for you to finally release your focus on your physical reality/body. This will normally take most people starting to meditate for the first time, at least 45 minutes to an hour.

You will talk to people that can release their focus and be enjoying the Non physical Reality in mere minutes. These are the people that have practiced and realize that once you ALLOW the shift to occur, that non physical is right before their eyes. Turn one thing off, another turns on.

You can't force this though, you need to SURRENDER and ALLOW the shift to take place.

7 hours is wayyyyyyyyyy too long. Normally when I use a 30 minute Binaural Beat MP3, I will do about a 1 hour session.

If I skip the Binaural Beats, it takes less than 10 minutes to shift. I use the Binaural Beats quite a bit because I really enjoy Paul Collier's music.

[ChopstickFox]

Once I was going to bed alone (this only happens once in a blue moon, haha!) so I decided that I would try APing and keep at it until I had a projection. Ended up being a bad idea. Hours later, I gave up. Went to fall asleep then popped out of my body like it was nothing. Slap in the face, eh?

Sometimes the harder and more stubborn you get, you are actually making it more difficult on yourself unintentionally. Thinking too much can be a hinder sometimes.

[Szaxx]

Exactly, it CAN'T be forced.

[Astralzombie]

I've never been big into meditating or energy work but I'm thinking about it. Like the Lion said, it is all about relaxing and meditation is certainly one way to do that.

But if you view what you are trying to do in order to relax as meditating, you will fight the urge to scratch. But if you view it as just relaxing, you can scratch the itch and it's no big deal. It's about your mindset.

[Bedeekin]

I can see why the 'energy' metaphor seems logical, if coming from a person who learns about AP through a certain belief system. If they believe the theosophical view of AP (the term Astral Projection being an invention of the Theosophical Society) then it promotes the nonphysical 'bodies' as being made of specific energy types. So anyone reading up about AP will undoubtedly come across this pseudo-scientific/religious aspect of OOBEs and conduct their attitude towards learning it within that frame of belief.

I personally didn't even know about the theosophical view of it until I came online in 2003 when I started to realise there was a massive sub-culture behind it. So I have never really used the 'energy work' metaphor. My metaphor was probably feeling the need to have a nap. Although it is very effective it's not a prerequisite for achieving a solid nonphysical experience.

Scratching and itching.. dry tongue or swallowing spit was never a problem for me because I didn't see that as a concern.

[Astralzombie]

Scratching and itching.. dry tongue or swallowing spit was never a problem for me because I didn't see that as a concern.

Exactly.

I didn't have any preconceptions or any kind of idea about what was happening at first. The very little that I did know was all mumble-jumble bullsh1t, but I didn't let that influence me too much or I wouldn't have tried it at all. I did a tiny (miniscule) amount of research after my first spontaneous OOBE's to see if I could achieve one intentionally. The only reason I didn't get more in-depth earlier was because of my old belief system.

I never viewed it as anything other than trying to get into that sleep state with my awareness. When sleep is the goal, everybody rolls over, scratches their butt, swallows their spit as many times as it takes until they get to sleep and never thinks twice.

But call the same process meditating and the mind goes crazy.

edit:I should stop making ignorant statements about mediating and give it a real try. I just always assume that what I was doing was in a way meditating but I mainly viewed it as getting ready to phase. And if not, then sleep.

Does true meditation not have a goal other than to clear your mind?

[Steel Hawk]

...fading in an out of dreams desperately trying to keep my mind from letting it self fall with my body, then wake up hours later...

Happens to everyone, don't kick yourself too much because of it. We're playing on the edge of dreams and the waking state, it's a tight rope to walk and sometimes you fall off of it. If you do it a bit earlier before you go to bed it can help, but there's nothing I can say you can really do it about it all the time, it happens. I've found that your mind will start to create a imaginary scenario (like a dream) just before you drift off. If you can notice this or create it yourself and remain focused it can be one of the most effective projection techniques.

One thing you can do is hold one of your hands up, with your elbow resting on the bed every night before you go to sleep, when you fall asleep your hand will fall and wake you up, repeat. The idea is to get more and more used to playing in this area of consciousness. Eventually you get better and better at it where you can normally catch yourself before you fall asleep. As others said above, practice, practice, practice.

Or when I don't fall asleep I have a hard time getting my upper torso to fall "asleep" due to my breathing technique I think? I get the legs and the hands but from about my mid rib cage up I'm still pretty aware of along with my head, after trying for an hour or two I just end up more frustrated than anything

If you start to get frustrated or spend what seems like hours trying then you should stop and get up for awhile.  It's impressive and good that you have the resolve to not give up. But over an hour or at the point where you're not comfortable is fruitless. I once spent 8 hours in meditation trying to project.

Essentially a breathing technique works by solely focusing your attention on one thing. The technique itself doesn't matter, the key component is that your mind remains fixed and entertained. I recommend you start with the breathing technique and when you've calmed down as much as you can try to completely clear your mind, work on seeing how long you can not having any thoughts in your mind, including not thinking about not thinking.

At some point you will feel a noticeable shift in your awareness where you've dropped into a trance. If this doesn't work for you try anything that allows you to focus on only one thing. A mantra, creating a scenario, just being still, focusing on breathing, if you can focus on a ringing noise on your head, etc. The idea is to be in a rather free state, like a playful state of mind without stress or any important thoughts but still be focused on something (breathing, a ringing noise, no thoughts, etc).

Last not least I think this is the most frustrating thing that happens..... I get random itches that even if I just leave them be will continue itching and I think just distracting me

Yep me too. If it's within the first 5 minutes itch them, get comfortable. I almost think that the subconscious creates phantom itches just to test whether or not you're home or not, like it's saying "Hmm.. Are you there?". If it's past 5 minutes then try to ignore them and refocus. If they don't get better try to directly focus on them, try to make it itch more and more and more burn it away. If that fails try to refocus again on nothing.  Once you feel your self drop into trance they won't be a problem.

This should be your main goal right now, get into trance and achieve sleep paralysis. Good luck and you seem to be on the right path!

Edit: If you can't get rid of the itch then try very calmly with the least movement as possible to itch it and move back to your original state.

[twilighter]

Once I was going to bed alone (this only happens once in a blue moon, haha!) so I decided that I would try APing and keep at it until I had a projection. Ended up being a bad idea. Hours later, I gave up. Went to fall asleep then popped out of my body like it was nothing. Slap in the face, eh?

Sometimes the harder and more stubborn you get, you are actually making it more difficult on yourself unintentionally. Thinking too much can be a hinder sometimes.

I can definitely relate! I remember one time laying on my back and trying and trying to AP. And finally becoming so tired, I decided to roll on my side and give in to sleep instead. As soon as I switched to my side, vibrations hit me, and I was floating upwards out of body. It really is true, that sometimes trying too hard can work against you.

[2jttz]

Hey thanks to all for all the tips and advise as they have helped!!

[2jttz]

I just wanted to update you all and see what you think as I believe I may be improving!!

So here it is
Started "meditation" tried relaxing the body, fuzzy images appeared for mere seconds at a time flashed in randomness, also random explosions of blackness(with in the blackness already there lol). i acknowledged what I saw but didn't focus on it as I'd been told not to in order to proceed deeper, it was very random things just as the face of death or i guess the hooded shadow men, but just the face, a fishes mouth with razor sharp teeth and others after a while I realized I needed to be breathing correctly so I focused on my breathing, I thought the word "in" when I breathed in through my nose and thought the word "out" when I breathed out of my mouth, I kept doing so for ever breath. After a while random ripples of light and fuzzy incomprehensible images or some may say blobs haha who knows. After a while I started losing track of things, I got lost in me saying "in and out", I fell deeper then i think at that point i forgot to keep saying "in and out" all together but im not sure, anyways I Felt a sudden head change as if I had gone down the hill on a roller coaster or fallen off something high,  then my heart raced and I think that I thought about my heart racing and it snapped me out of what ever i was feeling, then after that I tried to refocus but my heart was racing and i was trying to process  what had happened, so I called it quits being somewhat satisfied that maybe iv possibly made it further ?  

Does it sound like I was on the right track up until the heart racing thing snapped me out of my "transe" ? Idk why that happened  maybe I was frightened by the head change

Thanks again guys


-Zach

[mr_coffee]

I also haven't been able to have an OBE with meditating although I never studied any meditation techniques.  I've found the more I think about relaxing or having an OBE the more likely it won't occur.

  I simply clear my mind and tell myself a few times, relax, and just sink into the bed.  Then after that thought I just let my mind do its thing.  If it thinks of something I just accept it and move on.  Usually if I just go with the flow I'll soon feel a "quiet zone" which I know to stay alert and be ready to accept anything that happens as a good emotion. 

Usually i'll have a feeling of someone close to me and I will feel a high rushing sensation before it feels like its very close to me.   As soon as I welcome the entity and love its presence it transforms into pure happiness and I feel a super high frequency above my chest. 

Although I may have a natural resistance to external influence as I've had chronic pain so it forces you to realize any external stimulus you receive you can transform that stimulus into any emotion or nothing at all.

TL;DR: Don't over think having an OBE or it may not occur or you won't fall asleep due to the anticipation. 

[2jttz]

thanks for the reply and the rush feeling is where it kinda made me fell as if i was falling or weightless so ill be sure to not overthink it when it happens