Hello everyone. This is my first post here and I'd like to start off by introducing myself. My name is Ivy and I am a 20 year old professional artist and art student. It's lovely to find such an active community and I look forward to meeting you all and chatting :-)
I first came to know the term "Astral Projection" a few weeks ago after doing some research on Lucid Dreaming. I've had lucid dreams since childhood naturally and wanted to learn more about them. After stumbling upon a website centered around astral projection, I was immediately intrigued and wanted to look into it. One of the reasons I was so interested was due to the nature of some of my lucid dreams. In many of these lucid dreams, I can recall floating around in my house freely and I wondered if I might have been really astral projecting all this time without being aware.
I read more and more and became interested in astral projecting consciously. To be honest...I still don't know very much about astral projecting and this is why I come to you all now. After briefly reading through a few techniques, I decided on a whim I would try to do it last night for the first time. I planned to sleep for a couple of hours, wake, and then try to meditate and focus on projecting while my body was in a sleepy, relaxed and calm state.
After thirty minutes of relaxing in bed, I fell off to sleep. I slept for a good while before awaking and opening my eyes. Except, I think I was opening my eyes. You see, I'm still at odds at whether I actually woke up or if I was in a lucid dream. When I opened my eyes, I was in the same position I fell asleep in and I was in my room. Everything in my room was the same and the night light next to my bed was on (I turned it on for once this very night). While I was laying in reality/lucid dream state, I began to visualize my astral self coming out of my physical body. I started with my arms. I visualized my 'astral arms' lifting from my physical body and going back down. I did this for a bit and I then began to visualize my entire body lifting upwards..this is when something strange happened.
My body began to feel this light vibrational sensation inside (similar to the feeling one gets when they are close to loud, blaring music). I tried not to get nervous, as I read fear keeps you from going on. I tried to stay focused and kept visualizing. Soon after, I began to hear this loud, pulsating bass-like noise (the only way I can describe it was a low WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP sound). My vision began to shake (like there was an internal earthquake going on within me) and everything around me began to get hazy. I began to hear a new sound that sounded like popping in my ears (similar to ones ears popping after swimming). I was extremely frightened by this bass-like low sound and popping and immediately stopped visualizing all together. I remember squinting my eyes in fear and it all stopped. I can't remember anything after that and I'm guessing I either fell back asleep in reality or my lucid dream ended (like I said before, I'm still unsure if I was really opening my eyes or if I was in a lucid dream..my lucid dreams are extremely realistic and it's hard to tell sometimes). I was by NO means expecting anything to happen last night. I truly did not think I would feel anything and I think this is why I became so frightened. I've always been very skeptical by nature and this feeling that came over me shook me greatly. I don't know of anyone I can go to about this in real life besides my boyfriend. I worry that if I let anyone in on my experience that they'll ridicule me or view me as strange.
When I woke up in the morning, I immediately thought of the experience I had earlier that night. I've been arguing internally whether it really happened or not and I still do not know for sure. This experience was unlike anything I had ever felt before and a part of me wants to try again...but I'm afraid of the unsettling noises I heard before..particularly the low bass noise. I've always had a weird aversion to low noises. I have had bad anxiety all my life as well so I think it's definitely something I need to work on.
Has anyone had similar experiences to mine and was it possible I was about to project? This was my first shaky attempt ever and I was very surprised and taken aback by feeling something..I'm still in awe. Also, how can I get over this awful fear of the unknown? I so desperately want to experience something amazing, but my vivid imagination and fear gets the best of me. Any help or insight is deeply appreciated. :-)
Hi Ivy
I get really loud vibrations too before I project, I find the stronger/louder the vibrations are the easier it is to seperate although every now and then I too have to snap out of it when the noise becomes to much...I know what you mean about the low bassy sound as I cant handle repetitive sounds....The loudest for me sounded like an extreamly low flying helecopter and the most annoying was like a high pitched beeping noise alot like when you ears pop.
I think you must of been really close to projecting.
I think you experienced sleep paralysis, this is how I project more often than not. Next time try to ride out the sensations without getting frightened. Hold onto your awareness and you'll pop out in one virtual environment or another. Also, over time these exit sensations should subside to the point where it's enjoyable... for instance, during my exit sensations I feel like a plane taking off (and landing, when I return to my body.)
Anyway, congrats... you are further along than most beginners that show up here.
Welcome to the Pulse 8-)
:NoY:
Hi there urshebear, Astral316 and NoY :-) Thank you so much for the kind welcomes and responses!
urshebear, Wow, thank you so much for validating the noises. I read about different noises people hear (buzzing, radio sounds) but never a pulsating bass like noise, so it's comforting to hear another experienced similar sounds. Not only was hearing something that wasn't really 'there' for the first time strange, but hearing a noise that I did not anticipate was even more startling.
Astral316, I don't think I was exactly in a paralysis state, because I could still feel my physical body (I twitched once and was able to squint my eyes and open them), but it was a strange state of being, nonetheless. I've never experienced anything like it before. I find it strange that I was able to so easily tap into this vibrational state during my first go around. I'm not very experienced in meditation, but I'm assuming I was visualizing and going about everything the right way.
NoY, thanks! Lovely meeting you!
I really want to move forward and try it again soon, but my fear is holding me back. I have a very vivid imagination and I worry that if I were ever able to project, my imagination would run rampant. I already do that in the physical (I realize this might seem rather childish to some, but whenever I'm laying in bed I sometimes imagine a scary 'scenario' and I end up scaring myself for no reason.. example: I'll imagine some creature or character from a horror flick coming out of my closet and 'getting' me in the dark.) and I feel that it's something I might need to work on before I move forward in any sort of astral projection practice.
I want to have an amazing, life-changing, positive experience..but I feel as if this fear I have will twist it into something bad. If having a vivid imagination was bad, I also have the combined fear of running into a real, bad entity of some sort. I've read the accounts of various people seeing demons and that's the last thing I want to see...if I saw something like that, I think I'd freak out considerably and never want to go to sleep again.
It's the vibrational state paired with astral noises, voices - the M-band.
It gets worse before it gets better.
Sleep paralysis and the pre-projection/vibrational state are closely related in my experience.
A common belief is that in the Astral what you believe is what you see. If you fear, your experiences will give you reason to fear. In my experience, that's not the typical case. Your thoughts will probably be more removed from your environment than what you may've been led to believe. I myself can let paranoia slip in during an OBE sequence but nothing usually happens to warrant it. With that in mind I suggest you put ideas of demons on the back burner and approach projection with an air of curiosity. You're an explorer and you crave adventure on the final frontier. Grab that mentality and run with it.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience. we all went through this hesitating moments, it's not weird because you're experiecing something new to your body and mind and it's normal that we react different to this experience. I found alot of help reading different book about the subject and actually it opened my eyes to many different angle that i was not really paying intention to it.
hope this help a bit and sorry for my english, it's not my native language
hope to stay in touch
peace
Yeah. The first time feeling sensations like that will leave you breathless :) People are divided on their opinion of the relationship between astral projection and dreams, but I'm of the school who view AP and lucid dreaming as two different methods to get to essentially the same place. So if you're a naturally gifted lucid dreamer I would go with that less jarring method over trying to learn how to consciously project. You just need to learn to turn your lucid dreams into whatever you want your out of body experiences to be. Normally when dreaming your environment is mostly self created; You're experiencing your own mind objectively. If you want to explore the physical world (real time zone) simply stop the dreaming process, stop reacting to whatever's going on around you and increase your lucidity as much as you can, and maybe try to come look at yourself sleeping.
And if you have any trouble with your active imagination, just remember that nothing can actually hurt you in the spirit world. Don't run from, fight or resist anything that scares you. Just be still and let it come. It will flow through you and as you realize that nothing terrible is happening it will lose it's power that your fear was giving it and fade away. I've used that trick to overcome a nightmare before and it's a very freeing feeling. You can actually use the same method in waking life to dis-empower your scary thoughts. Just follow the thought through and don't resist it. Nothing bad happens and the mind realizes that there is nothing to fear.
Quote from: Evenstar on April 06, 2011, 01:04:57
Hello everyone. This is my first post here and I'd like to start off by introducing myself. My name is Ivy and I am a 20 year old professional artist and art student. It's lovely to find such an active community and I look forward to meeting you all and chatting :-)
I first came to know the term "Astral Projection" a few weeks ago after doing some research on Lucid Dreaming. I've had lucid dreams since childhood naturally and wanted to learn more about them. After stumbling upon a website centered around astral projection, I was immediately intrigued and wanted to look into it. One of the reasons I was so interested was due to the nature of some of my lucid dreams. In many of these lucid dreams, I can recall floating around in my house freely and I wondered if I might have been really astral projecting all this time without being aware.
I read more and more and became interested in astral projecting consciously. To be honest...I still don't know very much about astral projecting and this is why I come to you all now. After briefly reading through a few techniques, I decided on a whim I would try to do it last night for the first time. I planned to sleep for a couple of hours, wake, and then try to meditate and focus on projecting while my body was in a sleepy, relaxed and calm state.
After thirty minutes of relaxing in bed, I fell off to sleep. I slept for a good while before awaking and opening my eyes. Except, I think I was opening my eyes. You see, I'm still at odds at whether I actually woke up or if I was in a lucid dream. When I opened my eyes, I was in the same position I fell asleep in and I was in my room. Everything in my room was the same and the night light next to my bed was on (I turned it on for once this very night). While I was laying in reality/lucid dream state, I began to visualize my astral self coming out of my physical body. I started with my arms. I visualized my 'astral arms' lifting from my physical body and going back down. I did this for a bit and I then began to visualize my entire body lifting upwards..this is when something strange happened.
My body began to feel this light vibrational sensation inside (similar to the feeling one gets when they are close to loud, blaring music). I tried not to get nervous, as I read fear keeps you from going on. I tried to stay focused and kept visualizing. Soon after, I began to hear this loud, pulsating bass-like noise (the only way I can describe it was a low WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP sound). My vision began to shake (like there was an internal earthquake going on within me) and everything around me began to get hazy. I began to hear a new sound that sounded like popping in my ears (similar to ones ears popping after swimming). I was extremely frightened by this bass-like low sound and popping and immediately stopped visualizing all together. I remember squinting my eyes in fear and it all stopped. I can't remember anything after that and I'm guessing I either fell back asleep in reality or my lucid dream ended (like I said before, I'm still unsure if I was really opening my eyes or if I was in a lucid dream..my lucid dreams are extremely realistic and it's hard to tell sometimes). I was by NO means expecting anything to happen last night. I truly did not think I would feel anything and I think this is why I became so frightened. I've always been very skeptical by nature and this feeling that came over me shook me greatly. I don't know of anyone I can go to about this in real life besides my boyfriend. I worry that if I let anyone in on my experience that they'll ridicule me or view me as strange.
When I woke up in the morning, I immediately thought of the experience I had earlier that night. I've been arguing internally whether it really happened or not and I still do not know for sure. This experience was unlike anything I had ever felt before and a part of me wants to try again...but I'm afraid of the unsettling noises I heard before..particularly the low bass noise. I've always had a weird aversion to low noises. I have had bad anxiety all my life as well so I think it's definitely something I need to work on.
Has anyone had similar experiences to mine and was it possible I was about to project? This was my first shaky attempt ever and I was very surprised and taken aback by feeling something..I'm still in awe. Also, how can I get over this awful fear of the unknown? I so desperately want to experience something amazing, but my vivid imagination and fear gets the best of me. Any help or insight is deeply appreciated. :-)
Sounds like the vibrations-
It sounds like you were semi aware when the vibrations came, only instead of letting them finish and exiting - you let them finish, didnt maintain awareness and drifted off.
Im curious were you on your back? If so my guess is thats what happened. Im guessin you were asleep, woke up for a couple seconds, and as you started to fall back to sleep you were aware enough to feel the vibrations but immediately after you just conked out. If you maintained awareness through out, you would of been exploring.
Thats basically how I stumbled across projection when I was younger. I had episodes like this quite often. Id get scared during the noises and vibrations and either Id make myself wake up or it would turn into a nightmare. I had a bedroom by myself and it was scary when this happened when I was all alone. I remember when I would have a friend sleep over, Id wish it would happen then cause at least somebody else was in the room with me and I wouldnt be as scared. Its funny, I remember wanting it to happen bad as long as I wasnt alone.
After a while though I got used to it. When the vibes came I went with it. Theyl come a time when fear wont be an issue4u. Its gonna be the only thing holding u back for now. Overcome the fear and maintain awareness and youl experience a full blown OBE. Sooner or later youl be making it happen on purpose and fear will be a thing of the past.
Evenstar, check out this website:
www.obe4u.com
In there, OOBEs/Astral Projection/Lucid Dreams are considered to be the same phenomenon. In there it is simply termed the "Phase". Check it out! It's full of good tips and shows you how useful the Phase can be.
You say you've had lucid dreams therefore you have already astral projected. It is the same environment. The difference is that the metaphysical realm is entered in different ways. Either you enter it already lucid directly from SP/VS (astral projection); OR you fall asleep, dream, and acquire lucidity half way through (dream-induced lucid dream) after which you are free to do what you want in such environment.
Alternatively, grabbing potential dreams in the hypnagogic state whilst consciously aware will lead to a wake-induced lucid dream (WILD). The difference between this and astral projection is that SP/VS is missed and there isn't a sense of separation. In WILDs, you don't separate into a replica of your bedroom and you only experience a disassociation from the physical body once you starting interacting with the metaphysical worlds.
In all of them, you eventually no longer experience being in the physical body. In all of them, you will feel like you are somewhere else. Hence all of them can be considered to be "out of body".
In my view, however, you never really go anywhere in any of them. Consciousness is all-pervading. You are here, there and everywhere. The difference is that where you are consciously, you are unconscious everywhere else.
Summerlander, I agree with your summary and have a question for you or for any others who would like to answer.
When having an OOBE I feel myself rising and see a my or a room before flying through my window to go to the 3D black world. When I have a wake induced lucid dream (WILD) I usually have the sensation of falling and feel myself being rushed to the 3D black world without the interim room stage. Since it sounds like you experience both, any thoughts on why this is?
When you experience the separation, a replica of the room you are projecting from is very likely and this may be due to expectation. Your unconscious can manifest many things unbeknowst to you. Likewise, you can also manifest things consciously in that state.
In a lucid dream, whether dream-induced or wake-induced, you skip the "expectation" part...the room replica...
Now, I have certain terms distinguishing certain types of experience and this is one of them:
Mode 1 OOBE separation = No anomalies are encountered...it seems to be the physical realm.
Mode 2 OOBE separation = Anomalies are encountered. Burlesque replicas of the places where we project are found. Metaphysical realm.
There are other distinctions such as, in Mode 1 you either have a shadowy body or you are a floating point of consciousness. In Mode 2 you tend to have a "dream body" that can resemble the physical, and, although you can fly, you often walk, run or glide. Movement in both can differ greatly too.
Thank you for your thoughts and yes, I agree, I'm not 'having to' conjure up a room in a WILD.
Interesting distinction between Mode 1 and 2 - think I've rarely had a Mode 1 since I almost always see something about the room that is not accurate.
You are correct. Mode 1 is rare or hard to get to. I find it's hard. It doesn't last long either before you find yourself back in the body or you phase into Mode 2. Just like in an NDE...first, the operating room with the surgeons...then the spirit realms where other beings can be met.
Mode 2 OOBEs are dominant. The inaccurate replicas are there, seemingly waiting for you. In a way, lucid dreams skip that part and seem to take you further straight away.
In Mode 1 movement can be different, as though you are everywhere and trying to decide where you are going to be, to focus. Hence mini teleports or you sorta mouse-trail gradually. Eventually movement becomes more fluid. Colours tend to be duller than in Mode 2 (crisp and sharp colours that can outshine the physical). Vision is somewhat different. Sometimes confusing and you almost get a feel of it rather than just it being seeing. Hard to describe. Almost like you become the environment which has led me to wonder if we are becoming the atoms of the physical realm and experiencing from that perspective but away from the body...the focus is misplaced so to speak and tends to be attracted to the physical body like a magnet...hence the elastic band feeling or what seems to be the atonic physical body can act like a black hole.
The clarification of Mode 1 really helps since I can remember having more accurate but lower light/gray vision and then it transforms quickly into Mode 2 (brighter light, other beings, different furniture placement) so your explanation makes sense.
My first OOBEs would be problematic in that I'd get stuck in the house if I went up through the roof (I'd actually see layers of wood in extreme close-up as if I was stuck between the wall board and the siding or see the wood floor from an ant's perspective). In "Astral Dynamics" he had similar experiences at first so perhaps our brain creates this common symbolism.
So now I find it easier to 'travel' through windows and the only obstacles I have at times flying is interfering layers of telephone wires (which of course is representational of something else, some people think it's electromagnetic interference since this rarely happens when I'm sleeping in the country vs. the city).
What I find fascinating in reading this forum and books is the commonality of experience. I like that I'm skipping or speeding through various stages (and past barriers) and going more quickly to the 3D black world.
QuoteWhat I find fascinating in reading this forum and books is the commonality of experience.
Exactly. It's more common than what people think. :-)
Quote from: Summerlander on May 19, 2011, 14:09:52
Exactly. It's more common than what people think. :-)
Gloaters. I've been working at this for almost a decade and have had a fair share of "weird stuff" but no full on AP session where I can fly and do other neat stuff :( Mode 1 seems to be the coolest. Frolicking around the physical without physical bounds or limitations? Zomg can you say space exploration?!
/sad
Pharoah...cheer up! You can get there. By the way, I think Mode 2 OOBEs are the coolest because:
A) You can see anything your imagination can conceive in a way that excels this reality
B) You seemingly visit the worlds of others
C) Strange entities may be encountered example: hooded figures, clowns, jesters, aliens etc.
D) The apparent contact with dead people where you can get validations (if they are not coincidences or subject to cryptomnesia)
E) When you visit the living you seem to be able to talk to their unconscious selves and they won't be aware of this. This one I love because when you tell them your experience, they usually become perplexed as the OOBE makes more sense to them than us: you either see slightly inaccurate replicas of what they were doing in the physical (which enable you to get the gist), or, you see things which correspond to thoughts that were on their minds at the time (telepathy, that's right). More often than not, you are accurate. This is the real beauty right here! If they are awake and daydreaming or meditating, they may even sense you or feel funny (again experience with someone I visited). If they are asleep and dreaming, your OOBE-state may allow you to enter their dreams.
Now compare it to Mode 1 OOBEs:
Your awareness seemingly remains in the physical realm, or what could be interpreted as an accurate simulation of the waking world upon separation, and, therefore, is able to see the physical body (autoscopy experienced). Sometimes the colours of the physical world will appear duller, as if the world is being observed through a faint mist, and other times the colours will be clear. You can obtain information in the physical realm which was previously unknown to you, or information of events which at the time you couldn't possibly have known about through your physical body. These experiences are shorter than Mode 2 projections and one cannot interact with objects seen.
YOU WANT THIS TO HAPPEN
it has happened every time before I have a successful travel. When I heard these overwhelming noises I try separation and it has never failed me. Voices can be heard too. Just know that you can't get hurt and its all supposed to be mysterious! Keep trying!
Hi Ivy. Welcome.
Don't worry about the nasty things you may see, i got strangled and felt awful things around me when i first started experiencing sleep paralysis, they can never really hurt you , just tell them to bugger off lol they soon get the message whatever they are. Once i got over that fear i started getting these obe's, the only difference is i didn't ask or try at all to have one, i was just dragged into this different reality ( literally ) Now thanks to the kind people on this site i don't feel so afraid or alone. In fact i feel extremely lucky.
So i can't say don't be afraid, as you will be , just say fcuk it and go with it anyway just like most things in life that is the only way forward, the fear will diminish more in time. XD X