First Projection

[nickracer]

Hello I am very new to astral projection.  I read a lot about it and I've been trying to do it.  Well, this morning when I tried I feel like I did.  I stayed as relaxed as I could.  I felt some sort of vibration throughout my body and I felt myself lift out of my body.  It was the most serene feeling I've ever experienced.  After I got up and left my bed I turned around and my body was no longer there!  After a few moments of looking around my room I felt myself coming in contact with my body and I was awake.  Why wasn't my body there when I looked at my bed??  Did I really have an AP or was it a dream?? If anyone could give me their advice on the experience I would greatly appreciate it.

[nickracer]

No one can give me their opinion on my experience?

[kiwibonga]

You had an OBE polluted by the subconscious (which is usually dismissed as a lucid dream -- lucid dreams are OBEs).

In the astral, all your subconscious thoughts (fears, emotions, doubts, etc) will tend to materialize. The most concrete example is flying: if you try to fly through a strong desire to get to a destination, you will be successful, but if you fly just for the heck of seeing if you can actually fly, your doubts will hold you back and you will be unable to lift yourself from the ground.

I guess you probably came to the conclusion that if you could see your physical body it would confirm that you exited it, and doubt made it look like it wasn't there. It could also simply be because you are so used to seeing the bed empty once you've gotten up in the morning, you re-enacted something familiar.

The trick is to remain passive-minded for everything that involves perceptions, to teach yourself not to expect things, and to be active only when you want to perform actions. In other words, "see but don't look."

[nickracer]

Thanks for the reply.  Is my description of a serene feeling something that goes along with the experience ussually??  This is all very new to me.

[WarpedReality]

It depends. When you got out of your body, were you in a different house or environment? That usually indicates a wake-induced lucid dream. However, if you were in your house and the only difference was that your body was not there, then congrats! You made it to the real time zone (RTZ) and your subconscious kept your body from appearing. Learn to tame that beast.

Kiwibonga brings up a very widely held view that lucid dreams are actually OBE. However, I tend to disagree. At best, they are a heavily influenced subconscious focus level. At worst, its all in there --->  

[nickracer]

I was in my bedroom.  The only difference was my body was not there.  Thanks for the clarification!!!