wintermute,
I can't help much with the shadow thing. I have never experienced anything quite like that. I did want to say welcome to the boards though.
Happy Travels,
D.C.
you were almost out.. you wern't fully awakened though.. that shadow which you saw is your ego. (we are many) as you go into the astral more and more you start to notice that right before you leave.. your body sometimes if you listen closely you'll here screems/screeches or even your face tingling.. Trying to make you lose focus.. not allowing you to leave.. its a negative entity which lives inside all of us.. "unless you have gone through the great work". Keep trying.. the trick.. is to use a conjuration.. then you'll be able to leave.. .
This is my first post here so... hi. I'm relatively new to the whole OOB/Astral thing, but I've been experimenting with it for the past few months. I've only recently been able to get all the way out of my body (for the first couple months I would get an arm or a leg out, and then get stuck). But anyways, during my last experience, when I was first getting out, I was laying on my belly and noticed that the lower half of my body was floating out at an angle (with my feet up in the air). I remember looking around, though not with my physical eyes, and on the wall I saw a shadow of my legs in the air. There wasn't much light in the room, so I'm not sure how this shadow appeared. It wasn't like a normal shadow, either. It looked like it was constantly shifting... reminded me kind of how shadows look in certain computer games, where they're constantly re-rendering and shifting. Has anybody else ever had an experience where they've seen their own shadow in the astral?