My first experience

[quickfix]

Yesterday morning I woke up dazed and confused, my alarm clock stared harassing me at 7am. After a few minutes rolling around in bed trying to figure out what the hell is happening I suddenly remember "Oh that's right, I'm supposed to attempt Astral Projection!"

You see. I'm working graveyard shift as a cook and I rarely get out of bed before twelve o'clock, so that's why I couldn't figuring out what was going on. I don't know if this is an common technique while attempting AP, but I remember it from the times when I was reading about Lucid Dreaming: If you wake yourself up after a couple of hours of sleep "waking" your mind up and go back to sleep it's easier to be aware of yours dreams.

So I decide to try it out and I'm actually pretty alert for just waking up. So I'm lying down straight in my bed relaxing my muscles starting from my feet and going upwards. After maybe 15 minutes I'm starting to feel "the blanket" resting upon me. And i understood that this is the sleep paralysis, witch is the first step to go into AP if I'm correct? And at this point my mind is raging, really stressed up. It's the first time I feel this way and my mind goes "holy excrement, holy excrement, I'ts working". My mind continues to put on labels everything that's happening and I'm keep thinking "Is this right, is this wrong? Am I'm supposed to think like this or this?". And I'm thinking alot on writing this post.

And I understand this is WRONG. I haven't read much about AP, but I have been doing meditation and experimenting with LSD before, and I know the key is: Acceptance. don't label and don't judge. Turn of your mind and float downstream. Enter "No mind". Is this correct for AP as well? And I realized this while lying in my bed, that thinking is working against me. So I had to constantly remind myself to just.... Enjoy. And every time I entered that zone I notice that I would travel further. But as further I would get the more my mind wanted to label, to explain and put words to it. But I guess this is common. And with practice the mind will be better at letting go?

After a while I have to roll over. My back is  hurting to much and I can't stand it. I read that it's natural for the body wanting to move, and this is some kind of mechanism that should be ignored. But at this point, it's really hurting. So I have to roll over, and i fall asleep..(not remembering any dreams).

At 10am I'm waking up again and thinking that I will give it another shot. I laid down straight and relaxed. I felt the blanket yet again, but this time ALOT more heavier than before, this time I could almost not move, I could if I wanted to but it was really heavy. So that's another question, are you totally numb under a successful sleeping paralysis? I also felt my "aura" resting upon me.

After a while, it seemed to become brighter before my eyelids, as if there would be someone in my room dimmer the light up, at first I thought it was the sun, but it couldn't. And then I notice a small round spot before my eyes were blinking, but very very unclear and almost impossible to see, I've heard this might be my third eye? But I don't know, It was upon my eyelids and not in my "mind" and that's another question, should you focus on lights etc that occurs upon your eyes or should you just ignore them?

After a while, my back start hurting like hell again and I have to roll over, so i fall sleep again. And that's my story. Is this on the right track?

[jkjk8991]

Sounds like youre on the right track. I'd suggest keeping a dream journal to help remember your dreams, it'll also help remembering APs as well. Youre definitely correct in trying not to label things. You sort of want to passively observe what is happening, thinking, "huh, what is this, or what is that?" never really saying "oh that is such and such." Sleep paralysis at its finest I've felt is basically like many describe, a lead blanket. I feel its like, you possibly could move, but it would be very difficult, and you simply dont want to haha. Next time instead of labeling things just forget about everything, and let your mind wander kind of, while remaining conscious of course. And yes, your body will want to move, its sort of testing whether the brain is asleep, if you move then the body part knows not to fall asleep, if you don't, the body part will then fall asleep. Just keep practicing man, sounds like great progress, it takes a little time to get the feel for it, and the more attempts you make the better and better you'll become at achieving your goals.
Best of luck to you!

[SirMike]

As for the back problem, it seems that's not your method of choice when you sleep, if not then you should use what ever method you use for sleep.. just don't fall asleep! You want to be as comfortable as possible when doing astral projections, or lucid dreaming for that matter!

As for the third eye, focus on that "dot" or what ever it is,  keep focusing on it you will notice that it will try and lose your attention by moving around and displaying images as distractions, if you keep focusing on the "dot" you will most likely astral project!  And also try and meditate before sessions , if binural beats helps try that (remember that 4-7 Hz is the best for entering the Theta State, so look for something like that)! It will make it much easier to go into SP!

I use breath counting, meaning I count my breathes usually to 130-150 and then that's when I can no longer feel my body 

If you want to breath count just do (inhale) 1 (exhale) 1 (every inhale is basically a new number so breath in 1 breath out 1 breath in 2 breath out 2 and so on). Wish you luck! 

You want to meditate because it will help you focus on one thing and one thing only, so that's why breath counting will help you not label things and give them explanations because you will be too busy focusing on your breathing!

But you are on your way , you just have to get rid of the labeling! (if the posture you lucid dream or AP is making your back hurt than its time to change postures lol)