Help needed!: Authentic astral or mere lucid dreaming?

[Stumpy]

Hi,


I've been looking through astral pulse for a couple of weeks now but this is my first post - so hi!

I'm pretty confused, i just experienced something this afternoon which i cant quite put my finger on. It seemed like an OOBE but at the same time i think it might have been just lucid dreaming. I have never had an astral experience but i do get occasional lucids since the start of the year. I hope that more experienced people could tell me what it was exactly.

It went like this: (Read the bolded parts if you don't have attention for the entire recount, although every part is important i think)

It was a lazy afternoon and i was reading a book and fell asleep on my bed. Due to some disturbance, i woke up for a really short while but promptly went back to sleep. I remember going lucid but lucidity was very low and i couldn't really do much in my dream (basically all i knew was that i was dreaming but i cant remember being in any dreamscape)

Here's where it suddenly went interesting - i suddenly felt that i was in my body and i could see the room from my position. My memory is quite fuzzy but i'm pretty damn sure i felt buzzing in my head. The buzzing was not moderately strong but not overpowering, i'm not sure if i experienced bodily vibrations but i think i did, although they were weak and mainly concentrated near the head torso region. My mind was clear and aware of what was happening, i was thinking "woah! am i getting an astral?! keep calm and do not be afraid of any voices!" I was prepared to hear voices and noises but i didn't experience any at all. At this point my vision was filled with orange sparks. Like my whole field of vision was a little orange and huge sparks were flying everywhere - i think they were concentrated at my body though.

Then i tried getting out of my body. I remembered certain techniques like arching out or just sitting up. I tried to sit up but i felt quite a strong sensation of something pulling me back and preventing me from getting out. So i tried arching a bit and using more vigorous movements to get out - again i felt the same resistance and attractive force. I tried and tried to get out and eventually i did.

I was thrilled! My vision was still full of orange sparks though, in the same manner. I walked to my closet and opened it an jumped in and ended up in space filled with countless stars. The orange sparks disappeared but my vision was not at all clear - it seemed like i was looking through frames, like every few miliseconds a white screen will shoot out and fill my whole vision and disappear leaving the stars. (This part make me highly suspicious because i was reading about someone's astral experience in space over here before i fell asleep - so it could just be a dream)

I tried to do some stuff which were largely unsuccessful. I tried to call God and my spirit guides - no one came. I tried to go to the past - nothing happened (i was quite unfocused at that time). Before i could do anything else i THINK i managed to make my vision clearer because i realised i was keeping my eyes open, if i closed my eyes i could see without the frames.

The weird stuff really happened then - i don't know how but i suddenly popped back in my body and the orange sparks and buzzing happened again i tried to float out but was unsuccessful and then the orange and buzzing stopped. I was concious about moving about on the bed but when i really physically woke up i was in my starting position before i fell asleep.

I went to astral pulse signed up and now i'm posting this. I really need your help! Was what i experienced a real authentic astral? If it was how can i make it "clearer"? It felt kind of fuzzy to me and i did not experience any kind of hyper-awareness of any kind.



Thank you!
Sincerely,
Paul 

[Vitruvian]

Hi Stumpy,
I'm a rookie but I'm voting for OBE, as you state you continued to try to move out-of-body and finally secceeded.
Vitruvian

[MinstruelZ]

Hey Stumpy - You should read Frank Kepple's article when you have time. http://www.astralpulse.com/frankkepple.html

It's really long but it's an awesome explanation of how all this theoretically works. It's really made me re-evaluate my concept of... reality, to be honest. From what it sounds like, when you were in the space with stars and frames and all of that, you could have been in between "zones". The way Kepple explains it, and I'm paraphrasing, is that there is an in-between area between your subconscious mind (where lucid dreaming takes place) and the next level of real astral projection. It sounds slightly similar to what you described. Read the article when you have time. It's really extremely interesting.

[Apollon]

Hi Stumpy,

the symptoms you describe are exactly same as the ones I have. Some people describe pulses throuhout the body, i just get the buzzing in my head. Some times i feel weird sences like something touching me, or a slight push. Yesterday night I was chest down on my bed and while i was having the buzzing, i felt like something was pulling me out by my right leg.... weird ha? Then i found myself flying above a coast, in daytime though....

What you described as an attractive force pulling you back when you tried to exit, i used to describe as rubber bands attached on my back, pulling me back because thats how it felt like, like an elastic force. Or some times it feels like you try to "get up" but you feel really exausted and can't make it out.
This phenomenon i believe is caused because you're not completely released from your physical body yet, you should relax a little bit and wait for the buzzing to become a bit stronger (even try to make it stronger yourself) and in a while you'll be gettin up without feeling anything holding you back.
I don't hear voices either, i recall hearing music sometimes.

You must have read my experience in deep space, that alone could have made you travel there while you were out.
As for the orange flashes, i never had those. I either get clear or fuzzy vision, or no vision at all (astral blindness, you feel you're out there moving but you can see nothing).

I think it was definitely an OBE, if it was a lucid dream you'd definitely know it was.

[Prophazuh]

I would say you went OOB because I find there are similarities between your experience and some of my experiences. If you want it to be more clear, just state an affirmation like, "I can see perfectly clear" over and over again.

[Stumpy]

Hi,

Thanks all for helping! Seems like i almost made it to the astral plane, can't wait to really get there. It felt like a lucid turned astral turned lucid actually. I read Frank Kepple, REALLY INTERESTING STUFF, thanks.

Apollon: Do you think it means anything if we don't experience the vibrations or sounds as fully as others?

Everyone: How long does your astral normally last? Can it be prolonged?

[Apollon]

Apollon: Do you think it means anything if we don't experience the vibrations or sounds as fully as others?

Everyone: How long does your astral normally last? Can it be prolonged?

Maybe the kind of separation symptoms someone has, has to do with the level of awareness his consciousness has accieved so far.
What i can tell you from my own experience is that my symptoms have changed through time, they're different now compared to what they were 8 months ago. They seem to be getting milder the more experiences i have, i remember the buzzing to be much more intense back then.
Maybe it has something to do with Chakras activation, the more activeted the are, the easier it is to separate from your physical body.

The Gnostic movement supports that these voices shouting/screaming (or calling your name) sometimes scary, are actually your own egos manifesting. So if that is to be true, i can understand why some people hear them more and others less or not at all. I don't recall ever hearing voices but 2-3 times i got up really scared because i thought i could hear someone's breath right behind me.... i also heard meowing once and there is no cat in the vicinity.

Maybe someone can shed some light on that one.

My astral experiences do not last very long, they seem to be getting longer and more clear, the more experiences i have.
Astral experiences can be prolonged by trying to stay focused thus conscious in the astral. When you feel like loosing it, there are several methods to avoid waking up. One I've tried once or twice is rubbing your (astral) palms to each other or spinning around yourself. I don't know why but this seem to work.
I've heard that getting hold of something also works, or focusing on an object.

[Stumpy]

Hi,

Thanks Apollon, I always thought that the more vibrations you got the better it was since everyone is trying to "increase their vibrations". I'm glad i didn't get voices on my first OBE, would really freak me out. (can't believe i actually had one! ) I have been trying to enter from 3D blackness but either i get too tired and fall asleep or i can't relax my mind enough and too many images will swarm the area.I'll try stepping in the next time and not just grabbing the images, although most of the time they are just objects.

That sounds like the tricks used to increase lucidity - are you similarly good at lucid?
I'll try those when i actually REALLY get into focus 3 (cant wait!!!)

thanks

[Apollon]

I don't have many lucid dreams, very rarely. Yes these are actually technics to increase lucidity in lucid dreams but if you think of it, dreams are no more than unconscious astral projections (lucid dreams are conscious) so the same rules should apply.

[Stumpy]

Hi all,

I just had my second OBE! This time i tried to induce it myself

I was lying on my bed trying to see 3D darkness, for some reason it wasn't as clear or focused as last time and it was more brownish than black but there were many images most of which i couldnt really distinguish. I got really sleepy without focusing on any particular images and without any warning, i simply floated out of my body horizontally. There were no buzzing, no sleep paralysis and no rubber bands this time, it felt really gentle like i was being carried away by many hands supporting my astral self (like gentle bodysurfing on top of a crowd). It felt like i was being carried from my bed to my window because i couldn't see. Unlike before, i had astral blindness and i had voices in my ear for a short while - many different voices shouting "YES!""YES! "YES!" cause i was finally going to astral.

The hands moved me out of my room and i was telling myself "i want to see, i want to see" and then i started to see but i wasn't in RTZ. I think i was in Focus 2, the lucid dreaming area. I saw on a rope suspended over a great grassy mountainous area with a rusty big wooden house in the distance. I clung on the rope and moved along it i wanted to try flying but i didn't dare for fear i would fall. Eventually i went so low that there was a outcrop of land i could stand on, i remembered a bush there. Forgot to rub my hands and then i suddenly lost lucidity and i saw blackness and a page of handwritten words slowly being covered by darkness and then a drawing of a face then covered by darkness. Poof, i was back in my body. It was terribly short

I'm pretty sure that i "went out of my body" but i didn't reach the astral plane, rather i was in my own dreamscape. What do you think? Could i have reached the astral? Have any of you been to such a place? What are the surest ways to know where you really are and how do i switch from lucid to astral?

Thanks

[Apollon]

One way to know is to meet other people and talk to them. If their responses are like those given by real people in the physical, then you were probably in focus 3.

[Stumpy]

Whatever it was, it ended to fast for me to find anyone or ask anyone :O