Book for Beginners?

[Chase]

Hello, I just recently got interested in Astral Projection. I have tried to AP within these past 4 nights and I seem to be having trouble getting into/understanding the vibrational state and sleep paralysis. I want to buy 1 book (I'm a minimalist.) that will help me achieve AP. I found 'Mastering Astral Projection: 90-day Guide to Out-of-Body Experience' by Robert Bruce and Brian Mercer online and I can get it on amazon new for $15.99. Is this a reccomended book for success starting at the zero experience level? Could I possibly have my first AP experience within 30 days or is it too much reading? Also for those that have read it what kind of format is it in? How many pages is it (and the print size)? Is it an easy read with definitions or are there too many technical terms? Any other info you could give me or even an additional recommendation on a straight forward book would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Volgerle]

this helped me a lot to my first OBE, I had my first intentional one 2-3 weeks after finishing it, but it is not solely on techniques, he also writes on his experiences (how he came to it) and some theories, still it was perfect for me to have success

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Beyond-Body-Out---Body/dp/0062513710/

[Bedeekin]

I have said it before and I'll say it again...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39504726/Phasing_Primer.pdf

This is an excellent 101 with basic and what you need to know for further exploration. It's worth printing off as a hard copy.

[Szaxx]

A condensed method on this site.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_astral_consciousness/the_astral_blueprint-t38729.0.html

Enjoy.

[ChopstickFox]

*snatch* >_>

[eskimoswim]

this helped me a lot to my first OBE, I had my first intentional one 2-3 weeks after finishing it, but it is not solely on techniques, he also writes on his experiences (how he came to it) and some theories, still it was perfect for me to have success

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Beyond-Body-Out---Body/dp/0062513710/

i can't recommend this book enough. it was the first one i ever read. Buhlman's writing is very informative, yet easy to read. He gets the reader very excited about OBEs, which i feel is important. a year after reading, i'm still not an expert or even an intermediate in AP; however, i started having interesting experiences as soon as i made it half way through this book.

i think beginners should avoid Robert Bruce's work. Though Astral Dynamics is very informative, it's kind of a mess and is a very dry read (like a college text book). in the revised version, i felt like he kept repeating himself and took every opportunity to shamelessly plug/promote another one of his books. he did not get me excited about OBEs, he actually made me more afraid to leave my body due to how many negatives situations and consequences he described.

just my opinion!

[Astralsuzy]

I did not like the book 'Mastering Astral Projection: 90-day Guide to Out-of-Body Experience' by Robert Bruce and Brian Mercer.  We are all different.  Some people like it and some people do not.  I did not like the energy raising as I thought it was a waste of time.  You can ap without doing energy raising or whatever you call it.  I threw the book out.  You do not need to learn from a book to ap.  You can learn to do it yourself.  Learn to mediate, relax yourself, put your mind to it that you will relax and you will succeed and do an ap technique. 
There is nothing else to it.  You have to keep practicing.  Practice makes perfect.  All the reading in the world may not help you to ap.  A lot of people write a book when there is nothing much too it.  Some try to make it complicated.  Perhaps it sounds better.  I did not learn from a book.   I learnt myself.  I read ap books for fun and I might pick up a good idea.  You can learn and get good ideas from this forum. 

[Bluefirephoenix]

RB is writing from experience but I think he's probably a better mystic than writer and that's why your seeing the rehashing of the same material. Astral Dynamics was a good book but he hasn't really improved on it since then.. it's an easy trap to fall into. Frank's work which is on this site is by far the best writing I've seen on the subject. The next best comes from a place you guys would probably never suspect and that is a small book on scrying by Donald Tyson. I don't think it's in print anymore .. at least not in English, then Ben Rowe's essay on scrying which is a shorter version of the same. I realize some of you may not understand the relationship between scrying and astral projection but if you get into actually doing the material the two are the same thing just done in different ways. The ritual magician's goal is to be able to do this at any time in any place without regard to external circumstances. It requires disciplined practice. Alister Crowley also wrote a bit about it. He uses the term soul travel.  If you ever read the diaries of the Elizabethian Mage John Dee, his scryer would work at 12 hour stretches at times with this. This suits me far more than the hit or miss dependent on a sleep cycle work you commonly see in the modern literature. It's going more for an experience rather than a learned skill.  I find Crowlies recommendations as to yogic preparations to be a bit excessive and I think he was at least exagerating if not being humerous about some of the things he put into writing in Liber ABA. However, he does give you an idea as to the kind of work it takes to master these skills. I don't agree with the innumerable authors that take the stand that there are significant dangers out there. Frank's view that most if not all the demons encountered are in fact thought forms created by the person in a projected state is accurate. I've proven this and with practice have been able to sense and cut off thought forms developing from negative emotions even in the waking state.  That has proven to be a most useful skill, especially in my work which is stressful and often I'm running into very negative people and situations which generate intense and often very negative emotions.  ( palliative care nursing)  Franks writing in that regard has been by far the most effective tool in coping with work stress and even though we had a very difficult holiday I found that I was affected much less by learning to recognize the thoughtforms as they develop and cutting them off before they can adversely affect me. Campbell is also good but he is very hard to listen to he's kinda windy and dry as a speaker.
Donald wrote on soul travel as well and has extensive experience with meditation and consciousness practices. I like the scrying book better than the soul travel but both are good reads. The classics are worth reading but keep in mind there is no danger unless you decide to create it for your own entertainment or to support your belief system. The hardest part for me is the transition at phasing level 21 where I'm finding my conscious mind wanting to fade at that point instead of maintaining lucidity. I've progressed though to being able to recognize where I'm at and what the problem is. Addressing it will be a matter of continued practice. yes I get a lucid experience and they're becoming more frequent but as I said this is a skill. I'm not satisfied with an occasional nightly excursion. It's a skill that my goal is to be able to execute at any time of day in less than perfect situations. For this it's going to take more work and undoing 50 years of habit.

[Stookie_]

I can relate with everything Bluefirephoenix said.

[Bedeekin]

i can also... apart from the focus level thing... which I don't really know of nor took the time to understand... and subsequently have never suffered from 'level 21 non-progression syndrome'.

All the books I have read on OOBEs were read 10 or so into my own 'self discovery' and was very familiar with the nonphysical already. This being the case I have only skimmed through a few books. Monroe's first being the main one and Oliver Fox's book. These are the only books I have read solidly.

I flicked through Astral Dynamics but threw it down after the first section of properly reading it.

I don't feel the need to read any books about it because they seem to be anecdotal with a bit of belief-centricity thrown in for good measure.

[Barnowl]

I have said it before and I'll say it again...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39504726/Phasing_Primer.pdf

This is an excellent 101 with basic and what you need to know for further exploration. It's worth printing off as a hard copy.

Looks great...I'm going to check it out

Thanks for sharing

[Barnowl]

Just finished reading...

BRILLIANT BOOK



God bless you for this...that and William Burlham, and I've got this sussed;-)

[Xanth]

Just finished reading...

BRILLIANT BOOK



God bless you for this...that and William Burlham, and I've got this sussed;-)

Thank you Barnowl!

If you have any advise on anything that you might have felt confusing or required a bit more clarification, please do let me know!
I'm always looking to improve on my eBook. 

[enlightnd]

I have said it before and I'll say it again...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39504726/Phasing_Primer.pdf

This is an excellent 101 with basic and what you need to know for further exploration. It's worth printing off as a hard copy.

Just over half way threw, this is a GREAT read! Love the style in which its been written some very helpful exercises and nice easy reading,
I Like the part about being lucid and realising then the questions to ask yourself to improve the grip on the non physical.

1. "Where am I?"
2. "Where am I going?"
3. "How did I get here?" and
4. "What am I doing?"

Thats great!