Hi! New and Hopeful

[AstralHopeful]

Hello... I am new here. And I basically stumbled upon Astral Projection on accident, honestly. As part of my religion, I was online looking up ways to get rid of certain things. And on one of these pages, i saw the words "astral projection". I'd heard of it, but never really read into it. None of my friends knew about it. So I read up on it. And I have been practicing for a month since. I have no idea how long it's supposed to take, but i don't think a conscious OBE is the way to go for me. Last night, I felt something new. The only way i know to describe it is like you're floating on your back or on a floaty or something of that nature and you're in the middle of the ocean, yeah? And i could feel the waves. That's the main thing. My friend, who'd I'd say is very spiritually inclined, has done this so many times. She has timed herself doing it, as well. Well, she had persister do it and take a video. It took her seven minutes. Which i though was amazing. So basically, the point of this is to say hi and maybe i'm asking for exit techniques or how to see? I read the Beginner's List and it didn't tell me anything truly new... Or should i go to a different forum? I'm just confused and my friend can't seem to help me. please and thank you.

[EscapeVelocity]

Welcome to the Pulse!

Everything you need to learn is out there, and it is also here, you just need to spend some time searching for it; and quite honestly, wherever you choose to search for it, the truth will take some time to find.

Some people can project the first time they try, some within minutes; the vast majority of the rest of us, it takes weeks, months...even years.

Practically speaking... you need to look for the particular exit technique that might work for you...and for most of us that is late in the night or early in the morning, after several hours of sleep, where the physical body is still tired, but the mind is strong enough to resist the pull of sleep and can remain aware while the body slides back off into sleep...you should be looking for that opportunity that presents itself when your consciousness recognizes when it can be seperate from its physical...this takes some experimentation and may require some pre-programming such as affirmations stating your desires for an OBE.

You might also look for opportunities within your dreams and becoming aware, taking control and then moving on from there: this is a Lucid Dream.

[AstralHopeful]

Thank you for welcoming me. I've had Lucid Dreams before, but they're rare. However, i am finding it easier to remember my dreams. I hope i can use that to eventually have a LD. I hear the experience of projecting from a Lucid Dream is not quite the same as projecting from 'mind awake, body asleep'. Would you say that's true?

[EscapeVelocity]

Is the Lucid Dream projection different from the MABA Mind Awake, Body Asleep projection?

They can be different but not necessarily; it depends a great deal on your expectations and possibly somewhat dependent on the energy or level of consciousness you have available for the experience; the specifics of these issues varies according to opinion.

At least initially, the difference seems to be between what is regarded as an Etheric/RTZ projection and what is known as the Astral/Phasing projection...they are distinctly different from one another...and that's where further discussion begins...as well as the disagreements...lol.

Without typing it out all over again, this discussion can get you started... http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_members_introductions/hello_from_switzerland-t45993.0.html

Any questions from this point, please feel free to ask...it gets a bit technical and hard to describe properly until you experience some of it for yourself...the Dream Journal is likely the best place to start, by recording your own journey...then you will begin to see what matches up with what...

[AstralHopeful]

EscapeVelocity, i thank you very kindly for sharing that information. a Dream Journal does seem ideal and i have one. it's just that i hardly ever remember my dreams. by the time i have the journal in my hand, it's gone. the only thing i remember from a recent dream was a name which turned out to be a famous photographer in Maine. Anyway, before i read the conversation you graciously supplied me with, i tried once again to project. I could feel my non-physical body when i tried to leave. nothing new there. eventually, i lost the connection and gave up. i find it very frustrating that i'm so in touch with most things spiritually but i cannot achieve this. i know it takes time and patience, but i have very small windows for trying to project.
I believe that when i was younger, around the age of seven or eight, i accidently had an OBE. I had no idea what was going on. I also believe that i was attacked by some malevolent spirit. It held me firm and i felt like i was choking. i dismissed it as a reoccurring nightmare. it happened three times. before those dreams, i never had any kind of breathing issue. shortly afterwards, i developed sports-induced asthma. not very serious, but still. I think the fact that i can remember those dreams so well is subconsciously affecting my attempts to exit. i'm not afraid of it anymore. but i guess that deep down, i still am? i dunno.
I don't know what it's supposed to feel like. how do the visual, touching, and other senses work on the Plain? it's a wonder to me. And my friend can't describe it to me. That's another thing. i have grown very frustrated over this repetitive failing that i think i'm not supposed to accomplish it. i go in to an attempt with a level head. maybe i'm not allowed to for some reason. it could be my age. i'm still young. that doesn't mean i'm foolish, though. and the only reason i think to try anymore is to be with that person on the Plain. My emotions for them are very... complex. and i hardly get to see them anymore.
I'm sorry for such a long post, but these are the majority of my concerns and doubts. i figure you may be able to help me with some of them. if you can't i understand. it's a lot. thanks for reading this. and anyone else who feels that they can help me is more than welcome to talk as well. thank you. and again: sorry. this is long and messy.

[Lumaza]

EscapeVelocity, i thank you very kindly for sharing that information. a Dream Journal does seem ideal and i have one. it's just that i hardly ever remember my dreams. by the time i have the journal in my hand, it's gone.

I am happy to see that EscapeVelocity gave you a link to that fantastic answer that he previously gave to another member here. That answer was excellent and in my opinion is deserving of a copy and paste with the end location being a Sticky on this Forum.

Now, to your above quote on Dream Journals. As with everything in this practice, intent is the driving force behind success. Create a intent, as in a nightly affirmation to remember your dreams. You can make that affirmation as simple or complexed as you wish. Use it every night, no skipping or laziness allowed here. Pretty soon you will find that you have very clear recall of almost all of your dreams. You may find that at first you only remember a few key words, but pretty soon that will become pages of info. This works so well that after awhile you have to change you affirmation to only be remembering your "last" Dream, because you will find yourself waking up many times a night after almost every dream you have.

Then comes the fun part, which is becoming a active conscious participant in these dreams. Once this begins to happen you will see "Dreaming" in a whole new light.

[EscapeVelocity]

AstralHopeful,
  You are quite welcome. You may be young but you ask intelligent, thoughtful, reasonable questions that display wisdom and a natural, spiritual curiosity that would not exist within you unless you were ready and capable of learning from these experiences; so don't think that some one or thing is purposely holding you back. This is not easy stuff to figure out and at times can be pretty frustrating; it is actually challenging us to think and act in new ways and on many internal levels; and we are all at different points along the Path, helping each other along.

Regarding demons, devils and malevolent spirits/entities. I won't say that they are not out there, I honestly don't know enough to make a blanket statement on such a subject. What I DO know is that I have been projecting since I was a child and easily could have been "gobbled up" in the wilds of the Astral many times, but wasn't. With that said, I have run into some nasty entities and situations that left me wondering, sometimes for years...but with further education I have come to realize that these were all self-induced and self-created entities and situations. Creations of my subconscious fears, possibly thought-forms that have some kind of sustainability or short-term lifespan...indeed these things scared the crap out of me at the time...but eventually I came to understand the mental/energetic environments in which they could manifest and the simple mental attitude that would make them lose power and dissolve. One of many learning experiences.

One of the primary mental/energetic environments where these "nasty" events commonly occur is known as Sleep Paralysis. It is a normal physical condition that happens as we shift in between REM sleep periods several times a night. Most times we are completely unaware of it but if we manage to gain some degree of conscious awareness we can inadvertantly set off our subconscious fears which can manifest in varied and cleverly-nasty ways. This is what I strongly believe you encountered as a child with the malevolent spirit that held you firm and gave you choking sensations; those are two of the classic and most common symptoms. I had the same thing happen to me, both as a child and later as an adult many times. Believe me when I say that I have a really good idea of what you went through and how terrifying it can be.

Go onto Wikipedia and search the terms Sleep Paralysis and Night Hag and you will see how prevalent this issue is around the world.

Sleep Paralysis (whether you feel the paralysis or not) can be turned to your favour and used as a launching ramp into the Non-Physical. Your body is completely asleep and you have awareness, MABA. The difficulty is keeping your composure as you first gain conscious awareness; it is so easy  for the initial shock of awareness to become overwhelming fear and there is somehow some energetic component that magnifies the fear beyond belief and to take many unknown forms; maybe it is the neurological explanation of the mid-brain being over-stimulated...all I know is that when SP catches me off-guard, it can still get ugly, LOL.

Then again, my SP hallucinations have sometimes been almost playfully humorous and ironic...I sometimes come aware that a little blonde girl resembling Alice in Wonderland is standing at the foot of my bed smiling knowingly at me...and I have barely a moment to realize that I am headed back "down the rabbit hole"...

I will tackle one of your other questions (how does an OBE "feel"?) in a day or so, but for now my own experience tells me to finish with this-

We are both protected and guided by outside forces when we choose to venture into the NP with some degree of balance and responsibilty and respect for the environment around us. We are pushed, sometimes to stretch our limits beyond what we thought possible, but it is always within our ability.

It is always worth the effort and usually incredible.

[AstralHopeful]

Thanks! About sleep paralysis; i've tried to induce it. i've heard, as you said, it can drastically help with exiting the body. i know it can use visual terrors that everyone i've read about claims to be "one of the most scary experiences out there." i figure that to be true. now, my problem is not fighting the fear that comes with sleep paralysis, it is inducing it. i have reached stages in a 'meditative state' that i thought were sleep paralysis. however, if i tried hard enough (which wasn't really that hard) i could move my body. this resulted in losing my concentration and having to start from scratch. my ideal process would be preemptive meditation, actual meditation, sleep paralysis, attempt to exit. i never really reach the third stage and skip to the fourth because the third isn't necessary, but recommended. so many problems. haha!

[EscapeVelocity]

Okay, that gives me a clearer picture and I'll offer a few more personal ideas for you to consider:

1 If your dream recall is poor, then any improvement you make there will benefit all your other OBE activities and should be one of your primary efforts. It can be improved dramatically within a week or two with the daily use of affirmations and use of a dream journal. Your dreams are taking place within Non-Physical Reality; your dream self/personality that you currently have little memory of, IS the self/personality that you are trying to activate/wake-up during your OBE projection attempts (at least for purposes of our current discussion). If you have experienced the strong, fully-conscious awareness of a lucid dream then you already have an idea of the nature of your NP Personality and as well, the "feel" of a Phasing-type of OBE.

2 Making a conscious exit, whether through meditation, trancework, MABA or Sleep Paralysis -This appears to be very difficult early on for most of us; I know of more women who can do it than men, but still, it is such a small percentage. For the rest of us, the timing of our attempts is crucial...and that usually means having had a prior period of sleep, maybe an hour or 2 or 3 or 4...and then settling down and giving it a try; this rest period varies from person to person and day to day but it provides an opportunity for the partially-rested physical body to slide back off into sleep while your consciousness remains aware or maybe with just a brief transitional dislocation. For me, my best time is early in the morning, after 3-5 hours of sleep. Early on it would take me 40 minutes to an hour if something was going to happen...lately, when conditions are right, I can spot a portal and transition within a few minutes...but even now I have no guaranty of success on a given attempt. Other than this, I look for opportunities wherever and whenever they may occur: early morning, middle of the night bathroom breaks, afternoon naps...

* I would not focus at all on getting into SP...it's way too much of a focus on your physical body, which is exactly what you are aiming to avoid. If you find yourself in between dream sequences, and in SP, then fine...be aware of it, control your fear and try for an exit...it's just one more of a variety of exit opportunities...but don't get hung up on searching for it...this is what is partly defeating your 'meditative states and making you start from scratch'...that's okay, you learn from it and adjust your approach...there are better opportunities available to you *

3 You asked about the "feel" of an OBE and what you can expect. Actually, I think there are enough different kinds of OBEs or NP Experiences that the answer can take many forms and draw a good number of opinions. Deserves its own thread and eventually a sticky...
You already know the "feel" of the first type of OBE, that of your dream self...
Good question.

EV

[AstralHopeful]

Thank you, EV. You've been of much help to me. i don't want to keep pestering about my every problem. Some of them can only be figured out by myself. Over the last six days, i have been keeping a dream journal. i have remembered snd written down a sentence or two for each dream. so far, i've only remembered four out of seven. and again, thank you very much for all of the assistance you've given me. i appreciate it!