A question for Frank

[Stillwater]

I will start out by saying that I have attempted projection off-and-on for about 3 years, as I have found the time. I generally use projection attempts exclusively, as I do not place much credence in the cult surrounding the phenomenon; I have always enjoyed reading Frank's posts, and, as we all now familiar with, his new "dissertations" on the subject, and feel that he may have some insight on this particular situation.

For the most part, I attempt to project in the early morning hours, from what I have read of the conscious state stemming from having slept 7 or so hours, but this attempt came before I went to sleep yesterday; after twenty minutes of trting to relax and staring into the space before my closed eyes, I began to experience intermittent hypnogaugic episodes, some of which would break my concentration, but others of which I would allow to pass; after staring quite deeply into some swirling clouds of dull brown against a black background, I began to have this asymmetric pain around the area surrounding my left temple and the scalp region above, which was light at first, but began to slowly intensify, to the point where it felt as though Evander Holyfield was giving me the death-grip; at this point, which was about two minutes after the pain had begun, I decided that this may be a symptom of projection exit, and that I would endure it if such was necessary- I was aware that the feeling was transient and would subside if I got up, but it soon became too amplified, and as it became the center of my attention, despite my best efforts to avoid concentrating on it, I realized that I had past my threshold, and needed to sit up in bed, which is what I did.

My question for Frank is this: what do you believe was the nature of this powerful and distracting sensation, and what can be done about it? Do you still reccomend merely attempting without relaxation techniques, or prep.? One other issue I had was difficulty in realxing my eyes- ir you had any insight into this problem, I would appreciate advice as well.

Thank you,
Stillwater

[Frank]

Hi:

The imagery you were seeing I would gauge was indicative of you entering or phasing into the Monroe focus 3 state. Hmm, as for the painful feelings that has me stumped, unfortunately. I have never experienced anything like it. I've felt possibly every kind of fear, I've fought all manner of "devils" and "demons" and slayed countless "dragons". I have felt all manner of energetic sensations from the mild to the insanely wild. I have reached heights of elation that I would never have previously thought possible and all manner of sensations besides. But in all my years of attempts I have never felt actual physical pain.

Yours,
Frank

[Stillwater]

Well, this was an isolated incident, and it may be that I never experience such a sensation again- I was merely wondering if this sort of thing was not unheard of, but I thank you for your candid respnse. Did you have any sort  of advice for relaxing nervous eye tension before / during an attempt? I think that is another of my stumbling blocks.