Newbie with a couple of general questions

[zephyr01]

Hi all.  I'm just sort of getting started in this and had a couple of questions that I can't seem to find answers to, and was wondering if anyone here could help.

1)  How long does projection usually take you to accomplish after lying down?  Everything I read says the same general steps, "Relax your body, then concentrate on something / do your exercise to try to exit your body" but I'm trying to get a feel for a timeline.  Is there a certain point where you should just call it quits and try again later if you haven't succeeded?  Or, if you have the time available, should you stick with it, even if you might be lying still for hours?

2)  Are "guided" audio files or "binaural beats" or "isochronic tones" considered useful?   Either to follow through entirely with them, or I've read some people listen to them for a bit before lying down to sort of get their mind set on what they're going to do, and then turn them off before they lie down?  If you listen to them throughout practicing, what sort of audio level do you listen to them at?  I'm sure this will be subjective, and individual preference, but I'd still like to hear anything about members' experiences with them.

3)  Sometimes my environment can be kind of noisy and distracting, and I have noise-canceling ear muffs that can get rid of it pretty well.  Does anyone have any experience using these while practicing?  I'm wondering mainly if they would be beneficial or detrimental, if I should just learn to tune out the audible distractions or if I should just use them.

4)  Is there an active astral projection IRC channel?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. 

[Xanth]

I'll just quickly run through these. 

1) It takes however long it takes.  As for when you stop, it's a "feeling" thing.  If you feel you won't make anymore headway, then by all means stop wasting your time.  Hehe

2)  Binaural Beats and the like are perfectly fine to use.  Very useful.

3)  Noise cancelling head phones are great if you're in a noisey environment and can't tune it out.  No issues there, as long as you're comfortable.

4)  IRC, yup.  Head over to my website (link in my sig) and click the IRC link near the top of my page.  There are usually several people in there who can help you.