Returning to my practices

[AstralBeginnings]

Hello all,

Over the last year or so my AP practices have waned due to setting up a business, working on it and also being too distracted in other areas of my life (unfortunately).

Anyway, now that my business is becoming stable I want desperately to begin...hopefully where I had left off...however that is not the case.

Let me explain what I concluded about AP when I was practicing last time (fairly successfully)....

To me, projection is more than a set of instructions and methods, much like ANYTHING we learn.  For example, the first time we drive a car (I drive only manual cars) we are told how to operate the clutch in order to engage the gears at the correct time (sorry if this analogy is lost on those who drive automatics!).  These are simple instructions and are 100% correct.  But until you get a FEEL for how the clutch works and the gears engage, it is not as simple as the actual words used to describe it.  You may manage to do it partially correct and you can drive, but its normally jerky at first.  To use a more universal analogy, it is the same as playing the guitar.  You are shown the chords and the order in which they need to be played, but while I knew chords almost immediately, it took a while to get the FEEL and play a passable song.

For me it was the same with projection.  I was given methods and the methods are correct, but at first nothing worked.  It all came down to getting that FEEL for it.

Now I have restarted my practices, that FEELING has gone.  I am doing exactly the same technique as I used to, but its not working.  The feelings I obtained last time have vanished and I feel I am at square one again.  Now when I try to project I keep hitting road blocks.  For example, previously when I hit a certain stage (lets use noticing for example) I had the feelings required to stop myself from bouncing myself back to physical reality.  I could notice the state I was in in a passive manner and progress to the next stage, now I just bounce back. 

After re-reading this I cant recall the purpose of this post, however I would like to point out to people trying to project for the first time, or indeed repeat their sporadic projections, that the secret lies not in performing the technique(s) correctly, but reaching the point where you put it all together as a feeling.  I see alot of posts along the lines of "I am lying there, breathing correctly, relaxed, mind awake body asleep but nothing happens" etc.  I would say to these people, stop focusing on the act of DOING, but to change your way of thinking to the act of feeling.  Now when I drive my car I do EVERYTHING that was was told to do when I started, yet now I dont DO it, I just feel it.

I remember once when I asked my dad when he was driving "why did you just press the clutch just there?" and he replied "I dont know, I didnt realise I did".  Now I do the same thing when driving - I dont DO the technique of driving, I just do it as instinct, as a feeling.  The same applies to projection (in my opinion). 

I find experienced projectors try to explain the steps they take (which are correct) but often they dont convey the feeling aspect, because they dont even notice they are doing it, much like my dad when he was driving.  I personally felt the same, I didnt realise I had simply merged the technique into a ball of feeling, rather than steps in a process.  It is only now that I cannot project anymore that I realise the missing link is simply that I have lost the merging of the technique into a feeling and have been doing it as a process.

I recall the posts of Frank Kepple when he states that he doesnt DO any technique, it just happens (or something along those lines) - I think this is the key!

Anyway, sorry to go on, I just wanted to share my observations in this respect and I hope that this can help people trying to succeed (me included!).

[Xanth]

You'll get the hang of it again.   

As for the "feeling" aspect of it, you're 100% correct. 

I think the "feeling" aspect is one of those personally, unique things that you need to happen across on your own.  It's part of finding your path to the top of the mountain.

[daytona955]

Good luck! I'm sure it won't take you long to find your rhythm again. If I haven't played the guitar for a couple of months I sometimes struggle a little, but after a while it all comes flooding back. It's just that I'm a little rusty, I haven't forgotten.