New to the site/ OBE basics...

[Tisha]

Yellowsubmarine, 3 weeks is actually a very short time to be practicing!!!!!!!!!!!  Some practice for years before seeing results but I promise you, it's worth it.

The "wavy" feeling that you are experiencing is a good sign, a sign that your astral body is starting to separate.  The trick is to keep your stomach settled []and stay calm.  This might take awhile to get the hang of, just like it took you awhile to learn how to clear your mind.

Then, comes the really tricky problem, staying aware and detached at the same time.  It's quite a balancing act and it takes a lot of practice.  If you're tired, it's easy to fall asleep at this point, so make sure you're always well rested before you try to project.

have fun and good luck!

[Graupel]

When you try to balance your mental state so you remain in the mind awake / body asleep state, what can you do to balance it?

Saying words to try to keep yourself awake or doing something logical seems like it would be too much of a "thought" and not let you enter a deep enough trance to project.

Does staring into the blackness without thinking anything or even doing any sort of mind awake / body asleep technique usually work to where eventually you will discover that you no longer have sensations of your body and you feel detached, where you can then practice projection techniques?

[Aerostars]

Try mind awake and body asleep and once you have mastered this technique I think you will be able to do your Astral projections in a more comfortable and pleasant fashion since this state of mind lends itself to what you are trying to do.....builing one bridge at a time to get where you wish to go....but you have to be in a certain state of consciousness first.

[yellowsubmarine]

Hello! I am new to this message board so all the feedback will be GREATLY appreciated. I picked up Astral Dynamics and have read a fair ammount of it, pracitcing energy work, projection techniques, etc.

I have been trying to conciousley astral project for 3 weeks now. I attempt projection at least one - three times a day, spending about 1 hour on each attempt. I have come close, I think. I usually came close in the past after I dosed myself with a few hits of pot as I felt that the pot made the relaxation and projection visualization a little easier on my mind/body. I have since slowed down my pot-projection attempts by focusing on projection naturally, without the aide of anything except maybe a bath or two to relax my muscles. I feel that I have come a long distance since I first became interested in really doing this three weeks ago. When I first started I was more interested in the outcome rather than the now. My mind would jump to the future, I would think, this is going to be the one, this is it and I would generally ruin it.

Here's where I am at now. I can silence my mind for the most part and sometimes stop thoughts before they ever form. Stopping your mind is a tricky business. I liken it to a tunnel where 'you' travel down this tunnel and thoughts come left and right. Usually my mind would like to cling onto one of these thoughts then that would lead into another thought and before I knew it I would be surrounded with thoughts, usually concerning the projection and my attempts of doing it.

If I can silence the thoughts and relax my body enough I usually get this wavy feeling in my body. I don't know if it is my blood, air in lungs or vibes? or what? It just starts at around my chest area then flutters throughout my body then bounces back to the chest and so forth. If I direct my attention to this, it becomes less intense. I haven't felt the vibes yet. I don't know what they should feel like, maybe I did feel them once...

This is how I try to project:

1. Lie down and get comfortable. Relax my muscles by just letting them fall into themselves. I don't like the tensing/relaxing method that is often given for a full body relaxtion (if you have better methods, please post)

2. Clear my thoughts. Just passively watch them pass at first like waves then conciousley attend to liquadating them from even forming (i have to be careful about how concious I am in shutting down thoughts. I find that if I am too aware of shutting down the thought, me being aware of shutting down the thought intern becomes a thought. tricky mind. )

3. Then I try to enter a light trance. If my trance is too heavy my mind will usually flick into these dreamy atmosphere where thoughts and images will come to the surface without my will. this is different then normal every day thoughts i think.

4. once in a light trance but usually after I have attempted in clearing my mind for a reasonable ammount of time (5-10 min.), I will begin with some projection techniques. The ones that I have been practicing with are the point-awarness mehtod which is basically feeling yourself away from yourself. If I am sitting while projecting I like to pretend I am standing about 10 feet away.

I will also use Robert Bruce's rope technique which is picturing and feeling yourself climb an imaginary rope up into the atmosphere.

I jump between these two methods but none have given me much sucess. I am enthusiastic once I begin the techniques but quickly lose focus when I feel that nothing is working

I will then jump between techniques more rapidly, desperatley trying to 'get' somewhere. I will even scroll through other techniques I've learned and give a shot at those but to no avail.

What's going on with my attempts? I started getting to a point a few days ago where I felt like giving up and focusing on real things for a while. I do believe that this is possible and that I can do this, I just am looking for something that lets me know that its there. Damn you mind/body, just give me 10 sec. out of body and I'll be a happy camper.