AP, can it be a non-visual experience?

[Astralaegis]

I have been wondering for quite some time, is AP a strictly visual experience?  Or is it something you see in your mind's eye?  How do you know the difference between APing (or phasing) and strong visualization.  I get the strong feeling that phasing and AP-ing  involves using your non-physical body to sense everything that is going on and then your "astral mind" processes it into something you can comprehend.  Sometimes I will begin to "see" things.  Once a couple weeks back, I actually saw a bright flash of light but nothing more.  I also felt someone standing over me as if they were there to offer assistance.  Most of the time however, I'm not really seeing anything but more "feeling" it.  I guess what I'm asking am I going to see all kinds of colors and things and it be a very visual experience or will it be a more of a tactile or "sensing" experience?

[Summerlander]

The experience is not restricted to just the visual sense.  In fact, sometimes vision has to be summoned and tactility may come first.  All senses can come into play and there's a direct correlation between sensory amplification and how long the phase last.

The phase (OOBE/AP/LD) is not just visualisation.  Trust me!  It is more than that.  The experience can emulate and surpass perception of reality in wakefulness.  It is beyond visualisation and hypnagogic imagery.

[CFTraveler]

I have been wondering for quite some time, is AP a strictly visual experience?

Depends on the kind of projection.  I would describe it as an 'immersive experience'.

Or is it something you see in your mind's eye? 

No, that's imagination or visualization.  You can use a visualization to induce a projection, but it's not the same.

How do you know the difference between APing (or phasing) and strong visualization.

How do you know the difference from what you see in your mind's eye with what you see when you open your eyes?  That same difference.  In projection you move into an environment that is there, and see it as if it is there.

I get the strong feeling that phasing and AP-ing  involves using your non-physical body to sense everything that is going on and then your "astral mind" processes it into something you can comprehend. 

That describes an etheric projection, although the etheric projection looks like 'real life' how it is- can be dark, muddy, low light or even blind, while an astral projection usually involves the imaging centers of your brain- as you described it- a translation of energy converted into images by your brain.

Sometimes I will begin to "see" things.  Once a couple weeks back, I actually saw a bright flash of light but nothing more.  I also felt someone standing over me as if they were there to offer assistance.  Most of the time however, I'm not really seeing anything but more "feeling" it.  I guess what I'm asking am I going to see all kinds of colors and things and it be a very visual experience or will it be a more of a tactile or "sensing" experience?

The 'seeing' can be clairvoyance or remote viewing (or hypnagogics) the tactile experience is more characteristic of an RTZ OBE (etheric projection) and the visual 'spectacular' experience is more characteristic of an astral projection.

[Astralaegis]

Thanks for the clarification.  I wasn't sure if AP/Phasing was like super spectacular and all-involving as you say.  Knowing what something isn't is almost as important as knowing what it is.  I think I need to try my exercises in a chair instead of my bed since I keep falling asleep when I go deep into focus 12 hehe.  Even though I haven't "made it" yet, I still see benefits of my efforts.  I feel more at peace with myself and feel more rested.  I feel as though I'm getting in touch with a whole other side of myself that I didn't know was even there.  Before I thought that the spirit, soul, astral body etc was just something that "hung out" inside of us powering our body.  While it may do just that, I never thought I could learn to take control of them and use them like I do my physical body.  At first I was getting frustrated at not getting anywhere, but now I am having fun with the journey of learning to AP.  Slowly but surely I'm putting all the pieces together.

[Boom]

Astral Projection, Lucid Dreaming, Phasing, Dreaming, Out of Body Experience, Near Death Experience etc, are all terms for a "non physical experience."  It is only natural for different people to label what they have had in a differnet ways.

For example, today I was dozing in and out of sleep. I had woken up but didnt move. I started thinking Astral Projection and instantly I had this spontaneous shooting effect. I wooshed out of body at what felt like 1000mph. I didnt get any visual but it was one hell of a feeling which startled me, as it had been a while since I felt that and I wasnt expecting it. So it ended the experience then and there.  So I have no idea what to call that.

[CFTraveler]

I get that at times.  Just the other day I sat on my recliner and had the opposite- I closed my eyes and immediately I could almost see landscapes in which I seemed to be moving through or sometimes I could shoot up from the top.  I whooshed for a while, yet the scapes were grainy and "impressionistic", not like phasing because I never "entered" them, or never exited or anything- it was very pleasant and I could have done that all night.  But I didn't, I ended up going to sleep eventually.