Some first time questions

[Euphoric Sunrise]

One thing to remember with APing is that it's absolutely not necessary to feel vibrations or hear noises or feel things. Too many people get caught up in trying to induce these things that they forget about what really matters - getting out! That's what you need to focus on.

About going to sleep regularly - i have to actually work towards seperation, it's not something that comes involuntarily for me so i'm  affraid i can't help you there.

If projecting from your house causes fear it would be best for your progress if you not attempt there. You will not get out if you fear what's out there. Once you have gotten over the fear and realise that nothing outside can cause you harm you'll be right.

As far as i understand it, the dreams and astral projection are not that far apart. I think they may even "use" the same brain wave frequency (delta?). I can't really help you with much more on that since i haven't actually gone to the astral plane yet.

I forgot to welcome you! []
Welcome to the Astral Pulse! [8D]

[necrodreamer]

Thanks Euphoric... you make me tingle with warm feelings.  Thanks also for the quick reply.  What so far have you been able to do?  Have you been able to real time project?  Are there people that are able to real time project (ex: float or walk about, seeing themselves sleeping but not able to go to the astral plane?)  Thanks for anyone else that can contribute to my questions... and for those who believe: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[Euphoric Sunrise]

No problem [^]

So i far i believe i have just made it outside of my body. I'm able to get to seperation pretty much everytime i attempt it's just actually getting out that is providing a barrier for me. I can make it just outside my body and float there for a while, but i can't see anything. Real time is my main objective at the moment.

I've never heard of anybody who is able to project into the real time zone but not the astral. I suppose it happens, but i've never heard of it.

Good luck with your attempts, sounds like you're having fun getting there and that's also important i think [)]

[necrodreamer]

bumpadee bumpbump  Can no one else here comment on my book sized question?  LOL

[Ybom]

I'll reply for you!

Firstly, I'm quite a bit of a regular member here and I attempt to gather energy or OBE or try to move things with my mind as often as I feel up to it (quite often), but I seem to have a slight attention problem which is limiting my experiences. As for you, you seem to have somewhat of a natural skill to trance and vibrate, even though they are limited by your fear of your house. Don't worry though, my first separation that I can think of was in my house, which I believe is haunted (less though now since I've been here on this site).

To answer some of your later questions, astral sounds can be thought of as reality fluctuations...like the sinister laughing or maybe rumbling sounds. They come up on a really random basis and usually can be identified as harmless if they're especially wierd and seem to have no source (and of course you don't feel an energy drain of mass proportions). Some think that the subconscious makes them because you expect something strange to happen to you during the experience, and your subconcious makes that for you to make the experience feel more realistic I guess.

As far as sleeping, you have 2 immediate choices...you can sleep or you can meditate. Meditation after a while becomes easier to work with than sleeping because you have more conscious control over it, but don't use it as a sleep replacement until you "know". As for your alarm and saying "NO AP! SLEEP!" that's quite feasible, but usually you're limited the other way around. The one true way to ensure you sleep is to absolutely convince yourself "Sleep good, no sleep bad" and to not fear your house anymore. If you get those fear signs, pretend that your house just got renovated...or find something about the place that you really like and focus on it.

Your astral being real questions can be summed up simply through personal tests. Cunning use of the English language for some cliche answer is both poor style and overused, so I'll tell you how you can prove it to yourself one way or the other. First, you do the card test...shuffle a deck of cards and place it on the highest point in your room, like a high shelf or something...don't look at the card (best to do this unbiased and with a new deck of cards blindfolded). Try and try and try to focus on going out of body before you go to sleep, and if you do, take your energy body and look at the card and immediately scream aloud the card value and that you'll remember it...dive back into your body...roll over and write what your "mind" saw and go back to sleep. In the morning check your answer. Do this until you are convinced one way or the other (you can also substitute with other tests, but this is basically a reference from Mr. Bruce's book and mentioned many times here). As for the vividity, it's all relative to you basically. Some people find it more vivid if they shout "CLARITY!" or something while OBE.

Robert describes the Astral as a place of reflection...an emotional copy of the physical world in his eyes. There are SO MANY things that are beyond words, and beyond your mind to make up, if you do make the journey. You're obviously interested, so it definitely wouldn't hurt to know that you actually looked into it at some point (would you rather regret that you never did anything with what you've experienced so far?). Everything you meet in the Astral is one of the things you basically mentioned: other OBErs, wildlife, spirits, angels, evil entities (referred to as negs here), and anything else you probably can think of. As for heaven, some people believe it is, but can you describe heaven to yourself? Not many people can without referencing literal biblical referenes (bad idea...wouldn't sitting in the clouds all day be a tad bit boring after a while?)

Anyways, I leave you with that much. This isn't all you need to know though; it seems you need to overcome your fears more than anything, rather than trying to advance "around" them. Have fun APing

[necrodreamer]

Okay guys, Im new here and just want to thank you all for your insight.  As brief as possible is what I want to make this post but I know it will turn out long.

A quick one on my experience - I think I have had a few barely remembered paralysis bouts in the past and a few APs that seem pretty vivid in my memory although I still havent read on the differences in AP and LDs so I dont know it may have been LD.  A few that I was flying in a awesomly lit night sky (you know the ones with the beautful navy blue sky and full moon with perfect formed scattered clouds) and there was some bad guys around my grandparents house and I think I formed fireballs and whacked them hehe.  Anyway, my grandfather passed away a few months ago and although I wasnt really close to him I loved him dearly. The other I remember seeing him but dont remember conversation much.  I think BOTH were AFTER his death... I just cant seem to remember. (i guess everyone has these vague dreams/APs where they cant remember when it happened).  I think they were different than normal dreams because I remembered them better and the colors etc were so vivid.

So, anyways a few months ago I was in Barnes and Noble (btw, after you learn of AP and stuff, isnt that just an awesome place to hang out!) and saw a book by Ophiel in the Psychology section called The Art and Practice of Astral Projection.  It is rather outdated and does not go in to high detail as Robert Bruces. It was the only book I saw in that section on this subject and thought it was the only one about this so I bought it (finding out a few days ago that I was in the wrong section - in new age there are a TON) I read a little of it and since I do my reading at night it kinda creeped me out because I live in a 130 year old renovated home (Louisiana - ya know these old plantation/slave quarter creole type homes have a lot of history) and my dad on multiple occasions has claimed to have seen and witnessed stuff in here.  So, reading this kind of stuff at home at night ended. (hey, what I dont see creeps me out On the BN webside i did a search for AP and sorted by bestseller and thats when robert bruces came up.  So, I used a giftcard I had and bought it Thursday night.  I read around 40 pages (hardly explaining things) and saw that he mentioned he had online documentation which brought me here.

Here is where the stuff gets crazy. Since my girlfriend lives around 15 miles from me in a brand new nice house I felt safer.  After reading as before said around 40 pages of Bruces book and loving it so far, me and my girl dozed off on the couch (she knows what I am reading and doesnt believe it but she is open minded when it comes to listenening)  I immediately NEW something was different when I started to shrink and immediately felt the onset of sleep paralysis like I never felt before. Its just like so many others posted - you are not supposed to move a muscle, but you just know.  I was spooning my gf and could feel her back like merging into my front.  My heartrate was OUT OF CONTROL!  I could feel it and new that my body was asleep even though my mind was awake.  I just saw black and maybe a few small glimpses of colors.  Now, from reading here for two nights I know to try and tell myself that I had to get out.  I tried to focus my energy and just open up but nothing happened.  I was trying to ignore my heartrate and could feel it physically nailing my gf in the back lol.  I was so excited inside and at the same time trying to tell myself to concentrate that I was physically shaking my head "yeah" and smiling I think.  After getting used to the parylisis athough a little uncomfortable I was happy I felt that way.  BUT, I knew I could not go any further because I had not read enough about it to go farther so I quickly tried to unfreeze myself to tell my GF.  It took a minute to get out and even when I was hitting her telling her "i did it, i did it" I still felt my legs were seperated and my lower body.  It would even come and go as I was talking to her!  REALLY WIERD/COOL!  SO, when she woke I told her to feel my heart and I think it kinda scared her until she saw that I was alright.  We went out and smoked a cig and talked about it. She asked if I was gonna be able to sleep and I said HELL NO im trying again lol!  And I told her that if she felt my heart doing that again to wake me up.  AS SOON as I lay down it started again and my heart went to pumping.  She hit me and said are you awake and I said its happening again and laughed.  She eventually dozed off and i was in paralysis again and i think my heart eventually got used to it and I tried some other things to AP but none worked and I guess I eventually fell asleep or LDed about tigers and hanging out with people and remember them well and vividly.

Anyways, I didnt really hear any of the astral noises but maybe a few which may have been the tv that was really low being amplified astraly.  Does the noises usually come after?  What stage was I in?  Also, both times I wasnt really trying start, it just came and then I went along with it... is that usual?  How do you go to sleep regularly without APing.  Thats my fear... since its on my mind vividly I will be doing nothing but freaking being paralysed every night lol.  Its already bad enought that I have intense dreams that make me sleep throught my alarm clock and make me late for work.  In time will i become better to be able to say "i just want to sleep"?  I just want to read and learn the book before I even try really.  I just feel like tonight the same thing will happen wether i like it or not.

Another thing is my house.  I hate my house because from what I understand from the boards that I will be vulnerable when aping to stuff here.  I just dont think I could live here if I saw anything in my house that I knew was here all the time.... I would have to move hehe. If I heard like sinister laughs or stuff would it be from my house, my head, or from the planes?  That just creeps me out.  That is why I like doing it from my GFs house, its new and safe feeling.  So, does anyone have any advice for what I should do if it happens to me again or what I should do to just go to sleep?

Also, if you really have no comments on the above - what do you think the astral plays on like life after death?  Is this stuff so vivid that you KNOW its not a dream?  I have controled stuff in my dreams before and I just want confirmation that this is a totally different thing... like is it a whole nother world?  I just dont understand the aspect of this place.  The beings there... are there dead peoples spirits, angels, evil things, other APers?  Are the spirit guides other APers, people that had died, or what?  Do you think that this is where we go when we die and in there there is like a door to heaven?  How do some people have prophecies... do they see them or does someone tell them?  I know there are stories of seeing lost ones, are these the real deal or is it your astral creating these entities?

I know this is a lot guys, but this is EVERY question I have.  So, if you only have input or experience in certain things or want to add something about a few things... I understand not everyone has all of these answers.  Once again... thank you all and happy APing