Heard About It OR Was Drawn To It?

[Lionheart]

 Once in awhile the topic of can everyone AP comes up. There are varying views on this. I would like to hear a simple answer from all that read this, to help me come to a logical conclusion. I have always felt that being able to AP is like a "Rite of Passage". I have been taught many new things, been on countless quests and see that, yes, there is a real purpose that this comes to us and it happens when we are ready to give it our full attention.

The people that are "lurking in the shadows" as Guests here are usually here because something in their personal reality has changed. Something so profound that they have bucked the "normal", to look "outside the box" for once. Sooner or later they decide that it is time for us to hear their tale as well. But the one thing I love about the Astral Pulse is you can stay in the "shadows" forever, with no pressure of joining the conversation, until the day that they feel they are ready to. To add to that, we are always pleased to Welcome another member to the many already here!  

So, my question to all is did you hear about AP from a friend, acquaintance, video, movie, etc, OR were you drawn to it first by a actual experience you had?

I will start this off with my own answer. For many years I have had dreams that I could remember, some I watched and some I changed. But in February of 2011 I went through a 3 night event that pretty well forced me to open my eyes. That event eventually brought me to this site to seek out further information and I have never looked back since.

I have asked people that I have met outside of this Forum, how they came to AP. Almost every single person came to this practice by some kind of "forced" event. Of all the people that I talked to, the people that heard about AP and were "curious" rarely had any success in projecting. The people that were "forced" into learning more, turned it into their new life purpose and were and still are today successful.

Now it's your turn!  

[Szaxx]

Hi,
My first experience was when I could first remember life in general. I was 4 years old and thought this a natural thing at night. If I wanted to go visiting my grandparents I simply went to the door walked through it and toddled off the mile or so across the fields. The darkness never worried me.
Since then things progressed exponentially. For years I had nocturnal visions so accurate that nothing and no-one could help me. This still stands to this day nearly 40 years later. Mixed with you couldn't speak to anyone other than the elders of the family on this subject, I looked to the internet. After reading many posts on many forums from different sites I had a strong feeling the Pulse had far more to offer than any of the rest. The attitude of the mentors typically my way or the highway has no place on the Pulse and this is why I joined. Its the ONLY site Im on respecting the subject.
A look at the stats shows this to be the best.
Fair questions, fair answers and responsible moderators are here.
I'm stayin around for dessert guys.
Thank you for a wonderful experience.

[LightBeam]

I've always had the awareness that there was more than our physical reality. My beliefs in magic and fairy tales never changed as I grew older. And while I was seeing the change in my friends, I didn't think that my beliefs made me abnormal or weird. On the contrary, I felt that I knew secrets that only a handful of people knew about our universe, and our selves as spiritual beings. I did not grow up with religion or any type of spiritualism, considering the state of my country being under a communist regime at the time, so there was no external influence whatsoever.
When I was 5 I had a non human visitor one afternoon while playing in my room. I have this experience posted on the forum. I don't think that it was an OBE though.
Later in high school I came across Monroe's books and instantly knew that this was the gateway to inner knowledge.  My excitement as I read the books was off the charts. Everything made sense and I was presented with a very doable method to try to go out of my body. His method however did not work for me, despite the long tries. And even today after many OBE experiences, I cant simply OBE from a meditative state. I must fall asleep during visualization, or early morning affirmations.
Anyway, my successful methods I found years later in William Buhlman's books and three weeks after starting his techniques I had my very first full blown OBE. Even though I knew that it was real, that morning after snapping back into my body was probably the most exiting day of my life, not because my OBE was phenomenal, but because for the first time I felt invincible. I felt that there was nothing stopping me of exploring the endless and exciting multiverse. I felt completely free of all boundaries and just by thinking of the possibilities, my mind was spinning out of control.
Shortly after, I joined William Buhlman's forum, which unfortunately was shut down after a while, due to few religious fanatics and lack of moderators.
My career took over priorities and I slowed down with the internet communications. Few months ago I decided to look for an active OBE forum, and I that's how I joined the Pulse.

[uhsumdumboy]

What an interesting topic.

For me, I had known about Astral projection (as a concept) for the last year or 2.

However, I struggled with the will power and intent to make it work for me.

But the more I heard about it the more I thought 'I wish I could experience it, as opposed to just hearing about it from other people'

And so i actually made this forum a home page for some time, so even if I wasn't on here talking or reading about it. My awareness would momentarily be drawn to this community, and the whole concept of OBE's.

And now here I am mostly drawn to make a new topic every time I have a profound experience just because I want to tell someone, and most people don't wanna hear this stuff hehe, they aren't ready.

[mindflood]

@ lionheart, So you started practicing in 2011 and got to where you are now in a year?

Was it something that came natural to you?

You seem to know a lot about the subject for having only practiced it for a year. interesting

[Bedeekin]

I've had nighttime excursions in my life always.. .but it wasn't until a massive life shaker when at 11 I started getting Sleep Paralysis every night... then I learned I could go to other places seemingly 'as a ghost' and visit other fantastic and weird realities.

I didn't have any influences apart from li'l old me... but then read Monroes book about ten years into my own constant self exploration (oo'er) and was amazed that some of my own experiences were EXACTLY the same. That made me realise I wasn't alone and there must be something to it. I began plucking up the courage to teach friends.

Then when I finally got a computer of my own back in 2003 I discovered the internet. I finally chose somewhere to start posting that wasn't full of stuff that seemed hokey and too new age called Astral Viewers. I wasn't aware of Astral Pulse until 2010 but by that time I was almost full time on AVers and to be fair it seemed all bases where covered. I loved teaching it to people who found it difficult and I used a 'No BS' approach... mainly because I found that most forums and sites just inundate the would-be practitioner with too much information and bamboozlement.

I joined here because Xanth came onto AVers and seemed very level headed and pretty much knew what he was talking about. I think he asked me to join actually.

It is now the first bookmark on my Bookmark bar and I come here before any other place.

I agree with you Lionheart... very strongly in fact... A rite of passage. I think if you can teach it or rather 'show' people the way... then you have an obligation to do it.

"Almost every single person came to this practice by some kind of "forced" event. Of all the people that I talked to, the people that heard about AP and were "curious" rarely had any success in projecting. The people that were "forced" into learning more, turned it into their new life purpose and were and still are today successful."

So true.

[Astralsuzy]

I heard about ap from my brother when I was growing up but I never paid much notice to it.  About six years ago I found out that I was not able to see a person anymore.  I was very upset.  I admit I was ridiculous, I cried.  I could not help it.  I thought this is awful.  There must be a way to see people.  I looked on the internet and I read that ap was real.  I tried it as I had nothing to loose.  To my amazement it was real.  Back then when I started it was wonderful as I did not have to do anything to ap.  It just happened again and again.  I did not know how I was doing it.  Later on I worked out that meditation helped me to ap.  Now I have to work at making ap happen.

[Lionheart]

@ lionheart, So you started practicing in 2011 and got to where you are now in a year?

Was it something that came natural to you?

You seem to know a lot about the subject for having only practiced it for a year. interesting

All my life I have found that when I "put my teeth" into something, I bite down hard and never let go. Kind of like a Pitbull. I am stubborn and this time that stubbornness is working for me, lol. 

[Dreamshards]

Like some of the other users who posted, I too believed ever since I can remember that there was more to us humans and our world then what normally meets the eye. My parents moved me into a strange house for a short period of time while I was 4. It wasn't negative or anything but the best way to describe it was that the veil between realms were very thin. Just being in that house made it seem like I was always in the astral. While in bed I always heard a lot of mumbling going on in. One night while asleep I had a spontaneous OBE in real time zone. I saw myself rise out of my body then I was floating around the house talking to some other spirits in the astral. One of them told me it was time to go back to bed so I floated back into my body. After that I could not even use the restroom properly and get my pajamas back on without help from my father. 

I didn't know what to make of this surreal experience until I became friends with a girl 8 years later who told me about Astral Projection and then it all made sense. I have never had an experience like the one I had when I was 4, but growing up I was successful in controlling my dreams-it just came naturally. I did research on AP and was shocked at home common it was. I truly believe anyone can have OBE's, and do. The learning rate is different for many people. I have been interested in this topic for 9 years now and I still have had only a handful of vivid OBE's. I think it can relate to what out spiritual self can handle, what we are ready for and what we are not.

[Stookie_]

The short version: Life majorly sucked. I hated life and was anti-everything... punk-rock and anarchy was my philosophy. I ditched school, had time on my hands, and started becoming interested in meditation and new-age stuff on my own and started reading TONS of books, found some material by Rudolph Steiner, went to work on myself and changed my perception. I still love punk.

Even shorter: Hated life, fixed it.

[MrPatr1ck]

Hi,

I found out about AP'ing in the weirdest of ways..I promise this all very much true.

3 months ago I was on my way to work and was running pretty late, as I power walked to the office my eye was caught by a really attractive girl. As I approached her direction we began staring at each other is if we had met before, somehow we were drawn to one another. We began talking and even exchanged numbers. After a few days we met up and started to chat and get to know each other. We began discussing politics..the weather and the usual conspiracy theories until she went on to discuss religion and the mysteries of this world. THIS is where we began discussing AP'ing. She told me she had friends who had dedicated their lives to meditation and realising they were one with the divine. This all sounded pretty crazy to me and I decided to take a step back..

A month later, the washing machine in my house broke and I had to call out an engineer to fix it. As the engineer came round and began looking at the washing machine, we began discussing current affairs and politics which once again led on to religion and conspiracy theories. He told me how he had a strong love for science and had a strong desire to question his existence. Everything he was saying began to point back to our existence and the true reality that we actually live in. Then, hey presto...he began discussing his OBE's and how he believed our purpose of living was to evolve.

I began to sense a pattern...

To make things more interesting, I have an identical twin who was also experiencing similar things. He too is fascinated and drawn to the facts of the astral plane that exists. We are now both working to realise and understand our true selves and use this site as a source to help our understanding of that.

[AteBits]

For me it came to me very slowly, in a almost constructed manner. Like a build up from nothing to everything.
6 years ago I had barely touched the concept of meditation even, and barely thought about my dreams at all. I rarely remembered any dreams, although when I remembered them they were quite vivid. But when looking back it was my ego that ignored all those events that really was there allt the time. I mean small things like certain dreams, astral projection as a small child that I missinterpreted as dreams because I didn't know anything else, deja vu's, synchronicities etc. I'v had these during my whole life and yet I'v never been curious about them or cared about them untill about 3 - 4 years ago when the build up, so to speak, was great enough to make me delve into the subject.
This build up was not my personal intention, to have it happen that is, but it was rather unconscious yet feels very constructed. Like it was decided before this life.
The build up was made up mostly of meeting certain people that had an interest in things that I was not normally intrested in, like meditation for example. These events made me remember things and read up on things that I had experienced and try out things that I hadn't before.
I began trying meditation out, I began having an intrest for the metaphysical, I began thinking about my dreams alot more, I found out that some family members had had certain abilities/expriences..  and so on.
One day I remember clearly was when we had an earthquake and it was all over the news in our little country (Sweden). A few days after that I woke up to another earthquake which wasn't in the news and no one but me had felt it. It was not untill I read about OBE's, a year later or so, that I realized I had the typical vibrations as I was comming out of trance. This was only a few weeks after I had started trying meditation out.
Later on I read about OBE's and found Robert Bruce and his material. I was hooked and very interested. This was about 3 years ago and since then I have been into the whole astral projection thing and meditation in general.
As I said in the beginning it all feels like I'm supposed to be interested in this. Its like I know that this is what gives life much more meaning, because I'v always searched for that meaning. And somehow I feel this is that meaning.
I believe that before I decided to go into this particular physical experience I decided that this was one of the things I should do in this life.

[Seeking Bliss]

Hi there, I read a very interesting article on Spiritual Science Research Foundation website about sixth sense while finding out on Astral projections. May be some of you would like to read it in detail here is some parts of that article.

Sixth sense, or subtle perception ability, is our ability to perceive the subtle dimension or the unseen world of angels, ghosts, heaven, etc. It also includes our ability to understand the subtle cause and effect relationship behind many events, which is beyond the understanding of the intellect. Extrasensory perception (ESP), clairvoyance, premonition, intuition are synonymous with sixth sense or subtle perception ability. Throughout this website we use the words sixth sense, ESP and subtle perception ability interchangeably.

Sometimes we see people who have the ability to perceive the subtle world from a very young age even though they have not done any spiritual practice. The reason for this is that they have attained the requisite spiritual level from spiritual practice done in a past birth (previous life). Another reason this may happen is because they have been possessed by a ghost (sorcerer) since childhood. In this case, it is actually the sorcerer's sixth sense that is displayed.

The subtle world is all around us, however, we cannot perceive this world. Even though we cannot perceive the subtle world, it impacts our lives to a great extent. In order to tune into this world we need a 'spiritual antenna', i.e. our sixth sense needs to be awakened. Our sixth sense grows when we do spiritual practice. With regular spiritual practice done according to the six basic principles of Spirituality, we increase our spiritual level and are able to perceive and experience the subtle world to greater degrees.

A dream can be considered spiritual in nature if the same dream recurs at least 3 times. Dead family members will generally try to contact the family member (or appear in the dreams) who they feel is most likely do something for them. The reasons subtle bodies, in the afterlife, find it easier to communicate through dreams as opposed to the waking state is because during the waking state the person who they are trying to contact, is more engrossed in the five senses and does not have concentration of the mind. During the dream or sleep state, the mind is more receptive to messages from the subtle.
Seeking Bliss

[Volgerle]

Anyway, my successful methods I found years later in William Buhlman's books and three weeks after starting his techniques I had my very first full blown OBE.

Wow. I could have written that. Same for me.

After a (forced? by whom? interesting question) NDE-stateofbliss-OBE kind of experience during a surgery in autumn 2009, after I had tried for months already to do 'sth spiritual' by doing past life regression (which failed!), I bought Buhlman's book as my first OBE book.

After a few weeks I had my first conscious and "intended" OBE from a sleep state, with brutal kundalini waves exit but I did not know better then, I saw myself from above and new this "is it" and went back to my body. What an amazing night that was. I will always be grateful to Mr. Buhlman for helping me with his book.

Then I read a Monroe book and the third was Robert Bruce's "AD" standard work. I then searched for RB on the internet and found his forum. It was the first I joined, but a few days later I also discovered the Pulse and joined there too (same nick).

[AteBits]

Which book was that may I ask? Im interested to know!

[Volgerle]

Which book was that may I ask? Im interested to know!

[Anonymouse]

In my case, I wasn't naturally forced; I found out about it from lucid dreaming. I was completely skeptical about it; just gave it a try one night. You heard me!, I eventually only "gave it a try"  . That try though, well, opened a new door. I didn't get out, but what I felt, the lifting sensations, the being separated from my body... etc, drown me into it. Until today, which I'm still working towards it day after day. I'm really serious about it, I do suspect it's not really my time, cause all of the hard work I'm needing, and cause how my life is going which is making my efforts a bit hard(in a way of distractions, active live...etc). But well, I always manage to find a piece of time every day to lay down and go for my session.

I know for a fact the day will come (life is long), right now astral projection is of course my most desired goal right now in life; BUT, life has changed to the better thanks to having found about it (yet not archiving it. All of those hours of meditation I can tell you, do wonders. To name one skill; and it is a skill to my impression - Being able to control your mind, in the way of not letting it wonder about things that wont do any good. No stress, no impatience, frustration. Many situations can frustrate me of course, but I now only need 3 seconds to realize I'm frustrated and get rid of it, instantly. Just like that. And that is only to count one. My entire perception has changed, life is much more important than I even suspected in the first place

[AteBits]

Thank you Volgerle! I have through abour reading his books alot of times. He was one of the first authors on this subject i stumbledon. Wonder why I never read it.

[Blazewind]

For myself, I think it was part personal choice, and part circumstance that led down this path.  Ever since I can remember I was so sure there was more to the world and our reality, than many people talk about.  From a young age, I was interested in the "unexplained," and anything unusual.  If someone said something was unlikely, weird, or even a bit scary to think about, chances are I wanted to know more about it, lol.  The world always seemed impossibly small I suppose and I knew it just had to be bigger than we thought.  By the time I hit my teen years I was sure they are more to a human being than just five senses and a body.  By chance my family and I were watching TV one evening years ago and on came a documentary about near death experiences.  My parents kept it on because we only had a few channels back then and there was nothing on the others.  I however found it interesting.  The idea of finding oneself in a reality outside of one's own body confirmed what i knew I'd always assumed as logical somehow.  Of course my new interest in that subject led me to read about OBE's because of course they are so closely related.

It was a couple years after I think, while browsing in a bookstore, through a section filled with books on anything spiritual, metaphysical or paranormal, that I came across a copy of "Adventures Beyond the Body."  It was reading that book that I learned the OBEs were something that can be learned and practiced by choice.  I'd always assumed of course that it was something that just kind of happened to random people with no real intention.  This was the first time I realized that we as common people could become explorers in a new kind of unknown territory.  I was then led, I suppose, to want to have an experience of my own.

Curiosity, and a tendency to look at things with an open minded belief, combined with a scientific approach, and a healthy dose of skeptical need to see things myself to really "get it," is a pretty neat combination of personality traits I do think.                      

[Lionheart]

All of those hours of meditation I can tell you, do wonders.

Definitely the Quote of Day! 
Keep this up and you will have success in every aspect of your life!