When to try exiting??

[astromalt]

Hi All,

this is my first post on my first forum. Just finding my feet with the "other side of life" at the moment so please bare with me...

I first started trying to AP about six months ago after reading a book by Robert Bruce. In all honesty, I found it a bit difficult to digest. The info was very specific and detailed and almost structured and I came out of it thinking, surely, a journey within yourself would have to be a bit more individual and personal (i'm not knocking the guy or his work, he clearly knows what he's talking about). Rightly or wrongly I started trying a basic technique as often as life allows and have had some success on a few occasions but mostly I either fall asleep and wake in the morning without recall or lie for hours in the blackness, seeing colours and shapes and feel buzzing but when I try to move, it's still my physical body that moves!
In a nutshell, I try to follow these steps - Deep breathing, deep relaxation, try to get to the sleep paralysis stage then just float out!?!
One of the times I did succeed, bizarrely, I ended up in my parents next door neighbours house in the pitch black with a feeling like something badass was trying to get me!!

If anyone has any advice I could try I'd really appreciate it. Hopefully I can come back and share my first proper AP experience with you guys soon.

Many thanks

[Bluefirephoenix]

I don't use any exiting technique ... I go inward  once the focus is off the body your there. If your feeling sensations and are concerned about them your not there yet. It sounds like fear is a problem. That thing that was chansing you more than likely is your own generated fear taking on a spirit form. Going from what you know about the method your trance is not deep enough. If you fall asleep while your doing this your projecting and not remembering. 

When I'm projecting, I'm not focused on projecting. We're working on something else.. usually spiritual development. But I find myself in the other space. You don't have to do any technique what you have to do is focus inward and relax. drop the expectations and the landmarks just think about your focus of going inward and nothing else.

[Kzaal]

The thing is most people want to go out by moving, this doesn't always work, the best way to do it is like Bluefire said. Go inward, without moving.
Most of the time when I started trying to have an AP, right before it happens I would try to move my astral body and end up just like you moving my physical body. This reset all the progress you've done and you'll be stuck for hours trying to go back.
When you want an astral projection, lay down, keep your mind calm, remove your fears and don't think about exiting.
Just keep your focus on staying conscious.
When we sleep we do the same thing! We don't try to move our body before falling asleep cause we'd be stuck for another hour rolling in the bed.
If you stay conscious, that your mind is completely cleared and you don't seek to exit then it will happen by itself.
Your body thinks your gonna sleep cause you don't move and eventually you'll phase there.
Good luck!

[astromalt]

Thanks for the input guys.

When you say "go inward" what exactly do you mean? This might sound mental but I get to a point where I feel like i'm floating in space, every deep breath in gives me this feeling of immeasurable vastness like a balloon going from normal size to like planet size! I keep seeing images of coats of arms and shapes that look like crop circles and hearing conversations between two people, I think, are talking about me??
Do you try to ignore these things and drift or would you focus on a particular thing?
The explanation of fear being an issue is probably spot on if i'm honest. My wife does tarot and pretty much said exactly the same thing!

Thanks again

[Xanth]

For myself, "going inward" means to move your awareness away from everything physical. 
It means to turn off or ignore everything that your 5 physical senses are sensing.  The more you "go inward", the more you remove yourself from this physical reality and the greater chance that you'll *POP* into another reality.

[astromalt]

That makes a lot of sense. Cheers.

Its been great talking to people about this! Never really done that before.

[Bluefirephoenix]

I learned to do it like this. I think of my chest as sort of a curtain. I part the curtain and go further in I find another curtain. I part it and continue going deeper into my chest. I started by making hand motions even. It gives you a direction to go. Yes, it's metaphore. There is no curtain there and your chest certainly isn't parting but it sets your mind going in the right direction Eventually you feel your way down and the direction kinda changes character. But that will get you started. My body goes numb like when your arm or leg goes to sleep. It feels like it's made of wood after awhile.  Be patient with it and don't be afraid to practice. Even a few minutes practice is helpful. Some of my best work was done on my lunch break at work... mostly because I was tired enough to relax and still alert enough to focus.

[EpicAstral]

Most of the time when I started trying to have an AP, right before it happens I would try to move my astral body and end up just like you moving my physical body.

This is exaclty what i do too. I try to float or to roll with my astral body but i then accidentally make my physical body move. It is frustrating. I feel the muscles tighten up when i think about moving the astral body.

[soarin12]

I keep seeing images of coats of arms and shapes that look like crop circles and hearing conversations between two people, I think, are talking about me??

At this point you can do an exit if you want to.  At least it works for me at that point.  Especially when I hear a conversation starting up, I know I can exit.  The trance is deep enough at that point.  I usually just wait and pop into a scene automatically (as the others suggested) without doing an exit, but sometimes for whatever reason, the trance deepens very slowly -it feels like it's taking forever, and in that case I just want to get the show on the road and get 'out' as fast as possible.  So I do an exit (usually a roll out) when I hear the talking start up.  For me, both the exit method and the "waiting til I find myself there" method have their place and I've learned to use them both to my advantage.  Good luck! 

[astromalt]

So hearing a conversation when in trance can be quite a common thing?? In the books I've read on AP and deep meditation i had never heard this being mentioned. A part of me thought I was either going nuts!
Has anyone ever discovered or could shed any light on what might be happening at that point? I've been curious for a while now about who or what that is...

[Bluefirephoenix]

It's really variable. It depends on which of your senses is more developed. I can hear those shadow voices out  of trance and in fact had shutting it down after initiation. Light tunnels and a random assortment of faces and scenes are another feature that may happen. In any case you'll notice something that isn't of this world and the transition starts there. Don't jump right away get good and deepen past that point. It's hard to keep lucid past that point so go slow.

[Szaxx]

It'd be nicer if they were louder to outdo the background noise. Occasionally you can percieve words that make sense.
Try some pink noise at a low volume. The talking is somehow more understandable.

[astromalt]

Has anyone experienced these conversations and managed to find out who it was? It happens to me quite often, and although i'm trying to stay lucid, it is at that stage where you are very dreamy. Most of the time I think it is a conversation about me, helping me but sometimes it is like listening to something so intellectually beyond me, it's almost like a different language they're speaking!
It would be awesome if it turned out to be your guides!!

[dust8879]

I went through the same problems as you. I either laid there with nothing happening staring at darkness, or just fell asleep. But you still have gone far, to even feel a buzzing or see shapes is a huge sign or progress. What I did was try to project during the middle of the night immediately after awakening (and without moving),and I've had continuous success since. There's a free online book called "school of out of body travel" that would help if you're interested in that technique.

I also heard conversations when falling asleep a few years ago. In fact I wasn't even that relaxed and I just got into bed, close my eyes for 5 minutes and the voices started. Then when I sat up they stopped. I never found out where they were coming from. It used to sound like a group of people, 3 or 4, both male and female having a conversation but I could never make out the words. I was quite alert too and not even in the hypnogogic state yet. It doesn't happen much now. It's only happened once this year.

[astromalt]

Great to know guys, thanks. Downloaded the e book and looking forward to a good read.

[Aaron330]

I don't know if this is the same for anybody else here, but I always know without a shadow of a doubt when its time to try a "roll out" or whatever and exit the body. It's as obvious as if someone slapped me across the face and said "NOW YOU IDIOT" lol.

The reason is because I always get the most outrageously strong sensations in my energy body. I can never exit unless something "happens" to trigger it. For me it has always been when I am in a very deep trance, I will hear a faint, very high pitch ringing sound and if I focus on it, it becomes deafeningly loud and fills my whole head. At this point I get this surge of what feels like warm liquid flowing through my body, along with very strong vibrations or a free falling feeling. It is really difficult to stay relaxed when this happens because it is so intense. Other times, I will suddenly realize in my trance that I have moved my physical body, to a sitting position or laying on my side or something....only I then realize I am not feeling my physical body at all but my energy body. And then WHAM, the sensations hit me and I'm off. The last thing that sometimes happens is I'll see an image that appears as real as in the physical, and I think "wow. How am I looking at this?" And as soon as I realize I am seeing the image because I am non-physical, the sensations come flooding in.

So those are the 3 ways that get me to the exit point. A sound, an image, or a sensation of my body that snap me out of my trance and help me realize I am phasing to the Astral. Now, the reason I know exactly when to exit is because these sensations swell up so strong to a climax, and then suddenly stop. And I feel like I'm levitating and it is dead silent. At that point it is obvious to just roll out or sit up and I am standing in my room.

Not sure if anyone else experiences sensations to this degree when they project, but I hope this helps for you. Focus on anything that draws you deeper and deeper to a NP focus, and generally some kind of sensation will guide you the rest of the way to your exit point.