Powerful, strange sensations. Are these good?

[independentarbiter]

Hello all! I've been attempting to astral project just about every night for three weeks now, in what I like to call my "astral meditations". During this time, I've experienced all kinds of strange sensory happenings, and cool things. I was wondering what kind of experiences others have had that are like mine, and if anyone who has success in separation could tell me if I'm close to success myself. I started these meditations simply working on deep levels of physical relaxation. I would get to points where I hadn't flexed a muscle for so long that I could no longer feel the orientation of my extremities, making it rather easy to mentally disassociate from sensations of touch, allowing excellent meditation. After a few more nights of this I got to a point where I would get this strange sensation that felt like my whole body was being oscillated back and forth along the axis of my body (head to toe axis) at a rate of perhaps 2 or 3 cycles per second. This felt very cool. It didn't actually feel like I was physically being pushed back and forth, it was more of a bodily sensation. This would generally come on quickly in a few seconds and then slowly fade over the course of five or six seconds, despite my efforts to make it continue. By the sixth or seventh night, this sensation stopped occurring entirely, and was replaced instead by a new experience, one which I've been consistently having since then to this day, and I can't seem to get that first experience again, consequently. The new experience I'm having generally begins once I achieve full bodily relaxation. What I do is maintain a strong conscious focus on my body as a whole, without making any attempt to move or flex. It's just directing my awareness fully on my body. At this point I generally begin to feel a greater sense of physical numbness, and then the new sensation begins. It basically feels as though a second set of arms and legs phase out of my physical ones, and begin to move of their own accord very slowly, while staying relatively near the corresponding physical extremity. It is a bizarre tinglyish sensation that allows me to feel this second body, and I've found that with an immense amount of conscious intention for it to move in a certain way, it generally will do so, very slowly. Beyond these sensations, I've tried everything I can to make myself separate. Visualization methods, intention methods, etc. No dice, yet. What are the two different sensations I've had, and what am I currently experiencing? Am I close?

[Astralsuzy]

Yes, the sensations are good because you know you are close to ap.  Do not rely too much on the sensations as we do not always get sensations or the sensations are very slight.  You are very close to ap but you have to work out how to separate.  Just keep practicing and believing you can do it.  Eventually it will happen.  Practice makes perfect.  You will find your way that works best for you.  That is what I did.  I learnt from my mistakes.  I kept practicing until I go it right. 

[roman67]

Welcome to Astral Pulse. Good to see you here. Yes, you are close to AP. So, don't lose hope and keep practicing and you will definitely get an AP very soon.

[Contenteo]

A friendly welcome to the Pulse as well,

Yes, roman said it well, you do sound like you are nicely on your way to having the mental acumen to project regularly. That numbness goes by the names F10, mind awake/body asleep, and sleep paralysis. Once you have your whole body essentially numb, that's the base of the launch pad. Those terms are good to know as you beginning to wander through the posts here.

There is a whole array of techniques to get deeper from there, but the F10/mind awake/body asleep is the meat and potatoes of projection. You'll always start out driving towards that state of mind. It used to take me 15-30 minutes when I was beginning. It probably takes be average about 5 now after a few years of constant practice, no longer then 10 minutes.

So keep up the practice Sounds like you're doing great!

Cheers,
Contenteo