Ok, guys please help I do not know what s gong on!

[naturelover]

You may or may not have read my first entry introducing myself. Basically I have started trying to exit through my sleep paralysis.

The first couple times I exited I experienced astral blindness as I was to close to my body. I tried again this morning. It is getting easier for me.

I planned on going out the front door and to the street and flying from there. I tried rolling out my body which seems to work quite well. The problem is I feel quite clumsy when I get up off the floor and then I am in a rush to get away as quickly as possible. I tried three times. It was exhausting. It seems to take a huge amount of concentration and willpower. But all three times I was blind and even when I was on my street I was blind. maybe 6 meters away from my body. I tried saying "vision on".

Then I went to these strange places but it felt more like a lucid dream. It was all a bit vague and dreamy. It didn't last long. I remember food and some sport center. I have extremely lucid dreams. More lucid than these experiences. I am under a lot of stress now and forgot to protect myself so I  may have attracted a low level experience? Could I have gone back to dreaming? I am going to start meditating again soon I think this will help.

Please help, this is all very strange and I woke up feeling very emotional.

Thanks

[Xanth]

Hmmm...
The difference between a projection and a lucid dream would be the degree that you're consciously aware.
But, not just consciously aware, but also if you're able to actually 'question' your surroundings using some form of your cognitive awareness.  That would allow you to remove yourself from the 'dreamscape' in which you would then find yourself on the astral.

I'd probably consider what you experienced a mix between a lucid dream and a projection just due to your state of consciousness.

You could have very well slipped back into a dream.

I think all you need is more practice.  Practice at holding your consciousness in a state of awareness.
Try focusing on one aspect of the lucid dream and then start questioning it... this has the effect of activating your cognitive abilities (your ability to question yourself and your surroundings).

All in all, you're doing well. 

[naturelover]

Thanks for the reply!

I must say I was pretty shaken up when I woke up but now I think it really is practice. Get my astral feet.

I sometimes have EXTREMELY lucid dreams. Does that mean I might be in the astral? The extreme lucidity never lasts long. I can decide what to dream and go back to dreams. Does this mean I may be projecting in my sleep? There are different opinions on this. If this is possible why do why go to all the effort of protecting? And then I can go back to sleep while I am protecting. I don't understand. I guess I have a short-cut with the sleep-paralysis so I haven't learned all this stuff.

[personalreality]

Your experience is something that happens to me almost every time I project. 

I should qualify that by saying that I've only been successfully projecting for like 2 months.  However, within that two months I have also experienced almost exactly what you have.  When I get out of my body I'm always sluggish and it takes a few seconds to get with it.  Usually I just start hovering around instead of trying to walk and that seems to straighten out my mind a little bit.  I also am always blind when I exit and in most cases, no amount of "CLARITY NOW!" or "VISION NOW!" seems to work.  What usually works is just getting away from my body.  It's almost like my room is a staging area and as soon as I either jump out the window or leave through my bedroom door I can see.

As for winding up in weird places.....this also happens to me a lot.  I have a theory, which I must stress is only a theory and may be wrong.  But from my experience this is what I think the deal is.

I believe the astral to be a subjective place, meaning that your mind state heavily influences what you see, where you go, what you do, etc.  That said, if you have yet to gain a lot of control over your mind (like if you're a new projector) then your astral experiences can be formed from thought forms that have your energy.  I think that dreams and astral experiences happen in the same place, in the realms of imagination.  Don't misunderstand me though, that doesn't mean imaginary.  I am referring to what some might call the collective unconscious, the noosphere, the psychic medium from which all thought forms (thoughts, entities, experiences, ideas, etc) come from.  It is the non-physical realms, as opposed to higher dimensional realms which are non-physical from our perspective but physical from their respective inhabitants. 

What leads me to my conclusion is that I have dozed off during projection attempts and had a dream and then woken to my body buzzing.  At that point I exited and was in my room, but as soon as I jumped out of the window I was in my dream environment that I had just left moments ago.  I could even feel the difference between my awareness in the dream and my awareness in the projection.  It was actually cool because it allowed me to compare my awareness in seemingly identical environments.

So, how to remedy the situation.

Keep projecting.  I have gotten better and developed more control the more I project.  I have also found that energy work before projecting helps.  I usually do energy work for like 30-45 min. then take a break for like 20 min then project.  If you project from sleep paralysis then you probably aren't really arranging the event, you're just taking advantage of something thats already happening, so I would recommend doing energy work before bed.

[naturelover]

Wow, this is all starting to make less and less sense. No, I am joking it kind of makes sense, I think. I thought I would be able to travel around the physical in my astral body.

Yes I agree in practice and raising my vibration again. It seems to help to know that someone is having a similar experience to me!

[personalreality]

Some say that an etheric projection is a projection into the physical.

I'm not so sure I agree.  But I suppose if you believe that, then it's potentially possible.

But Astral Projection is a projection of awareness into the non-physical.

So, the realm of imagination.

[nickspry]

Have a read of the free ebook at http://obe4u.com/
Among other things, it has some very good advice about overcoming blindness in the early stages of OBE by touching and focusing on nearby objects. It helped me a lot...

(page 99 is where you can find the specific information)

[AstralBeginnings]

Have a read of the free ebook at http://obe4u.com/
Among other things, it has some very good advice about overcoming blindness in the early stages of OBE by touching and focusing on nearby objects. It helped me a lot...

(page 99 is where you can find the specific information)

I second the recommendation of this ebook

[Xanth]

I can't get past the whole unprofessional-look and feel of the website.
It looks like he's trying to sell softcore porn or something.  :/

~Ryan

[nickspry]

I can't get past the whole unprofessional-look and feel of the website.
It looks like he's trying to sell softcore porn or something.  :/
~Ryan

I know what you mean  , but the ebook is surprisingly good - much better than most (if not all) of the books I've paid good money for over the years.

[Xanth]

Hmmm... I think I must have completely missed the ebook.
I'll go check it out.  I need some more reading material.  LoL

~Ryan