Did I just astral project?

[dark.phovos]

Hi, everyone. This is my first time I am posting on this forum. I apologize for the long post but I want to describe my experience as clearly as possible. I think I managed to Astral Project for the first time and I want your opinion as I am too confused.

It all began while I was lying in my bed and waiting for the alarm to go off. I had about 1 hour left so I had to relax and sleep. Then I realized that I am relaxed enough to be in a dream or something and I attempted to raise my body. I did raise it up to a point but I find heavy resistance among with a high pitched buzzing. I tried again but I used as much force I could, trying not to wake up. I started spinning and I started to hear some kind of strange noises (some were robotic voices). As I spin I started to lose my control and fade, I became angry because of failing again. Then I remembered that each time I do this my heart pump like crazy but right now I don’t hear my heart beating so hard nor my heart chakra. Then I focused on the heart chakra and made it to beat harder and faster.

Then it happened, just a few beats, they were more than enough to separate completely. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. After the separation I had a faint, blurry and very narrow vision. I wanted to run away from my body to avoid its pull. I was flying backwards and close to the floor in my house. But it wasn’t my house, it just looked like it but had unknown corridors and rooms. I was too scared believing that something might attack me (I observed many unconfirmed moving things while flying), I let it go and returned to my bed.

I tried again, pumping energy from my heart chakra and I did it again. This time I stayed in my room and looked at my sleeping body (I was a bit scared to look at first). It looked exactly as I left it, sleeping on its side. I looked at my astral hands for a moment, they looked fine except the color was a bit off (slight purple and reddish). I decided to approach my sleeping body. As I flying towards it, for a moment I saw two very bright spots/strings/light flares at my left about 1m from my bed, they were purple and green and they were close to my feet. I approached my body but I didn’t feel any pull at all (or it was so weak I could easily overpower it). I looked closely at my face and decided to end the astral projection (or whatever it was) by gently entering my sleeping body.

I couldn’t believe that I did it 2 times!! I wanted to try again!! The same way, raising my body up to the point I meet the resistance and fire up my heart chakra. A few beats and I was levitating in my room!!! I decided to fly upwards and while I was between the clouds I decided to go to the Akashic Records. I kept this in my mind as I flew through the clouds. Then large black temple like buildings start to appear (I found a photo with two temples that look like the ones I saw). I said: which one of those is the Akashic Library, I will just land to the largest building I see. After a while a large black building with two massive round pillars appeared and immediately I thought that this could be. I landed in front and I observed the large half open door. Then I saw some people but I already started to fade and returned to my bed.



I cannot distinguish this experience from a lucid dream so I need your opinion. The only difference from a lucid dream was at the first stages of separation I could feel my real body and I could wake up any time I wanted. The feeling was strange as I was receiving data from 2 bodies. After a while I was only feeling my astral body. Also the color of my hands was different (in lucid dreams my hands look unnaturally real).

[dpk38]

Thats definetely an astral travel.
Could you please explain your method in detail, i would like to try it for myself. it sounds interesting!

[Bluefirephoenix]

For some reason people have this need to label these kinds of experiences. Any kind of non physical experience can be considered away from the body. I think the labels are created to make a market for selling books or something along those lines.  The reality is no matter if it's a regular dream lucid dream, phasing or astral projection the only difference is in focus and awareness.

[dark.phovos]

Thanks for your replies, I feel happy I finally managed to AP but I have a long way to go before I start actually enjoying it. I had lucid dreams before but they are just dreams in contrast with AP which is more to the real side.

I believe energy work is the key for the success. I have done some the energy exercises as mentioned in the “Astral Dynamics” book from Robert Bruce for about 2 months now. I didn’t put as much dedication as I could but once every 2 or 3 nights I just do some of the exercises while I am in bed and waiting to sleep. I have seen that every time I do energy exercises strange things occur during sleep. Things like sudden push/pulls, high pitched buzzing, loss of orientation, flying shadows and hearing uncanny noises (not the most pleasing thing to experience). But this happened 5 years ago when I first tried AP and with an aggressive way as I remember (I was desperate to do it), now the effects have attenuated to a great extent. But, instead of the above within those 2 months I have experienced much, much clearer Lucid Dreams, very stable, with full control and very long duration, as well as numerous conscious false awakenings.

I will explain some of the exercises I did and some I currently test.

I no longer do the energy body activation exercises (from the Astral Dynamics book) as I believe I have developed enough my energy body to some extent.

I do color breathing exercises, I imagine myself to submerge in a pull of pure white and warm light and stay in there breathing the energy and exhaling black smoke. I stay in the white pool as long as I feel my body full of energy. Then I go deeper, there is another pool of red light, I concentrate to the “root” chakra and stop exhaling the black smoke. Then I move to the next color and chakra until I reach the last one.

I do energy raising exercises (Astral Dynamics book) but I have a slight variation. I imagine spiked flares moving from my feet up to the first energy storage center. I feel the concentrating light at the center of the flare to burn me as it moves. I do this exercise quite aggressively and with high speed and pace (with the rhythm of my breath) after a while (about 20-40 flares x2) I feel my storage center humming from the energy, it feels warm and pulsating. I keep pumping energy to the same spot and after a while I feel the second storage center humming. Although not as hard as the first one. This is as far as I went.

I also do chakra activation exercises (Astral dynamics Book). Now I do a slight variation, I use the right hand rule to check the rotation direction for each chakra and I imagine a cup or a thick walled tube spinning with very high rpm touching each chakra from the outside and gradually transfer its rotation momentum. For the root and crown chakras I use one tube and for the rest 5 chakras I imagine two counter rotating tubes touching them one from the front and one from the rear (if it is too hard to visualize 2 tubes together, use one each time for the front and then move to the rear for each chakra). I don’t feel much with this exercise but I did managed to AP last night by doing only this the last 3 days.

Now the fun part, the separation. I believe doing the above exercises will help a lot to be conscious enough in the state of sleep paralysis. To check if you are in sleep paralysis you try to move yourself mentally to the right or left slightly. By doing this it is unlikely to trigger any actual real body movement and wake up. Try to levitate, to spin, if there is any king of slight shift you are definitely one step closer to AP (or to a Lucid Dream). Many times I caught myself in sleep paralysis with my astral hands raised in front of me. At first I think it is some kind of evil entity, until I move them and they become clearer but they begin to melt as they are made of smoke. I can realistically feel them touching each other. At this state I always failed, I tried everything, to lift, to submerge, to spin. The last days I could lift only my torso, been in a sitting position, further separation was not possible as I met heavy resistance and buzzing. Last night I did the same thing but at the point of the resistance I additionally set my focus on the heart chakra and I imagined it to pump faster and harder, releasing its massive energy. I was amazed that it only needed 3-4 pumps to give me an effortless smooth separation then the heart chakra calmed down at normal levels.

While in astral I had severe viewing problems, and many things seemed to move around me, at least the first time. The second time was clearer and more peaceful. Flying in lucid dreams helped a lot to learn to control the levitation in Astral.

[Xanth]

I'll just expand a bit on what Bluefirephoenix was saying...

The labels thing...
Most people don't realize this as they believe that the labels they use define specifics about WHAT the experience "was", but this isn't the case.
The labels people use to describe these experiences only describe what a person felt as they began their projection (ie: feeling like you "separated" from your body) and/or describes some completely subjective belief (ie: the experience was all "from my mind"). 

So when someone tells me that they had an "OBE", I can safely assume that they had a "non-physical experience" where they were experiencing an environment which they recognized as being one on this Earth in which they've previously, physically experienced before AND they felt some kind of subjective feeling of "separating" from their body.  If they have what they're calling an "Astral Projection", then I can assume that they mean they had an experience in an environment which they don't recognize as being one on this Earth.  And if they have what they call a "lucid dream", it simply means they believe the experience was happening in their head/brain/mind/whatever.

They're *ALL* experiences in the non-physical.  There's really no difference between any of them beyond your BELIEF and PERSPECTIVE.  Nothing at all.

Anyway... please continue. 

[dpk38]

How is not DIFFERENT??
I don't seem to get your point. I can understand they are all non physical but i wouldnt consider AP to be the same as an LD. The surroundings or the environment in  a dream is not real but all generated by the mind. But however in an AP the things you notice ACTUALLY exist and you could always return at someother point of time and it would sfill be there. Youre not conjuring it, it already exists. In n LD if you asked a random girl to go topless she'd probbly do it. That's because you want her to and your mind creates a scenario where that would happen but however in an AP let assume you meet another fellow astral traveller who is a girl, i dont think you can manage to do the same thing.
im just not able to understand your arguement..

[Xanth]

im just not able to understand your argument...

That's because you're stuck on labels.  You want everything you experience to fit in a neat little box. 
I've found those boxes don't fit anything.  Like putting a round peg in a square hole...

As I said, it's nothing more than BELIEF and PERSPECTIVE.  You believe there's a difference, so you can't see beyond that.

What would you say if I told you that this physical reality experience that you're having right this very second... is nothing more than an astral projection?  That this physical reality is nothing more than just one of an infinite number of "astral" (for lack of a better word) realities?

In another thread, I spoke about "What is real"?  Give that a read and see how it sounds to you... it SHOULD make you think.
http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_astral_projection_experiences/real_or_not-t45565.0.html;msg355127#msg355127

[dpk38]

That's because you're stuck on labels.  You want everything you experience to fit in a neat little box. 
I've found those boxes don't fit anything.  Like putting a round peg in a square hole...

As I said, it's nothing more than BELIEF and PERSPECTIVE.  You believe there's a difference, so you can't see beyond that.

What would you say if I told you that this physical reality experience that you're having right this very second... is nothing more than an astral projection?  That this physical reality is nothing more than just one of an infinite number of "astral" (for lack of a better word) realities?

In another thread, I spoke about "What is real"?  Give that a read and see how it sounds to you... it SHOULD make you think.
http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_astral_projection_experiences/real_or_not-t45565.0.html;msg355127#msg355127

Wow!
I'm trying to contemplate what you are saying. It's just so hard to change my belief system by such a drastic magnitude.
I'm trying to understand the depth in your words... wow! Where did you get that insight?

[dark.phovos]

Please stop arguing about the "labeling" thing, I did make this post to discuss about the subject of Astral Projection and how can you differentiate it from a Lucid Dream. Also this conversation can help others to overcome potential problems with AP. My opinion is that LD are just dreams they happen within your mind, while AP is like getting out of your mind (or more like sending a remote controlled probe) to visit the rest of the world.

The thing that confused me with this experience was the level of awareness I had. It didn't differ much from a Lucid Dream. I had difficulty thinking, acting, remembering what to do next and seeing clearly. This may happened because it was my first time to actually AP (struggling to separate and hearing the buzzing). In LD I usually just stand up and walk into darkness until the dream vision initiate. Also the dream environment is calm and peaceful but the experience I had was a bit terrifying as I observed many moving things around me.

Also I believe that LD is different with an AP because one time when I looked at my hands in LD (they looked extremely detailed and realistic) and suddenly the dream environment faded into blackness and I just kept looking to my extremely realistic hands. Then the realistic detail and color from my hands faded as well and I just looking two red/purple (similar to what I saw in AP) not well defined hands that start to dissolve into thin air, as they were made out of smoke. Additionally a high pitched sound was heard by the time my hands changed color. After a while I woke up.

[Projector4life]

Your initial separation was an OBE, but then it turned into a lucid dream. This happens very frequently. There are tips that may possibly help you. Try to remain motionless after separating a few inches or a few feet. Motion seems to cause the OBE to turn into a dream. This is why most lucid dreams involve motion.

[Xanth]

Please stop arguing about the “labeling” thing, I did make this post to discuss about the subject of Astral Projection and how can you differentiate it from a Lucid Dream. Also this conversation can help others to overcome potential problems with AP. My opinion is that LD are just dreams they happen within your mind, while AP is like getting out of your mind (or more like sending a remote controlled probe) to visit the rest of the world.

Nobody is "arguing" here... we're actually having a really good discussion on why labels are a horrible thing to get into when practicing Projection.
We're TRYING to enlighten you here...

We're trying to tell you that what you're talking about actually has no basis in experience.  There's no such thing as a lucid dream, so why continue to try to have one?  What you CAN experience is you in the non-physical with a varying level of awareness.

The thing that confused me with this experience was the level of awareness I had. It didn’t differ much from a Lucid Dream. I had difficulty thinking, acting, remembering what to do next and seeing clearly. This may happened because it was my first time to actually AP (struggling to separate and hearing the buzzing). In LD I usually just stand up and walk into darkness until the dream vision initiate. Also the dream environment is calm and peaceful but the experience I had was a bit terrifying as I observed many moving things around me.

See what I mean?  Even *YOU* are having a hard time trying to place your own experience in a neat little label... you had a projection, with a varying level of awareness. 

Give this article I wrote a long time ago a read:  http://www.unlimitedboundaries.ca/2012/07/22/labeling-experiences-of-the-non-physical/ 
I explain in this article why your awareness is confusing you. 

Also I believe that LD is different with an AP because one time when I looked at my hands in LD (they looked extremely detailed and realistic) and suddenly the dream environment faded into blackness and I just kept looking to my extremely realistic hands. Then the realistic detail and color from my hands faded as well and I just looking two red/purple (similar to what I saw in AP) not well defined hands that start to dissolve into thin air, as they were made out of smoke. Additionally a high pitched sound was heard by the time my hands changed color. After a while I woke up.

You're so steadfast that you "believe" these labels... yet, just in your last paragraph, you had an experience which you couldn't place as one or the other.  THAT is stubbornness.  You're holding onto your labels so tightly that you've become unable to consider the possibility that they *COULD* simply not fit or *COULD* just be wrong altogether. 

I'm here to tell you that everything you've learned about "astral projection", "lucid dreams", "obes" and even "dreams" is horrible wrong.  As I said to someone else, consider this for a second:  Consider that this physical reality is really nothing more than one of an infinite number of (for lack of a better word) "astral" realities.  That this physical reality is nothing more than a dream... that is, if you could even define what a dream is... because even science doesn't know.

I ask you to open your mind to the possibilities.  Because the alternative is extremely limiting.

[AstralPhreak]

You definitely had something  . That is a kind of OBE, what ever you had that was a new and interesting feeling. Enjoy that, experiment a little and you will find out that there are many different OBE and different ways you can do it.