Astral Projection and Reality Realizations

On the Astral Pulse today, someone relayed an experience they had and then asked if it was an OBE or not.
This is my response…

There are some realizations that people need to make…

A lot of Projection-talk revolves around the term “Out of body”.
There is no such thing as “out of body”… there simply is no body. Ever. There is only consciousness.

While you identify right now as being physically awake and experiencing this physical reality, your consciousness is merely PROJECTING here.

You’re projecting right now. You just don’t recognize it as such because you’ve been taught that this physical reality and this physical body you “inhabit” are the only things that are *REAL*. This is a… I was going to say a lie, but it’s not a lie, because a lie is when you say something which you know to be false and nobody really realizes or understands this truth yet, so it’s not a lie. It’s just a confusing afterthought that nobody really considers.

You’re taught that all of this stuff you see and experience around you is real… you’re never taught to question any of it, but REAL is simply whatever you experience. Whether it’s in this reality or another reality, real is simply that which you experience.

You might be reading this and feel like you’re really confused about what I’m talking about here and you probably have no idea what I’m talking about at this point, but that’s okay, because if you keep at this long enough, you’ll experience this for yourself and you’ll eventually KNOW. You’re also probably very confused right now too, because you probably think I didn’t even remotely answer the question asked.

When in actuality, the answer is laid out all too clearly here.

What Kind of Projection Experience Did You Have?

I found a simple questionnaire a little while ago which I then modified slightly to work with my own particular terminology system for determining the type of awareness you had during any particular non-physical experience.

Ask yourself the following two questions, answer them with either yes or no, then look up the answers in the following legend to find out what kind of experience you had.

Answer the following questions:
Did you realize you were dreaming? (just that single objective, did you know you were dreaming?)
A. Yes
B. No

Did you have a \”waking awareness\”, in that you had all your physical memories and knew who and where you were.
C. Yes
D. No

Answers:
A & C = Astral Awareness Experience
A & D = Lucid Awareness Experience
B & C = Dream Awareness Experience
B & D = Dream Awareness Experience

Is Phasing the Same as Astral Traveling

I saw the above question just now and I wanted to get my answer down. I’ll just get right to the point: yes, Phasing and Astral Traveling are the same thing. They’re synonyms. Meaning that they’re different words we use to describe the same thing.

There are other words that you’ll see people use to describe Astral Traveling, such as:

Phasing
Astral Travel
Astral Projection
Etheric Projection
Out of Body Experience
Lucid Dreaming
Remote Viewing
Projection
WILD
DEILD
MILD (basically any of those -ILD techniques)
Dreaming

Doing any of those above labels will take you to the same place (the non-physical) where you can do the same things.
“Dreaming” would be the only one from that list that is slightly different from the others. The other labels describe an event where you’re Conscious and Aware that you’re in the non-physical… dreaming denotes that you’re not aware that you’re in the non-physical. That’s the only difference between a dream and the rest of those labels.

In the end, I like to simply call what we experience a “Projection”. Mostly because if someone was to ask me “Was what I experienced an astral projection?” and I answer saying that it was probably a lucid dream, then immediately the individual asking the question feels like they failed because they didn’t have an “astral projection”. They didn’t do what they originally set out to do. It has a very negative connotation towards it. Whereby if I just say that, yes, they had a Projection, then it has a more positive influence upon them. They succeeded! And really, they DID succeed at what they wanted… which is to become aware while being non-physical.

I never worry about if I’m lucid or astrally aware in the non-physical. I simply ask myself, “was I conscious and aware while having a non-physical experience?”, and if the answer is YES, then I’m happy. Even if I didn’t, a dream awareness experience is still highly valuable to me.

Is Astral Projection a Spiritual Practice?

The simple answer to this question is no, Astral Projection is not a spiritual practice in itself. I have no doubt that some people will be surprised to hear that and others will be nodding in agreement. Please allow me to explain.

This is, in fact, the wrong question. The question should be, \”CAN Astral Projection be a spiritual practice?\”. The answer to that is a resounding YES. Of course it can be, but you need to make the conscious choice to make it so.

It starts with asking yourself why do you want to learn Astral Projection, or if the case is that you already know how, then simply ask why do you Project? It begins with the Intent behind the \”why\”. If all you\’re looking for is the thrill of something new, or perhaps you want to just fly around, or maybe you\’re wanting to spy on people… well, the Intent associated with these actions isn\’t of Love. Some of it is self-serving. Some of it is just outright negative. I\’m not saying don\’t spy, don\’t fly and don\’t find a thrill… I\’m just saying that if you\’re looking to grow spiritually, then those things should probably be kept in balance with your other activities. I\’m a big fan of flying… and a lot of the time I get caught up in doing just that. So I understand that sometimes it\’s not easy to keep your mind on track.

Now remember that you can grow spiritually much faster simply by interacting with others in this physical reality. Don\’t hide from other people, they\’re your path to spiritual growth! That is the entire reason why you chose to be here in the first place! To fast track yourself towards becoming a being of Love. If you can stick to that path in the current social atmosphere of greed that surrounds us on a daily basis, then I think you\’re doing pretty good. The nice thing about becoming Love here physically is that it translates over into your Projections. You will find that your Projections take on a much more positive atmosphere to them and you will meet with more positive entities, because you\’ve now shifted your Intent towards a more positive position, hence you will begin to experience such directly. This concept also applies to our physical lives. The more you change within to become closer to Love, the more positive effects you\’ll see happen in your life.

You can definitely also learn to become a more Loving being through Astral Projection. This is where Astral Projection as a spiritual tool comes into play. Just as you grow spiritually here in the physical, through your interactions with other Consciousnesses, the same holds true while you\’re projecting as well. Be kind to all those you meet, because you never know if an entity you\’re interacting with is a creation of your consciousness or a truly separate being from you. So just be nice to everyone.

That lesson also holds true here in this physical reality, except you know that everyone is separate (well, that\’s the illusion anyway) from you. You don\’t know the life stories of other people you meet here physically, so treat everyone with respect. This is the first lesson, in my opinion, of becoming Love. Respecting everyone. It has just as many implications physically as it does during our Projections.

So, as you can see, Astral Projection is only a Spiritual Practice if you choose to make it such. Likewise, even your physical life requires a choice to be made as to whether it\’s a spiritual life or not.

Some Beginner Questions Regarding Astral Projection

I was doing some Googling tonight, the subject: Astral Projection and Out of Body Experiences.
I came across a post on Yahoo with some questions and I thought I\’d answer them here, because I\’m sure more than one person reading this has probably asked these at one point or another.

So, let\’s get into the questions!

1. I heard demons can get into your body, so should I have a cross bible etc?
A: This has always been an old world mystical belief, that something could possess you while you\’re \”out of body\”. It simply can\’t happen. Your physical body, or at least the thing that your consciousness is focused towards and experiencing while you\’re awake and aware in this physical reality is yours and yours alone. There\’s absolutely no danger from this.
However, the tools we use to protect ourselves are also belief-based. If you feel the need to have a cross or a bible with you, the belief that having one with you is enough of an Intent to keep you safe… not that you need to be kept safe, but it will keep your Intent positive, which WILL have a direct impact upon the nature of your experiences.

2. Can I touch anything or would I be intangible?
A: The reality you project into, assuming you\’re not in a (the) void, is as real and 3D as this physical reality is. You\’re not necessarily going to experience a reality that mirrors this physical reality, but if you do, yes, you can interact with everything. These interactions are just not with anything from this physical reality.

3. Can you contact someone alive so they don\’t think your dead?
A: You can contact physical people, yes. But this isn\’t something that is solely attributed to Astral Projection. This is more of another metaphysical/psychic ability.

4. Can you see other spirits?
A: While Projecting, you\’ll definitely come across other \”entities\”. It will be very hard to recognize if these entities are creations of yourself, or if they\’re external to you. Honestly though, it doesn\’t really matter. What matters is if the experience you had with them was positive and you learned something.

5. How far away from the body can you go?
A: As far as your creativity can take you.

6. Do you have to meditate or go to sleep or could you do it in a class room without closing eyes etc?
A: Projecting without closing your eyes, in theory, would be very possible, but would require you ignoring all visual sensory input. You would also have to learn how to ignore the noise by other people. You can meditate with the goal to Project as well. Falling asleep is probably one of the easiest methods in order to Project from though.

7. Could you haunt some one like a bully or someone you hate or just to prank?
A: There are stories of people being able to do stuff like this, but I feel this kind of interaction with the direct physical would be very hard to pull off. I\’d imagine most beginners wouldn\’t have the focus in order to do this efficiently.

8. Final one! If your body dies while doing it will you be trapped on earth or go to heaven/hell?
A: Well, considering that if someone died while projecting, we would never hear of it. So there\’s really no way to answer this question. Kind of like asking, \”Does the light in the refrigerator actually go out when you close the door!!\” MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES!! Seriously speaking though, if you died while projecting, I\’d have to guess that you\’d simply move on as you would had you died normally in this physical reality.

So there you go folks… some questions which I\’ve seen asked by a lot of beginners in the past while helping out on the Astral Pulse. If anyone needs anymore clarification or justification, please ask here or on the forums! Thanks for reading!

The Many Kinds of Astral Projectors – Bedeekin

Bedeekin made this hilarious post on the forums a bit ago, and I really wanted to share it with everyone!
Taken from: http://www.unlimitedboundaries.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=30

So far… this is a great collection of peeps on here Xanth. You seem to have brought a balance to the force. It\’s made me see more clearly the different views of individuals that can be placed within specific groups… just like physical reality. Here is my list of \’Types\’.

The Lucid Dreamers… These generally stick to the idea that all nonphysical experiences are Lucid Dreams. Whether it be from Sleep Paralysis or through a dream. They tend not to theorise too much and it seems to be a 50/50 on whether there is more to it than a chemical reaction of a meat based brain. They usually do it to do cool stuff like fly and be superhuman. It\’s cool to control your dreams right?

The OOBErs (Out of Body Experiencers)… these tend to stick to the idea of a RTZ projection being the only true one. They relate \’Astral Projection\’ as a different animal more closely related to dreams and stick to their guns that they actually externalise a type of second (ethereal) body or soul. OOBEs rule!! This group gets upset quickly… generally by the APers.

The APers (Astral Projectors) … These class themselves as spiritual generally speaking. They use a system that relies on an esoteric view originally defined by the theosophical movement that combined many eastern philosophies into one big westernised mass. They categorise different types of projection into specific subtle body types. This is a popular view with lots of props and metaphors… like crystals, energy work and chakras etc. Usually taken on board by the modern newbie.

The love and lightworkers. These are more closely related to the APers but go that one step further by fully embracing the cosmic super-galactic oneness attitude.. they tend to wear dream catchers around their neck and are a modern version of the hippie… they are generally vegan and sign off a post with \’namaste\’ or \’Love and light to you and yours\’.

The Magicians. These embrace the black magic or Wiccan view. Will use spells to ward off demons.. or incantations to manifest them. Horoscopes and tarot cards are essential accessories. Prone to write long posts with symbols and diagrams of sacred geometry. Usually have a poster or avatar of a pentagram or Aleister Crowley holding his fists to his face.

The Hardcore Materialists These are of Russian origin and flatly point to it all being nothing but \’meat brain\’ materialism. They will announce how amazingly mind expanding it is, but \’meat based\’. How you can use it to learn new things, but \’meat based\’. How you can find lost objects, but still \’meat based\’. Will produce very dodgy documentaries and try everything in their power to promote it as \’meat based\’. Everything is \’phase\’… apart form the \’meat based\’ bit. Will use pretty \’meat\’ to promote their materialism.

The phaser A relatively new and balanced group of individuals that use meditation to project. Prone to being a bit too vague for the newbie with words such as \’passively observe\’ and \’surrender\’. Previous to learning about phasing, they will have tried every other method in the past but failed. Because of this it\’s the best method for everyone.

The My Big Toeists Devout followers of Thomas Campbell. Usually over the age of 40. They use very frustrating circular argument for those who dare to contradict Tom Campbell and his theories. Can be seen in Campbell lectures throughout the world. Can be misconstrued as a cult to the outsider. Would happily have a copy of MBT in every hotel room in every country. Everything is DATA.

The armchair APer They will have read EVERYTHING… but just don\’t seem to project. However. This doesn\’t dissuade them from telling actual projectors what it is and the best way to do it. Prone to YoYo thinking due to their noncommittal attitude and whatever book/website they are reading at the time.

The Newbie aaaah… the newbie. Has also read everything they think they need to know before they attempt projecting only to realise it\’s not as easy as getting a phone app. Will vehemently try every binaural beat there is and will say \’almost there\’ frequently. Will have success and want to know if they succeeded. It\’s all open ground… demons, silver chords and possession is entirely possible.

I will say.. it takes one to know one… I have been a few of these in the past.. and I hope it made you smile a little.

There are probably a few \’groupings\’ I missed.

If anyone has any other groupings they want to add, please feel free to leave a comment or join in the thread on the forums! 🙂

Learning Astral Projection & Meditation – Emptying Your Cup

I think everyone, at one point or another throughout their lives, has hear this phrase before – \”Empty your cup\”.
It\’s not directly spiritual or religiously related, although it can be related to just about every aspect of your life.

This is something that I have personally experienced, and I whole-fully believe that everyone has to do in order to progress on their path. That path can be learning Projection, Meditation, Spirituality in general… anything.

\"EmptyFor myself, it was relating directly to the first two… Projection and Meditation. Over the 15+ years I\’ve been practicing meditation, I read and learned much about what others were telling me that meditation was about, the same was true about projection. Everyone was filling my head with what I should be experiencing and feeling when doing these things. What did I actually learn? I learned that all the stuff I was learning that I THOUGHT was the truth, actually wasn\’t. What it was doing was getting in the way of what *I* was experiencing. I was throwing away valid and valuable experiences because they didn\’t match up to what others were telling me. This is a huge mistake…

So I came to a conclusion that in order for me to actually progress, I had to forget everything I thought I knew about Projection and Meditation. My cup had become so full with the notions, ideas and concepts of other people, that I had no room for my own notions, ideas and concepts to grow and flourish. I don\’t know exactly when this action happened, but it did… and ever since that day, I have found my own path through the forest instead of relying upon the footsteps of those who have come before me. I\’m now self sufficient in my opinions and beliefs, because they\’re no longer beliefs to me… they\’re now based solely upon my own direct experiences, and as we know, \”direct experiences\” are the trump cards with knowledge.

So please, if you\’re looking to learn anything new, be it anything about this physical reality or non-physical reality, you\’ll be doing yourself a huge favour by forgetting everything you think you know and begin to explore with the wonderment of a child. Everything is new.

Forget the labels you\’ve learned… dreaming, lucid dreaming, astral projection, out of body experiences, etc… forget it all. They are the labels of others… they only serve to confuse. Just go out and experience and learn from those experiences. 🙂

EDIT: It\’s been pointed out to me that people are taking this too literal. What I suggest above shouldn\’t be taken as such, it isn\’t literal.
Nothing in relation to projection should ever be taken literally. I\’m speaking about everything you\’ve been told about what projection is supposed to be or is.

Your ideas.
Your concepts.
Your labels.
What you identify with Projection.

Ditch them as they\’re useless to you.
Start from a position of \”not knowing\”.

Explorations in Consciousness – Fred Aardema

I recently purchased Fred Aardema\’s new book, \”Explorations in Consciousness\”.

Honestly, I found it really hard to put it down! This is one of, if not THE best book on Non-physical exploration that I have ever read.
He asks so many great questions, and doesn\’t really TELL you what to think… he offers you food for thought and asks you to use your own judgment.
Along with that, he has filled this book with so many of his own personal experiences to back up his comments. So great!

I don\’t think I can more highly recommend this.
If you\’re going to buy any book on the subject, please make this your #1 choice!

Astral Projection Labeling Our Experiences

I’ve made Astral Projection posts of this nature in the past, but as I’ve re-read them, they’ve seemed confusing, even to myself! And I wrote them! LOL

So I wanted to see if I couldn’t clarify things further.

I want to explain why “labeling” your experience in an attempt to categorize and define them is a bad idea, especially when you’re just starting out.

When I first started attempting to explore the non-physical, 10+ years ago, I had terms like “out of body experience”, “astral projection”, “lucid dream” and more all knocking around my skull. The only experience I had originally known about were lucid dreams, as I’ve been having those for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t until I really started putting the puzzle pieces together within the last 2 – 3 years that I figured out the actual nature of those experiences.

I found that there is one constant, one commonality, that linked all of these, supposedly, separate experiences/labels… dreams, lucid dreams, astral projections, out of body experiences, false awakenings, etc… there is one factor which everyone seems to completely ignore: YOU. Well, more to the point, Consciousness! Because you ARE consciousness. This is why these experiences all feel “different” and “separate”, because the “YOU” is different in each case.

YOU are the label. YOU are the definition.

How did I figure this out? What experiences did I have which gave me this conclusion? I have directly experienced the full spectrum of, what I can only describe as, “levels of awareness” within a single non-physical experience. I have started an experience with a dream awareness (normal dream), then become lucidly aware (lucid dream), then initiated a technique and brought forth my full waking awareness bringing me to an astral awareness (full astral projection). “Awareness”, to me, is a point along this spectrum. At each “level”, it feels like a different and completely separate experience. I can completely understand why people feel this way, but these aren’t experiences which you “have”… they’re experiences which you “are”. There is a vast difference between those two statements.

That spectrum looks kind of like this:

(Keep in mind that these are MY metaphors… MY labels. But I ask you to try and identify these labels in comparison to the ones you use. I try to make the comparison as obvious as I can using words and terms which people “mostly” agree upon. LoL)

“Dream Awareness” …… “Lucid Awareness” …… “Astral Awareness”

On the left of this spectrum, you have the experience which you don’t realize you’re in the non-physical. Essentially, it’s you dreaming… it’s you experiencing a reality that isn’t this physical reality, you just don’t realize that fact. It’s you having a dream awareness. You have to have a very base level of awareness in order to experience this, otherwise you won’t directly experience the event, so you’ll have zero chance of remembering it (which would be any experience taking place to the left of this point). If you’ve ever awoken in the morning with brief flashes of symbols and images from the dreams you had during the night, then you had a dream awareness experience, but you were just on the very cusp of having the bare minimum level of awareness in order to remember the experience.

On the far right, you have the experience which you do realize you’re in the non-physical *AND* you have the same awareness which you have right now while reading this post. You’re wide awake and fully aware of who you are with all your memories of such. THIS experience is what most people (and myself) would consider the “holy grail” of projections. It’s what most people refer to as an Astral Projection. It’s you experiencing the non-physical with an astral awareness.

I should point out, too, that your awareness can move both ways along this spectrum. You can gain awareness, and lose awareness.

So far I’ve described the two ends of the spectrum. Where does a “lucid awareness” fit into all this then?

Well, in the middle is the point where we have become “aware” that we’re in the non-physical and experiencing a reality that isn’t this physical reality. Anything to the left of this point is a “dream awareness experience”, or as most people call them, a “normal dream” (it’s important to point out here that the further right you move from the far left, the more “clear” and “vivid” your experience will become until you actually become lucidly aware). It’s at this point that the only thing you have is a base awareness that you’re in the non-physical. At this time, the closer you can bring your awareness to your full waking awareness, the further to the right you’ll move along this spectrum towards the “astral awareness” (aka, full astral projection). I have some techniques I’ve written about on my website to accomplish this. If you can’t find them, please let me know and I’ll provide the links.

So, as you can see, an astral projection is just a “dream” where you have a full waking awareness. However, don’t let the “just” fool you… what most people consider a “dream”, as I mentioned above, doesn’t exist. There is no such fundamental experience called a “dream”. There is only you experiencing the non-physical unknowingly!

This is why labeling an experience is a waste of time, because they’re all the same experience. What differs is only how consciously aware you are during the experience. This is why I don’t really worry too much if I had a lucid awareness experience or an astral awareness experience, because I know that what’s important is that I was consciously aware in the non-physical! I have a set of goals which I always keep solidly in my mind, so even if I’m only lucidly aware, I still remember enough to do them… such as meeting a guide. Sometimes it works out, other times it doesn’t… but as I said, in the end, I’m happy that I had an experience outside this physical reality.

I have a challenge for anyone who can project. Try to experience the full spectrum of awareness in a single non-physical experience. If you manage it, try to take note how each “level” feels compared to the last.

The Key to Most Astral Projection Techniques/Methods

Someone posted a PDF on the Astral Pulse tonight showing 66 different Astral Projection techniques.

The thing is that they\’re not 66 different techniques. They\’re the same technique with 66 slight variations. Well, that is, the ones that you do while consciously awake. There are ones listed where you initiate them from a lucid awareness experience in the non-physical.

It\’s a great write-up and all, but I think it\’s more important for people to understand *WHY* each of those techniques work.

I\’d encourage people to take a bunch of techniques they read about (here or wherever) and try to break them down into their base parts. Try to figure out makes the technique tick. Here\’s a hint… they\’re all asking you to do the *EXACT SAME THING* just in slightly different ways.

Ok that wasn\’t so much of a hint as telling you. LoL

Just about every technique incorporates Visualization or Mental Concentration/Focus in some way as a method of fixating your awareness away from the Physical. That\’s it… that\’s the entire secret. That\’s what took me over 10 years to figure. I use this concept to create my own visualizations and you can use this knowledge to further help yourself to project.

There\’s nothing mystical or magical about any of this and most importantly: ANYONE CAN DO IT.

Possible Cause for \”Reality Fluctuations\” in our projections

There was a discussion on the Astral Pulse recently where we talked about \”Reality Fluctuations\”. I wanted to share with you a statement made and my response to it in hopes that it\’ll shed some light on this phenomenon. This is the thread in question should you want to read the whole thing. My post is on the second page, at the end.

The original statement:

There are never any defects in the RTZ when I stay projected in my bedroom. The defects start when I leave my room, and they get much worse when I project outside my house.

My response:

There\’s a reason for that, in my opinion… and it illustrates the very \”subjective\” nature of this so called reality that people label the \”RTZ\”.

Basically, you know your room really well. You could probably close your eyes right now and visualize every detail of your room, down to the smallest part.
This \”knowledge\” of your environment gets a little more iffy the further away from your room you get until you get so far away where you can\’t rely upon your memory of the area to get a firm \”build\” of it to experience.

And the further you get out, the more the \”collective\” nature kicks in… whereby you\’ll begin to see the environment meshed with other people\’s thoughts and ideas of how they perceive their surroundings. This is, I believe, the nature of the \”fluctuations\” people experience.

This goes for other non-physical realities as well.

This is part of the \”subjective\” aspect of the non-physical reality you find yourself in.
To me, it\’s obviously being created by your mind to a degree, and the other minds you\’re sharing that reality with.
The \”RTZ\” really seems to be no different than any other collective \”non-physical\” environment.

This effect can even begin happening within your immediate surroundings upon the initial projection \”exit\”. If you don\’t truly remember where something was put, then it just might not be where you think it was. This actually lends more credibility to Tom\’s MBT Theory of the larger consciousness system. The only data available in whatever reality you find yourself in comes from your own consciousness, unless it\’s a collective reality of sorts shared by at least one other consciousness. If you\’re not sure where a certain item is, then the data for that item\’s placement won\’t be available to the reality in order to render it to your consciousness in the location you believe it to be.

The Vigil Method & Fred’s New Book!

Fred (Major Tom from the Astral Pulse) from the Explorations-in-Consciousness website/forum released a chapter from his now released book, “Explorations in Consciousness”. It describes what the author calls “The Vigil Method”.

You can find the method at the following link: The Vigil Method

THE IMPORTANCE OF WAKEFULNESS

So you want to join the ranks of those who, in the words of the poet John Magee, have “…slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.” You won’t be flying an airplane, which inspired those words, but the rewards of learning how to project are even greater. So how do you make the OBE happen?

Clearly, the voluntary induction of the out-of-body state is associated with sleep. There are other situations in which the OBE occurs, such as during trauma or other extreme events, but the voluntary induction of the state is associated with the natural sleep rhythms of the physical body. In particular, Robert Monroe was the first to fully recognize the importance of being able to reach the MABA state (Mind Awake/Body Asleep) in order to effectuate the OBE.

Please do head over to Barnes and Noble or Amazon to purchase Fred’s new book! It’s promising to be an excellent read!
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/explorations-in-consciousness-frederick-aardema/1110505574?ean=9780987911902&itm=1&usri=0987911902
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0987911902/

In Explorations in Consciousness, Frederick Aardema, a clinical researcher, provides a profound, in-depth account of the out-of-body experience, during which the explorer of consciousness is able to transcend the boundaries of time and space.

Congratulations Fred!

Morning Non-Physical Experience – September 8, 2011

This will be my first logged experience in a few months. I\’ve had some lucid/astral awareness experiences over that time, but they were either not meaningful or they were very short (1 – 5 seconds).

Last night, however, I had some meaningful experiences, a couple breakthroughs, and some frustrations.

First, the breakthroughs! Well, I started off before going to bed repeating an affirmation that I was going to become consciously aware during my dreams that night. Along with that, I firmly placed the Intent that it would happen. As it happened, I did have a really nice, long and clear lucid/astral awareness experience which I perceived happened for 15 – 20 minutes.

The second breakthrough was that during this experience I decided to run a simple test revolving around keeping myself in the non-physical. A point came where I began to sense that I was beginning to wake up. I was starting to feel my physical body lying in bed, so what I did was I consciously ignored those signals and focused my attention COMPLETELY within the non-physical environment I was experiencing. It worked perfectly. I was able to further extend my experience doing this.

I eventually did wake up though. I laid in my bed wondering if I should just close my eyes and go back into the experience, but I felt that I should jot down what notes I could quickly so that I could remember this stuff later in the morning. I found a piece of paper and a pen, both of which I normally keep on my bedside stand and wrote down a few keywords. Well, I went back to sleep and woke up in the morning. When I went to look for my notes I had made, and here\’s the frustrating part, I couldn\’t find them! Apparently the act of me \”waking up\” and \”writing down my notes\” was a FALSE AWAKENING. GAH! LoL

I\’ve forgotten a good chunk of my experience from last night. I think I retained the most important aspects of it though. Thankfully. hehe

Great Article I Just Found – Astral Voyage

There’s a really well written article I just found on the website I go to once in a while called Astral Voyage.  The article is entitled “Astral Projection/Dreaming/Lucid Dreaming”.  I stumbled upon it when I was doing a google search for articles pertaining to differences and similarities of Lucid Dreams to Astral Projections.

http://www.astralvoyage.com/projection/difference.html

April 30, 2003
It’s my opinion that astral projection, dreaming and lucid dreaming are intertwined in the same locale. The difference between dreams, projection and lucid dreaming is what is at the controls (the conscious mind or the subconscious mind). Even if you get the vibrations and roll out of your physical body, you will end up “dreaming” very quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing. People say, “I failed because I fell into a dream.” Well, no you didn’t, you just gave up conscious control to the subconscious mind which makes the experience totally different! The subconscious mind has its own agenda and communication system.

Your conscious mind is concerned with the here and now. Your subconscious mind is concerned with processing life events, working out soul lessons, attempting to bring past and future events into your consciousness, and a bevy of other things. Subtle realm experiences, dream or otherwise, get “fantasy like” because again, a person has lost conscious control. The same exact thing happens in the astral if you don’t use clarity statements. People just don’t realize what the astral is like (during a conscious projection). Yes, it can be as lucid and clear as the waking state, but you can slip into the Alice in Wonderland effect (subconscious control) faster than you can shake a stick! In fact, control can be lost in less than a minute. I have rolled out of my body, gotten half way down my stairs, totally lost conscious control, and slipped into fantasy land immediately. Only through sheer will power, and constantly directing my focus towards my goal, am I able to maintain a lucid state. Published astral projection author, William Buhlman, also states that clarity statements are a must for maintaining lucidity and control.

The astral is a malleable place where form follows thought, but don’t just think it follows “conscious” thought. It also follows subconscious thought. Many an advanced projector, including the famous Robert Monroe, would marvel at how things would materialize (or that they would be transported to an event or place) quicker than they could form the desire consciously. That is how fast and strong the subconscious works!

An example of an astral dream is if you are working on a lesson. Many lessons cannot be worked out on the physical plane because you wouldn’t be able to handle the issue over and over (or even once), whereas you can handle fairly severe scenarios in the astral. For example, we assume all beings not recognizable, such as subtle plane entities, are “evil.” If you dream of a freaky looking entity then you’ll experience the fear emotion. Fear is generally the first reaction, and often the only reaction, to this experience. Time and time again I was afraid of what I didn’t recognize, until I learned to give it a chance, and even send it love. Only then did it morph into something I recognized and that is, the very same life energy that I was. I doubt I’d find it all too pleasant to find some scary looking being in my bedroom at night in the physical, but I can endure it over and over in the astral. It seems like a “crazy” dream, but it is your subconscious mind nudging you in the direction of total awareness and unconditional love.

Dreams can often come true. A common name for a psychic of this sort is a “sleeping psychic.” If we did nothing but remain in our bodies during sleep then this would not be possible. People have even met their friends and loved ones in “dreams” and both parties remembered the experience. In so called dreams, messages are given and futures told.

People write me in frustration that they can’t consciously project. Well, why not instead realize that you project every night and tackle it from a different viewpoint? Why not learn lucid dreaming (or lucid projection) and bypass the whole nonsense of “vibrations and rollout?”

Remember, you project every night you sleep. All we’re doing here is trying to get conscious control of the subtle state.

Anne

Explaining that whatever is at the controls determines the experience is a different way of saying what I talk about when I say that what differentiates the experience is YOU, not “where” or “what” you’re experiencing. If you’ve read my own articles here on UB, you’ll know that I try to internalize the experience instead of externalizing. Dreaming, Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection aren’t something you do, they’re a state of mind you are. Anne tells that beautifully when she talks about either having the conscious or subconscious mind in control… and that’s really a “bang on” explanation for it.

The inclusion of ideas from Buhlman and Monroe are nice. It shows me Anne’s ability to perceive the bigger picture and the ability to pick out the ideas and thoughts that most resonate with her from any particular person/author… which is refreshing to see.

When she talks about “sending the entity love” I believe this is a simple metaphor (and a well used one by a lot of people, some people might call this “sending PUL”, although I don’t think it needs to be so meticulously defined) for accepting what you experience and don’t be afraid. “Sending Love” simply means to go out and experience things with no desire to harm and all the desire in your heart to help others through no gain to yourself.

She does talk about “remaining in our bodies”, and my experiences directly conflict with this idea, but I can definitely support the vast majority of what she talks about. It’s a great article. Hopefully you’ve read it through with as much gusto as I did. I believe it’s easy for people to confuse WHAT they’re experiencing due to that Conscious/Subconscious switch. A fully conscious experience (aka: ASTRAL AWARENESS) will feel entirely different from a fully subconscious experience (aka: DREAM AWARENESS). It’s this separation that causes the confusion in people and is what I believe to be the very source of much of the division between the non-physical community at this time.

What is the RTZ (Focus 1 Projection)?

I\’ve always been \”on-the-fence\” as to the nature of what people commonly refer to as the \”Real Time Zone\” (term coined by Robert Bruce).  I was never quite ready to accept that it was some form of objective reality, or if it was just another of many non-physical astral environments.  Well, I believe I might have come up with a possible answer that describes the nature of the RTZ and explains why some people are able to view places, people and things that they might not have ever been personally witness to.  It also explains what people call \”reality fluctuations\”.

I think that the real time zone is a collective, non-physical environment, much like you\’d find in Focus 3 oC, it is being created and sustained by the collective conscious minds of the beings who inhabit this physical reality (aka us physical people).  I believe the consciousness of every living being in this physical reality are interconnected and the \”RTZ\” is the result of that interconnected consciousness.  The reason we can go places that we have personally never been to and can accurately (within reason) report what\’s there is because we\’re tapping into the collective consciousness unknowingly and it\’s giving us the information we need to form the surroundings.

However, the environment is also subtly affected by our thought energy  just like any other non-physical environment is.  This is where the reality fluctuations come into play.  These are our own subconscious (consciously or unconsciously) manipulations overlaying on the surrounding collective consciousness surroundings.  Fluctuations can also be your perception of what\’s actually going on in the environment you are in.  For example, Robert Monroe relayed once that he was watching people playing with large white playing cards, when in actuality they were checking their mail.  The \”envelopes\” were being perceived by him as \”large white playing cards\”, because that was the closest thing his subconscious mind could come up with that matched what he was seeing.

The way to control those fluctuations is to control the output of your thoughts and emotions.  Make sure that the surrounding environment is as pure an experience as possible.  That way, what you experience is what\’s actually there… and not some form of overlay.

Connection Between Classic OBEs and Phasing

I\’ve recently figured out for myself the connection between Classic Separation OBEs and Phasing.  Simply put, a classic obe is what comes about when you interrupt a phasing practice and initiate an \”exit technique\” and alternatively, if you\’re doing a classic separation obe and instead of initiating an exit technique you just kept doing what you were doing, you\’ll eventually phase directly into the Astral.

Three things came forth recently to get me to this line of thinking.  I first began thinking about this back when I was reading about when Frank had to slow down his own projections in order to have a RTZ Projection.  Next there was a method posted on the Astral Viewers from one of their Admins, Bedeekin.  His made mention of the method that he used for many, many years that was successful for him.  Well, one part of his method takes him to what sounds like a deep Focus 10/early Focus 12, which as I know it is the precursor to a proper Phasing attempt.  However, he then interrupts that Phasing process and initiates an exit technique. Then just now I got to thinking about a night when I experienced this particular thing first hand and, as Frank would say, the penny dropped.

My experience was back in March 2010, and I\’ll relay that quickly before moving on.  I went to bed on the Saturday night as usual.  It was around 2am.  That night I gained a lucid awareness in the dream I was having which was taking place just outside my house.   Some time went by and I began to feel that usual sensation that meant I was beginning to physically wake up.  The dream faded to black, I felt a shift, and I felt myself back in my bed.  I now recognize this state as Focus 12, as I didn\’t fully wake up.  I didn\’t bother opening my eyes, since I knew where I was.  This was the first time I ever experienced and learned about what I call the \”Eyes Closed/Body Still\” state upon waking.  Well, almost immediately, I felt another shift and I found myself in another lucid awareness experience.  This happened two more times.  All four lucid awareness experiences happened quite rapidly and in succession.  Each time I was in the non-physical for what felt like 2 – 4 minutes.  Each time I phased back to the physical, I kept that \”Eyes Closed/Body Still\” state.

After the fourth experience something strange and completely unexpected happened.  I attempted to slip back into another lucid awareness experience like I did the four times previous, but I didn\’t quite make it in.  I felt that it was immediately slipping away.  What I usually do to strengthen the experience in this kind of situation (as I\’ve mentioned on the forums before) is spin, but it\’s usually done while already having the lucid awareness experience, this time I don\’t believe I actually got all the way into the non-physical!  So I started spinning trying to get a grip on the experience, however after probably 3 seconds of spinning I felt I had fully lost the dream, however I was also still sleeping and I felt I was in my bedroom.

I couldn\’t see anything yet, but I felt my arms and legs floating upwards and the distinct \”separation\” feeling.  I sat up and kinda floated awkwardly upwards a bit and towards the end of the bed, kind of out of control.  By the time I had fully cleared my body, my vision came in.  I\’m not sure if I had chose to see or if it just clicked on, but either way I could see.

So that\’s it, that\’s the connection.  By interrupting a normal Phasing session at a certain point, you can then initiate an exit technique and have a classic separation OBE.  This also works in reverse, in that if you\’re going for a classic separation obe, you can for-go the exit technique and just keep doing what you\’re doing and you\’ll end up Phasing directly into the \”astral\”.  So for people who have problems having \”astral projections\” this is what I suggest you try.

We should be able to use this information to guide where we want to go in the non-physical directly from the get-go.  If you\’re someone who only does RTZ projections and wish to visit the greater non-physical (astral), then simply stop doing your usual exit technique and just keep doing what you were doing prior to that and eventually you\’ll phase.  And if you\’re a phaser and wish to experience the RTZ, then interrupt your phasing practice in Focus 12 and initiate an exit technique.

I do not believe Demons exist!

From time to time on the Astral Pulse forums and lately in the Astral Pulse IRC channel (there are links for both locations on the right side of this website) I\’ve been having to tackle the issue of demons.  People supposedly \”fighting\” with and just having general encounters with demons.

I\’ll just say that \”demons\” (or other negative entities) in the astral is purely a matter of BELIEF.  They only exist in the minds and experiences of those who believe in them.

Now, how did I come to this conclusion?  Well, basically, I can\’t remember a single time in my life where I\’ve ever had an encounter with ANYTHING that could even remotely be considered evil that didn\’t come directly from my subconscious mind.  No objective existence of a negative entity has ever cropped up in my experiences.
I\’ve been Lucid Dreaming for pretty much my entire life and more recently into my Astral Projections, I have never experienced this phenomenon.

What can I infer from this?  Well one of two things.

If demons really do exist then they are afraid to interact with me for some unknown reason.  We know this can\’t be the case due to demon-legend and folklore… and honestly, I\’m nobody special.  Now the second option… they are the creation of those who believe and I do not believe that they exist so I don\’t provide them with the chance to exist.  Makes sense, eh?

The only reason people experience demons in their astral projections is because either they outright believe in them or on some subconscious level outside their normally accepted conscious awareness, they believe in them.  Either way, it\’s a fear-based belief that brings them into your projections.

And seriously… fighting them?  That\’s giving them even more power to exist, because you are only further reinforcing the belief in yourself that they exist by engaging them.  Your best bet is to ignore them as best you can.  Close off your thoughts and emotions to the scenes playing out around you and they\’ll fade away into the nothing they came from.

So, the next time you find yourself facing down \”demons\” in your astral projection, don\’t be afraid, they are a simple fear-based self creation.