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Beginner's Guide
Although I have provided links to other interesting
Astral Projection web sites, I would like to cover several
experiences that I went through as a beginner that might
help you.
First, what is astral projection? Astral projection is
simply the transferring of the consciousness from the
physical body to the astral body. We have several 'vehicles'
for our consciousness, and the astral body is one of them.
Now, I will outline the progress of how I learned to
astral project:
Desire:
First is the desire. I have a friend who experiences the beginning
states of astral projection, but has no interest in pursuing it,
therefore never goes anywhere. "Why?" she asks. Well, if you
don't build the interest and suitable desire, you're more than
likely to go nowhere, and that is probably as it should be. We are
all on individual paths, and no one can judge the course of another.
Fear:
"Fear is the great barrier to human growth." Robert Monroe,
Ultimate Journey. This is why once you've built the desire,
relaxed and can concentrate, you need to lose the fear. One of the
biggest obstacles is the initial fear of the vibrational stage.
There is also the fear that you'll die; fear that you won't come
back; fear that your body will be possessed. I have never known of
anyone to suffer any of these ailments. In fact, after visiting a
particularly gorgeous place, I'll do everything in my power to NOT
come back! But to no avail! No matter what you do, you WILL come
back (unless of course you have a heart attack in the middle of your
sleep). Fear is a reoccurring theme (and/or lesson) that people have
to overcome in order to advance in astral projection. You're not
alone; everyone, at some time or another, will have to surpass one
of the biggest obstacles. This theme, however, applies to all areas
of our life, so when you can overcome this one, your whole life will
be enriched. I've read a vast array of books, talked with many
people on this subject, and I have drawn one conclusion, and that is
to face it. You can read until you're blue in the face on how to
deal with fear, how to control your emotions, that there's nothing
to fear but fear itself, but until you face it head on and overcome
it, these will be just words. And even when you face it and think
you have learned the lesson, it will take on another shape and
another form and reoccur until the lesson is thoroughly worked out.
Then you will see it disappear from your life because it is no
longer needed. I met my guide once in the astral and he told me that
there were seven cycles of life and fear is one of them. We will
cycle through these lessons until each one is resolved. What happens
in our life is neutral, and it's up to us to view it as positive,
negative, spiritual, or mundane.
Concentration:
One of my personal big obstacles! I can relax just fine, but when I
try and quiet my mind and focus on one thing, a thought slips in and
I'm off on a fantasy. My most successful attempts are when I can
clear the mind and use several techniques; either focusing on my
third eye, using a particular visualization tool or affirmation.
Practice concentration, via meditation, looking at candles, or
whatever your preference is. Robert Peterson in "Out of Body
Experiences" states that, "The single most important factor
in leaving the body is that you focus your consciousness down
to a single, focused, barely noticeable thread." Do you ever
stop and listen for that "high pitched noise" in your head?
Sometimes, if it's really quiet, I can stop and listen for it.
Robert Peterson states that if you can hold your concentration on
this very noise for three minutes that the vibrations will rush in.
Relaxation:
Countless people have repeatedly stressed this and that's because
it's true. If you're upset over a job, spouse, health, finances, or
whatever, more than likely this will be what is consuming you, not
astral projection. Clear your load if you want to pursue astral
projection. We cannot escape work, loved ones, bills or traffic, but
we can do a little to minimize the "noise" in our life and
this may also include having to make long term decisions. Is your
career keeping you from pursuing the higher things? Are you
accumulating too much physical goodies via credit which perpetuates
the stressful job in order to pay for them and thus keeps you up at
night? Is your spouse in tune with you and your goals, or creating
disharmony? If we want to project, we eventually have to lead a
lifestyle that is conducive to it. We cannot live like monks in a
quiet monastery, but we do have choices and we can chose compatible
mates, get less stressful jobs, work towards simple lifestyles that
allow for freedom and more quiet time.
Here are some things that I have personally implemented
myself: knowing when is "enough" in my career. I'm a SQL
Server Database Administrator, and people ask me why I don't
go into development, well, because it's too stressful and
time consuming and not worth the $5-$10 more an hour. I
changed my work hours from 7:00-3:00 so I could avoid longer
time in traffic (it's rotten here in Seattle). I try and pay
my bills off before accumulating more stuff to keep anxiety
down. I keep my associations to meaningful ones (quality vs.
quantity type friends) which means only a couple. I develop
patience and tolerance towards my loved ones which keeps me
from getting unduly upset. I meditate regularly and keep
extraneous noises like TV and radio to a minimum. These are just a
few examples. It won't happen overnight, but if you work on your
goals, you'll get there.
Focus 10: (aka the hypnagogic state-- see Glossary for
term definition).
People say, "I'm relaxed and all, but I still can't leave".
It is more than just relaxation. The body must be **asleep**
yet the mind awake. I try and catch myself as I'm coming out
of sleep in the morning which is an acquired skill, but doable
(I can't do this at night because I'm too tired)-- See "My
Favorite Technique" under the Weekly Commentary link. You
shouldn't be able to feel your body (sort of like going numb). Your
sense of hearing and touch will vanish and you will start to see
images float across your mind. Don't let yourself slip into a dream,
but instead gently hold your concentration and keep deepening the
sleep state. If you do this coming out of morning sleep, catch
yourself before you fully wake up and gently focus on your third
eye. Don't strain, otherwise you wake up. The vibrating should
follow.
Separation:
Ok, now the interesting stuff! There is no way to fully prepare a
person for astral projection. Practice, desire and trial and error
are the best teachers. However, you can at least expect some or all
of the following things. For me, one of the first experiences I felt
prior to separation was the buzzing. My whole body vibrated!
The first time is always shocking and you'll usually
throw yourself out of the state before anything happens, but
if you can, just let the vibrations continue. You're so
close! I now know that when these vibrations start, I'm well
on my way to separation. Usually, when the vibrating starts,
I can raise my astral hands, legs and so forth. The last for
me to detach is usually my head. I think our heads contain
the strongest hold to our physical body. There were many
times where my whole body was significantly raised, but my
head would just stick. I'm not alone. Albert Taylor wrote in
Soul Traveler, "I woke up in the paralysis state and, without
my producing, the lower half of my body began to float. Like the
hinged lid of a music box, my astral body moved up and my head
rotated backward! The soles of my astral feet were pointing straight
at the ceiling. I was upside down and facing backward, but my astral
head was still connected to my physical head. I hung there upside
down staring at the headboard of our bed. I couldn't seem to break
free, so I gave up and reconnected."
After thinking about this awhile (I also posted this to
my Science Results page), I think this is because most of
our primary chakras are in the head region and chakras are
energy (and where there is energy, there is magnetism). When
I project, the first thing to raise are my hands, and hands
don't have a primary chakra. So it's the utter stilling of
the head area chakras (thus reducing the magnetic pull) that
allows separation.
Ok, so your body is vibrating and you can lift your
limbs; now you should start hearing popping, cracking,
hissing noises. It can be one or many of these symptoms. I
have also heard screams (ugh) and nasty noises, but I now
just ignore them. Who knows what kind of parasites hang
around our astral body, but I can tell you, they are
harmless. So now that you've gotten this far, get out! I do this
several ways.
- Rollout (this is also the technique Robert Monroe
used). I rollout by simply acting like I'm falling out
of bed, as in rolling out of my body, onto the floor.
- Arch my back and buck myself out. Sometimes if my
head gets stuck I just "throw" myself out. This takes
sheer will power.
- Grab something solid and pull! It doesn't matter how
far away the solid object is, I think you're basically
using the solid object as a mental crutch to get out.
- Rise and move. I surprised myself lately by just
doing this passive technique. I "willed" myself to rise
above my body and move onto the floor, which I did. I'm
sure with time, it gets easier and easier, no matter
which technique you use. I remember how I struggled over
and over to get out of my body, but now, once the
vibrating starts, I always say, "gosh, it's so easy,
what was I fussing over?" I also have a theory where I
think we have this substance that connects us to our
physical body, and that it is magnetic in nature. I think
over time as we continually leave our body, this elasticity gets
stretched and loosens its tight grip. Some people are born with
loose holds on their physical body and can pop out with little
to no effort. My girlfriend's brother leaves his body all the
time during his afternoon nap but has no idea why and doesn't
really care.
Move away from body: When you are close to your physical
body, you are probably still in your etheric body. The
etheric body is electromagnetic in nature, and you will
experience some of the following until you get away from the
magnetic range (also read the article under Weekly
Commentary called "Our Five Bodies".
- You get pulled back. The body has a natural magnetic
pull to your etheric, and until you get far enough away
and move into your astral, you will be repeatedly pulled
back into it. This feels like being drunk because the
pull from your physical pulls you to and fro, trying to
attach you back to your physical. This is rather a
comical state, but can be annoying if you are simply
trying to look around while close to your body.
- Astral blindness is also another common side effect.
If I'm too close to my body (within about 10 feet), I am
equivalent to being blind. I usually use my hands to
feel around, or since I know the layout of my room, I
just move away from my body. Besides, in the astral,
it's not like you have to be careful of bumping into
things and hurting yourself. I do know that the better I
get, the more I can simply "will" myself to see, but
this is still a lot easier if I just get away from the
physical body. When I move far enough away, my astral vision
comes into focus, the wobbling stops and I'm totally free.
- There are strong auditory distractions, and as I
mentioned before, if I'm close to my body, I can hear
radio waves (in the form of talking, music, etc.) I also
noticed (after reading over my journal) that there is
this really annoying buzzing in the equivalent of my
astral ears that sounds like a hornet is in my ear! This
only happens which I'm close to my body, but on more
than one occasion, I have leapt back to my body out of freight
because I thought some bug was in my ear! And I do hate bugs!
- Spouses: If your spouse loves attention in the
physical, he or she will be even more eager in the
astral. Tip: just ignore them and move away. You can try
and talk to them, but unless they are developed, they
will hold no conscious memory of you.
As you can see, once you get the hang of things,
it's better to just get out of the room and start your
journey.
Take off: Once you are away from your body, you will
slowly progress from the old physical habit of leaving
out your front door to just zooming through the roof
(and when you're really experienced, you will just think
yourself to your destinations). You will eventually
overcome your fear of heights (I've done work in the
astral where I've helped my closest friend into the
outer atmosphere to help her with her fear of heights). It's all
very heady because you're not used to the speed, the height, the
colors, and the sounds. So what do you do? I learned that all I
had to do is ask and my consciousness would do the rest. One of
my first trips was to the moon, then I asked to see a deceased
relative, I also asked to see a place of great beauty and I'm
still recuperating from that wonderful experience!
If you want the specifics for my particular
technique, I wrote an article under the "Weekly
Commentary" link that is called "My Favorite Technique".
Good luck and have fun.
Anne
Beginner's Guide
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