Astral Projection

[ViperSwan]

I've been browsing around on the web and have come into lots of conversations about Astral projection or when you have Out of body experiences. I was curious if anyone has experienced it or anyone you know?

 

I didn't see this topic.

Edited June 25, 2014 by ViperSwan

[dangershy]

By "out of body experiences" do you mean things like sleep paralysis? I mean, I haven't ever experienced things like this except maybe two instances where I was laying in bed, about to fall asleep, when I heard a really terrifying grinding sound and evil laughter. It was pretty scary, and was follow by a really bad dream.

[7Deadly$ins]

It's "astral."

[Koroshiya-Ichi]

I don't believe in astral projection or anything paranormal like that. But I have had a LOT of what could be considered OBE's due to things like dissociation, drug use, etc. Not in an "I can control myself and walk around looking at my own body" way though. It's usually pretty scary and weird when it happens.

Edited June 25, 2014 by Koroshiya-Ichi

[HeatherMarie]

I learned how to astrally project myself as a kid... Haven't tried in years though. It sorta creeps me out, now, that I could actually do it back then. lol

[Koroshiya-Ichi]

I learned how to astrally project myself as a kid... Haven't tried in years though. It sorta creeps me out, now, that I could actually do it back then. lol

What do you mean? Please describe the process, what you were able to see/experience, how you know it was astral projection, and so on. How did you differentiate doing it from doing normal things like pretending/having fantasies?

[HeatherMarie]

Okay, I know I may get flack for this, but I *swear* it happened this way.

 

I have a tape on Astral Projection, it's sorta like a meditation tape but somehow more intense, used to watch it over and over as a kid. Do everything the voice on the tape said, beginning with relaxing each part of my body, etc. It really has a lot to do with being relaxed and completely open to whatever happens... Sort of like unicorns supposedly only appearing to people who believe in them.

 

I couldn't *always* do it, but sometimes after I got through the parts about picturing a place, figuring out the look/feel/touch of it, etc, I'd *feel* something... Something pulling, almost like someone trying to pull me out of the chair but no one was there. My vision would be blurred at that point but that may have been from staring at the video for so long.

 

The first time I did it I "saw" my best friend's house, the living room. Her two kittens, her and her father, and a stranger I didn't know. No one knew I was seeing this, and to this day I can't figure out if I was *there* or it was just some vision like psychics have... But the next day at school I asked her about the stranger and I could describe him correctly.

[ViperSwan]

It's "astral."

Sorry ^.^ Thank you!

 

Marie, that is really cool! I've mostly only read about it myself, which is why I'm extremely curious. I saw a post on Tumblr once telling me how to do it so, but I was too afraid... Then, one of my friends wanted to try it so I told her about it. She went for it with the feeling of being suffocated. Although, she did say she felt some parts of herself leaving her physical body...

Edited June 25, 2014 by ViperSwan

[Starscream]

I have had a sleep paralyses where, had I not panicked I probably could have projected. I tried very hard to turn on a light while in this state then realised the body had to wake up in order to do so. then I panicked

[georgexu94]

Okay, I know I may get flack for this, but I *swear* it happened this way.

 

I have a tape on Astral Projection, it's sorta like a meditation tape but somehow more intense, used to watch it over and over as a kid. Do everything the voice on the tape said, beginning with relaxing each part of my body, etc. It really has a lot to do with being relaxed and completely open to whatever happens... Sort of like unicorns supposedly only appearing to people who believe in them.

 

I couldn't *always* do it, but sometimes after I got through the parts about picturing a place, figuring out the look/feel/touch of it, etc, I'd *feel* something... Something pulling, almost like someone trying to pull me out of the chair but no one was there. My vision would be blurred at that point but that may have been from staring at the video for so long.

 

The first time I did it I "saw" my best friend's house, the living room. Her two kittens, her and her father, and a stranger I didn't know. No one knew I was seeing this, and to this day I can't figure out if I was *there* or it was just some vision like psychics have... But the next day at school I asked her about the stranger and I could describe him correctly.

Strange and cool! Pure awesomeness!

 

 

I thought I've been experiencing strange things like this astral and out of body experience (OBE) but I was mistaken. I would feel like I was floating or something, or other times when I couldn't move. I realised later on that I was just dreaming. No, not really dreaming. More of a subconscious kind of state where I'm between sleep and waking. I have my eyes opened a bit. That might explain why I could see things even if I thought they were closed.

[Koroshiya-Ichi]

Okay, I know I may get flack for this, but I *swear* it happened this way.

 

I have a tape on Astral Projection, it's sorta like a meditation tape but somehow more intense, used to watch it over and over as a kid. Do everything the voice on the tape said, beginning with relaxing each part of my body, etc. It really has a lot to do with being relaxed and completely open to whatever happens... Sort of like unicorns supposedly only appearing to people who believe in them.

 

I couldn't *always* do it, but sometimes after I got through the parts about picturing a place, figuring out the look/feel/touch of it, etc, I'd *feel* something... Something pulling, almost like someone trying to pull me out of the chair but no one was there. My vision would be blurred at that point but that may have been from staring at the video for so long. 

 

The first time I did it I "saw" my best friend's house, the living room. Her two kittens, her and her father, and a stranger I didn't know. No one knew I was seeing this, and to this day I can't figure out if I was *there* or it was just some vision like psychics have... But the next day at school I asked her about the stranger and I could describe him correctly.

No flack, just interested in the experience and how it relates to psychology and dreaming. What you describe sounds a lot like hypnosis, going into a trance or dissociative state. Was there a particular reason you stopped trying to do this? I'd like to know the name of the tape you used if possible.

 

I guess I can elaborate some more on my experiences. I have a dissociative disorder, so the vast majority of the more significant events are probably the result of that, but I've had it happen before/during/after sleeping and during a normal day too.

 

The most common sensation I get is feeling that my consciousness is floating outside my body, typically above and behind the head, but I've also frequently felt like it was "smooshed down" into my body. This can result in feeling taller or shorter than I know my body really is, feeling like my arms or legs are way longer than they are, feeling like I'm sinking into or floating away from myself or my surroundings, and is typically accompanied by tunnel vision or other changes in eyesight that are harder to describe. For the most part this happens involuntarily, but if I consciously dissociate or numb myself it can be brought on intentionally. Since it isn't an enjoyable experience I don't do so very often.

 

I vividly remember the very first time this kind of thing happened to me. I was at a sleepover at my best friend's house with a bunch of other girls, and we were staying up all night taking turns playing Crash Bandicoot 2. I was on the couch watching someone play when I started to feel very strange, as if I were dreaming. Nothing seemed real, it was like I was seeing everything through a screen almost, like I was sinking into myself and watching my life like a movie. It scared the hell out of me and I remember saying out loud "this feels like a dream" and asking if anyone else felt weird too. This lasted for a long time, probably an hour or more, before it faded. Ever since then I've dreaded it happening, and just like it did back then it seems to happen more often when I'm sleep deprived (which is almost always... damnit.)

 

Left something out: in the times I've floated really far up "out" of myself I've felt like I've been stuck near the ceiling. Never gone beyond the ceiling though, which is interesting and I think says a lot about the nature of these events in my case.

 

Had some additional questions for Marie and anyone else who's experienced this kind of thing, but this post is so long already I'll save it for later I guess. I feel awkward posting this tbh.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Koroshiya-Ichi

[Shienvien]

For the record, there is an actual section in the brain which deals with the "I am here" aspect - and if it gets messed with, the brain can easily place the "here" somewhere outside the body. Not only that, but it also convinces the consciousness that the perspective is OK for someone in your 'new' vantage point, and is all in all rather creative in filling in the gaps.

 

...I should probably start collecting links to articles on how much work the brain actually does, and what happens when it messes up.

[Wookieinmashoo]

@Koroshiya-Ichi: Not quoting the entire post, but I thought I'd try to help out. Honestly this happens to me at random times and is nothing to be afraid of. I have had random times when I feel as if I'm "shifting" out of my body, and though I can hear people clearly, it's as if I'm too focused and it doesn't come across as speech. Pretty much I get the same sinking or floating sensation, but it only last for a bit. It's interesting that it happens but I think Shienvien is correct in that it's simply has to do with areas of the brain affecting your perspective. The brain is amazing and I think we underestimate it in ways.

 

I do still believe in astral projection but I don't think it's something that can be achieved randomly but meditation is needed and intense practice at it, sort of what like Marie did.

[earthgirl]

I've been browsing around on the web and have come into lots of conversations about Astral projection or when you have Out of body experiences. I was curious if anyone has experienced it or anyone you know?

 

I didn't see this topic.

When you're dreaming, this is basically what happens.

 

You are having an out-of-body experience. You're doing it unconscioulsy.

 

You can however reach it through meditation, consciously, but you need a lot of work to do it.

[ViperSwan]

And, would you know how to do this? I have a friend, like I said, who keeps at it but she keeps failing. She wants to know what she is doing wrong. I found a thing on Tumblr stating methods on how exactly to go about this but I didn't find any side effects on it. Here is what I've found on the subject. Weather it be true or not, I'm incredibly curious. My friend says she keeps trying the rope climbing technique without much success. For those of you who don't want to click the link, I'll quote them here:

 

There has been a lot of confusion about Astral Projection, so I figured I’d explain what it is and how to do it. Dreaming, is an unconscious astral projection. When you sleep, your soul leaves your body. It literally leaves our 3D physical reality. This is caused by your pineal gland (the most important part of your brain) releasing Dimethyltryptamine aka DMT. DMT is what propels your soul out of body when you sleep, and when you’re about to die or have a ‘near death experience’. The thing is, you do not have control over what your soul does when it leaves your body while you sleep… Your subconscious controls it. The difference between normal sleep and astral projection is, when you astral project, you are able to consciously control your soul, and where it goes. Astral projection is basically just Conscious Sleep. When you start to fall asleep, but wake up right before it happens, you can literally feel your soul coming back into body. That is why you sometimes feel like you’re falling. The ‘head exploding sensation’ (as some people describe it), is the first step to starting an astral projection. That is one of the signs you know that you’re doing it right. You feel pressure in your brain, and your body starts to tingle. Then, your whole body goes limp, and if you can control it, your soul will leave your body shortly after.

 

Let me put it this way so it’s easier to understand.. If I were to astral project, and I wanted to communicate with someone that is sleeping, it would be difficult for me to do so. I could easily find that person in the ‘spirit realm’ aka 4th dimension, but I wouldn’t really be able to have a deep conversation with that person because they would appear drunk to me. That’s because they’re not really conscious. If I spoke to them, they may remember me being in their dream a little bit, but they wouldn’t remember most of it. However, if two people are astral projecting at the same time, they CAN INDEED meet up in 4D, have a conversation together and both people will remember everything that happened.

 

Through astral projection you can do MANY, MANY things. You can speak with friends and family that are living, friends and family that are long dead, your spirit or animal guides, beings from other dimensions, extraterrestrials that tend to reside in other dimensions such as the Pleiadians and Andromedans, or you can just fly around and see the world like Superman. I realize this probably sounds crazy to people who are new to this concept, but I have done it myself so I know you can do it too. NOTHING has expanded my awareness and my consciousness like astral projection has. I hope you give it a try.

 

Before we get into techniques, you should know that there are hundreds if not thousands of different techniques to get your soul out of body. We are all unique. One technique that works for some people, may not work for others. I recommend you try one for little while, and move on to a different one if you don’t succeed.

 

1. The Rope Technique: This technique has been formulated by Robert Bruce and is one of the most effective techniques around. A key ingredient to this projection technique is an invisible, imaginary ROPE hanging from your ceiling. This ROPE will be used to exert dynamic pressure at a single point on your astral body to force its separation from the physical.

 

Reach out with your imaginary HANDS and pull yourself, hand over hand, up the strong, invisible, imaginary ROPE hanging above you. You will feel a slight dizzy sensation inside you as you do this. This feeling of vertigo will intensify the more you pull on the rope.

 

Keep climbing, hand over hand, ever upwards, and you will feel the vibrations start. Your whole body will seem to be vibrating and you will feel paralyzed. Concentrate single minded, on climbing your rope. Don’t stop.

 

Next you will feel yourself coming free of your body. You will exit your body in the direction of your imaginary ROPE and will be hovering above your body. You’re free at last!

 

2. Watch yourself going to sleep: Lie down comfortably on your back, facing the ceiling. Relax your body and clear your mind of unwanted thoughts. Relax even more.

 

Tell yourself that you are going to watch yourself in the act of going to sleep. You must be very clear about your intent. You’re going to let your body sleep while your mind will remain alert throughout the entire process. Tell yourself you will retain consciousness even while your body is going to be in complete “trance”.

 

As you relax completely, you must learn to recognize the rather strange, distinctive sensations you feel as your body moves into the sleep state. You MUST stay aware as this unfolds. At a certain point, you will feel that your body is feeling heavy and numb.

 

You are on the right track! Pay close attention to all your bodily sensations. You may feel yourself swaying or floating. You might even find certain parts of your body tingling. There might be vibrations running from your head to toe. You might even hear a strong buzzing sensation in your ears. Whatever the sensations, do not panic as these are very good signals that you are on the verge of experiencing an OBE.

 

You have to then visualize that you are rising up from your bed and floating towards the ceiling. How would it feel if you could actually float? Try to make the experience as real as possible. Hold this image for as long as you can. If everything goes on well, you might suddenly find yourself outside the body, floating near the ceiling!

 

3. The Monroe Technique: Dr Robert Monroe, one of the foremost authorities on Astral Projection devised this method.

 

You have to first relax your body. This is a very important step.

 

Then try to go to sleep, but don’t fall asleep. Maintain your awareness between sleep and wakefulness. This is known as the hypnagogic state. Then deepen this hypnagogic state and start to clear your mind of unwanted thoughts. Simply look through your closed eyelids at the blackness in front of you.

 

Then you must enter an even deeper state of relaxation. The next step is to induce vibrations throughout your body and intensify them. These vibrations have to be controlled and intensified further. This is the moment when the Astral body will separate from the Physical body. You then simply have to “roll-over” and you will find yourself out of your body.

 

4. OBE From lucid dreams: Lucid dreams are dreams in which the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming. In a Lucid Dream a person is already “out” of his body.

 

In order to achieve Astral Projection from Lucid Dreams, you have to first become obsessed with OBEs and you must really DESIRE it. You must read everything you can about it. You must think about it every free moment that you have.

 

Once your mind is besotted with the thought of OOBEs we will need triggers and affirmations so that you have a Lucid Dream. During the day keep thinking: ‘Tonight I’m going to have a Lucid Dream’. Remind yourself of this all day long. And - and this is the important part - keep asking yourself during the day “Am I dreaming now?”

 

With a few days of practice, you’ll have programmed your sub-conscious to induce a Lucid Dream.

 

Once you are in a Lucid Dream, and know that you are dreaming, you would also know that you are not in your body. You can then will yourself to see your bedroom. In most cases, when you do this, your dreamland will suddenly disappear and you will find yourself in your bedroom, floating above your body.

 

5. Displaced-awareness technique: Close your eyes and get into your usual trance-state. Try to sense the entire room, at once. Feel yourself just above your shoulders and seeing all around. Be very passive about what is going on.

 

Then imagine that your Astral Body is slowly rotating by 180 degrees. Once you finish your mental rotation, your astral head should be where your physical feet are, and your astral feet would be where your physical head is! With this firmly in your mind, try visualizing the room from this new direction.

 

The idea is to forget about where you really are, and displace your sense of direction. When you do this correctly, you will find yourself getting dizzy. This is normal.

 

When you are comfortable with this, the next step is to imagine floating towards the roof. Try to make it as real as possible. You may suddenly find yourself “popped” out of your physical body!

 

6. The Jump Technique: The Jump Technique, when done well, can wake up anyone in their dreams and make them Lucid. However, it does need to be done well.

 

This is how the technique works: We repeatedly need to ask ourselves during the day whether we are in a dream or not. It is important that we do this not just for the sake of asking ourselves the question, but because we really want to know where we are. We should really doubt that we are in the Physical. So in order to prove where we are, we jump as if we were going to fly. If we are in the Physical, we will land back on the ground. But during a dream, when we jump, we will defy gravity and float.

 

When this is done for a few days, you will soon find yourself in a dream in which you are jumping to check whether you are in a dream or not. As soon as you jump, you will find yourself floating, thus triggering a Lucid Dream and an OOBE.

 

7. Muldoons Thirst Technique: This is not one of the most pleasant or effective methods designed by Sylvan Muldoon.

 

In order to use this technique, you must refrain from drinking for some hours before going to bed. Throughout the day increase your thirst by every means you can. Keep a glass of water in front of you and stare into it, imagining drinking, but not allowing yourself to do so!

 

Then before you sleep, eat a pinch or two of salt. Place the glass of water at some convenient place away from your bed and rehearse in your mind all the actions necessary to getting it: getting up, crossing the room, reaching out for the glass, and so on. You must then go to bed, still thinking about your thirst and the means of quenching it. At night, you might awaken in your dream and you will find yourself walking towards the glass of water. With any luck the suggestions you have made to yourself will bring about the desired OBE

 

8. The Stretch Out Technique: Lie down, shut your eyes and relax your body. Imagine your feet stretching out and becoming longer by just an inch or so. Once you have this picture in your mind, let your feet go back to normal. Do the same with his head, stretching it out an inch beyond its normal position. Then, get it back to normal. Then alternate all between head and feet, gradually increasing the distance until you can stretch out both your feet and head to about two feet or more. At this stage imagine stretching out both at once. This exercise will make you feel dizzy and often start the vibrations.

 

After some practice, you will experience floating sensations and you can then tell yourself to rise up towards the ceiling. You are out!

 

9. The Hammock Technique: Visualize yourself lying in a bright white hammock, stationed between two palm trees on a secluded beach. Imagine the feeling of swaying in the wind, and recreate that feeling now as you visualize yourself swaying from side to side in the hammock. Repeat this visualization for as long as it takes to bring forth the vibrations, and when you feel the vibrations, just “roll-out” of your body.

 

10. Do the relaxing thing: Get to where you can’t feel your body. Repeat this saying in your head, and focus on it as much as possible. Don’t get discouraged! Say it slow if you have to…

 

"I am going to have an out of body experience.

I am going to let myself go to sleep, but I am going

to bring this waking consciousness with me wherever

I go. I am going to leave my body with full awareness.”

 

Keep saying the phrase even when you feel tired and you feel like rolling over….

 

Roll over if you have to in order to stay comfortable, and keep doing it. If you feel any tingles or see any lights that seem to flash, don’t let them throw you off. They are perfectly natural. If when you’re tired you struggle to remember the words, just recite something shorter like ‘Mind awake, body asleep’, and do it until you lose consciousness.

 

Whichever technique you choose, you are unlikely to get a result on the very first night, or even on the first few nights - so take your time with them and try not to get frustrated when nothing happens at first. I promise you will soon start to see some results. If you don’t experience results with a week or two, don’t let it frustrate you. There could be mental or physical blockages preventing you from getting out of body. (Such as undealt with past trauma, an unhealthy pineal gland due to excessive sodium fluoride and bad diet, etc. It could be many different things.)

 

If you are struggling, I recommend working with crystals that assist astral projection, or perhaps even Binaural Beats that assist A/P. Here is a good one I have found. Enjoy!

Edited July 1, 2014 by ViperSwan

[Koroshiya-Ichi]

And, would you know how to do this? I have a friend, like I said, who keeps at it but she keeps failing. She wants to know what she is doing wrong. I found a thing on Tumblr stating methods on how exactly to go about this but I didn't find any side effects on it. Here is what I've found on the subject. Weather it be true or not, I'm incredibly curious. My friend says she keeps trying the rope climbing technique without much success.

I haven't finished reading all the text in your link yet but it's pretty clear that those are self-hypnosis instructions, so searching the 'net specifically for self-hypnosis and inducing trance states may help instead of searching for astral projection. Just reading written instructions on how to do this may not be enough to achieve it either, especially at first. There are a lot of sites (plenty of which are paysites - do NOT fall for those scams) that provide audio files to assist in self-hypnosis and cover a wide range of post-hypnotic suggestion topics. Lying down in the dark and listening to them with headphones might make things easier. Do be mindful of the fact that hypnosis is also a fairly popular sexual fetish, so you may run across adult material whilst searching for audio files.

 

What you have to realize is that everyone is different and people have different levels of hypnotic susceptibility. How easy it is to achieve the state of mind your friend is looking for depends highly on many variable factors: how naturally dissociative, fantasy-prone, and suggestible she is, how relaxed and concentrated she is during each attempt at inducing trance, etc. For many people it is not easy to do this at will and it's certainly not something that the majority of people will be able to do predictably every time they attempt it. You can't force it and you can't predict it.

 

 

I thought I had made another fairly long post here a few days ago in response to some of the above replies, but I don't see it anywhere... hm. Anyway, I find it really fascinating that people who (presumably) don't have dissociative disorders seem to find these OBE sensations far more enjoyable than people like me do. I guess when it's an involuntary thing it's more frightening due to the unwilling loss of control involved.

Edited July 8, 2014 by Koroshiya-Ichi

[ViperSwan]

Wow, that is incredible, thank you so much for this info! I will definitely look this up!

 

(Has anyone else astral projected recently or interested in it? If so, please share!)

[Koroshiya-Ichi]

No problem. I used to have a bunch of links saved about this and related topics, but it's on my older computer so they're buried deep in my VERY old bookmarks and many of the sites are probably gone by now. I'll try to dig some of them up in the next week or so to see if there's anything worth sharing.

 

Do keep us updated on how your friend's progress is going in trying to do this as well!

[ViperSwan]

Update: She gave up but I am still intrigued. I'm going to attempt this myself and see what happens.

[Kai]

Removed. Edited July 22, 2014 by SockPuppet Strangler

[MedievalMystic]

Speaking of going into a trance... I used to scoff at hypnosis. Now I wonder. This video, meant to be listened to at bed or nap time, will do a really good job relaxing you. After about 8-10 minutes of this and it felt like I really was getting pretty relaxed and tired. When I turned it off, which I didn't want to do, it felt like I got physically jerked out of la la land.

 

If nothing else, if you deal with anxiety, depression, too much stress, etc, and all that comes with it, this video will relax you.

 

[Psyduсk]

When I had some rather troubling insomnia issues, I was prone to sleep paralysis whenever I did actually get some sleep. Along with the hearing voices, seeing shadows move around and feel things touching me, I did experience OBE, twice that I can recall. Sadly, I've done my best to shove those memories into the vault.

[Koroshiya-Ichi]

Achieving trance is definitely a real experience, but as with most psychological topics pop culture has a done a very poor job portraying it, so I can understand why some are skeptical.

 

It'd be cool if you could listen to that whole video and post more about your experiences with it, MedievalMystic! Or anyone else who want to try it. My connection is pretty crap, so getting the entire thing to load is tricky and I've never used a trance/relaxation recording even close to that length before, but I think I'll try listening to the whole thing next week when I have some alone time. I doubt it'll work for me since I've never been able to induce trance intentionally via outside input, but I kind of envy people that can feel effects from this sort of thing. I don't trust the process enough to go under with anyone else's guidance, and I find the escalating encouragement and droning voices often used by hypnosis practitioners disturbing rather than relaxing. :[

 

 

ViperSwan - have you had any luck using any of these techinques yet? Keep us posted!

[Pixel.G]

4. OBE From lucid dreams: Lucid dreams are dreams in which the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming. In a Lucid Dream a person is already “out” of his body.

 

In order to achieve Astral Projection from Lucid Dreams, you have to first become obsessed with OBEs and you must really DESIRE it. You must read everything you can about it. You must think about it every free moment that you have.

 

Once your mind is besotted with the thought of OOBEs we will need triggers and affirmations so that you have a Lucid Dream. During the day keep thinking: ‘Tonight I’m going to have a Lucid Dream’. Remind yourself of this all day long. And - and this is the important part - keep asking yourself during the day “Am I dreaming now?”

 

With a few days of practice, you’ll have programmed your sub-conscious to induce a Lucid Dream.

 

Once you are in a Lucid Dream, and know that you are dreaming, you would also know that you are not in your body. You can then will yourself to see your bedroom. In most cases, when you do this, your dreamland will suddenly disappear and you will find yourself in your bedroom, floating above your body.

I lucid dream fairly often and it is cool. ^^ Hehe, it would be interesting to 'attempt' an astral projection, but I dunno

[sparkle10184]

Almost all my dreams are lucid^^ It comes naturally to me without any "assistance" (dream journals, triggers, etc.) I can wake myself up simply by staying still and closing my eyes. When I open them again I am awake.