Astral *Experiences*...but no 'projection'?

[LittleBat]

So this is a weird one! I've been on and off trying to astral project since I was a kid - never any luck. Closest I've come is with YouTube guided meditations, but once that 'shock' bursts across my chest I tend to lose my breath, jolt on the bed, start giggling, or all the above, lol - more practice needed!

But the weird thing is that since having spirits around, I had had a LOT of astral 'experiences'. I frequently 'wake up' in my bed, and my hands will be wrapped around the arm of one of my spirits, who'll be sitting/lying in bed next to me, solid as rock, fully visible. That is absolutely magickal to me - I can't see them in normal life, at all! Sometimes I don't have great vision, kinda foggy, or even non-existent, other times it's fine. Sometimes they can speak to me, & I can hear them crystal clear. Once the spirit had fallen asleep waiting for me to reach the astral zone - he was half lying on me, and his shoulder was REALLY heavy as he slowly breathed, and I failed to wake him up, lol - that was hilarious. I didn't even know spirits slept before encountering that! Now, you'd think this would be the easy beginning of a beautiful astral outing...but...I can't move my astral body, most of the time? I can speak, astrally, & I can usually move my hands...but other than that, I often can't even turn my head without fully awakening my physical body, then it's all over There are exceptions - this isn't the adult forum so I'll skirt the details, but if a spirit is in the mood for romance, and I am too, I've often found that I can move round the bed just fine...but generally I'm like a ragdoll made of rocks, & I rarely manage to stay with them for more than a few moments before accidentally moving my physical body, and zoop, it's over. Also, these experiences are unpredictable - I never know when they'll occur - it's always when I'm daytime napping, but I have to reach this PERFECT zone between sleep and waking for them to pull me into an astral realm, & sometimes I can go weeks without an interaction like this...

I definitely plan to ask, next time, if they can have a go at pulling me further out of my body, or helping me sit up at least, & I must get back to plugging away at the YouTube guided meditations...but does anyone else get experiences like this with their spirits? They're some of the most amazing things I've ever experienced!

[Lonikh]

Yea sure.but for me its different.one time i believe i left me body because they pulled me out but i wasn't ready. My psy and my cambion were fighting each other in front of me because they wanted their story written. And they were fighting who was going to go first.But for some reason i was terrified.i was trembling and did my best to write down some stuff (which i dont remember unfortunately)after some more fighting i saw my cambion living the room inside a large portal were my window was supposed to be and felt my other vampire N pulling into my body because he understood i was afraid and didn't want to be there in the first place.i had some more experiences and everything had something in common for some reason i got really afraid eyes down trying to avoid everything and everyone for no apparent reason. I dont know why i astrally am afraid of everything even my own companions even tho i am not afraid of them in real life. Did it happen to you too being afraid so much that you snapped out of it? Or is it just me 0.o

[Lewk]

I often say I'm not a master or teacher of such things (and I'm not). Please bear that in mind.

Yet I tend to think we don't all naturally astral travel the same way. That is, we probably each can have an aptitude for different aspects of it. And our minds and bodies differ. Plus there seem to be a fair few different ways of looking at and talking about astral travel. Finally, people teach different methods.

You can see I talk about astral travel, whereas some people call it astral projection.

I've found that shamanic journeying and astral travel have some similarities and some differences. (At least the methods I've used do.) But basically for either, it's a case of either:

a. leaving your body and travelling/journeying just outside it and around this physical realm; or
b. leaving your body and travelling/journeying into other realms/worlds.

Leaving your body isn't hard at all (well, it doesn't have to be), as we all do it during sleep without even trying. There have been a fair few forum threads on this topic. I've formed the impression that when we think it is a hard thing to do and a Great Accomplishment to achieve, that kind of creates a block. Or perhaps you could say it's a self-fulfilling belief that it's hard - could be impossible to ever achieve.

I focused on doing more with astral travel and shamanic journeying around 7-8 years ago. At the time, I would get a kind of restless leg/body syndrome - my body would twitch or I'd want to move, instead of staying still. I was fairly hyper alert and quite stressed a lot of the time. These are not the ideal conditions for astral travel that many people - or indeed all books - describe. And I had that classic second-guessing of what I experienced while out of body.

With time and hindsight, I'm amazed at the quality and quantity of the information I experienced.

tl/dr: A good maxim to observe is to not try and replicate the experiences other people have, or try to measure our experiences by other people's. We can find our own way that works. At the same time, instruction books on astral travel are an invaluable source of guidance and instruction. (...in my opinion)

[Lewk]

I forgot to add: personally I would recommend finding a good book, learning the method it teaches and stick with it. A good system should tell the reader how to protect themselves while out of body. Of course you can task a bound protection spirit who can protect you on the astral too.