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!

[Lonik]

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.

[PrincessKnight]

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!

Lucky you! I wish I could have with my spirit companion experiences similar to yours with your spirits!!
I will try to ask him to help me follow him in the astral.
Yesterday I tried the rope exercise for the first time, but as a result I only got quite bizarre half-lucid dreams.
Could you please give me the links to the YouTube meditations you found most useful?
Thanks so much!
BTW, what kinds of spirits are the ones you found out that are able to sleep?

[Dezire]

Hi LittleBat,

I have never “astral projected” (tried to but never gotten as far as you), though I’ve read quite abit of material on that topic.

It is a common problem that a lot of people experienced waking up astrally but could not leave their body.
Once you find yourself in that state you may try the following:

1) Imagine there is a rope above you and pull yourself out by using the rope
2) “Roll” out of your body sideways
3) Imagine (think) you are in the same room but somewhere other than your bed

I would say method (3) seems to be the “easiest” as it does not require any “bodily function” imagination. Not sure if I’m making any sense. But as you start to astral project more, (3) would probably be your main choice of travel to your desired point of destination. For example you want to visit the moon, and you have to imagine being there and have the intention to be there. Instead of flying astrally and manually to the moon.

Not sure if this works for everyone, but I’ve noticed that this is a common point in a lot of material I’ve read. Hope it helps!

[PrincessKnight]

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.

They say that the dream dimension is also part of the astral realm, therefore - just as in dreams we can meet evil people/entities, but they can really do us no harm - why do we need protections when we astral travel?
And then, can I ask my spirit boyfriend to come protect me, even though he is human, and so technically not really a "protection spirit"?

[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.

They say that the dream dimension is also part of the astral realm, therefore - just as in dreams we can meet evil people/entities, but they can really do us no harm - why do we need protections when we astral travel?
And then, can I ask my spirit boyfriend to come protect me, even though he is human, and so technically not really a "protection spirit"?

As always, these are just my personal thoughts. I'm neither an amateur or professional practitioner and I don't think of myself as a master in these things.

Thinking out loud, it is said that the need for protection is not so great when we're simply connecting with our conjured and bound spirits. But when we conjure we're opening up to what's out there. And what's out there includes a lot of chaotic, negative energy and beings. So this is why expert conjurers say we need a *lot* of very effective protection and other tools (as well as proper training) before we attempt what I would call open conjuring.

Similarly, when we dream we probably are largely safe within the protective boundaries of our being and the protective grasp of our spirit guides. Yet when we astral travel we're putting ourselves out there, where again there are negative, malicious beings and energies. So we need protection against that. Plus it helps to have a route map / instructional guide as to where to go or how to behave. We may then never need to use that protection knowledge. Clearly some people do need to, as they've told others about what went wrong during their astral travels.

However if you think about it, astral travel during sleep isn't all always safe either. People have been astrally attacked in dreams. I think this has been reported throughout recorded history. That's one reason why some people do a diy protection before sleep.

I'm not sure I'm able to describe this well but I think it's quite accurate to talk about the mind/consciousness as capable of holding both pleasurable and terrifying images and experiences. When we're deep asleep we may well have terrifying experiences but we can't remember them when we awake. If we do, they can 'haunt' us. When we astral travel we'll probably remember much of what we encounter and can get extremely 'spooked' and upset if it feels like we've been attacked. Maybe you kind of get what I mean?

[PrincessKnight]

Yet when we astral travel we're putting ourselves out there, where again there are negative, malicious beings and energies. So we need protection against that. Plus it helps to have a route map / instructional guide as to where to go or how to behave. We may then never need to use that protection knowledge. Clearly some people do need to, as they've told others about what went wrong during their astral travels.

However if you think about it, astral travel during sleep isn't all always safe either. People have been astrally attacked in dreams. I think this has been reported throughout recorded history. That's one reason why some people do a diy protection before sleep.

I don't know... It is possible that some people wish to travel in the astral just to go to "dangerous" places and in a sense "challenge" the entities that populate them, who knows? While I am only interested in being able to meet my spirit mate and spend those romantic moments with him that we have never been able to spend together when he was alive.
For this reason I don't think I would try to get into trouble on purpose... However I would really like to have that instructional guide on where to go and how to behave once in the astral realm: where could I read something more about it?

[Lewk]

I don't know... It is possible that some people wish to travel in the astral just to go to "dangerous" places and in a sense "challenge" the entities that populate them, who knows? While I am only interested in being able to meet my spirit mate and spend those romantic moments with him that we have never been able to spend together when he was alive.
For this reason I don't think I would try to get into trouble on purpose... However I would really like to have that instructional guide on where to go and how to behave once in the astral realm: where could I read something more about it?

No, it's not about danger seeking. But the astral is notoriously not a universally safe place to be for everyone.

Okay, I think I get that you maybe want just to be able to be in the astral but not really travel and explore so much. Kind of leave the body and be near it on the astral version of this material plane perhaps? Or maybe trust your spirit to protect you while you're taken to a place elsewhere in the astral that they know?

Generally speaking - although I'm not an expert, I have studied around 4 different systems of astral travel, including respected authors - there is a common theme. Once out of body we *are* vulnerable to malicious beings, if they notice us or are waiting for someone to pop up. This may sound unnecessarily scary and yes we may not have such a problem. But it is not scaremongering for the sake of it. A good system incoporates ways to avoid the common pitfalls, which we may not even be aware of. And when battle scarred authors on astral travel say they wish they'd had that info before they began exploring, you tend to believe them.

The best I can compare it to is going to a strange city in a strange land we've never been to before. We may not know where the safe places to go are, or we may not know which areas are sometimes frequented by hostile people, where we might attract unwanted attention...or we may simply be unlucky and be spotted and targeted by someone. We may not be able to identify which people there are tricksters, potential attackers and so on.

We can light up on the astral and be noticed by the wrong sorts.

If you have a bodyguard guide who knows what it's like there, you'll be that much safer. If you wear body armour, know self defence etc, how to call for help, again you're going to be less vulnerable. Or if you travel in an armoured car... Better still, you have your own close protection squad too... It helps not to be paranoid too, ironically.

Protection methods can also raise our vibration to the point where we're less likely to be resonating in harmony with 'lower' or negative energies too. In the astral what we think of can materialise instantly, so being aware of that is another aspect to protection. And being linked to such thoughts or energies can lead us to be taken to the wrong part of the astral, even though we hadn't wanted to be.

Of course, all may go well. But it can go wrong too. Better to be safe than sorry though.