Astral Projection
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### By Ness

Astral projection occurs when your consciousness leaves your body. It is also usually called an out of body experience, or OOBE/OBE. Some people experience astral projection naturally, and it's no big deal, but for the rest of us, we have to work at it. Hopefully, this article will help you with that.

Before we begin, though, I have a few more things to say. Astral projection has proven itself to be fairly tricky. Most people attempt it for months and months without really getting out of the body. Many of these people can feel themselves getting close to leaving, so their hard work is not completely in vain, and yet, they haven't gotten ALL the way out. This is no big deal. It seems to be normal to have a bit of a struggle with this. The best advice I can give is to practice a lot, at least once a day, more if you can, and if you ever begin to get upset that you can't do it, just stay calm and continue practicing. You can and will project when you're ready. Becoming angry and trying to force it won't help you at all.

You should also know that your body doesn't die when you leave, or anything weird like that. Your body continues to lie there, basically asleep. It continues to breathe, pump blood, make waste, etc., even though you're not there.

You also cannot be possessed by something/someone while astral projecting. When you astral project, your consciousness is out of your body, but your soul itself is still there. If your soul left your body when you astral projected, your body would probably die. Your soul stays in place and you are at no greater risk of being possessed/taken over than you are at any other time.

Also, you should try to be in a certain mind-set when you practice. It's hard to describe, but it's basically a half awake/half asleep mode. You want to be awake enough so that you can lay down and not fall asleep immediately, but you also don't want to be totally wired, or else you won't be able to relax. You don't have to be like this, but in my experience, along with several other people, it helps a lot.

With ALL that being said, we can finally begin!

First of all, you need to be comfortable. You may sit or lay down, whichever you prefer, but make sure you're comfortable. Make sure that you can be completely relaxed in your chosen position, and it takes you absolutely no effort. You also need to be comfortable in your clothes. If you are not, change. You can't have any distractions while trying to astral project, or you'll probably fail.

Once you're completely comfortable, close your eyes and relax. Make sure that for this, you are ABSOLUTELY, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT relaxed. When you first sit or lay down, you may feel relaxed already, but you should do a thorough check of your entire body before continuing. Check each part of your body, even the small parts, such as your fingers, toes and especially your face. I cannot stress the face area enough. Honestly, I never noticed how tense my face was. When I laid down to go to sleep at night, I felt completely relaxed, but once I started practicing astral projection and actually paid attention to relaxing my face, I noticed that it had been slightly tensed all along.

To relax completely, try flexing each body part individually, then relaxing it. Repeat this a few times with each body part, then move onto the next part. Eventually, when you're completely done, your entire body should feel slightly numb and heavier than usual.

Once you're completely relaxed, visualize yourself leaving your body. You can visualize yourself gently floating out of your body, or you can visualize yourself jerking to the side and rolling out of your body. You can use any visualization that you want, so feel free to experiment. While visualizing yourself leaving your body, you should eventually begin to enter the vibrational stage. You enter the vibrational stage when you're on your way out of your body. It varies from person to person, but you will most likely feel as if you're either shaking or swaying. You may also hear or see things. No matter what happens, remember to stay calm and focused on leaving your body. If you pay attention to how exciting these feelings are, you will lose focus on leaving your body and you'll most likely have to start over from the beginning. So, stay focused. Ignore anything you feel, hear, see, etc. Stay one hundred percent focused on astral projecting.

Once you make your way through the vibrational stage, the feelings and/or noises and/or visions should begin to gently fade away, and you should begin to feel as if you're actually out of your body. In my experiences, I felt very light and slightly cooler. Continue to focus on astral projecting, although now, visualize yourself leaving your body completely.

Before we continue, I would like to take this chance to warn you about the popping. That probably sounds scary, but it's actually nothing at all. It is NOT dangerous, fatal, painful, etc. It's just an extremely loud pop that I heard one time when I left my body. I was lying there, perfectly relaxed, far into the vibrational stage, and then the vibrations began to fade. I was happy about getting so far, but I remained focused on leaving my body. I visualized myself floating straight up and out. Just as I felt myself leave my body completely... POP! Like a shotgun going off in my ear. Right in my ear. Right in my right ear, actually. It didn't hurt at all, like a normal incredibly loud sound does, but it startled me so badly that I actually physically jumped, and all that progress I had made that night was suddenly gone. Needless to say, I was pretty angry, so I just rolled over and went to sleep. So, just consider this a warning: there may be a very loud noise when you finally leave your body. Just try your hardest not to be startled by it. Ignore it completely if you can. Let's continue, now.

Once out of their body, some people visualize their eyes opening, and others just will them to open. Others' eyes open automatically. Once you're out of your body, if your eyes are still closed, just change your focus to opening your eyes. They should, one way or another, open, and you should get some kind of view. Most people describe it as being very vivid, and, in some cases, a little blurry.

Shortly after getting out and looking around, most people feel as if they're being pulled back into their bodies, and they soon wake up. If you get out and then get sucked right back into your body, don't be discouraged. Be happy with yourself for achieving your goal, and try again soon.

Once you can get out of your body and stay there for a little while, start to focus on small movements, such as bending your arms or legs, or maybe even just looking around. Start out small and easy, and work your way up to moving around the room. Most people describe the movement as a "I'll just float over here, now" kind of movement, so take your time learning it. Make sure you've got it down completely before you try to go out on an adventure of some sort.

When you're finally done astral projecting and you want to return to your body, you can try one of several methods to return. You can actually go back to your body, lay down on yourself and visualize yourself sinking back in, or you could just visualize yourself being sucked back in from wherever you are. You can also just focus on waking up. It's up to you.

Now, if for some strange reason, you can't get back into your body, you'll probably begin to panic, and once you become upset enough, you should wake up automatically, as if you were having a bad dream or something. If, by some chance, you are incredibly unlucky and even panicking isn't enough to make you wake up, just wait it out. As you astral project, your physical body is basically asleep, so if someone kicks down your door to see what you're doing, you'll probably stop astral projecting and wake up. Also, if your body needs to go to the bathroom, the urge will get stronger and stronger until you finally wake up. Don't worry, though; I've never heard of anyone not being able to reenter their body. You'll get back in, one way or another.

When you've finally gotten out of your body several times and you can keep yourself out for a good amount of time, go have fun. Go see what your friends are doing. Try flying way up into outer space, or diving way down to the bottom of the ocean. Practice some Psionics while astral projecting. Be creative and have fun!

Well, there you have it. Practice hard and often, and while practicing, remember to stay calm and relaxed the ENTIRE time. Doing that, you shouldn't have too much trouble with this.

Good luck!