Did I astral project?

Coolio sounds legit.. "I've went beyond the veil" to other worlds or time's in obe/lucid vivid dreams where i know i'm in bed but my soul or body projects to other times/places...Hard to explain unless it happens to you.

Doesn't happen often but always remember it for years later, like a memory of a real event.

Fear is the enemy in these realms. Don't be afraid, you are powerful beyond your imagination in this area of consciousness.

You definitely had an OBE.

Me and a friend were standing outside one night, smoking a cigarette. I was in a relaxed state, perhaps to relaxed... The only way I can describe it is as follows : My conciseness left my body, I was floating upwards, slowly and looking down on us having a conversation. I realized what was going on and quickly returned back to my physical form.

It was strange.

originally posted by: booyakasha
Fear is the enemy in these realms. Don't be afraid, you are powerful beyond your imagination in this area of consciousness.

You definitely had an OBE.

Well, one way to look at it is to say fear is the enemy. This is true on one level.

However, there's a good reason for the fear.

Fear is wisdom.

Instinctively, you know something about it is dangerous.

So, what's the danger? Well, some people astral project and never come back.

Most people are "attached" to life here on earth, and the thought of losing their physical body is worrisome, and fearful.

However, the reason why you should not fear, is that you'll still be "alive" somewhere. You might not be ready to cross over to the other side just yet, but most Buddhists say you shouldn't care, you should let go of all attachments.

But, what if you're not ready to follow the Buddhist path?

What if you still have loved ones to take care of, and work to do, here on the physical plane? Then the fear is wise.

All of our "instincts" come from exposure to previous "experiences".

They are learned traits.

From dying and being reborn many times, we've learnt what to fear and to dread.

Our instincts are right on target. Because we have "attachments" that we'd very much like to still keep.

Throughout the whole Buddhist dogma, you're supposed to vanquish the fear, and proceed in the direction of the fearful thing. That's because Buddhism is about giving up attachments, and when you go down the fearful path you do end up losing something you're attached to. Something you've lost many times before, and so have built up an instinct for anticipating that loss.

a reply to: kfrances

What it sounds like to me is that you became aware you were dreaming, which triggered off a bit of sleep paralysis. The sensation of the body sinking, then floating, then moving around does match what other's have experienced as vibrations. They can be a bit intense sometimes (the last conscious projection I had, it was like I was stuck inside a tornado, frozen facing downward; pretty neat).

Now, usually, I can distinguish experiences into 1 of 3 categories: Regular dreams, Lucid Dreams, And Projections. Your experience though, seems to fit in a category I call "guided" dreams. These dreams have some lucidity, but you are only allowed to interact in certain cases. You are aware of what's going on around you, but not allowed to participate until a certain point. These dreams are highly realistic, but cannot quite be classified as projections.

If you want to attempt to recreate this again - it might help to have some kind of focus as you go to sleep: Most of the time, I use music, but another focus I found works is to pretend you are pressing piano keys lightly next to you. As long as you keep up the motion, it will keep your subconscious focused on the movement while allowing you to fall asleep.

-fossilera

The only way you can prove that your experiences is real is to try to astral project to a place you have never been before, then visit it latter in person, to compare the experience to reality.

a reply to: glend

Kind of going on a tangent here - but depending on who you follow, there are other ways (although I like the sound of your experiment).

If you follow someone such as Robert Monroe, there are a couple instances mentioned throughout his books where he was able to have someone physically feel his touch; the one account I'm thinking of was during a scientific test he set up. The amount of concentration that would be needed for that though, is very high; when you're out on the astral...thoughts don't exactly work like they do here (you're basically Dory - "Okay, so the plan is to tap someone on the shoulde...Oh cool, I can go somewhere else in the mirror!").

Another experiment that could work is have a random person shuffle a deck of cards, select a random number, put each card in it's own envelope, and have another person place them at various spots around the room. Said Projector's job is to find the envelopes, and determine the card inside them.

The problem with most validation methods is that there will be some degree of differences - when you are "out", you aren't in the same reality as your waking self. You might think Person X sees you, but when you return, you may find that Person X doesn't remember anything, except maybe they saw you in a dream.

-foss

a reply to: fossilera

Good points Fossilera. if you cannot validate against the physical world, it doesn't in itself, infer that the experiences weren't real. And even if you could, it doesn't infer they were real. For instance I awoke from a dream that someone had stolen money from my visa account. On awakening I checked the account online and found over $8000 stolen (Bank returned the money soon after but questioned why I rang their emergency number at 4am). So as you say, it can be a mixture of both.