Astral Projection

Find out more about Astral Travel / Astral Projection

Astral Projection or Astral Travel is one of the most amazing experiences I have had the pleasure to participate in. It is quite simply, consciously leaving your body as it sleeps. It's like being awake whilst you are dreaming. You leave your body and enter the astral realm, which is the next closest dimension to us here in the physical world. The astral realm is actually all around us we just can't see it. The astral realm contains all our thoughts and emotions.
		It is the place that we go to when we sleep. In our dream state we stay close to our physical body and we project emotional content from our subconscious mind. We are not conscious during this process. Being awake and conscious in this realm is known as astral travel.

Starting Out
After the physical body has fallen asleep, the astral body always projects into the physical world. Once the energy body has expanded, the astral body floats free and hovers just above the physical body, but within the expanded energy body's field of influence. Within this field, known as cord activity range, the astral body is held close to the physical world as it is within a field of etheric matter.

During a conscious astral projection it may appear as if you are projecting straight into an astral plane. But there is always an intermediary phase at the beginning, when you are existing as an astral form close to the physical dimension. This, real time part of any projection, may be missed if you black out at the moment of projection. The area around the body, within cord activity range, is flooded with etheric matter and within this field the astral body is held in real time close to the physical dimension.

Etheric Matter
Etheric matter is the actual life force substance generated by all living things by simply being alive. It is a substance in-between physical matter and astral matter, part physical and part astral. This etheric matter has actual weight. It is a very refined substance in between matter and energy and is similar to its coarser cousin, ectoplasm.

There have been scientific studies done on this phenomena. Dying people in hospitals have had their beds placed on delicate scales shortly before death and hooked up to EEG and ECG monitors. In all cases, at the exact moment of death, a sudden weight loss of approximately one quarter of an ounce is observed. This is caused by a large amount of etheric matter being transferred into the astral body at the moment of physical death. This is similar to the sudden transfer of etheric matter into the astral body during a near death experience where the body believes it is dying. This sudden, massive transfer of etheric matter is the start of the death process.

Ectoplasm
Ectoplasm has been studied in a similar fashion. Materialisation mediums have been placed on delicate scales and then asked to produced ectoplasm onto another set of fine scales. These mediums were observed to lose weight at exactly the same rate as the weighed ectoplasm gained weight. When the medium reabsorbed the ectoplasm this weight transfer was reversed. Ectoplasm is produced by the chakras. It converts part of the physical mass of the mediums body into another substance, ectoplasm.

Interdimensional Manifestation
Any non-physical or disincarnate entity, including the astral body, in order to function, in real time, close to the physical dimension; must contain etheric matter. Without etheric matter, nonphysical entities fade back into their dimension of origin. Etheric matter can only be obtained from living inhabitants of the physical world.

Energy Flow
The famed "Silver Cord" does more than just tie the two bodies together. It is a true umbilical cord, transmitting information and energy between the physical and subtle bodies. It is seen by some projectors and not seen by others. Sometimes it is seen emanating from the navel, sometimes from the forehead. The area the cord is seen emanating from may depend on chakra activity. Whichever chakra is the strongest, most active, could have control of energy flow to the subtle bodies. There is also the belief system of the projector to consider and the creative power of the subconscious mind. The cord will usually appear to be wherever you believe it will be, courtesy of the subconscious.

Once the astral body enters the astral dimension it must have a good supply of astral energy from the chakras in order to interact strongly with that dimension. Clear astral memory depends greatly on the amount of energy available. As the astral dimension is the natural domain of the astral body, it will not fade out of it due to a lack of energy. As in the real world, if a person hasn't eaten or slept for a few days they don't dissolve into another dimension. They just get weak and listless and don't interact strongly with the physical world.

What it boils down to is this: The astral mind must have enough energy to give it strong, vivid memories. These astral memories must be strong enough to make a good sized wrinkle in the physical brain, so the physical mind can recall them when it wakes up.

For example, if you haven't slept for a few days you will be tired, listless and your interaction with reality will be weak and vague. If you see a movie in this tired state you will retain little memory of it. Afterwards, you may only remember fragments of it and your memory of it will be a vague blur. If, however, you see a movie when you are well rested, fresh and full of energy, it is different. You take in everything about the movie and enjoy it. Your memory of it will be crystal clear.

This is similar to what happens after a low powered astral journey. The astral body lacks energy and so does not have clear enough impressions of its journey. This causes it to fail making its memories the dominant ones when it returns return to the physical body. As I stated earlier, there must be strong, vivid memories if a wrinkle is to be made in the physical brain and the experience remembered.

Chakras Use
Fully developing the chakras and learning how to control them can take many years, depending on natural ability. This will not, however, stop you using them in a very basic way; to enhance your OOBE's and lucid dreams, at a very early stage in your development. Raising energy and stimulating the chakras is extremely simple to do. This raised energy will automatically flow into your astral body, prior to and during projection.

By learning to raise energy and control the flow of power through the chakras, the nature of your dreams, lucid dreams and OOBE's will change. They will become vivid and unforgettable experiences. This, in a way, gives you a second life, full of rich experiences you can enjoy, learn and grow from.

Higher Levels And Their Buffer Zones
The commonly accepted names for the seven known levels of existence, from lowest to highest, are: Physical, Astral, Mental, Buddhic, Atmic, Anupadaka and Adi. These higher planes are similar in structure to the astral dimension but at a much higher level of consciousness and are completely separate from it. In between the different levels are intermediary areas or buffer zones, sometimes called lower sub planes.

A good analogy for the different dimensions and their buffer zones is the Earth's atmosphere: If the air in the Earth's atmosphere was the astral dimension, the stratosphere would be the buffer zone and the vacuum of space would be the mental dimension. You can fly in the Earth's atmosphere in a normal air plane/astral body. A very powerful jet plane is needed to take you into the stratosphere, but you need a space ship/mental body, to travel through space. This explains why a different subtle body is needed to travel into these different levels of existence.

The astral body can enter the buffer zones, or sub planes, of the dimensions above and below the astral dimension, if it contains the correct type of energy. i.e. To exist in the buffer zone between the physical/astral levels (in real time) the astral body must contain etheric energy. To exist in the buffer zone between the astral/mental levels it must contain mental energy.

Higher Level Projection
With enough control over the chakras, the energy for these higher levels can be produced. The production of one particular type of energy will raise the consciousness to that level and energise the corresponding subtle body. This is usually done by consciousness raising meditation and advanced energy work on the chakras. The consciousness can then experience that level of existence. If enough energy is available, and conditions are right, the meditator can project that particular subtle body directly into its natural dimension.

Depending on the skill and natural ability of the operator, if a higher body is energised and projected so, usually, are the lower ones. The astral body contains within it all the other subtle bodies and can, during a projection, project the mental body into the mental dimension and so on. This will sometimes give multiple sets of memories from the one projection. The general rule is, whichever subtle body contains the greatest amount of energy, will have the strongest memories. These dominant memories will be the ones retained by the physical mind upon its return to the waking state.

Projecting consciously into levels higher than the astral dimension takes a high level of skill. You need to be proficient in both consciousness raising and chakra control, but it is achievable. I have, so far, projected into the Astral, Mental, Buddhic and Atmic levels of existence. It is commonly believed that it is only possible for a human to project into the Astral, Mental and Buddhic levels and not possible to project into the higher Adi and Anupadaka.

These dimensions have been named, and are described, so someone must have been there or they would be unknown. If you realise the true nature of the mind you will understand there are no limits. It was also once said that the sound barrier would never be broken.

BTW: These dimensions don't have signposts on them saying Welcome to the Astral dimension, ta...daa! or "Mental dimension, watch your mind!". So I will describe the higher levels I have been to using these accepted names.

The Astral Dimension
This is a topsy-turvy world like Alice found in Wonderland. Everything seems objective (real) but is changeable and fluid. Anything and everything can be found there, from base, coarse levels full of sexual energy; to beautiful, serene places full of spiritual harmony. Time is distorted and extended there. An hour in the Astral can seem like only a few minutes here in the physical. Compared to the physical world it is at a much higher vibration. It's like playing a video tape at twenty times normal speed, although this is not apparent when you are there.

Moving amongst the astral dream pools is usually a hit or miss affair for most projectors. It takes a lot of experience to make planned astral journeys to specific realities.

There are an infinite number of realities, planes, realms and dream pools in this dimension. As I stated before, they naturally strata and settle into pools of related thought. During sleep, or in a lucid dream, the subconscious mind usually creates one especially for you, your own personal dream theatre. When you become aware during a dream, you take control over it. This control is taken over from the powerful subconscious mind. Without its powerful controlling influence, your personal custom created realm will change. You will begin tuning into other sympathetic parts of the astral, and the reality you are in will mix with other realities and take on different aspects.

In a conscious projection into the astral dimension, you can tune into any part of it and travel into different realities, other dream pools, or a mix of many. There are various techniques for this but they all involve some way to disorient the subconscious mind, tricking it into moving you into a different Astral reality. Some projectors look at their hands and watch them melt. Others spin around, causing left right reversals. These methods all disorient the mind and trick the subconscious into tuning into another part of the astral.

It's very difficult to describe how to move amongst the levels, you really have to learn by doing it, by trial and error. You have to learn how to use and control the subconscious mind, how to trick it for a specific result.

Virtual Reality Projection
Here is a simple, reliable method, I have developed, to create your own personal realm: Get a poster of a pleasant scene, something bright and sunny. The bigger the better, but standard poster size will do. Hang it on the wall of the room you are going to project in, or another room close by. Get a small spotlight and set it so the poster is highlighted when the main light is turned off, a normal directional bedside lamp will do. Place the light under, or above, so the light spreads out over it giving a diffused effect illuminating it, a bit like a movie screen.

Entering your custom realm: When you project, go towards the poster, keeping your mind blank. Don't think about what you are doing, just gaze at it and move towards it. As you approach it in this way, your subconscious mind will be tricked into creating an astral realm exactly like the poster. Just move up to and into the poster. It is like stepping into another world. Everything in this world will be exactly like in the poster. It will appear to be a normal three dimensional world, an exact copy, indistinguishable from reality.

To customise this world: Cut and paste small pictures of things, or people, you want to find in this world with you when you enter it. Don't just stick a whole picture on the poster. Get scissors and cut around the object, or person. Try and find pictures that are approximately the same scale as the poster. If you cut out a small picture of someone, living or dead, your subconscious will create a thought form shell of them and they will be there waiting for you. This may be an excellent way of communicating with those that have died.

Spirit Communication: (I have a theory) The subconscious creates this thought form shell of a person. This shell can be animated by the perfect, detailed memory of your subconscious. But, if there is love there, between the projector and this created person, the spirit of this, deceased person, will be drawn to this scenario and will use this opportunity to communicate with the projector, by animating the created image of their body.

The Akashic Records
These are found in the buffer zone between the astral and mental worlds, part astral part mental and, in a way, extending into all levels. They are a record of every thought and event that has ever occurred, like a huge, infinite, mental history, picture book. The Akashic records also contain probabilities stemming from, and created by, past events, actions and thoughts. This is like looking into the future. To make any kind of sense of the Akashic records yourself, some skill in clairvoyance is a definite help.

If you tune into the Akashic records yourself you will normally see those events with the greatest amount energy around them. Wars and disasters are the easiest to see because of this. The energy surrounding these events make them stand out above all the rest, making them easier to see. If you look into the future, the area of probabilities, you enter into a confusing maelstrom of symbolism mixed with actual events.

This future symbolism is caused by the belief systems of the major religions. Millions of people in the world have believed in some form of prophecy for thousands of years. Whether it is the Bible's "Book of Revelations" or the prophecies of Nostradamus. These ancient prophecies are all richly steeped in symbolism. This symbolism affects the way people think and dream about the future. This symbolism, in turn, manifests in the Akashic records as symbolic representations of future events. The symbolism is a big help, it makes consulting the Akashic records easier.

You can use the Akashic symbolism as an index. For example, the reference below to "The Dogs of War" is easily understandable as representing war. The "Grim Reaper" is a universal symbol of death and destruction. So, if you are interested in this kind of future event you tune into this symbolic index for WAR, then browse through the category of past and future wars. Apart from some clairvoyant ability, a knowledge of history, geography, religious symbolism, current affairs world leaders and heads of state is a big help; when indexing past and future events.

For example, in the future vision I give below: If I had known WHO the well known person I saw addressing a crowd below WAS, and recognised the country; I could have made an accurate prediction of future events instead of being wise, AFTER the event.

I entered the state of consciousness called the Akashic records. There I was inundated with a mass of symbolism. I was seeing in four dimensions at once. My conscious mind did not assimilate this very well. I saw wars, famines, plagues, disasters, earthquakes, volcanoes erupting, plane crashes, murders, etc, it was terribly confusing and depressing.

I saw one piece of symbolism I recognised though and tuned into it, indexed it. The Grim Reaper holding The Dogs of War (as described by various prophets) These dogs were fearsome beasts with Red eyes and slavering jaws. They were held in check by this hooded figure, with an evil skull for a face, carrying a sickle. He released these dogs as I watched, symbolising a coming war.

Tuning into this scene, I was there floating above it all, I could feel the sunshine and smell the city below me. I saw a man standing on a raised dais, under two giant scimitar swords. He was giving a charismatic speech to many thousands of people. One of the swords turned into a Christian Crusader's broad sword. The man was Saddam Hussein, the scene was in Baghdad, at the monument to the unknown soldier. I saw this six months before the Gulf war started. I did not learn WHO Saddam Hussein WAS, or WHERE this scene took place though, until it was televised during the gulf war.

Looking through the Akashic records is like leafing through an infinite mental photo album. You are bombarded with an awesome array of the sights and sounds of past, present and probable futures. You have to select one of these thought records, tune into it and enter it. You will then live through the record as if you were really there, watching it as it happens.

Consulting with the Akashic records can be done alone if you have the skill, but is normally done with the assistance of an advanced being from a higher level of existence. This is done as a sort of telepathic guided tour. The enormous amount of information and chaff is filtered out for you and the selected record, of past events or future probability, is presented to you clairvoyantly, via a telepathic link with the... librarian.

Some people claim to have entered the Akashic Records and found something like a library there, with real books. The past, present and future was recorded as text in these books. Some people even say they have read a record, then entered into it, and experience the record first hand.

All these claims are consistent with the Akashic Records. These are librarian assisted guided tours, where the Akashic Records have been presented as something familiar, easy to use and easy to accept.

The Mental Dimension
This is a spectacular dimension! Iridescent rivers of sound bounded by rainbow shores of pulsating light. Thoughts appear as kaleidoscopic patterns of light and sound. You walk across fields of ideas under a sparkling crystal sky of inspiration. If you enter this world don't try to rationalise or understand it, or you may go mad, for it is beyond human understanding. Just accept it all, go with the flow and enjoy it!

This dimension is what, I believe, the ancient Vikings called the famed "Rainbow Bridge" into Asgard. It truly looks and feels as if you are walking up a rainbow into some wonderful world where the Gods must surely dwell.

Exist here in wondrous amazement. Let loose the child within you to play in this fairy wonderland. Everything feels real and solid. Time is even further distorted here than in the Astral and reality is kaleidoscopic.

Buddhic Dimension
This is a warm, abstract world filled with utter peace and infinite love. It is a dimension of pure White. There is no sight or sound perception here other than the all pervading, brilliant White. In this dimension you very quickly relinquish conscious thought and individuality. You cannot think for long once you enter here and there is no need or desire to do so. There is an irresistible urge drawing you into a quiet stillness. It is like being immersed in warm, pure White cotton wool. In this world you cease to be an individual and you become, PART OF THE ONE. You also cease to be male or female. In a way this is like returning to the Mother's womb. You are surrounded, absorbed and assimilated by infinite loving warmth, understanding, forgiveness and atonement. AT-ONE-MENT

Time here ceases to have any meaning. If you enter this world you will never, ever want to leave it, you cannot leave it, until your physical body calls and drags you back. This is the healing, resting place of the soul.

Atmic Dimension
This dimension appears be the spirit world. Here, spirits wait for those they loved during their time on earth. This is the happy place of the gathering. It is the place where the reunion of souls takes place.

The light in this world is purest, brightest silver, brighter than the flash of an arc welder. It is so bright it seems impossible to look at, but it is, for all that, a supremely gentle light, soft and soothing. It is the light of divine love. The people here appear as they did in the physical world, but at their most magnificent. They glow ecstatically, ablaze with the brightest love, happiness and joy imaginable. The atmosphere is electric and vital, but at the same time deeply spiritual. In this world you can FEEL the presence of God as a tangible all pervading force.

Communication here, is done by high level telepathic imaging, similar to one-on-one clairvoyance only much more vivid and real. It leaves speech and thought for dead. Time stands utterly still here. Reality is more real and solid than normal reality. Compared to this, the physical world is a vague, tired dream full of half dead people.

I have entered this dimension only four times in my life. Each time from the very deepest consciousness raising meditation, with all my chakras wide open and fully functioning. There was also extreme crown chakra activity. The feeling of this was like a thousand fingers vibrating, and deeply massaging, the whole top of my head above the hairline.

On these four occasions my energy has soared to seemingly impossible heights within me, carrying my spirit and consciousness with it. At the climax of this deeply mystical experience I have heard the sound of one long, pure musical note slowly rising in pitch. I have felt this note in the core of my being, in my heart, calling me, drawing me to it.

I have focused on this note and attuned to it. With every ounce of strength and energy I possessed I have focussed my consciousness on it and projected to it. Stripping away my physical body, I have projected straight into this dimension. It was just like stepping, slipping, through a heavy curtain into another place and another world. I am still aware of my physical body, duality, during this whole experience.

I look about me with wonder, the light is so silver and bright it burns deeply into my soul and I can feel its healing touch within me. There in front of me is my long dead son. He was eight years old when he left me, and he looked just as he did when I last saw him. He was beaming with happiness, his eyes bright and shining. I cuddled him up to me and wept with the joy of seeing him. I looked beyond him and there was a large crowd of people waiting for me. These were all the friends and family I had known and loved and lost during my life. There were also many people I did not know. They all seemed very familiar though and I felt I loved them all. They were clapping and jumping up and down, cheering me in greeting. There were many tears of joy and lots of hugging and kissing.

Looking beyond them, I see we are in a natural stone amphitheatre. The ground is smooth rock and it rises to a ridge a couple of hundred meters away that curves towards us. On the top of this ridge are Angels. They looked just like Michaelangelo painted them. They were incredibly beautiful, with large White feathered wings, curly Golden hair and Alabaster skin. They were blowing long sparkling golden horns, and the pure high note came from them.

Stepping from the crowd I walked into the open. I look in awe at these angels and wave at them. The note started to die away as I did this and the Angels began lowering their horns. I stand for a timeless moment in silence, looking all around me. Then everything began to shimmer and I slipped, fell back into my physical body. I wept. I have never wanted to come back.

Death
When you leave your body for the final time, at death, this is what I believe will happen:

You will be projecting, in real time, for the first few days, close to the physical world, until your supply of etheric matter runs out. Then you will go through the second death and enter the Astral dimension. There, you will purge yourself of all desire, by being able to have anything you have ever wanted, in abundance. This is done through having the full use of your subconscious mind's powerful creative ability. Here you can saturate your every need and desire, until you see these desires for the illusions they really are.

You will then shed your Astral (desire body) and enter the Mental dimension. There you will see your past life, examine and express every thought you have ever had and every action you have ever done. There, your thoughts, memories and experiences will be added to the Akashic Record. Which is the recorded experience of the entire human existence in the physical dimension.

Shedding your mental body you will then enter the Buddhic dimension. There you will stay for timeless healing, for rest, atonement, forgiveness and understanding of self. In this world your inner wounds will heal and your soul will be nurtured by divine love. Your spirit will become whole and perfect once more.

Then you will shed your Buddhic body and enter the Atmic dimension. There you will wait in the divine presence for those you love. Then, one day, you will go on to the next level of existence; where the last great mystery of life will be revealed to you....

Projection Training
To trigger the projection of the Astral body, while fully conscious, there are four major requirements:

1. Relaxing your body 100% while staying awake.
2. Concentrating 100% on what you are doing.
3. Having enough energy available.
4. Pressuring the astral body to separate.

Together, these four things will trigger an OOBE.

Below are exercises that will teach how to relax the body, concentrate, clear the mind, raise energy, stimulate the chakras and enter the trance state.

Calming The Mind

Relaxation
You must learn and master, a full body relaxation exercise. If you know one already it can be adapted to suit. Here is a very simple one:

Sit, or lie down, and relax. Starting with the feet, tense and relax them. Continue this with calves, thighs, hips, stomach, chest, arms, neck and face until your whole body is deeply relaxed. Go over this a few times, making sure your muscles stay relaxed.

Note: Deep physical relaxation is the key to bringing on the trance state, i.e., deep relaxation CAUSES the trance state. Once you are in the trance state, projection on the astral body is relatively easy.

Contemplation
When you begin meditation, you will be plagued with thoughts from your surface mind, which acts like a huge Memo pad. It carries messages, reminders, pressing thoughts, problems to solve, unresolved issues etc. It is constantly busy, it NEVER rests, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, one after the other, all clamouring for attention.

Before you attempt to clear your mind, with the breath awareness exercise below, it is wise to deal with these surface thoughts by the act of contemplating them. Sit comfortably, do the relaxation exercise and think, nothing more, just think. Search out the strongest thoughts in your mind and examine them, try to resolve and understand them.

Note the word: THINKING. Contemplation does not involve clearing the mind, or visualisation. It requires you to THINK, deeply and thoroughly, about something, to gain a deeper understanding of its nature and how it relates to you, an insight.

Breath Awareness Meditation
This is a simple form of meditation. It will clear your mind and focus your awareness.

Sit or lie down, close your eyes, do the relaxation exercise and clear your mind. Breathe deeply and slowly and focus on the breath entering and leaving your body. Feel it coming in and feel it going out. Focus your whole attention on your lungs and the breathing process. This simple action is enough to occupy your surface mind. Firmly push intruding thoughts away, as they begin, before they can gather strength and distract you.

Breath awareness occupies the surface mind and allows you to think on a much deeper level.

Surface Thoughts
Sounds are very distracting, they generate surface thoughts. A car horn will generate: "Who's that, what's happening?" A door opening will generate: "Who's coming in or going out?" The surface mind is always very curious about what is happening around you. It wants to know all, and it wants to inform you of every little thing going on around you. It will pressure you to open your eyes, get up and go find out what's happening.

Don't allow this to happen. USE these annoying, attention getting thoughts as a training aide. By learning to quash and ignore them, your powers of concentration will grow.

Stop these annoying little thoughts as they begin, before they can take root and grow into something stronger.

For example:

Who's that, what's happening? becomes: "Who's th............"

Who's coming in, or going out? becomes: "Who's co............"

With practise the start of these distracting thoughts will get shorter and shorter until you get:

Wh....?........?.......... and " W...?................... "

And finally:

.......?........?...........................?...................

Many people say they can't clear their mind as they are too easily distracted by all the small noises that surround them, in normal day to day activity. DON'T use music or other sounds to blanket these out, USE them for training. It's like weight lifting, if you train with feather dusters your strength will not increase. You need to master this, the hard way, if you want to give your mind real muscle.

Slowly but surely you will master the ability to clear your mind. Once accomplished, you will have gained a valuable mental tool. You will be able to concentrate 100% of your attention, on one task, to the TOTAL exclusion of everything else.

I sometimes meditate, in the trance state, successfully, in a noisy, crowded room with little children crawling all over me. NOTHING breaks my concentration.

Concentration
You must be able to concentrate and focus completely on what you are doing. Lack of concentration is the single, biggest cause of projection failure. It affects every aspect of projection, from the relaxation exercise, to the trance state and actual projection.

To test your ability to concentrate: Sit and relax. Close your eyes and clear your mind of ALL thought. Breath slowly and deeply and count each breath, at the end of each exhale. Hold it totally BLANK, apart from the counting, for as long as you can. See how long you can hold it like this. Be honest with yourself, every time a thought intrudes start counting from the beginning again.

You are doing well if can do this for longer than ten breaths. Ten breaths is, however, not long enough. Don't worry though, this can be improved on with the exercises below.

Concentration Exercise (1)
After image retention: Relax, calm your mind, and look at a candle or a light bulb. Place this light in front of you, a couple of feet away, and stare fixedly at it for a minute or two. Close your eyes and concentrate on the after image this will generate behind your closed eyelids. Try and keep sight of it for as long as possible. Use breath awareness to keep the mind clear, while you are doing this. Try and make the after image grow, instead of fading away.

Concentration Exercise (2)
One point stare: Pick a spot on a wall and gaze at it. Don't focus on it, just gaze at it gently. Clear your mind of ALL thoughts and forcibly hold it blank. Concentrate HARD, on breath awareness while you are doing this. When you feel a thought beginning, push it away, don't let it finish! Hold this for as long as you can. Do this several times a day, or more if you can.

Concentration Exercise (3)
Energy breathing: Sit and relax. Close your eyes and clear your mind. Do the breath awareness exercise and imagine the air you are breathing IN is brightly coloured energy of your favourite colour. Imagine the air you are breathing OUT is a murky Grey, full of toxic waste. This is a purification exercise. It stimulates your chakras into absorbing energy on the inhale and getting rid of negative energy on the exhale.

Note: Try your best not to tense up while you are doing these concentration exercises, it is ALL mental. In the beginning, it may feel as if you have to tense your mind into a tight ball to stop it thinking, but in time you will find the opposite to be true. When you get used to it, clearing the mind is VERY relaxing.

The Trance State
When you have attained a deep level of relaxation and mental calmness, you will feel your body begin to get very, very heavy. This heaviness is the main symptom of your brain waves changing from the Beta to the Alpha level as you enter a trance. The trance state is caused by deep physical and mental relaxation. There is nothing weird or supernatural about it. It simply means your body has entered the sleep state while your conscious mind is fully awake.

How To Enter A Trance
Do the relaxation exercise and calm your mind through breath awareness. Imagine you are climbing down a ladder in the dark. Don't visualise a ladder, just imagine you can feel yourself doing it. On the exhale, feel yourself climbing a step or two down the ladder with your imaginary Hands (outlined below). On the inhale, feel yourself holding still on the ladder. What is needed is a mental falling effect inside your mind. This changes the level of brain wave activity from the awake level (Beta) to the asleep level (Alpha) or the deep sleep level (Theta). Once your level of brain wave activity reaches Alpha you will enter a trance. Keep doing this for as long as it takes. The time it takes to enter trance will vary, depending on your experience with deep relaxation and mental calmness.

Note: Once you get the heavy feeling, stop the mental falling exercise.

If you don't like the ladder, imagine you are in a lift, feel yourself falling on the exhale and holding on the inhale. Or, Imagine you are a feather, feel yourself floating down on the exhale and holding still on the inhale. As I stated above, you need a mental falling effect to lower your level of brain wave activity. This mental falling effect, when combined with deep relaxation and mental calmness, will cause you to enter the trance state. Feel free to use any scenario you are familiar with to bring about this going deeper feeling.

A trance feels like: Everything gets quieter and you feel like you are in a much bigger place. There is a very slight humming feeling in your body. Everything feels different. It feels a bit like putting a cardboard box over your head in the dark, you can feel the atmosphere change. It's like everything goes fuzzy or slightly blurred. Any sharp noises, while in trance, feel like a physical blow to the Solar Plexus.

Deep Trance
The level of trance you achieve depends greatly on your relaxation, concentration skills and will power. To enter a deeper trance, i.e., Theta level and beyond, you have to concentrate much more and for much longer, on the mental falling sensation aided by breath awareness. The first level of trance, i.e., when you get very heavy, is quite deep enough for projection. I strongly advise against forcing yourself deeper than a light trance, until you have plenty of experience with the trance state.

How can you tell if you are entering a deep trance? There are four very noticeable symptoms:

1. An uncomfortable feeling of cold that doesn't make you shiver, coupled with a steady loss of body heat.
2. Mentally, you will feel very odd and everything will feel extremely slooooow. Your thought processes will slow down as if you had been given a strong pain killing injection.
3. You will feel disassociated from your body, i.e., a strong floating sensation and everything will seem far away.
4. Total physical Paralysis.

Note: These four things, ALL TOGETHER, signify you are entering a deep trance.

Do not mistake the mild floating sensation you sometimes get with light trance, i.e., as you astral body comes loose. Or the slight loss of body heat from sitting still for a long time and the mild paralysis, i.e., the heaviness, for a deep trance. The sensation of deep trance is quite uncomfortable and unmistakable for what it is.

It is very difficult to get into the deep trance state, as you need highly developed relaxation, concentration and trance state skills plus lots and lots of will power and mental energy. You will not accidentally fall into it.

If you are worried you are going too deep, remember this:

You CAN pull yourself out of it at any time. Concentrate ALL your will on moving your fingers or toes. Once you can move a finger or toe, flex your hands, move your arms, shake your head, i.e., reanimate your body; and get up and walk around for a few minutes. Falling into a deep trance should not be a problem with these exercises.

I have seen many people in meditation groups etc, enter a light trance and not be able to pull themselves out of it, i.e., they float away with the faeries. Usually some kind person will talk them out of it or massage their wrists etc to get them to come back to reality. This is unnecessary and is the result of lop- sided training, i.e., no concentration or will power training. The person only THINKS they cannot come back and therefore does not try very hard. It is also a good way of getting attention from the group.

Note: Your mind is extremely powerful and has vast untapped resources. It can do ANYTHING, no limits, if it is trained, conditioned and properly motivated.

Energy Body Expansion
At some point after entering the trance state, you will feel a mild paralysis come over you. This will soon be accompanied by a deepening vibration and a buzzing feeling all over. You may also feel like you are huge and swollen. The paralysis, vibrations and the huge feeling are symptoms of the energy body expanding and the astral body loosening. This is part of the normal sleep process. The energy body expands and opens in order to accumulate and store energy. During this, the astral body drifts free, slightly out phase with the physical body.

Trance Familiarity
Many people blow their projection simply because they are not used to the trance state. They think it is a briefly opened window into the Astral dimension. This is simply NOT true. If you stay mentally and physically calm when you enter the trance state, you can maintain it for hours. I regularly spend several hours at a time in the trance state, during meditation.

If, when you enter trance, you think: "Yes! I've done it!...I'm in a trance! Gotta hurry and get out quick...before it stops!" You'll blow it for sure! The trance will be ended by the simple act of getting over excited, i.e., breaking relaxation and mental calmness.

It's a good idea to spend time in the trance state, just getting used to it, before you try and project. Just relax, stay calm, focus on breath awareness, and hold the trance. It won't end until you want it to. Get used to how it feels.

When you are comfortable doing this, do the energy raising and chakra stimulation exercises, below, in trance.

Note:

1. You do not HAVE to be in a trance to learn energy and chakra work, it just works better in trance.
2. Trance practise can be done lying down, but is best done in a comfortable arm chair.

Your astral body will be loose in the trance state, so try lifting your astral arms and legs out, one at a time. Use your HANDS to do this, as shown in the next section. Focus and FEEL your awareness in an arm and slowly lift it free of your body. You may feel a slight tickling or localised dizziness inside your arm or leg, as you do this. Lift your astral arm up and look at it, with your eyes closed, but DON'T move a muscle. In this state you should be able to see it through your closed eyelids, but don't worry if you can't, this will come later.

Lifting your astral arms free is good practise for projection. Later, you will use these astral arms to pull your astral body free of the physical.

Tactile Imaging
Tactile imaging is a perception or FEELING of localised bodily awareness.

Your hands are very closely linked to your bodily awareness. They are intimately aware of every part of your body. Imaginary HANDS, outlined below, is only an extension of this (hand to body) awareness. When you are asked to feel your awareness, in any part of your body, PRETEND your hands, your real hands, are going to touch that area of your body. Then use the awareness this generates in that area to imagine your imaginary HANDS are there.

Keep your eyes closed and hold your hands out a foot or so in front of your face. Concentrate, FEEL where they are and try and SEE them through the blackness behind your closed eyes. Cross your wrists, slowly move them about, turn your hands over, open and close your fingers. Look hard, concentrate, as if you were trying to see in the dark, and you will see a faint moving shadow in your minds eye, where your hands and arms are.

Close your eyes and touch the tip of your nose with the index finger of your right hand. You'll find you can accurately put that finger on any part of your body with your eyes closed. Try it, put your hand, your real hand, on different parts of your body like this. You know exactly where your hands are at all times, you can sense and feel where they are. If you observe what is happening in your mind, while you are doing this, you will notice you become aware of the part of your body you are going to touch, the instant you make the decision to touch it.

Go over your whole body like this, getting used to the sensation of awareness it generates in different areas of your body.

What is happening is this: Part of your mind is shifting into, and HIGHLIGHTING, the area you are going to touch, in order to guide your hand to the exact spot. Your mind shifts part of its awareness to this spot and acts like a homing beacon for your hand.

The ability to shift your awareness into different parts of your body like this is VITAL to energy work and this projection method.

Note: You do not have to actually visualise these HANDS, i.e., see or imagine you can see them. It is ALL tactile, NOT visual. You just have to be able to pretend to FEEL them doing something, like you are rehearsing some simple action in your mind.

I originally developed this technique for blind people. Blind people cannot visualise AT ALL, if they have been blind since birth, but they do have a very keen sense of bodily awareness. The majority of sighted people also have great trouble with visualisation of any kind, and all projection techniques depend heavily on visualisation. This being the case, I developed a projection technique that does NOT depend on visualisation to exert pressure on the astral body to separate. It turned out to be so much easier, and more successful, than the other visualisation based techniques, that I discarded them in favour of this simple tactile method.

Note: Blind people are not blind in astral form. The astral body does not have any organs as such, it is a point of consciousness only. The astral body you are aware of while projecting is provided courtesy of the subconscious minds creative ability.

Basic Energy Work (The Major Chakras)

The major chakras are situated at:

1. Base chakra (base of spine, between anus and genitals)
2. Spleen chakra (slightly below the belly button)
3. Solar Plexus chakra (1 hand-span above the belly button)
4. Heart chakra (centre of the chest)
5. Throat chakra (base of throat, above where it joins the chest)
6. Brow chakra (exact centre of forehead)
7. Crown chakra (whole top of head above the hairline)

They are best imagined as roughly the size of the palm of your hand, except for the crown chakra which is much larger.

What Are Chakras?
Chakras are non-physical organs that transform raw subtle energy into more subtle, and useable, forms of energy, of a different type. The chakras do not, themselves, contain energy. Raw energy is drawn up from the planet, by the minor chakras in the legs and feet, and fed into the main chakra system.

Subtle energy is, in essence, pure thought energy that permeates and binds the universe together. This living energy field can be tapped, more deeply, by the application of focussed, creative will. It can be drawn into the human body and transformed, by the chakra system, into a more subtle and useable form of energy.

The chakras are attached to the spinal cord and nervous system via certain glands and nerve ganglia. The full chakra system is extremely complex. There are 7 major and over 300 minor chakras in the human body. There are also several non-physical chakras situated outside of the body. Detailed maps of the chakra system and their connecting meridians and pathways, have been used for thousands of years in Eastern mysticism and medicine, i.e., acupuncture. The chakra system is used with every psychic ability, no exceptions. Whatever the psychic ability, the method of development or the terminology used to describe it, it is all done the same way, through chakra stimulation. It is impossible to manifest any psychic ability without first stimulating the chakras.

Many people will deny this, above, and claim they have never done any chakra, energy work, but still have psychic abilities. There are many ways to develop yourself, agreed, but they all, directly or indirectly, stimulate the chakra system. And let's not forget natural ability. Many people are born with naturally active chakras and hence, natural psychic ability.

Mediums are people who exhibit psychic abilities when aided by a nonphysical spirit entity. This entity stimulates the chakras of the medium directly, by melding with the medium and causing psychic abilities, clairvoyance, channelling, healing, production of ectoplasm etc to manifest through the medium. This is why they are called Mediums or channels, i.e., they have the ability to become a passive vehicle for a spirit entity to affect, or communicate with, the physical world.

You do not need a spirit entity to develop and use, a psychic ability. If you learn to control your own chakras and energy, you can do these things on your own, with no spirit entity involved, and without the inherent risk involved with that method.

Energy Raising
Sit, or lie down, do the relaxation exercise and clear you mind with breath awareness. Focus your awareness in your feet. Use your HANDS to pull energy up from your feet, through your legs, to the base chakra. Imagine you are gripping energy and pulling it up through you. Just like you did when you used these HANDS with breath awareness and colour breathing, pulling air and energy into your lungs.

Note: Try and imagine your HANDS are inside your legs and just inside the front of your torso as you do this.

Use breath awareness as an aide to energy raising. Draw energy up through you, with the inhale, and hold it in place on the exhale. Do this over and over again, pulling energy to the Base chakra, for at least a few minutes. You may or may not feel anything while you do this. Even if you don't, you are still drawing some energy with this exercise. The amount of energy drawn up through you will increase as the chakras develop with time and use.

From the feet, up the legs to the base centre, is a natural path for the energy that flows through you. This energy will stimulate your chakras and they will transform this, basic energy, into energy of a different type. This transformed energy will then flow into your subtle bodies, energising them. With practise, you will actually FEEL this energy tingling and surging through you.

Chakra Stimulation
Opening a chakra: Your imaginary HANDS are used for this. Imagine you are tearing open a bread roll at the site of a chakra when you are asked to do this. You don't have to visualise anything, just FEEL like you are doing this, as if you were doing it in real life without looking at what you are doing.

Chakras are non-physical centres, so you need a non physical method to stimulate them. This is achieved by focusing your awareness in the area of a chakra and using your mind to manipulate it. You need a localised, mental opening effect in a chakra to stimulate it; this tearing open action, with your imaginary HANDS, provides it. By moving your point of awareness to the site of a chakra and causing a mental opening effect with your HANDS, you are directly stimulating the chakra.

Note: Do the energy raising exercise, as above, before stimulating the chakras. Use breath awareness to aide your HANDS in pulling energy into each chakra, i.e., draw energy UP on the inhale and HOLD it on the exhale, with all the chakra stimulation exercises below.

1. Base chakra: Raise energy up to your Base chakra. Use your HANDS to open it. Pull energy INTO the Base chakra. Repeat this first step, thoroughly, seven times.

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2. Spleen chakra: Draw energy from the feet, through the Base chakra and on up to the Spleen chakra. Open the Spleen chakra. Repeat this three times, starting at feet.

3. Solar Plexus chakra: Draw energy from the feet, through the Base and Spleen chakras and on up to the Solar Plexus chakra. Open the Solar Plexus chakra. Repeat this three times, starting at feet.

4. Heart chakra: Draw energy up from the feet, through the Base, Spleen and Solar Plexus chakras and on up to the Heart chakra. Open the Heart chakra. Repeat this three times, starting at feet.

5. Throat chakra: Draw energy up from the feet, through the Base, Spleen, Solar Plexus and heart chakras to the Throat chakra. Open the Throat chakra. Repeat this three times, starting at feet.

6. Brow chakra: Draw energy up from the feet, through the Base, Spleen, Solar Plexus, Heart and Throat chakras to the Brow chakra. Open the Brow chakra. Repeat this three times, starting at feet.

7. Crown chakra: Draw energy up to the Crown chakra as in the previous step. Open the Crown chakra. This chakra is much larger than the others ( whole top of head, above hairline). Imagine you have a much larger, flatter bread roll inside the top of your head and are tearing it open with your HANDS, or like you are tearing your scalp open. Repeat this entire process twice, starting with the feet.

Note: Try your best not to tense any muscles during these exercises. You may, however, feel a slight internal contracting, a feeling that is NOT muscular while you are stimulating your chakras. These are the glands and nerve ganglia, linked to the chakras, contracting in response to the stimulation. This internal contracting is normal.

The Base, or Root chakra, is THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE TO ACTIVATE. This chakra is the doorway for the subtle energy. Unless this is opened sufficiently, the energy cannot flow into the other chakras. I suggest you concentrate most of your time and energy into stimulating your Base chakra, at least in the early stages of chakra development.

Note: When I first started raising energy and developing my chakras, many years ago, I didn't feel ANY sensation for several months. Many people, though, have reported to me strong energy and chakra sensation the first time they used them. Some people have more natural chakra activity than others. Lack of any sensation, though, will not stop you from stimulating and developing them, even if, as was my case, you feel nothing at first. I did not have ANY natural chakra activity or ANY natural psychic ability when I first started energy work.

Stop And Check
Check your muscles for any tensing during the energy raising and chakra stimulation exercises, and re-relax as needed. Your muscles will automatically try and respond to the mental action of pulling energy up through you. Remember, this is ALL mental, your body must stay calm and relaxed throughout.

Chakra Sensations
The sensations you will feel in your chakras can vary, according to the degree of activity occurring in them, i.e., your physical make up, natural ability, concentration and relaxation skills affect this. It can vary from a gentle warmth, a localised pressure, or bubbling (like stomach wind), a localised dizziness, a tingling, a gentle pulsing, to a heavier throbbing, or a combination of some or all of the above. The heavier the thrumming, the more active the chakra. If you place your hand on a chakra, when it is active, you will actually feel the flesh pulsing.

Some of the chakras, when active, can cause other odd, localised sensations:

Base chakra: You may feel a very slight burning or tingling, or a cramping, like you have been riding a bicycle for too long, to begin with. Once it is working properly, you will feel a gentle pulsing or throbbing between your legs, at the site of the chakra.

Solar Plexus Chakra: This can sometimes cause a shortness of breath feeling, which can cause you to hyper-ventilate. This will pass, with time and use, as the chakra stabilises.

Heart Chakra: The heart chakra merits special mention due to the strong, and sometimes frightening, sensation it can cause. When strongly activated it can feel like your heart is racing at an impossible rate. It is a powerful sensation. Try and ignore this when it happens, it won't hurt you. It is not your heart racing but the chakra working. I know this is easier said than done, ignoring it, but with practise and familiarity you can. This racing is more apparent in the early stages of development. I think this is caused by a lack of energy flowing from the lower centres. In a way it is like a pump racing, when it does not have enough fluid to pump.

The heart chakra, when fully operational, feels like: Place one hand on your chest, with your finger tips resting in the middle of it over your heart. Tap your fingers on your chest, in time with your heart. Increase this rate until you are tapping as fast and hard as your fingers can move.

Note: Your actual heart rate does NOT speed up with this racing sensation. If you hook yourself up to a heart monitor, you will see that your heat beat hardly changes at all.

Throat Chakra: The throbbing in it can cause a very mild choking feeling, because of the sensitive area it is in. This feels something like having an emotional lump in the base of your throat.

Crown Chakra: When fully active it feels like a thousand soft, warm fingers gently massaging the inside of the top of your head, above the hairline, and extending down in the centre of the forehead, to include the brow chakra, which is part of it. This sensation is the reason the Buddhists call it "The Thousand Petalled Lotus".

Note: You may feel a stronger sensation in some chakras and little or none in others. Concentrate on the lowest ones with the least sensation. This will help balance the energy flow in the chakra system.

If you are unbalanced, during projection the inactive chakras can cause failure, i.e., you may get your body partly loose but find you are stuck to your body at the site of the inactive chakra. If this happens, concentrate on stimulating the inactive chakra prior to projection.

(Editors Note - See also Part 8 Closing Energy Centres)

Psychic Abilities
After beginning chakra work, you may find psychic abilities start to grow in you. This is a natural offshoot of stimulating the chakras. In my next series, on more advanced energy work, I will show how to develop and use some of these abilities and how to raise the Kundalini.

Practise
Some relaxation, breath awareness, concentration and mental hands exercises should, ideally, be carried out daily. They can be done anywhere and anytime you have a few minutes to spare.

How Long Does It All Take?
Many people have asked me "How long does it take to learn projection?" My answer is: Because everybody has different levels of natural ability and skill, it will take as long as it takes. I have had letters from people, who have been trying various other methods for several years, but with no results; get out the very first time they tried this technique. Other people, with NO relaxation or concentration skills at all, are looking at several months training before they will get out.

Astral Rope
A key ingredient to the new projection techniques 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.

The ROPE technique is similar, but more direct and hence more effective than other more passive and indirect methods, such as reaching out and pulling vibrations into you, or visualizing yourself in front of yourself. The idea of pulling vibrations into you is vaguely illogical, if you understand the mechanics of projection.

The vibrations are an effect and NOT a cause of projection. When enough pressure is exerted on the astral body to loosen it sufficiently, the energy body expands and energy flows through the chakra system to be stored in the energy body. This flow of energy through the hundreds of chakras and their connecting web, or meridians, CAUSES these vibrations. This normally happens, unnoticed, during sleep.

Putting The Pressure On
The more passive, indirect methods of projection do exert some pressure on the astral body to separate, but over a wide area. They still shift the point of consciousness out of the body, albeit obtusely. Any mental action that exteriorizes the point of consciousness will exert some pressure on the astral body.

The action of pulling yourself hand over hand up a rope is a strong, one pointed, natural action that is easy to imagine yourself doing. The ROPE technique concentrates ALL your mental resources into one strong, DYNAMIC action which exerts a high level of pressure directly on a single point of the astral body.

There are many other, more subtle, ways that exert pressure on the astral body as well. Many of these are unsuspected for what they are. Most meditation exercises, for example, exert PASSIVE pressure on the astral body. You may imagine you are going down in a lift, falling, climbing down a ladder, or just floating downwards. Whatever the technique, it is designed to reduce brain activity. Any self induced, inward falling sensation places passive pressure on the astral body, which will cause brain activity to lower and bring on the trance state where a deeper level of the mind is revealed.

The action of inward falling obtusely shifts the consciousness out of the body, exerting passive pressure on the astral body over a wide area, but in the reverse to that needed for projection, i.e., general downwards pressure. This, in a way, is like trying to get your astral body to FALL out of your physical body on its own, i.e., your point of consciousness tries to FALL, downwards, out of the physical body.

What most people do to project is to either exert forward, passive pressure on the astral body, by visualizing themselves floating out of themselves, and HOPE, they can make it happen, i.e., trigger the projection reflex. Or, they try a more direct method, such as visualizing themselves out of their body, which is very, very, difficult. Lets face it, 99% of people can't visualize for peanuts and the act of mentally visualizing yourself OUT of your body, AND shifting your consciousness INTO this visualization is almost impossible for most people. The other popular method is to try to pull vibrations into you. This method is slightly more effective than most as it exerts some pressure at a single point, but it is still an indirect mental action and, therefore, obtuse.

All the above, and the general lack of information about the mechanics of projection, i.e., HOW it happens, accounts for the extremely high failure rate amongst people learning to project.

Holding passive pressure, over a wide area, on the astral body, for long enough, WILL activate the projection reflex, eventually. But this can take a long time and can be mentally exhausting. I have developed, through recent research, a better, faster and more dynamic method of projection that is very effective. I call this technique simply ROPE. It is not that using an imaginary rope for projection is such a new idea, it's not, but the understanding of the mechanics of it and the application of this knowledge to ROPE is.

If you fully understand how a thing works, you can use that thing more efficiently and, therefore, get better results.

The new ROPE method overcomes the general misdirection of mental resources and the chronic waste of mental energy caused by the usual lengthy procedures needed for projection. ROPE shortens the time needed to cause a projection and optimizes the use of available energy.

One of the most important ingredients for a successful projection is to be properly motivated. Without this motivation you will not have enough mental energy to succeed and will either fall asleep or forget the projection afterwards. It is, therefore, important to keep preparation time as short as possible so it is not such a daunting and mentally exhausting task.

One thing a new projector has in abundance is enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is pure mental energy. ROPE, plus the understanding of HOW it works, harnesses and makes better use of this energy resource and vastly improves the success rate.

Getting The Feel Of Rope
Pin a length of ribbon, string or rope to the ceiling above you. Have it hanging within arms reach so you can easily reach up and touch it. Reach out and touch it frequently, until you are used to where it is in your mind. This ribbon is only a tactile aide. By being able to reach out and touch the ribbon, you used to the spatial coordinates of where the invisible, imaginary ROPE is. This grows both in your mind and hence as a thought form, making it easier to imagine yourself reaching out and climbing the ROPE with your imaginary HANDS.

Note: You do NOT have to actually visualize, or see, the ROPE at any time, just know where it is supposed to be. This method uses NO visualization at all.

Reaching out and pulling on this invisible, imaginary ROPE with your imaginary HANDS shifts the bodily awareness induced point of consciousness, out of the body, with a strong natural action that puts direct pressure on one point of the astral body.

Active Chakra
One important point, if you happen to have more activity in your Brow Chakra, rather than in your Heart Chakra, which is sometimes the case. Move the position of your imaginary ROPE so your arms would be at a 45 degree angle above your head. If you use the visual aide, ribbon, move this so it is hanging down over your head, rather than over your chest.

Changing the angle of the ROPE shifts the point of pressure you are exerting on your astral body to the most active chakra area and gives better results.

In any case, position the angle of the ROPE at the most natural, and easy to imagine attitude for you. It is important that the angle and position of the imaginary ROPE feels natural. Experiment with this angle until it feels right for you.

Are You Ready To Project?
All the exercises in the previous parts of this series ARE necessary training for projection. They are, however, not all needed, in themselves, for the projection process. If you do all the relaxation, mental calming, mental falling, chakra opening and energy raising exercises during the actual projection, you can use up your supply of mental energy. This can cause mental exhaustion and you may find yourself short of energy and willpower for the all important exit.

All the exercises should be done separately from the projection itself. They are training and development exercises, designed to improve control over body and mind and to increase the flow of energy through the chakras. This is like working out in a gym as a part of football training. You don't actually use these exercises to play football, they just improve your fitness and strength so you are able to play football effectively.

Do the training exercises separately UNLESS you are trying for an advanced, real time projection. It is, then, still necessary to go through the full procedure, and activate all the chakras, prior to the actual projection.

The whole point of learning to project is to get your astral body to separate from the physical while fully conscious. The earlier you get a fully conscious projection the better. Otherwise, you may eventually give it all up as just too difficult. Therefore, I strongly suggest all beginners concentrate on the simplest, most effective way of getting a conscious projection. Once you have some projection experiences under your belt you can try for some of the more advanced, and hence, more difficult, types of projection.

By doing the training exercises you have learned to relax your body, to clear your mind and to concentrate. You have begun to develop (MBA) (mobile bodily awareness) and how to use MBA, i.e., using your imaginary HANDS to preform certain tasks both inside and outside of your body. You have also begun to awaken and develop your chakras so your energy flow is stronger and you have, hopefully, spent time getting used to being in trance. These skills have prepared your body and mind for projection.

When To Do The Exercises
Even though the exercises, in themselves, are not all used during the projection sequence, they still need to be done regularly in order to develop the necessary skills and energy levels for conscious projection.

I suggest the relaxation, concentration and mental calming exercises are done daily. Use your imaginary HANDS with these exercises. The energy, chakra work and other exercises should be done at least once a week to be effective. If you wish to do them more often, fine, just don't tire yourself out too much.

Your Projection Sequence
It is difficult to give one, universal projection sequence as everybody has different levels of skill and natural ability. For this reason I give a more flexible sequence and I suggest you tailor a projection method to fit your own needs and level of skill. Keep in mind the old saying "What works, works!" Play around with your sequence until you find what is right for you, what is easiest and most effective.

First, here is the full sequence for advanced, real time projection.

Full Sequence
Do relaxation exercises thoroughly.

1. Clear your mind through breath awareness.
2. *Enter trance using mental falling method.
3. *Raise energy and open all chakras.
4. Pull yourself out with the imaginary rope.

Note:

• Steps 3* and 4* can be swapped to suit, i.e., do the energy work before, or after, entering trance. Energy and chakra work is more effective done in trance, but some people have trouble getting into that state. Doing the energy work first will usually help bring about the trance state.
• IF you still have trouble getting into trance, use the ROPE climbing method at step 3* instead of the mental falling exercise, until you are in trance. Then stop the ROPE climbing and do the energy work before continuing with the projection, i.e., using the ROPE at step 3* will help force your body into the trance state.

How To Use ROPE
This is a complete projection method in itself, if you have good powers of concentration. I suggest beginners concentrate solely on this method until they have more experience. This projection method will give you a normal Astral projection. The duration of this projection, in real time, will depend on the level of chakra development and energy flow you have attained.

1. Do the relaxation exercise thoroughly, until you are completely settled. This should only take a few minutes, don't overdo it.

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2. Reach out with your imaginary HANDS and pull yourself, hand over hand, up the strong, invisible, imaginary ROPE hanging above you. Try and imagine the feel of a strong, thick, coarse rope in your HANDS.

   Don't try and visualize this ROPE! I want you to imagine you are reaching out and climbing this ROPE in the pitch dark, so you can't see it at all, you just know where it is and can imagine the feel of it. Visualization wastes valuable mental energy that can be better put to use exerting direct pressure on your astral body.

   You will feel a slight dizzy sensation inside you as you do this, specifically in your upper torso. This is caused by exerting dynamic pressure on the astral body. The dizzy sensation comes from the astral body loosening. This feeling of vertigo will intensify the more you pull on the rope.

   Very Important Note:
   1. This dizzy feeling and any feelings of pressure or vertigo, etc, caused by your mental action of pulling on the ROPE MUST be carefully noted by you. Learn the EXACT mental action you are doing to cause this vertigo. You will have to train your mental climbing action to cause this feeling. So, the first few times you try this ROPE method, concentrate on finding the right mental action to do this. Once you learn what it is you are doing to cause this, and can recreate it at will, you are really starting to get somewhere.

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   2. IGNORE *ALL* SENSATION YOU FEEL DURING PROJECTION or it will distract you, break your concentration, and ruin your chances for projection. Concentrate on the single act of climbing your ROPE to the TOTAL exclusion of everything else. Put everything you have into this one action, but don't tense up, it must be all mental.

3. Keep climbing, hand over hand, ever upwards, and you will feel the heavy sensation come over you. The pressure you are exerting on your astral body will force you into the trance state. Ignore this when it happens and concentrate on what you are doing.

4. Keep climbing and you will feel your chakras open in response to the pressure, don't stop.

5. Next you will feel the vibrations start, your whole body will seem to be vibrating and you will feel paralysed. Concentrate, single minded, on climbing your rope, don't stop.

6. Next you will feel yourself coming free of your body. You will buzz slightly as you pull yourself out 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!

Note:

1. Do *NOT* allow yourself to break concentration when the vibrations start. They are a natural EFFECT caused by energy coursing through all the hundreds of major and minor chakras in your body. If you do find yourself being distracted by this, spend more time and effort doing the concentration exercises until you overcome this problem.

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2. If you have not mastered using your imaginary HANDS for relaxation, raising energy and chakra work, you may have difficulty using them for climbing the ROPE. This does not mean you have to be able to open your chakras successfully to project using this method, you don't, it just helps if you can.

This method is very direct. It shortens the time needed to project dramatically! Once you start pulling in earnest on your ROPE you WILL enter trance, your chakras WILL open, the vibrations WILL start and you WILL project, very quickly! The speed of this method may frighten you, the first time you try it. Everything will seem to happen TOO fast. You will get used to this, though, and will appreciate having plenty of mental energy to use during your projection.

If your powers of concentration are good, you have a better chance of getting out with this method than any other, even if you haven't mastered deep relaxation and trance skills. What is needed, apart from the ability to concentrate, is the ability to carry out strong mental actions, without any corresponding muscular action, i.e., you have to be able to separate mental and physical actions.

If you have trouble with any part of the ROPE method, analyse it, find the problem area, then go back and concentrate on the related training exercises until you overcome the problem.

A ROPE Variation
Note: One good variation for the simple ROPE technique, is to do the full sequence of exercises and energy, chakra work first, but separate from, the actual projection. Do the full sequence, but `don't' close your chakras. Get up and have a break, make yourself comfortable, have a drink etc. Then return to your bed /chair fresh, spend a couple of minutes relaxing and go straight to your ROPE. This will increase the amount of chakra energy available during the projection.

The Mechanics OF How ROPE Works
ROPE is the most dynamic projection method to date and can override the need to do just about anything else, once it is learned. Let me explain a little more of the mechanics of what actually happens when you use ROPE, by breaking it down:

Clearing The Mind:
The mental act of climbing the ROPE fully occupies and clears the mind.

Brain Wave Activity:
Clearing the mind and exerting, one pointed, dynamic pressure on the astral body, forces the reduction of brain wave activity.

Deep Relaxation:
Reducing brain wave activity forces the body into a deep level of relaxation.

Trance State:
Exerting dynamic pressure on the astral body, while the physical body is deeply relaxed, and brain wave activity is at a low level, FORCES the mind and body into the trance state.

The Chakras:
Exerting dynamic pressure on the astral body, while in trance, FORCES the energy body to expand and the chakras to open.

Vibrations:
Exerting dynamic pressure on the astral body while the energy body is in its expanded state and the chakras are open causes energy to flow through the 300 odd chakras in the body and causes the vibrational state.

Separation:
Exerting dynamic pressure on the astral body while the energy body is in its expanded, vibrational state forces the astral body to separate from the physical.

Note: If you exert enough pressure on the astral body, during the final phase of the projection sequence, the exit, it will override the projection reflex completely. This forces a manual separation of the physical / astral bodies.

This means: Instead of involuntarily buzzing out of your body via the projection reflex, at the climax of the projection, and ending standing at the foot of your bed etc, you will exit your body in the direction you are pulling on the ROPE.

How Long Does It All Take?
The whole projection process can be done in less than fifteen minutes, I can do it in under five minutes. The speed of the method allows you to use ALL your available energy in one burst. If you don't get out in the first fifteen minutes I doubt if you will during that attempt. IF this is the case, either get up and have a break and come back to it later, or get some sleep.

Using the ROPE method, literally, amazed me with it's ease and simplicity the first time I used it. It shortened my usual projection time (20-30 minutes, from a cold start) to about 5 minutes, for a normal astral projection. I still, though, use the full sequence when I do a real time projection.

My analysis of the mechanics of this process comes from using the ROPE method myself and carefully observing what was happening to my body during the separation.

My First ROPE Projection
Here is an account of the first time I tried ROPE, while I was developing it as a viable theory:

I laid down on my bed, I was thinking of my new theory. I had been working out a projection technique that blind people could do. A technique that did not require ANY optical visualization. I had come up with the idea of using the sense of touch to exert pressure on the astral body, tactile imaging, as this sense is strongly developed in blind people.

I lay there for a few minutes, mulling it over in my mind, while I generally relaxed and settled myself, ready for sleep. Then I decided to try it out, to see if it was practical.

Note: I did not do any of the usual relaxation, mental calming or chakra energy exercises. I just wanted to see if I could exert pressure on my astral body with this method.

I reached out my imaginary hands and began climbing the ROPE, hand over hand. I immediately felt a sensation of vertigo in my stomach and upper torso and a dizzy feeling inside my bones, like a tickling inside my arms and legs. I snapped my mind shut, stopped all thought, and focussed my will on the climbing action. I could feel the enormous pressure it was exerting on my astral body, my astral head and upper torso was starting to lift free, trying to go up the ROPE following the line of pressure I was creating.

Still pulling, I felt my brain waves drop into the alpha state and the heavy sensation came over me as I entered trance. I kept pulling and the trance deepened, my body was now paralysed. Still pulling, my chakras opened and the vibrations started. I was amazed, I had only been doing this for a couple of minutes! I kept pulling and my astral body soon buzzed free of the physical.

This was completely different from any other projection I had ever done. The projection reflex did not seem to have time to cut in and project me out of my body. I had, literally, pulled myself free on my own. I floated above my physical body, still aware of myself on the bed.

I went to go through the wall into the lounge, where there was more light, as it was pretty dark in my room. Suddenly I was in a strange world. "Where the hell am I" I thought. There was very dim light and there was a damp fog all around me. There was a large building in front of me with an old fashioned thatched roof. To the side of me was an old rail fence made of massive, rough hewn timbers. I leaned against the fence and thought about it all. I looked past the house and saw the reflection of water. There was a lake on the other side of the house.

This didn't make any sense to me and I was getting bored, so I tried to move to another realm in the dream pool. I looked at my hand, this usually works. It was white and pale and unreal looking, it began to melt quickly, like white ice under a blowtorch. My fingers were soon stumps and then my hand melted and my arm began to follow. I tried remaking it. It grew back as I concentrated on visualizing what it should look like, but started to melt again as soon as I stopped concentrating.

Then it hit me, why this scene was so familiar to me, I was in a picture! I have a large picture hanging on the wall in my room, in the exact position where I had tried to pass through the wall. This picture has an old house with a thatched roof and a rough hewn fence around it. There is a lake behind it and it is early dawn, when the sun is just starting to illuminate things. There was no doubt about it, I was in my picture.

I'd had enough of this, it was too dim to enjoy the projection, or to do anything. I focussed on my physical body, which I could still feel. I concentrated on moving my mouth and eyes and this soon brought me back to my physical body. I sat up in bed and thought about it while I recorded the results of my experiment.

Settling back down again I tried climbing the ROPE again. Within a couple of minutes I was back out of my body again. "This is great," I thought! I hovered above my body and looked about the room. There in the gloom was the picture on the wall, the one I had entered by accident. I went towards it again, just to see if it would happen again. As I got closer it got bigger and bigger and I seemed to shrink into it. As I got right up to it, instead of passing through it, I seemed to move into it and there I was again in this dimly lit, damp world with the old house and the fence. Everything felt real about it, the fence felt like wood and even the air smelled different, it had a farm like, swampish smell about it.

Leaving the picture again and returning to my body, I again wrote everything down in my notebook. I lay there for most of the night, thinking about what had happened, mulling over the implications of it all, what it all meant....

This is how I discovered `Virtual Reality Projection' or (VRP) This technique is, at the moment, in its infancy and only a rough method for creating a custom made world. I plan to do some more experiments with it in the near future, though, to get the bugs out of it.

Remembering It All
One of the biggest problems with any kind of conscious OOBE is remembering it all when you wake up.

Here's what you can do about this not remembering. As soon as you wake up, sit up in bed and pull those memories back. Sit up and think hard. Put aside a few minutes quiet time each morning to do this. It will train your dream memory.

During this quiet time, run key phrases through your mind until you hit on something. Say things like: I looked at my watch and... I looked at my hands and... I was walking... I was talking to... I was just going to... I was over at... I was flying over... I was having a... I was inside a... I was with... These are examples of phrases that can lead you to a fragment of dream memory you can lock on to. Make up some more phrases to suit yourself.

It may feel like there is nothing in your mind to remember, but try hard and put some REAL effort into it. They are there, you just have to reach in and locate them. Once you lock onto a fragment of memory, more can be located and more and more. You will be surprised how much you can remember this way.

It is important to write these down as soon as you remember them. Even if you have to do this several times during the night. They may seem vivid and unforgettable at the time but dream, or astral, memories will usually vanish in a few seconds if you don't record them. Just write down a few key words and you can fill in the blanks later. With practise, this writing down can be dispensed with as your astral recall develops.

Stuck ?
Some people may find they are stuck in part of their body during projection. They may come free of their body but be stuck at their head or stomach area. If this happens, exerting too much pressure by pulling on the rope may cause some physical pain and discomfort. There are two possible reasons for this: If you are stuck in the middle, stomach area, it may be diet related, i.e., a heavy protein or meat meal before projection can cause this.

Remedy: Eat a light meal, eat plenty but have fish or white meat instead of red meat and avoid fats, oils, nuts and cheese.

If you are stuck at the head, or some other part, this is a sign of an inactive chakra, possibly caused by an energy blockage.

Remedy: Concentrate on opening this stuck chakra during the energy exercises. If this happens during your projection sequence, stop everything and open that chakra, you will be in trance so it will be easier. Once you have done some work on it, try pulling on the ROPE again.

More On Rope
ROPE is a very effective projection technique, but it still has to be learned to be effective. I would like to elaborate on a couple of points about the technique, inspired by the feedback I have received so far.

1. There is NO visualisation required - AT ALL - in the ROPE technique. It is ALL tactile imaging. This means you do NOT have to picture yourself doing it.

1. That is, to climb ROPE, the correct mental action is to REHEARSE the climbing action in your mind.

   * This mental rehearsal - IS - the ROPE technique *

2. You need to *mentally* grit your teeth and strain with the action, i.e., you have to put maximum mental effort into it, as if you were really climbing a ROPE, but without allowing your muscles to take part in it - this is ALL mental. Your body must not be allowed to respond. You also need to feel you are very strong, full of energy and could climb like this all night.

3. You will find that a certain way of holding the focus of your mind, while you climb, will exert more pressure on your astral body than another. It is VERY important you note what this is and learn how to apply it. This will tune your climbing action for the maximum effect. When you hit on the right mental focus for the action, you will feel a corresponding dizzy/falling sensation in your Solar Plexus.

4. To use ROPE successfully, it is extremely important to make a firm decision to DO IT. This commitment is VERY important to success. A DO OR DIE effort is needed. This focuses all your mental energy into a single point, for a single purpose - to exit your body.

5. Many people have emailed me with ROPE success stories. In every case - they have been practising ROPE when they suddenly decided to give it a go - TO REALLY DO IT! This commitment to succeed means the difference between actually getting out - OOBE - and experiencing various levels of ROPE induced relaxation, trance, paralysis, chakra activity etc. I cannot stress enough the importance of this commitment to the success of ROPE induced OOBE.

6. While using ROPE, completely IGNORE ALL PHYSICAL SENSATION AND ANY NOISES YOU HEAR. If you react to a sensation, in any way, you will lose the focus of your mental energy and dilute your effort considerably.

All the energy/chakra work and other exercises in Parts 3 and 4, are designed to stimulate the flow of energy in your body and increase concentration, will power and mental control. By increasing the energy flow during a projection and controlling your mind better, your duration in real time is increased. It is also easier to exit.

You CAN skip all the exercises entirely and just concentrate on learning ROPE. Everyone has different levels of skill, natural ability and energy flow. Some people need lots of training in order to OOBE, others do not. Some people will prefer to learn ROPE by DOING it, rather than training for it. If your goal is just to have a conscious OOBE, of any kind, the simple use of ROPE, below, is your best option.

Simple Use Of Rope
Some people have the impression ROPE is too complicated. This was possibly because by the detailed explanation I gave about the mechanics of ROPE in Part 5, i.e., HOW it works.

ROPE is THE simplest projection technique to date. All that is needed to use ROPE in its simplest form, are these two steps:

1. Go to bed, or sit in your chair, relax and settle yourself down, as you normally would do before going to sleep.

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2. Start climbing the ROPE.

* This is all there is to the simple use of ROPE *

As there are no time consuming exercises or complicated relaxation exercises involved, the simple use of ROPE has many advantages. It allows you to focus all your mental resources on it. In many cases this is all that is needed to give you your first conscious OOBE.

Because the simple use of ROPE is less complex, you will find yourself attempting projection more often, even when you are tired one of the best times to try - and cannot be bothered with anything complicated. The increased frequency of your projection attempts gives you more practise with ROPE and hence the technique will be mastered sooner.

Lucid Dream Backup
I have had a great many reports of vivid dreams and heightened lucid dream activity (L.D.) from people doing the energy/chakra training exercises. This is happening far too frequently for it to be coincidence.

The energy/chakra work increases the level of energy flowing into the energy body and heightens awareness and memory of the dream and OOBE state. It is a shame to waste all this energy on uncontrolled dreams, so I suggest L.D. be used as a secondary goal. This will give you OOBE experience earlier, in the form of L.D., and help keep your interest high until you learn how to do the conscious exit.

Lucid Dreaming
To become Lucid in dream you need to program yourself with a trigger to make you realise when you are dreaming, in order to take control over it, i.e., become lucid. The best way of doing this is by getting into the habit of doing frequent reality checks during your daily life.

Reality Checking
A reality check is when you stop what you are doing and check the reality level of your situation. This is simple to do. Every time you do a reality check. Ask yourself:

1. Is this a normal situation, is there anything strange about it?
2. Can I fly? Try floating up in the air.
3. Try closing your eyes. This is a dead giveaway as you cannot close your eyes in astral form.

Note: This reality checking must become habitual to be effective.

When you do a reality check during a dream, you will realise you are dreaming and can take control of it. It is then important to affirm to yourself you are going to remember everything. Tell yourself over and over, " I will remember this when I wake up."

L.D. Trigger
The key to success with reality checks is to have a good trigger for it. This should be something you would normally do many times a day. This can be any kind of habitual action, but here are a few ideas:

1. Time: Every time you look at your watch, do a reality check. An electronic watch is a good aid. Set the timer to beep hourly. When it beeps, do a reality check.

1. * A wrist watch, beeping hourly, is the most effective *

2. Hands: Every time you notice your hands, do a reality check.

3. Smoking: If you smoke, every time you have a cigarette, do a reality check. You will usually find yourself reaching for a cigarette during the course of a dream, if you are a habitual smoker.

Note: It takes time to make your trigger habitual, usually a few weeks. It also helps to do a few affirmations before you go to sleep, e.g., "I will remember to look at my watch"

When you become aware in a dream, L.D., you should already be in a communal dream pool. If you want to try changing this to a real time projection, try and become aware of your physical body. If you can sense it, you may be able to return to a time location near it. This is difficult, though, and may end the experience completely, i.e., forcing a return to the waking state.

I suggest you enjoy the L.D. for what it is. Communal dream pools are very colourful places and usually lots of fun. You will see all kinds of weird and wonderful things there and have all kinds of adventures.

Note: To improve your memory of the L.D. don't forget to remind yourself constantly during the L.D., to remember it all.

Changing Your Reality Location
If you don't like the dream pool you are in, or are in a real time OOBE and want to enter a dream pool, here are a couple of ways to do it:

1. Look closely at your hands and watch them melt. (This is worth doing just to see the melting hands phenomenon).
2. Spin around until you become disoriented.
3. Visualise a place you would like to be. (Instantaneous travel). This will usually move you to a dream pool similar to your visualised target destination.
4. Fly straight up, as fast as you can. If this fails to shift your reality location, at least you will experience space flight.
5. Fly away fast, close to the surface, until you find a place you like. The blurring of speed will cause a reality shift.
6. Walk into a mirror, picture or painting. This is the same as VRP (virtual reality projection).

These techniques all trick the subconscious, through disorientation, into moving you to another reality location.

The Astral Form In Motion
Many people have motion problems in their first few projections. Simply getting across a room in the right direction, can be a major accomplishment. This lack of control is simply because they are unfamiliar with astral form. It is like being in zero gravity. You have to learn to move all over again. When you project in real time, you are just a point of consciousness with a poorly constructed etheric shell surrounding it. Motion is provided by thought - not muscles.

Astral Momentum
There is a type of momentum in astral form that causes most of the problems. This causes you to continue moving for a while, after you decide to stop. This may take you through a wall or a ceiling etc. This impetus is caused by the thought you used to cause the motion. If it is too strong, or too prolonged for the action, you will move too quickly or too far. Only practise teaches you how to get about with any degree of accuracy and grace.

It really is quite a comical process, learning astral motion. I remember learning to move about my home town, in my youth. I would start by trying to navigate through my house, usually ending up stuck in the roof, for a while. Then I would run down the road, trying to build up speed and take off like a plane. I would get airborne for a while, but could never quite clear the roof tops of the surrounding houses. I would often float unintentionally into strange houses, blundering about like a drunk in zero G. I seemed to be endlessly apologising to all these strangers in passing, as I floated in and out of their houses.

How To Move
To move about in astral form, simply - DO IT. Do not think about what you are doing, just DO IT. Be aware that motion is provided by your mind. You have to will yourself into motion, to change direction, and to stop. This is the best advice I can give you on this. It really has to be learned by doing. Have fun.

When you have learned basic motion, do not try anything too ambitious for a while. Stick close to the surface and learn to get around your local area first. Practise varying your speed until you gain some control over it.

Learning To Fly
Learn to fly the same way as you learned to move, by using your mind. At first you may find something very much like gravity affecting you. You may get yourself into the air only to find yourself slowly arcing back to earth again. If you persevere you'll find yourself moving in a series of short flight hops. This is caused partly by habit and partly by the basic motion problem in general. You sink back to earth when your motion causing mental action falters. This causes your flight impetus to stop and the gravity habit then pulls you down.

You may find yourself, as I did, trying to fly by running down the road and leaping into the air. This is not necessary. Focus your will into floating up into the air. Then use your will to provide motion, same as with basic motion. There is NO gravity affecting you in astral form. Convince yourself of this and you will be flying in no time.

Speed
The three speeds as defined by, S. Muldoon, and commonly accepted, are a basic guide only. These are:

1. Walking speed.
2. Motor car speed.
3. Instantaneous travel.

I think these three speeds were a sign of the times back then. These would have been the only types of speed known to most people. Today, movies, computer games and air travel have thoroughly prepared our minds to accept much higher speeds.

With practise and good mental control, you CAN vary your speed to your purpose, from walking speed to supersonic speed. This is a big problem for the beginner though, the control of direction and speed. It has a lot to do with how stable the projection is and how experienced you are at applying your will to motion.

Instantaneous Travel
It is generally accepted that if you can visualise a destination you can project yourself there instantly, at the speed of thought.

* I have found this to be highly unreliable *

I find this instantaneous method usually projects you straight into a subjective location created by the visualisation of your target. You may appear to be at your destination but you will usually find many discrepancies between the real location and where you are.

Instantaneous travel is very like VRP. By using your visualisation powers to travel with, you will not actually travel. You will create a subjective copy of a destination and enter it.

Long Distance Travel
I have found it more reliable to follow the surface for short to medium distance projection of up to a few hundred miles. Even this can be difficult as it is easy to fall into the Alice effect while travelling. All you have to do is break concentration once and you will slip into a dream pool. Strict mental control must be maintained at all times when travelling in real time.

It is not really practical to follow the surface for a long distance. For example, a country on the other side of the world from you is 12000 miles away. You would need to travel at about 64 times the speed of sound to reach there in 15 minutes. At this speed in the atmosphere, everything blurs and clouds and surface features cause disorientation and a corresponding reality shift. Any real time objective aspect of the projection will then be lost.

Note: Newbie projectors can normally hold themselves in real time for only a few minutes. Therefore, any long distance travel is limited by the real time part of a projection.

To travel long distance you need to study geography. You have to be able to recognise continents, oceans, countries, states and cities. You also need to study a map of your target area and note any landmarks. To project there, after this is memorised, you must go into orbit and re-enter over your target. As you approach the earth you must adjust your approach and aim for the geological features and landmarks around your destination.

Orbiting the Earth
To enter orbit is a little more difficult than it sounds. Getting up there is easy, you just go straight up, but stopping when you get high enough is difficult. Most people, myself included, tend to blast themselves straight out of the solar system, sometimes right out of the galaxy. To avoid this, it is important to control your speed during the ascent.

It is easier to project to the moon first, as a way of entering orbit. This gives you a large visual target you can project to in moments. Once there, it is a simple matter to head back to Earth, enter orbit, and circle until you are above your target. In space, away from the atmosphere, there are no problems with speed induced blurring.

How Far Can You Go?
There are * NO * limits to distance, destination or speed. You can travel to the most distant galaxy. The speed of thought is infinite. It is like folding space and moving without moving. If you can see something, you can be there....as quick as that. In comparison, the speed of light is that of a snail. I often go out into deep space, where the galaxies are just tiny smudges in the distance, to think and meditate. That is easy, but the trick is getting back for a conscious re-entry. Unless you have a good knowledge of astronomy, which I do not, this is difficult. Following the silver cord, if you can see one, is not practical at that kind of speed, though it will give you a basic direction to go in.

To return from a long distance projection, tune into your body and become aware of it. Then try moving part of your physical body, i.e., a finger or toe. This will return you to your body, and end the projection with full memories of the OOBE.

Future Wind
There is a strange phenomenon you will come across, from time to time, while you are projecting. I call this "Future Wind."

You will be OOBE'ing somewhere, minding your own business, when all of a sudden you will feel an irresistible force. You will feel yourself being moved against your will, usually backwards, by this force. You can fight it for a while but it will grow steadily stronger until you are blown away; over the roof tops, up into the sky and....into the future.

Then, after a while, you will come down in a different place....and time. Often it will be somewhere mundane, maybe a domestic setting of some sort. You will be released there and left to wander about... confused. You may even meet people you do not know, yet, and they will be just as confused as you are.

This may be an actual scene out of your future life, it may be a symbolic vision, or a mixture of both. You may be an invisible spectator to this scene, or you may merge with your future self, and see out of your future eyes for a while.

This can also be a scene of an important future event. It could be a disaster, natural or otherwise, or something unusual or exciting on the world scene. These type of events usually have a lot of energy surrounding them, and this may be part of the reason for the vision.

The only explanations I can give for this are:

1. The intervention of your higher self: For some reason it decides that now is the time to show you something from your future.
2. Clairvoyant interference: Your Brow chakra has become clairvoyantly active and has tuned into a future setting. Your point of consciousness is caught up by this vision and projected into the vision.
3. A combination of both of the above - this is the most logical.

Symbolic Visions
There is another aspect of this wind that is very similar to the above but the vision you experience is symbolic, or has a symbolic aspect, rather than an actual future event or scene.

Note: I would like to warn you about the symbolic aspect of visions. If you don't understand the nature of symbolism it can cause great harm to your life. This warning applies to all clairvoyant visions in general, whether experienced in astral form or not.

For example: You are taken, by a future wind, to a scene in which you see yourself winning a lot of money. You are sitting at a table checking your lottery ticket with the results. You see the prize money is $18 million. You check your numbers, or ticket, and find you have the winning ticket. You feel all the excitement, the surge of adrenalin, dreams of wealth come flooding into you and your heart races with excitement.

After this vision, you start buying lots of tickets. You also start to make decisions that affect your life with a "When the money comes through" type of attitude. This can cause irreparable damage to your life! You lose your drive, your initiative, your ambition, i.e., you stop trying. This imparts a "Cargo Cult" type of belief system on you, a belief that everything will be given to you - with all the negative aspects this primitive belief system has.

This can cause you to mark time in your life, instead of living it to the full.

* What you may have missed, from the symbolism of the above vision is:

The amount of money may be unusual for that lottery draw. $18 million is an odd amount of money and may be a rare event. This is what I call a SIGN POST - a date stamp of a future event. This means that when your local lottery has a prize of the above amount, something important is going to happen in your life or in the world around you. If you know how symbolism works, during the vision you would have been able to pick up more information about this coming event. The setting, the symbols, the connections to you, the action and the sequence of events in it, are all important aspects of its meaning. Misunderstanding a vision can ruin your life. Only experience and the intelligent application of logic can teach you how to interpret a symbolic vision. Until you have this experience, it is best to treat any sort of vision with caution.

Some possible reasons for a symbolic vision are:

1. You are being given a warning or guidance by your higher self.
2. You are being given proof there is a future, a destiny, a meaning, a purpose to your life.
3. The sign post of this vision may mark a good or bad event in your life.
4. You may actually win the lottery. Personally, I would always make sure I had a ticket in the draw, just in case, but I would not depend on it.

Future Wind Example
I left my body and was moving about my home, getting my sea legs. Suddenly, a force moved me across the room. I tried to fight it but it grew stronger until I was blown out of the house and up into the night sky. A short time later I was brought down again, outside my home. I was just left standing there in the middle of the road. In front of me stood a refrigerator. It was just sitting there in the road with its door open. I examined it and could tell it was not working. Behind it was a massive red brick wall, 40 feet high and twice as wide. There are no REAL brick walls in this street. Then I noticed my wife was standing beside me. I turned and said hello to her. She just said goodbye, very coldly, then turned and walked away. Perplexed, I watched her walk away. Oddly, instead of walking to our home, she walked away from it and off into the distance.

Being experienced with the symbolism and nature of visions I knew what this foretold, the end of my marriage. I could not understand it as we were only recently married and very happy together.

To decipher a symbolic vision it is necessary to analyse it and break it down into its parts.

The six significant aspects of this vision are:

1. The sign post... (the date stamp of the event) * The refrigerator that did not work.

1. 
   
2. The connections... (something, or someone, in the vision that connects the events to me). *

   1. My wife.
   2. It was outside my home.
   3. I was there as me.

3. The symbol... (the basic nature of the coming event) * The large brick wall. This symbolises a barrier or an end to something. This was the only actual symbol in the vision, but other parts of it were by nature or action - symbolic.

4. The symbolic action... (this signifies the meaning of the vision) * My wife's cold goodbye.

5. The symbolic modifiers... (these modify the symbol or, in this case, the symbolic action in the vision). a) My wife departed in a direction away from our home. b) She walked away until she disappeared from view.

6. The sequence of events:

   1. The broken fridge.
   2. The large brick wall.
   3. My wife's actions.

OR: When I saw the broken fridge (sign post) I saw the brick wall (symbol) and my wife (connection) said goodbye and left (symbolic action) in a direction away from our home, until she disappeared (symbolic modifiers)

The timing and sequence of a vision is important to unravelling its meaning. It is important to break a symbolic vision into its 5 basic parts and to note this in your journal, while it is still fresh in your mind.

Note: There may be more than one modifier to each part of a vision.

Hindsight
A year after I had the above vision, we moved to another town. The day we moved, we had to borrow a refrigerator from a relative. Ours had broken down and was in for repairs. The borrowed fridge did not work either. After our's was repaired, this other fridge sat on our porch for two and a half years, waiting to be collected. I remembered the vision clearly, and knew this fridge was the date stamp of an upcoming event. I also knew what the event was, but honestly could not see it happening. One day, though, they came and collected this fridge. A week later my marriage ended. Suddenly, permanently, and for no foreseeable reason.

Looking at it in hind sight, it is crystal clear what the vision meant. It was as simple as it was accurate. Most symbolic visions are this simple. Be very careful not to read too much into vision otherwise the true message in the vision will be obscured.

Always break a vision down into its parts.

Ask of each part:

1. "What is it in itself?"
2. "What does it do?"
3. "What is its simplest, most basic, symbolic meaning?"

Write these answers down and then apply common sense and logic to them. This will give you insight into the true meaning of the vision.

Mirrors
Mirrors, historically, are magical devices used as doorways to other worlds. There are also numerous superstitions and old wives tales concerning their effect on the recently departed. After a person had died, all mirrors in their home were covered. This was so they could not see their lack of a reflection and be shocked. Another reason for this was to prevent them from being accidentally trapped in a mirror.

There is some logic to this if you look at the mechanics of projection. Death, in the early stages, is very much like a powerful real time projection. The biggest difference being the lack of a living body to return to.

Spirits are normally held close to the physical dimension, in real time, for a week or so after death. This is until the supply of etheric matter that binds the spirit to its physical body runs out.

During this time it is normal for the spirit to wander among relatives and loved ones, saying goodbye and coming to terms with their new state of existence. This goodbye process, eases the psychological trauma of death, and helps prepare the spirit for the next stage of existence.

What can happen with mirrors, is this: A new spirit can inadvertently enter a mirror. If this happens, they enter a mirror world in the same way a projector enters a picture through VRP. Once in a mirror world they usually do not know where they are, or how to get out of it, and can be stuck there for the duration of their real time stay. This will not interfere with the journey of the soul. It will just cause confusion for a few days until it enters the next stage of existence. This can though, make their last days near the physical world very confusing and interfere in the natural goodbye process.

This, I believe, is where the old superstitions came from. Therefore, in the light of my understanding of projection and the death process, I think the covering of mirrors after a death is a VERY good idea, for the benefit of the deceased. This is best done for two weeks, to be sure.

A Better Goodbye
It is possible to communicate with a recently departed spirit during its real time, post death wandering. This can be done by leaving a letter, uncovered, for the spirit to read. They can also hear you, so talking to them is also effective. I think a good practise would be to have goodbye letters, from all the people that loved the deceased, stuck to the wall in the spirit's old room. Leave the letters open, with all pages clearly in view, to make reading easier.