Hi everyone.  I've been reading here for a few days and would love to be a part of this group.  I've been reading up on astral projection, but I know I have quite a ways to go to get a real grasp on things.  With two little girls at home, there's not a lot of time for research!

Anyway I'm wondering if I came close last night before bed.  I was lying there trying to relax and just open myself up to having an experience.  Suddenly I felt very tingly all over...sort of like I could feel energy pulsating through me/out of me.  Next I felt like I was rotating, but then the feeling left almost as quickly as it came.  Any thoughts?  Was I close?  Is there a good way to proceed next time I have a similar feeling?

I tend to have a lot of lucid dreams...do you think that will make my progression at this easier?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated...looking forward to getting to know everyone here.

Hello Angie:

The rotating body movement you felt could be a sign of preparation. Perhaps your higher self/guidance knows what you have in mind, and is preparing things for you. Some people have out of body experiences for a while before they find out that their spirit guidance has been helping them have such experiences.

Don't underestimate the value of lucid dreams. Often our spirit guidance enables us to have the kind of experiences we need to have. I used to have out of body experiences with all the effects, and now I either have regular dreams, waking dreams, OBEs that start from a lucid dream, and a kind of experience where I am completely awake as I feel myself travel through a realm as I see it. This latter experience seems to be some kind of third eye/mental body experience.

Yes, I think you were close. The bad news is, from my literature, the last step, to separate from your body while maintaining a calm yet awake state of mind is the hardest.

I think OBEs and lucid dreams are closely related, simply because both states require to be conscious in a way similar to physical consciousness, without getting snapped back into your body. All my few classic OBEs developed from dreams.

Spooky

I think one of the easiest ways to learn is to simply be relaxing in bed when you're not overly sleepy and will fall right to sleep, but when you can pay attention to your body becoming very relaxed but your mind stays alert.

Then try to recognize any mental shift of relaxation while you are sill awake and aware.  If you can pay attention to your mental feeling of just being there, without troublesome thoughts or dream-like pictures floating through your mind, then you're in a good state of relaxation but still awake.

Next you just imagine mentally getting up from the bed and walking out of the room.  Think it through slowly, but smoothly, so don't hesitate.  Just go with the flow of imagining getting up and walking, and then walking through the rooms of your house.  

The relaxed state should let your conscious awareness follow these thoughts and with some practice, the next thing you know you find yourself "out".  

What I've noticed with this method is that there can be some amnesia, for instance you feel as if you are actually physically in another room and you're wondering, "What am I doing here?  I don't remember what I'm supposed to be doing."  And it may take a minute for you to realize it is an out-of-body experience.  

But it's a simple method and at least you get to practice the feeling of being elsewhere.  

Also--in this kind of relaxed state, pay attention to pictures of doorways or windows that seem to easily pop into your mind like a dream.  If you are used to lucid dreaming, you'll know what I mean by this state.  Where you feel you are awake but you seem to be having dream-like pictures in your mind?  

If you see any doorway or window--go through it!  Just think "I want to pass through" or something like that, and you will immediately be drawn through.  That's a sure sign of transferring to an altered state.  For some reason, the doorway or window symbol symbolizes this--I believe it is one of those universal symbols since I'm not the only person who has had the same OBE benefit of traveling through them when the pop up.  

spooky2 wrote on Jan 29^th, 2009 at 10:10pm:

I think OBEs and lucid dreams are closely related, simply because both states require to be conscious in a way similar to physical consciousness, without getting snapped back into your body. All my few classic OBEs developed from dreams. Spooky

 I had a very similar thought as Spooky re: this topic and your questions.  Seems like classic OOBE's and lucid dreams are very similar.  They probably occur within the same or near same frequency/consciousness bandwidth. That could be said to be generally and primarily within the 2nd to 3rd Chakras.

Thanks for all of the replies, everyone.  I haven't had any more luck, but I'll continue to try.

Congratulations Angie,
(and Welcome to this site !)

I don't think it was 'luck.'  :) I think you are on your way, in tune with the amazing experiences to come !
If you say to yourself that you are ready for further explorations, your intent will be more consciously placed and may give you experiences more quickly.

It's not easy to find time, I realize,.

Bets

Angie,

Some tips would be to really put some work into getting the body relaxed, before opening up. Also maybe it can be useful to try using the lucid dreams as a springboard into other areas.