A Treatise on Astral Projection

by Robert Bruce

 

There are certain aspects of the astral dimension and the projection process that are very complicated. Much of it is misunderstood and it can all be very confusing at times. This series of articles attempts to shed a little light on the subject, and hopefully, explain what it’s all about. The theories and conclusions in this Treatise are largely drawn from my own projection experience. It is the goal of this Treatise to develop greater understanding and new, simpler and more effective techniques for projection. The ideas, theories and techniques discussed here are constantly under development and are subject to modification and change as new discoveries and insights come to light.

What is the Astral Dimension?

The astral is the closest dimension to the physical. It overlays and permeates the world like a huge mind net, catching and holding all thought. Its contents are created by the collective consciousness of the world mind. It contains all the thoughts, memories, fantasies, and dreams of every living thing in the world. In it, the laws of sympathetic attraction, or like attracts like, causes this ocean of mind stuff to strata and settle into layers or pools. These pools of thought are more commonly called astral planes, astral worlds, astral sub planes or astral realms.

The astral dimension is composed of astral matter and is aptly described as mind stuff. It is extremely sensitive to thought and can be molded into any shape or form. These creations can be so perfect as to be indistinguishable from reality.

The best way to explain this, mind stuff is to draw a comparison between astral matter and unexposed, high-speed photographic film. When this film is exposed to light, focused by the camera lens, a perfect image of reality is instantly burnt into the film by the chemical reaction of the film to light. When astral matter is exposed to thought, focused by the lens of the mind, a perfect image of reality is instantly formed out of astral mind stuff by the reaction of astral matter to thought. The complexity and durability of any creation in the astral dimension depends largely on the strength of the mind doing the creating.

Dreams

This is how the subconscious mind creates dreams: By tuning into the astral dimension during sleep, it can create any scenario it wishes. This is the subconscious mind’s way of solving problems and of communicating with the conscious mind. It creates a series of complex thought form scenarios and projects them into the mind stuff of the astral dimension, where they become solid. The conscious mind then lives through and experiences these created scenarios in the Dream State. In a way it’s like a movie projector (subconscious mind) projecting onto a movie screen (astral dimension).

Thought Forms

Any new object in the real world is assimilated into the astral dimension over a period of time. A thought form representation of it first grows in the lowest part of the astral, close to the physical dimension, becoming more and more permanent as time goes on. As with all thought forms, the more attention paid to it the quicker it grows.

The higher up in the astral dimension, or the further away from the physical, the less thought forms, of the physical world, as we know it, are found. Physical things have to soak in to it for a very long time before they take shape, and are found, in the higher astral.

Have you ever tried to move around a strange house in the dark? You bump into everything, right. But as you become familiar with it though, a mental picture of your surroundings forms in your mind, and you can find your way around it better. The longer you spend in this house the stronger this mental picture becomes. This is similar to how things are assimilated and grown, as thought forms, in other dimensions.

The generation of thought forms in the astral also works in the reverse. If a physical object has been around for a very long time, it will have grown a lasting thought form impression in the astral. After the object is destroyed or removed, its thought form still endures. You may, for example, in the astral, find furniture in your house you don’t have, jumbled up with your own. This is caused by the decaying thought forms of old stuff, belonging to previous tenant’s etc, still being there, years after the originals have gone.

Old thought forms do not follow their physical counterpart around when they are moved. New ones begin to grow in the astral wherever it is while the old ones slowly decay. The longer a thing is in one place, the stronger the thought form will become in that place. This also applies to buildings, structures and geological features. You may project into a park and find a house, bridge, stream; hill etc that you know is definitely not there. These may have existed in times past. The higher up in the astral you go, the older the thought forms are or the further back in geological time you appear to be.

The rate of growth of a thought form depends largely on the amount of attention paid to it. For example, a famous painting; loved, viewed and highly thought of by millions, will have a much stronger thought form than that of a common painting that hangs in someone’s bedroom and is only viewed by a few. The number of thought forms you find in the astral also depends on how close you are to the physical dimension. If you are very close, as in a real time projection or OOBE, very few thought forms, if any, will be found. In a real time OOBE you are not quite in the astral dimension but are existing as an astral form in the buffer zone between the astral and the physical dimensions.

Astral Vision

In the physical body we have 220 degrees of vision, i.e. we can only see in front of us, but not behind, above and below at the same time. In the Astral body we have MORE than 360 degrees of vision and can see on all sides at once. This is Spherical vision. During projection, habit forces us to focus our attention in one direction only, where we feel the forward part of our vision is. The view behind, above, below, left and right is still there and seen all at once, but the brain can not assimilate it, all at once. This goes against the brains lifelong habit of frontal vision. Spherical vision is like being one huge multi-faceted eye that can see in all directions, up, down, left, right, front, back, but all at once! In the astral body you do not have any physical organs, i.e., eyes. You are a non-physical point of consciousness floating in space. You are also unaffected by gravity and other laws of physics. In this state there are no ups or downs, backs or fronts, left or rights. It is only lifelong habit that tries to force this perspective on you during projection.

It is important to understand spherical vision, if you are to operate competently in the astral. This is especially so when you project, in real time, close to the physical dimension. Spherical vision will often cause you to think you are in a mirror image dimension, or a reversed copy of reality. This means your house, for example, will appear to be reversed, back to front. This is caused by you losing your original natural viewpoint during projection.

At some point during the projection you have become disoriented and taken a different viewpoint from normal, i.e., you have rotated or turned upside down or inside without thinking. This reverses your natural left right, up down viewpoint. This tricks the subconscious mind into reversing the place you are in so your conscious mind can function properly.

As you don’t have a physical body in the astral, if you want to look behind yourself you don’t have to turn around, or move at all. You just change your viewpoint to the rear. This, when done without moving, causes the mirror image effect, in a way its like looking in a mirror to see behind. The diagram below illustrates this reversal of viewpoint without turning, note left and right do not change:

                   Right | Right
(A) <<<<<<< ------------ |---------->>>>>>>> (B)
                    Left | Left

That is, if viewpoint (A) becomes viewpoint (B) without turning, then Left and Right are not reversed. This causes the subconscious mind to use its creative power to correct the view by reversing it, or parts of it. This is easier and causes fewer problems for the conscious mind than if it had to try and accept a reversal of left and right.

A similar effect can be had by lying down and looking above your head, or standing on your head and trying to pick the left and right sides of things. This causes a slight confusion in your sense of left and right, i.e.; you have to consciously calculate which are left and right from your reversed position. This slight confusion is all that is needed to trick the subconscious mind into creating something easier to accept.

Your brain is unable to assimilate this reversal and thus gives you a new perspective according to what it feels is left and right at the time. Once you consciously notice this anomaly it is too late to reverse it. The brain cannot accept a conscious change of left and right. If you understand spherical vision though, and happen to get reversed sometime during a projection, it than thinking you are wasting your time in some strange mirror dimension, i.e., if you had plans to do something in the astral you still can. All you have to do is, take your left right coordinates from the building or structure around you, and ignore your own sense of left and right completely.

Everything you see while you are in the astral dimension is directly perceived by the mind. It is a simple matter for the subconscious mind to twist or reverse, all, or even parts of, your conscious perception of reality during a projection. Note: This reversal of viewpoint can happen many times during any one real time projection.

Creative Visualization Power

The subconscious mind has VASTLY greater powers of visualization than the conscious mind. It is like comparing a super computer to a child’s calculator. In the astral dimension, during any conscious projection or lucid dream, where the conscious mind is aware, this difference can cause great confusion. The subconscious mind simmers beneath the surface during any projection. All that creative power is just bursting to get out, to create, and it will do just that any chance it gets. This difference in creative power, combined with the lifelong habit of normal frontal vision, is the cause of the “Alice In Wonderland Effect.” Let me explain….

Take these together:

• The incredible creative power of the subconscious mind.
• The weak creative powers of the conscious mind.
• The sensitivity of astral matters to thought.
• Spherical vision.
• Left, right sense reversals.

And you have a recipe for total confusion. The Alice In Wonderland Effect

You project your astral body and look around your room. Everything appears normal, but suddenly, you notice the door is on the wrong wall? While looking around, you have seen this door with your rear vision, confusing your natural left, right, brain perspective. The brain can’t assimilate this because your frontal perspective, and the position of the furniture, pictures, windows etc, are normal; but the view behind you is reversed. This tricks the subconscious mind into creating a door where it thinks it should be. When you look at this door, it appears real, even though you know it is in the wrong place. Once it has been created, it will not be un-created, as that would be unacceptable to your conscious mind. i.e. solid doors don’t normally have a habit of vanishing before your eyes.

When you turn to where the door really should be, you will, usually, find the door there as normal. Now you may have two, or more, doors where there should only be one. If you go through the real door, you will find the rest of the house, as it should be, hopefully. But, if you go through a false door, the mind knows it’s false and won’t accept it opening to a normal part of your house that it knows can’t possibly be there. So, if you open this door you will find something else. It is usually a corridor or passage, you don’t have, and leading off into other parts of the house you don’t have either.

From then on, if you go through this door, you are in Wonderland, where everything is possible, just not very plausible. What you are doing, in effect, is entering the astral dimension via uncontrolled creation, through this door you don’t have, but now do. Once the subconscious mind starts creating like this it continues to do so at a geometric rate. It has to, for the conscious mind to assimilate the abnormal situation it is in. At some stage, in this creative maelstrom, the subconscious mind loses it completely and starts tuning in to other parts of the astral. At this point of the projection, all semblance of reality is lost and you fade into the astral dimension proper.

There are many ways this “Alice” effect can happen during a projection; the above example is just one variation. It has been noted by many projectors that at sometime during a projection they seem to lose control of it. Objects appear, disappear, and generally everything gets a little strange. This is caused, basically, by the subconscious mind’s vast creative ability being triggered. It starts making and unmaking things, and tuning into other areas of the astral and generally making everything difficult for the poor projector.

To avoid the above problem: Concentrate on what you are doing while you are projecting and don’t let your mind wander. The vision reversal problem can be minimized if you concentrate on your forward vision during projection, i.e your vision and don’t allow it to flit from one view to another. The astral is not a good place to relax if you have serious plans.

The vast creative power of the subconscious can, however, be utilized. It is an extremely valuable tool if you know how to use it. I will outline ways to do this, in the third part of this series, under the heading: “Virtual Reality Projection” where I will outline how to custom creates your own personal astral realm.

Melting Hands

When you project the astral body close to the physical world you do not have a body as such. But, the mind cannot accept this and so provides a thought form one made out of etheric matter. If you try and look at your body, say your hands, you will find they start to melt very quickly. They look pale and odd, and in a couple of seconds your fingers start to melt away like ice under a blowtorch. They shorten into pale stumps, then the rest of your hand and arm starts to melt away too.

This melting effect only seems to happen when you deliberately try and observe a body part or consciously create something. Deliberately observing an astral body part like this, uses the conscious mind, which, having poor creative powers, can’t hold complex shapes together for very long and it is this that causes the melting effect. If you happen to notice parts of your body, in passing, during projection this melting effect will not be seen.

Created Thought Form Objects

You can use your conscious mind to create objects while projecting. The duration of these, thought form, created objects depends on the strength of your creative visualization ability. It also depends on how much time and effort you put in to a creation.

This same melting phenomena happens with any conscious creation done in the astral dimension. If you create for example, a sword, it will appear in your hand just as you imagine it, briefly, and then melt away just like the hand did. If you concentrate on it you can hold it in shape, but as soon as your concentration wavers so does the creation. This is similar to any other visualization you do in the real world. It is difficult, and you have to concentrate to hold the visualization in your minds eye. Once your concentration wavers, so does the visualized image. This illustrates the vast difference between the creative powers of the conscious and the subconscious mind.

To make a lasting thought form object you have to trick the subconscious mind into creating it for you. I will deal with this subject, in greater depth, later in the series.

How does Projection Happen?

During sleep, the energy body, also known as the etheric body or vitality sheath is put on charge. It expands and opens in order to accumulate and store energy. The energy body can, normally, only do this in its expanded state during sleep. Once expanded, the chakras trickle power, in the form of etheric matter, into the energy body. During this recharging process the astral body separates and tunes into the astral dimension where it can create and experience dreams. If this separation is done consciously, or if you become aware after it, you can take some control over it. It then becomes an OOBE, astral projection or lucid dream.

The main differences between an OOBE, astral projection and a lucid dream are:

The OOBE

The OOBE (out of body experience) is a real time projection close to the physical world. This often occurs as part of a near death experience. This is where a person is knocked out of their body as a result of some kind of severe trauma, i.e. car accident, surgery, heart attack, child birth etc. OOBE’ers are aware of things happening in the real world, in real time; such as conversations and events centered around, or near to, their physical body. In many cases, these events and conversations are accurately reported by the person after they have returned to their body.

Note: The OOBE is slightly different from astral projection or lucid dreaming because of its real time, objective aspect. This is caused by the astral body containing a large amount of etheric matter, which holds it close to the physical world.

There are two main causes of real time OOBE: A person’s body is near death, or thinks it is, which causes a large amount of etheric matter to be channeled into the astral body in preparation for the death process.

The person has active chakras, which are doing a similar thing, i.e. channeling etheric matter into the astral body. Having active chakras can be a natural ability, or it can be developed by training. Note: You can project consciously, and have a real time OOBE if enough etheric matter is generated by the chakras. In an OOBE, reality is perceived as objective (real) and time is normal (real time).

Technically, when you project into the physical world in real time as in an OOBE, it is really into the boundary area of the buffer zone, between the physical and astral dimensions. If the astral body contains enough etheric matter it can exist only slightly out of phase from reality. This means the projection is in real time and so close to the physical dimension as to be indistinguishable from it.

Note: I have checked this many times, by projecting, in real time, during the day and scouting my local area for road works, accidents, incidents etc, then verifying the accuracy of my findings afterwards. There are strong natural barriers to conscious, real time projection, the OOBE, in the physical world. The amount of etheric matter generated and channeled to the astral body, is one of them. It limits the duration of any real time projection to the degree of chakra development and control.

The Astral Projection

This is where the astral body is projected into the astral dimension, where things are quite different from the real world. Time is distorted and extended, i.e., an hour in the astral can be like a few minutes in the physical dimension, depending on what part of the astral you are in. Reality is fluid and changeable.

The Lucid Dream

This is where a person becomes fully aware that they are dreaming during a dream. They either take some kind of conscious control over the course of events, or they convert the experience into an astral projection.

Astral Projection or Lucid Dream?

Many astral projectors black out before making a conscious exit from their body and return to awareness in the astral dimension. You become aware after the actual separation from the physical body and are usually already in the astral dimension. If you miss the conscious exit from your body you are technically having a lucid dream, not an astral projection, as you have become aware after separation. All three types of projection are closely related, i.e., they all involve the astral body separating from the physical and experiencing a reality separate from the physical body.

Triggering Astral Projection

Astral Projection (AP’) is an automatic reflex, built in to your body and mind. To trigger it, while fully conscious, there are three major requirements.

1. The ability to relax your body 100% and stay awake.
2. You have to be able to shift your consciousness point outside of your body.
3. You need enough mental and psychic energy to maintain control over the projection and not slip into the Dream State. Together, these will trigger the automatic projection reflex for a full powered AP’. There are a few minor conditions but these can be varied to suit your experience and surroundings.

Relaxation: You must `master’ a full body relaxation exercise. If you know one already it can be adapted to suit. Sit in a `chair’ and relax. Starting with the feet, tense them and relax them. Continue this with calves, thighs, hips, stomach, chest, arms, neck and face. Go over this a few times until you feel completely relaxed. Breathe deeply and slowly throughout this and try to become `aware’ of the breath entering and leaving your body.

Mental hands: Imagine you have a pair of `mental hands’. Stroke yourself with these `hands’ in an upward motion from your feet and up your legs, over and over again. Try and `feel’ them relaxing and soothing you. Continue this up through the center of your torso, paying particular attention to the chakras. The mental hand technique will also get you used to shifting your point of consciousness to different parts of your body. Try and put as much of yourself as you can into these mental hands.

Energy raising: As you pull upwards through your legs with your mental hands, imagine you are gripping the energy that flows there and pull it up through you. This is the natural path of the psychic/life energy that flows through you. With practice you will actually `feel’ this energy tingling and surging through you. It will literally `charge’ you up like a battery.

Chakras: These are situated at:

1. the base of the spine (between the anus and the genitals)
2. The spleen (slightly below the belly button)
3. The solar plexus (1 hand-span above the belly button)
4. The heart (center of the chest)
5. The throat
6. Forehead
7. Crown (full top of your head).

They are best imagined as roughly the size of your hand.

Chakra stimulation: Chakras are centers for the transformation of energy. Each chakra transforms the raw life energy of the planet into a different type. As you pull this energy up through you with your mental hands, stop at each chakra and imagine your mental hands opening it. Pull the energy up through it to the next one and so on. Repeat this a few times, you may not feel anything at first but with practice you will feel a fluttering or pulsing under your skin.

Stop Check: Keep checking your muscles for any tensioning throughout these exercises and re-relaxes as needed. A common problem is the automatic tensing of muscles as you pull energy up through you. Remember that this is all mental, the body must stay dormant and relaxed throughout this.

Point shift: To shift your point of consciousness, imagine you are a foot or two out in front of yourself. NOT a figure in front of you but YOU are in front of your physical body. Keep in mind your physical body being behind you. This is tricky but you will get used to it quickly. Don’t tense or strain any muscles during this, your body will try to obey you `physically’, don’t let it.

Mental state: Your surface mind will be fully occupied by these exercises so no mental exercise is needed up to this point. When you feel so relaxed your body begins to feel `heavy’ you are entering a light trance. Cease the other exercises and use breath awareness to stop your mind wandering.

Breathe awareness: `Feel’ your breath coming in and `feel’ it going out. With the inhale, `pull’ energy up from the base chakra to your heart chakra with your mental hands.

Note: If you feel any vibration start in your body at this point, and don’t want to project yet, move your head slightly, and gently sway your body into normal alertness.

These exercises should be carried out daily. Some of them can be done anywhere and anytime you have a few minutes to spare. You will, in time, condition your body to respond quickly and easily. With practice you will be able to attain a state of `total relaxation’ in just a few minutes. This training will reduce the amount of effort needed, and the fatigue produced, when you attempt a fully conscious AP.

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 clamoring 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 visualization. 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 practice 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. Breathe 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 colored energy of your favorite color. Imagine the air you are breathing OUT is a murky gray, 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 visualize 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 has 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. 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 practice can be done lying down, but is best done in a comfortable armchair.

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 localized dizziness inside your arm or leg, as you do this. Lift your astral arm up and look at it, with your eyes closed, but DOESN’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 practice 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 localized 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 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 mind 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 visualize these HANDS, i.e., and 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 visualize 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 visualization of any kind, and all projection techniques depend heavily on visualization. This being the case, I developed a projection technique that does NOT depend on visualization to exert pressure on the astral body to separate. It turned out to be so much easier, and more successful, than the other visualization based techniques, that I discarded them in favor 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

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 forms, 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 perform 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.