What is Astral Projection?

[VenomX]

What is Astral Projection (and OBEing and EPing?!) and what are the differences between it, and Lucid Dreaming? Just curious. And please direct me to another thread if this has already been posted.

[dioo5]

From the books I've read, in a lucid dream you are in your mind and you are the master of the world. You can change it, control it, shape it to your own desires, you are literally "the man". In an OBE, you're not just away from your body and you're not always in the real world if you even are at all. You travel trough astral planes which are described in many books. Your perception is altered, you don't see with your physical eyes but with your mind. If you visit an area that you know nothing about, the images are blurry and shapeless. You can often get attacked by astral creatures like in the book "Techniques of astral combat". Unlike when you are lucid dreaming, you can't just will these creatures away, you have to fight them or run. But you may not even see them properly, or the world around for that matter, like I said you need some preliminary knowledge to recognise the environment and you need knowledge of the entities to be able to shape them and attack them. In that book the technique described for achieving astral projection is quite similar to the WILD technique for a lucid dream, they just call it "trance induction technique" and they speak nothing of lucid dreaming. In the books where both lucid dreaming and astral projection are seen as existent, it is said you can use lucid dreaming to go into an AP, one way is to climb a tall building and jump off, willing yourself out of the body. There are also visualisation techniques, it is said that if you imagine a well and then you imagine yourself falling down into it and plunging into the bottom you can induce an OBE. There is also the famous technique by Robert Monroe, but it's a little bit complicated, even if stated to be effective. The Monroe Institue has also released some audio cds that can help induce lucid dreaming and astral projection, just search "hemi-sync", it's the technology used in the audios. There ya go. Btw I got this from http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...70#post1039170

[cloud9wannablucid]

There is some controversy over what "Astral Projection" is. Some believe it to be a person's ability to connect to the "astral world/plane" and interact with other "astral" beings or spirits. With this idea, it is generally believed that a person goes to sleep and their "astral body/spirt" leaves there body, but remains attached to their physical body by a silver chord running from the naval. Enthusiasts of this say that people do it every night and just don't know it. Others believe that "Astral Projection" is simply another level of consciousness in which a person has physical sensation while lying asleep in their beds. Nothing has left the body, except the mind in the broadest of terms, much like falling into a trance while watching T.V. You are there but mentally you're off somewhere else. Some thing "Astral Projection" is a "high lucid" dream. I don't believe this is the case, because lucid dreaming is knowing that you are dreaming while you are dreaming, and people (some) believe astral projectiong really takes place and is not a dream. An OBE (out of body experience) is a lot like astral projection. It too could simply be a lapse in consciousness or another state of consciousness. While it is up to each individual to determine what they believe on the matter, I think it can be safely said that "astral projection" and "OBEs" are not lucid dreams, although they may be dreams. I hope this helps, and sorry if I was a bit long-winded.

[LucidFlanders]

LD's you create whatever you want and it stays, AP you create stuff but it then dissapears or so what i have heard. So they are not the same if it is true. Also in AP if you do something wrong, from what i heard, you are chased out by something, or some things when you don't follow the rules and behave. If you see a chick or guy too good to be true, and the person of your dreams, it is an energy sucker i have heard, so stay away unless you want to be drained. Also as what was said above, you are knowing you are dreaming in LD's and that is the only way to get lucid, but in AP you can believe it is real and you will still AP. So...i'd say they are different.

[VenomX]

Thanks, all three of you. So, do you walk around like a normal person? And everyone you see is in your head but you don't think that? Or is everyone real but they act normal to you or something? And also (sorry I'm a little thick sometimes) if you tried moving your real arm, would you move your OB arm like in a lucid dream? Anyway, I think I'm going to stick to lucid dreaming... That out of body experience sounds like it could get dangerous, and, I'm not trying to offend anyone but, it sounds like something that happens to you when you take drugs.

[LucidFlanders]

Thanks, all three of you. I think I'm going to stick to lucid dreaming... That out of body experience sounds like it could get dangerous, and, I'm not trying to offend anyone but, it sounds like something that happens to you when you take drugs. AP/OBE is about as dangerous as dreaming...it's not dangerous at all. Your mind is in there, not your body. You can't die, or be hurt at all in any of those unless someone kills you when you are sleeping. Just follow the rules and you wont be kicked out and wake up.

[cloud9wannablucid]

As far as walking around it is said that in AP you lose all your physicial sensations and pretty much float around. I guess walking could be a possible task, although it seems most people who believe in AP would rather fly than walk. LOL. In LDs physical sensations is just as real as in waking life. Of course if AP is a dream then you may feel nothing simply because you believe you with feel nothing. Much like in a LD, if you think something will happen it usually will happen because everything that takes place is made up by your mind. I cannot say for a fact that AP is not real, but it hasn't been proven. I guess you can take that howevery you want to take it.