Lacking Progress

[Waste of Paint]

I've been trying to astral project for about a month now and I was wondering if anybody could help me because I'm not sure what I should be feeling.

What happens:
• I get relaxed quite quickly, always to the point where my body goes completely numb or I even feel the prickling sensation from my body parts "falling asleep". I have never gotten sleep paralysis though.

• I see colors, flashes of light, childhood memories, and random images. Sometimes the images are rather frightening, but not the majority of them. They do not startle me in any way.

• I feel a very, very light vibration. Sometimes it will start to get more intense for about 3 seconds (while hearing some crackling noises) and then return to to being very light. I assure you these vibrations do no startle me when they get heavy... I got excited the first few times, but I'm now so used to it that it doesn't faze me. Why don't these heavy vibrations stay?

It's been like this for weeks without any progress. Dunno what to do.

[dutchiexx]

Originally Posted by Waste of Paint

I've been trying to astral project for about a month now and I was wondering if anybody could help me because I'm not sure what I should be feeling.

What happens:
• I get relaxed quite quickly, always to the point where my body goes completely numb or I even feel the prickling sensation from my body parts "falling asleep". I have never gotten sleep paralysis though.

• I see colors, flashes of light, childhood memories, and random images. Sometimes the images are rather frightening, but not the majority of them. They do not startle me in any way.

• I feel a very, very light vibration. Sometimes it will start to get more intense for about 3 seconds (while hearing some crackling noises) and then return to to being very light. I assure you these vibrations do no startle me when they get heavy... I got excited the first few times, but I'm now so used to it that it doesn't faze me. Why don't these heavy vibrations stay?

It's been like this for weeks without any progress. Dunno what to do.

when i first started practicing ap, i was going through the same stuff as you.i could relax easily enough, my body would go nub within minuets of laying down, i could feel these light buzzing/vibrating sensation almost instantly once i relaxed enough.i would feel so close to projecting, my heart chakra would start beating fast, then it all would end.

i have 2 suggestions for you to try a few times.
first one being the easiest, lay down, relax, focus only on what your feeling inside your body, try to feel whats going on inside you.you should be able to notice that you can feel a soft buzzing inside you, its very subtle, but if you look for it, it will be there.this is your bodies energy.once you get a feel for it, you can try to manipulate it how ever you want, i like to make the energy inside me swirl around, and sometimes ill make the energy travel from my toes, then to my head and then repeat, with each repeat, i will increase the amount and force of the energy.to control this energy, all you need to do is feel it and then will it to move where you want, pretty much just pretend or imagine yourself feeling it move around, this is how you can control the energy.so once you can feel it, try to induce a sensation of spinning, swinging,floating or sinking.just pretend your feeling the sensation, you need to just look for the feeling, if you look for it, it will be there.i have heard that some people can just up and leave there body by using the same method as discribed above, some people can induce this spinning so well, they can get it to a point where they literally spin out of there body, or float, or sink, which ever one you prefer to use is fine.if you have issues with inducing the sensations, then start off smaller, start focusing all your attention on your hands, feel the energy thats inside you hands, now imagine feeling your hands starting to float upward, once you get the hang of this, you can move on to the other sensations.i almost got out my body once with this method, i literally felt myself start to detach from my physical body, i was about 2 inches out my body, how ever, i still felt like some of me was still glued to my physical body, eventually, i was snapped back into my body like a rubber band lol.

this suggestion is pretty strait forward, the idea behind this is that you leave your body when you fall asleep, this notion is what caused my first projection experience, long story short, i got really tired, layed down, felt my body go to sleep, then i just sank right out my body.i have, however, developed a method for using this.so try this a few times, lay down flat on your back, relax, clear your mind, let go of everything, and i mean everything, do not think about anything at all, if any thoughts pop in your head, dont worry, just gently push your focus back onto simply being here and observing, if any thought pops in, dont attach to it, just let it go, all you should do is just accept the thought, dont judge it, just continue to observe your self.after about 5-20 mins of doing this, you should enter a trance like state, while in this trance, you most likely will not be aware of your body or your thoughts.at this point, your body would normally be falling asleep.this is the goldy locks zone, the state you want to be in is half awake and half asleep.a far better example of this is that falling sensation you feel sometimes when you go to sleep or nod off in public or something, it feels like your dropping on a roller coaster ride, or feels like your falling off something, you then jolt yourself awake like your trying to embrace for impact, like your trying to catch yourself from falling, im sure you get what im talking about, anyway, if you can relax yourself enough as if you are planning if you plan on going asleep, all while doing anything you can to stay conscious of this process, then astral projection should come naturally at this point, it will happen on its own, you just have to allow it, and want it.
so pretty much, practice on getting to that point when you feel yourself falling, if you do manage to catch this sensation, then your body is already half asleep, from here, just relax, and go with the flow and enjoy the ride.

btw:the falling sensation you feel is really your astral body detaching :)

[TarunP]

Originally Posted by Waste of Paint

Why don't these heavy vibrations stay?

It's been like this for weeks without any progress. Dunno what to do.

Why should they stay? I guess you are on the threshold, you are just stuck with the belief that the "vibrations" must happen. Let go of this belief and you will be free to leave.

When your focus is on vibrations, energies and sensations happening in the physical body, how can the focus shift away from the body? This is something you should ask yourself when you find yourself worrying about sensations.

The whole trick is to forget the body and its sensations. Ignore what senses are telling you. The mind is bound with the physical via nothing but senses. So focusing on sensations will keep you bound there. Result - no progress.

What to do? Don't care about the vibrations/sounds/roommates/dogs. They are in physical, and you don't want to be there (for some time at least ;)). The non-physical is within and when your awareness is shifted away from physical you are in non-physical. There is no third place.

To shift the awareness to non-physical you can start with a vivid imagination of places, people or things and be engrossed in them, while taking care you don't fall asleep and lose awareness. Those who can't imagine like a movie playing inside, can instead hear or feel imaginary things - like a voice of a loving/respected person saying something important. Stay there, and the body is left behind.

That's it. Its simple. :)