Whats the difference?

Whats the difference between astral projecting and outer body experience?

[wstein]

I assume you mean Out of Body Experience.

Out of body experience is any experience where your awareness is not located within your body. Astral Projection is one form. The other common form is Phasing (mental projection).

[Albalida]

The spelling.

Seriously, though... I would say that astral projection is an interpretation of an out of body experience. You can have an experience where you fly and see an image of yourself sleeping, and tell yourself that it's REM atonia or sleep paralysis with hypnogogic imagery... all physical sleep phenomenon. Astral projection is the interpretation of this experience, where there is an astral plane, and the movement is your astral body performing a projection.

Astral projection has also been applied to an interpretation of some dreams, or scenarios imagined in a waking conscious state.

[Astral Explorer]

Originally Posted by DntWrryStrwbrry

Whats the difference between astral projecting and outer body experience?

In reality there is no difference, but it also depends on how you define each term. Personally I consider astral projection an out of body experience in which you travel into the astral planes. A out of body experience in which you do not travel into the astral planes and just stick in the RTZ (Real Time Zone) the zone which you are in right after leaving your body, I just consider it an OOBE (Out of Body Experience) and not a astral projection.

Sorry for the spelling, I did it right before bed lol. Well I guess I want to try it, but have a weird fear my cord will get cut and then I will just float around unable to find my body again. Maybe it's from watching too much TV lol.

[IsleWalker]

DntWrry--

An astral projection is just an out of body experience to a visual dimension not far from the vibrational dimension of earth. That is, astral dimensions have form, sight, and presumably smells, etc. Because astral is a dimension closer to what earth looks like, many who pass and are still rooted in the physical pleasures/needs, stick around. I think of astral as the wild West--all kinds of spirits are there, some not pleasant, others OK.

I differ from Astral Explorer in the RTZ idea. To me it is just another astral dimension. It is not physical, therefore it is a dimension of slightly higher vibrational quality than our physical world. But it will look very similar to earth places, with subtle differences often.

Lora

[wstein]

Just a note: with OBE (astral travel included) you can go to way more 'places' than Earth, RTZ, and the Astral Planes.

[IsleWalker]

Originally Posted by DntWrryStrwbrry

Sorry for the spelling, I did it right before bed lol. Well I guess I want to try it, but have a weird fear my cord will get cut and then I will just float around unable to find my body again. Maybe it's from watching too much TV lol.

DntWrry--You need to take your own advice. The cord idea is really not a problem. I have not personally encountered anyone who witnessed the cord.

If it exists at all, I suspect it is just attached to the etheral body closest to physical. (I haven't bothered to learn the supposed names of all these bodies. To me they are all just constructions of minds that want to believe they exist!)

My personal belief is that you really don't need to travel with any physical-looking container anyway. But, I will admit, it probably exists for most of us at first just because that is how we are accustomed to thinking. To me it is just a vestigial phenomenon--like tails that are no longer necessary.

That said, everyone experiences some fear once actual projection is close. Just realize that and trust. You will need to build your trust.

I would recommend you reading a book like William Buhlman's Adventures Beyond the Body. It will give some no-nonsense practical things to know so that you don't waste time trying to do things that will not be useful--like staying close to the physical body once you have separated (as it tends to freak out humans and cause them to end their projection). There are many other practical pointers offered as well as a firm foundation not based in fear. You travel each night, but don't usually bring your physical consciousness--and you have never been hurt, never "cut your cord" or anything like that.

The book is in .pdf form somewhere on the web, for free. If you're interested, I'll try to dig up the link for you.

Do your homework and then experience. But mostly you must experience for yourself that you are safe. It will take some personal experience before you believe that.

IsleWalker - Lora

[Astral Explorer]

Originally Posted by IsleWalker

DntWrry--You need to take your own advice. The cord idea is really not a problem. I have not personally encountered anyone who witnessed the cord.

If it exists at all, I suspect it is just attached to the etheral body closest to physical. (I haven't bothered to learn the supposed names of all these bodies. To me they are all just constructions of minds that want to believe they exist!)

My personal belief is that you really don't need to travel with any physical-looking container anyway. But, I will admit, it probably exists for most of us at first just because that is how we are accustomed to thinking. To me it is just a vestigial phenomenon--like tails that are no longer necessary.

That said, everyone experiences some fear once actual projection is close. Just realize that and trust. You will need to build your trust.

I would recommend you reading a book like William Buhlman's Adventures Beyond the Body. It will give some no-nonsense practical things to know so that you don't waste time trying to do things that will not be useful--like staying close to the physical body once you have separated (as it tends to freak out humans and cause them to end their projection). There are many other practical pointers offered as well as a firm foundation not based in fear. You travel each night, but don't usually bring your physical consciousness--and you have never been hurt, never "cut your cord" or anything like that.

The book is in .pdf form somewhere on the web, for free. If you're interested, I'll try to dig up the link for you.

Do your homework and then experience. But mostly you must experience for yourself that you are safe. It will take some personal experience before you believe that.

IsleWalker - Lora

My theory is exactly that - the silver cord is attached to our etheric body only and that is why during some OOBE's people experience they are only able to travel a few feet away from their physical body. Because they are inside of their etheric body and as long as it is tapered to their physical body they are unable to travel far away from their physical body. I can say this though on some projections that I was clearly not inside of my etheric body I have came back from a projection and my belly button region was extremely tingly feeling, I have wondered if this has something to do with the "silver cord" since that is where it would be located.

As far as the RTZ I do not consider it physical. I consider it a spiritual dimension similar to the planes but it overlaps the physical dimension and is closest to it which is why they call it the RTZ (Real Time Zone), because time passes similar in the RTZ as it does in the physical dimension. The RTZ will usually mirror the physical space it overlaps but almost always has anything from minor to major distortions.

I honestly don't care if I travel in a astral body, or nothing at all. But through my travels it has became clear to me we definitely have more than one subtle body, and that if anything at all through our subconscious residual image these take the form of a body. As we shed the denser subtle bodies and access the higher vibrational ones that residual image becomes weaker and we shift over into our original form. I have spent a lot of time in the astral planes and so I have worked a lot with changing residual image, I have witnessed a lot of other spirits changing theirs, and I have experienced the shedding of the astral body into the mental body. It was basically like having a projection with in a projection and the mental body felt completely different than the astral body, just as the astral body feels completely different from the etheric, and the etheric feels completely different from the physical. These experiences are what have shaped my belief in the subtle bodies, not some preconcieved notion I read elsewhere.