Over and over..

Hello, I've been trying over and over every night to ap but still no luck. Ever since the one time I woke up seeing a dark figure hovering over me then dropping down on me happened, I haven't come close to ap. I clear my mind every time I go to sleep and tell myself nothing can hurt me, I become as relaxed as possible and tried several techniques over the past 6 months. Reading many books on ap by many authors but still no luck :\ I really want to experience what so many have, but just don't know why I am
Not able.

Do whatever you got to do to relax your body (progressive muscular relaxation and stretching helps). With your mind calm and focused, imagine the feeling of yourself going down something, like stairs (this helps your body go from the awake beta state to the sleep states alpha and beyond, which is what you want). Keep doing this until your body falls asleep/experiences paralysis and you are in that dream-like state. Use an image/scene to focus and phase into it or attempt to seperate from your body. Do a technique like rolling to the side, imagining yourself getting lighter and lighter as you begin to feel the sensation of your body floating up and OOB or some other technique. If you experience vibrations, then attempt to leave if it hasn't already caused you to seperate.

[astralsuzy]

I do know that to ap my mind has to be relaxed. That is probably obvious to everyone. If my mind is not relaxed enough I cannot ap. I no longer listen to annoying things such as the TV. I finally realised after a very long time that is not the way to go. If I want to listen to something that is OK so long as it is relaxing but not too relaxing as it is too easy to fall asleep. If you are thinking anything that is negative that will prevent you to ap. There are times when you will do everything right and ap will not happen. The more you try the more you are likely to succeed. You could have a break and go to sleep then wake up and try again. You have another chance. The ap books do not help you to ap. Just my opinion. Everything you want to know and need to know is in this forum.
b3yonde33 has excellent advice.

Are you concerned about the dark figure incident? Given that you’re telling your self that nothing can hurt you, it may be that you’re having any trepidation about this. This statement is from somewhat of a victim POV. Try shifting from thinking this to a more empowering, I will EASILY handle whatever I encounter. Or simply stop focusing on this at all & look forward to having fun exploring the new territory. It’s likely this concern is more than enough to keep you from APing.

Xan has mentioned a book about APing in many of her AP links that might be useful.