There are a lot of recurring questions that I see in all the AP threads. I intend this thread to be an AP question/answer thread. If there already is one of these, mods can trash it or whatever, but I haven't seen any all-encompassing astral Q&A threads.

These seem to be the most prevalent questions:

- Can your astral body be hurt while APing?

- Can your physical body be hurt or possessed while you are APing?

I will answer them based on what I have read in Robert Bruce's "Astral Dynamics" (highly recommended).

- Your astral body cannot be physically hurt for it is an energetic being, but if fear is not controlled it is possible to become overwhelmed with fear and it could cause psychological problems. If you always keep in mind that you cannot be harmed, then nothing can harm you. Believe it or not an astral projector is a very powerful being, and most dark entities will simply stay away if they know you know you cannot be harmed.

- It seems to be heavy concensus that APing is the soul/spirit leaving the body. Robert Bruce implies that is not true (with proof to back it up), what actually leaves the body is a copy of conciousness. Spirit does not leave the body until physical death. So no, when you are out of body you are at the same risk of possession as when you are in your body. Also it helps to remember we AP in our sleep. Infact, since only a copy of conciousness leaves your body while APing, your original conciousness stays in your body (you are actually 2 conciousnesses at once, most people simply forget the projector-side experience. Read Robert's book and you will understand this more).

I do not claim to be an expert but I do have this big fat book that was written by quite the AP expert. If you have questions you can ask them here and they will be discussed and answered by me and/or any AP veterans here. If anything, for convenience of others. I remember having to search a lot in this forum for AP information.

[edit on 7-9-2005 by spacesounds]

[edit on 7-9-2005 by spacesounds]

So, If i do learn to AP the possesion of my body is in no risk? hmm maybe i should look into it..

Also what does his book say on AP'ing "too much" what can happen, could you be locked out? could your body randomly start to AP at unwanted times (for example, while driving)?

Originally posted by noiro
So, If i do learn to AP the possesion of my body is in no risk? hmm maybe i should look into it..

Also what does his book say on AP'ing "too much" what can happen, could you be locked out? could your body randomly start to AP at unwanted times (for example, while driving)?

Nope, the risk of possession is the same as when you're not APing. A confident reassurance is the reminder that we project at night when we are sleeping, and we don't wake up in the mornings possessed, right?

APing too much, hmm. The only thing I can think of is that you will be drained of energy. Naturally when you're tired you won't want to AP, just like you won't want to play a sport when you're tired. Though I'm not sure about random APing at unwanted times. I have heard about this a few times. It is rarely a problem but that doesn't rule out the possibility. I just skimmed through the book here and couldn't find this although I'm pretty sure it was mentioned in there somewhere. I assume if you are randomly projecting you need to excercise or eat more, and/or do less energy work, or something. But that is a faint statement for me. Hopefully someone else can help out there.

As for being locked out, you can become locked out if your body falls into a deep sleep. Though the copy of conciousness will always return otherwise. This is a tricky subject but here is what I understand of it. Say you AP and your body falls deeply asleep. You go back out and explore the astral world for the night in your astral conciousness, while your physical body conciousness is sleeping. You wake up in your physical body and you are concious there and your astral conciousness is returned to your body. Since you have been out for so long, assuredly the astral conciousness will not integrate with the physical body's conciousness, and the memory of the AP will be lost. No matter how long your astral body is out of your physical body, you will always have conciousness in your physical body. You are concious in both bodies while APing, but you usually either forget the original or the the astral memories after a projection (you can link and experience both conciousnesses simultaneously and remember it like so, which is how Robert Bruce discovered this...what he calls "the mind split"). It's very hard to understand. Please anyone correct me if I am wrong, but how I understand it is you will always have your original conciousness no matter how long the copy stays out. It's just that you may not be noticably linked to the copy conciousness, and it will be forgotten.

Now I will add something else:

When you project into the astral worlds, you naturally project into your associated level of vibration and conciousness, and it is difficult to go lower or higher and maintain it. This is why drugs are not recommended to trigger OBEs (DMT, are there any others?). You will break that natural barrier and you might end up experiencing things...that you can't handle, I guess.

This is a good post spacesounds, as many people have simple, easy-to-answer questions about AP, and it would help to have one place to answer them all. Good job . I'll just lend a little bit of my knowledge into the subject to clear some stuff up.

Please anyone correct me if I am wrong, but how I understand it is you will always have your original conciousness no matter how long the copy stays out. It's just that you may not be noticably linked to the copy conciousness, and it will be forgotten.

You are not actually concious in your physical body when you project, just asleep, "knocked unconcious", whatever. Obviously you are not dead. Your body is asleep, but your conciousness, monad, whatever you want to call it, has left your body. Yet it is still attached to your body permanentally until the moment of death.

Can your astral body be hurt while APing?

The only thing that I have heard of permanentally damaging your astral body are things like alcohol and heavy drugs. I have heard that other things that cause temporary damage include very loud noises (due to the vibrations I suppose, I don't know), and eating pork (because they are in a period of devolution). These won't make too large of a difference in the grand scheme of thing compared to drugs and alcohol, though. There are negative entities in the astral that will try to harm you, but they cannot really do any damage besides mentally. They will try to scare the living daylights out of you and make you afraid to try and project, but there are also ways of dealing with them and stopping them, naturally.

Can your physical body be hurt or possessed while you are APing?

Your physical body can't be harmed by anything related to the astral. The only damage that could be done would be something physical that would happen if you are awake or sleeping, like a bear attacking you in the middle of the night or something. As for possession.... your physical body and your astral body are like a lock and key, like a fingerprint or snowflake. Only you fit into it, and only you will be allowed into it. Besides that, you are also always attached by the silver cord, which cannot be broken until the moment of natural death. The only way that I believe someone can be possessed is if they purposefully or willingly open themselves up to spirits, through things like channeling, ouiji, invoking, and many others. Like they say about vampires, if you don't welcome them in, they can't come in .

Also what does his book say on AP'ing "too much" what can happen, could you be locked out? could your body randomly start to AP at unwanted times (for example, while driving)?

The only place I have heard anything remotely close to this is on TV shows like "The Twilight Zone", "Outer Limits", and other shows of that sort. So I don't think it is possible. Plus, dont worry, you will have enough trouble just trying to get out once, and be able to stay in the astral for any good length of time. It's really the opposite. You snap back to your body any time you think of your body, have an overwhelm of emotions, etc etc.

When you project into the astral worlds, you naturally project into your associated level of vibration and conciousness, and it is difficult to go lower or higher and maintain it. This is why drugs are not recommended to trigger OBEs (DMT, are there any others?). You will break that natural barrier and you might end up experiencing things...that you can't handle, I guess.

Actually the reason is that drugs and alcohol, as well as heavy eating before bed, will cause you to project into the lower planes (considered like hell), and prevent you from projecting into the higher planes (more heaven-like). They lower the vibrations and force you to travel down to the lower planes, where there are more strict laws of nature. Things are more bound, difficult, and painful, and a larger ratio of negative entities make up the population of entities you will see while travelling, the lower you go. Often when people are heavily 'tripping out', they aren't just hallucinating, they are seeing into lower planes of the astral. This is why their visions are also often very horriffic and frightening. As for the eating, that's why your mom always said "Don't eat so much before bed... you'll get nightmares" .

Since you have been out for so long, assuredly the astral conciousness will not integrate with the physical body's conciousness, and the memory of the AP will be lost.

Actually the reason has more to do with our ability to remember than the astral body. Can you remember what you were doing this morning at 10:30? Do you remember what you had for supper last night? Can you remember the last thing your friend said to you? Along similar lines to remembering your astral projections. You may only remember generalities, or if you slip into sleep while projecting (as it is easy to get distracted), you may not remember it at all and it will just seem like another vague dream.

Thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in the astral, and I will be sure to check on this thread often and answer any questions that people have. As well as the book spacesounds recommended (which I havent entirely read, only partially), I would recommend "Journeys Out Of The Body" by Robert A Monroe. This was my first book about (and real insight into) the topic of astral projection, and still one of my favourites.

See you in the astral =).

[edit on 7-9-2005 by Yarcofin]

[edit on 7-9-2005 by Yarcofin]

Great post yarcofin!

ow that some of these questions have been answered...im not as afraid (or so i think) so, ill give it a try soon, as im currently trying to improve my psi abilities and the such and am also busy with school

I wouldn't suggest doing anything you are uncomfortable with. Just read read read and research until you are sure it either is or isn't dangerous, and act accordingly. If it disagrees with your beliefs, don't do it. I have found myself that there is no real danger associated with it, but I can't speak for others. I guess the only way to know for sure is to try, and you can pull back any time you feel uneasy about it.

ill give it a try soon, as im currently trying to improve my psi abilities and the such and am also busy with school

I have learned a little bit about procrastination and it's effects on your success with the astral, as well as any other of these phenomenon. If you continue to say "I'll get to it tomorrow....", tomorrow seems to never come . Just make sure you keep up with it, if you really want to master it. haha. I have found that projection takes a lot of devotion to get right. If you want to experience it any time soon, you should try on a daily basis. And even at that rate it may take weeks or months. It took me years because of taking a quite half-assed approach to it, but it's up to you of course.

You aren't really that busy if you think about it, because you must sleep at some time. Before you go to sleep, just do some relaxation and/or astral exercises, and remember your drams when you wake up. If you dont get it to work, the worst that can happen is you fall asleep like you would have anyway .

If you are afraid, I would also suggest practicing in the afternoon. I used to be a little unsure and afraid of it, so I would practice in the afternoon when I came home from school. You'd be surprised how much more confidence it gives you, when you aren't worrying about things that "go bump in the night" . Don't forget to do your homework though! . If you have an after-school job, it is much harder to fit it in, though.

Oh well... we just have to do the best with what we have to work with =). Good luck.

Starting from when you first lay down, how long does it normally take to leave your body? The first few times may be unsuccessful. but the first successful time? Second time? After Mastery?

[edit on 7-9-2005 by HukdUnFonixWerks]

Thanks for the post Yarcofin. One thing though,

Originally posted by Yarcofin
You are not actually concious in your physical body when you project, just asleep, "knocked unconcious", whatever. Obviously you are not dead. Your body is asleep, but your conciousness, monad, whatever you want to call it, has left your body. Yet it is still attached to your body permanentally until the moment of death.

IIRC, Robert Bruce actually says here that you are concious in both bodies, but unless you are aware of this fact, one of the two memories is lost (if it is a successful projection, you are losing the physical body memory, and vice versa).

How he discovered the 'duality' of conciousness is this:

He was projecting, and seemingly the exit failed. He decided though to stay in a trance for a while. Soon enough he looked up and saw (eyes closed, astral sight) his own astral body hovering above him and immediately he was concious in both bodies. He goes on further to conclude that most people are not aware of the mind-split effect (he explains why) but it does indeed happen. According to him, we are concious in both bodies simultaneously and independently. Still trying to explore and understand this myself..

ah ok, a few more.

Originally posted by Yarcofin
Actually the reason is that drugs and alcohol, as well as heavy eating before bed, will cause you to project into the lower planes (considered like hell), and prevent you from projecting into the higher planes (more heaven-like). They lower the vibrations and force you to travel down to the lower planes, where there are more strict laws of nature. Things are more bound, difficult, and painful, and a larger ratio of negative entities make up the population of entities you will see while travelling, the lower you go. Often when people are heavily 'tripping out', they aren't just hallucinating, they are seeing into lower planes of the astral. This is why their visions are also often very horriffic and frightening. As for the eating, that's why your mom always said "Don't eat so much before bed... you'll get nightmares" .

Yes, that is true and another good point, but I was referring to people using drugs for instant-projection. DMT when smoked is said to force you out of your body within seconds.

Originally posted by HukdUnFonixWerks
Starting from when you first lay down, how long does it normally take to leave your body? The first few times may be unsuccessful. but the first successful time? Second time? After Mastery?

[edit on 7-9-2005 by HukdUnFonixWerks]

I'd say it really depends on the individual's beliefs, health, state of mind, and more; and then within each individual it depends on those same elements during different times of projection. Even an experienced projector can have a pretty wide time frame for exit, although on average it's lower with more experience. Generally I'd guess a window of a few minutes to an hour depending on a number of circumstances, but that's pretty vague as you can see. Perhaps someone else can answer better.

Starting from when you first lay down, how long does it normally take to leave your body? The first few times may be unsuccessful. but the first successful time? Second time?

About the same amount of time it takes you to fall asleep, since that is basically what you are doing. For most people it might take about an hour, after you do some kind of relaxation exercise, and then start slowly drifting closer between the awake-asleep barrier. I can say that 15 minutes is probably not long enough, because for the longest time that was as long as I would do my astral exercises; and then after a while I was wondering why I hadn't been successful . It's like telling yourself "Okay.. I want to sleep... but I'll only lay here for a little while and if I don't sleep, then I give up". You have to go into it with time to spare, and don't be rushed. Generally any time you have the available time to take a nap (at night, lazy weekend afternoons, etc) are the best time to try and practice, because there is a good chance on your first tries you will just fall asleep. In fact, if you accidentally fall asleep you are actually closer to projecting than if you felt sensations but then just got up and went on with your day. After a while you may get used to it and learn 'the feel of things', and it may come a little quicker.

After Mastery?

I don't think many people have totally mastered astral projection. Unless you are talking about "Mastery", which is something totally different. Most people cannot just spontaneously choose to project whenever they want. Nor can most people do it every single night. Basically the harder you work at it, the easier it will probably start to become, much like any other skill.

IIRC, Robert Bruce actually says here that you are concious in both bodies, but unless you are aware of this fact, one of the two memories is lost (if it is a successful projection, you are losing the physical body memory, and vice versa).

Was what happened to him just a one-time accidental thing, or did it happen more than once? I can see it happening to a person on accident, but most of the time a person would not be able to do that unless they were highly skilled. For example, there are some incarnate Masters who can actually exist in the physical world and the astral world simultaniously, but that would be very very few people who could reach that level of advancement.

Soon enough he looked up and saw (eyes closed, astral sight) his own astral body hovering above him and immediately he was concious in both bodies.

I don't think I understand. This idea sort of clashes. Normally a person cannot see the astral while in the physical without some form of 'polyvision'. "Astral sight and/or Seeing through your eyelids" is something that occurs from your astral body when you start to split, as obviously you cannot normally do it in your physical body. Again, I haven't read all of Bruce's stuff so I don't know, but it just doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

I used to pratice astral projection...I don't know if there are different forms of it..but I was told to visit a place...to look at myself in my room etc..the last I did astral projection I saw someone else and "woke" up with a jolt.

I haven't tried it again for about a year and I tried again recently and I can't acheive anything.

Has anyone got a guide? Or know any good books I can get?

Originally posted by Yarcofin
Was what happened to him just a one-time accidental thing, or did it happen more than once? I can see it happening to a person on accident, but most of the time a person would not be able to do that unless they were highly skilled. For example, there are some incarnate Masters who can actually exist in the physical world and the astral world simultaniously, but that would be very very few people who could reach that level of advancement.

He claims this happens to everyone during a projection - it's just that they don't realize it. His mind-split theory says that original conciousness is always in the body, and the projectable double is just a reflection of that original conciousness. Note how I say claims, because while he says it and I tend to believe it, there is probably no way of anyone proving this on paper. So it's just his "theory." Something to keep in mind and reason with at the least.

"After projection, the real-time body exists as a completely separate entity, functioning, thinking, experiencing, and recording memories remotely and independently from its physical/etheric body." - Bruce

It's quite hard to swallow.

Again, this is all if Mr. Bruce is correct. Read his book for a better explanation.

"Each will occasionally sense the other's existence, and an interchange of perceptions (senations of duality) will often be experienced. The real-time double will, for example, often feel its physical body and hear sounds coming from that location. This sensory perceptions interchange, one of the most frequently noticeable symptoms of the mind-spli, is greatly affected by distance. It is strongest within twenty feet (six meters) or so, and becomes progressively less noticeable with increased distance."

He says, everytime you begin to exit but it seemingly fails and the sensations are over, you have actually exited but are not aware of it.

On pages 54-62 in his book he shows a written experience of his first aware mind-split. He records the complete experience of each the physical and projected bodies, and then a combination of the two ("As I came through the ceiling, I saw my physical body in the armchair, right where I'd left it. At the same time, though, I also became fully aware of myself sitting in the chair, watching my own projected double coming down through the ceiling. I was seeing myself floating down through the ceiling, as well as seeing myself sitting in the armchair - both at the same time!...). When they linked at that moment all the data from his projectable double transferred to him and he remembered and recalls in detail his actual projection. I certainly can't explain this, I'm just the messenger here. Again I emphasize to read the book as there is so much more there.

I don't think I understand. This idea sort of clashes. Normally a person cannot see the astral while in the physical without some form of 'polyvision'. "Astral sight and/or Seeing through your eyelids" is something that occurs from your astral body when you start to split, as obviously you cannot normally do it in your physical body. Again, I haven't read all of Bruce's stuff so I don't know, but it just doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

Read his book, he thinks there is more to projection than we think. I wish I could explain this myself, but before skimming a few times recently I had only read the book once and the beginning of the book was very hard to comprehend. It's some heavy stuff.

Originally posted by kurtcobainuk
Has anyone got a guide? Or know any good books I can get?

"Astral Dynamics" by Robert Bruce.

[edit on 8-9-2005 by spacesounds]