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FILE 8 of 15 - CompuServe Astral Projection Class by Don DeGracia, 1994
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Astral Projection Class on CompuServe
by Don DeGracia: 72662,1335
Copyright 1994
None of this material
may be reproduced without
explicit permission from
the author.
IN THE OOBE REALM - PART 2
Ok, at this point, we are going to begin the "travel
brochure" description of the OOBE realm. As I said very early
in these notes, once you begin to overcome the influence of
your subconscious impinging on your projections, you will indeed
discover a vast world of things to see and explore. There are
many, many places to go in the planes and many inhabitants you
can meet and interact with. I will write this section,
by providing an overview of a topic and then giving some examples
out of my journal to illustrate whatever I am discussing. As
well, I will intersperse helpful hints and suggestions about what
to do in particular cases throughout the following discussions.
5. Things You Can Do There That You Can't Do Here
The first thing I want to discuss about being in the OOBE
realm is what you can do there that you cannot do here in
the physical plane. This includes such things as flying, moving
through walls and using psychic powers. Throughout the following
discussions, though I will not explicitly say "do this or do that",
you should keep in mind that anything I describe is fair game for
things you too can try once you are out-of-body. Feel free
to imitate anything you read about here or in any astral
projection book. This is how I learned; by trying to do what
authors described or suggested in their writings, or by copying
what they did.
A. Moving, Flying and the "Wind"
One thing you can do during an OOBE is fly. You can also
float. Moving around during an OOBE is much different than
moving around in the physical plane. When I first started
projecting I just kind of floated around, mostly unaware
of any body sensations at all. My first sense of movement
in my earliest projections was that I *willed* myself to move
by pushing forward. The pushing sensation seemed to originate
from my heart region. Here is an exerpt from my journal of how this
motion felt:
1>
(Note: this projection occurred before my Darkside projections)
"I woke into the dream state, after laying awake for about two
hours convincing myself that I would wake up in my dream. When I
became lucid I could see my room in front of me perfectly, as if
my eyes were open, but I knew they were not. I thought, "Oh my
God, here it is! I'm gonna go up to J.C.'s room." The first
thing I noticed was that there was no fear response in me. This
made me very happy and I had a feeling very much like "dive head
first into the situation", "go for it!", "push on through". The
result was that I pushed myself up out of my body.
I was absolutely startled at how clear my perceptions were and
at how much my dream bedroom was exactly like my "real" bedroom,
right down to the books on my bookshelf! I tried to turn around
and look at my body but it wouldn't work. The part of my room
where I was laying on my bed defied my attempts to turn in that
direction. As I tried to turn around, this direction would turn
with me and constantly stay behind me. I found this confusing,
but in my enthusiasm gave up the attempt and went on to other
things.
I remembered to try to go to John's room as we had planned. I
turned and looked at my door. It was closed. I turned away
and looked again, and now it was open. Happy and surprised, I
pushed through. By now I had become quite aware of my mode of
locomotion and it was clear that I was not walking. I seemed
to be floating, without legs or feet. Movement seemed to result
simply by me thinking of moving. And the source of the force
for the motion seemed to emanate from my heart or thoracic region.
I even looked for a silver cord but saw none (and never have to
this day)...."
(END OF ENTRY)
If you recall from my Darkside journal entries, I was excited
because I discovered I had arms, legs, hands and feet during this
projection. From then on out I quit using the pushing motion
described above.
Of course, you CAN walk during a projection, presuming you feel
a body, but floating and flying become the preferred method of getting
around. Now, there are some weird things about moving during
an OOBE that you should be aware of. Whether you are walking or
flying sometimes you will find that it is very hard to move.
You have probably actually experienced the sensation I am
about to describe in your dreams. Have you ever had a dream where
you were running but, no matter how hard you tried, it was
very difficult to move your body? Maybe you were being
chased by something threatening, but it felt as if you were
moving in slow motion. If you have ever felt this kind of
sensation during a dream, well, it also occurs during OOBEs.
You may see somewhere that you want to go in your OOBE, but
as you move towards it, you will find it harder and harder to
move. There is a chance that you may even lose your lockmold
and fade out of the projection if you try to force it too far.
There is a classic book on astral projection by Ophiel called
"The Art and Practice of Astral Projection" where Ophiel describes
this same thing of how it may be hard to move sometimes. Ophiel
puts forth the idea that what is happening to cause your
movement to become more difficult is that you are transferring
your consciousness from one subplane to another. Now, I don't
necessarily know if this is what is happening or not, and I
really don't know why this happens. My point here is to simply
point out that it DOES happen during an OOBE. What should you do
if this happens? Below I will have some journal entries that address
this issue.
Another thing you will encounter in the OOBE realm has to
with flying. Simply stated, you cannot always fly whenever
you want to. Sometimes you will go to fly and zoom right up
into the air. Other times you may only float a couple feet upwards
but stop. Still other times, you may try to fly but nothing at all
happens. Again, I don't have the slightest idea why this is the case.
Sometimes you can do things that will help you fly when you are having
trouble launching yourself, and I will provide some journal entries
illustrating what you can do.
Now, presuming you can fly, what should you do? One good suggestion
is try to fly into outerspace. One author (Greene) describes how he
has visited all the planets in the Solar System while out-of-body.
Personally, I have only gotten into outerspace a couple times and I
will list one of these entries below. Often, I will fly up into the
air (if there is air in the OOBE realm!) just to get a good look at
where I am at. Sometimes, very strange things happen when you fly.
Once for example, I flew up into the sky, and the sky itself seemed
to turn into a room. I could have flown into this room, but did not.
This entry will be listed below.
Finally, there is one last thing to mention about moving during
your OOBE. This is something I have encountered many, many times.
What happens is it seems like a gust of wind will grab you and pull
you along. It is almost as if some kind of magnetic force or
something has captured you and is pulling you. I will list entries
describing this too.
To summarize, here is a list of what you can expect when it
comes to locomotion during your OOBE:
1. You CAN move without a body, as in the entry I listed
above
2. You can walk, fly or float during an OOBE. Sometimes
you may experience difficulty in moving.
3. You might experience a wind force pulling you along.
Now, here are some journal entries illustrating these things:
2>
(An example of the wind force - this entry is part of
my Darkside projection.)
"...I remember becoming lucid and jumping out of my body. I stood
in my bedroom wondering what I should do, where I should try to
go. I decided I wanted to see if I could make it all the way to
Detroit and visit a girlfriend of mine. As soon as I thought this,
and made up my mind that I was going to do it, a strong wind came
out of nowhere and began to drag me along. I was thoroughly
baffled and had no idea what was going on. Yet this wind pulled
me along, backwards, and I remember moving very quickly through
the walls of the house outside. I passed houses for a short while
and then was being pulled through the forest, passing mostly pine
trees. I was wondering if this wind was going to take me all the
way to Detroit. For a while I relaxed and let it drag me along..."
3>
(Here is an example of finding it hard to move.)
"...Went back into it and jumped out of my body again. I flew
outside through the wall and went by my window. I looked in the
window and saw myself lying there on the bed! My fan was
conspicuously missing from the window, but the me on the bed stared
back and waved at the me outside the window. I wasn't too taken
aback by this because Greene mentioned that one could see one's
other bodies. I flew up onto the roof. It was bumpy, and I had
a hard time climbing onto it (like when it becomes difficult
running in a dream). I finally managed to pull myself up onto
it and I stood there looking out over the backyard. Everything
looked quite normal, but then these pillar like things seemed to
fade into appearance..."
4>
(Here's an example of flying into outerspace. Note too
that in this entry I meet a "friendly spirit". Meeting
spirits will be discussed ahead.)
"...I was outside again, me and invisible John and the idea
occurred to me to fly into outer space. (a suggestion from Greene's
book). I raced upwards calling after John to follow. I sped
upwards rapidly and it seemed J.C. couldn't keep up. As I rose I
looked down hoping to see the terrain unfold below me. What I saw
was not what I expected. Below me was a globe but it was not the
Earth that we see in pictures. The surface of the globe was covered
with strange and complex geometric patterns of various colors and
the whole scene had the texture of a cartoon. A vast light seemed
to be sweeping across the surface. As I rose higher and higher, I
soon lost control and blacked out. I was back on the ground again,
by the fort, and decided to try again. I shot upwards and at an
incredible speed and soon felt myself "blinking on and off" again.
But much to my surprise, a large hand reached out to me and I
grabbed onto it. Suddenly I felt myself being pulled upwards
though my vision was fading in and out.
Though I couldn't see who was pulling me, I had the impression
that it was some friendly spirit helping me out. In moments I
stopped moving up and struggled to regain my vision. I felt like
I was very high up and, when I could see it seemed that I was standing
on a cloud. I couldn't see well around me but I remember managing to
look downward. There only seemed to be clouds below, but my vision
was fading in and out badly now. It seemed as if my spirit friend
was behind me. At one point I caught a glimpse of my friend and I.
We were standing on a cloud and we were both playing guitar and
smiling. Finally I lost control and felt myself in bed. I laid
gathering the memories of this experience together. My lucidity was
not as great as it has been but I had never experienced such a variety
of travels in one projection before. I felt very light when I got out
of bed. The feeling lasted for maybe 10 minutes."
5>
(Another example of finding it hard to move. This entry
illustrates one solution when you find it hard to move-
just MOVE SLOWELY)
"...I climbed out. Saw my physical body laying on my bed.
Went outside. Flew upwards. Lost vision. Woke up.
Relaxed. Climbed back out. Went out through my bedroom
door. It was nice and sunny outside. I remember noticing that
I was naked. Climbed up onto the roof like Spiderman, I thought.
When I got on the roof over my bedroom, I looked out across the
street (which does not exist on the physical plane). There was
a row of very quaint houses of a typically American design. One
in particular had a very bright blue roof that caught my attention.
I remember now that if I tried to proceed too quickly I lost my
lock mold. So I slowly jumped off the roof and slowly walked
across the street. It was "topsey turvey" when I moved like there
were little hills where there were none in sight. This made it
difficult to move and my movements felt slow and sluggish. Still,
I just plodded on very carefully and slowly. I made it across the
street and I went up the driveway of the above mentioned house..."
6>
(Another example of the wind force. Note here also some
things we will discuss ahead: first, where I go, and second
how I make some mischief. Where I went here was I believe,
a place where people go when they die. I will discuss this
ahead. I will also discuss making mischief ahead.)
"...I flew through the wall into a second room and this room was
darker but there was a neon purple color filling the room. I landed
on the floor and there was someone there. A woman and a dwarf (or
a child), if I recall correctly. I spoke with them for a few moments
but I don't remember what was said. All of a sudden, a strong
astral current grabbed me and started pulling me along backwards. I
went passive and let it pull me. I wondered if maybe it would
take me to Joey. But I knew she was in California and I didn't
really think the force would pull me that far. I wanted to try
to turn myself around to try to see what was pulling me, then I
thought better of doing this cause I figured I'd wake myself up.
The force was pulling me backwards and I was in a sitting
position facing the opposite direction in which I was being pulled.
Soon I saw that I was passing through walls, one after another,
very quickly. From what glimpses I could catch, it seemed like
I was passing through apartments, as if I was being pulled along
through an apartment building. I passed through many apartments and
saw many people doing many things. I recall in particular zipping
through a kitchen and a man and woman were there either preparing
food or putting away groceries. As I zipped by, they both saw me
and had startled looks on their faces and the guy dropped whatever
he was holding on to. I thought this was funny.
Soon, the images of apartments stopped though I was still being
dragged along. I went through a big wall and it now seemed that I
was in a dormitory. The force pulling me was weakening and I
suspected that I was reaching my destination, whatever that might
be. The dorm rooms I was being pulled through were very big, like
gymnasiums and there were giant bunk-beds, a few in each room.
There were young people about my age (22) all about, some laying
reading on their huge beds, others involved in other activities.
The force was weak enough now that I could turn around. I
saw two guys sitting on a bed eating candy. I yelled out to them,
"Hey, watch this!", and I swooped down, as I was still being pulled
along, and grabbed a handful or their candy. They seemed very
miffed about this, but I quickly disappeared through a wall and was
out of their sight. I remember that all of the young people I saw
looked very avante garde with punk rock haircuts, wearing "trendy"
clothes, like the New York art scene or something.
Finally, I felt the current really weaken and it stopped
pulling me along, and I glided to the ground. I was standing in a
smaller room and there was another room off to my side with big
picture windows along the wall, looking outside...."
(END OF ENTRIES)
So, those are some examples of locomotion during an OOBE.
Now, as I said above, if you find it hard to move, just go slowly.
Also, if you find it difficult to fly, that is, say you go to fly
away but instead only drift up a couple feet, here is what you can
do; PRETEND YOU ARE WALKING UP STAIRS. I have found that this
works for me. If I take big steps upward, I will continue to
ascend. This works good when you can fly a little bit, but not
very well.
B. Moving through walls
Next of course, is the well known trick of passing through
walls. Often during your OOBEs you do not need to use doors to
exit from a place, you can pass right through the wall. However,
just like with flying, this only works sometimes. Again, I don't
know why it only works sometimes, but that is what I have discovered.
One thing to try to do if you cannot pass through a wall is to
turn around and try to pass through backwards. This is what Greene
recommends and I have found it to work on a number of occasions.
However, sometimes even this does not work and all you can do
is smash the wall down, which is what the following entries
illustrate.
7>
"...All I could see as an escape route were the windows to our
left. The windows were sunk back and about 7 feet off the ground.
There were a series of pipes blocking the way so I hovered up into
the air. The children seemed amazed to watch me fly. I turned and
flew between the pipes up to the window. I tried to pass through
the window but could not. I tried turning around and doing the same,
it didn't work. I tried to lunge through the adjacent wall, and that
didn't work either. So I smashed the window with my hand and broke
it. It took about 4 or 5 smashes till I made a safe hole to climb
through. Nothing happened to my hand when I smashed the glass.
I climbed with some trouble out the window..."
8>
(This example illustrates the "blipping" I spoke of earlier.
You don't always go where you want to during an OOBE as you
can see from this example.)
"...I made my way into the adjacent kitchen. I saw through
a window up over the sink that it was raining outside, and I could
feel that pleasant fresh feeling that one feels on warm and sunny
rainy days. I was really surprised that it rained on the astral
plane and that it felt so similar to what it's like on the physical
plane. I really wanted to go outside and feel the rain for myself.
I tried to pass through the wall to get outside but I couldn't. I
tried to go forward and backward, but just couldn't pass through
the wall. The window was open, but there was a screen blocking
my way. I tried to open the screen but couldn't, so I decided to
tear the window out. I smashed through it but the hole was too
small to crawl through, so I tore away the wall around the window.
But the hole was still too small to pass through! So I tore down
the whole kitchen wall! I figured, hell, it was just somebody's
thought-form anyway, and they could reconstruct it easy enough!
Now the hole was big enough to climb through and I jumped through
it. But I wasn't outside! Instead, I was in a strange and unfamiliar
hallway. I turned around and the kitchen with the hole in the wall
was gone! There was just a door there now..."
(END OF ENTRIES)
You can also see from this last example how space does NOT
always behave in the OOBE realm the way it behaves here in the
physical plane. I had ripped the whole window out, and you'd have
thought I'd be able to climb through the hole, but I could not!
I really did end up tearing down the whole kitchen wall before
I could get through the hole I made! Of course, this doesn't make
any sense when we think of it in physical terms, and I was confused
about this during my projection. We can also see here another example
of making mischief during an OOBE. It's not very common to go
destroying walls in strange houses here on the physical plane!
Yet, during an OOBE, there is a carefree sense that you can get
away with anything you want. Monroe calls such behavior "being
a Wild One". We will talk more about this later.
So, that's it about moving through walls.
C. Exercising psychic powers
Aside from the locomotion tricks discussed above,
perhaps the most amazing thing you can do during your OOBEs
is use psychic powers. Almost all the psychic powers described
can be performed extrodinarily easily during an OOBE. As a matter
of fact, you will find yourself automatically using psychic powers
during your projections. What you want to do is RECOGNIZE when
this is happening, and that is why I am pointing out here that
this will happen automatically during your OOBEs. Some of the psychic
powers you will find yourself using during an OOBE are the
following: seeing visions (or using clairvoaynce), reading minds,
psychokinesis (moving things with your mind), and even experiencing
memories of past (and future) lives. Also, strange as this sounds,
you can have an OOBE while you are having an OOBE! That is, you can
leave your body while you are projecting! I will give an example
of this below.
I had found myself automatically doing some of these things
but not really understanding what was happening. The first book
I found that described this possibility was a Seth book called
"Dreams and Projections of Consciousness" where Seth says flat
out that you can use psychic abilites while out-of-body.
After reading this, it was completely clear to me that this was
indeed true and that I had automatically been doing this all along.
Since that time I have had many occasions to experiment with these
abilities while out-of-body.
And also very important is the fact that you use psychic abilities
all the time in your dreams. Very often you will mind-read or have
memories of past lives in dreams, but, since you are not lucid,
it seems like no big deal during the dream. If however, you make
the attempt to remember your dreams as I prescribed earlier in the
notes, you will find yourself remembering occurrences of you using
psychic abilites during your dreams. I will also list here an
example of me using psychic abilities in one of my dreams.
Finally, I should also say that, once you start astral projecting
you will find that you will astral project from within your dreams.
You will be in a dream, and in the dream you will get the idea to astral
project. This is a different phenomena from becoming lucid during
a dream that we have already discussed. When you become lucid
during a dream, you will still be in the same dream, only now
you will be lucid. When you astral project from a dream you will
LEAVE the dream you were in and enter a projection. Often, when you
wake up from the projection you will be back in the dream that you
had left and you will NOT realize that you are dreaming. This is
a weird situation to be in, but it has happened to me many times.
Two of my entries below will illustrate doing this.
Here are some examples from my journal:
9>
(Note, this example also illustrates the kinds of denizins
you will meet in your projections. In this case I meet
a talking rhinosorous! Here, I am only using this entry
to illustrate that there seemed to be telepathy between
me and the rhino. I will discuss meetings the denizins
of the OOBE realm in the next section.)
"...Suddenly, the suburbs ended and I was at a field. There was a dirt
road winding through it, and woods off in the distance. I landed
and began walking along the dirt path. There was a fork in the
path ahead of me, and standing there was a little rhinoceros.
It was about four feet tall and was wearing a french barrette
on its head. I approached the rhino, and it looked at me and
said "Do you need a ride?" I was surprised that it talked but
was pleased with its congeniality. I said, "sure." So I climbed
on its back and we trotted off into the woods. I began to sing
and the rhino sang with me. I was singing a Led Zeppelin song
("You need coolin', baby I'm not fooling...), and the rhino was
singing along with me. It was interesting, as if the rhino could
read my thoughts, and pick the words and melody out of my mind to
sing along..."
10>
(This is an example of me using telepathy in a dream)
"This experience was a dream. I'm including it here because, in
this dream, I unquestionably utilized telepathy. Telepathy is the
direct reading of another person's mind. Seth says in his books
(those books produced by Jane Roberts and Robert Butts) that we
all very naturally use psychic abilities in our dreams, abilities
that we do not normally use in our waking life. He says that we
usually aren't aware that we are using these psychic abilities
because we make no reasonable attempts to remember our dream life,
let alone pay attention well enough when we are actually dreaming
to recognize that we are doing something that would seem very
abnormal if we were to be doing it while we were awake here in
the physical plane. This dream is a perfect illustration of the
utilization of psychic abilities in a dream, and, and such, it is
also wonderful confirmation of Seth's ideas.
I had been at a picnic. I walked into the house where the picnic
was at, and upon entering the door I was now in the laboratory.
(an example of blipping!).
Blaine (who is my boss) was asking me if I had completed the
experiment yet. I told him I had just set it up. Now, from my
standpoint as a chemist, the "reaction" I was running in the dream
was extremely interesting. What I was doing in the dream involved
taking a sample of brain DNA (from a dog that had been given a
heart attack) and placing this DNA on a little machine. This
machine had on it a screen that magnified the chemical reactions
taking place and allowed us to directly view what the molecules
were doing.
There is no such machine here on the physical plane. I
often sit here on the physplane and wonder how to make such a
machine. The one who does will not only become very famous,
but very rich as well.
At any rate, Blaine was standing on the other side of the
lab bench from me watching as I was viewing the screen. Looking
at the screen I began to realize what was going on in the reaction.
What I saw was that the DNA was damaged and that it looked like
fish DNA, not dog DNA. This I was thinking to myself, but Blaine
literally and directly read this out of my mind. Then I felt
him think, "It's not the base pairs, it's the structure of the
entire chromosome." I heard him think this as if it was in my
head. Then I started thinking, "That's right! It's the
chromosomes, and the molecules are struggling to reassemble
themselves. The damage has caused the chromosomes to degenerate
into that of a fish. But these are dog chromosomes, and they
are struggling like hell in there to reconstruct themselves into
dog chromosomes." Then I felt a deep and very sincere sympathy
come over me for these poor molecules that were in there
struggling to put themselves back together again, but simply
couldn't. It was a very strong emotion that I felt. Blaine
didn't say anything, but it was obvious that he again felt
directly what I was feeling and thinking. Then I felt his
thoughts. He was realizing that I was right and then he,
who is a doctor and sees many suffering heart attack victims,
realized, or perhaps actually felt for a second, exactly the
true suffering of people who have had heart attacks. And I
very clearly felt in my mind and emotions what Blaine was
feeling and thinking and an overwhelming pity and sorrow
came over me as I read Blaine's sense of the profound tragedy
suffered by his heart attack patients. It was with this
feeling that I woke up."
11>
(Here was a short, but what I consider to be an extrodinary
projection. Here I tried an experiment based on what
I had read in the Seth books. Note also that
illustrated here are many other ideas we have discussed.
Also note that this is an example of astral projecting
while in a dream, except here, after the projection, I
actually woke up here on the physical plane and did
not return to my dream. Also, I use telekinesis in this
projection to open a window.)
"Seth's ideas guided my thoughts in this one.
Laid down to nap at 7 PM, tried to leave. Fell asleep and
dreamed I was playing music. In the dream I decided to go to bed
and try to project. I had that "headrush" feeling. Then I
thought to myself, "maybe I'm already here." I opened my eyes
and was laying on a couch in an unfamiliar living room. It seemed
my little brother Jim was sleeping in a chair. I stood up looking
around. I realized, "I *am* here!" I became aware and concerned
about my stability. Went and looked out the window, considering
flying outside to explore. Outside it was a windy and chilly
gray day. I pulled back the window with my mind and climbed out
on the outer ledge.
I began recalling some stuff I had read in a Seth book. He
said we live different lives over here, and that our dream mind
has memories of its own, distinct from the memories belonging to
our physical personality. I noticed that I didn't seem to have a
body. I flew from the window, but then saw a reflection of my body
in the window. I landed in the front yard but my lockmold was
wavering. I struggled to hold it.
Outside reminded me of my brother's house by the lake. When
I felt sufficiently stable I stood there in the front yard searching
my memory for memories from my dream mind. I heard a girl say
something. Then my vision began to fade and in the darkness
before my eyes I thought I saw outer space. I was fighting to
keep my lockmold, and I was still searching for dream memories.
I was thinking to myself, "I want to integrate my waking and dream
minds." I went to go to hitch hike along the road but faded out.
Felt myself entering into my body. Felt my awareness of the
physical plane take over, overwhelming my projection memories. I
fought to recall this experience. Gathered up the memories then
laid in bed reflecting on Seth's ideas. His is a very powerful
approach to understanding. I wonder if the reason I'm "stupider"
over there has to do with a blurring of waking and dream minds.
Got out of bed, went and ate, then recorded this."
12>
(Here is an example of me using clairvoaynce during an OOBE)
"At some point I stopped whatever I had been doing and tried to
meditate with the intent to see my chakras. I sat down (with my
eyes open, looking at myself) and began concentrating on trying
to see the spectrum of my chakras. Initially, nothing happened.
But after a few moments, very faint colors appeared at the various
centers. Then I shut my eyes, and my sight clicked in with my eyes
closed. I was wearing what I thought was a blue gown with
golden flowers etched into it, or hanging from it. There were
very complex etchings throughout the whole robe. There was one
big flower that was distinctly noticeable, the stem coming out
from my waist (which I had originally thought was a belt) and
lying on the floor between my legs. When I saw all this I thought,
"What's this robe? I wanted to see my chakras!" Then it dawned
on me that these *were* my chakras. Then I lost consciousness and
went off into other adventures.
As I sit here and write, I wonder if that robe was some type
of representation of my etheric body, displaying the more active
chakras as flowers, and the complex etchings being the nadis.
However, I'm not sure."
(This discussion continues in FILE 9)
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