Astral projection by means of visualisation

This method for starting astral projections worked for me in the morning between brief sleep sequences (for instance on Sunday mornings until 9 or 10 o´clock). The method seems easy to start, but the fluctuating inner pictures are difficult to be developed to the desired degree of body awareness in a 3D-world.

Method:

Let us start with "visions in the state of over tiredness" as a basis for further considerations. For better understanding let me first tell you what I mean when using the term "visoins in the state of over tiredness":
"visions in the state of over tiredness" I call those images which you can see when you try to relax in a state of being very, very tired. This kind of inner visons you certainly have already experienced.
An example: You have gone many miles by car for many hours. At home you fall into a comfortable chair in order to have a nap. At the moment you close your eyes, you have the movie like sight of roads, and you seem to glide along. Perhaps, if you are explorative, you try to manipulate these pictures. With some attention and concentration you are able to extend the duration of the inner movie and simultaneously you can focus details and gain three-dimensionality.

The same kind of inward directed concentration you can use as method for astral projection, when awaking between brief sleep sequences in the morning (at this time you have a better concentration as in the above mentioned case). Being refreshed enough to have good concentration, you still have a remainder of ability to produce inner pictures. Try to visualize an inner movie, like sliding through a landscape or along a road. Everything now resembles a flying dream. If you have succeeded as far, try to stop the impression of gliding along the scene and try to stop and stand on your feet. If you do this, the "movie" converts to a 3D-space world. Hold an object with a fixed gaze, until you perceive every detail of it (to increase concentration). Then grasp any object and try to feel roughness and structure, to become aware of full touch-perception (and to develop a good body feeling).

 
OBE Letter 342
....Also, when I'm really tired, late at night I'll notice pictures and images behind my eyelids, like ancient castles, tapistries, and what looks like toy workshops. ....

.....More interesting than the vibrations in your case are the hypnagogic images you see. If you are in a very relaxed state and at the border of sleep (say in the late morning of a Sunday) than you may develop these images to three-dimensional scenes and then in the next step enter the scene (is called astral projection method). The difference to other methods: you do not work with body feeling, intending a body separation, but instead you work with your front chakra (visual system) to project your consciousness directly to an astral plane or what it might be....

Thanks a lot for responding to me! The images usually come when I'm really tired and in a relaxed state, such as a sunday morning, or late at night. Do you know a way to further this into an astral projection, or at least make it images I wish to see? The images are usually foggy around the outside, and are usually brown in color. Thanks a lot for your time!
-=Josh=-

Josh, there is no trick but, as far as I know, only difficult work of balancing in the following way:

Stage 1:
Make your choice of the scene, which should be a landscape or a street, by suppressing images which will not lead to a projection. These latter images of no use are mainly objects. What you need is an image of a location (borders will do it as well) which later will enable you to step in. As I told you before landscapes and streets do fit very well and that's for following reason: in a latter stage (stage 3) when the image has become steady, the image is a gliding scene like of a movie (somehow flat and shadowy) - it seems as if you were moving forward. For this reason you need a scene, which is wide enough to let you move (thus a room would not suit). You can not determine a detailed scene or details at all. Your decision is limited to a general quality like streets of a town, ways in a forest etc. Scenes with similar qualities like such ones you have had the day before are easier to be promoted.

Stage 2:
Look with interest and attentive at the images. As a consequence the images will become more steady and will not change every instance.

Stage 3:
You look at a gliding scene, as if you were sitting in a car or a movie. You are not in the scene, but the scene is in front of you. You are an observer and still separated from the scene, which is not plastic and has a lack of colors (like in twilight)

!!!Up to this point the projecting process was easy work, but now it starts to become difficult!!!

Stage 4:
By the time if you hold concentration the scene becomes more plastic and more bright. And now you have to try to get into the scene by pushing or projecting your bodyfeeling into the scene. It's somehow as if you would do a step from the auditorium into the stage of a theatre.

Stage 5:
Projecting. All hindrances are passed and you can enjoy your astral projection, taking your own decision.

OBE Letter 358:
I have tried to astral travel by relaxing on my back and adjusting my conscious at one point a window opened in my mind.
I saw a street in front of me which I was not trying to imagine. Is this the beginning of astral travel? This experience only lasted for about 2 seconds.

... I brought my self down connecting to try and feel the surroundings more on a deeper level rather then being separated from it - this is when the window opened in my mind (first attempt). I would like to know if this window that opened I assume in my sub-conscious mind was the way I can use to astral project.

Yes Mark, this first method can work, just in the way as you wrote. The hint is that just when you are in the scene, some few seconds afterwards you become startled - you then are again full awake and have to start your attempts from the beginning. The only way to avoid this break of state is to shift your conscious more to the sleep state (it's better to be a bit more tired) but at the other hand then your concentration is not as good and you then may fall to common dreaming. Nevertheless, aside of all these difficulties, this method is very promising and I can recommend you this method. The best time for this kind of astral projection is the time of the short sleep/awake sequences at a late Sunday morning for instance.

Once being in the astral projection state, the state will stay for longer time and you must not fear to fall back again into the awake state.

Astral projection starting from an IBE or OBE state

Yes, it is right, you can do astral projection from an OBE state - try it, it is an astonishing experience. Commonly, however, this kind of projection is done while you are still in the body, already being aware of your subtle senses.

I do however still fall asleep sometimes, and wake up in the paralysis state. Once there, I KNOW I can project and control it. One time, the room was semi light, and I woke up in paralysis, I closed my eyes and (like in the movie 'Ghost') walked through my eyelids.

...try to look with your forehead (not with the eyes) until you see a landscape and then "throw" yourself into the scene, as if you were jumping through a window.
OBE Letter 389

Gliding through a tunnel

Method

In a state of deep relaxation imagine to enter a tunnel ( take a cave to enter or similar imaginations). If you are inside the tunnel, then pass with your attention directed on body feeling and vision. Do not haste to the end of the tunnel, but be patient and stay going on and on until you have the required body feeling. The tunnel usually stays dark, but nevertheless all becomes more and more realistic. At last you see a light as a sign of the end of the tunnel. When you leave the tunnel, you should be in a realistic felt astral world (or underworld in shaman terminology).
 
 

This is a prefered method in shamanism (performed in the trance state). It is as well a method, which is recommended to be done in a "half-sleep state" (a pre-sleep or post-sleep state).

You can consider the tunnel transition as explained above as a very natural thing. At the border of awaking you may occasional have spontaneous dreams, in which you pass a tunnel or tunnel like features. As dream symbol the tunnel belongs to the category of border symbols (a border between two states f.i.). Further tunnel observations very often are reported in NDE´s.

In the following link you can find a collection of short tunnel like experiences made by meditations focused on the forehead.

-- Alfred Ballabene (alfred.ballabene@univie.ac.at)