AP_09.TXT ------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE 9 of 15 - CompuServe Astral Projection Class by Don DeGracia, 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 3 C. Exercising psychic powers (continued from FILE 8) 13> (Here is another example of me astral projecting from a dream. What is also interesting here was that during this projection I had an amazing clairvoyant vision. After the projection, I indeed "woke-up" back in my dream, unaware that I was dreaming!) "...My dream involved me, JC and a bunch of other people. We were all roommates in a big house. I was unaware that I was dreaming. There was a party going on or something. We were down in the basement hanging out. However, at some point in the dream I looked at JC and told him I'd be back in a little bit because I was going to go up to my room and try to project! I went up to my bedroom in this dream house. Again, at this point I thought everything was normal and had no idea I was dreaming. I laid down on my bed and started concentrating to leave just exactly like I always do on the physical plane. However, when I laid down, shut my eyes and began concentrating, the effect was intensely more dramatic than it is on the physical plane. I got results almost as soon as I shut my eyes (compared to the 15 to 30 minutes it usually seems to take on the physical plane). Still I was unaware that I was projecting out of a dream. Instead of seeing the "stars" (entopic light) filling the darkness behind my closed eyes, the effect was more like when I'm in the void during a projection. But, again, at the time I didn't recognize this, I only remember it now as I write this entry. Then, practically immediately, imagery began to form. What I saw looked like a hole forming in the fog. What I thought at the moment was that a gateway to the astral plane was forming. I laid there trying to transfer my consciousness from my body into this gate. The "gate" imagery itself was vivid and well focused, kind of a blue swirling mist with stars (little pinpoints of light) blinking on and off in it. After a few moments of concentration, I was standing at the gate. I was floating off the ground in what seemed to be a mist filled cave. There was lots of light to see by, and I was definitely not in the void. I was standing at the back wall of this cave facing the entrance which was about 50 feet ahead of me. Beyond the entrance all I could see was mist. Under me to my right, was a table with little objects lined up on it. Also to my right were objects dangling from strings. Behind me were shelves with objects on them. My first impression of these thing is that they reminded me of a souvenir stand. I wondered if I was in some type of store. I landed on the cave floor, which was also covered in mist. I was looking about the cave, but I got the feeling of some invisible presence. It dawned on my to try something new. I thought to myself, "Try to visually focus in the way you do when you are hallucinating on acid" (this type of focusing involves a relaxation of ones vision, an intentional blurring of the normal visual field and a focusing on the entire visual field as opposed to simply looking at individual points within this field). I did this and immediately got dramatic effects. What I saw was incredible. As the image of the cave blurred, I began to perceive images behind, or within the cave. The image only lasted for a split second for it was difficult to maintain, and worse, what I saw startled me so much that, in sheer surprise, I "dropped" my focus (just like how someone can drop what they are holding in their hands when they get sufficiently startled). What I saw was that now I was standing and looking out over a vast plateau that seemed to stretch to infinity in all directions. And on this plateau there was the most inordinate amount of activity and motion that I had ever seen. What I saw were creatures and crowds of beings in all directions. And everything had that electric, neon self-glowing quality about it. Things that I did not know how to conceptualize were moving about in every direction, even passing through me! There were herds of things I could not recognize, and things that looked like swarms flying about. There was an undescribable dance of colors bathing the sky. Something as big as a horse seemed to pass right through me! It seemed that huge beings were battling in front of me. Even to this day I have never seen anything so incredible and spectacular. All I could think the moment I had some faint glimmer of what I was seeing was "Oh my God! This is *the* Astral Plane!" But like I said, the scene was so overwhelming that I lost it almost the instant I had some small sense of what I was seeing. I was standing back in the mist filled cave wondering what I had just saw.... (I then went met a monster in the cave, which lunged at me and caused me to lose my lockmold...) The shock of its impact was enough to cause my lockmold to break. I was back on my bed. But I wasn't on the physical plane. I awoke back on my bed in the dream from which I had started. I still wasn't in the least bit aware that I was in a dream. At the moment, I was laying there pissed at myself for letting that monster scare me out of such a dramatic episode. I decided I was going to try to leave again. I relaxed and began to concentrate. Again, a misty hole broke through the darkness behind my closed eyes. This time the gate was of an amorphorous shape, about 5 feet in front of me. It looked different than the first one, and was colored differently too. It was blackish orange with stars in it - like I was looking into outer space (it looked, as a matter of fact, like the cover to Carl Sagan's book Cosmos). I tried to transfer my consciousness into it like I had done before, but it didn't work. After trying for a few moments, the gate faded and I thought to myself, "Goddamn that monster got me too worked up!" I decided I was done for the time being, so I got up out of bed. I was still in the dream house and still unaware that I was dreaming. I went looking for some paper to record my experience. I ended up going back into the basement where everyone was still hanging out. JC was there and the others and I told them all about the projection I had just had. Meanwhile, I was getting very concerned that I couldn't find any paper. Then I woke up for real, here on the physical plane. For a moment I was totally disoriented (didn't know where I was at or what was going on), and then I realized what had just happened. And so, as is my wont, I recorded it here." (END OF JOURNAL ENTRIES) So, there you have it; using psychic powers during astral projections. This is an extremely dramatic thing to attempt while you are projecting and I encourage everybody to try and remeber that you CAN do these kinds of things while out-of-body. And don't forget, watch for yourself using psychic powers in your dreams too! 6. Places you can go: Sights and vistas We are now going to get into the "travel brochure" part of this presentation. What I will discuss are the places that you can visit in the OOBE realm. As was stated earlier, the most useful generalization about the regions of the OOBE state is the idea that these regions are divided into "rings" (as Monroe calls them) or "subplanes (as occultists call them). To repeat, these subplanes form a spectrum that loosely corresponds to the spectrum of human emotions and states of mind. As human thought and feeling can range from the most lowly and debased to the most noble and inspirational, so too is it with the subplanes. Thus, I will break my description of the OOBE realm down roughly along such lines. I will break the regions of the subplanes down into three broad categories: the lowest, the middle and the highest, and discuss each of these in turn. I will also discuss two other aspects of the OOBE realm, and these are 1. the void and 2. what I will call, for lack of a better term, the "surreal" regions. The surreal regions are those places that you may find yourself that barely fit the description of being called a "place". These surreal regions are often very abstract and tend to be spaces of color, sound and feeling, though there are others I will describe. Generally speaking, what I am about to describe are ideas that are very common in the astral plane literature. What is amazing to me is that my own experiences in the OOBE state support quite strongly the common reports of the astral plane (i.e. see Fox, Monroe, Leadbeater). This could be taken in two ways. You could say I was highly influenced by other people's reports of the nature of the astral plane, and thus saw what they described based on subconscious expectation. Or we could take the fact that much of my OOBE experience is like what others report to indicate that the astral world is an (in some sense) "objective" world complete with its own sights, sounds and inhabitants. Throughout these notes I tend to go with the latter interpretation, but that does not preclude the former idea from having some degree of truth also. Generally, in my explorations of the OOBE realm I have tried to stay as far away from biasing my interpretations of my experiences as I could. I have found other people's ideas as useful *guides* and have never accepted other people's reports without some degree of scepticism. And, as we shall see below, I believe I have observed a number of "realms" in the OOBE state that are not commonly encountered, or have interpreted my experiences differently than how others have. This is particularly true with regard to the nature of the "surreal" regions which I will describe below. So, the basic idea here is that the astral plane does, to a large extent, appear to be a common reality that we can all visit. Subjective factors definately do enter into our observations in the nonphysical realms. My general advice is to always be skeptical of what you read and do not blindly accept what others say. This advice holds even for what I have written in these notes. Other people's observations are useful *guides* for your own activity, but, as I keep stressing, the bottom line is your own personal experience. If a thing works for you then that is what is important. If you discover that other people have expereinced what you have, then that is fine. However, do not make the mistake of trying to mold your experiences to the reports of others. So, this all said, let us begin our description of the OOBE regions by first considering the void. A. Life in the void If you will recall, the void is a great dark space that I often find myself in. Recall that, when we use the "radio station" theory of consciousness I presented earlier, the void is like the empty space between radio stations on the radio dial. Now, it would seem like there isn't really too much you can say about a great big space of utter nothingness. In actuality though, being in the void takes up a great deal of my time during astral projections - some- times much more than I'd like! I will not dwell at too great lenghth on what it's like in the void, but I do want to describe it enough so that if you end up there you will know what to do. Strangely enough, the void is not simply a homogeneous dark nothingness. There is actually a subtle type of variety to the different times I have been in the void. Sometimes it *is* simply a dark empty space. Other times though there is a hazy or smoky quality to it. Still other times I seem to see hazy ghost images of things. In this latter case, I suspect that I am very close to a subplane and am seeing ghost images of that subplane. Once I even met a being in the void! It was the only time I ever saw any kind of creature in the void. I will present this episode below because, at the very least, it is funny. The general circumstances in which I find myself in the void are as follows. I sometimes appear in the void as soon as I leave my body. I have presented examples of this already. I will also appear in the void if I lose my lockmold on a subplane (you will recall that the lockmold is how well you are tuned in on a subplane). If I lose my lockmold, I usually do not wake up, but instead appear in the void. Again, I am presenting these experiences here in case you find yourself in the void. 1> (Seeing ghost images in the void.) "(Had lost my lockmold and)...Then I was flying through the void. This time, though I was in the darkness of the void, I could perceive faint, but distinct silhouette images around me, and it seemed that I was flying through them. I thought to myself that I must be right on the border of some definite frequency or plane, not locked well enough to actually be there, but right next door to it so to speak. I kept flying on, and the silhouettes were very reminiscent of buildings, cars and city objects. As I flew on, at one point I got the impression that I had entered the water and was under the water, though I was still in the void. The silhouettes reminded me of fishes swimming around. They were not static images, they were moving too. Even though it seemed like I was under water, my movement through the void was no different, but I was afraid to materialize myself for fear of being under water. The silhouettes were interesting though. Some were of very large fish, at least 10 feet long. One looked like a shark and I passed close by it. Another one was a round squat shape about five feet in diameter. A school of swimming creatures passed me by. I remember too that when I would look upwards that I got the same effect that one observes swimming under water and looking up at the surface. But I kept flying forward and soon it seemed like I had passed out of the water cause now the silhouettes I was passing through looked much different, less organic, like vertical strips. So now I tried to materialize myself. To materialize I stopped my forward motion and simply began to spin round and round. Also I began to concentrate on my hands, trying to lift them up and look at them. Then I began to see the neatest thing. As my hands began to form and I could start to see them, the silhouettes around me began to take on color and form. It was slow at first so I concentrated harder, and I watched an environment form around me. I was now out of the void and somewhere. I was standing in a forest, surrounded by all kinds of plants...." 2> (A short description of the void.) "Dream-awoke laying in my old bedroom at Ma's house. I "flopped" out of my body. Flew downstairs. Flew to front door, tried to pass through but went into void. Stayed in void for some time wondering what it is. There were no recognizable silhouettes, but there were distinct qualities or feelings. At first the darkness was very "electric." Eventually the void seemed like a heavy fog. I got the idea to try to look at my hands. Watched my body and a red tile floor materialize around me as the fogginess of the void faded away. I was in an empty room with a red tile floor, it seemed like a small gymnasium or something...." 3> (Here is when I met a strange creature in the void.) "...I was in the void. Was floating listlessly, enjoying then peace and quiet, figuring out what I was going to do next. I looked off in the darkness before me and was absolutely amazed at what I saw, for coming towards me far off in the distance was a creature of some kind! I was totally startled. I had never seen another being in the void before! I slowly started to fly towards the creature, curiously studying it, as it moved towards me. At first, all I could see was that it was some type of humanoid, but as I got closer to it I could make out more detail. It had a human body, but its face resembled that of a wolf. It had a hairy face, long snout, and dark eyes. It was wearing an outfit that reminded me of the Green Goblin from the Spiderman comic books. As it got closer I could hear it mumbling to itself. I was about 10 feet in front of it, but it acted as if I was not there and simply kept mumbling to itself and kept moving towards me. I asked it what it was doing and, all of a sudden it was on top of me! The thing grabbed me and started to carry me off! I couldn't believe it! I was not scared at all, but suprised. I started to struggle and was telling it to let me go. I said "you can't do anything to me, I'm astral projecting!". It continued to ignore me and simply kept carrying me through the void. It mumbled something to itself about "a specimen for the bioleum". I heard this and realized that this thing intended to make me a specimen in some kind of museum! I couldn't believe this was happening to me. I kept yelling at it telling it I was astral projecting and I could wake up at any moment. It ignored me and kept carrying me forward. In the excitment of my struggling, I lost my lockmold and woke up in my physbod. Upon waking, I felt stupid for acting the way I did. I should have let it carry me to wherever it was going so I could have learned where this creature came from. Still, this was the first time I ever saw a creature of any kind in the void!" (END OF ENTRIES) B. Life on the planes Let's now go onto the scenic elements of the OOBE realm. Again, I will divide these up into four major realms: the lower, the middle (or "normal"), the higher and the surreal realms. And again, each of these broad realms corresponds to states of mind and emotion. Let's discuss each of these realms in turn. i. The Lower Realms The lower realms of the subplanes are easily identified. They are often dark as if it is nighttime outside. There is also an eerie feel to the lower subplanes. They just feel creepy. Often, it is hard to move on the lower subplanes, similar to being on the etheric plane, where your movement seems to be retarded and in slow motion. And of course, you will encounter ghoulish creatures on these subplanes. You don't need to fear anything you encounter on these subplanes. First, it is unlikely you will spend any amount of time on these subplanes. I always have a bad lockmold on these planes, and thus, often "fade-out" of these lower subplanes within minutes. Since they do correspond to the worst of human existance, you'd have to be pretty evil yourself to be in tune with these subplanes. Second, it's actually kind of theraputic and eye opening to see these planes. Part of the goal of overcoming fear means opening up to the aspects of life revealed by these lower subplanes. By understanding these kinds of energies you transform them into something better. If you repress these energies, they only continue to ferment into something even worse. So, my advice is, if you find yourself on the lower subplanes, don't be afraid of what you encounter there. Take it as a learning experience. Now, if you are on a lower subplane, how to you get out of it? One trick I learned is the following: fly through the ceiling of wherever you are at. When you do this, you will go through the ceiling and come up through the floor of the same room you just left! But actually, it will not be the exact same room; it will be the room but on a higher subplane. Do this a few times until you see light outside and do not feel the heavy, eerie feeling anymore. You will then be on a higher subplane. This does not always work, but it does work sometimes, so it's worth giving it a try. Your other alternative is to just wait it out. As I said, it is unlikely, if you are a average, normal person, that you will be able to keep your lockmold stable on these subplanes for any extended period of time. If you just wait it out, you will probably disappear from that subplane within a couple of minutes anyway. If you choose this option, just explore your environment. Like I said, and you have to always keep this in mind when you project, nothing can hurt you when you are out of body. You are literally indestructible. YOU are the only thing that can hurt you, and the only way this can happen is by letting your own fears take you over. If you learn to control your fear, you will ALWAYS be safe out of body. This said, let me give a couple examples of what the lower subplanes are like. 1> (A typical lower subplane experience.) "Felt myself wake up on the physical. Tried to remember my dream but it faded quickly. That made me mad. Plus I hadn't projected for several days, and that sucked too. I thought "go for it" and pretended I was jumping out of my body - and I did! Surprised, I floated in my room for a brief instant and then faded. At first I thought I was in the void, but then I saw all kinds of humanoid silhouettes around me. There were all kinds of them marching like sleep walkers. It was a dark and eerie environment. I couldn't fly well and I felt like I was zipping along like a balloon. I shot past a silhouette and it bent out of my way in a distorted and unnatural manner-like it bent sideways or something. I tried to look at my hands, but it was very difficult. Woke up. This was a very short projection - less than a minute. I bet I was on the lowest astral plane. I think I saw a bunch of "lost souls". It was very much like Leadbeater described it - dark, heavy, hard to control one's movements. The silhouettes were like zombies; no self-consciousness, they just marched like a herd." 2> (Another typical lower suplane experience.) "...Drifted off to sleep again, imagining I was in the living room downstairs. In the next instant, I was downstairs! I was floating by the ceiling in the living room. It was dark, like nighttime. This time I could move, but it was very difficult. I pulled myself to the floor. I looked at the front door. The dimensions of the room were distorted and enlarged. The door looked far away, like in a telescope. I walked toward the door with great difficulty. I felt a small sense of triumph when I finally reached the door. I opened the door and walked out onto the porch. My movement became a little easier. I looked outside to the street. It seemed to be just before dawn. In the street, I saw two figures running carrying something looking like sacks over their shoulders. They seemed to be wearing what looked like long underwear. They were hunched over as they ran. I don't know what they were, though they were humanoid. My first impression is that they were thieves running from the scene of the crime. But the way they moved, all hunched and distorted made me think that they might be demons or some lowly astral creatures. At any rate, they disappeared across the street. They didn't notice me at all. I wanted to follow them but I knew I couldn't move as fast as they were. Then I flew out through the porch window around to the side of the house. Once outside, everything seemed really dark and murky, and distorted. I realized I was on the lowest astral plane and got scared. I wanted to leave and felt myself back in my body..." 3> (This entry illustrates some of the denizens of the lower subplanes, a topic to which we will return.) Was in one of those scary brown heavy regions. Thought I had woke up. Was laying in bed and I heard soft but threatening hissing voices. It made me scared. Had my back to the voices but it sounded like they were getting closer. Realized I was in the nasty etheric levels and tried to wake myself up. It backfired and I went into a higher dream level for a moment but lost lucidity and had a false awakening. Thought I had woke onto the physical but actually was in some dream facsimile of my room at Dad's. Saw a clear blue sky through crack in the curtains and it made me feel great; couldn't believe I let those stupid etheric ghouls get to me. Went back to sleep unafraid. Next I knew I was in the etheric again and heard the voices. This time I was irked and determined to confront them. I got up, with difficulty and said, also with much difficulty, "Whoever you are, come out and face me, I demand it!" Looking forward with it still appearing that I was in my Dads (actually it didn't feel like Dads in the episode, more like my own place but very comfortable), my brown curtains seemed to marshmallow out and it seemed this pack of strange humanoid creatures stepped through. My vision was very bad and I was having a difficult lockmold but I thought I saw about four of em. They had on long dingy robes and had strange distorted features. It seemed like they were yelling at me or something. I lashed out at them and stepped into them best I could. They seemed to disappear into the other wall. Fell back asleep more happy than before. Mold was terrible the whole time, everything had a brown cast to it. I could barely move or speak. As I was falling off to sleep, kept thinking about how Leadbeater says that the initiate has a hard time moving on the lower planes. Boy he was right." 4> (This is an example of using the "flying through the ceiling trick to get out of a lower subplane.) " I struggled to get out. I flopped out of my body and rolled onto the floor. My vision was blinking but I quickly realized where I was at and thought, "Shit! I gotta get outta here!" I saw I was on the lowest astral plane. I felt that dark, heavy uncomfortable feeling. Everything was in greys and browns. And worst of all, there were ghoulies all over my bedroom! They were broken and twisted bodies, moving about in their lethargic fashion. At least I didn't get frightened this time. I stayed level headed. My first thought was to wake myself up, but then I thought, "no, I'll just go to a higher plane." So I flew upwards through the ceiling, passed through the ceiling and came up through my floor. I did this a second time. Now there was sun shinning through my window and the ghoulies were gone, and everything was in normal colors. I was quite pleased with myself. I flew through the ceiling, this time going outside the house. It was sunny and beautiful outside..." (END OF ENTRIES) ii. The Middle Realms The middle planes are very much like our physical world. Here you will find houses, schools, cities and buildings, forests and rivers and pretty much all the things you find on the physical plane. Remember though, we are NOT on the physical plane. These middle regions have a very ethereal feel to them compared to the physical plane. One place you will often go in these middle subplanes is the room you are in when you project. In my case, this is always my bedroom. That fact that you will project into your bedroom will afford you many opportunities to compare what your bedroom is like in your projection to what it is like on the physical plane. When you study these differences, you will quickly realize that, when you project, you are NOT in the physical world. So, if you do find yourself projecting into the room that you are in, I highly encourage you to study the details of your astral bedroom and, as soon as you wake up, pay close attention to how what you saw in your projection was similar to or different from how your room is on the physical plane. I will give an example of this below. One of the most interesting aspects of the middle subplanes is that many authors claim that in this region you will find discarnate people. In other words, these middle regions are where so-called "dead" people dwell, at least for a certain amount of time after their passing away. Thus, what you can find on these regions are places specifically designed for the recently dead. Such places take the form of hospitals or dormitories. Robert Monroe clearly describes such places. Monroe calls these "Rehab Centers", and I have visited them (or happened across them as the case may be) on many occasions. "Rehab Centers" exists in the astral world supposedly to provide a safe and confortable environment for the recently deceased, to allow them to get used to their new surroundings and new condition. As a matter of fact, entry number 6, in file 8, where I describe being dragged by the wind force, is a description of one of these "Rehab Centers". In this case it was for younger people; older teenagers and people in their early and mid twenties. I will put another such description below. And, if I was ever skeptical of the idea of these "Rehab Centers", this sceptism was laid to rest when I actually MET a deceased friend of mine in one of my projections. I will describe this encounter later when I discuss interacting with the people you meet in your projections. In general, you will find that the majority of your OOBEs occur in the middle regions of the subplanes. I recommend that you explore these regions carefully. Observe the construction of the buildings and houses. Feel free to go into strange houses and just look around. You will actually observe many interesting things that are much different from the physical plane. For example, I was once in a shopping mall in one of my projections, and it seemed to go on and on forever. There was no exit that I could find. I had a similar experience in a school once. Also, you will find many people here to talk to and communicate with. In a later section I will give suggestions for interacting with the people you meet in your projections. Here we are mainly interested in conveying some idea of what the middle regions of the subplanes are like. Let me now present a few of my journal entries of projections occurring on these middle subplanes which illustrate what is discussed above. 1> (Here is an example of me projecting into my backyard and then waking up immediately and comparing my astral backyard to my physical backyard.) "...I could feel myself laying on my bed in my physbod. Wanted to leave again. Began to relax and concentrated on staying dream-awake. Felt myself fall back into it. I jumped out and was in my bedroom. Turned and looked at my curtains. I tried to pass through them but couldn't. So I flew out my window - through the screen. I noticed that I was naked so I thought myself into some shorts. I flew out into the backyard, landed and sat on the grass. I wanted to fly off and explore but I thought that I should just sit there and observe details. I sat there and looked around trying to figure out how this environment was different from the one on the physical. Things looked normal. It looked like my backyard. The house next door looked like my neighbor's house. I even saw some of my neighbors in their yard down the street. [ Right now I'm awake on the physical and I just went outside and sat in the same spot I did in my projection to compare the two scenes, and there were many noticeable differences. First, where I saw my neighbors, there was no one there. I could not even see the house from where I was sitting in the backyard on the physical, the perspective was a lot broader in the projection. Second, in the projection, our backyard appeared much bigger and more open than it really is. Things seemed to be located in the same relative positions though. Third, the whole back yard was neater or tidier in the projection, and also "lighter". Just now when I was outside in the physical, the backyard had a "heavy", lush feeling that wasn't present in the projection. The grass needs to be cut in the physical but was short and neat in the projection. ] As I was sitting in my projection in the backyard the most unusual thing I noticed was that I could "see" the air. I've never seen anything like this on the physical. The air around me was moving like transparent sheets wrapping around and around one another. Also, these "sheets" were made of what looked like a fine mist of this white particulate matter that seemed to be graded from higher concentration to lower. The effect was something like when you see sunlight shinning through a fine mist of water. I only got to observe this effect for a moment because after I noticed it, my lockmold started to slip and I began to fade out. This "air effect" was the most significant thing I saw when I was actually sitting there in my projection. I was very fascinated while I was looking at it. Obviously, no such thing existed on the physical..." 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