Hello everyone, I'm a tad new here, and I thought I'd get a few opinions about a small predicament I'm facing with astral projection...

You see, a friend of mine who's experienced in astral projection says that what I'm experiencing while attempting to project are signs that I'm not going for the astral plane at all, but rather a "rift" between planes, where the souls of ruined people go when they die, etc. He says it's a very dangerous place, where a person can go insane and get mentally/spiritually torn to peices. I know personally little to nothing about such a place, and nor will anything on the internet confirm the existence of such a place... or at least, the nature of such a place as this.

Over the years, I've learned off-and-on to relax deeper, get into trance, and finally, to let go of my body to a degree, but it's so strange the way it happens. When I lose feeling of my body, I feel like I'm spinning, or going down an insanely fast rollercoaster, or banking left or right in a fighter jet and being hit with huge g-forces that I actually intensely feel. Sometimes the feeling is so great that my physical stomach muscles clench and almost threaten to interrupt my trance state. At this point, I aggressively focus on letting go of the body, and the disorientation becomes greater until the point where I feel my body no more. Last time, it happened for about 3 seconds, where I lost all physical connection with my body, and I went to a nondescript nothing-place where I couldn't see anything. And then I was sucked back into my body as if pulled back by bungie cords and I lost the feeling of disorientation just as quickly. I have never experienced something so powerful as this astral projection attempt in my life, and in a strange way, I was a little exhausted.

My friend says that until I 'know myself' I won't be able to hit the astral plane. He says that I'll only fall to the rift instead. So, I've been doing a bit of research, and learned a lot about what it is to know oneself...quite fascinating lessons, but time will tell when it makes a difference. Advice please, friends? *hopeful*

It would be nice to not have to risk losing my sanity when I'm trying to gain a new ability such as this.