Kevin's MAP Journal

[Kevin]

Haha, maybe. Or maybe it is just your subconscious trying to help you feel better about not spending enough time with your grandfather. Possibly your trip to Africa was a representation of you trying to find your Grandfather and redefine your relationship with him.

It is possible. Often times, when I think about communicating with dead relatives, he is the only one that comes to mind. Tho, like I said, in the dream it wasn't me doing the traveling to begin with.

[Flash_hound]

That's really cool. Is that one of the reasons you got into astral projection or just an after-thought? Did you ever see anyone die well you were in Iraq that you thought about visiting (sorry personal question)?

[Kevin]

That's really cool. Is that one of the reasons you got into astral projection or just an after-thought? Did you ever see anyone die well you were in Iraq that you thought about visiting (sorry personal question)?

No, though my fear of death was. That fear has subsided a great deal since my first partial exit because I can tell myself, there IS something after this.

My time in Iraq did make me face my own mortality as I was put into dangerous situations daily, not of my own free will and I still feel very wronged by the man who did it, but I was never actually attacked or saw anyone killed. Recently however, my friend in the army had a sister get hit by a road side bomb on the same route I would sometimes travel on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis.

The more and more I heard about Astral Projection tho, the more I think about my grandfather. I think it's because he was such a good person but I only got to call him my grandfather for a very short time. He died of lung cancer from smoking and I guess I think he was taken away from me prematurely.

I think of him everytime I hear this song (and I actually sometimes use this song as an AP affirmation!) :

http://www.anycountrymusiclyrics.com/ly ... _I'm_Going

[bastien001]

Welcome to this journaling space, Kevin.

[Kevin]

Welcome to this journaling space, Kevin.

Bastien001: Thank you very much!

Day 1 - Morning

I memorized my daily affirmations and made one of my own for just before I started my daily exercises.

I got a little frustrated early in me exercises. I set my timer wrong when I started doing the relaxation technique and ended doing them until I was getting aggitated. I thought that it just seemed like a long time, but when I check my clock I found my mistake. I think that threw me off.

I went into my brething exercises knowing that this would be a true challenge for me. Its always been hard for me to try to keep my mind quiet for any amount of time. The first 1-2 minutes went smoothly, the last 3 I had to keep starting over. Today I think I will try focusing on the movement of my chest and abdomen.

Frustrated by my first two exercises, I think I went into my Energy Work at a disadvantage. I'm currently living in a busy household and I let myself get distracted easily. Coupled with my frustration, I don't think I benefitted much from the energy work. I think I will do some added exercise today at lunch to supplement it. My car is nice and quiet.

[Kevin]

Day 2 - Morning - Dream Recall

Over all, I woke up three times to record key words to the dreams I could remember. The first time I woke up, I recorded a portion of the dream I could remember but knew that there was more! I did as the MAP book suggests to try to recall those memories. It took me a few moments but I did in fact recall those shadow memories. I was elated that I was able to do that!

My next goal is to start writing down more descriptive words when I write my keywords, and maybe even words I can remember from my dreams.

[Kevin]

Day 2 - Supplemental Energy Work

I was upset yesterday that I couldn't concentrate effectively on my energy work, though looking back I think it was more of a MBA exercise than actual energy work, so today on my lunch break, not only did I spend some time to go over yesterdays exercise but also familiarized myself with tonights Exercise. I think I did it with good results this time and was able to sufficiently quiet my mind and concentrate. The sponging was my favorite. For some reason imaging a pourous surface going down the center of my pourous bones felt like I was scratching an evasive itch!!

[nkd]

Night 1 - Dream Recall

Over all, I woke up three times to record key words to the dreams I could remember. The first time I woke up, I recorded a portion of the dream I could remember but knew that there was more! I did as the MAP book suggests to try to recall those memories. It took me a few moments but I did in fact recall those shadow memories. I was elated that I was able to do that!

My next goal is to start writing down more descriptive words when I write my keywords, and maybe even words I can remember from my dreams.

I remember waking three times in the night to recall my dreams on my first night of training keep it going like that!

[Kevin]

Good morning AD!! TGIF!

Day 2 - Exercises

I think my exercises yesterday afternoon went a little bit better than they had before. First of all, I didn't spend way to much time on the relaxation exercises!

The breath awareness went a little bit better too, I feel like I was able to quiet my mind for longer stints of time. Towards the end I was really getting to it because my timer went off and startled me a bit.

By the time I got to the energy work, the peacefulness in the house began to diminish a bit, but I managed to eventually get into it as well. It was a good thing that I had done some energy work earlier in the day though!

Day 3 - Morning - Dream Recall

As I've progressed (this is my third night keeping my dream keywords and dream journal) I feel like my astral recall is deffinately getting stronger! I think this is my strongest point in the last few days training. Though last night I remember a bit less of the dreams I do remember, I DO remember having a lot more dreams. I remember them being there if not what they were about. I woke several times towards the end of my night only to fall back to sleep for another 5 more minutes. There were several 5 minute naps each of which containing there own dreams that I wasn't able to record key words to, but I do know they were there.

I think my biggest achievement last night was my first dream. As it was happening, I KNEW it was a dream. I clearly said to myself (it was liking I was watching the dream with a seperate consciousness) this is a dream, I need to take control and go lucid. I didn't manage full lucidity, but I feel it was a huge step!

I also caught more detail in my dream keywords! I had a football dream last night, I think my subconcious mind is trying quell my NFL fix until the next season starts up. I wrote down the key words Cardinals and Black Stars. That's what the cardinals were wearing in my dream last night, Black uniform tops with little black stars in a discernable pattern. I also wrote down the score to another game in my dream (writing down what I read was important to me yesterday when I couldn't remember what some signs had said), the score was Chi 3 - Det 7.

I think I would have caught some more detail and remember more of my dreams had it not been Friday. My energy is notoriously lower on fridays after a full week of work which probably didn't help my recall (tho i do think there was some improvement). And actually, I feel pretty good today. Much more energetic than I have on past Fridays! I'll thank the energy work for that. I also can't wait to get into bed tonight. My best dreams, and indeed a few attempted projections, have come with the knowledge that I can sleep as late as I want and not worry about waking up. Last weekend I felt projection symptoms and managed to glance at my hands, but couldn't keep control or properly download my shadow memories.

[CFTraveler]

Very nice progress. I want to comment on something, though: Lucidity is not controlling the dream- Lucidity is knowing you are dreaming, and not waking up right away. When you say I'm dreaming and then interact in a way that is conscious, that is lucidity. You achieved lucidity, you just didn't achieve full control. Which is ok. Great job.