Projecting inward??

[Johnthelegoman]

Bear with me please. I am new to projecting and have only consciously done it once only remembering leaving my body.

My question is what really is projecting. Is it simply the act of your consciousness leaving your body or your mind?

Isnt the physical world around us only what we can perceive? So if we are all energy I understand the astral world is the closest to the physical world. Is that also outside of us? Do we have to project to the astral before we can visit the other realms?

If projecting is just the act of consciousness leaving the physical could we project inward do to speak. What I mean is I always read projection techniques that have vosualizations or just basically involve moving out of your body

But could I say focus on my third eye and just concentrate on taking my consciousness to a new level without worrying about needing to leave my body?

[CFTraveler]

Bear with me please. I am new to projecting and have only consciously done it once only remembering leaving my body.

My question is what really is projecting. Is it simply the act of your consciousness leaving your body or your mind?

it is the act of your point of consciousness moving through a representation of either your mind or an environment created by your mind. I don't mean you're really not anywhere else, I mean the perception is.
For example, the astral dimensions are energetic representations of all aspects of reality. You, as a 'being', are already in all of them, but your consciousness/point of perception isn't- so, depending on the environment you wish to experience, the technique and perceptual body will differ.
So a 'mechanical' exit technique will take you to the real time zone, which is essentially an energetic representation of the physical universe. You already perceive it with your senses, (i.e. your physical body) but you can also interact with it with your energy body. Even though some people don't believe 'anything' is projected, I believe that a nonlocal field is expanded and you can perceive with it- like radar. Which is why some places seem different and space and 'matter' is perceived differently.
The thing is, that this energetic perception is simply data that is received by the energy 'body', (field), put together by the brain, which generates the visual or tactile experience, and you experience that. But then again, it's what you do in material reality anyway, using light for the visual information and electricity for the tactile phenomena.

Isnt the physical world around us only what we can perceive?

No, there's a lot we don't perceive with physical senses- such as ultraviolet, infrared, very low frequency sound, but we know they exist because we are affected by them. So are we affected with other 'forces' or 'information' or 'energy' or whatever you want to call it- intuition, telepathy, the receipt of nonlocal information. None of it is perceived by the senses, but we are affected by them.

So if we are all energy I understand the astral world is the closest to the physical world. Is that also outside of us? Do we have to project to the astral before we can visit the other realms?

Technically (the etheric being a subset of the astral) you are correct- but we project mentally all the time, it's just that without a well developed mental body the projection is not 'processed' as such. So even though it is true that most people project to the RTZ first, then the astral, then the mental, etc, we actually have all kinds of projections all the time, but miss a lot of nuance because our perceptual equipment is just not developed enough.
Something about energy bodies that you learn eventually, is that the body you use is 'made' 'of' the environment it's going to perceive. So you need an RTZ body to 'perceive' the RTZ (my 'radar' explanation), you want an astral body to go to the astral. You're already in all those places, but you won't 'understand' you went there if you've not developed all your bodies.
Let me try to make this clearer:
Every time you dream you actually go to the astral. But if you don't consciously project- (awake and aware) step out and have an RTZ adventure, go back and know what happened, deal with tests and problems, etc, your astral projection will be experienced as a dream, with subconsciously driven content, no awareness, and may even forget them half an hour after waking up.
Another example about the fitness of the perceptual body: In the physical you need eyes to see color, and hearing apparati to listen to sounds. Most people have it, but it also takes a certain quality to appreciate music (astral senses) or intellectual quality to appreciate a mathematical curiosity (astral and/or mental body). These are being used in the physical, but are your subtle bodies.

If projecting is just the act of consciousness leaving the physical could we project inward do to speak. What I mean is I always read projection techniques that have vosualizations or just basically involve moving out of your body

There are all kinds of projections- outwards (to explore the physical) inwards (to explore your being, your core) and those who involve all of you, which include the universe, such as in mysticism.

But could I say focus on my third eye and just concentrate on taking my consciousness to a new level without worrying about needing to leave my body?

If that is what you want to do, sure. More than likely you can get clairvoyant visions, clairaudient sounds, you can channel, all kinds of things.

The benefit of good old 'exit' based projections, is that they set you up with experiences you've never had before, interactions that may be scary (which is a learning thing) and tests to pass- once you've done all of it you can handle a lot and are surprised by very little. Which may or may not be to your liking.

[MaryAnn]

I'd like to just bring in the concept of phasing, which is what some people end up doing; you don't go through consciously leaving the body into the RTZ, but instead shift your conscious awareness to where you want to go. (Robert Monroe ended up with phasing after a large number of OBEs.) I sometimes write music, and I always say that "I" don't write the initial idea, at least not my physical plane "I." It is given to me, often but not always in the middle of the night, and I am driven to write it down. I say it comes from Elsewhere but that is just my name for it. Obviously it comes in through some kind of phasing because I'm not going OBE to receive it. The physical plane stuff that follows is that I have to structure it into something that can be written down in musical notation, generally with additional musical lines added. That also often involves phasing because I don't know where the ideas come from; I hear it in my head and then write it down. If I try to write music intellectually, it is an abysmal failure. It has to come in from Elsewhere.

Your third-eye concentration sounds more like a meditation technique, which I see as phasing. I've heard the most astonishingly beautiful spiritual music in meditative states, have been able to intend it into the dream state, but haven't seen much in the way of "landscape" associated with it. If I were more visual and less auditory, I assume my phasing experiences might be of visual landscapes instead of sound landscapes.

[CFTraveler]

I phase more than I used to, it used to be difficult for me, I used to OBE to the RTZ effortlessly and naturally, now I phase more than anything, and when I start to miss the feeling of externalizing my consciousness, I do it then. I think people with different natural proclivities tend to do one easier than the other, and I think it has to do with level of practice. After I projected in the OBE way I sort of moved into phasing as a sort of evolution.

[ButterflyWoman]

Interestingly, I've never, ever had an OBE (conscious or otherwise) where there were vibrations and the classic exit. I've been trying to do that for years, but could never achieve it. I read about it in a book when I was about thirteen or so, and tried off and on for years (having dabbled in the topic off and on) and it just never happened.

Years later I realised, I'd been projecting, consciously and unconsciously, pretty much all my life, but I don't experience vibrations, exit, etc. I just switch out and find myself somewhere else. I'm usually conscious of my body/physical existence (not always, though). I can do this pretty much at will, and it's often nearly indistinguishable from remote viewing, which is why I didn't really understand it. I thought of it as "visions" and so forth, but after hanging around here for a while and reading some other material on the subject, it seems I'm phasing, and have been pretty much always.

This, by the way, is why I rarely talk about OBE directly here. I'm so weird that I don't do it the way almost anyone else does, so I can't offer any practical advice at all.

[Sinera]

I think I am mixing it nowadays. Still do some classical exit (only slight vibes if at all) now and then - but only by 'getting up' from bed, no rope, ladder or anything. Another method is the hand I take. And then there is also the switch without any vibrations which is called phasing. And lots if in-betweens, some with strange energetic sensations and events (such as seeing chakras, kundalini waves, etc.). And then there's my "new" AHA-method into exit blindness to concentrate on my clairaudient capabilities and "speak" (literally!) to helpers. It's intersting because hardly anyone does this and I just decided to take it up again tonight. Maybe that's just 'my thing' somehow.

[CFTraveler]

I 'speak' to helpers and every once in a while they talk back. Doesn't make me project or anything, Aunt Clair said it's a kind of mediumship, sort of.

[Sinera]

I 'speak' to helpers and every once in a while they talk back. Doesn't make me project or anything, Aunt Clair said it's a kind of mediumship, sort of.

Ah, very interesting.

Is your impression then (like for me) that your really 'hear' it with your ears? I am convinced it does im my case since there is no other explanation for me, it's not the usual NVC/telepathy mode, of this I am sure. I really am somehow mind-split most of the times in blind state in my bed and "hear" them while I feel myself (my physical body?) lying in bed.

And (this is really intersesting!) does it take your helpers also longer (a few seconds) every time they answer? This always strikes me. It's as if they have problems adjusting their 'technique' (or vibration or whatever) and it isn't so easy for them. Maybe we have an interesting similar phenomenon here.

[CFTraveler]

Ah, very interesting.

Is your impression then (like for me) that your really 'hear' it with your ears? I am convinced it does im my case since there is no other explanation for me, it's not the usual NVC/telepathy mode, of this I am sure. I really am somehow mind-split most of the times in blind state in my bed and "hear" them while I feel myself (my physical body?) lying in bed.

I don't think I hear it with my ears, as much as I hear it in my head, but as actual sound, not just 'impression'. I think I hear it with my brain, the part that converts waves into sounds, except that it's converting something else (some other type of wave?) into voices and words.

And (this is really intersesting!) does it take your helpers also longer (a few seconds) every time they answer? This always strikes me. It's as if they have problems adjusting their 'technique' (or vibration or whatever) and it isn't so easy for them. Maybe we have an interesting similar phenomenon here.

Yes, but I interpret this delay differently- I think when I rouse myself to articulate a directed thought 'ask a question' I break some of the reverie I'm in when I hear them, and it takes me a while to get in the proper 'frequency' to hear the answer. So I think we've got the same phenomenon, different interpretation.

[Sinera]

I don't think I hear it with my ears, as much as I hear it in my head, but as actual sound, not just 'impression'. I think I hear it with my brain, the part that converts waves into sounds, except that it's converting something else (some other type of wave?) into voices and words

Yeah, that's another possibility which I also considered, could be rather a more direct activation either of the cochlear brain nerves that leads to the brain or a stimulation of the brain's hearing centre in the temporal lobe itself, too. I still wonder how it's done. It's amazing.