Cinnabar's quest to Master Astral Projection

[CinStoneCity]

I'm about to complete Part I, and progress feels slow, albeit progressing. Energy work is no longer accompanied by the burning feeling of energy, so I guess some obstacles have been cleared. Every now and then, nightly practice gives me a throbbing upper lip, and elsewhere in this forums it was suggested this is a symptom of a blockade. If so, it feels like this obstacle is being cleared.

Activation primary energy centres has brought me no sensations worth mentioning, just very mild energy feeling. Not looking forward to force anything, I will leave this as is, hoping to make slow but steady progress. Not throbbing, no strobing, a mild pulsing, at best.

For the rest, I am happy with mind taming, I can keep my mind quiet for 30 minutes, which will do, for now. Trance becomes deeper with practice, I think I know what feeling to look for, although I wouldn't call it 'falling'. Body loosening was not really interesting, until today.

The exercises of bouncing and expanding beyond the physical body were easy to do, although they didn't give me a feeling of anything different. The spinning exercise was harder to do, and I found it next to impossible to spin from the right, leaving my field of vision, continuing at the left, entering. I really had to crank up my imagination to make this work, but when I managed, I not only felt the expected feeling of vertigo, but also a strong sense of floating in the air. I really expected to see myself floating above my chair when I opened my eyes, but I was still sitting. I guess this is a hopeful development.

In addition, I had the same coarse shaking sensation in my brain stem/neck I experienced before when trying out Monroe's OBE instruction. Earlier, I had seen this as a symptom of physically trying too hard, but now I wonder if it may be related to obe. Fortunately, this time I could easily take control back, and ease out of it.

Something else I noted is that with my eyes closed, even in the dark, I can see a faint shadow moving if I am waving my hand. It is too faint to recognize a hand, but there is something out there. Also, I discovered that if I close my eyes in the dark, I see faint patterns, usually attributed to my physical eye lids/retina, but this time, the patterns do not move with my eyes/head. Is this some form of astral vision developing? Any way to develop this further?

I appreciate your feedback on this...

[CFTraveler]

Activation primary energy centres has brought me no sensations worth mentioning, just very mild energy feeling. Not looking forward to force anything, I will leave this as is, hoping to make slow but steady progress. Not throbbing, no strobing, a mild pulsing, at best.

Totally normal. The main chakras feel less responsive than the limbs, possibly because the nerve endings in the torso are less sensitive to sensation in itself. But if you feel anything it's because something is happening.

s

[CinStoneCity]

I experienced lots of lucid dreams through my teenage days, after which lucidity disappeared. About ten years ago I had my last lucid dream, which has always remained with me, because I figured out through logical reasoning that the situation I found myself in was a dream, and I was totally confused when it appeared my bed was empty, while I knew I was sleeping there

I admit is is a little disappointing for me that MAP hasn't brought my lucid dreams back, despite me reciting my affirmations, being motivated. Part of the problem is that my affirmations don't seem to 'land' as I don't see myself doing reality checks on a regular basis, so there is definitely room for improvement. It wasn't until last night that I experienced another lucid dream, and it was a silly one, a moment of lucid stupidity, I guess.

In my dream, I had an appointment for a job interview, for which I had to travel by bus and by train. I could have known there was something dreamy going on, as my dream was staged in the house where I grew up, while I have moved almost 40 years ago, but I missed that reality check. For some reason, I missed my bus, which rides once every hour, which made it impossible for me to get on the train in time to get to the interview. While I was pondering my options, i.e. send an email, or forget about the interview, I found myself having coffee at the railway station. I immediately realized I had magically landed at the railway station I couldn't possibly get to by bus, and concluded this was a dream.

This is where the silliness kicks in. Instead of realizing the full potential of being lucid, I decided to 'wish' myself at the location of the job interview. I vaguely recall myself finding my way along confusing road signs, arriving at the reception of the office too early, while I could have flown across the Amazon to have fun, but that was something I thought up after waking up.

In a later dream the same night, I was walking a labyrinth, but instead of walking from start to finish, I was walking to and fro along a section of the path. As someone else explained to me in the dream, it is the journey, as opposed to the destination, which is important.

Let's just keep going.

[CinStoneCity]

I am taking a, hopefully, short break from the MAP program. I find it impossible to thoroughly relax my right hamstring: although I can easily relax it, tension returns in minutes, and I am back to square zero, which continuously forces my attention back to my body, breaking my calmness of mind. I suspect there is a minor knot/trigger point in said muscle, not so bad that it hurts, but it makes it impossible to deeply relax. A little massage revealed a sensitive spot, and already alleviated the problem. I guess I will extend my MAP routine with a soft massage.

[CinStoneCity]

It took me little longer than expected to work out the issue with my hamstring. Massage didn't really work, stretching didn't do it, but a modest leg exercise made the relevant muscle behave, nothing more than a slight warming up. In the meantime, I kept working on the basics of energy work, relaxation and mind clearing.

Last night I had a really confusing experience. I dreamed I fainted, and while unconscious, I had a lucid dream where I stood up straight with my arms crossed, and made myself fall backwards to induce an OBE. This worked like a charm, and I soon felt myself floating in a dark sea of energy. Despite my request for clarity, I couldn't see anything, possibly because there was nothing to see, and I could move around a little bit through will power. After a minute or so, I recovered from fainting, found myself on the floor before a coffee machine in university, and soon after that I woke up.

At first, I was really excited that I had managed to induce OBE from a lucid dream, but in retrospect I have no other choice but to conclude that I dreamed doing so. Disappointing, but interesting nevertheless...