To me it means to become aware that I’m dreaming. Waking up in my dreams and being able to control and express in other worlds. And the wonderful freedom I experience.
Imagine being able to walk through walls, levitate, fly, breathe underwater, communicate with other beings, heal and many other experiences that are only known from Hollywood movies.
And imagine how I felt after being lucid for the first time in a dream. I was so excited and I wanted more of those experiences. The existence of other states of mind was confirmed that night and a whole new world opened up to me.
This happened when I was in the beginning of my 20s. At this point I had just found out about the movie Out on a limb, by Shirley Maclaine. In the movie she had an out of body experience while sitting in a hot spring in a village near Machu Picchu in Peru. That fascinated me and really caught my attention. I wanted to have that kind of experience too. To experience other worlds – and it was achievable. I had to know more.
I came across Robert Monroe’s books about out of body experiences and how to have them. I read all of his books in a few days. He described the theory and also the sound technology used that was able to produce such results. I learnt that way about human brain waves and when we experience them. The theta brainwave frequency around 4 Hz caught my attention. I learnt about binaural beats and Hemi Sync and I found ways to produce those sounds myself using sound generator software. I started learning about different states of mind induced by different sounds. I experimented a lot with different sound frequencies and how they affected me. I wanted to have that first out of body experience.
Eventually one day, when I had let go of my expectations, it happened.
I still remember the odd feeling of seeing my own body sleeping in my bed. At first I had a false awakening and I thought I had woken up to go to the toilet. I was sitting on my bed and stood up to walk and noticed that it felt different than it used to. Somehow it made me turn around and become more aware of my surroundings. I noticed that everything was familiar in my bedroom and it was then that I saw a person laying in my bed, sleeping. A mix of fear, disbelief, joy, and confusion rushed over me when I realized it was myself. All the sudden excitement ended the experience immediately and I was back in my body.
I couldn’t believe what I had just experienced. I could now personally confirm that paranormal phenomena was real and out of body experiences in particular were even attainable.
I started chasing out of body experiences experimenting with my own set of sound frequencies and I had a handful of experiences very shortly thereafter during the nights. I managed to be able to go out of my body and experience the same 3d bedroom as my physical self but I had to deal with a lot of fear and new sensations so my OOBEs didn’t last that long. On one occasion I managed to connect to a spirit guide whom manifested in front of me in my bedroom. Too much excitement again and it pulled me directly back into my body. I woke up in my bed and started looking in the direction of where I had seen the spirit but nothing was visible.
I had a huge smile on my face because of my encounter while also feeling disappointed that I had missed an opportunity to experience my first communication with the invisible world because I got too excited.
I realized I had to learn to stay calm in those states in order to be able to do anything useful. I needed more control over my mind so I started reading about meditation, self-hypnosis, lucid dreaming, and the power of the mind. I ended up taking an education as an NLP practitioner and I got to understand myself and the physical world a bit better.
I still chased the “real” OOBE where I could see my body in my bed. All other experiences like vivid dreams didn’t matter to me. It had to be real.
At the time I was living in central Copenhagen in an apartment on the 2nd floor. There were many young people like myself living in that area.
One day in particular, I remember laying in my bed going into trance when I heard a loud roaring sound of what sounded like a large truck driving over my body. The vibrations pushed me out of my body and I was standing next to my bed in my bedroom. I kept my cool and stayed calm, just observing my surroundings. Bed, body, flooring, walls – all good. I wanted to go exploring.
Immediately after that thought, I felt a wind that pushed me away from my body. I hadn’t experienced that before so I resisted and tried to stay in my bedroom but the wind or push was too strong. I had to stop resisting and let go.
Also, that became my first experience flying effortlessly through the brick wall to my living room and feeling the dusty mortar and the dense material of bricks. I had been pushed through a wall without getting hurt and I was floating in the living room feeling the wind becoming even stronger. I let go and decided to go with the flow and flew through several walls and other people’s bedrooms and I saw my apartment building from above, my street, the other buildings, and then everything became a haze.
I remember staying as awake and as calm as I could and when I was able to see again, I was in a primitive home carved into a cliff. When I looked around, the place felt very familiar and cozy and as a place I had once called home. I was suddenly aware of a man in the room and he called me over. He greeted me with a big smile on his face as he said “Welcome back”. He looked so familiar and I felt a rush of love flowing into me.
Bang! I was back in my body laying in my bed with my eyes wide open and still feeling the strong vibration of love. The feeling stayed with me for many days. As did the new feeling of passing through solid material as well as the awkward feeling of invading other people’s privacy when flying past them on my way through their walls.
A few days later, I started noticing a change in the vibrations I could feel when in the trance state. I found out that by letting my body get a full night’s rest, when I woke up from my sleep I kept my eyes closed and my body relaxed and I was able to roll out of my body. Sometimes I was only able to get one arm out and with that energy arm I had to pull my other body parts out of my heavy body as if they were clay.
To this day, having experienced this many times now, I still have no clue why that happens sometimes.
As I was now more trained in achieving these states and my fears of the unknown diminished, I had better chances of exploring my local neighborhood surrounding my apartment.
I remember a night when I could hear my young neighbors having fun in their bedroom which was just on the other side of my bedroom wall. Only the thick brick wall separated us.
Me being curious I decided to go out of my body and slowly flow through the dusty mortar and bricks to finally reach my neighbors bedroom just letting my head peek out through the wall. They were naked and the woman was on her back with the man on top. I don’t know how long I watched but it came to a sudden halt when the young woman suddenly stared right at me.
Bang! Back into my body and I heard the couple loudly leaving their bedroom in a rush. I remember the excitement of my new adventure passing through physical matter. I also do remember the fear of being recognized on the street by the young woman and just imagining the range of thoughts going through her head. Luckily, I never met her again.
When I had let go of my expectations on how a real OOBE should be, new experiences started coming.
One morning after a full night’s rest, I was laying in my bed with my head to the wall. I had gotten used to taking advantage of the rested body and the mind awake state, so I kept my eyes closed and I made sure I didn’t move my body. Somehow it was easy for me to slip into the trance state again with the ability to go somewhere. That morning I had more confirmations coming my way.
I felt the lightness of my body and soon after I felt myself detached from my physical body but still laying in the bed. Through the wall, I saw and felt hands grabbing me on my shoulders and gently pulling my energy body through the wall, head first. By now I had enough experience with these states that I just followed along without resisting or questioning what was going on. When I had passed through my bedroom wall, I became aware of two women in gray tight silver suits holding my body and examining it.
First of all I was disoriented because I was in a large room with ambient light and there was a silver-feeling about that place. The room felt organic and the walls alive and I felt safe. My logical mind had a hard time processing what was happening because in 3d I knew what was on the other side of my wall that I had just effortlessly passed through.
I was startled as I felt an extraterrestrial feeling about these beautiful beings. They spoke with each other in a language I understood and somehow I picked up their conversation about me. They looked at me and smiled and said “He’s not ready yet” and then they pushed me back through the wall and into my body again.
I woke up immediately with tears of joy running down my cheeks. Contact was made. And I couldn’t help feeling disappointed as well. How dare they say that I wasn’t ready? I imagined all sorts of scenarios of visiting other planets, flying in their UFO around the universe. And they denied me that experience? How rude!
It wasn’t until days later after reflecting a lot on the experience that I noticed that I hadn’t seen them move their lips when they spoke. I got goosebumps when I realized I had just first handedly experienced telepathy.
Also in that apartment, I had another really fascinating encounter with non-human entities. It was early morning and I gathered that I had just come out of a sleep cycle and it was too early to get up. So I decided to stay in my bed, closed my eyes and drifted into the trance state that I had gotten used to.
Shortly thereafter I heard two high pitched voices in my bedroom. WIth my energy body, I raised my head to see if I could see anything unusual in my bedroom. Everything looked normal to me and I couldn’t understand where the voices came from. Suddenly two small human looking kids walked through the wall, still having a casual conversation and they walked up to me intentionally and stood beside my bed. They were the size of small children at the age of 5 years but when I looked at their faces, a lot of wisdom and love was emanating from their eyes. One was female and the other one male. They wore normal clothes and were perhaps a bit chubby. Almost like adult dwarves but shorter.
They weren’t surprised that I could see them. It felt as if I was supposed to meet them because they told me a story about how proud they were of me and my progress.
My logical mind kicked in and still being a bit unfamiliar with these unusual experiences I started asking questions about their intentions. I remember asking if they came from the light, which I understood as something divine and loving opposed to the dark side. The female was a bit surprised by my question and I got the distinct feeling that they didn’t have any idea what I was talking about. As if evil or darkness was an unknown concept to them. I remember feeling a bit ashamed of asking but I also felt a relief that such limitation was solely my own and darkness and light might just be a human conditioning thing.
Both of them gave me the impression that I was known in the universe and that I was loved and appreciated. I also got the feeling that my progress was being monitored and somewhere in the universal community my progress was being celebrated and they were the messengers that day.
Again I was baffled and I just went with the flow of the event. After that I let go and stopped trying to predict what would happen afterwards. After they had delivered their message to me, they wandered off again cheerfully out of my bedroom from where they came – through the wall to my neighbor.
Again, I woke up with tears of joy in my eyes, totally confused and happy at the same time. I got out of my bed and decided to check the part of the wall where they had walked through. Solid, of course.
Because of the nature of that experience I only shared it with a few people with whom I felt safe. The fear of being ridiculed became apparent to me but luckily it didn’t stop me from exploring further.
Looking back at these kinds of experiences 30 years later, I’ve come up with some tips and tricks on how to achieve these states of mind. Most of it is about your mindset and your approach; becoming aware of limiting beliefs and the ability to let go.
How to astral project
The freedom you can experience when you are in control of your dreams… Oh, all those adventures waiting ahead. But, how do you actually astral project and what are the steps to achieve it?
My first tool I used was the audio cassettes from The Monroe Institute, for the Gateway Experience program. And I had read the books so I knew what to expect when listening to the tones in my ears. The Monroe Institute called the sound technology Hemi-Sync and I liked exploring this sound technology with headphones.
I had beautiful experiences when I finally let go of my expectations and some of the heavier fears about the unknown territory I was exploring.
Fear is a killer and affects us in many ways including our ability to explore astral projection. For me it was a balance between my hunger for adventure and my fear of the unknown.
One of the tools I learnt about to deal with fears was a technique invented by Robert Monroe, where you use your imagination to create a safe place to store the bad stuff. It is a mind tool he called an Energy Conversion Box in which you put all your concerns and fears so they don’t distract. That is one of the first steps in his method. Also as part of the first steps, Robert speaks these powerful words:
“I am more than my physical body. Because I am more than physical matter, I can perceive that which is greater than the physical world.
Therefore, I deeply desire: to expand, to experience, to know, to understand, to control, and to use such greater energies and energy systems as may be beneficial and constructive to me and to those who follow me.
Also, I deeply desire the help and cooperation, the assistance, the understanding of those individuals whose wisdom, development and experience are equal to or greater than my own.
I ask for their guidance and protection from any influence or any source that might provide me with less than my stated desires”
Recently at a Monroe course I met someone who had invented a suction function on the energy conversion box so all interfering stuff was automatically sucked into the box. That’s power of the mind and practical imagination.
Talking about sound technology, there are several other sound experience options on Youtube if you search for binaural beats or isochronic tones.
Every day practices
In astral projection you have no physical body. The mind however manifests the body in our dreams including our assumptions about physicality. We’re here to bust the assumptions.
Let me explain something I call reality checks or dream triggers. It’s a learnt behavior that when observed and experienced in a dream can trigger you to realize you are dreaming.
Do these exercises as often as you like. Repetition is the key here. I’ve found out that we take memories of our daily activities with us when we are dreaming. If you perform these reality checks several times a day, you will most probably be repeating them in your dreams as well – but with unexpected results and that is what we are looking for. That will trigger you and awaken you in the dream world.
Here are some of my go-to reality checks.
You can pass through walls effortlessly if you decide to. Place your hand on a wall and push it through the wall with the intention to penetrate it. Repeat several times. If your hand disappears into the wall, you’re dreaming and can go exploring.
This one is an easy practice you can do without looking like someone whom was just released from a mental institution. It’s called finger through palm. Try to push one finger through your palm.
Clocks and texts on signs and street names in the astral projection experience is another anomaly. In your everyday life, make it a habit to read things with texts on them like street names or bill boards. First notice the street name and then look away and read the sign again. If the text has changed, it’s a clear sign that you’re dreaming. Or drunk.
Look into a mirror. Your reflection looks different or distorted in dreams. As a side note, I can attest that mirrors are magical. Portals if you dare to imagine it.
Wave your hands in front of you and then count your fingers. If you don’t get the expected result either visually or when counting, you’re on your way.
Reality checks can be done at all times when you remember it. As I said, repetition is key.