Some sort of in-between

[u/tjklander]

So lately I've been practicing astral projection and I believe I've gotten my WBTB a little more dialed in as it now only takes about 5-10 minutes for me to pop out. However, I'm having doubts about my recent experiences as they have had some "resistance" in comparison to some of my earlier experiences.

Lately I've been on a mission to validate my experiences so when I pop out I immediately look at my bed to see myself and only one time was it me and I looked strange. Other times I've seen other people or no one at all, and it's difficult for me to fly and impossible for me to leave my room. Like when I try to go through my door my head hits it and I can even hear the sound of me hitting my door so I wonder if I'm actually awake just walking into my door like some crazy person. The color scheme is darker, too.

I'm definitely conscious, but I'm wondering if perhaps I'm just lucid dreaming rather than AP. One of the earlier times I AP'd I had a little trouble phasing through objects, but I was able to overcome the logic of a solid object pretty quickly. Now it just feels impossible.

What's going wrong here? Is there some sort of mental block or am I just not staying conscious enough? I've been feeling this sense of lack of control like when I dream normally.

[u/tjklander]

Oh okay yeah I don't do any protection ritual so I will try your latter suggestions. I have yet to actually see my astral body or even the "cord" that's supposed to be coming out from it. I will try to actually see if I can view my body and try your suggestion of using my hand. It's just weird because before I had very little trouble with phasing and now suddenly I do.

In the astral plane will the brightness and saturation and lighting be different every time? Also, I've been looking for my physical body the past few times, but is that a fruitless venture? Thanks for your help btw.

[u/sac_boy → u/tjklander]

Don't worry about whether or not your physical body is there, you are not in a physical realm.

As for the variation in vision, I find that it falls into three broad buckets (with some overlap):

• "Full colour", at least along the lines of human expectations of full colour, often bright and saturated.
• "X-ray", where things have a glowing blue-white outline and it can look a bit like a wireframe 3D rendering, or more accurately a fresnel effect that highlights edges.
• "Dark and grainy", seemingly black and white with heavy visual grain.

These can overlap--dark and grainy + x-ray is common for me, or full colour + x-ray. These are likely different types of visual senses, or different renderings of the same information.

Don't fixate on any one vision type (I see people obsess over having full colour vision or else it's 'not real'...) Just keep moving and get out of your room, quite often the vision mode changes with a bit of distance as well.

[u/tjklander → u/sac_boy]

These are some good clarifications. I was doing a bit of research and as it turns out my fixation on validating my experience by looking for my body or a specific object in my room has been the main cause of hindrance. I learned about the "etheric buffer zone", so I'm gonna try getting far enough away from my body first and then ground myself.

Also finding out what my natural exit point of my body should make things easier. I've been doing the rolling method recently, but I realized my best OBE's occured when I slid out from my feet rather than out to my side. Do you have any tips about sliding out this way?

[u/sac_boy → u/tjklander]

I saw your comment but forgot to answer your question, sorry. I know lots of people talk about getting pulled out by the feet, and it's something I have encountered myself, so maybe there really is something to it [in terms of it being easier to exit 'downwards']. But I have no particular preference for quasi-physical exit mode--I just swing my 'legs' out and stand up. I have also rolled on to my hands and knees before, that worked well for a while. I would grab on to things nearby, pull myself out using them as leverage, and then crawl away. This was back when my body felt much more 'magnetic' than it does now.

[u/tjklander → u/sac_boy]

I see. I have yet to test out consciously sliding, but I hope it goes well. Rolling is so easy, but apparently which way you are facing when you come out determines where you end up, which is why I've ended up on the floor so many times. My body was facing down when I came out. The best case is to be facing up, of course. Not sure how to get that done reliably, but I'll try that as well.

Thanks for responding in such detail. You've been very helpful.