Passive versus Active Method of Projection

There exists a great fallacy where one thinks they have to first be mentally alert and physically awake before they can start the separation process. This is the cause of a lot of frustration as the person puts in their mind the intent to relax, and what happens is the opposite. They become aware of every twitch, every itch and actually become hyper aware instead! They proceed to measure their body’s relaxation level, weigh their progress, and analyze their depth. Their nose starts to itch and they desperately want to scratch it, but that would ruin the supposed state they are in. How can one project doing all this!?

There are only two recourses from this standard method of separation. First, you can flat out abandon "trying" to fall asleep! The more one tries, the more it eludes them. Why put ourselves through so much tumultuous efforts? If you aren't the type that can lie down, scratch your nose when it needs scratching, and just go to sleep, then abandon this method of separation. People say, "I can't relax!" or "I can't get this part to stop twitching." But this always marvels me because every one of these people manages to fall asleep every night of their life when they are not trying! See the difference? When something is held with great expectation, the excitement and tension surrounding it is increases, not wanes.

Now, what I propose to people is to abandon this whole process of "relaxing to project." What I suggest is that you realize you project anyway naturally during sleep, and to instead tackle this from another perspective - sleep itself. There have been thousands of documented cases where people think they are dreaming only to find out, what they heard, learned and saw was indeed an astral experience. I believe that dreams are just odd interpretations of our astral experiences. When we are not lucid, our subconscious mind works out daily issues, plans events for us to live through, etc. Most times we interpret these events as inconsequential, but they are always “real”, even if we don’t understand them. Now, we don't have to accept the continual Alice in Wonderland dreamscape. We can take charge of our dreams, with practice, and still enjoy the astral experience. If we take this approach, we don't have to fuss with making our body fall asleep, as that part has already occurred. What we have to learn instead, is how to go lucid from this subconscious state. We can do this in several ways.

Get a lucid dreaming mask. This (unfortunately expensive) mask detects when you are in REM and sends a signal to a set of lights to start flashing. This wakes me up, but if you're a deep sleeper, it's a great tool.
Set your alarm for some ungodly hour, such as 2:00 a.m. Wake up and stay awake for one hour. When you go back to sleep, you often become lucid or even project.
Start saying affirmations that you will become aware during your sleep. Saturate your subconscious mind with lucid dreaming books. Look at your hands during the day and question if you are dreaming.
Try a lucid dreaming herb (check under my aids link).

Tips:

Avoid alcohol and drugs as these make you sleep deeply, thus making lucidity that much harder to attain.
Don't go to bed so late that you just zonk out. Deep sleep is what you want to avoid. A very tired body won't ever go lucid (or very rarely).

Note that this is not easy. No matter which angle we take, work will have to be done. All your life, you’ve passed the sleep time oblivious to what is really going on. The subconscious mind has controlled this aspect of you since birth. Regaining that control is not something that happens over night. No matter how ridiculous the situation, the critical faculty just isn’t operative! Simple repetitive questioning is what will get you to realize you’re dreaming. And then control is consciously yours!

In summary, if we waited for the stressed out body to fall asleep at a time when it just doesn't feel like it, we could be waiting years and years to enjoy the subtle realm. If you're like the rest of us with work, school, commutes, bills, relationships, etc., more than likely you're going to have to switch methods to a more passive one.

Good luck,
Anne

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