Before I start writing this, I should really say that I have no problem with religion, and anyone from any walk of life can practice dream control and astral projection. But I'm going to talk about how Christianity affected my development personally.
At early 14 I was introduced to Christianity by a youth group called YFC. They took me on a free ski trip and fed to me that Christianity is something we all need. They were all very nice, happy people and I eventually I fell in with it. I was a young teen at an impressionable age, and believed I was really making a difference. I was told that astral projection, dream control and anything that the youth ministers considered occult (which literally just translates to the unknown, things we don't understand) was bad and could harm me, and I stopped practicing. I had the occasional lucid dream (more on lucid dreams later) but really stopped putting in any work to achieve this. While I was a christian I lived in something of a bubble world. We were told that temptations and doubts were caused by the devil, and that if we didn't surround ourselves by christians then the devil would find his way in. Of course, speaking symbolically this is true - if you never seperate yourself from the church, you'll never see how life could be better because you'll never experience it. At age 17 I spent some time away from the church, I was just too busy, and the more I did the more I asked myself "really, what am I doing? This isn't me! I wasn't born to follow, and I don't even believe this stuff or agree with the morals, really why am I doing this?" A christian would interpret this as the devil getting inside me due to me being away from the church. I interpret it as common sense, something I was lacking when constantly surrounded by religous songs and imagery.
So I left, promptly and spontaneously. Now as I said, anyone from any walk of life can practice astral projection, but I have to say, it was the best decision I ever made. Not just as far as astral travel and the like goes, but for my whole life. Christianity really held me back. Lots of missed opportunities concerning school, social gatherings, hobbies, friends, girlfriends and, of course, practice of things we do not understand (or occult as they'd call it). It really held me back for about three years. I met lots of lovely people but never developed in life, not even in character. When I left I had to pick up the pieces and start again from when I was thirteen.
If there's one thing I would recommend to anyone reading this it's to never, ever fully submerge yourself in a religion. If you do, you lose all judgement because you're going off someone elses rules. I've never met an open-minded christian. They never have their own opinions, they have to go with what the bible says. Christian churches commonly have something called an altar call. This is where at the end of the talk/band, they tell everyone that Christ is in the room and is ready to accept anyone that isn't a christian. If you raise your arm now you're accepting him into your life, but you have to do it now! Tomorrow is too late, submit yourself now! There's the problem, anything that says "just go for it now", especially concerning such a MASSIVE lifestyle choice is bound to be no good. If it's worth anything at all, then milling over it in your head for a while and going at it step by step is just as good as jumping in at the deep end, better infact. See I never knew a lot about the bible before I was encouraged to get involved. I never knew Jehovah was very homophobic. I never knew he killed over 33 million people in the bible. I never knew about the weird animal sacrifices he demanded, and the fasting (see: starving yourself) he asked of his disciples later. If I had known this right from the start, I wouldn't have joined. But because I just dove in then learned later, I had to accept it. Never do this. Learn everything there is to know before getting involved with any lifestyle.
The problem with christianity is that they claim that if we don't accept christ while we're alive we're going to Hell, and from there there's no turning back, so you must DO IT NOW. Any god that truly loves his people would not ask this, and he wouldn't ask that people must worship him in order to be saved. What do I think? I think you should have an open-mind, look at every religion subjectively but never commit to one unless you're 100% SURE that you relate to every aspect of it. Don't fall for the blackmail of hell or bribe of heaven. If God's love was so great he wouldn't need this punishment and prize. So keep an open-mind, look at all walks of life and live the way you see fit, not the way people tell you you MUST should you want to avoid an eternity of fire and brimstone. Be yourself. It will help you not only with the practice but with the rest of your life too.
Next post I'm going back to astral projection. I'm going to talk about what astral projection is, afterall everyone, practioner or not, tend to disagree on what is actually happening, so I'm going to give my cents but encourage you to figure out what you believe it is for yourself.
Friday 18 February 2011
Friday 11 February 2011
An introduction of sorts
Before I start going on about techniques that are useful to me, I should maybe open with a statement of what I believe astral projection is, how I came about practicing and why I still love this part of my life. I began practing when I was 12, due to a rather simple and closed article on the net. It was on a site about magic that now seems more about selling expensive and useless products like spellbooks and cauldrons, and it gave a very specific view of astral projection and the astral planes, and very direct guidelines on how to do it. It sparked my excitement and inspired me to get involved in the practice, but also held me back as I began to practice by adhering strictly to those guidelines. Quite the mistake. But something I had to learn for myself.
The technique it taught was a common one. You lay on your back, relax your whole body with you eyes closed and picture your spirit/soul rising from you towards the ceiling, and then turning over in the air and looking down at you. Then try to "see" through it's eyes. I tried this countless times, day and night, to no avail. To this day I don't know anybody that has achieved astral projection via this technique, so it really limited things for me. But, I persisted, I refused to give up.
Then, in the early hours of the morning (about 5am), and on my 13th birthday no less, I had an astral experience for the first time. I was having a strange dream about monks in a monastry, and all of a sudden I realised I was dreaming. I rarely had lucid dreams as a child, and when I did they were mostly limited to repeated false awakenings. But when I realised I was dreaming, I saw it as a great opportunity, and instinctively I "willed" my consciousness (spirit, soul, whatever you view it as) away from my body.
I can tell you, it's the most bizarre experience you could imagine. I expected it to feel like a dream. It didn't. It also didn't feel like waking reality (although was much closer to that than imagination or day dreaming), it sort of felt like being underwater. Like when you dive under at the swimming baths with goggles, stay under for 10 seconds, once you come back out it feels really different. It's hard to describe. My surroundings were even stranger.
I read that the first time you astral project you'll probably have very little control over where you go, like when a kid rides a bike for the first time and just goes all over the place. The room I was in was a dark, castle-like room with great, red stained glass windows with light shining through. My eyesight level was hovering somewhere above the floor, as though I didn't possess a body or form, I just had an....existence. In front of the windows was a silhoutted figure, it looked as though he was hooded in some way. I got the impression this figure was confused or suprised to see me, and it took a small step forward. By this point I was overwhelmed with excitement and fear that I decided it was enough and I wanted to return to my body. I knew (from an article) that's this is a very easy process, as simple as willing yourself back to your body and as soon as I even began to think about it I was lay in my bed, on my side, staring at the wall. I was also paralysed, which would have been terrifying had I not read in an article that this is perfectly normal after a successful astral journey and only lasts about ten seconds.
I still don't know what this room was or who this character was. Did I just project to a random place in all of existence? Was this some kind of "astral home"? Did I create this place? Did something else take me there? Was I taken here based off the dream of the monastry? I have no idea. But I was so excited! It was about 5:20am and I immediately jumped over to my brother in the next bunk and woke him up to tell him. I was off school that day because my dad was taking me to manchester for my birthday, and I bought a little book about astral projection from a little occult store that no longer exists.
This was my first little humble experience, and it changed my life radically. But there was more to come. My belief system and world view was shaped overtime, and in my next article I'm going to talk about a worldview that will help you massively with astral projection and the like should it be something you feel you agree with or relate to. Stay tuned, and let me know what you think about this. If you have a first astral experience you'd like to tell me about please let me know!
The technique it taught was a common one. You lay on your back, relax your whole body with you eyes closed and picture your spirit/soul rising from you towards the ceiling, and then turning over in the air and looking down at you. Then try to "see" through it's eyes. I tried this countless times, day and night, to no avail. To this day I don't know anybody that has achieved astral projection via this technique, so it really limited things for me. But, I persisted, I refused to give up.
Then, in the early hours of the morning (about 5am), and on my 13th birthday no less, I had an astral experience for the first time. I was having a strange dream about monks in a monastry, and all of a sudden I realised I was dreaming. I rarely had lucid dreams as a child, and when I did they were mostly limited to repeated false awakenings. But when I realised I was dreaming, I saw it as a great opportunity, and instinctively I "willed" my consciousness (spirit, soul, whatever you view it as) away from my body.
I can tell you, it's the most bizarre experience you could imagine. I expected it to feel like a dream. It didn't. It also didn't feel like waking reality (although was much closer to that than imagination or day dreaming), it sort of felt like being underwater. Like when you dive under at the swimming baths with goggles, stay under for 10 seconds, once you come back out it feels really different. It's hard to describe. My surroundings were even stranger.
I read that the first time you astral project you'll probably have very little control over where you go, like when a kid rides a bike for the first time and just goes all over the place. The room I was in was a dark, castle-like room with great, red stained glass windows with light shining through. My eyesight level was hovering somewhere above the floor, as though I didn't possess a body or form, I just had an....existence. In front of the windows was a silhoutted figure, it looked as though he was hooded in some way. I got the impression this figure was confused or suprised to see me, and it took a small step forward. By this point I was overwhelmed with excitement and fear that I decided it was enough and I wanted to return to my body. I knew (from an article) that's this is a very easy process, as simple as willing yourself back to your body and as soon as I even began to think about it I was lay in my bed, on my side, staring at the wall. I was also paralysed, which would have been terrifying had I not read in an article that this is perfectly normal after a successful astral journey and only lasts about ten seconds.
I still don't know what this room was or who this character was. Did I just project to a random place in all of existence? Was this some kind of "astral home"? Did I create this place? Did something else take me there? Was I taken here based off the dream of the monastry? I have no idea. But I was so excited! It was about 5:20am and I immediately jumped over to my brother in the next bunk and woke him up to tell him. I was off school that day because my dad was taking me to manchester for my birthday, and I bought a little book about astral projection from a little occult store that no longer exists.
This was my first little humble experience, and it changed my life radically. But there was more to come. My belief system and world view was shaped overtime, and in my next article I'm going to talk about a worldview that will help you massively with astral projection and the like should it be something you feel you agree with or relate to. Stay tuned, and let me know what you think about this. If you have a first astral experience you'd like to tell me about please let me know!
Sunday 6 February 2011
Introducing Astral Escape
Welcome to Astral Escape.
If you're interested in astral travel, dream control and experimenting with consciousness then this is the right place for you. I've been exploring this fascinating part of life since I was thirteen and have many experiences to share. I'm constantly learning new things and having many exciting experiences that I'd like to share. I don't want to come across a teacher, as with everything I learn it does no more than pose more questions, but this is a log of my thoughts and experiences. Some of the stuff I have come across has helped others interested in this side of life and I know it would have helped me if I had discovered it earlier on, and hopefully it will help you too.
Please post your input and your own experiences, comments are greatly appreciated and I will always try my best to reply to any questions.
If you're interested in astral travel, dream control and experimenting with consciousness then this is the right place for you. I've been exploring this fascinating part of life since I was thirteen and have many experiences to share. I'm constantly learning new things and having many exciting experiences that I'd like to share. I don't want to come across a teacher, as with everything I learn it does no more than pose more questions, but this is a log of my thoughts and experiences. Some of the stuff I have come across has helped others interested in this side of life and I know it would have helped me if I had discovered it earlier on, and hopefully it will help you too.
Please post your input and your own experiences, comments are greatly appreciated and I will always try my best to reply to any questions.
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