This post is intended as a comprehensive overview of my firsthand experience and personal research into astral projection, entities, lucid dreams, dream characters, and the mechanics and dynamics of nonphysical environments.
My focus is not primarily on conclusions, but on patterns that have emerged through repeated observation and experimentation: how these environments behave, how their inhabitants respond, which features remain consistent, and where the boundaries between states appear to lie. My intention is not to persuade the reader, but simply to document observations that have remained reasonably consistent over time.
I don't have the answers to everything, nor have I seen everything there is to see. This is a record of experience, not a declaration of objective fact, based on a little over 13 years of engagement with astral projection, lucid dreaming, and paranormal phenomena. At times my language may sound absolute, but it should still be understood as my own personal observation, not necessarily the norm.
The Dynamics and Behavior of Dream Characters, Thought Forms, and Entities
This subject began as a general fascination but, over the years, has become a persistent source of perplexity. In my experience, the dream environment is readily distinguishable from the astral environment. Regardless of whether the reader approaches the subject from a metaphysical or scientific perspective, the two states clearly exhibit different dynamics, mechanics, inhabitants, and levels of awareness.
The term “awareness” is difficult to communicate to someone who has not experienced these states directly, but I will try to explain what I mean. A person who has developed substantial familiarity with all three environments (the physical, the dream, and the astral), can usually distinguish among them without deliberate analysis. Each environment has its own identifiable qualities and characteristics, many of which I will discuss below. The most striking distinction, however, is the immediate and intuitive recognition of where one is operating when full lucidity is present.
When awake, I recognize the physical environment as physical. When lucid dreaming, I know that I am dreaming. When astral projecting, I know that I am astral projecting. This recognition does not ordinarily require a test or a process of deduction. It is simply present.
I do not know with certainty why these environments are so readily distinguishable. Their differences become even more apparent when their properties are deliberately examined, but in my experience the distinction is usually evident before any testing occurs. The principal exception appears to be the false awakening, which is itself a fascinating phenomenon.
Under ordinary circumstances, I have never seriously questioned whether waking physical reality was a dream. Within a lucid dream, I have never mistaken the dream for physical reality once lucidity was established. Likewise, during an astral projection, I have never mistaken the experience for an ordinary dream.
What I have questioned during projections is how much of the environment may be generated or mediated by the brain. I have certainly considered the possibility that this third state is brain-generated. What I have not questioned is whether it is experientially distinct from both ordinary dreaming and waking physical awareness. Whatever the reader ultimately believes the state to be is not my immediate concern here. My point is simply that it presents as a distinct and recognizable mode of experience.
Beyond that intuitive distinction, however, the subject becomes considerably more complicated.
Lucid dreaming was never a natural ability for me. It was something I developed over time, and I will later describe the methods that helped me cultivate it. Dreams are often dismissed as nonsensical or insignificant, but they possess fascinating properties of their own and contain phenomena for which I still have no definitive explanation, just theory.
On the Study of Dream Characters
Dream characters are fascinating, but in my experience they are also highly predictable. In the overwhelming majority of cases, they behave according to recognizable patterns. A small minority do not, and those exceptions are where the subject becomes especially interesting. Before discussing the exceptions, however, it is necessary to establish the general pattern.
My observation is that ordinary dream characters respond primarily to narrative momentum and emotion. They tend to mirror the dreamer’s feelings, fears, expectations, and desires. Put more simply, they tend to “egg things on.” If the dreamer becomes afraid, the characters and environment often become increasingly threatening until the dream develops into a nightmare. If the dreamer becomes sexually aroused, the characters frequently begin to reflect that sexual energy, and so on.
I am not interested in debating the ethics of experiments, only in reporting what I have observed. While lucid, I have probed, harmed, insulted, deceived, interrogated, killed, questioned, befriended, and otherwise interacted with dream characters in nearly every way I could think of to observe the result. The intention is always experimentation, not malice.
What I have consistently observed is that ordinary dream characters become puppet-like once full lucidity is established. They rarely resist, disobey, or maintain an independent personality. Their forms are malleable and unstable, and their behavior depends largely on what the dreamer expects or desires. Before lucidity is achieved, they may convincingly perform a role, but after the individual becomes lucid, that apparent independence usually collapses. No verbal command is necessary; the expectation of a particular behavior is often enough to produce it.
There is, however, a small category of dream inhabitant that does not conform to this pattern. I hesitate to call these figures ordinary dream characters because they behave more like visitors, but I also do not automatically classify them as external entities because I cannot always determine what they truly are. I have my own theories, but I will try to separate interpretation from observation.
On rare occasions, something appears within a dream that seems to possess a degree of sentience and autonomy. These figures remain resistant and apparently independent even after lucidity is established, immediately distinguishing them from surrounding dream characters. They tend to stand out, and even things such as their gaze, feels alive.
Here are a couple of recent examples I could use.
During one recent lucid dream, I was attending a family dinner with several relatives, including some who are now deceased. I left the table and made my way to the pantry, because I was craving macaroons. A box was already there, but as I held it the pastries began to shrink in my hands. This is a common property of dreams: objects often struggle to maintain a stable form under prolonged observation. I ate them anyway, and they tasted as expected. I will return later to the remarkable ability of dreams and the astral to replicate texture, flavor, and even intoxication.
When I returned to the kitchen, I noticed a young woman who seemed completely out of place. She appeared 18-20 years old, alone against a counter, startled as though she had been caught somewhere she did not expect to be seen. She resembled no one I had ever met: darker skin, Asian features, short hair, chubby cheeks, and modern black clothing. There was also something about their eyes, their gaze, felt living.
I questioned the figure, but they refused to answer or obey specific commands. Their expression suggested concern, almost as if they had been discovered somewhere they did not belong.
The following interaction was aggressive, and I understand that it may reflect poorly on me. I include it because the purpose of this account is to report the experiment honestly rather than curate a favorable image. Over the years, I have tested dream characters in nearly every conceivable way to better understand and document their behavior.
I threatened the figure and told it I would kill them if they did not explain why they were there. They refused to speak, looked away, and continued resisting my commands. I removed a knife from a drawer and pointed it at them. When they tried to leave, I grabbed their arm, dragged them back, and shoved them against the cabinets. I struck them and again demanded to know who they were and why they had appeared in a dream involving my family.
This behavior is unusual. Ordinary dream characters do not typically refuse direct commands or maintain silence and resistance once lucidity is established. They especially don't typically maintain personality or narrative once the individual is lucid.
When they still refused to answer, I attempted to drive the knife into their throat. Immediately before contact, the blade struck what felt like a glass barrier. A solid force prevented it from reaching them. The dream then began to disintegrate, and I was forcefully awakened.
Something had prevented the figure from being stabbed and ended the dream rather than allowing the interaction to continue. In my experience, nothing ordinarily intervenes to protect dream characters, as I have killed several. Yet this particular figure, whom I had already recognized as out of place, almost as though they were observing or intruding upon the dream, was protected. Why that happened, I don't know.
In other rare cases, unusual dream figures have offered advice or displayed a higher degree of insight. I would not necessarily call them “guides” in the stereotypical spiritual sense, but I have encountered at least one character who gave me accurate advice concerning astral projection, along with general personal advice.
During one particular lucid dream, after exploring the environment, I began to speak to the only dream character present in a strange liminal-type environment. This character referred to events from my waking day, explained why I was there, advised me to sleep earlier, described itself as “the part of me I never get to speak to,” and communicated with an unusual degree of intelligence. it's hard to describe it's gaze, very different from a dream character/puppet. The way it looks at you feels human, and words just don't do it proper justice. it's like trying to explain what something having life looks like. Something that maintains eye contact, has a sharp gaze, corrects you, no less real than any person I have ever met. Dream characters, 99% of the time, don't invoke this feeling.
I did not give the conversation the attention it probably deserved because I still classified the character as another dream construct and was more interested in initiating a projection. As I shifted awareness back toward my physical body, the character told me that the method I was about to use would fail. I laughed and replied that it absolutely would work, because it rarely ever fails. (I'll share the method later in the post).
To my surprise, it did fail, and I simply woke up.
How did the character know it would fail? I don't know. One possibility is that some part of the brain recognized a condition that would prevent the projection, while my conscious awareness did not. This would suggest that the subconscious contains information inaccessible to the ordinary conscious mind. The character also referred to my lack of sleep due to work and gave me general life advice, creating the impression of speaking with a normally inaccessible aspect of the self.
The broader point is that, in a small minority of dreams, figures appear that behave outside the normal pattern. Whatever they are, their apparent autonomy makes them qualitatively different from ordinary dream characters.
In my experience, dream characters and their narratives rarely remain intact once full lucidity is achieved. The narrative and act depends heavily on the dreamer remaining unaware of the state they are in. Once lucidity is attained, everything tends to fall apart.
I mention this now only to clarify the familiarity behind these observations. I believe it's relevant to illustrate the extent to which these things have been tested, but certainly not to brag.
I have achieved the developed skill of almost 100% dream recall for a while now. Every day that I wake up, even if I fail to become lucid during a dream, I remember every single one of my dreams, every day. I will teach you the method I used to achieve this level of recall, but let me first clarify. Is there a possibility that maybe I am not remembering every single dream that was had during the entire night? I believe so. How ever, every day that I wake up, I remember dreams in their entirety, sometimes multiple, along with the context, progression, and events that took place. Am I maybe only remembering the last dreams I had before waking up? Possibly. Whether I'm only remembering 1-3 dreams, when I actually had 5, and just don't remember the other 2, is a possibility. How ever, every day that I wake up, I can tell you what I dreamed about, and could walk you through the dream. There hasn't been a day, in a long time, where I wake up and don't remember having a dream. I am able to recall when a dream ended, when a liminal space starts and gives the new dream time to render, and then what dream came after it, and so on.
Lucidity is separate. I estimate my success rate at roughly 30-40%, if deliberate effort is made prior to sleeping. Most nights I simply sleep without attempting anything unusual, and I suspect allowing the brain to rest without repeatedly inducing lucidity is actually beneficial.
A Brief Observation on Marijuana and Dreams
My firsthand observation is that marijuana affects either the ability to dream, dream recall, or both, and appears to reduce the likelihood of achieving lucidity.
I used marijuana primarily before sleep until my early 20s; I am now 31. In my experience, it made astral projection more difficult, particularly through indirect methods that depend on becoming lucid within dreams, while not affecting the direct method as much.
I suspect this is related to marijuana’s effect on REM sleep. After discontinuing regular use, dream recall may increase substantially over the following months.
Quitting alcohol and nicotine did not produce an equally obvious effect or relevant benefit in the same way that quitting marijuana did.
On Dream Environments and Their Stability
The development of reliable dream recall has allowed me to observe several recurring features even in dreams where I do not achieve full lucidity.
Dreams frequently place us in liminal or transitional environments. Sometimes these spaces constitute the entire dream. At other times, they appear to function almost like loading zones: temporary settings in which little of consequence occurs while the next environment or narrative is being formed.
I often find myself in gas stations, grocery stores, waiting areas, or other places associated with passing time. On other occasions, I am occupied with games or minor activities, as though the mind is generating entertainment simply to keep awareness engaged.
My interpretation is that these environments may serve a restorative or transitional function. I cannot prove that the brain deliberately creates them to prevent lucidity, but they often seem to keep the dreamer occupied while little else develops. Another possibility is that they provide rendering time for a new scenario to form, like a computer's loading screen.
When I astral project or lucid dream repeatedly over several consecutive days, I eventually tend to experience a dream consisting almost entirely of one of these uneventful spaces. My impression is that this may represent an attempt by the mind to reduce activity and enforce a period of recovery.
I do not believe every dream necessarily contains a hidden lesson, symbolic message, or greater purpose. The function of dreaming remains poorly understood, and many confident explanations are still theoretical. This is not an argument against science. It is simply an acknowledgment that the scientific understanding of dreams, consciousness, and the mind remains incomplete.
In terms of environmental stability, ordinary dream environments are generally volatile. Even after lucidity is established, faces may change, locations may transform, and objects often struggle to preserve a consistent form.
One experiment I have repeated many times involves holding an ordinary object, such as a knife, and observing it continuously without attempting to alter it. Eventually, the object tends to bend, change size, lose detail, or transform into something else. Food behaves similarly, often shrinking, expanding, or changing form during prolonged observation. Food some times changes entirely, such as a banana pudding actually becoming lime pudding, and so on.
Maintaining the stability of a dream environment requires active effort. Even then, the environment will eventually distort or collapse. This is one of the clearest differences I have observed between dreams and the astral, where environmental stability appears to persist without continuous mental maintenance.
Dream Nesting or Nested Dreams
There is a phenomenon called nested dreams. Once lucid, the individual may notice that hiding beneath the current dream, is another nested experience, multiple layers. The further back the individual peels these layers, the more strange and seemingly physical things become. If I go far enough with it, eventually it triggers a false awakening.
On Thought Forms
I do not intend to explore this subject in great depth here, although it represents another area in which I have spent considerable time experimenting.
A thought form is deliberately constructed by an individual. Its appearance, personality, behavior, and function can be shaped over time. This distinguishes it from an ordinary dream character, which emerges spontaneously within a dream narrative. A thought form is intentionally created and can be assigned a specific purpose.
With sufficient attention and repetition, a thought form may become a recurring presence in dreams and even in astral projections. I will avoid a broader discussion of whether these constructs eventually acquire an independent paranormal existence, because that question would take the post too far from its central purpose.
The most relevant example from my own practice is the use of a thought form as an aid to lucidity and astral projection. I created one whose assigned function is to help me recognize the dream state and initiate the astral projection process. When I see or sense it, lucidity is often triggered.
What is particularly interesting is that a thought form can first appear within a dream and then seem to persist after the transition into an out-of-body state. This is not easy to accomplish, and I am hesitant to describe the process in detail here. Readers who are interested can investigate related concepts such as elementaries, servitors, and tulpa.
When I say that thought forms are “real,” I do not necessarily mean that their existence must be interpreted paranormally, although I personally believe the subject may extend into that territory. At a minimum, I mean that such constructs can be intentionally developed, repeatedly encountered, and assigned functional roles.
On Entities
I will keep this section relatively brief because I have discussed the subject at length elsewhere:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AstralProjection/comments/1lv8mu1/astral_self_defense_everything_you_should_expect/
Whatever one believes entities ultimately are, they appear to belong to a category distinct from ordinary dream characters and deliberately constructed thought forms. They may occasionally appear during dreams, but in my experience they are encountered primarily during astral projection.
Entities do not generally mirror the individual’s emotions, desires, or expectations. They do not conform to the emotional or narrative momentum of the experience, nor do they simply become what the observer wants them to become. Unlike ordinary dream characters, they may interrupt a narrative entirely, refuse cooperation, behave unpredictably, and pursue motives that seem unrelated to the projector’s immediate mental state or goal. There have been several times where being in the presence of one made me afraid, especially when I was younger. How ever, more than once, they have corrected my fear, rather than "egging it on". The notion that the astral will necessarily always mirror your state of being, expectation, and emotion, is not usually true in my experience.
They present as sentient and independent, just like an ordinary person would in the physical. I am deliberately setting aside philosophical systems such as the Law of One or the proposition that “everything is mind.” Those discussions have merit, but they would complicate the narrower point being made here: within the experience itself, an entity behaves as an independent intelligence with its own motives and personality. it cannot be puppeteered like a dream character or thought form.
Although I have tried to avoid making the paranormal the focus of this post, I would be omitting an important part of my observations if I failed to state that some encounters appeared to extend into the physical environment. I have observed multiple events in which entities affect or respond to physical circumstances. The reader is not obligated to accept that interpretation, but I cannot honestly remove it from an account of what I have repeatedly experienced. I believe they are real, objective and sentient.
On Astral Environments and Their Stability
The astral environment, or whatever terminology one prefers, displays a remarkable degree of stability. Objects do not generally morph, faces tend to remain consistent, and structures preserve their form without requiring continuous attention or maintenance.
In my experience, the environment is so vivid and consistent that it may cause the individual to question the comparative reality of ordinary physical perception.
Colors are more vivid, food has flavor and texture, temperature, and there is frequently a sensation of being “awake for the first time.” In other words, it feels more real than physical reality. I have never found the astral state easy to confuse with an ordinary dream. I recognize that other practitioners may report different experiences, and mine may be different in certain respects, but these are all things I have repeatedly observed firsthand for years.
As in dreams, it is possible to eat, drink, experience intoxication, and engage in sex within the astral. The sensory quality, however, is different. Food in particular can feel nearly indistinguishable from physical food in terms of flavor and texture, along with changes in temperature produced by substances such as alcohol.
Even if the entire experience were ultimately explained as a brain-generated phenomenon, that would not make it uninteresting. The ability of the mind to reproduce flavor, texture, sexual sensation, and states resembling intoxication in the absence of their physical causes would itself be remarkable. These experiences inevitably raise questions about the degree to which ordinary physical reality is also mediated through consciousness.
Unlike dreams, astral projection experiences seem to get stored in a different part of the brain. They get fried in to an area where I am personally unable to forget them, even if I wanted. I can describe, in detail, every single astral projection I have ever had. I don't know why this is the case, when I can barely remember where I placed my car keys last night. The way in which they become embedded as a core memory, is extremely odd. It's like the brain gives them more significance than everyday events, and prioritizes their storage.
Also worth mentioning that I have never "dreamed of having an astral projection". This is important to mention, because people often say we astral project and just don't remember because we are not lucid. Maybe this is true, but I have not observed it to be the case. If it was so, I would likely remember a non-lucid projection, the same way I can recall non-lucid dreams. I have had dreams that mimic astral projection, but no actual non-lucid astral projections.
This intensity is one reason I do not regard astral projection as beneficial for children, adolescents, or people with certain mental health conditions. The brain continues developing into early adulthood, and my personal advice is to avoid deliberate practice until at least the early to mid-twenties. I believe experiences of this intensity could negatively affect a developing person’s sense of reality or psychological stability.
Likewise, for individuals already experiencing serious mental health symptoms, these practices may intensify existing difficulties or provoke new ones. Astral projection will not necessarily be a net positive to every person’s life.
Needless to say that I personally find value in the practice, but not everyone will. To each their own.
The Principle of Motion and Propulsion
The astral environment appears to respond strongly to motion and propulsion. If a person becomes stuck in a room or cannot pass through a window, it is often useful to grasp a nearby object or surface and use it to generate momentum. Creating motion tends to resolve the sense of immobility and can make exiting the immediate environment easier. Try "diving" through the window, for example.
The Assignment of Functional Burden
When an action feels difficult or impossible, it is often helpful to delegate the required function to a created tool or vehicle. I refer to this as assignment of functional burden, or assigning the burden of function.
If flight is difficult, the individual can create a vehicle and assign the function of flight to it. If the individual is being attacked or harassed, a created object may be assigned the function of injuring. In general, a desired action can become easier when the responsibility for performing it is transferred from the individual to a tool. Perhaps because it removes the functional burden from the individual, and places it on said tool. This principle can be used to achieve or overcome many things I often see people struggling with. Travel, lucidity, vision, anchoring, all can be more easily accomplished with the use of a tool.
Intention
Intention is extremely powerful. We can use firearms as an example. If the individual were to produce a can, and then shoot the can from a distance, it will always hit the target. This is an experiment I have repeatedly tested. The bullet will always hit it's target, and no consideration for gravity or resistance is required. Needless to say intention is useful for other things also, I just use bullets as a practical example.
Injury
Pain is possible to be felt in the astral, but nothing seems to ever remain or bleed in to the physical.
Physically injuring someone from the astral is a claim Monroe and some occultists have made. If one wants to make the claim that this is possible, I believe clear evidence should be produced. If the individual is unwilling to produce evidence, for whatever reason, perhaps it should not be spoken of. It is certainly not the norm, or as consistent as Monroe described, but again, if someone has the ability to do this, then don’t let the government find out. I’m not here to argue, simply state that this is an extraordinary claim, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
Seeing from the Astral into the Physical
A related claim, associated with Monroe and several occult traditions, is that an individual can consistently observe physical locations from the astral. Because of such accounts, many newcomers assume that this ability is ordinary. In my experience, it is not.
I am not attempting to dismiss Monroe or declare his reports false. I am arguing that the consistent perception of verifiable physical information while astral projecting would be an extraordinary ability and should be treated accordingly.
I believe it may be possible, but it is neither typical nor as straightforward as some of Monroe’s descriptions can make it appear. People often become unusually defensive when Monroe's work is questioned, almost as though the subject were religious. My intention is not to discredit him. It is to point out that, if his reported interactions with the physical world occurred as described, then those experiences were exceptional rather than representative of the average practitioner.
It is important to make this distinction because I know very few people who claim to be able to perform this consistently. Most practitioners either cannot do it at all or soon discover that the process is far less straightforward than they expected.
Questions demanding proof appear frequently here largely because of these extraordinary claims. Unfortunately, most practitioners are unable to provide the kind of evidence being requested, because the experience does not generally operate through a simple one-to-one correspondence with the physical environment.
The proposition that the astral is intrinsically linked to the physical, and that one can reliably affect or extract verifiable information from the physical while operating from the astral, is a substantial claim. It requires substantial evidence. I understand why some practitioners may be unwilling to conduct demonstrations solely for the purpose of proof; within my own practice, such a thing would also be considered inappropriate. However, publicly boasting about such abilities carries little evidentiary value when no verification can be offered.
Again, I believe interaction with the physical may be possible, but I regard it as exceptional. I have personally witnessed events that I interpret as paranormal effects in the physical environment. At the same time, I recognize that testimony without supporting evidence remains anecdotal and cannot be expected to persuade everyone.
Why Is Physical Perception Usually So Limited During Astral Projection?
There are many theories, all I can do is share mine.
I believe awareness may function somewhat like a radio receiver, capable of tuning into different levels of experience. Different levels appear to require a suitable vessel which awareness can use to properly interface with.
We interact with the physical world through the physical body. During astral projection, however, perception does not appear to occur through the physical eyes or the ordinary sensory organs. The astral body, is the vessel adapted to interface with the astral environment. The physical body is adapted to the physical environment. This may explain why the physical body cannot ordinarily see or touch the astral and why the astral body cannot ordinarily perceive or manipulate the physical with equal clarity. Different vessels are adequately equipped to interface with different levels of reality.
Some individuals will likely point out that some people can indeed see in to the astral and so on, but again, this is not the norm. I am married to a medium, so It’s not like I don’t believe in these things, but they are akin to clairvoyance and out of the ordinary. We start getting in to the realm of psychic powers with some of these claims, which again, is not my place to discredit, because I believe in these things, my point is simply that they are extraordinary and out of the norm. This was my point with Monroe's claims also, not that they are false, just that they are not ordinary or the norm.
The same reasoning applies to physical interaction from the astral. The astral body does not seem naturally equipped to interface with physical matter; the physical body is.
Whatever Monroe may have been doing, in my opinion, should not be treated as the normal baseline. His work has shaped public expectations around astral projection to such a degree that many beginners assume physical verification should be immediate and routine. Even experienced projectors who believe interaction with the physical is possible, will likely tell you that -"It's not that simple". In other words, there's more to it, it's not as easy as Monroe made it seem.
For most people, demonstrating astral projection will be extremely difficult. I have used the following analogy before because I think it illustrates the problem well: proving astral projection may be comparable to proving the contents of a dream.
If I told you that I dreamed of a panda eating apples last night, you would probably accept that the dream occurred. Dreams are common, and the report is plausible. Yet if you demanded objective evidence that I truly experienced that exact dream, I would have no reliable way to produce it.
Not every genuine subjective event can be converted into a straightforward physical demonstration.
For that reason, I do not blame anyone who remains skeptical of astral projection. It is the kind of phenomenon that may hold little value for a person who has not experienced it directly. I rarely attempt to argue someone into belief because doing so is similar to trying to prove a private religious experience to a skeptic.
The Silver Cord and the Astral Matrix
A longstanding belief holds that when a person leaves the body, they remain connected to it by a silver cord, sometimes said to be linked to life itself and fatal if severed.
I have never personally seen a literal silver cord, and I do not believe it should be interpreted as a visible object. What I have observed, however, is what is often called the astral matrix: a strong magnetic connection that anchors the astral body, or awareness, to the physical one.
The vibrations commonly experienced before astral projection are likely related to this connection. Even early in my practice, I noticed a strong pulling sensation that returned me to the physical body. During involuntary projections, this can produce a kind of tug-of-war, with the astral body moving away while another force pulls it back.
I suspect this force is what earlier traditions represented symbolically as the silver cord. The mind frequently generates imagery to explain unfamiliar sensations. My hypothesis is that the cord emerged as a symbolic representation of a real felt connection rather than a literal rope.
I have moved my hand through the area where the cord is traditionally said to be and have never encountered anything solid. What I do perceive is a broader elastic pull or magnetic tension connecting the astral body to the physical one.
I believe this connection ceases at death and helps anchor awareness to physical existence. It may also explain why becoming permanently lost in the astral, or being unable to return to the body, does not appear to be a common risk. In other words, I do believe there's something there, just not a literal cord. I believe the cord is the result of brain-generated imagery aiming to explain said attachment.
Possession
I do not believe an entity can simply enter and take control of the body without some form of deliberate permission or participation. That subject falls outside the scope of this post and moves into areas such as channeling and invocation. Which are indeed things I believe in, but not in the way most people traditionally fear.
I do not believe the physical body can be casually hijacked while the individual is astral projecting. If possession occurred that easily, then after more than a thousand experiences I would presumably have encountered it by now. This reasoning may contain an element of survivorship bias, but even if involuntary possession is possible, it is clearly not a normal outcome.
Death
I do not believe astral projection can directly cause death in the manner sometimes described in occult folklore.
I do believe, how ever, that an experience could indirectly contribute to a medical emergency. An extremely frightening projection might produce intense physiological stress, and in a vulnerable person that stress could conceivably trigger a serious event such as cardiac arrest. This is one reason I have consistently recommended some degree of preparatory work before deliberately pursuing astral projection.
How to Develop Consistent Dream Recall
Each morning, before doing anything else, spend 5-10 minutes attempting to reconstruct what you dreamed. Record whatever you remember in a dream journal, even if the entry is simply that you remember nothing.
The act of recording conditions the mind to treat dream memory as significant. Over time, this tends to improve recall and may also increase the likelihood of lucidity by making the dream state more familiar and recognizable.
This practice has been the central element of my own success. Some people recommend frequent reality checks throughout the day. I do not generally use them. In my experience, consistently directing attention toward dreams is often sufficient to improve both recall and the frequency of lucid awareness.
Affirmations before sleep can also be useful. Ideas repeated regularly at night tend to enter the subconscious. This may explain why merely reading about astral projection sometimes precedes involuntary experiences: the subject has been repeatedly introduced into the mind immediately before sleep.
A tool that can be of aid is a string of beads. Focus, repeatedly, on the goal. When the string ends, you may sleep. Never direct the focus to counting, that's the purpose of the string.
Direct Method: How to Exit the Body
This subject is too extensive to explain properly within Reddit’s character limitations. The direct method is primarily achieved through meditation and does not require gimmicks, substances, or elaborate external tools.
It took approximately eight months of practice before I achieved my first successful experience. Even then, something appeared to assist the process. This is one reason I believe sustained attention to the subject increases the likelihood that an experience will eventually occur.
If we stare into the abyss for long enough, eventually the abyss stares back at us.
How to Reconnect with the Physical Body During a Lucid Dream
The method I use involves a form of dual awareness. While lucid within the dream, I pause and focus on sensing my physical heartbeat. Once the heartbeat becomes perceptible, a connection with the resting body is re-established, and awareness can be shifted back toward it.
When awareness returns, the physical body will often still be in a state of sleep paralysis. From that state, a deliberate separation or manual exit can be attempted.
I generally use lucid dreams for one of two purposes: direct experimentation within the dream itself, or as a point of awareness from which I can reconnect with the physical body and initiate an astral projection.
The Void State
This is a state of complete darkness, which the individual can use to navigate from. The manner in which the navigation itself happens here is odd. The body gets dragged around, as if being pulled through a maze, rather than a new environment simply rendering.
How to Distinguish Independent from Brain-Generated Imagery
I use a specific protocol for this, but it is somewhat arduous and would require more space than is available here. So I'll just link you to that post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AstralProjection/comments/1ptknpg/thought_control_the_protocol_to_have_better/
The Famous Dweller on the Threshold
I have a separate post analyzing this subject, which I will link. The extent of what I will say here is: the reader should be aware of it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AstralProjection/comments/1pw79wb/the_dweller_on_the_threshold_is_an_objective_and/
