A while back, Strategic Sorcery students in my cycle all got the lessons on the astral plane and astral projection.
I consider myself to have a good amount of experience in this topic, although I am by no means an expert. Back when I was in my late teens there was a period in which I practiced the material in a certain Llewellyn book on astral travel authored by DJ Conway. Later I worked with material by Denning & Phillips. I even read up on the work of Robert Bruce, which is fantastic. However, eventually I saw progressively less use for astral travel and astral temples in my practice and shelved the whole thing.
Strategic Sorcery has me revisiting this topic with a new outlook and an improved approach, though. Of course, one of our homework assignments was to astrally project. The lesson appears to be heavily influenced by Robert Bruce's work (which I HIGHLY recommend; you'll see why soon), and has some very nice tips. In preparation, I decided to read through the more praxis-related portions of Bruce's "Astral Dynamics" before I did the homework. I'm really glad I did!
Relaxation and entering trance was an important part of the procedure, as I learned way back in the day. However, I was not previously familiar with doing things to "loosen" the astral body. Bruce talks about it in Astral Dynamics, but it had been so long since I had read it that I forgot. So after relaxing, meditating, and then deepening my trance state, I performed Jason's instructions for rippling. After that I did Bruce's Rope Technique for achieving projection. I really did not expect what happened next.
Initially I felt a kind of twisting or squirming, and then I began to feel outright nauseous! After that quickly passed I felt a kind of shaking, and a cooling sensation began to creep into me from the surface of my body. On top of that, there was this type of deep-down mental/emotional/psychic pressure and strain. At that point my intuition piped up that if I applied a little willpower I would be out.
So I did. And I was! (After a weird kind of "clinching-off" sensation added onto the cooling.)
I won't bore you with the details of what I did, dear readers, because it wasn't very exciting. When I re-entered my physical body, the same cooling sensation returned, but receded from inside to the surface of my body. I've never had those exit and re-entry sensations before, so that alone had me excited all night afterward!
The Rope Technique really works!
This homework out of all the ones that I've received (9 so far) confounds me the most. I have a resting tremor in my back that really gets in the way of the relaxation necessary to achieve this. I'm investigating other methods to see if I can get around the tremor or the need to relax so deeply.
ReplyDeletewow, I'm really behind the homework deal and astral projecting is my worst subject - can he fail us if i skip a homework.....
ReplyDelete@Mr. Black - I believe there is a 5 year limit. You can get all your homework turned in within 5 years from your start in the course and still graduate. So I guess, in short, yes.
ReplyDeleteBut as far as astral projection goes, I'd say keep trying at it. "If at first you don't succeed..." as the saying goes. When I first attempted astral projection...to be honest, most of the time I thought I was simply doing mental masturbation.
Along with Jason's lesson on astral projection, pick up a copy of Robert Bruce's "Astral Dynamics". It tends to be dry and dense, but the info is great.
Until then, check this out. It's the basis for "Astral Dynamics": http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/rbastral.html