I had been reading Bob Peterson’s book and practicing some of his exercises for a few weeks. I would lay down whenever I could find the time. (Never in the morning after waking, unfortunately, for that was just too busy a time at my house with my children. Morning is supposed to be an optimum time for practicing).
I would begin by completely relaxing my body, beginning with the toes and moving up and ending with my face. Then I would do a chakra cleansing and re-energizing, and finally I would use a mind control method to detach my consciousness from physical sensation. (See exercises).
I had achieved one exerience where I felt the beginning of “vibrations,” and another where I felt strange energy surges. I had yet to achieve an out-of-body state, but a side effect of my practicing was that I began to see energy blobs, rays and formations everywhere. It was similar to the astral energy I perceive in auras and in communicating with spirits, but had much less vitality and no personality. My interpretation is that I am perceiving structures in the astral or another plane. I asked Bob Peterson about it, and he told me he has experienced the same thing.
Following is what happened.
I put my baby down for a nap and lay down to hopefully take an astral nap myself. As author D.J Conway suggested in Flying without a Broom, I surrounded myself with divine white light and prayed to connect with a higher guide or teacher on the astral who would help me with a problem I’d been having (frustration with my utterly domestic existence as it restricted me time-wise from pursuing everything else I wanted to be doing). I then began relaxing my body, beginning with the feet, ankles, etc…I made it to the calves, and the next thing I knew I was at this church across the road from my subdivision.
The following experience is rather personal (sexual) and I hope you won’t be offended by my sharing it in the interest of science. It was different from a dream, as I was in some physical form but it was lighter and more fluid than my physical body. I expected the experience to be the same as waking reality, and was surprised. The most surprising aspect was that my vision was not normal. (I hadn’t yet read the chapter on vision in Peterson’s book). It was like I had this long tunnel I was looking down, and the things at the end of the tunnel were clear, but everything around them was blurry.
There were other “presences” around the church, and they felt male. Next I’m having what I can best describe as astral sex with one male, then a whole group of them. (This was distinctly different from physical sex…it was wholly an energy thing). I didn’t resist at all, but rather, was completely absorbed in the experience and it was fabulous. (My attitude regarding this shocked me upon reflection. I began to wonder if there was an astral equivalent to AIDS and other std’s, and decided I’d better not think about it or they might become real for me!).
At one point, the entities lifted me up by what was like my wrists and ankles, and it was like I was made of some liquid that is heavier than air but much lighter than flesh. There were definite physical laws in effect, but they were different than what we normally deal with.
I had the sudden thought, “Oh my God, I’ve left my baby napping and the front door is unlocked! I have to get home!” I was not frightened or even worried; it was almost a mock concern, a voice from physical reality creeping in. Next thing I knew, I was hopping/flying down the sidewalk toward my house. While there was a lot of snow here in reality at the time, it had melted in this other dimension, and I thought that was odd. I was trying to hurry home, but I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of how to move about in this jello-like body, so I was doing this little hop…fly fly fly…hop…fly fly fly maneuver. I did imagine that this would seem very comical to anyone who saw me. Next thing I knew, I was back in my bed, but I still had no sensation of my body.
Then I thought I had opened my eyes, and I sensed a presence in the hallway. (I realized that my eyes weren’t really open, however, because my vision wasn’t normal). My husband was on a return flight from Europe at the time of this nap, and I thought, “Oh my goodness, he’s home. But it’s so early!” Next thing I knew I was on my couch, making love again, but I could only see bits of ceiling and the room as I tried to swing that tunnel vision toward the being I was with. His head was on my chest and I touched his hair and thought, “It’s G [my husband at the time].” I felt like it was G, and therefore felt fine making love to him, but then I had the thought that it was a trick, and whoever it was was just making me think it was G so I’d make love to him. (I wasn’t really too concerned with who it was, but was happy to think it was my husband).
But then the energy felt like G’s, and next thing I knew I was on an airplane with my husband and we were both in astral form and we were curled up together in this little corner. I prayed that he would land safely, and then I saw the plane coming down, though this was definitely in another dimension: the plane, the workers, the runway, etc…). I came back into my body, and just then my baby woke up. It took a while for me to feel like I was completely back in the physical.
This experience was incredible, but left me with many questions.
Why, when I prayed for guidance, did I just get lots of sex?
I’ve since noticed that my well-laid plans for astral-adventures seem to be quickly forgotten once I’m out of body.
Why was my vision distorted?
I read Bob Peterson’s chapter on astral vision and it confirmed for me that I must have been truly astral, for I had no notion that my vision would be distorted while out of body before my experience. I’ve since corresponded with other astral travelers who also have distorted vision while out of body.
Why did I think I was back in the physical and had opened my eyes when I was still “out?”
This is another experience shared by many astral travelers, called “false awakening.” I don’t know the answer.
I had read that if you just thought about being somewhere, you’d be there, but then I had trouble “hurrying” home. What was this hopping/flying maneuver about? Why was moving in the astral so awkward?
This is another experience shared by other astral travelers, though many have no problem moving about, and just think themselves to where they want to go. Some say that with experience, we gain better mobility, but some people have no trouble from the very beginning. I don’t think it can be solely dependent on the traveler’s belief system, since I believed that thinking myself to where I wanted to go would work, and it didn’t.