The idea or very thought of leaving ones body could bring some apprehension and even real fear to the practicing witch/magician. Most the issues regarding the disappointments or failures in astral projection are partly due to a lack of a workable system.
One system that may be of use would be to mentally create your very own doppelgänger. So what is a doppelgänger anyway?
"Doppelgänger is a German word for someone that looks alike someone else, in English language it is used for a ghostly double of a living person." - Wikipedia
ok so...im most interested in the last few words - "...ghostly double of a living person"
Most practitioners attempt astral projection through various ploys that either "force" the astral counterpart to leave the body all together or simply "float" out of the human body to other dimensions.
One trick to fool the mind/body connection would be to create an astral double of yourself. Lets take an example of a witch/mage within their temple. The individual would sit comfortably and perform a relaxation rite to ease all tensions in the body. this is crucial in any astral projection attempts. Then, he/she would close their eyes(or if you have the magick sight - keep them open)while you "mentally" re-create yourself standing in front of you about two-three feet away. You would be wearing the same robe or naked as you prefer.
Hold this image for as long as possible. meditate on this double you have created. Do not stare but admire your new self. Keep in mind that you are looking at your back and not the front.
After about one-two minutes, mentally see your right hand then arm slowly move away from the body. It is in a completely white filled light like a lightblub. Then do the same for your left arm. Finally begin to slowly step up completely immersed in white light quite powerful that fills the entire room. With your new vision move you head around slowly looking at all the objects inside. Then look in front of yourself. Your Doppelgänger is waiting for you to enter its body. You move and "merge yourself" with it. Now open your eyes - you will find yourself staring ahead into the wall. Begin to perform any rituals you are comfortable with in this state(incidentally, this is another magickal secret - to perform all rituals in the astral, which is the ultimate goal of the magician).
As you move around your circle, see if you can turn around to stare at yourself seated in the center. Keep in mind that what you are performing is a trick of the mind to be at two different places at the same time, also known as "bi-locality" or "bi-location".
Eventually, if performed and practices daily, you will soon discover that you are in actuality astrally projecting yourself from your body, but in a natural approach.
Very good thread, bloodroot. I use a different method but do many working in an astral type state. I have even made a doppledinger in the future and sent him back to me to warn of things ahead.... and others saw him before I did! He was me... he came to warn me. I know now that if I see him again that there is DEFINITELY something to pay attetion to. Others thought I had changed clothes and came back because he looked like my twin. Good job
Im actually thinking about ways to "time travel" through astral projection. Time/space are non-existent in the astral so it should be feasible. It seems you beat me to it. :)
If you could write the entire experience on the forum for everyone to read that would be great.
Its a strange set of occurrences that happened to me in the reality of time known as "present" years ago. I'm doubtful that I have come to the linear timeline of where I sent myself back in time to warn myself. I have to tell you that if others hadn't witnessed it I would have counts of what happened since it sounds REALLY far fetched. So as of now, I'm not entirely certain of the process that I used since I haven't did it yet. But there is a theory that I have been working on which might hold the key.
Albert Einstein may have left us clues to his genius, or at least part of his accomplishments and how he was able to accomplish so much in his famous year where he came out with many of his revolutionary breakthroughs in science when he said "time is relative" in his "Theory of Relativity" paper.
Imagive for a moment that instead of time being linear (meaning that it starts, goes on and can't go backwards) that time is past, present and future all at the same time. Now our reality is that time is linear because we see things age, we can't go backwards in time, we can't jump ahead, etc. In order to fool your reality you must let go of what you think is fact and open your mind to the possibilities that time is linear.
Its a very difficult thing to do and very hard to master so I thought of a way to try to work around it.... and that's to visualize going back in time while in an astral type plane. I will leave you to your own way to reach a state of astral projection. Once you are within your astral body you need to make a physical body magically through visualization, spell or however you think would work best for you. Talk to your physical body and tell him/her what the goal of the mission is. Work together to build a doorway in the fabric of time and space so that your physical body can enter, carry out the mission and return. Its important to think ahead to where in time and space you want to go. I apparently used a disguise, dressed differently than I normally would and didn't talk to anyone else but myself. I would be cautious of doing this because there's no telling what all you could mess up!
There are two main reasons why nearly everyone who trays this will not succeed: 1. its too far fetched and you can't let go enough to create the belief needed to pull it off. 2. If you can get past the reality (as we see it) of the situation, its very difficult to know yourself enough to figure out the best way for you to create a physical body and build a doorway in time/space.
I'm not on here to tell fairy tales nor do I need the respect or admiration of others to make me feel powerful if they actually believe I have done such wonderful things. I don't expect many to take this serious because of their beliefs... and I respect that and have absolutely no hard feelings towards any with such opinions. I will say that I DID get this to work and there were witnesses that noticed "me" before I did. He came, said a few words of advise and left. I was in disbelief and thought that he was just a person that recognized we looked similar and was messing with me. Now I know what happened. I'm not entirely sure how I did it but since this is what I have been working on, I'm pretty sure this is pretty close to how I achieved it.
I encourage anyone who wants to reply, either for questions or to disprove my story, to do so. I realize how it sounds but being of sound, scientific mind, I have convinced myself this is possible by doing it.
