I had a weird experience last night. I sat up outside of my body, and felt my sleeping physical body behind me. I went to turn around to look at it, but I was limited and could turn very little, like my legs were stuck or something. I had a feeling to re-enter my body soon after, as I felt very drained for some reason.
So, is it possible for only your upper body to project? I would love some perspectives, thank you for your time.
It's absolutely possible. I don't know how experienced you are with the practice of astral projection, but especially in cases of accidental projection or when people are getting started, it can be difficult to fully separate. For some people it's because it's such an unfamiliar experience.
Movement while astral projecting is also difficult, being more of an exercise of will than one of muscles. Sometimes, for example, someone tries to move their [astral] arm and they end up moving their physical arm, waking themselves up. Just will it to happen. It's a very strange experience at first, especially for something more deliberate than simply going somewhere else.
The general advice from one experienced person I've listened to is basically this: Roll out and then get the heck out of Dodge, so to speak. Don't hang around. Will yourself elsewhere. A lot of people have had a shared experience that if you look at your physical body, you immediately get the urge -- for many it's nearly, if not entirely, irresistible -- to return to it and wake up.
So, yes: Your experience is rather common. If you experience such a thing in the future, you can choose to take advantage of it if you like. You could, for example, take a flight through your roof and look at your neighborhood from above, or even will yourself to some far-off (or even non-physical) place.
I agree, partially separating is not entirely uncommon. Especially for people who are practicing/attempting astral travel.
I still remember my first, partially successful attempt where I felt this urge to raise an arm because it was feeling a little numb. The instant the thought crossed my mind I felt it lift up through my blanket (I was in bed at the time) while simultaneously still feeling it down by my side. It was jarring and startled me out of my mental state.
I've also had times where I tried to make myself move and would instead just feel a sensation of tension, as if my muscles want to move but can't so they just tighten. Or I felt like I was moving in slow motion and the more I tried to move, the slower I went. It takes practice and especially repetition to shift yourself more towards an 'action follows thought' reflex while travelling around under different vibrational states.
It helps to have a goal or place in mind when purposefully attempting astral travel. For example 'to meet with my guide(s)' or 'To raise my awareness to the highest vibrations I can reach', or even 'To remote-view the next room over.
Re: Partial Projection? By: Misanthropy Moderator / Adept
Post # 4 Aug 19, 2021
When I first started working with APsome of my first experiences with it were instances of partial projection. It is very common, especially when first starting out, to have cases of this happening. As you become more experienced with it, you will be able to achieve full projection and have more control over it.
Like any magical practice astral projection takes a lot of energy to accomplish, even if it is only partially. The drain you felt is because you are not conditioned to the practice. Continual practice and working with energy manipulation can help decrease the drain you feel. Meditation is one of the best ways to help shake the drained feeling as you gather and redirect energy from the air you breath in and absorb from the universe surrounding you. I find astral projection easier to control when my diet is clean and I'm eating the plants and avoiding the fried and overly processed foods. I tend to use the astral projection method of teleportation, this occurs during a meditative state and I teleport my astral body to a different location on the astral plane. I find it much easier than other methods such as the rope or roll out method but I was naturally doing the teleportation method prior to even knowing what was occurring is referred to as astral projection. I tried the other methods to test them as I studied and practiced more of the craft.My findings were that they can and do work it was just harder for me to accomplish them than the teleportation method.
Wow! All of your comments were so helpful. That actually makes a lot of sense. I used to practice meditation and eat a cleaner diet(working on getting there again) and the last out of body experience I had lasted longer and was more vivid, though I still stayed next to my body and felt the urge to go back to it. I'm working on being less sketched out by the experience, so maybe meditation can help with that.
Perhaps think of it analogous to skydiving. The first jump is terrifyingly hard, and it is not uncommon for people to waste a trip or three because they can't bring themselves to leap from the plane. The idea of true free fall is inherently foreign, and absolutely counter to instinct and self-preservation. The first jumps are basically one long scream of fear, and wishing you had worn your brown pants. If people could jump, then suddenly flap their arms and scrabble back to the door of the plane they would.
But, people jump and survive. So they jump again. Still scary, but now you know it can be done so you only need the yellow pants as you jump free.
A dozen jumps later and it is a leap for joy as you tumble and play for a few sacred seconds before ripping the pull-cord down and enjoying the view as naturally as one does walking down the street.
