It may have seemed funny to you to compare such a powerful practice to weight lifting, but sport has more in common with it than first meets the eye. Here’s another example: in soccer, the best forward will demonstrate two important qualities more than any other: wanting to score, and setting his sights on the goal. When you make attempts to exit the body, your actions should be very similar in approach.

What I have in mind, friend, are situations when you can’t just rest on your laurels, but have to keep pushing on further and harder. You need to realize that success lies in your hands, and not in what somebody else does for you. You need to firmly channel all of your efforts, aiming them only at a single goal – the astral plane!

This means that you should use each and every favorable opportunity when practicing, taking advantage of it to achieve more and more success. For example, if something suddenly starts to work when performing indirect techniques, you should pursue it through to the end, trying to seize every chance you get. The above seems obvious enough, but many nevertheless stop at the critical moment and try to watch what happens next, or switch to another technique, not seizing the opportunity at hand. You should never allow this to happen. You can’t just bounce back and forth. You have to march straight ahead.

In this case, the deceased person starts to behave in a very aloof manner and without desire to be drawn into conversation. It should be immediately pointed out that that such behavior in the astral plane is not only the prerogative of the deceased. This problem is often encountered in almost every type of contact with animate objects in the astral plane. This is especially true at the beginning stages of one’s practice. This is clearly demonstrated in practice when, for example, a deceased favorite aunt is approached in joyful disbelief by a practitioner – but she then avoids the practitioner’s eyes, and acts as if it is the first time that she has seen him in her life. When the practitioner tries to ask a question or explain something to her, he doesn’t get the typical reaction of a live person. There will often be only silence in response. Such subjects will also often look the other away.

This problem is resolved by better developing communication skills regarding animate objects in the astral plane. Also, simply bringing one’s practice of the astral plane to a decent level often helps, as this reduces such bumps in the road to a minimum.

Nadezhda Maslova, Moscow, Designer.

We were already a bit stressed out on the night that it happened, because we had to wake up very early the next day in order to go on an excursion. We were afraid that we’d oversleep. I had woken up several times over the course of the night, and finally decided to use the nocturnal awakenings to enter the astral plane.

I successfully "exited the body", and stood up on the pull-out bed. I was in the same room that I had fallen asleep in, but discovered that there were two mirrors on the wall that weren’t there in real life. Peering into one of the mirrors, I noticed that I wasn’t wearing the same clothes that I had fallen asleep in. I then recalled my "idee fixe" – to whisk my boyfriend into my own astral travel experience. I went over to the couch he was sleeping on, pulled him up by the arm, and took him up to the mirror. I was then thinking, "So maybe he’ll see himself in the mirror and become conscious while in my astral travel?"

We stood in front of the mirror, and I saw our reflections diffusing. I figured that I had been unsuccessful once again, and so I let let him go. But I resolved to crawl into the mirror myself in order to translocate. I got up onto the table, put my hand into the mirror, and started moving in head-first. I suddenly realized that the mirror was "closed" – that there was nothing but darkness and a wall behind it, and thus I wouldn’t be able to translocate anywhere. I then opted to employ the technique of "rotation". I started turning and imagining a favorite birch-tree forest from one of my travels in the astral plane. I really wanted to go there again.

I turned and turned, but could not enter into the forest, even thought it was vividly flashing before my eyes. I was unable to come to a halt in time. In the end, I landed in my mother’s apartment. There was a toy stuffed rabbit lying on the floor. I took it by the hand, figuring that if I started to lose the astral plane, I would fiddle with it in order to stay in. Then, I saw another mirror on the wall, and decided to have a look at my reflection. I looked, but the reflection was not of me, but of some blurred creature, like a ghost. I even became somewhat frightened. That fear returned me back to the body (or so I thought while still in the astral plane), with the stuffed animal still in my hands.

I found myself back on my bed, but I didn’t give up there. I decided to try another way to get my boyfriend to join me in the astral plane (after all, it gets lonely walking around all alone there!). I grabbed his hands and started sliding out of bed. We actually fell off the bed, but did not land on the floor. It was as if we had fallen from a cliff, and were suspended in air. Even though it was dark in the room that we were sleeping in, there was daylight all around us during our fall. Everything was really bright, much brighter than in the experience that I had just had. I was sure that I had been successful in pulling him into the astral plane with me! But then I saw that the arms holding me were clearly not his. I lowered my eyes, and saw that I was embracing another man! He looked somewhat like my boyfriend, but his face was more aged and a bit different, while his hair was longer and gathered in a ponytail. I push him away and asked, "Who are you?" And he responded, "Well, I’ve already told you my name. Or maybe you’re just seeing the future?" I calmed down a bit and told him, "I need a dress, I don’t want to run around half naked." He replied, "So let’s go buy one". I turned around, and saw a shop. We went in – actually, we hovered in about a foot off the ground. We were greeted by a mulatto shopkeeper, he showed me all the dresses hanging on the rack. I was in ecstasy! I stepped towards the rack… and instantly found myself back in my body!

What a shame, not to have been able to wear those cute dresses at least in the astral plane!

Mistakes:

No deepening was performed immediately upon exiting the body.

Insufficient concentration when performing the technique of translocation through a door.

Going along with an unplanned storyline.

No attempt to separate again or employ indirect techniques.

Comments:

The reader will certainly be interested to learn that Nadezhda and Dmitry subsequently married. Of course, I do not personally believe that the druse worked its magic. I believe that their belief that it would work was the decisive factor. The druse served as an anchor for a kind of mental programming. For some reason, it is quite difficult for people to clearly express their intentions. They very often need something physical to embody their desire and will. The most important skill in this life is to learn how to express one’s intention as effectively as in the case of the druse, but without the external objects and actions. Whoever learns this will discover not only the astral plane, but also all of the other treasures that life on earth has to give…

I am often asked the same question over and over again: seeing as the astral plane world is so wonderful and offers such fantastic possibilities, does the desire ever occur to remain there, or just neglect real life? I always answer in the same way: your practice itself will not be so wonderful if there are problems in your life – each of these two worlds enriches the other; when things are going well both here and there, the effect is increased many times over. And that’s truly the case. Whether you like it or not, you will still have to deal with real life. You spend a large part of your life there; it’s not worth messing up.

Few people know that such words are not mere philosophizing. They’re experience speaking. Indeed, at one time, while still a youth who had just encountered the phenomenon of the astral plane for the first time, I got carried away. My day-to-day life fell apart in a real way, in every possible aspect. And the more it fell apart, the less I wanted to return there. Compounding problems unbalanced my life and this had a strong effect on my general well-being. At one critical moment not even the astral plane could redeem me, and so I transformed my life. I began to pay attention to the physical world, and to my welfare in it, by applying the power of the astral plane itself to that end… Gradually, I became successful, both here and there. And these two worlds genuinely started to enrich each other, making me doubly – no, thrice happier.

Having gone on and lived through all this myself, I would now first of all entreat you, my friend, to approach this phenomenon in the same way. Do so and happiness is yours. You must be a master at out-of-body, you must be beautiful, you must be healthy and agile in your physical body, you must be successful in your own endeavors. Happiness is in your hands. And it is multifaceted. There is no sense in polishing only one facet of this diamond. And do not forget that the astral plane can help you in all of this. Take a brief look at the practical side of the phenomenon and you’ll understand this immediately.

Case Studies

August 2008

I woke up at about 8:00 am and took a cold shower, but was still unable to get into work mode. I decided to go back to sleep. Given that this would be a good time make attempts to enter the astral plane, I decided to try make a go of it. However, I wasn’t in the mood to try anything but phantom wiggling. Not really expecting anything to come of it, I half-heartedly and monotonously tried to "rock the boat" with one hand. That hand, in turn, quickly yielded and started moving, though initially with little amplitude. Already having practically fallen asleep, I noticed that the amplitude had increased dramatically and my hand began to literally slip out of my body. I decided to monitor the situation more closely, and was able to move my forearm further and further to each side. At some point, I was able to trace a full circle with it. It then occurred to me that there had been a marked change in my sense of bodily perception. Something clearly started to occur. I tried to roll out. That did not work, but vibrations arose upon attempting it. This served as a signal to try more actively to roll out. I tried again – and it worked. Granted, there was some difficulty and sluggishness involved, but it worked.

I rolled out off the bed, but the state was unstable: there were no distinct sensations, and I was drawn back into my body. I began erratically palpating everything. The pull on my body gradually disappeared, and after 5 to 10 seconds my sight started to return. I used it to deepen by peering. That proved to be the decisive factor. the astral plane became hyper-real.

I remembered right then and there what needed to be tried in this astral travel, and I began from the most important item – experimenting with translocation. I had wanted to check once again how difficult it was to translocate in space using the door technique. First, I closed the door. I focused my attention on there being an auditorium behind it in which I was to give a lecture. I opened the door, walked into the auditorium, and closed the door once again behind me. I then focused my attention on the other side of the door being the weight-room of the gym that I go to. I opened the door, and looked in to the weight-room. Then, I shut the door and opened it again – the weight-room was still there. I went into it and closed the door behind me. I then focused on deep outer-space being behind the door. I opened the door, which led into the hallway that would have been there if I were really in the weight-room. I closed the door and concentrated even harder on outer-space being behind it. I started to open the door, but something seemed to be holding it back from the other side. I had to use force to get the door to budge. After that, it opened all the way easily. At that point, I noticed that the astral plane space began to blur. However, I managed to concentrate and restore its realism by straining the brain. Behind the door was deep outer-space.

I stood at the entrance to the weight room, and literally a step in front of me was endless expanse without beginning or end. I could breathe freely. An icy draft came in through the door. Experiments have shown that unless one is simply going from one room into another, translocating using doors is one of the more difficult methods. Such difficulty is probably only due to the internal psychological blocks that people have. While standing and analyzing what was happening, I was sucked into a stencil. The only thing that I could do at that very moment was grab at the door handle, which I did almost automatically.

I then felt myself lying in my body. However, my hand was clearly still grasping the door handle. I began moving the phantom hand on every plane, and soon felt that I would be able to separate. I easily rolled out and found myself in my room.

I quickly brought the state to a level of hyperrealism through peering interspersed with palpation. Realizing that I had already achieved my primary objectives, I gave in to a desire to meet with a girl whom I had not seen for a while, but still had feelings for. I went to the bathroom door, and opened it without a shred of doubt that she would be on the other side. And that’s just how it happened. I opened the door and saw behind her the interior of my old apartment where she used to visit me. I had of course hoped to have seen her naked in the bathtub, but this scenario was not bad at all.

She was sitting on the couch and looking out the window. I felt that she understood that I was close-by. I went up and sat down on the floor next to her. I cuddled up to and started being affectionate with her. Thanks to the hyper-realism of the experience, the sensations were incredibly intense and amazing. Simply stroking her skirt and jacket was a stunning experience, as it once was in reality. It was extremely pleasant to feel her soft and warm body under her clothes, pantyhose, and knee-high stockings.

Once I brought my hand to her head and began taking her hair away from her face, she turned toward me and smiled. After seeing the gaze of those same very eyes and that same smile, there was nothing I could do in response but smile. I continued to move my hands over her face, head, and body in order to maintain the astral plane. Her eyes were sad, her smile seemed to be amid tears. But all the while, her expression was more open and sincere than it had ever been in reality.

She also started to smooth my face and hands. She then came to ask me how I was doing and what I had been up to. Understanding that such communication was only a formality of secondary importance in the astral plane, I answered only in monosyllables, all the while enjoying the fact that I was next to her, could feel her touch, see her eyes, and hear her painfully familiar voice. Surprisingly, I was not overwhelmed by the unbridled sexual instincts that usually arise when contacting the opposite sex in astral travel.

After spending some more time with her, I decided that it was time to bring the meeting to a close, as I could see her another time. Before me still remained the task of entering and exiting my body multiple times. Practicing that skill had been a part of my preliminary plan of action.

I intentionally returned to my body and immediately began trying to exit it. I was easily able to roll out. I returned back to my body, and then rolled out of it again. However, my connection to reality greatly increased after that last return, and it took a fair amount of effort to literally fly out of my body. I would also have to employ the technique of forced falling asleep.

Having found myself floating once again in the center of the room, I clearly understood that there was no point in returning back again to the body. Without even bothering to strengthen the astral plane through deepening, I nevertheless intentionally rushed back to my body in order to discover the limit of my own capabilities, and further refine my skill at exiting the body. Caught in a stencil, I was at first barely able to move, but then I was seized by a wave of awakening. I switched to forced falling asleep, and then on to observing images when forced sleep did not work. No images appeared. I again began to try to divide, but then arose the feeling of having fully awakened.

I started trying to move my hands down along my body and back. Phantom movement arose after several seconds, and my consciousness immediately submerged deeply, sinking away from the outside world. I focused even more on movement, and it occurred even further. I started to try to get up. I was able to, but very sluggishly. My body seemed to be several times heavier than it really was. Any relaxation on my part immediately nailed me back to the stencil. At some point I managed to completely separate, and found myself next to the bed. I tried chaotically to use all available deepening techniques, but nothing helped, and I was returned to my body. I was done for that session.

Technically speaking, besides fear, there are no hard-to-surmount obstacles to meeting with the deceased in the astral plane. Meanwhile, they exhibit several basic types of behavior, each of which will be treated separately. Whatever theory on the nature of the astral plane is closest to you, whatever the true qualities of the astral plane, there are nonetheless several characteristic types of behavior exhibited by deceased subjects in the astral plane.

All strangeness of behavior and character in persons encountered nearly almost always occurs within the first few seconds of communicating with them, although not rare are situations where abrupt changes begin to occur only after some time.

These changes take place in the psychology of the subject, and in the nature of communication with him. Such breakdowns most often occur in cases when one is still unable to control the astral plane well, and still commits a variety of errors. Once one has solid practical experience under one’s belt, and has acquired the ability to confidently use the techniques for controlling the astral plane, such situations become the exception rather than the rule.

Thus, the possible types of behavior to be encountered are: