AP_11.TXT ------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE 11 of 15 - CompuServe Astral Projection Class by Don DeGracia, 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Astral Projection Class on CompuServe by Don DeGracia: 72662,1335 Copyright 1994 None of this material may be reproduced without explicit permission from the author. IN THE OOBE REALM - PART 5 7. Things And People You Meet We've discussed the things you can do and places you can go during an OOBE, now I'd like to discuss the creatures you can meet during an OOBE. In general you can break this topic down into two parts: 1. the nonhuman things you meet, and 2. the human things you meet. I will now discuss each of these in turn, beginning with the nonhuman things first. A. Nonhuman Denizins Of The Planes A number of the entries I have presented so far are examples of meeting nonhuman entities. I have described meeting the following "creatures": a talking rhino (FILE 8, entry 9 under the heading "Exercising psychic powers"), a friendly spirit (FILE 8, entry 4 under "Moving, Flying and the "Wind"), numerous ghouls, and describe meeting a number of people as well. Basically, and this is commonly reported in the astral plane literature, there are any number of nonhuman entities you may meet. Such entities include "intelligent" animals, spirits of all types, fairy folk, strange monsters, ghouls, zombies, rotting bodies and pretty much anything else you can imagine. These entities may be friendly, hostile or anything in between. They may be completely indifferent to your presence. About all I can say in terms of meeting nonhuman entities is that you want to try to ascertain a number of factors. First, you want to try to determine if the entitiy displays volition. That is, does the entity act of its own accord? If it does not, then it is possible you are seeing a thought-form. I will give an example of meeting a thought-form below. Second, try to communicate with the entity if you can. It can't hurt you to try. Finally, if the entity appears hostile, don't worry about it, as we saw with the creature that tried to capture me in the void (FILE 9, entry 3 under "Life in the void"), the situation was basically harmless. I will also present entries below where I confront hostile nonhuman entities so you can see what I have done in such circumstances. Let me now present some entries. 1> (Note that this is part of the entry in FILE 9, number 13 under "Excercising psychic powers". Here I merely said: (I then met a monster in the cave, which lunged at me and caused me to lose my lockmold...). I will now present this meeting with the monster. This is a good example of illustrating how a threatening encounter, though startling, is harmless.) "I was standing back in the mist filled cave wondering what the heck I had just seen (as described in entry 13, FILE 9). The dangling objects caught my attention and I hovered up to get a closer look at them. They appeared to be highly colored paper mache tubes suspended from strings, real reminiscent of Chinese artwork. I focused on them in the same fashion I did above and their appearance changed. Now they looked like little creatures dangling from strings! They had bodies that were small in proportion to their heads. They had little bead-like eyes and long tube-like beaks. They had short little dangling arms with little detailed hands that reminded me of mice hands. I figured that they must be some kind of elementals. I touched them and felt them. But the focus broke again and they reverted back to colored paper-mache tubes. I looked around wondering if there was a mirror. Inspecting the shelves against the cave wall, I saw a mirror about 10 feet up on the cave wall! (No real surprise, huh?) I flew up to it and looked at myself. What I saw looked like a horror story version of myself. It was me , but my skin was all white and flaked, my eyes were completely white and chalky looking, and my eye sockets were deep as if my face was just a skull. I thought to myself, "Oh my!". But I wasn't unusually startled. This is not the first time I had seen weird images of myself in astral mirrors. I continued staring at the image and it then transformed into a normal image of myself. I thought that that was interesting. I turned and looked around the cave, then turned back to the mirror. I saw the same thing; first the horror image, which then transformed to the normal image. I hovered down to land on the cave floor wondering if there was any significance to these mirror images. I was staring forward into the mists at the cave entrance and saw an outline of a humanoid form there. "What the hell is that?" I wondered. I became a bit trepid. The image was moving towards me and I focused on it with my new focusing method. And boy, did I get a surprise again! What I saw was a ghastly looking monster ready to lunge at me! I got a good glimpse of what it looked like. Its face had the same quality as my horror mirror image; white chalky skin, pure white eyes. Its mouth was agape, fangs protruding from its jaws. It seemed to be over 6 feet tall, humanoid, and was unquestionably bigger than me. It had its arms extended to grab at me, and it had huge claws on its hands. It seemed to be wrapped up like a mummy. I backed up into the air, more disturbed than scared, and tried to pass through the back of the cave wall, but to no avail. There was no way I could shoot past it, it was too close and would grab me. And then, it also shot up in the air and was coming at me. I at least wasn't panicking and the thing lunged at me with a loud growl. At the last moment it dawned on me, "What the hell can this thing do to me anyway? After all, I'm in my astral body. It can't hurt me." The monster bounced on me and grabbed me. The shock of its impact was enough to cause my lockmold to break. I was back on my bed...." 2> (Here's another example of a monster lunging at me. This time it's a ghoul. Again, you don't have to fear these things.) "...I turned away from the mirror wondering what my appearance meant and I noticed that my window which has a fan in it on the physical plane did not have a fan in it now. But then I noticed that there was somebody or something standing out in the backyard. I looked and it was a ghoul! There was a ghoul creature standing outside my room! It was wearing a ragged yellow shirt and ripped red shorts. It had long stringy, dirty gray hair, and looked like a corpse in an advanced state of decay. God, now I was really wondering what the hell was going on! Not only did I look weird, but now there was some astral slime in my very own backyard. It didn't strike me during the projection, but what was weird was how the ghoul was positioned in my backyard and the angle I was viewing him from out my window. He was standing at the corner of my room on the outside, with its side facing in my direction and its front facing towards the street and its back facing into the backyard. What I didn't realize until I woke up and wrote this is that there is no way I could see someone if they were standing in this position on the physical plane. I just tried to look out my window from where I was standing in my room in the projection, and you simply can't see that corner of the house. I have to put my face right up to the screen and turn my head to see that position from my window. But in the projection I could see that position perfectly standing back a few feet from the window. Geometrically, this would mean that the corner of my room was less than 90 degrees in my projection on whatever plane I was on. Either this or that I could very naturally see around a 90 degree corner! And I know that I was NOT seeing through the wall. I saw the zombie through the window. Whatever the case, the geometry of space was definitely very different in my projection than it is on the physical plane. So there I was looking at the ghoul wondering what I should do. It was just standing there at the corner of the house and I didn't know if it was conscious, or if it knew I was looking at it or what. But my curiosity got the best of me and I figured I'd dive out my other window that was up over its head and see just what it looked like up close. I figured, hell, this is the astral plane, and the thing can't hurt me anyway so what have I got to lose? So I dove through my window. I passed through the window and there I was in front of it. I tried to look at its face, but its face was just a blur and I couldn`t focus on it. But it looked like a dried up corpse with long dirty, stringy hair and its ripped up clothes. Then an instant after I jumped out the window, it lunged at me. I remember that the thing growled as it lunged. It startled the shit out of me and I pulled myself awake. I sat there in bed wondering what it all meant. Was that thing still outside on another plane? Did it wander off again? Why was something like that in our backyard? Was it just passing through? Did this household emit vibes that attracted it? Why did my body materialize into such a deformed shape? I didn't know what to think. After I awoke, I wasn't scared or spooked or anything like that, just very curious. I've know enough about this projecting now to realize that nothing can hurt me out there except myself and I never need to fear anything. Wrote this entry." 3> (Here's a description of some strange creatures I met that seemed to have their own volition, but didn't seem too intelligent. It is my suspicion that these were some type of fairy-folk.) "Was dreaming in my old room at Ma's house. I knew I was going to go into it. I fell off my bed and flew up. I was looking out my (old) bedroom window over Ma's backyard. I flew through the window effortlessly. I was up over Ma's backyard. I could feel the wind whipping past me. I was glad to be back. Flew around a bit then went straight up. Blacked out at about one quarter mile up. Was in the void, but I flew downward anyway. I regained my sight but didn't recognize where I was. I wanted to experiment so I hovered in the air and imagined I was at Dad's house. I wanted to materialize there. It didn't work, or if it did I couldn't tell because I blacked out again. I remembered what I had read in Greene's book about going into space, so I decided I was going to try to fly to the moon. I flew upwards and imagined I was at the moon. I was still in the void, and I didn't really know where I was, or where I was going, but after flying upwards for some time I tried to regain my lockmold. I concentrated on trying to perceive around me in the void, and I started to materialize somewhere. I was standing in a clearing in a misty old forest. I thought to myself, "This is the moon? It doesn't look like the moon." I remember a moss covered fallen tree at my feet, mist creeping across the ground, yellow dead grass. My vision wasn't perfect, the lockmold was shaky, I couldn't see into my peripheral vision. I heard a weird gooing noise in front of me. It sounded like little babies laughing in a demented way. I looked up and saw little people coming at me. I became frightened a little bit, but I was as equally curious. The gooing noises were coming from them and it was creepy. They were ugly little creatures- grey purple skin, black matted hair on the tops of their heads, about 1 and 1/2 feet tall, stout little bodies with pudgy arms and legs, and pitch black eyes. They were wearing what looked like rags about their groins. They approached me with their arms outstretched trying to touch me. I was frightened as much as I was repulsed. I said "let me go!", as they were now grabbing at me. They weren't hostile though, they only seemed to be curious. I looked one of them distinctly in the face and it stared back up at me and seemed to smile- though it was an empty and nonintelligent smile. I began to lose my lockmold and felt myself fading away. Could feel myself in my physbod again. Could see hypnogogic images behind my closed eyelids. It looked like a duck staring at me-but I really don't know what it was, it wasn't moving though. What was really unique though is that the image was undulating like: (drawing in my notes). It looked like the undulations produced by dropping two rocks in the water. The bottom undulation was covering some type of landscape. Lost the image and woke up." 4> (Here's an example of meeting a thought-form. In this case, it was a thought-form of Superman! Thought-forms have no volition at all and often look like mannikins.) "...I was laying on my bed again, but I still felt my feet tipped upwards higher than my head. I was still a little afraid but I began tipping and sliding backwards again. I saw the green and purple spiral motion again, but this time I slid quickly though it. Next I recall, I was floating in a great darkness, but before me was a structure that looked to be made up of passages of flags or curtains draping downwards. As I got closer the passages seemed to form a maze. There was a figure floating at the entrance to this maze and as I got closer, I realized it was Superman! But Superman looked like a toy doll, or a manikin and he didn't look real at all. The expression on his face was completely immobile and looked like it was made out of plastic. I asked him if he was real, but I got no answer. Then I figured it was probably just a thought-form. I drifted past Superman into the maze of hanging flags. I noticed that the Superman thought-form was following me, but I didn't really care. I studied these flags and noticed that each one was of very specific colors. The colors seemed to be laid out on a black velvet background. Then it dawned on me that the colors that each flag was made up of was identical to the colors of a particular superhero's costume! I saw one that was mostly blue and red with a little yellow; that was Superman. Then there was one of red and blue with black in it; that was Spiderman. There was another one of yellow and red - and that was Ironman. As I stared at these I realized that they weren't really flags like I had supposed. They were more like strips of black velvet with colors laid out on them. The texture of the colors was very similar to the texture of colors on a flag (i.e. like dyed cloth)..." 5> (Here is an interesting encounter I had with a giant minotaur. I do not know if this creature was a thought- form or not. It seemed to display volition, but its behavior was highly repetitious, which makes me suspect this creature may have been a creation of my subconscious mind. At any rate, the following adventure is kind of comical. I suspect there is a lot of personal symbolism in this projection.) "...I had a false awakening. I awoke in bed, not realizing that I wasn't in my real bedroom. I was very excited about this adventure and my first thought was, "Wow! I have to call Rob and Joey and tell them about this projection." For some reason I thought it was mid-afternoon and I could get a hold of them on the phone. Then I looked over at the digital clock to see what time it was. But I couldn't read what time it was because I could see about twenty different times displayed at once, fading successively backwards. And I could also see the gears spinning around inside of the clock. "Goddamn!" I thought to myself, "I'm still projecting!" Still, I tried to read the time anyway. It seemed to say 6:47, but I was simply seeing too many numbers at once to be sure. But I knew for sure I was still projecting. I looked around. I was in a bare bedroom, with only my mattress and the clock. I seemed to be in an apartment. The door was open and went off into a hallway, and there was a window on the wall of the hall. I got up out of the bed and realized that my lockmold still felt incredibly stable, solid and wide awake. I walked out into the hall and looked out the window. Through the window I saw that I was quite a few stories off the ground, and there was an unfamiliar city off in the distance. I decided to fly about and explore. I passed very easily through the window and could even feel that weak tugging feeling as I passed through the window. I was now hovering in the air just outside. I could see that I was definitely about five stories up. It felt like sunset was just around the corner and the city lights were sparkling off into the distance. Beyond the city I could see countryside. Then I looked directly below me and got an incredible shock. Here I am hovering five stories up in the air, but down below me on the ground is a gigantic creature that looks like a centaur! It was easily three stories high. I freaked out! I was just gonna fly away and hope that it didn't see me. I tried to fly but I couldn't, it felt like I was locked in place. And then, as if in response to my desire to split, it saw me. It looked up at me and pointed at me and said in a low, deep, rumbling voice, "Excuse, me. Oh excuse me, sir, but I must ask a favor of you." I couldn't believe it, the thing's voice sounded like a low thunder filling the air. "Oh my God!" I thought to myself, "this is like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk. Wait till everyone hears about this one!" I was actually quite excited about the prospect of being able to brag about having met this creature. Still, I tried to ignore the thing and jet away, but I couldn't seem to get any leverage to move. As I was trying to pull myself away, the creature yelled up at me again, "Excuse me, sir, but I must ask a most important favor. Could you please assist me?" At this point, a gust of wind came along and grabbed me and carried me up, away from the creature, and around to the other side of the building. As I went higher up, I got an even better view of my surroundings, and I was much more interested in exploring these than in dealing with this unknown giant below me. Then I heard it yell again, "Sir, I said I need your assistance." I couldn't see it at this point, but its voice was like thunder. Then it riveted up into the air and spiraled around the building and began to follow me through the air. I wasn't scared by this creature. I actually felt bothered by it. I didn't have any sense that it wanted to hurt me. But I was actually being pulled by many desires - what should I do? All the while I was looking around at where I was at and I was in awe of the incredible beauty of the place I was in. The sun seemed to be coming up over the horizon behind the city, and the city itself glistened like so many jewels far below me. And once I got around to the other side of the building, off in the distance the sky was filled by huge billowing clouds draped across the sky in wave after wave. And if things hadn't been dramatic and spectacular enough to this point in the projection, I realized as I was looking at the clouds that there was a city built right into the clouds! It was like a fairy tale - a castle built into the clouds! My mind was spinning. I was attempting to assess what actual subplane I was on to encounter so many fantastic things. And I was wondering what this giant creature wanted from me, and how I could just get away from it. And once I saw the castle on the clouds, I decided that that was where I wanted to go. The wind was carrying me in that direction. The clouds themselves seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, dwarfing everything else in my view. They were beautiful as the rising (setting?) sun was shinning off them, making them look like some gorgeous pastel painting. There was an incredible vividness to everything; very real, but not like the physical plane. Everything seemed almost like claymation. But paradoxically, even though I was moving in the direction of the city in the clouds, it didn't seem like I was getting any closer to it. I began feeling frustrated that the wind wouldn't have enough power to get me to the city in the clouds. Then the creature, which had been flying after me, caught up to me and was now following alongside me in the air. "Shit, I guess there's no way I can avoid dealing with this guy," I thought, resigning myself to my obvious fate. "Sir," it said, rather impatiently, "I asked if you may assist me on a rather important matter." It was funny how formally and fairy-tale like it spoke. The centaur, flying along side me now, looked smaller up close, about twice as big as a horse. And it didn't really look like a centaur anymore. It seemed to be some type of a giant that was riding on a headless horse. Staring ahead towards the beautiful city on the clouds, I spoke to it, "Ok? What do you want?" It replied, "Sir, I need to find the whereabouts of a very important person." "Ok. Who is it? Tell me who you are looking for, and I'll help you find them," I answered. But it kept rambling in its thunder voice, "Sir, would you please give me your assistance?" Now I was getting impatient with it. "Who are you looking for?" I kept asking. But he just kept asking for my assistance, and all the while, as I was getting closer to the clouds, I was getting no closer to the beautiful city on the clouds. Next thing I knew, I was back in my physical body, laying in my bed. This time I was awake for real. I looked at the clock. It was 6:00. Only an hour had passed. I laid quite in awe at this unexpected adventure while I was gathering up my memories." 6> (Here is an example of me meeting strange fish creatures. I do not know what these creatures were, but I was afraid of them and responded accordingly.) "...When I stopped falling backwards, I had landed in a rather large room that seemed familiar to me, though I couldn't place why. The floor looked like it was made up of piles of long (5-10 feet) bean bag chairs and they were colored in blue and white, green and white, or red and white swirl patterns. This floor was lumpy, not at all smooth. When I had stopped from sliding backwards, I had stopped with my face pushed up against some kind of transparent wall that reminded me of an aquarium. I was looking through this wall into what seemed like a dark, watery medium. Then, something on the other side seemed to get up from the mud and swim away off into the darkness. This startled me and I pulled myself up. I stood up and stepped backwards away from the wall, but the colored "beanbag" that I had stepped on got up and swam out from underneath me! The floor was alive! This really scared me and I started to feel claustrophobic. I hovered up into the air, and this "beanbag' was actually a fish-like creature, maybe about 7 feet long, colored in red and white swirls, and it was now swimming around through the air in the room. I hovered around trying to avoid it. It swam up to me as if to investigate me and it circled around me. I was too afraid to move. But then it got close enough to me and I punched its face. It swam over towards the other side of the room. I looked around me trying to get a better sense of where I was at and it was then I really noticed that the whole floor was made of these creatures! I was very afraid that they were all going to awake and start swimming around. Then another one did get up and start swimming around in the room. I flew up and hit this one too, but my movements were slow and jerky. I was very scared. I got a good look at the room I was in. It was circular, with a diameter of maybe 50 feet. The walls were transparent and there was a lot of motion and activity going on beyond the walls. I couldn't make out anything definite beyond the transparent walls, but it all seemed very biological. The two fish were swimming about, though keeping their distance from me. Then I faded and was back in my physical body...." (END OF ENTRIES) Well, looking at the above entries, I wonder how justified I am in telling you not be scared, given that I *was* frightened in many of the episodes I reported above! Still, in the years I have been projecting, I have obviously survived all of these encounters, and during this time have learned not to be scared of the nonhuman entities I meet. Perhaps the scariest aspect of all this is the fact of the unknown. We are always scared in the face of the un- known, and most of my above reactions reflect this reflex. I can assure you though that as you get more proficient at projecting, and more familiar with the OOBE realm, you will become less and less afraid of what you encounter there. So, if you like, you can build on my experience and simply accept that you do not have to fear things you encounter in the OOBE realm. Otherwise, you can go through the same learning process I did. Whatever the case, the bottom line is never be discouraged and try to keep an explorer's attitude about your projections. When you project, you are entering the unknown and there is nothing you can do about this fact. As you transform the unknown into the known, your responses to the OOBE realm will transform too. ------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF FILE 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------