Friday, December 27th, 2002:

I woke up in the middle of the night. I decided to try again to maintain the hypnagogic state for controlled hallucinations, and in order not to fall asleep I would repeat a "mantra" over and over, focusing on its meaning. This mantra was : « I want to see. I want to stay awake. » In other words, I want to see hypnagogic visions, and I don't want to fall asleep(by ""stay awake"" I meant staying conscious while my body is falling asleep).

 

I entered very vivid imaginary states, although they didn't last long because each time, strangely, I started itching at different places, and had to scratch which destroyed my focus. At some point, I really felt like I didn't have a body anymore, or that I was in a vacuum.

And then, something weird happened. My body started tingling and vibrating very strongly. Behind my closed eyes, I could see an imaginary hand that I could move independantly of my physical hand. I also noticed a sharp whistling sound. Startled and annoyed by the situation, I opened my eyes and decided to come out of this state, which was difficult because of the temporary physical paralysis.

 

And then, I decided that I would go for it despite the incomfort. So I let myself re-enter the vibration state(at this point all I had to do was relax a little bit and I was back in the vibration state), and I could again move an imaginary body. So I moved up, flying, and a landscape appeared. I was very lucid and concious at this point. I could look at very precise parts of the landscape, and although the whole was low quality graphics I could say (not as vivid as physical reality), when I focused on a detail it became extremely real and colorful. I knew this world was an imaginary world -- a dream.

So the technique is simple: focus on a mantra related to your intent, and you will remain concious of what you are doing, with sufficient concentration. As soon as the mantra starts to lose meaning and to be distorted, it means that you are losing focus so you need to get back to it before you fall asleep. And yet, you need to be able to relax enough to get closer and closer to the state of sleep. So, learn to stay conscious as you fall asleep (by repeating to yourself that you want to stay conscious/awake), and you will ""astrally project"".

This is easier to perform in the middle of the night or in the morning after you've had a little bit of sleep(but not too much).