astral vs. imagination
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How do you tell the difference between real astral projection and one's imagination (if there is one)?
allow me to explain. I perform the LBRP every night before I go to bed, except for the sake of not disturbing anyone else, I do so visualising myself standing and performing it. Last night, I was doing so when it occurred to me that this wasn't my body, so why was I still walking to the one part of my room with enough space to perform the ritual? Recalling Liber O, I visualised myself rising into the air and when I passed through the ceiling I was in a big dark desert, with shadowy forms prowling about (they kept their distance).
Now, on the one hand, it was rather vivid and I wasn't consciously trying to control where I ended up. On the other, it was my first attempt at doing this and also the desert had featured in a short story I attempted to write a few months ago (though without the shadowy beings). How do I tell if this was actual astral projection or just a figment of my imagination. -
@veritas_in_nox said
"How do you tell the difference between real astral projection and one's imagination (if there is one)?"
Well, your imagination is a subset of the astral world in exactly the same sense that your physical body is a subset of the physical world.
But I think you are asking how you can tell whether an encounter is with an objective being, or simply yourself looking in a mirror, right? (Of course, that's also a problem we sometimes encounter with what normally pass for objective humans we encounter <g>.)
There isn't a single answer for this.
For one thing, there is a definite feel that there is some other being there. I've heard it described as a faint whisper of embarassment, and that's not bad. It's the difference between talking to your neighbor vs. talking to a picture of your neighbor.
Another important part of this is the skill acquired (by occult work, therapy, or whatever) of actually knowing your own mind and its contents. Watching the movements of your own mind is pretty basic to knowing whether an "other" is only your own voice.
A third factor is that only someone who is not you can know things that you don't know.
Notice that none of these are rock-solid ship-sinkers. But they point you in the right direction.
For your specific example, go back and reread the earliest parts of Liber O. You've missed one of its basic instructions, which is never to give to such an experience the first meaning it seems to have. In general, the best thing to do is record it in your diary without passing judgment on it. (It doesn't appear that there was any actual interaction or communication, right?)
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No, the shadowy things just watched me and stayed away. As for a 'whisper of embarrassment,' that didn't happen, but I did get a bit worried about them.