At The Threshold of the Physical Dimension: Astral or Dream?

What happens exactly at the precise moment of sleep that determines whether we enter a dream or whether we enter the dimension of the astral plane:

Allot of people have no idea and I even hadn’t any until some time ago now, that I was able to participate consciously my entire way “out” of phase with the physical body. Like so many others, up until then I had small periods of blacking-out and coming-to during the process. Other people have less problems than I have had but the process for everyone is usually always the same.

If you are reading this I suspect you’ve already familiarized yourself with the phenomena of astral travel already, so I’ll skip the basics.

Different individuals benefit from different techniques. Find what works for you and stick with it for the most part.
I transcribe below what I have wrote of my own experience in particular:

I have kept it simple in my description of what I go through in my process. I have 2 conditions and I call them condition 1 and Condition 2:

Condition 1: After finally being able to relax, as rare as that is for me, I have entered what I call condition A when I am able to feel the heartbeat in each part of the body I draw specific attention towards, and then finally in the whole physical body in it’s entirety.

Condition 2: This is basically just deepening what I call “Condition A.” I am able to feel myself “sink” with every exhalation of my breath. So essentially the main focus has shifted from heartbeats to breathing, although both are somewhat present together the entire time anyway.

With the mind chattering away, as you fall asleep, one (myself at least) will lose my sense of hearing first. Ambient sounds now appear distant, giving the impression of feeling that they are “far away.”
Using the breathing technique to facilitate the cataleptic state (a.k.a. “sleep paralysis – I think? Lol…), since it works exceptionally well for me, I have agreed upon it’s exclusive use for the remainder of this time.

There is a point reached where the heartbeats are very heavy, lagging, and very uncomfortable; However, you get used to this.

There is next a specific points where everything just “snaps” and, like a switch being turned on, everything enters a slow-motion or type of “paralysis mode” (it’s as if one were heavily tranquilized). It’s at this point I see beyond the closed eyelids and feel as if the bond o the physical has been broken.

Then there’s the vibrations and electric ‘pops’ also (NOTE: the amplitude of the “vibrations” experienced varies among individuals). Your eyes now flutter and you will see flashes of light – I presume from lack of stimulation to the visual cortex or metaphysical stimulation of shaktis to the Agna. Whatever the case may be, what you may see past your closed eyelids will NOT be accurate in corresponding to the physical world around you if you are dreaming or have let the chattering mind influence you with expectation.

So it seems I have found the nexus for myself, the exact spot where your frame of mind will determine the locale, the location of focus the consciousness phases into.

If you are trying to imagine what is beyond your closed eyes, or if you are dreaming (ideas and scenarios infiltrate your focus) in the slightest, then you will phase into a Lucid Dream. IF one remains clear and keep the mind still from thoughts then you will phase into the location of the astral.

Followup:
EVERYTHING about this process is sublime. It’s gentle. You CAN NOT force anything.
If you force the breathing technique, it fails. Breathe naturally.
If you force the imagery (dreaming about what’s in front of your closed eyes) then you will fall into a dream and it fails.
If you fight the vibrations and any other accompanying phenomena, it breaks the catelepsy state by raising your passive brainwave frequency too actively high and you’ll fail.

I hope reading this will give anyone who may be struggling a little better understanding of the subtlety needed to simply follow a natural process without forcing any part of it. I think most people fail at what we call “astral projection” maybe for the same reasons I have – that they might tend to force something or try to control it’s natural course. Once you do that, you change the game sort-to-speak and you won’t succeed.

The hardest part is that it is not exactly natural to experience this phenomena consciously. Most the time our chattering minds begin our dreams instead of us clearing our minds and maintaining a solid focus on everything else going on except what the mind wants to do.

It’s in this twilight between waking and sleeping we find the door to exit our familiar dimension of material atomic reality and enter the dimensions of formation that are the astral planes.

*Why it did work for me at all is that it was my intent to not just "dream" or project into a projection of the imagined space around me but the intent was always that I will not even think of it - I won't even imagine anything. I'll just go outside the vehicle/organic machine of the body and behold what's on the other side without any expectations. So my good experiences, the ones I called my "real" ones lol, were the 200% conscious ones and it was because there wasn't anything else involved other than determination (willpower) to "get out" and that was the sole intention. Not to pay attention to what mind comes up with in hypnogogic states but rather pivot my phase angle of consciousness tangent to what the separate brain as an interface is doing.