8. OBSTACLES

“Until you change your thinking, you will always recycle your experiences” – Y. D. Tiwari

As you now know, astral and many other kinds of projection are absolutely safe. Anyone can try them out and you are at liberty to determine how far you want to go. Some people will still have a hard time trying out these experiments and experiences, and there are two main reasons why. One is your self-induced obstacles. No matter how bad you want something, if you do not want it to be stronger than why you do, then you will not do much to help yourself and this is why self-imposed limits are the hardest to conquer. You have to know how to work with your entire self to liberate yourself. I mean, all the power is yours unless you decide otherwise.

It might sound too good to be true and many people, especially those so much into religion will give you about a thousand reasons why you should not think that you have all the power. Teachers inclined more to spirituality other than religion will tell you that God will not impose himself on you. Jesus tried to teach this, and bring in the power of love, but the religious hardcore Jews and their teachers could not buy it. They were so triggered that they had to sacrifice the man. Buddha is another great teacher of coming into the realization of your power. Other mystical and spiritual teachers ever since the two are trying to continue to spread their gospel and I believe that the greatest teachers are the ones who grow other teachers, and the greatest masters are the ones who build other great masters. I agree with Naele Donald Walsch’s God on this one. Any other person, teacher or master who insists that you have to remain subjected to them are only operating under the ego. Sadly, this happens a lot, and a lot of people have fallen to the belief that ‘men of God’ are to be feared and revered almost like God himself, which is not right.

You are in full control: the control of your power, the control of what you experience and the control of what you believe in. This is why the problem is not what you through but rather the story you tell yourself about the thing that you go through. Once you start coming to your full power, you will start realizing that you can, at times choose what you experience. There are some experiences that you choose on your contract when you come to earth as part of your karma and for a minute, they might look like you are not the one who chose them. The more you grow and go deeper into spirituality, the more you realize that your life’s experience is something you have chosen and so you still have the power to interpret it however you wish.

All these are to help you understand how much power you have as a human being and only you can choose how to use it. Also remember: what you give power to, has power. I have mentioned Florence Scovell’s illustration of this with the horseshoe in an earlier chapter and it seems relevant to repeat it here. If anything or anyone seems to have so much power over you, then it simply means that you have given him/her/it the power to do that. Some people will say that all these are easier said than to actually live it out, and to some extent, it does seem so. Whatever thing you have, whatever circumstance you come across, only you can give it the right to run over you or for you to use for your own good. This is so true with astral projection, as well. Whatever obstacles you come across, you have either created them or allowed them to be there or to stop you from going forward. To take back your power, you need to learn how to decipher them and work through or around them to get the result you desire.

This is what we will break down in this chapter. The things that you are using as an excuse not to explore your capacity in astral projection and the things that you have allowed even if they came around because of a technique you used. It sounds hush, I know but I want you to understand that as long as you have the courage to work things out, then there is nothing that will keep you from accomplishing what you want. This should be the first step to breaking any obstacle. If you do not believe that they are breakable then they won’t be.

In other terms, you can see the self-imposed obstacles as emotional or mental obstacles since all the limitations happen within your head and the ones that come through wrong methods or using the right method the wrong way as technical obstacles. I might not categorize them as we look at each one of them, but you will be able to tell the difference as we break them down.

Fear

Fear is a very wide topic and every human being is familiar with how fear works. The interesting thing is that when babies come into the word, they are never afraid of anything. The fears we have right now are fears we picked up as we grew up and what the society has been teaching us. Take some time and observe how a baby behaves. It does not withdraw from an adventure just because it seems fearful. In fact, they do not know what fear is. They can easily walk to a snake and touch it or try to jump from the top of a building. To them, these are normal things until an adult starts teaching them what to do and what not to.

Soon the baby starts picking up small intuitions about the environment based on who they think they are and what their parents tell them. And that is basically the life we have been living. Either we try to prove who we are or try to live based on what should or should not be done. While the former is the best way to live, the sad thing is that we think we are choosing things based on who we are, whereas we are only doing so based on what others have told us to be or have defined us. This is why if you call a child a fool long enough, they will start acting like one since that imprint will be shaped into their minds.

Fear is a paralyzing phenomenon and we ought to be quite deliberate on how we deal with it. First and foremost, you need to learn your fears. You need to start asking the right questions about what you feel instead of letting those feelings dictate your life. Many people assume that just because they are afraid of something, they are justified to feel that fear and should not try to work through it. These are only thoughts that serve you to keep one bound in their ideas so they do not have to put in the work. Dealing with fear is a scary thing and, in all honesty, I do not blame the people who do not dare to confront their fears. It takes a lot of courage and willpower to do so. More so, one has to be open to the probability that what they have been believing for a long time is false, which is not an easy route to take either.

Look at how religious systems work. From the time one is young, before they even start talking, one is ushered into a religion just because the parents ascribe to it. Many at times, it is usually to the child’s best interest that they are baptized into a religion. The religion is supposed to protect them from the ‘evil’ of this world, as long as the toddler is bound by the teachings of their religious leaders and also that of their parents. I believe the system could be okay for a young child, but once you get to an age where you can think for yourself, you ought to start understanding that it is okay to change your beliefs to something that liberates your soul. Sadly, religion and other societies are built in a way that one is barely allowed to change what they believe. You are supposed to remain subjected to the beliefs of your elders until you too become an elder to someone else. This is an outdated form of bringing up children. Many kids, as soon as they turn ten, start asking questions like: why they are forced to do things in one way and not in another.

Thank God for the age of information. I mean, unless you still live in areas where technology is still not as vibrant as it is in the western countries, most people have access to a lot of information. This is what has made many kids get enlightened faster in our days compared to one or two centuries ago. With all the information out there, anyone in their own liberating mind should have the curiosity to learn more than they are taught in school. This allows us to expand our thinking and walk away from traditions that were still limiting in some sense. The more information you have concerning a matter, the more you will be able to decide for yourself whether you are going to go for or against it.

You have to start by asking yourself the right questions, such as:

• Why do I believe what I believe?

• Is this belief really true?

• What was the intention of the person who taught me what I know?

• Does it still make sense to ascribe to these beliefs?

• What would happen if I changed what I believed in?

• What would be the benefits of going deeper into this matter?

• Am I really what my parents and friends say I am?

• Who do I think that I am?

• Where did I get that idea?

• Is the world really a cruel place?

• Is my concept of the world really accurate?

• What can I do to get rid of this fear?

• Where should I start if I wanted to learn something new?

• Who are the best teachers of our time and past times concerning this matter?

I mean, the questions are endless. You can come up with as many as you like based on what you wish to explore and which fear in your life you seek to eliminate. Gone are the days when holding yourself a victim to something was justified. Today, if you still feel like a victim of your circumstances, then you have chosen to be. You will always find a way to do something if you really want to do it. If you really want to get rid of the fear, you will find a way to make it go away and won’t stop until you do. As long as you still have a reason to entertain the drama and the stories going round in your head, they will remain there. This is why I believe knowledge is the best way to deal with fear. Not trying to force yourself not fear but rather, teaching yourself why you shouldn’t fear.

It is like the people who have lived all their lives believing that there is a God who is waiting to punish them for all the wrongs that have ever done. This was the kind of life the Jews lived before the coming of Christ. Every transgression had to be dealt with by sacrificing an animal. These people had hundreds of rituals to appease their God. However, Jesus came to teach them that God was not an angry God waiting for someone to wrong Him so he could take action against him/her. Love is all that God is made of. However, the sad fact is that there are still people who, even to this date, have chosen to continue to ascribe to that kind of God and that is how they lead their lives.

Fear will always control you. It will dictate what you will and won’t do and sometimes it could be helpful. However, when you grow up, you should not work to serve fear. Instead you should learn to work with fear to make you a better person. This is by breaking down the reasons why you are afraid of something and making sober judgment based on your current truth. Being who you really are from the core of your soul. Spiritual teachers will make you realize that fear does not really exist because it only comes from an idea created in your mind by yourself or the people around you.

Astral projection will never work for someone who is too afraid to try it because they will not even dare to try to work on it. Their minds are already full of fears of negative things that will happen if they try to project out of their body. What they do not realize is that they have been projecting all their life and they will only be doing so intentionally if at all they ever choose to try it out. It is hard to try and talk someone out of these kinds of fear. The only thing you can do is show them the facts and maybe be an example yourself. Working with fear, therefore, has to be self-willed else it will be trying to put out a forest fire using a cup of water, which will never work.

The best place to stand when dealing with fear, especially fear of the unknown, is understanding that you are in control. You always have been in control and you always will be. There is no other way around it. In fact, you choose to create what you fear. What people do not tell you openly about the law of attraction is that it will follow the feelings within rather than what you are saying without. Whatever you fear most, you bring to manifestation in the same way that what you appreciate most keeps occurring. Some astral projection experts will ask you not to project with fear. If you make it on the other side, you will land on a plane that resonates with your current vibration. If you fear meeting scary entities along the way, those are the very things you will meet.

Evil or those negatively vibrating beings work with fear. In the same way that pure angels vibrate on the frequency of love, what people call demons vibrate on the frequency of fear. That is how possession works. You cannot be possessed by a negatively vibrating entity unless there is something in you that it can resonate with. People full of love and goodness are no playground for negatively vibrating entities. In fact, such entities fear them as they realize that love and goodness is the strongest vibrational currency that you can have. If a negatively vibrating entity comes close to a positively vibrating entity, the latter will convert the former and this is why the former does not come close to the latter. If you do not want negative entities to come by your path as you project, then you have to raise your vibration, and yes, everyone has the power to do so.

To vibrate with better frequencies, you first of all need to work with what you know about the concept. Again, back to knowledge. Once you know that love and goodness is in your highest nature, then you realize it is all you have ever been. This means that working from love is not trying to achieve something but rather going back to who you really are. Meditating on this and reading a lot of literature that helps emphasize this helps you reprogram your mind for the better. Teachers like the Dalai Lama, Baba Ram Das, Eckhart Tolle, etc. have written a lot about this. There are also many meditation audio recordings now online that help to build on your heart and mind coherence. Dr. Joe Dispenza has several resources to help people work on this as well.

You can work on your love vibration personally using mindful techniques and learning to open your heart to goodness at all times. Gratitude is another way that has worked for many people. The more thankful you are about life, love and the people around you, the more you will start vibrating in more love. Mantras and affirmations work, too. You can say mantras like:

• I am Love

• I’m made of Love

• Love is all that is

• Only love

• I work with Love

• I speak the language of Love

• I expect nothing but Love

You can learn to say your mantra in the morning, before you sleep or even make it a song that rings in your head the moment any other part of you wants to respond in fear. This works quite effectively since love is the opposite of fear. According to A Course in Miracles, only love exists and any other thing is a cry for help.

In summary, I have given you two things to work with. One is knowledge and two is love. With these two tools you will conquer your fears and start vibrating in frequencies that allow you to explore higher dimensions. Astral fear will be a thing of the past.

Judgment

Judgment is another concept that can grip your soul just as tightly as fear does. In fact, fear comes from a wrong judgment you have made concerning a matter which causes you to tick it off as something you should dread. Judgment comprises all the dos and don’ts that you have been accumulating since you were young. Just like fear, it can either be self-derived or imparted to you by the people who brought you up or those you consider friends. Influential people are also becoming significant establishers of the shoulds and should nots in society today. In the way they talk, speak, dress etc. they are a representation of what is considered acceptable or not acceptable.

The seat of judgment is a really tough seat to be in. In the novel and movie, The Shark, Mark Philips finds it so hard to accept how a good God could allow his youngest sweet daughter to die in the arms of a murderer. When he visits heaven and goes into the chambers of wisdom, she tries to give him the clear picture. She tells him that he sat on the seat of judgment deciding what is acceptable and what is not and that is why he is finding it so hard to let go of the pain which is actually causing him a lot of suffering, yet it is only God who should be seated on that seat.

This is the same reason why so many people suffer today. They have decided that they are going to choose for themselves what is right and wrong, good or bad, what they should and should not do or believe. While we are gods, and we have power to choose these for ourselves, doing it unhealthily only serves to limit us. In this 3D world, we are not all-knowing. You can visit the Akashic planes and be exposed to the wisdom of the cosmos, but the 3D world is formed in such a way, you will somehow still remain limited. There are people with a certain gift that allows them to see the future or know what others do not, but they are limited since, in many circumstances, they will only tell of something that is related to the present in one way or another.

Let us take a minute to have a broader picture of the point I am trying to make. How many things have happened to you that you considered to be bad at the time of their happening but you later on realized that they served a special kind of good in the long run? How many exes did you think you would end up with and today you cannot imagine what on earth you loved about them? I bet you can count several experiences or one or two exes, that is, if you have the courage to look at the bigger picture. You will not always be comfortable with everything that happens to you. At least not always. Looking back, you will see that everything served to get you to where you are today. Everything served to make you who you are today and that is why you are never the right person to determine what should or should not happen.

Most people will ask: does it mean that everyone goes around doing ‘bad’ things just because they should not be judged? How on earth will the human race exist in such a world?

These are great sentiments and they are valid. The point of letting go of judgments is not to live an aimless life but rather to start choosing things based on your highest good. When you are led from love, you will not do things that are considered harmful to your neighbors. You will also understand that doing harm to another is just like causing the same harm on yourself.

Inasmuch as judgments are what make people different from others, when worked appropriately, they can be okay because everything is a matter of choice. If what you tell yourself or have been told about something keeps you from experiencing the good in it, how then does that serve you? Just like fear, you can only overcome wrong judgment through right knowledge. Choose to know and experience things for yourself. One of the biggest problems we have today is taking other peoples’ judgments as word for it. As much as this might help us avoid going through unpleasant circumstances, at times it only keeps us knowing things and other people for ourselves. You might come up with your own opinion about a similar circumstance that might not be as harsh as what you have been hearing about it. People have different lives to live and the sooner we accept it, the better we will be. We will stop trying to run other people’s lives based on what we think is right yet it might not be exactly right to them.

Judgment limits your exploration in the astral planes. Remember that fear is also a form of wrong judgment and it will in fact lead you to places you did not want to go in the first place. Not everyone is a free spirit to try new things. That is fully understandable and some people find it hard to let go of the stories in their heads. Just because a subject was hard in school did not mean that you skip over it; you had to learn how to dissect it in ways that you understood. It might take time before you can fully start being less judgmental but you have to take a step at a time. Start finding the facts before you assume something and take time to consider all the facts before you make your judgment. Take life a bit easy and it will return the favor. You might not be the kind of person who does it, but you can learn how to be.

Pride

We all know the saying that goes: pride comes before a fall. We have been told over and over that we should not let pride rule over us. Pride is an intoxicating element and it can easily distort your life. It gives a glorified expression of yourself and many times it is in relation with other people. A prideful person will always consider themselves better than everyone else. They think they know better and give no room for correction, direction and important teachings that could make their lives better. Some people consider the super opposite to be another form of pride, where you think you are too little to do something or you have victimized yourself so much that you consider yourself useless. Ultimately, you can say that anything that makes you consider a version of yourself to be too strong, whether positively or negatively is a form of pride since you will be too rigid to change it.

You can never teach a prideful person anything, even if it is for their own good. This person will always try to prove you wrong. Someone who is very argumentative might be quite prideful. It is okay to be opinionated, have something to say about a matter but you should never let such discussions dictate how you see yourself or others. Clear signs of pride include overconfidence, flaunting your glories everywhere, always having something to say about everything, working too hard to please others, holding your praise too high and not being open to give praise or thanks where it is due. The extreme opposites of these can also be a sign of pride and thus include overly unconfident, hiding your glory for no good reason, refusing to contribute to matters that concern you or the people around you for no particular reason, not putting enough effort into an important work and refusing to relate with others.

A moment of caution here: these symptoms can also represent other dysfunctions and it is never in the best interest of the person when you jump into the conclusion that a person is prideful just because they act differently than you. Therefore, consider all facts before concluding on the matter.

While pride sometimes can be a defense mechanism for someone who has had a difficult upbringing, when you find yourself seemingly full of pride, you need to think of ways to work on the issue. You can sign up to working with a therapist who can help you to get to the bottom of the matter. This takes a lot of courage since many people who are somehow prideful do not even see themselves as such. They will make a million and one excuses why they do not have pride and why they do not need help. It is in the nature of pride not to ask for help and so therapy might be quite a tall order even if it is helpful.

If one wants to assist themselves in this matter, they should start by practicing mindfulness. Catch yourself in the moments when you feel you are too good to need help and ask for it anyway. Also, you need to understand what your pride looks like or in which it appears. Silence, sarcasm, uncalled for jokes and even tears are some of the ways that pride appears. Once you know how yours comes along, know how to catch it in action and then work with reverse mechanisms to better yourself.

Pride will keep you from exploring new adventures such as projection since you might consider them to be a game for people who do not know themselves. In this way, your spiritual sense of achievement might be the pride that is keeping you from consciously projecting. It can keep you from seeking help when other projection techniques fail. No one wants to be called a failure, and many of us work hard to make sure that we never put ourselves in the place where we seem like failures and that too is a form of pride. The truth is failure is not really failure. It is just a form redirection. When you fail at one thing, you need to see it as one way that will not accomplish what you want to do, meaning you have ten other ways to try. This is one of the perspectives that help you deal with failure. Since pride is a conception limitation, you can easily change it by opening up yourself to the possibility that you do not know everything.

Understanding that people do want to help and so does God or the universe or any other spiritual entity that you may ascribe to. You also need to be open to vulnerability and not be ashamed of your weaknesses but learn how to work with them. The more you are open to change, the less you will be prideful too since you understand that all things work together for your good. You also need to believe in the overall energy that serves to ease your life. Some people believe that life's so hard and have therefore created a world around them that is quite rigid, which causes a lot of tension and suffering.

If you look closely, every prideful person has a fear they try to cover and when circumstances make them feel pride, they are just telling themselves that they have defeated their fears whereas the fact is that their fear is really locking them in. Pride can even cause stress and lifestyle diseases such as heart and blood pressure issues. This is because the toxicity of the concept is also harmful to the body. You do not amount to much when you are prideful. You might seem to be accomplishing a lot on the outside, and it might make you feel good about yourself for a moment. Once you are alone and all that cover comes tumbling down you realize that the part in you that you are running away from is always there, haunting you like a person in prison.

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come over you like an armed robber. This is a famous saying from the Bible’s Book of Proverbs that is often used to speak against laziness. It is not wrong to want to take a break, but if breaks are all you take, then there is a big problem. A lazy person barely gets things done. They might be up to something, seem like they are busy, but at the end of the day, they never accomplish anything. He will always look for the easy way out and sometimes this easy way is not the best way.

In projection and other spiritual activities, a lazy person will never get the result they want. Either they are too lazy to try or even if they do have a little strength to try something, they are quite sloppy with how they go about it. Consider a lazy person trying to do meditation for instance. One is required to sit in silence for at least ten minutes a day. This person will start complaining why the posture is too tiring, then sit there for barely thirty seconds and they are out, and trust you me, might not be able to talk them into coming back. A lot of spiritual work is exactly that, work that you need to get your hands on lest you will not be able to get anywhere. Even though we are advised not to consider or take on spirituality as work, a lazy person will see it as that and never try to do it. The nature of projection needs a person to be willing to work with discomfort before they can train their mind and body to project and other techniques and there is no room for lazy bodies.

If you ever find yourself feeling too lazy to do something, the number one thing to do is check your mental state. Many people drift into depression with a cover of laziness. It is sad because people might keep on bashing them for being lazy, whereas this person needs professional help. If your cause of laziness is not the mental health card, then consider trying one of these activities:

• Look for the slightest form of motivation that will get you from your lazy to an active state.

• Trick your body into being active by promising it a gift.

• Work with short and manageable goals.

• Create a plan and stick to it, plus make sure it has a do able timeframe.

• Ask for help.

• Avoid distractions.

• Be aware of your most productive hours and work around them.

Finally, know yourself. Some people do not consider themselves lazy, yet they barely get things done. You cannot break a laziness cycle until you admit that you are lazy and then work with who you are, not against yourself. Also, be patient with yourself. If you have been lazy since you could remember, then it means that the cycle is stronger than you think. It will take some time before you create a new you. Also know what motivates you and use those motivations often.

Tiredness

Some people are not lazy. They are just tired. And yes, people can be tired all the time if they have no motivation to do a task that has been waiting on them for days. Ever woken up in the morning and all you wanted to do was go back to sleep? This is often a sign of a demotivated mind and one that is too tired to keep on going through the same routine. Tiredness can also manifest as anger, sloppy feelings, lack of concentration, monkey minds and daydreaming. If you ever experience such symptoms after a long day of work, you need to slow down and give your body some rest.

Your body is not a robot. There are people who train their bodies to be quite tough and resilient and they know their limits. Athletes might have tough training programs but if they overdo it, they risk injuries that could end their careers. You might want to go too far and sometimes your willpower might seem as if it has what it takes to get there, but you also need to listen when your body tells you to stop. Your body has its own intelligence; you need to listen to it whenever it communicates. You do not have to wait for a muscle break down or when you miss an important meeting because you have not been getting enough sleep and you finally oversleep the day that you need to be more awake.

If you have ever projected, or tried to use the mind awake- body asleep method and ended up falling totally asleep during the process, it could be that you need to rest first before you try the procedure once more. It is normal to sleep during a meditation, especially when the background music is so soothing but if you find it extremely hard to control your mind and keep it awake even without the music, then you might be working with a tired mind. This is why, people like Aaron Abke, who have been successful at projecting, recommend that you do it at a time when your body has had proper rest. This could mean you sleep early the night before and wake up an hour before your normal time and try to sleep again but keep your mind awake.

Try watching what you eat, as well. When your food is not keeping your body strong and healthy, you risk having a poor concentration or not being able to keep up with your daily routine because it does not have enough energy for that. Exercise and drink a lot of water to keep a healthy body. You can try different healthy routines and see which one works for you best.

Pain and Illnesses

There are times when you really want to relax, calm your mind and take the chance on an exploration but your body is just not in the place to cooperate. It would be nice to have our bodies working at our pace all the time; sometimes we just have to be realistic and understand that the body will break down every once in a while. Of course, there are things we could do to stop that from happening but when it does, it is a clear sign that we need to take a break.

It is funny that some projections are induced when one has an illness or is in the hospital. A good example is near death experiences. They are given the name because one was either in an accident that almost killed them or were in a coma from an illness and their physical bodies had to shut down for a minute. As much as the near-death experiences are sometimes beautiful and many times serve to give us clarity about life, they are also scary for the people who are not on the other side with you. Also, we cannot be sure that they will happen and so it would be insane to suggest that illnesses are positive places to be in as you project.

Voluntary projections, on the other hand, are quite hard to achieve when the body is not functioning properly. Just imagine how unstable your mind is, how much in pain you might be and at the same time you are trying to force the body to relax enough so you can take charge of your astral body. It will simply not work. You need your body to be in its best place so you can direct it to a proper direction. Pain and illnesses also make it quite easy for the body to get tired and then you will have to deal with all that discomfort in the nerves plus the sickness.

To be safe and to avoid putting yourself to further risk when you are ill, avoid doing any experiments to induce a projection. I know that this might be the one time you get a little free time on your hands, but the more rested your body is and the better shape you are in, the better you will be able to take charge of the experience. No, your astral body never gets sick, so a physical sickness will not affect it but your physical body does, and since it is the one keeping you present on earth, it would be better if you take care of it first.

To avoid having illnesses and unwanted pains from interrupting your efforts to astral project, take care of your physical body the best way you can. Eat healthy including more fruits and vegetables, avoid fast foods from that food joint nearby and reduce your caffeine intake. Some people who are really serious about their spiritual growth even forsake meat entirely and choose to go vegan for the sake of having a body that works with them instead of against them. As I have already mentioned, when you are really serious about what you want, you do not let anything stop you from doing it and that might mean doing away with that dessert with too much sugar after dinner. Exercise will also help to keep your body in shape plus an active lifestyle. Be around friends and family, too, for a wholesome life.

Lack of Motivation

I totally get it, there are just sometimes when you just don’t seem motivated enough to do something and you keep procrastinating. This happens to almost everything, even those tasks that you might be good at. Artists will be quite familiar with lack of motivation especially writers who go through a writer’s block. It is quite understandable and all of us, at some point, have not felt like doing things even if we formerly looked so forward to.

Like many emotional states, if you ask the right questions, you will always get to the bottom of why you do not feel like doing something. According to Mel Robbins, lack of motivation or procrastination is often a sign of stress. Most people do not realize this and that is why some will try to look for a thousand motivation speeches to get them to do what they should have been doing without the extra push. The moment you find yourself procrastinating, ask yourself why you dread starting or completing that work. Is there too much on your mind? If yes, what can you do to deal with some of the matters that are bothering you? Every problem has a solution if you just look at it the right way. If it cannot be solved instantly then you might give yourself a rest for a moment and come back to the problem when your mind is a bit more clear.

Lack of motivation can also be a sign of a tired body or a tired mind. Maybe you have been working on the same thing for too long and your mind is trying to ask you to take a break by keeping you demotivated for this particular moment. It also could be that you are simply not interested in what you are working on and you do not want to admit it.

Some people fear failing at something before they even start and this could be another reason why you just don’t seem to have the motivation to get the task started or completed. I mean, the reasons are countless but you can always find a solution.

First and foremost, practice productive procrastination. This is where you get other tasks taken care of as you wait to gain the motivation you need for your main task. Artists do this all the time. If you feel like you do not have the inspiration to write that song, get some chores done or go hang out with friends and family. When you come back, you will have gained back the energy you need to do what you need to. At times you only need to be really honest with yourself to solve a lack of motivation problem. If you are not feeling the task and you have the option of letting it go, then that might be what you need to do. If you do not believe that you can project at the moment and so you have been putting it off, then take a break from trying to prove that you can and get other adventures going. You never know, you might meet inspiration in your other adventures that will get you back to trying. In any case, there is an old saying that goes: when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. There is no shame in not being ready if it is healthier to wait.

Lack of Concentration

It's one thing to lack the energy to get yourself doing something you want to do and a whole other story when you just can’t seem to concentrate on your task. One of the things you will need to really work on if you are ever going to master projection is your concentration levels. Some people have to stay in one position and relax for at least an hour before their astral bodies can finally project out of their physical bodies. The more you are able to concentrate, the faster you will be able to concentrate. We have already touched on ways to work on our concentration, including vision exercises and meditation. Learning to calm your mind helps a great deal and that is why mindful exercises also come in handy.

Concentration comes easily when someone is actually motivated to try out a task and has all the reasons why they want to do what they have taken on for themselves to accomplish. You will never convince a kid to concentrate on a toon movie they love: it comes naturally. You will never be asked to pay attention to a teacher who talks about a topic that you are interested in; that, too, comes naturally. My point is, as long as you are not interested, you might never have what it takes to actually concentrate. Also, if the method you are using is not right, you might have a difficult time trying to concentrate. The easiest way to work on concentration, therefore, means working on your interest and also really have it clear why you want to do something.

Voluntary astral projection is just that: voluntary. It is something you should be taking on because it interests you. You have an actual interest in visiting astral planes without any negative judgements. If your want does not come from a pure and willing heart, you might be putting too much energy into something that you do not really consider worth it.

If your lack of concentration is because of illness, pain, discomfort or tiredness, then clear the conditions first and then you will be better placed to get back your concentration. Take time to practice paying attention to something for at least an hour. Your brain is neuroplastic, which means you can easily help it adapt to new patterns. You only need the will, time and skills to do so.

Inability to Find your Ideal Technique

At times you could be trying all that you know and still you seem not to be getting it. Have you considered that this might not be your way of doing it? With the seven types of intelligence mentioned earlier, it is more than clear that human beings work differently from each other. We all have a small part of all the forms of intelligence but there is always one that dominates the rest. Linguistic people are better at learning through words. These are people who will simply get it by reading something. Visual people prefer seeing to remember; they need a lot of physical illustrations to catch onto new concepts. Kinesthetic people are emotionally led; they feel to remember. Musical people do well with background instrumentals and guided meditations with audio waves might work well for them. Interpersonal people like to concentrate on their own while intrapersonal individuals are better at social gatherings and team work. Finally, we have the logical or the mathematical people who need all the facts before they get on board. Which of these people are you?

The sooner you know where you lie, the better. Note that it is possible to have one or two strong forms of intelligence. It does not have to be just one. Ultimately, all of them are in us, working with different percentages and ratios to make us different. If we are over seven billion people on the planet, it means there are seven billion ways that these forms of intelligence intertwine to make us unique and that is the amazing part of nature. We are all made of the same components, yet we actualize these components differently.

There is a reason why you will always find more than one way of doing something. One person will get the word out by talking to people individually while another will prefer to text. Another will write a song about the message and another will make a video about it. All these are different ways of doing the same thing, yet they accomplish the purpose. So, what is your way of learning how to project? Do not take too long trying to prove that you can or you need to do it one way. You will only be wasting your time if you do that. You should never try to do something just for the sake of proving a point. As much as there is a temporary gratification that comes with it, at the end of the day, those you are trying to prove to will need you to do something else. That is not the kind of life that leaves you fulfilled. Try projecting because you want to and you love trying new things. That is the message the universe responds to easily. Any other is trying to fight a battle that you could have easily avoided. Take the time to find your way and then try other ways to see if there are others you can adopt just for the fun of it.

Other Projection Problems

To conclude this section on things that could keep you from projecting, there are other technical things that you might not have been aware of. Note that there are many problems that will face a new projector and you should expect a few.

Here are the most common ones you should look out for:

Awareness hand problems - This occurs frequently in the exit techniques that include your hands when climbing out of your physical body. There are people who can’t seem to do it simply because their concentration on one hand or both keeps flickering. This can cause the hands to slip or they can seem too weak to carry the body. It somehow affects your energy work as well. To solve this, work on your hand awareness especially when you are awake. Do some energy exercises such as the aura observation on your hands or the hand waving technique. This helps you with how you perceive both your physical and astral body hands.

Torso energy surge problems - When you are lying down in preparation for an OBE, your energy starts becoming more sensible and the torso energy surge should be expected. This happens when energy is running through your chest to your neck and back to your abdomen. It moves first, at times it can be uncomfortable, it is a sign that your astral body is preparing to project out of the physical body and at times causes some on and off energy triggers. This is a good thing since you need some energy networks to get the astral body out and about. It can get distracting and some people get scared and stop an OBE from happening because of the fear. When you are having such surges, continue being calm and wait patiently to make your exit. You might need more energy work exercises to get used to the feeling. You also need to understand that nothing wrong is happening, it is just how energy works.

Head Pressure - Head pressure is another common problem when one is preparing for an OBE. This happens due to energy work as well and it can either be a head pressure or a brow pressure. You will need to do a bit of energy work as well to get comfortable with the sensations since it is only energy at work.

Cobwebs problems - At times you will feel some tingling effects on your face when you are in deep relaxation. This is also common and the fast days of projection might have more intense cobwebs than when you progress. This tingling will occur around your eyes, ears and nose and you might be tempted to scratch it off. Although this is a reflex action to take, you should try as much as possible to avoid it. This is because doing so only interrupts with the energy flow and you might have to start the process all over again. The more you practice being still, even with physical discomfort, the easier it will be to handle the cobweb issue. You might as well try spraying your room with insecticide to keep mosquitoes off as they can be another cause of such destruction.

Stuck in the body during exit - Many people report having been able to finally induce an OBE but it is short lived since some parts of the body tend to cling to the physical one. You will remember when this happens and it is often frustrating. The main culprits are areas around the stomach, hands and legs. Being stuck around the belly can be due to heavy protein digestion. You can therefore go easy on your meals right before an OBE practice. Pain and illnesses can be other causes of such issues and that is why you need to ensure you are perfectly relaxed without physical discomforts.

Metal and jewelry - Although this might be a mild issue, it is a problem for some people. Some people testify that for some reason they do not seem to get the pressure of their chests during a projection and when checked, they had a necklace that was causing the effect. Since OBE works a lot with energy, it would be safer and more effective to work without metals and jewelry on you. They cause different types of discomfort which will interfere with your concentration or relaxation.

Electromagnetic and magnetic north problems - Other things that affect energy work are electromagnetic equipment such as your TV and radio when left on during an OBE. This is again not the case with everyone but it would be better to keep anything that seems distracting out of sight or at least off. The magnetic north works closely with OBE too and that is why Robert Monroe’s technique recommends that one lays relative to it.

Saliva issues - Drooling and snoring during sleep or rest is a saliva problem and it can lead to a premature return. The snoring noise wakes some people and if they are on their way out, awaking their physical senses will not help them explore longer. To solve such problems, ensure that you do not have a flu, drink hot water to clear any heavy saliva and use mint, ginger and lemon drinks for proper breathing and clearing out mucus obstructions.

Astral visual issues - Finally there is the astral visual issue which is quite common with first-time projectors. You might make it to the other side, but for some reason, you have flickering visions. This is not new and it is no sign of a physical eye problem. Mostly, it is another cause of energy

surge. To deal with it, imagine having a lamp around your eyes to light your way. You can also move to rooms with more light or try and project to clearer planes. You can use commands and affirmations plus other creative skills for this.

As you can see, people will often face different issues when trying to project and it often affects their confidence of doing the same. Most problems are not unique to an individual and it needs a bit of knowledge and skill practice to make things better.

Chapter Summary

• Emotional and mental astral projection obstacles are self- imposed.

• Overcoming astral projection obstacles begins with believing in yourself, your capabilities and the power you have to be in control of your physical and astral bodies.

• In the next chapter you will learn about the mind, body and soul in relation to astral projection.