Thank you LoD!
It is a very religious/spiritual topic, but I've heard stories from people who are, in essence, atheists, who have had these experiences themselves. So I don't think it's exclusive to people who believe in an afterlife or a higher entity or whathaveyou.
I'm really curious about this, because I don't believe in it. I mean I'm a religious nut, but having the power to leave your body just sounds odd to me. I do believe in demons/ghosts, and I was told that if you astral project, you leave an open vessel behind. So what happens if a demon decides to put you on? I doubt it's a matter of simply kicking them out, and they're likely to damage your body beyond repair before leaving it anyway (just going on the whole 'possessed' thing).
I mean, if you believe in astral projection, then you'd have to believe in reincarnation as well, wouldn't you? People having memories from past lives? I've met a couple of people who claim to be old souls, albeit I think one just wants to believe their special. The other one who miiiight be legit or maybe just downright creepy says that they know me from another time (but he's not very forthcoming in telling me when/how/why/whut?
) I was told by this person that I'm apparently very good at projecting but I'm even better at keeping myself grounded, so apparently I don't do it that often, and apparently the 'dreams' I have that turn out to be warnings of some kind of what is to come are actually predictions I receive from astral beings, like the first earthquake that hit Christchurch last year, and when I go to places and think I have dejavu, apparently are places that I've visited when I've projected. Oh, and apparently, when you get a strong sense that you've known someone all your life upon first meeting them, it's because you have known them before in a past life.
It all sounds too 'out there' for me. I mean if people are being reincarnated over and over again and again, does that mean God only created a certain amount of souls and we're all being recycled over and over? If this is the case, then why do some people believe in God and not others? Wouldn't everyone at some point or another have believed in God, if they've been around since the 'beginning'? Why wouldn't that belief stick, considering we're talking about spiritual deeds here?
I believe there IS an astral plane between heaven and earth, because in the Bible somewhere it says that there is a place where all spirits go to await the final judgement. But being given the ability to leave your body to go into that astral plane? What is the point in doing that? Why would we be allowed to do that? What purpose does that serve? I also believe that earth IS hell in the afterlife. I mean when you die, you hope you're going to a better place, so it's got to be a hellish experience to wake up and realise YOU'RE STILL HERE. I also believe that the world will be purified by the hand of God one day, eg. He will cast all the bad chops into the eternal fire. To de-romanticise it, the sun is going to grill the earth and turn it into a ball of fire, and all the bad souls are going to get dumped out of the astral plane into the fire. That's just my theory and my way of trying to figure out how it's going to work. The rest of the souls are going to get bounced up into heaven.
So... yeah. I don't know if I believe one can actually project ones soul from the body. Mostly because I don't see why we would be given the choice to do so. I don't understand it, and if I can't understand it I can't believe it, so I'm just trying to make sense of it.
As for sleep paralysis - been there, done that, got the mug, T-shirt, poster and badge. Very terrifying, no matter how many times it happens, the terror is new and fresh and intense every time. Then again if you make it a habit to sleep on your side instead of on your back, you cut your chances of experiencing it again by 70%. There's still that 30% chance of it occuring, so I make it a habit to sleep on my stomach (and with the light on, aye!) I never used to hallucinate during an episode though. I've felt things, sure, but never seen anything. I did have hallucinations at night and sometimes during the day, though (undiagnosed PNP, but that's totally off topic).
