I recently talked to a young woman, who’d tried, in vain, to astral project for six long years.

She was feeling disillusioned, demoralized – and was in despair, wondering if her struggle would ever pay-off.

There are many reasons why astral projection might not work for you. The problem is, most guidance on how to project is really vague. It doesn’t give you concrete steps to follow, and no suggestions on monitoring your progress.

No wonder so many people are having a hard time!

Often, the issues you may be having are simply due to your Mental Conditioning.

You may not have conditioned your subconscious mind to be ready for the experience, to want it, or to really strive for it.

On the other hand, you may be obsessing about out-of-body experiences too much – and trust me, this can be just as much an issue.

Here are some daily practices you can use to get your subconscious mind in alignment:

Affirmations

Affirmations are incredibly powerful tools to reshape your mind, and in my view are essential.

You don’t have to use the same ones each time – feel free to mix them up.

It really doesn’t matter how to phrase them – just keep them positive and goal-based. These are just examples:

“Tonight, I project.”

“My Astral Self will separate from my body.”

“I will have an out-of-body experience.”

The purpose of these is to reinforce your desires in your subconscious.

It’s essential to understand that negative phrases don’t work, as the subconscious doesn’t make the distinction – kind of in the same way as if you’re told not to think of a pink elephant, it’s almost impossible to keep pink elephants out of your mind.

Use these affirmations every day, even when you’re not planning to try to project – make it a habit.

You can use them before sleep, or after sleep – but they should be used close to the times you sleep, since that’s when you’re closest to your subconscious state. Personally, I’d recommend before AND after sleep, for extra impact.

Finally, don’t forget to remind yourself why you want to astral project!

Using Your Imagination

This is very helpful, yet most guides only skim over this important part of preparation – yet you can do this many times a day, in many different ways – and the more you do this, the more you’re prepping yourself for success.

Trust me on this – any time you find yourself at a loose end try any one of the following exercises:

Imaginary Flying/Floating/Swimming

In as much detail are you want, or are able to manage, imagine that you are flying.

Choose how you are flying – are you flying like Superman? Or are you flying like a bird or a plane? How fast are you moving? What scenery is passing around and below you? Is it day, or is it night-time? What sounds can you hear? Is it warm, or cool? Imagine the feel of the air against your skin, in your hair.

You may prefer to imagine yourself riding the thermals – perhaps like a bird of prey waiting patiently for dinner to show its face.

Whichever way you choose, the idea is to immerse yourself as fully as you can.

If you struggle with these visualization exercises, you might find it helpful to start with this trance exercise that uses imagining colors.

Imagining Astral Touch/Sensations

With your eyes closed, imagine you are touching yourself.

Nothing sexual – that may be pleasant, but won’t help your projection techniques so well!

Imagine your own hand, using gentle, circular motions, rubbing your knee, or shoulder or arm. Do it somewhere not too erogenous – we don’t want it to be distracting.

If you need to, touch yourself for real, to remind yourself of how it feels. For instance, notice how the touch of your hand feels to your knee. And at the same time, notice how your knee feels to your hand.

Try and recreate those sensations in your mind. At first, it won’t be very easy, but the more you do it, the more easy, and effective, it becomes.

Imaginary (or Real) Places

If you’ve got a picture on your wall, of a landscape or town scene, go and take a really good look at it.

Doesn’t matter if it’s a photo, an illustration or a painting.

Try and take in every detail. Every texture, every shadow.

Study it. Memorize it.

Now, walk away, and try to remember it exactly. Follow this process every day – and later on, you can actually use and expand upon this method to induce a projection. But in the meanwhile, it’s a really good way to condition your mind ready to project.

Alternative method:

Have you got a favorite place that you like to take a holiday? Or a place you go, or used to go often?

Try to really take yourself back there – imagine what you can see, but also the sounds, the smells, how it feels. Are you at the beach? How does the sand feel? How hot is it? How fine is the sand? Can you feel the sun beating down on you? Is there any breeze?

Reading About Astral Projection

Reading about what you are trying to learn is always an effective method to reinforce your goal.

If you’re often reading books, blogs and forums about astral projection, this is often more effective than affirmations alone.

I often find that when I’m reading most (or writing most) about astral projection, it happens much more often – and I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

Anything that gets you thinking actively, and actively is the key, helps to condition the brain for success.

However, avoid any online reading for at least an hour before your normal bedtime. The glare from electronic devices definitely doesn’t help with sleep, and lack of quality sleep has a very negative effect on astral projection.

Hypnosis & Subliminal Suggestion

Since conditioning your subconscious mind is such a vital stage of learning to astral project, you won’t be surprised to discover that hypnosis and subliminal suggestion are incredibly powerful.

In fact, using hypnosis and suggestion is often more effective than all the other previous techniques, combined.

Why is this?

Well, all of the other techniques are ways to get into your subconscious – to stop your subconscious mind from sabotaging your efforts, to get you ready for the sensations you’ll feel.

Much of what we want to do is this – to prevent doubt and fear from stopping a projection in its tracks.

Hypnosis and suggestion are so much more powerful, because they go DEEP, right into the subconscious mind! Plus, they can be developed to include some of the imagination exercises I described earlier.

Acting more “Spiritual”

By this, I mean feeling compassion for the world.

I can’t overstate this – the love and compassion you feel DO work as a preparation.

Focus on meditation not for the sake of astral projection, but for your own personal growth and peace of mind, and know that this will bring you closer.

Learning to “still the mind” is a skill that will serve you for life, and will benefit the people you love and, ultimately, everyone you encounter.

I realize this might sound “hippy”.

Still, this is a key to how successful your astral travels are, to which planes you travel to, and also serves to protect you if you do encounter anything frightening.

To a great extent, your motivation, and your compassion dictate the mood-colors of your experiences.

Documentation & Measuring Results

I’ve mentioned this in another post, but I can’t overstate the benefit of keeping a diary or journal of some kind. You may prefer a dictaphone, or to keep a video diary, but for my part I like a good old fashioned journal.

There is plenty of evidence showing that keeping a journal is very helpful for achieving any goal you’ve set your mind to. Among many others, Tim Ferriss, life-hacker, author, and investor swears by the process.

I prefer to write in one that is reasonably high quality – I want to enjoy writing in it.

If you are trying the exercises above, or any of the ones I teach on other posts, it’s a good idea to record when. Once you combine that with recording your dreams, and any other factors that seem important, eg food, alcohol consumption, stress, physical exertion, it’s incredible how quickly you’ll start to discover the route that will work best for you.

Either way, recording your progress makes the desire to succeed clearer in in your subconscious – which in turn will create more successes, followed by more to write about, and so on, reinforcing your efforts in a virtuous cycle.