I remember as far back as I can as a child Ive had alot of dreams that I knew I was dreaming. Id even see friends and tell them that it was a dream and to remember this tomorrow so when we wake up we can talk about it at school. And in the dream they agreed. But the next day they always looked at me as if I was nuts and didnt remember having the same dream. I had these dreams as a child at least once a week. And I also had some multiple false awakenings. As I got older and became a teen these dreams ver fewer and far between. Thats when I discover a book on astral projection and learned that it can be induced by 5 different ways. The 1st was by extreme pain or torture.The 2nd was self hypnosis. The 3rd was hallucinagenic drugs. The 4th was near death experiences. And the 5th was through dreams being able to know that your dreaming (lucid dreaming). I went out and bought many books on the techniques of inducing an obe and tried in vane the self hypnotic state as well as the hallucinagenic one and never had any success.. One book that really caught me was " Astral Projection" by Robert Monroe written in the 1920's I think. I threw the books away and thought it all untrue until a dream I had many years later that I realized I was dreaming, and all I said in the dream was that I wanted to do Astral Projection..The next thing I knew there were black clouds swirling in the sky and I became afraid as the dream faded out and I realized I was in my bedroom but i could not move but see through my closed eyelids. This I've learned is called the catacalyptic state. At this point your supposed to concentrate on a trap door so to speak in the center of your fore head and they (the books) say sorta roll your eyes back and put pressure on the head area. Then the vibrating of the my body started. Its at this point that you will either wake up or leave the body. There are certain factors that decide wether you will leave the body or not. They say if your sleeping on your right side (I think), it will not work or if there is a rain storm outside you will come out of it and wake up. Robert Monroe said at this point that you will hear evil cackling and laughter and dont pay any attention to it. I never heard any of that or was afraid at this point, but one time, one of the last times I did this (about 15 years ago), There was an invisible force in the room that would not let me wake up or leave the body. It kept pushing me up then down and I was scared shitless. But anyway at this point I started (after vibrating violently but not afraid) to float towards the ceiling and then I finally passed through it. All I can say is that doing a projection this way (through dreams or lucid dreaming), this time in the room is the most realistic part. When you leave the room it becomes a dream that I really have no control of and dont realize Im dreaming. The books say to choose a place to go or the psycic winds will take you where they want you to go or see what they want you to see. Ive tried both but they always turn into a dream and when I wake up I realize that the part in the room was real! No matter what it is definatly real. The books say that this is the least realistic way of leaving your body since you can only visit the astral plane and it is very dreamy to begin with. If you are able to leave your body in any of the other ways (such as hypnosis), you will be able to really see what you want to see and have access to the etheral plane as well it its not supposed to be dreamy at all. Robert Monroe was a master at being able to hypnotize himself within 30 seconds and leave his body at will anytime he wanted. He documented every time he left the body. What Ive learned is that Once you leave your body for the first time, you will automatically have projections wether you want them or not..I think this is called spontaneous projections. Over the next few years they happend over and over and I documented them all, but I just wish the dream parts were more realisic and didnt turn into a dream. Ive had maybee 35 projections or more in a 25 year span. Im now 35 years old and had a projection about 3 months ago but before that it has been years. The books say not to ever look back at your body while you are still in the room. I did that once and what I saw was a white sheet covering my whole body and head, and an open window with next to me with curtains blowing in the room. There were other times that as I was in the room the room changed before my eyes as if going back in time. But again once I left the room it all turned into dreams. I would love to be able to have this gift again as Ive once had and I dont know why it has gone. If anybody has any advice I'd greatly appreciate it..Jim