Glad to see this group is growing!

I'm curious, by saying projection, were you dreaming in the dream state, or were you awake? I've had a dream once where I woke up in the dream and realized I could fly. I could go thru walls or anything else that I believed at the time to be solid. I woke up when I could not hold the images together. Is this the same as yours? Is this projection?

Frank, that sounds like a lucid dream. while similar, lucid dreams are actually considered different from astral projection, which generally takes place while you are fully conscious or in a state of deep meditation/heightened consciousness.

I too wish to develop both my lucid dreaming and astral projection. If anyone has any tips/etc, it would be appreciated.

Lucid dreaming is very easy, astral projection I have found to be much less so. In one sense perhaps I have been doing the former all my life but didn't actually realize it until I read Castaneda on the advice of a friend. Once aware of the nature of a lucid dream it's easy to manipulate your dream, the trick is just realizing that you are awake in a dream.

They happen naturally at the edge of sleep. So much so that at every opportunity I get I snooze in the morning, slumbering half in and half out of sleep--I work for myself so this is easy but most people can do it on a weekend or a vacation. We're all aware of that state where you wake up from a dream go back to sleep and restart dreaming the same dream because many of us have done so at least once. Set an alarm clock to disturb yourself during REM sleep (the last few and deepest hours of sleep) and then hit and keep hitting the snooze button to create that state.

This is the closest state to lucid dreaming. Once in this state you can spontaneously be awake but still seeing a dream in front of your eyes. Awake because you are aware of the room you are sleeping in, perhaps a member of your family is moving around or making coffee nearby. Try to hold both things simultaneously, the dream and the consciousness as you drift in and out of each. I'm sure with practice this can be developed. In a deeper form you can, just all of a sudden, become aware that you are conscious that you are dreaming without being aware of the room. Once conscious within your dream you can explore your dreamspace.

I have friends who jump up and down to see if they are awake or asleep, pinching yourself or looking at your hands. I've never needed these. You know when you are awake in a dream. Casteneda is liberating to read because he succinctly describes the types of things you can do and gives a broader understanding of the space you are in. However in a flying dream I've flown myself into the ground to prove it doesn't hurt and jumped off cliffs. In one of my first ones I was so intrigued that I could pass through a glass window that I just spent the dream going back and forth through the window.

The other trick is remembering them. I do have a lot of dreams and don't remember so many. Other things and people can join you there and it can be a gateway to a deeper understanding of the dreamspace as a distinct realm. An arena not unlike the space experienced in Shamanic journeying.

I've tried astral projection repeatedly since I first heard of it when a teenager and I've not so far convincingly floated above my body. But I do know people who do this spontaneously, it may just be something for naturals.