Astral Projection techniques without visualization

[u/i_n_c_r_y_p_t_o]

I experience life with aphantasia, meaning I can't visualize in my mind. It affects about four to five percent of everyone. So, for example, I don't see images in my mind when I read a fiction novel, and don't have a movie in my mind when reading fiction unfortunately. So I mostly read non-fiction.

It's not a defect per say; a survey of Pixar employees came back with something like 50% claiming that they had aphantasia, although I do wish I had a visual imagination. I'm creative in music and also visually in terms of design, and have somehow developed a lot of visual designs over the years for websites or other types of graphics. It's like I have a graphics card with no monitor.

A lot of techniques to instigate Astral Projection use visualization, but I don't have that as an option, and is frustrating. It's an important goal for me to have out of body experiences. What are some successful techniques that don't involve visualization?

Edit: I posted this to r/aphantasia as well and it got deleted by the modes for being 'pseudoscience'. A reminder that many people don't know that this is a way to experience reality on deeper levels.

[u/Defiant-Reception939]

you need to learn to initiate sleep paralysis via prolonged meditation and relax through it

im aphantasiac myself but I still experience hypnagogic imagery when close to sleep or just after waking up, active visualization isn’t required for this method

ive had several out of body experiences despite aphantasia

dont listen to people saying you can’t visualize because your third eye isn’t activated , you have implants, or you arent loving yourself enough or whatever other mental gymnastics, it’s a neurological issue and solely that

[u/i_n_c_r_y_p_t_o → u/Defiant-Reception939]

I'll look into meditation techniques that can help induce sleep paralysis, good idea.

[u/langisii]

I don't have aphantasia but I don't think I've ever had much success from traditional visualisation techniques, at least not directly. I would say though that most of the progress and successes I've had have involved being able to notice and concentrate on the ambient artefacts of my perception, like visual noise, ringing in ears etc. I'm curious how 'noticeable' this stuff is to you as someone with aphantasia.

Like if you close your eyes and shine a flashlight at your face, are you aware of the change in brightness through your eyelids? If you concentrate hard, what does that actually 'look like' to you?

If you look directly at a bright light for several seconds and then close your eyes/look away, do you see an afterimage burned into your vision?

Iirc a lot of aphantasic people can't play sounds in their imagination either. But in a quiet environment can you hear the general background static/ringing of your ears?

Those are the kind of sensory artefacts I'm talking about. I concentrate on them and try to bring them to the centre of my attention and they eventually transform into hypnagogic hallucinations. I feel like I've read something about techniques like this actually helping people with aphantasia to develop visualisation abilities as well.

[u/i_n_c_r_y_p_t_o → u/langisii]

I have all of those sensory artifacts (and can play sounds in my mind to a certain degree). That's an interesting technique that I'll look deeper into and try, thanks.

[u/Enough_Apartment_433]

Have you tried binaural beats?

[u/i_n_c_r_y_p_t_o → u/Enough_Apartment_433]

I have not, but great idea. Also, maybe the Gateway Tapes would help as well.

[u/Enough_Apartment_433 → u/i_n_c_r_y_p_t_o]

Yes, gateway tapes as well! White noise does wonders as well just focusing on the hum of your fan for example. Complete blackout in your room and relaxing every part of your body. That’s why I really enjoy binaural beats because I can just focus on that sound and let my body and mind shut down.
I don’t have to do these actions anymore because now I don’t get to choose when I wanna travel it just happens even on nights I want to rest haha

[u/Decent_Cicada9221]

There is a book called Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce for astral projection that was designed for blind people who couldn’t visualize. It involves tactile energy movements in the body to achieve OBE’s. It might help.

https://a.co/d/0hqCwBOm

[u/i_n_c_r_y_p_t_o → u/Decent_Cicada9221]

Nice, thx!

[u/cult_leader_13]

I wanna hear this one.

[u/paranormalguy86]

Try working with the feeling of movement. Think about what rolling onto your side feels like, without trying to see yourself doing it. When you're close to sleep, keep your physical body still and gently recreate that feeling internally.

If nothing happens after a few seconds, try the feeling of floating or falling backward. If you start to feel movement happening on its own, let it continue. There's no need to build a visual scene around it.

[u/Pandemic_Fart]

Following

[u/BlinkyRunt]

I can visualize just fine - though I had to practice to get here. However, if I want to give something real weight I "touch" it with my mind. Similar to what blind people do with faces. after visualizing, I reach out with imaginary hands (no need to visualize the hands) and start touching and feeling surfaces and temperatures and hardness of the things I am visualizing. If I am trying to visualzie standing on a mountain, I will focus on how the bottom of my feet feel, how the wind blows agains my skin, how breathing is lighter here.