etheric and astral bodies at the same time. Thiswas how my physical ME was able to see the astral ME so easily, and from any angle.My etheric was, literally, turning around in my skin. This ability to see through closedeyelids and from different perspectives is often described by projectors and meditators.This duality seems remarkably similar to how schizophrenics describe what they feelduring an attack: The nausea, lack of energy, multiple sets of thoughts and feelings ofdisorientation. This terrible disorder may be caused by a dislocation of the astral body?The only way to find out if this is the case would be to study a schizophrenic during anattack, from the astral viewpoint.After studying the etheric/physical bodies from my astral form I have come to thefollowing conclusions:During normal sleep, the etheric, better described as the energy body or vitality sheath,expands and acts like an energy sponge or solar accumulator. It swells and opens;allowing the astral body to float free, while it absorbs some kind of energy (cosmicenergy?) from the universe.When it expands, all the chakras, major and minor, slowly open up like the flowers in agarden, catching and absorbing energy. When we awake, the etheric body contracts andre-absorbs the astral body; forming a dense etheric sheath, or skin, which holds within itour stored energy and subtle bodies.According to some sources we have 300 chakras, if you count all the minor ones.The swelling of the etheric body, while awareness is centered in it, also appears to beresponsible for the sensation of swollen hugeness in the body coupled with a feeling ofsmallness in self. This strange mix of sensations is often reported by people during astralprojection or meditation. It appears to be caused by the etheric body swelling andinteracting with the universe.---------- Robert Bruce ------------- rsb@tower.com.au ----------Your comments, experiences and requests for help and advice areMost welcome. If corresponding via email, however, please keepyour text to a minimum and *please* don't send great chunks of mywork back to me. Thanks in advance for your consideration.----------------- http://www.tower.com.au/~rsb/ ---------------- TREATISE ON ASTRAL PROJECTIONVolume I - v1.1Part 5ByRobert BruceCopyright 14 May 1994. All rights reserved.Projection ProblemsHere are some answers to the most common problems people are having with projection.Thank you all for the hundreds of email letters you have sent me. Your feedback ishelping me to improve this treatise, which ultimately helps everybody. If you write to meand dont get a reply within a week, write again, I sometimes, inadvertently, loose a fewletters.I have done away with the original technique of shifting the consciousness out of thebody. Most people find this kind of visualization far too difficult, and waste preciousenergy trying to do it. Visualization is the biggest problem with all projectiontechniques. To overcome this, I have developed a simpler method that is much moreefficient.The most common problems are:1. Visualization, out in front of yourself.2. Paralysis, after an apparently successful projection.3. Fear.4. Remembering the projection.1. The visualization problem:Shifting your point of consciousness away from your body, by visualizing, is simply away of exerting pressure on the astral body. There are many ways to do this other thanthe method I