Help! AP attempts keep getting me stuck in the etheric!

[Muloc7253]

I've complained in the past that often when I astral project, I have difficult seeing and moving properly. I've figured it was something to do with my own energies whilst projecting, but I've just been reading Flake's Astral Projection book (a fantastic free pdf for the contemporary no-nonsense projector) and was reading his theory of what the difference between the etheric and astral are.

Astral:
· Clear vision.
· It is easy and smooth to move.
· The feeling/consciousness reminds much of a dream.
· It’smuch easier to break the laws of the physical. (e.g. to fly, move objects with will,
pass through walls etc.)
· Of all the senses, vision is the most in use.
· The feeling of energy flowing through the body and the buzzing sound in the ears
while leavingthe body are feeble or not apparent at all. (in other words, the weaker
the sound and feeling is, the more “astral” it is.)
· The OBE does not to have take place in the same physical surroundings (you might
still see your room (or whatever) anyway, but it is perhaps modified. Theoretically,
entering a hypnogogic image also counts as an AP.

It must also be said that when an OBE occurs with little lucidity, you tend to end up in an
lower sub p lane (more on that below)

Etheric:
· Blindness often occurs whe n leaving body. It is also possible to see through your
physical eyes at the same time while being out of body.
· It’shard to move, it may also feel like the physical body is trying to pull you back.
· The feeling/consciousness reminds more of the physical.
· It is not easy to do the things you can do on the astral.
· Of all the senses, the perception of touch and motion are in the most use.
· The energy feeling and the buzzing sound are usually strong while leaving the body
· The OBE takes place in the same place as in the physical (your room or whatever
place you are in)
· A true etheric projection is experienced in same time zone as the physical. That
enables you to see people who are in the physical plane. It is also possibl e to see
thought forms of some sorts and spirits since you are in between the astral and
physical.
· The projection occurs often from a sleep paralysis

Then one can of course say that there are unlimited subdimensions between the etheric
and astral. These subdimensions share both etheric and astral qualities, that’s why people
mistake subdimensions for either being totally etheric/astral. But it is not often (at least in
my experience) that everything matches the above qualities to be “purely” astral or
“purely” etheric.

If there's any truth to this, I've been to the astral (that I can consciously recall) twice. My first ever projection, and another a few years ago. Everything was bright, light, easy to move, very easy to see, do magical/physics-defying things, colourful, interesting etc. Every other has been close to my body, dark (or eyes almost glued shut), difficult to move (rarely end up getting very far), hard to pass through walls, fly or teleport (at least to where I want to go, without just landing myself in the void). Nothing all that "magical" in my surroundings, plain physical plain similarities, and also a much dreamier, less focused mind state than in the astral, which is as conscious and lucid as the waking plane.

So, anybody know what I can do to project "higher", to a plane better described as astral than etheric? Or any ideas what could be "keeping me down"?