Astral Projection?

Last week, on the day of the full moon, I attended drum circle. I hadn't been in quite some time and was craving the feeling of the energy draw. The amount of energy I can draw during a drum circle seems to be more than what the average person writes about online or talks about at circle. I try to bring it up, delicately, during circle. I don't want to look like a freak of nature and I don't want it to seem like I'm bragging either.

We pass the sage around, to get rid of the negative and then start drumming...a steady beat. My eyes close and almost immediately I am floating in black. That's how it always is. I'm floating in blackness, my ankle feels like it tethered to something (probably my physical body!) and I just bob around like a balloon on a string.

Now I should mention here that I don't have a lot of experience with astral travel. I haven't even really read up on it all that much. I'm just going with the flow here, working on pure instinct, which is how I roll a good deal of the time. I'm in the black and I wonder to myself, "self, I wonder would happen if I swam up? What would happen if I stretched this cord tethering me to my body?" I push upwards, kicking my legs, as if I'm at the bottom of the pool or the ocean and I'm trying to break the surface. As I get closer I can see light and then a shadow crosses overhead. My first thought is that it's a turtle but as I break the surface I realize it's birds flying low over the water.

I climb from the water and see that it was a creek...but wait it isn't me. It's as if I'm watching a movie. I'm there but I'm watching a girl. A Native American girl, long flowing black hair, which she wrings the water from before she takes off at a run. It's near dusk and growing dark quickly under the cover of the trees in the forest. She's running a path she knows well, leaping over roots, and dodging trees. I'm floating behind her, keeping up with her. She doesn't seem to be aware of me.

As darkness falls, I can hear chanting or singing? I'm not sure if which it is or if it's all one and the same in this instance. She stops to catch her breath, looking up. I follow her gaze and see smoke rising over the trees. She starts running again, but she doesn't go far before she breaks into a clearing and immediately starts dancing, swinging her dark hair around and round. I stand at the treeline, men are playing large drums and chanting around a fire. The chanting is mesmerizing, the beat of the drums shake the ground, the fire seems to move to the beat. I try to find the girl but only catch a glimpse of her as she dances around to the other side of the clearing.

Suddenly, I'm snapped backwards. Quickly trees fly before my eyes and then blackness and then my eyes pop open. I'm back in my drum circle and the session is winding down. There's an older man sitting next to me and is turned looking at me. The leader of the group is also watching me. Were they aware of what I was doing? Where I was?

I bend over and touch my hands to the floor, getting rid of the excess energy. All the drumming stops. The older man next to me asks if anyone else heard the chanting.

Yeah.
And so much more.

Drum Circle

I have a friend (who lives up North) that goes to a yearly retreat where they do a healing and energizing drum circle. I've been her friend for many years, and year after year I have read about her amazing experiences at this retreat and longed to find something like that for myself.

A year or so ago, I found a local metaphysical store that holds different spiritual events. I've been to a few here and there, as time and money allows. One of the things I've always been too timid to attend was the drum circle. These things are twice monthly, for the last few years and I have yet to get up the nerve to go.

Ok, and I fully admit that I'm am skeptical. Not skeptical about their claims and others' experiences. I'm skeptical that I would be lucky enough to experience such things. I'm afraid that I would be disappointed.

I gave myself a mental talking to. I set myself up for realistic expectations. I AM NOT going to have the same experience as others and it's ok if I don't, just relax, and have a good time. Oh and also drag a poor unsuspecting friend along for the ride. Afterall, isn't that what friends are for?

We arrive...drumless...Everyone is holding their Native American Hand Drums or their Djembe Drums. When the leader notices that we are empty handed, he hands me a shaker and a hand drum to my friend. Good enough for me!

We started out drumming in 10 minutes sets. He told us that since this was a Full Moon Circle we should meditate on being thankful for the things that we have in our life. We get through three 10 minute sets and I'm feeling nothing. I'm trying really hard to meditate but I'll be honest, I'm not that great at it unless I'm doing a guided meditation (which is a whole 'nother post). It doesn't help that the leader asked if anyone else heard singing and several people chimed in that they also heard it.

I'm stamping down the disappointment, giving myself a peptalk, but I'm also wondering at what point I can leave without being rude. Yeah, the disappointment is winning. I see everyone gearing up to start the next set and I take a deep breath and smile at my friend sitting to my right and then turn and smile at the stranger sitting on my left and suddenly I feel a 1000 times better.

We start into the 4th set and I have my eyes closed and I feel someone stomping on the ground. It feels like it's behind me but I know that isn't possible because we are sitting in a circle. I open my eyes and look at everyone, no one is stomping, yet I can still feel it coming from behind me. I turn around, the stomping stops...no on is there. Then after a moment, the lady directly across the circle from me turns and looks behind her chair. I guess it moved over by her after I scared it off. Don't worry it came back later that night. When that set finished we talked about the stomping and had a good laugh about it.

I felt special. I felt incredible. A spirit chose to dance by me and I felt it. Not only that, but I wasn't scared at all!

Then we started up the 5th set and the leader set a faster pace, a more up tempo drumming. My eyes were closed I was shaking my shaker when suddenly it felt like my chair was hovering a few inches off the ground and I was wobbling. I felt like a balloon, tied to the chair bobbing all around on my string. I opened my eyes and still felt like I was floating so I closed them again and the feeling was still there. Finally, I thought that maybe I might be hyperventilating or something weird, so I put my head down between my knees.

The leader stopped the circle and asked me if I was ok. I told him about the floating feeling and his response was that the beat was a bit too up tempo to cause an out of body experience, but it isn't unheard of.  Out of body experience? huh! I hadn't considered that. I wasn't the only one it happened to either. This other lady had the same reaction. Then we did another set and while it was slower, it was still faster than the first few sets. This time I knew the feeling and didn't fight it. I just kinda floated along. It was so completely exhilarating and so completely freaky!
After that we slowed it way down, did two sets at that speed. The stomper came back, stamped his feet behind me, next to me, and in front of me. All I did was smile. Then I heard a lady singing, well actually I thought it was my friend, so I turned and looked at her and she wasn't singing. Afterwards she asked me if I heard the lady singing. Yep, I couldn't fight the big smile that came across my face, I sure did!

Wow! What an experience!