Hi, welcome back to the Astral Gateway podcast.
I'm Marie Twice the Vicioni. In the previous episodes, we
went through the main steps of the process, relaxation,
creating focus, and what happens as you move closer to that
transition state. And as people start practicing
this or even just listening and trying to understand it,
questions naturally start to come up.
Sometimes it's small things at 1st and sometimes it's deeper
questions about what's actually happening.
So in this episode I want to go through some of the most common
questions just to clear things up a little and make the process
feel more familiar. Not to add more information for
the sake of it, but to answer what people actually tend to
experience. One of the first questions
people often ask is am I doing it right?
And the honest answer is there isn't really a fixed way it's
supposed to look, because what you're learning here isn't a
strict technique with exact steps that always produce the
same result. It's more about becoming
familiar with a shift in awareness, so if your experience
doesn't look exactly like what someone else describes, that
doesn't mean anything is wrong, it just means your mind is
learning it in its own way. Another common question is what
if nothing happens? And in most cases, something is
happening, you just might not recognize it at first because a
lot of this process is very subtle.
At the beginning you're learning to notice the moment the body
starts to fall asleep while awareness is still there.
And at first that could be easy to miss.
Even falling asleep completely is part of it because over time
you start becoming aware of how that transition actually
happens. Another question that comes up a
lot is, should I be trying harder?
And usually trying harder doesn't help because it creates
more mental activity, and that tends to pull you back into full
waking awareness. What works better is something
softer, staying present but not interfering, just allowing the
process to unfold. Then there's a question, Are
vibrations supposed to happen? Sometimes they do and sometimes
they don't. They're not required, they're
just one possible part of the transition for some people.
So it's not something to look for or measure progress by.
If they come, you let them be there, and if they don't, the
process is still the same underneath.
And another one I hear often is how do I know it's actually
working? And usually it's not something
dramatic, it's more subtle than that.
You might notice that you stay aware a little longer as you
drift towards sleep, or that you recognize the shift more clearly
than before, or that you don't get pulled out of it as easily
when something unusual happens. That's the progress it builds
quietly over time. Another question that comes up
is about sleep paralysis. What if I get sleep paralysis
and I can't move? What's important to understand
here is that sleep paralysis isn't something added into the
experience. It's already part of the sleep
process every night. The only difference here is that
awareness becomes active while the body is already in that
state. So it can feel strange because
normally the mind isn't present for it, but the state itself is
neutral. It's just the body being offline
while awareness is still slightly awake, and that
mismatch is what creates the unusual feeling.
Another thing people often don't realize is that sleep paralysis
is actually one of the signs that you're close to the
transition point. Not because it's required, but
because it shows the body has fully shifted into sleep mode
while awareness is still nearby. So instead of seeing it as
something to deal with, it can help to recognize it as a stage
of separation. Another question is, what if I
get scared? And fear in that state is not
really about danger, it's usually about loss of control,
because the mind is used to relying on movement, on checking
the environment, on confirming everything is normal.
When that ability is removed temporarily, the system reacts.
So fear is often just a nervous system interpreting unfamiliar
stillness as uncertainty, nothing more than that.
And the interesting part is fear only becomes stronger when you
engage with it mentally, when you start analyzing it,
resisting it, or trying to escape it.
But when you simply allow it to exist without building a story
around it, it usually peaks and passes quite quickly.
Another common question is why does it only happen sometimes?
And this is where people often misunderstand the process.
Because it isn't a linear skill. It's not something you achieve
and then repeat on command. It's a shift in conditions.
Your awareness, your body state, your level of mental activity,
all of these have to align in a certain way, and that alignment
doesn't happen the same way every night.
So inconsistency isn't failure, it's just the system
recalibrating over time. What changes is not that it
becomes forced, but that you start recognizing the conditions
more quickly. And that recognition is what
creates consistency later on. Another question is, what if I
fall asleep every time? And this is actually one of the
most important parts of the training, because falling asleep
is not the opposite of success. It's part of how the boundary is
learned. What's really happening is that
awareness is losing continuity at a certain point.
So each time you fall asleep, you're getting closer to the
moment where awareness doesn't drop completely, and eventually
instead of a full drop, you get a partial 1 where the body
sleeps but something of you remained observing it.
That's the shift you're developing, not stopping sleep,
but changing how much of awareness stays present during
it. Another thing people often ask
about is vibrations. What are the vibrations
actually? And it helps to be clear about
this. They're not something external
happening to you. They're not a signal from
anywhere else. They're more like a byproduct of
two states overlapping for a moment, sleep starting to take
over the body while awareness is still partially anchored.
So what you're feeling isn't a separate phenomenon, it's the
nervous system shifting states while consciousness is still
present enough to register it. That's why it can feel like
buzzing, movement, pressure, or sound, because different parts
of the system are switching off at slightly different speeds.
Another important thing is that vibrations are not one single
thing. People Group A lot of different
transitional sensation under that word, so trying to identify
them too precisely often creates confusion.
What matters more is the direction of the experience, not
the exact sensation. Another question that comes up
is why do I sometimes get close and then it disappears?
And this usually happens at the point where awareness becomes
slightly too engaged. Not in a dramatic way, but just
enough to restabilize the waking mind.
It can be curiosity, it could be anticipation, it can even be
sudden excitement, like it's happening now.
And that small shift is enough to bring you back into full
waking awareness. So it's not that the state was
lost, it's that attention moved. Another common question is about
false awakening, where you think you've woken up but you're still
in a dream, like Claire. And this is actually a very
natural part of the transition process, because the mind is
still using the structure of waking reality to organize
experience even while the state has already changed.
So it creates a familiar environment first, often your
room, your bed, your usual surroundings.
But the level of awareness is different and that's why it can
feel slightly off even when everything looks normal.
The important thing here is not to treat it as an error, it's
just the mind stabilizing perception while the transition
is still active. Another question people often
ask is why do exit techniques sometimes work and sometimes
don't? And the key point here is that
exit techniques don't actually create separation, they only
give awareness a direction once separation is already becoming
possible. So when they don't work, it's
usually not because the technique is wrong, it's because
the state hasn't reached that threshold yet, or awareness is
still slightly too anchored in the physical reference point.
When the timing is right, the same technique can feel
effortless, almost like it's happening on its own.
So it's less about finding the perfect method, and it's more
about recognizing when the shift is already available.
So if we bring everything together, most of these
questions are really pointing to the same thing.
They're not separate problems to solve.
There are different ways of trying to understand the shift
in awareness that doesn't behave the way our normal waking mind
expects. At the beginning, the mind wants
clear markers. It wants to know what's right,
what's wrong, what means progress, and what doesn't.
But what you start to notice over time is that this process
doesn't really work in those terms.
It's more about conditions coming together in the right
way. Relaxation, reduced mental
activity and awareness, staying just present enough to observe
the transition instead of being pulled fully into it.
And when those conditions are there, things like vibration,
sleep paralysis, false awakening, or exit sensations
can appear, but they're not the goal.
They're just different ways the transition can be experienced,
and none of them are required for the process to work.
What really changes over time is your relationship to it.
At first, everything feels new and uncertain.
You analyse it while it's happening.
You wonder if you're doing it correctly.
But as it becomes more familiar, that layer of questioning starts
to drop away, and instead of trying to control the
experience, you begin to recognize it.
You notice the familiar signs earlier, you stay calmer when
unusual sensations appear, and you don't get pulled out of it
as easily when the mind reacts. The familiarity is really what
development looks like here. Not intensity, not control, just
recognition. Before we finish, I just want to
say this, you don't need to get everything right in order for
this to work. Each time you practice, even if
nothing seems to happen, you're still training awareness in the
exact direction it needs to go. And over time that builds
something very stable in the background.
If you have any more questions, you're welcome to add them in
the comments and I will answer them.
And if you like to continue learning and connect with other
people exploring these experiences, you can join the
Astral Gateway community on Facebook.
You'll also find my website and my book, Beyond the Edge in the
episode description if you'd like to go deeper into the work.
And in the next episode, I'll be answering specific questions
that people have asked me in the Astral Gateway Facebook group.
OK, thank you for listening. Until next time, stay present,
stay aware, and I'll see you in the next episode.