Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Dream-of-Action & Incomplete-Desire Projection
Induce an out-of-body projection by planting a strong unfulfilled desire/dream-of-action before sleep, so the ‘astral body’ is drawn up and out as the sleeping mind acts on the suggestion.
Go to bed with a real, unfinished desire to get up (e.g. genuinely thirsty, water across the room) and make rising your last thought — or pre-rehearse a dream of ascending (stairs, elevator) so it recurs. When you reach the floating/paralysed threshold, stay calm, don’t move muscles, and hold the intention to rise out.
What it is
Sylvan Muldoon — a sickly young man who reported frequent spontaneous projections — built a method around desire and the subconscious will.
His core idea: the “astral body” can be coaxed out of the physical by planting a strong, unfulfilled need or a vivid dream-of-action in the mind before sleep, so that when the body sleeps the subconscious “acts” on that suggestion and lifts the astral body upright and out.
The two best-known forms are the incomplete-desire (thirst) technique and the dream-of-action technique.
The Method
A. The incomplete-desire / “thirst” technique.
- During the day, create a genuine, mild unfulfilled need — Muldoon’s classic example is thirst: eat salty food and drink little, so you go to bed truly thirsty, having placed a glass of water across the room.
- Before sleep, hold the desire to get up and satisfy it as your last waking thought, picturing yourself rising and walking to the water.
- The premise: the subconscious, holding an unfinished imperative, “gets up” during sleep — drawing the astral body upright and out toward the goal. (Any safe small unfulfilled desire to rise and move can substitute.) B. The dream-of-action technique.
- Pre-condition the mind with a dream of rhythmic, rising motion — climbing stairs, riding up in an elevator, ascending in a swing or balloon — repeatedly rehearsed before sleep so it recurs as a dream.
- The rising/up-and-down motion in the dream is meant to set the astral body in motion and lift it out of coincidence with the physical. C. Cooperate with the threshold state. When you find yourself in the cataleptic / paralysed floating state with vibrations, don’t panic and don’t fight it; hold the calm intention to rise, and let the felt separation complete. Muldoon stresses that fear and over-excitement snap you straight back.
Source & Lineage
Sylvan Muldoon (1903–1969), working with psychical researcher Hereward Carrington, produced The Projection of the Astral Body (1929) — long treated as a foundational Western manual on the subject and a direct influence on later practitioners (Monroe, Bruce).
The methods predate sleep science; modern readers recognise his “cataleptic” threshold as sleep paralysis / hypnagogia. This entry keeps his instructions intact while flagging the framework as historical theory.
Common refinements
Panicking at the paralysis/vibrations — fear ends it; stay calm and intend to rise.
- A weak or insincere desire — the need must be genuinely felt, not pretended.
- Trying to move physical muscles at the threshold — collapses the state.
- Forcing it — Muldoon’s projections were largely passive/allowed, not muscled.
- Taking the astral-body theory as established — keep the practice, hold the explanation lightly.