I was in my early thirties on a great adventure and had worked very hard for close to 2 years with my dream study and early experiments with Fox’s Dream Method of astral projection. I had read literally hundreds of books on both subjects and spent countless hours contemplating the intricacies of both subjects.

Living as a composer for the theater, I was fortunate not to have a day job and have my mornings free to do this work and exploration. My schedule was my own.

I was experienced, but, looking back, not nearly as experienced as I thought I was. I was officially an astral body traveler, even though I had only gone but several steps from my physical body — once. I was a lot more confident and excited about the great adventures that lay before me that I should have been.

Fox warned over and over again in his writings to not go too fast, too far or too high — to take the first steps slowly. I instinctively knew he was right, but ah impetuous youth!  I was ready for some real astral adventures.

One very early morning before dawn I woke up and decided to snooze – perchance to dream.  And dream I did.

I was walking along the ridge of a great green and beautifully flowered valley. As I walked, I came upon an ancient stairway carved out of the side of the hill that led hundreds of yards down into the valley. I began to descend the stairs, but they were made of earth and rock and were very uneven and old.  Because of the roughness of the footing, I had to watch very carefully where I put my feet so that I would not fall.

I grew impatient with this mode of descent because I wanted to experience the beauty of the valley and get to the bottom quickly, but the descent was awkward and not going quickly enough. I began to trip on the stairs several times in my haste.

I had a better idea. I simply lifted up a couple of feet off the stairs and began to float smoothly down the stairway hovering above. This way I could enjoy the view and move more swiftly. I thought to myself, “Hey, why didn’t I think of this before? I can just fly.”

“I can just fly” provided the trigger I had learned to watch for. By saying this sentence, I suddenly realized that this was not normal and that I must be dreaming. I knew I was in a ‘dream of the know’. I went through all of my practiced steps that Fox had taught me. I calmed myself, I pulled back from the emotional excitement of the dream, and I placed the dream on my mental TV screen before me and sat and watched the dream as an observer.

In the dream, I continued to descend the stairs hovering and flying above them down into the valley. I sat at the TV screen and watched myself moving away from me. I worked to stay calm. My experience at the TV screen became like that of moving through a tunnel of light.  The screen disappeared and there was only light as I moved faster and faster through it. This lasted only a matter of seconds.

I opened my eyes and I was lying on my bed in the semi-darkness of very early morning. I got up out of my body and stood beside the bed looking down at myself sleeping there.

Fox had given us a number of check points to go through to make sure and convince ourselves that this was not me still dreaming, that this was, in fact, me astral projecting. I went through all these checkpoints and passed the test with flying colors.

This was not a dream. I was in much more control than in my dream state. I was in a completely different head. Though I had gone through the checkpoints, I knew instinctively that I was not still in my dream. I remembered Fox’s rules – “to not go too fast, too far or too high — to take the first steps slowly.”  I was in my pajamas.

I lived in a carriage house in Greenwich Village. I walked down the stairs separating my astral body further from my physical body and saw my roommate sleeping. I quietly reached for the front door knob, but my hand passed through the knob as I tried to grab it, so I simply walked out of the house through the closed door.

It was still dark out, and the pink/grey of morning had barely begun. I walked down Minetta Lane to 6th Avenue. There were very few people. No one noticed me. I knew I was invisible to them anyway.

I began to walk up 6th Avenue. All seemed very normal, though I knew it was not. I looked up at a street lamp glowing pink in the very early dawn. The light was beautiful. I needed to get closer to the light, so I rose up off the street 10 to 12 feet in the air to look at the light. That seemed very natural. I systematically thought to myself, “not too fast, too far or too high”.

I calmed myself and centered myself again and began to continue up 6th Avenue above the street lamps, above the occasional taxis, above the people. I began to move a bit faster. This was fun. This was it. This was what I had been searching for.

I elevated above the city. I turned with the dawn beginning and the sun at my back and began to fly west — over the Hudson River, out across New Jersey. The clouds rushed by as I went faster and faster and rose higher. I was standing straight up with my hands down at my sides moving very fast, but simply standing there.

I had long hair at the time. Though I was moving very fast and the earth was flying by below and the clouds were moving like a sped up movie, I felt no wind in my face, my hair was not blowing, my pajamas were hanging naturally on my body and not blowing in the wind.

I was very high, moving very fast and very far from home. I suddenly thought, “Oh my god, Pete, what the hell are you doing?” I was way out of my league. I panicked. I began to spin out. I don’t know any other way to put it. It was just a spin out. I lost vision and equilibrium.

I don’t remember much of what ensued. Confusion, fear, failure to calm, more fear.

I woke up in my bed, totally shook, very troubled, and in a sweat. I checked and made sure I was in my conscious mind. I was. I began to cry from fear, relief and exhaustion. I finally calmed down with the gratitude that I was all right, still in one piece – home.

It was about 6 AM, just after dawn. I sat up in bed, grabbed my diary and began to write furiously. I wrote every detail down. It took me several hours. I was exhausted. I slept most of the day.

That was the last entry in my log. I knew then and there that I was into something that was way over my head. I stopped the dream study and the astral projection exploration for good. I never got into it again. It frightened me that much. It was just over.

I abused the privilege. I lost control. I did not follow the rules. I was too impetuous.

Living through this as I have these last several days I have a lot of thoughts about the experience some 25 years ago. One good thing about getting older is that most of us get wiser.  In retrospect, I have a few thoughts that I should save for a summary tomorrow night. I guess the 5 part series just became a 6 part series.

Tune in again.