The Busy Pagan

I'm not gonna lie: I don't have any voluntary experience with Astral Projection and I've only been able to read a bit about it. This isn't going to be a blog post about what I know about it, because, really, this is one of those areas where book knowledge isn't going to take me nearly as far as actually experiencing it would.
Several years before I ever even heard of Paganism, Wicca or anything else of the like, I still had a hefty interest in the paranormal. An old friend of mine, with whom I spent much of my juvenile years, had a very open mind and was blessed to be with a family that seemed to encourage it of her. It was because of this friend that I even heard of Astral Projection and it was also because of her that I first got my glimpse that things like Tarot cards are not as great an evil as I'd been brought up to believe.
She had this book that talked about it and I was quite fascinated with the idea of having an Out of Body Experience (OBE). We even made an attempt of it and, being the ornery teenagers that we were, we got a kick out of the idea of showing up to her younger cousin in ghost-like forms like what the book had described.
However, the techniques listed in the book for trying to achieve Astral Projection did not work. Seriously, there just was not much chance that we'd have been able to quiet our minds down enough like what the book described. Come on. We were teenagers and we had not been raised with any sort of meditational discipline. Hell, even at nearly 30 years of age I still haven't quite whipped myself into shape where that's concerned.
If I ever am able to Astral Project voluntarily, there is a lot that I would love to do. Now, I don't exactly know what all is possible when one does that. I've heard that one can travel back in time, speak with your loved ones that have passed on, see your Akashic Records, etc. I would love to do all of that. I would love to meet my spirit guides on the Astral Plane, and I would love to experience an Astral Shift.
I'm a Therian (Grey Timberwolf) and it's a very dear part of my personal spirituality. And one of the types of shifts I would love to experience would be Astral Shifting – where I basically shift my Astral body into a wolf. I've talked to a few different Therians who have experienced that and I think it'd be a pretty awesome thing to experience, especially to see what lessons I could learn.
I've mentioned before that I've never experienced Astral Projection on a voluntary basis, but I know I've experienced it on an involuntary one, but I usually don't even realize that that's what's happening until I'm jolted awake by that feeling of falling. I typically have a very difficult time remembering my dreams, so I couldn't even begin to tell you anything I saw or experienced during those occasions. I used to try to keep a dream journal and I know I need to get back into the habit of it – but it's hard to when you can't even remember what you dreamed. I know that there's the typical advice of "Keep your dream journal by your bed so you can record your dreams down as soon as you wake up" and all, but when I wake up, it's usually time to spring out of bed, get the kids ready for school, and begin my day. By the time I'd have the available time to write down any dreams, they are usually long gone from my memory. It can be very frustrating.
But I will try to start doing better to remember my dreams. Perhaps if I can start practicing that again and setting my mind before I go to sleep to remember my dreams, perhaps I will be able to recall an involuntary Astral travel experience.
How cool would that be? Especially if I can set my mind before such an occurrence to request to meet my spirit guide(s). That could be awesome.
Tala