Literally Became an Animal.. Help me Understand!!!

[manshin]

I often become a dragon when I Astral travel. I think you simply entered the plane and shifted. Plenty weirder has happened in the astral tbh.

[Suhrt]

I don't think that's the case. In the Astral I'm a winged snake, but still it has nothing to do at all to what was described.

[Vesca]

I was doing my ritual. Meditating, chanting, and praying to God and the Goddess in the candlelight of my altar. But I couldn't quiet my mind. I was really frustrated and upset. It made me think how we are just animals with thoughts. So I asked to be an animal, because that would quiet my thoughts. I closed my eyes and had a vision instantly of a deer walking through a meadow. I saw every muscle work, every hair oscillate, the eyes softly focused. I was touching him, feeling his warmth...and next thing I knew, I was walking beside him. Except...I was literally no longer in my room. I legitimately was a deer.

I literally felt like my spirit had to float away from the deer and travel back and I felt it re-enter my body, fill every crevice of my being.

These are the telling descriptions. "Floating spirit" and meditative beginnings.

This is pretty much the bare bones description of shamanic shapeshifting. Some people have a natural affinity for travel, some need to learn and practice it for it to become so vivid. Not everyone is able to shift into every other form. Some have a default, some have a few different forms they are able to take, and some need to actually choose and go through the motions to become anything but a floating tingly orb.

I think it's the word "literally" that's throwing people off, because when we say "literally" we think "physically." But that simply isn't the case here and physical shapeshifting (despite all the movies) is physically impossible.

[Vesca]

Considering this original post was listed under the subsection: OBEs, Astral Travel and Lucid Dreaming by the OP; I have relocated the topic tangent here:

http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum ... 30622.html