Many people want to wake at night and are afraid of it. They have heard stories of being stuck outside the body, or taken over. The books and long experience say otherwise. You already go out every night. Nobody has ever been unable to return. Your body is safe in bed the whole time.

What you meet at night is mostly your own. Frightening figures in dreams are usually your own fears and selves wearing a face. Turn toward them, and many lose their power. Run, and they chase you.

Fear is also what ends most first experiences. A wave of vibration comes, the heart races, and you are wide awake in bed. That is not failure. Breathe, relax, and let it come again another night.

Sometimes you wake and cannot move, with pressure on the chest or a sense of someone in the room. This is sleep paralysis. It is harmless, and it passes. Relax, breathe slowly, look at your hands, or let yourself drift back to sleep. It is also a doorway. The body is asleep and you are awake, which is the very moment the crossing of page 56 works toward. If you are calm, do not fight to move the body. Roll gently to one side, or rise, as if you weighed nothing.

If fear still comes, protect your room as the old traditions do. Light a white candle (and put it out before you sleep), say a short prayer, and imagine a circle of light around your home three times. Ask for help from whatever you hold sacred. Do it with feeling, not as a formula.

The best protection is the one the books always return to: a heart that is not afraid.