[ssiikmuz]

I recently began practicing the program in Mastering Astral
Projection, and I've been very pleased with my success using
this method. In the past several weeks, I've been able to
induce several OBEs and had no difficulty in remembering
every detail about each of them. I have not yet tried to leave
my apartment, I've only wandered around the apartment for
a few minutes and then re-entered so I could think about the
experience.

My apartment seems exactly as it really is, with only a few minor
reality fluctuations, usually in the form of items not being quite
where they really are, usually no more than a few feet from
where they really are. There is one thing I'm completely
puzzled by. Whenever I look in a mirror, it's always the same
face that I see, but it looks nothing like me. I am moderately tall,
of the scrawny little runt build, and have not a single hair on my
head or face. What I see in the mirror is a shorter, stockier
person, with very thick, course hair, and a full beard. I also
notice that the hands look strange, as if there was something
around all of the fingers. Then I look away from the mirror, and
look right at my hands and see the same thing. There are strange
tattoos forming rings around each finger. I have no tattoos of
any kind and never wear rings.

The reflection does behave as I would expect - every move I
make is mirrored exactly, but it looks nothing like me, nor
does it look like anyone I know. This makes me wonder about
a few questions.

1. Why am I not able to see myself in the mirror?

2. If, during a projection, I were to leave my apartment and
go someplace where someone might actually see me (is
that possible?), would they see me as I am, or would they
see this stranger?

3. Do other projectors experience this?

If anyone has any thought on this, I would love to hear about
them. I'm really puzzled by this, and I feel like it's something
I want to understand before I try to venture outside.

[nerohedfrs]

Whenever I look in a mirror, it's always the same
face that I see, but it looks nothing like me. I am moderately tall,
of the scrawny little runt build, and have not a single hair on my
head or face. What I see in the mirror is a shorter, stockier
person, with very thick, course hair, and a full beard. I also
notice that the hands look strange, as if there was something
around all of the fingers. Then I look away from the mirror, and
look right at my hands and see the same thing. There are strange
tattoos forming rings around each finger. I have no tattoos of
any kind and never wear rings.

The reflection does behave as I would expect - every move I
make is mirrored exactly, but it looks nothing like me, nor
does it look like anyone I know. This makes me wonder about
a few questions.

1. Why am I not able to see myself in the mirror?

The image of yourself you have is from looking at your body- but when you project you are not looking at your body. What exactly you are looking at is the interesting question.

2. If, during a projection, I were to leave my apartment and
go someplace where someone might actually see me (is
that possible?), would they see me as I am, or would they
see this stranger? I will get back to this after going through the rest of the question.
3. Do other projectors experience this? Yes, and I'll include mine: When I was on my early teens, I looked in the mirror in a projection and saw my face with stripes on it. I had no idea what this meant but soon after my life went through many upheavals, and traumatic events, and some of them self created. At the time I interpreted the image as a warning- some sort of symbolic message my spirit was giving me. If it was it was accurate, as I remember looking in the mirror after all had passed, and even though I was looking at my 'regular' image, the feelings were mirrored in the projection. It's kinda hard to explain- the image had symbolic meaning. Years later, I had another episode of 'wrong image'. It wasn't exactly the same, but once again my face had changed to something akin the feline. My eyes were involved also. Later on other things happened that confirmed I had received another warning, from myself to myself. Enough time had passed that I didn't 'get' it, so I made the mistakes I had to make, and learned the lessons I had to learn. And remembered the previous experience after the fact.
If anyone has any thought on this, I would love to hear about
them. I'm really puzzled by this, and I feel like it's something
I want to understand before I try to venture outside. So my interpretation is this: In my case I was warning myself- the catlike appearance was symbolic of warning of 'becoming too wild' (or something like that ). It's possible that the lessons had to be learned, but the experience taught me that I (or my higher self) was sending me a message. Or a confirmation that all was as it should be.
So, I would venture a few possibilities:
You are seeing a symbolic representation of yourself, not necessarily someone else- what does the appearance make you think of? Someone you admire, or fear? Someone older, or younger? Someone other? What does his appearance represent in your mind?
The other interpretation: This appearance is that of other realities: It is possible you are perceiving another reality you are living in an alternate universe, close enough to 'bleed into' when you project.

But these are just speculations.

[ssiikmuz]

Thanks for the response, CFTraveler. Maybe this is somehow
a warning about something, but I can't imagine what it could
be. As for what the appearance makes me think of, I never
seem to have any reaction, positive or negative about it. Only
confusion about why I would not see myself looking as I would
expect. The image I see looks a good bit older than I am, I'm
in my mid thirties, and the reflection looks like someone closer
to fifty. There seems to be no chance that it could be what
I might look like at that age, as it's too short, too stocky, a
completely different facial shape, and much more hair than
I could grow. And those strange tattoos on the fingers puzzle
me. My fingers are important to me, as my favorite hobby is
classical music. Perhaps the warning is related to something
that could heppen to my fingers if I'm not careful about something.
I hope that's not it!

Your experience with the cat-like face sounds interesting. I think
that would be more of a shock to me because of the inhuman
look. The face I'm seeing seems like it could be any normal
person (except maybe the strange tattoos), and it doesn't
seem to represent anything to me except the confusion
that it doesn't look like me. Perhaps I should see this as
a representation of a confused sense of identity! In any case,
thanks for your input!