Now on astral projection, what I did was to lie down for an hour and so on. For short cut, I would induce a Sleep Paralysis. (sleep paralysis is also a way to have a lucid dream) During that stage, I hear weird buzz and bells, I am awake, but my body can't move and only my eyes can move. Then I would feel a presence of something really sinister, even pulling me out of my bed or teasing me. That's scary, but after that (6 minutes or so) you will likely slip to dreaming, that's the chance, you have to guard your consciousness there. Two things may happen, you enter a lucid dream, or you continue being conscious and astral project. Using the Paralysis method, I can now astral project within 30 - 20 minutes. Sometimes, I also have music played in the background. There are music and beats that can help you project search it on youtube.
Be careful. When I first got into the astral plane, I was lucky enough to encounter an evil entity, it's all black and furry with four eyes. It was threatening me and then I said, "God damn you"
So it shrieked. I even said "Jesus" as a reaction, then it suddenly shook in fear and fled. I think the name Jesus or God works on these entities. So when you encounter one, you know what to say.I even went to astral only to experiment, Shiva and the others didn't work though.
Good Luck