I believe that we had more success with this experiment, because we had something concrete to focus on. In this case an image of an actual place. We also knew where it was located geographically. Phinox had spent years working within this circle of stones, both alone and with others, so it was already a charged place. When people use a location over and over to perform ritual, meditation, and magic, the place retains some of the energy. This builds up over time, and can be felt physically and psychically. It acted like a beacon for us to home in on when attempting an astral gathering of this kind.
We arranged a time, and if I remember correctly, we had been chatting earlier that evening. That meant that little time had gone by from the moment we turned our computers off, until we went into light trance state to travel. Phinox, Jose, Shun and I were the participants this time. I am sure that we did not all use the same techniques to get ourselves in the proper state of altered consciousness, because we had not compared notes on how this could be done. We simply each did our own thing.
I already had lots of experience with altered states, so for me it was a matter of stilling my body, clearing my mind and setting my sights on the target, so to speak. When I arrived at the grove I found myself alone. I could see the energy surrounding the stone circle, like a dome. I was rolling/floating and generally enjoying the freedom of astral travel when Phinox entered. She seemed to be surrounded by a bubble made of a semi-translucent material. I went up to her and I could see that she recognised me, so I gave her a hug and started talking. I don't recall exactly what I said, but something along the lines of "Wow, isn't this great? It works! It really works!" I remember seeing her smile. Just then Shun entered the circle. He seemed to float in gently and he had his arms crossed over his chest. I tried talking to him but got no response. He reminded me of a mummy. I saw that Phinox was talking to him and decided to go and find Jose. I went out of the circle and called, but it was as though my call had brought me to him instead of the other way around. I took his hand and lead him towards the circle. We were almost there when he just sort of slipped away. I tried to retrieve him, but to no avail. So I went back to the circle only to find it empty, and decided to come back to home.
The next day we wrote our experiences down and sent them by E-mail to each other. Shun had fallen asleep, and didn't remember anything. Phinox did remember seeing me and could feel that I was excited. She also went in with a protection surrounding her, which accounted for the bubble I saw around her. She said that when Shun entered she had tried to make contact with him but couldn't get through to him, and that when she stopped and looked around there was nobody there and decided to go home.( I had gone to find Jose). Jose said that he saw me and was glad I had shown up because he was lost. He felt me take his hand and felt the movement of travelling, but then popped back home.
Needless to say we were thrilled that our stories matched each other's experiences. The success of this experiment gave us the gumption to go on to bigger and better things.