The Doctor from Dr Who says it is a "wibbly wobbly time thingy".. hehe.. a good summation really. I like the elipse/circular concept of time in that you can theoreticaly come back around, following the same "forward" direction, and meet back up with yourself as you come around and "overtake" yourself...

Not so much that but I have explored the ego aspects as they relate to this. Upon coming to the realisation that one is more than the physical body and that it is just a shell and so on and so forth; ending one's life to go on to other pursuits or to reset/reboot or whatever.. would it be that bad. Objectively speaking, I don't think it would matter that much in the scheme of things.. but of course my ego steps in and says "whoah boy.. steady on there." and clings to life. I'm not suicidal, don't worry.. not even close.. but the idea isn't new to me. In one aspect you could reboot or move on.. but in another aspect you have chosen to be here to learn, to experience and so on.. so to do that would be counterproductive I believe.

While it may seem that this existence pales in comparison, there are some things that simply can not be experienced any other way than to be human and have in-human experiences. It could be debated that one of those things is indeed suicide itself but I think it would be obvious, through the lead-up to the event and other life choices, whether that would be the case for the current life journey/experience. I think that understanding why I could not take my life is what is important for me at this stage of my evolution. Is it simply the "Survival Directive" or something more.. like the ego. And if it is the ego, then how can I release that attachment so that when I come to the end of this life and experience a natural death, my ego can release from the body efficiently and without delay.
 

One of the other things he says in that book is to never remain "calm and relaxed" within a phase.. that one took me completely by surprise. His reasoning is that if you ever stop to catch your breath, so to speak, that you will lose focus and return to your body. The fact that you should NOT allow yourself to become "calmed" and "relaxed" is completely contrary not only to everything else I have read but also to my own beliefs about phasing. I can kind of understand from a beginner's point of view that you need to have a goal or set of goals to provide intent for your experience and that if you should find yourself "wandering" without a purpose, then the beginner might find themselves back in their body.. that kinda makes sense.. but moving on past that beginner stage.. I think remaining calm, relaxed and unemotional would be key to maintaining the phase for long periods of time. Perhaps it is this misconception of his, that is the cause for his short trips.

One thing I am having difficulty with is getting into a habit of waking without opening eyes/moving.. which I know is going to take practise but what I am wondering is how you approached this. I have currently got two alarms set up. One wakes me up after 6 hours of sleep, as per the instructions, the other is set to a time when I have to get up for work. The problem is of course, when the first goes off.. you have to move AND open your eyes to turn the alarm off. Then you have to try to used forced sleep technique to get back into the right state of awareness.. and then I just fall asleep completely. So I'm just curious to know how you overcame this problem?

Have you had any success since this first one? If not, why do you think that is?

Another thing you could do is set a firm intention to wake up if you lose consciousness.. like:

"I WILL REMEMBER TO WAKE UP IF I LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS"

I like the "I will remember..." phrase because it's like creating a reminder to get to an appointment or remember someone's birthday or remembering to buy the milk on the way home etc. Rather than just stating "I will wake up if I lose consciousness".. try "I will remember to wake up if I lose consciousness". Try to attach the same emotional quality to the intent that you would with any of the above examples of remembering something.. make it important.

I think the difference in Raduga's book is that he just concentrates solely on the techniques and gives very clear and concise instructions followed with good examples and factoids (well.. at least well established "knowns" within the OBE community) to back it all up with. It's the same stuff overall but just provided in a different way. I guess it depends on how your brain processes information.. like their are visual learners and non-visual learners etc..

Anyway, I am going to stick to practising indirect techniques from Raduga's book for a week or two and see what happens. Since I am easily able to maintain a deep meditation state for extended periods of time (1 to 2 hours) without falling asleep yet can't get past that, I am happy to give another approach a try.. if only to break things up a bit.. add a bit of variety to things and so on. I know there's not any truly "quick fix" approach and even the indirect approaches need a solid effort. For example, Raduga talks about doing 3 to 5 attempts per day for a week to get a result.. that's fine if you have the time to spare for such solid study.. but I don't.. so I am considering it may take 2 to 4 weeks instead of 1.

I've been lazy on some fronts, and the book has made me painfully aware of that.. for example, I've not been keeping a dream journal. It's something I always mean to do but never do... I occasionally and sporadically will write a dream down but never consistently, day in, day out.. I need to do that..

Something his book resonated with a lot of my attempts and that is that it is possible to focus on relaxation/meditation to such an extent that yes.. you can get to the BodyAsleepMindAwake state.. but then your mind is SOOOO awake and active that you can't proceed past that point. While my mind is relatively calm and switched off to distractions it's still very much active.. and that's why I think I am having trouble getting past Focus 10 and only able to catch glimpses and brief phases.

Anyway.. I'm not giving up.. just trying a different tack across this endless ocean

Another realisation I just had was that I have been concentrating solely on "direct" techniques (as explained in SOBT) because it is through those that I have had "glimpses" and "near misses", as well as "dream consciousness" techniques because that is where I've previously had the spontaneous experiences from.. I've been so focused on these types of techniques that I've pretty much ignored, though not completely, exploring the "indirect" techniques. The focus comes from the usual learning process.. "If it worked that way before, then that is how you have to do it the next time" kind of logic.. so I've been trying to "recreate" those moments rather than trying to do something new...

...so I will read this book because already I am having realisations about myself and my practises.

Try doing it in another spot than you usually do. If you normally do it in bed, try doing it on the couch; or lay a soft blanket or camping mattress on the floor and do it there.. change it up a bit maybe..

Yes.. up until now I've only really been trying to "get out" but I've not really fully explored phasing. So I will see what this SOBT book says about phasing. I know what you mean by too much info/techniques. Sometimes I find myself "diluting" my experience by trying to use one technique after the other. I need to sometimes stop myself and say "Hey! relax! go back to where you were.. and just relax...."

Great! Downloaded, extracted, converted to Kindle format and ready to read! Thanks!

Just as an aside.. I think the ongoing meditation, alongside OBE, is important though.. so that you are constantly re-evaluating yourself and your beliefs etc.. but then again, I've yet to experience a full-blown OBE.. only glimpses here and there and the occasional spontaneous one, which I haven't had for years.

Yerp.. there are many different ways to achieve the projection of the focused awareness to other states. Phasing, as a term, itself is coined from electronics.. I am not an electronics guru.. but the idea is that we have currently focused our energy into "phase" with a physical manifestation (or shell). We are more than just the physical body.. we extend all the way back to the "source" and can focus our energy phase to any point along that energy matrix. There's no need to follow a linear or serial progression, you can simply phase (switch) from point A to point B.. just like you can shift you focus to one or more of your other senses if you remove one of them. If you close your eyes, you can shift your focus of attention/awareness to your sense of touch in your fingers. This is a shift, switch or phase in awareness though still very much in the physical. Imagine if you were an animal that could not see but had all the other 4 senses.. how different would your existence be? It would be extremely different. Even people who are born blind still have the brain-wiring of someone who can see.

Anyway.. the point is that the method is just a method.. a tool.. a way of achieving.. but try not to be limited by your tools.. that's probably the hardest thing to overcome.. don't be a "slave to the machine" so to speak.

I get this pressure often.. but what you are saying about learning to accept the different sensations and "events" resonates well with me. Like last night I finally had a true feeling of being in a different phase, without it being something that resulted from lucid or accidental nature, but only for a split second. It felt good.. really positive.. but it was gone so quickly. Getting closer.. but other things I felt like a heat in my feet and hands.. it was like an electrical heat, not vibrations at all.. just a heat.. it was a bit uncomfortable to be honest.. but I explored the feeling.. accepted in to myself.. as part of the overall experience. It almost became unbearable as well but I just rationalised it as a non-physical burning and continued on.. eventually it faded like pain fades from sharp to dull.. so I think it is more a case of becoming used to these pressures and sensations.. being able to handle them.. then they become less and less noticeable, not because they go away.. just because they become part of the experience.. like breathing.

Man, you are so lucky.. you are doing what I hope to do now but I am currently not ready/able to. I've come to the realisation though that it is this.. this experience of "awakening" that I am here for.. there's no other way to experience it.. I have to start as a human and then awaken and experience the awakening of awareness. I can read your account and others' accounts (Frank Kepple, Bob Monroe etc) but in the end it needs to be my own awakening, so that I can experience what it is like to go from being a purely physical awareness to something more than that. It needs to be a knowing experience, not just a belief or intellectualised rationality.. it needs to be experienced... or "needs to be seen to be believed", if you know what I mean.

I've been trying to do this for about two years now through meditation and various wake-induced methods

I hope it doesn't take that long for me.. but I think it's only a matter of time.. if it's gotta be 2 years, or more, then so be it!

SOBT e-book

What's the full title of this book?

I tried rolling over with a sudden jerk and BAM

With this.. did you basically try to roll physically? I mean was the action, intention, feeling was like you were just going to roll over.. or was it more of a subjective, mental process that you describe as rolling? This is one of those things I don't really understand.. and was it a sudden, forceful thing or something that you did gently?

Anyway, as per others.. congratulations.. I am very envious/jealous

After "phasing" from one focus of awareness (usually the starting point is "physical" awareness or focus) to another focus of awareness, the objective experience that occurs is broadly termed "Astral Projection". The most common term for the "non-physical" state/focus of awareness is "Astral". As we are primarily physical-focus beings, in our current stage of development, we relate more easily to time-space-distance things.. so of course we have a need to label these other awareness focii as "places" because we feel as if we have changed locations. So these are places are commonly called "Astral Planes". When you project light from a movie projector on to a screen, you are sending the light out from the source to the target destination or place. So the term "Astral Projection" refers to an "act" of projecting your conscious "awareness" to the "Astral Plane".

When you employ a "phasing" method or technique, you attempt to switch on/off/between the awareness of two different awareness states. Once this is accomplished, when going from physical to non-physical, you are considered to be Astrally Projecting.

Is this still the correct IRC Channel info? I went there and there was no one there.. not even a channel bot..

One thing I have found to be very beneficial is reading Frank Kepple's visualisation suggestion for following along with the TMI tape #2. When you read a book or similar, your astral mind immediately focuses and starts to create imaginings of the world or event that is occuring in the book. It's just the way it works, you become into what I like to call a "Book Focus State". No longer are you purely physical and just reading words on a page, there is more going on.

In anycase, by reading through Frank's visualisation technique, you are engaging with it in the "Book Focus State" and it becomes more real than just words on a page. By reading this, at least once, during the day leading up to a session using that tape; you are preparing yourself on many levels of awareness to be attuned to the experience. It makes it much easier to focus on the visualisation and consequently you get more "into it".

So I think that if you have some method or way of getting to a deeper level, and I mean a step-by-step guide rather than just abstract concepts, then you can read it through, at least once, prior to using it in your session.

The problem with all predictions is "interpretation". Just like when you take the Tarot card with the picture of "death" on it.. you can interpret that to mean physical death or a concept of death and rebirth on a spiritual level. Many doomsayers who interpret all of these predictions like to think in terms of physical, time-space events.. but the vast majority of the time these things don't really have a place in the physical.

Next time.. go through the window. Frank also talks about "portals".. maybe the window was the portal you were looking for?

[26 September 2011]

26 September 2011
I've had a few sessions in between the last and now but nothing of any particular note happened. Even this one I had last night wasn't totally successful in terms of getting out of my mind/body.. just had a few more realisations and other sensations that I can only assume are steps along the road.

During this experience I had a lot, I mean.. more than usual, moments where I had either phased to another awareness state or simply had daydreams. In one instance, for example, I imagined that my body was being carried by 4 people down an underground tunnel. It only lasted for a few seconds but it was more like a dream because I was seeing my body rather than inside my body. The next moment I felt a "prod/poke" on my right-side abdomen and I was back to being fully awake in my mind. So what I think happened here is that I was falling asleep and my training to stay awake, poked me to be awake.. at least that's how I perceived it.. even though I did thank myself or whoever it was who poked me.

So I had a few of these "lapses".. whether they were sneak-peaks into other planes of awareness, I really don't know.. I don't want to make any conclusions at this point. Anyway, so I am there.. in my body, in Focus 10 and I am basically just trying to make myself aware that I am just this mind-thing who is control of a physical body.. that I am not actually the physical body and that the physical body is like a vehicle. I, my mind, is the driver of that vehicle but am not the vehicle itself. I understand this from an intellectual point of view of course but to really believe it is another matter; it's going to take time to really push this concept deep into my sub-conscious

As I was laying there, I started to notice that there was indeed (at least) 2 distinct "bodies". There was the physical "vehicle" and then there was the "sensory" body. I wrestled around with the idea that my sensory awareness is at all parts of my body at all times. So even though many times I perceive myself to be located "up heree" in my brain because that is where my eyes are, I tried to think of it in terms that my feet were the same and that all of my body infact was just part of an awareness/sensory body where all the parts of my body were "eyes". It didn't really get much past the concept stage but it did allow me to experience that separate-body thing a little more deeeply. However, there was still of course the focus on the body and not really any substantial non-physical awareness was taking place,

While I rested there I started to become aware of new sensations that I hadn't noticed before. One that was particularly new and different was the feeling of the eye-pillow on my eyes rising and falling. At first I thought it was just my heartbeat pulsing the up and down movements of the pillow but then I realised that it was happened much too slow and in more of an ebbing sensation. I realised that it was more than just a physical sensation, infact it wasn't physical at all. The feeling of the "pillow" was going within my face. I also became aware, somehow, that the intensity of the feeling was directly related to my depth of awareness. Not that it ever got uncomfortably intense of course.. just that the more it felt "real", the deeper I was in my awareness. At one point I could actually see a tunnel made of "thought" that was sort of up, away from my head. I think I got a bit excited at that point and lost the focus and wasn't able to recover it. I think that was "the way to" Focus 12 or some other awareness level. So this "sensation" appears to be something I can "notice" and be curiously aware of, which will allow me to focus deeper. Something to experiment with at least.

One last thing was that even though I was still "in my physical", I felt very rubbery.. or elastic. Rather than trying to "push" up, which I'd already tried, I decided to push down through the bed instead. I could feel my body, well.. at least my sensory awareness of my body, pushing down.. stretching, like a gel or soft rubber. I was certainly a lot further "down" into the bed than I could do with my actual physical body. I confirmed this after I had come back to physical focus by pushing down with my physical body. I also was able to "wriggle" around inside my physical body, again with a feeling of soft rubber or gel; rocking, wriggling, playing around with the sensation. Again, using this sensation to make a firmer realisation that there is infact a distinctly separate awareness level that is separate from my physical body.

Eventually I called it a night and brought myself back to the physical.

Hi,

Its part of the process. The entity you feel as a presence is actually you. This can be scarey at first as its all new but keep your mind on track, you can easily create a thought form that will run away with itself then you end up scareing yourself by yourself.
 You have control...

Split consciousness? I've read about that but haven't yet experienced it (although I am not very experienced).. it kind of makes sense though.

I like the way Tom Campbell answered this question. Basically he likens it to learning a musical instrument. Anyone can do it, though some people are going to "pick it up" quicker than others. Some people are going to need to work harder at it than others and so on. Even if you don't have a natural "talent" for it (and to be honest, that is rarer than it is common both in terms of AP'ing and musical talent), you can still put in the time and effort to get there.. you just need to want it badly enough to put in the time and effort as well as not giving up after a short time. For some it can take months or even years to be fully adept at AP'ing.. just like with music.

From what I understand it's less about "moving" and more about "intent". The visualisation is just there to focus your intent rather than a method in itself of getting out. It's your intent to roll out, or to get out, is what it is really all about. Many books and stuff on telekenesis and other paranormal stuff talks about intent. So for example, maybe you are thirsty so you can think about getting the glass of water on your table, don't think about moving it towards you or about you moving towards it but instead focus on the intent to get it, the need to have it and so on. So while the visualisation of you rolling out, or getting out and then walking away is a way to focus your intent, it isn't the intent itself.

I'm no expert though..

Why do Binaural Beats cause eye twitching? I myself use Isochronic Tones and sometimes Binaural Beats as background music when I phase. The rapid eye twitching comes when incredibly intense vibrations occur. Usually I don't get the intense vibrations as I did before, but once in awhile when they do occur it feels like my eyes are fluttering wildly. I also use my Eye Pillow because I do daytime sessions and have don't have curtains on any windows in our home.

Got my Eye-Pillow today! Yay!  I know what you mean by the eye twitching.. it's an eyelid twitching really.. my left eye does it all the time.. I think it is a thing to do with eye strain.. so Ryan's recommendation to stretch the eyelids and eyes is sound.. also maybe try to do eye exercises during the day.. like every 30 to 60 mins, look around you and focus on short, medium and long distance objects.. just for a couple of minutes each time.

Can't wait to try out my eye-pillow for meditation tonight! 

What affirmations are you using?