Harlequin, what are you thinking? Can you direct your thoughts/imagination to what you experienced when you projected before-memories, feeling, places you have been? Did you have any bad experiences?

So I guess no one knows what has happened to Frank? What about the moderators at this site since he is listed as a moderator?

Just a couple thoughts on the topic- if we could be as one pointed in meditation as in sex we would be enlighted in a second, and I have felt more sexual during periods when I have felt intense spiritual energy.

Leyla, a few random thoughts on reading your post and the responses.
In Monroe's books it seemed like most of his guides were actually his 'higher self' which were different entities from true angels.
If these guides are a part of yourself, would that have any meaning in the context in which they appear?
I think the guide aspect I have met is not a loving and personal being but one that makes me feel like I am safe and in good hands.

I have 2 kids, age 20 and 15, both brought up with spiritual values instilled in them from birth. They have been exposed to buddhist, christian, yogic, pagan ideas. Hopefully they can think and reason for themselves, i have no preconceived idea about what they should believe.
As for as education goes I think the waldorf system is the best for giving them the idea that there is more to life than materialism. Teach them music and art and martial arts.As for the more esoteric stuff like astral projection I think you should be open to discuss it but they have other important phases to experience first.

I also was wondering about frank, his posts were the best. Maybe he was abducted by aliens and has not been sent back yet?

JC, i think from my experience what you experience is trance, not body asleep mind awake(Monroe's focus 10?). When the body is asleep you do feel numb and paralyzed in the body, you go through the heart thumping and pre exit symptoms.

hey yellow sub, the cracking could have been astral noises, you would have been close enough to the astral at that point for weird sounds to occur. May also have been part of your process- i have had intense feelings from points in my head or third eye and rarely some kind of noise like that. The more you go through this the less this stuff freaks you.

This seems not in line with the mind awake, body asleep concept. Maybe he is talking about the ones that are between mind awake and asleep? I know i have had a few. To me the good ones have a continuity of conciousness from obe to awakening.

m0d0, The more you practice the less intense everything feels. Maybe the quicker you can reach these states the better. One day when i tried projection in the afternoon I was in the heavy vibration state for about an hour with no luck, so maybe it is best to limit your time.

I don't have time today to read your links, but even though this is slightly related it seems like I should reply. The Dogon in africa have stories of meeting fish beings that came in a spaceship, maybe they are the dolphins on the pendant? I don't exactly remeber where the fish were from but what was notable about the Dogon was that they knew that sirius  had star that revolved around it that was not observred by scientists until telescopes became advanced. I think this was written about in The Sirius Mystery by Robert Temple. Tom Robbins used this in one of his novels which is where I heard of it.

Holy reality, I think your experiences are pretty much normal for us everyday people and it takes a great deal of energy/awareness to experience stuff that you read about in books like Robert Bruces, Robert Monroe's ect. I also have seen stuff like you describe and I think what we are seeing is dream imagery coming into our minds that distracts and competes with what is really there.Maybe with more practice we can not be fooled and see more of what is really there.

I have felt the vibes both as a light tingling and at the bass speaker level. Like jeff said don't think too much of them, just do some kind of technique to keep relaxed. Rather than worry about the technique used to get out I just "will" myself out and it just happens.

But the Meaning of life relates to this topic.

I live in the foothills of the sierra where there is trees and lots of stars, i wouldn't trade it for being a billionare in NYC. Have you ever gone into a trance state from listening to a wild river? Maybe you could experience the same from the ocean.

That reminds me -did you see the Monty Python movie, The Meaning of Life?

I was interested by this topic when I first saw it and since no one has replied I will give a breif answer. I have felt some spillover from the 2  states for a few minutes a couple of times and I was thinking that if cultivated this would lead to the "phasing" method, where you could go into the astral without the traditional obe. I think this is being discussed in the astral conciuosness forum.

I would have to say that i listen to music a good bit(rock and blues) and don't have much of a problem. I think the best cure is to use 2 meditation techniques at once-i was doing a buddhist meditation with a mantra and a visualization. By giving the mind two things to do, which takes a lot of effort, you limit the ability of garbage to enter your mind.So maybe you could try the breathing with the visualization.

I have felt intense energies flowing, and I think they could be due to intense cleansing energies, kundalini, or just some sort of spiritual ectasy.

I wouldsay that psychedelics are ok to do for a while but meditation and naturally cultivated altered states is really where it's at-when you really get out there without drugs you know there is really something to this trip.

The one time when i was lucid or obe that i wanted to connect to a lady that i felt a connection to, i was immedeatly shown a locked gate-my conclusion is that this is an area that you have no control over-if it is meant to be it will be.

I thought it has something to do with kundalini dynamics but is this still it?

For sources of info I would reccommend the books of Zaccariah Sitchin, David Ikes, and Whitley Strieber.There has also been a lot of channelled books written about the subject. Subjective experience is always good to hear about since OBE people are diving into areas that have not been explored much, at least not since witches have been burned at the stake.

How about rying to quiet the mind before falling asleep or when waking in the night? I think this is just as important for obe's.

I just posted a topic along these lines in the chat section, have a look and reply.