I think you're right catmeow. It might have only been a 'here we go' thought but it was most likely packed with anticipation, expectation, excitement and darned THINKING. 

Not really. As an experienced projector, I haven't reached any conclusions. It's a valid addition. 

Thank You! 
 Please, if you have anything to add, share away!

 I am hoping I can get some more "experienced" members more involved in some active experimentation again.  I find that many of them have kind of "petered" out over the years. I think the way to get them back in, is to once again create that "new person passion" and enthusiasm that they/we all once experienced.

Agreed. 

I've got Monroe's Gateway Experience Wave I - Discovery CD and haven't listened to it in years. Also got a few of Dr Jeffrey Thompson's gamma/theta meditation CDs that someone gave me a while back. Whenever I regularly listen to these, I tend to go on little jaunts/adventures and your ideas of doorways and the like will give me something to focus on.

Am sure I'll be adding my experiences probably in another section (is there a meditation section?) so as not to clog up your thread. I've just ordered a CD walkman so I can lie in bed of an afternoon with my big Sony headphones on and drift away without disturbing anyone else in the house.

I'd be interested in joining future experiments at some point once I get back into the hang of regular daily adventures. 

Nope. 

Wandering around a college-type building carrying a plastic bag, I realised I'd got somewhat lost. The people I'd gone with were nowhere to be seen and I couldn't find the reception area. I wasn't that bothered about this, and simply continued wandering around - into classrooms (the one I recall seemed to be for advanced students of science) and the cafeteria. I recall buying a large piece of strawberry tart.

A while later, someone I knew from my childhood passed me in the corridor. He was teaching at the college. I called him by his first name whereupon he looked round exclaiming, "No-one's called me that in a long time!"

I told him who I was and he looked a bit puzzled until I mentioned my dad's name. He warmly greeted me and asked how he could help. I explained my predicament and luckily just then one of my group turned up. She told me that all I needed to know was in the bumph we'd all been given when we arrived ... and mine was in the plastic bag I was carrying around. At this point, my teacher-friend went off to his class satisfied that I had all the information with me.

~~~ooo000ooo~~~

I was going to dismiss this as a random nonsense dream but having thought about it, I think it's worth posting. Not only does it get me back in the swing of dream-journalling, it also means I'm actively thinking about dreaming (i.e. This Stuff) throughout the day.

I reckon this dream is to do with my newfound return to AP (the practice and the website!). It's good to find out I have everything I already need in my toolbox which I'm still lugging around with me. 

What a super-duper thread! 

That's really interesting Thaomas - and ties in with the self-aware thought of 'here we go' that Lumaza has had trouble with too. I'll bear it in mind for future escapades! 

Thanks Lumaza, Xanth and Nameless 

Lumaza, what an interesting thread you found! 

Since then (nearly 10 years ago ) my focus changed. I joined the EIC (Explorations in Consciousness) website created by Major Tom (Fred) from here. After a year or two, I became more interested in lucid dreaming and learned ways to become lucid from a non-lucid dream (DILD - this acronym always makes me grin, looks like dildo) ...much quicker & easier than relaxation, phasing, WILD, MILD and all the other ILDs.

But during my lucid dreaming periods, odd things would happen so I was still getting all sorts of overlaps. So now, all this time later, I'm none the wiser. Then again, I haven't really been actively into it for many years.

I'm certainly older, definitely not wiser (lol) but probably more mellow about the whole thing. If others wish to label and claim opinions as fact, so what? I've realised that it's more about me and my perspective. I tend to be reasonably UNopinionated and, after joining a handful of forums over the years, noticed that I'm more inclined to agree with others' opinions rather than form my own. Whenever there are arguments discussions on forums with two people going backwards and forwards, I'm usually the observer - quite like watching a good tennis match with lots of volleys!

Looking back at all the experiences I've had over the years, they've all been amazing in their own right. Some have taught me things, some have been simply fun, some have made me wonder about the Big Questions in Life. But not one has given me anything solid to take on board. As I said, I think that says more about me than about the experiences.

Does that make sense? 

Hello Amyla

That was a great experience - sounds just like something I could have written years ago. The 'peeling out' is so frustrating isn't it? I always knew I had X amount of time before coming to full waking consciousness and I also knew that trying to get out took over half of the damn time! 

Looking forward to reading more of your adventures. 

Hiya Bloodshadow

When I first started practising OBEs seriously, the separation process was sometimes laboriously slow. I'd have my astral arms out waving around, but knew 100% that if I moved any other part of my body I'd break the delicate balance. During these times, I'd experiment using my astral arms to touch my face, either healing a headache or pushing my astral fingers through my cheeks (just to see if it would work - it did) and so on. More often than not the rest of my body would eventually 'catch up' and I'd be able to fully exit the physical.

With regards to dream characters, are you able to distinguish which of those are you and which are not-you? If so, how? For me, I give everyone the benefit of the doubt that they are not-me and go from there. It's more fun that way. 

  Yes, I guess it has!

I did consider getting reinvolved at EIC instead/too, and may still do, but for now I'm dipping my toes here. 

Thanks for the welcome.

Hello Sammie

Having read your first post, am I correct in thinking that you're suggesting a more focused way of meditating rather than doing it automatically every morning between 9am and 9.20am because that's what you've read? When I mean focused, I don't mean "Trying Really Hard To Get Somewhere In Your Head", what I mean is making meditation/relaxation/the present moment the sole (soul?!) focus of your sessions.

If so, I've found that concentrating (or actually not concentrating to be honest) on whatever is going on RIGHT NOW is the best way to go about it. Whatever IT is. There may be an end goal to meditation, but constantly reaching for that goal will not get me there.

It's taken me years to learn this, but it's quite like riding a bicycle. Once learned, you can always get on a bike and whizz off wherever you want to go.

Sorry I haven't read all the other posts once they started bickering...

That's a great experience, and enjoyable to read. 

In the past I dabbled with healing when in the MABA (Mind Awake/Body Asleep) phase, but only with small things like headaches. I used to put my astral hands over my physical head and imagine healing coming out of them, usually including a specific colour too. It seemed to work.

I also use a 'dream dream journal' when I'm actually in the dream. Oftentimes, my writing is illegible or the pen doesn't work or the notebook is already covered in squiggles and I can't find space. It's as if the dream doesn't want me to remember it so looks for as many hurdles as possible. However, it's a really useful tool to use - sometimes when I awake I remember what I was writing rather than the actual experience. As long as I've written a few key words down, the whole experience usually comes back to me in no time at all.

One thing that might be worth mentioning is experimenting with non-verbal communication with other dream characters. It's a lot subtler and you should be able to pick up from them than than our clumsy verbal way of doing things. And I've noticed that dream characters are rarely forthcoming with knowledge when extensively questioned!! 

Hello Astral Potato

Some people believe that every dream character is an aspect of yourself. Therefore, the others who called out your name and asked why you were pretending to be asleep were the lucid aspects of you. No wonder they all looked amused.

I also think your theory in the second post has some merit. 

Losing control of the dream happened I believe because you started to panic. The dream then became non-lucid due to emotion. This tends to happen with any emotion - whether positive or negative. To help with this, it's simply a matter of practise when lucid. Every two seconds say out loud 'I am dreaming' (even quietly to yourself). But don't just say it as if on autopilot - it has to be said slowly, clearly and understood every single time you say it. One way that I sometimes use is to sing the Rod Stewart song 'I am sailing' but replace sailing with dreaming. 

And of course the key to prolonging these experiences in a lucid manner is to practise mindfulness and self-control of emotions. This can be done in everyday life and it should naturally transfer to sleeping life too.

Hope that helps.

I went to bed very early yesterday. Had a kip for about an hour and then lay awake practising relaxing without mentally falling asleep. This can include a variety of methods, but yesterday it was a case of thinking abstractly, then latching onto those lazy, loopy thoughts and following them.

After a while, I knew I was in the hypnagogic state as I heard my OH noisily putting cutlery away in the kitchen whilst simultaneously sitting next to me in bed reading a newspaper that was rustling. (I wear ear plugs so I knew for sure that both these sounds were non-physical.)

Next thing I noticed was that my astral arms had begun moving on their own ever so slowly upwards. Then the middle of my body started rising too. I thought 'here we go' and remained calm, neutral and curious. My body lifted out approximately 1ft before coming back down, not too quickly. Consciousness rose to full waking with my usual all-over tingles.

I think the reason it ended was because my mind was slightly too awake/alert.

It was brief, it was a tad disappointing, but it was a start. 

Well hello fellow dreamers and oneironauts 

I've not been here for a Very Long Time. Not sure who, if anyone, from the old days is still around. I know Xanth from another forum (hi Xanth!  ) and was a moderator here for a while.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to make AP/OBE/LD/whatever my primary hobby once again, so here I am. Already had a small experience last night (which I'll post elsewhere), so that's something. Thought I'd have to start from scratch again, but seems I've jumped right back into it. Woop!

Looking forward to getting to know some/all of you and reading your experiences. 

Selski

Hi Selski, long time no see! And I suppose after that warm welcome back it'll be another few years.

Hi Stookie - great to see you again.  How you doing?

I often lurk, but the place seems to have gone severely downhill since I was last here.  However after reading about lizard food, I just had to sign in and convey my heartiest thanks to zareste for his humour. 

As for being called stupid, it's water off a duck's back.  I find it even funnier that in calling me stupid for finding his words funny, zareste has admitted that he too is stupid as he finds Dusty's words hilarious. 

It's all good. 

Selski

'You' are going to be lizard food

ROFLMAO - the funniest thing I've read all week!  Thanks for the laugh.

Thank you to everyone who has replied - it's great to hear your views! 

Sarah

Hey bellend

Here it is...

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_astral_experiences/phasing_naturally-t21247.0.html

Sorry, I was being lazy earlier.

Sarah

Hi mat

I went through a painting in our lounge once.  Here is the link to what happened.  One of my most bizarre, lengthy and unusual experiences...

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_astral_experiences/a_serious_astral_projection_for_a_change-t14660.0.html

Please note that the forums underwent an upgrade since I posted the experience and you will find my account as the LAST post.

Sarah

[I]

I had an OBE which took me to somewhere 22 years previous.  It was as if I was the ghost.  If you use the search function and put in the keywords of 'Office' and '1983', it should appear.

I was able to talk to the office workers and they saw me and responded.  Not sure what it was all about, to be honest, but it was amazingly "real"!!

Sarah

[know]

I like to break these down by frequency.

All very well, but how do you know what frequency you are alluding to?  At the time.  For instance, you are busy doing some lower astral stuff and suddenly, an "angel" swoops down and takes you off somewhere else.  So you are in, say, 80 Hz to start with, but get an overlay of 250 Hz??  Or what?  Does the angel balance the frequency to, say 160 Hz.  Therefore you are still in the 'lower' scenario but because the angel is standing with you, you are now at 160?  No, that wouldn't make sense.

I'm digging myself a hole - maybe you can help me out!! 

The higher in frequency our consciousness goes, the brighter the colors, with the highest being pure white light, void of any color.

Now this I can relate to.  Sort of.  However, even with the bright colours, these have occurred in lucid dreams as much as astral projections.  Colours that you can't even begin to describe, because the verbs used are conflicting... the brightest green, but dull, but so vibrant and alive, but not glaring... how can someone else get an idea of what 'green' I'm talking about?    One thing of note is that I've never noticed bright colours in RTZ OBEs.  Colours, yes, but not bright.

I know a lot of people will read this and think that I'm crazy

Oh jub jub, I don't think you are crazy... I know you are crazy!!   

It's what I believe and I think that's what you were looking for.

It's exactly what I was looking for - thank you for responding to what I would deem a difficult subject.

Sarah

Hi Ivan

Welcome back!  Good to see you again. 

Maybe Nay will make an appearance one day?  Who knows.

Looking forward to future discussions with you.

Sarah

Thanks interception.

Looks like we are reading from the same hymn sheet! 

Sarah