Is this place really like a church where atheists or non-believers are not welcome? 

Hi Bird

This place welcomes everyone.  Sharpe has not been booted out.  I was simply wondering why he would choose to stay here.  If he reckons that spirituality and religion are lies, then fair enough, but it's Sharpe's "know-all" attitude and accusations that the rest of us are wrong is where the issue is.  It's one thing to say that you believe religion to be false, and spirituality to be false, it's another to state things like "There's no afterlife. If you do not know how your thoughts work, then don't talk back to someone who does. Good day!  " - which in my book is disrespectful.

How can anyone hope to have a discussion with Sharpe if he won't accept that his "truths" are only his own personal beliefs?  I wanted to respond to Sharpe but as he claims I don't know how my thoughts work and not to talk back to him, then I will respect that and have no more conversations with him.

I respect peoples beliefs although I don't want to share them.

That's all we want - respectful discussions.  We're not asking you to believe in anything - heck, even I believe very little of what's written on this site!! 

Sarah
 

Astral projection doesn't prove anything - in my opinion.

Sarah

Hee hee, I've been pretty active... 

Sarah

[is]

I'm just telling you not everyone needs to search so hard for happiness, not everyone needs to escape their problems. This is me facing it, which builds a whole lot more character than running away.

We just see things differently. Our focus is different. I see there is nothing wrong with me. You seem to see two things wrong with me, one, that I am diabetic, and two, I am content with facing it.

But realistically, that is healthy.

Hi Astir

Your words have been refreshing and helpful to me - thanks for saying them!  I feel a whole lot better already!

Sarah

Hi Sharpe

I see my lighthearted and jocular play on the word "normal" was lost on you.

Oh well.  You can't win 'em all! 

Sarah

Hi zorgblar

Nice to see you - enjoy your stay! 

Sarah

Hi Redwizard000

Welcome to the forums.  Have a good look around - it's packed with useful information.  Two sections to focus on are the Astral FAQs and Permanent Topics - both full of great reads.

My advice if you wish to be conscious while you sleep is to learn lucid dreaming (where you are aware you are dreaming during the dream).  First step is to start a dream journal, where you write/type all the night's activity that you can remember, including your emotions etc., etc., etc.  Then think about the dreams during the day and try to work out if they are attempting to tell you something about your life.  In short, respect your dreams.

As you learn to be aware of situations in your dreams, there will come a time when something will happen and you'll think to yourself, "hang on, that's not possible, heck I must be dreaming!"

Projecting from a lucid dream is one of the easiest things to do.  Actually, in my opinion, a lucid dream is a projection, but if you wish to remove some of the more "dreamier" aspects, you can do a variety of things.  My usual one is to go through the nearest wall/door/window willing the dream nonsense to disappear.  This works everytime.

Oh, and at night before you go to sleep tell yourself (mentally) that you are lucid dreaming.  Don't say "I will lucid dream" but say, "I am lucid dreaming".  This tells the subconscious and eventually the subconscious will send a signal to your mind during a dream, saying "I am lucid dreaming".  Ta-da!

It's as easy as that... 

Sarah

Hey bounda

Nice to see you again. 

Anything new I should read?

Depends what you're interested in.  Check out the sections that appeal to you - I'm sure there's been new posts in most of them since you were here last.

 

Sarah

Hi Embodied Words

I believe I have a home in the non-physical.  I also think I visit it when I dream. 

There is somewhere that I dream of fairly regularly and when I'm on a certain path, I start to remember that this is the "way home".  Whilst I've never actually got there when lucid, I certainly know the way and follow my instincts.  I even take the short cut through a field! 

I also believe that, just as we do in our physical lives, we have friends/family there who are aligned with our beliefs.  Which is a simple way of saying that our vibrations attract others of a similar vibrational 'level'.  This is not only to do with beliefs, but personality, humour and intelligence are players as well.  In my opinion. 

Sarah

[normal]

Sharpe

How do you know there is no afterlife?  Surely one would have to die first to find out?

Have you done a search for Randi threads on this website?  There's lots of them - you'd hate them all!! 

I love this sentence from you...

The normal human being isn't smart enough to filter out lies, like religion, or spirituality.

Are you saying that you are "abnormal" then...or "superior" to us normals? 

Seeing as this is a forum covering religion and spirituality (amongst other subjects that you don't care for) and you purport both to be lies, I second manuel's question - what do you hope to achieve by continuing posting here?

Sarah

Hi Mez

I've had this happen to me many times too.  I still maintain it is an OBE, it just occurs in the middle of a dream.  I tend to separate from my dream body and go off exploring.  Sometimes I'm incredibly lucid, sometimes not. 

Just the other day it happened and I was drawn towards an entrance with a sign over the top.  At the time I remembered the words on the sign.  Then I "woke up" (returning to my initial dream) and wrote the words down on a notepad so that I could look them up later - the classic false awakening.  When I finally did wake up, of course I'd forgotten the words... 

False awakenings are incredible things - you're totally convinced that you are awake and back on earth, even if there are oddities.  And they tend to happen just after a very lucid experience.  It's as if you've used all your lucidity up in the previous experience and so you fall like a ton of bricks into a normal dream where you believe you are awake.  Very strange! 

Sarah

Doringo - methinks someone has just thrown his toys out of the pram... 

Sarah

Hi Kaz

You've been part of these forums for years now, and it's such a shame that you've never managed to have an OBE.

I'm not too sure why you are still here if you believe what you wrote.  You therefore must think that you are talking with a bunch of liars at worst, or delusional people at best?  Are you hoping to "de-convert" us  because I reckon you're flogging a dead horse - you see those of us who have had OBEs know that they aren't fake.  We don't necessarily know what they are exactly, but we sure as hell know they aren't fake.

There's obviously been a keen interest in OBEs for you, as you've been here so long.  That's why it's a shame you have come to the conclusion that you have.  I can understand it though - before I ever had an OBE, I would have held a lot of doubt in my mind as to their genuineness.

And you do realise that saying 'OBE = fake' is asking for trouble - you know what people are like (not just members of this forum, but people in general) - dangle a carrot in front of them and most will bite! 

Sarah

Fascinating stuff manuel - you're going to have to watch the movie when it's out! 

Sarah

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

So it's not the technique as such (which was what you were originally purporting it to be), but copying directly from his book.  Well that's fair enough.  I'm sure if Mustardseed did copy and paste, he would acknowledge this - he usually does when quoting from others.   

This is not bullying or getting ticked off it is a protective mechanism for anyone who wants to do that because this whole site can be fined and shut down because of the law and ignorance of the law is no excuse.

If you care to read through every one of Mustardseed's conversations with God and cross-reference it with Walsch's books, then go ahead.  Do you work for Walsch or something? 

I'm sure you'll find that Mustardseed's writings are original.

Sarah

Hi Greytraveller

I remember you.  Great to see you return and I hope to read about your latest escapades soon! 

Sarah

What have you found out about the secrets of life or conciousness?

Nothing so far.

What have you discovered behind the scenes concerning the big universal question of WHY?

Nothing so far.

Have you seen any evidence of a single entity known as God?

No.

Has AP offered a reliable insight into life after death and possibly eliminated any fear of death?

Yes.  Although I'm still not sure whether it means there is life after death, I don't fear death.  Mind you I wasn't particularly frightened of it before I ever projected, but for some unknown reason, I'm quite looking forward to it now - probably because it is an "unknown" and since being able to project, I like going into the unknown. 

Sarah

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Stookie - I do have unusual experiences - I couldn't make stuff up like this if I tried!!    Thanks for the links - they are great especially the second one.  I haven't got any further than Cortesia meaning courtesy.  Oh well.

jub jub - validation yes, but I'm not too sure what it means.  The possibilites are numerous.  Had I somehow stored the Lithuanian flag somewhere in my subconscious only to have it pop out in the experience?  Or was I in an astrally created Lithuania, with non-physical Lithuanians still doing their thing at the markets, because they hadn't realised they had died?  Or was it a belief system territory where they had realised they'd died, but were perfectly happy there?  Or was I really in the physical Lithuania? 

malganis - it does, but Croatia doesn't sound right.  I'm still not convinced it was Cortexia, but as is usual, I didn't write it down immediately... 

Bird - Interesting about the cortex - found this from Wikipedia -

The human cerebral cortex is 2-4 mm (0.08-0.16 inches) thick and plays a central role in many complex brain functions including memory, attention, perceptual awareness, "thinking", language and consciousness.

Hmmm, food for thought! 

gregg - cheers!

Sarah

Neal would appreciate if you would find your own technique.  If you are not Neal Donald Walsch and you did copy that from one of his books, you need to refer to the copyright.

Haven't people talked to God this way for years?  Maybe not written it down, but at least interacting with God was just like a two-way conversation?

You are kidding me that Walsch has copywritten the technique he uses to talk to God?  That's rather like me saying, "When I'm worshipping God I put my arms in the air in praise of his glory - and no-one else can do this because I've copywritten it.  You must find your own way of praising God."

If Walsch has copywritten the technique, then he's a lot further away from God than at first thought. 

Sarah

Hi everyone

The usual story.  Wake up, can't sleep.  Countdown to F10 Monroe style.  Felt myself drifting mentally and my body slowly rotating.  It was lovely.  Then I must have entered a dream, and at some point became lucid. 
___________________________________________________________________________________

I was in a market square in a foreign country.  To my right was a very tall rocky mountain, quite close. 

The market stalls were setting up and each one was selling home-made beer.  It seemed that the village/town was renowned for beer.

The stalls were brightly coloured affairs - there were big flags draped over the stalls which were red, yellow and green stripes.  It kind of reminded me of Italy.

An older man was nearby and so I asked him that strange question... "This might sound a tad silly, but do you mind telling me where I am?"

He responded kindly, "We are in Cortexia". 

It sounded like Cortexia, but because I didn't write it down immediately, I'm sort of 70% sure of this.  I know it definitely began with a 'C' and ended sounding like 'xia'. 

At this point I realised I was waking up and managed to re-enter the environment by focusing on the mountain and coloured stalls.

The man was still there and I assumed that Cortexia was just the name of the village/town.  I wanted to know the country.

"Do you mind telling me which country we are in?"

Again, he happily responded with "Lithuania".

'Lithuania' I thought out loud and wondered at the marvel of being in a country I'd hardly even thought about, let alone know where the heck it is!!

Then I awoke properly and said the two words over and over in my mind so I wouldn't forget them. 
____________________________________________________________________________________

I've just been googling Cortexia, but nothing substantial.  There is something connected with Lithuania that is Cortesia, but I don't know what it means - it seems to be a common word.  If anyone knows the language of Lithuanians, please let me know what cortesia means.  I've tried to do a word translation on-line, but it doesn't seem to work.

Then I looked up the Lithuanian flag and was happily shocked to find that the colours are red, yellow and green horizontal stripes.  Whether I'd seen this subconsciously somewhere, on TV or whatever, is unknown, but I know that consciously I hadn't a clue what the Lithuanian flag looked like!

What a hoot!!

Sarah 

It's quite an interesting subject.  We used to discuss it in the pub.  Our scenario was as follows:

You get on a bus.  The downstairs seats are all taken so you go upstairs.  There are two free seats.  One is next to a white person, the other to a black person (or other nationality etc etc, whatever the particular type of racism/potential prejudice).  Please excuse me if I've used the word "black" and it's no longer ethical to use that word - I don't know the correct word to use - the media keep on changing it.

What do you do?  If you choose to sit next to the white person, the black person could accuse you of being racist.  If you choose to sit next to the black person, they could also accuse you of being racist due to the fact that you are obviously trying to be non-racist, but deep down you would rather sit next to the white person.

It's a bit of a no-win situation.  Whatever you do could be construed as racist.  Even if you choose to sit next to the black person, the white person could accuse you of being racist against whites (even if you yourself are white).

Personally, the whole thing, especially in this country (England) is so over the top, we don't even know which words are acceptable to use.

And what would I do in the above bus scenario?  I'd go downstairs and stand!! 

Sarah

ismusa - if the above scenario applied to you and you had the choice to sit next to a black or white person, what would you do?  Would you be concerned as to what others would think of your choice?

Not a technique as such, but total and utter relaxation works for me.

Sarah

Hi Snaipers

Sounds like an OBE to me, but you were not very mentally awake and alert.  The reason I say this is because you state it was feeling like you were in a dream - whereas a fully lucid OBE is unforgettable, it's the most amazing thing that could happen to you.  You KNOW you weren't dreaming.

See if this experience fades over the coming weeks.  If it's still as fresh and memorable as it was when you first woke up, it's more likely to be an OBE.

Sarah

Hi FadeEsdrasX

Congratulations on your first OBE - let's hope it's the start of many more to follow! 

OBEs are different for everyone and there are no hard and fast rules.  So the fact that your room was brightly lit during the OBE but dull in physical reality doesn't surprise me.  I've had OBEs where it's been raining (when it hasn't) and all sorts of differences.  It perhaps suggests that we are no longer in the physical realm, but because we expect to be in the same room, we create the room over the top of what is really there, which means often we experience anomalies.  This is just one possibility.

Also this goes for the silver cord/your physical body.  Many projectors don't see either.  I've seen my body once I think and never the cord.  One of my future experiments is to expect to see the cord next time I'm out, just to test whether it's based mainly on expectations.  Although even then, sometimes my expectations are not met such as fully believing that I'm going to go through a wall and then crashing into it...sometimes it works, sometimes not, and I've not found a pattern yet as to why.

Keep up the good work and remember that with OBEs, there are no "shoulds" or "shouldn'ts" - just because you read something by a so-called expert, it is only based on that particular expert's experiences and they are not the ultimate authority on the subject. 

Sarah

Hi Stook! 

Thanks for posting those videos - I'd seen the first before but the second was new to me. 

Sarah