Jeff's OBE Tips

[kiauma]

WOW!  Very well written.  I can't wait to try these suggestions out.

Thanks Jeff.

Heey!  I just thought of a sig.  I think I'll call myself, 'The Experienced Student'.  []

[cube]

On the 'mind aware/body asleep thing', while I agree with the spirit of what you're saying it IS possible for the body to sleep, that's what happens when you get sleep paralysis.

It seems like the common thread in all AP techniques is that they have the effect of making you forget about your physical bosy and begin focuing on your astral body.

You point that the body does not have to be asleep to AP is correct, however, since there have been threads about accidentally APing while driving a car or flying a plane.

[Jeff_Mash]

quote:Originally posted by cube

On the 'mind aware/body asleep thing', while I agree with the spirit of what you're saying it IS possible for the body to sleep, that's what happens when you get sleep paralysis.

I see what you're saying, but I may even contend that it's your MIND which convinces you that your body is asleep.  It's called disassociation.  If your mind was not disassociated from the body, then you would be able to move just fine.

The whole "paralysis" thing is nothing more than your mind in a disassociated state NOT KNOWING that it is disassociated, and then trying to move a body which it's not in control over!

Think about that for a minute.

This is why people can disassociate their mind and then have needles and other painful things pierce the body, with no signs of discomfort.  This is also why a lot of people can be hypnotised.  Their mind is disassociated from their actions by the power of suggestion.

quote:It seems like the common thread in all AP techniques is that they have the effect of making you forget about your physical bosy and begin focuing on your astral body.

Most techniques have you focus on your physical body first, and then your mind.  I'm suggesting you focus on your mind, and your physical body will follow naturally.

[Nay]

Yeppers..you absolutely ROCK!

Nay []

[ASunnieSpirit]

Thanks for your tips Jeff,

your very right about eye movement, it can be a pain to control.

Good point about the sleep trigger, its usually when i give up trying to ap and go to sleep that i get vibrations, problem is when i try to reach this state on purpose it works too well and i either fall asleep or snap myself awake too quickly.

[math]

Thanks for that post Jeff []

The part about "your eyes must be asleep" really does make sense to me. However I'm not so clear on the body not asleep part.

Is what you are suggesting an alternative way of getting into the trance state? i.e. let yourself fall asleep but in a way that allows you to keep a strong intent/thread of consciousness going that allows you to "jump out" when you get deep enough.

[Jeff_Mash]

quote:Originally posted by math

Thanks for that post Jeff []

The part about "your eyes must be asleep" really does make sense to me. However I'm not so clear on the body not asleep part.

Is what you are suggesting an alternative way of getting into the trance state? i.e. let yourself fall asleep but in a way that allows you to keep a strong intent/thread of consciousness going that allows you to "jump out" when you get deep enough.

Yes, it is a trance state that you get into, but you get into it naturally.  You don't have to TRY and get there.

You see, most techniques give you a billion and one physical things to do in order to get into a trace, like relaxing all your muscles from head to toe, and then back again, etc.

This is all well and good, but for me, I find that relaxing the mind and conditioning my mental processes is all that I need to do in order to achieve a good trance state.  Think about it.  The more you are focused internally (mentally), the less you're going to think about your body anyway.  You could have four arms sproating from your torso and you could care less, because you aren't focused on it.

So I'm merely suggesting that the next time you lay down, immedietely start working on the above three tips and work on your MIND and not your body.  Your body will naturally shut down without you helping it, but your mind needs to be hand-held and monitored in order to have a successful conscious OBE exit.

[Gandalf]

Superb advice Jeff!

I will try out those tips. While I have fairly regular obes they are random and I still cant project at will (I usually wake up in the correct mental state around once a week on average).

Also, almost all my obes are direct into the astral, which is good IMV.

I almost never remember being in the '3d blackness' stage. What happens with me is i wake up randomly with the 'astral cinema screen effect' (Monroe focus level 22?); when this happens I just 'sit back' and observe the scenes until they fade or (as I do now) I will myself to step through it, and enter directly into the astral scene. The last time I was in the astral i observed my hands and got the 'melting hand' phenomenom as described by RB. However, I havnt decided whether this is a 'real' effect or if it happens simply because I expect it to.

From what i understand the astral screen is usually the part that follows on directly from focusing on an anomaly in the 3d blackness phase.

My next experiment when I'm out is to request a guide and see what happens (that's if i remember, but that can be the annoying part, as awareness can vary depending on the quality of the obe).

All for now,
Douglas

[Fat_Turkey]

It's a good thing you wrote that all out for many to see, for not many learn those things by themselves. I have, but not everything you wrote there. Much appreciated!

[|)]FT

[cube]

quote:Originally posted by Jeff_Mash
The whole "paralysis" thing is nothing more than your mind in a disassociated state NOT KNOWING that it is disassociated, and then trying to move a body which it's not in control over!

My feeling is that if you're in sleep paralysis, then you haven't dissociated. However I need more experience to make a firm judgement on that.

Basically I agree with math's post in that I don't understand how you can say that the eyes are asleep but the body is not.

quote:
Most techniques have you focus on your physical body first, and then your mind.  I'm suggesting you focus on your mind, and your physical body will follow naturally.

I agree, and that agrees with my point in that the end effect of the techniques is to forget about your body and focus on your mind or astral presence which is always there.

My feeling is that we are not actually projecting anywhere as much as we are refocusing our consciousness to an aspect of our spirit. That spirit aspect is already somewhere, so we are not really projecting it.

[The AlphaOmega]

Thanks a lot Jeff.  I agree, you really described the sensations well.  I have experienced them all, and you described them to a T.  I would just like to add a little something about the eyes.  Just recently I discovered myself how important this was.  You will notice when you are at the day dreaming state and your mind is wandering that your eyes may tense up a little, like become a little more tightly closed I guess.  It's important to keep that in the back of your mind and periodically check them to make sure they really ARE as relaxed as they can be.  One thing I did want to ask your view on.  Recently I have stopped trying to feel the vibrations as a signal to try and leave my body.  After about 30 minutes to an hour I am very relaxed and in a good frame of mind, with no sign of the vibrations (I have never felt them).  It's at this stage that I visualize myself floating out of my body, and suddenly my heart beats faster and I get an excited feeling, as if I'm very close.  Do you yourself have a similar experience, or do you use the imfamous vibrations that everyone else talks about?  I'm beginning to think they are not necissary to have an OBE, simply a common experience that many do feel WHEN they have an OBE.

[Jeff_Mash]

quote:Originally posted by cube
Basically I agree with math's post in that I don't understand how you can say that the eyes are asleep but the body is not.

I use the term "asleep" as a way of saying that the eyes are not being used.  You see, even when you close your eyes, you are STILL using them.  Just because they are not seeing anything doen not mean that they are not LOOKING at anything.

THey are, in fact, looking at something: the back of your eyelids.  Well, I have noticed that this LOOKING process needs to stop.  As long as you are looking with physical eyes, you will not get to the pre-OBE state as I mentioned above.  There is a slight transition, very subtle, where you relinquish your physical looking ability and swap it for the astral looking ability.

That is what I was trying to convey when I said the eyes need to be "asleep."

[kiauma]

I would like to echo what Jeff said, about the importance of the eyes, exactly how he describes it.

Secondly, what TAO said about his heart speeding up.  I have experienced this too.  I have read that it is because of a tremendous energy buildup as a person prepares to project.

Anyone have any other explanation?

[Jeff_Mash]

quote:Originally posted by The AlphaOmega
One thing I did want to ask your view on.  Recently I have stopped trying to feel the vibrations as a signal to try and leave my body.  After about 30 minutes to an hour I am very relaxed and in a good frame of mind, with no sign of the vibrations (I have never felt them).

I rarely feel them too....and when I do, it's not like an immediate BAM!  HERE THEY ARE!  It's more like, "Oh hey, I seem to be vibrating here."  

I have often felt them as a buzzing, numb feeling.  Never violent or disturbing.

quote:
  It's at this stage that I visualize myself floating out of my body, and suddenly my heart beats faster and I get an excited feeling, as if I'm very close.

I know what you're talking about....and here is how I look at it.  When you try and relax, and you're going 30 - 60 minutes with just laying there, clearing your mind, etc., you're still very much awake.  True, you can't really feel your body, but you still SENSE it, and this is the problem.

So what we end up doing is that even though we feel that our body is asleep, we try and do some physically-minded exit techniques, like the ROPE, or floating our of our BODY (see, another body reference).  However, since we still sense our physical body, the physical body starts reacting to our visualization.  The heart will start to beat faster...we may feel an adrenaline surge through our veins....we may twitch.  I'm sure most of us have experienced this before.

The key is to get to the point where you don't even sense the physical body.  Don't worry about whether you FEEL it or not.  Worry about whether or not you can SENSE it.

This is why I stress so much on the MENTAL aspect of OBE-preparation. If you get immersed in your thoughts and base all your progress on mental benchmarks (instead of physical ones), then you will find it easier to lose all awareness of the physical body.

quote:
  Do you yourself have a similar experience, or do you use the imfamous vibrations that everyone else talks about?  I'm beginning to think they are not necissary to have an OBE, simply a common experience that many do feel WHEN they have an OBE.

Feeling the vibrations are NOT necessary to have an OBE, you are correct.  IMO, focusing on the vibes is a good way to keep your focus on the physical body, which is what you DON'T want to do.

[Risu no Kairu]

If this whole thing pops you into the Astral (which I'm assuming you're not refering to the whole "Real time Zone"), how do you get to  a "Real Time Zone" projection?