How do you shut the mind off

[Nay]

Hello Ambrosia and welcome to the forums!

Seems like you are right on the cusp of separation and the only thing I can suggest is keep on trying.  Yeah, I know that is a lame answer, but practice does make perfect.[^]

I still have some problems at times when my mind just won't shut up!  I will find myself thinking about things and have to give myself a mental shake and say, HUSH!! and I've had to do that more than once in a night. []

Maybe someone else will come along and give some more advice on this one or if you haven't already, take a look at some of these links.

http://www.astralpulse.com/downloads/downloads.htm
http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=44

Good-luck!

Nay

[Steel Hawk]

Ah... yes.. I would recommend some concentration exercises. Try looking at one certain object and try to think only about the object. The way it feels, the colors, shape, etc. Do it for about five minutes a day.

If that don't work I'd try concentrating on one thing while trying to obe.. like breathing.. etc

[The AlphaOmega]

Yours doesn't come with a switch?  Actually there's no one way really, and as far as I know it's not an easy task for anyone in the beginning.  Concentration exercises are great advice, they will surely work.  But you must stick with them.  Make them a habit and get your mind more and more use to them and it will become easier.  Maybe a bad analogy, but remember when you were learning to ride a bike?  The first time without training wheels and it seems impossible to balance.  But the more it's done the easier it gets untill it's natural.  I guess that same could be said of anything, including "taming the mind".

[cube]

There was a similar question asked here: http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13054

[chupacabra]

try turning off the internal dialogue during the day while doing mundane tasks, like driving, concentrate on just looking, taking care not  to internally comment on or judge what you see. As this state comes to feel more like a natural way of being, perhaps it will be easier to to access it during OBE attempts. I've got ten pretty good at it, but now catch myself falling asleep because my body is conditioned to associate mind/body relaxation with sleepy time.

[Zonmezz]

In R.B.'s Astral Dynamics it describes a method where you count from one to ten.

e.g. Breath in, only think of breathing,
Breath out, count one in your mind, only think 1
Breath in, only think of breathing,
Breath out, count two in your mind, only think 2
etc.

up to breath out, count 10 in your mind

Then start over.

With practice you'll find that you'll have short periods that you'll be able to concentrate which will gradually get longer and longer.

Missing a number or going over the number are sure signs that your concentration needs work and will happen at first. Not a big deal, just start at one again whenever you go over the number 10.

Your mind should be thinking only these things.

Breath in, oooooonnnnnnnnneeeeeeee (for length of outward breath)
Breath in, tttttwwwwwwowoooooooooo (for length of outward breath)
etc. up to
Breath in, ttttttteeeeennnnnnnnnnn (for length of outward breath)
then
Breath in, ooooooonnnnnnnnnneeeeee (for length of outward breath)

It's an easy exercise I find is really good at getting the mind to shutup and also getting your body to relax really well. I go really deep using this exercise.

Jason.

[~Ambrosia~]

Thank you guys!~~~~

I will remember these tips, maybe do some sort of study to see which one works best on me. lol. :D:D:D

Thanks!!!
Bon Voyage!

[Rastus]

Trying at 3 AM (interrupted sleep method) or early morning (early riser types) can help, since your inner monolog will be much quieter than it is during the eveings.

You can also try answering each inner question simply, then shortly you will be out of questions (something like "Do I have my clothes for work tomarrow" yes, I have clean cloths, "I have to finish that report, I want to include..." I will finish the report and remember what I need, "Dinner isn't sitting too well" It will settle and pass soon).  You can quiet your mind in a few minutes if you stay focused.  A single class of a good wine (red or blush) can also help you take the edge off and relax deeper.  Avoid anything with bubbles or that is too heavy or sweet.

[timmy_]

There are many techniques on how to come closer to a "no thoughts" state in various meditation practices. I have been practicing yoga and meditation for quite a few years and from the books I've read and the courses I've attended I am under the impression that most, if not all, of these techniques are based on concentrating the mind on one thing only for a while. Some of the additional techniques. which I personally find to work very well, is also based on trying to "tire" the mind.

Basic techniques like breath awareness should be a good starting point. Focus all your attention to your breath, experiencing all of your breath, how it flows in and out of your body, how it moves, how it behaves differently from time to time (sometimes calm/slow,some times fast etc), how it sometimes changes by itself during practice, and so on. Many people also add counting breaths, which is good. Or combine breath awareness with other things, like raising energy or whatever.

The key to doing this excercice, whatever variation you choose, is to let it fill your mind completely. When you focus on your breath, let your mind become one with it, to the exclusion of everything else.

After doing this for a while, for example after 50 or 100 inhales and exhales, it should be much easier to work on other things in your mind without being disrupted all the time by thoughts and inner dialog.


Robert Bruce has also described how to exclude everything else from your mind when practicing the rope technique.  I think he also described some other way of practice silencing of the mind, which is based on waiting for thoughts to occur and then just shutting them off at once or something. I think this was in treatrise for astral projection too, but I'm not sure.


One technique I learned in a meditation courses which I've found very helpful is "going for a walk in your mind". Decide upon a route (some existing place) that you know and decide that you will go for a walk. Try to visualize as clearly as you can, try to remember as many details as possible, try to see all the houses and trees and all the twists and turns - do this for 2 minutes and then switch to a completely different concentration routine.

Our instructor would give us one routine like this and we would do it for 2-3 minutes then we would get another technique and focus totally on that for the next minutes and so on. After 3-4 rounds of stuff like this it would be much easier to go on the the next stage in the meditation, which was trying to achieve "no thoughts".

At this stage the  mind is simply tired of thinking. It wants to think nothing at all.

So I've taken this concept and added techniques of my own like doing maths in my head intensely for a couple of minutes, etc etc. It all works well.


Of course, no thoughts at all is probably impossible, and it's not even what you want if you want to practice a specific technique, but the idea is to get much closer to silencing all the useless thoughts, and that is absolutely possible.

i hope this could be of any help, and hope some others have other useful techniques to share too!

Sorry if my english is bad.
Good luck.

[Naiad780]

AlphaOmega, I almost choked laughing when I read "Yours doesn't come with a switch?"  That's it, we're all defective and our brains were manufactured incorrectly

Ambrosia, I have this issue too, sometimes.  It really has improved with practice.  My method is to go walking in the mountains and focus on paying attention to my surroundings without actually using active thought.  You might have a similar nature-oriented environment you could try this in.

Look back at where you were when you started, and realize how far you've come, then have faith that you'll progress even more if you keep it up.  Knowing that helps keep me motivated to practice.

[funinfloating111]

i usually practice lowering my inner dialog at a seperate time when im practicing O.B.E. i start by just relaxing and then think about something, anything will do, then if inner diolog comes while im thinking, i mentally "push" the thoughts away before they finish. i keep doing that till i stop talking to myself. il be thinking and il say in my head something like "it looks really red". next time it will be like "it looks ...." and soon just "......" its a very calming feeling, and quite peaceful. i also find if i dont practice loosing the inner dialog often, il forgot how to do it.

Good luck and welcome!

[Frank]

Keeping the inner voices quiet is often a difficult hurdle to overcome. In the beginning, many a potentially successful projection can be ruined by one or two stray thoughts leaking through at precisely the wrong moment. The way I overcame this is by trying to keep the inner voice quiet at all times (or at least the vast majority of the time), not just when I came to try and project.

The first thing I did was to stop having opinions on all and sundry. So I stopped reading newspapers, magazines, etc. and stopped watching TV, never got involved in any kind of gossip, etc., etc. Doing this I found quietened my mind considerably and not only made my non-physical life more successful, but my physical life too.

Yours,
Frank

[Astral-Jas]

WELL this is obvious! just hit the off button. I do it everytime!

lmao jk

It is quite hard sometimes. [] no tips here though, im only a novice.

[Ant]

i found a technique which involves identifying thoughts as they come into your mind. the act of identification ('hey, there's a thought about what i need to but in the supermarket') separates you from the thought itself and you no longer strengthen it by thinking it. it took me a little while to catch the trick of it, as you have to watch your mind from the inside, but after i got the hang of it it became quite easy to 'bust' thoughts as they entered my mind. i did this constantly for a couple of years and pretty suddenly my mind just went (and has stayed) completely silent. it was a very strange experience at the time and took me several months to get used to it, after having a very noisy mind beforehand.

ant

[Risu no Kairu]

I often find the following to happen to me when i try to have OBEs.

I'll sit down to get relaxed, and I'll start thinking about having an OBE. Eventually, my thoughts will start to wander. :/ After a while, though, I'm thinking thinking thinking, and I forget about my body. Then... after a while, I suddenly notice that I'm not thinking and that I can't feel my body, and I suddenly get full body sensations, you know, from not having left.

So, I just black out... I don't fall asleep,  I just black out. :/

[~Ambrosia~]

When I initialize the OBE experience (novice), I get the symptoms like rigid stone body, unable to move, pricks and needles feeling, a crisp-up feeling, the big-head or big-body feeling... and my third eye sees a greyish mist, with random images. But my inner dialogue is so loud, it seems to keep me from leaving. How can i silence it, in this state when it is the most loud?

any comments, most appreciated.
~Ambrosia~~~