I Need Help Clearing My Mind..

[Mitch]

*I bolded the main points of this seemingly gigantic question.

Introduction Thinger
Well, I'm very new to all of this.
I haven't read any actual books on anything relating to astral projection or out of body experiences, lucid dreaming, etc.
Although I have read everything on astralpulse.com, and am reading Robert Petersens Free Book, "Out Of Body Experiences". <http://www.robertpeterson.org/obebook.html>

When I first started to try to have an OBE or AP, I wasn't taking it slowly.
I was trying to jump right into it.
Now, I'm working on each individual step, so I can make the entire thing a success.


The Fear
I try to tell myself nothing bad will happen.
I know that if I just think nice thoughts, nothing bad will happen.
I know that if something does, with thought, I can get rid of it.
But since I'm new, I'm not sure if I could.
Whenever I'm practicing, trying to have an OBE or AP, I always open my eyes to every sound, and think I see a shadow or something, and am usually too afraid to go on.
I need help getting over this fear..  :redface:


Relaxing
I'm pretty sure if I spent the time I could fully relax my body.
I use the "ball of white light moving through, relaxing each muscle" method.
I can make my legs near numb right away.
If I kept working on it, I'm sure I could relax my entire body no problem.


Clearing My Mind
My biggest problem is clearing my mind.
Every little sound makes me jump out of all concentration.

I've always slept with my bathroom fan on, to block out sounds waking me up, or keeping me awake.
When I'm trying to clear my mind, I can always hear the fan, or other little sounds that keep me alert.

I also listen to music ALOT, and there's always about 5 songs playing in my head over and over at a time. (I know)

Also, I'm not sure if everyone's like this, and I've even asked people, they say they aren't but..
Everyone always when they're thinking in their head can hear their one voice, saying exactly what they're thinking at that time, right?

But I have another voice, almost schizophrenic-like that is always arguing with my first voice, at the same time as my 'regular' thought.. voice.. thing.
I thought it was normal, until I started asking around.

So anyway, when I'm trying to clear my mind, I'm thinking things like;
"Okay.. think nothing... Clear your mind.. Visualise eternal nothingness."
But then there's that upper voice saying;
"There's no way you can do this, you can't concentrate. You're just a beginner, it takes years for this stuff. Anyway, you're probably not even relaxed enough. You haven't read enough about it. There's no way."
So then I lose all concentration, and when I'm attempting the next steps, my mind is fully awake.

I need direct help, a method to clear my mind completely.
Not just, "think about nothing", please, I know that.
I need some sort of.. almost.. trick.. to clear my mind, or a way around it somehow.

Oh, One Last Thing
The first thing I tried after finding out about all of this, was travelling to Astral Pulse Island.
I was sure I almost had it.
I thought back to when I was reading the method of early morning phasing for beginners.
I was at the, "Now imagine as intensely as possible that you are travelling there" step.
I was dumbfounded.
HOW do I travel there?
I tried to look deep inside myself, to find some way, or something, I'm not sure, and..
The best I could come up with was riding there on a flying pig?    :redface:
Yeah, that didn't work..

So.. how specifically should I go about travelling there?


Thanks

[CFTraveler]

Not much, only a thing or two:

Whenever I'm practicing, trying to have an OBE or AP, I always open my eyes to every sound, and think I see a shadow or something, and am usually too afraid to go on.
I need help getting over this fear..  

If you find your fear is irrational (you know nothing can hurt you but you're scared anyway) you can try prayer, holy water or some other religious paraphernalia, pertaining to whatever religion you grew up with, whether you believe in it now or not.  The subconscious responds to religion if you grew up with any beliefs at all.  My next piece of advice may help with the concentration/mind emptying/relaxation and fear all at once:  Practice (or attempt) your projection in the wee hours of the morning.  You already will be half asleep making trance work unnecessary, and I doubt you would start thinking of anything if you do a mantra (preferably something that means nothing to you, so you can't attach a meaning.)  Also, practicing in the am will take care of the 'projecting out in the dark' fear, since you will know intellectually that daylight will be on soon, and it may just give you the bit of relaxation you need to complete your exit.
Good luck!

p.s.  I project quite often and I have never emptied my mind.  However, I can observe my 'mental chatter' as I go about it, detaching from it.

[stephen~]

Whenever I'm practicing, trying to have an OBE or AP, I always open my eyes to every sound, and think I see a shadow or something, and am usually too afraid to go on... I've always slept with my bathroom fan on, to block out sounds waking me up, or keeping me awake.
When I'm trying to clear my mind, I can always hear the fan, or other little sounds that keep me alert.  

I think there are a number of things you could do to try help your current alertness. If you keep opening your eyes perhaps you could try putting something light over them, like a folded T-shirt, folded in such a way that it doesn't cover your nostrils, and one that is light enough not to distract you with its pressure - takes a bit of experimenting that one.

I can imagine the conflict between you trying to clear your mind and the fan demanding your attention. I would use the fan, stop seeing it as this irritating thing that distracts you and focus in on it, listen to it, notice how it sounds in its cycle. Use it as part of your practise. The way to treat negative happenings that we have no control over is not to get agitated at them for ruining our peace, and trying to hide from them, but turn them around and use them. Think of the fan as neither good nor bad, concentrate on it, it just is. It's like touching a hot radiator, first time you flinch away, then you notice it is hot, but not so hot it will burn your skin, then next time that it's ok to touch for a few seconds etc. You learn to stop responding, and you will with the fan if you stop trying to avoid it mentally. And on a personal level, I have always believed that 'whirring' things are very good for projection and have often imagined myself in a factory full of noisey machinery or that there are bees around and this has triggered  projections (the whirr as I fall near to sleep becomes the buzz of vibrations).

Clearing your mind. I don't talk to myself in that "I am imagining nothingness" kind of way. Like with the fan, I wouldn't be thinking "It goes whirr, whirr" I would be looking at it without comment. The kind of state I go for is one of light interest. Two examples I can give, one is like a farmer leaning on his gate staring out at his field of cows. He's not thinking the words "What lovely cows, what a lovely day" he is just feeling it in that moment. The other example is when you watch TV and there's something on that you enjoy. You don't literally think about what the actors are saying, do you? Your mind is quiet and you are absorbed in the plot. You are undoubtably sucking all that information in, but you are not turning it over in your head word for word, you dont have to. Both are meditative states where the mind is alert, focused and fully functioning, but quiet, and both done naturally without any effort or learning! It's that kind of approach for me when I clear my mind, I'm looking to focus on something, an image, a sound real or imagined, my breathing, a thought, anything, but I'll just be 'looking' with my mind rather than 'talking'.

When I clear my mind I fully accept that I won't be able to do that completely anyway, I doubt very many people can. What I am after is to quieten it, lessen its 'talking' voice, and stop it wandering off to far. I also accept that however I do that my mind will still wander. If you find yourself distracted, forgive yourself and just go back to your focus, the more you do this rather than reacting frustratedly the easier it becomes.

Finally, in my experience such as it is, what is required to project is not a crystal clear mind like a pool of water with no ripples, nor a deeply relaxed body in which you can feel nothing. A mind that you could regard as still being awake, perhaps with dreamy imagery, but still awake enough to realise it, and a body that is comfortable, in a position that's not going to get uncomfortable and distracting later is enough foundation to project. It is easy to get hung up on thinking everything has to be perfect in regards to relaxing and the mind, when it doesn't, in my opinion.

[Berserk_Exodus]

When it comes to meditation and astral projection, don't worry about the specifics of attaining it too much.

It's more of the process than anything else.  The more you do it, the more it will come naturally to you over time.  The problem I've been having has been that bone-deep tickling making me go almost laughing mid-trance and possibly mid-projection, so I just ignore it best I can.

Keep on keepin on man.

[Draege]

Like berserk said, its mostly a process. Over time each of the seemingly endless little problems will fade away. Its like learning to do anything, like a sport. Each maneuver or facet of the sport you slowly learn to perfect with practice until it becomes subconscious and you don't even have to try.

But even with that being said, here's some things to try that helped me. First the fear thing.. The more you *think* about the fear, whether thinking about being afraid or thinking about NOT being afraid, just thinking about it will increase it. But the best way to overcome it is always to confront it. You will eventually, there's no way around it. I recommend spending a few hours lieing in bed with *pitch blackness* and your eyes open. Watch the darkness, meditate with your eyes open in the darkness.. your fear will come and go come and go and as you learn that it is completely internal you will get over it. As for the clearing your mind thing, I find the easiest thing to do is kind of mentally point and aknowledge every topic that your mind wants to think about at the time.. maybe job, money, love life.. and get specific too, pet sick, carpet dirty maybe? grab ahold of those thoughts in one big ball and mentally decide "not right now" then make the ball poof.

Hope that helps.