Try meditating with your eyes open

[Leyla]

I've been doing this.

1) Helps keep you from falling into dream
2) When dreaming, open your eyes to wake up in an OBE

[Stookie]

I do something similar: I turn off all the lights so the only thing I can see is the clock on the VCR. I use this as the focal point for my eyes as I go into trance. I've also done it with the lights on, but seems easier when there is only 1 thing to look at.

[James S]

It didn't come easily, but I learned to meditate while walking.
Gives my physical and emotional / spiritual bodies exercise at the same time. 

I still sit with eyes closed to get the benefits of a deeper theta level meditation, but for everyday balancing, calming and grounding meditations that help me reconnect with "oneness", I find it more beneficial to learn to enter this state with eyes open. It can help you learn to maintain a hightened awareness and connection throughout your daily routines.

Blessings,
James.

[Novice]

I started doing tai chi about 5 months ago and really enjoy it. Its like a moving meditation. Eyes are open and you are totally absorbed in each move. The eyes stay soft and unfocused, only aware of the movement of your body.

There is also a chi gong position (wu chi or standing position). This one doesn't move, but still the eyes are open as you hold the position for 5-10 minutes. I do sitting and lying meditation with eyes closed as well.

But I must admit that I really enjoy the differences between moving, standing and sitting meditations.

[Gandalf]

It really depends on the individual. I try to practice with eyes closed but this is because I have a vested interest in learning to remain focused and awake while my body drifts off. This is because I practice phasing so it is important to be able to learn to stay focused while the body drifts off, which takes a lot of practice as it is the natural inclination of the mind to switch off as soon as your body relaxes.

[Quo Animo]

Yes, I tried it than my eyes started to sting. I relaxed them really quick and I felt a really large shock in my brain. it stunned me for 10 minutes. that was a crazy experience for me.

[Orygbus]

I've been doing something like this recently......It's called Tratak meditation (it's soft gazing with no blinking).....supposedly it's good for the eyes and psychic developement.....my higher-self tells me this type of meditation has great potential - atleast for me.....

[upstream]

I do the exact same thing what Stookie.

Another good exercise is to gaze into your own eyes. It's not just another form of trakata but also an exercise to empower your will. Also, it makes your face part of regular hypnagogia and automatically associates your with lucidity. So you end up being conscious in regular hypnagogia which is not so bad.

[MisterJingo]

I do the exact same thing what Stookie.

Another good exercise is to gaze into your own eyes. It's not just another form of trakata but also an exercise to empower your will. Also, it makes your face part of regular hypnagogia and automatically associates your with lucidity. So you end up being conscious in regular hypnagogia which is not so bad.

I do this occassionally, just out of curiosity mainly . When I stare at anything for a period of time I get a lot of visual distortions, shapes, colours and patterns increasingly dominating my visual field (a white seems to be quite dominant, as if things start glowing). It's actually quite like psychedelics, with little bits of coloured things wizzing around my vision, and seeming fractal shapes. It's interesting to see my face melt into this maelstrom of colours and patterns.

[jub jub]

I've been doing this.

1) Helps keep you from falling into dream
2) When dreaming, open your eyes to wake up in an OBE

I've been dreaming alot lately but wouldn't know how to begin to become lucid enough to open my eyes.

Is there a certain method you use?

[upstream]

When I stare at anything for a period of time I get a lot of visual distortions, shapes, colours and patterns increasingly dominating my visual field (a white seems to be quite dominant, as if things start glowing). It's actually quite like psychedelics, with little bits of coloured things wizzing around my vision, and seeming fractal shapes. It's interesting to see my face melt into this maelstrom of colours and patterns.

For me it's like a greenish glow that engulfs everything. If I stare into the mirror different faces would appear at this point superimposed on mine. Looking into my own eyes set up a feedback which generates energy for willing things to happen. This unfamilar energy invades consciousness at first as a deep irrational fear.

[Leyla]

It's not an unblinking stare. I don't allow my eyes to dry out. That sounds painful. 

I go into deep meditation, when the dreaming mind starts it's babble, and my eyes start to close, I blink them back open, to chase away the dream.

It allows my mind to remain focused and awake while my body drifts off.

As this state become more and more familiar, you will start to open your eyes from a dream, and wake up in the astral.

Super cool. 

[kiwibonga]

*bump*

I had a fun time doing this tonight as I fell asleep for a brief nap, I started seeing objects from my house randomly mixed with what I was seeing with my open eyes, I was in a pretty drowsy state with my eyes still half open, moving very slowly to avoid breaking the trance.

I saw this paper attached to my wall with thumbtacks and green writing on it, but as soon as I tried to focus harder into it, it disappeared... Instead of intensifying it, I tried to look with my physical eyes -- I'll have to get used to stop doing that

It's interesting, makes you wonder if these things are created on the spot or if there's stuff in the etheric counterpart of the room I can see, perhaps from previous or future tenants :O

[Eloquence]

...but as soon as I tried to focus harder into it, it disappeared... Instead of intensifying it, I tried to look with my physical eyes -- I'll have to get used to stop doing that

I have the same problem! It's irritating

[Vvid1012]

For me it's like a greenish glow that engulfs everything. If I stare into the mirror different faces would appear at this point superimposed on mine. Looking into my own eyes set up a feedback which generates energy for willing things to happen. This unfamilar energy invades consciousness at first as a deep irrational fear.

Ha!  That's exactly what happens to me...superimposed faces...often times my entire faces blurrs out and all that remain are my eyes..sometimes forming a triangle with my forehead/3rdeye area.

[Werp Weg Alles]

I'm not new to this forum, just hadn't been on in quite a while and the hotmail account my user name was attached to had been deleted, anyways, in regards to staring into your own eyes as a "meditation" I used to do this VERY often, and still to occasionally, when I do, the edges of my vision usually starts to become blurry and then blackness starts to take over.  Very interesting experience, but I never blinked while it was going on, and around the time the blackness would almost come to the point of covering all of my eyesight I would either blink, or unintentionally move my eyes causing the blackness to vanish.

[mjolnir_knight]

One of the best times of meditation that I have had was when I would lie out in my backyard on those crystal-clear moonless nights and stare at one star.  Just keep watching, and relax.  Before long, everything around you seems to disappear and all you can see is that one star.  I haven't gotten quite to the projection stage (being that those clear, moonless nights are limited here) but I have experienced the same feelings that come prior to a projection.

[Goober]

I meditate with my eyes open during class, constantly.

[*LightProtector*]

you are a cool dude goober lol meditating in class classic

[kie101]

ive done somthing simler, one time i attempted an obe, i tranced out and tottaly relaxed and started to feel vibrations i opened my eyes and (the room was pitch black and this was about 20-30 min into it) i could see, from what i could discribe as my purpley bluely aura  jst waveing about 5-6 inches away from my body, very intresting sight.

[Werp Weg Alles]

HAHA...sorry this took a while to get back to...but yea definitely during class ALL THE TIME...talk about some transcending meditation right there, I pick a place, an island maybe, and then I walk around, set up a little blanket and umbrealla maybe...or possibley build a house...and before long I'm living there MILES away from school haha I love doing that