90-Day Trial: Achieve an Out of Body Experience

[michaelsaganski]

This happens to me as well. Whenever I start doing leg work, random muscles start twitching in different spots throughout the exercise. It's distracting because I'm not sure If it's my muscles responding to the energy work, or if I'm actually tensing my muscles accidentally because I'm focusing so much on the specific area. (I'm pretty sure I'm not tensing, but it's hard to tell sometimes  )

Yeah I'm pretty sure I'm not tensing them either. Some will twitch even when I'm not focused on that particular part of my leg at the time.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 10

Program Notes/Observations:

    * I'm not finding the energy work with the arms to be as intense as the legs, but it's still quite tingly.
    * I'm getting better at quieting my mind while meditating and listening to bwgen. It's becoming a quite pleasant experience

Dream Notes:

    * I remembered 2 dreams last night. I had my sleep time cut short, to about 6 hours. I find this significantly cuts down on the number of dreams I have during the night. This agrees with what I have read in various places about dreaming – you tend to have more REM periods during the 6-8th hour of sleeping versus the beginning.
    * Dream symbol – videogame type sequences. This seems to crop up once a week or so, where I find myself playing some sort of video game like dream out. Usually they tend to be of the "First Person Shooter" variety. This aligns with my previously mentioned dream symbol of a computer/video screen.

[c0sm0nautt]

All the books you mentioned have been invaluable for me... Monroe, Bruce, Buhlman, LaBerge. I especially enjoy William Buhlman's work. I've used tactile imaging to reenter lucid dreams - it really is amazing how interconnected all of this is. When your reading pallet lessens a bit, I'd recommend Robert Moss' work, specifically Dreamgates.

Intention has been my biggest help with achieving OBEs. I've only had a handful over the past year and a half since I discovered them, but I notice I find myself in the vibrational stage if I have done a lot of reading about them before bed. Keep up the determination - I'm going to be checking back on your progress! 

[michaelsaganski]

All the books you mentioned have been invaluable for me... Monroe, Bruce, Buhlman, LaBerge. I especially enjoy William Buhlman's work. I've used tactile imaging to reenter lucid dreams - it really is amazing how interconnected all of this is. When your reading pallet lessens a bit, I'd recommend Robert Moss' work, specifically Dreamgates.

Intention has been my biggest help with achieving OBEs. I've only had a handful over the past year and a half since I discovered them, but I notice I find myself in the vibrational stage if I have done a lot of reading about them before bed. Keep up the determination - I'm going to be checking back on your progress! 

Thanks for the recommendation, I've added it to my Amazon wish list for later. What's with all the Robert's in this field? hah

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 11

Program Notes/Observations:

    * While I was listening to bwgen and meditating today, I think I got deeper than I ever have before. I started to feel "different", with bursts of what felt like electricity going through my body. The blurry image I normally see with my closed eyes turned blue-ish, and I felt my heart (or heart chakra?) start to beat pretty quick. I was getting pretty excited so it stopped shortly afterward.
    * I find myself getting anxious with body relaxation and breath awareness exercises. I just want to "get through them" so I can get to the more interesting energy work.
    * During the energy work today, I felt what I think were energy blockages. One was in my left thigh, and the other in my neck. I've been told before that my throat chakra is relatively closed so perhaps that has something to do with it. Basically, I found it difficult to focus my body awareness through those 2 areas.

Dream Notes:

    * Just a couple cool dreams. One with me playing basketball and the other had me defending a castle. Nothing remarkably interesting to report.

[c0sm0nautt]

Where did you get the bwgen?

[Xanth]

www.bwgen.com

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 12

Program Notes/Observations

    * I found it pretty hard to meditate today while listening to bwgen, as I am extra tired today. I worked an overtime shift for my job last night so my sleep schedule was thrown off.
    * When I was listening to bwgen, I had wondered if the 20 minutes were up and grabbed for my egg timer to check. As soon as I touched the egg timer, it went off. I thought it was a funny coincidence, and I suppose some people might take that as being potentially pre-cognitive.
    * While doing the fully body bounce energy work today my whole body felt like it was vibrating at a slow rhythm. It didn't feel like the rhythm from a heart beat either.

Dream Notes:

    * 2 dreams remembered. Once was related to work but the second one was me exploring this cave full of glass/crystal artifacts. One of them was a very pretty looking crab.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 13

Program Notes/Observations:

    * While I was meditating with bwgen, I had this visual come to me of an outline of a human being lying down. No features or anything, just the outline. The peculiar thing was that the person had a void/vortex around his solar plexus. The words "Go Inward" came to mind.
    * The energy work is getting easier. The feeling isn't as intense now, as to be expected according to MAP. I find it easier to focus on my right side rather than my left though. The whole body bouncing can be a little difficult.

Dream Notes:

    * No dreams remembered, damn. I really have to set the intention each night to remember my dreams... I can't seem to slack off yet and have it happen automatically. I'm thinking I'll try working the "wake back to bed" method into my sleeping routine.
    * I'd really like to have a lucid dream and am still trying to build "reality checks" as a habit.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Week 3 Day 16

The past few days have focused on a lot of full-body awareness/energy raising through "full-body bounces". The energy work has become easier to do each day, but there are also new techniques being added to learn each day – so there's always a fresh challenge.

With my dreams, I'm definitely seeing video games as a dreamsign. I used to play video games quite a bit but not so much anymore – I just have to learn to ask myself if I'm dreaming each time I look at a screen. Another frequent dreamsign for me seems to be having people ask me questions. Almost every night I notice that someone from my past asks me a question. Perhaps I can gain lucidity if I remember to ask myself if I'm dreaming everytime someone asks me a question – but I'm not really sure if that's practical.

Week 3

This week's focus is on energy raising for the 3 primary energy storage centers, as well as more work on achieving mental clarity/focus (meditation). This program seems to have a nice steady build up of the prerequisite skills in having an OBE, although not actually practicing OBE attempts is a little frustrating. The time each day's exercises take up is increasing as well, and that's starting to take a toll on my daily schedule. I'm not doing all the optional exercises as I simply don't have time to do them, although I do what I can and am doing more than the bare minimum.

With bwgen, there's a new preset added to listen to before bed that's supposed to help with lucid dreaming. I'll give it a shot.

Day 16 Program Notes/Observations:

    * My head felt especially clear after doing the "full-body circuit" energy work.
    * Using the ring technique, I was able to keep my mind clear for almost 30 seconds at the maximum. I would say the average time was about 20 seconds of nothing but me focusing on my breath before other thoughts would enter my mind.

Dream Notes:

    * Video game dream sign and question dream sign occurred again. I would have never realized these dream signs before if it wasn't for my dream journal. Before I started writing in my dream journal I was a little skeptical that I had any dream signs in the first place.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 17

Program Notes/Observations:

    * I think I'm going to start getting up earlier to do the exercises first thing in the morning. I've been doing them in the evening so far after a full days work, exercise, and supper. I find that my body and mind are too tired to focus well on mind taming. While listening to bwgen I found myself day dreaming and clicking out for long chunks of time, which is frustrating because it feels like wasted time.
    * Taming my mind with the ring technique was more variable today. I got up to 40 seconds but sometimes barely lasted a few.

Dream Notes:

    * I just had some fun sports related dreams last night.
    * I'm going to try the affirmation: "I am more and more conscious in my dreams" to improve my dream recall and also improve the chances of me becoming lucid. I kept waffling between two different affirmations to work on either separately. I feel like this one says it all.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 18

Program Notes/Observations:

    * Each day is taking me a solid hour of practice, plus about a half hour of reading time, affirmations, and these notes I'm writing. This is taking quite a bit of dedication, but I still feel pretty confident about getting through it. For anyone interested in OBE's, it might be easier to just try some exit techniques right off the bat, just to get some experience and motivation to go through a program like this. Working on all the prerequisite skills for weeks at a time before knowing what you're in for takes a lot of dedication.
    * I'm not too sure if the energy raising technique is doing much for me. The feeling is pretty subtle, although I do feel pretty good afterward.
    * Doing these exercises in the morning is going to take even more discipline as it's a fairly sizable schedule change. I really need to do this though, because my mind is racing after a full day of work.

Dream Notes:

    * I haven't gotten up early yet to do the wake back to bed method for lucid dreams, although I'm trying to work it into my schedule.
    * I've been waking up lately thinking I haven't remembered my dreams. But once I lie there for a while and really think about it, bits and pieces start to come back. My lucidity in my dreams hasn't increased lately though – I've sort of hit a wall with this.
    * I had another video-game-esque dream last night.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Week 3 Day 22

So the past few days has been met with me focusing on secondary energy center work and mind taming. I think I've definitely gotten better at both. The energy work/body awareness exercises come to me pretty easily now, and I can definitely feel different sorts of tingling/buzzing/warm sensations from practicing this.

In particular, I've felt a sense of pressure on my forehead during the energy work, which is supposedly where the third-eye chakra is. I haven't even done any direct stimulation of that area yet, apart from some body awareness of my head entirely during a "full body bounce" in Mastering Astral Projection. I'm interested to see how this develops because this particular chakra supposedly has a deep connection with psychic abilities. I've also received intuitive readings in the past which have told me that my third-eye is unusually open.

There has been a slow but steady progression with my mind taming practice now. I'm getting to the point where I can definitely feel myself getting into a different state of being while meditating, and it's quite enjoyable. The surface thoughts or "monkey mind" are losing their strength. Right now I find myself starting a random thought but catching myself in the process, usually stopping it before any sort of full blown thought "sentence" occurs. I am finding the meditation practice to be more effective in the morning.

As far as dreaming goes, the progress has been slower. As a positive, I find myself remembering dream fragments from more than one dream per night without too much effort. However, my attempts with the wake back to bed method haven't been going too well. I guess I just like sleep too much .

I thought getting up for only a few minutes in the middle of the night would be enough to put myself in a state to practice lucid dreaming exercises, but it isn't... I just end up falling back asleep right away. I can see why some people recommend getting up for a good 15-45 minutes. I also find myself getting a little lazy with writing all of what I remember from my dreams – more effort is needed here.

This weeks exercises focus on primary energy center (or major chakra) stimulation. I'm starting to get into the more interesting exercises and am getting closer to practicing OBE attempts, which is getting exciting. Today I stimulated the base chakra, and it was a very intense feeling. I still have some lingering doubts as to whether or not the body awareness is actually affecting any sort of "energy body" or whether it's just the way the nervous system responds to prolonged awareness of a certain body area. The sensations are certainly unusual, but I think it will take a certain amount of belief for myself before I actually see the results from an actual OBE.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 25

Book Reading:

    * I've finished reading both "World of Lucid Dreaming" and "Adventures Beyond the Body", and am currently starting "The Power of Now".
    * World of Lucid Dreaming was good but it contained a lot of information I already knew, so it just filled in some gaps of my knowledge.
    * Adventures Beyond the Body was ok. I liked his dimensional model of the non-physical universe but there wasn't very much meat to the book. I liked reading about his personal experiences but they didn't really connect with the rest of his book very well. He makes some great arguments for the benefits of OBE's but does little to back it up.
    * I've only started reading  "The Power of Now", but I can already see the power behind this book. I think it will greatly help with my mind taming exercises.

Program Notes/Observations:

    * Primary energy center work this week so far has been quite productive. I have felt a lot of activity in my base chakra, little activity in my naval chakra, and a moderate amount in my solar plexus.

Dream Notes:

    * I had my first lucid dream last night ever since I've started this 90-day trial! That's the third I've had in my lifetime.
    * I attribute my success this time primarily to the wake back to bed (WBTB) method. The reality checks, affirmations, and energy work also help as well of course. I fell asleep just after 11:00, woke up at around 3:30, stayed up for about 10 minutes (went to the bathroom, drank a glass of water), and then went back to bed. I focused my intention on holding my consciousness into my dream, repeating the affirmation "I am more and more conscious in my dreams" as I fell asleep.
    * At first I thought it was a Wake Induced Lucid Dream (WILD). But, after I woke up and thought about it some more, I think it was more likely a Dream Induced Lucid Dream (DILD). There was a small break in consciousness between being awake and asleep, but it was much smaller than usual, which I think helped me realize it was a dream right off the bat.
    * In the dream, I found myself lieing in my bed, but the room was different. A woman came out of a painting and materialized in front of me. I asked her if she is a spirit guide and she said "No, but my dad is".
    * I then asked her "How do I know this is real?" She didn't answer with words but just reached out and touched my base chakra. This was an incredibly intense feeling which almost made me wake up – I'm pretty sure I lost some lucidity after this as it sort of turned into a regular dream afterward.
    * The fact that she touched my base chakra was interesting because the base chakra has been the one I've activated the most with my energy work so far.
    * After I woke up, my base chakra throbbed quite intensely for about an hour and has mildly throbbed/felt active for the whole day so far.

It's great to see some of this work starting to pay off. This has been quite exciting so far and I can't wait to see where this goes!

[radman32]

That's an intense conscious break into a lucidity. Quite impressive. You've now motivated me to try out the NEW program, I have it, just haven't done it yet. Also, thanks for posting up regularly and fully elaborating.

[c0sm0nautt]

Keep up the good work! 

[Athymari]

Seeing your path truley is inspiring!

I have started reading Astral Dynamics and it is heavy reading but I have never seen any book in so much detail! I am sticking to a few pages a day and boy my dreams where nothing more then randoms snapping images last night (not normal for me!)

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Week 5 Day 29

The past week focused on energy work with my primary energy centers (chakras). I was able to become aware of and stimulate each one with varying degrees of success. It's interesting that each chakra seemed to give me a different response or feeling when compared to the others.

Raising energy has now become relatively easy for me, it's almost a habit now. It will be a part of the rest of the 90 day program and I will likely continue it in some form afterward. I attribute this to the fact that I've been doing it everyday now for about a month, which is what Steve Pavlina recommends as the minimum time for forming a new habit.

In fact, I have been finding mind taming to be more difficult. I'm still working on this everyday as well by doing breath awareness, and I'm getting better. If I'm not careful it's just so easy to slip into a daydream or useless dialogue with myself. I know I probably shouldn't be saying that though, as it just reinforces itself as an intention.

I've been getting better at remembering my dreams, to the point where I can remember various scenes from a dream in the middle of the day without having to refer to my notes. That used to be completely impossible for me, so it's great to see that progress. There's still plenty of room for improvement though.

I've received Bruce Moen's "Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook", along with an accompanying CD and DVD. I watched the DVD "Exploring More of the Afterlife", and wow, I was pretty blown away. The quality of the video isn't the greatest but Bruce talks about some pretty advanced (dare I say crazy?) stuff.

This week's focus is on getting into the trance state. This is the state I need to be in before trying an OBE exit technique. I will be learning OBE exit techniques next week, which is exciting because I haven't actually tried to have an out of body experience yet in this program.

In my various explorations with astral projection in the past, I used to try to get into the trance state while lying down. This was easier than sitting to get into the trance state, but I would frequently go to deep and "click out"/fall asleep. Mastering Astral Projection recommends using slight discomfort to make sure you don't fall asleep, so they recommend sitting in a hard backed chair. The fact that you then have to balance your head keeps you from falling asleep, but on the flip-side it's harder to get into a trance state (mind awake/body asleep).

My first attempt at mind awake/body asleep in my chair today went alright. I didn't get as deep as I have in the past while lying down, but I just need some practice. The technique used today was to picture and feel myself going down an elevator. I will let you know how it progresses.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 35

This week has been an interesting one to put it mildly. I've been experiencing some pretty large paradigm shifts and mental re-programming. My mental model of reality has changed due to both my daily exercises and supplemental reading.

I haven't had a classic OBE yet (beyond a lucid dream) so I'd have to say that my theoretical knowledge of what consciousness is is further along than my direct experience. I've finished reading "The Power of Now" and have now begun reading "The Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook" by Bruce Moen. I haven't put all the pieces together yet but I'm experiencing "eureka" moments on an almost daily basis. This is quite exciting! I'll try to share some of my thoughts here..

The major point I've picked up from Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now is that my thoughts are not who I am, "I am" the observer behind the thoughts. Descartes was wrong when he said "I think, therefore I am". My thoughts are my ego, they are not me in its entirety because there is something that exists outside my thoughts (self-awareness) that can observe my thoughts. But what, exactly, is doing the observation?

I cannot just be my thoughts (i.e. mind) because then there wouldn't be anything that would let me observe my mind. It's like the difference between a regular dream and a lucid dream. A regular dream is my ego-mind running amuck, while a lucid dream is where I bring my own self-aware observation (i.e. focus of consciousness) – which is an entirely different experience.

To me, this points to logical evidence that we are more than just our physical body and mind, which I believe will help me take another mental step into experiencing an OBE myself. Since I am beginning to accept the idea that we are more than our physical bodies, my mind will not be as likely to inhibit an OBE from occurring. Also, if an OBE were to occur, I won't be as "shell shocked" as I would be if it were to happen to someone with the typical atheist/skeptic belief system.

I have only just started reading The Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook today but it has already given me a Eureka! moment that also points to the fact that we are more than our physical bodies. This has to do with the concept and problem of free will. Do you believe you have free will? That is, the power to control aspects of your life?

Free will is something that has bugged me for a very long time, since I have always been a very left-brained, logical, and scientific thinker. YET, I do believe in free will... I am not a robot or a computer. Science does not currently have an answer for free will. The science of physics describes a deterministic/mechanistic universe at a macro level (Newtonian Mechanics/Relativity) and a seemingly random/indeterministic universe at a micro level (Quantum Mechanics).

The problem is that our world as seen from the lens of science does not have any room for free will. It's like the universe had a set of initial conditions set at the beginning and everything is playing out due to the physical laws of cause and effect. Or, if you get down to very small scales it appears entirely random. This doesn't make any sort of intuitive sense to our own personal subjective experience.

Now if you don't believe in free will then there is no problem for you. But if you do believe in free will then you recognize that you have the power to make choices that manipulate the physical world. But from where does this choice come from? Where do you trace the origin of the chain of cause and effect?

I believe the origin of free will(s) has to come from a source that is outside this physical universe. It's not like science is wrong – the universe is quite predictable (or completely unpredictable) under controlled experiments. But a human seems to be somewhere in the middle. I'm beginning to think that there are influences outside the physical universe that can somehow change the physical universe, and we might be one of the ways this occurs.

Take for example, the problem of our understanding of the human brain. In general, scientists believe that the brain is the origin of consciousness (I used to think so, too), but we really don't know how it works all too well. I'm now beginning to think that the brain is more of an interface/transceiver between our consciousness and the physical universe.

This idea isn't new of course. See Tart's Model of the Human Mind for an interesting description; It practically begs for a Venn Diagram. Movies like The Matrix and more recently, Avatar, show that the idea can be accepted in pop culture.

This Eureka moment came to me when I got to the beginning of the "Silly Little Finger Bending Exercise" in Bruce's book. I can sit here all day and choose when to bend my finger or not – I really don't see how a completely scripted universe would let me do that. Again, to me, this points to the idea that we are more than just our physical bodies.

But anyways, back to my notes and observations on my daily practice.

    * I've been noticing some weird experiences and coincidences lately. As an example, during one of my exercises I set my egg timer to 15 minutes and then proceeded to meditate. After a period of time I became curious as to why the egg timer hadn't rung yet and looked at how much time was remaining. It still said 15 minutes. Feeling a little weird-ed out, I decided to just let the timer be and see if it would start counting down. It did. I don't really have any sort of logical explanation other than just self-delusion but it was certainly weird.
    * Getting into a trance state is becoming easier each day, but I'm still only capable of getting into a light trance. Some of the visualization techniques are a little difficult, but luckily I get to pick what to use for the future.
    * Next week focuses on a little more preparation for OBE's (oops, I thought this was the last prep week). This includes creating a plan for what to do during my first OBE (the "walkthrough"), which is basically just a short trip around my room to maximize the chance of remembering the experience. I'll also be practicing "energy body loosening" by focusing my awareness on points outside my body, instead of just inside my body.
    * It's nice to see that a lot of what Bruce Moen talks about lines up with Robert Bruce, although there perspectives/approaches appear to be quite different.
    * I'm finding that the greater effort I put into telling myself "I remember my dreams" before falling asleep greatly determines the quality of my dream recall. It's harder than it sounds because I can be quite exhausted by the end of the day, which can make it difficult to not fall asleep immediately after my bedtime reading. So some days are better than others for what I end up writing in my journal.

[WASD]

Interesting reading I'm reading Astral Dynamics and he continuously says that you should return to your body after ~10 sec to avoid forgetting the experience. Move away from your body aswell since being too close can cause problems like poor vision.

[CFTraveler]

Interesting reading I'm reading Astral Dynamics and he continuously says that you should return to your body after ~10 sec to avoid forgetting the experience. Move away from your body aswell since being too close can cause problems like poor vision.

I'm with that.  Just this morning I projected, returned and then got out again, and completely forgot the second adventure.  So far, it's a blank.

[Luckilee]

I am thoroughly enjoying this post. I have the book you are using, but after about two weeks of doing it when I first bought it around a year ago, I got frustrated/bored and stopped. I am currently taking the Astral Projection course over at gnosticweb, but I think I am going to combine it with using this book again.

I had a much longer post typed but erased most of it as it didn't pertain to your thread. I think I may start my own journal like this one to share my experiences as well. If nothing else, maybe it will keep me motivated this time. Thank you for being so in depth and I look forward to reading more of your experiences.

[michaelsaganski]

Interesting reading I'm reading Astral Dynamics and he continuously says that you should return to your body after ~10 sec to avoid forgetting the experience. Move away from your body aswell since being too close can cause problems like poor vision.

Yup that's part of the plan for sure.

[personalreality]

you know, I never had any of those memory problems.  My first time I was out for at least a minute or two and remembered it fine. 

What i have had problems with is remembering projections when i have multiple in a row.  Sometimes I'll come back to my body and will still be in the right mind so i go again.  Sometimes when I do that I might not remember the first one as well, which is crappy because its usually the longest.

[michaelsaganski]

you know, I never had any of those memory problems.  My first time I was out for at least a minute or two and remembered it fine.  

What i have had problems with is remembering projections when i have multiple in a row.  Sometimes I'll come back to my body and will still be in the right mind so i go again.  Sometimes when I do that I might not remember the first one as well, which is crappy because its usually the longest.

Yeah, I'm just being cautious for my first time. I may not have any memory problems either - but my historically bad dream recall is an indicator that this may not be the case.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 36

I had an interesting experience while doing one of the meditation exercises today, which consisted of me focusing on my third eye chakra. For whatever reason, I decided to think "Guides, if you're really out there, please show yourselves". Immediately after, the darkness behind my closed eyes lit up dramatically. It's almost as if a dimmer switch had been gradually turned up in my room – but no external lighting had changed obviously. Then, I felt a huge wave of electricity/energy/vibrations come through the top of my head and down my body. This wasn't your typical cold chill, because the energy stayed for a good couple minutes. I began to see what looked like blobs of form behind my eyelids, instead of just a hazy blur.. but I didn't get anything more than that. I became too excited, shed a couple tears (I haven't cried in years), and broke out of the meditation.