90-Day Trial: Achieve an Out of Body Experience

[WASD]

  Exciting.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 37

I'm now getting better at getting into a deeper trance state. I know this because I find that when I end the meditation session and open my eyes, I feel disassociated with my physical body for a few seconds until I start to move. This is especially true with my hands and feet – it's almost like the feeling of them being "asleep" when blood circulation is cut off.

While I was extending the body bounce awareness exercise from the floor, through my body, up to the ceiling, and back down again I saw a couple flashes of a white horizontal line of light descending through my line of vision. It wasn't in sync with my awareness exercise so it was sort of surprising – I don't think there was a particular feeling associated with it either.

I think I may have projected into my etheric/energy body while practicing the extended body bounce exercise. There was a point at which I think my body fell asleep because I felt my head tilt to the right slightly, but it didn't really feel like it was me. It's hard to describe but perhaps a better way of saying it is that I was focused on my energy body and only partially felt my head tilt over. I had felt movement but it took me a while to figure out what had happened – from my perspective I felt like I was still sitting up straight.

[Luckilee]

Sounds like you are making great progress! An inspiration to all that practice does indeed yield results, even if it's not quite the whole shebang just yet. I'm sure before long you will have even more amazing experiences, but your experiences thus far are quite impressive in their own right.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 40

Well, things keep getting a whole lot more interesting.

Progress generally feels like 2 steps forward, 1 step back, but every few days I am able to get into a slightly deeper trance state. This basically means a reduction in sensory input, which is part of the process in dissociating from my physical body – I need to keep my physical senses from rooting myself into focusing on the physical. I am able to feel a tingling sensation and a heaviness in my arms and legs fairly easily, but my chest seems to take more effort (especially since I am focusing on my breath).

During a couple of my meditation sessions I've had the urge to see if I could communicate with my "guides". I'd openly ask if they were "around", and I have gotten confirmation. The type of confirmation is just on the edge of what my analytical/left-brained/atheistic mind can accept – energy surges through my body, eye twitches on demand, and an internal dialogue that feels almost imaginary. The experiences can be interpreted as real or made up, depending on what you believe.

I now see that our beliefs are what limits us, and is what also limits our experiences. It's sort of a catch-22 because in order to experience something profound you have to believe it to be possible in the first place – that can make it hard for skeptics, when self-fulfilling prophecies come to mind. I feel like I just need to keep an open mind to slowly chip away at my limiting beliefs and concepts. Patience, persistence, and practice will expand my capabilities over time.

A lot of these self-realizations I've been having have caused somewhat of a belief-system crash, as coined by Bruce Moen in the Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook. Some of my old limiting beliefs have been dissolved and this has caused me to lose part of my identity/ego. This "loss of self" can be tough on the mind and I know that I need time to heal and reintegrate my new beliefs into a more accurate model of reality. This is hard! (whoops, I suppose that was an affirmation...)

Even if I don't have an OBE from this trial I've already had enough experiences to further pursue meditation and the exploration of consciousness. I now realize that an OBE is just a subset of the larger reality that can be experienced by consciousness. I almost feel like this trial is morphing into something more general – the evolution of my consciousness – rather than to just attain an OBE.

I'm thinking about going to The Monroe Institute for their "Gateway Voyage" retreat. I have their Gateway Experience CD's which I think I will start listening to regularly instead of the Lucid Dreaming track provided in bwgen. I've been a little disappointed with bwgen so far when compared to some of the other binaural beat tracks I've tried. I'm going to be focusing on "CD 1 Track 2: Focus 10? for now until I get good at achieving that state.

I have been absorbing quite a bit of material on consciousness this week and I feel like I should slow down a little, especially with the belief system crash. I'm getting the feeling that I should be working on experiencing more, rather than just reading about it. The books are only pointers. Reality is subjective so it's up to me to see what is really true or not.

That being said I am now interested in reading the "My Big Toe" trilogy from Thomas Campbell. He worked with Robert Monroe at the very early stages of the creation of Hemi-Sync. I particularly like his model of consciousness and reality, especially the mapping of entropy with love.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 43

Here it is, week 6! This is the week where I finally get to do some OBE exit techniques. This week will focus on Robert Bruce's "Rope" technique, where you visualize and feel a rope above you that you use to climb. I have tried this method before in the past and have found it to quickly put me in a mind awake/body asleep state.

From the first couple sessions I've done already it's apparent to me that I still need quite a bit of work on taming my mind. I find it hard to focus on one thing (ex. climbing the rope) for longer than 30 seconds, if that. I feel like this is the hardest part for most people, losing focus is so easy in this day and age.

I've read that it can take months/years of daily meditation to effectively quiet the mind. It's clear to me that it's probably going to take that long for me as well. I used to be quite aloof and lost in my own mind (and still am at times) so I have quite a bit of ground to cover.

So having an OBE in 90 days might be a bit of a stretch. I'll give it my best effort though. This is probably why many people give up on the process. Luckily, there are many other benefits to this daily practice so I'm going to continue regardless.

On a bit of a practical note, I used to find the egg timer quite useful for pacing the various daily exercises. Now that I've done them so many times they are now memorized, and find it more beneficial to just keep my eyes closed and do the exercises at my own pace. This prevents me from breaking my trance state to reset the egg timer for the next exercise.

Over the past couple days I've felt quite a bit of tension at the top of my head while doing the exercises. I'm not sure if this is an energy build up or if this some part of my mind resisting the process. Maybe I am not relaxing enough beforehand, I'm not too sure.

One benefit to losing focus and going into a day dream while I meditate is that I've become much more aware of the "snap-back" feeling you get when you "wake up". It literally feels like you're falling or snapping back into your body. If you've ever had a dream where you're falling and then wake up you'll know what I'm talking about. The astral projection model/theory would suggest that it actually IS your subtle/energy body snapping back into alignment with your physical body.

In any case, becoming more aware of the subtle changes that occur between the awake/dreaming state is probably pretty key to becoming successful at OBE.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 45

I've finished reading the Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook as well as The Secret of the Soul. The Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook is absolutely fantastic and I am starting to incorporate its exercises into my daily practice. I'll be writing about my experiences with it as well.

I flipped through The Secret of the Soul as the writing didn't appeal to me that much, much of it was testimonials about things I already knew about or concepts that seemed more rudimentary than Monroe's Focus Level system. I've also been casually reading about traditional yoga (not the physical exercise), Thomas Campbell's online material, as well as the posts made by Frank Kepple on the subject of phasing.

Today's main OBE exit technique was to imagine climbing a rope downards. While doing this I felt intense pressure on top of head, like a vice, which later moved down to my third eye and then stayed there. Pressure stopped as soon as I stopped the exercise, although a mild throbbing was felt afterward. This pressure was very intense and made it quite difficult to focus on climbing down the rope.

The pressure was a downward pressure, almost as if my the act of imagining the downward climbing was pulling my etheric body. But for some reason I guess it didn't want to let go... I also think I started to feel my heart chakra flutter but my excitement and awareness of it quickly made it stop.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 51

So about a week has gone by with trying OBE exit techniques, and I am making progress. It seems like there won't be any major changes to the day by day practice according to Mastering Astral Projection. The only thing that changes is a different exit technique to try every couple of days.

Fundamentally though, all the exit techniques are pretty much the same. The basic idea is to focus your awareness to a point in space outside your body. My favorite so far has been the basic rope technique, where you imagine yourself climbing a rope upwards from your body.

A major roadblock I've hit is that I have a hard time keeping my mind focused on climbing the rope for more than maybe 30 seconds. I'm getting better at catching myself wandering with my thoughts, but sometimes it really surprises me. One minute I'll be practicing my exit technique, and the next minute I'll realize that I had been daydreaming and I don't even realize how I lost track/focus.

On the other hand, I'm starting to notice a distinction between some of the daydreams. Some of them are clearly my own subconscious mind worrying about various aspects of my life (the ego, I guess). However, others can be rather – weird. I'll sometimes "see" people I've never met before quite clearly, in a situation that seems beyond what my own mind could come up with. Maybe they're just symbolism/metaphors created by my own mind, but they seem so random and out of place. If you are familiar with the perceiver/interpreter concept by Bruce Moen, then I think I may be getting better at non-physical perception without letting my interpreter run away with the thought (which I have noticed as well).

One time while I was meditating and realized I had lost focus, I actually saw (not visualized) myself go through a dark tunnel (1st person viewpoint) when I regained awareness. That was pretty cool, but also VERY subtle and easy to miss/forget. I really had to stop for a moment and think: "Holy crap, what was that? REMEMBER this Mike..." because I find a lot of my "daydreams" while meditating are not actively stored by my memory – they slip away quite quickly.

Depending on your definition of OBE some of you might say I've already been successful by the experiences I've just mentioned, and my lucid dream in the past. Through my readings I've discovered just how broad "out-of-body" really is. The classic floating above your physical body in the real-time zone is actually only a VERY small subset of the continuum of consciousness. I'm very interested in exploring all of this quite a bit further.

In my search to improve the focus of my mind and self awareness I've stumbled across traditional Yoga. I'm not talking about the physical fitness program you see in the West, but the original and true Yoga. The Yogis figured all of this consciousness "stuff" out (including OBE and more) thousands of years ago! One particular site I like is SwamiJ.com, because it has a huge wealth of free knowledge on this topic.

In MAP, there are optional exercises in the 90 day program. I've substituted some of those for exercises I feel would be more beneficial to me, based on what I've learned from other authors. I've been listening to a Hemi-Sync track once a day, which I absolutely love. I try to be as present and aware as possible throughout the regular happenings of my day, and I've extended the time I practice mind taming each day. I usually do breath awareness for mind taming, but I've recently been experimenting with repeating a mantra.

I've been noticing a gradual shift in my overall world view as well. I find myself becoming less materialistic, or at least am noticing just how materialistic the culture is where I live. There just isn't any balance, mostly everything is about exterior facets of life with very little emphasis on the interior. But it's the interior that actually matters, because everything else is just temporary.

I think that if more people realized that consciousness is eternal and that the whole point is to have it evolve and grow in knowledge, then there wouldn't be so much focus on materialism and so many of our problems would go away.

Heh, sorry for getting a little carried away there.

[Timandra]

Heh, sorry for getting a little carried away there.

That doesn't matter. You're a good writer and I like reading your journal.
I look out for the moment that you have your first OBE! 

[michaelsaganski]

 OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 56

So another week has gone by with what I think has been steady progress. No OBE yet but that's ok, I have a ways to go yet!

My third eye chakra has been feeling quite active lately, especially when I do any sort of meditation, body awareness, deep thought, or energy work. It basically feels like a throbbing, with the intensity being different depending on what I'm doing. Sometimes the throbbing can be quite intense when I'm working on an exit technique.

Generally, I've felt a tightness in upper body during exit techniques. At first it was mostly my head that would feel like it was getting "pulled", but now it's mostly my chest/heart. It's like  I'm trying to pull away but my physical body is holding on too tightly. I sometimes have my inner voice telling me it's not possible.. right when I'm about to do it! This is counter-productive and something that needs to be worked on. I have to believe I can do it before I will ever let myself let it happen.

I have now jury rigged a headset with Audacity recording my voice. I'm finding that I get a lot of random imagery when I'm in a deep meditative state, so I'd like to record some of it with my voice when it happens, otherwise the memory is lost quite quickly. Stopping the meditative state and writing it down just isn't practical. Perhaps I can figure out some sort of pattern or meaning to what I'm seeing if I analyze enough of it.

I now regularly feel falling sensations when I sometimes go too deep in the trance state and regain awareness, which is sort of a "mini-obe". Learning to just relax and let go of any expectations seems to provide the best results. I could have swore I felt one of my "astral" fingers move inadvertently on two separate occasions, which shows that I'm starting to have my energy body loosen up.

Other interesting occurrences include my guides thwacking me on the back of the head when I asked if they were around, haha. Also, during one session I am pretty sure I experienced a very weak form of astral sight because I was able to see my arms and legs with my eyes closed. There wasn't any spectacular detail, just shiny blue lights among the blackness that took the shape of where I would have expected my legs and arms to be.

My dream awareness has not improved all that much lately, as it just hasn't been on my mind as much. There's been a slow but steady improvement in my dream recall, but it really depends on the quality and quantity of sleep I get that night.

[michaelsaganski]

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 64

Life did a good job at kicking my pants this week. I really had to push hard to find times to sit down and do the exercises, and it was usually not the optimal place or time. Today being the weekend I was able to get a great session in and still found that I had made progress throughout the week!

It's pretty amazing at just how deep meditation can get, and I know I'm still only scratching the surface. I'm finding it easier to get into a trance state, and it also happens more quickly and at a deeper level. All it takes is steady practice.

I would say my main trouble right now is relaxing too much and going off into dream imagery too easily. Once I get too deep into it I find it hard to focus my mind on anything for particularly long, which includes any sort of OBE exit technique.

In some ways I'm sort of feeling a fork in the road between meditation and OBE's. It's almost as if I'm at a level where the two are becoming mutually exclusive. In other words, when I meditate too deeply I can't focus on doing an exit technique... or if I focus on an exit technique my body/mind tenses and resists it to the point where I can not keep a focused mind either. Perhaps it's just a lack of focus on either side. In MAP, Robert Bruce says OBE exit work is a very fine balancing act and I am really starting to see that.

I just thought of another way of looking at it. When I meditate it's like I'm focusing into my consciousness, while an OBE exit technique requires focusing outside my physical body. Both techniques require focus, and either way leads to the same result – disassociation between mind and body. Which means understanding that I am more than my physical body, i.e. that my mind is not my brain. And that is the whole point of this 90 day trial.

Right now I just seem to be feeling much more success and progress with focusing inwards, rather than outward. I haven't had any mind-blowing experiences such as floating over my own physical body, but my belief systems have been slowly chipped away with unusual experiences. My body seems to resist any sort of external focus, and absolutely loves focusing inward. Perhaps yogic meditation or Robert Monroe's Phasing/Focus Level system is a better path for me than the classic OBE techniques?

One example from today happened while I was meditating. I lost focus for a period of time and started seeing dream imagery, but then quickly realized that this had happened and regained awareness. I came back to staring at the back of my eye-lids, but for a second or so I saw a very distinct dark form stand out from the backdrop. It was extremely unusual from what I normally see with closed eyes, and it kind of felt like a presence. That is a very exciting thought.

A question I have for people is should I be encouraging the dream imagery while meditating or should I be resisting it? I can see benefits to either strategy. I know that Bruce Moen talks about balancing between the perceiver and interpreter; he thinks that cutting out all non-physical perception is a mistake. Perhaps I should practice his strategy of slowing the image process down.

[WASD]

Frank said something about projecting into yourself can lead to an OBE. Not exactly sure what he said or where i read it (except on this forum). But perhaps you can lay aside the exit techniques and only try to focus into your consciousness.
Don't know about your dream imagery question.

[michaelsaganski]

Thanks WASD, I will likely focus on that entirely after the 90 day trial.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 69

I had a very interesting experience last night, at around 4 am. I had woken up from a dream but had not opened my eyes yet, and I felt a distinct presence in my bedroom. I used to be skeptical of the idea that we can detect "presences" without using our 5 physical senses, but I definitely FELT something/someone close to me.

So I naturally decided to open my eyes. I wasn't fully awake yet and the room was fairly dark, but I saw a human-like form or figure approach me at the side of my bed. I became a little scared but then my vision blanked out and I felt like it merged with me. How do I even begin to describe what that feels like? I just knew it at the time. The typical OBE sensations of vibrations, tingling, whooshing noises were there. I also briefly saw some random colors/patterns and felt some pressure in my head. I was so confused as to what was going on I thought to myself "WTF... am I being possessed?". It happened very quickly.

I regained my vision and apart from the tingling/buzzing I felt relatively normal for maybe a second. I then saw ANOTHER form/figure, but it was more of a diffused sphere this time. It approached me hovering over the foot of my bed, and then merged with me as well. The tingling/buzzing/whooshing happened again with a loss of vision and head pressure. After a second or two (I think) I regained my vision and the tingling/buzzing reduced in intensity. I mentally said "Hello?" still wondering what was going on, but didn't get much of an answer (I might have heard myself say "hi" but I might just be making it up in my head). I then began to realize what had happened and decided to see if I could go for a conscious OBE exit.

The trouble was I was so scared/excited that I wasn't able to focus and just decided to log it in my notebook and stay awake for a while to solidify the memory. It's a good thing too because I know that if this had happened before I learned about OBE's I probably would have brushed it off as a dream, forgotten about it, or whatever. Maybe it has happened in the past and I know even know, I'm guessing it probably has. Even now as I write this I can hardly believe it happened.

It's possible that the affirmation I used before going to sleep may have played a role. This week's affirmation in MAP for evenings is related to waking up in the middle of the night for astral projection. I think it's pretty clear to me now that the forms were two of my energy bodies, like the etheric (real-time zone) and astral. You guys can correct me if I'm wrong though.

If only I had waken up during the beginning of the projection instead of the end! Oh well, this experience was still huge for me. I think it has tremendously helped at chipping away my old belief systems.

I also now see much more validity to Robert Bruce's AP model (mind-split effect, energy doubles, etc.). It's just a matter of focusing my conscious awareness in those other bodies. I still don't quite understand how all of Robert Bruce's model fits in with Robert Monroe's focus levels, but I do feel like they're both "right".

[AstralBeginnings]

If you haven't read it, get a copy of Adventures Out of the Body - William Buhlman. 

Personally, I think its better than Astral Dynamics / MAP for practical advice.  AD makes the whole thing seem harder than it actually is, which can create mental blocks.  90-days I think is seriously dragging the process out.  I think its all good experience of course, but it doesnt need to be such a long drawn process to get out of body.  If you think it will take ages, it will.

[Selea]

I also now see much more validity to Robert Bruce's AP model (mind-split effect, energy doubles, etc.). It's just a matter of focusing my conscious awareness in those other bodies. I still don't quite understand how all of Robert Bruce's model fits in with Robert Monroe's focus levels, but I do feel like they're both "right".

They are two different approachs on the same thing. The RB (sarcasm naturally, let's really say the Golden Dawn and esoteric approach in general) uses the approach of transferring the consciousness in "other" bodies. These bodies are created in other planes, so the exercise of transferring the consciousness in them actually switches the focus in those other planes (that can be the astral or etheric, RB usually only approaches the etheric plane).

The RM method does the same, only without the "bodies". The consciousness is transferred "inward" in other planes in the same way. It is only that the experience of another "body" to bring the consciousness in is not created at first.

Both have advantages and disavantages. The RM (and FK) phasing approach is naturally much easier for beginners. The advantage of the esoteric method is that the creation of the "other" body acutally creates a perfect memory of the "other" body in the other planes, and this can have distinct impact in the experience. Another advantage is that the switch of consciousness after intensive training becomes automatic when the intent to transfer the consciousness in the "other" body is formulated.

The problem of the Robert Bruce approach on the esoteric method is that he doesn't actually explain how this "other" body is really created. Reality is that memory create "forms" in other planes. But without a real approach on creating this "other" body its existence is not easily felt.

If you really want to follow the esoteric approach I suggest you to follow the discipline of the creation of the Body of Light given in the Theoricus grade (2 = 9) of the Golden Dawn (you find it in http://www.scribd.com/doc/17856343/Golden-Dawn-29-Creation-and-Development-of-the-Body-of-Light a bit adulterated, but anyway fine). There you will find the way the feeling of the "other" body is created in the other plane. With it the transfer of consciousness is much easier and the experience of much more impact than how RB explains it. Robert tried to do the same (in a much smaller scale) with its "awareness hands" that actually creates only a part of the body to be felt clearly, but it's naturally NOT the same thing.

Sure, it requires a lot of work, but remember, this "preliminary" work is actually much more imporant than the "method" of exit in itself, for various motives.

Selea.

[michaelsaganski]

That's a pretty good description Selea, thanks.

AstralBeginnings, I agree with your the RB can make things seem more complicated than they need to be. That's why I'm finding myself pull away from his ideas over these 90 days and am finding myself align more with the phasing approach.

There's so many view points, techniques, and methods with this. To each his own. The most important thing is patience, persistence, and practice.

[michaelsaganski]

The light at the end of the tunnel for this 90-day trial is arriving, and with it many mixed feelings. While I haven't had a classic-OBE yet, I've definitely experienced many paranormal events. I've had much better results with focusing on meditation rather than any sort of complicated exit technique, so I will definitely be taking a different approach after the 90 days are up. This trial has opened up a whole new world for me to explore, which is amazing in itself.

With summer starting over the past couple of weeks I'd be lying if I said I was able to do all of the exercises in a strict fashion each day. My daily schedule is quite a bit busier when it gets nice outside, so I've had to fit in what I can here and there. This is probably slowing down my progress but balance in life is important too.

I'm signing up for the Gateway Voyage program at The Monroe Institute in August, which I'm really excited for. I hope to make some additional breakthroughs and speed up my progress there. I'll be sure to post about my experiences here.

Right now, I can fairly easily get visions/dreams in the astral while meditating. I don't have much control over what I see yet, but it is a start. I seem to lose some of my self-awareness while the visions come, which makes it seem more dream-like... but I'm still somewhat aware of my physical body too. I want to continue with this and see if I can gain more control over what I experience. Being able to clear my surface thoughts has become easier with practice, which I think is what quickly leads to the imagery.

The exercises and writings in MAP haven't had any sort of drastic changes as it did during the first 45 days or so. Robert Bruce discusses some of the finer points and possible problems or experiences that you may encounter, which are nice validations for what I've been experiencing or having problems with. It just feels like the exit techniques he recommends undo all the energy and meditation work I do during each practice session, so it almost feels detrimental to what I'm trying to achieve. I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to be or if I'm doing something wrong, or if his methodology isn't the right one for me.

[David Warner]

Michael,

As a projectionist since the last 20+ years now three months of producing the OBE is a excellent goal, but please realize that it never ends. It is a always on-going training, never let up and provide yourself with goals and what you want to succeed.

I commend you for your day to day blog and you are going far - so keep up the good work, don't stop where your at. Importantly, keep in mind to focus on one goal when trying to project out there. It can be as simple turning on a light on/off or just simple flying in the astral. Don't inundate yourself - just keep it simple and lite when reaching that state. Too many people have a difficult time projecting because they want the world at first, that is very unrealistic way to go about it. I know you heard before the saying "learn how to crawl before you can run" - same applies. I would seriously look at one goal to achieve and you will succeed at leaving the body. Make very sure you start statisically writing everything down so you can see what works and what doesn't.

You are welcome'd to my web site www.invisiblelight.us which  you can review 20+ years worth of data, radio show interviews, videos, journal notes, you name it..

Keep it up and train for the olympics.

Dave

[ice_chill]

I would like to mention some important things that could help you archive the OBE.

1. Diet is very important. and OBE requires a lot of etheric energy in your body and a calm mind.
You can gain the energy by eating fruits which are rich in it, such as pineapple and especially mango. Avoid things like coca-cola and meat as these will drain energy.

2. Avoid eating anything meat for a calm mind. This is the most underestimated practice. Every animal has emotions, as most farm animals are grown in crowded farms, their emotions won't be too good. Emotional energy penetrates every cell of the body, and as we know energy cannot be destroyed, thus when you eat meat animal emotions pollute your body, causing you to react to the sensations you get during OBE and ending the experience prematurely.

3. Meditation is not enough, you have to practice visualization. This is the most important part, meditation will relax your mind and energy, but visualizations will prepare the mind for the work required during OBE. Visualizations should be done before you go to try to OBE, and preferably in a seating position. An advanced occultist shared with me how to do it:

1. Shake your arms, Stretch them and your legs so that you are entirely
comfortable
2. Find a comfortable position for sitting straight, both feet on the floor. You can
also cross your legs if you want if you prefer the lotus position.
3. Try to rest your palms upward e.g. on the knee.
4. Concentrate on your breathing until you have calmed down.
5. Listen to your heartbeat to release stress and worries.
6. Feel the Aura, the energy that surrounds you.
7. Breathe in this energy.
8. Imagine you are in a garden, full of flowers and plants. Everything is filled
with light and it is warm. In the middle of the garden, you see a table and a
chair.
9. Go to the chair, sit down and observe your surrounding.
10. Do you hear birds, the wind? Do you smell the air? Do you feel the light?
Concentrate on this garden for a while and visualize until it feels real. Stay for
a moment.
11. Then, stand up, go the way back where you come from
12. Concentrate on your aura
13. Listen to your heartbeat.
14. Concentrate on your breathing
15. Then slowly open your eyes

[Xanth]

I would like to mention some important things that could help you archive the OBE.

1. Diet is very important. and OBE requires a lot of etheric energy in your body and a calm mind.
You can gain the energy by eating fruits which are rich in it, such as pineapple and especially mango. Avoid things like coca-cola and meat as these will drain energy.

2. Avoid eating anything meat for a calm mind. This is the most underestimated practice. Every animal has emotions, as most farm animals are grown in crowded farms, their emotions won't be too good. Emotional energy penetrates every cell of the body, and as we know energy cannot be destroyed, thus when you eat meat animal emotions pollute your body, causing you to react to the sensations you get during OBE and ending the experience prematurely.

Hi ice_chill!
Welcome to the forums! 

I'll start this off quickly by saying that I do respect your belief and opinions regarding this... and I'll just post my point of view regarding your first two bullet points.

I'll say that both of those two points are choices you've made in *your* lifestyle regarding your OBE/AP practice...
I believe they really have very little (or anything at all really) to do with successfully projecting.

Basically, what I want to say is that I'm probably the exact opposite in diet from you... and I project just fine and have lots of energy.
MY experience denotes that diet is meaningless and it's the INDIVIDUAL himself, not what they put in their stomach, that determines viability to OBE.

My belief is that if you can dream, you can project. 

PS (we'll move this into a different thread if need be... since it's really off topic from Michael's blog)

~Ryan

[michaelsaganski]

ice_chill, I currently eat meat quite regularly and have heard this argument before. I'm still undecided, as this would be a very big lifestyle change for me. My diet is ok, I eat a lot of good food during my regular meals but I also eat a lot of junk food snacks, and drink the occasional bit of alcohol. A lot of very spiritually evolved people I know don't eat meat, so I feel like there is something to it. I can see a lot of very good reasons for not eating meat, but I'm just not at a point to make that kind of change. Internally, I have a lot of mixed feelings about vegetarianism.

Xanth, Robert Bruce talks about fasting in MAP as a way to improve success at AP because digestion takes a lot of energy. As an extension, eating heavier and denser food like meat takes more energy to digest. So I can see some merit to this, but I don't think it's required obviously. Bruce Moen also talks about this in "Voyages Beyond Doubt".

As for visualization, I do practice this a little each day during my meditation session to get into a trance state. Generally I pick some sort of visualization where I'm falling, like going down in an elevator. It seems to help.

[Xanth]

hehe He certainly does.
But then, I whole-heartedly disagree with a lot of things Robert Bruce suggests and preaches. 

~Ryan

[Yin]

hehe He certainly does.
But then, I whole-heartedly disagree with a lot of things Robert Bruce suggests and preaches. 

~Ryan

I disagree with some stuff that pretty much everyone says.. even Frank! *dun dun dun*, to me it's all about picking what resonates and adding it your "beliefs". I do have to say though, a lot of what he says does resonate.

[WASD]

I totally agree with Yin. Listen to everyone and take what YOU like into YOUR beliefs!

[Selea]

3. Meditation is not enough, you have to practice visualization. This is the most important part, meditation will relax your mind and energy, but visualizations will prepare the mind for the work required during OBE. Visualizations should be done before you go to try to OBE, and preferably in a seating position. An advanced occultist shared with me how to do it:

While visualization is an important skill to acquire (if you can come to a point of "seeing" an image as with open eyes then projection is easy, you just need to "merge" with the image) your particular example leaves a lot to be desired. Advanced occultist? You must be kidding, really. That is clearly from a Wicca (or it is a meditation on the alchemical plane, a thing a beginner should NEVER begin from), and it shows. Much better if you have to start somewhere is the Middle Pillar and the LBRP (but RB energizing of chakras do enough at beginning). That visualization is only a new-age gibberish (if it is an alchemical pathworking it is badly done). Apart maybe bring you to the mood it hasn't any sort of really interesting factor, nor from an esoteric and neither from a purely practical POW.

For the rest of the points I can only tell you this: diet an meat can really produce different results when high in Pranayama (breath control). For projection the impact is minimal.

[Selea]

It just feels like the exit techniques he recommends undo all the energy and meditation work I do during each practice session, so it almost feels detrimental to what I'm trying to achieve. I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to be or if I'm doing something wrong, or if his methodology isn't the right one for me.

If I understand what is happening to you correctly when you try exit techniques given by Robert it is as if you actually "bring yourself more to the surface", i.e. the technique seems more "external" than the meditation you are doing. Correct me if I'm wrong (it's difficult to understand these things via writing).

If that's the case, yes, you are doing something wrong. Try to keep the silenced, inward feeling you have when you meditate while doing the exit techniques. Don't let you "raise up" from that feeling. I say "raise" because it actually feels as if you are "stepping up" from a more internalized status.

Probably when you do exit techniques you associate the effort with the physical body without understanding it, sort of like moving the lips while reading. This is often the case at beginning, especially when exists a strong feeling (many times not conscious) that the self is intimately associated with the body, and especially with seemingly "physical" efforts techniques (as it is point-shift or rope). Mantras helps a lot in this case, as going high in Pranayama. Also, if problems of these sorts persists, do some of the exercises in the writing I told you, specifically trying to "feel" the "astral" body arms and legs moving while keeping still the physical body, they helps a lot to disassociate the two when you do those techniques.

Remember that also if you think that you are better doing something else that it's closer to your nature, it is actually a very good thing that you are confronting yourself with these troubles. They are extremely useful to overcome or you will never be able to produce a full awareness of the "other" body and it will always be a little intermingled with the physical. So, redouble your efforts, and also if you think that what you are doing is not close to your nature, do it with all your will just for that. It will be of immense help for you in future (and also in what you are trying to achieve).