suffocation ?

[Bhikku]

That happens to me sometimes as well. It's quite frightening at times. I'm not sure of the answer, but I don't think we would really stop breathing all the way. I just think it slows down so much and we're not noticing it, so once we notice it it scares us.

"Look within, thou art the Budda"

[kifyre]

Breathing has always been an issue for me. (I guess breathing is an issue for everybody, but you know what I mean. )

Does anyone have general information on breathing? --how to breath during a projection attempt, the "best" way to breath, how to position your head to breath easily, etc? I'm not quite sure what I'm asking, but I bet there're answers out there.

Mark



Edited by - kifyre on 12 April 2002  22:21:31

[Barbara]

Helllo!

I agree with Bhikku. Because you were concentrating on your visualization you had become unaware of your breathing, and with your success with creative visualization, your breathing slowed down the more you had relaxed. When you became aware of this you started to panic, this is probably because you have never felt this slowed down rate of breathing before, as you had never gotten to this point prior to this and it scared you. This is something that has probably happened to a lot of us and is quite common.

When something scares us, the first time is the worst. Now that you are aware, the more times that you practice with the knowledge about your breathing and all that this entails, it will become less of a problem.

Kifyre, Regarding breathing and how to position oneself, some people lie down, others like to sit on a comfortable chair, but if you choose to sit on a chair, make sure that your head is supported or you will end up with your chin on your chest once you are completely relaxed. I relax my body (everyone has their own technique) and through that my breathing slows down until I am at the level to proceed to the next step.

If you go to Robert Bruce's excellent website you will find the answers to your questions.

Good Luck,
Barbara








Edited by - Barbara on 13 April 2002  01:24:40

[steveb]

Thank you for your replies  . It's good to hear that I'm not the lone Ranger (or to be politicaly correct the Lone Rangeress ).
  My "inner self", was telling me that it was an indication that I was getting closer and by the sound of it, it's one those little things that makes the spiritual path just that more interesting.


Steve

Happy Journeys

[Frank]

quote:

   Hi, my name is Steve and I was wondering if someone may be able to help with a problem I had whilst doing a visualization practice.
   I must first say that, "I have not projected as yet" ( not through lack of trying ) and  thought that some visualization exercises might help with my concentration.
    Well, I started of as I usually do as for an astral practice ,I'm laying down nice and comfortable ,I go through relaxing my body releasing any tension ,I do some consentration on my breathing, which appears to get me to the what I call the,"Just about to nod of level", and then I start to visualize.
     Well the visualization was going fantastic ,I'm in a forest,walking along a path which leads to a clearing where there is a small lake,I imagine there are little elementals there ect ect,ect. I was doing this for about 30 minutes when I started to notice that my breathing was starting to shorten,I kept visualizing ( because it is something that i've never really been good at) and the visualization was going great ,but the breaths kept getting shorter.It felt as if my lungs had started to close down,It was really strange because I was still visualizing ,but at the same time thinking I'm going to stop breathing, but didn't care. I continued for about another 5 min's then stopped. The crazy thing is, I can remember the breaths shortening and feeling as if i'm going to suffocate (die), but I cannot remember the point at which the suffocation stopped or dissipated .
      Well, "that's it", It would be interesting to hear from any body about what it may have been ?


Regards Steve

If you are going to learn to project then you will have to learn to adjust to some pretty "weird" bodily sensations. What you have experienced, I would say, was completely normal (in the general scheme of things!). Your breathing was almost certainly not shortening, it just felt like it was.

Understand that the biggest stumbling block you will (are beginning to) face are the current limitations of your own sense of conscious awareness.

For years you have just had it "plugged into the Physical". At first, everything on the Physical seemed strange. But over the years you got used to all the Physical-body sensations like wearing clothes, having a shower, gravity, etc. But now you have to teach your sense of conscious awareness all the Astral-body sensations.  

The primary difficulty in teaching yourself that is overcoming fear.

You see, when you were starting to experience Physical-body sensations like having a bath, you were a just child. Hence, you had a far less refined sense of perception. Babies, as I'm sure you know, have hardly any sense of perception at all. You could dangle a baby out of a 10th story window, or 2 inches off the ground, and it wouldn't really know any different. However, as an adult, your perception senses are present in abundance.

Now, in trying to overcome fear, it's no use saying to yourself, "No, I'm not scared, when I'm out there on the Astral I won't fear a thing."

I'm sorry, but thinking that doesn't work.

Imagine you walked into your living room and there was this huge Lion, standing right in front of you. When I say "Lion" I don't mean some statue of a Lion that, for a fleeting moment, you mistakenly thought was real. No, I mean a proper live Lion. At first glance you would refuse to believe it. You'd think you were seeing things. But on seeing you the animal let out a huge roar. It's preparing to pounce and, in a split second, its jaws will be crushing your neck.

In those circumstances you would be completely and utterly overcome with fear. Rational thought would, therefore, be absolutely impossible.

Understand that, when on the Astral, your sense of conscious awareness cannot tell the difference between a Physical lion and an Astral Lion. All it sees is a Lion and it's about to pounce. At that moment the *automatic* fight/flight process takes over EXACTLY in the same way as it would on the Physical.

All that was happening to you, is your sense of conscious awareness was starting to plug into your Astral-body. The clue is where you say, ".... It felt as if my lungs had started to close down." You see, the Astral-body has no lungs. Simply because, on the Astral, there is no need for you to breathe. But for years your sense of conscious awareness has had "awareness of breathing" written under the heading: Essentials.

Awareness of the breath became gradually less and less, to a point where your conscious awareness started to panic slightly. Please realise that you have only ONE "collective sense of conscious awareness" which you can "plug into" either the Physical Body, or the Astral-body. When you plug into your Astral-body the radically different sensations can (and often do) overwhelm your sense of conscious awareness. Instantly it becomes fearful which, more often than not (especially in the beginning stages), automatically activates the fight/flight reaction... which scuppers the projection process.    

If it continues to happen, the solution is to gradually allow your sense of conscious awareness to get used to the new sensations by practicing regularly. Take things just that little bit further each time and eventually you will overcome it.        

Yours,
Frank    

[steveb]

Thanks for your post Frank

     I can understand what your saying in regards to the Fear/Panic factor.I've nearly got out once,but a combination of fear and excitement brought it to a really quick end. It was definatly something that I thought wouldn't happen to me. After the practice ended(after months of practice's),I layed there thinking ,"I paniced,I cant believe it I panicked".I was discussing it with a few freinds and they said, "what YOU panicked" .
     I guess the moral of it is,"if you think you really understand yourself, think again".

steve

Happy Journeys

[steveb]

   Hi, my name is Steve and I was wondering if someone may be able to help with a problem I had whilst doing a visualization practice.
   I must first say that, "I have not projected as yet" ( not through lack of trying ) and  thought that some visualization exercises might help with my concentration.
    Well, I started of as I usually do as for an astral practice ,I'm laying down nice and comfortable ,I go through relaxing my body releasing any tension ,I do some consentration on my breathing, which appears to get me to the what I call the,"Just about to nod of level", and then I start to visualize.
     Well the visualization was going fantastic ,I'm in a forest,walking along a path which leads to a clearing where there is a small lake,I imagine there are little elementals there ect ect,ect. I was doing this for about 30 minutes when I started to notice that my breathing was starting to shorten,I kept visualizing ( because it is something that i've never really been good at) and the visualization was going great ,but the breaths kept getting shorter.It felt as if my lungs had started to close down,It was really strange because I was still visualizing ,but at the same time thinking I'm going to stop breathing, but didn't care. I continued for about another 5 min's then stopped. The crazy thing is, I can remember the breaths shortening and feeling as if i'm going to suffocate (die), but I cannot remember the point at which the suffocation stopped or dissipated .
      Well, "that's it", It would be interesting to hear from any body about what it may have been ?


Regards Steve