Messages

Pyro21,

You've gotten some good advice about how to help maintain focus during your AP attempts,... but another idea is to strike at the root of the wandering thoughts and practice mindfulness throughout the entire day... so when your time comes to attempt/succeed with AP, the groundwork will have already been laid.

Kind of like a good salesperson doesn't train to just attack the jugular(well maybe some do) at the moment of a signing, they address constraints/concerns before the big event, gently holding the prospect's hand.. until the moment of truth, the sale should then close itself,due to the prior actions.

So... throughout the day, try to only focus on one thing at a time (easier said then done), if your driving, just focus on the road, instead of letting your mind wander about what to have for dinner, errands to be run, what your doing Saturday night, etc. Same with other daily tasks like eating, bathing, etc.. these moments allow a built in practice time for training your mind for one-pointedness.. so your efforts with AP may be come more automatic and easier... since we are creatures of habit, once you get some momentum going.. they should get easier and easier, as your concentration improves.

Hi Sabrina,
I just recently (a few days ago) had a woman walk up to me in astral and ask for sex. Maybe I should have tried it and seen what happened but I was to intent on what I was set out to do and refused.

Good resolve, for sticking with your original intent dbmathis! While you have a point, that this may be of a higher purpose then we understand,having a tendency to relegate the erotic experience to the analogy of everyday encounters.... IMHO it's just a distraction, and any engagement with sense objects/experiences can be a distraction to complete awareness and sense of purpose in the Astral.

I admit these experience can feel much more intense than anything on the physical plane, I try to avoid them when possible.

Thanks for sharing Stookie. Phasing really can be a "cleaner" way of having an Astral experience. The standard vibrations, attempting to roll, or climb out of your body can induce many peculiar sensations, challenges and reasons to wake yourself up back into the physical.

Phasing is awesome when it happens...I recall a few where I was viewing a scene, realized what was going on and tried to sort of "get up" or stretch out into that scene.....and sure enough I found myself in it, a great feeling.

IMHO, phasing can also help to circumvent the dweller on the threshold phenomena.

Great job! Sounds like a very positive experience, perhaps just what you needed to release yourself from fear.

1. It is all in your frame of mind, if you believe taking a shower will help then so be it. Our body "breathes" and takes in oxygen/prana, not only through our nose, but also through the pores of our skin.  I have seen it suggested to: rub your self down with a stiff natural brush, take a cold shower, then rub your skin with a terry cloth towel until pink. This could allow your pores to accept more oxygen/prana, and thus relieve your kidneys. (source Bardon's IIH).  So taking a shower first can help you feel revitalized and possibly help.

2. Danger in OBE remains to be seen, we are all still here talking about our experiences ....
Perhaps you face the danger of being so widely successfully with OBE that the physical worlds loses it's appeal, and your material matters are not dealt with properly.  You run the danger of having a great experience and your perhaps being adamant that there is something "more" to life, which could cause a distancing from family/friends. Or maybe you have a scary expereince, and then this affects your sleep patterns and you are scared to just go to sleep.

As far as being trapped by someone/something in another realm, I personally don't think that is a concern at this stage of the game, and highly unlikely.

A couple of years ago I saw Deepak on stage for a couple hours discussing the constitution of wo/man and he briefly touched on Life after Death. He was an eloquent, inspiring speaker. 

Nice experience Greytraveller. It's always nice to recognize the moment when you realize an OBE is happening.

All i need is a simple yes or no answer to the question of will the method i mentioned in my first post help me enter my dreams from a waking state all the way to a dreaming state with full awareness?

Yes.

umm, it's kind of difficult to answer this without more info, but it seems perhaps you have already made your decision with sticking to #2(no pun intended)?

Who is to say for sure, but Alcohol sure can exasperate the "Monkey Mind", and thus make it harder to concentrate. I have a much harder time concentrating under the influence of Alcohol, but that's just me. Ironically, one of the best, and most clear OBE's I've had was a night I got trashed a while back, so go figure......

Perhaps even a short stint of your focusing on taming the "Monkey" and reducing Alcohol consumption might be a nice test?

Zorgblar,

In response to your IM about answering this post, I really cannot add much more than what has already been said. I have never experienced the cord myself, however some credible sources confirm it's literal existence.

As per your "Source" of inspiration, the book contains some uplifting parables, yet was hence, man-made and certainly not the oldest of religious texts. Even then, many of these things can be considered metaphorical, unless "proven" literally, which isn't so easy.

Welcome Samael, I look forward to hearing more of your experiences! 

I have the same exact thing happen sometimes and it is really annoying. By the time you almost get the bed sheets untangled, you wake up!

Sometimes it helps if I just forget about the sheets,and shift my focus to being in another part of the room, with the bed sheets already off.  Other times I keep wanting to go to a big green field, and something always comes up that tries to stop me, like getting stuck in grass, sliding down a rock, so I just try to imagine I am already there. 

This may help.

I can get to the state where I see varous scenes flashing in my mind, I then try to enter one. I think this is called phasing. But the problem is that I can't "stay" in the scene, it just passes and another comes, totally out of my control. Eventually I fall asleep.
what am I doing wrong? 

The rundown is a good idea to work with, as LittleJoe mentioned. It sounds like you are on the right track. Perhaps you just need to strengthen your concentration, and little by little you should be able to "stay" in the scene longer

Mirrors do have a tendency to transport you to odd places. For moving through glass, sometimes I think of getting stuck, so of course movement slows down.

I think the best thing is to just picture yourself on the other side of the glass rapidly as you are moving through it, and try not to have a moment's doubt.

It would be difficult to say what is absolute Truth.... but
like mentioned before(in your afterlife post), the Spirit is the essence that "leaves" and isn't bound to the physical body any longer, only to the Astral body. And again, it is only for a time... That time could be millions of years of earth time, which could seem to elapse in mere days in the inner realms, or perhaps it could be a much shorter period. 

There may not be one absolute way to answer this, as different belief systems/theologies have different ways of expressing the principles that constitute a human.  For example Theosophy's "The Secret Doctrine" by H.P.Blavatsky(which leans on the Hindu Vedic texts) says the human is made up of seven principles, whereas something like Franz Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics, says there are three principles.  So it's all a matter of terminology and belief.

There are many, many books which discuss these questions, with two of the good ones I named above. Another one to look for is Yogi Ramacharaka's "The Life Beyond Death".

For a detailed recap of the Theosophic idea of the 7 principles and death, checkout Geoffrey Farthing's "When we Die" http://www.theosophical.ca/WhenWeDie.htm

Enjoy,
Jeff

I don't have Ultimate Journeys, and I read it years ago so I don't recall. But I would say that perhaps it's a misinterpretation, in that you can only "leave" permanently when your silver cord connecting the Astral with Physical body is severed at it's predetermined time.

[in a way]

"I might not fully be understanding what your saying but what i think your saying is that basically when you die your spiritual essence transfers from body to body(or from container to container)until it reaches it's final body which is the spirit body right?"

Right.

"So does this imply that your spiritual essence really DOES literally leave the body at death?And if so what is the difference between going from body to body while alive and from going from body to body at the point of death?"

Perhaps I am getting too technical and with my limited understanding I cannot explain it in a simpler way. But, to be less technical and not contradict myself.... in a way, Yes the spiritual essence does leave the body at death, since the difference is that the silver cord connecting the Astral body to the Physical body is severed. So the difference is that you cannot return to the physical body. At this point there would still remain a cord connecting the Astral body to the Spirit(mental)body for a time...

You claim that during the time that your alive your spirit can't really leave your body but merely tunes into different planes of existence right?But the question comes up that why is that while your alive your spirit can only tune into other planes of existence but when you die your spirit really DOES leave your body and can travel around in other planes of existence?

Like I mentioned, I "believe" that each level of consciousness has it's own "ex: container:physical body/Astral body(Soul)mental body(Spirit)" in order to perceive the different levels of consciousness. These containers are an easier way to explain different rates of vibration.  As an example,  a sound can be measured with physical equipment, and thus appears to have a form(container) like a sound wave,  but this is just an easier, visual way to explain the particular rate of vibration of the sound wave in a way that is understandable.  So once the physical body dies, the attraction/animating principal that causes the physical body to remain intact would "leave" and thus begins the decomposition process of the corporeal container(physical body). So in a way, you are not leaving it(the physical body), it is leaving you, or that "container"(physical body) is no longer needed. So you would then inhabit the Astral body(container/faster rate of vibration) for a time, and when this is no longer needed, you would inhabit the vessel of Spirit.   

It could even be said that the physical body and astral body are both Maya, or an illusion, so there isn't any "leaving", if you are already in the mind of God where this grand saga is taking place, and there is no where to "go". Again who is to say what is "real". When we experience the physical it seems real, but when we dream, that seems real, or when we Astral Project this seems real, it all a matter of perception.

These are just my lowly, learned opinions, but does this make any more sense?

If you don't literally travel outside your body when you astral project what's actually happening?Are you really just EXTENDING your spirit away from your body instead of actually making your spirit leave your body?And if your not literally leaving your body when you astral project what leaves your body and travels to the afterlife once you die?

One way to look at it is that everything in the phenomenal(manifested)universe is both in the mind of the One, and also a reflection of it. Say that the One is ever changeless and beyond the manifest world, therefore everything is a reflection of different aspects of the One. So perhaps you have a spirit, which is wearing the garment of a Soul(Astral Body), which is then wearing the Physical Body.  So it would appear each of these are separate "things", but are different aspects of the One, and hence containers for  'yourself/Spirit'.

So it is always easier to say "I left my body", but it can be viewed that you are simply attuning your consciousness to a different plane. With a 'plane' not being a physical place as Stookie pointed out, but another mode of being/consciousness.

So yes, you may feel vibrations throughout your body and feel like you are leaving it during an OBE/Astral Projection, but in essence you are tuning your consciousness to a different/higher mode of being.

Supposedly upon physical death, for a time you inhabit your "astral body" to experience a review of your last physical incarnation to learn how the choices you made affect your progression forward. Then the Astral body slumbers in an sort of dream state while discarding everything but the highest principles it has, and hopefully discards much of the lower egos/desires. After this slumber, your Astral Body is cast off to become an 'Astral Shell' which gradually dissolves, and only your immortal Spirit then slowly wakes up into the realm for which it is most suited, based on it's Karma, to then live or outlive any remaining desires until it yearns for another "earth" life to continue on the path to perfection.

This is just one view, but I hope it helps the question of do we actually leave our body, or travel inward/higher(in terms of frequency/vibration).

sorry this got posted 2x, please delete.

Maybe this will help: Quoted from Manley Hall's -  The Secret Teaching of All Ages

"The face and form of Isis were covered with a veil of scarlet cloth, symbolic of ignorance and emotionalism which forever stand between man and Truth. Isis lifts her veil and discovers herself to the true and wise investigator who unselfishly, humbly, and earnestly seeks to understand the mysteries which surround him in the universe.  Those to whom she reveals herself are warned to remain silent concerning the mysteries which they have seen.  The great admonition of the Wise Men was: "If you know it, be silent." : To the vulgar and profane, the infidel and disinterested one, she does not uncover her face, for they could not understand the secret processes of the invisible worlds. "

Or you could do a search for the book Isis Unveiled by H. P. Blavatsky. There is more mention of this, but in a more non direct way...

Funny enough, you mentioned NASA...

There is this dude, i heard some videos well audio clips on youtube from this guy who used to work at NASA he was a big guy there, dont know what he did, but he was very very educated.  He had been having OBEs since he was a child and remembering them, and he quit his job with NASA to write his book and research OBEs.

I forgot his name, but i remember he was black and had a really well high pitch soft kinda voice.

You guys might have seen him somewhere. 

The ex NASA "dude" is Albert Taylor, who wrote Soul Traveler.  His book is a very easy read, short at about 100 pages and presents his progresses in a non-technical, humanistic manner.

outofbodydude,

Great post, I am certain you are aware that although these concepts are nothing new, the content of your post can be watched online(in the first 10 -35 minutes) in the 2 hours movie called Zeitgeist. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5547481422995115331&q=zeitgeist+final&total=4&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Hi Projectaero,

Great job on the 3 obe's!

A Course in Astral Travel and Dreams - Belzebuub
This book gives some very simplistic but effective methods to try, like focusing on the heartbeat, visualization exercises and validation checks. IMO this is the most effective thing to come out of the Belzebubb websites/idealogies.

Mastering Astral Projection - Robert Bruce
I haven't read it.

Astral Dynamics   - Robert Bruce]
This is a very "technical" book with lots of good information. The book provides several tried and true methods for an exit as well as an extensive description of NEW - a way identify, isolate and improve the energy body.

Also for an inspiring read of one man's journey into discovery, try Robert Monroe's- Journeys out of the Body.

If you are looking for more techniques, try searching the forum and also visit -
Technique Centralhttp://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_obe_discussions/technique_central-t19294.0.html