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Thanks for the info, sounds like it's going to be a pretty special time!

Just thought I'd bring this topic to the top again just in case anyone missed it last time. Would love to hear from anyone who is going!

Would love to get in contact with anyone else who is going, also anyone who has completed the course to hear their opinions about it!

Thanks a lot for your opinions, interesting to hear about your different exit techniques as well. Seems that there are probably a million different scenarios you could imagine to aid the exit, I guess it's just finding the one that works best for you!

I'm reasonably new to all this, but I can already see something which should provide many answers for you...read Robert Bruce's "Astral Dynamics". The bit I was reading last night introduced me to the concept of the mind split - quite complicated but a definite answer for your feeling of being in two places at once. According to Bruce's theories, your physical body had projected a carbon copy of your consciousness into a higher subtle body, probably etheric as opposed to astral (if this all sounds bizarre the book will provide answers!), which means that you can have two sets of consciousness and memory running parallel. Crazy s**t!

I presume the Dweller reference is the "Dweller on the Threshold". You can read about that in Bruce's book, also try putting it into Wikipedia. Again according to Bruce, any forms you see at the point of exit, no matter how seemingly malevolent, are nothing to worry about and can be ignored. Quite possibly just manifestations of your own fear or uncertainty. Move away from your body and they will begone!

Despite my noviceness, hope this helps! Just have a read of the book, I can't say for definite if it is all accurate for everyone but it does seem to make a lot of sense.

To anyone following this thread, here is one of my own which is extremely relevant to this one, particularly in relation to pounding hearts and jittery eyelids...

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_obe_discussions/can_anyone_help_with_this_one-t27925.0.html

I am no expert myself, but hopefully some of the responses I had will help some of you.

SilverSlider, I particularly want to respond to your post, because what you recount seems incredibly close to my experiences. I joined this forum the day after having what may have been a near-exit, mainly because I had been very alarmed by a fiercely pounding heart and fiercely jittery eyelids! It actually caused me to consciously cease my exit attempt, as the sensations caused me to fear for myself physically!

But most importantly of all, please have a look at what I wrote in my post of today on the above thread, about my "muscle tensing" activity which is not actually muscle tensing, I just have difficulty in describing what I am doing...please could you tell me more about how you "put pressure on my double with different sensory acrobatic maneuvers". Because I'm wondering if I have finally found an explanation for what I am doing. It was immediately after doing this, like you say in a medium trance state, that the heart and eyelid stuff happened. Would be very keen to hear your opinion, thanks!

Many apologies for my delay in reply to the people that responded to me. Life and its various procrastinations can get in the way, as I'm sure you all know.

Vibra: Thanks for your detailed response. A lot of things you are saying make an awful lot of sense, and I have experienced similar things, although many of your experiences go beyond mine. It's always interesting to hear how people arrive at investigating these kind of things, I find most people, like yourself, have had things happen to them that they cannot understand, and have embarked on their journey through wanting to find out what is going on. It is different for me...I have just heard about all this amazing stuff and wanted to explore it, because I feel that if it is all true, then it is the most significant thing in our existence. That makes it worth looking into for me!

Interesting to hear that you own your own business, me too! It kinda shakes off the image of people that are into this kind of stuff being a bunch of hippies disassociated and not able to deal with the real world, doesn't it! Robert Monroe is good proof of this point, going from being a high-performing advertising executive to one of the leading voices on OBEs.

My discovery of this area comes from an interesting place. My main passion in life is music, particularly the heavier and more experimental end of things. I am greatly into a (now disbanded) band called Maudlin of the Well originally from Boston, who were primarily a doom metal band but were always at the most experimental edge of what they were doing, incorporating elements of jazz, ambient, acoustic and psychedelic music. I find their music deeply emotional and spiritual, the effect on me is indescribable, and they have pretty much changed my life as a musician. I was reading the liner notes of one of their albums, and I discovered that they had been attempting to use astral projection to create their music, attempting to retrieve music from the "astral library", bring it back and interpret it on their albums. This absolutely fascinated me, and hence I began to look into astral projection and OBEs.

I started to realise that there were actually a helluva lot of people interested in these subjects, and a lot of people out there experiencing it first-hand. Such realisations came, for example, upon reading about astral projection and then realising that some of the HP Lovecraft short stories I had been reading were basically accounts of his astral excursions. I thought they were just very imaginative stories! It's always fascinating when little things like these come together in life. (For anyone specifically interested in Lovecraft and such activities, this is quite interesting...http://www.curiouschapbooks.com/Catalog_of_Curious_Chapbooks/Lovecraft/body_lovecraft.html)

With regards to what I have read thus far...only one book in it's entirety, Robert Monroe's "Far Journeys". This was kind of in at the deep end, I am definitely going to backtrack and read his first book, "Journeys out of the body". But it utterly captivated me, and made me want to learn more and more. His style is so accessible, and I was struck by just what a "normal" person he seemed to be. A normal person who has just stumbled upon this stuff. If everything in that book is true, it is basically a complete model of the universe and our existence within it!

I have also just started "Astral Dynamics" by Robert Bruce, and I expect I will move onto "Mastering Astral Projection". Again he seems a very grounded person (the video interview with him on youtube is great!), and he has clearly done a massive amount of personal research into this area. I look forward to continuing with the reading of his work. I have also just purchased a book by Preston Dennett, a less well-known voice but I listened to an audio interview with him on youtube, and again was so struck about what a nice normal guy he sounded, someone who has just stumbled across OBEs and has been inspired to find out more.

It is wonderful to hear what a positive thing this has been for you in your life, I feel I will be saying similar things very soon (in fact in a way I feel that I already can, without actually having had any first-hand experiences)

loppoppy: Very interesting to hear your opinion on the eyelid thing...I actually do tend to focus my eyes in a certain way during my attempts, so could well be the explanation. Good to also get more reassurance about the dramatic increase in heart rate, i shall try to just ride it out next time and see what happens!

With regard to the muscle tensing thing, I have actually not described it correctly, I just wrote "muscle tensing" because that is the closest thing I can describe it as. It actually feels like what I am doing is something beyond physical....it feels like tensing the muscles throughout my body but it is not actually doing that, it is some sort of tightening of something throughout the body, but I just cannot put into words how I do it or what it feels like. It may be connected to the energy body, I just don't know. But I can do it at any time after a second of thinking about it, I can do it right now. It was definitely at the point of doing that that I had my most intense sensations during a projection attempt, whether I was just triggering something or it is directly connected, I am yet to discover.

Thank you for your interest and advice, it is all very much appreciated.

Thank you for your encouraging post! It ties in nicely with my recent "Verifiable proof of OBE's" topic...

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_obe_discussions/verifiable_proof_of_obes-t27952.0.html

It's great that you have had that experience with your friend that has shown you the reality of projection. I am hoping for something similar when I manage to achieve it.

Also, it is great to find so many "normal" people giving "normal" accounts of their experiences.....as opposed to airy fairy new agey language which most people aren't supposed to understand. Apologies if that causes offence to anyone, my point is merely that it is very exciting to realise that OBE's can happen to anyone, it makes me much more inclined to take my attempts at exploration seriously. On that subject, this "normality" is what lead me to purchase Preston Dennett's book, after having listened to this interview...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ZVQ69bm2s&feature=related

I love the way he comes across as a regular guy who has just stumbled across these amazing experiences that have completely changed his life.

Thank you very much for your responses everybody, I am new to this forum but beginning to realise what a great place it can be!

VagusEques and Milkdrops: I am basing most of my knowledge on the book "Parapsychology" by Richard Broughton, although I know that there is potentially much more researching to be done for me. I'm sure there are many accounts out there of successful experiments, and I look forward to discovering them.

bjb1234: I completely understand your point about the potential differences between the makeup of physical and ethereal realities, and this being an obstacle to successful verification experiments. For the skeptics, that works as a very convenient excuse from the believers. But....perhaps it is even a deliberate thing that the experiences are not so easily verifiable, reinforcing the idea that OBE's and astral projection are something that we HAVE to experience ourselves to believe. A matter of faith I guess.

It does concern me though, that when I eventually get there, I still won't be able to say that I know that is it 100% real. I know it is said that one just knows it when it happens, but without being in full understanding and control of our minds, can we ever really know that? Hopefully that's when we can have our own little verification experiences, maybe unprovable to others but enough to make us know the truth of it.

It's all speculation from my court though, I can't really say much until I have had an OBE. I must continue with the tuition of the likes of Monroe, Bruce, Dennett and Pritchard and cross my fingers very tightly!

Keep an open mind and explore on your own, its exciting.  Enjoy the experience.

Thank you particularly for these words. Let it not become a chore! But an exciting journey, all the way and beyond.

slipknot0129: Fair enough. So long as you're not spying on me when I'm having a poo....

Excellent, it sounds like you're experiencing exactly the same thing as me! So have you actually gone out of body yet? I'm wondering if what we have both experienced is a sign that we are on the verge, or if it means something else entirely....perhaps that we are putting ourselves in a state of extreme excitement as we believe we are about to go out of body, and this mental excitement is simply causing an unusual physical reaction.

Hello everyone....I am very new in my exploration's of OBE's, I haven't yet had one although I'm keenly attempting to educate myself. I am very open-minded but consider myself to retain a healthy skepticism, basically I just want to know the truth of things. I was disappointed to read about the lack of success in experimental situations with verifying information brought back from OBE's...I would have thought that that is such a crucial factor, if one can do something as simple as read some text or listen to a conversation during an OBE, and then verify this information upon returning to the physical, then there would be absolute proof. And this would be proof that could bring all but the most hardened skeptics round to believing in the truth of OBE's.

So basically I am wondering if anyone has any tales of information they have experienced when out of body, which they have been able to verify upon their return. I know this is the first thing I will be attempting when I finally succeed in busting on out. The biggest question for me (and for many people I am sure)....there is too much anecdotal information to disbelieve in OBE's completely, but are they something that only exist in our minds or is it really something outside of us? The former means that they are an amazing anomaly and a significant insight into the power of our minds, the latter means that my life and belief systems change completely as does anyone's who will open their mind to it.

Thanks for that, some interesting thoughts there. I do wonder if it was just tremendous excitement as I felt like I might have just been about to go out of my body for the first time! I am still yet to though. I am a fairly young and healthy guy so I guess I don't have too much to worry about, just a bit of a novice with this whole thing!

Idoser is a binaural beats program, more info here:

http://www.i-doser.com/

Based on Robert Monroe's research, what a guy!

Thanks for your response Eliza. Although it wasn't a fluttering of the eyes, it was intense twitching of the eyeLIDS, it wasn't eye movement as in REM sleep. Can anyone else shed any light on all this, perhaps if they've experienced something similar?

Here is an account of what I felt the other night...

Listened to the out-of-body Idose. Became very relaxed fairly quickly, started to feel quite strange, feeling like something could be happening. After probably about 15-20 mins, in a state of deep relaxation, tensed all my muscles to see if it would trigger anything. Immediately felt very intense sensations, felt like something was really about to happen. Heart started pounding rapidly, although in light of what Robert Bruce said, wondered if this really was my physical heart or my heart "centre" or "chakra". Before I knew of Bruce's theories, I had felt this rapid heartbeat before and aborted, thinking that it was my physical heart. Heartbeat became very fast and powerful, also my eyelids started to twitch quite intensely, as if receiving electrical impulses, never felt this before. I didn't want to move but the sensations were unusual and frightening, and I really wanted to know if that was my actual heartbeat or not. So I broke out of it, put my hand on my chest and felt my heartbeat, checked pulses on both wrists and all confirmed that it was my physical heartbeat. Something happened to raise my heart rate and intensity of beat massively and it got me quite concerned. Am going to avoid the muscle tensing thing, think it was more that than the Idose, although that probably augmented things.

Can anyone offer any assistance here, particularly to let me know if either my heart was going to explode or my eyes pop out?! I presume you can't do yourself any damage, but the way my heart rate was affected was kind of frightening.