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Cheers all! I'm filled with a sense of great happiness and excitement as I type this, having just experienced my first "real" OBE! I've had brief, questionable incidents before, but this one really hammered home the feeling of a true OBE.

I got home late last night, around 6 am. I feel into a deep, dreamless sleep. I first woke up at about 9 and told myself, no way am I getting up yet. So I went back to sleep and proceeded to have several very vivid dreams, waking up every so often and going back to sleep. The dreams became progessively lucid and eventually I asked myself, why not try to project?

When I next fell asleep and realized I was dreaming, I focused on projecting. The vibrations started (and my vision in the dream actually vibrated as well) and the dream faded away. My awareness was back in my body and I felt separation effects taking over. I focused on my astral hearing and parts of me started to move out but I felt blocked, probably by fear. I told myself firmly that I wasn't going to let fear stand in my way any longer, thinking, "I surrender myself to the experience." At that instant energy surged through me, the astral hum grew loud, and I heard a voice behind my head say, "What are you hiding from?" over and over. It may even have been my own voice, though I definitely wasn't speaking. Then, with a slow twist, I was out!

I stood in my bedroom, amazed. This felt more solid than anything I'd felt before. I glanced at my hands briefly, and looked at myself in the mirror. I couldn't quite see myself perfectly, but I remember a look of pure exhiliration and joy on my face. I told myself "Awareness now!" several times, and was surprised by the sound of my own voice- it was creaky and broken, like a super-pubescent teenager. With my awareness command things felt more solid than ever and I felt confident I had a little time to experiment. I walked to my door and opened it, stepping into the living room. As I walked to the front door of my apartment I could feel the cold tile under my feet. I reached my front door and turned the handle.

Stepping outside, the details of my surroundings became more dreamlike or "placeholder", in that they were a reasoble imitation of my real surroundings, but very generic. I was still in the courtyard of an apartment complex, but it was more tropical-themed than mine and there was a sign that said "The Villa" which doesn't actually exist. I noticed the sky was the vibrant blue of sunset and there were large, fluffy pink clouds. I decided to fly up and landed on the roof, passing someone on the balcony below. Standing on the roof I got a much better look at the sky and realized I could see the stars even though it was a daytime blue. I tryed to hyperspeed to them, and as I started flying up the light blue of the sky faded to the black of space. I looked down at the earth below, but didn't get a clear view as I was suddenly back in my body, opening my eyes. I actually felt that one of my arms and one of my legs were still not quite aligned. As those sensations faded I felt more purely happy than I have in a long time. A short while later I got up and logged onto Astral Pulse to write this post.

So that was it! Sorry for the wordiness but the experience is fresh in my mind and to me, worth documenting in detail. I finally know that I've OBE'd (even though there are some questionable features, like the phony apartment complex) and not dreamed it, as I was fully aware of my body and the sounds of people outside my window before I got out. I feel like I'm at the start of a long adventure, and I can't wait to continue! Thanks for reading and feel free to post any responses you might have. Cheers!

Cheers all. I had a strange experience recently where I was dreaming of walking through an office building of some sort. The building took on a medical or hostpital "feeling" in the dream, and I encountered a woman who proceeded to briefly examine me, like a doctor. This only lasted a few seconds, and all she did was look at one side of my head and then the other, or something similar. We were having some sort of conversation (which I can't remember), then suddenly she sort of grabbed me by the "beltloops", spun me around, and threw me into the air. I awoke immediately to fairly strong vibrations. I didn't project, due probably to my surprise and also lack of experience, but it was a striking incident nonetheless. So my question is: Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I look forward to your responses!

Hey everybody! My name's Colin. I've been reading the forums for some time and have finally decided to de-lurk, based on the recent experience I'll relate below. But first, some background on me. For as long as I can remember I've possessed a great degree of interest in all things "supernatural", "paranormal", or "metaphysical". I've believed in things unseen and "unproven" with an unshakeable conviction even before I experienced such things for myself. I have dabbled with meditation, lucid dreaming, the occult, and entheogenic substances for several years now. I've read Astral Dynamics by R.B. and Adventures Beyond the Body by Buhlman, and have been practicing meditation, energy raising & awareness, dream recall/analysis, and OBE/AP techniques for about two months now, with increasing success. On December 24th, starting at around 12:30 a.m., I experienced the following and now share it with you all in order to recieve any feedback or suggestions you might have. Please forgive the length and read on. I'll try to make it interesting. ***I WILL SUMMARIZE*** at the bottom but I'd like to document the experience as thoroughly as possible for my own sake, as well as anyone who's interested.

THE LONG VERSION:

I met with some friends late Christmas Eve to celebrate the birth of Santa Claus and revel in the warmth and good spirit of the season; by this I mean we climbed into the back of my buddy's truck to smoke pot. We smoked a good deal of high-quality chronic, wished each other season's greetings, and parted ways; the others soon to be snuggled in bed whilst visions of bong-loads danced in their heads. I, on the other hand, was thinking of visions of an entirely different sort. I made a strong mental affirmation that tonight, I WOULD project.

As I walked to the front door of my parent's house (where I am staying on break from college) I noticed a light still burning in the window. Not wanting my altered state to be too blatantly obvious to anyone awake inside, I halted, turned about, and walked back to the driveway to put Visine in my eyes. As I was finishing this task I realized I had stopped, without conscious thought, in the exact center of the driveway under the Christmas lights- a most conspicuous location for my present shady action. My head still turned upward, I contemplated my father's Christmas light creation: an assemblage of blue and white bulbs only barely identifiable as a Christmas tree. From my perspective, however, it appeared as a tunnel of light proceeding into infinity, with myself standing at its mouth. The moisture in my eyes imbued the lights with an otherworldly glow. This perception, while symbolic and only meaningful to me personally, sent shivers down my spine and strengthened my feeling that something major was going to go down. I settled myself and walked inside.

My first stop was the kitchen, where I drank a glass of water. I stopped moving on my way out and immediately felt strong waves of energy and reality fluctuations, though not of the type Bruce talks about. I felt as if I, or the room around me, was swaying or pulsing rhythmically, although a long hard stare at my feet confirmed that I was in fact standing perfectly still. I also saw swirls of light and geometric patterns similar to the hypnagogic state or higher level meditation/hallucinogen experiences. These effects were already quite powerful and I was still fully conscious, alert, and standing upright. With feelings of both excitement and trepidation I turned off the light and headed upstairs.

Although the house was pitch dark I felt completely aware of my surroundings as I climbed the stairs and made the sharp right toward my bedroom. This awareness was similar to the brief real-time sight episodes I've experienced before. I reached the end of the hall and pushed my door open. As it ceased its movement I too stopped walking, and the strong fluctuation sensations again creeped into my awareness. I stared down at the unmoving door and its handle, less than a foot away from my head, and realized that the "swaying" made it appear that the door was coming toward me. As I thought this (both on a conscious and "deeper" level) I put out my hand to grasp the door handle; instead, the door closed on its own and the handle came to me. This was, to say the least, slightly alarming, as I've never seriously experimented with telekinesis let alone had any kind of success. "The spirits are with me tonight," I thought, and closed the door behind me.

A sense of fear began to fill me as I undressed for bed. Whenever I stilled my movements, strong sensations encroached on my awareness to the point I feared they would overwhelm me. Finally I thought, "I've worked too hard and come too far to let fear deter me now. Let's do it." I lay down in bed and began to attempt to calm my surface mind
and enter trance. Little did I know that I would not be given that chance.

Almost immediately after settling in bed (within the space of five seconds) the buzzing in my ears (my astral hearing) grew from a high-pitched whine to a nearly indescribable metallic shriek. Like a combination of a bandsaw and an electric guitar set to 11, the sound exploded into my brain. If it had been a physical sound my eardrums would surely have exploded. This "sound" was accompanied by stunningly brilliant mind's-eye visuals, heavy body sensations akin to deep trance, and the almost complete submergence of my surface or, as I've come to think of it, analytical mind. I could feel my chakras distinctly and as separate from each other for the first time, and they were pulsing like jackhammers as energy coursed through my body. I also realized that I could hear my breath emerge raggedly from my throat quite clearly, despite the "deafening" astral sound. I felt myself become light and willed myself to float up and out...

...but I DID NOT PROJECT. My surface mind, my fears, always managed to interrupt the process in some way, and the effects would calm down. But here's the really crazy thing- I couldn't get the effects to ever really go away. After my fears somehow caused them to diminish (by engaging my conscious mind in a myriad of way's I'll describe next), they'd come roaring back at full strength. So, in the course of the night, I was able to try the following:

-ROPE technique
-Triangle technique
-Requesting higher assistance
-Focusing on third eye visions, or point of light
-Breath awareness (to try and calm my mind)
-Affirmations (which took many forms)
-Visualizing myself at the foot of my bed (this had an interesting effect,

None of these succeeded. I was awake for three plus hours, in which time I went from awestruck, to annoyed, to terrified. I feared I had unnaturally unlocked something in my mind and would not be able to abolish these sensations (or open my Christmas presents). I feared I had had a psychotic break. But eventually I was able to fall into a deep and dreamless sleep. Some highlights of my epic OBE attempt:

-My fears often manifested as alarming yet reasonable auditory hallucinations. For example, the sounds of: Someone large coming down the hallway, people running around in my room (which is quite small), my door opening, the front door being jostled and slammed open, cars driving by on the street, airplanes flying overhead, and others. I knew these were unreal for several reasons, and even laughed inwardly as they became quite ridiculous at times- as in the sound of one isolated car growing to the sound of a freeway, or of ten airplanes flying overhead at once. I also heard, quite clearly, the sound of our refrigerator warming up as if it were in my room. I knew these sounds were illusory but I allowed them to distract me as some of them were frightening- esp. the sounds (and feelings, the house creaks when people move about) of presences in my space.

-I experienced a dialogue between my analytical mind and a deeper, calmer, and more loving part of myself. This deeper self told me not to fear this experience and relax, but my analytical mind was persistent and eventually successful in blocking the process.

-I heard strains of music and singing I can only describe as "celestial", and when I focused on these I came closer to projection. They were beautiful and filled with a sense of love. I also heard the sounds of many people applauding. In all, I felt this was the presence and encouragement of the higher beings I called on to assist me. I believe I also felt myself being lifted and pulled out of my body by a friendly force, but I failed to do so because of my own inner resistance.

-When I attempted to visualize myself outside my body, the swirling patterns I viewed in my mind's eye took the shape of my feet as if I were looking down at them from a standing position. My legs swirled into existence as I tried to expand the visualization upwards through my body, and approached three-dimensionality as I concentrated further. This attempt failed like the others, obviously, but it was very interesting to experience.

TO SUMMARIZE:

I smoked powerful marijuana, then decided I would meditate and placed my intent firmly on projecting. I recieved "signs" (to my own mind) that I would have a powerful spiritual experience and possibly a projection. I experienced several preliminary psychic sensations (real-time sight and telekinesis) before settling down to project. Almost instantly I becamed overwhelmed by an astral shriek, third-eye visualizations, and energy movement sensations. Ultimately I was unable to calm my analytical mind and surface fears, and did not project. BUT: I could not dismiss these strong sensations, and they lasted for several hours before I finally fell asleep, in which time I experienced powerful hallucinations, visions, and attempted projection using several different techniques and observed their strengths and weaknesses.

IN CONCLUSION:

This was a frustrating yet overall positive experience in which I learned viscerally (rather than intellectually) the true illusory nature of frightful astral sounds/hallucinations as well as found which projection techniques work better than others (for me). I feel that the drug I used both facilitated the experience (enhancing to an extreme level the energy-related symptoms, sounds and visions, etc) and impeded my overall success (by both enhancing the symptoms to such an insane degree and length of time, and by clouding my mental focus). As a side note, I have taken mushrooms many times over the course of the past several years, tried ecstasy, smoked salvia, and hallucinated through marijuana on many occasions, but I have never experienced anything this powerful before.

So that's it. If anyone is brave enough to read this (or even just the summary), I'd be delighted to hear any feedback, similar experiences, or advice anyone has to offer. I'm very excited to be an active part of this forum and this won't be the last you'll hear from me. Next time, though, I'll try to keep it a little shorter!

Cheers,
Colin

I've had many dreams of huge nuclear explosions, end-of-the-world style. Very vivid, very disturbing.

Programs such as BWGen, Hemi-Sync, etc. "entrain" the brain to enter these states, so in actuality they make it easier for a person to enter them naturally. I haven't had time to check this one out, but if I get a chance I'll post my response.

Whoops! The third eye is connected to the pituitary gland, crown chakra is connected to pineal. I always mix those up. And it is prudent to develop all of your chakras in a well-paced, deliberate manner as noted by many others here.

Some might say that healthy stimulation/activity in the pineal gland (i.e. electromagnetic energy) serves to "open" the third eye. I've no idea if this is actually true, however.

Addendum: It all goes along with the idea of possible neurological/physiological "causes" for altered/expanded states of awareness. In the same way that some scientists say they can trigger OBEs through electrical stimulation of certain parts of the brain (though they usually write such states off as hallucinations), perhaps the stimulation of the pineal produces DMT which triggers expanded consciousness states- which some call "opening the third eye".

I've heard of that meditation andonitxo. Jason Newcomb mentions it favorably in his book 21st Century Mage as a simple method to contact the Holy Guardian Angel or what New Agers call the Higher Self. It sounds worth checking out.

I don't know what you mean by "choreographed on the akashic records", but if I had to guess I'd say "maybe". Welcome to the forums!

I've experienced many different types of auditory hallucinations (including my own name being called) while meditating, trancing, raising energy, or during sleep paralysis. Like Kodemaster said, they can be safely ignored as distractions. Think of it as a test of your concentration.

A spell's "target" doesn't need to be aware of the spell for it to work. It can help for them to know, if the person isn't metaphysically inclined (i.e. some kind of psion, magickal practicioner, etc.), but it may hinder the desired effect when dealing with a person that _is_ so inclined or even merely strong-willed.

God, whatever it is, doesn't condemn the use of magic. Jehova, god of mountains and thunderstorms, condemns the use of magic so that his followers will devote all of their energy to his worship.

I agree with Veccolo, although I think of it more as raising/channelling energy and programming it with your intent rather than "creating" the servitor/thought-form. I suppose it's a matter of semantics.

I don't know how to define black vs. white magick, but "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" were the last words of Hassan i Sabbah, a Muslim of the early 2nd millenium and the founder of the Cult of Assassins. It is one of the mottoes of modern Chaos Magicians, with the general idea being "don't take anyone's word for anything- try things yourself and use what works for you."

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt...

Oh dear, SmileySpirit hates some of the posters on this thread. How Christian of her. Perhaps they can sacrifice an animal to JHVH to atone for their sins- like the bible says.

I hear this tone frequently in altered states, i.e. meditation & trance, and have also experienced telekinesis connected with it. I can't control it like beavis, however.

Of course people are going to read this. I thought it was rather obvious from the title that the post was bait. Who posts a "private message" on a public forum with a PM function? Anyway, I hope you're amused with the results of your experiment. Makes you feel like a big man, yes? Goody gumdrops for you.

Tensegrity was created by Carlos Castaneda and borrows from such systems as Qi Gong, Tai Qi, etc. Don Juan Matus is a fictional character compiled from several different real-life individuals. I personally believe NEW to be a much more effective and efficient system of energy raising and manipulation.

Tools are at best aids for focus and at worst crutches. Magic is an act of will. The most important thing is to invest the entire strength of your belief and concentration into your actions. If you feel the need for tools, use things that have personal significance- objects of your own construction, that you received as gifts, or came by under unusual circumstances. The rest is up to you.

I believe Fotamecus represents a model of time similar to the Daoist paradigm you speak of, Spider Circus. A concept of time as malleable and infinite, so to speak. Supposedly Fotamecus has gained enough power to wage war against Chronos and the concept of structured, linear time he represents. I wonder what will happen if he wins.

Yes, the movie is based on the books. A great series for anyone who's into comics, with folkloric/mythological/Lovecraftian influences and incredible artwork and storytelling.

The BPRD and Hellboy are fictional creations of Mike Mignola. The television show you saw was probably a "mockumentary" tie-in to the upcoming movie. In the first graphic novel "Seeds of Destruction" you can see the origins of the character for yourself- the original sketches, the first short stories, etc.

Not bad, just funny.

Gwathren, the necromancer- bringing dead posts back to life!