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Inspired by how people see spirituality in music, and since this thread is mainly about metal, I thought I'd share some of my favorite metal songs with spiritual lyrics (or at least lyrics, in which I personally see spiritual elements):

Solefald - Red view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g9SUUiIJMQ
The singing style makes it quite hard to make out what he's saying, but the reason this song piqued my interest at first listen was the few lines that I managed to grab ("Pieces of a paradise never created, floating on the tide of the human mind." and "See the universe unite and yourself become its key, and a sense of correlation your opportunity")

Oranssi Pazuzu - Olen aukaissut uuden silmän: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRj10e7IEHg
One of my absolute favorite songs. The lyrics are in Finnish and I don't know whether there's a translation somewhere to be found, but if someone is interested enough to actually ask me, I can try to translate them. The title of the track means "I have opened a new eye", and the first line "Sisältäni portin löysin" translates to "From inside of myself I found a gate".

Transcending Bizarre? - Infinite: Manvantara / Pralaya / Manvantara: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHwUQWoGRpc and Music of the Spheres: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX9eR3HL3-Y and a lot more
Like you can guess from the band's name, the lyrics are at times a bit bizarre However a lot of their songs deal with the nature of the universe, our place in it, and the nature of ourselves from a spiritual point of view that reminds me of Monroe's books and Tom Campbell's lectures.

And then there's Samael, which in my view is basically "black metal turned astral metal" They started out as rather boring black metal, but album by album their lyrics started to deal with more inspiring and spiritual themes. They seem to have an extreme dislike for organized religion though. A few examples:
Reign of light: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz5N-a5N1eo
Year Zero: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk8qYmujHCM
Telepath: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEKt9gQKQcw
Promised Land: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0NWiP15bjQ

There's definitely a lot more I just can't remember now. If any of you know of more spiritual-ish metal bands, I would be very interested to try them out.

EDIT: Forgot an absolute gem: Havoc Unit - Ignoratio Elenchi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=256F4JAmvr4.
Ignoratio Elenchi means basically and argument that is in itself valid, but is unrelated to the current issue. They named it like that because the lyrics are actually from a translation of a Nazi book called Faith and Action. You'll understand when you read them

Very good description of Rammstein, it was one of my favorite bands about 5 years ago. I still like them very much exactly for the reasons you said.

One song is talked about specifically there: "You were the light and the way they'll only read about." is a line from one of their best songs which gives me shivers and goosebumps all over every time again!

Just reading that line gave me shivers and goosebumps 10000 days is one of the most emotionally touching songs I have ever listened to, especially after I read somewhere that the song is about Keenan's mother, who spent about ten thousand days in a coma before finally dying. Not 100% sure if that's true though.

Do you just someone to say that this music is evil and you should never listen to it again?

Of course not I just wanted to know If other people have been thinking about the same thing. The examples I provided just for fun and maybe in the hopes of finding someone in this forum who shares my taste in music.

EDIT: Your dislike for the guttural singing and double bass is completely understandable. Each genre is a world of it's own and requires time and dedication to learn to appreciate it and all the smaller parts of it. When I first heard black metal back in my early youth, my opinion of it was quite similiar to yours.

Yes, everything in moderation. I listen to a lot of stuff, and during the rare times when I'm feeling down, I listen to completely different and more uplifting stuff. Somehow it seems that my tastes in music is trying to compensate for my current mood. When I'm clear minded, "high spirited" and overall happy, the need for black metal comes pouring in, and I can enjoy it's intricacies as well as the emotions it summons from an outer perspective.

This is in no way meant to undermine your taste in music, but since the first examples in the replies were Danzig and Disturbed, I feel it necessary to provide some examples of the themes I described in my original post 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m8BkcIzG7M (The beginning is a good example of the atmosphere in some concerts, as well as the singer looking and sometimes sounding completely demented and possessed)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3c9a-xeiok (Chaos, hopelessness, anger)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mrY9u3KUUY (Evil riffs, overall disturbing atmosphere and a lot of creepy and unexpected moments)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZug9y81Axk (Hauntingly beautiful, melancholic, final and epic. If you can concentrate all the way to the end, this song has the proven potential to leave even the non-metalheads sitting in total awe)

This is only a half-serious post, I just wanted to see if other people have pondered the same theme and to hear their opinions. In almost all ways I consider myself a loving and peaceful individual. I want the best for everyone else, I always try to help people when I can just for the joy of helping, I detest all kinds of violence and aggressiveness etc. I have meditated on these feelings and intentions a lot and have found them to be genuine.

Yet my musical tastes seem to reflect the complete opposite of these feelings. Even though I listen to a lot of genres, the only thing that constantly resonates with me as "my own genre" and which I never tire of is pure and evil black metal  It's almost beyond my own comprehension how much I love it. The more evil and chaotic the atmosphere is, the more depressing and haunting the riffs are, the more misantrophic and aggressive the lyrics are, the better. I even love how demented and dangerous well made corpse paints can make the band members seem, and the genuinely dangerous atmosphere on some of these band's concerts. A song is perfected when in addition to these elements it has some absolutely creepy, disturbing and unexpected elements.

The reason why I started this topic is that a lot of spiritually inclined people I know seem to think that this kind of music actually has an effect on my consciousness or my soul, and that If I want to keep growing and steer clear of negative energies I should avoid this kind of music. At first glance this seems like a ridiculous idea, but I have to admit that when listening to the kind of music I described above, it actually makes me feel depression, aggression, melancholia, and even madness to some point. But since all of these feelings clearly arise from the music, I can observe them as curiosities, and enjoy them like I would enjoy more happy and positive feelings. And after the music has ended, they are gone.

I would be really interested to hear if any of you have an opinion about this, or have friends with the same kind of beliefs. Even though I'm not taking these claims completely seriously, I admit this topic seems to pop in to my mind at regular intervals.

(Funny and related side note: When I spell checked this post, the only suggestion given to me was to change "half-serious" to "hellfire's"  )

Hi cjbr!

I thought I'd reply since I have a lot of experience on weed and a little on OBE's/projecting.

First of all I have to say, that in my opinion you were experiencing the proper vibrations, with mj as the trigger as explained above. I say this also because your description of the vibrations sounded like the ones I have when practicing projecting, but mainly because in all my life I've never experienced anything like that from weed alone. But I have also heard that people report having OBE's while high, especially with high doses and little experience, as seems to be your case.

However, I want to stress that in the long run, weed is bad for projecting, at least for me. I've smoked on and off in small binges usually lasting 3-10 days, after which I usually have a break for a month or two. During these binges and the week after it feels like smoking has undermined all the progress I have made in meditation and while practicing projecting. My mind is filled with random thoughts and clearing it or focusing on anything feels next to impossible. After that time however, all is back to normal without any long term damage to my training. During the breaks I usually have at least a minor succes every week, whereas while high or the week after, I have never succeeded in anything projection-related.

Like Tom Campbell said, drugs can be benefical in introducing the experience, but in the long run they'll become a major hindrance.

Ok thanks, I will try that, though I don't know how I am able to do it. Moving my physical body seems completely impossible, when I try it, my non-physical limbs just pop out again

The reason I want to return earlier is simply to learn how to control it myself and to not lose my memory of the more clear early part. Should I be able to have perfect recall after automatic returns no matter how long I stay there? The longer I am in the non-physical, the harder it gets for me to gain any clarity by stopping and contemplating/meditating. I mean, I'm absolutely in no hurry to get out of there for any other reason, I would gladly spend hours in a single projection if I could

A simple way to relax your eyes is to stretch and relax them before each mediation/phasing session. Just look as far as you can in every direction for 10-20 seconds and then just let them relax. At least for me it works wonders. It doesn't remove the squinting completely, but the difference is immense.

I'm back with a new question, but first I'd just like to announce that I had my first conscious exit last night I tried many times during the night, and I also spent an hour listening to a 4 Hz binaural beat made by Xanth while trying the noticing technique (in which I sucked at, but I think the experience helped me maintain a state of semi-lucidity that allowed me to achieve my first conscious exit). My last and successful attempt happened less than an hour before my alarm was set to go off in the morning.

I laid on my side, allowed my mind to start drifting off a little while lightly listening to my breath, and quite quickly after that I noticed I cannot move, and instantly after that I heard an extremely loud hissing sound in my ears and got vibrations so strong it actually felt like my body was going to shatter. I admit I always thought people exaggerated while describing the vibrations, now I was proven wrong. When the vibes settled, I easily floated off my body and everything was more clear than ever before during an OBE. My vision was clear for long periods of time and I could consistently see my body in the exact position it was supposed to be. I was so ecstatic when I woke up later on

My question is, how should I practice returning to the physical at will? I've heard I could just align my astral body with my physical and it should happen quite naturally. When I "place" myself to my physical body, I sort of return, but my sleep paralysis is so strong I cannot move and my consciousness stays completely in the non-physical. It feels like it doesn't help no matter how long I stay there, so I usually leave again on another voyage. My last trips are always more fuzzy and inconsistent than my first ones and I can clearly feel how my prolonged stay in the non-physical negatively affects my ability to recall my more lucid experiences.

Again, all tips and whatever other opinions you might have are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I'm going to try that. I'll report here on how it went, though it's going to take a while to set up since I don't think I'll be seeing him in the next few weeks.

Your discussion about the difficulties of reading in the astral made me wonder. My brother and I were planning on some kind of a verification scheme for my OBE's, and our initial idea was that he would write a number on a piece of paper and place it on top of a shelf in my house, which I would then try to read while out of body. But from your description it seems that it would be overly difficult, especially this early in my experiments.

So do you think that the sense of touch is less affected by the expectations your mind makes? An alternative test I thought about is that my brother would place an easily recognizable object in a box and place the box on top of that same self, so I could then reach in the box with my astral hand and try to feel what the object is. Do you guys think that could work?

Sorry if this comes a bit late, I admit I didn't read through the whole thread. I just wanted to say from my own experience, that if your main goal for now is to just experience a few OBE's to gain confidence or something, you should try the technique which can be found in the book in Whoamiii111's signature. That technique basically allowed me to wake up directly to sleep paralysis and thus skip the difficult part of achieving SP from an awakened state. For my first few weeks I tried to induce sleep paralysis directly when awake, but my excitement, impatience and uncertainty made it really difficult. But when I switched my technique to waking up to sleep paralysis and immediately separating, I succeeded three times within the same week. Now that I know I can do it and what it is like, and after receiving some confirmation from the wonderful people in this forum, all my impatience and expectations are gone and I can start practicing the other technique again while focusing on the process itself, not the goal.

Well, that's assuring. I guess I'll spend my free time scouring Frank's posts for the next couple of days.

Thank you both for your replies, Contenteo's was especially uplifting

First post, so hi everyone!

I have been practicing astral projection and out of body experiences for about 6 weeks now. The first few weeks i tried only the method described by Monroe with little success, but after I read about dream-to-OBE techniques, I immediately managed to have out of body experiences three nights in the same week. All of my successful attempts went something like this:

I got to sleep and set up my alarm clock to wake me up at about 4.30 am (4.5 - 6 hours of sleep). I stay up for about 15 minutes to wake myself up completely, then go back to bed with the intention of waking up to an OBE. I drift straight to a lucid dream or make myself lucid from a normal dream, decide to wake up, wake up in sleep paralysis at which point I can quickly just get up from my body. I then move around my house, touching different things and trying to watch myself in a mirror etc. However, there are a few things that bug me:

Blurry vision. At one attempt, I got my vision clearer by meditating on my third eye. After that I felt a hand on my shoulder and lost my concentration after a while, so my vision gut blurred again. On my other attempts, I have gotten vision by first thinking about what I am supposed to see, but then I see things that shouldn't be, for example it was summer outside even though the ground is completely covered by snow.

When I'm touching things in my house, most are as they should be, but there are some inconsistencies, for example the door knob of my closet was completely different than it should have been.

I can feel my physical eyes all the time. When I'm concentrating on getting my vision back, I feel like I have to keep my physical eyes deliberately closed, otherwise I fear I'll really open them and wake up. Also when I return to my body, for the first few times my sleep paralysis is still on and I still can't open my eyes, so I just go out again.

My question is, even though these are certainly out of body experiences (as I can even touch my sleeping body), are these just a form of lucid dreaming? I have had some lucid dreams before and these feel certainly different, but those inconsistencies worry me (last night I even managed to move my physical body with my OBE body). I'd like to have real astral projections and being able to clearly see and go places, so in your experience, should I just keep practicing with this technique or should I start trying to get the vibrations etc. from an awakened state?

Sorry for the long post, all opinions and experiences are greatly appreciated.