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A note about the eye mask:  The Mindfold is a GREAT eye mask designed specifically for this kind of work.  It's kind of like having a portable cave.

http://www.mindfold.com/

Timothy

This is a very effective and simple RTZ technique...I've used a version of it on occasion.  I had a recent scar on my hand and I would check that every time I would wake up.  When I noticed that it was different than my physical scar, I got up and went about the RTZ.  The "looking at the hands" technique is another variant of this.

I think the only thing I would do to this technique is to change the letter/symbol every now and then--eventually, your mind can recreate your trigger after it gets used to using it (much like the looking at the hands technique...my hands haven't melted or changed in RTZ in a couple of years as I kept studying them day after day, so I no longer use that technique).

Tim

The NEW system is a simple and effective way of developing ease with energy.  The heavy vibrations seem to be fairly normal when encountering an energy consciously through your body until you allow it to flow and adjust to it (the heavy vibrations can be likened to dissonant waves, or energies out of phase with each other).  With practice, patience, and a sense of humor, you will become more comfortable with the energies you encounter.

False awakenings are a kind of projection.  Just conjure up enough lucidity to realize what they are when they happen (so-called "Reality Checks" or someway to identify what consciousness you are exploring) and you can go from there.  I, too, have had several false awakenings lately...often to record dreams in my dream journal, only to "wake up" and have to write the details all over again.

Okay...y'all have just triggered a memory related to both your experiences.  It was about seven years ago.  I was having a dream about escaping from a nuclear holocaust (speeding down the highway with my family) when the dream was suddenly interrupted.  The dream immediately vanished and was replaced by a small dark "room" with a simple wooden table in it.  It was illuminated somehow, but everything else was a luminous blackness (if that makes sense).  On the table was a small picture of Jesus, very much like an Eastern Orthodox style icon.  I thought this pretty strange since I had attended a church maybe once or twice did not have any particular devotion to Jesus (though I'd always had some sort of affinity to him that's difficult to explain).  A voice said to me, "We are going to show you something tomorrow night."  I proceeded to forget the whole event until the next night.

I woke up in the middle of the night (not sure what time), and felt myself floating up out of my body.  A primal sort of fear set in and all I could think was, "I'm dying.  I don't want to die."  I just kept repeating, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die."  Soon I blacked out and the next thing I remember was sitting straight up in bed, looking at the ceiling and heard a distinct voice say, "We don't need you anymore."  That voice has stayed with me for the last seven years and I haven't really known what it meant.  At that point I recalled the dream interruption from the night before.

What "they" were going to show me, I'm not really sure.  It probably wasn't that I could project since I had been projecting spontaneously (if sporadically) all my life (though I didn't know what it was).

Hehehe....looks like there are several subjects now all interrelated:  the nature of "energy bodies", the basis of metaphysics in language, and the purpose of having a metaphysical belief such as an energy body.

Ultimately, I agree that any language we have developed does not directly convey our perceptions.  And that goes back to the fundamental question "What am I?"  Of course, to have any kind of meaningful discussion using a language, we have to agree on some sort of assumptions.  I think that is why this topic is so interesting:  It seems the general consensus of those posting in this forum use some form of "energy body" as a basic belief (and suggest to others that it is a worthwhile belief), and now MisterJingo is questioning whether one needs that belief to have a meaningful discussion of projection, dreaming, etc. or if it is just a useful convention for relating experiences.

It's my general metaphysical belief (my interpretation of my perceptions) that in order to really know something one has to integrate that into their being.  To do so, one must create a set of limitations upon the infinite to experience that repeatedly and to become that which you limited yourself to.  You then release the limitations and live as your experience...this is the creative process.  In the case of energy bodies, one takes on the limitation of having an energy body to create it and become it in order to experience it.  Once the energy body is indistinguishable from your question "What am I?", you let go of the limitation to just be--you no longer HAVE an energy body, you ARE an energy body.

Now I guess the question becomes, why would one what to develop an "energy body"?

Hi MisterJingo,

I agree the mind is a point of consciousness with no dimension.  As you have observed, when "out-of-body" you can either have a body or not have a body depending on where your attention lies.  I would like to extend that to the "physical" realm as well...most people just have the habit of "having a body".  However, it is not necessary to perceive a "body" to operate in the physical.  I can't say that I've explored every life path, but it seems the ones I have encountered and practiced have all acknowledged this phenomenon.  By closely studying/meditating on what it is to "have a body", one realizes it is just a set of sensations/perceptions grouped in to a belief.

Now I'm not sure how you define "belief system", but I take that as "a pattern of thoughts that one acts upon as if the thoughts were similar to direct perception ("true") in order to create one's world".  If we take this definition, then I would say that the energy body is developed by a belief system.  Can one perceive an "energy body" without a belief about an energy body?  Difficult question, but my experience is that people without a particular belief can perceive what I might term an energy body or "energetic sensations" (their's or someone else's).  Now what they do with that is where belief comes in to interpret that into something meaningful to the creation of their world (their life).  They may have a belief about what the perceptions of "energy" mean (that it is a spirit, soul, etheric body, electromagnetic energy, etc.).  They may go searching for one.  They may just file it away as an anomaly and forget about it.

So I guess my analysis comes to this--your belief system will inform you about your perceptions.  Some sort of belief system is necessary if you want to integrate that perception into coherent experience.  Even "energetic sensations" and words to describe them ("vibrations", "tingling", etc.) are embedded in at least one belief system, and that is the English language.  Oooo...I feel a little Wittgenstein coming on...symbolic representations of perception as a language...

Tim

If you do take Robert Bruce's approach to OBE and NDE, here is a possible explanation of what happens in the case of a blind person (one that would be interesting to test out).

The typical OBE involves the transfer of dominant consciousness to the etheric body and then to projected double/real-time body (and thereafter other subtle bodies in the astral).  I agree with Tom that a blind person may actually see during a projection experience, but when that information comes back to the physical brain as the dominant consciousness, it has no way (or at least no habit) of interpreting that visual information.

During a NDE, the etheric/bioenergetic body (which remains "glued" to the physical body during its life including during projections), merges or transfers its energy to the projected double/real-time body, which is why NDEs are so vivid--they basically have the same amount and type of energy as waking life sans a physical body.  Now when a person comes back from an NDE and their etheric body rejoins the physical, maybe that person would remember and be able to process the visual information because of the intimate relationship of the etheric to the physical body--that is, the etheric body can much more easily transfer it's information to the physical brain and cause it to remember its experience when recalled.  The etheric is only "one step away" from the physical as opposed to two or more steps from the projected double/astral body.  Or, perhaps, the etheric body is the vessel of memory anyway and when a person remembers, it stimulates the etheric body to produce the memory.  A very interesting question that will receive some serious study one day.

It seems that the astral body is created by the physical/energetic body.  If there isn't enough "juice", the astral body isn't fully activated or brought to a place where it can use it's innate capabilities.  Building the energetic body provides a capacitor of sorts to hold and pump energy that can be used to fashion an astral body (though calling it a "body" is in some sense a misnomer, since it only has something resembling a physical body when you create one).  With more development, the energetic body becomes more of a conduit where energy continually flows in rather than building up and discharging.  Robert Bruce's New Energy Ways (NEW) is a very accessible system for energy development.

http://www.astraldynamics.com/tutorials/?BoardID=18

There are many other methods/traditions that have energy building exercises (such as forms of qigong, yoga, etc.)--most likely there is one that will suit your personality.  However, the NEW system is simple and direct and can easily get you to where you want to be with astral projection.

Hi melynna,

The noises you experienced are very common during the exit phase of a projection and are called (quite succinctly) "astral noises" by Robert Bruce (check out the Astral Dynamics section on this).  These noises can be of ANYTHING--from simple creaks and groans, to animal noises, to laughing, screaming, etc.  They apparently always go away after you have completely left your physical body.  The best thing to do is to just ignore them...they are just a distraction to projecting.  I don't know how many times I have been scared or tricked out of projecting by believing one of the noises.  As to what they are, I'm not sure, but they're probably just a defense mechanism of the subconscious to keep you from projecting before you are ready--they definitely seem to act that way.  Keeping the relaxed focus needed for projection requires that you don't give any excess attention or an emotional response to the noises you hear as you project.  Once you "get out", they most likely will go away (they always have for me...in fact, it's been peacefully quiet).  It is possible that you are hearing energetic echoes or voices from people sleeping or projecting nearby (relatively speaking), but those usually don't have the distracting quality of the "astral noises".

As for not being able to see, I've had similar experiences.  My guess is that I haven't transferred my point of consciousness to the projection; i.e., I may have projected, but my dominant state of consciousness is still with my physical/bioenergetic body.  It may also be that your energetic body doesn't have enough energy to "pump in" and activate your astral sight--doing energy building exercises may help that problem.  The heaviness/pain may also have to do with the need to strengthen the energy body.