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One of the main differences I notice between the astral projectors of today vs those of yesteryear is that previously OOBE's were traditionally considered to be an achievement earned only after many, many years of spiritual work & progress. Hence in Hinduism for example great emphasis was traditionally placed on practicing personal cleanliness, adherence to non-violence, developing respect for all forms of life, practicing chastity, exercising only truthful speech, etc.

Nowadays I see NONE of this foundational moral work being mentioned in any modern-day forums that pertain to OOBE's. In fact, most seem to treat the topic of having an OOBE as being something as easy to achieve -with regular practice- as throwing a good curve ball! Even if those who claim to be projecting on a regular basis are doing so because they already naturally adhere to and practice these basic moral concepts, why isn't morality ever mentioned when discussing the ability to have OOBE's?

Did I miss something in the translation from then to now? Could all those antique cultures have been so wrong for so many centuries? Is morality a necessary prerequisite for having an OOBE or isn't it?

[sincerely thank]

First and foremost, I want to sincerely thank those (choice few, lol) who sent me a private message in response to my last thread (i.e. "Contemplating Suicide").  FYI: I'm much better now. Every few years since I can remember I go through this phase of negativity and depression only to come out again, thanks for your support and comments from the bottom of my heart!  

My question today is separation. My one and only AP (see : http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_members_introductions/hi_to_all-t45217.0.html) consisted of a unique experience wherein I was simply a point of consciousness with no perceptible 'second body'. My current understanding is that most people undergo a different experience where they feel they still have a "physical" body while OBE'ing. I myself never knew that. So I have no idea what to expect as far as to how "real" that 'second body' actually feels. Is it exactly the same? Also, in MY personal experience I never underwent the process of separation itself consciously : I simply fell 'asleep' and then woke-up OOB. So I have no idea how to do it while 'awake'.

I find that I just DON"T GET the part about conscious separation! Specifically: how DO you go about "having the intent" to "stand up" or "roll over" without physically end-up doing so?  I mean, sometimes I'm in the deepest trance and think to myself, "This is IT! I've phased!" So I try to sit up or roll over but wind-up doing it physically and almost fall out of bed! Regardless of how asleep I might have thought I was, I always seem able to snap back awake instantaneously.

Thoughts/ suggestions?

I find myself giving suicide a lot of thought lately. Basically my situation is that I'm in my mid 50's, unemployable and in a loveless relationship. I also feel like my country (the USA) has completely lost its moral compass and that everyone around me is basically morally bonkers. I mean, legalized torture, really? Drone bombing kids as they play soccer on a beach somewhere 7422 miles away from here for no good reason? Bailing out criminally corrupt corporations at public expense? Legalized financial fraud, legalized secret courts?  ..yet no one says anything. No one does nothing. I really don't like this new so-called 'reality' anymore. I haven't liked it for quite awhile already. This earthly experience is over-hyped in my opinion. Good doesn't necessarily triumph over evil ..if ever! Plus I really feel like I've outlived my usefulness and potential. The only thing holding me back from actually acting on my thoughts are some comments made by much-respected thinkers like Tom Campbell who suggest that ultimately suicide is just a temporary escape and that ultimately in the next life we'll be forced to pick-up where we quit, so to speak.

[Is THAT the famous Void?]

If I relax, clear my thoughts and then close my eyes in a dark environment I quickly begin to faintly 'see' what appears to be billions of clustered little points of light slowly swirling against a dark backdrop. If I remain calmly observing the points of light they become progressively more in focus and brighter while the backdrop seems to darken to almost pitch black. It almost seems as if I were looking at the stars in the sky on a really, really dark night somewhere out in the boondocks far away from most light pollution. I'm sure most of you have had the fortune to see such a beautiful night sky sometime in your lives, especially if you ever lived in rural areas. Anyhow, when I try to have an OBE there comes a point where this visual suddenly becomes 3 dimensional and now instead of looking at the stars from a frontal position I'm seemingly surrounded by them everywhere as if I was a point of consciousness 'floating' in space or something. Sometimes these 'stars' start flashing past me as if I were on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise when Scotty gets the order to hit Warp 2. (Just thought I'd throw the Trekkie reference in for my fellow old-timers .) I also have what I guess I would describe as being a heightened sense of awareness during the experience, even though I'm usually not 'thinking' of anything in particular at the time. I'd call it a general sharpness-of-mind kinda sensation.

I find that this state has an extremely calming effect, however the heightened awareness takes a constant effort to maintain. The focus requires continual attention. I use the Monroe technique of willing myself AWARE! and that seems to give me a temporary boost for another few seconds, but then I lose it and quickly start to fade off into a dreamy sleepiness. I can never seem to maintain the level of heightened awareness for more than a few seconds at a time between bouts of fighting-off sleep and random vivid images that start popping into view as I drift off.

Is THAT the famous Void?

I wish AAA put out a ROADMAP of the Great Beyond. It would make things soooooo much easier!

Best regards.

[only]

I had my first (and thus far only) OBE when I was about 18 (I'm now in my 50's) inspired to try it out after reading a series of books by authors Lobsang Rampa and Yogi Ramacharaka, both of whom I subsequently discovered to be so-called 'fakes'. Regardless of that fact, their OBE-inducing techniques certainly worked for me and the results changed my outlook on life completely after my one and only successful 'projection'. It happened like this:

I was alone in my grandma's house at around midmorning one day and decided to try to induce an OBE by following some relaxation techniques I learned from the authors above. I hadn't made more than 3 or 4 attempts prior to this day and wasn't really expecting much to happen to be quite honest. I went thru all the muscle tightening/relaxation exercises I'm sure most of you are already familiar with and basically I guess I fell asleep at some point while laying in my granny's bedroom. Suddenly I came back to full consciousness and found myself in the dining room which was the room immediately next to her bedroom. Maybe I should say I came back to "hyper-consciousness" instead of just plain old consciousness because I really can't remember ever having been so AWARE and FOCUSED. However, and here comes the truly amazing part that has forever changed my outlook on life, as soon as I 'came to' my vision was 360 DEGREES in all directions! I found myself 'floating' as if I were somewhere centered in the dining room yet I was capable of seeing everything SIMULTANEOUSLY! Specifically, I was able to focus on EVERY SINGLE object in the room at the same time, unlike normal vision where you really only 'see' the things you focus on directly whilst everything else kinda just fades away towards the periphery. In this experience there WAS NO periphery. No forward or back nor even upside down really even though I understood during the experience that I was viewing things mostly from the "correct" perspective (i.e. meaning upright, from what would equate to the viewpoint of a normal standing person). Absolutely every knick knack in the room down to the smallest detail seemed to be equally in visual focus simultaneously: ceiling, floor & all four walls too! The label that best describes the experience would be 'hyper-vision' IMO. Moreover, my vision was COMPLETELY unobstructed. Usually when I look at anything (and I only came to notice this fact AFTER my experience) I can see a bit of my own eyebrows and nose yet during this experience there was absolutely NOTHING obstructing my view in any way. Somehow I kind of WAS the room, while still remaining me. Hard to describe.

The experience was so powerful I immediately thought to myself with amazing clarity while still in the "dream": "This can't be a dream because I know I'm here plus you can't 'dream' in vivid 360 vision, an ability I never even IMAGINED existed!. BUT just in case maybe I should look for something unique in this room that I can come back to look for afterwards as 'evidence'".
So I allowed my attention to focus under my grandma's old fashioned record player, you know, the old bulky ones that look like a little table and that you could also actually store vinyl record LP's inside of.  I saw that there was an old burnt wooden match lying underneath there covered in dust and I made a mental note of it. Very shortly after I did that the experience abruptly ended (I have no idea how long it lasted BUT I would venture to say it couldn't have been more than 10 seconds perhaps) I 'woke up' from my grandma's bed and immediately RUSHED straight towards the dining room to look under the record player: lo & behold, there was the burnt match lying in the dust! For the record, I had NEVER looked under that piece of furniture ever before.

Needless to say, this experience provided me with UNDISPUTED PROOF (at least for ME) that life certainly continues outside the body, hence there is NO DEATH! The sad part is that I never ever tried to repeat the experience because of all of Lobsang Rampa's & Yogi Ramacharaka's dire warnings that "fools dare go where even angels would never dare tread" etc. I was afraid that I was delving in issues WAAAAAaaaaaaaay beyond my league and that I might possibly run into 'evil entities' and such.  What a dumbass! I wasted DECADES of valuable research time due to my stupid fears. But you have to understand that back then there were practically NO resources such as Astral Pulse to consult regarding these matters other than some dubious New Age authors and such. So I turned to religion/s, studied each and every one of them, then dumped them as soon as I sensed that they had no f'ing clue what they were talking about. For me it was like they all had a little kernel of truth wrapped up in centuries of BS piled atop and I eventually abandoned them ALL as being childish toys.

Now finally I've resumed exploring the possibilities of inducing another OBE after so many years because I finally realized what an excellent opportunity for learning/advancement they can provide! Also, after living on this planet for 50+ years, I've come to the realization that the WORST, MOST EVIL & DEGENERATE  DEMONS THAT EVER EXISTED are actually inhabiting THIS PLANET RIGHT NOW in the physical form. Moreover, many of them are politicians, lawyers, judges and others whom most 'normal' people regularly look up to and regard as their "leaders". Hence all my fears of what 'evil' I may encounter while out of body have become meaningless!
I've been at it for about 3 weeks now making multiple attempts per day to 'project" (I put the word project in parenthesis because I'm still not utterly sure if one is going OUTWARDS or INWARDS during an OBE!) but NOTHING HAPPENS! Sure, I get some vibrations and swaying sensations but other than that I invariably end-up falling asleep. I do have interesting dreams sometimes BUT certainly not 'realistic' enough to be considered 'lucid' in any way shape or form. My greatest conundrum is WHY? Why was I able to have such a powerful experience back then after only a few tries yet NOW I can't repeat it? That's precisely why I chose the screen name "'Permanently Grounded" BTW, lol.

Anyhow I'm glad to have found this forum and likewise all you kindred spirits! I look forward to learning much here from all of you! Best regards!

EDIT UPDATE: Fixed a few grammatical errors and added a few more details that came to memory after posting about my experience up above. I never really shared my story with anyone other than my wife (she seemed mildly amused with my "creative imagination" at the time  ..lol) nor given it much thought in recent years so some details took a while to come back. Also, there were NO DRUGS involved in my experience above, either legal or otherwise. Just thought I'd throw that in.