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I have tried many things, and read many books...even tried the tapes and CDs.

Seems like the more I study the topic the farther away I get from my goals. I have always been the type to wake up during an OOBE or wake up and can't move (I really hate that).

It appears the main "triggers" for an OOBE are...

1 - Extreme Relaxation
2 - Clear mind
3 - Focus on your goals

Most of the things I have tried get me right to that edge the first few times, then after a few times it seems to loose effectivness.

I am just curious what works best for you?

Hello all - have not been on the forums in a long long time, been doing some personal reflection.

Suffered from insomnia all my life and got into the OOBE thing by reading up on relaxation techniques and such...any ways long story made short I will get to the heart of the issue.

Insomnia..well...really, really (I mean REALLY) sucks. You spend countless hours waiting for sleep only to realize you spent the entire night counting sheep or stairing at the ceiling and you have to get up for work in 20 minutes.

I often observe my girl friend fall alseep, rather fastinating really, her head hits the pillow and in about 5 minutes she is snoring (yes she snores - drives me insane). So I asked her - how do you fall alseep so damn fast? She said she has no idea she just lays down and thinks to herself "time to sleep" and she is out cold.

Makes sence I always lay there thinking about work, or hobbies or the fact that the ceiling could REALLY use a fresh coat of paint. Before I know what happened I am wide awake and laying there for another sleepless night.

So I tried it - some success - got some sleep, and the next day thought about it...what if it was all that easy? What about OOBEs or Remote Viewing?

The next night girl friend had to work (finally I don't have to listen to her snore) so I laid down and thought about all the OOBE techniques I have read about (Monroe, Bruce, etc etc).

I told myself to forget everything I have read or tried, even the things that worked. And I took several deep breaths to relax a bit.

Then I thought to myself ... "Time to get out".

(dramatic pause)

Nothing Happened.

Well that was a waste of time  - went to get back up and...I could not move a muscle, I was totally imobilized (omg not this again) so like usual I lay there and focused on wiggling my fingers. After what seemed like a few minutes I could move my fingers, then my hands and arms and so forth.

Frustrated I got up and thought about what happened.

Then I remeber reading in Roberts book about being paralized is a sign that "you" (at least a copy of you) has already left the body and is out at some smashing party - grabbed my copy of his book off the shelf and a cup of coffee later found the section in question....funny cause most nights I just write it off as my arms falling asleep or somthing...how could I forget reading that.

What I could not find out (the reason for this post) is ... WHY?

Am I going to "deep" to fast, or am I to focused on the body?

Or

Is there a step I am missing?

Sincerly - Disgruntled Ex-OOBE'er

Ok first off.... I DO NOT BEAT MY DOG!

I have two dogs and two cats... I love animals and take very good care of them.

One of the dogs (big black dog with a weight problem - too many snacks -  is named Luke) he has an issue about barking. Every morning without fail when the people next door leave for work at 6 AM he will bark his head off for about an hour.

Anyways to the point...
Layed down to sleep and did my energy exercises...as usuall I slip off into sleep as soon as the "vibrations" start up.

The dog wolk me up barking as usual... but this time I was not content to just tell him to be quite... I got out of bed and walked ot the other side of the room.  Luke ignored me yelling at him to "shut up" he was 100% focused on barking at the window.

I yelled at him one more time and smashed my fist right into his face.
But my fist...my arm..went right through his head and he just kept barking  

I stood there stunned with a barking dog lodged in my arm for about three seconds...then I sat strait up in bed.

Luke was at the window..he quit barking, walked over to me wagging his tail and licked my hand.

I felt so bad about the whole thing that I think Luke ate more of my breakfast then I did.

Dream or OOBE !?!?!?

As a side note that day I got a very bad case of the flu and have been in bed for two weeks.

Hello all -

All was going good, could recall about to three dreams a night everynight for months....then I got the flu  

Had the flu for two weeks...I thought because I was pretty much bound to the bed that I would more on energy work and attempts to have a controlled oobe (all my previous experiences are I laydown and snap I am out - or I have a "dream" that was a little too real)

Anyways during the two weeks with the flu... nothing...and I mean NOTHING happened.

Started feeling better the other day, and last night felt good enough to hang out with friends.

Last night went to bed feeling better then I have felt in weeks....and would you know it...two dreams without doing any type of meditation before bed.  

Walking around I've seen your post so here it goes my answer.
I also studied the effect of hypnosis/mantram repeating/and the like... and applied them in some attempts with no success.

But some years ago I read a lot of on NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and the effect of languaje on the mind. So taking this all together I've been employing the following one with good results (sorry, no oobe yet, I'm on it).

Although I've used (proved) many projection techniques I've found "Ophiel's little method" to be the most efficient and exigent of all, because you have to have good visualization capabilities and, added to this, the ability to transfer your other senses to the astral. This demands a lot of effort and a great deal of concentration.

You may say: "too difficult to waste time on it, then", which is exactly what I thought many years ago. The point is that I'm involved in a meditation technique (inner guide meditation) in which I need complete control of my "astral senses" in order to interact with some energies (I mean I want a "real" stage to make the experience as complete as I can). So this all have boiled down to the very need of mental projection to have good results.

There's another very important point: inspiration. Sometimes you read a grand amount of information to oobe but you don't find that spark which must make all blow up. And, curiously, you don't realize you have all mental resources you need to make it happen. And about mental resources I mean all your life experience which is accurately stored on your mind. So seek in it for inspiration: take feelings fired up by music, tv shows, films, and so on and learn to fire them up in another context of your interest.

Have you ever seen "Charmed" tv show?. Yes, it is a bit absurd but when you have watched several seasons your mind is prepared to expect something when a spell is pronounced. So you can extrapolate this expectation from on thought to other.

So, setting this all stuff up in a practical tool what I do is the following (I repeat I've not had success on conscious astral projection but I had on LD):
1.Remember actions done along the day and repeat them "astrally": having a shower, loading the dishwasher, walking down the street,... At the very beginning is a bit difficult because you feel your inner sight is not acute enough or that your equilibrium lacks itself. With some weeks it starts to improve, and better, you start to stare more consciously at your surroundings because you have the neccesity of them.
2.Pass all your senses: imagine you're in warm water, or tasting an apple or touching your dogs hair. You don't need a degree to pass to the next stage, try it as better as you can and progresively they all will arrange by itself.
3.Be confident about yourself and forget limitations. Every limiting or disturbing thought you've got builds up a new wall between you and success. So when feeling something like it take another possitive thought from the depths of your past experience on other fields.
4.Increase the amount of time used in the exercise and forget success, just keep on practicing, success will come by its own.
5.Follow a path, just from your study room to the farthest room in your home. Walk it through enjoying the surrondings and interacting with them. Watch, touch, hear and feel that I'm-really-here thought.
6.At this point I added my heart chakra sensation, which is very powerfull and sometimes tight. So in my astral body I feel that chakra and start to repeat phrases like: it's inevitable guy, sooner or later I'll be here, retarding is but a waste of effort,... and the most suggesting phrases you can say to yourself.
7.When you're very close to success fear thoughts may arrive. I had them, which surprised me a lot, but subconsciously they're somewhere on my mind, so face them gently.
8.Sometimes it's useful to invoke an image of the fear and interact with it in the same way you would do with a human being. Just accept it's a part of yourself, a hidden one which wants just the same understanding from you as you want from people. So take care of it and ask it what it wants in order to reintegrate in your whole and be able to go on.
9.It may sound silly but love is a very powerfull feeling. Send it the same love you feel about your mother, boyfriend, friend or sister, and treat it as a friend. A friend which wants to protect you from something of what you're unaware.

I'm having really great results not in oobe but in meditation and I hope I'll soon have an oobe, but a conscious one, not a LD in which all is out of control.

So summarizing my very fist valuable tool is extrapolation of feelings.

Sorry if I've extended too much. Peace.

Sorry for the spelling...still groggy from this experience.

*Playing devil's advocate*

How is this is all proof? It could all be a product of your subconscious.

I too expereinced a "blank period" awhile back. Took me almost two weeks to get back in the groove. My only suggestion is to let it run its course and make sure you don't disrupt your day to day schedule to much. I have found that anything from a change in daily activities to a simple emotional issue can ruin a nice long run of excellent recall.

I would love to hear your relaxation technique.


Sandra

5 stars from me - great read

Try skipping all the practical exercises the first time you read it. This cuts out approx half the book....it also leaves a lot of intriguing reading.

Afterwards, go back and slowly work through the energy exercises, maybe a page or 2 a day. You can always refer back to the later parts of the book if you need to.

As the chapters on energy work are quite intense, you might need to grab hold of another book as "light reading" for accompaniment. e.g a monroe book, to keep you interested in the subject at hand.

enjoy !

My dream journal is absolutely critical.  It helps in more ways than I can probably cover in this post.  

First, it really does improve dream recall.  When you tell your self that your dreams are important enough to be written down every day, your mind seems more willing to hold onto the dreams.  I probably had 10% or less dream recall before journaling.  Now I would say it's at least 90%.  I have several dreams to record almost every morning--sometimes 5 or 6 pages worth.

Secondly, I think if one is serious about dream activity, lucid dreaming, OBEs, etc. then writing it down just makes sense.  I know I'd never be able to remember all of the subtleties of those experiences otherwise.  It makes it easier to go back and see important patterns as well.  I can see improvement and setbacks early on.  It makes it easy to notice if a new technique that I'm employing is really making a difference.  I would have never noticed some really important, but subtle, dream patterns if it had not been for my journal.

Also, I think journaling helps program our subconscious.  We're reinforcing the dream imagery by writing it down.  If you're interested in lucid dreaming that's important--especially if you use dream signs as a trigger for lucidity.  I've had many more lucid dreams since starting my journal.

For me it's not just the journal.  I have my journal, and eventually all my dreams, OBEs, and even important meditation notes are transcribed there, but I don't start by writing it all there.  By my bed there is a note pad and pen, sometimes I reach for that and start writing while I'm still half asleep--it's barely legible, but I just need to get some quick notes out before I lose the images.  I also keep a tape recorder by the bed.  If I can't bring myself to write, that's the best--that's also good because I can use it while still lying in bed with my eyes closed--and that's the best state for dream recall.  If a dream is really vivid and lengthy I may go to the computer to type it out.  I can type faster than I can write so it helps sometimes.  Eventually all of those sources get copied over to my journal later.

I can't recommend it enough.  Admittedly I'm obsessed with my dream journal but, honestly, it's just so extremely valuable to me and a really important part of the progress I've made.  

Namaste,
Reemy

http://www.robertpeterson.org/obebook.html

I'm not sure about any of those CD's et cetera you mentioned; however, if you check out the promo on Bruce's new book Mastering Astral Projection, you'll see that the book includes a similar CD.  Check it out, you may have heard of it.  I'll take a look at the brainwave generator and tell you what I think.  Take care.

cairnsb,

quote:
1. Flashes of light.
2. Buzzing noises in my ears
3. My body gets VERY hot
4. Breathing and heart rate get very slow
5. Random images (like turning a TV on and back off really fast)
6. Random / ambient sounds (like a womans voice when I am home alone)
7. A "pulsing" feeling in various parts of my body - this feeling seems to travel on its own.
8. Parts of my body "feel" like they are moving but are really not.
9. Geometric shaped (can be manipulated by thinking of them)

I have had all of these feelings. I have described the "pulsing" as little balls of energy bouncing around inside me and have woke up to these.  Just last night I heard what sounded like "canned laughter".  Like you would here if you were watching a sitcom on T.V. I love the images.  They are very fun to watch and can get very detailed.  I see faces a lot.

As far as staying awake, have you tried laying your arm down flat, then bending your forearm up ward at the elbow? Your wrist is in the air at this point and when you start to doze, your wrist falls and stirs you awake.  This has been very helpful for me to keep from falling asleep.

D.C

Interesting question.

I doubt I have the psychology background to answer them adequately.  But that's never stopped me before, so.  

Mental Vomit, pretty loose definition.  Mental Vomit is the seepage of everything supressed and otherwise.  Dreams are sometimes mental vomit, but also elements of other realms entering into your mind/councious/unconscious.  Everyone has mental vomit, while waking and sleeping.

Dreams are mental vomit.

Lucid dreams is the ability to navigate through the mental vomit and change things as you will.  Actually asserting your will to enforce the laws of reality as you see fit to do so.  Saying this isn't right and changing it, or conversly it would be cool if, and making it so.  

OBE's are another topic all together.  OBE's are leaving your own portrait (your dreams) and venturing out into a canvas which many people have painted on.  Being Lucid enough to navigate through, but not being able to fully manipulate your surronding, as they are not exculsively your own.  The laws of so called reality are 'looser' but things will exist as they will.  You do not neccesairly have the power to change a wall to a flower indefinetely.  Unless of course you have created the wall in the first place.

Can all three be seperated cleanly, I doubt it.  Chocolate, Vanilla, and yes even Strawberry are all different flavors, but when it comes down to it, they are all still ice cream.  

The end game scenario is that they are all different levels on which we may act.  They blend together and seperate at different points.  It is easy to say I am awake now, and I am asleep when I am asleep because I believe I know the difference.  But when you attempt to objectify reality, all levels of existence have their own exclusivity.  There is a difference and if you can figure out how to put it all into nice neat little aseptic packages you have just destroyed the beauty of all that is and all that is not.  Questions with answers are for sheep.  Questions that teach you something but in doing so only pose greater questions are for wolves.

I hope this has shed some light.  But if not be happy that you still have the darkness.

Be well,
J

Dear C.
Well I am certainly no "guru" []but have my own theory about your question. It seems to me that it has to do with a mixture , a triangle of......balance.....maturity.....plus X

let me explain.
1.First of all there is a certain amount of tecnik, a sort of balance that you learn with time. Some seem to learn it quicker (naturals?)but all can learn it. Like balancing on a rope og a surfboard. It is indeed very similar. This balancing takes a lot of concentration and RB describes it in detail in his book. It also involves a certain type of relaxation and focusing.

2.The next is maturity. Certain human emotions seem to somehow "upset" the energy body that makes a separation possible. Various emotions such as the "trying too hard" etc. It takes maturity to just let it flow and trust and to keep trying, patience is also one such emotion and something we all grow in. Have you ever played Golf?. I dont play but tried it once. It seemed that the harder I tried to hit the ball the shorter I made it fly. However when I started on consentrating on hitting it "right" and in a certain fluent motion, it just .....wrooom, you get the picture. It is like that with a lot of sports, balance focus and this balance and focus in spiritual matters often seem to come with Maturity.

3.X is something quite different. I use it to discribe outside forces helping you. There seem to be various entities/spirits or whatever one calls them that are able to help and if not guide then maybe facilitate. It seems that how you live your life for example if you take time thinking about meditating on and considering the above points somemehow influences or motivates these outside forces. Likewise the more you read on the subject and occupy your mind in a balanced way , with the subject, the easier it is for them to help, it is a sort of "tuning your radio" type of thing. One tecnik or tip that has been a big help to me is "to be content in whatsoever state you are in". In other words if you have these sensations 9Some have nothing , nada zilch []) then work with what you got, if you pray do so in that inbetween state, be thankful and try to radiate a content energy. This contentment or sort of peace , and doing the best with what you have so far been given, seems to in my case bring on other sensations. Especially in the beginning.

I myself am a Christian and realise you may not be one, so take this just as my input and experience ok! I imagine that each stage is sort of a room I have to pass through. I will not be allowed to pass each faze till I know the whole room, understand the purpose and have been content being there. If I rush through the room to the exit I end up standing there a long time till I realise the door is shut and I start to pay attention to what is all around me. It is sort of the lessons portrayed in the movie "Groundhog Day"If you havn't seen it you should, its good fun too. This is how it works for me, I believe God is waiting on me and only limited by my ability to recieve.

I hope this is a help if there is anything else I can help you with I would be glad to.

Yours Mustardseed

hey cairnsb,

Sounds like you used your 'real time vision'! Do you remember if you were able to use your body? I find paralysis occurs often during real time visions, and also experience the ear buzzing, vibrations and falling sensation. These are mostly symptoms of raising your energy and entering a level of trance.

Have you OBE before? Its just a step away from OBE, and with a little focus on pulling away from your body you can buzz out usually quite easily (as long as your cat doesnt act up hehe). There are alot of techniques in 'Astral Dynamics' that you can use, but i think you will find that any technique that involves centering your attention outside of your body will usually work quite well.

Focusing on the buzzing in the ears seems to be a good measure of how much energy has been raised. You guys agree?

Mikeman