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The question is not 'does everyone have a soul', but 'does anyone exist independent of your own consciousness'. My reasoning behind this is that the physical manifestation of a being is no different from an astral manifestation i.e. both are internal constructs. For one to have seeming sentiency or even exist in the 'physical' implies they are conscious and have a 'soul'. Soul is just a construct which is not needed.

Thats a good suggestion! I wonder how deeply a belief has to be ingrained to have an effect when in the astral. To clarify what I mean: I don't truely believe jewellery has an effect, but will my questioning and the resulting uncertainty of this belief make the jewellery I wear actually effect my OBE attempts?

yes but the question is not answered.


Why if my eyes were closed, did I sense the sunlight trying to come through my eyes, if my body was on my bed, and my consciousness trying to fly away, did I sense this?

Are you saying that you saw light as if through your eyelids when it was actually your astral body seeing the light?

I'll take a quick stab at this as well.
Taking that one step further, because we are all linked to them, we could say that we are each a consciousness that is interconnected with each other on multiple overlapping levels, so to speak. We simply are rarely ever aware of it. So it is possible while you are awake and at work, for part of your consciousness to be meeting with someone else and you simply are not aware of the event. It is because your focus of consciousness/awareness is placed elsewhere at the moment. Sometimes the events will slip through to your waking consciousness, but not always.

Couldn't this be taken even further to suggest that we are not each a consciousness but the exact same consciousness? Seemingly individual difference/speration being derived from areas of belief system fragmenting a whole into individual centers of focus?

I have noticed a relationship between false awakenings and OBE in that, when my OBE practice is strong, I have a lot of false awakenings. Personally, I  would say that false awakenings show you are on the right track, but do not necessarily mean you will be having an OBE soon.

Thanks for the replies. I usually maintain that personal belief is paramount. But certain projectors (including Robert Monroe) have noticed certain energy forms interact with their energy body, an example being the previously mentioned Monroe being attracted to electrical wiring, and finding it very difficult to move through a grid of electrified wires. I'd assume that if one was OBE and had no trouble moving through physical objects, they would not have an irrational belief of electricity stopping them. Other board members have perceived this problem too. So this means that either electricity somehow interacts with the energy body regardless of personal belief, or that many people have unfounded beliefs of electricity being a barrier The point of this deviation is why I asked the original question, do some substances actually have an effect on our energy bodies irregardless of belief. And as jewellery is worn so close to our physical body, and is usually of a conductive material, could it also have some form of effect for the good or bad.

Sight in a physical body is simply the interpretation of energy (photons hitting cones and rods on the retina, which generates electric impulses which then propagate to the brains visual centres) by the brain/mind. If we have an energy body of some form while OBE, its not unreasonable to expect that we interpret energy interacting with that energy body through the methods learnt in a body. I guess there is the possibility that this energy which forms the astral is also shaped in certain ways dependent upon your own beliefs and that of other in-body humans. What I mean by this is that certain energy might give itself to being interpreted by our learnt visual processing if that energy is predominantly processed as a visual phenomena by other individuals. We should also consider how powerful personal perception is though, and so this might not be the case and I am just babbling :p

I'm curious as to others opinions on jewellery and if it can have an adverse or even positive effect on OBE attempts. I've been wondering if placing a foreign mineral (which might also have its own unique energy field) so close to the body (i.e. rings, necklaces) could somehow effect the bodies energy field, and could it effect energy raising or natural energy flows? I've no knowledge or opinion on this area hence this post.

My dreams are also amazingly detailed. It sounds strange, but sometimes I can't remember if an event actually happened in RL or if it was a memory from a dream. I also have the amazing hollywood movie kind of dreams too - perhaps i'll write them down as scripts at some point lol.
I can have dreams which feel alien too ie not the usual feel of my dreams. Recentish examples is becoming God in a dream. Quite complex and it was to do with some advanced technology. When I finally chose to do it (stepping into some machine to be transformed into God), the sensations/feelings felt where untranslatable.
My dream life has always been as vivid to me as my waking life.
I do notice quite frequently that ideas/concepts from films or books I have read earlier in the day can appear in dreams too.

I have to agree with Blackstream here. My degree was centered on mathematics and AI, my university is at the forefront in the UK in developing new AI technology and my PhD will be in the AI field. So I am sort of up-to-date on AI research, and trust me (or look it up yourself) we are nowhere near producing software which can be mistaken for intelligence (basic stuff: look up the turin test), what AI is showing us is how amazing the human brain is in regards to natural language processing, pattern recognition and other areas we take for granted. AI has not been able to reproduce these areas to even a childs level so far (and thats just an example, a child has sentience, a software package is rule bound at heart, even NN's are.)
AI might actually be a impossibility, it definately is now and will be for the forseeable future.

Technology which attempts to interface the brain with electronics has been in research for quite some time. I remember one article long ago detailing implanting a chip onto the vision centres of the brain, this was then hooked up to a camera mounted on the glasses of a blind person. When I last saw this area, rudimentary colour and shape had been perceived by blind people.
Regarding this, I think that they mean electronic impulses could be mapped and produce a programmed output when they say: 'put thought's onto a computer'. If you notice, the technology aimed at quadriplegics (no arm's or leg's) is actually implanted at the site responsible for hand and arm movement. So what in-fact will be happening is slight activity differences in that site of the brain, which have been mapped to corresponding arm and leg movements, will produce some form of software change i.e. if an able bodied person used this, he would need to move his arms an legs in a variety of positions to make things happen (action not 'thought' produces the effect) which is not a problem with quadriplegics.
I think we are still very far from actually interpreting thoughts from the brain (for one we don't actually know what thought's are) which can be seen in a previous research products. By mapping inputs and corresponding outputs of the hypothalamus, it would be possible to produce an artificial one. The scientists didn't know how the hypothalamus did what it did, but they could see output based on conditions and create a chip to produce the same output based on input conditions.
It's a facinating area to look into, Professor Kevin Warwick is worth reading up on for those interested.

Why oh why do we build castles in the sky instead of here on Earth?

Cause they're easier to maintain? ;p

Although i'm a believer that alien abduction and AP/sleep paralysis phenomena are in the same boat. I once had a very strange experience which I would class as under the UFO umbarella - so i'm slightly open minded on this subject.

Thanks with the lengthy reply Tim, and I agree with everything you said
I guess my problem is that I at least try and percieve to the core of things. For example what are these energetic sensations in their purest form? I don't mean where do they originate, I mean more of what are they to 'me'. It's like a fractal, detail upon detail. I feel something (what is 'feel' in relation to me, more so what is me?) in my bodily perception (what is body?) I guess I'm looking for the original point/part/conception of ideas/things within whatever I am. And that probably makes little sense Words are useless for this kind of self-analysis. It's more a knowing below the level of words, and perhaps a more abstract knowing below that. Another example which I've been pondering recently, and will sound very mundane, is sound. Sound is no different from sight in regards to it being a form of sensory input. So how do I actually perceive sound. Not in a biological sense. The biological model sends electrical pulses to my brain and then I have this sensation (what is sensation ?) of information we call sound. How to I 'sense' it internally, or perhaps more directly how does this sound information interact with what I perceive as self on an intellectual/abstract level?
As weird as this sounds, and it doesn't really touch the surface, I believe it is needed to come to some comprehension of what I am. We take so much for granted, or through need (belief) and then we build entire areas of knowledge and experience upon these unknowns. Its quite scary and liberating when you actually sit and look at everything you thought you knew, to realise you don't really know anything. Its taught or shared knowledge taken as fact. Even areas of belief, likes/dislikes are ripe for studying i.e. why do I actually dislike this, or like that etc. I know in essence it is recycling/restructuring the totality of my experience to-date with that same experience, but through continuous learning I add more to the store to reanalyse with (a never ending task?)

And now I have gone completely off-topic, I shall hit the post button and be quiet lol.

To solidify a lucid experience I usually clap my hands quite hard together and stamp my feet. So I feel a stinging sensation. This usually solidifies things for me, also in the few WILDs I've managed to consciously produce I've reinforced them in the same way.

Well I always found electric shavers to really aggrivate my skin, drying it out and causing discomfort. Shaving with a blade (I usually use mach 3 kind of shavers) gives a much more pleasent shave. Also back-shaving (with a blade) gets a lot closer for me than an electric...

My problem is when I enter the vibration/buzzing state and open my eyes, the images are very realistic and usually scary... beings flying around my room, also crystal clear voices from them or otherwise.  Anyone have any idea what these things are?  Lately I've managed to get my fear under control, and once managed to banish the images.  Usually I just close my eyes and continue meditating.

I've always seen these things as waking dreams. Or being on the border of sleep so that the mind starts creating dream images (hypnogogic, hypnopompic phenomena etc) I experience a lot of this with false awakenings, and on the edge of sleep too. I just ignore it as best as possible and carry on with my intended experience.

All these things tend to come with practice Catsyniki, and even then some of these things (remote presence etc.) are quite ``out there``

It`s not like learning a formula and being able to do this things.

Start with the ``boring`` stuff, and the spectacular will come naturally (but likely you will be less interested in it by that time).

I can't agree more with MajorTom! I used to think things like AP would be amazing to accomplish when I first started out. Now it just is life. The experience seem to change the person so that they are perceived as 'normal' when you reach a stage of sufficient experience with them.

Thanks for the reply Wackyd01. I agree the whole DMT area is a very interesting one. A very good primer on this subject is a book by Rick Strassman, M.D. Called 'DMT The Spirit Molecule'. It follows a DEA granted research project into using DMT on live participants. It is a very fascinating book.
Regarding the buzzing of vibrations, this is why I mentioned DMT. Peoples accounts of the body sensations on this drug sound like experiences of the vibrations in people who practice OBE. Early man wouldnt of known about DMT, so they could of articulated the whole energy body idea which is now the norm, to explain this phenomena.
I sort of agree that there might be an overall structure or framework we are following. But I've even wondered if that is created by us. Or I should say created by repeated experiences settling out into some form of coherent structure (to us partaking in this whole sentient existence experience.)

Hmm in a lot of respects I agree with you Kevin. I've worked for many years in a variety of jobs ranging from manual labour to management positions in the IT sector. I never hated the people I worked with, but I did start to dislike the system I had to work within. The whole 9-5 grind out of necessity, generating no overall good for mankind, just cash in your pocket to become a more effective consumer, was agony to me.
Even here there seems ingrained ideas along the lines of 'well you have to do it out of responsibility to those you support.' And I do agree with this to an extent. But where do you draw the line between a life spent being responsible for others, and responsibility for your own needs?
Having a career leaves no time for self, work becomes life. And I couldn't live with that. Money wasn't enough to waste an entire life-time. I actually went to university to escape the grind (and yes it put me in serious debt.) I'm now at a cross-roads as I am about to enter the job market again. I will not become a cog in the machine again so I have a number of options available:
1) I'm working towards my own business (doing something worthwhile for others) with 2 friends.
2) Complete a PhD and enter the research field as a career - which I feel will be infinitely more productive than being a cash cow.
3) Gain employment in a charitable organisation, or an organisation which strives to help others or the environment.

If work is a must, I would feel better doing something which helped others rather than just myself. There are also options of joining a commune, self-sufficiency (saving for land and growing your own food etc), or travelling and working as you go. I have friends who have been travelling the world for years, doing work in countries when they need a bit more cash. Travelling for a year or two is something I am planning myself.

Do a google and look this phenomenen up. Also do not discount how the mind could alter these things. They could follow the countours of trees as if the tree is the only object of detail in sight (against a uniform sky), those along the 'edge' of the tree would be more pronounced. Looking for a period of time would perhaps make them seem to follow the shape.
I can lie and look at the ceiling and see a vast sea of these things (admittedly I have HPPD which could make things more pronounced)  seemingly interacting and floating around, like seeing the wind. There are many layers of vessels in the eye, and this could create many visual illusions (like them tracing objects or interacting.)
Imagination can fill in a lot of 'holes.'
Someone mentioned earlier that they can see coloured lights in bed at night. This is due to rods and cones still firing due to earlier excitementation. Such effects could also be combined with seeing blood cells to give greater effect.
I guess what i'm saying is that everyone see's these, and if there was a greater meaning to them (over that of the biological explaination) there would be a lot more literature out there regarding them.

I'd suggest what Dansk said. Also take into account that driving can cause hypnotic states (the repetative road view) which might make the 'filled in' detail more intence or realistic until it is looked at fully and seen for the actual object that it is.

Those stars are actually blood cells moving through the myriad blood  vessels on the retina. Usually sensory perception such as that is filtered out by the brain (deems as unnecessary), but on occasion it becomes apparent. It can also become a part of standard awareness if you make concerted efforts to perceive it. Consciously re-aligning certain perceptual filters in the brain.
A lot of usually filtered out perceptual effects can be seen if one looks for them.

[What If Everything Stopped?:]

What If Everything Stopped?:
What if the world stopped turning so there was no day and night, all clocks stopped and no one paid attention to time, would it still exist?

Or if the world stopping is too much to think about try this. If you were stuck in a room with no windows, no clocks, no calenders... would time still exist for you?

Time would still exist. Thoughts require some form of passage to measure one from another, the heart still beats, and bodily processes and cycles would continue. For these actions to occur in a percievible sequence would be evidence that 'time' still existed for the observer.
If we take no time to mean stasis, the act of observing also implies some passage of time (or state to state action which is occuring.)

I am.

This is a very broad question to answer as it could encompass a very large range of areas.
I have no idea what conscious awareness is, I am trying to find out - but I figure that might take a very long time, and the answer would perhaps not be translatable into any form of communication.
I don't believe that the body exists outside of the mind (to simplify this: without awareness to perceive the brain, would it exist? Sort of like the chicken and the egg riddle.) The brain is only perceivable as an object created in the mind based upon sensory input. Such as we are experiencing everything in our mind (touching on solipsism I guess.) Anyway, to the point.
At this moment in time I believe my life experience to date, constructed belief systems and ego (perhaps the possibility of information passed through genetics too) is what I am. The only thing which separates me from any other sentient being is the above mentioned structures. I do not believe each of us possesses a unique quantity of consciousness. I believe that the self awareness present in you, is the same in me. We differ based upon life experience and ego systems etc. To remove all the trimmings on this idea. Everyone you will ever meet is you at the absolute core. There are just different lenses (ego, belief systems, experience) which filter the light (self?) and create perceived difference.

I'm not too sure how OBEs have changed me. They have always been a part of my life, even though earliest memories are vague. When I was a child I used to get excited about going to sleep. I mean real excitement like I would get the night before Christmas. My dreams have always been as real as life memories to me, and generally as involved.
I guess astral experiences started around this time, but I have earlier confusing memories - more of sensations felt with my being. Lying in bed at night and shrinking to a point, smaller then an atom, and feeling a vast, incomprehensible form near me (the universe?) and also quite frequent entity contact. My earliest memories also show I had very keen visualisation skills. I could lie in bed at night with my eyes open to the darkness, and watch objects going across my field of vision as if they where really there - sadly this skill has waned as I have got older. I have always suffered from sleep paralysis too (And so has my Dad strangely - I've talked to him about OBEs and he doesn't recall having any - but I have seen him wandering around the house when I have been OBE, but his eyes seemed glazed and unseeing as I tried communicating with him)
I learnt what OBEs where around 16 years of age, and have practiced conscious exit since then. Like Gandalf, my first ever attempt was successful. The vibrations did scare me, and I remember seeing a hand in front of my face open its fingers, palm facing me.
A change I have noticed regards my general outlook. My main area of interest has always been OBE, but as experience mounted, I became interested in other areas - keenly that of 'reality' and the self. I seem to forever question everything, pulling things apart and re-evaluating.