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Did anyone else catch this 6 part series? I just finished watching it and all i can say is "WOW". It has to be one of the most amazing series I have ever watched. Definitely recommended to everyone. If you haven't seen it, don't google it as there are a lot of spoilers out there, but definitely try and watch it if you can.

To play the part of the cynic here. While the pictures are indeed beautiful, no one else has been able to replicate these results. Also, Dr Emoto fully admits that no checks were in place regarding the creation of the crystals, and that he chose pictures he best thought suited each word. So user bias and no double blind testing should make people very dubious of what these pictures claim to portray.
There is a lot out there regarding this if anyone is bothered to look.
And before any look down on me for cynicism. I just think the implications of these pictures are huge, and so before we integrate them into any kind of belief system we should really know if there is any truth in them whatsoever.

What IS 3d blackness? I've seen it look 3d but I dunno if that's just a placebo. or maybe my definition of 3d isn't the same as everyone else's And I always feel like i'm watching it from behind my eyelids, not like i'm in it or can go into it. and what exactly does sharpening awareness mean?

The 3d blackness seems to be a stage in trance which is usually on the border of a favourable state to OBE from. That is, a lot of people, immediately prior to OBE, see the darkness beyond their eyes seem to turn 3d. It's hard to describe, but once you experience it you'll see the words are apt.
Sharpening of awareness (to me) feels like my mind becomes super focused on that one exact moment, it's as if a dial is turned up which turns the clarity of the moment into overdrive. It seems linked in a way to the 3d blackness because as this sharpening increases, so does the vividness of this 3d space.
Your experiences might vary slightly, but the 3d blackness seems to be a fairly common sign of potential OBE.

I've been practicing this nightly. I do it lying on my back. I have a hard time not getting excited and when I do get excited breathing becomes hard and my pulse shoots up and I can feel my pulse all over my body like my blood is boiling lol.

Even now I get these sensations. Sometimes they peak and the vibrations kick in.

I've been trying to just accept what I'm doing as it is and enjoy it, instead of trying to make it something it's not (like APing, i've been trying not to force it)

Should I sort of try to squeeze or push my astral body out of my physical one? and how on earth do I do that?

This all comes down to practice. What works for me, might not work for you. You'll notice authors who seem proficient at OBE looked at other peoples techniques, but then they experimented. They changed the techniques, added visualisations, swaying etc until they found something which worked for them. Practicing nightly is a very good start though.

Just how do I meditate? I really don't know what to do.

If anyone wants to learn meditation I always point them to this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0749913282/026-1471947-1498816

It really cuts out a lot of the fluff and gets to the core of the matter. A lot of meditation techniques out there seem to be more passive day-dreaming, which is the opposite of what meditation should be. If possible, please check out the above book.

And also, is it OK to say a mantra or something? And when I listen to binaural music can I repeat the sound in my inner monologue (like if you listen to techno, your voice in your head goes bum bum bum along with the music) and can I sync the scenarios I imagine up with the beat of Boxed Nirvana II? Or is this a bad idea and will keep my more alert than I should be ?

I tend to stick to no thought based meditations, such as focusing on tactile sensations in the body, as mantras might keep me too alert on word based thought. But, it might be worth experimenting yourself to see if it helps or hinders.

I'd also like to say i've been taking prozac for a while and I feel that is has really screwed my creativity. I used to daydream ALL the time and now I hardly ever do. I took it for depression and now i'm weaning myself off. In about a month or two i'll be prozac-free. Do you think being off of prozac will help me?

It's interesting that while I was on prozac I really didn't care about AP, and not that i'm off I'm back into and am experiencing more emotions and stuff. Probably just a coincidence.

Have you had any success in projecting while on prozac? I'm not really sure how prozac effects projection, and personally, I'd be careful about giving advise on such matters as I'd hate for someone to stop taking it because of comments I post on a forum. With any kind of medication, it's best to keep your doctor informed of any decisions.

The most convining validation I have experienced yet involved my sister, when I was still living at home. I became lucid in a dream, which caused me to wake up. On waking I discovered I was paralysed and experiencing the vibrations. I rolled out, and for some reason, I decided to try and pull my sister out. I went to her room (in my experience the light was on in her room, but in reality it wasn't) and started pulling at her arm. When I finally got her out, I showed her how to float, and helped her float up to the ceiling (we had our heads sticking through into the loft). The experience wasn't much more than this. I returned to body and checked the clock.
Out of curiosity, the morning after this experience I asked my sister if she had any strange dreams. She went a bit weird and didn't want to talk about it. Later that evening, she opened up and told me she woken in the night to see a black 'smoky' figure (see through) leaning over her bed with its hand reaching out towards her, this terrified her. She doesn't recall any of what I did (pulling her out), but the times matched up.

read valiere v. hunt book infinite mind

she is a scientist, with nasa equipment she was able to measure someone's bio magnetic field

Valerie Hunt's work has generally been debunked. Kirlian photography has been shown to be nothing at all to do with the aura or anything paranormal. There have been threads on this previously:

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_astral_chat/aura_cameras-t21676.0.html

I also forgot to add that it felt as if my body was fluid and like I was moving/twisting/contorting when I wasn't toward the end of my experience.

This very much sounds like deepening trance - on occasion you might also notice some other strange sensations like parts of your body merging together, or your body feeling like its merging into the bed etc.  It's a good indication that you are going in the right direction to experience OBEs.

I have a big problem that I start to get lost in images in my head and scenarios (and I think that's what I'm supposed to be doing) but then I'm snapped back to the "real world". How do I overcome this? And how do you notice something (like the swirling imagery for example or the strange space distortions) without paying attention to it and focusing on it?

For example, when I type something or notice something I say the words as I type or if I notice a tree or something I think "hey there's a tree!" with the voice in my head (no I don't hear voices lol).

It's just very hard to make your "internal voice" or "internal monologue" or whatever you want to call it shut up. It's very hard to stop thinking lol.

Snapping back out is actually a desirable thing to happen, because generally the other possibility is falling completely into the imagery and falling asleep. Sometimes it's possible to enter the scenarios and phase right into the astral, but this is much rarer. To do this, I have to recreate tactile sensations to match the unfolding scenario. The most successful way I have found for doing this is, when in a deep trance, I put all my attention on visualising some form of road or pathway. The scenery can be generic (although simple is good as it takes less focus – such as rolling hills or fields). I then make it look like I am moving along this path/road and then try and add tactile sensation. Such as put the feeling in of my leg's rising, falling, and feeling the solidness of the ground around them, my arms moving back and forth against my sides. Sometimes this causes the visualisation to solidify until I find myself in this generated place with no awareness of the body. Please note that this I can't do this easily, and if I achieve it once a year I am pleased. I do believe the techniques utilised to phase in this way have potential to allow easy phasing if used correctly – I am still experimenting with it .
Back to your question. The hypnogogics are generally a sign of a certain stage of trance, if one remains focused and aware; it's possible to move past them. This is where the 3d blackness and.or paralysis can occur.
Regarding not paying attention to them, it's like meditation. You maintain passive focused awareness, things happen and rather than reacting to them (in this case falling into the scenarios) you maintain this 'watching' awareness. You simply watch and accept rather than actively engaging.
Practicing meditation daily (just 10-15 minutes will do) will help in this a lot.

Ok, so lets assume that I can get to the place where I was at last night. What next?

Well a number of options are available. One is to simply remain passively aware until you move past the hypnogogics into a much deeper trance. You might notice a swift sharpening of awareness somewhere around now and a 3d blackness. If this sharpening reaches a certain point, the vibrations kick in for me (there is a bodily excitement feeling too).
Another option is try to engage the hypnogogics to phase into them, or to use them to phase into another locale.
A further option is to utilise a variety of visualisation techniques to induce projection. Unless you are a very visual person (most people find it hard to create authentic visual images in their mind), the best techniques utilise tactile visualisation. Such techniques include the ROPE method, or various methods which make one feel like they are rising/falling (elevators,  escalators , climbing up/down ladders etc), or feel like they are swaying (pulling oneself from side to side, being in a hammock swinging, spinning around or bouncing awareness up and down etc).

One thing to note is that whatever technique you read is effective for others, to become proficient at projection, you need to experiment yourself and see what works for you. Simply repeating others techniques might put you in a rut. Utilise others ideas, but change them as you experiment and take note of the results.

A final piece of advice is to practice daily if possible. My post proficient periods of projection occur when I can find time to practice daily.

When in F10, one can still be very much aware of their body. F10 to me is immediately apparent as my quality of mind (state of consciousness) shifts away from baseline, it has a very distinct feeling.
Deep levels of F10 can remove all bodily sensations, but it doesn't have too. Everyone experiences these things slightly differently.
Usually I get a massive sense of space when I hit F12.
From what you describe above, it seems like you were around F10 and were entering an increasingly deep state of trance. When one gets deeper into trance, bodily and spatial distortions can occur as your brain is receiving less 'external' stimulus and so the mind takes over. This is pretty much what DXM and nitrous do (although with profound shifts of consciousness and no control) as they are dissociatives.
Hypnogogic imagery can be hazy or clear. It can be swirls of colours and dots (although this can also be due to retinal discharge - i.e. retinal cells still being excited by imagery from when you were using your eyes and signals still being generated). usually, as one gets deeper into trance (nearer the border of sleep) the quality of hypnogogic  imagery increase quite profoundly, sometimes to the point as if you are actually seeing things with your eyes. At such a stage it is quite easy to get lost into hypnogogic scenarios (like mini dreams at sleeps border), so one has to maintain passive awareness to stop falling asleep.

I'm interested by MisterJingo's account as he appears to have had some level of awareness while under. I think this is pretty unusual. Perhaps the drug level was lower.

Doug

What I experienced was more a recollection of "something" rather than direct experience whilst under the anesthetic. So there is the possibility it was a false memory, or perhaps a memory gained while I was still groggy but coming around.

If Lucid Dreaming is the same, basically, as Astral Projection, wouldn't it all be in the mind?

Well yes, but we must consider that our current definition of mind is either wrong or woefully inadequate. In a phasing view, any locale, internal or 'external' is but a point on the spectrum of consiousness.

I personaly think they are all one of the same phenomena, that is, experiences within consciousness, I feel that terms like lucid dreaming, astral projecting, etherical projecting etc, all do is confuse and bemuse one, I think that Robert Monroe's and Franks phasing type models give a more clearer picture of what is going on.

Can't really add anything else to this . I've got a lot of projections under my belt, and if I am honest with what I have experienced (rather than forcing my experiences to conform to my desired beliefs) I am pretty much open to what is happening while OBE/AP etc. What I do know, as manuel wrote, all these experiences fall within the spectrum of conscious experience. Creating divisions, expectations or doubts on experiences will ultimately lead to dissapointment (imo and experience anyway).

Monroe's books are entertaining, and an interesting view into his journey of self discovery. 
The Hemi-Sync files are a great tool to become accustomed with different focus states, and for an enjoyable guided experience. 

Ultimately though, these tools are only crutches as far as re-learning projecting is concerned.

I must admit, I find some of the files great for getting into a work type or creative mode, like the 1 hour theta white noise, or the "baroque garden for concentration" metamusic cd.

For any obe, I prefer to go without Hemi-sync as I get concerned with "keeping pace" with the track...

As per my last post Hemi-sync was never created with the intention the CD would produce an OBE. The CDs contains various BB's which have been researched to produce specific mental states.  The binaural beats entrain the brainwaves and give exercises to attach physical triggers to these mental states. It's a technique used in many areas of mental manipulation, one example being hypnotism. Your brain associates a given exercise to a given trigger, and so in future, that trigger produces the mental state without the need of the CD. It's simply a way of saving spending 50 minutes reaching a specific trance level, allowing you to achieve that state in a matter of moments.
People who use the CDs thinking the exercise itself will create an OBE will be severely disappointed. Hemi-sync was invented to not act as a crutch, but to create triggers to previously entrained states.

it would be useful to find out exactly what they are doing to induce these responses. When this has been done, we can work on reproducing the effects ourselves without aids.

Hemi-sync is meant to be used as a learning tool. The point of the exercises such as using numbers to reach F10 is to actually create triggers to mental states which the CD's guide you to. Ultimately, F10 can be reached at any time by simply repeating the trigger. F10 can be reached without it, but hemi-sync can act as a short cut to easily accessing the state.

Hey riddled_skies,

A year or so back I had to go in for day surgery and was put under with general anaesthetic. Due to my OBE activities, I was interested to see what or if anything would happen.
The anaesthetic kicks in very fast, usually before you can count to two, and then you are gone. So I'm not sure there would be much time to do anything prior to it knocking you out.
I did experience something while under, I can just remember an orange light. I put this down to at least having some amount of awareness during the procedure, and the orange light was the surgical lights filtering through my closed eye lids (I didn't have any sense of time or anything else during the experience though).

If those are the 'vibrations' you are feeling, the most successful way of 'getting out' for me is by using the roll out technique. Simply start rolling over (your body should be paralysed at this point) until you reach the edge of the bed and fall onto the floor. Sometimes the sensation of rolling and landing on the floor is very weak. in such cases start crawling and focusing all attention on the tactile sensations this evokes (should evoke). This reinforces the experience and usually soon makes it a lot more solid and adds other senses to the experience.
I've never had any success with the rope technique.
Another technique I've had success with is a tactile visualisation where I make it feel as if my arms are stretched out from my body (90 degrees) and holding onto some form of bar. I then 'feel' my one arm pull slightly, and immediately the other arm does the same, so it creates a swaying sensation. I increase the amount I pull as the visualisation develops, until soon I feel a very large swaying motion. This usually kicks in the vibrations in a major way for me, I then simply roll out. I find this visualisation takes a lot of effort to maintain, so quite frequently I never reach a stage conducive to experiencing the vibrations.

Hey Messenger I,
It's all about passive awareness, and it's a skill that can take a lot of practice to accomplish. While the goal is to enter a mind awake/body asleep state, one shouldn't just relax into the sleep process. The mind should be kept attentive and clear, simply passively observing whatever hypnogogics the border of sleep throws up. As you are aware, this is a difficult skill as the mind is used to falling into unconsciousness during the 'going to sleep' process.
A very good technique to getting close to the border of sleep is very similar to a tactile body meditation. Simply observing parts of the body from the feet up, and if the mind wanders, simply bring it back to the body part you were last one. If thoughts enter the mind, let them go (don't force) and return your awareness to the body part. I usually spend 10 natural breaths (not forced in any way) on each body section: feet to hips. Stomach/diaphragm.  Chest/sides/ back. Hands, arms shoulders. Neck. Face and head. You  should simply observe any sensation in the area where you awareness is. Feel anything against your skin, inside your skin/flesh, muscle. If you are focusing on your chest/stomach/through, feel the changing sensation of the air going into your lungs, your stomach raising, falling etc.
I usually repeat this twice and then observe the darkness. At this point I am deep into the hypnogogic stage and usually feel body dissociation in the form of merging or distortion (signalling increasing trance).
As you get more proficient at this, visualisations can be added too. I usually utilise a count up to 10, carrying me into focus 10 (a trigger from years of hemi-sync use), each number is connected to a body part which I tell to "relax, sleep, let go" while utilising a body visualisation. This visualisation takes the form of energy breathing before I start this technique, where I fill my body with a brilliant white energy, and with each count up, once I have told that body part to sleep, I "turn it off" and make it go black, removing all awareness from it.
This is usually enough to get me into the mind awake/body asleep state – although even now, on occasion i find myself slip totally into hypnogogic scenarios and fall into sleep.
Something I have found invaluable is reinforcing OBE practice with regular *proper* meditation practice. If you do this, try not to use your meditation technique during obe practice, as if you regularly fall asleep, your mind will associate the technique with sleep, and you will find this occurring during meditation practice.

I watched it and it was pretty interesting. I know a little of the man and have skimmed his books but this documentary was pretty damning. There is no real doubt that he had turned into your typical cult leader/guru by the end, complete with sex slaves etc.

There was also not a shred of evidence for any Yaqui shamans being remotely involved in the kind of things Castaneda was talking about (i.e. conquering death and turning into pure energy etc). He appears to have culled most of his teachings from other sources and then rearranged them in a Mexican shaman style 'flavour'. Researchers did manage to track down the widow of the man who was probably the name behind 'don Juan' but she said that although Castaneda and her husband (who was a shaman) did indeed talk a lot, nothing concerning the kind of things in his books were talked about and also Castaneda would be pretty unlikely to be a shaman himself (as he later claimed) since shamans have to engage in long periods of fasting and abstinence from sex which she says Castaneda was unwilling to do as he liked his women!

Also his work is not representative of Yaqui or indeed any other Mexican shamanic practice.
Real shamanic practice is actually more concerned with more practical matters, like changing the weather for better harvests, and so on.

I suppose his hardened believers will always counter with the claim that his enemies have conspired against him to fabricate all the negative evidence, but even if you do accept this, the evidence is pretty solid that there was something fishy going on.

The wierd thing is, even if it is all made up, it is still amazing writing and many people have found genuine spiritual value in it. Mind you, if he has culled his work from countless esoteric works then maybe it is not suprising that there are some genuine spiritual truths in there.

I just watched it and it was pretty eye opening. I remember reading Castaneda's works when I was in my early teens and they did have somewhat of an impact on me, but as you said above, it seems most of it was creative writing with ideas and concepts stolen from various esoteric works.
Something I found myself thinking about towards the end of the program was how gullable people can be, and how easily people can be led when someone seems to offer them a path to something they desire (in this case spiritual truth). I've always been someone who reads others ideas but rather than submitting to them, I process them and utilise them if they resonate or prove useful.

I just checked telewest replay and it's on there. I'll watch it later tonight .

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6311939.stm

Hey Gandalf,

What channel was this on? I missed it, but it sounds interesting!

[do]

This nails it for me.  Thirty-plus years ago I was a "frequent flier" a la acid, peyote, or anything artificially mind-bending.  I had my share of mountain top and valley experiences.  Gained some insight into life -- mostly about what not to do!  Having been a recovering hippy for some time, I agree that nobody needs external help to have "mind-blowing" experiences.  What comes naturally is more awesome and more helpful in self-discovery.  It took me awhile to figure that out because i was too impatient.  I wanted life handed to me on a silver platter.  But most valuable things in life do take time, effort and (I hate the word) patience. Jeez, I'm starting to sound like me dad.  Welcome to the "old fart" club I guess!
  DH

Every experience we ever have defines us, and places us exactly where we are today. I agree that you don't need psychedelics to have mind blowing experiences (well the brain actively produces DMT - the most mind blowing psychedelic known to man), but such experience are part of what gives you this view now. Psychedelics have a very long relationship with the mind of man, and while I do think they are ultimately a dead-end, they can help many people reassess and put their feet on the right path for them.
Concerning psychological damage, the damage is done by the reaction to the drug and not by the drug itself. Such as flashbacks. Flashbacks can happen to anyone who has ever had a powerful experience; it's simply an innate action of the brain. I very much believe in education and sensible use on such matters as these. Psychedelics are not things to be taken lightly, or without the right set and setting.
For me, psychedelics would show a much bigger picture, before returning me back to earth. Years of meditation and trance work have gradually altered my perception of reality in a way psychedelics could only ever do fleetingly (and with less control).

I was wondering a few things...

1.is the astral plane a constant plane of thought?

What do you mean by this?

2.does one create a personal piece of the astral plane when one goes in to it or do people just enter it.

The astral is considered a substance which immediately follows thought. The astral in its bounds is infinite, and one can create structures or locales from belief. Standard astral philosophy suggests that belief is needed to reinforce a structure and make it last over time.
Some believe we can experience inner planes; Monroe called this his I-There (which he did allude to having a location in the 'outer' astral too).

3.can people meet in the astral plane?

This should be possible, but there are very few convincing reports of this occurring.

4.if people can meet each other, how would that work? can i create some place in the astral realm where some one can just arrive? how would the other person know about this place if it was created from me; or do we both enter a place already created in the astral realm, the astral realm itself?

It could work in a number of ways. People could either focus on their perception of the others identity and move to it. People could meet at a consistent astral land mark (constant across beliefs). One could build a locale, and the other could find it by focusing on it's description, or building a visualisation of it and putting themselves in the visualisation. It's a case of experimentation and seeing what works for you.

5.if people can meet each other, can they see your astral body like you do? I cannot imagine a being with my consciousness who is 4d, i can imagine my consciousness traveling outside in 1st person view & i can change it to third but never 4th. I am not sure how that would work because if someone is looking at me from the back i'm not sure what they would see.

This comes down to belief. We perceive what we do filtered through expectation, belief and experiences to date. A being of light to one person, is an angel to another, or even an average looking guy to yet another. Chances are, you will perceive your friend as you know them as that is how you expect them to look.

6.is the astral body suppoust to be an exact copy of your body?

It depends on which philosophy you follow. Some believe it is and contains an energy structure, others (me) believe the astral body looks like the physical simply because we are so used to having a body and we unconsciously create such an image of ourselves. In many astral experiences I've changed forms into different people, animals and 'monsters'.

7.can light hurt my eyes if i stare at it for a while to try n develop clairvoyance.

It depends how bright the light is. Never stare at the sun.

8.when i stare in to the light for a while & close my eyes i see theese intente colors that will change to my will & last as long as i concentrate; with my eyes open too sometimes. The colors I see, are they cells in my eyes dying or why do i see this? is it bad?

This is simply retinal fatigue. The receptors in your eye become fatigued due to over stimulation and so imprint the image you were looking at until they recover. Bright lights make this much more pronounced. If you stare at anything you will start seeing colours appear around it, this is due to natural eye jitter and fatigue (which I think in many cases is mistaken for auras).

Ap Friends,

FYI - Update

Just recently I decided to challenge myself once again with the tools of technology and OBE.

In weeks to months to come, I'll be working with a professional team of paranormal investigators that have professional monitoring equiptment as followed:

Infrared Video Camera
Digital Video Camera
Thermal Energy Camera
Motion Temperture Monitoring Equipment
EVP recording equipment.

I think this will be my biggest feat, excited and little nervous too. I feel on a 70-80% accuracy I should be able to produce the obe in testing conditions.

Anyone here have tried this before or have suggestions before conducting this experiement?

Tvos

I would be very interested on hearing the results of this . It's great to see the direction you are taking your AP in!

Has anyone ever read "A Brief History of Time." by Stephen Hawking? I might start, if it is interesting.. never read anything by him.

I read it a long time ago, and it's interesting, although there are better books out there on these subjects imo.

Favorite books would have to be (in no particular order):

The eletric kool aid acid test - Tom Wolfe
Fear and loathing - Hunter S
oryx and crake -  margaret Atwood
Most of the culture series by Iain M Banks (highly recommended)
Belgariad/mallorian/elenium/tamuli - David Eddings
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn - Tad Williams

http://www.myspace.com/misterjingo

I don't really use it to frequently though.

From what I've read into this subject, magic is simply a way to effect change in the physical through natural channels. Some will claim to manifest things instantly etc – but I haven't actually seen anything like this which has been true. A very basic spell is the £5 trick where you repeat the spell daily, and you will receive back the £5 through natural means (such as a tax rebate for 5, refund for 5 etc).
All magic seems to have its basis in the astral. The ceremonies, the words, the props (daggers/alters) are all there to create a specific mindset based upon the intention of the spell. The mind does all the work. The theory behind this is that the astral follows the physical, but the physical is also affected by the astral (over a much longer time period). So creating the intention in the astral (creative visualisation) will, over time, see the physical altered accordingly.
I'm open minded on this issue. I in no way believe the instant magic/teleportation etc, but I can be open to the possibility of the mind effecting change over time through intention. Other ceremonies I read up on concerned things like invisibility. This sounds outrageous at first, but the invisibility mentioned was actually getting people not to notice you rather than you actually vanishing. Such things are easily doable through the use of hypnosis, but this is on an individual, not that individual affecting others. I guess a possibility for such things can be found in the complex nature of suggestion through body language. Perhaps it is possible to build up an intention which reflects in body language and makes you 'less noticeable' to others. This is the only way I can see such things working.