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I agree with Gangta, everyone dreams but not everyone remembers them. And those dreams you do remember are typically the ones you had right before waking up. I had gone years without remembering any dreams and then decided that I wanted to start remembering. The simple mental act of making an effort to remember my dreams began my dream memories upon waking. The additional effort of taking the time to write them in a dream journal each morning actually increased my dream recall drastically. This was about 5 or 6 years ago that I started this. I now remember an average of about 4-5 dreams a night.

And I've gotten to the point that, if I'm having an 'important' dream in the middle of the night, I consciously wake up immediately afterwards so I don't forget it before morning. At first, I would grab my journal and furiously scribble what I remembered in to it at the time (often times around 1-2 am). But after awhile, I got to the point where the sheer act of me waking up in bed afterwards and mentally running through all of the details was enough for me to retain it upon waking. I now will go back to sleep and when I actually wake up in the morning, I'm able to remember the dream and then write it down. All of this has taken practice and effort though.

I've read many different interpretations of meditation..so I'm not sure what is 'correct'. I do think that there are several stages or degrees or types of meditation within each one I find value.

One is the concept of "emptiness". You basically make your mind completely blank as you go inside. I find this type very calming and mentally relaxing. When you can reach it, its almost as if you want to physically sigh at the mental relief.

Another type is contemplation on one thing/topic to the exclusion of all else. I will sometimes sit and meditate on a problem I'm having. When I do this, I simply start out by focusing solely on the issue and then I basically relax my mind. Eventually thoughts will arise that have immediate and intuitive answers for me. I really like doing this, but I only do it for what I would consider major problems/life issues.

Another type of meditation I have done is focusing on an object to the exclusion of all else. Similar to the previous type, this one does not use problems or anything of mental interest. It simply takes breath, for example, or a flame or a flower or some 'thing' on which your total concentration/focus is placed. The goal is to remain focused on this object exclusively -- not easily done.

The last type of meditation I do is a moving meditation where you focus completely on what you are doing at the time. I think this this can also count as a what the buddhists call mindfulness.In this case, if you are making dinner, then you focus solely on making the dinner. You become totally aware of cutting the vegetables, of heating the water, of slicing the bread, etc. There are no other thoughts in your mind except what you are doing at that particular moment.

I think all forms/types of meditation are simply different ways in which people learn and practicing controlling their mind and controlling their thoughts. But this is only my opinion.

Interestingly, my ally and one with whom I have a connection is a Red Skywalker!!!

hehe...yeah its the inverse for me. White World-Bridger's are my ally! I knew I liked you for some reason! 

Apparently I'm supposed to build bridges and be a diplomat, bringing people with opposing views together - which sounds nothing like me whatsoever. 

Really?? I think one could argue that what you contribute here on the AP comes under that description.

One thing I have noticed the past 5 years or so, is that it isn't really the major events that are most important in our lives, its the every day small ones that have the biggest impact on others. One time I was meditating on my life (kind of a 'man I haven't done anything really worthwhile with my life thus far' sessions), and I was simply meditating on this and suddenly got flashes of past conversations popping up in my mind. But this time it was as if I was hearing the conversations for the first time, even though I was participating in them originally. Basically hearing what I was saying and realizing there were actually much deeper meanings coming from my words than I had originally intended or understood at the time. After several minutes I realized that I was doing exactly what I needed to do at the time and that I was making an impact...just slowly and gradually.

So when I read these types of personality/spiritual descriptions I don't get depressed by the lack of grandiose events in my life corresponding to what is being described. Instead I look at the little things that fall in the same category...just a thought!

As for the file still not opening for you, the only other thing I did different was update acrobat reader to version 7.0. That shouldn't really affect it, unless the file was created in a more recent version of adobe than what you have installed. The reader update is free, so you may want to try that as well.

From what you say, it sounds like it probably isn't my cup of tea, but I was willing to "give it a go".  I'm not one for astrology either, I can't take on board the fact that because we were born on a certain man-made date, we are going to have such and such traits - doesn't stack up to me.  If the Mayan stuff is like that, I'll no doubt think it's poppycock! 

I'm of the same mind, I'm not convinced of all of this stuff, but I really try to keep an open mind and try things out before deciding one way or the other. I haven't yet decided on this...still too early. But I'll do some more reading on the subject and see what resonates and then go from there...my typical approach to life in general! 

As for the astrology and man-made dates, ditto on your thoughts there as well. With medicine able to induce labor in woman, more and more woman are choosing the day on which they want to give birth, so what does that do to astrology and birth dates? I guess one could argue that it still holds true because the parent is somehow being influenced by their higher self to induce on a specific date/time for the unborn child...but I'm not totaly sure I buy in to that argument.

Hi Sarah -- I had the same error. I thought my connection broke before it finished downloading (if you look at the file size its a lot less than the 12 meg it supposed to be). I went back to the link and simply right clicked on the file and hit "save as". It downloaded completely that time and I could open it without a problem.

I must add that after reading this book.......         I think it would probably be easier for me to learn to speak Polish!  The text is easy to read, but the topic is so dense its really difficult to grasp...at least for me. I went through it twice last night trying to follow/grasp how the auther was coming up with stuff and I kept missing steps. However, what I did figure out was that the other two links Hannah B supplied elsewhere worked wonderfully in combination with each other for expanding and explaining this stuff -- at least in general terms.

What I did was use this site to figure out what my birthdate translates to in Mayan terms

http://www.tortuga.com/eng/decode/decodekin.php

Using what this site calls its "extended" version walks you through the symbols, tones, families, etc that comprise the Mayan Calendar. It doesn't really explain what these mean though. So I took notes on what the symbols were associated to my birthdate and then went to the following link:

http://www.mayantimes.com/Birth%20charts.htm

From here you can click on your birth sign and it will show you the symbols plus explain what each of them represent/mean. It also takes you to links explaining tones, families, and other stuff.

I don't 'do' astrology at all, but based on what I've heard of astrology (planets, aspects, houses, etc) I think it is similar to the Mayan calendar system. Where you don't have planets and houses, but you have seals and tones. From my understanding, your natal chart (astrology chart for the day/time of your birth) is supposed to be like a blueprint for your life. These websites are supposed to tell you similar stuff, but using Mayan terminology/calendar.

So instead of saying "I'm a capricorn" you say "I'm a Red Skywalker" or whatever your seal ends up being. The one thing I think lacking between the book and both websites is a bit more info on these galactic portal things. I'm still not real clear on them -- in fact star trek keeps popping up in my mind when I read the words!

Like any personality test, I think its fun to see if what it describes works out to be close to what you perceive yourself to be. I'll be honest, I am a capricorn but I have never read anything on that symbol that resonates with me...in fact many of the character traits are polar opposite to my personality--which is probably why I never bothered to look any further in to astrology. However, this one at least at a high level is closer to the mark. 

The websites and the .pdf also advocate checking the daily seals and going through your day with that in mind. Everyone is different and I can see where it would be good to try and be more aware of your actions each day, regardless of what the seal of the day was. But this isn't something that I personally see myself doing. Its like living your life based on what your daily horoscope says -- sorry not for me. But I'm talking about a very exoteric, mundane viewpoint. I'm sure like many other types of teachings there are superficial levels and more in-depth perspectives. I'm purely giving you my views at a superficial level.

ramble, ramble, ramble.... sorry -- got going on a tangent. Hope the file download works for you now!

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s109-1926

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h109-4239

This most recent bill is referenced to a prior bill, I have links describing both of them above. If you read the bill though, I don't equate it as barring peaceful demonstrations like those conducted by Gandhi and King. Its basically saying that if you use interstate commerce and commit acts of vandalism and/or some form of bodily injury or threaten to cause bodily injury, then you are guilty of the offense. Neither Gandhi nor King used or advocated vandalism or violence. So I do not see the correlation between them and what these bills seem to be saying, although I could be misinterpreting them. I'm not a lawyer or politician, so I'm just giving you what I understand these two to say. But I would suggest others interested read the bill themselves and see what they think.

Don't know if anyone saw or read the Gospel of Judas. National Geographical Society has a free copy on their website and they also aired a tv show about it a few months back. I thought it was really thought provoking. One of the many things in the bible that never really made sense to me was that Jesus was supposed to be able to have all of these powers (vision, healing, prophecy, etc), and yet he gets 'deceived' by one of his own hand-picked men. This gospel basically says that the bible got it wrong. Judas was 'more enlightened' than the other disciples and was asked by Jesus to betray him.

If you believe that Jesus was crucified as the bible describes, then only one of two things could have happened to cause this event. One is that Jesus knowing selected Judas because he needed to be betrayed and crucified and he could see far enough in to this man's heart to know he would do it. The second is that he needed someone who truly understood what had to happen and selected Judas because of his ability to grasp what needed to be done and his strength of will and character to 'betray' his master. Keep in mind Judas would not be able to tell anyone of this, so he would need to do this knowing that all of history would condemn him for the act.

I'm not saying that I believe either scenario. However, if Jesus was as powerful as the bible describes him, then I can not believe that he was unwittingly deceived. He had to know what would happen long before it happened, not just during the last supper. So if this was one of those things that the other desciples were simply not ready to grasp or understand, what else does the bible teach that falls in to that category? 

[EDIT]

Thanks Adrian!

I did read her .pdf and found it quite interesting. I'm in the 'data gathering phase' when it comes to all of the 2012 stuff.

I did find a site that converts your birthday to the mayan calander equivalent for free:

http://www.starroot.com/cgi/daycalc.pl

According to this I am kin 173; a "Red Self-Existing Skywalker".  Part of my 'description' on this sight is "Galactic Activation Portal" ... I'm somewhat expecting to hear "Scotty, beam me up!"   

I just don't know how to understand this stuff! 

This site gives 7 different glyphs for one birthdate. I'm assuming this is similar to astrology, where you have to look at all of the planets to get an overall picture of an individual. And I don't know anything about astrology, so maybe that's why I read this and go "huh?"

But is there any place that describes what these glyphs mean or tells you how to interpret what this is supposed to say about you?

Thanks, and sorry if I'm being really dense here...but I just don't see how knowing I'm kin 173 helps me going forward.

EDIT sorry I had read the article from the link in the web site recommendations -- but I didn't realize the .pdf was different. I just downloaded the .pdf file. This looks like what I was asking for...although I've only just looked at the first few pages. It appears to walk you through how to read/interpret this stuff.

SORRY for the confusion guys!

Hey Hannah!

I'm assuming a 'kin' is something related to the maya calander on your birth date. Is that correct? How does one determine what their 'kin' is?

There are a number of articles in the Astral FAQ and Permanent Astral Topics sections that include techniques as well as descriptions of experiences along the various stages. That should give you a good start!

Then I lay down on my back, go through a breathing, energy, and relaxation exercise for a few minutes, and then attempt to exit using the rope technique or several othersI read about.

This tells everything..."a few minutes" is not nearly enough time for your body to completely relax..unless perhaps you are an expert. You'll need a minimum of 20 minutes (probably closer to 45 depending on your own ability). This is why people tend to have problems early on. It takes awhile to fully relax your body. Most people fall asleep before that happens, missing the opportunity. And that's probably what will happen to you when you try this while tired. Its best to do it right upon waking, when you are still fully relaxed, but mentally alert.

First off, I know most people feel vibrations prior to leaving their physical bodies, but I never do. So if you do feel the vibrations, then wait until after them to try and move your body.

But it sounds to me like you are not nearly relaxed enough. Your physical body should feel completely asleep. You should get to a stage where you don't even realize you have a body.. you can't feel it. After this stage, you remain still until you begin feeling your body again, but it feels light and floaty. For me, I always feel my arms first. I know mentally where they are positioned, but I feel them like they are bobbing gently in the air above and just outside of where they actually are. Almost like the feeling of letting your arms float in water -- the bobbing floaty sensation. When you reach this stage do NOT move anything. Don't even try to move anything. At this point, its just your arms that are loose. Eventually you'll feel the rest of your body begin to feel very light and floaty as well. At this point, still do NOT move.

When first learning to get out, its better to move slowly and cautiously because too much effort moves the physical body. When moving your etheric you don't need as much effort to move. It may help to stop and think about the way you move your arm, for example. While awake and not practicing for an OBE, consciously think of the way you move your arm, starting from the thought of actually moving it. Pay attention to the muscles in your body as you slow down the process. You should notice subtle changes in your mind and body as you think of moving your arm, then as your muscles in the upper shoulder begin to tense in preperation for movement, then as the muscles in your arm actually flex to move it. Do this repeatedly until you can identify the different nuances within your body at each stage. Then practice on stopping the movement at the point just before the muscles begin to tense in the shoulders. Up to that point is all of the effort you need to move your etheric body. If you focus on just isolating that sensation while awake, when you practice for an OBE and reach the stage of feeling light and floating, then apply this movement to your arm and you should feel it move somewhat slow, as if you were moving it underwater. This is great for starting. Keep at it and eventually you'll be able to move your etheric body without the risk of moving your physical body.

Hope this helps!

Next time if I reached this state again, how can I command myself to go out of body or have an astral projection? Is it just a matter of thinking about it?

Yep...of course as with most things in life...this is much easier said than done! 

My current interpretation of all of this is that what people refer to as lucid dreams, OBE, astral projections, and other planes (mental, causal, buddhic, etc) are simply words used to interpret and describe varying levels of consciousness. So triggering a projection is simply a matter of *completely* shifting one's focus of attention on a specific goal. That means 100% of your attention/thought/consciousness needs to be focused on what you want to do. So the next time you get lucid and want to visit a person (incarnate or not), simply focus completely on that individual. If its a place you want to visit, same thing applies. In your mind imagine the place, the look of it, the feel it has to you and keep those thoughts solely in your mind to the exclusion of all else (that is the really hard part to do). If successful, you'll quickly find yourself in the place you wanted or with the person you wanted to visit nearby.

This is how I phase when lucid. I perceive the shift when I do this as follows: Within a few moments of focusing on the person, I perceive my surroundings whipping past me, although I feel completely stationery. There is a strong desire to 'glance' at what is passing you. Do NOT yield to this temptation. Doing so will immediately break the link you created and drop you where ever it was you were looking when your attention was lost. This is why fully focusing is the hardest part. Most people cannot focus on only one item to the exclusion of all other thoughts. This is something that I personally find impossible to do/practice while lucid. This is something that needs to be done as often as possible during waking hours. I find that as I make this my focus during waking hours, I become lucid more often, the lucidity is much higher than normal, and I'm able to remain lucid longer.

Hope this helps!

This topic has been moved to Welcome to Dreams!.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/index.php?topic=24667.0

This topic has been moved to Welcome to Dreams!.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/index.php?topic=24678.0

This place did not look to me like the astral pojections I had, it was much more barren actually. I remember everything looking gray and not foggy but like it gets just before a storm is about to start... like overcast and grey.

I had an experience once that sounds similar to yours in concept. It was definately not an EP, as I've had enough of those to recognize them. But this one also didn't feel like a normal astral trip either -- it lacked the colors and vividness of the environment. The scenery and people I perceived to be all as light grey color -- reminiscent of cigarette smoke. I think this is similar to your description of light grey like before a storm. For me I perceived being inside a structure of somesort. I also perceived a huge individual standing near the entrance that greeted people upon arriving. This could be what you perceived as the console/tower.

I walked around the building and noted that some people 'worked' there. I spoke to one of them they explained this place was a type of healing stop. People both incarnate and deceased stay there varying lengths of time to heal themselves of various things. I never got details on what was being healed or how they were healed. But it was a temporary station for people needing some type of healing. My sense was of comforting others, but that was my interpretation.

If you father was recently deceased at the time, this could have been where he went before moving on to somewhere else....just a thought!

So something like "I was at the end of the universe and all I got was this lousy T-shirt"?

LOL ... too funny James!!

Amazon is always my first option for books, DVDs, and most everything else! This is really weird because when I search on the title, a bunch of results pop up. One of them shows a thumbnail of the image Adrian has in this post. But there is no hyperlink for it. Normally when they run out of stock, it will still pop up and say "temporarily out of stock" and occasionally provide you with a list of resellers also selling it new and/or used. But this one doesn't do that at all. 

I then decided to have a look at Borders today -- it wasn't in stock.

Sooo....not sure. I guess I'll wait and see what transpires at Amazon.

What about babies that are born severely disabled and die before they're two? Are they perfect? What were they meant to learn from their experiences?

I had responded to a similar question a few months ago on an unrelated topic. And I guess my views on disabilities must vary from other people's opinions. Your first assumption is that a disabled person (whether physically or mentally) is somehow being cheated out of life. That seems to be a common 'factual' conclusion which I do not believe to be a fact at all, rather an opinion. I've known several disabled individuals in my lifetime. And they are just like anyone else. A few were very dependent on people (the 'pity me' syndrome). But most of them were simply amazing to listen to and watch. They were truly inspiring. And perhaps one of the reason's they were born that way was to inspire others. You find it difficult to imagine being disabled because you are not disabled. But if you were born that way, you don't really know anything else. So you do the best you can do.

And I think mentally 'disabled' people have some of the biggest, purest hearts of anyone I've ever met. They often times make me ashamed of some of the thoughts I've had because they see things so innocently.

As for the children born with diseases who die so young, I can only offer a few suggestions, none of which may be correct. Some of the thoughts I have are that they die young to experience what a short life really is. They want to understand not only the suffering they experience from their disease, but also the love and compassion from family and friends as they deal with their disease. And the parents may choose to experience what it feels like to loose a child.

I don't know the answer to any of these and I could be way off base with everything I've written. I'm just throwing out some theories you may not have considered when asking these questions. Personally I think that we are here not only to experience things for ourselves, but also to help others we meet along the way. And to my previous post, I think humans gain extroardinary amounts of compassion and wisdom not only from direct experiences of traumatic events, but also by being touched by others who are experiencing these things personally. I think the universe is far too vast and diverse to allow for only one or two 'reasons' for an event to occur. I think its more like a spider web, where so many threads weave in and out and interact with one another. And when one thread is touched by something, all of the threads surrounding it can feel it as well. 

So many more things to worry about in this world now then hundreds of years ago.

Are there reallly that many more things to worry about now, or are they just different things to worry about.

Hundreds of years ago people rarely lived long lives. They had to deal with plagues, illnesses, and many other diseases that today are curable or preventive. You also would not be able to openly voice opinions contrary to church or state policy for fear of persecution/death. And don't forget invasions by neighboring countries/tribes/clans/whatever. Granted some of those things still happen today, but on different scales.

I think there were just as many things to worry about in the past as there are today. Its just that we don't see it that way becuase the things they worried about, we've already evolved enough to deal with. But with evolution comes new stuff people have to deal with.

Just a thought!

I think a lot of energy has been put into a recent thread (suicide) and it seems to be getting a bit tasteless, especially when people can't be bothered to read long posts! Anyway if the guy wants to waste his life, that's his selfish choice, there are people in poverty and people with life threatening illnesses and disabilities that would love to be in his position, he's obviously too selfabsorbed and ungrateful for the spark of life he's been given!  So I have some questions for serious people about reincarnation and life after death.

I wanted to include a comment on this in my initial post and got rushed for time. I understand your opinion on suicide. However, the tone is a bit judgemental and unnecessary as this is not related to the other thread. The Astral Pulse is a world wide forum to discuss varying points of view while maintaining respect for each individual involved. Please be more mindful of the words you use in future posts.

Thank you!

The sections called Astral FAQ and Permanent Astral Topics have a lot of techniques and experiences from many users here. You may want to start going through them and then post any specific questions you have here.

If there is no sence of time, the soul can experience all it wants immediatly, so at the same time that it's born, it would have experinced everything that is needed to be completely fullfilled and be at one with the universe (If that's the aim). Even if some souls have to reincarnate aspects of their personality (their tenticles) more times than other souls, the souls will all reach the same stage eventually and will have all been able to reincarnate their tenticles as many times as needed in order to complete their goal. If this is the case... a cold blooded murderer or a peodaphile will be reincarnated as many times as it takes to learn from their experience and evetually reach the personality of... i don't know... a nun. But it doesn't really mattter how many times the soul has to reincarnate itself to reach that personality because their is no sence of time in the spirtual world so it will already be at the same stage of evolution as a nun (Or anyother stereotypical "good" person). Again what's the point?

Essentially, you are asking the frequently asked question "why are we here", but relative to reincarnation. My own personal opinions are along the same lines as what James suggested. There is a theory that all lives are being lived simultaneously, which I believe is certainly possible. This theory also suggests that deja-vu is a result of this process. It can also be supported by yogic, buddhic and other eastern philosophies that teach "being here, now." In other words there is nothing else except what you are doing the moment you do it; no past or future, only the present. I think it is a valid theory, but I haven't thought through all of the aspects of it yet.

As for the goal of life, your guess is as good as anybody else's. Personally I'm leaning towards the thought that we are all created perfect already, but we lack experience. If we are 'perfect' how can we understand duality? What defines good and bad, happy and sad, etc. I think we live multiple lives to feel and experience different things, and from those experiences broaden our understanding of them and of our relationship with others. Knowledge born from experience is wisdom. Wisdom is not something that can be read about or watched. It can only be learned through experience. And oftentimes, the best and most valuable lessons, are often derived from the worst experiences; but they tend to be the most cherished.

But as I often say, these are just my current thoughts. The more I read and experience, the more I refine my own views. Hopefully this will give you another way to think of things.

i'm just saying that it would solve your problems because you wouldnt be conscious anymore... soooo there wouldn't even be any problem after that lol.

Unless, of course, the only thing that exists after death is consciousness itself. In which case that is ALL there is and your problems are far from over.

It has been my experience, and that's all I'm referencing here, that after death we are all part of some sort of sentient energy. So life, like death, is only an illusion. Its what you do with it and what you get out of it that matters.

my question is; is the astral body on the astral plane the same as the SOUL?

I don't personally believe its the same as the soul, but that's my own opinion.

As to the rest of what you wrote.....I have no clue what you are saying. My understanding of the relationship between the physical plane and the astral and above, is that if you are still physically alive, there is no way your astral body was killed. The astral is survived by the physical, not the other way around.

Not to sound rude, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. Everything you just described to me sounds like your imagination or fantasy -- not anything actually occurring in the astral or physical planes. So relax and try and look at what you think is happening in a more objective manner.

Not sure what else to suggest...sorry.

This topic has been moved to Welcome to Psychic and Paranormal!.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/index.php?topic=24551.0