Messages

Hi,
Many thanks for the links, I hope to try and get to see each of the episodes. Everyman documentaries are usually very good, hopefully this one will be a balanced and impartial look at mediumship.

I'm not familiar with any of the mediums taking part in the show so that should prove to be interesting too.

My sister has had a reading with Derek Acorah that contained some astonishingly accurate information, my mother has also had readings in a spiritualist church that were also very accurate and incidentally the spirit that came through was the same on both occasions.

What are the workshops like that you went to? Were they like the development groups that are often held at spiritualist churches?

It's something that fascinates me greatly but due to my living abroad and other personal issues regarding the subject it's something that I can't really explore as I would wish.

Many thanks again for the information!

Hi,
I too have become interested in teaching myself Phasing. I have had many projections all of which have been into the RTZ, I don't have problems with the phenomena that are characteristic of the build up to the exit or with the exit itself, but I did the first few times as it seemed so alien to me.

Sustaining my concentration when I am out has proved to be difficult and so too has movement, I originally assumed from what I had read and been told that when I was out of body I would still have my original dimensions something that isn't the case for me.

I still enjoy the 'traditional' method of Oobe, I don't have total control of it either but I can expect to experience some phenomena a couple of times a week.
I set a subconscious trigger to awaken me at some point in the night, what usual follows is that I'll wake up paralysed looking through my eyelids into the RTZ, from here I can either stay and just look or 'Will' myself to leave.

I would say that my 'traditional' Oobe's start consciously at some point around F10 or thereabouts, I am definitely conscious and aware when I start to feel vibrations and can briefly see into the RTZ before I leave, I then blackout and find myself out of body.

The method I am currently using to Phase starts by making sure that I am very relaxed before going to bed, I then lie down, keeping my body very relaxed and very still.

I focus on calming my breathing and making it deep and slow, from behind my closed eyes I look into the darkness, after a short period the darkness seems to gain some depth, at about this time I am aware of an absolute silence, I feel as if I can hear everything but there is nothing to hear, I know that must sound strange but it is very peaceful.
My breathing feels very shallow as if it has almost come to a halt or stopped, either way I am not fully aware of it and it feels quite distant.

I'll see abstract forms and flashes of colour or light, this can become interspersed with what I would call dream imagery or diurnal flashbacks, this can detract from my gentle focus and is probably due to my mind wandering.

And that is about as far as I have progressed, I would say that I am hovering just below F10 when this is all happening, my body isn't paralysed but it does feel very heavy.

I think and from what I have read that focusing on the abstract forms can help, I have certainly had moments where my consciousness seems to flit out there momentarily and then flit back again.

There are some great links in the sticky posts forum that go into great detail about Phasing, I was in there last night for ages soaking up all of the information! Sorry to have gone on for ages, I wish you every success with your efforts!

Hi,
Some of the methods I use for dream call are as follows: Make the conscious intention to remember your dreams, get into the habit as soon as you wake up to write down everything you remember about your dreams, you can write this as scruffily as you wish as it can always be written up neater later on in the day, I am usually still writing my dreams out as I am having breakfast!

At first just use keywords or a personal form of shorthand to describe the dream, don't try and describe your first dream in detail only to forget the rest of that nights dreams, often when you write these keywords they will in turn trigger more memories which can be expanded on.

Definitely start keeping a dream diary or journal and maybe even accompany this with a log of dream symbols and what you think they may represent.

Occasionally you may suddenly recall a dream in the day or a have a memory triggered by seeing a person, object or place, be prepared with a pen and paper to scribble down these brief dream flashes.

I often wake up after a dream cycle in the middle of the night, as difficult as it is this can be an ideal time to jot down a few comments as the dream memories are extremely fresh and details such as verbal or spoken information can often be gleaned this way. Keep a large jotter pad and pen near your bedside table for this purpose.

I hope that this helps, don't expect to remember epic dreams in the beginning but once you have started to record a few notes you'll find it gets easier and easier, give it a month or two and I'm sure that you'll find that you'll be able to fill two pages easily, sweet dreams!

In Robert Bruce's 'Practical Psychic Self-Defence' he say's:

"A core image is a is a subconscious trauma image memory that generates negative energy, and Negs use these to influence people"

I personally don't know where these thoughts come from or how or why they manifest, but I certainly wouldn't disregard the above, as I don't have a definite answer at present myself.

The book is very interesting reading and goes into further detail with methods on how to tackle the 'Core Images'.

Like I previously mentioned, these core images in my case seem to die off or disappear if they are not paid the attention or are deprived the energy which serves to keep them recurring or alive so to speak.

Hi,
I can sympathise with you regarding the unwanted thoughts, I often have upsetting spontaneous thoughts similar to you, things that I would never dream of acting upon.

The thoughts seem to spontaneously spring into my head as if from nowhere, almost as if some evil person or being had forced it upon me, the thoughts never seemed to be generated by myself but external.

The first thing I would try and instinctively do would be to try and repress the thought, which I now realise was probably the worst possible thing I could have done as it just served to give the thought more importance, this in turn would become more upsetting resulting in me trying to suppress the thought again and again, this would continue going on for days often spiralling into a miserable self perpetuating gloom.

The best advice I can give that works for me is to become a spectator or observer of your thoughts, let them play out in your mind watch them passively and let them pass, try not to be upset, annoyed or provoked by them and try not to repress them either as this just seems to add fuel to them which only makes them stronger.

I hope you don't mind me explaining a bit about how I came to change my way of thinking about these nuisance thoughts but it came about in a rather bizarre way.

A few months ago I had an unpleasant thought come into my head that my grandfathers grave was being desecrated or vandalised, this thought came into my head in the form of a vision, the thought was very upsetting and I had no idea why such a thought would just pop into my head, more so because I never met my grandfather.

A week later, my sister who lives in England had tickets to visit an audience with the spiritualist medium Derek Acorah, out of about 500 people my sister was one of 5 people to be spoken to.

Derek, on speaking to my sister gave her my first name and asked who I was, she was very shocked as it was the first thing he said to her, he then proceeded to give her my grandfathers first and middle name and his profession.

My grandfather told Derek that he had seen that I had been very upset in the past few days but that I would take a new path and that things would change from that point forward, the reading was quite remarkable and changed the way I think in more ways than one! After this I read a few books on thoughts and how to work positively with them.

The dream you had could be a result of thoughts that are occurring in your waking state, these are then played out and acted upon in your dream state, the cast, setting and time etc of your dream could be your subconscious's/higher self's way of helping you with your struggle with these thoughts.

If you aren't already try keeping a dream diary and review your dreams regularly, also try and keep a log of dream symbols with a comment explaining what you feel the symbol or character represents.

Sorry to have gone on for so long, take care, I hope that you manage to tame those unwanted thoughts.

quote:Originally posted by Frank



Plus:

C1 - Physical
F3 - state of expanded awareness

Yours,
Frank

Many thanks!

Great link guest2000, the last paragraph or two is advice that I can really relate to regarding the exit.

"If you have serious doubts that it is working and open your eyes prematurely, your awareness will zip like a ball on a rubber band back into your energy body.  Instead, keep your eyes closed and have faith that your consciousness is moving forward.  Keep pushing forward with your consciousness as hard as you can, just like walking underwater, until you are about fifteen feet (five meters) away from your body.  Of course, since your eyes are closed, you can only approximate how far this is, so don't obsess on the distance, just take a best guess.  Once you are safely fifteen feet away from your body, you may open your eyes, and you will be in your astral body and free to roam."

Also, in the past when fear had started to get the better of me I found that taking deep controlled breaths is excellent for calming oneself, it may sound simple but it works every time for me.

Hi cpsychis,
Many thanks for your reply and for all of the information, seeing the points explained like that has helped a lot.

I have ordered two of Robert Monroe's books and have previously read 'Cosmic Journeys' by Rosalind McKnight, some of the focus points were mentioned briefly in one of the earlier chapters.

From what I read in 'Cosmic Journeys' Would I be correct in saying that what Robert Monroe was doing at the institute was 'Phasing' as opposed to the traditional idea of an OBE as a phenomena that usually occurs at night, whether induced or not?

I know that last paragraph probably doesn't make much sense, but I have only ever had night time and early morning projections into the RTZ, I'm very interested in trying Phasing and have already experimented, hence my request for the set of focus points so that I can gauge where I am and how I am progressing.

Many thanks again.

Hi,
I have experienced the bright flash of light you talk about on one occasion before, it occurred about a month or two before my first projection.

Previous to the above I had been hearing loud electrical snapping noises at night, which appeared to be internal rather than external, one evening one of these loud static like cracking sounds was accompanied by the bright flash of light that you mention.

My opinion is that as I was becoming more interested in the areas of Oobe, Astral projection, etc by reading and immersing myself in books and thoughts on the subject and generally becoming more open to the possibilities of leaving the physical body I was subconsciously preparing my self spiritually by performing some kind chakra work/preparation to make the leap into the unknown.

In the early stages it felt uncomfortable, shocking and alarming but the more Oobe's that I have had the more this energy activity has calmed down, it is still there but is more controlled and balanced, definite and particular sensations can be felt and focused on which are quite pleasant and almost sensual.

From my experience I would say you are making progress and are getting nearer, don't worry about the flashes or sounds as these would appear to be phenomena that will calm down once they have been worked through (consciously and/or subconsciously) and when you have projected a few times.

Hi,
First of all let me say that the phenomena you describe in your second paragraph are very close to what I experience when I project. Assuming that Oobe's follow a similar pattern for everybody and from what I have read at this forum and in books it does then you are extremely close to having an Oobe.

Regarding what you say in your first paragraph, I have found that meditating on the subject or trying to force an experience for hours on end does not work in my case, simply setting and incubating a trigger is enough, I leave the rest of the process up to my subconscious, higher self, call it what you will.

I can really sympathise with you regarding the fear you talk about, the first few times I started to project I would hear strange sounds and feel things walking on me or touching me, I intuitively knew I was close but kept deferring the experience due to the fear of these mysterious phenomena.

I still feel movement now when I project, and often feel something touching or stroking my hair, and regularly feel a sensation in the centre of my forehead, this feels as though somebody is making a 'stirring' motion with their finger (Chakra activity?), now I look forward to these sensations and actually find them quite peaceful and relaxing.

The occasion when I eventually had my first projection I 'gave in' or 'surrendered' to the fear and just went with the experience, the next thing I knew I had projected out through the top of my head, rolled down my body and was resting near the end of my bed by my feet, extremely excited and wondering what all of the fuss concerning the fear was about!

My guess would be that the shadow figure you speak of is a actually a characteristic of the build up to the projection event and almost certainly not what you can expect to experience when you are fully out, not in my experience anyway.

Try and experiment with lying in a pitch black room when nobody is there with you in the house, confront your fear and keep a positive outlook, relaxing deeply before going to bed by preparing a nice bath or listening to peaceful music can also help.

All the best, your so close, once your out you'll be surprised how easy it was!

Just before you read my answers, I'll add that all of projections to date have been into the RTZ (Real Time Zone).

a) I make the conscious intention to project by setting a trigger memory to remind me when I am asleep, I will incubate this intention for the days leading up to an attempt and strengthen it with affirmations and reality checks.

b) Equally as Lucid if not more so than in the awakened physical state, and definitely more sensitive to the environment around me.

c) At the moment for what feels like between 10 and 20 seconds, it may not sound very long but I savour every moment!

d) Movement is the greatest obstacle for me at the moment, when I exit the body I don't possess the bodily dimensions that I have here in the physical world, I feel I am about the size of a tennis ball, when I try to move I tend to swerve or 'slide' in one direction as if I were sliding on ice.
I'd like to discover and travel further a field but at the moment I'm still getting used to my Astral legs .... or the lack of them!!

1. I had some projection phenomena start up over a period of about three months, I visited this forum to read other peoples experiences and had a full Oobe a day or two later if my memory is right, I realised upon having the experience that I have had similar experiences when I was younger but had not recognised them for what they were.

2. For me currently it's by setting a conscious trigger before I go to sleep or in the days leading up to a projection attempt, the trigger activates occasionally in the middle of the night but most often in the early morning, affirmations and reality checks are also helpful.

3. I'm a bit of a bookworm so I could go on forever about great spiritual/philosophical books that have inspired me! I would just say whatever you read, read it with an open mind whilst also remaining objective, and if what you read doesn't feel or sound right then trust your instincts.

I feel that linguistics is a real barrier when it comes to posing questions and getting answers to issues regarding the world of spirit.

Language, written and spoken is a tool we use whilst we are here in the physical, and even when we do use it here it barely scratches the surface when trying to describe the world around us, even something as simple as a pebble, a flower or a tree can only be described so far with words, if you have ever meditated on such an object and stripped it of these labels you'll know what I mean.

I am of the belief that in the world of spirit one of the easiest methods of communication is through that of images and feelings, and describing images or feelings with words or language can never do them justice and will never capture the true essence of the answers received or the questions posed.

Thats not to say that aural or oral communication isn't possible in the spirit world, just that this may be more for the benfit of us in the physical.

I wish you every success in your Oobe endeavours, if your first is anything like mine then the experience will be answer enough!

Hi,
From my own experiences with fevers one of the common themes in my dreams when I was very ill (appendicitis) was mainly concerned with repetition.

In the dream that was taking place when I had a very bad fever I was floating high above a warehouse watching a young girl dance continuously around the street surrounding the building, she was singing this awful repetitive song, no words just a La, La, La, La type of childish song, it just seemed to get louder and louder and more monotonous.

When I became conscious I looked to my left from my bed and in the doorway I could see a man stood there, this vision definitely had more power and realism than the aforementioned dream, I panicked upon seeing the figure, staggered out of the bedroom and fell down the stairs, that was the last thing I remember before ending up at the hospital.

On one other occasion after catching a very bad chill I was passing in and out of consciousness I could see a sparkling cloud of gold dust at the foot of my bed, it had the appearance of these vast beautiful gas clouds that one sees in photographs of deep space, obviously on a much smaller scale though! I sensed that it had an identity like it had it's own character, at the time I thought it was an angel perhaps.

I have experienced the 'warm wind' sensation that you speak of too, personally I think that in the extremes of fever I became more open to varying states of consciousness, and even closer to the spiritual realms in times of grave illness, certainly in the first example as I was later told at the hospital that I could have died if I had not gotten to hospital sooner as the appendix had burst.

Dreams hold a great deal of importance for me, I would say almost as much importance as waking life.

I have been keeping a dream diary for quite some time now, I really recommend this as it is an excellent method for personal reflection and recording personal imagery and symbols, also the more you use it the better the dream recall becomes.

The essence of each of my dreams can stay with me for days and often for longer depending on it's impact and power.

I don't always understand every dream I have, but for the majority I intuitively understand the symbolic and overall meaning that I feel is trying to be presented by the 'unconscious/higher self'.

Here is an extract from my dream of Wednesday 1st September, excuse the un-paragraphed nature of the text but this is my preferred method of taken notes and recording dreams:

"I am in the large garden of a stately home, I see a man dressed in dark ornate armour riding a horse at speed across the garden, he is holding a long spear similar to a jousting pole, he makes the spear catch light as he rushes past a flaming torch, at the other end of the garden is a wall in which there is a large elaborately carved oak door, tied to this door is a man wearing only fine white linen undergarments, the horse rider gallops at break neck speed at the door and thrusts the spear into the man and door completely destroying both, the rider is then taken roughly and tied by another group of similar looking men in dark armour, they appear to be hanging him from a large monkey puzzle tree, the sound as he screams are very guttural and horrific and echo all over the grounds of the stately home, the other armour clad men lower the hung man to the ground, as he touches the ground a wild Rhinoceros stampedes through the garden, people run to take cover, I protect myself by leaping into a gothic arch-like alcove, here I am joined by a young child, the toys of the child lay on each of the shelves of the arch, the Rhinoceros stands on it's back legs like a human and tries to reach the toys, I realise it is not as threatening as I first presumed but actually quite harmless and innocent, if a bit clumsy!"

It probably sounds odd to another reader but in a strange way part of it made sense at an emotional level in the context of the whole dream, it also provided further symbols that I can study and add to my growing symbol log.

Rastus, I often have a dream home, building or location my dreams take place or start off in, these locations often crop up time and time again in my dreams, many of these locations involve mutated or fused landscapes, and merged buildings, towns and cities that I am already familiar with.

Thank you both for your replies, I have tried doing a bit of research myself from time to time but it appears that different cultures see the Owl differently, as either an omen of good, sometimes bad and occasionally both.

The colour of the Owl was a beige colour, it was difficult to see any detail though as the fence post it was sitting on was quite a distance away.

I'll have a look at ordering the book by Ted Andrews as it might shed further light on my experience.

Thanks again

S

Have you been thinking about Astral projection or lucid dreaming a great deal recently?

The symbol of the plane may not be linked to a premonition or fear of flying but to a subconscious desire to fly, the airplanes could be your subconscious's way of trying to trigger an experience.

If you are lucid when it next happens try and be calm and go with it and see if you can overcome any fear you have.

A method I use for inducing lucid dreams is 'Dream incubation'; I would explain the technique as a kind of visual affirmation.

My method is as follows:

For the day/s leading up to when I want to have a Lucid dream I will visualise, think, focus, and concentrate about a person who I know appears in my dreams regularly, if you keep a regularly updated dream journal you will have a good record of characters who appear in your dreams often.

I also regularly visualise that the first sentence this person will speak in my dream will be to tell me something along the lines of "Hey your dreaming" or "Remember, I'm here to make you Lucid" you can even program this character in your visualisation to repeat the phrase until you are lucid if you wish.

Before I tried using dream characters as my prompt to go Lucid I experimented with inanimate object's for prompts such as 'When I see/interact with a red car' or 'When I see/eat an apple'.
The success rate here was not so good as I usually just ended up interacting with the object and having a slightly more conscious dream than I would have had without any prompt at all.

I find it much more difficult to ignore or overlook somebody you know or recognise speaking with you face to face reminding you that you are dreaming!  

quote:Originally posted by Frank



"I have had OBEs that I now realize were merely lucid dreams.

The above sentence implies that this person would have to of had a true OBE experience in order to gauge what is in fact just a lucid dream and what is an OBE, a good way of making a comparison in my opinion.
Or that they were judging their experience on the basis of what others have told them to expect probably not so good if you are searching for your own personal truth.

I have experienced what I would call true OBE's and have also had lucid dreams about having OBE's, the similarities between the two were clear.

In my lucid dreams I was aware that I was generating the associated phenomena that come with an OBE, the Vibrations, sounds etc, it felt like an interpretation of what I should expect to experience, upon waking it was clear that an OBE had not taken place.

One analogy I would make would be to compare it to imaging what it would be like as a non-driver to drive a car based on your experience as a passenger compared to what it is like when you start to drive for the first time.

quote:Originally posted by Rastus

Twice in the same morning, hmmmmmm.

There are those people on this sight that are here for OBE/AP and that's all.  They don't consider anything else as being relavent.  Some of them are rather unenlightened spiritually, not even attempting to see the big picture.

Then there are those that consider everything else, of which OBE/AP is some small piece of it.

Once you understand how the physcial and astral realms inter-relate, you realize the test is meaningless and you move on with your work.  it seems this is an issue for people that can't OBE, wanting 'proof' before expending the effort to achieve something.

I agree with what Rastus say's regarding the bigger picture and especially with "Once you understand how the physical and astral realms inter-relate, you realize the test is meaningless and you move on with your work".

I was too much in awe of the experience to look for evidence on my first projection into the RTZ, the experience in itself was proof enough for me.

I have also had evidence from the 'other' side too, in the form of spiritual experiences as a child and direct and indirect readings from spirit mediums one of these being from perhaps the most well known spirit medium in England.

The information and experiences I had upon receiving their information and my own experiences with OBE's leaves no doubt in my mind of the bigger spiritual picture.

If I had never had an OBE or any spiritual experiences and even if somebody did give me proof that they had read a hidden symbol or obtained some other piece of information (stories and examples of which I have already read and been told) that could only have been gotten by Projection, OBE, Remote viewing etc I would still want to experience it for myself to eliminate all doubt.

I had a second lucid dream only just last week where I dreamt that I was having an Obe, the dream shares certain similarities with yours in that I separated from my dream body.

I dreamt that I was in an house that was unfamiliar to me, I was sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag, to my right was a person I know and a friend of his that I did not know, both were sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags too.

I felt mild vibrations and could hear a crackling sound, similar to what one hears if you stand under electricity power lines. I believe that my mind was providing these sounds and sensations as part of the dream experience as they did not feel quite like the vibrations and sounds that I have experienced when having a true Obe.

I left my body and remember asking for clarity, the room which was previously dark now became illuminated and I could see quite clearly.

I moved farther away from my body and hovered just above the two people to my right, the person I wasn't familiar with awoke, he could see me hovering in front of him, I remember that he was really frightened and upset at seeing me in this spiritual form, the dream then ended.

I have had a handful of Oobe's and the difference between the two is clear, whenever I have an Obe it is always into what is called the RTZ (Real Time Zone) I can see my bedroom as it really is in the physical and my awareness is as it is when I am fully awake.

The only differences being that my bodily dimensions feel much smaller (about the size of a tennis ball) and mobility for the best part is quite tricky (something we perhaps get used to the more Obe's we have).

I would imagine that with effort it's possible to turn one of these lucid dreams into a full-blown Obe. It could be that we in fact have already left our body but some part of the mind or awareness has stayed behind and is just interpreting what is happening to the part of us that has projected.

The wonderful thing that I have managed to gain from this particular lucid dream is that it has confirmed to me that although dreams, lucid dreams and Obe's are certainly all connected in some way a true Out-of-body experience is incomparable to a dream or lucid dream in terms of awareness/consciousness.

When I awoke the next morning I knew and felt this difference, once you have experienced a true projection you know that something special has happened and the feeling stays with you forever!

S

I believe that memories of Oobe's or Astral projections that are presumed lost due to the mind split can on rare occasion be recoverable.

For me this depends on the memory being either activated by a similar incident occurring in the physical to that of the one in the Astral, RTZ or other dimension or likewise some other form of 'trigger' such as a picture, a scent, a taste, a sound or an object etc.

I have made a post in the Dream forum relating to just this topic concerning an experience I had a short while ago regarding a rare deep dream/projection re-call due to a trigger object.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13527

Hi All,
I have had one or two quite intense flying dreams in the past, they were quite abstract but I could sense the motion, speed, acceleration etc.

Just recently I have had lot's of dreams about airplanes, flying in airplanes and airplane crashes, my first interpretation of this was that it was an ill omen and that I shouldn't get travelling by plane for a while!

But something happened in a dream just two nights ago that made me think about how carefully I should interpret my dreams.

Before going to sleep I had been doing some light meditation and some OBE affirmations (I have Oobe'd a handful of times before and have been wanting to try to do it again.)

That night I remember dreaming many times about trying to fly in large aircraft but I did not seem to have much success, near the end of the dream though I felt a presence in the dream, this felt like a higher part of myself or a different aspect of myself or maybe even some kind of archetypal figure.

This presence had taken me to a hill that I was very familiar with, and they had provided me with a hanglider! I made my way down the hill and remembered leaving the ground very briefly, it was quite an exhilarating feeling leaving the ground as I had become quite frustrated at not being able to fly beforehand.

The dream didn't lead to an Oobe though and although it was very vivid I wouldn't class it as a lucid dream either.

Thanks for listening

S

Hi Cube,
I've just checked my Dream/Oobe log and I had a similar experience the same morning as you, not regards the orientation but the opening of the Third eye or Astral vision.

After having just dreamt, I was suddenly aware that I could see through my eyelids, I could see my bedroom ceiling it was quite dimly lit but looked just as it normally does except for the fact that I could see that there were sheets of paper pinned to the ceiling?

Shortly after I willed myself out of body, I felt myself float out, I would say that I got about 1 or 2 metres above my body before I blacked out, I put the blacking out down to the fact that I was probably low on energy.

Thanks for the link ImmuredSoul, the picture that resembles most closely the Orb's in my photo is the one second from the right on the top row, the only difference being that the Orb's in my picture are opaque and can be seen through?