Messages

Hi,

Thanks for the replies

LOBO1,

Sounds you're at a similar stage to me, like you, have made the concerted effort to practice every day now, am finding the ability to get to Focus 3/10 alot more straight forward.
For the first time last night I was getting alot of sounds, voices(Mumbled conversations) and there was this tune playing off in the distance, though like the voices I couldn't quite pick up the melody. I spent quite a bit of time trying to chase it down inside my head, tho it was proving quite elusive! After I decided to call it a day I looked up at the bedside clock to discover that I'd been there for an hour and a half, instead of my usual forty-five minutes The funny thing is that it seemed like the usual time period that I practiced...So I'm not sure what happened there, but I'm looking forward to trying again tonight!

There is no real correct way to deepen the state further. Once you obtain sufficient "lift" in a deep focus 10, it can either be a roller coaster ride and being castapulted in a completely different environment, or you may progressively deepen the state through focus 12 (abstract forms) until you reach 3d blackness (focus 21).

Tom,

  Well this is the thing I'm aiming for (The 3d blackness), from what you say it sounds like I need to continue tinkering about in Focus 10-12, 'till I get the 'whoosh' off to another "area/focus"

To get that going..a mental run down can work (but only from a deep focus 10 in my experience), or just fool around with images a bit, since it is very delicate blance of left and right brain activation (for lack of a better term), and you do not want to axctivate your left brain too much..prematuraly...

When I've tried doing a rundown from this point, I find it very difficult not to wake the brain up, so when doing this would it be right to try to...err...waft the imagery in, in a dreamy sort of way, rather than calling it to mind in the usual sense?

Cheers,

Steve

Hi All,

After all the 'tension in the head' ramblings, I've have been making a concerted effort to achieve a stable focus 10. I've been practicing Frank's noticing exercise more than anything else, tho I've had the odd dabble with trying to phase to F2oC.  I've read through Major Tom excellent essay on recognizing a Focus 10, can relate to alot of the things he's said. I get the enlarged space in the head, the loss of perception of body parts, etc...
So my question is; Once you know that you've arrived (figuratively speaking), at Focus10, do you just keep looking/focusing off into the blackness, wait for the shift to happen, or is there something I need to do on a more 'pro-active' level?

Cheers,

Steve

runlola,

No not read this one, I went and had a look at his website and read through some of the reviews.

This one seemed an honest appraisal of his work;

http://www.samharris.org/index.php/samharris/full-text/the-independent-uk/

Seems to me just another re-packaging of the same old stuff



Steve

Hans Solo,

Ok, will do

Cheers,

Steve

I've got a bit of a question about the centers thing.

 I've just gone and had a look at the web page that BlueEarthJacket posted, although the colours are pretty much correct, when I see them, they're not in the same places as on the diagram.

So what gives?

Cheers,

Steve

It's an interesting idea. I'm surprised that no-one (To my knowledge) has attempted to make an animation, or something like that to represent what they see when trying to phase, from the 1st person perspective. When I'm further down the road(so to speak) I might have a crack at making one. One of my other hobbies is making models for computer games, so using 3d software to make such a thing might be kinda fun to do

Cheers,

Steve

"Ain't that the truth! But the cool thing is that your making progress, and this is proven due to the fact that you think you are further along than you are. I think its also alot of wishful thinking too! "

Willis,

LoL..Yeah I'm turning out to be a real legend in my own mind..Hehehe..

But in all honesty I'm still floundering here, despite having read all these posts over and over again, years of book study and now practicing every chance I get I suspect it's going to be a case of progression via erosion.
Still I'm a stubborn SoB, won't give up on it. The benefits are worth the hassle of learning I'd say, eh?

ATB

Steve

Frank,

LoL...So I'm not likely to miss it then

Thanks for that. I'll make a post as and when I find it. Think it'll be a while tho...


Cheers,

S

Frank,

Sorry I to ask, is just for reference. When you're in the Fz, how big a space is it? Like is it VAST, or room sized? Or in your head size?



Steve

Frank,

"In answer to your question about reaching, to make progress it is only necessary to think just a little ahead of yourself. After a while of practice you will be able to reach to Primary Focus 3 and make the transition in one fell swoop. But for now it would be best to take it in small steps. "

Rgr on the small steps I was looking at Major Toms post in the FAQ, realized I've not actually made that much progress...Just goes to show you the difference between where you think you are, where you actually are...Ahem!

"Regarding the other material, I am finding it fascinating realizing that many of the very early teachings also apportion consciousness into 4 primary areas. Judaism was one set of teachings I looked at in particular and I've mentioned a few times how, when I cleared away all the layers of religious waffle, when I dug through to the core teachings, you could see they too were saying that consciousness was apportioned into 4 primary areas and I find that fascinating. But then people came along and made a religion out of it and all the original teachings were lost under layer upon layer of ego-tripping dogma in the form of all the religious conditioning."

Hehehe... It seems to be part and parcel of every major religion I've studied. On the one hand you have the people who can actually go to these focus levels and explore reality, then there are the others who like to turn it into some cozy abstract notion, debate the in's and out's of something they don't have any direct experience of. What I have found so annoying is that within most systems are some explanations of sort on how to get to grip with the practical side of it....So why(Particularly in the west) don't they promote having a crack at it themselves? Ibn Arabi states that everyone can have access to these things, so I wonder then why people don't make the effort to find out the reality behind the words? Fear maybe?

Anyhow...I digress The last two attempts have yielded pretty much the same results. The first was not such a big hit, tho an interesting thing happened after I'd dropped out of Monroes F3/10, got literally bombarded with images.They seemed to average maybe 10 a second, went on for about 30 seconds! The second try was alot more stable, tho not so deeply into the F3/10 state, was have troubles with shutting the eyes down..Grrrr! That and there was a fair amount of brain tension to deal with. I think alot of that had to do with yesterdays events...
I read your post this morning about the reaching, found that the 'looking' further into the distance wasn't achieving anything a such, but focusing just beyond the images got better results.
Like you say a little bit at a time

Ramble over for today.


Cheers,

Steve

Hi Frank

Thanks for your post

"The actual effects of the focus 10 state do vary from person to person. But the common factors are that you "become" within your own mind in a kind of twilight zone between the physical and the start of your own mind proper. The physical is "back there" somewhere. You are totally free of it and free to simply wander about in a kind of 3D space "within your head" so to speak. This is focus 10."

I see what your saying there, it did have a definite sense of 3d to it, tho I didn't have the ability to move about in it. I suspect now that I've had more time to reflect upon the experience that I must have been somewhere on the edge of the focus3/focus10.

"At focus 10, your body is NOT just very relaxed that you cannot feel it and you are perhaps seeing images in your mind that are grabbing your focus of attention. No, there is a definite shift, a definite withdrawal of your focus from the physical into your own mind. As your focus shifts, you feel it distinctly. The preliminary state, the feeling of being very relaxed and having your attention focused inwards is focus 3. At focus 3, you are still very much ?in? the physical body but you have, in a sense, ?forgotten? that you have one. Because what has happened is, your attention has turned inwards and you are now laying back looking at all the pretty patterns and things that a person typically offers themselves."

When this shift happened I got a real sense of movement and an almost dizzy sensation in the head(A bit like when you stand up too quickly and you feel like you are about to fall over), felt like I turned round about 90-180 degrees, really quickly.

"The other thing I think you are getting to grips with now is these focus states are something you have to mentally "reach" for. I think the modernism would be being "pro-active". You need to fuel it by looking ahead and anticipating with a high degree of expectation. But at the same time you can't force it. It's a tricky kind of mental balancing act."

Yep, I have to agree with the 'reaching' thing and being 'pro-active'. Now that I think about it, it was my attitude before trying it out that stood me well. It's something I'm going to make a concerted effort to do each time I make an attempt.

I've got a question about the 'reaching' a such. When you're looking into the blackness and focusing your 'mental' eyes beyond the boundary images that pop up, does your focus of attention shift according to how 'far' off into the distance/blackness you look? A bit like changing the focus of your physical eyes from, say looking at your computer monitor, then glancing up to view the bottom of your garden, through you window? Or doesn't it work like that?
When I was trying the other day the Images from the boundary were really close (almost in-my-face), so the point on which I was focusing on was not that far away.

O/T :
 Incidentally I've started reading this book about Sufism, called 'Ibn al-Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination'. I got into reading comparative theology to find out how to reach/attain these different states, this was before I found the 'Astral-Pulse website', what you are teaching
Anyway... Very interesting so far, It's basically saying about how the Sufi's use the imagination to gain access to god...I'm not into the notions of 'deities', but there's this very nice little diagram of how Ibn al-Arabi breaks up reality into four key areas. He quotes them as being; The corporeal world-The world of imagination-The world of spirits-(and finally) Being. If I'm reading the dates right, he lived 560-638 AD.

Cheers,

Steve

Wow, these are some great posts!

Frank!

I can't thank you enough for your post yesterday, it's exactly what I needed to hear! Remind me to buy you a round of beers, as and when we get to meet up

I left work yesterday, took the text of your post home with me, while I was having dinner I read it through several times, so as to get the words imprinted. Later on I got some time to try it out, went through the usual relaxation stuff, after about 1/2 an hour I'd gotten to the 'relax-the-eyeballs' point. This time round it was alot easier, tho I had to wrestle a bit with keeping them still and after about 10 mins they finally behaved. I was then mulling over what you'd been saying about focusing beyond the images(But without thinking too much), got the occasional image pop up, but made the concerted effort to ignore what was appearing and began pushing/pulling my mental focus to beyond where I'd normally see these images. I started to get a buzzing in my forehead and a kind of swirly sense of movement, thought "Whoa! Whoa! What's going on here!?"
So I put the...err...brakes on, if that's the right word? (Felt like when you're rolling a car back, but a bit at a time to maintain control.)
All the tension in the eyes and forebrain just dropped away and I'm in a dark space. When I say space it appeared like the inside of my head had become cavernous, what I could see as such were not lights as such, but like a negative image of white noise you see on the tv, when not tuned to a station. I thought to myself WOW! what an incredible sensation! I felt really free and relaxed, no sensation of body as such and the breathing had disappeared somewhere too...
Ahem....Unfortunately then, after having about 10 mins of this the mp3 track I use stopped and I got blasted with one of the songs I listen to during the day, it snapped me out of it real quick!
 So I guess this must have been focus 10? I suppose what I need to do is to fire up the imagination and picture a scene? to get to f2?

Now at least I know what I need to aim for, for the time being. Happy factor 10!

Cheers,

Steve

" I've got so many aspects of me milling about here, there and everywhere it's unreal. I step into Focus 2 and I'm surrounded by me"

LoL Frank, you're starting to sound like agent Smith from the final Matrix movie

Some more ramblings...

I'm just amazed by the amount of tension there is in the eyes, the overall tension in the brain seems to be fairly straight forward to deal with, but getting the eyes to relax fully is pretty tricky! Yesterday afternoon I'd gotten to edge of f1/f2, or perhaps Monroes F10?, was making a concerted effort to relax the eyes. It seemed like there was a second eyelid closing as I was concentrating on each eyeball, weird effect, but I could feel it relax(Muscular), then there was an additional darkening, guess this is the receptors actually powering down and going into 'sleep' mode. At this point I'm getting random images, find at the moment they're getting in the way, as soon as they appear the physical eyes try to power up again and focus/look at the image, which destroys the overall effect I'm try to get. One thing I see quite alot of, are these blotchy images. The only way I can describe them is if you imagine looking at the sky at the point where it would join a tree line/roof line and trace out that shape into a silhouette, everything below is a kind of gold/really defocused/mangled image and everything above that has a blue sky/gold colour. I'm not sure if this is the 'astral' state that Frank talks about, if I need to focus on the this to make the images sharp? There are points within this that randomly come into sharp focus, can see (More often than not) they're everyday objects as you'd find in the house. Yesterday I seemed to see alot of glasses of water??
By this point the body sensations have pretty much gone, tho I'm still aware it's there and my breathing has slowed and shallowed right out, pop back(as it were) just to see what it's doing.

Now my question is...Do I need to do something here? I.e. try to re-focus my mental eyes to see the images clearly? Or just wait for it to happen by itself?(I've read that things are supposed to happen automatically). Is there a tangible 'mechanical-thing/process' I can get hold of mentally and move this 'focus' with? It all seems so 'flakey/inconsistent' and out of control at the moment...
I'm still trying to find the 'off-button', still seems to be eluding me I'm going to have a look on some of the medical/brain sites, to see if they know where in the brain the mechanism for controlling bodily sleep is.

Any Ideas ?

Cheers all!

Steve

How do

Umm...I've had another funky overlay experience, was wondering if this is the famous fz? It basically looked like and inside-out golf ball. When I say golf ball, there were points of light at equidistant positions, kinda like the dimples on said golf ball. I thought it looked rather cool!

Yea? Nay?

Cheers,

Steve

When I was practicing on Sunday and last night for that matter I could feel what I can only guess was the whole brain under 'tension', the fact it was still switched on. Umm...It was a kind of duality thing, my conscious awareness was one thing and the active, but calm brain was something else...It felt like a separate presence, you knew it was there, if that makes any sense? The only other time I've felt it 'switch-off' like that was years ago, when doing some self hypnosis work. The only metaphor I can think of is when you're driving in a car, minding your own business, the motor cuts out and there's that distinct absence of engine noise, all you can hear is the wind and the tires on the road....
The other thing I really need to sort out is that stupid swallow reflex, it's bloomin' annoying!  Any ideas as to how I can stop this?

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Giselle,

Sure, here's the link;

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1141

I reposted it originally in the 'Mind-Sick' post.

Yep I know exactly how you feel, trying to get space to practice is really tough. Not sure if it's any use but years ago, when I was into the meditation stuff I'd wait 'till every one had gone to bed and sit in an upright chair/rocking chair, one that had a back long to support my head, would stuff a small cushion behind, to support my neck. Comfy blanket over the legs and 'jobs-a-good-un!' I found initially that trying to do the phasing practice lying in bed really hard, as you said you just end up falling asleep, but I've found over the last few weeks that I say to myself that "For the first hour of bed I'm going to practice, then sleep". Seems to be working so far, as a part of me realizes that I'm serious about doing this, so will keep the sleepy feelings to the side, whilst I'm concentrating.

ATB

Steve

Greetings!

Having read through Franks post about his 'squishy' ball technique at the w/e, was so impressed how much easier it's been doing the relaxing 'thing' this way, rather than going the 'from-the-feet-up' traditional method. I'd guess it took me roughly half the time (20mins Max), to reach the border of f1/f2. Even though I've not managed to cross that border yet, It's great  to spend much more time now (1/2 hour_45mins) tackling the reasons as to why I'm not able to make that final step. I'm beginning to suspect in a big way that it's the brain itself that's sticking the spanner in the works. I went through the process of finding areas of the brain that had tension and was either using Franks method, or something along the lines of mental Acue-pressure. The mental Acue-pressure is basically the same thing as the squishy ball, but making a mentally constructed thumb and making small circular motions in the area and visualizing the tension dissipating until the sensation of tension is gone. A curious thing I've noticed is that I can steer/herd the tension area around, as it doesn't seem to be fixed. What the tension is ultimately (Other than just tension), I'm not really sure but in the process of removing it the bodily sensations disappear rapidly. Since starting the practice I've noticed that my perception of noise has increased dramatically, several times I has to remove my ear-plugs as I thought something external was really happening..LoL..Pops and bangs, or rather it seemed like knocks and bumps, oh and distant voices and the sensation that someone was prodding my feet! Weird!
Last thing to report for the day is again with the 'mental-massage' is if you make a 'stroking' sensation across the brain, or particularly along the gap, between the two hemi-spheres (Top of the head) I get an almost 'ziiiiiing' like sensation, with a sense of motion? Again very odd, but fun
I did briefly find what appeared to be the 'off button', but I got so excited about finding it it switched itself back again on not long after. <sigh>

So what are you supposed to do after you manage to switch the thing off anyway? Focus on the rundown scene?

Cheers,

Steve

Frank,

 Thanks ever so much for your words/encouragement there, I really appreciate it I had a dig through the Astral pulse labyrinth(My goodness! what a huge number of posts there are here! ), and found one that seems to be one you referred to;

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1141

I'm about to print it out, so will be able to re-read it, when I leave work tonight. It's some really interesting reading, you point out several things that I immediately recognized, will get to work on. I also suspect this is this issue which I've been stumbling over in the last few weeks, boy what a mental conundrum this is! Still I enjoy a good challenge, even though it can be so frustrating at times!!

mactombs,

LoL, yeah that's what I thought too, until the nausea hit me I've been sitting here thinking about how I found the thing...I remember I was thinking how nebulous the process/method in finding the "I" was and was moving my awareness around inside my brain case thinking "Well it must be in here somewhere" (A bit like a mental version of trying to find something you've lost amongst all the clutter in the house(Looking under the piles of books,etc)). So I'm using the awareness like a mental hand, eventually got to the area that everyone talks about, felt something there, felt like it was fixed, or maybe stuck there....And so I went "aha!"
But! Again, now that I'm thinking about the process what helped me find it essentially I was following the running commentary back to it's source, like finding the direction of a sound, with your ears... If that makes any sense?
 As soon as I thought that I had this picture come up in mind of something like a megaphone, or one of those p.a tannoys on the long pole...I'm not sure what that even means yet, if anything?? Or if it's at all correct?? <shrugs>

Anyway...More food for thought I guess, I need an aspirin as all this speculation's given me a headache..Owww

ATB

Steve

<edit> Frank,

I've spent some hours this afternoon trying to find the expanded version of the 'squishy ball' topic this afternoon, but to no avail But I did enjoy alot of the posting that you and some others have made, how techniques, etc have developed If you happen to wander by again, I wonder, would you mind typing a bit more to expand it again? I know you're a very busy fellow, so if the essentials are contained in the link above, then no
worries

Thanks again

S

I got some time at the w/e to do a little practice on finding that point in the mind, to focus on. Having found what I can only presume was it, I was trying to persuade it to shift into the scene I'd been building. It was having none of it, so after 15 Min's I switched to the noticing exercise, was getting various swirly patterns appear, tho nothing to make me go "Whoa! Here we go!" So got to musing about I must be not looking in the right place, began probing around on the inside of my head to find the "I". It felt a bit like having a mental finger inside my skull, probing/feeling/tracing the contours until I came across something that had some resistance, or more like something that went 'Dink' when touched. Aha I thought this 'must' be it. Anyway not alot was happening on the imagery front, so in the end I thought I'd have a bit of fun with it, before stopping for the day.
I some how managed to grab hold of it mentally (A bit like putting some mentally constructed hands around it), and tried pulling and pushing to see what would happen.
Now...Here's the strange thing. I play one of those binural beats/waves through some headphone (mostly because of the external/distracting noises, where I live.), In the background of the sine wave I have that crashing ocean wave pink noise, gives that nice whooshing sound, so I start pulling and pushing to the sound of the waves, after a few moments the FoA starts to move! (although in physical terms it could have only been a few mm, or maybe 1/2 cm) After about five minutes or so of this pulling and pushing, really concentrating I got it up to quite a good speed, could see movement/ oscillations/ripple in a sort of deep silver blue colour...Then all of a sudden...LoL.. I start getting a quite strong wave of motion sickness, and had to stop. After the sensation had stopped I laughed like hell

Ideas?

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Telos, nicedreams,

Thanks for the replies! Yep I've been scouring the posts almost daily for anything that'll help. Alot of the information I needed to find has been posted in other threads over the last few days(Strangely enough), there is also the trouble that I'm (also) trying too hard. I'm effectively trying to beat the door down, just frustrated at the inability to trigger that lucid transition into F2oC. I just have this feeling that there's some piece of information that I'm lacking, something that maybe I should be keeping in mind, whilst either doing the rundown, or when I'm actually making the attempt to phase to F2oC, or the Fz. It's driving me mad!
I can see why the mystics'd burn incense to associate a smell with a certain state of mind, seems to me that in a modern sense that there must be a mental procedure of sorts to help get that balance. I know that might start to sound like some kind ritual, but isn't that what it the rundown is essentially? Something to get the mind prepared? Sorry I'm starting to ramble here I guess I'm just going to have to pull the process to pieces, start over and see where I'm going wrong...

Yeah, I have to agree with you about the 'objective' thing, it's not reliable. I'll sit quietly and go through a rundown, with a clear intention of going to one or the other, only to have it dissipate, or wander off somewhere I don't want to be. It feels like driving in a car, without the steering wheel being attached to the wheels, so no matter where I turn the wheel mentally, I more often that not just end up running off that mental road

Incidentally I think I had an F1/Fz overlay a while ago. It just appeared out of nowhere, when I was getting ready for sleep. It looked like a 3d space, was a silvery moonlight kind of colour. I didn't know what to do with it, so just lay there gazing into it. I was very peacefull

Let me know how you get on

Cheers,

Steve

Oh well...I guess not then <sigh>



Steve

Hi,

I'm still trying to find that comfortable balance, in which I can make the transition to F2oC, at least trying to reduce the time I need to get to that border. It might be part of the reason why I'm getting such flakey results
So I was wondering what everyone tries to keep in mind when making an attempt? Is it focusing on that point in your mind? or perhaps getting your breathing right? or having a quiet space. Is it just letting go, or maybe a combination of these things? I get the feeling that in some respects it's a bit of a juggling act, know everyone will have their own essential method, but I'd be really interested to hear what you have to say

All the very best,

Steve

I read in one of the Buddhism books about when Siddhartha Gautama was dying that he was saying to his followers that he was going to somewhere from which he wouldn't return. I wonder if this is the same thing as Major Tom says;

"Eventually he reaches the emitter.."portal to God" though no-one knows exactly what is behind it. Communication cut off one's you go through it/no return."

It's definitely not Focus4 as the Buddhist texts point to Focus 4 as the dissolving of self and gaining 'enlightenment'...Hmmmm
I'm also beginning to wonder if this Moen disk is the same thing as the Buddhist Dharma wheel? Some interesting similarities here!

Cheers all

Steve

I always took trance to mean to be 'focused' away from the physical body and being aware/interacting with the subconscious part of the self, as shedt said you get that pleasant sinking sensation, the loss of physical sensations too

I tried regression via hypnosis years ago, tho nothing really ever happened as a result of trying it...But it was a useful exercise in calming the mind and experimenting with other parts of yourself.

Steve

Hi Frank,

Thanks for your reply on this, it's just so great being able to get straight answers to questions, having spent so many years wading through all this mystical goo...and I'm really finding it a load of goo in the last few months or so, to the point I just don't have the inclination to pick the mystical books up any more! Blachh!!
Now here's another odd question as of course I have no experience of it at the moment and that is; Do 'dead' people sleep?(LoL) I know sleeping is a physical requirement of this focus of reality, tho can the 'glorious-dead' as you call them still 'switch-off'? This kinda relates to my previous question about retaining the ability to play around in f2, in that as you and a few others are spending time in the Fz and listening to music, etc, can you still do this, to get some quiet time to yourself(If you feel like it)?

If I may draw you, for a moment about Focus 4 and your comments about how your life will never be the same subsequently. This has got me thinking/reflecting and I suppose speculating about the point to all of this 'life-time' stuff, in a lot of respects it seem almost like some kind of scientific 'double-bluff' experiment(If you get what I mean?). What I'm trying to articulate is the fact that despite there are roughly 6 billions of us living on this world at the moment(figuratively speaking), how is it that relatively few are actively attempting to find this truth about the 'real' nuts and bolts of what 'we' really are? I suppose the culmination to all of my experiences with the comparative theology stuff, with all the 'isms is that eventually(If you look hard/careful enough) you find they all lead to the same thing, which I can only surmise is why I ended up here, asking you all these pain in the neck questions! LoL  
What I've ascertained from various historical characters is that once you've acquired what appears to be an active knowledge/ realization of what can only be f4, then it means that your movement through consciousness is complete, or so they claim, since the figurative 'wool' can't be pulled over your eyes any longer. I can only guess that it might be something along these lines as I've found more or less the same thing from so many different sources.  So... I'm wondering what you might have to say about this? Or is this perhaps the culmination of a lot of mystical goo?

Oh! I nearly forgot. Been reading a biography on a stand-up comic, by the name of 'Bill Hicks', he's been a favorite comedian of mine for quite a while now. Anyway, in the biography it's been saying that during one of his drug induced 'altered-states' he had what can only have been an f1/f4 overlay, was saying that he and a friend felt like they were plugged into a huge network of minds! It's only a small mention in the book, but it's there all the same

Thanks, as always

Steve