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that's your post?

that's borderline offensive.  it doesn't offend me, but come man, give a little more content to at least justify starting this thread.

Will I win if I drop your name too?

On the afterlife note...I've been reading The Tibetan Book of the Dead and it appears that the afterlife, according to Buddhist philosophy, is very much like the OOBE-state and dream-states. Very much so! The comparison is undeniable.

Have you read the Egyptian "Pyramid Texts".  Some say that these too are a treatise on projection.  Naturally, modern egyptologists say it's just about the after-life because they can't cope with the idea that maybe egyptians were more evolved than us psychologically.  But when taken as an account of projection it makes a lot of sense.

this all sounds so complicated.

you just unplug from physical sensory input.  enough said.

*sigh*

wouldn't the simplest answer be that the astral and the after-life are not the same thing and and don't intersect at any point?

or maybe when we die that's it.  lights out.  there is no astral for us.  just oblivion.

or maybe he's not dead.

Physics or theoretical quantum jubbly is probably very important to the study of consciousness... or vice versa.

that really is the desire that burns in the engines of physicists.  they may not grasp the breadth of the investigation, but that's what they all really want.  they want to know what it is.  what all of it is.  and better yet, why.  the unanswerable question.  makes me tingle just thinking about it.  seriously, my heart center is welling up, oozing divine sparks.  quite nice.

i suspect that a psychology and a more obscure, abstract form of physics will merge soon.  i decided to pull the psych side because i'm better with the formless than with numbers.  but i still study both because they are seeking to answer the same question.  fun.

we are specialists.  we know more about the mind than any therapist could hope to fathom.  (incidentally i'm at university for psychology, shhh...)

billiards, that's a good hobby.  it's all geometry, numbers.  that's the foundation of our reality, geometry.  good times.  it also goes well with beer. (billiards, probably not geometry)

the series started in like the 70's, then stopped for some time, then those brits got it going again a few years ago.

it has been difficult to find the original series online (streaming), so you may want to start with the new series (season 6 started today).

netflix would work i suppose, but that's a lot of doctor to catch up on.  start with the 2005 version (i think 2005).

i forgot that some people still pay for things like that.  kudos for being honorable and honest. 

I think we're something entirely unknown when we project and have to pass through our own subconscious to get to the fun stuff.  but this could just be semantics.

anyway, i had a point to share...right.

you can merge your conscious mind with your subconscious mind.  shamans call it soul retrieval.  i like to call it healing the shadow.  it's the merger of your repressed mind/source of creativity (the 'dark' side, lucifer, imagination, all of those things) and your conscious, thinking mind (the 'light', jesus or some equivalent figure, logic, etc.)

some say that such a merger would constitute enlightenment, balance.  a scale and position that is difficult, if not impossible to comprehend from this split psyche of ours.

reminds me of "the origin of consciousness and the breakdown of the bicameral mind" (by an author that i can't remember).  his premise was entirely speculation (even if educated and well informed), but it is an interesting idea.  in eons past, man's subconscious or source of inspiration (which i use in the most reverent way possible) was one half of his being and his conscious mind the other.  both sides had "equal" weight, a literal two-face (ok, not literally, but not entirely figuratively).  the subconscious spoke to the conscious mind (which inhabited the body in the way we think of inhabiting our body) and the conscious mind did as the subconscious said.  it sounds like an unbalanced partnership but it wasn't.  when you tell your body to do something it usually does it (unless you're ill).  same idea, only you heard your thoughts as the "voice of the gods" so to say.  in the book, something happened, some cataclysm (lets say a comet and all the juicy destruction that comes with it).  it caused a literal break in the psyche (this time i mean literal) and the voice of the gods was for some reason suppressed due to the trauma, which is the state we find ourselves in today.

interesting indeed.

worm food.

I'm a Rustyist.  We're so much better than deists.

You might as well just call me your God, because relative to your primitive system, we Rustyists are beyond your comprehension.

I can mail you a brochure if you're interested in joining up.

[note: sarcasm and a good ol fashioned dose of the funnies.  my name is Rusty, meaning i'm the only Rustyist, but we're still pretty bada$s]

Just wanted to say,
Happy Dr. Who Day!

[ quote ] this is quoted text [ /quote ]

if you remove the spaces between [ and the word, it looks like this:

this is quoted text

or you could always just click that button at the top of someone's post that says "Quote".

I think that is the natural speculation for metaphysical students like ourselves to make.

I have thought so myself.  After studying string theory (amongst other theoretical physics fields), I am not so sure, but I can't really say.

Maybe "mind" is an actual dimension that we will measure some day.  Perhaps not.

It's a neat idea nonetheless.  Which is why I love physics.  Tons of neat ideas with endless room to speculate.  Super fun.

there is nothing i like more than a good rant.

seriously.  i think it may be one of my favorite things in the world.

the other day my boss showed me that my Mercury is at 1 degree of Aries, which means that I communicate like fire and it's ALWAYS burning, welling up inside me looking for an opportunity to escape.  it's eternally imminent.  i can't help but talk, it's like breathing to me.

so i can certainly appreciate when someone needs to throw down a nice cathartic rant.  release that pent up emotional energy.

I do tend to rock pretty hard.

I appreciate the sentiment djed.

I, on the other hand, do not endorse most of what I say.  lol.

I'm kind of like oscar wilde in that i contradict myself often and with zeal.  It's not so strange really, I am a different person in every moment, just like the rest of you.  I just roll with the moment and the insight/intuition that accompanies it.  So, I may not endorse what I said yesterday because things change. 

I don't endorse that either.  It sounds like drivel upon a second reading.

Anyway, thanks djed, I try to help when I can.

I feel like there is a celebrity in my midst. 

I thoroughly enjoyed your method bedeekin. 

first, i grew up in the country, on a farm and apple orchard.  i hunted, fished, ate what i caught, didn't waste any of it.  i loved that life.  but i love the city.  the city is where humans meet and perceive each other.  it's where you find a frame of reference for your own explorations. 

anyway.

from the start of recorded history man has been a cancer on this earth.  it is the nature of our time.  perhaps there were some before us who were worse, perhaps we are light years ahead of them.  perhaps we are the poster children for "how not to be a good human".  whatever the case, our time is a masculine one.  the time of the sun.  this is what we do and we do it because we need to learn the ramifications of our actions.

what you're feeling is the sign of changing times in my opinion.  i do not speak with apocalyptic sentiment, i assure you.  maybe timothy leary was right, and the information age is causing a quantum leap in human consciousness.  i am noticing more and more that people are experiencing a psychic schism, the dissonance is finally catching up to them and they are seeing the outright backwards ways in which we live.  i suspect intentional foul play, but that is beyond the scope of the point i'm making to you.  your mind is being squeezed.  you, like many others, are at the breaking point.  your natural inclination toward balanced living has outgrown the incessant battle between id and superego, your primal nature and the demands of our society respectively (the result of which is what we call ego).  i can't tell you if our time is special, we weren't around in the past to use it as reference.  but i can say that in the few short years i've been doing the work i currently do (which puts me in a unique position to observe newcomers to the realm of the spirit) i have noticed a trend.  maybe it's just the dynamics of my city, maybe it's worldwide. 

my advice is to realize the reality of your reality.  it is yours and no one else can live in it.  take that as you see fit, it is your reality after all.

both are the same, along with numerous other types of "metaphysical journeying".

the destination and the interpretation change with the culture that produces it.

nothing else is different.

if phasing/obe doesn't work for you, try active imagination, shamanic journeying, remote viewing, etc. etc. etc.

it's silly to try and separate them and quite honestly a hindrance to one's development of such skills.

the way our lives are lived is poison, i do not disagree.

you friend, are annoying. 

perhaps you shouldn't be so stand-offish toward our collective plight.

i wouldn't call you arrogant.  i would call you a prisoner of the power trap.

it feels good when you see the world as a speck in your hand.  again, i do not disagree.

move on.

we should have those restrictions that you can't post links unless you've posted a certain number of times.

[experience]

it's pretty simple d3nd3.

the act of astral projection is simple, but not necessarily easy.  in essence your goal would be to shift your sensory awareness away from physical stimuli, similar to how you fall asleep at night.  now you are focused entirely within your mind.  done.

unfortunately, i don't believe this answer is sufficient for you.

you, like most of the "loud-mouth" variety of skeptics, assume you know what astral projection is and make a judgment.  the sad part is that the 'astral projection' taught and spoken of in the mainstream is of a much more new age variety and naturally carries connotations of spirits, extraterrestrials, strange and wonderful realities that defy even imagination, and other fluffiness that sounds like the best sci-fi novels.  It's touted as the spiritual breakthrough for all, the ticket to salvation. Perhaps you're interested in remote viewing (the semi-socially acceptable form of projection that skeptics like because the CIA, SRI, FBI, Secret Service, etc. etc. practiced it and created a systematic technique that was repeatable), perhaps you've read about shamans, perhaps you read the book of the dead or the pyramid texts. 

so what you really what to know is if "it" is real.  these other worlds.  the entities that we meet there.  the things we learn.  the growth we experience.  you want to know that these other things are objectively real, things that you can measure and classify. 

i will most likely be crucified for this statement by some here, but it's ok.  the bottom line is that it isn't real.  it's all in our heads.  we do not leave our bodies.  call it what you want, a dream, a lucid dream, an astral projection, OBE, phasing, shamanic journey, active imagination, soul flight, meditation, remote viewing, clairvoyance, psyche travel, psychological travel (never heard that one before this thread).  it's absolutely irrelevant, they are all EXACTLY the same thing.  they are different perspectives of the same experience that have spawned quasi-religious cult followings, complete with dogma and proper dress.  it is strictly our imagination.

that is as far as one can go within the scope of this forum and the details of this question.  however, as a lifetime skeptic (which isn't always a good thing friend), this will not be enough because a bigger question is presented now.  that is, what is the nature of conscious experience and what, if any, are the confines of consciousness.  if they are infinite, then maybe my imagination is your imagination and in a sense all this OBE stuff is very real in the way you would like to think of the word. 

remember what i said in the beginning, "in essence your goal would be to shift your sensory awareness away from physical stimuli, similar to how you fall asleep at night.  now you are focused entirely within your mind."  I have achieved this end and so I speak from personal experience as well as extensive research.  if it's really that easy to feel like I'm in a totally different reality, it stands to reason that there isn't much difference between this reality and that one.  perhaps your definition of objectivity and how you measure it isn't quite as accurate as you thought. 

so, if you really want to find out for yourself if the "experience of another reality" is real, then it will take mental discipline that we just aren't taught in our modern society, and thus may require intensive training (depending on your particular psychological makeup).  however, if you want to try to prove that these experiences are objectively real (by your definition of what objectively real means), then i fear you will be dissapointed.  for a skeptic, that is a cop out answer.  as someone who has been there, it is the only answer any of us can give you.  the main reason is that we are talking about experience, not objective reality.  personal experience is intensely subjective, and barring the psychic transfer of my consciousness to yours, such an experience can never be expressed in the words of the 'materialist' reality that i believe you are seeking answers for.

i sincerely hope that helps you understand the distinction that needs to be made with such a topic.  again, to clarify:

1. the act of experiencing another reality is simple.  just put yourself there more than you are here.  (requires mental discipline)

this is different from,

2. believing in the objective (by materialist/physical definition) reality of the realms visited.

so, when you spout off about proving OBEs, please make sure you know what you're asking. 


beyond that, godspeed friend

Hello i am user here, i come spread positive energy in the forum.  I have some questions for u folks there , you programs.
 

I want to be able to have an Out Of Body Experience, and usually when i want something, i get it. Its just the general thing with me and my life, everything i have seeked, i have gotten. And so therefore , i can conclude that if i do not get this Out Of Body Expererience reasonably soon, it does mean that its highly like the whole thing is a hoax.  I will look at things from all aspects, and go ahead and call me arrogant i don't care, i am actually very aware of my high capacity of thinking and analysing, its ok if you envy me lol.

Well , the purpose of this post is to raise some questions and for people to begin to take this topic serious, now that the most serious person who always achieves what he wants in life is on teh topic, you are guys are lucky.

Ok first off i want to see here, Please someone post if you have had an obe, and then add me to skype at d3nd3-o0 for further investigation.

Secondly, if you are a skeptic like myself, then add me too , and i will involve you with teh other skeptics who are seeking the correct answer.  Yes we have all heard the phrase : " go experience it to be happy " .. but that doesn't quite cut it for us skeptics who spend literally endless hours trying the same thing over and over.  I hate to sound rude, but its the reality of this situation, some order needs to be put in place here.

Ok thats all for now, this is by no means the END of me. I am going to be here for the next 60 + years of this forums' life to see for certain the answer and whether or not you were all fakers, just teasing the younger population.  Hope this raises some positive vibrational frequency amongst the fellow wizards here.

good show sir.

have your investigations found any of the answers that you seek?

i would be interested to know.

a quick grounding meditation while OOB seems to help.  i would think that you have to "ground/anchor" yourself in the astral.  perhaps something like acclimating to the new sensory input.