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I just found this from another thread:

There was an interesting programme about sleep on our local TV not so long ago. One of the points is that sleep state activities take place in the old brain and during dreaming the higher brain is switched off so analytical comprehension is not as when awake. It maybe that Lucid dreaming is the state where the higher brain is also active so the dream can be analysed with detail and so on.
It also said when in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep the measureable electrical activity is identical to being awake.

The thread can be found here:

http://forums.astraldynamics.com/viewtopic.php?t=1111&highlight=animals

Only part of it is relevant to this discussion (around half way down page 1)

This sounds plausible to me. If it is true, then wouldn't it mean that if there is life after death, no brain = no lucidity? That would suck.

This is where things get complicated. So much of mind function can be related to specific brain function and functioning (such as brainwaves determining what conscious state we perceive), that I don't really think we can know about for definite about lucidity after death.
This is to a degree where my desire for proof of the AP state comes in (as I've argued in other threads).

On the other hand, I've been keeping a log of my dreams, and I virtually always remember my dreams. It may be that dreams are abstract recordings of workings that we have little concept of on waking, and so they seem nonsense. For instance, some dreams seem to be formative of the day's events - almost like you are constructing your reality to some extent. There's a sense of deja-vu when you encounter this ... how memories of dreams seem somehow connected to an event in an abstract way that involves more than just appearances, but emotional situation.

I've seen such things in my dream diary – if one has a keen memory of the days events, then it's more frequent then not to find the dreams of the night shaped by them in some form. Sometimes this is quite abstract – but there is a definite link.
But then again, sometimes I ave dreams which are so far removed from the days events (and seeming reality and logic) that I'm not really sure where they originate

Emotions, symbols, feelings, made into images are confusing if you take them as face value - sort of like Aesop's Fables without the moral or analogy. I think this might be why dreams and the astral are confusing. We're trying to make literal sense of emotive representations, trying to swim upstream, so we become exhausted

I agree with this too. I think we are too word bound in our daily lives. By this I mean we attempt to translate all things into words, even our "thoughts". A lot is lost in the translation.
Something interesting one notices when they watch the mind is that before we actually think something to ourselves, we already know what we are about to think (in internal dialouge). For example I might think: "I'll have to go to the shops soon and buy 'blah' and 'foo' etc". And such a word bound though takes up seconds, yet if I stop myself before the first utterance, on a more abstract level that knowledge already exists. It seems a lot (all?) of word based thought is redundant. I'm not sure if this mode of thinking is a side effect of Western based education systems.
As we become more entrenched in word based reasoning, perhaps our ability for abstract and symbolic interpretation is reduced – who knows.

Sometimes
One possibility is that the itches are not really bad (and would barely grab our attention if we were active) but due to reduced sensory perception (because of a trance state) they're amplified and so seem unbearable.

Had you been meditating for long when this happened? Some of the feelings of deep meditaion (when one borders or drops below the level of sleep consciously (or where sleep would usually take over)) can be quite uncomfortable. In my experience the same sensations do not always arise, so you might not feel such a thing again.
Was this twsiting sensation equally uncomfortable everywhere? or was there certain spots where it was worse?

Deeper meditative levels reduce ones awarenss of the physical body. This can have strange effects such as feeling bodily distortions (common ones are twisting, or body parts vanishing, or even body parts merging together into a single part).
It seems the mind makes up for reduced sensory input (the same principles on which sensory deprivation tanks work).

There is only Consciousness, everything else is just a creation of the mind; its not real.

Creation of which mind? And if this is so, why is reality so stable (to so many individual's) and not rapidly changing like thoughts do?

Hello Mister Jingo,

Spirits are afriad of people with a strong Will and who understand these realities because they know they are no match for such people.

If you think it is the subconscious mind, there is another type of seance where the sitters use an entire table. They place their fingers lighly on the edge of the table and when a communication occurs the entire table rocks backwards and forwardsin answer to the questions. Sometimes the table levitates several feet in the air  

Best regards,

Adrian.

I'll have to look into that
The last time I used a board with friends, we were given a lot of information about the man we were communicating with - things about his past, DOB, addresses etc. Perhaps when we do check if the information is valid it will stop me sitting on the fence

I've used ouija boards many times and have had no bad experiences or lasting effects.
From my experience with them i'm still not convinced it's a spirit speaking over that of automatic movements created by the subconscious (ie we speak with each person subconscious who is at the board).

Strangely, everytime I've used a ouija board the 'spirits' either refuse to speak to me directly, or answer questions with me sitting at the board - giving reasons such as they are afraid of me and I have a powerful mind! lol. Ego-gratifying perhaps, but no idea why such things would happen

Question:

What is lucidity? Why do we become lucid? When we do become lucid, why does it happen, and why isn't it the way we always are? Why is it that lucidity is easily lost and generally doesn't last very long?

Have you ever wondered if death is just like a dream, you'll forget, or not have lucidity? Is lucidity a property of physical-life/brain logic?

Why do we have to fight to maintain awareness, and is it the same way when you're dead? If it's not, is the lack of awareness/the need for lucidity due to having a physical body?

objective knowing. able to touch,see,smell,hear,taste. none of which we can do when we are not lucid. coincidence?

I do all of these in non-lucid dreams. What differentiates a lucid and non-lucid to me is the ability to make a conscious decision (or to consciously alter the direction of the dream) - rather than just being a watcher.

I've tried this with my sister. I started pulling her left arm - trying to pull her out of body. In my perception I managed to, I told her what was happening and showed her how to float, and move through objects.
THe day after, in her experience, at the time of my projection she woke up to find a 'black smokey looking' man standing over her bed reaching out for her.
Not sure what happened, but it was interesting either way.

I'm not saying either way if hypnosis does or does not manifest past life memories. I'm just pointing at evidence that hypnosis makes people very open to suggestion (the basis of hypnosis) and such a state is ripe for invention, as can be seen in the invention of false memories.
Hypnosis is just a tool to allow a person to enter a suggestible state - all improvements gained from it are the result of the person being hypnotised (the mind can effect the body in amazing ways - hypnosis can plant the seed of this change in the mind).
In my opinion, if hypnosis can fool a person to believing false memories of this current life (to the extent of naming people as paedophiles and ruining their lives unfounded) how can we trust the memories of past lives?
People might claim that the knowledge they retrieve for a past life can be verified by historic records. All I can say to this is that the mind seems to be a leech, remembering everything it seems (even that which conscious awareness misses) - isn't it at least feasible it can remember and recall various facts it hears over time to create this evidence (these facts potentially being the seed of the past life memory creation)?

I feel hypnosis has been proven too unreliable to used as a source of evidence for past life proof.

As a side note: I have seen convincing evidence of past life knowledge being gained through astral projection.

[lot]

I'm very weary of any information gained from hypnosis; there have been a lot of cases of false memory syndrome, where a patient has undergone therapy and literally invented memories of abuse or other acts which never happened. They believe these new 'memories' to be real.
A quick google of this term will bring up many examples of this. Surely if a person can't be certain of their current lifetime memories under hypnosis, we should not put much confidence in those supposedly gained from previous lifetimes?

This sounds like a projection to me Astral does not always match the physical location we are projecting in.

It seems when we dream higher brain functions are bypassed - and so we take the part of an observer - yet not realising we are observing. Becoming lucid seems to enable higher brain function (and so critical reasoning) in a dream state.

Perhaps I shouldn't mention experiences from my past here - but there was one occasion on a certain substance where time nearly stopped.  The second hand on a clock was going so slow it had nearly stopped. I got a bit freaked out so would walk around my apartment – and after around 45 minutes (perceived time) I'd go back to my room to look at the clock and only a minute had gone by. At one point I took a very long shower – got back to my room and 3 minutes or so had gone by.

That has never happened before or since, but it showed me how real time dilation can be even when one is quite conscious and aware.

[you're dead!]

Hi,

Well she and I are pretty much complete opposites in most things, especially when it comes to spiritual matters. Shes one of the type that believes that when you're dead, you're dead! . That's fine by me I respect her views on the matter, tho she has been interested a little in buddhism recently.

MisterJingo,
               I've talked alot about phasing, etc, usually after about two minutes I get the flippant hand wave and the 'Whatever' comment, which esentially means 'I don't give a monkeys' what you think. For a long time now she gives out the impression that everything has to be done 'her way or it's the high-way'. She is unfortunately a very selfish person in many respects, is making everything within the realtioship very tiring. She even thinks that I'll be off sha**ing all the ladies in the astral, no I've not ever been unfaithful to her.

Lente,

Normally I'd agree with you, but having the sound of crashing tiles in the next room is asking a bit much really!

Tombo,
         She already knows this, still the interuptions continue. This is what I've been thinking over the last few months (Some more fundamental problems), which she refuses to address. We've already tried counciling, but she refuses to see any other point of view than her own.

What I guess it comes down to is that we both know we're opposites, even tho opposites attract, as the saying goes... They repulse too.

This has been going on in one form or another since we've been married (8 years), and as you might imagine...I'm just really freakin tired of it

Thanks for listening

S

p.s Nothing like airing your laundry in public, eh? LoL

Hey Steve,

I'm not really too sure what you can do given the circumstances you've described. If you have tried talking and she isn't willing to listen or won't show you a bit of consideration during your practice time - I guess the only option is to practice when she is out (that's if you are ever in when she is not).
Have you always acted like this towards each other? Or were there periods earlier in the relationship where one would be more considerate towards the other? If this is too personal a question to answer, tell me to get lost

Personally, I think that "enlightenment" is a term used to describe the ever-present Now. Time and Space is an illusion, and all that really exists is NOW. So that means it always exist, and if your trying to make it an end goal, it's going to be futile. It's a realization made outside of space/time. Once that realization is made, your perception of the world around you can change, as you can begin to see through the illusion of what reality/life is, and what is important to get out of it (and put into it). I think that enlightenment is one step in a much larger process than we can comprehend.

I don't think one becomes "enlightened", and that's that, boom, you're a spiritual master.

Only just saw this thread - but I agree with the above. A great quote embodies it:

"Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water". -Wu Li

hmm thats a tough one. Do you find unable to talk to her about what phasing is and other realted beliefs you might have?

Is it truly possible for an entity that is not God to masquerade as God?

If it is possible for anyone else other than God to answer to God's name, whenever the person addressing God has a strong and clear intention of addressing God, then even prayer is suspect.

We are all supposed to have a direct inner connection to wisdom and guidance--if we cannot trust that, then we are truly lost.

I'm not sure. I do remember Robert Monroe writing about experiences with a very powerful entity claiming to be God, and when he wouldn't worship it, it tried to harm him (this was in Ultimate Journey when Monroe was searching for his lost source).

Yeah I'm not too sure about what he's said either. However, he is a practicing psychologist so I'm not quick to rule out anything he has to say. By inflexible I think he means it becomes difficult  for the subject to alter brainwave patterns to anything other than the bin-aural frequency which is most often used. Difficult but most probably not impossible.  Because it's induced and not a natural transgression. Still, I have my doubts.

I'd have my doubts too. I've read countless scientifically published papers on binaural beats and this possibility has never been theorised - let alone mentioned - as a possible side effect.
I know of people who have been using specific BB frequencies for decades and they have no trouble experiencing any frequency a person who has never used BB's can. EEGs have backed this up.

In our modern environment we are subjected to various BBs from unatural sources and machinery - large portions of many countries would have inflexible brain frequency patterns because of this - if such a thing was possible.

Out of curiosity - if you ask you friend exactly what he means (or if he can quote the source of this) - i'll ask scientists/psychologists I know who work in this field (and at the Monroe institute) if such a thing has ever been recorded, or if it is possible.

Someone told me that a brainwave generator causes the persons brainwave patterns to become inflexible. Thoughts?

I've never seen a single article pointing to such an effect of binaural beats in any literature I have read (there is a lot in the scientific domain on this).
BB's simply drive brainwaves to a certain frequency - this is no different from meditation altering brainwaves to differing frequencies based upon the depth of meditation.
Even getting lost in a good book changes brainwaves from beta to alpha - or stroking a cat, or looking and not thinking. Brainwaves constantly change frequency naturally.
What possible logic is there that one event of brainwave changing would make them (patterns) become inflexible (whatever such a thing means) when the countless other methods of changing brainwave frequency do not.
By inflexible is it meant that the brain can no longer change to other patterns? This would mean sleep would be impossible forever more - and so would thinking (which involves brainwave pattern changes).
I'd say such a thing is purely unfounded rumour.

hey rimme - I know what you mean. It annoys me when I wake up that I didn't manage to turn it into a full blown LD. It happened the night before last - I was having a very vivid dream about a large fortress which was about to be stormed. I was outside the front gates and the army was advancing quickly behind me. I worried about getting killed, so realised on some level it was a dream and floated myself up the fortress wall. Even though I had enough awarness to do such a thing - I would say I wasn't aware enough to turn into a lucid dream.

Thanks for sharing that Sarah Whenever that happens to me its either after waking in the morning and i'm just lieing still - nice and content and I feel something start to happen (it starts with a sinking sensation for me) or if I have time to laze in the afternoon and I 'drift'.

I've taken Saliva, 'Shrooms and countless varieties of psychedelics, and dissociatives (DXM, ketamine etc). The biggest difference between any OBE experienced on them and one using nothing but intention is the degree of control and lucidity of the experience. Drug induced OBE is not anywhere near on par with OBE experienced through effort alone.

I used to experience a lot of deja vu before conscious energy work and OBE practice - but since I started these I never get any. I do have something else fairly frequently which doesn't match deja vu as such. I find myself in situations which seem new, but immediately after the experience I realise I already knew about it (or my mind already had knowledge of it - an old memory). This happens a lot with news stories. Sort of like deja vu after the event?