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Not being able to feel the movement sensations doesn't necessarily mean there's a blockage.  On the contrary, it generally means (assuming you're doing the exercises correctly) that that particular part of your body has wider pathways, which means there's less resistance.  The resistance is what causes the sensations.  Just keep doing the exercises and you'll eventually know what's going on better.

Your ability to draw large amounts of energy, and therefore cause stronger feelings, depends largely on your ability to focus your attention on one thing.  Whenever you run into problems with NEW or anything else dealing with the subconscious and energy, remember that energy follows awareness.  What's good about this is that you can use NEW to train your mind, via body awareness, to concentrate on what you want it to concentrate on.  After you're efficient with body awareness, you can use the skills you've learned to focus your awareness on other things; prayers, ritual magick, meditations, whatever.  Energy work (especially NEW) adds to and increases spiritual development of all paths.


Paul

What I've found is that the energy centers in the mouth are pretty sensitive and fairly underdeveloped before regular energy work is begun.  The sores are most likely just "bad" energy coming out through your mouth.  I would expect them to heal up relatively quickly as you continue your work on the energy body.

Your best bet is to keep filling the subnavel, and don't worry about the other two.  The reason that I've seen for this is that the subnavel takes the outside energy and "tunes" it to your personal "frequency."  Once the subnavel "assimilates" the energy (like your digestive system does with food) then the energy is equally shared with the upper two cavities.  Filling the other storage centers directly will most likely bring about emotional and/or mental experiences that are out of whack with your normal way of feeling/behaving.  

I know some people are tempted to do this just to get some kind of noticeable experience, but it's really nothing to be looked for.  It's dangerous because you'll do things you normally wouldn't do, possibly harming relationships with others or yourself.  But whatever you wanna do


Paul

I've been working with energy or some 3-4 years now, and I have the same problem in my toes.  Specifically, my pinky toes.  At first, I thought it was an entity of some kind, because when I'd go into a trance it felt like someone was grabbing ahold of both toes and pulling them outwards.  

I've determined, though, that it's not really an independant entity.  It's simple energy blockages, and they exist there because when I do the full-body circuit and other energy raising techniques, I neglect to regularly bring energy through my toes when I'm taking it up my legs.  Practically every breath I take, I'm semi-consciously drawing in energy, and so by now all of my other pathways are pretty big and are used to handling a large load.  But for some reason I exclude my toes from participating in the workout.  I suspect it's a relatively common experience, and it's going to take me a long time, with some dedicated effort, to catch my toes up to the rest of my energy body.

I know it can be thoroughly annoying, and sometimes extremely painful, but all you can do is slowly try to pay more attention to your toes throughout the day, when doing regular, perpetual energy raising.  Paying special attention to them in dedicated sessions will briefly feel satisfying, but like you've experienced, the pathways shrink back down to the old size and start hurting again eventually.  I've found though that I can still perform tasks while in trance if I just try to ignore the pain; you only feel what you're paying attention to at the time.  

So basically, it's going to take a while in order to get rid of the problem, and it really does suck, but there's not a whole lot you can do about it to solve the problem quicker.  Good luck


Paul

The rushing water is what it feels like when your throat center is active.  Were you purposely working on your primary chakras, or were you doing the full-body circuit?  If you were working on your primary centers, then it's to be expected.  But even if you were only doing the secondary circuit, if it's done for hours at a time the energy that passes over your throat will be enough to activate it and create the sensations.

As for the throwing up, I've found that the throat chakra is particularly easy to stimulate to the point of intense sensations.  It can at times make you gag, or like in your case, throw up.  It's not something to really be worried about, except for the unpleasantness of vomiting.  Whenever it starts happening, if you want it to stop, either stop circulating energy or pay less attention to it.  I know once my throat starts pulsing (sometimes spontaneously - it seems to be very sensitive, like I said) if I don't put a stop to it my entire face and chest will start to tingle and pulse in kind.  It can be distracting sometimes, but overall harmless.


Paul

I've got two questions for you guys, and hopefully someone's got some advice.

A problem I run into occassionally is that directly after separation, I'll be in my astral body, able to move freely about the room, but my vision is locked in the direction I was facing before exit.  If I'm facing my closet, that's all I can look at - if I was lying down, I'm looking at the floor.  As you can imagine, this makes it rather difficult to not only enjoy my OBEs, but to get anything accomplished.  I've tried using awareness "sitting up" motions, or otherwise "turning my head" but it hasn't worked so far.  Anyone have any thoughts?

My second question is related to the above.  The last time this happened, I for some reason thought "Well maybe if I raise some energy to my head, I'll be able to move it better."  I'm not sure why I thought it would work, but regardless, while out of body, I brought some energy up to my "head," and the entire motion just hurt.  It felt like anywhere I brought the energy was on fire.

I vaguely remember the same thing happening in the past when I've tried to raise energy while in the astral.  Has anyone had similar problems?  Thanks

Paul

I'm new around here, so hello to all you people, and I'll jump right into my question.

About a year or so ago, I was spending a lot of time with projecting, but since then I've been busy and had to cut down a lot.  Between then and now, I'll have the occassional spontaneous OBE, but lately I've been doing something different.

I'll be dreaming, not lucidly, and I'll sit down and have a conscious exit from my dream body.  I go through all the steps in my dream; induce a trance, sometimes I'll feel vibrations - when I do they're very strong - and I'll climb right out of my dream body.  Once I'm out, I'm lucid, but only of the OBE and not the original dream - follow me?

My question is first, has anyone else had any experiences like this, and do you think it's a valid method of projecting from a dream, even if I'm not lucid in the first place?  I appreciate any thoughts.

Paul

It's my understanding that the major chakras provide energy to and interact with the physical organs that they're located near.  The brow chakra, for instance, interacts with the frontal lobes of the brain, as well as the vision screen where the retinal proteins draw what you perceive with your eyes.  Your spleen chakra works with your adrenal glands, and so on... I don't really know all of the connections, though if you're interested in this subject you may want to just study an anatomy book (or on the web) and draw your own conclusions.


Paul

What I've noticed about breathing from the stomach (or the heart, or any primary center you want to activate) is that the energy is still pulled up through the feet and hands, even if you don't do it purposely.  The sponging actions and the full-body circuit are designed to strengthen those pathways that the energy moves through.  While breathing as you've described will fill the sub-navel, I don't think it provides the same training for body awareness that consciously raising the energy through the legs and arms does.  There'll be problems when you want to activate higher chakras, and don't know how to "breathe from the forehead."  So, basically, it's important to keep at the sponging and brushing actions, and do the exercises as the NEW tutorial says.. even if it takes a long time.  Eventually it won't take long at all.

Sorry, but I won't attempt right now to talk about the sexual desire.. If you're worried that it's energy-related (as just about everything psychological is), then continue with NEW and begin work on the primary centers when you're able.  Robert Bruce recommends staying away from the groin center at first, but eventually you'll need to work on it.  The point is to work on all of your chakras equally, so as to balance out the subconscious impact they're having on you.


Paul

Well, if you look at the Tree of Life, Tiphereth is the seat of the Higher Self.  THe archangel that is set at Tiphereth in your Tree, IMO, reflects the one who you're most like, and I believe it's influenced greatly by when you're born.  Though I haven't seen much published work that takes this position, it's held by myself and some Qabalists that I do work with.


Paul

The archangels can be said to be the messengers of God on the level of Briah, which is one of the four (five) worlds in the Kabbalistic world model.  I'll try to explain a little bit.

On the level of Yetzirah (the astral), there are angels, each one of whom can be said to represent a specific type of experience, which we gain access to when we have that experience here in the physical world.  Briah is the world above the astral, and it's there that the infinite number of angels are "categorized" and they're grouped under the archangel that rules over them.  Try to think of it with the analogy of shades of color.. if Michael is gold, then all the angels that Michael rules over are the different shades of gold.. Or if Michael is said to be the number '6', then all the angels he rules over are 6.1, 6.2, and so on, with an infinite amount of numbers going on after the decimals, to make an infinite amount of different experiences.  Follow?

That said, in the model of the Tree of Life, there is said to be 10 archangels, each corresponding to and ruling over one of the 10 Sephiroth.  The four archangels mentioned in previous posts are the ones that correspond to the four elements and directions (though sources disagree at times on who belongs where), and so they're generally used in Golden Dawn-type rituals by Western Hermetics.  There are, however, as I said, more than 4 archangels, and their positions on the Tree of Life and their correspondence to the four quarters are not set in stone.

One way to look at it is that the archangels are the masks that your Higher Self uses in order to interact with you.  When you need to be corrected, it may be Samael, the archangel of Gevurah (Judgment), that your Higher Self uses to accuse you and point out where you're erring.  When you repent and try to correct your error, it may be Tzadkiel, the archangel of Chesed (mercy) that runs the show for a bit.

The archangels also correspond to the planets and star signs, and there's an infinite amount you can learn by studying and invoking them.  There's a lot of information available on the Web for you to look up, if you put in the effort.


Paul

If you're serious about magick, then I recommend working through Robert Bruce's NEW tutorial, which can be found on this website.  Once you're comfortable with manipulating and sensing energy (can take anywhere from a couple weeks to months), look into Franz Bardon's "Initiation into Hermetics".  The exercises in that book can stand alone as a training manual, but I personally think that basic energy manipulation is very important, and can't be taught any better than how NEW teaches it (in my opinion).


Paul

Just a note on the third eye chakra... Opening it is not a one-time and it's done deal.  Just like all the other energy centers, it needs to be worked on and built up over time.  It happens that practicing visualization automatically draws energy to the brow chakra and builds it up, and so if you don't do normal energy work, just visualizing a lot will help to "open" it.


Paul

I really know very little about alchemy, so I don't know the details of what mercury means or what sulphur is, etc etc..  But, the Philosopher's Stone is used to turn lead into gold, which is all symbolic of the Great Work, of turning our normal, mundane consciousness into a higher, divine consciousness.  It's synonymous with Knowledge and Converstaion of the HGA, finding Christ, reaching your Higher Self, etc etc..  As far as I know, alchemy has very little (if anything) to do with actual chemical compounds - it was recorded and communicated in this language so as to avoid persecution from the early Christian church.  So basically, alchemy is about spiritual and metaphysical processes - not physical, material ones.


Paul

Hate to be the one to tell you, but what you're looking at is more DBZ stuff than anything.  To put it simply and lay out a blanket "rule," any website claiming to make you into an "elite fighter" through the use of energy is most likely run by someone under the age of 16, with no experience with real energy work.  So you can hold your hands any way you like, visualize whatever it is you want to visualize, but "Forcecraft" just ain't going to get you anywhere.


Paul

If you do the full-body circuit, or otherwise pass energy through the primary centers or up the spine, the major chakras will be activated somewhat.  If you don't actively move energy through the chakras, I'm not sure that they'll be energized much.  The energy that you have stored and "ready for use" goes into things like increasing your charm and charisma, general health and some other things.  

One thing I've noticed is that regular energy raising (and working on primary chakras, to a greater extent) increases the quality and speed of manifestation of events... if that makes any sense.  What I mean is, circumstances in your life are attracted and repulsed based on what's going on in you subconsciously.  Your "inner workings" translate into outter circumstances through your personal energy which I believe works through the energy centers in the palms of your hands.  

But really, if you've been doing energy raising for a few months there's no reason not to start on your primary chakras, in my opinion.  The effect is far more pronounced than when you're using just the secondary energy system.


Paul

<This might be the case, but what you are describing is moving pretty far away from what most people recognise as 'Christianity', it is in fact 'christian mysticism', the further you go down this road the less and less recognisible as christianity it will become, until you reach the stage I am talking about, where people still feel they have to attach the christian lable to their mystic explorations in order for them to feel 'safe' and 'still within the rules', even when what they have found only loosely relates to the mainstream religion itself.>


While that may be true, it's a common teaching that all Christians are called to be mystics.  Mainstream exoteric religions, whatever those religions may be, are designed to keep in line the people who've not yet formed a relationship with God, and to make decisions for the "spiritually immature."  I think it's important in a place like this to differentiate between what's commonly accepted as Christianity, and what Christianity is really about.  I think it's important not to think of the lowest common denominator when talking about a set of beliefs.  Just because a lunatic with a TV show says "I'm Christian" before and after spouting off insane statements about why you're gonna go to hell and why he's not, that doesn't mean he's speaking for Christianity.  It just means that some people are lunatics.

But anyway, my point (which I know probably hasn't been very clear) is that the spiritually mature Christian is perfectly capable of practicing magick, if he so desires... it's just that he normally would have no need to do so, if he's actively trying to keep his desires in check and under the authority of Christ.   Being a Christian isn't just a label that you throw around before "mysticism" and "magick," it's a complete worldview that is actually very inclusive of all other religions.  However, its mysteries must be actively studied and meditated on, with a good deal of prayer, in order to be understood.  It's not something that can be set down in doctrines for the masses to understand.

Anyway, I apologize for the ranting.. touchy subject


Paul

Honestly, this type of response is part of the same problem that brought a conflict to the original poster's mind; a lack of understanding of the Christian religion, and an unwillingness to try to learn about it.  Whether you call yourself a Christian or not, if you're going to present an opinion on it, it should at least be understood for what it is.

<Three points here.
The first is the typical 'bible belt' viewpoint shown above that if you are not Christian then that means you don't believe in God..Wrong! Chistianity in no way has any monopoly over God. Statements like 'if you don't believe in the bible you dont believe in god are so sad, as they indicate a group of people who have never been exposed to any other faith system apart from christianity>

Christianity does not just describe a particular god or gods that people pray to in order to receive favor and success in life.  The goal of the Christian is to bring together the various parts of the of the Self, in order to be a part of the greater Tikkun (repair) of the macrocosm.  To know Christ is to know the Self that was created long before one's incarnation into the world as we know it today.  Christ is not merely a "god" or "spirit" that is worshipped; he is the template of all human beings, and is the force that is tapped into when one is living in the actual moment.

Being a (real) Christian negates the need to practice magick - that is, magick in the sense of rituals in order to fulfill desires (sometimes called sorcery or so-called "low" magick).  It's the restructuring of one's own inner world, so that desires are under the control of the Self.  They're used to not only bring about the manifestation of Works, but they're also used to gauge one's position with God at any given time.  But I digress.

It really is not a simple matter to just say "Christians can't do magick" or "magicians can't be Christian" or whatever else it is that you're trying to state in a nutshell.  It's far more complicated than that.


Paul

To answer a couple of the questions here (sorry if I miss any)...

Energy, also called ki, chi, qi, prana, orgone, and lots of other names, has everything to do with astral projection.  Energy is what the astral plane is composed of, and astral projection allows you to experience that energy in the way that you're used to (i.e. as if it were through your physical senses).

As I said above, energy (ki, chi, whatever) is the same thing as orgone.  William Reich was far from the first person to discover the lifeforce that permeates the world - he was just the first to give it a pseudo-scientific term and basis of explanation.

The moon has assocations with the astral plane in all circles of occultism.  In the Kabbalah, the moon is attributed to Yesod, which is also the astral plane (put simply - the astral actually deals with more than Yesod, but this will do for our purposes here) and deals with sexual energy.  It has to do with forces of attraction and repulsion, as well as subconscious (lunar) influences on the world.  The connections run too deeply to go into too much detail here, but suffice it to say that they exist, and some effort put into researching said connections will definitely bear fruit.

All of the chakras are said to look (psychically) like lotus flowers.  Each chakra is said to have a different number of petals, which I believe goes into an explanation of the job of each chakra.  Not really my specialty, so I wouldn't be able to say how many petals each chakra is supposed to have, but again, there's a lot of material available on the web for those who're interested in this type of thing.

While trying to force energy into your chakras sounds like a generally bad idea, I'm not sure how it would actually happen.  In my experience, at least with NEW, as you progress and become capable of moving more energy with more ease, you also become capable of handling a larger influx of energy.  Obviously you want to progress at your own pace, but I think in the end everything will even itself out.

If you're just starting out and want to learn how to manipulate and sense energy, then there's no better training available than NEW, which is offered free on this website.  If you're trying to make a "psiball" or some other "trick", then practice NEW and you'll eventually just know how to do it.  Probably around the time you realize that it's not worth doing... but that's just my opinion.


Paul

<At this point in reading this thread 5 words comes to mind 'what a pile of sh*t'.
At the start of the thread I actually kept an open mind that possibly you did indeed have some kind of effect on this girl but now after reading that post I dont.>

Getting pretty deep in here, ain't it?


Paul

As Aleister Crowley puts it (or something similar), "Every intentional act is a magickal act."  When talking about hypnosis, two of the "originators" of NLP will sometimes say "Hypnosis doesn't exist" and "Everything is hypnosis" in the same breath.  As one progresses on a magickal path, he finds that rituals and "spells" become less and less necessary.  As the Will is refined and strengthened, desires are naturally fulfilled just because they're desired.

Any act of intent or Will can be broken down and analyzed to reveal certain energetic and psychological processes that take place in order to manifest the desired result.  Performing rituals and "casting spells" are ways to directly call up certain desires and energies in order to channel them into a specific result.

So, yes, it could be said that magick doesn't exist.  It could also be said that every action performed is magick.


Paul

As jilola has pointed out, the "W" in "Will" is capitalized.  A common misperception about the Law of Thelema is that it refers to desire, rather than True Will.  The True Will of a person can be described as the purpose that he or she was put in this world to perform.  It goes that when a person is performing his True Will, that nothing can oppose them and they can do anything else that they want, as long as they do what they're put here to do.  The catch is that every person's True Will involves loving other people, and if you do something that's not motivated by love, then it's not connected with your Will, but is from desire.

As for it being "Love under Will" rather than "Will under Love," Will can be associated with Kether on the Tree of Life, and Love with Tiphereth.  They are the same, but Love is an experience while Will is more abstract.  What we're attempting to immitate in the Great Work is the Will of God, which is Love.  In other words, by experiencing and expressing Love, we're experiencing and becoming a part of the Will of God, which is the essence of God, just as your True Will is the essence of a man.

Believe it or not, Thelema has a lot in common with esoteric Christianity, though you wouldn't believe it by looking at the founder of the religion (Crowley).  It's all about stripping away the layers of Ego that the world has placed on you, and finding the person that God created and intended for you to be.


Paul

To answer your other question, the base chakra and the groin crease centers are different.  The base chakra is the center between the genitals and the anus, while the groin crease centers generally stimulate the root chakra, which is in the center of the genitals.  As has been already said, if the stimulation is too much, bypass those areas.  Draw energy up the outside of the hips while doing the full-body circuit instead of up the inside.


Paul

I just want to point something out here (sorry, I'm relatively anal about the Kabbalah)..  While the Zohar is a major Kabbalistic text (or collection of them), there are entire systems of Kabbalah that have nothing to do with the Zohar.  It's a part of a larger deal


Paul

I know there are a lot of sources that disagree with me, but I'm of the opinion that it doesn't really matter which way your chakras spin.  I'm able to spin mine in either direction - sometimes it's easier one way, and sometimes it's easier the other way.  As long as they're activated, I've never seen a difference of results depending on which way they're spinning.


Paul

If you're pulling energy through the block, then you're focusing on the area  I'm not sure exactly what Robert Bruce said, as it's been a while since the last time I looked at Astral Dynamics...  But if you've got a specific blockage that's causing you pain, then you've got to clear it somehow.  Circulating energy through the area regularly will help to clear it, and will begin to repair any damage it's caused.


Paul