Messages

michaelsaganski: Hi, you have been working rather goal oriented to make an OBE. That's about the same I've been doing for a few months now, but with very little success. So I either lack skill, or I am doing things wrong.

Did you tell the TMI personal about your OBE attempts and did you ask them about what you possible could do more correct to succeed with an OBE? What Focus to start from, which Hemi-Sync CDs to use, etc?

Thanks for sharing with the rest of us.

Well they sort of stressed the point that there is much more to this than just OBE. By just going for an OBE you could be blocking other kinds of experiences. But that being said, there are some specific Hemi-Sync tracks that focus on having an OBE. I believe they're in the 3rd "Gateway Experience" set (Wave 3). There's also a Hemi-Sync CD called "Journeys out of the Body" which is specifically for OBE. You can have an OBE at any focus level, although I think they generally do it on the CD's from 10 or 12.

Well I got back from TMI (The Monroe Institute) a couple weeks ago. It's taken me a while to get some free time and to really understand any sort of permanent changes their Gateway Voyage program left on me. It was an amazing week of self-discovery, exploration, experience, and development.

In a nutshell I came wanting to learn more about consciousness and subjective experience (and maybe have an OBE too!). While I didn't have a pure OBE, I did come away with much more than I expected. I do have a deeper understanding of how I am more than my physical body (consciousness). I am more aware, happy, sensitive, and caring in general, and have a modified outlook on life.

The Gateway Voyage teaches you how to attain different altered states of consciousness (what they call Focus 10, 12, 15, and 21) with the help of Hemi-Sync. Attaining these states during the program was surprisingly easy. Some people might also know that Bob Monroe termed this shifting between altered states as phasing. Phasing is a whole lot easier to do and is more gradual than trying to just attain an OBE. I think it's because phasing allows you to be open to any sort of non-physical perception, instead of expecting for XYZ to occur in an OBE.

Conscious experience is very subjective and there is quite a variety of ways to experience the focus levels. That's why if you believe you want to have an OBE just like one you've read, you'll likely end up blocking any sort of non-physical perception that isn't what you're expecting. It's much better to just be open to what comes to you. That's one of the biggest things I learned at the Gateway Voyage, and it's why I've dropped the goal of "having an OBE" for something more general and expansive.

My non-physical perceptions were varied between visions, feelings, and the occasional sense of "knowing". I should be clear that these visions came to me in my mind's eye (so I didn't see it through my physical eyes), and I'd sometimes have trouble figuring out whether I was actually imagining what I was seeing or if I wasn't. I'm far from mastering this, but I've also come a long way.

The exercises at the Gateway Voyage also give you plenty of tools. This gives you things to try when you're lying there in the altered state, such as receiving guidance, performing healing, remote viewing, manifestation, interacting with entities, etc. One of the best successes for me was deepening my connection with my guidance (be it a guide, helper, or whatever you want to call it). When I have a question about something going on in my life, I can usually get a yes/no answer from this guidance (it depends on the question) - which is very useful! The manifestation exercise actually ended up working for me (a specific boost in my career), and I received some positive results (not 100% accurate) with the remote viewing.

I'm not 100% sure why I'm more happy, sensitive, caring, etc. I think part of it has to do with having experiences that have showed me what an open heart *feels* like. Hemi-Sync also tends to make you use both your left-brain and your right-brain - and my right-brain has definitely been underutilized. Perhaps coming in greater alignment with my whole being has helped in some way as well.

I used to dismiss most subjective experience (i.e. lived in the left-brained objective causality of Western culture) - but there is SO much to it.. and it is directly applicable to our everyday lives.

I should also mention that another huge source of knowledge for me about all of this has come from the book "My Big Toe". This book and its author really resonate with me - I've been able to make sense of all this new age "hokum" in a logical framework that makes sense to me. It's been completely compatible with my Gateway Voyage and enhanced my understanding of it.

I will definitely be going to TMI within the next year to take another program. I'm currently debating between Heartline, Guidelines, and MC squared. My current goals are to become more loving/caring, and to enhance my non-physical perceptions by continuing to meditate everyday.

I've been sharpening my meditation with the help of some free classes and gaining a better conceptual understanding of the non-physical from the books I'm reading. It's all very exciting stuff to me right now, but progress is a little slower than I'd like!

The third book in Bruce Moen's series is so crazy, and it aligns well with Todd Campbell's "My Big Toe"... I'm getting a pretty big conceptual picture of reality. It feels intuitively true, but I want to experience it firsthand. I also recently read "Eat, Pray, Love" for fun, which gave me another perspective on my spiritual growth.

I swear I was extremely close to leaving my body yesterday.. I lost all feeling in my body... almost attaining a sort of "point consciousness". For whatever reason my eyes naturally opened (or was it astral sight? I couldn't tell), and all I could feel was warmth and energy. It was the deepest disconnection with my physical body I've felt thus far.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 90!

Well here it is... day 90! It's a little melodramatic because I haven't been following the program to a T the last few weeks. I'm also not going to be making any drastic adjustments now either; the 90 days has been an evolutionary process.

My practice has basically evolved into 2 meditation sessions: one in the morning, and the other in the evening. I avoid eating anything at least an hour before, as well as drinking anything other than water. I find a shower in the morning helps wake me up, otherwise I'm not awake enough yet and fall asleep too easily. I seem to get better results sitting up instead of lying down. I generally start off with some breathing exercises for relaxation, followed by some forms of energy work (body awareness). I then clear my mind with the use of a mantra, and may either stay with it or attempt an exit technique. If anyone wants more specifics feel free to ask me.

My sessions don't seem to be as productive as they were a few weeks ago either, I think I've hit a bit of a dip... which is natural from what I've heard from other people who meditate regularly. The important thing is to meditate through the slump, taking a few days off as a break just makes things worse. I've found some free local meditation classes which is helping me stay inspired and motivated. I've also officially registered for the Gateway Voyage at TMI in August, which I'm super excited for.

While I haven't had a full blown OBE yet, I'm not discouraged. In fact I now know that I have opened the door to a life-long spiritual practice for me that will only get better with time. Several of my core beliefs have been modified or rebuilt, and I feel like a different person from the inside. I also feel like I understand myself and my place "in the universe" a lot more, it's like I'm more self-aware of my thoughts, feelings, and motivations. I opened myself up to my intuition, which I've never done before... and am starting to identify the information I get from it instead of ignoring it.

One new abnormal event that's happened to me that hasn't been mentioned yet is I've experienced the ability of parallel thinking. That is, I've actually been able to think two thoughts at once while in a meditative state. It basically happened by accident, since I was actually trying to clear my mind but had lost my grip on the mantra. The thing is, my mantra was still going and yet I was also perceiving/interpreting images in my mind's eye. I then became self-aware of both my focus on the mantra as well as the interpretation of the images.. after a short while they both stopped as I broke both trains of thought.

As far as the actual OBE exit techniques, a problem with my process had been identified to me. The reason I wasn't liking the exit techniques and why they seemed to pull me out of the meditative state was because I had associated the technique with my physical body. As I would focus on the technique, my awareness of my physical body would increase. So instead of going deeper "inward", I was coming back "outward" to my body. I have to thank Selea for this. The solution to this appears to be focusing on visualization... associate the exit technique with a visualized body... not my own. Theoretically at some point I should be able to shift my point of consciousness into that imaginary thought-form by "feeling" for it. Wow.. that sounds vague to me even as I write it but at my current state of spiritual knowledge I believe it to be possible.

I also had a little bit of confusion with visualization because I thought it had to be in the 1st person.. but really 3rd person is ok and is actually more natural.

I'll continue to post my progress and any major trials/events. My ultimate goal has changed into more than just having an OBE, it's about evolving and understanding my consciousness as much as possible. The experiences I read about excite me to no end. Where this will go, I'm not sure yet. I'm playing with the idea of developing my psychic/intuitive powers to the point of being able to help others. I think that would be pretty cool.

Thanks for reading my posts and I give a special thanks to everyone that has provided feedback. It was of immense help to my progress.

Ok, thanks for that Selea.

I do have the problem of over-thinking things. So I'll just keep practicing regularly.

Yes, to "see" something you have to do it externally, isn't it?

Yes and No. It's external but I could visualize a ball of light coming down into my field of view. Or I could visualize from a point outside the body, watching the ball of light enter the body. I believe you are saying the latter. At some point though I should go from looking at my astral body to actually feeling the sensations, even though the astral body is visualized externally.. it's still in my mind (thought-form) which is a part of me.

I've been doing all the exit techniques in the 1st person, that could have been a mistake as well. This whole 1st/3rd person thing has been a confusing point for me. This can get complicated!

Anyway I edited a bit the post, skip the part of using the technique for projection, it is best used only to "feel" the body for future reference (see the last paragraph I added.

As for the "we" is the magickal order I'm int, you curious boy

EDIT: Btw, if it is too difficult at first to expand and contract all the Body of Light, just focus on a point, for example the right hand, and become accustomed to the feeling there, then do the same and exand to all the body.

The notion of how something "feels" is something that Bruce Moen talks about a lot.

I am curious indeed. I've been looking for a support group to help me grow spiritually.

Yes, exactly.

Btw, I have asked if I could give you a particular technique very effective that we use. It has been told me that there are no problems, so I will share this with you. For what I know this is one of the most powerful methods to awaken the "Body of Light".

Begin relaxing as you do normally, and focus your mind (we do this with the fourfould breath, but you can do it the way you want, just try to have the less internal chatter as possible).

Focus now on a ball of light 5-6 cm. above your head. With each inalation, bring the light in your head (so that all your head is filled with light), keep it there while you hold your breath, and finally imagine it becoming brighter as you exhale. Keep pulling more light down into yourself until all your body is filled with light. At the end you should have a "Body of Light" around your physical body (if you do the exercise well you can will "see" the body clearly in the end). Do this step slowly. At first it takes at least 30 minutes to do the circuit fully, but when you will be proficient with it you could do it fast, the will alone will suffice to call up the Body of Light immediately. Don't skip this step, it is very important, do it throughly and slowly.

The next step is to feel this Body of Light to expand with each inhalation and contract with each exhalation. This sensation, once achieved, will help you become aware of this "other" body in a very particular way. It will begin to take on a physical, fluid-like existence. Performing this part will, in fact, solidify the Body of Light. The act of keeping mental constructs in motion is one of the most powerfuls in all magical practices (keep this in mind also for future practices).

When you actually feel as if you are surrounded by a "second skin" pretend that your consciousness is no more controlling your physical body but this "other" one, look at one of your Body of Light arms and try to free it from its physical counterpart. Remember that you move the astral counterpart not with muscles, but with will. Just "will" to move the "astral" arm. When you can "feel" it (as we have done in the precedent step) it is much easier than it seems to.

Move it up to your face and try to move the fingers. Do this slowly. When you can do it then the transfer of consciousness is complete. Try to raise now with your Body of Light. You should have no problems.

This exercise is very powerful. Also if you don't succeed at the first attempts you will be able to clearly perceive how the "astral" body feels, so that you will be more able in future to bring up its memory to tranfer the consciousness in it. Everytime you do it the sensation of the "other" body will arise, until it will look to you as "real" as the physical body. Transfering the consciousness then will be only a matter of experimentation on what works best for you.

Best regards,
Selea.

Who is we?

And again, I assume you mean this should be visualized in the third person, not the first. Then at some point I should begin to feel the "second skin" (astral body) you mention.

So Selea, if I understand correctly, this is what you want me to do:

Instead of visualizing/feeling myself climb the rope in the first person, visualize/feel it in the third person. This will help keep me in a meditative state because I won't associate the feeling with my physical body as much. Then once I am accustomed to that I will eventually be able to "slip" my consciousness into it.

I know what you mean.  I bought MAP and was excited to try.  But I personally cannot motivate myself to stick to it for 90 days.  I also feel that everything in the book could be done in 30 days.  In one way, I like that RB has slowed it down to allow people more time, but on the same note, it actually feels like he is dragging it out.  Whether or not an OBE happens using his methods in 90 days or even a year is irrelevant as this will depend largely on the person,  the point for me is that the whole process seems drawn out too much.

It is a bit, I agree. But on the other hand I adore it because if you just drop all the pre-analysis and just go for it... then you'll be making progress. For me I didn't really know what to do because there's so many different guru's/protocols/aspects to this stuff. I just wanted a blueprint that I could read, practice and just see what happens! The 90 days is really more of a way to help build up a habit of a spiritual practice. It's not like you'll stop doing the exercises after the 90 days... or even 30 if you meet early success.

If I understand what is happening to you correctly when you try exit techniques given by Robert it is as if you actually "bring yourself more to the surface", i.e. the technique seems more "external" than the meditation you are doing. Correct me if I'm wrong (it's difficult to understand these things via writing).

If that's the case, yes, you are doing something wrong. Try to keep the silenced, inward feeling you have when you meditate while doing the exit techniques. Don't let you "raise up" from that feeling. I say "raise" because it actually feels as if you are "stepping up" from a more internalized status.

Probably when you do exit techniques you associate the effort with the physical body without understanding it, sort of like moving the lips while reading. This is often the case at beginning, especially when exists a strong feeling (many times not conscious) that the self is intimately associated with the body, and especially with seemingly "physical" efforts techniques (as it is point-shift or rope). Mantras helps a lot in this case, as going high in Pranayama. Also, if problems of these sorts persists, do some of the exercises in the writing I told you, specifically trying to "feel" the "astral" body arms and legs moving while keeping still the physical body, they helps a lot to disassociate the two when you do those techniques.

Remember that also if you think that you are better doing something else that it's closer to your nature, it is actually a very good thing that you are confronting yourself with these troubles. They are extremely useful to overcome or you will never be able to produce a full awareness of the "other" body and it will always be a little intermingled with the physical. So, redouble your efforts, and also if you think that what you are doing is not close to your nature, do it with all your will just for that. It will be of immense help for you in future (and also in what you are trying to achieve).

Yes that's exactly it! The exercises (the way I do them anyways) end up bringing my awareness back in tune with my physical body. What I understand from what you're saying is that I should be able to keep going "inward" in my meditative state while also trying to separate from my physical body.

Some of what you say is a little beyond me at this point. The "writings" you refer to is the Golden Dawn link you sent me before?

I'll work on bringing the two together.

ice_chill, I currently eat meat quite regularly and have heard this argument before. I'm still undecided, as this would be a very big lifestyle change for me. My diet is ok, I eat a lot of good food during my regular meals but I also eat a lot of junk food snacks, and drink the occasional bit of alcohol. A lot of very spiritually evolved people I know don't eat meat, so I feel like there is something to it. I can see a lot of very good reasons for not eating meat, but I'm just not at a point to make that kind of change. Internally, I have a lot of mixed feelings about vegetarianism.

Xanth, Robert Bruce talks about fasting in MAP as a way to improve success at AP because digestion takes a lot of energy. As an extension, eating heavier and denser food like meat takes more energy to digest. So I can see some merit to this, but I don't think it's required obviously. Bruce Moen also talks about this in "Voyages Beyond Doubt".

As for visualization, I do practice this a little each day during my meditation session to get into a trance state. Generally I pick some sort of visualization where I'm falling, like going down in an elevator. It seems to help.

The light at the end of the tunnel for this 90-day trial is arriving, and with it many mixed feelings. While I haven't had a classic-OBE yet, I've definitely experienced many paranormal events. I've had much better results with focusing on meditation rather than any sort of complicated exit technique, so I will definitely be taking a different approach after the 90 days are up. This trial has opened up a whole new world for me to explore, which is amazing in itself.

With summer starting over the past couple of weeks I'd be lying if I said I was able to do all of the exercises in a strict fashion each day. My daily schedule is quite a bit busier when it gets nice outside, so I've had to fit in what I can here and there. This is probably slowing down my progress but balance in life is important too.

I'm signing up for the Gateway Voyage program at The Monroe Institute in August, which I'm really excited for. I hope to make some additional breakthroughs and speed up my progress there. I'll be sure to post about my experiences here.

Right now, I can fairly easily get visions/dreams in the astral while meditating. I don't have much control over what I see yet, but it is a start. I seem to lose some of my self-awareness while the visions come, which makes it seem more dream-like... but I'm still somewhat aware of my physical body too. I want to continue with this and see if I can gain more control over what I experience. Being able to clear my surface thoughts has become easier with practice, which I think is what quickly leads to the imagery.

The exercises and writings in MAP haven't had any sort of drastic changes as it did during the first 45 days or so. Robert Bruce discusses some of the finer points and possible problems or experiences that you may encounter, which are nice validations for what I've been experiencing or having problems with. It just feels like the exit techniques he recommends undo all the energy and meditation work I do during each practice session, so it almost feels detrimental to what I'm trying to achieve. I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to be or if I'm doing something wrong, or if his methodology isn't the right one for me.

That's a pretty good description Selea, thanks.

AstralBeginnings, I agree with your the RB can make things seem more complicated than they need to be. That's why I'm finding myself pull away from his ideas over these 90 days and am finding myself align more with the phasing approach.

There's so many view points, techniques, and methods with this. To each his own. The most important thing is patience, persistence, and practice.

Thanks WASD, I will likely focus on that entirely after the 90 day trial.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 69

I had a very interesting experience last night, at around 4 am. I had woken up from a dream but had not opened my eyes yet, and I felt a distinct presence in my bedroom. I used to be skeptical of the idea that we can detect "presences" without using our 5 physical senses, but I definitely FELT something/someone close to me.

So I naturally decided to open my eyes. I wasn't fully awake yet and the room was fairly dark, but I saw a human-like form or figure approach me at the side of my bed. I became a little scared but then my vision blanked out and I felt like it merged with me. How do I even begin to describe what that feels like? I just knew it at the time. The typical OBE sensations of vibrations, tingling, whooshing noises were there. I also briefly saw some random colors/patterns and felt some pressure in my head. I was so confused as to what was going on I thought to myself "WTF... am I being possessed?". It happened very quickly.

I regained my vision and apart from the tingling/buzzing I felt relatively normal for maybe a second. I then saw ANOTHER form/figure, but it was more of a diffused sphere this time. It approached me hovering over the foot of my bed, and then merged with me as well. The tingling/buzzing/whooshing happened again with a loss of vision and head pressure. After a second or two (I think) I regained my vision and the tingling/buzzing reduced in intensity. I mentally said "Hello?" still wondering what was going on, but didn't get much of an answer (I might have heard myself say "hi" but I might just be making it up in my head). I then began to realize what had happened and decided to see if I could go for a conscious OBE exit.

The trouble was I was so scared/excited that I wasn't able to focus and just decided to log it in my notebook and stay awake for a while to solidify the memory. It's a good thing too because I know that if this had happened before I learned about OBE's I probably would have brushed it off as a dream, forgotten about it, or whatever. Maybe it has happened in the past and I know even know, I'm guessing it probably has. Even now as I write this I can hardly believe it happened.

It's possible that the affirmation I used before going to sleep may have played a role. This week's affirmation in MAP for evenings is related to waking up in the middle of the night for astral projection. I think it's pretty clear to me now that the forms were two of my energy bodies, like the etheric (real-time zone) and astral. You guys can correct me if I'm wrong though.

If only I had waken up during the beginning of the projection instead of the end! Oh well, this experience was still huge for me. I think it has tremendously helped at chipping away my old belief systems.

I also now see much more validity to Robert Bruce's AP model (mind-split effect, energy doubles, etc.). It's just a matter of focusing my conscious awareness in those other bodies. I still don't quite understand how all of Robert Bruce's model fits in with Robert Monroe's focus levels, but I do feel like they're both "right".

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 64

Life did a good job at kicking my pants this week. I really had to push hard to find times to sit down and do the exercises, and it was usually not the optimal place or time. Today being the weekend I was able to get a great session in and still found that I had made progress throughout the week!

It's pretty amazing at just how deep meditation can get, and I know I'm still only scratching the surface. I'm finding it easier to get into a trance state, and it also happens more quickly and at a deeper level. All it takes is steady practice.

I would say my main trouble right now is relaxing too much and going off into dream imagery too easily. Once I get too deep into it I find it hard to focus my mind on anything for particularly long, which includes any sort of OBE exit technique.

In some ways I'm sort of feeling a fork in the road between meditation and OBE's. It's almost as if I'm at a level where the two are becoming mutually exclusive. In other words, when I meditate too deeply I can't focus on doing an exit technique... or if I focus on an exit technique my body/mind tenses and resists it to the point where I can not keep a focused mind either. Perhaps it's just a lack of focus on either side. In MAP, Robert Bruce says OBE exit work is a very fine balancing act and I am really starting to see that.

I just thought of another way of looking at it. When I meditate it's like I'm focusing into my consciousness, while an OBE exit technique requires focusing outside my physical body. Both techniques require focus, and either way leads to the same result – disassociation between mind and body. Which means understanding that I am more than my physical body, i.e. that my mind is not my brain. And that is the whole point of this 90 day trial.

Right now I just seem to be feeling much more success and progress with focusing inwards, rather than outward. I haven't had any mind-blowing experiences such as floating over my own physical body, but my belief systems have been slowly chipped away with unusual experiences. My body seems to resist any sort of external focus, and absolutely loves focusing inward. Perhaps yogic meditation or Robert Monroe's Phasing/Focus Level system is a better path for me than the classic OBE techniques?

One example from today happened while I was meditating. I lost focus for a period of time and started seeing dream imagery, but then quickly realized that this had happened and regained awareness. I came back to staring at the back of my eye-lids, but for a second or so I saw a very distinct dark form stand out from the backdrop. It was extremely unusual from what I normally see with closed eyes, and it kind of felt like a presence. That is a very exciting thought.

A question I have for people is should I be encouraging the dream imagery while meditating or should I be resisting it? I can see benefits to either strategy. I know that Bruce Moen talks about balancing between the perceiver and interpreter; he thinks that cutting out all non-physical perception is a mistake. Perhaps I should practice his strategy of slowing the image process down.

 OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 56

So another week has gone by with what I think has been steady progress. No OBE yet but that's ok, I have a ways to go yet!

My third eye chakra has been feeling quite active lately, especially when I do any sort of meditation, body awareness, deep thought, or energy work. It basically feels like a throbbing, with the intensity being different depending on what I'm doing. Sometimes the throbbing can be quite intense when I'm working on an exit technique.

Generally, I've felt a tightness in upper body during exit techniques. At first it was mostly my head that would feel like it was getting "pulled", but now it's mostly my chest/heart. It's like  I'm trying to pull away but my physical body is holding on too tightly. I sometimes have my inner voice telling me it's not possible.. right when I'm about to do it! This is counter-productive and something that needs to be worked on. I have to believe I can do it before I will ever let myself let it happen.

I have now jury rigged a headset with Audacity recording my voice. I'm finding that I get a lot of random imagery when I'm in a deep meditative state, so I'd like to record some of it with my voice when it happens, otherwise the memory is lost quite quickly. Stopping the meditative state and writing it down just isn't practical. Perhaps I can figure out some sort of pattern or meaning to what I'm seeing if I analyze enough of it.

I now regularly feel falling sensations when I sometimes go too deep in the trance state and regain awareness, which is sort of a "mini-obe". Learning to just relax and let go of any expectations seems to provide the best results. I could have swore I felt one of my "astral" fingers move inadvertently on two separate occasions, which shows that I'm starting to have my energy body loosen up.

Other interesting occurrences include my guides thwacking me on the back of the head when I asked if they were around, haha. Also, during one session I am pretty sure I experienced a very weak form of astral sight because I was able to see my arms and legs with my eyes closed. There wasn't any spectacular detail, just shiny blue lights among the blackness that took the shape of where I would have expected my legs and arms to be.

My dream awareness has not improved all that much lately, as it just hasn't been on my mind as much. There's been a slow but steady improvement in my dream recall, but it really depends on the quality and quantity of sleep I get that night.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 51

So about a week has gone by with trying OBE exit techniques, and I am making progress. It seems like there won't be any major changes to the day by day practice according to Mastering Astral Projection. The only thing that changes is a different exit technique to try every couple of days.

Fundamentally though, all the exit techniques are pretty much the same. The basic idea is to focus your awareness to a point in space outside your body. My favorite so far has been the basic rope technique, where you imagine yourself climbing a rope upwards from your body.

A major roadblock I've hit is that I have a hard time keeping my mind focused on climbing the rope for more than maybe 30 seconds. I'm getting better at catching myself wandering with my thoughts, but sometimes it really surprises me. One minute I'll be practicing my exit technique, and the next minute I'll realize that I had been daydreaming and I don't even realize how I lost track/focus.

On the other hand, I'm starting to notice a distinction between some of the daydreams. Some of them are clearly my own subconscious mind worrying about various aspects of my life (the ego, I guess). However, others can be rather – weird. I'll sometimes "see" people I've never met before quite clearly, in a situation that seems beyond what my own mind could come up with. Maybe they're just symbolism/metaphors created by my own mind, but they seem so random and out of place. If you are familiar with the perceiver/interpreter concept by Bruce Moen, then I think I may be getting better at non-physical perception without letting my interpreter run away with the thought (which I have noticed as well).

One time while I was meditating and realized I had lost focus, I actually saw (not visualized) myself go through a dark tunnel (1st person viewpoint) when I regained awareness. That was pretty cool, but also VERY subtle and easy to miss/forget. I really had to stop for a moment and think: "Holy crap, what was that? REMEMBER this Mike..." because I find a lot of my "daydreams" while meditating are not actively stored by my memory – they slip away quite quickly.

Depending on your definition of OBE some of you might say I've already been successful by the experiences I've just mentioned, and my lucid dream in the past. Through my readings I've discovered just how broad "out-of-body" really is. The classic floating above your physical body in the real-time zone is actually only a VERY small subset of the continuum of consciousness. I'm very interested in exploring all of this quite a bit further.

In my search to improve the focus of my mind and self awareness I've stumbled across traditional Yoga. I'm not talking about the physical fitness program you see in the West, but the original and true Yoga. The Yogis figured all of this consciousness "stuff" out (including OBE and more) thousands of years ago! One particular site I like is SwamiJ.com, because it has a huge wealth of free knowledge on this topic.

In MAP, there are optional exercises in the 90 day program. I've substituted some of those for exercises I feel would be more beneficial to me, based on what I've learned from other authors. I've been listening to a Hemi-Sync track once a day, which I absolutely love. I try to be as present and aware as possible throughout the regular happenings of my day, and I've extended the time I practice mind taming each day. I usually do breath awareness for mind taming, but I've recently been experimenting with repeating a mantra.

I've been noticing a gradual shift in my overall world view as well. I find myself becoming less materialistic, or at least am noticing just how materialistic the culture is where I live. There just isn't any balance, mostly everything is about exterior facets of life with very little emphasis on the interior. But it's the interior that actually matters, because everything else is just temporary.

I think that if more people realized that consciousness is eternal and that the whole point is to have it evolve and grow in knowledge, then there wouldn't be so much focus on materialism and so many of our problems would go away.

Heh, sorry for getting a little carried away there.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 45

I've finished reading the Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook as well as The Secret of the Soul. The Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook is absolutely fantastic and I am starting to incorporate its exercises into my daily practice. I'll be writing about my experiences with it as well.

I flipped through The Secret of the Soul as the writing didn't appeal to me that much, much of it was testimonials about things I already knew about or concepts that seemed more rudimentary than Monroe's Focus Level system. I've also been casually reading about traditional yoga (not the physical exercise), Thomas Campbell's online material, as well as the posts made by Frank Kepple on the subject of phasing.

Today's main OBE exit technique was to imagine climbing a rope downards. While doing this I felt intense pressure on top of head, like a vice, which later moved down to my third eye and then stayed there. Pressure stopped as soon as I stopped the exercise, although a mild throbbing was felt afterward. This pressure was very intense and made it quite difficult to focus on climbing down the rope.

The pressure was a downward pressure, almost as if my the act of imagining the downward climbing was pulling my etheric body. But for some reason I guess it didn't want to let go... I also think I started to feel my heart chakra flutter but my excitement and awareness of it quickly made it stop.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 43

Here it is, week 6! This is the week where I finally get to do some OBE exit techniques. This week will focus on Robert Bruce's "Rope" technique, where you visualize and feel a rope above you that you use to climb. I have tried this method before in the past and have found it to quickly put me in a mind awake/body asleep state.

From the first couple sessions I've done already it's apparent to me that I still need quite a bit of work on taming my mind. I find it hard to focus on one thing (ex. climbing the rope) for longer than 30 seconds, if that. I feel like this is the hardest part for most people, losing focus is so easy in this day and age.

I've read that it can take months/years of daily meditation to effectively quiet the mind. It's clear to me that it's probably going to take that long for me as well. I used to be quite aloof and lost in my own mind (and still am at times) so I have quite a bit of ground to cover.

So having an OBE in 90 days might be a bit of a stretch. I'll give it my best effort though. This is probably why many people give up on the process. Luckily, there are many other benefits to this daily practice so I'm going to continue regardless.

On a bit of a practical note, I used to find the egg timer quite useful for pacing the various daily exercises. Now that I've done them so many times they are now memorized, and find it more beneficial to just keep my eyes closed and do the exercises at my own pace. This prevents me from breaking my trance state to reset the egg timer for the next exercise.

Over the past couple days I've felt quite a bit of tension at the top of my head while doing the exercises. I'm not sure if this is an energy build up or if this some part of my mind resisting the process. Maybe I am not relaxing enough beforehand, I'm not too sure.

One benefit to losing focus and going into a day dream while I meditate is that I've become much more aware of the "snap-back" feeling you get when you "wake up". It literally feels like you're falling or snapping back into your body. If you've ever had a dream where you're falling and then wake up you'll know what I'm talking about. The astral projection model/theory would suggest that it actually IS your subtle/energy body snapping back into alignment with your physical body.

In any case, becoming more aware of the subtle changes that occur between the awake/dreaming state is probably pretty key to becoming successful at OBE.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 40

Well, things keep getting a whole lot more interesting.

Progress generally feels like 2 steps forward, 1 step back, but every few days I am able to get into a slightly deeper trance state. This basically means a reduction in sensory input, which is part of the process in dissociating from my physical body – I need to keep my physical senses from rooting myself into focusing on the physical. I am able to feel a tingling sensation and a heaviness in my arms and legs fairly easily, but my chest seems to take more effort (especially since I am focusing on my breath).

During a couple of my meditation sessions I've had the urge to see if I could communicate with my "guides". I'd openly ask if they were "around", and I have gotten confirmation. The type of confirmation is just on the edge of what my analytical/left-brained/atheistic mind can accept – energy surges through my body, eye twitches on demand, and an internal dialogue that feels almost imaginary. The experiences can be interpreted as real or made up, depending on what you believe.

I now see that our beliefs are what limits us, and is what also limits our experiences. It's sort of a catch-22 because in order to experience something profound you have to believe it to be possible in the first place – that can make it hard for skeptics, when self-fulfilling prophecies come to mind. I feel like I just need to keep an open mind to slowly chip away at my limiting beliefs and concepts. Patience, persistence, and practice will expand my capabilities over time.

A lot of these self-realizations I've been having have caused somewhat of a belief-system crash, as coined by Bruce Moen in the Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook. Some of my old limiting beliefs have been dissolved and this has caused me to lose part of my identity/ego. This "loss of self" can be tough on the mind and I know that I need time to heal and reintegrate my new beliefs into a more accurate model of reality. This is hard! (whoops, I suppose that was an affirmation...)

Even if I don't have an OBE from this trial I've already had enough experiences to further pursue meditation and the exploration of consciousness. I now realize that an OBE is just a subset of the larger reality that can be experienced by consciousness. I almost feel like this trial is morphing into something more general – the evolution of my consciousness – rather than to just attain an OBE.

I'm thinking about going to The Monroe Institute for their "Gateway Voyage" retreat. I have their Gateway Experience CD's which I think I will start listening to regularly instead of the Lucid Dreaming track provided in bwgen. I've been a little disappointed with bwgen so far when compared to some of the other binaural beat tracks I've tried. I'm going to be focusing on "CD 1 Track 2: Focus 10? for now until I get good at achieving that state.

I have been absorbing quite a bit of material on consciousness this week and I feel like I should slow down a little, especially with the belief system crash. I'm getting the feeling that I should be working on experiencing more, rather than just reading about it. The books are only pointers. Reality is subjective so it's up to me to see what is really true or not.

That being said I am now interested in reading the "My Big Toe" trilogy from Thomas Campbell. He worked with Robert Monroe at the very early stages of the creation of Hemi-Sync. I particularly like his model of consciousness and reality, especially the mapping of entropy with love.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 37

I'm now getting better at getting into a deeper trance state. I know this because I find that when I end the meditation session and open my eyes, I feel disassociated with my physical body for a few seconds until I start to move. This is especially true with my hands and feet – it's almost like the feeling of them being "asleep" when blood circulation is cut off.

While I was extending the body bounce awareness exercise from the floor, through my body, up to the ceiling, and back down again I saw a couple flashes of a white horizontal line of light descending through my line of vision. It wasn't in sync with my awareness exercise so it was sort of surprising – I don't think there was a particular feeling associated with it either.

I think I may have projected into my etheric/energy body while practicing the extended body bounce exercise. There was a point at which I think my body fell asleep because I felt my head tilt to the right slightly, but it didn't really feel like it was me. It's hard to describe but perhaps a better way of saying it is that I was focused on my energy body and only partially felt my head tilt over. I had felt movement but it took me a while to figure out what had happened – from my perspective I felt like I was still sitting up straight.

you know, I never had any of those memory problems.  My first time I was out for at least a minute or two and remembered it fine.  

What i have had problems with is remembering projections when i have multiple in a row.  Sometimes I'll come back to my body and will still be in the right mind so i go again.  Sometimes when I do that I might not remember the first one as well, which is crappy because its usually the longest.

Yeah, I'm just being cautious for my first time. I may not have any memory problems either - but my historically bad dream recall is an indicator that this may not be the case.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 36

I had an interesting experience while doing one of the meditation exercises today, which consisted of me focusing on my third eye chakra. For whatever reason, I decided to think "Guides, if you're really out there, please show yourselves". Immediately after, the darkness behind my closed eyes lit up dramatically. It's almost as if a dimmer switch had been gradually turned up in my room – but no external lighting had changed obviously. Then, I felt a huge wave of electricity/energy/vibrations come through the top of my head and down my body. This wasn't your typical cold chill, because the energy stayed for a good couple minutes. I began to see what looked like blobs of form behind my eyelids, instead of just a hazy blur.. but I didn't get anything more than that. I became too excited, shed a couple tears (I haven't cried in years), and broke out of the meditation.

Interesting reading I'm reading Astral Dynamics and he continuously says that you should return to your body after ~10 sec to avoid forgetting the experience. Move away from your body aswell since being too close can cause problems like poor vision.

Yup that's part of the plan for sure.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Day 35

This week has been an interesting one to put it mildly. I've been experiencing some pretty large paradigm shifts and mental re-programming. My mental model of reality has changed due to both my daily exercises and supplemental reading.

I haven't had a classic OBE yet (beyond a lucid dream) so I'd have to say that my theoretical knowledge of what consciousness is is further along than my direct experience. I've finished reading "The Power of Now" and have now begun reading "The Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook" by Bruce Moen. I haven't put all the pieces together yet but I'm experiencing "eureka" moments on an almost daily basis. This is quite exciting! I'll try to share some of my thoughts here..

The major point I've picked up from Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now is that my thoughts are not who I am, "I am" the observer behind the thoughts. Descartes was wrong when he said "I think, therefore I am". My thoughts are my ego, they are not me in its entirety because there is something that exists outside my thoughts (self-awareness) that can observe my thoughts. But what, exactly, is doing the observation?

I cannot just be my thoughts (i.e. mind) because then there wouldn't be anything that would let me observe my mind. It's like the difference between a regular dream and a lucid dream. A regular dream is my ego-mind running amuck, while a lucid dream is where I bring my own self-aware observation (i.e. focus of consciousness) – which is an entirely different experience.

To me, this points to logical evidence that we are more than just our physical body and mind, which I believe will help me take another mental step into experiencing an OBE myself. Since I am beginning to accept the idea that we are more than our physical bodies, my mind will not be as likely to inhibit an OBE from occurring. Also, if an OBE were to occur, I won't be as "shell shocked" as I would be if it were to happen to someone with the typical atheist/skeptic belief system.

I have only just started reading The Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook today but it has already given me a Eureka! moment that also points to the fact that we are more than our physical bodies. This has to do with the concept and problem of free will. Do you believe you have free will? That is, the power to control aspects of your life?

Free will is something that has bugged me for a very long time, since I have always been a very left-brained, logical, and scientific thinker. YET, I do believe in free will... I am not a robot or a computer. Science does not currently have an answer for free will. The science of physics describes a deterministic/mechanistic universe at a macro level (Newtonian Mechanics/Relativity) and a seemingly random/indeterministic universe at a micro level (Quantum Mechanics).

The problem is that our world as seen from the lens of science does not have any room for free will. It's like the universe had a set of initial conditions set at the beginning and everything is playing out due to the physical laws of cause and effect. Or, if you get down to very small scales it appears entirely random. This doesn't make any sort of intuitive sense to our own personal subjective experience.

Now if you don't believe in free will then there is no problem for you. But if you do believe in free will then you recognize that you have the power to make choices that manipulate the physical world. But from where does this choice come from? Where do you trace the origin of the chain of cause and effect?

I believe the origin of free will(s) has to come from a source that is outside this physical universe. It's not like science is wrong – the universe is quite predictable (or completely unpredictable) under controlled experiments. But a human seems to be somewhere in the middle. I'm beginning to think that there are influences outside the physical universe that can somehow change the physical universe, and we might be one of the ways this occurs.

Take for example, the problem of our understanding of the human brain. In general, scientists believe that the brain is the origin of consciousness (I used to think so, too), but we really don't know how it works all too well. I'm now beginning to think that the brain is more of an interface/transceiver between our consciousness and the physical universe.

This idea isn't new of course. See Tart's Model of the Human Mind for an interesting description; It practically begs for a Venn Diagram. Movies like The Matrix and more recently, Avatar, show that the idea can be accepted in pop culture.

This Eureka moment came to me when I got to the beginning of the "Silly Little Finger Bending Exercise" in Bruce's book. I can sit here all day and choose when to bend my finger or not – I really don't see how a completely scripted universe would let me do that. Again, to me, this points to the idea that we are more than just our physical bodies.

But anyways, back to my notes and observations on my daily practice.

    * I've been noticing some weird experiences and coincidences lately. As an example, during one of my exercises I set my egg timer to 15 minutes and then proceeded to meditate. After a period of time I became curious as to why the egg timer hadn't rung yet and looked at how much time was remaining. It still said 15 minutes. Feeling a little weird-ed out, I decided to just let the timer be and see if it would start counting down. It did. I don't really have any sort of logical explanation other than just self-delusion but it was certainly weird.
    * Getting into a trance state is becoming easier each day, but I'm still only capable of getting into a light trance. Some of the visualization techniques are a little difficult, but luckily I get to pick what to use for the future.
    * Next week focuses on a little more preparation for OBE's (oops, I thought this was the last prep week). This includes creating a plan for what to do during my first OBE (the "walkthrough"), which is basically just a short trip around my room to maximize the chance of remembering the experience. I'll also be practicing "energy body loosening" by focusing my awareness on points outside my body, instead of just inside my body.
    * It's nice to see that a lot of what Bruce Moen talks about lines up with Robert Bruce, although there perspectives/approaches appear to be quite different.
    * I'm finding that the greater effort I put into telling myself "I remember my dreams" before falling asleep greatly determines the quality of my dream recall. It's harder than it sounds because I can be quite exhausted by the end of the day, which can make it difficult to not fall asleep immediately after my bedtime reading. So some days are better than others for what I end up writing in my journal.

OBE/Astral Projection Trial Week 5 Day 29

The past week focused on energy work with my primary energy centers (chakras). I was able to become aware of and stimulate each one with varying degrees of success. It's interesting that each chakra seemed to give me a different response or feeling when compared to the others.

Raising energy has now become relatively easy for me, it's almost a habit now. It will be a part of the rest of the 90 day program and I will likely continue it in some form afterward. I attribute this to the fact that I've been doing it everyday now for about a month, which is what Steve Pavlina recommends as the minimum time for forming a new habit.

In fact, I have been finding mind taming to be more difficult. I'm still working on this everyday as well by doing breath awareness, and I'm getting better. If I'm not careful it's just so easy to slip into a daydream or useless dialogue with myself. I know I probably shouldn't be saying that though, as it just reinforces itself as an intention.

I've been getting better at remembering my dreams, to the point where I can remember various scenes from a dream in the middle of the day without having to refer to my notes. That used to be completely impossible for me, so it's great to see that progress. There's still plenty of room for improvement though.

I've received Bruce Moen's "Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook", along with an accompanying CD and DVD. I watched the DVD "Exploring More of the Afterlife", and wow, I was pretty blown away. The quality of the video isn't the greatest but Bruce talks about some pretty advanced (dare I say crazy?) stuff.

This week's focus is on getting into the trance state. This is the state I need to be in before trying an OBE exit technique. I will be learning OBE exit techniques next week, which is exciting because I haven't actually tried to have an out of body experience yet in this program.

In my various explorations with astral projection in the past, I used to try to get into the trance state while lying down. This was easier than sitting to get into the trance state, but I would frequently go to deep and "click out"/fall asleep. Mastering Astral Projection recommends using slight discomfort to make sure you don't fall asleep, so they recommend sitting in a hard backed chair. The fact that you then have to balance your head keeps you from falling asleep, but on the flip-side it's harder to get into a trance state (mind awake/body asleep).

My first attempt at mind awake/body asleep in my chair today went alright. I didn't get as deep as I have in the past while lying down, but I just need some practice. The technique used today was to picture and feel myself going down an elevator. I will let you know how it progresses.