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I used to be hardcore gym head. There was nothing worse than someone breaking my rhythm by trying to talk to me while I was lifting weights. Mostly by other guys who were interested in learning why I was so successful at what I was doing. Of course being a nice guy I would indulge their them. This however was seen in my eyes a setback to my workout and reduced my effective training.

Although a lot of people do use the gym as a social place there are always those people who do not want to be approached.

Keep this in mind! Otherwise this is sound advice.

I believe I am teetering on the edge of a chasm from which there is no return.

I 'think' that I feel as though I should be afraid of this but the thought escapes me. It is blazing past at record speeds, far out of reach. I wonder if this is how it should be and if I am walking the right path. But this is soon replaced by a feeling of numbing warmth and comfort and quickly forgotten. These like many of my thoughts are now common place for me, as I have trouble forming opinions and would rather 'go with the flow of things' so to speak.

Having had a near existential death experience approximately 7 years ago I felt that my world was coming to an end. This lead me to a short stint with depression which lasted about a month after which I had all but relinquished to my fate. This lead me to a simple realization regarding the nature of thoughts and their emotional counter-parts. This was common knowledge to me from before through my study and academia of inner knowledge, however it never rung true until that moment. I almost instantly learned to become a third party observer in my own head which lead me to detach from myself, my thoughts and their emotional content. I was then able to enter a state of pleasurable nothingness which felt as though a warm embrace of release. I soon later was able to choose which emotional content I would digest. No longer a prisoner of the grey. Albeit unable to grasp the negative emotional states easily as my natural state of mind was now auto piloting to that warm nothing state.

I spent some time picking apart my ego. Asking myself questions such as why do I not like these things/emotions/ideas. I could not tell if I had always not liked these things or was it some kind of learned behavior from my childhood or environment. It became second nature to block my thoughts from being filtered by my ego and thus it crumbled.

While this has improved my life incredibly since then and I no longer fear death. It has forever changed my outlook on this world. I can't help but wonder if this is how I should be or am I now a incomplete being wondering through a haze dumbfounded. I believe this has closed my heart because I know no love. It has been replaced by something else intangible. I would like to shed a tear for this loss but it escapes me. Or maybe I have just never felt true love or have never felt the act of giving love in my life thus far and have yet to discover it.

To be honest I do not know how I have come to this point in writing this. Normally I sit and stare trying to will my thoughts to come out in some form or another. It was difficult to write all of this and yet it was easy some how I cannot explain it. These words some how seemed to flow from me without a thought.

Maybe there is still something inside of me that is crying for help.

This is the method I use.

I noticed distinct levels of consciousness when I do this. I always hear a ringing in my ears regardless maybe because I have syndrome called visual snow. I go from being awake listening to ringing with hypnagogic imagery. The ringing will turn to a roaring. From there I will feel as though time stops and my body is welling with energy it cannot release. I say this because all sound, feeling and thought is replaced by an awkward feeling like my body is an elastic band that just got wound up and wants to release. From here it is easy to get scared and return to normal consciousness but if I can push forward this feeling goes away and the darkness of my vision is replaced by a visual moving picture as real as life. From here I would go down one level deeper into full lucid dream / phasing with complete consciousness and awareness.

From my experiences at this point if I return to normal consciousness I can re-phase and continue where I left off.

Of course there are some days when I have no luck at all.

I had something similar for years felt like a worm was crawling under my skin on my right shoulder blade, except it never moved. I noticed after energy rising and trying to clear blocks followed by back stretching exercises to help any binding nerves it soon went away. I havent noticed such sensations in many months but I continue the exercises.

Seems to work better on some days and harder on others, but it is repeatable. I suspect it will get easier with persistent practice.

I have always had a lot of problems sleeping in the past or even doing any kind of trance work, but these techniques have helped me increase my ability to do so. It has become more natural each day and thus easier.

Have also been working on other techniques to stimulate different mental affects, but I will do into that at a later date

I've had a similar experience where I developed my own method of consciously entering a  dream fully lucid, and was able to resume after interuptions in the dream like pause / play on a VCR / DVD / TIVO (wish I had a TIVO it was interesting to say the least.

Wrote about it on the Dreams forum, here is the link:

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16815

I'm glad you enjoyed my post and hope others will share their comments on the subject as well.  On another notes, based on your reply I have decided to share some thoughts of mine on a similar subject. I hope you take the time to read them and wish you the best of luck.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16902[/url]

Imagine a deep rooted problem so sinister it does not show its true nature and yet we are so consumed by it even though rationally we know it is undesirable, if only on a basic level.

Through deep inner reflection and meditation and coming to certain conclusions about how emotions and emotionally charged thoughts affect the mind.  Depending on what you are thinking or feeling at any given time, they do seem to play a part in how you perceive the world and how you feel internally.

After countless hours of impartially observing and determining how these emotions affect my mind, what triggers them and how to deal with them. It has become almost second nature. Realizing that it is more beneficial to "not get wrapped up" in negative thoughts and emotions such as: frustration, anger, sadness, fear... I have noticed that it feels better to dodge these thoughts, feelings and memories as they happen.

Instead of becoming engrossed in them only to feel worse, it seems much better to impartially observe them and let them pass because it feels much better when you don't let them take hold of you and change your outlook to that of a negative one. It is this indescribable feeling of good that has been my chief motivating force and why I pursue it with such vigilance.

After a month or so of constant practice through out my everyday life it has become more automatic in the sense that I no longer have to consciously decide whether or not to experience the good or the bad. Knowing how it is more beneficial for me to not let these emotions and thoughts affect me in a negative way has made me a much more enjoyable person.

"We create our reality" has to mean something, after all, how we think and feel is a large part of how we understand and view the world. Positively or negatively you choose, you decide it is completely up to you how you use this information. Simply put, you decide how you feel at any given moment in time. Take responsibility and choose the better way.

I hope many of you find this information beneficial and wish you all luck on your journeys.

Please post and questions or comments and I would be happy to reply.

This morning after playing with the snooze button on my alarm clock every seven minutes for the past two hours I decided to learn my own science to "falling asleep".

Obvious annoying sounds around the house and deciding it was the perfect opportunity to learn fall asleep under any circumstances my plan was set in motion. After trying the usual tossing and turning followed by the grunt of a frustrated bed head, I realized that I was heading in the wrong direction.

Changing my outlook on the situation I let go of any resentment to the sounds bouncing off the walls in the house and lay calmly in my bed relaxed. After realizing that to want to sleep is an obstacle preventing me from my very goal, I let go of such thoughts.

Watching my internal screen and noticing the patterns and pulsing of dim glow dancing across my sight, I knew I had entered the right mind set and was close to my goal.

Relaxing completely of mind and body, letting all thoughts slip away a strange feeling enveloped me similar to a "brain freeze" I noticed the dim glows and black of my vision had morphed into a beautiful blue sky and I noticed a few airplanes floating in this sky.

It only lasted a minute and I was soon brought out of it. Afterwards thinking how strange it felt, almost as if my brain stopped. I was able to reproduce this several times after entering the same relaxed state.

Soon later on my next attempt I found my hearing change from its usual melody of composed high pitch tones I frequently enjoy listening to. Too that of more of an OBE attempt. The roaring in my ears became apparent and knowing I was close I pushed on.

Although I didn't experience the intense pre-OBE vibrations I felt something knew.  Almost as if I was enveloped in warm rolling energy it seemed as if my body was moving, swaying in my bed as I lay on my side.

My visual screen soon changed. Finding myself in a strange room with no windows, white plain walls, no doors and only an empty doorway into the next room, I found myself on my feet exploring this new area fully lucid and aware.

Not knowing exactly why I had so easily and effortlessly entered lucid I was very excited. Always thinking the traditional ways of becoming lucid by mere chance or even self hypnosis were extremely lacking, I was very happy my approach, so easy and simple worked perfectly although it was not my intent to become lucid but only to sleep.

Every once in awhile, everything would fade back to my original blank/black screen of glowing dim light and always being able to bring myself instantly back into the lucid as easily as it had happened by relaxing and letting go. Although it was strange because every time the dream resumed, it was as if nothing happened like closing your eyes for a moment blocking all vision.

Exploring this strange house and finding many strange things I came across an odd black figure crouched over as if eating something on the floor, thinking this was very strange I looked closer and thought of a werewolf eating its prey.

Soon after I realized I had made a grave mistake and my subconscious eagerly created the scenario and the werewolf quickly leapt across the room and was very close to me snarling. Not exactly scared but defiantly startled, my vision soon faded back into the black glowing dim patterns of light I knew only too well.

Catching the alarm clock one last time and deciding it was time to get up, smiling and going over whether or not I should write this on the astral pulse forums. Knowing fully well others could benefit from this information or at least a good story it was decided, I would.

Having always been a long time reader of these forums, and short time poster, I hope everyone enjoys this. Please posts any constructive comments or questions as you wish.

Although it might have been more practical to not write this as a story I felt it would make it more interesting and pleasant to the reader, if not enjoyable, at least more in depth than "the usual".

I wish you all pleasant dreams.

Although it is quite possible that heat could be the cause of hearing the ringing. While I can only speculate the true cause(s), and willing to throw in my two  cents on why there is no ultimate explanation.

Heat coming from the kettle does not create the ringing sound, but it is actually the movement of the air escaping the kettle which vibrates the small hole, thus, creating the vibrations of sound. Similar to how blowing air from your mouth can cause vibrations creating a whistle or air vibrating from your vocal cords creating your voice.

Tinnitus is not the cause of hearing loss but a result.  The ringing doesn't impair your ability to hear but it is actually a result of internal ear problems suppressing your hearings functionality.

It has been known that meditation actually lowers your body's core temperature, thus, calming the ringing, but this is actually a contradiction because while meditating the sound is actually amplified.

This ringing can always be heard, all the time but is not always because of mental, visual, tactile or auditory distractions.

It seems many things could explain what causes this sound: it could be the brains own creation, something to comfort it because of the absence of sound, or vibrations of the astral body / energy field, maybe even the body's own cells vibrating.

I do believe it to be a multi-layered sound. I have been able to observe it and manipulate which tones are dominating leads me to believe that it may be generated by multiple sources.

While we can not know the true cause(s), we can only speculate based on our knowledge. I have based my opinions on my own personal experiences and by no means may be 100% correct. With that said I would like to conclude that is not the actual internal ears interpreting the sound but actually some other internal faculty whether it is the brain or some kind of clairaudience/extra sensory ability.

The skies the limit on theories, but only you can decide what you believe.

Hello, I've recently started practicing OBEs and normally wouldn't ask for help so soon (my second attempt). I have been using my own method for inducing conscious OBEs, a variation of the YOYO and ROPE technique.

My method consists mainly of visualizing / tactile visualization, pulling on the rope and shifting my awareness between the ceiling light during deep inhales and shifting back to my body at exhales.

During my second attempt last night I relaxed my body and began using this method. Noticing after some time after each inhale the 'buzzing' feeling over my entire body would strengthen.

I continued this for 45 minutes. At which time the 'buzzing' feeling began to become extreme mainly at my hands to the point where I could no longer feel the sensation of touch. Noticing a medium pain in my hands as if they were under extreme tension I decided to move my fingers. As I tried I realized I couldn't without significant will. Slowly regaining the movement in my fingers, attempting to make a fist was still impossible abet causing pain. As I began gaining control over my hands there was a cold slick sweat on my palms. It took a full 15 minutes before I had complete control back but it took well over an hour for the pain and 'buzzing' sensations to completely go away.

What troubled me was the pain in my hands and I was wondering if anyone else experienced this and any advice they could impart onto me.

On an unrelated question which I have never gotten a strait answer for which has always puzzled me.  Ever since as far back as I can remember there have always been detailed patterns of light and related dull images in my vision if my eyes are closed. But the strange thing is I can see it all even when my eyes are open, it is especially vivid in dark to dim light. Looking at a wall or similar plain objects in normal light also reveals these images.

Before sleep it's not uncommon for me to see localized (individual eye) sudden pulsing greenish light that lasts for a few to several seconds in length. Not to mention hypnotic white and black inversing tunnel effect (hard to describe) and vague movie like image that constantly changes which seems to be involuntary and abstract. This may be symbols caused by my subconscious. I have yet to determine if this is true or not.

Sorry if this post is lengthy but I would appreciate any answers anyone could give me for the causes of any of these problems.

In regards to the vision. When I look at a wall there is no staring involved, or any object for that matter. It is always there "behind the scenes" and I only consciously see it when im looking for it. But it's pritty hard not to notice it, especially at night where it does distort my vision. Like looking through the lens of a crappy camera.

I'll definatly have to try spreading my fingers, normally keep my hands on my abdomen. Everytime I do try to project my hands do tense up, it may be caused by the rope technique. When I visualize, I see myself gripping the rope and squeezing it tight, while pulling myself up forcefully.

Thank you astralspinner for your insightful answer and I appreciate it.

I would like to add after feeling the pain in my hands it seemed to be comming from my upper tendons. I pushed my fingers from each hand across each wrist to see if they would move as if relaxed and that seemed to be the case. But I could be wrong.

Planning on trying again tonight too see how much further I can get. Last nights bout left me restless for an additional 3 hours, which frustrated me. Have always had trouble falling asleep but once I have it is very easy to fall back, even if im hitting my snooze button every 7 minutes for hours on the weekends. []