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The focusing "inward" part seems more confusing..

In frank's initial post about phasing where he refers to putting all his mental attention on "noticing" and then his attention becoming fixated "within".. what exactly does the "within" part mean?  He notices the hypnagogic imagery within the "mind" and uses that as a lunch pad to phasing?

In several references I saw during Frank's writings as well as other messages.. people refer to inducing a trance by "focusing inward" or "focusing away from the body".

What exactly does this mean?  Do not focus on the sensations going on in your physical body?  Focus your mental attention on something other than your physical body (i.e. a rundown, mental scene, a song, etc.)?

Sounds like you are on the right track.

The vibrational state is key to initiating the OOBE/AP/ETC.

I'm currently trying to work on a method to "auto-suggest" to the body to consciously become aware when it experiences the vibrations naturally.

We experience the vibrational state every night naturally, we just are not usually aware of it.

It doesn't describe how our conscious awareness is actually lost.  Steven LaBerge has done a lot of research on the methods used to induce lucid dreaming, and he does state at some point that WILDs (Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming), which are the exact same precursors to having an OOBE/AP, can be induced at will once mastered even persisting through delta sleep.  So..I figure if I want to try to induce hypnagogia and remain conscious while trying to fall asleep as naturally as possible.. understanding exactly how we lose consciousness or why will be a big help in trying to find a solution to retraining the mind to fall asleep consciously.

How exactly do we lose conscious awareness when we go to sleep?  I have been trying to observe what happens as I am going to sleep as Frank did in his early experiments, and I am unaware of exactly how conscious self-awareness is lost.  There seems to be a lot of scattered debate about the subject, with no clearcut explanation as to what exactly happens.

Could the mind become scatterbrained, drift as we are falling asleep and then at some point it loses awareness that way?

Could the mind actually shutdown at some point as we enter deep NREM delta sleep, and as we approach hypnagogia we are mostly unaware of when we actually "black out"?

How exactly does the mind lose awareness, and at what stage does this usually occur?

I've been thinking something.. I've heard, and experienced this on my own, that most people seem to project/OOBE when they are already dreaming or entering hypnagogia unconscious, but then for some reason they "wake up" from unconscious awareness into the expanded awareness state.  It's almost like you let yourself go to sleep naturally without practicing any method or technique, and then at some point losing your conscious awareness and entering deep delta unconscious sleep.  Then, suddenly you become conscious again like you are waking up from something because your unconscious body is perceiving being in another state.

Does anyone know of a technique or method that could be used to do this?  To me it sounds like it has something to do with the power of autosuggestion and somehow training your mind so rigorously to "wake up" once it unconsciously perceives it being in a state other than normal wakefulness, perhaps by sensing the vibrations or sleep paralysis that normally occurs during sleep?

I am sure that every night when we go to sleep unconsciously we experience the vibrational state numerous times but are not aware of it happening becuase the mind is not trained to recognize it in any meaningful sense. 

Would it be possible to somehow train the brain to "gain awareness/lucidity" once it unconsciously experiences this vibrational state from an unconscious perspective?  Maybe by somehow telling it over and over again and playing a run down of it that when it experiences vibrations, it will take up and become lucid?

I will experiment with this some more as I get a chance.  So far I've been focusing on a variety of random run downs with no purposeful meaning in an attempt to phase but have not gotten anywhere with it.  Focusing on the vibrations on the other hand though may lead to something.  I'll let you all know how it goes.

Basically to sum up what I said above.. the purpose of the semi-active conscious rundown / daydream for me is to distract my mind away from my physical body or "shift" my awareness away from it so that it can naturally fall asleep and shut down sensory perceptions.  The less you think of your physical body it will go to sleep.. makes sense.  I think the brain is somehow programmed to not inititate the sleep paralysis or hypnagogic state if the mental inquisitive attention is always focsed on the physical body at all times, because then your brain just simply thinks you want to use your physical body for something and that it will remain awake indefinately. 

You have to "trick" your brain and nervous system to shut down your physical body by shifting your awareness away from it in the form of a "run down" or "daydream", but still maintain an active role in the daydream so that your mind does not wander aimlessly and fall asleep with your body.

Now.. the trick with this, at least in my experiences so far, is very difficult and involves shifting your focus back to your physical body at different intervals so that you don't lose yourself in your run down and to check to see if sleep paralysis has set in.  You'll notice that the more that you are daydreaming and performing your run down, the sensory perceptions in your physical body start to shut down and you feel it going to sleep as you very subtely and briefly shift your awareness back to your physical body to check on your progress.  Eventually if you keep on performing the run down, you will notice that you have "tricked" your brain into thinking your physical body is asleep by shifting your attention away from it and thus the mind does not think it needs the physical body anymore so it will shut it down for sleep naturally.  The trick is to keep diligently "checking" on your physical body and then realizing when you enter hypnagogia and sleep paralysis, after which you can induce the vibrations and start an exit.

I realize phasing is a completely different concept and that I believe has merit for more investigation and to add to a wide repertoire of achieving an altered state of consciousness.

I tried the rundown, and it worked.. but not in the sense of phasing at all.  I basically used the rundown to entertain the mind on something that I take great pleasure in and relaxes me naturally.  I do this in order to fall asleep naturally, because if I don't daydream and still the mind, I just remain awake forever. 

I kept focusing back on my physical body at different intervals during the run down to feel for sleep paralysis and entering hypnagogia and it worked!  It takes awhile and sometimes the run down is inconclusive (ie.. it meshes with other intrusive rundowns and daydreams which I then focus myself back to the original task) but eventually I am able to enter hypnagogia and suddenly realize that I have entered sleep paralysis.

Once this is achieved, the rundown / dream scene itself ends abrupty as I change my focus back to my physical body and then the vibrations start and I am able to initiate a classic OOBE in the traditional sense.  They don't last long (although the more I am able to practice them and induce them, the longer they last), but this past weekend I had about 5 OOBEs back-to-back as a result of consciously but passively "daydreaming" on a specific thought to distract my mind from my physical body in order to let it fall asleep, only to refocus my attention back on my physical body after the realization that sleep paralysis has already set in.

Has anyone kind of meshed "phasing" and traditional hypnagogia/exit methods such as this with any success?

So about the awareness of my body thing.. since I retain consciousness when "stepping into the scene" will I have enough self-awareness to be able to say "I realize my physical body is in bed and I am now in F2.. I will induce the vibrations and enter the RTZ"?

So, could the rundown be a scenario similar in the movie "Jumper" where I am teleporting between the real world and another dimension such as winnie the pooh land.. taking cartoon characters by "jumping" them into our dimension and showing them around?  Not very repetetive.. but still creative.

For the past few weeks I've been trying to enter hypnagogia so that I can induce the vibrational state and practice a full-blown OBE exit technique.  My main focus has been the vehram energy array and hypnagogia technique that Vessen Hopkins wrote in his ebook.  Nothing.. nada... I just ended up giving up and drifting off into dreamland, unaware of my current state of consciousness or self-awareness.

Now.. before I begin I will say that I am a very vivid daydreamer.  I can daydream for long periods of time on the silliest things (ex: jumping into winnie the pooh land and taking pooh and piglet into our physical dimension from winnie the pooh world and showing them the northern lights as they swirl throughout the night sky).  I can't visualize for s*** and have a very short attention span (very short!).  But daydreaming soothes my mind and its passive enough that it will eventually allow my mind to take a natural course into sleep.  Could this be the key?  Then something amazing happened..

I noticed that whenever I lay down to go to bed, I actually fall asleep by daydreaming and creating vivid scenarios in my mind that eventually take off on their own without any conscious effort.  It is similar to what has been talked about in phasing where you let the mind go wherever it needs to go (daydream instead of actively trying to focus on something).  At some point in the daydreaming process (letting the mind wander is another term for this) I lose my self-awareness of what is happening to me and therefore become oblivious to try anything relating to hypnagogia or retaining my self-awareness.  Thus.. I fall asleep!  I am unsure as to how this happens.. but it's like I start the daydreaming process and then suddenly at some point I lose self-awareness altogether and continue the daydream oblivious in a half-sleep state at which point I probably black out (deep sleep?).  BUT..... then this happened after noticing the previous observation:


The other night as I was falling asleep at the beginning of the night.. it seemed like I caught myself during the daydream as the mind wandered freely inside at a critical moment when I shifted my attention from the daydream and openness of the mind to my physical body and realized that I had no sensory perception of my physical body.  It was like I woke up from allowing myself to be carried away into the daydream which would eventually be "falling asleep" by shifting my awareness somehow to my physical body/breathing.  The daydream had been passive enough to shut down sensory perception of my physical body by focusing my thoughts away from it, and then at a critical moment I caught myself and regained self-awareness by refocusing my consciousness on my physical body to initiate a F10 state.  It was at this point that I reached out for energy from the vehram energy "orbs" that Vessen Hopkins talked about and the vibrational surge came about very suddenly and very violently.

The vibrations continued and then became much higher and smoothened themselves out and I had a full-blown conscious exit into my bedroom.  I used the "lift out" method and it was like while the vibrations were occurring I could "see" all of a sudden through the blackness and feel my awareness float out of my body relative to the dresser in my bedroom.  The room was dark but I could somehow perceive the room as if it were day.. maybe we have "night vision" in our second body?  It took place at 2:00 am in the morning when there is a twilight outside (I live in interior Alaska above 65 degrees latitude) and it seemed like it was real enough to be a RTZ projection/OOBE/phase of consciousness, whatever you want to call it.

I then attempted to go through the wall and found myself floating very sluggishly around the room (not a gravitational pull toward the ground.. but more like the air was made of a denser invisible material consistent with jello) and then got stuck half-way inside the wall.  I then willed myself back into the physical and experienced a loud "thud" and jolt that pushed me back into my bed as I woke up.

So with all this being said.. is there any way I can "catch" myself more frequently easier when using this method so that I don't drift too far off into the daydream and lose self-awareness?  Should I maybe try daydreaming, letting the mind out to play naturally by passively playing with the storyline, then randomly shift my attention briefly on my physical body at different times to see if the daydream has distracted me enough to allow the onset of sleep paralysis and thus bring about an F10 / hypnagogic state?

This method seems to be very similar to my previous OOBEs that I have had so far this year.  It always occurred with the feeling of getting "heavy" and then being "tugged" past a certain point once the breathing becomes very rhythmic, which I actually notice the body doing once it is entering sleep.

Basically the body seems to transition from random chaotic breathing to a very subdued, rhythmic breathing once sleep approaches.

I bought the book.. going to give it a try.

So it doesn't even have to be a cube.. it can be anything that soothes the mind such as (in my instance) a triangle?

Holy excrement.. no that was me LOL.  I had completely forgot that I had used another name here in 2002-2003. 

But yeh.. goes to show how memories don't change much over the years. 

I tried this last night and it actually worked.  It is acutally a two-step process.

I don't think it specifically has to be a cube.. but monroe pointed out in his book that the easiest way to enter the hypnagogic state bordering sleep is to hold your mental attention on something (in this case a cube or square), since it somehow as you said... aligns the brainwave patterns into deep alpha and is more passive than just simply breath awareness by itself.

What happened though was.. I laid down, relaxed my body, and then just like in daydreaming I basically pictured the cube and held my mental thought process on just the cube being in the center of my field of vision.  Just a simple visualization exercise, and the cube kept going from 3d to a simple 2d square and moving slightly.  But I tried to hold my mental attention on just that one thought.  After doing it for about 15 minutes, all of a sudden I felt like other thoughts intruded and I could not think to hold the cube in my thoughts anymore.  It was as if I could not even think at all.. my brainwaves were slowing down so fast. 

It was at this point that I felt like since I was interrupted from my mental thought of the cube with other hypnagogic images, I focused what little thread of self-awareness I had on my breathing.  Paralysis ensued almost immediately, and the vibrational state started immediately after, though my mind was still awake and in fact "woke" back up when the vibrations started.  I then tried to manipulate the vibrations just as Monroe talked about.. but they disappeared and I woke back up again.

Still some progress though.. I think it is a two-step process..

1st hold your mental attention on something such as the cube for it to be passive enough to change your brainwave patterns in the most efficient way possible.

2nd refocus your awareness on your breathing otherwise if you try to think, you'll just get lost in your own hypnagogic images and lose awareness entirely.

So I definately think that to achieve this state.. it is a combination of techniques rather than just one by itself.

I'm trying to make contact with my old friend so he can help me do an exit into the RTZ with ease.

One thing I know for sure is that these beings inhabit a dimension or layer that is very close to the RTZ.. as in lower dimensional beings.  I don't know if their homeworld (that dark, damp indigo deep blue cave network) exists in a dimension further away from the RTZ.. but they have the capability to wander around the RTZ feeding off energy in many places around the world.

Of interesting note.. this race seems to be the dominant species with a portal in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.. home of the Aramco oil company "camps" next to Al khobar.  There is a portal in the Aramco-Dhahran oil camp that these beings use to enter the RTZ.

Once I can have more OOBEs I'll try to consciously remember my friend and call to him.. and chances are he will probably be able to hear me. 

You mean just picture a three-dimensional cube (made of glass or whatever appeases your mind) floating in the blackness in front of you?

Or do you mean imagine yourself being inside a cube?

Monroe's early technique describes a method of imagining a reference point (dot perhaps?) three spatial feet from your perceived physical location, then moving it to six feet.. but I don't know if your technique is similar to this.

Has anyone ever encountered entities/beings that look like oval-shaped ghosts (like those in pacman.. shaped like a popsicle stick cut in half with no legs and they hover slightly above the surface) composed of etheric matter/ectoplasm with very long noses that they use to tickle people to death?  I called their race "The Stinger-Nose Monsters" or "Man with the Stinger-Nose", but I would imagine they as a race probably have a name.

I do not know what this race is called, but in my childhood I used to have RTZ projections every single night that would last for hours because of this mysterious race of astral/interdimensional beings.  They would taunt me, and even show me how they "tickled" astral entities as a form of torture and a means to scare me, and some of them even tickled me and it was the most horrible but unexplainable pain/weird sensation ever felt.

There was one though, that did not feel it was right for their race to taunt and torture beings and we became best friends in our nightly adventures.  He explained a lot of things to me, and at the time I didn't understand what a RTZ projection was but he explained that his species generate a field that allows us human beings to be "pulled" out of the physical body with relative ease, and often hide in dark rooms and exert this "force" trying to pull you into the dark room to be tickle-tortured.  It feels like a magnetic force is pulling you into the room, and the force weakens the further you are away.  The closer you are to the room, the stronger the attractive force that these entities exert.

My stinger nose monster friend explained that I was asleep but venturing outside my body with my mind intact, and as proof would take me to the clock on the wall and my parents bedroom in which we would observe them sleeping.  At one point I witnessed my father going to the bathroom while in this RTZ state and confirmed it the next day when I asked him.  He seemed quite surprised, but I didn't mention it any more because I was still baffled by the experience.

There was another time that I had gone to bed and my parents decided to decorate the living room with halloween crepe papers draped from wall-to-wall.  They decided to do this when I was asleep to "surprise" me the next morning, but that night I had a RTZ projection with the help of my friend who showed me the way to his dimension, and in process we passed the living room and I asked him if it was the same room and he said yes.  We then went into the garage and into a wall with a black square on it (I assume the actual portal) and all of a sudden we were in this very dark blue, deep other-worldly cave full of these mysterious beings.  It was almost like an underworld without any source of light or fire.  The only light source in the room seemed to be a very ethereal deep blue / indigo color but I don't know where it originated.

He explained that his race inhabits entire networks of these caves that go on indefinately and that they were in a separate layer from the physical world in which we had come from.  They feed on human energy by tickling them with their stinger noses, which in turn is shared with every single being of this race.  It is almost like they are all linked by the very energy they obtain when they "tickle" us humans and other astral beings, which I actually observed happening when my friend took me into this cave.  He said that he would protect me and would never harm me, but to be careful and watch out for his race, as they have no choice but to feed off the etheric energy by transferring it through their nose through tickling action (in a classic sense.. they actually wag their nose back and forth to tickle and suck the energy out of the being but the being being tortured/tickled never actually runs out of energy and they stop when they are fed).

The few times I have been able to fall asleep with conscious self-awareness intact.. breath awareness seems to be the most natural method for me.  When you do it right, you will reach a certain point where you just know, based on the fact that you "know" you can't feel your own physical body anymore but know that it is there.  It is at this point that the vibrations start as a mild electrical buzz, which then become violent with the "air hiss" phenomenon and then all I do is just use the float out of body technique for exiting. 

Most of my first few were very short, but this last one I was actually able to do a RTZ projection for what felt like 5 minutes. 

I did this every single night when I was a child, probably because I was living in Saudi Arabia and there was a portal with inter-dimensional beings/entities helping me exit each night.. but as I grew up that became dormant and now I'm trying to condition myself to have it on a regalar basis in what Monroe called a "conditioned reflex".. ie.. you do it enough times and reprogram your brain then it becomes easier and eventually becomes the norm when you go to "bed" at night.

On a side note.. maybe it is even possible to retrain the mind to not fall asleep at all but simply train it to think something along the lines of "when I hit the bed, I don't sleep but automatically start to recognize how the breathing process changes throughout sleep, in effect retaining self-awareness and bringing about the vibrational state / separation process."

What is your preferred method of remaining self-aware during deep delta/theta sleep either at the beginning of the night (as posted in another post) or after waking up in the morning?

I have tried every method I can think of and it seems like breath awareness is passive enough to allow you to enter deep sleep/trance states but retain your self-awareness so that you can acheive the vibrational state. 

Only problem is.. it seems like when I try it, it is too much of an active thought process and I just remain awake indefinately until I finally give up and let myself fall asleep.

Is there anything I can try to make breath awareness more passive? 

One thing I have noticed though when I was successful at entering deep sleep but retaining my self-awareness, is that you will reach a point during the process where your breathing becomes very passive and rythmic and you hang onto the awareness of it precariously by a thread.. and it is very difficult to think of anything else.  It almost feels like a "lull" where you feel the threat of simply losing awareness but you cling onto your perception of your rhythmic breathing process.  This continues for a time, until like BAM... all of a sudden you become aware again but you have entered a state of expanded awareness with full body paralysis in which case you no longer need to focus on your breathing, but simply will the vibrational state to come and it does.  This is accompanied by buzzing noises and sometimes the fear of impending doom which I guess is a conditioned reflex from fear of the unknown.  Separation then becomes easy after that.

Based on that explanation.. is the "lull" probably the deep theta/delta states?

But it could be possible.. in Monroe's book "Journeys out of the body" there seems to be plenty of instances where he is able to remain awake during deep delta sleep and have an OOBE right afterwards.

I was wondering if it is possible to retain consciousness at the very beginning of the night when you enter deep theta/delta sleep before bouncing back up for your first REM period. 

I have done it early in the morning right after a brief awakening (which is common according to all the information that I have read out there about the subject).. but I'm wondering specifically if it can be done at the beginning of the night.

If I just focus on my breathing (not easy as the mind has a tendancy to wander in order to fall asleep), should that alone be enough to take my conscious awareness through theta/delta sleep, through the hypnagogic state, and finally onto what Robert Monroe called "Condition D".. full sleep paralysis and loss of physical sensory perception, where the vibrational state can be brought about for a fully conscious OOBE exit.

Most importantly and often overlooked is getting into the trance state where paralysis sets in and the technique becomes 1000x more effective. This site contains very valuable resources for developing your trance technique.. but it must be yours alone and you might have to tweak it to make it work for you. I would personally recommend that you just do absolutely nothing and relax as best you can.. and during the night you will start to feel that you might be falling asleep and loosing consciousness.. try to "catch" yourself doing this and eventually trial and error you will find a way to trick your body into thinking it has fallen asleep and initiate the expansion of the astral double.

Sounds like a load of crap to me.. not what monroe says but about god threatening someone like that. Probably a NEG.