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After more than a hundred years of back-and-forth argument, it comes down to a speculative acceptance that our individual conscious awareness can somehow separate from our physical body and traverse the Universe and some possible dimensional Realities.  Maybe our individual consciousness is actually generated from that physical body or maybe it is only temporarily fixated there; maybe it is generated from something even higher and elsewhere. That remains the question, but regardless, it appears we can go roaming about the Universe...if we choose to...

The traditional OBE has us floating ghost-like out of our physical body, roaming around our house or local environs and this is often what seems to happen for early experiencers. At some point for this group, things change and the Non-Physical environment seems to develop or advance. The environment moves from a monochromatic picture to one of a more dynamic and technicolor environment. In one sense, this is moving from the Etheric to the Astral level...I'm not confirming this; I am just pointing out the context.

My next idea and from my own experience is, the traditional OBE is fine to start with (it is where I started) but we necessarily move into the Phasing model, which is a big rethink. The Phasing model does not answer all our questions but it moves us to the next level of experiential relation to what we are encountering.

So my point is this:

Do you remember daydreaming as a child?

That was Phasing, in its' simplest form.

You got bored with one Reality and chose to tune out to another, one of your own creation...that was arguably a Non-Physical or Astral Reality; maybe just a personal creation or maybe something greater...but who knows, and it was a credible Phasing experience that lasted up until the teacher called you back...

So you have actually been there and done it...remember how easy it was and try to recapture that simple process, methinks it had something to do with Intent.


EV

So, it is approaching the Winter holiday season and I am sleepless at 4am and thinking about seasonal stories and movies such as "A Christmas Carol" and "It's a Wonderful Life". These are wonderful stories and the obvious Non-Physical(NP)/OBE qualities contained therein cause me a certain fascination. Then it strikes me, the NP qualities of another movie- "The Wizard of OZ". That movie has some incredible NP theory going on...

Now don't immediately search the movie...let's hear some ideas on the Non-Physical, OBE-like aspects of this movie...

Thoughts?

Welcome!
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So I haven't had much in the way of experiences worth reporting this year, so far; my dream recall has been almost nil for the last two months; various reasons for that, allergies and illness for one. This semi-lucid dream happened this morning and was one where I woke up and then re-entered the dream twice, the first time unexpectedly, the second more consciously and directly. It may fit into a more mundane category and not worth even mentioning, except possibly for two reasons: I wonder if I will return to it tonight for unfinished business, and I distinctly identified a PR (Physical Reality) component to it during one of my re-entries...so I thought to share it.

I will probably edit this post one or more times as new details surface.

Did you ever play that board game "Clue"? The game where every player is a guest in a mansion where a murder has occurred? It's what we call a "who done it"? Randomized clues are introduced and you have to put the "murder plot" together and guess the identity of the murderer in order to win. Here in the USA, during my childhood, it was a pretty commonplace game (although I never owned it myself and only played it once, in my twenties I think). There was a movie by the same name in the Seventies, I think, followed by another similar movie- Murder On The Orient Express. Fun stuff and challenging in that it makes you think deductively and inductively.

Well, after this morning's dream, it occurs to me that this is a perfect scenario for a "Simulation" and a teaching experience as Kurt Leland might describe one. And maybe it is an apt metaphor scenario peculiar to me, as I can remember having this type of dream at least six or more times over my life. I simply didn't recognize it for what it was all those times before; now I do.

Maybe some other members will recognize the pattern in their own experiences and this post will prove at least slightly worthwhile.

So, like my Talking to the Hand experience, I think this was structured to challenge me to raise my NP awareness through a series of challenges, maybe not as complex or intense as that one was, but still the same goal. The question occurs to me- Who set this up? Me or someone else? My subconscious alone, my supposed higher self (whatever that may be)? Or me in cooperation with someone else?
_______________________________

It was probably 6am and the last REM period and likely the last dream that this started: I don't remember the beginning (which I have found is sort of normal). My first hint of awareness was being in a large fairly-well appointed living room with 10-12 other people. There was no immediate instruction as to what was going on or what we were supposed to do...people just went in various directions, checking rooms, disappearing through doors, some returning, others not. I had no idea and just studied the mixture of people and the confusing array of furniture and interior fixtures: odd pictures with bizarre themes, toys on the floor, a few strange animals wandering about. Very odd stuff and confusing. I did notice one centrally-placed door that more than one person went into and shortly exited from. (all stuff to challenge my awareness with either confusion or realization, I guess)

The scene shifted slightly and I found myself looking at what appeared to be a door leading to the basement, so I went down. There I found a rather primitive and unclean bathroom and realized that I needed to pee (the thought also occurred to me that I was dreaming and had never before peed in a dream). I walked into the bathroom and it was plainly nasty, almost medieval...there was a five foot tall metal barrel enclosure that I would have to spin around in order to have access to the urinal itself. That was just too nasty, but then I looked down at the drain tube underneath it and realized it was dumping directly into a gutter channel carved into the floor and I was already standing in it. YUCK! I almost self-ejected from the dream at that point, but then I realized something. The water was flowing clear. I stepped back and went ahead and urinated in the gutter, realizing that this was a metaphor and message for "going with the flow". (I know, that's a pretty tortured subconscious...but I take ownership of it! It's mine and I'm sticking with it!)

At that point, I woke up into PR and really did have to take a pee. So I did that, grabbed a swish of fresh water and returned to bed. As I lay there, drifting off to sleep again, I wasn't thinking about the dream...I was simply fantasizing about something much more enjoyable. I was still quite awake when it happened...

It felt like a physical hand gently, but firmly slapped me in the center of my back, no mistaking it. I was instantly reminded of the Carlos Castaneda stories of how his mentor Don Juan could "see" Carlos' energy "egg" body and know where the point of his attention was "fixed", and with a directed slap or push, could re-orient Carlos' point of attention and transfer his awareness into the NP. I don't know; all I can say is that this is what happened. I was back in the previous dream.

I was back in the main living room, with all the people assembled. A tall, skinny blonde approached me; she was somewhat attractive and a bit of the sexual urge hit me, but there was also a certain mistrust, so I begged off and she left. Then a cuter brunette approached and we settled on the couch to talk. Then the blonde poked her head in from my left saying, "So you're dumping me for her?" I begged off again, this time from both of them and the scene shifted once again. This time, I was in the living room alone and a guy looking like the British actor Edward Mulhare appeared and motioned for me to follow him. I lost track of him as he maneuvered through a series of doors which led outside the mansion. (I think that with the sex tests and the Ed Mulhare recognition, my awareness was continuing to increase)

Outside, I lost a bit of continuity, maybe there was another shift. I found myself lying down as if amongst a group of dead people. A guy came running out of the mansion, obviously trying to escape. He came upon my area and picked up a heavy assault rifle (like a SAW) and I realized he was going to shoot us. Looking back towards the mansion, I could see good old Mulhare and some others desperately waving at us to go along with the play-acting, the subterfuge. So I lay there while this guy fired several rounds into each of us and then ran off. (now there have been times where I have felt the shots ripping into me and died, but this wasn't one of them)

So the poor guy runs off and they good-naturedly and all in good fun, fire a few rounds over his head, to keep him moving. And it occurs to me that this poor bastard has entirely bought into the simulation and is running for his life...and good lord, I've probably been in his place before, lol. And the crew is all having quite the good time and fun with it!

Scene shift again- I am back alone in the mansion living room. There is a colony of small hermit crabs scuttling about, an organ grinders monkey scampers off, I am just a bit confused...there is still that central door that I haven't been through. So I go through the door. I walk into the room. It is maybe six-sided, with some bizarre, changing artwork on the wall, plenty of stuff to distract. Two guys to my right start chattering in thick, exaggerated European accents, I can't understand what they are saying (I realize that maybe I'm not supposed to; the lesson lies elsewhere). I start to look at the wall hangings but the two guys insist on my attention. I have a serious moment of clarity as I look at them and realize that they are like holographic projections, designed to perform the same scene for whomever walks through the door; they are part of the "Clue" game, so for the next several seconds, I am fascinated with studying them. Then one guy disappears (that kicks my awareness up another notch) and I distinctly remember what the second guy says as he backs up to a huge picture frame. He says, " Be careful of what you say, because if I get the heebie-jeebies, I might just do this!" And with that, he does a backward somersault and fades into the picture frame.

I watch that and think, "Well crap, that's just Phasing and I can do that..." and I think my awareness hit peak.

And I wake up. Here. PR. Or at least I think...lol

Often for me, a NP experience needs a few weeks to coalesce, to condense into a story I can relate in what feels a trustworthy and authentic form. Some aspects, some ideas just need additional time to sort of percolate; I don't wish to mislead or mis-interpret for the reader or myself; I have learned to trust the need for that delay and not to simply rush forward and post something new.

In this case, two realizations came forward: One about an old experience and one about this particular experience, possibly...

This experience-

August 24, 2017   Thursday-early morning-

Not much sleep last night, surprising by getting a final hour of sleep that I am treated to this low-awareness LD, a 3-part adventure.

Scene 1- Several of us are dropped off from a bus at a large outdoor auto auction. We make our way to the main auction block as I make conversation about how these kinds of auctions operate to the Indian/Asian fellow following me. He carries a staff (which vaguely makes me aware that he is a guide) and responds in a neutral manner to my commentary. The auction is ending just as we arrive at the auction block, a unique and beautiful bright orange US domestic convertible, circa 1950's with flared fenders is just exiting and driving back to the storage lots; it is especially appealing to me; I watch it closely as it is driven off into one of the storage lots.

Fade out/fade in  

Scene 2- With the auction ended, we are challenged with multiple paths back to the main parking lots. The first path is an incredible stone stairway that arcs high up into a clear blue sky, some three hundred steps upward and over, with a handrail to the left side but a terrible fall of hundreds of feet off to the right. The hundreds of steps doesn't bother me but the height is a minor issue. My 'guide' says no way to the distance or the height, so I search for alternatives. To my immediate right is a series of dark and descending tunnels, which I trust can get me to the parking lots (transition areas) but I instinctively know these can be troublesome with uncertain distractions and possibly get us lost. My mind rationalizes/creates an alternative and I immediately perceive a set of double-swinging doors, which I know will take us to the main atrium of the auction house, whereby we can simply walk out the "front door".

Fade out/fade in

Scene 3a- My 'guide' and I are now seated at a table in a cafeteria; the female server hands us menus but he seems unfamiliar so it is an opportunity for me to prattle on about just how the menu is arranged, but of course, my awareness is hovering around a 3 or 4 (scale of 10).The server places 4 cookie-sized cardboard wafers before us that describe the various breads available. This is initially confusing and a bit comical as I push each one toward my companion offering him to try each card-board delicacy. I am still trying to read my menu and make a lunch choice but the numbers are confusing. Then it seems that I am required to pencil the number of my choice on a selection card and I am struggling to turn a 5 into a 15, when the lady server steps up (an Instructor likely) and declares, " It looks like you are getting a 6.", very clearly and unceremoniously...which I suddenly realize is the Level of Dream I am going to get...

Fade out/fade in

Scene 3b- I am in a similar cafeteria, much more hospital-like, maybe a secured, elder-care, dementia ward; my sub-sandwich on a plate in front of me and a strange, older woman seated opposite me. She is babbling almost incoherently, and taking pieces off her sandwich- slices of baloney, pepperoni, tomato, lettuce- and placing them on my plate one by one...she doesn't want these...I am a bit bothered by these actions...I am not sure how to respond to the situation...

I am unclear as to what is going on, still being in a fairly low-level awareness, but I know her difficulty is now the central issue. She reminds me for a moment, of my concern for my aging mother's possible eventual senility, so that is a distraction momentarily. She says to me, "It hasn't been worth it if we haven't found anything of value in all these antique fairs; not me, not you, your brother or your daughter..!"

Antique auctions have no relation to my family, and I don't have a daughter, so this realization allows me some psychological distance from her issues...so I ask her 'How can I help you?' 'What is wrong?' Unfortunately, this does not get a response, as she lowers her head into her folded arms to begin an uncontrollable sobbing, and I continue asking how I can help...

As her head lowers, two children are revealed to be standing behind her. The image is a 10 year old girl, putting on a winter-jacket, backwards onto her 8 year old brother...arms first, backwards...it doesn't make any obvious sense to me, at first...

The boy is looking at me very directly as his sister puts the jacket on him, and says matter-of-factly, "Gymnastics."

I say back to him- "You or me?"

He says, "Maybe both..."

Fade out


..................a dear friend turned me onto the rather esoteric idea of "the surgical astral team"...a group of rather short, chubby dudes, kind of a WW1 surgical team that responds to these issues...it took a few weeks to realize that the picture of a little sister putting a winter coat backwards onto a little brother may have been a simple mis-interpretation of one of the little "guys" being suited up in the appropriate surgical garb to take on a retrieval...

Always wondering...

I read with some interest last week that some members, both old and new, had been recently experiencing episodes of vibrations. I have not had many vibes since my experiences have evolved into Phasing the last few years and what vibes I had felt were usually minor and of such high frequency that they felt 'warm', if that makes sense to anyone.

So I had this business trip coming up over last weekend and I had mixed feelings about it, a little trepidation. It almost always disrupts my sleep pattern and means I will have one or more totally sleepless nights, which leaves me exhausted; two nights in a row and I feel seriously impacted in many ways. It also means that somewhere along the line I will get a significant Non-Physical experience, usually the second or third night...OTC and prescription medications rarely offer any help.

Saturday is my early morning departure, so Friday night I go to bed around 11pm with a prescribed sleep med. After one hour I am drifting off slightly when the vibrations come surging on quite unexpectedly. I would rather sink into sleep but the surge is simply too powerful to ignore; I realize something is going on that I should probably pay attention to. So I let the vibrations expand, which they do enormously: 7 on a scale of 10 with some moderate shaking as well as hypnogogic wind howl and a bit of physical storm. I release from the Physical and float up out of bed and into my attic, then uncontrollably move backwards out of the house, then angle back into my body below. Not sure what's up with that but okay...now the vibrations increase to 10/10, the shaking becomes violent like I am sitting on top of the Apollo Saturn 5 first stage booster at Launch plus 3 and the hypnos become an absolute howling, buffeting hurricane. I have a small moment of uncertainty as to my safety because my body? feels like it is shredding from the wind, but then decide to just give in to the experience and the literal sh** storm continues for what seems another 30 seconds as I allow it to just shred my being.

As nothing has perceptibly changed after some 30 seconds I apply a visual Intent and try to mentally create that really cool flame-dripping, red circular portal from the Dr. Strange movie; it appears but quickly transforms to a sweet green rotating circle I had found under Google images earlier in the week...Okay, so I go with that and mentally dive into it. The black 3d star-lit Void opens before me and I feel some forward movement so I go with that picking a pin-point of light slightly left of center and instinctively declaring, "Second star from the left, and straight on 'til dawn." I move towards it at increasing velocity and then...nothing...no awareness...nothing but a very subtle sound coupled with a mental 'feel' that I cannot describe that lasted maybe a half a second: a sound that felt like another digital download...'qweep, bleep, diddle-bloop, poof...

And I was back in bed. The vibrations were softer now, slow-cooking underneath me like I was bacon in a fry-pan with the heat turned back. It was a new experience to say the least...I did not try to fight it or alter it...I just sort of slow-cooked for the next 40 minutes or so and then the vibes slowly diminished over 15 minutes and finally left. I did not sleep for the rest of the night. Got up at 6am exhausted and drove 7 hours to my meeting; fortunately, I did sleep the next 2 nights...

So I get home and sleep like a stone Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I am still a bit sore and tired as I step into the shower. (Lumaza- you will appreciate this!) The spray from the showerhead is SO comforting that I close my eyes and only perceive the swirling lava-pools of pink-ish/purple-ish light from behind my eyelids. Half-dozing under these relaxing conditions, a Phasing vision begins to slightly form...only partially...but nonetheless, it is a vision of my point consciousness being carried along in a torrent of water through a mountain tunnel, finally to explode out into blue sky for an instant and down in a waterfall to the mountainous gorge below. It was only partial, so it did not challenge my balance, but it instantly reminded me of Lumaza's  showers and soaks Phasings...so I know it's coming, lol!   

Oh yeah, the business trip was useful as well!

Thank the Source for you guys and sites like these! Without you I would think that I am losing my grasp on Reality.

Now I know that I am only 'relaxing my grip'...

This topic has been moved to Welcome to Astral Projection Experiences!.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/index.php?topic=43624.0

December 21, 2016

2016 has been quite a drought of NP experiences for me and I understand for others as well; I have been really hungry for something, anything!

It was one of those nights where I tossed and turned all night long, and never fell asleep. Fortunately, I didn't have to go into work until later that day, so I slept in (or tried to...). 6am, 7, 8, 9...nothing...geez, I was just hoping for an hour or two at this point...finally around 10 I suppose, I fell into sleep...

I came aware within a Lucid Dream almost immediately, it felt like. I was ecstatic for 2 reasons: One, I was once again extremely lucid in the NP and two, I knew my physical body was finally getting some rest; a twofer!! Despite my physical exhaustion, I was amazed at how super-charged my consciousness felt!

As I came aware, I realized that I was the passenger in a Corvette convertible with the top down and we were racing through the desert at very high speed. Also as I came aware, I was talking to the driver (whom I didn't recognize), trying to convince him/her to slow down as we were approaching a cliff and headed for a huge Thelma and Louise ending. As my awareness hit peak, I realized the futility of talking, that I could take control at any point and so I decided to bail out, "exit stage right" and take my chances under my own control.

I hit the ground and tumbled onto my back and was still sliding at high speed for the canyon edge. I realized that I could easily arrest my slide but was also intrigued by letting the action continue. I had a moment of third-person perspective where I could see my sliding self and the canyon that I would fall into. This was followed by a moment of vertigo and fear for my Physical self (What if this is real?!). I shut down the fear and slid backwards off the cliff into a swan dive and fell about two hundred feet where I reversed to a standing position and stabilized myself mid-air. I was feeling an incredible thrill of exhilaration! It had been SO long since I was flying!

I started a vertical ascent back up out of the canyon at increasing speed, just loving the rush of flying. I had no other Intent at this point other than enjoying the flying. As I flew higher, I noticed the canyon walls had morphed into the walls of an incredibly tall castle-like structure; I was passing multiple levels of terraces and balconies. Pretty quickly, I noticed that I had company; another flyer was pacing me about ten feet away, partly obscured at times by the exterior structures of the castle. I felt a pull to land at the next terrace, so I did. My shadow flyer landed silently a few feet away. I can't say that it was a friendly welcome. He said nothing and looked rather dismissively at me. He was tall, thin and rather gaunt, his face a pale, grayish-blue, black shoulder-length hair, dressed all in black with a long black cape. I was still completely-charged up, in too good of a mood, and offered my hand and a grinning hello! He offered his hand in a fairly limp handshake which disappointed me a bit. Was this guy my own mental creation? (it didn't feel like it) Was he disappointed with me, was I some kind of annoyance? I pushed those thoughts aside; I was in too good of a mood...

Dark guy turned abruptly and walked inside from the terrace. I followed. We came into an interior room and I saw someone disappearing behind a false wall at the far end of the room. I suspected that was the entrance that I was looking for (now my Intent to visit the Astral Proper was beginning to surface). The thought occurred to me to just make for the entrance, but I thought better of it and to be as respectful as possible.

Now, two women and a man walked in and everyone began talking. Their faces were a bit fuzzy, kind of shifting. The second time that I looked at the man, he resembled my father, but I felt no connection, so I figured this was a distraction test. The two women were telepathically engaged in conversation that didn't concern me, so I paid them no further attention-another distraction. I turned to the dark guy and messaged a telepathic request to move into and tour the Afterlife regions. He looked at me as if he had received the message, but instead turned to the man and began a telepathic conversation with him. I could discern the conversation between the two of them and it was pointedly obvious that they were ignoring my presence. I didn't get mad; I didn't get frustrated; I was still in such a great mood for just being in the NP!  I broadcast a thought to the dark guy that was unmistakable- I know that you understand me. You know why I am here and what I want-. This was met with the briefest recognition and then a return to their conversation. I thought again that I could just make for the hidden entrance, but I still felt the obligation to follow a certain decorum. I thought for a moment to formulate the most specific request that would convey my sincerity, understanding and respect...

And then some noise from the Physical world intruded, some noise which was impossible to ignore...a trash truck was making its weekly pass down my street...airbrakes squeaking and whooshing, trashcans being banged and clanged around...

I gritted my teeth and kept it in context: I had been back to the NP, dived off a cliff, flown around, met some new friends lol, and gotten maybe an hour's worth of sleep in the process!

Anyone who comes to the study of the subjects of Astral Projection, Out of Body Experiences or Non-Physical Reality should soon realize that a great deal of experiential understanding can be gained by the study of dreams and the entrance into NPR that they can give us.

The first series of our nightly dreams are usually what we call "housecleaning", the sorting out of the previous days' normal activity-these are necessary but mostly unremarkable. The later series of dreams are where we tackle longer-standing issues which have much deeper significance for our mental health and spiritual growth. The stuff of these later dreams are thrown up by our subconscious and are symbolic and metaphorical. As adults, if we apply ourselves to analyzing our dreams, we can help ourselves in myriad ways: understanding relationships; resolving conflict issues; increasing awareness, lucidity and our NP mindset; moving into lucid dreaming and the lessons offered by simulations...just to name a few. The dreams were always there, like little movies running in the background; but we largely ignored them. The lesson-plan was there all along as well, waiting for us to pay attention and once we did the program went into motion and we actually begin to see a progression of sorts.

So what about our children? Why should it be any different for them? As I look back and remember my own childhood dreams, I now realize that there were a lot of NP experiences mixed in with them. Other than knowing my NP experiences were somehow notably different from my regular dreams, I had no better understanding of what was going on. When I tried sharing these with my parents all I received were blank stares and the explanation that they were largely meaningless. Even at the age of 8 I knew better, but I had no one to help me with interpretation or context. That is largely true with the general culture in the USA, with some exceptions I'm sure. And probably true with most cultures in the modern world.

So what about your children or the children you may one day be a parent to? Do you or will you make it a point to regularly discuss your child's dreams? The potential of their dreams and NP experiences may far exceed what we are capable of. Considering this, their spiritual growth can be tremendously advanced beyond our own.

You may even find that your child is presently stuck/stalled out/blocked in a current dream or repeating experience, that upon interpretation turns out to be more than just a dream, rather an OBE or a deeper NP experience. I point this out because it happened to me many times. Here on the Pulse, we discuss the difficulties in understanding OBEs and various exit sensations, and even astral tests and lessons. These events don't just occur for adults exclusively, they can and probably do occur for many children, especially in the last 20 years or so with the idea of more advanced souls and Star Children being born. I don't pretend to know the full truth of this but if more spiritually-gifted children are coming among us, they might benefit from our help early on in their development in understanding their nighttime experiences.

Based on my experiences, I now realize that a lesson-plan and various tests were presented to me as young as age 5, that I distinctly remember. These tests were of a very simple and general nature, but still mirror the tests adults must work through in their early OBE development, involving ideas such as understanding movement, location, overcoming fear and confusion, and one of the really important ones- the application of Intent. As the next several years passed for me, my experiences expanded and the tests became appropriately more complex.

One caution that I want to stress and a primary motivation for writing this piece is that a child can get stuck in an experience. I had a few, but I will only mention one in detail a bit later. It was a repeating experience that I couldn't figure out and it went from being disturbing to frightening to traumatic over the course of several days. If this test pushed me up to the edge of my limits then it succeeded, and frankly I'm still bothered by it a little. It made that much of an impression on me. Maybe it was designed to make such a forceful impression on me that I would never forget it. Maybe it helped to propel my interest in exploring the true nature of consciousness; which I certainly did from about the age of 8.

My experience and research supports the provisional belief that some form of teaching and guidance begins to occur when we make a firm, sincere commitment to expand our consciousness. The testing can begin in childhood and likely continues for life, and obviously beyond. Initially they are probably just looking for a response, a spike in lucidity, a blip on their radar. If they get nothing, then we are left to wander within our self-generated, non-lucid dreams. If they do get a response, then they begin to apply further tests and assist us in expanding our consciousness as far as we can follow.

Nearly all of my NP adventures as a child came about as a result of raising my awareness in a dream. Mostly this happened naturally and instinctively. The majority were 'flying dreams' that could probably be categorized as etheric/RTZ events; I didn't know of such concepts back then. Most of the time I could fly easily, like Superman. Other times, I learned to deal with limitations, influences from prior dreams and applying Intent. Sometimes I flew in a sitting position which likely carried over from a dream about racecars, etc. It felt kind of stupid, but I couldn't straighten out, lol. Sometimes I would find myself in a great dark field and despite wanting to fly, I couldn't get off the ground; flapping my arms might get me ten feet in the air. A few times, the best I could manage was some 2 hundred yard jumps like the Incredible Hulk (that was pretty cool in its own way). The etheric/RTZ OBEs also included some nightly excursions wandering around my house while everyone was sleeping and incapable of being aroused. These particular NP experiences became very easy to recognize by the feel of the environment: you can 'feel' the density of the atmosphere, the 'slowness' of it; like being underwater sometimes, a good bit lighter during others. That is the etheric/RTZ. These experiences occurred for me between the ages of 6-14.

The one seriously rough experience that I want to relate happened when I was 4,5 or 6. I want to mention it because I can imagine that a fair number of kids might fall into this trap because I think it happens in one of the first NP environments that can cause extreme confusion: the etheric/RTZ. My situation was very simple: I found myself stuck in a corner. The floor and two walls were dark grey; the lighting was dim and as I think back on it, the atmosphere was kind of dense, like the etheric. The walls and floor were uniform and indistinct and seemed to stretch off into a dark and infinite distance. I remember having that thought and it magnified into an overwhelming fear and claustrophobia of sorts. I also felt a kind of gravity or force that gently but irresistibly pressed me into the corner and my face up against the wall. With great effort I could work my way a few feet across the floor, but each time I was inexorably pulled back, sliding up against the wall and my face gently pressed back into it. For what felt like the first hour or two, it was a disturbing but interesting problem. After that a terrible fright set in and I spent what felt like the rest of the night there. The next night I found myself in the same situation. I cried and screamed but no help came and I couldn't figure out how to resolve it. The level of desperation was off the scale. In the morning I couldn't even form the words to describe it to my mother. This went on for at least 4 nights and I can't remember how it resolved, whether I figured out a solution or someone ended it for me. I just remember not wanting to go to bed at night and return to that hell.

The likely answer finally occurred to me earlier this year, fifty years later. I was probably floating in the etheric/RTZ environment of my bedroom, probably up near the ceiling and the smooth walls, no doubt disoriented by the lack of reference points. If anyone has more than a few experiences with the etheric/RTZ then you likely know about the gentle 'gravity' that is sometimes present; that is probably the force that kept pushing me back into the corner.

In retrospect a simple thing, a simple misunderstanding.

What dreams may come...

Feel free to add ideas.
 

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Saturday November 21, 2015

It is an intriguing idea that even while we sleep, we are not only shifting our Focus, but that learning and testing still occur in interesting ways, whether we are consciously aware of the fact or not. Monroe and a couple others have mentioned "sleepers class" but this has never been my personal experience (or at least what I remember). This particular experience is probably the closest I am aware of and it is notable that I felt a strong affinity for a few of the participants as if they are classmates or Instructors whom I apparently know on a Non-Physical level.

As it turned out, this was the final dream of the final REM period for the night. So it started as a dream, then became a Lucid dream although I didn't feel as if I ever gained full lucidity until maybe the very end, at which point I awakened; and yet, early on I had sufficient awareness to know that I was dreaming and to analyze parts of the situation. It was like two awarenesses were operating simultaneously: Me on a very instinctive level and Me from a third person perspective. As the dream unfolded it was clear to me that the two awarenesses were on course to merge at some point. Unlike my normal dreams I was able to detect a level of detail, complexity and an internal consistency that very clearly indicated this was a learning and testing exercise on probably a few levels at least. There were certain elements that I initially thought were the typical chaotic and nonsensical stuff of dreams but then I realized these elements were being manipulated to challenge and disrupt my mindset along with the more obvious exercises of problem-solving that each test demanded. The majority of the time I felt that I was operating on an instinctive or subdued level; possibly the whole exercise was to be worked from this level and my slow increase in lucidity may have reached the point where the exercise was terminated. Like most of my adventures, I'm rarely told when they begin or when they end; or that they're tests in the first place, Lol.

The dream began rather vaguely and I don't remember much of the early parts but it was like a group of people I was with had just arrived at a wilderness resort or retreat. It was late and we were tired and headed off to our rooms. I removed my clothes and went to bed. I knew at this point that I had never in my life dreamed of going to bed and falling asleep within a dream, so something special must be occurring. Minutes later the whole house was awakened and in an uproar as we were told to get moving. From this point onward, we were constantly rushed and hurried along, like having drill instructors (mostly unseen) all around us pressing us forward and at almost every turn something of mine would be lost or misplaced or taken from me, or I was told it would have to be left behind. The first missing item was the overnight bag I had put down just minutes earlier; so I would have to wear yesterdays' clothes and I wasn't happy about that. Then my underwear was missing and my irritation increased as the pattern was becoming apparent to me.
Keep your cool, I thought to myself...Feeling a little chafed...yes I understood the metaphor all too well: this challenge would be somewhat irritating...
As we were herded outside, I said aloud to one of the voices barking orders that we were all tired and maybe not ready for this. The voice answered that we would have to do the best with what we had. (it was starting to feel like a test)

I don't have any detailed memory of the first series of tests except that they were a series of test modules or small environments/situations that presented very differing problems which mostly required a rapid-fire interpretation of symbolic relationships of things that were presented to us, either individually or in small groups. Initially, I thought this was a team effort but pretty quickly I realized that I was going to have to take the lead. The area was very crowded and noisy as teams and individuals moved from section to section making it hard to think or move without somebody jostling past or crowding in front of me. I remember that by the second and third test module, I had a good grasp of what was required and I called out the answers faster and faster; by the time of the fourth and fifth test modules, I had the answers before the instructors had even finished telling us what we were supposed to do.
In the meantime, they were messing with me by taking things away or misdirecting me somehow. One that I remember, as I was hurrying through the crowd to the next testing module, I was offered a water bottle just about the time I realized I was thirsty; and the bottle was empty. That's just a cheap, crappy joke, nothing clever about it, I thought as my irritation scale went to 3. As I stalked off through the crowd to the next module I caught a glimpse of a woman in the crowd and our eyes met. She was smiling and nearly about to burst out in laughter and she turned her head away trying to cover her eyes. I had the distinct feeling that I knew her as a close friend and that she was likely one of my pranksters. I chuckled and tossed my bottle in her direction, my irritation level back down to 1 and walked on. As a side note, I don't know how I knew where I was going, maybe it was an instinctive knowing or maybe the Guides just placed the next test module before me as I blundered about, Lol.

Fade out/fade in

At this point I believe we were directed to board a train. I sat with one other guy on an open flat railcar and the train slowly trundled Northward, I felt, paralleling a slow-moving river off to my right, which flowed Southward. As the train click-clacked along, I stared at the river and the hulks of rusting, sunken ships poking the surface of the otherwise calm and serene waters. It was a very calming scene and a good break from all the chaos. I had the thought that this part of the river should be designated as Historic or Protected for some reason. My railcar companion was talking to me at times but I don't remember what he said. This was giving me some time to reflect and think and I believe also offered the chance for my lucidity to increase another few notches. I had the thought that it was going to be difficult for me/us to complete the exercise while retaining the memory of the solutions to each module. I somehow thought that each solution was an integral part of an overall solution to a larger problem but the process for this would not be clear until the very end...and I already could tell that I was gradually losing memory of the earlier solutions; maybe I could count on some of my team to remember some of the solutions; maybe the solutions would all spring forth for me at the appropriate time, I just didn't know. I made a conscious determination to complete the series as best I could.

Fade out/fade in

The next stage I remember was that we were in a building headed to the next module. It was dark, with the various areas back-lighted. A disembodied, floating hand simply pointed at the floor in front of me. There was a human fetus curled in a tight circle on a grey, metallic floor. Then the hand pointed in front of me about 15 feet away. There was the mock-up of the command bridge of what I thought was a cargo ship, possibly it was a naval vessel. I could see through the long row of angled windows, out across a port and the sky beyond was the orange-red of a sunset. The floating hand flipped its wrist, palm upward as if to silently ask, Well?
I said aloud, "The fetal remains of the day...they are being shipped somewhere."

The hand indicated an overhead metal panel to my right while a disembodied voice said, "Diagram how you arrived at this solution."
I looked up and could see that several people before me had each with a colored pen, diagrammed on the panel, individual tracings that turned and twisted, this way and that...each of their solutions was way too complex. I knew that the correct solution was a simple straight line that had a single right turn of about 70 degrees. The floating hand offered me a stylus. Now I realized that I already had something in my writing hand: it was a video camera. I set the camera down beneath the panel and tried to start my diagram but there was no ink; the stylus didn't work in any way I could figure out. I started to reach for one of the other styluses but now more people were crowding in and I was pushed away and could not get back to the diagram panel. My irritation level was back to 4. I looked at the panel and visualized my diagram and mentally "imprinted" it on the panel. I reached for my video camera but of course it was now missing. I knew at that moment that the video camera represented my memory of this whole experience and that they were toying with me, threatening to hide the memory from me. My irritation level went to 6.

I started to walk away and the voice said, "You were supposed to use the stylus."
I answered, "It's done and it's done right."

Now the floating hand indicated a console to my left. It consisted of 6 or 7 stations where the task was fairly obvious: Position the moveable ocular device over a point on the grid on the screen. It was sort of like a magnifier on a drafting table. Now more people crowded in front of me, two or three of them at a time, working at a single station and still incapable of completing the task. And there was still one open station but I could not physically get to it. Irritation still around a 5. So, from about ten feet away, I  focused and moved the ocular piece mentally, positioning it precisely over the dot.

The hand offered me another stylus while the voice said, "Mark it for accuracy." I looked at the crowd still barring my way, thought for a moment to "shoot" the stylus like an arrow into the target, but instead said, "I don't need to mark it. I know it's right." And walked away.

To my left was bright sunshine and I realized the building was not completely enclosed; I was back out in the open area. As my eyes adjusted to the light, there was a blond-haired guy about thirty feet away, grinning and laughing good-naturedly at me; He looked just like Nico Rosberg, the Formula One driver. He tossed me my video camera and I thought, Mischievous little prick! And then I realized that I knew this guy and that he also was a good friend. I turned and walked on, slowly ratcheting down my irritation. I passed a trashcan and tossed the camera away, thinking that would be one less thing they could use to prank me. Then I thought that was a rather immature response and I walked back and retrieved the camera. My irritation level was back to 1 and I was smiling, thinking of the pranks. The voice took one last crack at me, "But didn't that really hack you off, what he did?!"

I said, smiling, "No, I probably would have done the same thing to him."

Shortly, the scene faded and I awoke.

    __________________________________

Post Script

It took about three months of further consideration about this experience to realize that I was probably wrong about my interpretation of the fetus/command deck/sunset test...a better interpretation may be something like-

From birth to death, from the beginning to the end...I am the Captain of my ship

Maybe during the experience, it wasn't a requirement to get it exactly right, but whatever interpretation I came up with, I was expected to take "ownership" of it.

I have had many remarkable experiences in the Non-Physical realities. I have detailed some of them on this forum.

I have also had several that took place in my everyday Physical experience. I have seen a ghost; I have encountered a UFO close-up and there are a few other occurrences that I will delay comment on. This is one where I encountered an energy that was simply undeniable.

A long time ago, in a galaxy that seems far away now, in my early twenties, I worked for a new car sales and repair facility. Every December, a number of us volunteered to perform a physical audit of the parts department, which consisted of counting some 20,000 parts and reconciling this count with the computer-generated Master list. Spark plugs, brake pads, clutches, light bulbs, hoses...that sort of thing. This audit process would take most of the day and involved about 15-18 of us working mostly in pairs.

In the morning, we chose partners and I pretty quickly realized that one individual was being ignored by the others, kind of the 'last one picked for the team' type of issue. He was a recently hired mechanic who spoke Spanish and only very broken English. I had only barely met the guy and figured he was from somewhere in South America. As it narrowed down to the final pairings, I spoke up and said that I would work with 'Tomas'. He nodded at me and we got our parts list and set to work. We didn't talk much except to call out part numbers and confirm the counts.

As a bit of personal history, I was already familiar with some Theosophical and Kabbalistic theory; also Robert Monroe's first two books (the third not yet written) and a few of the other then-current OBE books. Also, beginning when I was sixteen, I had started reading the works of Carlos Castaneda which described his ongoing training under the direction of a Latin American shaman, Don Juan. In this training, various techniques in sorcery were discussed including the Arts of Stalking, Dreaming and Seeing, and Cultivating a Warrior's Attitude and developing the Second Attention. It has long been debated as to whether Castaneda actually had these experiences or simply created the stories as works of entertaining fiction. If it was purely fiction, then he did a remarkable job of synthesizing some of the most remarkable subtle aspects of consciousness and perception, and possibly drawn these from one or more disciplines.

Of course, Tomas had no prior knowledge of my metaphysical interests.

So it came as a bit of a surprise a couple hours later when he paused, very intensely looked at me, smiled and said, "You see."

I instantly suspected the meaning of what he was telling me and responded, "If I understand what you mean, then I wish that was the case, but I don't have much of that ability."

Nodding his head and smiling, he said, "No, I can tell. You 'see'. We talk later."

At noon, the teams broke for lunch. I invited Tomas into an empty office to continue our discussion. I honestly cannot remember much of the conversation. For one thing, his English was so hard for me to follow and he was obviously having difficulty choosing words to describe the concepts he was trying to convey. Basically, he described 'seeing' as the sensing of a things' inner nature, its energy, its vibration, its essence. Then he began speaking of the energy of Love and how it radiated from the Divine Source/God and how it permeated everything in existence, ultimately uniting our consciousness with that of the Divine.

I was having to concentrate very hard, focusing on his words. I began to notice the cadence. As I did so, I began to realize that he was purposely creating this cadence and rhythm with his speech. I realized that it was having a hypnotic effect on me and I chose to let it take me deeper. I also realized that I was noticing his breathing. He said, "Good. You have noticed my breathing. Relax your mind, follow my words. 'See' my breath. This is Prana. Energy comes from breath (he pronounced it brauth). He continued talking and I followed his breathing. It looked like he was putting a great deal of focus and concentration into the effort. Each breath originated from the area of his abdomen and slowly, rhythmically traveled upward, expanding into his chest, pulsing upward through his neck and was released or set forth through his open mouth. He wasn't speaking as much now, but when he did, I couldn't even understand a word; I'm not sure I was even supposed to understand at this point. The reason may have been my depth of trance or his changing vocalization or perhaps some of both. The strange, subtle cadence was still there but all the words ran together like a single lengthy phrase or mantra. I could feel my trance moving still deeper.

His breathing slowly progressed, not in speed but in the volume of air he seemed to push through his system. His abdomen seemed to expand even more as his chest did; and the 'pulse' of air that worked it's way upward became larger than humanly possible. His neck visibly bulged on one side as the 'pulse' of air moved through it; this was not a small bulge, I'm talking of his neck volume increasing 30-45 percent as the bulge moved through it. For a minute or so, this had the effect of making me almost nauseous, but I was able to move beyond the effect and recover my composure. This has always been a strange, unexplained aspect of the experience.

I had lost all sense of time. Eventually, I realized that he was no longer speaking and his breathing had relaxed more towards normal. Suddenly, I realized that the environment of the office had changed considerably: It was like the heat had been turned up to 120 degrees F. And yet, it wasn't heat, it was something else. Words barely begin to describe it.

The energy was totally overwhelming...and yet it was and wasn't...it is there in any second you choose to look for it...

Loving, supporting, comforting...and totally beyond all that. All around me and WITHIN me. I was floating within it and soaked through by it. The loving warmth, the support, the acceptance, the un-demanding, un-asking, completely-yielding, YET un-deniable, un-questionable, Impossiblity of Otherness, Simple Oneness that is...

For probably twenty minutes, I caught that waveform, and hung with it; I can tell you that YES, it is there...

That's the best I can give you: the rest is only details...

I looked at Tomas and asked, "What is this energy? How did you do this?" He smiled and said, "I did not do this myself. You and I did this together. This is Love, God's Love. Is it not wonderful?!"

We sat  in silence for a time and just soaked it in. There was nothing more to be said or done. I was in a state of being...

Pure Unconditional Love

                                      ______________________________________________________________


Outside in the corridor, we could hear people starting back to work and we realized the entire lunch hour had elapsed. As we left the office, Tomas looked into my eyes, grinned and said, "Your eyes are on fire with Love!"

He walked back into the Parts department and I wandered up the hallway; I wasn't even sure where I was going; I was still pretty heavily 'tranced' and charged up with incredible energy. As I walked past the cashier's booth, there was a person in a clown's costume (this was a Saturday and we often employed a clown to entertain the children); The clown teasingly asked me if I knew her..."Don't you know me.?" It was a girl I had worked with in a previous job, a few years before. I had actually introduced her to the OBE concept a few years before. We had had several partnered projections.

She looked close into my eyes and said, "Your eyes are simply blazing!!

I pretty much lost the rest of the afternoon....

So, after my Grass, Gravel and an Old Friend experience, I sank back into sleep for awhile. A pattern that I have just noticed, like that of my Back to School experience, is that my Astral event is followed by a short period of sleep, followed by another opportunity that is obviously presented to me by my guide(s) in the form of a dream that I can turn lucid. The trick is, I have to come aware in it. After Back to School, I succeeded; in this one I didn't. I thought it might prove instructive to show the number of Dream Triggers that were presented to me; the chances to achieve awareness, and turn a LD into another astral opportunity.

I became dream aware in an open field (Dream Trigger 1)with a tiny, two inch long, folded paper airplane pinched between the thumb and forefinger of my right hand. I was lifted into the air with the excitement of flight (DT2) and went soaring aloft. At 1,000 feet, I noticed I was pretty high and looked at the paper plane amazed at the ability it was giving me (DT3), but I felt a certain degree of confident control. Then, as if in response to that thought, (DT4), I was sent on a huge updraft taking me to a dizzying 10,000 feet. Here, I had a serious moment of concern that this tiny paper airplane could sustain me (DT5); I didn't feel the control I had earlier, something was beyond my control(DT6). I wondered How in the world can I maneuver myself back down to the ground?; it seemed very unlikely. I persevered in my stubbornness to dream however, so an alternative was introduced: a towering building appeared under me and I was awestruck at the ridiculousness of its height (DT7).

I managed a difficult landing onto the rooftop (by my skill alone, of course lol) and made my way down the emergency stairway. On the top floor, I was accosted by none other than a horde of those Goonies creatures from that movie I had never even seen! The little furry, sharp-toothed suckers that tuck into a ball and roll after you (DT8). They chased me down a few flights of stairs until I came into a level where I encountered a friend of mine (DT9), an older guy DV and we took off together. After descending another couple levels, I realized that I had left DV behind, he couldn't keep up. I knew he would die, I knew we would both die; there in the stairwell, I made the decision to go back and join him and face it together. I charged back up the stairs into the level and could see him surrounded...fade to black...

I missed an astral opportunity, but at least I went back for him...lol

Sunday July 13, 2014

6am I woke and propped myself up in bed and spent about fifteen minutes with eyes shut just 'noticing' the colors behind my eyelids, looking for a portal to appear. My intent was already decided as I wanted to visit a friend I had met online last year. A few times it looked as if some rudimentary portal was forming but each time I lost it. Then, in an instant, a round mirror-like shape formed and I realized that I was looking at green grass on the other side of the portal and that this would do just as well as any scene. In an instant, I realized I had already phased and was now standing in a new environment, a different dimension looking at a stretch of grass in front of me, closely mowed like that of a golf course fairway; looking around, it was a peaceful country scene with otherwise nothing of interest to keep me focused there. I chuckled to myself knowing that this would serve just fine as a second portal and I just stood and fell face-first into the ground as I declared my intent mentally.

I passed through the ground and was instantly in darkness and rushing forward at tremendous speed for what seemed like a minute. My speed began slowing and I sensed I was nearing my destination but for some reason I had the thought to stop right at that moment and have a look around.

I materialized about 500 feet up in the sky, a beautiful day, blue sky, dotted with some clouds and I was over some lovely rolling hills with green fields and small copses of trees. In the distance, about a half mile away, I saw a most remarkable sight: it was the standing skeleton of a mastodon, 300 feet tall and beautifully silouhetted against the sky in a macabre sort of way. As I flew around it, I spotted another mastodon about a mile away but this one was still whole as if alive. I flew towards it and taking a closer look, I realized that it wasn't moving, it was like a statue. Looking farther around, I spotted two more super-sized prehistoric creatures: a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Triceratops. Everything was incredibly life-like yet there was also a sense of stylization to the place, like a sense of a little Salvador Dali to both the countryside and the statues.

As I flew circles admiring these behemoths, I kept getting an increasing tug, pulling me in a specific direction. I finally relented and angled off to wherever I was supposed to go and in about a mile I flew in low over a very simple house, like a cottage. As I touched down, a man came out to greet me. I recognized him as JS, one of my best friends from high school, whom I hadn't seen in 25 years. JS had been studying art back then, mostly painting and sculpture. I realized this was all his work, a giant 3D canvas, his astral art studio. I congratulated him on the impressive sculptures and he offered to show me around.

At this point, something a bit confusing happened. Up to this point my lucidity had been very good, nearly, if not 100%. Our reunion should have been all laughter and smiles but it instead became very subdued and my lucidity fell pretty dramatically. It was as if he was clouded and depressed in a way and this cloud quickly overcame me, as well. Our conversation was polite but well short of the many things I wanted to tell him. He showed me around his house, a very simple set-up with few rooms. He showed me down one narrow corridor which led to a small room that was empty, with what seemed like brown cardboard lining the floor, walls and ceiling. I took this to be some kind of studio but it quickly gave me a disturbing feeling of being literally 'boxed in'. I don't remember much of our conversation, but I did ask him if he was alright and if there was anything I could do for him. But he indicated he was satisfied with his present surroundings and so I said goodbye.

As I walked away from him, my lucidity began returning slightly, enough to notice I was walking on a gravel drive. I thought that should serve just as well as the grass had, for a portal. Unfortunately, I hadn't regained enough lucidity to remember that I also needed an intent for a destination (I had forgotten my original intent to visit my friend)...I stopped walking and with blind confidence, fell face first into the gravel...indenting it to a depth of maybe two inches with a noisy crunch. With my face still scrunched into the drive, I laughed at myself and woke up.

Upon reflection, I wondered if my friend had passed, but I have been unable to confirm this. I guess it's also possible I was visiting him in his personal, astral dreamspace and maybe that explains his listlessness and apparent apathy. Or maybe all I contacted was an aspect of his greater Self. If it was a retrieval, then I'm going to have to have a talk with my Guide and ask that he/she tell me that fact sometime prior.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Earlier in the week, I had advised a poster on the Pulse to recognize and take advantage of potential tunnel portals that were presenting themselves during his trance work. I was a little envious; I have never gotten anything like a tunnel before in trance. When I'm already out, yes, but not in trance. I thought that would be so cool and convenient. Well, apparently the message got through.

I had been awake into the early hours and was sleeping in very late; 10:30am, and was drifting back to grab another hour of sleep when I was presented with a spiraling tunnel against a grainy, gray background. It wasn't the fanciest or prettiest of tunnels but I was ecstatic for the opportunity! I didn't even wait two seconds for it to strengthen or anything, I just dove straight in---and phased instantly into a futuristic facility, all white and silver paneling, ceilings and floors, glass dividers, a broad information-type counter, hallways leading off to alcoves, all clean and spotless. I felt like 98% physically solid in a body and with bright, vibrant lucidity. I was happy and confident and determined to take on a lesson.

I stepped across an atrium and up a couple stairs to the counter which was attended by a young man and woman, early twenties, who were dressed in similar white, pristine uniforms. They welcomed me enthusiastically and asked how they could help me. (I think they physically spoke or the communication was so strong that I automatically interpreted it that way) I said I think I am here for instruction. The girl said Wonderful, then you'll be using this portal over here and she pointed to this device on the wall to my left. I looked hard into her eyes and saw the clear, crisp consciousness behind them, not the dull, lifeless eyes of a dream character. I asked where the portal might take me and what would I be doing? She smiled and said that she did not know specifically but that it would not be beyond my abilities. Then they both began calmly talking to me and I could feel my consciousness shift somehow, almost backwards slightly, like I was now hearing them through a filter, ever so slightly muffled. I realized that the lesson had already begun in some way; they were intentionally forcing me to receive information simultaneously from two separate channels. The young man was quietly explaining that I would need to navigate around a course of some sort and avoid certain obstacles; the girl was describing the obstacles as other flyers and water geysers, and possibly other things; she further cautioned me to avoid going into the water. Midway through their talk, I became aware that a third person was addressing me from an alcove off to my right about thirty feet away. She was a thirty-something woman who reminded me of Ooma, the Ascended Being from the Stargate SG1 series. She was sitting among a group of young children, as if their teacher or mentor, but was calling over to me to also caution me (with a wry smile) about avoiding the water. I realized for a moment that I was interacting with sentient beings or energies, wrapped in forms that were likely, at least in part, my creation.

Everybody stopped talking at the same moment. The young girl smiled at me and asked- Ready? So I said let's do it. She touched the portal-plate and a rapid shift occurred and the next moment I was standing with my arms outstretched and the young couple were fitting some kind of flimsy exo-skeleton onto my arms and down my back and down my legs which I gradually became aware having some kind of small helicopter blade system below each foot and above each hand- it was a flight system. Flying, huh? I was okay with that.

Within seconds I was sliding out to my left and dropping outside into an airstream and into a vast open area of sky, like an arena thousands of feet across. The blades spun, their rpms controlled by my thoughts; direction by angling my hands and feet. I fell for perhaps a few hundred feet until I got my speed up and got myself stabilized, then powered back up to my original altitude and looked around. I had the hang of it pretty quick, or so I thought. I looked around and saw other flyers off in the distance, I could see them working their way around pylons suspended in the air; we were probably 800-1000 feet up. It was a spectacular sight. Now, geysers of water arced up from below aiming in my direction. They were relatively easy to dodge, so keeping them in sight I tried to angle to my right and get onto the course, but it became increasingly difficult to move in that direction; something wasn't right.

Now another problem appeared. Two flyers were approaching with a large intensely black net pulled taut between them, to ensnare me. Off in the distance, I could see the ocean and remembered the admonition. I was confident I could avoid the net flyers but as they approached my control faltered as if the flight system was quitting on me the closer they came. I was determined not to let that happen and put some intent into willing it back into operation and got nothing; No matter what I did, the system continued to malfunction. The flyers were on me and I hit the center of the net but with what felt like sheer determination, I bounced and twisted and kicked myself free of the net and hovered off, shakily but still flying. Although I had been bumped by the net, I judged that was a successful dodge but I was having severe control issues by now. The flight system was damaged and failing. I threw the last of my determination and intent into the struggle but it was not enough; I was going down. I became confused and then immensely frustrated and I started fading back to my physical which I could tell was face down, arms outstretched in bed... I tried one last time to re-engage but finally I faded completely.

I slept for a bit and then began dreaming. I was seated in a small office with a young man seated to my left, whom I did not recognize. He was telling me something (instructions, no doubt) and I gained almost full lucidity just as he finished his talk, so of course, I had not gotten any of it consciously! And obviously I realize now that I didn't have sufficient presence to question him, I just sat there fascinated.

A minute later, I realized that the office had somehow disengaged itself from the building and was sliding smoothly down its interior corridors, turning left, then right, transitioning through different interior sections, up many levels through beautiful architectural flutes. I was more lucid now and really enjoying this HD ride through these gorgeous, futuristic buildings. This wasn't an office, it was a shuttle of some sort.

We slid out of the first building, into the sunlight briefly and I could see the city around us, then disappearing back into another building and presently, we slid out near the edge of the city and down along the shore of an ocean. We descended to a pier with watercraft lined up, my companion saying something about riding some of them. We stepped out onto the pier and he spoke with an attendant who said Yes, I have a couple returning shortly and you're welcome to use them. Moments later, two sleek, black hoversleds floated forward into a staging lane before us; the second one with little batwings tapering down off the sides; it shimmered and vibrated almost violently as it slid up. I knew that one was for me; it just looked screaming fast. The attendant said Yes, that one is particularly fast... and tricky. So we walked around to the other side of the staging lane to climb onto them I assumed, but when I looked again, the sled was gone and only this blue object remained, looking like a bicyclists' helmet. I was confused so I turned to query my companion but he was gone, already put his helmet on it appeared, and slipped into and under the water. I could faintly make him out, about three feet down, the same blue shape of a helmet on him and little blue half-shoes on his feet. I looked back at the remaining helmet, no scooter-booties to be found. I was unsure of what to do. Put it on and jump in? I couldn't understand why the scenario had changed. I was getting frustrated...and then everything faded.

These were some of my initial observations---

Lessons of some sort, but they both seem to end prematurely, almost before they've begun.

They both end in confusion and frustration. That can't be good. If I go with feel, then it was a fail both times.

I've realized a pattern at the beginning where 2 or 3 of them are all speaking at once, giving instructions, confusing the heck out of me; or speaking as I'm gaining lucidity only to clam up when I hit full awareness...then they kind of laugh and look at me like they're thinking, "I know you missed all that on a conscious level...are you ready now!" Rascals!

Maybe them all talking at once is teaching me something about concentration or communication.

Does the admonition to stay clear of the water in the first scenario still apply in the second?

I've learned from others that if you are repeatedly cautioned about something you better pay heed; failure to follow strict instructions can get you booted for awhile.

The first experience seemed to involve determination or intent and I maintained both throughout, even not getting tangled in a "web of despair". Was that any kind of success? Or do I have to complete the simulation with not even a single instant of doubt/fear/confusion?

I always try to stay within the given ruleset, but pretty quickly the rules seem to change or an insurmountable obstacle appears. Do I stay within the rules no matter what? In the first, I might have gone Ironman and shot out of there: don't know unless I try, I guess.

Then, a few days later, further observations---

LD2 I was unable to judge whether or not to trust my companion.

The attendant saying the sled was "tricky"...was that a clue to an upcoming change in the scenario? Because the sled did indeed play a trick by morphing.

Then, last night this occurs to me---

These are lessons to help me build the proper mindset, to keep a calm, detached and clear-thinking attitude. And I failed both times; I lost control of my emotions and succumbed to frustration; this might include doubt and confusion and maybe a touch of fear, but it wasn't until I got wrapped up in the frustration that it was like a 3 second timer was started---1,2,3 okay you're done...fade out...frustration was apparently the key.

The first experience was probably designed to have my flight system fail, no matter what I did or how much determination or intent I brought to bear. The test was not to navigate around the course; the test was to see if I could handle my emotions and keep my composure when everything I tried had failed.

The lucid dream was a variant with the key object in the scenario (the hoversled) morphing on me and introducing confusion, followed by me becoming frustrated. A trick was used...and they even told me ahead of time.

So, if I have recognized this correctly, maybe I convert the failures into a small learning success by improving my mindset for the future. I won't know until I get back there.

The NPR mindset requires control of all the emotional impulses we are prone to, and seems to follow a fairly orderly progression as our experiences move deeper. First, we learn to control Fear, then Excitement, then oftentimes Sexual impulse, then maybe in some order, Fascination or Distraction, Confusion or Indecision, Frustration, Anger? What's after those?

Another part of this is that no matter how lucid or clear I think I am in NPR, my thinking is nevertheless limited in ways I don't fully understand; ideas that should occur to me simply don't. That ability somehow needs to be developed more fully. I think I see it improving, but slowly.

It's always something...

Something I thought I would share:

Lessons come in many forms and usually not in the way we expect. Or when. Every now and then it is nice to get a solid, substantial feedback on our efforts, just some kind of encouragement, some indicator that we're making a little progress. My current dry spell had been going on way too long.

Finally something must have broken loose.

It didn't fit into any of my previous experiences; it most certainly was not a dream so I finally just called it an Experience.

But I realize now that it was a Lesson...and a Contact...with Someone.

Comments are welcome.

                                     ______________________________________________

March 2011

It was just a normal night sleeping, not trying to AP or having any expectations. About 2 or 3am I became lucid towards the end of a random dream and after the dream ended my consciousness just floated and drifted in the 3D Void. I recognized where I was and that I could move to the deeper end of the Void and possibly attempt an exit. I also could have woken up with a simple thought, I was that close to the surface; but I was content to just float in what felt like the shallow end of the 3D Blackness pool. Face down in the inky Blackness, very calm, very quiet, comfortable, no effort, no Intent. And maybe somewhat receptive, as it turned out.

(Monroe wrote about communication in the NPR, that oftentimes it's done with NVC-Non Verbal Communication and also thought-packets he called Rotes. I've had varying degrees of success with telepathy in the NPR but never clearly experienced what I thought he meant by NVC or a Rote.)

Just floating there, for probably 15 minutes or so, no thought, no mental chatter. The NVC was so subtle the first time, I easily could have missed it. It was like the most gentle, softest hint of a whisper. Like the soft ding! of an email alert. And it either opened by itself or I somehow knew instinctively how to 'click' on it. It had a voice or I gave it a voice.

---Would you like an Experience?---

Uhh, sure I thought, and I wrapped the response with a little bit of Intent and pushed it outward mentally.

A face appeared before me, maybe two feet away. It was alien, shaped like a horse head but without the ears and staring right back at me, alive and breathing. It seemed a hybrid of both mammal and insect: flaring, pulsing nostrils at the bottom and dark, mantis-like eyes at the top. We regarded each other silently for perhaps a minute. Then, the face faded and another, similar face appeared. Something was happening with this creature however; it was as if a large object was pushing and crunching its way down the left nasal cavity. The creature looked as if it was becoming increasingly distressed and uncomfortable. I had kept my calm up to this point but the image of alien Greys implanting and extracting probes came to my mind and a few seconds later I thought Okay, I've had about enough of this.

And I closed off my awareness.

A short time later, I reopened my awareness and I was once again floating peacefully in the 3D Void/Blackness. I thought about what I had just witnessed and what, if any message I should take from it. Should I have watched to the end? Was I supposed to feel empathy for the creature? Was it a Fear test? Was it a test of my tolerance level and/or to teach me how to close my awareness if I should need to? I could have maintained my emotional composure for a good bit longer, but not having a clear reason to, or understanding a deeper context for the experience, my patience had run out. Should I have offered it a handkerchief? Or let it sneeze a giant alien booger all over me?

I let the thoughts go and continued to enjoy drifting silently. Maybe five minutes passed. Maybe as much as an hour. Another NVC came through, this time even clearer. It had a quality to it, of warmth, intelligence and purpose.

---Would you like another Experience?---

Okay, sure.

Instantly, a landscape opened before me: It was a small town, with simple one, two and three-story buildings, very plain and unremarkable. In fact, I don't remember seeing many, if any windows. Everything was in simple, muted earth-tones: black, brown, gray, drab-green. There were no traffic lights or power lines, almost nothing of what you would expect in a small town: signs, advertisments, benches, trashcans, clutter, etc. No vehicles of any kind. The scene reminded me of something like small-town USA back in the 1850's or the simpler community lifestyles chosen by groups such as those I've seen like the modern day Mennonites of South America. There were people moving up and down the streets but the overall scene was so simply constructed and devoid of other signs of life, activity and general commerce that one might expect, that I had a suspicion that this might be a mental creation of my own. The scene just was not entirely believable to me.

From a distance the people looked like humans. Again the NVC.

---This is a life-form similar to your own, but with a significant difference---

As I focused in more closely on the people, I could see that there was a marked physical difference: On everyone's forehead there was another layer of flesh, maybe an inch, inch and a half thick, wrapping around from temple to temple, and from the eyebrows up to the hairline. It seemed to be outside the cranium. I wondered if it was a separate organ and if so, for what?

---This allows them to experience Time in a way that your kind cannot perceive---

That's interesting, I thought. Apart from that and the apparent lack of detail to the town, this could be from almost anywhere on Earth.

---Would you like to experience life as they do?---

Sure, I guess that might be...

And before that thought could finish, I was whisked across the distance in an instant and 'downloaded' into the nearest guy's head! I had the briefest thought of Oh crap! I hope I didn't just commit myself to a lifetime here!

It was amazing! I was actually in some guy's head, piggy-backing his consciousness! I don't think he knew I was there.

It was like I was sitting with him in the cockpit of a spacecraft with multiple touchscreen monitors surrounding us and all I had to do was reach out and touch on a file to open it. Thousands of files and documents were right there: his memories, beliefs, concerns, thoughts about their world, their society, their Community, the Law. I touched on what seemed a hundred files in rapid succession. I was engulfed and overwhelmed with information. It was too much to take in all at once and as quickly as I thought I was understanding part of one concept, my attention was caught by another, dropping the first and moving on to another, dropping that one, moving to another, and on and on.

As I thought about it afterwards, a couple things were noticeably absent. I got no percept on his family life or children, in general. I got nothing on Love or Emotion, in general. I had the feeling that emotions are tightly controlled, maybe consciously sublimated here. Maybe my idea of Emotion simply did not exist here, had not yet evolved. Possibly I was prevented access to his private or family thoughts to protect his privacy.

Now that I think back on it, in all the headlong rush of information, I definitely did not see any children and I'm not sure I saw any women. Maybe they're some kind of androgenous species. I never got a percept that explained it.

And then I got to their perception of Time. For a few minutes, I 'saw' Time the way they do.

Language fails me somewhat, so I'll just try and convey the highlights of what I experienced; I have no doubt some of it is my mis-interpretation. I didn't get a percept on their civilization as a whole, but their community, their culture, their individual lives are all focused, co-ordinated and prioritized through their understanding and relationship to Time and Causality. I think that like us, they mostly live in a linear, sequential series of Now moments, arriving from some Future set of Potentialities that occur and then retreat into the Past. But, like we have a series of Physical Reality vision-audio-tactile-taste-smell senses, they add one more: a kind of visual sense into Time. They can 'see' Up the Line and Down the Line (to borrow a phrase from Robert Silverberg), as well as the Now. Layered on top of or through this vision, they also see 'lines' of Causality, hundreds of lines of varying probability/potentiality ranging out in all directions, narrowing and merging at certain intersections or nexuses of decision/action/consequence, at Community and Individual levels. The majority of these thin, black lines run parallel, either Up the Line or Down the Line, like bundles of fiber optics, a few lines diverging here or there from the main trunk. Dozens of these lines or filaments, shoot off at varying angles, some merging and others disappearing from sight, widely-divergent Timelines indicating critical decision/action points. They can somehow examine and study these lines or filaments, both individually and in groups, to see where and how actions are likely to alter the Timepath, or to see where past actions have led to a particular nexus. Thus, there is great responsibility and deliberation, careful consideration in minimizing risk to the alteration of the Communities' Timepath. This is a Timepath chosen by everyone in the Community. Everything of possible consequence is considered, outright disruptions cannot be tolerated. The Great Corrections, if ever there were any, are all long in the Past. Of over-riding importance now, is the continuity of the Path. It's like there is a momentum that was started long ago; there's not much to be done now, just tiny adjustments; like keeping a large sailing ship on course, tightening a sail here, loosening a line there, trimming out the ship. Hence the simple, almost monastic lifestyle.

Now the town and the utter simplicity of its construction made sense to me. The lack of signs of what I considered normal daily life were not here for a reason. They wanted it this way. The fewer the distractions, the fewer the possible complications and things that could go wrong. No one questions it, it's just always been this way.

It had become apparent that they were on a pretty substantially different path of development or evolution from those in my world.

I had the thought that I probably could not survive long in his world, nor he in mine. I would go nuts from sheer boredom and he would be driven insane by all the chaos and conflict. Maybe it was because I thought of my world that the Experience ended. I don't think my awareness faltered...

Abruptly, I was ejected from his head, like a little kid receiving a pat on the rump, pointing him in the general direction of Home. With one last NVC.

---Experience ended---

Hi to everyone,

looking forward to sharing thoughts and ideas on a fascinating and apparently infinite topic! What a great resource we are provided here. Hundreds of hours of archives to sift through...thanks to all the contributors.

EV