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I'm a bit late, but that was as amazing experience to read about Stillwater. It's nice to see something a bit more spiritual and "mystical", and seeing an actual example of spiritual growth. It's something I can relate to.

I take 2000 iu of Vitamin D a day and it's made a difference for me, especially with sleep patterns, which I assume is correlated with how vitamin D effects circadian rythms. FDA recommendations are based on old studies and higher dosages can be more beneficial. Magnesium is something else most people tend to be deficient in. Examine.com is great for this kind of research:

http://examine.com/supplements/Vitamin+D/

http://examine.com/supplements/Magnesium/

(Hi Stillwater & Threadkiller )

found that increased meditation equals:
1. More frequent memory of dreams and more awareness in dreams?
2. Increased empathy and compassion toward others?
3. Toward self?
4. Increased happiness in 'normal' waking life?
What do you think?

Like everyone said, all of that is possible and more. I will say that it does not automatically make you happy in life... you still have to deal with the ups and downs, but you can gain a new perspective and way of thinking that helps you glide through those situations. Life doesn't become easier, but you become a master of living it.

I always liked the saying:

"Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water."

I've noticed that my visions usually contain symbols. The Hebrew Alphabet, Pagan Symbolism, and strange morphing geometrical objects. Also classical music is played, things I've never heard but that I'm partially creating. Even auditory hallucinations of a conversation I had with my mother when I was 3 or 4 about a bottle. All this in one event, followed by two OBEs.

I can relate to this type of experience. With practice you can come to the archetype the symbols stem from and use them in a practical way for your own experience. The truth behind myths and religions are found in archetypes... they're the building blocks of the physical. Frank found the world of archetypes on accident trying to get to Monroe's F27, and it became his "F4".

I'm even able to ask it questions this way if I focus. If I get the feeling it's a Yes!, if I don't it's a No, if it's mild it's a Maybe.

You can keep honing and improving this until it effects your intuition at a fairly deep level. Rudolf Steiner wrote a book called "Intuitive thinking as a Spiritual Path" that puts a fairly scientific and practical approach to developing strong intuition. Few books have had and effect on my life like this one has. Free PDF: http://www.anthropress.com/excerpts/intuitive_thinking.pdf

Also I'm still impressed by my "shaking foot / lower leg" method of returning to normal reality, always seems to work even when I got stuck today and thought "Aw crap I can't get back".

Yep, toe wiggling works well for me. I sometimes use it during meditation to bring my focus back to physical.

I think the difference for most people is that when you project from a dream it can be hard to gain the amount of clarity (at first) than projecting from a waking state. This can play a part in the state of consciousness you project into, so while they are both projections into the non-physical, the experience can be perceptibly different by the person projecting. I think that's probably why so many people question their LD experiences. You probably have to get kinda good at projecting to be able to see the differences for yourself. Otherwise dreams would be much more meaningful to most people.

5 - 20 mins is normally my window.

Same here. I might have a long session, but I'm not going to spend more than 20 minutes just trying to project.

I get where you're coming from rain.

Here's a very real scenario: What about someone with a terminal illness that lives in horrible pain every day? Pretty much everyone who goes through assisted suicide is in this position. Is it wrong to not let them die on their own terms? In terms of "lessons", it's got to be a huge one for all of the participants. Maybe it can't be generalized down to right & wrong and should be looked at by the individual situation.

there's a film on Netflix right now called Beyond The Black Rainbow. i believe it is highly influenced by the nonphysical, and those who experience and study the non physical will definitely appreciate it more than those who do not have a clue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ertVYn750 (Trailer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKCHXpSEtOU (Clip)

i can't recommend it enough. fans of Lynch and Kubrick will see a lot of influence drawn from them as well.

I saw that a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. Not your average film

One of my favorites is Android Jones (above), I don't think he's that well known, he uses heightened states of consciousness
to tap into an unadulterated creativity which he then surprisingly uses programs like Photoshop and Zbrush to express.
When I finally have everything in order I'm hoping he can design an album cover for me. I can dream I guess

(Sorry, I can't embed any more of his work easily)
http://androidjones.viewbook.com/portfolio/android_jones_art/album/studio_art?p=1
http://www.androidjones.com/

That's awesome, I've never heard of him. Thanks for sharing that.

One last question I have on this topic.

Does anyone here experience a sharp pain the chest area while deep in an attempt/session?

I ask this because once in awhile I will be about an hour into a good meditative state and then I get a sharp piercing sensation, like being stabbed in the heart. It is very short lived, just a quick pierce, but is very hard to ignore!

This is the only time that I ever experience this sensation.

I've had something similar happen 2 or 3 times, always during a long meditation, but not necessarily short lived - the first time my chest hurt for 2 days afterwards (this was like 12 or more years ago). I can't explain it and it doesn't happen anymore.

Your outside world is a reflection of your inner world.

Fascinating. Your mentioning of the "curtain" with all "lives intermingling" strongly reminds me of what I read recently in Dolores Cannon's Live-Between-Lives book. She mentions the "Tapestry Room" which is more or less an Akashic Records hall containg "tapestry" of all human life lines of each soul or indivitual being somehow intricately 'weaved' ("intermingled") together. Your can read from this bookmark onwards.

Interesting. I've wondered if it was the "Rainbow Bridge" - there are a few similarities. I've also found lots of similarities among other religions and esoteric teachings. I think my best conclusion so far is it's literally the end of the physical (including astral and other planes along side the physical) and the seat of our ego. If you go beyond that, you've pushed through your own ego, and the fact that I confronted it with a feeling of deception and depression was a sign I wasn't ready to see beyond my own self. And I'm guessing everything since is just preparation for the next go-round and why I take meditation as seriously as I do. I want total freedom.

I asked "show me the true nature of reality", and I was turned inside-out as I got sucked through membranes and ended up as a point attached to the end of an infinitely colored curtain that went into infinity (time and space were non-existant, so it wasn't "big" or "small", just infinite). In fact, everyone was attatched to the end of this curtain. The ripple of the curtain I was on was my entire physical life from birth to the present moment. Everyone had their own ripple and they flowed together - lives intermingling, which create the giant curtain, which was the physical world. Here, I was not "Stookie", I was a being that had been asleep on the end of the ripple, dreaming it into existence with everyone else. I was about to "break through a seem" and get to another area, but I had the distinct feeling that there was something on the "other side" keeping me in. To this day, I wonder if I would have physically died if I went through... Monroe's aperture maybe? Or maybe it would have been a complete transformation that I missed out on. It wasn't fun or happy or full of love... it hurt and made me depressed to see what physical reality really was. I felt deceived. It was a complete and utter shock to my being, but I came out seeing everything completely different then I ever could have imagined, philosophized, or theorized. It was an experience I wasn't prepared for, would never volunteer for, yet was the most perception changing experience I ever had and am very glad it happened. If anything, it spurs me on to figure it all out on my own through first-hand experience. The best teacher in the world can't prepare you for huge perceptual changes.

Like with meditation, if you just do what feels right to you, you may be missing out on some very important lessons, or give up because it's not comfortable (which yoga is far from being). In regards to astral projection, hatha yoga supposedly incorporates a lot beneficial practices, though an internet search brings up a lot of conflicting things about it. It's roots are esoteric in nature, but lately has been popularized more as health & fitness techniques (as most yoga is in the west).

Hello again, just need to bring up this topic...

Today I was talking with a professional masseur and he went into the topic on how to breath. He told me that "ALWAYS breath with your chest and not your stomach. Your lungs is not in your stomach but in your chest". That's the way he was reason. This confused me a lot because I have always heard and read I should breath "with my stomach".

Finally I took the conclusion, "Do what feels best for you and most relaxing". So what do you think about this?
OT: Do you feel any difference if you lay with the head pointing to north and skip too eat meat?

Different types of breathing works for different situations, like where you breath from, how large of breaths, how long you hold in or out, and the mental activity you're putting into it. To get into a trance state faster, it normally helps to take somewhat large breaths and hold each exhale for a bit, but don't hold at all on the inhale. While holding the exhale, remove every single thought, and while inhaling concentrate fully on the air coming into the lungs... feel them expand and fill up. If you do it right, you should get hypnogogic sensations in a very short period of time.

But to make it even simpler, all you have to do is take long slow breaths like you do when you're asleep and it will slow down your heart rate and get you into a relaxed state.

There's a microcosm and a macrocosm and you have to take both into account.

And seriously... who cares if they're 'real'.  It doesn't matter if they come from outside or inside you... ask yourself did you gain anything from the experience?

I'd say there's a huge difference between having a relationship with an imaginary character and a real being.

My mind used to always look for things to worry about... no more, I'm done with that. No worries mon!

Congrats Cody!

Contrary to popular belief, eating healthy and organic is not more expensive than eating junk food. The most difficult part is taking the time to prepare decent meals, but once you get into the habit, it's very enjoyable.

And I don't know if you've considered it, but regular exercise on top of a good diet will extend the benefits 4 fold... and then with mediation on top of that, you can't go wrong.

I love it when I come across people who do out of the ordinary things... it puts a smile on my face. Like when I'm walking down the street and someone is coming the other direction with headphones in their ears and they're singing out loud, not caring who's listening. It makes some people upset or uncomfortable, like you're interfering with their world, but really you're breaking their ingrained expectations. Life does that all the time.

Take this girl... she doesn't have time for being self-conscious, she's got important stuff to do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNYawF71tp4

I stumbled on various opinions on this, and I'm confused. Some articles say that it is necessary to close chakras after stimulating/opening them. They say it's dangerous to leave them open, as the energy can gradually get away. Other meditation tutorials don't call for any closing visualizations or anything like that. In addition, Robert Bruce writes in his essay that closing chakras using any visualization techniques is ridiculous, because it stimulates them even more.

I really don't know whom to listen to, and there is no way I can actually check this out for myself. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Chakras don't open or close, they are just more or less active. I would say the main thing is keeping a balance and not over-stimulating a single one. For myself, an over-stimulated brow chakra has caused headaches, and an over-stimulated base chakra has caused other physical ailments. I was doing chi-kung exercises that focused mainly on my lower chakras/nadis and it threw me all out of whack.

It was tried several years ago, though I don't think with very decent results. There were a few people who spent time building API, and Frank would make new things there for other people to find, like a swimming pool & cabana.

It came off to me as accusing me of narrow-mindedness when accusing someone of that because of skepticism is narrow-minded. I'm sure he didn't mean it that way. It was just worded in that way to me. So I responded to that.

My mistake, I wasn't referring to you, I was speaking very generally about how tricky it is to communicate these types of ideas to people who have yet to experience it. It becomes philosophical and theoretical, and like you the comparison you made, it can be like a religion... all you've got is faith until you experience it yourself. I apologize for any confusion.

I'm VERY distressed because i really dont know LEGALLY what happens to our remains when we die (if there are any)[fully intact]
i was just told we get an automatic autopsy..i dont want that..im from the US and if anyone can enlighten me it would be welcomed, from anywhere in the world what does your govern. do??

In most cases you have the option to be buried or cremated. Like desert-rat said, an autopsy is only performed if the cause of death is a mystery. Autopsies cost money and they'll only do it if absolutely necessary. But that's just what happens when your body dies, you on the other hand will be fine and dandy in another area of consciousness, and you probably won't even consider what's going on with your old body.

Become one with the barking of the neighbor's dog.