Can someone help me understand R. Bruce's duality of consciousness?

[stratcat96]

Hi everyone. So I have been working on OBE for a few weeks and had some very "close call's" as far as getting out and experiencing OBE. I picked up a copy of Robert Bruce's "Astral Dynamics" (the revised edition) and in reading, my few experiences made sense. The "real time sight" I had experienced being a low-power OBE that my consciousness flipped back and forth between, etc.

What I don't get though, is that so far in his book he talks about duality of consciousness where the projected body and the physical body are both the same consciousness operating independently of one another. This explanation says that you can experience the vibrations et al of an exit but still lay there believing you had a failed exit, when in reality your "real time" or "astral double" is trucking along without you realizing it. Furthermore, the only way that you realize it wasn't a failed attempt is when the memories from that double are successfully "downloaded" on re-entry.

My question is, and forgive me if this is a dumb one, but is an OBE just the "memory" of what happened? So I would "remember" the experience just as I remember getting in my car and going to work in the morning? If there is truly this "duality of consciousness" are you ever able to transfer the "you" that is attempting the OBE to being the "you" that is doing the OBE? I guess that is what he calls transferring the center of consciousness... I had "thought" that a successful OBE was actually having the experience, not just having the memory of it when you come out of it... It sounds kind of liker that movie "Total Recall" with Arnold where they "implant" memories of an experience but "you" weren't *really* there.. Thanks in advance!

[Xanth]

What he calls "duality of consciousness"... I call "splitting your focus".

In my opinion, you do it all the time... say you're driving along having a conversation with someone in the passenger seat.  You're splitting your focus between driving and the passenger.  To call this a "duality of consciousness" is over-complicating things.  You're simply splitting your focus.

You can split your focus however many directions you're comfortable doing.
Now, doing this in the non-physical means you'll experience experiences from both (or more than one) focus (not to be confused with the focus models).

[blis]

I've never liked the download idea.

Cant remember hearing anyone recount an experience that would support it.

However many ways you split your consciousness they're all you, not some temporary copy of you.

[Xanth]

I've never liked the download idea.

Cant remember hearing anyone recount an experience that would support it.

However many ways you split your consciousness they're all you, not some temporary copy of you.

Yeah, I could never get on board with the downloading thing.
You either experience a non-physical experience consciously, or you don't.  It's as simple as that.

[stratcat96]

Thank you guys, so it's not just me... It seems like just "having memory" of something that you didn't actively participate in is just a dream not a conscious OBE experience

[Xanth]

Thank you guys, so it's not just me... It seems like just "having memory" of something that you didn't actively participate in is just a dream not a conscious OBE experience

Actually, I think it goes a bit further than that. 
I think that if you don't directly consciously (with some minor level of conscious awareness) experience a dream, you won't remember it at all.

[CFTraveler]

One comment, and it's based on information (scientific info) that I've read about in this forum and other scientific works (I don't have the book with me, so I can't quote ATM, but I can come back with my source)- that posits that anything that is experienced by the brain is actually experienced a number of seconds (don't have the correct amount) after the event actually happens, and scientists have proven this by various methods- the 'strobe light' method, stimulating certain parts of the brain vs. muscles directly) before the experiencer becomes aware.  In fact, certain types of deja vu have been explained to be that way- the odd moment of one part of the brain experiencing something after the other part of the brain, making the 'nonverbal' part of the brain 'know' something is going to happen before the verbal 'conscious aware' part- or something like that.
In other words, any experience, be it in-body or out of body, is experienced some time after it actually happens- so it can be said that all experiences are information download, no matter where they're coming from.
I have had times (in the past) in which this happened- I felt exit sensations, I stayed, and then went to sleep, only to 'dream' of OBEs that could be later verified, pointing to the 'download' theory.
Of course, this only goes so far, because after some time you do experience bilocation, showing that the trauma associated by being in two places at the same time is eventually surpassed, and things get more surreal, but clear at the same time.
And yes, it's late and I'm tired.

[ether2]

Duality of consciousness, is difficult to do when ya OBe/AP i can do this at around 100/110 km/h whilst driveing a car (safely) my longest for OBe whilst driveing is over 5 seconds being fully conscious of my physical bodys actions and at the same time fully conscious of my non-physical bodys actions, i have watched my non-physical body doing the required task from my physical body and able to switch back still being fully aware of my driveing (safely) looking through my non-physical body actions doing the required task...

as for ya memory that is just a rememberence (depending on the memory/scenario(s)) is just a projection of what ya did/guided to do in the non-physical world being (dreams) that plays out in the physical world (Lucid Dreams are the stepping stone (schooling/remembering) of what dreams do as in why/how), projection is what ya do in ya dreams non-physical this is not the Astral plane it's higher it's then played out in the physical world and or conscious projection normally by most in the Astral plane, OBe is what ya do in the physical world, someone(s) may disagree and without saying something, i wait for the responses in their wording if their are any regarding this post, complicated, if they can show they know something i will PM...

good luck

love all