Good Mental Rundown Scripts/examples ?

[OB1]

Hi,

i was wondering if anyone could share a good Mental Rundown example /script or what they usually do ?

Basically ive done mental rundowns but they are too boring.And im not the best at creating scripts.




Ob1

[Xanth]

What's an activity you REALLY enjoy doing?

[OB1]

What's an activity you REALLY enjoy doing?

I have a few, i guess i could try them out.

[Xanth]

I have a few, i guess i could try them out.

Well... I used to (I WILL get back to it one day!  LOL) practice Yoshinkan Aikido.
I used to practice the techniques in my mind.  That made for a great rundown. 

[Astral_seeker]

I've got a question about rundowns.

Am I correct to assume that one has to do them only when being in quite a deep transe ?

Because I tried them when laying down after a quick relaxation and seriously it did nothing.

[Xanth]

I've got a question about rundowns.

Am I correct to assume that one has to do them only when being in quite a deep transe ?

Nope.  The Mental Rundown is what brings you into the deep trance.  It *IS* the meditation.

Because I tried them when laying down after a quick relaxation and seriously it did nothing.

It's like anything else.  You have to *allow* the process to happen.
You allow it to capture your focus... then you allow it to suck you into the scene.

You saying that "it did nothing"... kind of sounds like you were waiting for something to happen.  Actively waiting.  If you're actively doing anything, then you're going to be "waiting" a long time. 

The point of the Rundown is to allow it to passively take you away.  Maybe one of the other moderators (or anyone really) can be more elegant with their wording of it.  LoL

[Astral_seeker]

Nope.  The Mental Rundown is what brings you into the deep trance.  It *IS* the meditation.

oh I see. So I can lay down in my bed, quickly relax and start the rundown letting the process going on. Ok.

It's like anything else.  You have to *allow* the process to happen. You allow it to capture your focus... then you allow it to suck you into the scene. You saying that "it did nothing"... The point of the Rundown is to allow it to passively take you away.

sure but visualising is a active effort which requires focus and will. I have to create the visual and maintain it, so I dont see how can I allow passively something when I have to give an active effort to build it.

kind of sounds like you were waiting for something to happen.  Actively waiting.  If you're actively doing anything, then you're going to be "waiting" a long time.  

Absolutely, I was expecting things to happen.

[Rakkso]

i was wondering if anyone could share a good Mental Rundown example /script or what they usually do ?

Basically ive done mental rundowns but they are too boring.And im not the best at creating scripts.

A good example of something I used to do and grabbed my focus and attention completely was doing a Kata, it is something alike Xanth's experience, if there is something physical that you enjoy doing, perhaps you can try to recreate it as flawlessly and effortlessly as possible, it's just like when you have your eyes closed and are about to sleep, and suddenly you find yourself in a "mini-dream" scene, it can be boring, I know, you could even phantasise walking in your favorte movie/game scene if it helps you, or just about anything, but nothing to exiting, that would certainly not help.  

I've got a question about rundowns.

Am I correct to assume that one has to do them only when being in quite a deep transe ?

Because I tried them when laying down after a quick relaxation and seriously it did nothing.

Perhaps you were "thinking" (forcing) the scene too much, just "allow" it to take the focus out of you, let your senses, slowly and patienly divert into the scene you are "merging" your senses with, could be visual, tactil, auditive, or a mix of all of them, but you have to let then "come", it is not something you can rush, the moment you try to rush it you lose, dont force anything or you will be "thinking" and therefore wont achieve the requiered state of mind. which is a very silent, passive one.

it can be hard for beginners, to show you this, go from your bedroom to your living room, then kitchen, and then return to your bedroom (or any circuit you like), do all this "passively observing", without a single thought popping on in your mind. thats the state requiered in meditation, or mental rundown.

Just the act of trying is progressing a lot, the more you try, the easier it gets. once you get your own "trick" to trigger it. piece of cake.

EDIT: Try to get in the state were "mini dreams" come out of nowhere, and mold you way from there on. it'll be easier.

[Xanth]

Take the same approach as you do when you fall asleep at night.

You don't lie there TRYING to fall asleep... you can try all you want, but no amount of trying will MAKE you fall asleep.  Instead, you just relax and ALLOW the process to occur.
It's *EXACTLY* the same with projecting... there is absolutely nothing you can do to MAKE yourself project.  You just relax and ALLOW the process to occur. 

[Aaron330]

Take the same approach as you do when you fall asleep at night.

You don't lie there TRYING to fall asleep... you can try all you want, but no amount of trying will MAKE you fall asleep.  Instead, you just relax and ALLOW the process to occur.
It's *EXACTLY* the same with projecting... there is absolutely nothing you can do to MAKE yourself project.  You just relax and ALLOW the process to occur. 

That's actually the most sensible example I've ever heard of it. Makes perfect sense when you think of it this way

[EscapeVelocity]

Two points I would like to add about Rundowns:

1  Complete relaxation is key. And for me that means I can't just lay down and twenty minutes later, be disassociated enough for it to work. So, it's an 'opportunity technique' for me. When I wake up in the middle of the night or early morning or during a nap; that's when this can work brilliantly for me. I think it may also have to do with the subconscious dreaming mechanism being somewhat engaged and ready to go. That's how the Rundown takes over and starts to run itself.

2  Rhythm and movement. For me, the walk in the park or on the beach just doesn't do it. What I have found helpful is to visualize an activity that has vigorous, rhythmic movement, especially up and down: Snow skiing a mogul field, snowboarding, sledding, dancing, horse jumping, motocross, mountain biking...you get the idea.
(and a tip of the hat to Selski for her famous Trampoline Rundown!)

The first time for me was quite by accident: Middle of the night gastro distress had me propped-up in bed. As I slowly sank back towards sleep some slight hypnogogia began and I somehow visualized sledding down a hill and over some bumps. Very quickly the visual took over by itself and I felt myself get turned around so that now I was sledding backwards. I didn't fight the contradiction and let it continue. The next instant I phased and was dumped on my back from like four feet in the air onto a gravel road out in the country on a dark wintry night. The reality of it was stunning and I laughed and stood, dusted myself off and took off from there.

[Astral_seeker]

Im sorry Xanth but I disagree with your example to fall asleep to make a // with the rundowns.

To fall asleep you have indeed to do nothing, to let the void and blank mind come and let go.

But as long are you are CREATING a scene, you have to DO something. The creation process imply an action whereas going to sleep doesnt require as you say any action, you just have to let go.

Until the scene becomes independant and gets life of his own (aka when you're stepping in the scene sucessfully I presume), you have to FEED it and so this is not at all to me a passive process.

Both are totally different to me and cant be compared.

@Escape : what you say in your 1) was what I was asking. You cant phase with rundown from a waking state and use this as a meditation (like Xanth can do however) : you are successful upon awakening which means that you are already in a "transe" state (at least very deeply relaxed one). To each his own I guess.

@Rakkso : thanks for your post, I will try to apply your words.

[Xanth]

Im sorry Xanth but I disagree with your example to fall asleep to make a // with the rundowns.

To fall asleep you have indeed to do nothing, to let the void and blank mind come and let go.

But as long are you are CREATING a scene, you have to DO something. The creation process imply an action whereas going to sleep doesnt require as you say any action, you just have to let go.

Until the scene becomes independant and gets life of his own (aka when you're stepping in the scene sucessfully I presume), you have to FEED it and so this is not at all to me a passive process.

Both are totally different to me and cant be compared.

@Escape : what you say in your 1) was what I was asking. You cant phase with rundown from a waking state and use this as a meditation (like Xanth can do however) : you are successful upon awakening which means that you are already in a "transe" state (at least very deeply relaxed one). To each his own I guess.

@Rakkso : thanks for your post, I will try to apply your words.

You misunderstand... or perhaps I wasn't very clear.  LoL
Oh well, let me see if I can explain.

You're 100% correct that up until that point you ARE *DOING* something.  There's no technique/method out there that you can do nothing and project.  Not even using a tool like binaural beats or a light/sound machine.  You always are the catalyst... you just can't force it.  It's something you have to ALLOW to happen to you.  What I'm referring to is that point where the rundown "captures" your awareness isn't something you can "make happen"... just as you can't "make yourself fall asleep.  That's the comparison I was making, not the entire process.

One of the tricks of the Mental Rundown (and I'm not sure even I allude to this in my articles) is that there's a fine balance between doing too much and doing too little.
You want to engage your senses as much as you can, this part is true.  The other half is that you want to only engage them as much as possible for you to get drawn into the scene.
If you're doing your rundown and you're just doing that for a long time with nothing happening then you have to do a little troubleshooting... you need to ask yourself if you're doing too much... too little?  Is your rundown not enticing enough?  Are you getting bored?

The point of not doing "too much" is that eventually the scene will begin to take on a life of its own.  If you're doing too much you run the risk that that is all you will experience.  If you're doing too little you run the risk that it's not engaging enough to "capture" your awareness.

Does that make more sense now?

[Astral_seeker]

thanks a lot for clearing things up !

from the moment I've started the rundown when can I stop if nothing happens, being sure that either I do it wrong or nothing will happen this time ? 20 minutes ? 30 minutes ? 45 minutes ?

[Xanth]

thanks a lot for clearing things up !

from the moment I've started the rundown when can I stop if nothing happens, being sure that either I do it wrong or nothing will happen this time ? 20 minutes ? 30 minutes ? 45 minutes ?

Nobody can answer that for you.  There's no set time limit.  It depends entirely upon your ability to meditate/focus/visualize.

With that said... what I can say is this:  If I've been practicing this and it's been 30 minutes with NOTHING happening, then I would probably give it a break.  But that's just my opinion.