What is your mindset during meditation and astral projection sessions?

[Tiny]

I'm curious what the the mindest of the majority really is, are you passive- or active minded?

Thank you


kind regards,

Paul

[personalreality]

actively-passive

[Tiny]

actively-passive

how disappointing...why don't you atleast tell me your tendency please.


kind regards,

Paul

[Astral316]

I'm pretty sure "actively passive" is noticing (active) without reacting (passive.) You basically keep your mind quiet and observe the blackness and any sensory input you may experience without responding through emotion or thought.

This doesn't work for me so I use a different method. When I meditate, I try to make my body feel "not there" as much as possible by stretching/relaxing/"deadening" my muscles to the point where my body feels numb (ie no brain signals are being sent to the body.) When I achieve this state I then concentrate on an exit technique... the goal is to feel (not see) myself carrying out a projection-triggering action by using my mind and not my physical body. For me this is primarily climbing a rope up a wall or going up in an elevator... typically actions where you are rising up... though I've gotten close using techniques based on falling as well (ie sky diving, falling off a cliff, etc.)

The exit technique takes all my concentration, which is better for me since the "phasing" technique is like walking a tightrope, easy to fall and lose concentration.

[Xanth]

I'm pretty sure "actively passive" is noticing (active) without reacting (passive.) You basically keep your mind quiet and observe the blackness and any sensory input you may experience without responding through emotion or thought.

That's actually EXACTLY what I was gonna say.

That's what I do.

I'm actively passive as well. 

[eflynn]

I'm pretty sure "actively passive" is noticing (active) without reacting (passive.) You basically keep your mind quiet and observe the blackness and any sensory input you may experience without responding through emotion or thought.

That's cool.  It's a little different for me though, at least as far as intent goes.  The activity may be the same. 

For myself, I lay down to go to sleep just like any other day and all I do is begin to focus on some story or other that is playing through my mind.  I try to focus as much as possible on what's going on in my mind and I try not to give any attention whatsoever to my body.  I don't care if it's relaxed, sore, itchy, vibrating, etc.  I give all my attention to the story in my mind.  What happens is that the activity playing out in my mind (could be replaying events of the previous day, living out some fantasy or other, fighting bad guys, whatever) becomes more and more real.  Something usually will snap me back out of my mind and to focus my attention back to the waking world a few times - I'm a very light sleeper and any kind of noise, movements of someone else in the bed, or even things going on outside can wake me up.  But these times where I snap back are actually pretty useful because I can get a sense of just how far into my mind I have gone I can tell that I'm getting deeper and deeper as the night goes on. 

Incidentally - the deeper I have gone into my mind before getting snapped back, the more of the typical exit sensations I feel.  It's not uncommon for me to have no feelings from my body at all while playing out my mind story (presumably because I'm not paying any attention to my body) to snap back and sense that my body has become very heavy or feels like it's vibrating, or my ears are ringing exceptionally loud.  It's pretty neat.

I go back to playing out my mind story and one of two things always happens.  Either I end up falling asleep normally because I couldn't maintain enough awareness (the vast majority of nights) or I'll be in my mind story and suddenly realize I'm there.  And when I say there, I mean REALLY there.  Things that I'm not consciously making up are happening around me and I can sense everything around me just like I can in waking life.  To be honest, feels even more real that "real" life.  Once I'm there, I'm off to do whatever I want, assuming I don't get too excited and wake myself back up. 

So to answer your question, I would say I'm very much active-minded.  I don't really just close my eyes and wait to notice things.  I actively make things up and participate in my imagination.  If I'm passive at all, it's with regards to my body.  The trick for me is to go ("phase" perhaps) from normal waking consciousness to total mind consciousness (that doesn't sound so good but I'm not sure how else to explain it) and my imagination is the doorway for me.  One last tidbit - I have tried many times to do Frank's noticing exercise where you close your eyes and just passively notice things but that only seems to either keep me awake or knock me out into a sleep coma.  It's seems that for me, my mind has to be actively engaged in something for me to fall asleep and maintain conscious awareness at the same time. 

[bardips]

i perform all of my active effort before the projection.  energy work, trancing, etc. all takes place beforehand and once i'm satisfied with that, my goal shifts to a zen mind state.  I might focus on thought objects as well.  But i don't do much with effort until i get the signs and signals that it's a good time to project.

it might sound like i'm making an effort when i focus on thought objects, however, i'm just placing my awareness on them and leaving it there, which requires no effort at all. 

when i get the deep trance wavy watery vibes, i know that i'm only inches away from projecting.

[testing]

I do a little of both or in-between.

[djed]

I would have to say ' Active!!'
When I take off and fly I try to FEEL all the joy of flying and any BLISS that is on offer!
This is the attraction of the extension of consciousness, for me, to experience stuff that we cant experience in normal life. Go places we have never been to before, its science fiction made REAL!
Cheers djed