For Fork's Sake!

[Selski]

I went to bed very early yesterday. Had a kip for about an hour and then lay awake practising relaxing without mentally falling asleep. This can include a variety of methods, but yesterday it was a case of thinking abstractly, then latching onto those lazy, loopy thoughts and following them.

After a while, I knew I was in the hypnagogic state as I heard my OH noisily putting cutlery away in the kitchen whilst simultaneously sitting next to me in bed reading a newspaper that was rustling. (I wear ear plugs so I knew for sure that both these sounds were non-physical.)

Next thing I noticed was that my astral arms had begun moving on their own ever so slowly upwards. Then the middle of my body started rising too. I thought 'here we go' and remained calm, neutral and curious. My body lifted out approximately 1ft before coming back down, not too quickly. Consciousness rose to full waking with my usual all-over tingles.

I think the reason it ended was because my mind was slightly too awake/alert.

It was brief, it was a tad disappointing, but it was a start. 

[ThaomasOfGrey]

I have had trouble like that before too. I am receiving some channeled information that awake or alertness in itself shouldn't be the root cause of coming back down. We should be able to be hyper alert, indeed at peak levels of alertness without disrupting the scenario. The matter is how flexible and fluid the state of mind is and how self aware you are.

Compare a separation to a high stakes sporting event like baseball. When you are about to bat you need to be fully focused on what is happening but still in a fluid mind state capable of reacting to the pitch on instinct. The key is that you aren't self aware, you are just doing and all encompassed. When the self awareness comes in to play too much, the mind loses the ability to transition from one brain wave state to another seamlessly.

[Lumaza]

I thought 'here we go' and remained calm, neutral and curious. My body lifted out approximately 1ft before coming back down, not too quickly.

That mental thought "here we go" seems to be my catalyst for failure. I have had it happen so many times and end up in a " Homer Simpson doh" moment, lol.  

[Selski]

That's really interesting Thaomas - and ties in with the self-aware thought of 'here we go' that Lumaza has had trouble with too. I'll bear it in mind for future escapades! 

[catmeow]

My experience is that in order to transition from wakefulness to LD I must go through a stilling of consciousness. By stilling of consciouness I mean absence of critical thinking. I can have full awareness of my situation and I can direct/guide the experience, but I absolutely must not do any "reasoning" or "critical thinking". Any such type of active thinking wakes the mind and tends to end the experience.

On the other hand, passive thinking, idly watching the shapes, colours and landscapes which present themselves strengthens the MABA state. Any type of sensory experience, visual, auditory, proprioceptive, touch etc, strengthens the state, and once a threshold is reached, locks me in to the LD.  Once locked into the LD, I can then SAFELY USE CRITICAL THINKING AGAIN.

So I have to still my mind as I pass from hypnagogia to full LD. Once locked into the LD I can once again use critical thinking. So Selski I suggest that your "here we go" thought was your undoing! It must have been a bit more "active" than just a simple "here we go" perhaps you combined it with recollections of old experiences, or the anticipation of that amazing experience you were about to have?!

But anyway, that's how it works for me!

[Selski]

I think you're right catmeow. It might have only been a 'here we go' thought but it was most likely packed with anticipation, expectation, excitement and darned THINKING. 

[ThaomasOfGrey]

So I have to still my mind as I pass from hypnagogia to full LD. Once locked into the LD I can once again use critical thinking.

But anyway, that's how it works for me!

Works this way for me as well. It seems like one should or could be able to transition without this being a problem. It might be that the critical thinking plays too much into our fears so we have to disconnect from that temporarily.

[Lumaza]

Works this way for me as well.

For me as well.

Catmeow, I like your terminology "locked /into"!  The words "here we go again" themselves show anticipation and on some level even though we try to control our excitement, it sometimes still leaks through, thus killing the moment. 

I find that is very important for me to keep the fact that I am in any experience, as a "afterthought". It doesn't matter whether it be through a LD/Phase or OBE session. I experience it first now, then question it later. This had led to some much longer experiences as well.

When I first started becoming consciously aware in my Dreams first, I would I altered the whole scenario, what others would call, leaving the Dream to Astral Project. (At the time, I didn't think they were the same thing. That was due to some bad advise from some of the LD/Astral Projection books I had read)) But those experiences were very short. I wanted to be able to stay there longer, so I needed to adapt to what was occurring. I experimented with it and saw that becoming too lucid or aware of the fact that I was Dreaming or experiencing in a OBE/Phase session would kill that session. Thoughts like "Here we go were very detrimental to my practice. But I have to admit, even though I know better, I still catch myself once in awhile doing that still today. I will be patiently awaiting "the show" to begin and when it does the thought "here we go" comes into my mind and like Bugs Bunny says, "that's all folks", at least for that current session/simulation. 

It's kind of like you need to disengage the Human aspect of yourself or at the least, temporarily disengage the physical mindset itself.