Tactile Imagination, Energy Sensations and Rainbow Tower Method

[ThaomasOfGrey]

Hey guys,

This is my first post and I would like to share some of the experiences I have had over the past 6 months while attempting astral projection. I haven't had a complete astral experience yet, but the things I have felt while meditating vary greatly and are a little bizarre so I am quite interested to hear your thoughts and insights on these events.


Tactile Imagination: This is when your waking imagination seemingly interacts with you physically. It usually happens when the imagination is allowed to run wild after some relaxation.

The first time I experienced this I was imagining a folder to keep documents inside. Subconsciously I decided I wanted to handle the object. When I realized what was happening I was flipping the item around in my hands and it felt physical to touch, however, my real hands were in a different position under the blankets at this time. Upon realizing this I was shocked back to awareness.

In another instance my mind was running free and I saw a Giant with a cricket bat. He he hit me as I was laying in bed, with a type of golf swing, where I was the ball. I felt like I was flying at roller coaster speeds, parallel to the ground. Once again the experience proved too shocking to relax through.


Energy Sensation: Throughout most of my experiences I have been feeling an energy sensation which gets stronger the closer to sleep paralysis I become. I suspect they might be vibrations, however, I am also slightly doubtful of this because I also feel them when I am awake and I seem to be able to induce them at will.

It began on a particular night where I was laying on my side attempting to astral project. I didn't think I was very deep, most sleep paralysis symptoms hadn't kicked in yet and I was lucid but empty of mind. Suddenly I felt a physical jab in my lower spine. It was as if someone had taken two fingers and hit me forcefully. Instantaneously my entire body was flooded with an energy and vibration at a magnitude I had never felt before. It differed from vibrations I had felt in the past in that the sensation had extended beyond the shape of my physical body. I actually felt as if my entire body was an ethereal cloud, but in a reasonably uniform cylinder of perhaps 1 meter radius. The experience was shocking and even though I tried to relax into it, the sensation slowly waned as I became too engaged mentally.

These sensations are getting stronger and stronger in my body and they seem to intensify if I focus in the region of the 3rd eye. It hit a new frontier last night and I will elaborate on that soon.


Phasing Theories:

I am currently trailing two different separation methods, based on two approaches which Frank Kepple described. I believe that keeping the mind away from thoughts of the physical body is key. The first way, Frank describes, as noticing or passive engagement; I interpret this as, avoid thinking about your body by engaging in the activity of noticing. The alternative method is to engage your mind completely in imagination so it is too occupied for thoughts of the physical body.

I personally struggle with passive engagement. A combination of a nose injury and allergies result in me having inflamed sinus cavities a lot of the time. It can get to the point where it isn't comfortable to breath through my nose. This is a problem because breathing through my mouth causes it to dry out and the irritation is prohibitive to relaxation. Ultimately my body's various nags make it difficult to notice without my thoughts returning to my body.

I see the imagination method as turning up the volume knob on your mental engagement and phasing your consciousness away from the physical world. It is also a decent use of time for improving memory and imagination if you are a person that has spent many hours trying to astral project unsuccessfully.


Rainbow Tower Method:

The concept is to create a sequence of imagination which can engage your mind for long enough to forget your physical body. I created the prototype for this sequence by combining some elements of the description Frank Kepple gave of his experience with Monroe's CDs and another method I happened upon which involves visualizing colored objects in the order of the rainbow. There is something to the rainbow method; at first I was skeptical of the significance of the colors and imagined the key was in the familiarity sequence. After violet, you are supposed to imagine glorious white light. Each color I went through, an intense anticipation built up. When I reached the white light phase, I was feeling the strongest exit symptoms I have experienced. I felt like I was falling backwards down into an abyss, but there was something more than just the physical sensation. There was also a profound sense of the unknown. Regrettably, the experience was quite frightening and I unwillingly succumbed to fear, which halted the experience.

I would be interested to hear if anyone thinks there is a special interaction between the mind and these colors or whether it is just the concept of a countdown that creates a powerful positive frame of mind. In either case, I combine both techniques in the Rainbow Tower; it doesn't have to be a tower, choose something important to you. The idea is that you walk up a tower, room by room. The rooms are colored in the rainbow order and filled with objects of that same color. If you like you can imagine that the tower exists in your body and each floor corresponds to the chakra of the area. The colors you imagine will also match to stimulate each chakra. I chose to categorize the objects in my rooms chronologically by my life experience, selecting the ideas, items and people most important at that time for each room. I found the exercise of remembering the things that mattered on each floor to be very engaging and stimulating.

--Splitting due to post limit--

[ThaomasOfGrey]

Results:

By the time I reached the yellow room in the process, I would estimate that no more than 10 minutes had past but I started feeling strange. I tried to keep focusing on my room but for some reason I was unable to. I was feeling complete sleep paralysis and a slight falling sensation. The most prominent feature which was new for me was kaleidoscopic color patterns. Pretty sure the first one I saw was yellow too. I was determined not to get too excited and ruin this opportunity but I was unable to continue imagining so I reverted to noticing instead. After a matter of seconds, my physical eyes slowly began to open.

This is an ongoing problem for me, once I reach a certain stage in the sleep process my eyes open automatically and stay open until the next sleep phase. When it happens I am in almost complete sleep paralysis. My eyes don't seem to dry out and I don't blink. Usually the eyes being open provides enough sensory input to suspend me from completely phasing away from the physical reality.

I decided to abandon the attempt because I was basically stuck in a hypnotic state but unable to relax further due to the light. I tried again about 30 minutes later, and to my surprise I found that I was almost instantly returning to the same depth of hypnotic state that I was in previously. Within a minute or so my eyes began to open on their own again and I was back in sleep paralysis. I repeated this two more times with the same result. I became aware of a new depth to my focus on the 3rd eye region. I don't know if I was focusing in the wrong place before, but something about this felt more natural. Upon engaging with it my energy began to move in a new way. The best way I can describe it, is that it felt like my body was split down the length into two energy sections. The right coil was spinning clockwise and the left coil counter clockwise. Energy would flow up through the center and then spiral around the outsides and back in again.

Excited to see what you guys make of these experiences. I would appreciate any advice on my progress!

[Lumaza]

Excited to see what you guys make of these experiences. I would appreciate any advice on my progress!

You are progressing fine. Keep doing what you are doing.

You said "I haven't had a complete astral experience yet, but the things I have felt while meditating vary greatly and are a little bizarre so I am quite interested to hear your thoughts and insights on these events." I think you are underestimating your progress here.

In your first post above you have written about a couple of instances whereas you were having a "non physical focus/other realm" moment. I don't like to call it non physical simply because I have been to many places just as physical as here. No matter how quickly it disappeared, at the time, you were having a other realm experience. That is the definition of "Astral Projection" in a nutshell.

The Stickies in this sub-forum have some very good techniques and tips as well. Check them out.

You will see after a lot of experimenting that you will find a method that works for you. You will also find yourself fine tuning it all the time. The key is to lose your focus on your physical body. Once that is achieved, make a intent and "be" there.

[Xanth]

You are progressing fine. Keep doing what you are doing.

You said "I haven't had a complete astral experience yet, but the things I have felt while meditating vary greatly and are a little bizarre so I am quite interested to hear your thoughts and insights on these events." I think you are underestimating your progress here.

In your first post above you have written about a couple of instances whereas you were having a "non physical focus/other realm" moment. I don't like to call it non physical simply because I have been to many places just as physical as here. No matter how quickly it disappeared, at the time, you were having a other realm experience. That is the definition of "Astral Projection" in a nutshell.

The Stickies in this sub-forum have some very good techniques and tips as well. Check them out.

You will see after a lot of experimenting that you will find a method that works for you. You will also find yourself fine tuning it all the time. The key is to lose your focus on your physical body. Once that is achieved, make a intent and "be" there.

Very well put. 

[ThaomasOfGrey]

Cheers for the replies guys. This message resonates with me.

The key is to lose your focus on your physical body. Once that is achieved, make a intent and "be" there.

In the past few attempts I have been pouring my focus into some kind of mental zone that seems to stimulate alternative vision.

All of those astral moments I had in the past were achieved by letting my imagination run wild. Maybe there is some stock to this too; although it is the danger zone when it comes to accidental falling asleep

[astralm]

All of those astral moments I had in the past were achieved by letting my imagination run wild. Maybe there is some stock to this too; although it is the danger zone when it comes to accidental falling asleep

In my experience yes and yes.  Though falling asleep doing this isn't necessarily a death sentence for your projection.  William Buhlman's main technique is exactly this, having you fall asleep while imagining yourself having an obe at a place, real place, that is special to you while touching a real item there that is connected to you.  You then wake up directly into a obe phase or separation.  Not a bad idea to always fall asleep imagining yourself having an obe, creates great intent.  I also find it speeds up the falling asleep process.