After more than a hundred years of back-and-forth argument, it comes down to a speculative acceptance that our individual conscious awareness can somehow separate from our physical body and traverse the Universe and some possible dimensional Realities. Maybe our individual consciousness is actually generated from that physical body or maybe it is only temporarily fixated there; maybe it is generated from something even higher and elsewhere. That remains the question, but regardless, it appears we can go roaming about the Universe...if we choose to...
The traditional OBE has us floating ghost-like out of our physical body, roaming around our house or local environs and this is often what seems to happen for early experiencers. At some point for this group, things change and the Non-Physical environment seems to develop or advance. The environment moves from a monochromatic picture to one of a more dynamic and technicolor environment. In one sense, this is moving from the Etheric to the Astral level...I'm not confirming this; I am just pointing out the context.
My next idea and from my own experience is, the traditional OBE is fine to start with (it is where I started) but we necessarily move into the Phasing model, which is a big rethink. The Phasing model does not answer all our questions but it moves us to the next level of experiential relation to what we are encountering.
So my point is this:
Do you remember daydreaming as a child?
That was Phasing, in its' simplest form.
You got bored with one Reality and chose to tune out to another, one of your own creation...that was arguably a Non-Physical or Astral Reality; maybe just a personal creation or maybe something greater...but who knows, and it was a credible Phasing experience that lasted up until the teacher called you back...
So you have actually been there and done it...remember how easy it was and try to recapture that simple process, methinks it had something to do with Intent.
EV
Yes I remember.
In my case it was not exactly daydreaming, but rather during story time, I could create the visual landscapes being told, enter and experience myself in them. I could always do this.
A new version of this same thing I experience presently, is when on the laptop, in a Zoom or watching a show, I can shift myself into the scene.
I can shift myself into someone else's actual room. I can feel myself actually there.
I have not explored this very far. Only noticed I could do this.
Awake. Paying attention. Eyes wide open.
Does anyone else notice they can do this?
I am curious.
Casey
That must be why I always heard the Teacher saying "Earth to ....., come in .....!" :-D The dots being my name.
Oh, EV... it's like you're taunting me to post. ;)
I don't remember my "FIRST" daydream or lucid dream (those would have been my only two experiences at that time in my life), but I do remember when I figured out that I've been projecting my entire life.
Ok, I don't remember EXACTLY when, just the feelings I was experiencing at the time.
After I had "successfully" projected after over ten years of trying... a little while later it hit me, that I've been projecting my entire life - I just called it something different back then. First I recognized my lucid dreams as projections. After that, well you can read my book for my opinion on what happened after that. haha
It was quite the eye opener really at the time. I realized that I'm much more experienced than I originally thought AND that it really hasn't taken me over ten years to learn to project.
It took me over ten years to realize that I have (and most people have, in fact) projected successfully - it's also why I push people to not worry so much about labeling your experience, because you're probably just discounting entire experiences you've had. I've met more than one person who did that. *cough* Pauli *cough* >_>
Amen EV and all who answered above. Sometimes we get trapped thinking we 'have' to do something one way and only success in that way can be counted a success. But that is more often just not the case. Daydreaming is easy and most certainly can take you into all the fields of exploration we consider here.