So I was trying this technique mentioned in this thread (http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_dreams/want_a_nightmare-t34007.0.html) when something strange that has never happened before, happened.
Let me start off by describing the implements that I use to help with this technique. I use a really soft squishy pillow rolled up under my neck to keep my head looking straight up at the ceiling. My legs are straight out, and I put another pillow over my abdomen to rest my hands on. I like this position because despite its apparent tendency to induce nightmares, it's super relaxing and I can breath really easily.
So anyway, one night after preparing my position, I was laying in bed just letting my thoughts flow. I was really relaxed and comfortable, but wide awake. My body started to go numb and get heavy. Not like paralysis, I knew that if I moved a body part, I could, and that it would stop being numb, just regular numbness. My mind started to get more and more blank, however I never actually fell asleep or entered a trance (as far as I know) when I started to feel my fingertips rising up off the pillow. I immediately focused my awareness on this strange feeling, and I was trying to push it further. Eventually I got it to where my palms came up off the pillow. Keep in mind I'm not talking about my actual physical hands, they were flat on the pillow.
As soon as I lost my focus, I also lost the sensation of my fingertips floating. So I regrouped my focus and concentrated on my hands. I could pull them up off the pillow by my fingertips by sheer will alone. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't lift any further than my wrist. I tried to lift my forearms, but they wouldn't budge.
Somewhat discouraged, I decided to try and see if I could willfully induce vibes from this state. Nothing. Just a night of weird floaty hands, then sleep.
So what's the deal, in your opinion? What would you call the ability to lift parts of your (non-physical) body by will, but only to a certain extent? What do you think the mental state I was in was all about? This is about the closest I've ever come to having any conscious astral experience that I can clearly remember, so this is huge for me.
QuoteLet me start off by describing the implements that I use to help with this technique. I use a really soft squishy pillow rolled up under my neck to keep my head looking straight up at the ceiling. My legs are straight out, and I put another pillow over my abdomen to rest my hands on. I like this position because despite its apparent tendency to induce nightmares, it's super relaxing and I can breath really easily.
It doesn't necessarily induce nightmares. Nightmares are very much subjective.
QuoteI decided to try and see if I could willfully induce vibes from this state. Nothing. Just a night of weird floaty hands, then sleep.
I've experienced floaty hands and seen them too. You don't have to induce vibes. A lot of people fail to induce OOBEs because they are focusing on bringing about vibrations instead of focusing on the main target. Although I get vibes a lot, I have separated several times without vibes, and, mind you, Mode 1 OOBEs with autoscopy.
It's definately linked to OOBEs in my opinion...apparently, more so with Mode 1 projections (Here-Now). This is what I've seen on a few occasions:
(http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af154/Arlindobatista/shadowhands.jpg)
Mode 1 OOBEs seem harder to attain and one usually gets stuck at the head (well, I do anyway). But here's how to increase your chances of one: have a lucid dream (become lucid really early on), push the dream content away, regain physical awareness in deep state sleep paralysis. You may experience strong vibrations or you may feel and/or see the phantom limbs against what appears to be an accurate physical environment background. Apply a method of separation. Sometimes, returning from a lucid dream can result in subsequently being cannon-balled out of body in what appears to be a physical environment.
There are other distinctions that you will make in this type of projection but just don't expect it to be as exciting or as adventurous as Mode 2 OOBEs. Both types can overlap or you can phase from Mode 1 into Mode 2.
Hm, so I guess my next question is, what's the next step from the floaty hands? I guess there is a gap between symptoms and exit where I just don't know what to do.
Well at least I'm not the only one with floaty hands, and now I'll know for future reference that I'm not like.. hallucinating lol.
So, Mode 1 OBEs are like real time? As in, floating around the physical plane in your astral body? That seems way cooler to me than floating around the astral plane, possibly due in part to my mischievous/explorative nature :P I would love to visit other parts of the world/other worlds and see them as they actually are.
Well, I usually roll over and out or just get up out of bed. If I try to float out, usually by imagining that the ceiling is a magnet, I seem to get stuck. Here's an example of a Mode 1 projection and yes, if it's not simulated, it is as Robert Bruce puts it...Real Time Zone. Here's an excerpt from the book I'm writing:
"25/09/2010:
Me and Stacey had an awful night. We had gone to bed at midnight, and, just when we were drifting off to sleep, our son Alfie started crying because his nappy was full. I saw to him and went back to bed. My brain was on alpha mode and gradually progressing to theta when I heard motorcycles revving up outside. Eventually I did sleep and had a series of dreams involving strangers, but the memory of them is vague. I woke up at 6am to use the toilet and went back down intent on bringing about an OOBE. Heard revving again and many other noises outside which always seem to herald the break of dawn. They were annoying. I could hear everything from the cawing of birds, to people talking outside, to Alfie mumbling in his cot. Then all the kids started playing in their rooms. Although I was fairly relaxed, I could not concentrate and the thought of having to get up soon, nagged at me. I gave up attempting induction and opted for a brief rest before having to get up.
What followed was hypnic myoclonia as I repeatedly drifted off to sleep and back to the waking state in a vicious cycle due to sudden loud or sharp noises from the children's playing. Eventually I became impervious to the noise and reached sleep paralysis whilst conscious. It was almost as if my body had suddenly decided to weigh a ton. The external was no longer audible and I experienced a strange sense of wellbeing which pervaded me like a wave. I have never felt this before, or if I have, it wasn't as prominent. A few moments later, vision emerged. At first I thought I had opened my eyes as I could see my bedroom and the detail of the posters on my wardrobe. But then I noticed something peculiar. The outline of a transparent hand could also be seen and what's more, I could control it! I raised another phantom arm and had them both floating up in the air. They appeared to have no weight whatsoever. I made a few observations.
The phantom arms extended further than what my physical ones would have done if I had them up too. I also noticed that the more I observed them, the denser their essence seemed to get. They were no longer subtle as they seemed to have progressed into a liquid-like appearance, similar to water, and I could no longer see through them as their increased density caused them to display reflections of light and shadows within. At that point I wanted to get Stacey's attention to my plasmic limbs protruding from my body but I could not speak and realised that even if she turned to look at me, she probably would not see anything of the sort. I decided it was time to get up and disassociate from the body completely but my head felt like it was stuck. I lifted my torso only to be pulled back down like an elastic band stretching and contracting.
I thought about the situation being illusory. There was no barrier but a perceived one. Bearing this in mind, I attempted to float towards the ceiling. A brief thought about gravity seemed to counteract that. I ended up using the alternative of rolling over and out. It felt like a physical movement, but if it had been, then I would have woken Stacey up as I would have been rolling on top of her. When I reached the edge of the bed on Stacey's side, I stood up. My vision was now smudged. It's like I had a dirty veil draped over my face. I could not see anything. I rubbed my eyes and as I was doing so, I had a realisation. I was not physically rubbing my eyes as I did not exist in the physical realm in that state of awareness. My physical body, existent in the physical realm, was atonic. The action of rubbing eyes was merely the thought of doing so which was emphasised to life-like proportions in that temporary state of consciousness. So I demanded clarity and saw my bedroom gradually coming to light.
The colours were slightly duller and I could not see distant objects with clarity, only the ones nearby were highly defined. It was similar to seeing underwater with goggles on. I looked at the bed and saw Stacey laying on her right side. I could see another body laying next to her. On closer inspection I saw that it was me, apparently asleep and my mouth slightly open. A case of self-induced autoscopy one might say! I'd describe the nature of this phenomenon as a possible Mode 1 OOBE. I hovered slowly out of the bedroom and into the hallway to find that my reflection was missing in the mirror. Another observation I made was that there was no sound when I should be hearing the kids playing in their rooms. I felt like a deaf disembodied being at that point. In fact, the auditory sense had been missing throughout the experience.
I was floating and didn't even have the sense of having a body any more like when I first separated and rubbed my eyes. I was about to enter my daughter's bedroom when I had the thought that my experience could end at any moment. It was getting late (funnily enough it didn't occur to me to check the clock in the hallway) and I feared that Stacey would eventually wake up and move in bed. I believe that this contingency in my mind is what caused me to phase back to the body in a flash but with a distinct perception of being yanked back which again I will liken it to a stretched rubber band suddenly contracting. Back in the physical body, I experienced a tremendous but brief head rush. I lay in bed for a minute before moving. I felt Stacey's hand stroking my hair. I told her I had a brief OOBE. It was 8.45am."
This is an example. I hope it helps. The method I use is similar to the Monroe method described in his first book, with emphasis on a pre-nap or sleep. I hope it helps.
Btw, here's a simpler explanation of the terms I use:
Mode 1 OOBE = RTZ Projection/Here-Now/Locale I/Focus 1 oC
Mode 2 OOBE = Astral Projection/metaphysical/Locale II/The rest of Kepple's Focuses (apart from I) and beyond
Hi
Ph in my early days of trying too hard for an oobe, I managed to see my arm as I lifted my elbow. A misty white at start then more details appeared. I grasped the situation and out into the 'night' I went.
Think of your destination more, you are so close.
Good work too.
The early days is when a lot of people try really hard and tend to aim for Mode 1 OOBEs. I remember I used to achieve a deep SP state at the beginning and then fail a lot. Then I'd have confusing and short-lived projections which were unlike Mode 2 OOBEs. These days, Mode 2 projections are more common and it is a lot easier for me to separate.
I think I might be tricking myself into thinking more is going on than actually is. I seem to be able to achieve the floaty hands from a wide awake state just from laying still and relaxing for long enough. I am starting to think that maybe my limbs are just becoming heavy and tingling because I haven't moved them for a while and it's a purely physical effect. Similar to sitting on your hand for a while and it falling asleep.
However last night when I was in the heavy tingly limbs state (mentally wide awake) I noticed that every time I swallowed or took a deep breath, I would have a wave of tingling that would start near my ear and go all the way down one side of my body in a sweeping motion. Usually the left side, occasionally the right, and more seldomly, a mix of both. I also had a lot of trouble getting my hands to float by will like I could the first night. Like they were stuck.
Again I am convinced that this (the wave of tingling) is purely a physical effect, possibly the result of just laying so still for so long because I never appear to enter any other state of mind aside from totally awake and aware.
I know that I'm very analytical of my state of mind when things like this happen. I have never perceived a state of mind other than totally awake or totally asleep, and this is discouraging. When I try to meditate, I manage to quiet my thoughts for mere seconds before I start wondering IF thoughts are entering my mind, which is a though in and of itself. Then I have to start over. I developed this little trick that seems to help more and more each time I try it, but thoughts eventually creep in. I imagine a glass bubble around my head, like a diving helmet, and thoughts are like little puffs of light that float towards my head but when they hit the surface of the glass bubble, they bounce off and dissipate. This only works for as long as I really focus on the glass bubble. Sometimes it helps me to sustain visualizations if I "touch" an object that I'm visualizing, so I can sustain the glass dome a bit longer if I imagine that I am holding it in place with my hands. As soon as I lose focus though, my mind swarms with random thoughts and I have to start all over.
QuoteI am starting to think that maybe my limbs are just becoming heavy and tingling because I haven't moved them for a while and it's a purely physical effect.
It's definitely physical. The tingling is some sort of feedback from not using your muscles.
QuoteI manage to quiet my thoughts for mere seconds before I start wondering IF thoughts are entering my mind, which is a though in and of itself. Then I have to start over. I developed this little trick that seems to help more and more each time I try it, but thoughts eventually creep in.
Thoughts always creep in. This is very natural. The aim is not to eradicate all thinking processes because this is what the mind is for. The aim is to focus on the least amount of thoughts possible. Like focusing on one thing only in your head, like an object in my case. The mind will still tend to wander, but then I gently bring it back to focus. Don't get mad at your mind for wandering. Focus on your something. the mind wanders. Focus again to keep it from getting lost. You don't ruin everything when the mind wanders because it is meant to do this anyway. Eventually, and very sudden, you will experience a shift in consciousness. It's a very distinct feeling, and, once there, you will know the OOBE is around the corner.
One question: Are you taking a nap or sleep prior to the attempts at inducing? Naps can biologically prime you for the induction of an OOBE...