Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[Machinist56]

Well it seems everyone has a story, so here's mine.

I had my first obe experience when I was a teenager. A buddy of mine stayed the night one night, he talked my ear  off. Trying to pay attention to him next thing I remember hearing what to me sounded like screaming and popping noises and quickly woke up. That sparked my curiosity.

Fast forward to two years ago, I started getting night terrors almost every other night for weeks. I'd come home from work exhausted, lay down and almost instantly pass out. They were your typical everything is black, can't move, can't scream, wake up soaked in sweat.

On to now, I've built up the curiosity to try to have an obe. I've been browsing this forum and taking bits and pieces from other people and applying it to myself. No real luck. I've tried listening to wave lengths via headphones, tried different types of exits, and even different mind sets. I find my self getting bummed out about an hour and a half into it and give up. I see the different visuals, even feel slight vibrations, but that's about as far as I get. I've found my self wanting to project so bad that sometimes my physical body moves in the way I want my astral body to move.

So I guess this is a sort of "please point me in the right direction" post. I don't expect this to be the easiest thing, but I'm in 7th month of trying on almost a nightly baises and I'm really feeling defeated. Thanks all who took the time to read and any help you can provide me.

tl;dr
Had an experience when I was younger.
Had night terrors for several nights.
Want to project, no luck, please help.

[EscapeVelocity]

Hello Machinist56,

Without knowing some more details of your practice it is hard to pin your problem down to any one or two issues...so there might actually be several factors at work.

One issue is likely timing, or when you are making your attempts at an exit. An hour and a half may be great for building your capacity and recognition of deeper meditative or trance states but that is just too long and too frustrating to be trying for an exit. My advice would be to try some different times during the night, especially like after 2 or 3 or 4 hours of sleep...what is known as a Wake, Back To Bed technique. Give it a try for half an hour and if you get nothing noticeable, roll over and go back to sleep...you might even then find you get a lucid dream that you can utilize for an OBE. Sometimes you just take what you can get, lol.

A very possible second issue is that of asking and or giving yourself permission of/from your inner/higher/subconscious self to have an OBE in the first place. For many of us, the idea of an OBE may be theoretically a simple thing to desire...but maybe on a deeper level the barrier of fear/separation/death may be more of an issue than we realize. Therefore a steady nightly diet of positive affirmations often is a great help; giving/asking permission to have an OBE.

Third, you must start a dream journal and record whatever experiences you remember. This is another signal to your inner self that you want to open a continuing dialogue on your inner experiences...it opens previously closed channels of communication. After a year or so, you will find it an invaluable resource.

Also you need to fill your head with some new ideas and indicators of just where you are. In this forum, the first two stickies are worthwhile; How I got out for the first time...and Everything you could ever want to know about Sleep Paralysis...

On the third forum you will find Xanth's Phasing Primer and Szaxx's Astral Blueprint...both good resources to give you ideas of what to look for...

That should give you plenty to chew on for awhile...keep us posted on your progress and feel free to toss up some more questions.

[Machinist56]

Thanks for that. I had a feeling it was too vauge, but at the same time felt I wrote too much. I will say, I practice most of the time before I typically go to bed. Once I get home from work, I know that if I take a nap, I'm not getting back up, or if I do, I'll have trouble falling asleep that night. I'll experiment with the different timings of the night.

On another note, I have developed the habit of basically talking my self into it. Repeatedly telling my self that I will/want to experience one and that it will be safe and enjoyable.

As for the dream journal, I'll start one up. I've tossed the idea around, but for whatever reason never gave it full thought.

Thanks again for your constructive advice.

[EscapeVelocity]

You are very welcome! I hope that gives some ideas...

And it's not that you were too vague...you actually hit on some key indicators. The vagueness results, whether we like it or not, because there are simply dozens and dozens of nuanced areas where we go astray, if that makes any sense...it can be quite difficult translating for others what our individual difficulties are. I simply went with the most common three that seemed to resonate with what you were saying. That's also why I recommended the extra reading; there are good ideas in there that I think some may point you in the right direction that you need to hear at this time and will make sense shortly; we are all slightly different in what we need at any particular point in time.

The early evening nap thing can work, but it's tricky like you say...that was my point; I never had any luck with it. Try awakening an hour and a half early a few mornings and do some trancework. Or try the WBTB.

Don't be afraid of letting go and falling asleep either; that was a big "control" issue for me and it seems to be with others. If you are going to relax enough to get to the proper point of release/exit, then you will likely fall asleep a bunch of times. That's okay; if you've done the right prep work, such as affirmations, then you may just experience a short loss of consciousness, maybe hear a loud "click!" and find yourself out, either in your room or some other environment. That is still a success...remember, you are looking right now for quantity of exits and not necessarily quality or control of exits...that will come later.

It's like flying a plane...any landing you can walk away from is a good landing...in your case, any exit is a good exit!

The basics are timing, opening communication and programming the internal computer for what you want to happen. That gives plenty to work with for awhile.

After twenty years my dream journal still consists of a legal pad and a bunch of loose pages stuffed in a folder...it doesn't have to be anything exotic.

Now have some fun!
EV