Focus Level Attributes from experience???

[Nick]

Greetings Lasher,

First off, let me be the first Californian to welcome you to the state. The redwoods are indeed majestic, breathtaking, and spiritual.

With respect to what I've experienced with Focus levels, there is a definite limit to my experience so far. I have been doing sessions of astral phasing and believe I have made it a few times now to what would be called Focus 21. The best I can describe it is a sense of being in what has been termed 3D blackness, usually I am floating along with a bit of forward movement.

Then, what will happen, is a scene will appear. If I'm in a neutral and detached framework, I will next find myself in the scene. Usually, at this point I get excited and then I'm out of it and back to normal waking consciousness. So, I'm a bit of a slow learner I guess, however I do seem to be making some progress. Slow but sure.

The levels you describe sound like you've gone from Focus 10 (to use Robert Monroe's terms) to Focus 12, the latter being where the swirling colors, patterns, pops and bangs occur.

So to try and answer your question, I believe that Focus 21 comes next. It is described in my insufficient fashion above, due to my present limited experience there.

Frank's advice always helps me a great deal, so hopefully he'll see this thread and give you a more experienced and detailed response.

(p.s. good luck with the move)


Very best,

[Lasher]

quote:Originally posted by Nick

Greetings Lasher,

First off, let me be the first Californian to welcome you to the state. The redwoods are indeed majestic, breathtaking, and spiritual.

Thanks for the welcome, Nick!
It's actually kind of a crazy situation.  My wife was recruited by a silicon valley company four years ago.  They relocated us from Maine to Pleasanton, CA.  We lived there for a year, then moved to San Jose for a year.  

Then we decided we missed our families and wanted to move back to Maine.  Peg's company decided to let her continue working for them remotely from Maine.  

That worked for a while, but then they started making her fly back to California more and more frequently and for longer periods of time.  Next thing you know, my wife and I are basically living 3500 miles apart.  

That wasn't working out too well.  So now the company is moving me and the dogs and all of our stuff back to California.  This time we're renting a tiny cabin in Los Gatos.  

It's never a dull moment with my "in demand" high tech wife.  []
At least she supports me making less money and doing the artist/musician thang. [8D]

Also, thanks for your input on my Focus Levels question.  There must be a chart somewhere that gives a good description of each level.  Hmm...

Lasher

[beavis]

I've been in the "3d blackness" many times. If I stay there long enough, stuff will appear, but I usually get bored before that happens and think of something else, causing me to exit. The higher focus levels are much more interesting.

The highest level I've been to is focus 35. I was a fast rotating ball of white/clear light with extreme power, in what looked like a dark room. The first thing I thought was "holy excrement I'm a god!" I could see from the middle of the light in all directions. I would fly and change into this form (about 3 times), and change back to a more human form after a few seconds.

[Frank]

Lasher: The Bruce Moen website gives a basic description and I'm sure if you do an internet search on Monroe +"focus levels" you'll find mucho info.

Yours,
Frank

[Amber]

Lasher, I wish I could provide you with some info on this one, but I am in the same boat as you, still wondering what people are talking about in reference to these 'levels'. lol

But, I did want to wish you good luck on your move!!! I made a similar jump myself from the east coast to the Pacific North West and I absolutely love my life here, I am having all sorts of luck with projecting and I feel that it was positive all around. So, I wish you the same for your new life.
btw, the mountains are an ideal place to project, something about them has always had that effect long before I knew anything about this stuff.

Amber

[Lasher]

quote:Originally posted by Amber
But, I did want to wish you good luck on your move!!! I made a similar jump myself from the east coast to the Pacific North West and I absolutely love my life here, I am having all sorts of luck with projecting and I feel that it was positive all around. So, I wish you the same for your new life.
btw, the mountains are an ideal place to project, something about them has always had that effect long before I knew anything about this stuff.

Thanks for the good wishes, Amber!  I think that the environment will definitely be conducive to spiritual practice.  I can't wait to get settled in our new place.  We start the drive from Maine at the end of next week.  []


Beavis,

Thanks for your input.  Wow!  That "white ball" experience sounds like it was intense!


Hi Frank,

I tried both of your suggestions and I did find a little info.  I was really hoping that someone like yourself might be able to give me a thumbnail sketch of the levels from personal experience.  No pressure, though.  I know how busy we can all be.  []

Lasher

[clandestino]

hey there Lasher !

if you search for "focus levels" in the forum, you'll find a post of Franks which describes each level, though perhaps not the personal experience you are after.

As to my personal experiences , here goes (they are very similar to Nick's descriptions above)...

focus 3 - feeling nice and warm, relaxed, mind very clear.

focus 10 - often I'll probably miss this state and just fall asleep, ruining the session ! If I do manage to keep awake, I can't feel my body, and I am beginning to sense that I am not staring at an enclosed blackness behind my eyelids. Its hard to explain, but something feels distinctly different. Also, its very easy to think about your physical body, and slip out of this state.

focus 12 - for me, this feels like an extension of the sensation I described above....I get the definite feeling that there is 3D space in front of me. Its like being in a dark room with your eyes open, and not being able to sense your body. Occasionally you hear odd things - e.g. a freight train might rumble inches past your head. Again, its easy to get excited - and go straight back to C1 (waking conciousness).

focus 21 (I think) - can't remember the correct number, to be honest. I've only succeeded in conciously going all the way here twice, I usually get here through luck alone. For me, I'll be in focus 12, and I'll see a screen appear. Like a cinema screen. Imagine you're sitting on the back row, and you can't quite make out the film that is being shown. Anyway, I concentrate on the screen and end up in the scenario. Once, I was standing next to a group of trees shimmering with rainbow-like colours. There was a limo driver standing next to me(?); I could percieve everything as perfectly as I can during waking conciousness. Another time, my perception was limited...I could not retain my focus on anything in particular. Vision was cloudy, movement hard.

One more point...with the gateway CD's you get a little "Q&A" booklet - not much help to me really. It did address the question of "How do you know you have reached a particular focus level ?"

The answer - it varies from person to person...there are no hard and fast rules. Trust that you are there.

I found this a little sketchy at first. But I then began to realise that OBE experiences are a function of a person's willingness to believe.

best wishes
Mark

[beavis]

This happened about 3 months before the white ball of light I posted above.

I was sitting on my bed and suddenly everything around me changed to a different place with about the same shape. It was darker and looked like a lot of it was made of a weird looking metal. I moved my hand toward a big dark object that was attached to the floor. My hand had no weight, but looked as solid as the real thing the whole time. When my hand was 2 feet from the object, a stream of electricity joined my hand to the object. It branched and spread some. I felt nothing from it. The electricity scared me after being there 4 seconds and I was back on my bed.

[Leviiathan]

Actually, focus states are a lot like alcohol impairment. You fall into them, thinking that you're still maintaining a good level of awareness, only to find (later on after you've hit C1 again) how impaired you were during your last point of meditation. []

[beavis]

If you're concentrating only on the physical, like riding a roller coaster, what focus level is that? Physical is just 1 more thing you can focus on. It should have a place in the levels. Are there lower levels?

[Trace]

Physical consciousness is C1.  Monroe did map, based on his experience and those of 'researchers' he worked with, the levels from C1 up to F-something.  I don't know how far he got, and the Monroe Institute holds this information tightly secret.  I've heard that in some of their advanced courses they get into them.

From what I have experienced, there is a park in F21.  It has a beautiful meadow with trees, benches, water, and other features.  This is the starting point for branching out into other scenes.  Monroe described the scenes, or places, as areas where people have gotten together and created a place and reality by their collective thoughts.  I have been there several times.  The first time I was there, when I entered the park I was under a bench.  A little girl, being short, helped me out and I went from there.  Many people have reported getting to the park.

I have also been to one of the centers where beings enter, or re-enter, the physical Earth experience.  Monroe had a name for such centers, but I don't recall what it was (my stuff is all packed up too).

Basically, the focus levels are Monroe's map of various levels of consciousness starting with the physical (C1) and out to F-something.  In my spiritual practice, it has been helpful to have an understanding of his map.  He refers to them in his books, which are widely available, and the Monroe Institute can get you information on them.  It will be months before I have my stuff back, so this is the best I can do until then.

[Lasher]

Trace and Mark,

Thank you both for your descriptions!  They were both helpful.  []

Lasher

[Trace]

Lasher, thank you for your kindness.  I absorbed and experienced Monroe's map so long ago, I find that I cannot describe it.

But I did have a couple more thoughts about it I want to share with you.  You probably know this (I'm new to this forum), but here goes:

F10 is a state where your body is sound asleep but your mind is awake and alert.  My body even snores, and I can hear it.  I think some people call this a trance state.

In F12, you move beyond physical awareness and begin to perceive beyond anything tied to physical reality.

The next group of levels encompass what some term the lower astral levels, or the strata of collective earth consciousness.  When you dream (whether you are 'sleeping' or drift into what  Robert Bruce calls the "Alice" effect in his Treatise), you go to one of these levels that is insync with your frequency.  People who are stuck in the earth life/death cycle end up in one of these when they "die."

Then there are the levels beyond the gravity of earth-consciousness, where folks with greater awareness can go.  I kind of recall, though I could be incorrect about this, that this is beyond F21 on Monroe's map.

[Lasher]

quote:Originally posted by Trace


Lasher, thank you for your kindness.  I absorbed and experienced Monroe's map so long ago, I find that I cannot describe it.

But I did have a couple more thoughts about it I want to share with you.  You probably know this (I'm new to this forum), but here goes:

F10 is a state where your body is sound asleep but your mind is awake and alert.  My body even snores, and I can hear it.  I think some people call this a trance state.

In F12, you move beyond physical awareness and begin to perceive beyond anything tied to physical reality.

The next group of levels encompass what some term the lower astral levels, or the strata of collective earth consciousness.  When you dream (whether you are 'sleeping' or drift into what  Robert Bruce calls the "Alice" effect in his Treatise), you go to one of these levels that is insync with your frequency.  People who are stuck in the earth life/death cycle end up in one of these when they "die."

Then there are the levels beyond the gravity of earth-consciousness, where folks with greater awareness can go.  I kind of recall, though I could be incorrect about this, that this is beyond F21 on Monroe's map.

Very interesting.  I read the first two monroe books many years ago.  I think it might be about time to buy them again and reread them.  I have Ultimate Journey, but it is packed at the moment.  Thanks for taking the time to fill me in, Trace.

Lasher

[Lasher]

I keep hearing about these Focus Levels and I was wondering if I could get some descriptions from people's personal experiences as to what each level feels like and looks like when you are there.  Unfortunately, all of my books, including Astral Dynamics, are packed because I am moving from Maine to California in two weeks.

I've heard bits of descriptions here and there, some of which I have experienced (the basic stuff like swirling patterns and the occasional pop or noise).  But I would love to get a clearer idea of the attributes of each level so that I can figure out how far along I am, and what comes next.

Thank you for any input!
I'm moving to a cabin in a redwood forest.  If I'm ever going to project, that should be the place to do it!!!  [8D]

Lasher