Hard Breathing

[The Night Mist]

Hello everyone,

I have been trying to OBE for a long time now but just recently I have begun reading Robert Bruce & Brian Mercer's book Projection in 90 Days... and I have made progress but at the 5'Th day while relaxing ... I have started to have breathing problems , like I can;t get sufficient air inside me and it's very hard to breath ... I have been having this weird symbolic dreams with black animals (for 4 days) and at night while meditating for obe I sometimes see images of rituals and skeletons and stuff like that >_<  ...  why is that ?  what's wrong with me ... It seems that when Night approaches I can't breath so well and can't even meditate now because of this ....

[Xiaolin]

Weird, at the beginning of a lucid dream i had i couldnt hardly breathe at all. Maybe i was projecting.
So yeah, you might be getting close.

[knightlight]

I have the same problems when I hit a certain part of my trance every night while trying to AP.  I have learned to live with it and the less I think about it the sooner it goes away.  After I get past that I am usually right on schedule for a cool obe.

[rikter]

The breathing happens to me as well, when I get close to the vibrations i find it difficult to breath, it is very distracting!

[Stookie]

It's funny that this came up, because the other night as I was going to sleep I was hit with vibrations and I could feel my consciousness making a "shift", when suddenly it seemed my breathing got very shallow and I felt the urge to take over, which killed the vibrations and the shift. Should I just sit through it and not breathe? I guess the worst that could happen is I pass out. (And then maybe AP?).

[The Night Mist]

Yes well now I have the problem even during the day ... it is just hard to breath now! Not just while doing meditation, but all the time >_<  ...oh bummer! ...I know it's not a medical problem since I have done my tests and they all came out good.
This is frustrating...any thoughts on how I can deal with this ?

[The Night Mist]

Are you continuing with the AP program?

Yes.

I looked through the table of contents on Amazon,on page 314, it talks about breathwork problems.
Have you read that to see if helps?

Going to read about that , still on day 7 now

Before you started this program, did you do any kind of breathing exercises?

No.

When you say it's hard to breathe, is there any pain?

Yes , sometimes there is this sharp pain

Or is it that you feel like you are just not taking in enough air? Do you feel dizzy?

That too..I feel like I am not taking enough oxygen inside , not enough for my brain to give me the signal "Ok, enough in breath now, you can let out now"  ...it feels like I need just a little more air but I can't take it  ...not dizzy.

It's soooo frustrating me ...      

[David Warner]

The Night Mist,

Welcome and coming over from the Astral Societies... I was there for awhile and a long time friend clued me into astral pulse. I like both forums, but so far this seems to be more productive and fruit-full.

I've never came across any breathing problems when I've entered the trance state when leaving my body. Sure, I've been attacked with the vibrations were it was pure pain and wished the return quickly.

I would question the breathing exercise and if you're feeling this during the day then maybe you should look into going to your doctors for a checkup. I know you stated that earlier but maybe a good stress test would help?

To me personally, if there's signs of breath loss, uncomfortable trying to struggle for air then I question the method. I know Robert Bruce is a well known publisher/meta physicist but he also can be wrong too. I wouldn't want to try this method out and cause brain damage to my physical or even die. Maybe, this is why some people die in their sleep?

Tvos

[The Night Mist]

Thanks for replying!

Well, I don't do any breathing technique actually, I just observed my breath that's all , then the prob came on ...I don't know what it is..

And there's not much of a point going to the doc, like I said, the tests were great and the docs were puzzled as to what this could be ....

[The Night Mist]

no really, not from fear...I am not afraid of OBE , nahhh ...it's actualy something I look forward too and it's so cool

[David Warner]

The Night Mist,

Did you tell the docs that you try leaving your body - astral projection and the symptoms usually are present then..:)

tvos

[The Night Mist]

LOLOLOLOLOLOL !!!
I don't think so!! ))  ... they'd lock me up or something lol

have you had an OBE?

Had 2 a few months ago ..but those were from a lucid dream , I never was able to slip consciously into the trance state but i have a feeling that will change  "says my will"

[Mikael]

Here's the scientific possibility:
As you fall asleep, everything slows down, digestive system, brain activity, nervous transmission, the lot, including breathing.  So i would suggest that this is simply what happens every night, except that because you are aware of the breathing rate changing, your conscious mind makes you aware of it so you breathe more so you can get the oxygen in, when in fact you are getting enough already.

Its like if you were to breathe very slowly and lightly right now, after a while you would have to take deeper and longer breaths to get enough air.

So all i can suggest is to try and go with it, realise that you probably don't have any kind of problems with your lungs or anything like that, and eventually you should get used to it, but this will take time.

Good luck

[Mindless]

Just make a habit to breath deeper, constantly do it until it is natural. that worked for me. Also I want to mention when I did that program I became extremely sensitive to "bad air" pollution or a air tight room without plants, so you might get that problem to. I think it is just becoming aware of breathing that causes it.

[jay dawg]

i think i have the same thing. i had trouble breathing last winter. at times i almost could not fall asleep and i would wake up from catching myself not breathing! looking back on it i am lucky to be alive. it gave me bad anxiety and all my limbs would tingle and i would freak out thinking i was dying or something.  it turned out to be the FLU as i coughed the virus out of my lungs and it was gone.

recently it has become harder to breathe for me. it is slightly getting better. i have no idea why this has happened to me again. if i had insurrance id be at a doctor.....

[Steve 2B]

Night Mist,

 Yup, sounds a very normal occurrence to me. I agree very much with Maj Toms posts/ links.

When this happens with me it's either because I've gone deep into trance/phasing practice (So to speak), or when I've woken up in the early hours and am suffering a dose of sleep paralysis. It can be pretty disconcerting to start with, until you realize that the body is essentially asleep and in 'automatic mode', doesn't need any input from you directly. Once I came to this realization, I found it quite liberating, gave me a tangible sense of the separation of consciousness from the body(As a mechanism).

Psychologically speaking there can be a fear aspect/ hurdle to overcome for some(Including myself). This is essentially has to do with the notions of self/ego being associated with the body. The simple method I've found of overcoming the fear aspect of this process is to simply confront the body ego by observing the body breathing when you're in trance. Remain emotionally calm and Listen/feel it shallow out as you progress further into this state, after a few sessions of this, to the point where you're really bored with doing it, you'll say to your self..."Yeah... and!!??" :)

The question I seem to be asking more and more these days, as I practice, is;

"Who's in control here? My body ego? or Me?"

:)

ATB

Steve