hold your breath!

[KP]

The only consistant thing I have discovered in my experimentation is  that when waking up during the night, if I am awake for 30 mins or so and then try to go back to sleep I will usually OBE without even needing intent.
I have never tried holding my breath or depriving myself of sleep, don't really like the sound of those things.

[Tom]

A while back someone posted about a method of going into trance faster by taking deep breaths and then holding the breath for thirty seconds. Some people loved it and others hated it. As for me, I couldn't get it to work.

Many of us are sleep deprived. I am one of them. The trick is to stay awake during the day.

[Parmenion]

I hear ya Tom.Im tired most every hour im awake, which makes it damn hard to meditate without falling asleep!

Parmenion

[Gelfling]

I think Lysear has some truth to that.

While I am not sure I would advise holding you're breath for 30 seconds to induce trance however. I think we all know the danger's with not providing the brain oxygen and then danger of killing off brain cell's. I think most of us would agree there are 1000 way's to safely induce a trance. To me that is the easiest part. The hard part for me is moving my awareness outside of my body.

The hardest part to me is letting go of breathing. I can keep my whole body asleep. I can forget all about my heartbeat and let it not affect me. Yet breathing is my problem. I think becaise I use it so much as calming myself down and inducing a trance that I find it hard just to forget about it. I have been very close but the breathing aspect get's me. Frankly it get's hard to breathe. So I think if you hold you're breath right at the end when you are ready to project it might just work. At least for me where breathing is the last aspect.

Going to try it

[Tom]

Letting go of the breathing is easier if you set a pattern to it such as 1:4:2 (in, hold, out) or 4:4:4 (in, hold, out) as a ratio. It is not something to rush into just to get higher numbers. It is holding a ratio comfortably.

Holding the breath 30 seconds is not difficult if you are relaxed and not doing much physically, as in meditation or trance. Even a full minute is not difficult.

[Gelfling]

True Tom but everyone is different

There are times I inhale while in trance and forget to breath out for a bit. I always catch it and get concerned.

Everyone has their trouble spot

[Tom]

Sometimes it is the outbreath, other times the in breath. Sometimes I can hold the breath in over a minute and other times less than ten seconds. Setting up conditions in advance like adjusting posture, relaxing, and avoiding distraction helps a lot.

[AndrewTheSinger]

I was in trance today and I could hear a high pitched noise in the background, then I held my breath and the noise increased, but then I had to take a deep breath to compensate and it broke the trance.
I remained very still and the trance came back and I was able to project.

I would agree with Tom it's best to keep a constant breath rate, for me at least. Holding the breath was kinda tricky. I usually awake taking a deep breath.

[Lysear]

let me start at the begining (always the best place.) I was working till 3 last night so when I got back from lectures this morning I decided to have a sleep. About 1 in the afternoon to be precise. I was dreaming and became lucid.

The first time I shouted out "i want to have an astral projection!! and I woke up and started to vibrate and lift out of my body but i just couldnt get out!

Second time same thing happened, but I was lifting out and instead of breathing I held my breath. What followed was only my second real projection! I lifted out and turned round in the air, ended up at the bottom of my bed and got up and walked around. At this point I lost control and it turned into a dream. but it was definitly real to start with, I could tell from experience.

I managed to get two things from this which are useful to everyone.

(1)Your breathing, once you reach exit should be under control and you shouldnt be aware of it, (gained this incite through holding my breath!.)

(2) I definitly project better when I'm in a light sleep, no doubt about it. This is best when I am deprived of sleep the day before and then try and sleep in the afternoon. I think this is the most important thing I have ever discovered for myself (i.e. not been told by others) about OOBE.

Hope this was helpful, and I really recomend you try the sleep deprivation technique I just described, Its the dogs B***ocks!