Plans for the new year

[ClassicBrew]

I can't believe yet ANOTHER year has come and gone.  Time seems to fly by anymore.  I must be getting old.

That said, I thought I'd post my goals and plans for 2015.  I'd love to get some feedback.

I've been trying to project/phase for about 4 months now.  I believe, after reading Frank K's Practical Guide, that I've been doing what most beginners do.  I try a technique or hemi-sync CD for a few days, then move on to something else.  I have felt (pretty strongly) vibrations once, and have had multiple times where I felt phantom wiggling.  So I do think I'm on the right path.  But - I haven't made much progress lately.

My plans for the new year:

- At lunch, I have a quiet spot I can park, and sit in my passenger seat, put the seat back, and practice.  It's quite comfortable, and seems to work pretty well.  So at lunch I'm going to stick with Gateway Wave I, Focus 10 track on the 1st CD.  Try to get to the place where I feel I'm very much in Focus 10, and can stay there without the current thoughts of 'Ooh, I can't feel my body... oh crap, there it is'.  I can run through the Focus 10 track a couple times - I'll probably edit it to take out the first weird tones, the intro that Bob goes through, and have it just repeat twice.

- Once I feel pretty comfortable and confident in F10, I'll move to the next Gateway series to do F12, and just let things happen from there.

- At night.  I can pretty much tell myself to wake up around 3 am, and I will without an alarm clock.  I'm planning on getting up, hitting the bathroom, then going back to bed.  If I lie on my back, I don't fall asleep easily, and the plan is to run through the Focus 10 scenario without the CD.  Thanks to Xanth and Frank's Guide, I've built a fairly good scene for F10, so I'll go through that - probably have to skip the resonant tuning though as my wife would think I'm having a stroke or something.  Really just see what happens from there.

Other than doing my best to stop trying so hard, and just let things happen as they're supposed to, those are my plans for the next few months.  I'll tweak them as needed, but I think this should get me going in the right direction.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts.

Thanks again, and thanks for this board.

Scott

[EscapeVelocity]

How good is your dream recall? With simple affirmations and paying attention to your dreams, your NP awareness will increase to the degree that you may discover your point of departure is easiest at least initially, within your dreams. Think about, consider and utilize different methods.

Your best dream awareness is a good indicator of the presence and control you will need to develop.

[ClassicBrew]

Thanks very much for the reply EscapeVelocity. 

It's funny, before I started on this adventure, I had virtually no dream recall.  Never really tried to, so no surprise.  I would only remember very significant or vivid dreams.

Now, I remember at least one dream every morning.  Usually two or three.  There is usually one that I think I have very good recall of, the others not quite so much.  I try to write them down as soon as I can.

I wonder if you could elaborate a little?  I've tried Lucid Dreaming, but honestly not for very long and with little commitment.  If you're referring to turning my dream into a lucid dream, then using Buhlman's 'Awareness Now' affirmation, I guess that makes sense.  Is there something else I should try?

I'd also love some feed back from anyone on my new year's plans. 

Thanks again.

[EscapeVelocity]

You are very welcome Scott.

I will share some more ideas that I think may be relevant to your progress right now. Some of these ideas are pretty common and consistent with early attempts and experiences, other ideas are just MY interpretation of what I think you may be dealing with based on my studies and personal experiences; so take what resonates with you and shelve the rest, at least for now, it may make more sense to you later on.

Your thinking and perspective will necessarily change and expand as you pursue this art.

1 -OBE/Astral Projection/Phasing etcetera are all the same thing: it's a re-focusing of your awareness/consciousness into any of various dimensions or subtle bodies (the specific determination of this is another topic of discussion -suffice it to say that we are re-focused somewhere, in something, within environments where we can learn and experience). Evidence would indicate that you are projecting right now, focused within your physical body. Every night you dream and this is a projection or re-focusing into your subconscious Dreamspace; you're just not consciously aware within it. With practice, you can become aware within and this produces a Lucid Dream. With still more practice, you can consciously move from your personal Dreamspace into a more collective Astral Dreamspace and eventually from there into the Astral proper and beyond (again this is just MY current labeling system). So, your dreaming can be a great departure point into these new environments and from your post, I see that you are already making progress in recalling your dreams; that is the first step and more can be done. Start thinking about what Dream Triggers may be showing up in your dreams.

2 -The standard early perspective people have of OBE/AP is that by relaxing deeply/meditating/trancing you will eventually drift out of your body and go exploring the Physical dimension or what is commonly referred to as the RTZ (Real Time Zone). The evidence for this is almost endlessly arguable: some perceive what appears to be the Physical Reality (PR) with no changes, most others, including me, perceive a very fluctuating kind of environment which makes me think it is just my interpretation of a new environment, trying to "fit" it into my old perspective. Wherever this RTZ actually is, becomes a moot question since after a number of experiences here, our environments change, evolve and gain a greater solidity and consistency.

3 -Focus 10 in the Monroe model is also known as MABA or Mind Awake/Body Asleep. When you achieve this state, you will most definitely know it. When I am in it, I usually recognize that my body is softly snoring and the moment of realization is quite remarkable. As far as your lunchtime F10 practice, I think that is fine, but I doubt you will achieve MABA in the car. I tend to think that any practice of F10/meditation/visualization is good but I guess the techniques need to be generally good ones. Otherwise it might be a problem of "Practice doesn't make perfect, it just makes permanent". Personally, I like your 3am wake up idea; I just think you need to engage in some minor activity for 20-40 minutes. This is known as the WBTB or Wake, Back To Bed technique and helps to disconnect your awareness from your physical body which is pretty quickly ready for more sleep.

4 -What we are looking for, early on and even for me now, are opportunities when we can take advantage of our body being tired enough to drift back into sleep, but our awareness is sharp enough to resist the sleep gravity. Middle of the night, early morning, naps in the afternoon...these are good times to try. Our first few experiences will likely come almost accidentally, but a certain amount of preparation needs to be done to facilitate this process.

5 -IMO an internal, personal discussion needs to take place. Assume for a moment that AP is a natural condition that our spiritual evolution is bringing us towards, or that our Western culture has biased us away from it, or both even...and that there are levels within our personalities whether they are a Higher Self, the Conscious Self, a Lower Self or toss in at the minimum Freud's Ego, Superconscious and Subconscious...

My point is that it may not be so simple as discovering the concept of AP one day and making the decision to project the next night or even the next month. Some people may have more of a natural ability to do this, but for many I think, an internal discussion needs to happen and a kind of permission asked and received.

We can help in that discussion by using affirmations to communicate with our inner selves. This is an effective technique to reprogram our inner computer and connect with our Higher and inner Selves, however you wish to conceptualize them. Some ideas:

"I ask permission of my Higher Self and Subconscious to allow and assist me to have an Out of Body Experience. I want this and can do this."

"I remember my dreams and have greater awareness within them. I am better at remembering every day."

"Tonight I am fully conscious and aware within my dreams."

Say them aloud three times every night or the more often the better. Write them down ten times. Write them on a piece of paper and put that under your pillow. This is all re-programming for your inner selves. It certainly can't hurt and may surprise you with its effectiveness.

Hope these ideas help, any questions, ask.

EV

[fowlskins]

nice post
my plan for 2015 is to get back to expanding my consciousness
ive started up my dream journals again to start lucid dreaming as much as possible
ive even wrote up all my old journals to wordpress so i have a online digital copy that is alot tidier than my scrawl of handwriting 
i plan to restart attempts at OBE as well still never had that eureka moment even though plenty of near misses over the years

so i will definitely be making a few visits back to the astral pulse its been quite a while since i visited the site and its reat to see its still active
good luck scotthtaylor and to everyone else thats here happy new year all look forward to reading your experiences and advice

you can find my dream journal here in this post if anyone is interested

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_dreams/my_dream_journals_on_wordpress-t45448.0.html