How to observe your physical body fall asleep

[astralpwka]

Fantastic. The body shift urge gets me every time, when my will is at its weakest. I'll play with this tonight. []

[cube]

Please let me know how it turns out!

[Zonmezz]

This makes total sense. I swear man, every post you've done lately should be made into a sticky. Jeez. I *always* succumb to this urge because I figure I'm just tired of trying to OBE. So I just turn over and fall asleep. Now that I know what it is, it's gonna be much easier to fight. Thanks again cube,

Jason.

[Naiad780]

Sweet  Can't wait to try it!

[The AlphaOmega]

Thanks for the insight Cube, this has been a minor problem for me lately.  I've been trying to remain aware of when I drift into sleep.  Sometimes I just fall asleep, and sometimes I lucid dream.  But I have noticed that after some time on my back I just want to lay on my side and go to sleep, so I'll try to resist and see what happens.

[AntiGravity]

The great Cube is at it again! This is just brilliant Cube, Im definitly gonna try this tonight. Sounds very easy, thats always a good thing. I know about that urge to move that you mean, now all I gotta do is just ignore it. This is great! Thanks a billion Cube!
Take care everyone!

[cube]

I hope that this works for you guys!

One thing you should know is that it's very easy for the mind the fall asleep doing this, which is why I recommend using a self-repeating timer to keep your mind awake. It's like a safety net.

Here's the timer URL:
http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/uploaded/cube/timer.zip

I was able to get this to work this morning without using a timer, but I just tried it in the afternoon and I had a false awakening instead. I was laying here and after a while I realised I was seeing hypnagogic imagery of a person walking I think in my left eye. I opened my eyes and the imagery overlayed on the physical scene, it made it look like I was projecting a movie film of the person walking on my arm.

When I started to try to understand what was happening I woke up for real. So pretty much if your mind does fall asleep before you get the 'reposition' signal from the body, then you've missed the opportinuty to test it.

Using that timer HTML page I posted to beep at you every 10 minutes will keep you coherent. As long as the sound doesn't shock you the beep won't wake up your body, only your mind.

[AntiGravity]

Thanks for the timer Cube! I didnt get a chance to try it last night, I was out late and just to tired. I will try it sometime soon, Im so excited about this method []! Something I can keep my mind on pretty well is like lyrics or a word, so Ill try to use that to my advantage. Ill be sure to update with any results with this. Take care!

[gravy]

For the last week when I've been attempting to get my body to fall asleep, I always suddenly twitch my right leg, it's always sudden and very annoying.  I spend half an hour putting my body to sleep only for this to happen.  So I should keep doing it until my brain can learn to ignore this message?

[cube]

AntiGravity,
I have a feeling you'll have better success with this in the morning, maybe wake up a half hour early (not the full two hours) and try to immediately fall alseep again and watch how it happens. It's harder to stay alert at night than it is in the morning, so it might be better to try it then.


gravy,
I get the leg twitch thing too, and so far I haven't found a very good way to deal with it. My leg only twitches a little bit so usually I just ignore it and forget about it after a few seconds. It could be that you just have to get used to it happening so that when it happens it doesn't bother you very much.

I have noticed that the leg twitch thing seems to happen more often when I do a conceptualization of myself walking around, so lately I have been doing conceptualizations where I'm more like a legless point in space flying around looking at things.

[The AlphaOmega]

Well, to anyone who's interested, I tried this technique this morning and got incredible results with lucid dreaming.  My stomach was killing me this morning so I was up early in pain, took some pepto, and not yet being able asleep I did the technique.  I did fall asleep, but then I had an amazing lucid dream in which I was 100% aware.  I created everything that I wanted and actually found it quite humurous watching the characters in my dream act accordingly as I was in complete control of their every actions.  It was great.  More remarkable however is that I woke up a few hours later, and tried it again, and once again had a different and yet still amazing lucid dream.  In all I woke up 3 times, tried that technique 3 times, and had 3 great and long lucid dreams.  More lucid then I have ever experienced before.  In fact in one I remember almost waking up, and because I didn't want to, I thought "breath deep and relax", and my body did, and I continued with my lucid dreaming.  One thing that may be of note is that before I became lucid, each dream was kind of a nightmare.  It was the hope that the nightmare wasn't really happening that caused me to look at my hands and watch them become deformed (that's what happens to me instead of them melting away), and that's when I realized I was dreaming. Thanks Cube for this post, this technique is now a favorite of mine.

[daem0n]

the time has come to write a book called "The cube technique", earn zillions of dollars and sleep and OBE all the time [], you have to copywright it fast or they'll get you [}:)]

[jason]

the urge to shift positions after awhile happens to me a lot-especially if I'm meditating.

I just figured that my lower back muscles needed stretching-so I do that,then lay on my side,and I'm out like a light.

I'll practice resisting that urge to shift onto the side.that happens ALL THE TIME.

[LordoftheBunnies]

Your a genius Cube. []

This has actually happened to me quite a few times, I would get an overwhelming urge to move, swallow, or scratch an itch, and then  mess up any possibility of attaining a full trance state by giving in.  Now that I know what this is, I'm going to give it a try.

[Orygbus]

I read in a few place, don't remember where, but the leg twitching is very common, so is the urge to scratch an itch...its just your body becoming asleep, the thing is to ignore it as best as possible. For me, at first was the itching(which been described as spider webs or ant's crawling on your skin), but with practice I got past it. I still get the occasional leg twitch but much less than when I first started.

[Nay]

quote:Originally posted by Orygbus

I read in a few place, don't remember where, but the leg twitching is very common, so is the urge to scratch an itch...its just your body becoming asleep, the thing is to ignore it as best as possible. For me, at first was the itching(which been described as spider webs or ant's crawling on your skin), but with practice I got past it. I still get the occasional leg twitch but much less than when I first started.

You read it on the forums oh..a few hundred times..LOL.[] I even mention several times that once I went to scratch and my astral arm came up instead.

I agree, just ignore and all shall be fine.  I too found it doesn't happen near as much when I first started.

Nay

[Seven]

I've managed to ignore the urge to itch, am now practicing ignoring the urge to move, BUT... I get an overwhelming urge to swallow which I try to ignore but the longer I leave it the more I feel I am going to choke! Any suggestions?

[gravy]

Yea I get the urge to swallow too.  I'm past the itching, it's just the damned twitching.

[Veccolo]

quote:Originally posted by Seven

I've managed to ignore the urge to itch, am now practicing ignoring the urge to move, BUT... I get an overwhelming urge to swallow which I try to ignore but the longer I leave it the more I feel I am going to choke! Any suggestions?

I heard opening the mouth and turning the head to the side might help.

[upstream]

Ok, I'm over the move and I've managed to stand twitching, itching, swallowing, farting and breathing. What to do now?

[cube]

On twitching, you might try to do some stretching before laying down. I also like to use one of these to relax my feet:

http://www.shapeupshop.com/fitness/recovery/massage_peanut.htm

It's just a theory but maybe the twitching is because parts of you are relaxing all at once, so if you pre-relax them you won't twitch? Please let me know if that works for you, I'm interested in seeing what the solution is to the twitching problem.


It could be a similar thing with the swallowing, maybe try to drink some water first and give yourself a deep neck massage or gargle to stimulate the back of your throat.

quote:
What to do now?

Hmm, I guess you do nothing! As far as I can tell laying still is really the only thing to do the whole time and if you're conscious while your body goes through the process of falling asleep then you'll feel when it's over and then you can do your normal focus 10 stuff.

[Stillwater]

I must say that the "urge to swallow" is one of my recurring impediments as well. Do you think that this action is also one of the techniques which the body uses to "test" the mind as well?

One other question- in that I am less familiar with the new-speak Monroe terms, may you please lightly dilineate the state refered to as "focus 10"? Is this the state one would exit from? If so, what techniques, other than the ROPE do you recomend in this line of OBE thinking?

Thank you,
Stillwater

[Nay]

quote:It's just a theory but maybe the twitching is because parts of you are relaxing all at once, so if you pre-relax them you won't twitch?

Actually I think that is due to energy flowing through.  I've had the swallowing problem, only a few times (thank-goodness)  It's a natural thing, so I found if I just went ahead and swallowed, it doesn't bother any of my relaxing.[^]

Nay

[BlackBox]

Hey cube,

I practice brushing-energy techniques at bed-time every night and every time I end it at cue to the "urge" to switch positions in bed. It's always like, let's get all of the parts done before "it" comes!!

I'm really glad I took the time to read this thread. Do you think my energy-workouts will impede anything towards a possible AP/OBE? If I resist the urge to switch positions, is that when the vibrations come, like during or after Focus 10?

Anyways, thanks for the tip -- I also have the swallowing-urge, which I'm sure Nay remembers my complaints about, but I don't think that plays a big role in upsetting the process...unless you think it does and let THAT plague your mind.

[upstream]

I think if you feel bothered by body feelings you are on the wrong way. Somehow you have to turn your attention away from those feelings. I know it is difficult and I can't advise any method. It is something to do with a proper attitude one have to hit. When the temperature is around 40C and I turn and toss in my own perspiration and due to the pollens I can't breath throuh my nose I still could have the chance to hit that attitude, because I focus on the sense of being in my desired state not on the process and the body. Also, those problems tend to dimisih with time.

I have no problems with body feelings after I get my position because I don't focus on my body at all - I focus into my mind from the very beginning. You could sleep without itching and swallowing, don't you? You even don't need to relax your body but still could sleep. Sometimes relaxation is useless. I don't relax my body except some deep breaths in order to make the transition more continous by forestalling the natural process. When I sleep on my side I relax from my neck with a couple of deep breaths. I've observed that if my neck is relaxed my whole body is relaxed as well.

Twitching, need for swallowing, etc. are represent unconscious opposition. Twiching is the result of inproper sleep paralysis when someone reach the hypnagog state without emotional balance. If you observe your hypnagogic pictures you would realsie that supressed problems and agression cause motoric spurts.

Anyways, I think, not moving, of course, is essencial but not sufficient. I could lay motionless for hours without any results if my mind is busy or the cyrcadian/homeostatic processes aren't form a window of entrance.

An untested idea: you could try the Rapid Fire Method with very short loops (T=3-4 min) right after you awakened from a dream of the first half/third of your sleep. Just start the loop before you get to sleep and when you wake up from a dream, write down the time and put one of the earphone in your opposite ear than the side you sleep on. Of course you shouldn't move if you want to project. As you fall asleep use the signals as reminders to repeat your latest dream until it become your reality. (You would wake up from your dreams if you set an alarm clock to +2h every time you wake up by your own or by the alarm. If the clock is far away from your bed, very loud and everybody hates it (and you're not impassive about their feelings) then you would wake up before it goes off, most likely just after a dream sleep.)

Stillwater, you could detach in F10 by forcing movements of your hand provided that you're body is extremly relaxed. This is not meant sleep-paralysis but extremly low muscle tone. You would feel like a fly trapped into a honey like substance. After a hard separation you would be blind but you could observe a cable attaching to your solar pelus regio. This type of projection doesn't fit into sleep disturbing methods at all, because it is a NREM-phenomena while phasic disturbance will increase REM-sleep, muscle tone & blood pressure.