How to observe your physical body fall asleep

[Orygbus]

I find that it works better if you skip atleast one meal before doing it, I also find that it helps if your slightly tired. It doesn't always work with me, even with the same exact conditions, but it will work, eventually.

[19]

amazing technique,

the first time I tried it I felt a whole wavy swish feeling go through my lower body, while I was in the border line state.

[cube]

Hannah b,
I'm not sure what causes the itching, it could be purely physical such as dust or dryness. I found that using a room air filter helps to cut down on the dust that falls on you while you're laying there and therefore you get less itches, but I have never really had it all over. I suppose the other things would be to use a humidifier and skin lotion.


mactombs,
Following the illogical thought pattern is one way into sleep but it's not the only way. You can also phase directly into a LD and never become incoherent, some people can OBE while they are fully conscious and aware of their physical surroundings at the same time.

quote:
Do you try to observe this train of thought neutrally? Once you get to this state, sleep is near, so if you can take note of being in the illogical train, maybe there is something you can do to take advantage of it?

Yes, if this is the way that you enter dreams then you should watch very carefully what happens as you go down. However keep in mind that you don't *have* to become illogical because when you're familiar with the states you pass through you'll be able to skip over them.


Orygbus,
Those are good points, I'll edit the post to mention those. If you have more ideas please post them!


19,
Welcome to Astral Pulse, it will be interesting to hear how things develop as you make more progress.

[upstream]

I was recently admonished for my explanations but, I can't stand to miss the opportunity to prove how clever I am. Warning: the following information is useless and could be upsetting you.

Well, onset of the theta state can be monitored by measuring dermal temperature as you can see in the description of the TMI PREP Session Physiological Monitoring @[url]http://www.monroeinstitute.org/research/J&J.html[url].

When one hit theta great amount of melatonin is released into the blood flow and will dilatate skin capillaries by acting on some newly-founded peripheral receptors. I suppose micro movements would stimulate nerve endings thus causing the itchyness.

That's another issue that one to what extent is able to perceive this and how to respond to it, because (except one) all sensory information is gated through the thalamus which is heavily influenced by unconscious processes. I suppose the itchiness could be used by various sub-systems, some of them may others may not loyal for the waking self and its purposes. Thus unexpected itching could be bad or good for us.

[upstream]

Some idea to get back to sleep (in order of importance):

1. Get a regular sleep schedule (something I'm unable to do)
2. Avoid emotional upsets, heavy planning/thinking while you're awake
3. Wake up by music that getting gradually loud not alarm (because it's more diificult to sleep back after a disturbed sleep cycle)
4. Observe your nasal cycles by exhaling through only one of your nostril at one time (block the other with your fingers) In theory, the best time would be when your nostrils are equally open and the right one is increasing. In practice? I don't bother myself with it.
5. Sleeping on your right side could help but don't force
6. Eat some light (tepid yoghurt with living cultures is my favorite)

[cube]

Based on what upstream is saying, it sounds like itching is just a physical thing as opposed to mental or etheric, so that would mean that physical solutions like simple skin lotion before hand would help.

If someone could try that and post back with whether it helps with the itching it would be very informative.

[Anonymous]

Greetings Cube,
         I have to admit this theory is brilliant I myself would of never thought of this I thank you sincerely for posting this magnificent Idea.Thankee sai
                                              sincerely
                                            Burning River

[wookiee]

   Hello! I am a complete newb when it comes to OBE and AP but I'm trying to learn as much as I can as I find this stuff EXTREMELY interesting. I have ordered Astral Dynamics and it should be here in a few days (I can't wait to read it!). This is my first post and thanks for the help in advance.

   Last night I had to go to bed earlier than usual since I had to get to work extra early in the morning. My body was physically tired but my mind was not ready to go to sleep so I decided to see if I could get this to work. I laid motionless in bed and just began to think about stuff that was going on in my life and time fly by quickly. Twenty minutes soon passed so I just laid there waiting to see if my body would fall asleep. Sure enough, that unmistakable wave went through my body and it went to sleep.

   I didn't really know what to do next to get an OBE or at least a lucid dream. I just sat there for about 20 more minutes trying to concentrate on sinking into my bed and out of my body, but nothing seemed to work. When my body was asleep, I almost felt as though it was separate from my mind and that I didn't really have any limbs. But, once it went to sleep I could open my eyes and even move my fingers without disrupting my body's sleep (I only tried doing this about 10-15 minutes after my body fell asleep just to test it, like a reality check). I noticed that when my eyes were closed they would sometimes twitch and move around quickly by themselves. I guess my question is what should I have done or can do next time to get an OBE. I know I am just starting at this and haven't even really read much and I know it takes a lot of practice to get OBEs, so I wasn't disappointed too much that I didn't get one. Thanks for the help.

-wookiee

P.S. I would like to thank you Cube for your numerous posts. You are extremely helpful.

[cube]

Burningriver and wookiee,
It's good to hear that you found this to be useful! It's not easy to say exactly what to do next but the way I usually do it is to watch the visual impressions I start to get and then phase into an OBE.

I wrote a post on what happens as you go deeper and deeper while watching the visual impression here:

http://www.tunedmind.com/out-of-body/chat-forum/viewTopic.jsp?t=watching-impressions&x=345

Once you get to the point where you're in vivid animated impressions you can simple step into them, which is called phasing. You can also focus on the astral version of your body and then roll out to have a traditional type OBE but that's a bit trickier and more prone to failure because if you accidentally focus on your physical body you'll wake up.

[Orygbus]

For me, I find taking hot shower or bath right before helps with relaxation and helps to reduce the itching greatly...I read somewhere, it might be Astral Dynamics and other places, but itching can be physical, etheric, and mental.

[Anonymous]

Greetings Cube

I was able to do this twice
but then my legs arms and pelvis would fall asleep and not my shoulders stomach chest neck or head.
Any advice?

Gratefully
Adam Grazewski

[cube]

I have a similar thing that happens, a lot of times I'll separate out my limbs but my torso and head are rubberbanded to my body.

I'm not entirely sure what to do to get past that. I think it's a matter of having too much focus in those parts of the body.

I've done some practice holding my focus completely on the inside of my head, about where the pineal is. It seems like after a day or two of doing that a lot yout body starts to feel like a physical thing that you're inside. Ever have that? It's somewhat strange but I haven't really connected to a way to make it so I can use that to completely separate.

[BlackTalon]

Pretty interesting I think i'll try this out. I know sometimes if my mind falls asleep too soon i'll have a dream that i'm stoned and feel so dizzy..if i wake up i'm usually in the middle or close to the shift over but then i get to excited and take some steps back.

[The AlphaOmega]

Fail proof way to observe yourself falling asleep.  Rest your elbow on your bed with your arm up so that it's at 90 degree angle.  Once you fall asleep it will fall and wake you up.  But you will know exactly what symptoms too keep a look out for because they will occur at the exact moment your hand falls.  For example, a sure fire way to know your body is asleep, though not always conciously aware, is that your thoughts will carry sound.  When you drift off to sleep you think about many scenerios and envision them in your head.  When you finally are asleep, these scenerios are audible.  The people you may have been thinking about now have voices that you can hear.  The pleasent meadow you thought of to help you sleep now has the sound of a nearby stream, etc.  It's at the moment you hear these things that your hand will fall.  Get use to it, and you will be able to instantaneously induce an LD, which may lead to an OBE.

[catmeow]

hi cube,

You are a genius....

I browsed some of your stuff last night and had a look at your web site.

This morning I applied your technique of "staying still" when ur body wants to move and IT WORKED A TREAT.  I tend to lie on my right side and this sends my right arm to sleep and this quickly becomes uncomfortable.  But this morning, on becoming aware of the discomfort I ignored the sensation (I always normally roll over), refused to move, and within, maybe 30 seconds experienced exactly what you described.  Namely a heavy sinking sensation.  The sensation was Absolutely unmistakeable.

My body just produced this trance-like heavy sinking feeling.  Just unmistakeable.  After that I manged to "get out" and had a vivid LD experience.  I'm still not convinced it was a true OOB. More of a vivid Lucid Dream.  But I was impressed by the clarity and beauty of the scenery.

One interesting point is that I had difficulty "seeing" out of my right eye. The left eye was fine, but right eye had problems.  I put this down to the fact that I was lying on my right side and this was squashing my right eye.  Actually, I soon woke from the LD and actually shifted (physically) onto my back, to see if this would help.  Then back into deep relaxation and back into the LD.  Heavy sinking sensation again as you described, but this tiem I could see out of my right eye.

I am writing this about 14 hours after the LD, and the recollection of it, and the heavy sinking feeling is fading.  But at the time it was very clear.  One curious thing is I actualy have a "lazy" left eye, and my physical vision from this eye is poor.  So now that I think about it, it's curious to think that in my LD my left eye vision was clear.  This would never happen in physical life.

Good luck with the web site.

When's the book coming out?

catmeow

[Bogata]

Hey guys I was wondering if you could tell me what it is I've experience. I've only had one successful OOBE in my life.  The past two times I tried this technique the same thing happens I will have laid there gradually getting more and more relaxed. Slowly I get too a point where I feel like my bodies on top of me for a few seconds then my bodies kind of numb and it's dark and my hearing is fazey. Then from out of nowhere I hear this rush of wind/boom sound. Kinda sounds like someone blowing into a microphone real quick. Then even though my eyes are close it's like lighter around me and my hearing changes. Kinda like I can hear everything in that room pretty clearly. It feels as though I could move if I wanted to but I was kind of tingley. I'm not sure though I haven't tried to move after that point I kinda stayed there for 15 mins then fell asleep. The funny thing is right after the boom it is kinda hard to lay their it was kind of like OK I've had enough of this I want to get up.

Anyone know what this is?

zero

[Bogata]

One saying I did notice was like a portal of vibrations. After 10 minutes of just laying there.  I rolled my eyes up toward the top of my head after about six seconds of them their I looked over to the left and focused with my closed eyes they were so many vibrations there. It was like looking into a portal pulling them out through my vision and through my whole body. They were so much there had I not stopped focusing it would've caused my mind and body to pass out. It was like a high almost like Whip-its
with weed. It is the best way I can describe it. After I stopped focusing the vibrations wore off in about a minute. That's when I heard the wind/boom noise was shortly after that.

[cube]

AlphaOmega,
You're correct about that method, it is very powerful. I don't usually use it because I have a hard time falling asleep in any position but laying on my stomach or side. I'm training myself to not have to do that and so I hope to be able to start using that technique because it is very powerful.


Hi catmeow,
That's great to hear! You definitely hit it on the nose. That's interesting about being able to fix your sight problem by changing your physical body's position, I'll have to experiment with that. Here's a trick you can use to improve your eyesight without having to wake up first:

http://www.saltcube.com/?t=eye-pry

Well, in a sense the book is already out! I put up what I have so far at cafepress here:

http://www.cafepress.com/saltcube

But the final version will probably not be ready for a couple months.


Bogata,
You were in the 'Exiting' stage on these charts:

http://www.saltcube.com/?t=how-close

At that stage if you use an exit technique like RB's Rope method or Gravity Press ( http://www.saltcube.com/?t=gravity-press ) you'll leave your body.

The rushing sounds are because you're sort of in between radio stations so to speak and you're getting random information. Did you feel any vibrations?

[cube]

Wow, you saw a portal of vibrations? What Monroe says to do in a case like that is to send the vibes up and down your body and pulse them until they smooth out. Once the vibes have calmed down you've tuned to the right frequency and can get up out of your body.

I've tried exiting while I still had strong vibes and it never works. You've got to be phased in to just the right range and you can tell how close you are to the correct frequency by how strong the vibes are.

Did you see any imagery in the portal, such as people or a scene inside it? Probably if you watch the imagery you get from the portal and make it so it all looks clear to you, you can home in on the right frequency faster and then exit your body.

[Bogata]

wow you reply back quick. Thanks cube the portal I saw or felt I should say. Was really weird it was like I couldn't see it because my eyes couldnt look at something like that. The best way I can describe it is the sun if you look at it for a few seconds you'll notice the middle of it is black. The color being so bright your eyes can't pick it up. It was much like that I knew something was there but no way my eyes would see it. It was so intense. I had to stop focusing or I swear I would've passed out. If you've ever had nitrous oxide or crouched down for 15 seconds held your breath and stood up. It was much like that I could feel if I focused on any longer things were going to turn black and fadeout also the vibrations had a high pitched yet comfortable sound to them. Much like the movie the matrix where Neo is plug-in for the first time and downloads the karate fighting style. That high pitched noise that you can see is affecting his brain it really was a lot like that. but hey you'll never hear me complain off a free high:-P if nothing else I'm going to see if I can't achieve that state again lol.

Thanks

[Bogata]

Could you explain a little on how your mind should feel. I just tried it and can remember anything big happening except when I got up. It felt like I been asleep. Even though my mind was 100% awake all the whole time. There must be a step I'm leaning out. Should you be thinking about something or have your mind blank the whole time? About 10 minutes into it I tried the gravity press with no luck.  To tell you the truth I'm not sure exactly how to do it. I kept trying to feel like gravity was pushing me through the bed but nothing. The at one point I remember focusing my mind. It seems like the more I focused the darker things got. But it was very hard to focus like that.



thanks Z

[cube]

I think you would have good success using the method Alpha Omega posted above where you fall asleep with your arm raised. Once you do that once or twice it should be a lot easier to watch your body fall asleep while you stay awake.

10 minutes is probably too soon to try gravity press, you pretty much have to have passed through the vibrational state in order for it to work.

You probably had such good success the first time because you weren't really trying very hard. While methods like rhythm napping take a lot of steps to do, this one is best done by just forgetting about things and waiting for your body to do its thing.

It may help for you to daydream about something rather than doing a mind blank since that would keep your mind active and give you something to focus into once you're ready to separate out.

[Bogata]

have you ever thought of doing this professionally? a oobe psychologists. You seem to really know what you are talking about.

Thank you very much for your help I will try it tonight.

If I may asked.  What are your beliefs in astral projection? Do you believe it is merely created in the mind or do you believe there are other dimensions that you can go too?  and in your opinion are astral projections, Lucid dreams and OOBE the same thing or diffrent?

[catmeow]

Thanks cube, I checked out the links and advice!
catmeow

[cube]

Hi Bogata and catmeow,
I'm really glad that we have this forum where we can help each other figure out how to do these things. I really enjoy reading people's reports of how things are going and ideas people have for improving the methods!

I think dreams, lucid dreams, OBEs and astral projections are all the same things at different levels awareness. I think there's a strong spiritual aspect to them but I haven't really been able to completely verify that for myself.