Hypnogogic images as a portal to OBE?

[lucid dancer]

Base 2, How's it going?   My first instinct on this was that it sounds improbable. It's a wonderful idea. Having visions can give you a place to concentrate on.  ...a place pull yourself into.  I've never heard of anyone trying a technique like that.  Give it a shot! Maybe with a little practice, you can get interesting results.  Without doing any energy work to get you prepared, it might just lead to a dream.    However, that's not such a bad thing either. If you keep your awareness, you can still turn it into a projection.  I might even try it!

[Base-2]

Hmm. If you've never heard of it, then perhaps neither have I; it's quite possible that I made it up since I can't remember where I read about it. But considering my experience the other day it doesn't seem an implausible idea: as I tried to enter the image, it immediately became larger and somehow more real. Oh, and when the image appeared, the darkness behind my eyelids thickened, you could have cut it with the proverbial knife. This also had the effect that when I saw the image, it seemed _behind_ the darkness rather than projected upon it, sort of like light at the end of a tunnel, or a scene viewed through a rent in a black cloth (where the black cloth would obviously be the darkness). In short, the colours seemed awfully real, and even more so once I focused on them. It seemed like a place I could have gone to.

Even if this is a viable technique, I'm not sure it will work for me in the near future: as with every projection technique I've tried, I get very excited once something actually happens, and am immediately catapulted back to waking consciousness. Also, I'm not sure if my body is relaxed enough while I'm sitting on the floor, perhaps I couldn't project. Anyway, do try it and tell me of your results.

Base-2, the binary man

[lucid dancer]

What's up with your name, binary man?  You shouldn't give up hope. It's common to get excited at first.  You just need experience to mellow it out. Keep trying.  Plus, that's a lot better then other emotions you could be experiencing, like fear.  Is sitting on the floor your best option? Maybe you should try sitting on a chair, or laying down. Well, you know what works best for you. ...Also you could have actually entered the dream world. Have you heard of WILD?

[Base-2]

My nick refers to the binary number system or base; the 2 comes from the number of digits used to represent figures. In other words, our everyday decimal base (0123456789) would be base-10.  Base-2 describes me well, as I tend to be bipolar in nature, sort of like a bit: I'm always either on or off, 1 or 0, a genius or an idiot, happy or sad.

No, sitting on the floor is probably not my best option for projecting, but it's how I like to meditate. I wasn't trying to project when I was assailed by the stained-glass camel.

I assume that stands for Wake-Induced Lucid Dream. I know Robert makes a distinction between lucid dreams and OBEs, whereas some people apparently do not; I have no opinion, as I've never experienced either, except for two or three short spontaneous LDs several years ago. Suppose I found myself standing before my stained-glass camel - how could I tell which one it is?

[DEBerryJr]

quote:Originally posted by Base-2:
But considering my experience the other day it doesn't seem an implausible idea: as I tried to enter the image, it immediately became larger and somehow more real. Oh, and when the image appeared, the darkness behind my eyelids thickened, you could have cut it with the proverbial knife. This also had the effect that when I saw the image, it seemed _behind_ the darkness rather than projected upon it, sort of like light at the end of a tunnel, or a scene viewed through a rent in a black cloth (where the black cloth would obviously be the darkness). In short, the colours seemed awfully real, and even more so once I focused on them. It seemed like a place I could have gone to.
___________________________________

Also, I'm not sure if my body is relaxed enough while I'm sitting on the floor, perhaps I couldn't project. Anyway, do try it and tell me of your results.

Base-2, the binary man

OHH!!!! You did it!!! Woo hoo!!!

I have done this before. I relaxed into the visions, and when they got life like like that, I simply sat up out of my body. It was amazing. And I DIDN'T do any trance work or energy work, either. YOU WERE THERE!!! YOU ARE THERE!!! You can do it.

Sit back down and do what you did. The next time the visons come, focus upon them as you did. When they become real like that and the darkness thinckens, YOU ARE OUT-OF-BODY!!! Simply get up softly, and walk away!!!

Woo hoo!!!


Sincerely,

D. E. Berry Jr.

[James S]

Hi base 2,

Yep, If you're getting hypnogogic images that you can kind of lock on to, and move in to them, then your consciousness is in the astral even if your energy body is not. I have experienced this a few times, where the astral comes to you more than you leave your body to go to it.

Frank has described this effect before as "phasing in". He believes it is a very good stepping point to get to the full on OBE astral, and something that is really worth practicing.

BTW, I think it was someone else on this forum who first said -
there are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

[PeacefulWarrior]

YES- you can indeed induce an OBE that way.  I will post link to "definitive" info regarding the subject.  I believe in Robert Bruce has talked about it.

fides quaerens intellectum

[jeff]

Hi All,

There are a couple of things I would like to comment on.

Firstly I think it would be interesting for you to consider some other ideas.  There are many possible explanations but these seem to be the most logical... it sounds like the phenomenon (or phenomena) you may be instigating is remote viewing (travelling clairvoyance) or just normal clairvoyance.  
When doing this black can be seen but then images and forms of other energy can be perceived as you tune in or tune out of frequencies and the objects/places/people that exist in these frequencies.
 
An experience of remote viewing is not an OBE - just as looking through binoculars at a distant object/person is not the same as being physically (or non-physically in the case of projections) there.

Many projective (OBE) techniques use imagination and visualisation and so it can be a method but usually the technique describes a certain standard (yet with details) everyday image that can be used by a person e.g. a ladder, a staircase, a door, etc..
Its good for us to plan and focus on our target, i.e. be proactive about this;  as opposed to be passive and use what ever relatively random image happens to come into our mind.

The hypnogogic state is the demarcation line between being connected and disconnected and being lucid and not lucid - developing our abiity to remain lucid while dropping our brain activity is a key to having lucid projection.  As others mentioned it is possible to have projections from this state.

The best (ideal) position is comfortably lying in the dorsal position.

I agree lucid dreams are different to lucid projections (or OBEs).  Lucid dream is a synomyn for Semi-Conscious projection (OBE) and you can turn one into the other by increasing (or decreasing) the level of your lucidity - Clearly we always want to be more lucid inside or out of our bodies!

Good projections for everyone.

Kind regards,
Jeff

[Adrian]

Greetings!

Yes, and this all comes under the general subject of "Astral portals".

It is an age old technique of entering the Astral by entering through a symbol. Such symbols are many and varied, but inveriably lead to the same place onthe Astral. There are realms that have their own symbols such as silver apples etc., and in particular the symbols for the realms of the elements.

I do not consider this to be an "OBE by definition, but rather an "Astral portal". Frank for example has actually successfully created his own Astral portal.

This another reason I would like a forum to seperate Astral portals and associated things from conventional OBE's which are triggered by exteriorisation of awareness in absolute terms.

With kind regards,

Adrian.

[Base-2]

Hi,

A few days ago while I was meditating, a blotch of very real-looking colour appeared in the center of the darkness behind my eyelids. I assumed it was one of those hypnogogic images that I remember reading about once: images you supposedly see once your body is teetering on the edge of sleep, provided that your mind is still awake.

I also had this vague recollection that they could be used as doors into OBEs by 'plunging' into them. So I tried. The image became more focused as well as growing in size and contrived to look so real as to be more lifelike than life itself tends to be. I found myself looking at what appeared to be a stained-glass camel, except that the colours kept shifting and vibrating.

By this time I had become excited enough to disrupt my concentration, and so the camel vanished; still no OBE for me, I'm afraid. Nevertheless I'm interested in whether it could have developed into an OBE, had I not become overly exultant, as I tend to do whenever I come even close to anything resembling a trance.

What do you think? Oh, and would you ascribe any particular importance to the camel, or are these images to be considered random manifestations of my subconsciousness?

Thanks,

Base-2