I'm back

[ralphm]

I feel somewhat the same way, but more on the lack of time to do an intense enough spiritual trip to have the side effect of obe happen on a regular basis. I feel that if I just devoted an hour a day to meditation,focused relaxation it would be a heck of a lot easier to have obe's happen. But on the other hand the carrot of obe's does drive me to wake in the middle of the night and do some simple techniques that I would not do otherwise. Maybe in a couple mounths I could get more time.

[terrance]

Grendel,
If you're crazy then so am I  

If you mean 'way of life' to be attitude, beliefs, world-view etc. etc. then I've been thinking long and hard about the same thing.  I've already mentioned this experience in these forums so here's a brief version:
I was drunk
Attempted to leave body
Instead was taunted by troubling images

This got me to thinking that as much as I strive to be 'at-one' in my waking life there are still plenty of negative thoughts and emotions and therefore negative actions.  For example my attitude to one or two people at work will often result in negative behaviour and negative feelings on my part.

And because of the above OB experience I'm certain that the way one leads one's life has a direct impact on OBEs.  My way of life is having a direct effect on my spiritual development.  Sounds obvious doesn't it yet it was not clear to me until I had the above experience.

So therefore I'm going to have to change my way of life to a certain degree.  How I go about doing this I have no idea.  I think "THE PATH: a practical approach to sorcery" by Esmeralda Arana might be a good starting point for me.

Oh!  If you meant "way of life" to mean a new way of life where you'd have more TIME to attempt OBEs etc. then ignore everything I've said  and it's just me that's crazy.

t

[Grendel]

I used to be heavily into OBE/AD/Energy work for awhile, but then during meditation one time, something occurred to me.  I was doing a lot of things in my life and living a certain way which was contrary to everything that I was trying to accomplish.  I realized that in order to pursue this seriously, I couldn't just make it a hobby and hope that I got OBE someday.  I believe that it has to be a way of life.  You can't be in conflict with "the flow" of things, if that makes any sense.

So after that realization, I didn't know if I wanted to dedicate myself to an entire new way of life.  So I gave up OBE/etc. instead to find out what I wanted to do with myself.  Then after much thought, I realized that my goal isn't OBE, my goal is finding a state of being, of which OBE/etc. is a side effect.  It's weird how you can feel that you know something is so correct and right, but you can still turn your back on it.

(New Year's provides a perfect starting over point.)

Anyway, has anybody else found their way of life to be in conflict with their OBE research/etc.?  Or am I reading too much into this.  It's just that I can feel, almost smell the way things are supposed to be, and I can sense what is and isn't in line with that.  Does that make any sense, or am I just crazy?

In any event, it's great to see the forum is still in heavy use, and I look forward to working with everybody again.