I noticed newbies are picking the hardest way to enter into astral and are facing huge amount of difficulties, thus this post to help.
There are 4 types of entries into the astral (non physical) reality, and they differ by difficulty.
These differ hugely in terms of how difficult they are and how many months it takes to be able to enter (based on astral research institutes statistics (I'm basing things on a russian institute that does statistics on newbies trying to enter astral for first time).
In terms of difficulty (with highest starting the first) the 4 methods of entry are:
1. OBE Meditation ('obe-ing', closing eyes trying to 'exit' the physical body, you end up next to your body in the physical environment then from there you go wherever you want. This is most difficult, usually takes many months of hardcore daily practice and even then you may end up nowhere as a lot of things affect the success of this method. Plus when you do enter you are faced with all kinds of difficulties from difficulty in sight, to difficulties in movement (due to physical body's magnetism). some of the most advanced astral adventurers don't even bother with this method as its considered not efficient.
2. Phase Meditation ('phasing', close eyes and shift focus away from the physical into the non-physical until a natural separation occurs and you end up in 3D environment in the non-physical. This is just as difficult as the OBE Meditation and takes multiple months of training to be able to get anywhere (even with the magical hemi-sync tapes). However here you don't have the problem of difficult sight/movement as the physical body's magnetism does not apply as much, as you are not 'next' to it so much.
3. Lucid Dreaming ('LD'ing', you simply become aware within a dream that you are dreaming and then go exploring the dream (astral) reality. This is much easier than above methods, people often have the first lucid dream simply after reading some stuff about lucid dreaming (the very next night!), then they can have multiple lucid dreams per night. Unlike above methods, this method can be developed and used within about 1 week or so, but definintely not months if the person seriously wants to LD and does what needs to be done (eg: keeping dream journal, etc).
4. Indirect phasing method (This is when as soon as you wake up you don't move an inch, don't open your eyes, and you have about 40 seconds within which the body is completely relaxed and the mind is not quite in physical yet. This state is also known as body asleep/mind awake state (F10). While in the OBE/Phase meditation it may take you 30 minutes to get into this state and even then it may not be as deep as this, if you simply wake up and don't move or open your eyes you are immeidately in a very deep F10 state + your awareness is not fully in physical yet either, its half here and half 'there'.
During those 40 seconds you can phase out by simply intending to phase out or by imagining an environment, or anything as such. The key here is not to move at all (this may take a bit of practice as usually people move automatically when they wake up).
This method is considered by researchers the fastest way to enter astral for newbies. No wonder, you are already in F10 and half in astral with your awareness.
I think the russian institute statistics was like 80+% of newbies who tried this method entered astral within 3 days of trying (they tried at least 3 times I think per morning)) (Its a couple of thousand newbies they evaluated during their training programs if I am not mistaken).
(pm me if you need an indirect entry manual, its free from the russian researchers and its in english).
With the indirect method you basically have all the work cut out for you, you simply need to intend and off you go. You can go into the RTZ (i.e. next to your physical body, like an 'obe') or you can go directly into the astral environments.
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Most newbies are trying to enter via the hardest method for some reason - the OBE or Phase Meditations. This is great but be prepared it may easily take up to many months or more for you to actually be able to do anything via this method and many years (yes years!) before you can use this method to enter at will! By this time most people simply give up and think that none of this is stuff is real or possible, or that they are somehow not 'special' enough to be able to enter.
The problem is they do not understand what method they have picked, direct entry method is a seriously hardcore method, meditators can only use it after a couple of years of various meditations. I am part of a meditative school and in my school this method is taught after like 4 years of meditating, this is how hardcore the OBE/Phase method really is. No wonder people fail with it all the time.
Unless you have spent previous lives meditating day and night (eg: like Rob Monroe did in his previous life when he was a monk) you may not trip for many months with this method.
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It might be more beneficial to spread your efforts between hard and easy methods, or as researchers typically suggest to focus all your efforts on the easiest methods first (indirect and lucid dreaming) enter via those quickly and start to experience astral and understand what is what, and only later think about developing the harder methods (obe/phase meditations).
Plus if you become quite adept at lucid dreaming and indirect entry you are basically doing a phasing meditation, in the morning you wake up and within a couple of minutes you consciously phase into the astral. You get kicked out of astral, then you are back in the body, then you simply phase back out again within a minute or so. I once kept doing this over and over just to see how many times I can do it, I don't think there is a limit. I started having 5 trips in a row by simply re-entering as soon as I was back in the physical (enter - explore - kicked out, enter again - explore - kicked out, enter again and so on). And all I use to enter is lucid dreaming and indirect method - I can't enter via a phasing/obe method (at will).
So, make your life much easier and more enjoyable, pick an easier method of entry and start exploring the astral with that first, rather than try to go from the opposite end and experience nothing at all.
Very interesting and informative info Nikolai. I too am one of the relative newbies who has been employing the two most difficult methods. Sometimes, I have had success that way, and other times... Well, let's just say I roll over and go to sleep lol.
Here is my problem, although I frequently have lucid dreams, and did have an experience not long ago, where I woke from a lucid dream, and nearly experienced an AP, it wasn't complete. I woke and could feel my etheric head lifting, but the noise was so off-putting, it jarred me into full wakefulness. So far for whatever reason, I can only achieve an AP where I float up to the ceiling. I simply have not been able to lift my etheric body out of my physical body so far.
Using your easier techniques of either waking from a lucid dream, or waking and not moving within 40 seconds. How does seperation take place? Will I suddenly find myself in the astral? Or do I force seperation through the roll out method or the rope etc...
hey twiligher,
during the 40 seconds everything depends on your intention:
if you intend to separate from the physical body in the traditional sense (i.e. typical obe) then you can try any 'physical' routine you know (eg: roll out, jump up, slide thru the head, sit up (I used to 'sit up' very suddenly (i.e. imagined sitting up) and this would cause a separation). The key here is the nature of intention - which is you are intending to end up next to your physical body.
If you want to enter straight into some environment then you can simply lie there and focus on 'noticing' (its exactly the same then as Frank's method, except you are already 90% there with the body asleep and mind super relaxed, simply notice what is going on, noises, sounds, lights, whatever pops up and focus on them as they arise - they get louder and the environment forms)
Amazing post, I have been trying the "hardcore" method for a little over a year now. The closest I got was astral blindness while flying at extreme speeds through the wind. I could hear and feel the wind much like being on a high speed roller coaster but MUCH more intense lol.
Hey Nickle,
Nice trip!! The best trips I had was the ones where I could 'feel' the scenery just like you are explaining, like wind or water (one of my favourite ones was flying just above water in London in winter, and it was very cold, I would dive in and feel the coldness of the water against my 'skin', then dive back out and fly just above it -- it was so awesome, like a human dolphin)
I'm sorry you didn't have many results after 1 year, but then again you did select the hardcore method. Pick an easier method :)
Nice post. :)
I'd just like to add something, from my own experience, and what I can remember from the obe4u practical guidebook. Even if you move *slightly* after waking up, it is still best to carry on with the attempt instead of discarding it completely. I think it said you could miss out on something like 50% of experiences because of this, but don't quote me on that. :)
I'll have to re-read the guidebook and see if I'm right.
EDIT: It actually says that novices often get their first experience two to three times later than usual due to this mistake. :)
That is perfectly correct BlueHalcyon as far as the stuff I read.
So don't worry if you move a little bit, but ideally you want to get into the practice of not moving at all. This is not hard, as soon as you wake up immediately tell yourself 'dont move!!!' and try your hardest not to move, just lying there and imagining your body is a hard rock.
I used to sleep on very narrow raised pillows for a while to teach myself not to move for the indirect method (as soon as I would move my arms would drop off the pillows and wake me up) but this is kind of a stupid method, don't do it, it didn't teach me anything except that I couldn't sleep.
The only way to really learn I think are 2 ways 1) is via intention, and 2) is what some occultists use to train the mind to do different things - a mild electric shock (I know this sounds crazy, but it works 'magic'). Like the ones you have in 'toy electric prank pens' (you can buy it in any toy shop). To have the toy pen next to your bed within arms reach, if you notice you moved, you pick it up and press it and a slight electric (but unpleasant) shock is delivered to the nervous system via the pen. The nervous system then learns super fast not to move (the mind does not like getting electricuted lol). With this method you can train the mind and the body to do things even when you are not conscious, as the nervous system becomes programmed. Its pretty crazy.
But ideally you want to start working directly with intention and not waste your time with temporary tools such as shocks, shock pens are usless outside of mind training scenarios (the skill of intention however is uselfull all the time in any situation, that is the most useful skill to develop).
Quote from: nikolai on May 27, 2012, 12:14:04
hey twiligher,
during the 40 seconds everything depends on your intention:
if you intend to separate from the physical body in the traditional sense (i.e. typical obe) then you can try any 'physical' routine you know (eg: roll out, jump up, slide thru the head, sit up (I used to 'sit up' very suddenly (i.e. imagined sitting up) and this would cause a separation). The key here is the nature of intention - which is you are intending to end up next to your physical body.
If you want to enter straight into some environment then you can simply lie there and focus on 'noticing' (its exactly the same then as Frank's method, except you are already 90% there with the body asleep and mind super relaxed, simply notice what is going on, noises, sounds, lights, whatever pops up and focus on them as they arise - they get louder and the environment forms)
Thanks for all the great info Nikolai. So imagining is the key? Up until now, I never could have a complete seperation without finding my physical body getting into the act. It's almost as though someone or something else was pulling me up and out of my body, when I would float up. Maybe trying your methods, I might have more success. Thanks so much for all the useful tips.
:) practice is the key
Understand that it's not just 'you' who wants you to obe, but there is a crew out there in non physical who are helping you in different ways as well (your guide etc), so never give up, or u give up on them
Quote from: nikolai on May 27, 2012, 23:07:27
:) practice is the key
Understand that it's not just 'you' who wants you to obe, but there is a crew out there in non physical who are helping you in different ways as well (your guide etc), so never give up, or u give up on them
Thanks, that's kind of comforting to know.
nikolai, do you want to name the Russian institution? Do they have a website? Do they publish their research
?
Here they are, the free book is there too
http://obe4u.com/
very interesting and informative! I always thought phasing would just work like that in 2-3days if i kept practicing it, it did'nt and i eventualy began to think only certain people are able to phase, that is until i read this post. And its true, the indirect method is the easiest of all, since its the one which has only been working for me... Hopefully in time i manage to phase and begin having conscious OBE's. Otherwise, great post.
:) I'm glad the post is serving its purpose, kyle congrats on ur first trip by the way (don't worry first few are often very confusing), heck I still don't have a clue what goes on in half of my trips - we need guides by our side!