After picking up a hint here I got into William Buhlman's book. I recommend it, even after reading most of the other books available on the subject it had some new lessons to offer.
I often become "aware" in my lucid dreams, but converting this in conscious control is another matter. Buhlman suggests stating out loud "this is a dream". It worked for me and I briefly gained high awareness. After a few moments I vaguely thought of my body and that was the end of the experience.
If a full blown astral projection can be instantly halted by a single thought of the body, what are the implications while attempting to project consciously?
I have always thought that it is possible to "bank" progress in the meditation process the further you go, however, thinking of my body is a magnet I haven't been able to resist for long. To some extent thoughts of the body have become an automatic response to any stimuli I experience.
As a thought experiment if one was to measure progress to transition on a scale of 1 to 10, what is the true effect of thinking of the body? It feels as if body focus can reset levels back to a 1 instantly, yet non-body focus achieving anything is regrettably far from instant. I feel like at times I linger around the 8 or 9 mark, failing 5 or more transitions in a span of a minute or two.
I have consciously left my body and have been successful lots of times. When you leave your body you do not think of your body so that is not a problem.
Thaomas, I think you have identified a problem that 95% of the members/people that come to this Forum or AP in general have in common.
Many times you will hear, I got out, but it only lasted a few seconds or I shifted but only momentarily.
To stay longer, you need to "ground" yourself there. William's advise on stating out loud "this is a Dream" helps you to become aware. But that's only half the battle. You must then ground yourself to whatever "other realm/destination" you find yourself in. To ground yourself you have to let go of all of your "analytical" thinking and just "be" in that moment. Let go of time, just let go period.
Like you said, "a full blown astral projection can be halted by a single thought of the body". But it's not halted by thinking of your current "other realm" body. Pick something up, try to touch something. What do you hear, what do you smell?. You need to engage yourself completely in your new environment.
From a LD it's easy because all you need to do is become aware, then just stay where you are and enjoy the adventure. The problem comes when you try to change things and then your "analytical" mind takes over, next you find yourself back here in this physical realm again and awake.
It takes a lot of practice to be able to prolong the "other realm" adventures. But it can be done. That's why I created techniques like "the Doorway" and why I enjoy exercises that have me doing simple things with my "etheric body". It helps me get so used to that conscious state or state of consciousness so much that it becomes second nature to me.
During a conscious Phase session I will begin and yes, I feel the onset of "sign posts". But the deeper I get involved with my exercises the less I sense or should I say I "think" about my physical body at all. I am completely in the moment. That's what I mean when I say you need to be "all in". Sure I have many times where I am interrupted by something. It could be a sneeze, cough, itch or even an external sound coming from my immediate area here. But if I wish, I can return to back to my NP focus again. Other times I might have a hard time getting into the flow of things and when this happens I just abort it for the day. No harm no foul. The astral will still be there tomorrow.
I will tell you though, when I was new, it was 1 step forward 2 steps back. Sometimes even 3 or 4 steps back, lol. Next hurdle I had was all the "flitting/jumping" around. Then I was told to just passively observe everything with an air of curiosity. Actually, that's almost word for word for what my "guide/higher self" had said. After that it became easier to do.
So yes I would get to 3 on your scale and the next thing I knew I was back at 1 or even 0 again. A week later it got better and I might go from 5, then find myself back down at 2. It got frustrating. It was like walking a "tightrope"! The funny thing is though, my first conscious AP that I had while using a simple candle staring technique got me all the way to 10 and out. I actually had more problems with conscious projection the more I learned about it.
This is where my earlier Journaling really helped. When I found myself "blocked" for a couple of months in a row, I would go back to what had got me results in the first place. I read books and listened to videos on the subject, as I do today, but I use/d the new info to hone my own techniques and I still fine tune them even more today. In the end, who knows you better than you! :wink:
Quote from: Lumaza on November 16, 2015, 06:35:42
Thaomas, I think you have identified a problem that 95% of the members/people that come to this Forum or AP in general have in common.
Many times you will hear, I got out, but it only lasted a few seconds or I shifted but only momentarily.
To stay longer, you need to "ground" yourself there. William's advise on stating out loud "this is a Dream" helps you to become aware. But that's only half the battle. You must then ground yourself to whatever "other realm/destination" you find yourself in. To ground yourself you have to let go of all of your "analytical" thinking and just "be" in that moment. Let go of time, just let go period.
Like you said, "a full blown astral projection can be halted by a single thought of the body". But it's not halted by thinking of your current "other realm" body. Pick something up, try to touch something. What do you hear, what do you smell?. You need to engage yourself completely in your new environment.
The grounding of the experience is the next logical step. My plan is to cement the environment by rubbing my hands on the ground. Only trouble is that I always forget to do this part. Last time I became aware I probably had the capacity to remember, but it was bad luck because I happened to be standing about 20m in the air when I realized. This is happening to me more and more actually, I find myself not flying but walking on planes in the air so to speak. I'll affirmation myself to death on the grounding point before sleep tonight.
Quote
From a LD it's easy because all you need to do is become aware, then just stay where you are and enjoy the adventure. The problem comes when you try to change things and then your "analytical" mind takes over, next you find yourself back here in this physical realm again and awake.
It takes a lot of practice to be able to prolong the "other realm" adventures. But it can be done. That's why I created techniques like "the Doorway" and why I enjoy exercises that have me doing simple things with my "etheric body". It helps me get so used to that conscious state or state of consciousness so much that it becomes second nature to me.
Hah, I think myself and many others have been running under the illusion (delusional hope perhaps) that once you get onto the "other side" that the world is our oyster. I am still hungry for a decent experience. I will have to rely on training the state in my dreams since that is quite reliable for me - I usually cruise around for several hours in elaborate lucid dreams that are on the pinnacle of full awareness.
Quote
During a conscious Phase session I will begin and yes, I feel the onset of "sign posts". But the deeper I get involved with my exercises the less I sense or should I say I "think" about my physical body at all. I am completely in the moment. That's what I mean when I say you need to be "all in". Sure I have many times where I am interrupted by something. It could be a sneeze, cough, itch or even an external sound coming from my immediate area here. But if I wish, I can return to back to my NP focus again. Other times I might have a hard time getting into the flow of things and when this happens I just abort it for the day. No harm no foul. The astral will still be there tomorrow.
I think one of the difficulties is that initially the mental experience is quite vague so it is easy to lose it. I think I actually get bored with the scenarios too easily as well. I think it might be necessary or at least conducive to the process to pick a topic that is engaging on a passionate level to the individual.
Quote
I will tell you though, when I was new, it was 1 step forward 2 steps back. Sometimes even 3 or 4 steps back, lol. Next hurdle I had was all the "flitting/jumping" around. Then I was told to just passively observe everything with an air of curiosity. Actually, that's almost word for word for what my "guide/higher self" had said. After that it became easier to do.
So yes I would get to 3 on your scale and the next thing I knew I was back at 1 or even 0 again. A week later it got better and I might go from 5, then find myself back down at 2. It got frustrating. It was like walking a "tightrope"! The funny thing is though, my first conscious AP that I had while using a simple candle string technique got me all the way to 10 and out. I actually had more problems with conscious projection the more I learned about it.
This is where my earlier Journaling really helped. When I found myself "blocked" for a couple of months in a row, I would go back to what had got me results in the first place. I read books and listened to videos on the subject, as I do today, but I use/d the new info to hone my own techniques and I still fine tune them even more today. In the end, who knows you better than you! :wink:
I definitely experience the set backs in progress. It is probably due to a bag full of approaches and no solid direction. I am keen to try the candle method again. I had some interesting experiences with visual distortion the first time. I think the attempt was unsuccessful because I didn't look at the candle for long enough - my eyes kept wanting to close after 5 minutes so I just let it be.