so close, yet so far

[GANAMOHA]

hello,

quite recently I have greatly cut down the time it took for deep levels of relaxation but the hardest part of the body I have a hard time getting over are the lungs. I start to worry about whether or not I am breathing right so it becomes irregular and unsteady making paralysis very hard. oh and when the vibrations come to me and I start to phase me breaths become fast and short and it ruins it completely.so any advice to keep my mind of my breathing so its just natural would be great . thank you

[kiwibonga]

Well, the technique consists in falling "almost asleep" ; that is, staying on the fine line between an awake state and a sleeping state.

When you sleep, you still breathe, even though you are not conscious.

I would recommend doing the exercise from Bob Peterson's book which consists in keeping an arm up so that it is in balance and requires little effort to stay up, and so that if you fall asleep, it will fall on you and wake you up. (http://www.robertpeterson.org/chap07.html at the bottom)

As an experiment, try to stay awake or prolong consciousness while you're falling asleep. Try to "walk" the thin line between conscious and unconscious. Try to get closer and closer to sleep while holding onto a thread of consciousness. Learn to hang onto that borderland state for long periods: This is a useful skill in learning OBEs.

If you are able to do this, you will not have to worry about breathing -- you will breathe subconsciously.

[Sepultura123]

I dont understand the arm method , what it bring to do this ? Better breathing ?

For me I have sratching problem sometime on OBE do you have advice ?

[kiwibonga]

The arm method allows you to cross the line between conscious and unconscious multiple times; with enough practice, you will be able to stay in this "asleep but conscious" state which is where you can start thinking about leaving the body, or having a voluntary lucid dream.

[Dean]

The arm method works great. i use it sometimes when falling to sleep when i'm wanting to enhance lucid dreams.

Sepultura, i've done a few Vipassana meditation courses. This meditation technique focusses heavily on watching sensations on the body. The sensation you are having trouble observing is itch. Know that all sensations will eventually pass, good or otherwise.

If you notice an itch don't react to it just observe it. When looking to project if your mind notices an itch don't react, know it will eventually pass, and bring your mind back to your projection technique or whatever it was that your mind was on.

may i suggest when not projecting (everyday life) and you feel an itch, don't scratch it, just observe it and watch it pass away. this will be good practice for when projecting.

Love to you,
Dean

[GANAMOHA]

thank you for this methid I will try it. I think I may have tried something similar to this though and I couldnt even sleep. my arm was balnce so I was making an effort to keep it up but I just couldnt sleep at all because of it not to say it will be the same if I try it again.

[Selski]

IFor me I have sratching problem sometime on OBE do you have advice ?

If you mean when you are relaxing your body, you will occasionally feel an almost irresistible urge to scratch somewhere because it itches, that is very normal when going through the process of relaxing.

I had this for weeks (possibly months) when I first got into the art of relaxation, and the only way to get over it is to ignore the itches.  I know it's hard, but if you ignore it, it does go away eventually.  And yes, one itch disappears to be replaced by another one... just continue ignoring them all.

The reward is that over time, your body comes to realise it isn't going to get its own way and stops becoming itchy.   I can honestly say that I don't get this anymore, and haven't done for (probably) years.

Sarah