To deep to fast or not deep enough?

[cairnsb]

Hello all - have not been on the forums in a long long time, been doing some personal reflection.

Suffered from insomnia all my life and got into the OOBE thing by reading up on relaxation techniques and such...any ways long story made short I will get to the heart of the issue.

Insomnia..well...really, really (I mean REALLY) sucks. You spend countless hours waiting for sleep only to realize you spent the entire night counting sheep or stairing at the ceiling and you have to get up for work in 20 minutes.

I often observe my girl friend fall alseep, rather fastinating really, her head hits the pillow and in about 5 minutes she is snoring (yes she snores - drives me insane). So I asked her - how do you fall alseep so damn fast? She said she has no idea she just lays down and thinks to herself "time to sleep" and she is out cold.

Makes sence I always lay there thinking about work, or hobbies or the fact that the ceiling could REALLY use a fresh coat of paint. Before I know what happened I am wide awake and laying there for another sleepless night.

So I tried it - some success - got some sleep, and the next day thought about it...what if it was all that easy? What about OOBEs or Remote Viewing?

The next night girl friend had to work (finally I don't have to listen to her snore) so I laid down and thought about all the OOBE techniques I have read about (Monroe, Bruce, etc etc).

I told myself to forget everything I have read or tried, even the things that worked. And I took several deep breaths to relax a bit.

Then I thought to myself ... "Time to get out".

(dramatic pause)

Nothing Happened.

Well that was a waste of time  - went to get back up and...I could not move a muscle, I was totally imobilized (omg not this again) so like usual I lay there and focused on wiggling my fingers. After what seemed like a few minutes I could move my fingers, then my hands and arms and so forth.

Frustrated I got up and thought about what happened.

Then I remeber reading in Roberts book about being paralized is a sign that "you" (at least a copy of you) has already left the body and is out at some smashing party - grabbed my copy of his book off the shelf and a cup of coffee later found the section in question....funny cause most nights I just write it off as my arms falling asleep or somthing...how could I forget reading that.

What I could not find out (the reason for this post) is ... WHY?

Am I going to "deep" to fast, or am I to focused on the body?

Or

Is there a step I am missing?

Sincerly - Disgruntled Ex-OOBE'er

[stephen~]

I think if just relaxing like that would work then everyone that relaxes would astral project. This can only be my personal opinion, but I think you need something to get your mind in the direction of AP, as opposed to thinking "Relax, relax, relax, ok that's enough, now I'll project", it just doesn't happen that way imo. If I do this intentionally I tend to think of things that suggest vibrations, I might imagine vaguely that I am walking around an orchard where there are lots of insects buzzing. Personally I also believe that you don't need to learn how to relax to relax, and that yes that focus on it after a certain point becomes counter productive. I know you have insomnia, but when you do manage to sleep you don't have to do anything special it is entirely natural. I think the point is to forget the body so it falls asleep not watch it like a hawk.

As I said I think you would be better tweaking your immagination a bit and trying to get some kind of vibes going, let your mind wander by all means but try to let it wander in the direction of projection by whatever means you can. I use 'buzzing' sounds because it works for me, I just think loosely about something that buzzes as I fall asleep. It is a bit like walking a tightrope, either you stay on and bingo, or you fall off and asleep because your minds too far away. When it works usually the thought I had will have turned into a fledgling dream, but I am still lucid enough to notice the buzzing has become vibrations and I just become more and more lucid and let go.

On the insomnia itself. Well I have what I believe is a good method which works for me. I start to think of one subject, one story and I tell it to myself exactly the same way every time. This is so utterly boring that you fall asleep before the end. The longer the story the better of course, and by story I don't necessarily mean a fiction, could be an event you went through, the steps you went through to achieve something trivial (like stripping down a motorbike engine step by step and replaying that to yourself). If your mind wanders off the 'story' when you notice just take it back to the point you last remember and carry on. You really can bore yourself to sleep as long as you stick to the same old story and don't introduce anything new (and interesting) to the flow of thoughts.