I first started my Doorway thread years ago with a simple focus on Geometric shapes and colors. I used these because each seemed to create a accompanying visual, a "mental association" of sorts. I found that that actually tricked my mind into creating visuals. My intent began with a simple shape or color, but the object seemed to morph into something completely different and as it did, I passively observed it with a air of curiosity. This indeed consumed my entire focus, thus releasing my focus completely on my physical body.
This then evolved into more of a disassociation based practice, using means such as "unzipping the physical suit", energy work that focused on losing physical control and even a 6pt directional based focus. I used counting, Mantra, I basically explored all kinds of way to create a good deep NP focus. My real goal though was to assemble a strong team of Experiencers to do some collective explorations. To target some Doorways or Portals to see what we would find behind them. I realized that we would likely perceive things in a different fashion. But, at least we could see if it was possible to kind of find synchronicity in what we were viewing and experiencing. Unfortunately that idea crashed and burned. It's really hard for people to self motivate anymore. There are too may distraction in this day and time and those distractions are consuming everyone's focus. I should say, we are "allowing" those distractions to take our focus away. We do have a choice!


In the last few weeks, I have hit across something completely different though. A new evolution of the practice that most of the times, puts me in a good deep NP in only a few minutes time. This new evolution occurred because of current talk we have been having here on the Pulse about what to do and not to do with our physical eyes while noticing the darkness behind them. I began doing all kinds of experiments with my eyes. Looking down, looking up, softening my gaze, strengthening my gaze and then it happened. I began noticing that every time I simply gazed into the darkness, that I would get s prompt to readjust my vision. This prompt would be so powerful at times that it felt like my head was going to explode. The more I fought the urge to readjust my vision, the stronger the sensation got to be. Then all of a sudden everything release and a wave of energy or something, it's hard to explain, passed over me, through me. When this wave had passed, it normally only lasted a few seconds, I would find that the darkness had a new depth to it. I was in the void.
I have used this technique every day now and I receive the same results. Every time it puts me deep in a good NP focus. I can then set my intent for that session.
I begin my Phase soak session by lying back in my bath water in the tub. I then do a quick healing Mantra I have used for a good year now. It is a simple one that goes like this. RA MA DA SA SA SAY SOH HUNG. This Mantra is ancient and was created to be used as Healing technique. I visualize what each syllable in the Mantra represents. For RA, I visualize the Sun, for MA a running water source, like a river of waterfall, DA, I see the land, represented normally by trees or flowers, SA is the Air, so with that one I visualize flight. I hold onto the flight visual all the way to the HUNG. The HUNG I visualize and actually feel as a explosion of light emanating from my core, kind of like fireworks. I do the Mantra and the visuals 3 times, then I allow my focus to drift into the darkness before my eyes. Very soon I will get that urge to readjust my vision. I will then fight it, the wave hits and I am "there".
I was recently describing this via PM to a good friend and fellow member here name Baro-san, that most of you here know of. He then sent me this reply. I thought it was spot on. The sensation I get when I am attempting to fight the urge seems just like a "overload". That's what makes it so intense and why I compare it to the sensation of my head exploding. I have felt this "Overload" sensation in the past. It normally occurs during the "Downloads" I have experienced. Some other members here have spoke of this "Download" phenomenon as well.
http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_dreams/the_download_aka_the_forbidden_dream-t44872.0.html Here is what Baro-san had to say. He also gave me a fantastic example and explanation of this "Overload" phenomenon to go with his reply. As usual, I was every so grateful for his response. I really enjoy how he backs up everything he says here on the Pulse with some sort of example based on said topic.

"Hi Lumaza,
The method you've discovered reminded me of the "Overload" technique used for trance induction.
I'm quoting bellow a description from John Grinder & Richard Bandler 's "Trance-Formations - Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis" (1981)
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Overload
About twenty-five years ago, George Miller summarized a huge
amount of both human and animal perceptual research in his classic
paper 'The Magic Number 7 ± 2." Human beings have the capacity to
consciously attend to about seven "chunks" of information at one time,
Beyond that number, a person becomes overloaded and starts to make
mistakes. If I tell you a sequence of seven numbers, you can probably
hold that in consciousness without error. If I give you a sequence of
nine numbers, you will find it much more difficult to recall them
correctly, and will start to make mistakes. Each number is a "chunk" of
information. However, if you—or I —divide the nine digits into three
groups of three, you will be able to recall the nine numbers much more
easily. Now there are only three chunks of three digits each. By group-
ing information in larger chunks, it becomes possible to deal with more
information with the same 7 ± 2 chunks of conscious attention. You
can consciously attend to seven leaves, seven twigs, seven branches,
seven trees, or seven forests. How much you can attend to depends
upon the size of the chunk of information that you are dealing with.
Whatever chunk size you choose, when you are paying conscious
attention to 7 ± 2 chunks of information, anything else will not be
processed consciously. Anything beyond 7±2 chunks of information
becomes overload and will be processed unconsciously.
An example of this happened in another workshop. I asked for
someone who had a way of remembering names that worked exqui-
sitely. A woman named Carla had one, so 1 had her come up to the
front. Ann Teachworth was sitting in the audience, and I said to Carla
"Do you happen to know this woman over here?" and I pointed to
Ann. Carla said "No," When Carla was introduced to someone her
pupils dilated and she made an internal image of the person's name on
her forehead, Then every time she saw her again, her pupils would
dilate slightly and she would see the name written there on her fore-
head. That was the way she always knew someone's name, and it
worked very well. Since I know what she does, I know where in the
sequence of Carla's experience she will be unable to consciously
represent any additional input: when her attention is oriented inward
and all of her 7± 2 chunks of attention are occupied with visualizing
the person's name on her forehead.
I said to Carla "Look at the woman over there. Her name is
Ann . . ."I paused, saw her pupils dilate, and then said "Teachworth."
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She heard "Ann" and visually wrote it on Ann's forehead. Then I asked
her "What's that woman's name?" Her pupils dilated again and she said
"Ann." I said "Do you know what her last name is?" She said "No, you
didn't tell me." When your timing and your sensory experience are
refined enough that you know when a person's attention is inwardly
oriented and when it's not, you can introduce anything you want.
When someone is oriented inward, she will respond appropriately to
your suggestions because you bypass her conscious mind. There's no
way for her to filter or defend against such suggestions.
At that point I said "Her name is Ann Teachworth" and Carla said
"Oh! Now I remember." That was an elegant demonstration that
although she didn't have it available in conscious awareness because it
didn't go through her name-remembering process, it was there. She
recognized Ann's last name when she heard it, so it had been processed
and remembered unconsciously.
Whenever a person's conscious processing is overloaded, you can
pass information directly to the unconscious, and the person will
respond to that information. The easiest way to overload
someone's
attention is by having her pay attention to a complex internal
experience.
I used an overload technique the second time I ever officially
induced a trance. I'll demonstrate. Would you come up for a second,
Bill, and stand here?
"OK, would you close your eyes? Now what I would like you to do is
to softly, out loud, begin to count backwards from two hundred by
threes. And as you do that, I'm going to put my hands on your
shoulders and turn you around in circles. If at any point you discover it
is more comfortable for you to simply drop into a nice deep trance, do
so with the full realization that you are in good hands."
By doing this, I create an overload by occupying all of his representa-
tional systems. He's using visualization as a way of helping himself
count backwards. Auditorily he's saying the numbers to himself. I
disorient him kinesthetically by turning him in circles. He's now over-
loading himself with things to attend to, so I don't have to.
I could just as well have said "Now turn slowly in a circle." However,
if I turn him with my hands on his shoulders, I get a lot of tactile
feedback about when he's changing states and what kind of state he's
going into. I also give him something else to attend to kinesthetically:
the feeling of my hands on his shoulders.
To make sure that overload works, you make sure that all systems
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are engaged. If he's busy visualizing and counting off the numbers
while he's being disoriented kinesthetically, I can offer suggestions
which will go right past his consciousness into the unconscious. If I say
something that distracts him from the task, I will immediately know it,
because he's counting out loud. There's a built-in feedback mechanism
in this traditional method. If he stops counting, I know he's either
dropped into a deep trance, or he's shaken off the disorientation and is
consciously listening to the suggestions I am attempting to pass to the
unconscious. Then I'll either insist that he continue to count, or I'll
notice that he is in deep trance, stop fooling around, and go to work.
This is a really traditional trance induction, by the way. I read this
particular method in a book years ago, and having had no experience
of it, just followed the instructions as if I knew what I was doing. It was
only some years later that I figured out what the principle was, so that I
could generalize from that specific method to overloading someone in
a variety of ways. The way we teach in these workshops is designed to
do exactly the same thing, because we arc interested in passing most of
the messages to you at the unconscious level.
You can use any complicated task to occupy a person and distract
his consciousness while you disorient him. Then you offer a very direct,
immediate, and easy-to-follow instruction like "If at any point it is
easier for you to simply drop into a deep trance, then do so and enjoy it
with the full realization you are secure in your present position. . . ."
Here's another variation. I take Jack's hand here, and I want to
overload him. So I say "All you have to do is sit here comfortably. I'm
going to touch different fingers and your thumb, and I'm going to
name the one I'm touching. Your job is to simply decide whether I'm
doing this correctly or incorrectly."
Then I begin touching and labeling. "Forefinger, middle finger, ring
finger, little finger, thumb. Middle finger, forefinger, ring finger,
thumb." (He touches the little finger.)
Each time I "make a "mistake" he will do what he just did: his pupils
dilated and there was a hesitation in his breathing. He had to take some
time to compute. It took him longer to decide that I had made a
"mistake" than it took him to decide earlier that I was correct.
If I were to continue, I would gradually become more and more
"incorrect." Soon he would be overwhelmed by the complexity, and in
defense, he would go into a deep trance. At that point I would say "As I
touch your ring finger this time"—and I would touch the wrong
finger—"you are more relaxed." I would continue to overload, and go
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on to introduce additional suggestions about the specific kinds of overt
responses I want—those that indicate he is going into a trance.
I am giving the person input in all three channels simultaneously and
demanding that he make a judgement about whether the auditory
input matches the visual and kinesthetic input. He will soon give up,
and essentially say "OK, tell me what you want me to do."
Instead of overloading all representational systems, you can give the
person such a complex task in one or two systems that it occupies all of
his 7 ± 2 chunks of conscious attention. You can ask the person to
count backwards from a thousand by one-thirds, visualizing each one
of the fractions with a different color for the top of the fraction, the
bar, and the bottom of the fraction. Each successive fraction has to
have a new color for the bar and for each number. Then you can add
suggestions like "With each number you will go deeper." These are all
ways of manipulating a person in such a way that you are overloading
his input channels and thus his ability to make sense out of what you
are doing."