where to 'gaze' during noticing?

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gil-galad

During 'noticing' (a 'phasing' method), you observe the blacness in fornt of your closed eyes, while you try to hold your attention ('notice') any kinds of 'light activity' taking place there.

Does anyone happen to know where (to what distance) one should adjust the focus of the eyes in order to be able to see these 'light patterns/light activity' clearly?

Should I hold my focus directly in front of me (a few centimeters away)?
Or should I hold my focus farther away (a feet or more)?
Or is it an automatical process? (The eyes adjust themselves automaticly to the distance where these 'light patterns' appear/the 'light patterns' appear at a distance where I initially begin to focus)

I find it very difficult to preceive whats going on behind my closed eyes and I thought that the reason might be the fact that I hold my focus at the wrong distance.

Thanks for answering

AstralBeginnings

For me, the trick is to avoid ALL of the questions you just posed.  If you are thinking about where to look, you are not noticing.  Noticing by definition is "noticing" what happens.  Not dwelling on the things that happen, just noticing them.  Dont think it through, just notice.  Dont try to SEE them, as in dont focus on them.  Just notice them.  Any time you think about what you are seeing, you are no longer noticing you are thinking.  Its really hard to grasp this because its almost impossible not to think about a wild image that just appeared before you, but thats what you need to do.
My Blog about my AP progression from almost day 1
http://astralbeginnings.com

Szaxx

Hi,

It sounds like you cant see the wood because of the trees.
Look at a piece of varnished timber, say a pine door or table, you see the lines and knots in the wood. Thats ok, now look again generally. Do you see the faces within,do you see the fear in some, the disfigured humanoid shapes?
Look at it as a piece of abstract art, they are all there. Its that perspective you need. Similar to the cumulus clouds when young, everyone has done this.
The images are there but not as a photograph.
Its easier to see hidden shapes when tired as you only glance and not examine the item. Dont be tempted to draw the new scenery with a pencil, the effect is good as it highlights the image but some items are expensive to repair.
This should start the images appearing clearer then use your imagination to manipulate them.
There's far more where the eye can't see.
Close your eyes and open your mind.

Lionheart

 You stare into the black abyss before your eyes and await the show. When something starts to happen you just "passively observe" it. Just like you are viewing and movie, if you can keep yourself in the moment, you will see vivid changes almost instantly. Just watch them with a mild curiosity for now. When I first started to travel the first thing I was told by my "guides", was to observe for now. You will have a lot of time to interact later. We have to walk before we can run!
Good Luck and Safe Travels  :-)

Xanth

As others are saying... you're thinking too hard about it.  :)

Learning to do this stuff is more about teaching yourself to not do what you've been taught to do all your life.
For starters, stop worrying about doing it wrong... and just do it.  Just gaze... it doesn't matter where, or how, or why... just look into the blackness and let go.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39504726/ApproachToMeditation.pdf

That's a slide that Tom uses in one of his workshops.  Basically, all those points apply to the noticing exercise as much as they apply to meditation, because they ARE one in the same thing.  The Noticing Exercise IS a meditation. 

*Fear nothing
*Hope for nothing
*Expect nothing
*No thinking
*No analysis <-- this one is hard for most people, it's what your questions above are doing.
*Eliminate beliefs
*Don't compare
*Don't judge

These are all things that you need to teach yourself to NOT do.  Meditation (and the Noticing exercise) isn't about learning something new... it's about unlearning something old.



light487

I think the hardest thing about this is to stay passive and to "not focus" on the images and things that start to appear after about 5 to 10 minutes. What I find happens to me is this:

1. I close my eyes and I "gaze" at nothing in particular for about 5 minutes.. at some point around 5 minutes I notice a "shift" in awareness.. it's just a mild sensation that feels like you've moved but you haven't really.. it's hard to explain but there's a distinct feeling that happens.
2. At this point I decide on a point of focus. This could be anywhere in your vision. I just look wherever is comfortable.. which is generally centre but just to the right.
3. At some point after that.. it could be as little as a few seconds up to another 5 minutes after the "shift".. I will start to get hypnogogic images or other "effects" and things happening.

It is at this point where you need to remain unfocused, without reacting to the images.. just gaze and "notice" without reaction to those changes. Just allow the effects to increase on their own, allow it to take you away.. it will all happen without any conscious effort from you. The real practise is in maintaining a detached, passive, unfocus without falling asleep... essentially meditation. Think of this example: You are standing on a train station and a train is approaching. You look straight ahead, adjacent to the platform, so in the corner of your eye you can see the train approaching. However, don't look at the train, don't even look out of the corner of your eye, don't even think about the train.. just allow the train to come all by itself. As the train crosses through your forward vision remain passive to it, allow it to blur past without the slightest twitch in your eyes.. it's just another object moving past you, don't allow your eyes to track it, infact don't allow your mind to even track it.. just keep on gazing forward, noticing the train but not focusing on it at all..

Where you look is not really relevant.. how you react to what you see is.

Lionheart

 One other thing that is important, when you finally notice something don't analyze it, don't really even focus on it, just know that it is there. If you analyze or focus on it you will alter it to what you think it is, when this happens you normally will get jettisoned back to the physical. It's weird that it works that way, but it does. When you suddenly think about the shape/object in front of you it will disappear. That being on a "Train Station Platform" by light487 is a great analogy.

light487

Just have to point out here that I have a rally hard time doing what I have suggested.. haha.. :lol: I mean, when I reach that point I start to notice.. then as I notice something and feel a further shift of awareness and "focus" on the thing that appeared. As Lionheart has suggested, as soon as you do that, you snap back to the previous point of awareness. You've gone beyond just noticing it passively and have begun to notice it actively.

I was doing this last night.. and I "actively" noticed time after time after time.. haha :lol: I just couldn't stop myself.. the moment the 3D object or scene or whatever appeared, my brain became curious and "looked at" the thing. A split-second later, the object or scene would fade out immediately and then it was gone and I was back to where I started. It's really, really hard to do.. but it's just a matter of practise, that much I am sure of.

light487

#8
Something I was thinking about this morning as I was waking up is that there is a difference between visualisation and the images you "notice". When you visualise, it's something you create in your mind and it generally isn't something that is separate from your thought(s). When you are getting "noticing" imagery, they are independant of you and your thoughts. When you are looking at the back of your eyelids, you are doing just that.. looking at something. You are seeing the back of your eyelids. All this does is turn off your visual input. So what you need to try to do is stop looking at the back your eyelids.. ignore that, switch off..

When you're dreaming, you're not actually consciously visualising the environment.. you are just observing and reacting to the stimulus being presented. Ever notice how in a dream you aren't really in total control of the situation? You just being pushed along through the "story" and any time you put your rational thought or analyse the situation, things almost immediately shift and change. I'm not talking about being lucid in your dreams, that is different. I am just talking about the regular, non-lucid dream. There are moments when you start to use your reasoning and analytical mind to work out what is going on but things change as you focus or think about them. This is what is happening when you are noticing, if you think or analyse the things, they will shift, change or disappear completely.

Anyway, my point is that there are distinctively different "modes" of imagination/visualisation. One is user-created, the other is user-experienced. It's the difference between watching a movie and being in a movie. You can imagine that you are some place all you like but it remains imaingation.. a visualisation inside you and nothing more than that; once you step into that visualisation, it is something that takes on its own existence that was created by you but is no longer "being" created by you.

Hard to explain.. it's so obvious and stuff in my head..

EDIT: Just to clarify, what I am trying to say, in a nutshell, is that you need to stop "thinking" and just "become" the thing or become part of the thing. Thought and analysis completely destorys the experience.

gil-galad

Thanks for the replies

Yes I know that you should not focus on the images you might see and you should not move your eyes either. What I would like to ask is the following:
In Xanth's phasing method I have read the following(http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2010/11/25/xanths-phasing-method/):

In the beginning of the noticing exercise, you close your eyes and choose a comfortable spot where you 'fixate' your gaze .You hold your focus here, and when an image appears
you simply acknowledge it (do not move your focus to the image), just like in the 'train analogy' above. My question reffered to this point of focus which you choose in the beginning.
Since your field of view is 3D, when choosing this spot, you should decide both the distance and the direction. For me, staring in the middle of my field of vision is the most comfortable. However, I am not sure about the right distance. I was reffering to this spot and its correct distance in my original post:

Should I choose a spot directly in front of me (a few centimeters away)?
Or should I choose one farther away (a feet or more)?
Where can I observe the comming images better? Or are these 'light patterns' appear at a distance where I initially begin to focus?

Thanks for your suggestions



Xanth

Quote from: gil-galad on October 20, 2011, 06:29:50
Should I choose a spot directly in front of me (a few centimeters away)?
Or should I choose one farther away (a feet or more)?
Where can I observe the comming images better? Or are these 'light patterns' appear at a distance where I initially begin to focus?

Thanks for your suggestions
You're thinking and worrying too much about the little things.  Just pick a spot and go with it.  :)

This goes back to my other post above.

*Fear nothing
*Hope for nothing
*Expect nothing
*No thinking
*No analysis <-- this one is hard for most people, it's what your questions above are doing.
*Eliminate beliefs
*Don't compare
*Don't judge

You're fearing, thinking, analyzing and expecting.  Stop that.  :)

Stookie_

It's simply looking at blackness. There's not much to it. Any light or colors or anything that come up you don't look for - as you enter trance they start to show up on their own and you can't help but notice them. Just passively observe what's going on.

bluremi

Looking at things and reacting to them or analyzing them is what your consciousness does. Your awareness is separate from your consciousness:

Consciousness is always of something, awareness just is. Consciousness goes away during sleep, awareness does not. When you have a thought or a feeling, it's caused by your consciousness. Your awareness of that thought or feeling is separate. Once you can reside in that awareness for a little while the noticing exercise comes naturally.

As you're lying there, everything you see or think or feel is your consciousness. Once you take all that together, what's left is your awareness. It can only be defined by negating everything else. What is a mirror in the absence of light and objects to reflect?

light487

Here's a detailed account of a phasing attempt I made 2 nights ago:

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_out_of_body_experiences/emptiness_ater_attempts-t35449.0.html;msg294348#msg294348

There's a few other posts in that thread that may be able to answer some of the same questions you have here.

indian

Quote from: Ryan_ on October 16, 2011, 19:11:00
As others are saying... you're thinking too hard about it.  :)

Learning to do this stuff is more about teaching yourself to not do what you've been taught to do all your life.
For starters, stop worrying about doing it wrong... and just do it.  Just gaze... it doesn't matter where, or how, or why... just look into the blackness and let go.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39504726/ApproachToMeditation.pdf

That's a slide that Tom uses in one of his workshops.  Basically, all those points apply to the noticing exercise as much as they apply to meditation, because they ARE one in the same thing.  The Noticing Exercise IS a meditation. 

*Fear nothing
*Hope for nothing
*Expect nothing
*No thinking
*No analysis <-- this one is hard for most people, it's what your questions above are doing.
*Eliminate beliefs
*Don't compare
*Don't judge

These are all things that you need to teach yourself to NOT do.  Meditation (and the Noticing exercise) isn't about learning something new... it's about unlearning something old.


I see changes in your thought now.. you yourself have started learning the approach now. Good move. Previously you were caustic when I used to say same things :)


How are ya?

:)