frustration! Try try try but I only get close to having an OBE?

[Smertrios]

Without fail in fact almost instantly when I lay down I can get the ringing in my ears and change the tone and/or intensity if I concentrate. In fact I can get to that "stage" without laying down anytime I want... I have tried dozens of times to OBE and this is what usually happens...

lay down, get vision changes, then darkness, then flashes of light out of the corners of my eye then nothing again

or

lay down, get vision changes, then darkness, then *maybe* vibrations followed by a more brightly lit but still plain view

or

lay down, get vision changes, then darkness, then vibrations followed by what I would call *very* quick dreams that either start out looking kind of like line art or soon fade into line art then I get blackness again...

or (only 2 times so far)

lay down, get vision changes, then darkness, then vibrations followed by movement of "my body" that I can feel. One time I put something on and felt it just like I would if I was awake. Then I wake up and its over...

or

lay down, fall asleep completely without any lucidity and I'm back up in 4-6 hours =(

frustration... takes anywhere from 13 minutes to over an hour (typically 40ish minutes) to do any of this and I do not seem to be advancing. I am trying! Have even been using melatonin during the day to get drowsy... When I joined 4 weeks ago it was right after watching a youtube video on AP and having what I think was *almost* an OBE that same night. Try as I might I can not get close to what happened and all I did that first time was "see through my eye lids" and move my "spirit body arm" accidently (I say accident because I didn't realize right away that I was "asleep"). It let me know that OBE is possible tho that is important so I do have that knowledge!

EDIT: Just re-read the first part of my post and it doesn't sound too awful at first but you have to realize I am laying there for 40 minutes to feel a few seconds of vibrations followed by a few seconds of something cool... BLAH =) I will keep trying but it would be nice to get at least a few minutes of the "cool part" where something I want is happening.

[floriferous]

lay down, fall asleep completely without any lucidity and I'm back up in 4-6 hours =(

What time are you practicing? It sounds like at bedtime.

Everyone is different of course but it sounds like you are just starting out so I personally would start by, 1. Cut yourself a break. Don't be so hard on yourself. It can take time. 2. Don't start with a more advanced practice. I would say jumping into a direct OBE method at bedtime is, as a beginner, setting yourself up for failure (I don't want to say impossible as everyone is different but that's a mountain). At bedtime you are highly prone to falling asleep as you've conditioned yourself to do that for the last however many years. Also a direct OBE method can be tricky to achieve without lots of practice. Once you have some experiences under your belt it becomes easier so why not try a simpler indirect approach first? William Buhlman the noted OBE expert spent years practicing through an indirect method first. No shame in it. He only later did a direct method when he was more experienced. It sounds like you are going for gold straight away.

My most successful method is still indirect with results of about 85%. Who cares how you get out? It about the what comes after anyway. My personal approach if I was beginning again would be, do lots of reading around the subject. Mental saturation can be OBE inducing in itself. The only caveat I would add is take what you read with a pinch of salt. Other peoples experiences are not your benchmark. Do your practice at 5am. Listen to some binaural beats (I recommend hemi-sync as the beats are multi-layered). Don't plan to get to any specific state of awareness. Just try to stay awake for now and let the beats change your brainwaves in the background (when I listen at this time I don't notice much of a change). After about 40 mins of listening I stop and simply go to sleep with the intent of having an OBE and invariably I'm brought back to consciousness by an exit symptom and I'm out (that's the hemi-sync having a delayed effect). It can be that simple. Of course, like I mentioned, everyone is different and no one method works for everyone and you need to tweak to your individual needs. Sometimes you may just fall asleep so in that case before I start my practice at 5am I read for 10 minutes on an appropriate subject. If I find I'm too wired during the practice to get sufficiently relaxed then maybe next day I read for 5 minutes prior to the practice rather than 10. You need to find your center.