Meeting in the Astral

[Amber]

Hello everyone!
I'm curious...has anyone on this forum successfully met up with a fellow
OOBE'er in the Astral??? I believe it's possible and I remember reading something about it every once in a while. Sometimes people plan these elaborate systems of recognizing eachother while out of body and designing meeting spots ect. But then, either I am not paying attention, and there are successful meetings...or nobody has actually accomplished this.

I'm partly curious because I have a person in mind that I'd love to 'visit' while out of body. Just wondering if anyone has done this, and if they were successful. Also...how difficult is this task??

Thanks
Amber

[ralphm]

One time I tried to meet up with someone that I knew was an obe'er, all I got after I had the intent was a gate-so I suppose it works if it is ok with the powers that be.

[Frank]

Like most things obe-wise, this kind of task is about as difficult as people believe it to be.

I have a friend who I meet up with several times a week. I'm not sure why people would have to think of any elaborate system of recognising each other. A person's bodily energetic (or Ident as Monroe called it) is easily a hundred times more obvious within the non-physical than the physical.

Now and again I come across people I know but, more often than not, the person in question has difficulty recognising me for one reason or another. Mainly due to their consciousness being only partly there. Others sometimes approach me and I can't for the life of me realise where I know them from. Which is a bit of a spooky feeling but one of those you just get used to.

HTH

Yours,
Frank

[Nay]

Like most things obe-wise, this kind of task is about as difficult as people believe it to be.

I have a friend who I meet up with several times a week. I'm not sure why people would have to think of any elaborate system of recognising each other. A person's bodily energetic (or Ident as Monroe called it) is easily a hundred times more obvious within the non-physical than the physical.

Now and again I come across people I know but, more often than not, the person in question has difficulty recognising me for one reason or another. Mainly due to their consciousness being only partly there. Others sometimes approach me and I can't for the life of me realise where I know them from. Which is a bit of a spooky feeling but one of those you just get used to.

HTH

Yours,
Frank

Speaking of meeting in the astral, don't you owe me a PM Frank?  
and how dare you call me spooky...

Nay  

[Amber]

Frank, Cube, Nay et al,
thanks for the feedback! I'm going to check out some of the links and see what other people are up to in the astral these days...lol


Ok, so I'm putting it on my dreaming agenda list to visit this friend out of body.

One quick question for Frank,
Did you arrange a time to meet this friend out of body or did you just arrange a place to meet? Or both time and place? Or did you just get out of body and then concentrate on finding them? I'm curious about the process in general....
Any suggestions?

With much affection,
Amber

[Amber]

BTW, Cube
the saltcube site kicks a**! That was my first time poking around on the site...
Love the people finder...I don't feel so alone anymore...lol  

Thanks for the help,
Amber

[Frank]

Amber: In general there is no need to arrange a time or a place. You talk about going "out of body" to meet your friend but no-one is actually ever in their physical body in the first place. It is the mind which makes the contact with the other mind. And everyone's mind resides within the non-physical. So in a sense everyone is already connected to each other.

Problem is, while our minds are focused within the physical, the physical body does ground our thinking to quite a high degree. Therefore, being in an "out of body" state can help matters when it comes to focussing within non-physical realms and making contact with other minds. But there is no real need to go "out of body" to do so. Perhaps Bruce Moen's work might be of interest to you as it explains what I am saying more fully, that is, if you haven't come across it already (afterlife-knowledge.com).

In the conventional sense of being "out of body" you make contact by simply thinking about your friend and expressing the willingness or the intent to meet with them. Like I say, it matters not whether they also are in an "out of body" state.

When I meet with my friend, sometimes he is consciously projecting while his physical sleeps, and sometimes he is wide awake within the physical. It makes no difference as I still hook-up to the same aspect of his mind.

Yours,
Frank

[Frank]

Nay: shortly after your message came through the forum went down and now your PM is no longer in my inbox as I think everyone's PM store must have been erased in the transfer. I'm sure I saved it in another file though. In any event I remember the contents (I will ALWAYS remember the contents!) well, the first half that is. If you have a copy could you send it again please.

All the best,
Frank

[Amber]

Frank,
I understand what you mean, about your intent to see the person as being the link. This makes a lot of sense to me, although I am still fairly inexperienced with OOBE. It seems that our intentions do move us in the desired direction, even in 'waking life'.

My problem is with the language used, and the difficulty I'm having in correctly using terms to describe things that are outside the borders of 'physical reality'. For instance, out of body isn't an accurate description, for the reason that you pointed out - we are never out of body technically. We are in our secondary, or energetic body. So, we are never really in our bodies either...

I think it is important for me to understand what it is that I'm talking about in order to understand it better as a whole.
When you mention that our minds are connected and that they reside in the non-physical - this is where the syntax that you use confuses me.
When you use the word 'mind', are you referring to consciousness? Or are you referring to the brain and it's functions? Reasoning?

The reason I'm being picky here is just to try to intellectually grasp what it is that I'm experiencing.

I guess the word 'mind' is throwing me off because I understand 'awareness' or 'consciousness' as not being located specifically in the mind. It is my understanding that our minds are not separate from our bodies, it is all one unit. The part of us that 'intends' or puts our intentions out there...is it in our mind? Or is it in another part of our being?

So, when you say that our minds connect, it is giving me mental images of little brains floating around out there in the astral, connecting and hanging out.    Or are you referring to our thoughts? Or could you also, feasibly say that our 'hearts' are connected to each other as well?

Bear with me, here! lol Just trying to figure out the jargon that is floating around the astral forums.
Thanks,
Amber

[Frank]

Amber: we are on the border of a new and amazing science. Unfortunately, because of this we do not yet have a ready-made list of concrete terms and a subsequent solid understanding of those terms. As such, getting to grips with all the terminology is, in itself, quite a task!

I'm sorry I failed to make myself clear. When I say we cannot go "out of body" I didn't mean to suggest a situation where, if we are not in the physical, then we are in some other kind of body, etc. and so, as a technical point, we cannot ever be "out of body". Here we are speaking at cross purposes.

It can be complex to get to grips with I know, and the book I'm currently writing deals with this topic in the first chapter, i.e. the true relationship between mind and brain. I began with this as I feel it very important; there is ever so much misunderstanding in this area. I've said before that if people would first grasp a solid understanding of the way the mind and brain interact, a heck of a lot of other stuff would begin falling into place.

People speak of the mind and brain as if they were both one and the same... they are not.  The mind and brain are connected in various ways while the physical body is alive, but they are in fact two separate entities. Like I say, it is only when a person grasps a true understanding of how these two entities operate that many other aspects of this whole topic begin falling into place. Lots of questions are answered when a person realises the true relationship between mind and brain.

The human brain, as most people are aware, is composed of physical matter and is situated within the physical skull. The function of the brain is to operate, control and direct all the physical processes of the body... that is all.  No consciousness is developed in the brain, no thinking or any other kind of reasoning goes on in the brain, no memories are stored in the brain. The brain is simply a kind of central processing unit for the physical body.  Human faculties such as consciousness, thoughts and memories are all functions of the mind.

The mind exists as an entity in itself and lives in an entirely different dimension of existence. Not only that, the mind derives its energy from a particular source that is totally independent of the physical body (I talk about this in-depth in the book). That is how consciousness can "live on" after the physical body dies, for example. Because many people rationalise that if the mind is a function of the brain and the brain dies, then surely the mind must die with it. But no, the mind is not merely a function of the brain. It is the other way around: in fact the whole physical body, brain and all, is a function or outpouring of the mind.

We are never "in" our body, any body, whether it be ethereal, astral, physical, etc. All we do is   simply focus the mind in that direction and, hey presto, it feels as if we are.

Problem is, people get into a long-standing habit of focussing their mind in one direction only; to the extent where they find it immensely difficult to focus anywhere else. Many other people are so taken by focussing in one direction only they get to believe there is no other way. As a result, they spend their whole lifetime encased within a tiny bubble of physical reality which they firmly believe is all that exists.

When people engage in what is commonly called "obe practice" they try so darned hard to, in some way, get "out" of their physical body. But it is not a question of getting out, as you are never in it to begin with! It is a question of learning how to break the habit of only ever focussing in one direction, i.e. towards the physical.

Our minds are not "in" any body at all, physical or otherwise. The mind will simply manufacture a suitable bodily vehicle that will best serve its needs on whichever plane of existence it happens to be focussed within. The physical is no different in this respect.

When I go non-physical, for example, I feel like I am in a kind of body. Though it feels like it, I am no more "in" that body than I am "in" my physical right now typing these words. My mind is currently operating through my physical. Because that is the only way my mind can operate on whichever plane of existence or realm of reality it is focussed within.

The mind cannot operate directly within a realm that is outside of its existence. To do so it has to generate kind of interface; one that is made from the matter of that particular plane. So, within the physical, our bodily interface is made from physical matter, i.e. the very stuff of this plane. When the mind is focussed within the ethereal realm, it generates a bodily interface which is made from etheric matter, and so on.

Thing is, the reality of it all gets even more whacky. Because, when I say each person's mind, the mind that we think of as our own is merely an infinitesimal fraction of the Whole to which it is connected. But I'll save that for another day.

Yours,
Frank

[Amber]

Frank,
That our mind is only focused on the physical reality, but able to focus on different realities at any point....this makes perfect sense to me. So, we assemble our focus here, but it doesn't necessarily occupy this exact space or reality, it's a part of a greater whole. And we could assemble our focus on other places and times just as easily, if we only wanted to.

I guess we all intuit that there is something other than the agreed upon reality that we currently share. But for most people it is just an intuition. That makes much more sense now. thank you for the clarificiation.

I guess what I was hung up on was the word mind itself. I associate mind with the brain and I also associate it with our internal dialogue...our thoughts. But I have to specifically shut off my thought process in order to do OOBE's. So, consciousness exists without the thought process that we normally associate with the word...mind. This is what was throwing me. So, when you said mind...I immediately thought...brain...and internal dialogue.

When is modern science going to catch up with us!!?? Is it that there is a gap because we don't have the equipment and technology needed to give us empirical evidence of OOBE's or the nature of this reality? Do we simply not have the machinery yet? Or is this something that may never be able to be proved/disproved scientifically and we have to accept this fact? In that case...maybe these experiences are personal because they deal directly with perception, and not to be proven or tested..period.


This is a tough one because a large part of me really doesn't give a crap if the rest of the world and the scientific community thinks these experiences are dreams or delusions or whatever. But there is just so much unexplored territory here, that would give us information about the nature of perception and reality.

It struck me as very close minded, when I was sitting in psychology class and the itty bitty paragraph about OOBE's and near death experiences was under the title: ESP. Is that all science can say about it still? lol

Anyways, enough ranting and raving. I'd like to check out your book, when you've finished. Sounds very interesting.

Thanks again,
Amber

[clandestino]

Or is this something that may never be able to be proved/disproved scientifically and we have to accept this fact?

I share Frank's belief that Science is on the verge of "discovering" new things about the nature of reality. But like you say Amber, there is the possibility that the matter will always remain a grey area.

There is certainly circumstancial evidence suggesting that the mind operates seperately from the physical body. Dr Ian Stevenson's "Old Souls" is very circumstancial but still offers food for thought. Consider also Carl Jung's research on archetypes. The US Govt's funding of "remote viewing" research. Countless tales of individuals who have "died", yet when they are revived in hospital, sometimes up to 45minutes later, retain their memories & personalities.

There is also plenty of scientific evidence supporting the supposition that memories are not local to any one part of the brain. Check out this page for some interesting (and squeamish) reading:
http://www.indiana.edu/~pietsch/shufflebrain.html
In fact, the evidence may suggest that memories are not stored in the brain at all.

I hope that within my lifetime, the things we discuss within the astral pulse become credible in scientific circles.... If it doesn't happen, I'm sure I'll cope !

Mark

[Tayesin]

Hi All,
This is an excellent discussion, I'm enjoying it immensely.  I must say I liked the way Amber has already moved through a few big points into some clarity.. also very excellent.

Frank's detailed explanations are likewise excellent and while he covered this in a relpy post I would like to reiterate a point in my simple understanding.....

We are active in all the various 'levels',  being aware of it in many different ways that rarely bubble up to the surface of our day to day life.  

As pointed out, our Intention is the key to 'assembling' your awareness in different levels and the mechanism for this is Focus.

Focus is often mis-understood as having to learn how to shut off the Jabbering Mind, which is one way, a much longer way.  

Instead of Focusing on training your mind to Focus on not hearing the Jabber.. ..  just Focus on what you Intend.

There are many different methods for Focusing our Intent and opening up to our 'higher awarenesses'.  And as I am likely to do at this point, I will suggest keeping your approach Simple.  In most cases the easiest methods are the simplest ones.  You'll know them by their lack of belief-system-baggage, but don't let this stop you from experimenting to find what will work for you.

One small thing I learned is;  the only boundary or barrier to what you can experience is what you believe about it!  

Oh, and the other thing I learned.. You don't always have to be serious about spiritual matters.. have some fun with it and enjoy it as it comes.

Love Always.  

PS I got to stop typing long posts  

[Selski]

Frank

That's brilliantly put and so easy to understand.  

My more recent visits to the astral have come about after a slow breaking down of my beliefs, and an acceptance that the astral planes do exist.  Once I accepted this as a "knowing", I went there.  This complements what you are saying beautifully.

Thank you.

You will promise to let us all know the details of your forthcoming book, won't you?

Sarah