Tag Archives: Meditation

Meditation – Quieting Mind?

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Everyone hears about meditation and hears that “quieting your mind” is a must or else you’re not doing it right!

Meditation isn’t about quieting the mind. It’s never been about that.

Yes, you can ATTEMPT to quiet the mind… but then you’re using a manipulative force in order to do so… and when is manipulating anything into doing what it doesn’t want to do ever been a good thing?

Simply realize the truth… you are the awareness being aware of the thoughts being passed by it. Then simply let that event take place, non-judgmentally.

That is meditation.

Eventually you’ll also realize another truth about meditation… that meditation isn’t an act you do, it’s not something you put 10, 20, or 60 minutes aside per day to do. That’s the very act of blasphemy.

Meditation isn’t something you do, it’s a state of consciousness you exist in, at all times.

So by all means, don’t ever quiet your mind… instead, quiet yourself and listen to your mind.

Meditation – Myth of the Experienced Meditator

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Bob Hiller posted this on Facebook, and I wanted to share it with everyone here too!

If you\’ve been meditating for a long time, you might recognize some of the things this fine gentleman has to say. I know I sure did. LoL

The Myth of the Experienced Meditator

I AM, UNFORTUNATELY, an experienced meditator. From the time I stumbled into an introduction to Transcendental Meditation in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1970, through multiple eras (including my present fifteen-year-old Soto Zen practice), I\’ve sat and stared at many walls (and mandalas and candles, and the inside of my eyelids) reveled in sundry bells-and-whistles mental experiences, gotten bored, decided I was going crazy, become enlightened (no, really!), and now I\’m ready to share everything I\’ve learned. It won\’t take long. In fact I can sum it up in one word: nothing.

Not that \”nothing\” is to be sniffed at. For years—decades!—I thought there was something to learn, and that all those thousands of hours on the mat were cumulative, that the more I sat, the more aware and compassionate and wonderful I would become. In a world where the attainment of goals is seen as a virtue, thirty-eight years of realizing nothing didn\’t come easily or lightly.

By definition (mine), if I did think I knew something about meditation, that wouldn\’t be meditation. Sort of like God—if you can describe God to me, that ain\’t God. If, as I believe, meditation is simply awareness, then any past knowledge I have about it is not only useless, but slops over into my immediate experience. Knowing is antithetical to openness, and it\’s the adventure of not knowing that\’s the genius of meditation. Not for nothing (so to speak) are two of the most popular contemporary books on Buddhism called Beginner\’s Mind (Shunryu Suzuki) and Only Don\’t Know (Seung Sahn). I have this fantasy that next time I open my copies of these books, I\’ll find only blank pages.

So what is meditation about? I\’ve heard many claims for the practice over the years, that it\’s about: gratitude; emptiness; deepened, (or if you prefer) heightened, awareness; compassion; spaciousness; the discovery/realization/dissolving of one\’s true self (your choice); attaining liberation; self-realization; being present in the moment; opening to the wonder of it all; finding inner peace; encountering one\’s Buddha nature; becoming one with everything; cutting through delusion; fill in the blank.

It seems to me, though, that meditation isn\’t about anything: meditation is meditation. Any attempt to define it in terms of something else simply confuses the issue, making it vulnerable to being treated like any other self-improvement system. Lord knows, these days we are offered enough ways to be better people, get closer to God, find ourselves, and enhance our circumstances. We\’re swamped with therapies, self-help books, and techniques—what musician and activist Bob Geldof called \”the thriving economy of psychotherapists, designer religions, and spiritual boutiques\”—which treat our lives as projects to be tweaked and fixed. Isn\’t meditation (if it\’s anything at all) a relief from all this? Isn\’t it the opposite of repairing and adjusting and striving and perpetually wanting things to be different?

For me, meditation is a haven away from the ubiquitous world of self-improvement. It\’s not just that there\’s no such thing as \”bad\” meditation, but there\’s no such thing as \”good\” meditation either. It is what it is. So when I hear words like \”effort\” and \”discipline\” and phrases like \”deepening one\’s practice\” and \”advancing along the spiritual path\” spoken in the same breath as the word \”meditation,\” I wince. Just sitting (shikantaza)—doing and wanting nothing, breath coming and going unbidden, eyes seeing, ears hearing—in this effortless state, thoughts flurry like falling leaves.

So can a so-called experienced meditator offer anything to someone new to the practice? Probably not. If what we\’re really talking about is awareness, how can we help someone notice what\’s going on? This is what\’s going on: no more, no less. Unlike a subject like, say, carpentry, where we learn from the experience of those who have gone before us, meditation is defined by spontaneity, by not knowing. As the Roshi says, \”practice only one level.\” Perhaps the best we can do is to reassure newcomers that each of us starts over with every sitting and every breath.

Trust me. I\’m an experienced meditator.

Peter Russell & Eckart Tolle on Meditation

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It\’s only five minutes…
But it\’s five minutes of GEM after GEM after GEM of information on meditation.

My absolute favourite statement, Peter makes… and he makes it so nonchalantly too is, \”You can\’t DO meditation\”. And he\’s right, as they explain it so crystal clearly. You simply don\’t DO meditation. You allow yourself to BE.

Meditation – Correct Breathing

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A lot of people don\’t know this, but there actually is a \”CORRECT\” way to breath. And yes, this does relate to everything you do… from simple meditation, to living your daily life. Breathing properly will enhance everything you do. You\’ll feel much better too!

You\’re supposed to breath using your diaphragm. Simply put, if when you\’re breathing anything but your stomach is moving then you\’re doing it incorrectly.
Most people these days breath from their chest… this is horribly bad because those muscles are vastly weaker than your diaphragm. It\’s easier and better to breath from your stomach than it is your chest. Breathing from the chest is something that most people learn to do as they get older, it\’s an image thing.
My Sensei (I train [well I haven\’t for year or so at the moment hehe] in yoshinkan aikido) always said that to breath properly means to \”get fat\”… then \”get skinny\”! This is the kind of autonomic breathing that kicks in when you fall asleep.

If you watch a baby lie there breathing, you\’ll notice that it will do all the breathing using its stomach. This is what adults should strive for as well.

Doing this kind of breathing also assists the body in falling asleep, because it\’s the normal type of breathing that it\’s used to doing naturally and tricks the mind into thinking the body is asleep.

Have you ever listened to someone make that transition from awake to asleep. You can actually pinpoint the EXACT second that they \”fell asleep\” due to how their breathing changes. This \”sleep breathing\” is what you want to emulate while meditating.

So while you\’re practicing your projections, or even while you\’re going about your daily life, try to breathe correctly. Your body AND consciousness will thank you for it! 🙂

The Key to Most Astral Projection Techniques/Methods

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Someone posted a PDF on the Astral Pulse tonight showing 66 different Astral Projection techniques.

The thing is that they\’re not 66 different techniques. They\’re the same technique with 66 slight variations. Well, that is, the ones that you do while consciously awake. There are ones listed where you initiate them from a lucid awareness experience in the non-physical.

It\’s a great write-up and all, but I think it\’s more important for people to understand *WHY* each of those techniques work.

I\’d encourage people to take a bunch of techniques they read about (here or wherever) and try to break them down into their base parts. Try to figure out makes the technique tick. Here\’s a hint… they\’re all asking you to do the *EXACT SAME THING* just in slightly different ways.

Ok that wasn\’t so much of a hint as telling you. LoL

Just about every technique incorporates Visualization or Mental Concentration/Focus in some way as a method of fixating your awareness away from the Physical. That\’s it… that\’s the entire secret. That\’s what took me over 10 years to figure. I use this concept to create my own visualizations and you can use this knowledge to further help yourself to project.

There\’s nothing mystical or magical about any of this and most importantly: ANYONE CAN DO IT.

Monthly Meditation!

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I mentioned something about this on Facebook a couple weeks ago.
I wanted to try to put together a meditation group of sorts. The goal would be to try and counter some of the negative energy/thoughts put forth about the upcoming nonsense regarding the 2012 Phenomenon. Basically, we\’ll pick a day, a single 24 hour period in a month when everyone can focus their meditations towards sending out positive energy regarding this phenomenon.

It\’s almost common knowledge these days amongst metaphysical practitioners that we create our own reality.
The energy we put out in the universe shapes our universe in a multitude of ways.

Now, you can go about this meditation in any way you want. For me, I intend to visualize all the negative thoughts and ideas that people have regarding 2012 and putting them into a big metal box, then tossing that box to be incinerated into the Sun.

The thoughts will include any notion of war, destruction of the earth in various ways, to smaller negative things like fighting with friends and neighbours. Putting energy towards the goal of peace and love should be of the utmost importance.

I was thinking the last Friday of every month would be a good time to do this. Any thoughts?

Feel free to comment here or on Facebook with your thoughts and ideas on this. 🙂

Together, we can make a difference!

The Feeling of \”Mind Expansion\”

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I take the train to and from work now. It\’s a wonderful little bit of my day that I\’m learning to really enjoy. Why you ask? Cause it gives me 35 minutes twice a day to meditate! If I can\’t meditate at work, this is the next best thing. 🙂

Anyway, onto my post…
I was meditating on the way home from work tonight and a thought popped into my head regarding the feeling that I get I call \”Mind Expansion\”. It actually feels like your mind is really expanding. But I came to realize what that sensation really is, because I noticed it tonight at the same time this \”other\” thing occurred.

What occurred was a 90%+ reduction in my five physical senses. Well, I was ignoring them. But at that exact moment, I began to feel that \”Mind Expansion\” sensation happen. I never really consciously put two and two together about this.

The \”Mind Expansion\” sensation is also the beginning of removing yourself from this physical reality. Point Consciousness. From there, all of consciousness is your playground. 🙂

Tom Campbell in Calgary, Canada

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This past September, Tom Campbell gave a 3 day workshop in Calgary, Canada.
This video is the first day of that workshop. I believe two more will be posted soon, so please check back here or his youtube channel for updates.

Here is a direct link to the entire four-video playlist: Four-Video Playlist

Lunchtime Meditation – September 13th, 2011 – Asking For Frank

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I took a bit of my lunch hour today to meditate, because it was so peaceful and quiet here at work.

Anyway, this will be a very short report of this experience.  My goal during this meditation was to try and make some kind of contact with Frank Kepple.  It\’s a side project I\’ve been trying to find time to do lately.  Well, today I made contact with \”something/someone\”, but it was very brief.  I was asking mentally if Frank Kepple was around, focusing my Intent upon the picture we have of him on the Frank Kepple Phasing Resource page… and while I was doing this I heard a very distinct and very deep voice ask, \”Who is this?\”

Unfortunately, the phone rang here and I couldn\’t pursue the voice in any way.  But it was definitely a voice, and it was 100% crystal clear just as if someone was standing right in front of me talking.  I\’ll look into this further, hopefully I\’ve stumbled upon something interesting.  🙂

Another Meditation Gem from the mind of Tom Campbell

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I found a response that Tom had made to someone who was having problems with meditating. I think it\’s a complete gem. Please do read. 🙂

You need to learn to meditate consistently first before trying more complex things, no wonder you are frustrated. Some how we have to calm that mind down or figure out a way to keep it occupied with non-operational non analytical fluff.

sound: Breathe normally but slowly, you can\’t meditate holding your breath. Listen for the mantra while you inhale (breath in)(like listening for the thunder), Then hear the sound of the mantra in your mind while you exhale (breathe out), immediately listen for it again during the next incoming breath, then hear it again while exhaling, etc. As soon as any thoughts intrude, Gently (casually) put them side and begin listening and hearing again with the next breath — always breathing smoothly and slowly. keep this up. for just 5 minutes — set a timer or an alarm. when that gets easy lengthen it to 10 minutes, when that gets easy lengthen it to 20 minutes and then to a half hour. Do this at least several times a day (more when the times are short). EVEN IF THE IF THE LISTENING AND HEARING ONLY LAST A MICROSECOND BEFORE BEING INTERRUPTED, KEEP IT UP, JUST GENTLY AND CALMLY BUT FIRMLY PUT THE THOUGHTS ASIDE AS SOON AS YOU NOTICE AN INTERRUPTION AND THEN GO BACK TO LISTNING AND HEARING. Just do it with no expectations – we are not trying to meditate yet, first we must minimize those interruptions — that\’s all, forget meditation for now — we are only trying to minimize the interruptions.
If you keep at it, the time between interruptions will grow – even if it grows from one microsecond to two microseconds, stick with it and it will continue to grow. After three months of multiple times a day, you should notice some progress. At that time, if the interruptions have slowed enough, report in and we will go to step 2

Sight: Same as above except instead of listening and hearing imagine a soccer ball levitating in front of you in one spot. As you breathe in let the ball spin slowly forward (top moving toward you, point closest to you moving down, and point on the bottom surface of the ball moving away from you), As your breath stops, let the ball stop, then as you breathe out let the ball spin slowly backward. Just intently watch the ball. Breathe slowly and rhythmically. All the rest is the same.

You do not need to wait 3 months to let us know what is happening, but do wait three months before analyzing anything or making any judgments. Just do and observe.

It\’s a great suggestion really. Don\’t jump headlong into meditation… learn to stop those mental interruptions, and before you know it you\’ll be meditating!

My missteps over the last ten years

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It took me over 10 years to make any real progress towards my goal of experiencing astral projection.  I was thinking about this last night and I felt it might be helpful for others to know the points during those 10 years that I feel were the prime motivators for my unsuccessful attempts.

I feel that the #1 reason for my unsuccessful attempts over such a long period of time was due to the term that Robert Monroe coined: “Mind Awake / Body Asleep“.  The problem with it, and a concept that I couldn’t grasp at the time was that the “Body Asleep” part is completely WRONG.  Unless your goal is to actually fall asleep, go into a dream and become conscious within that dream (this is called a lucid awareness experience), then there is actually no point where you ever need your body to be put “asleep”.

Your body isn’t put to sleep as much as you make it so that the input you’re receiving from your five physical senses is greatly reduced.  This begins the process for you to disassociate from this physical reality.  While that’s happening focus your attention ‘within’, which is away from this physical reality.

The second biggest problem I’ve encountered is that when I was younger, I was quite impatient.  I’d read through a book that had a dozen great exercises in it and then I’d go to bed and TRY THEM ALL!!  *facepalms*  Yeah, don’t ever do that… it’ll cause more frustration than anything.  Pick a single exercise and try it out for at least a solid week.

Another issue was that I didn’t make the connection between Conscious Exits and Meditation. If you want to learn to Astral Project at any time during the day from a completely conscious state of awareness (this is called doing a Conscious Exit), then it’s just about a mandatory requirement that you learn to meditate. This was something I didn’t understand back then. The state that you should learn to get into is called the Point of Consciousness (PoC) state. It’s from there you can do most of the classic OBE techniques from. I remember one whereby you were instructed to create your own astral body using your thought power… but it never really indicated what “state of mind” you initially needed to be in to do it. I haven’t gone back to that technique, but the PoC state would be perfect for that.

So yeah, hopefully reading these will help you to move forward in the future… I’ll try to add some more of my missteps as I think of them. 🙂

Chanting MP3

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I found this link on the Astral Pulse one day, I can’t seem to find the original posting of it anymore though… I’m glad that I bookmarked it.

If my memory serves me correctly, it’s a 50 minute audio session of the Dalai Lama chanting.  Please, someone correct me if I’m wrong.  🙂

Dalai Lama Chanting

I listen to it quite often while I’m just doing my day-to-day work… and it keeps me very nicely relaxed while doing it.  🙂

Enjoy!

The story behind the recording: A beloved friend of the Dalai Lama, another monk, was making his transition from this life to the next. Not, it might be said, as a trauma or a lost cause, but as a joyful journey at the correct time and with understanding of life beyond earth life. The Dalai Lama sat at his friend’s bedside and chanted this chant for hours until the monk, with joy and peace, made his crossing. Those who were present begged the Dalai Lama to record the chant so that it might be shared with the world. He agreed to do so only if it was stated that the recording could never be sold, but only given away. This MP3 is the result. It is not for sale but is meant to be copied and shared.
This is one of the most sacred and powerful mantras used for healing. It has truly wondrous therapeutic power when chanted or listened to regularly. Mrityunjaya mantra will help you to know the divinity within. It is chanted to know eternity. The mrityunjaya mantra is considered one of the maha mantras or great Sanskrit mantras because of its potency to give protection and manifold blessings. Maha mrityunjaya literally means the great victory over death. It is associated with Shiva, the destroyer of ignorance, and the liberator from the cycle of death and rebirth. It is therefore a life giving mantra that not only protects the physical body and gives health, but purifies the mind at a deep level.

Very interesting. Anyway! I hope you enjoy it. 🙂

Meditation – A Requirement To Exploring the Non-Physical

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Tom Campbell (http://www.my-big-toe.com/forums/index.php) talks a bit in his books and lectures about “Belief Traps” and how they can trap us into a certain way of thinking or trap us into ignoring something fundamental to our journey here.

I was thinking about that yesterday and trying to figure out what kind of belief traps I’ve been trapped in over the past little while.  In a post I made back at the end of December (How I Came To My Beliefs), I made the distinction that there was a point where I didn’t know that I was allowed to believe something that ended up being very important towards what I needed to know in order to progress.

I’ve noticed that this is a Belief Trap… and it’s one that I’ve still been trapped in for a while as well.  I have to thank Tom for opening my eyes to such information and to realize that I am allowed know certain things in order to progress.  I notice it a lot in others now too, it’s those times when people post questions on the Astral Pulse asking if it’s okay if they do so-and-so.

As I’ve been progressing along my non-physical path as of late, I’ve slowly been coming to the conclusion that a base knowledge in meditation is a prerequisite for learning how to explore the wider reality.  This isn’t something I learned from Tom, it’s something that I’ve been slowly coming to terms with myself over the last few months.  However, Tom’s “Belief Trap” ideas were the catalyst for me to understand this.  I needed someone to tell me that I was allowed to know this, as strange as that might sound.  I can apply and confirm it by looking at my own past experience as I’ve spent the last 15 years of my life learning how to meditate.  Through that time, I never once considered how that has helped me along my current path of experiencing the non-physical.

Well, the truth is that it has greatly helped me.  This is why and how I found Frank Kepples Phasing exercises so much easier to do and learn from when compared to the classic separation OBEs (aka Monroe-style), because, in essence, they ARE meditation exercises.  I just took it for granted that certain things that I did when using the Noticing or Rundown exercises were normal and that everyone just automatically did them too.  Well, they’re not.  They’re something I’ve learned to do over the last decade and a half.  Stuff like learning how to quiet your mind (surface thoughts), fully relaxing the body upon command and being alone with your consciousness.  These are skills/tools that one *needs* to learn if “conscious exit” projections is on their list of things “to do”.

To do a conscious exit by Phasing, you have to meditate to get into the proper state first.  Sure, we have a couple of “exercises” which you can do to assist you to get there, but they’re not really “exercises”, they are “meditations”.  They’re designed to assist you to discover the act of quieting your thoughts and focusing your mind towards a single intent.  A byproduct of that is, when you get deep enough and good enough, the “point of consciousness” experience that Tom talks about.  This is, in essence, phasing to Focus 21 (the void), which is the Phasing/Projection experience.  That’s exactly what we’re doing when we practice Noticing or Mental Rundowns.  We’re quieting our mind and focusing it upon a single intent.  That intent takes the form of “noticing the blackness” or “visualizing a scene”.  <– They become TOOLS to move our consciousness away from this physical awareness and our physical senses… taking us to the “Point of Consciousness”.

So, if you want to experience the non-physical in all its larger glory… put down all your preconceived notions about methods this and techniques that, and just learn to be alone with your consciousness.  Master yourself before you try to master the larger reality, for that is the real journey.  The non-physical is only a small part of your being… and the fact you’re here in this physical reality in the first place is proof enough of that.

Lunchtime Meditation – November 18, 2010

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It\’s been a few weeks since I\’ve meditated during my lunch hour… but today I figured I\’d give it a shot to see if I could find that elusive \”fall asleep\” point.

It\’s been a tough point to find… but I think I FINALLY nailed it, but only once.  So I\’m sitting here with my eyes closed, feet flat on the floor and my arms folded in front of me and I\’m doing a mostly \”noticing\”-type exercise, just watching the forms appear and wave around in front of my eyes, to which I now realize *IS* Robert Monroes Focus 12.  A post from Frank mentions this perfectly.

\”It used to happen to me all the time where I\’d just be settling into the Focus 12 state; where it is natural to perceive all manner of outline shapes and shadows, or whirls of colour, and so forth\”

Those forms started to come about after a period of relaxing… and obviously weren\’t there to begin with.

Then for a second, I felt the shift and I was engulfed in the blackness… which if I had to describe it, had depth to it, and it was VERY black.  I have lights on in my office right now and I can see a bit of the light bleed through my eye lids, but after I felt that shift, everything just went straight to black.  The Blackness seems to be Focus 21, which means I\’m shooting through a few other focus levels without even realizing it… that\’s probably what the sensation of movement or that shift is.  One day I\’ll have to try to slow it down and see.  For now, I\’ll just stick with this practice.

Now, I didn\’t notice it right away… but I did notice and felt the shift, which was my goal.  Now I need to try and pin point the exact moment it starts.  So I was in the blackness, then my physical eyes decided to kick in to get a look at it… and bam!  I find myself back in my office.

Another quote from Frank:

\”As you begin to perceive those impressions try and remain as mentally still and as neutral as possible. Simply be a passive observer and just let events unfold.\”

I found that prior to the shift happening, I was remaining fully relaxed and was just \”watching\” the shapes rolling around in front of me.  What is surprising to me right now is how easy it was to hit that Focus 12 state.  And now that I think about it, I\’ve had this experience before with the rolling and floating shapes, but I never made the connection to this before.  So I now know what to look for when I get there.

Definitely progress.  🙂

Yesterdays Meditation – Sept 14, 2010

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I sat down yesterday right after work to meditate a bit… I had no particular goal in mind.  It wasn\’t like I was sitting down to do any phasing practice or anything.  Keep in mind that I\’m still working towards my first \”conscious projection exit\”… meaning from a fully awake state, instead of my usual \”wake up in a dream\” thing that I currently do.

I put my iPod earbuds in and turned on some Carlos Nakai flute music… really relaxing stuff to me.  🙂
Anyways, about 10 minutes go by and I\’m really relaxed listening to the flute music and I start to feel disoriented… like I physically know which way I\’m facing, but I\’m sensing that I\’m just all over the place, plus I had a sensation of slowly spinning around.  I think this was kind of along the lines of the \”noticing\” exercise used for Phasing. I was just passively observing these changes in motion.

As I was doing that observing, I felt as if I immediately shot up and backwards, but it startled me, because I came right back as soon as it happened.  I\’ve felt that particular thing before, but this time it REALLY caught me off guard… it was as if I was standing in an elevator and it just DROPPED.

So yeah, I just felt like sharing that.  I hope you can take something away from this experience that might be of help to you. 🙂

How to Deal with Itches and Other Physical Distractions

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We all get those dreaded itches and other things that attempt to distract us from our meditations or projection practice.  How you deal with them can ensure you have a good session or a waste of time.

People always ask what do they can do about things like itches, dry mouth, likewise or even intruding sounds.

I generally start by asking people how do they fall asleep at night?  Because the process between that and getting comfortable to meditate or practice projection are really the same.

So ask yourself that:  How do you deal with these obstacles so you can fall asleep at night.

Personally, if I\’m just sitting down to meditate or practice my phasing, I\’ll attempt to take care of whatever current distractions that there might be.  If I\’m already in the middle of practice and an itch occurs, then I\’ll calmly and slowly move towards the area and scratch it.  You should be able to move slightly without losing too much of your relaxation and focus… if you can\’t, then I suggest practicing something to that effect because it truly is a good skill to utilize.

By treating your practice sessions as a mini-sleep, you can effectively learn how to handle any distraction that your body might come up with.
You can try pure will power and not pay attention to the itch or other problem, but in the end, it\’s just easier to deal with it calmly than it is to not pay attention to it.

Now, say the distraction is sound related, say it\’s something external from yourself.  Then you have only so many options.  You can try to stop whatever is making the sounds by, once again, calmly and slowly moving towards whatever is making the noise and quell it.  My personal favourite is to listen to some kind of music or something that\’ll apply a bit of white noise to the room you\’re in.  For me, I use my iPod with various sounds and music files on it… however, I need new earbuds, cause the ones that came with the iPod don\’t fit me well and cause too much pressure.

Another technique for dealing with \”sounds\” is to visualize the sound washing over and past you.  This works very well and if you\’re like me and want to learn how to deal with sounds without them becoming an obstacle in the first place, then this is the one to practice.  Visualize the sound as a wave of water washing over your entire body, going around you and then leaving you forever.  It works great.

Anyways, that\’s all I have for now about taking care of distractions.  I hope this helped a bit.  🙂

Isochronic Tones

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Someone posted this link on the Astral Pulse and I wanted to share it with everyone here as well.

They\’re Isochronic Tones, I apologize for the harsh colour scheme they use… LoL

I don\’t fully understand the differences between these and Binaural Beats, but wikipedia has this to say about them:

Isochronic tones are regular beats of a single tone used for brainwave entrainment. Similar to monaural beats, the interference pattern that produces the beat is outside the brain so headphones are not required, but since isochronic tones are more pronounced, the stimuli is even stronger. They differ from monaural beats which are a sine wave pulse rather than entirely separate pulses of a single tone.

That sounds pretty self explanatory.

I plan on downloading some of these and trying them out soon. I\’ll keep everyone updated on how well they work.
Just remember that, as with everything else, these will also be an individual thing. They\’ll work for some people and not for others.

Focus 10: Mind Awake / Body Alseep, Written by Ashes/Fred

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I wanted to share this article with you that I read a short while back, written by Fred, the administrator of Explorations in Consciousness.

I was always unsure about the state of mind known as Focus 10, and it helped me IMMENSELY in recognizing that I was, indeed, getting to that state… and getting there rather easily.

Focus 10: Mind Awake / Body Asleep

I’ll put the first bit here just to wet your appetite.

Copyright Notice
Copyright 2006, explorations-in-consciousness.com. All rights reserved. Permission for non-commercial use is hereby granted, provided that this file is distributed intact. Quotations must be properly cited.

The concept of phasing
For those unfamiliar with the focus levels a little background is in order. The story goes back to Robert A. Monroe, who began to experience involuntary Out of Body Experiences (OBE) in 1957. These early experiences have been documented in his first book “Journeys out of the body” (Monroe, 1971). It was also during this time that Monroe discovered that sound patterns could induce certain states of consciousness, which eventually led to the creation of the Monroe Institute and patented sound technology called Hemi-Sync.

While the early experiences of Monroe were often characterized by a sensation of leaving the body his development took a different turn in later years. Monroe discovered the “quick-switch”, which allowed him to move from one “location” to another in an instant by stretching or reaching out with his consciousness. Eventually, this led Monroe to consider the “second body” to be no more than “local traffic”–mere habit due to the physical experience (Atwater, 2001). Thus, the implicit philosophical background behind ‘phasing’ is that there is no such thing as “leaving the body”, since consciousness is never really ‘in the body’ to begin with. Rather, all experiences which constitute things such as “trance”, “hypnosis”, “altered states”, “meditation”, “OBEs”, and “astral projections” are simply variations on the same theme where consciousness is focused in different ways and in different degrees away from the physical.

The term phasing is a metaphor derived from physics, which conceptualizes consciousness as a waveform that can either be aligned or non-aligned with physical reality. For example, when we are 100% phased into the physical were are considered perfectly aligned with normal physical input and waking reality. In Monroe speak, this is called C-1 consciousness or primary phasing. As consciousness moves further away from the physical (and the senses) consciousness is said to phase into other “focus levels”. The first of these is focus 10 – the state of mind awake/body asleep.

Achieving the focus 10 state is facilitated by tapes or CD’s, which utilize binaural beats to influence brain wave patterns in the person listening to them. These tapes are sold as part of a set of tapes/CDs called The Gateway Experience by the Monroe Institute. In particular, the set of tapes (Wave I) of the Gateway Experience is geared towards establishing the focus 10 state, while subsequent series (Wave II to VI) gradually increase the phase shift away from the physical. These focus levels have been described as follows (Monroe, 1994, p. 248):

Focus 10: Mind Awake/Body Asleep
Focus 12: A state of expanded awareness
Focus 15: State of no time
Focus 21: The edge of time/space where it is possible to contact other energy systems.

It is important to realize these focus levels are merely arbitrary numbers and signposts to identify the state of consciousness one is in. In case you’re wondering, there is no focus 14 or focus 16. However, beyond focus 21, several other focus levels have been identified further removed from the physical, and which involve among other systems the perception of belief system territories (“astral planes”). Thus, The Gateway Experience is meant as a platform from which to explore further on your own. For more information, I suggest you visit the website at the Monroe Institute at www.monroeinstitute.org.

It’s a long read… but a very worthwhile one, in my opinion.
I hope this article helps you as much as it helped me.

Clearing Your Mind

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I just posted this over on the Astral Viewers forums, and I figured I\’d put it here as well.  It\’s a question that a lot of people ask… how exactly does someone clear their mind?  🙂

The Astral Viewers

The point isn\’t to \”clear\” your mind.
Doing that is a very hard thing to do… and I consider it to be overboard for projection.

What you want to do is quiet the \”surface thoughts\”.
These are the thoughts that you randomly have throughout the day as you\’re going about your business… \”Hmmm what should I make for dinner tonight?\”
\”Oh that girl has a hawt butt.\”
\”I hope <so and so> doesn\’t happen later!\”

Those are \”surface thoughts\”.  When you\’re meditating, they can account for thoughts like, \”am I doing it right?\”… or \”I don\’t think I\’m asleep yet\”.

Those are the thoughts you want to \”clear\”.

You do by catching the thought before it has a chance to completely form.  You do this as a process.
Let\’s take \”am I doing it right?\” for example.

You might miss catching it first and the whole thought gets out.
Next time it\’ll be \”am I doing it….\”
Then \”am I do….\”
so forth and so on until you just get down to \”….\”
Then eliminate that as well.

It takes a bit of practice, but it\’ll help your projection practice a lot.