I\’ve received a few questions lately regarding the \”Noticing\” exercise. Certain aspects of the explanation that Frank writes about seems to be confusing people slightly… so I\’ll try my best to fully explain the process, at least how it relates to me and hopefully you can apply some of this knowledge to your own practices.
First, the entire point of the noticing exercise, as Frank puts it, is to \”become fixated within\”. That\’s really the end goal, as THAT is where the non-physical lies… within us. It\’s nothing exterior that you \”go to\”.
So, how do we \”become fixated within\” by using the Noticing exercise? That\’s where the actual NOTICING part comes in. You can\’t just sit/lie there and \”look\” at the blackness, because that will do absolutely nothing and you\’ll eventually become frustrated thinking that it\’s not working for you. You need to actually do something for this to work! Just like a binaural beat won\’t project you automatically unless you do the actual work yourself… you won\’t Phase with Noticing unless you actually Notice!
Now, here\’s the confusing part… \”to notice\” is something you have to actively do… HOWEVER, you have to remain \”passively aware\” while actively noticing. I know, that sounds confusing… well, lemme describe how \”I\” notice and I\’ll go from there.
When I actually get to the part of my routine when I begin \”Noticing\”, I stare into the blackness… it\’s the same blackness that you see when you close your eyes. It\’s just blackness (however nonuniform it may look). My goal is to notice any changes that happen within the blackness that is in my field of view. It can be literally anything, as Frank put it, it could be a flash of something, or perceiving some kind of movement in the blackness… when you begin to see ANYTHING (again, do not outright dismiss anything you see) consciously zero in on it. Your goal is to \”Passively Observe\”… this means (and this is VERY IMPORTANT) to keep an air of curiosity about what you\’re seeing. As I see this stuff, I kind of talk to myself while observing it, but I do so without actually talking verbally or thinking it.
To explain that last part… take a piece of paper, this piece of paper is going to represent the \”blackness behind your eyes\”. Draw a single dot in the middle of that page then hold that page up to your face and stare at the dot (it\’s okay to allow the dot to become unfocused). The dot represents your fixated gaze (depending upon how closely you\’re holding the paper to your face, you could see two dots) within the blackness (or in this case the whiteness of the paper)… now, consciously take in the rest of what you can see of the paper, but don\’t actually look around, use your peripheral vision. Try to see any irregularities in the paper… there might be a spec of something somewhere, or a small crease somewhere else that you didn\’t notice before and you might be noticing that the paper isn\’t uniformly white and you begin to focus in on these new-found items of interest. Notice these irregularities and retain that air of curiosity regarding them. Become consciously curious about each and every aspect that you notice in the paper… the more you do this, the more you begin to forget about the physical world around you and the more your consciousness shifts within what you\’re gazing at. This is the act of becoming fixated within.
So now that you\’ve just done that with a piece of paper and with your eyes open… close your eyes, visualize that dot in front of you… and do it again, this time staring at the blackness behind your eyes instead of a white piece of paper. Remember to NEVER verbalize or think about the things you\’re seeing and noticing… try to keep that \”air of curiosity\” about it all.
The shift into Focus 12, where you start to really get visuals, for me, takes anywhere between 10 – 20 minutes. If I don\’t get it after 20 minutes, then I know that my heart just isn\’t in it for that session and I go do something else. But, give yourself whatever time you feel is necessary. It can take a while. Just remain relaxed and calm.
Once you do attain a solid Focus 12 and can hold it for a good period of time without losing it, the next shift to Focus 21 will more than likely happen naturally from a solid Focus 12. You simply have to drive your consciousness within just a bit more… the big point here though is that it\’s nothing you can force. You have to ALLOW yourself to do this shift. From Focus 21, you can pretty much go and do whatever you want simply by visualizing the area you want to go to. 🙂
I hope that helps fill in some of the blanks as per the Noticing exercise. If you have any questions, please leave a comment here, on my own forums, or on the Astral Pulse. Thank you for reading!