Ric: the journey of an old gnostic.

[Ric]

Finally, a breakthrough. I've been trying to have controlled OBEs for a few weeks now, but my exits always required a lot of force and resulted in short, dark and blurry OBEs. I've been wondering if my past has been a factor.
About 20 years ago I was with a small group who was into speaking toungs and prophecy.
(thegnosticchronicles.blogspot.com ) At the end of that episode I perceived a small dark spirit clinging to me with five pointy appendages, one in my navel, two in my chest and two through my jaw into my head. Over a period of two hours it faded from my view and ever since then I have had almost no ability to do anything beyond my body.
Last night I projected out of my body enough to grab that spirit off of my physical body and cast it off. My consciousness flickered back to my body as I felt the vibrations amplify about five-fold ! That was a break through. I took a few deep breaths to relax tense shoulders and stabilize the vibrational state and jumped out of my body again. I now had a much better astral body at the foot of my bed. My vision was still dark, but improving. I floated through the ceiling and across my rooftop, then around the top of a willow tree out front. My wife rolled over in bed, touching me, and I returned to my body. So I tried exiting again. Again I was in my projected body at the foot of my bed, this time I went straight up through the ceiling and sat on the rooftop trying to improve my vision. One of my reasons for learning OBE is to try and remedy a child of mine who has an anxiety disorder. So I drifted down to the basement and found him still awake at the computer (I think I'll look at the history to see what he was doing...) I touched the back of his head, and realized I had no knowledge of how to help. I'm no doctor, and I wasn't getting any Akashic knowledge (yet). So I faced him instead. I used my will from my left eye to peer at him. He seemed to react to that connection. Its nice to know I can use my will that way in OBE. All in all a great night.
I have yet to confirm how much of this is objective verses subjective, but the adventure has begun

[dreamsrock]

That's some crazy stuff Ric!  Keep us posted as to your results helping your son.  I wish u success.

[Michael Raduga]

In this case it's better to use obtaining information techniques to solve this problem. It's not easy, but you may try

[Summerlander]

Yes, it's all about finding things out for yourself.  Also, in the phase, it is possible for you to find solutions to problems.  Btw, the info that you believe you may be getting from what you refer to as the Akashic Records, could in fact be coming from your subconscious reservoir.

[Ric]

Thanks guys. I'm getting into the habit of projecting whenever I awake during the night. Just short trips of about 5-10 seconds while trying to improve my vision. Having dark vision could undermine my confidence in what I'm accomplishing, so I'll review the original methods for exiting and deepening.

That's some crazy stuff Ric

Yes, looking back it still seem bizarre, yet I still cannot explain it away.
I find it interesting how OBE can account for many things I experienced in my past. Especially if Robert Bruce is correct about our projection being a duplicate, with an original consciousness still in body. There were times I had the impression that an "older" self was talking to me spiritually.

it's better to use obtaining information techniques to solve this problem

I'll defiantly be looking into that, but I know I need much practice first.

Akashic Records, could in fact be coming from your subconscious reservoir

Thats the big question isn't it. I'm always thinking in circles trying to sort subjective experience from objective reality. But once we get beyond the physical, the differences blur. Sometimes subjective experiences are shared: hence my signature.
Quantum physics has solid proof that everything is connected, and that consciousness does shape reality. I'm a long way from seeing such answers, and oddly, such an answer might only apply to oneself. All that really matters is that we're looking, not sitting on the couch, brainwatched by the TV, while infinity is waiting all around us.

[Summerlander]

Well said, Ric.  That double-slit experiment is weird. 

[Ric]

  Last night i went to bed telling myself to not move when waking up. As usual I move a little, and have to deepen the vibrational state before projecting. I made a few short, dark projections with great effort, as usual.
    So I switched it up and went to sleep telling myself to become conscious when I dream; Lucid dreaming. It worked!. Well, not too deeply, I entered a series of shallow Lucid Dreams with clear perception and conscious control. It was so nice (even when dreaming my place of work). I've tried LD before, but this time I still had vibrations going from my previous phase attempts and it seemed almost automatic to keep consciousness while dreaming. I'll have to try that approach again.
*edit*
In some ways this LD event was more like Direct projecting: I was basically awake, got close to the phase, and accepting unconsciousness may have given me that free-floating state of mind. I don't recall asking myself "Am I dreaming?". This may make it hard to duplicate, that state of mind is hard to reach without just falling asleep. I'll keep asking if I'm awake.
  During those LDs, I visited work, visited the Fair-ground I had been at earlier that day, and visited my son in the basement again. I ran my hands through his head willing him a clean and balanced mind. He's uncommonly cheerful today, though that proves nothing. But of the three trips, that is the one that may have been Objective, or shared subjective. I suspect that it depends upon my accepting his worldview when I choose to see him. Some people are confident that they are visiting the objective reality, I suspect that is rare, and may depend on accepting someone else's, or everyone else's worldview when visiting. Too soon to call it a theory, just my ramblings.

[Michael Raduga]

I often use vibrations to maintain the phase

[dreamsrock]

I've never used vibrations to maintain.  Sounds like it can help me.  Gotta try it!

[Ric]

This morning as I woke up I tried rotating to loosen up and exit. I ended up rotating forward in a big hamster ball  .
The sense of rotation, movement, and faint scent of rodent helped. And I opened the ball onto a beach. But it was just a short trip with moderate clarity. I seem to have a hard time letting go of my physical body. I guess I've grown attached to it. But I'll have to try the hamster ball more often. The sense of smell is also most strongly attached to memory, so I'm more likely to remember the projection, at least when I go the the pet store. It keeps me safe from cats too. 

[Michael Raduga]

Many people use the smell sense as a support for phase techniques. It's a good example. However you should be more focused on deepening in the phase 

[Ric]

you should be more focused on deepening in the phase

Thanks, and you're definitely right. One thing distracting me is breathing. I like to use breathing to relax and deepen the phase together. But once I exit, when I try to breath to deepen, my attention flickers back to my body, just when I need to forget my body. I'll have to use other deepening methods for now.
  So far I have still only had one night with full clarity while projecting, but still my clarity and confidence are improving, and I do feel like I'm building some good skills and mental discipline in my efforts. 

[Ric]

  When I'm at work I take my lunch and coffee breaks in a quiet spot, sit in a comfortable chair and get a good trance going (good for a 15 min break anyhow). I can usually reach hypnogoglia in a few minutes. Naturally I sometimes try to jump out of body, and I do succeed in getting my awareness out in my typical short, dark sort of trips.
  Today I  hovered on the edge of sleep and entered a weird lucid dream. I was in a grey space with a window ahead of me. the grey space felt like my usual dark short trip but the window was clear and lucid. I didn't think that possible.
  In the window was a person moving slowly against a desert backdrop. I tried bringing it closer but as it got closer it looked really pixelated. This scene faded as consciousness wandered, then I had another lucid scene with a guy talking to another person out of my view.  At that point lucidity faded to unremembered dream.
  Pretty great for a coffee break at work
    It seemed to me that my normal consciousness gives way to a clear, quiet consciousness when I'm in trance; projecting at this point is always dark.
In my (few)successful episodes that are clear and lucid, that 2nd consciousness  gave way to a higher consciousness quite different from the former. I'm thinking that my dark and blurry projections from mid-level consciousness are basically nothing more than my imagination at this point. It's still a worthwhile exercise, but I need to be mindful of the difference.

[Ric]

Ive been trying an alternate exit method used by Alister Crowley (A quasi-religious occult guy with loads of subjective opinions). It involves imagining (with intent) your body outside yourself, then moving your awareness into that body, then moving around and deepening. One deepening method he prescribes is looking at your physical body and "pulling" energy from it that you didn't bring when first exiting. He also describes this as a starting point that takes time to develop into a stronger OBE.
  I have found that exit method to be as good as any for me, but I have not yet been able to "pull" energy from the physical.
  Has any of you more experienced guys tried this? How did it work for you?
*edit*
  I used this direct exit method last night. It was still a dark obe, but it lasted comfortably long. Then I slept, and had a spontaneous indirect exit. That was much clearer, and long too. For fun I turned into a flying lizard and flew around the neighborhood like that for a change.
  I've been trying to get a dreamcheck in memory for LD. I still feel that only the truly lucid OBE have any chance of being shared-subjective-reality or objective-reality. So far dreamchecks haven't worked, but I had fun.

[Jeff]

Hello Ric,
I just read through this all and I was wondering if you have had any more experiences with your son in the phase? How's it going?

( I am sympathetic to this cause and have also had some strange experiences of my own about my daughter in regard to her health and behavior.)

[Ric]

I just read through this all and I was wondering if you have had any more experiences with your son in the phase? How's it going?

Before that night he was getting worse and we were looking at increasing his prescription (a mild anti-depressant that also neutralizes anxiety) . Since that night he seems happy enough that we could take him off it ! (knock on wood) What is really strange is that he has only needed about three hours of sleep a night for the week following (annoying, but very curious!). I haven't had another lucid event that I could "share" with him.
  I still don't know what caused his anxiety disorder, and so I expect it will return, but the healing was worthwhile. I have experienced enough shared-subjective-reality events to feel confident that I helped him. But I may be swimming against the current of objective-reality.
*edit-oct5*
My sons anxiety returned after a few weeks of school. I still feel that healing is a good goal.

[Ric]

I've still been practicing my "short, dark projections". I'm getting practiced enough that its getting more comfortable and my trips are getting longer and clearer. To help with that I often use an exercise prescibed at planarportals.com and at astralinfo.org :
    I project my presence to a specific object and look at it from a few angles. I started with objects in sight, just viewing from other angles, and have moved on to well memorized objects afar. For this exercise one can't just imagine the object. You must put your presence there. I can't yet see the objective reality of the location, but this is just an exercise to stretch my consciousness and to learn how to manage split awareness. Its a much slower path than the indirect phase entry, but its slowly giving me the clarity and confidence I seem to need.
*edit*
Last night I used that direct exit method with ease. As I relaxed and ignored my physical body my projected body and vision improved, but could not complete. After a while I returned and let myself fall asleep. As I did I spontaneously projected lucidly, like the Aug5 event. I hovered over my body (my first time doing so) then flew through the ceiling. I got exited, my vision darkened, then my alarm went off.
I conclude my wakefull projections are not true projections, but yet are more than imagination, a good exercise. The lucid projections are the goal.   
   

[Summerlander]

Well, it's all about exploring and seeing what works best for you.  planarportals and astralinfo, eh?  I might take a gander there.

[Ric]

I had a really, really  long phase last night. The entry was indirect, but I had moved so I had to deepen a lot first. Something I now pay attention to is the effect different actions had on my clarity and vision. I've really been struggling with clarity during direct and indirect projections because I don't fully let go of my physical body. Last night I realized I could take almost any action if it helped to ignore/forget my physical body, but the ones that helped most involved other people. I visited several family members and tried to give them comfort and encouragement ( "blessings" for lack of better words). This really helped clarity; I had a goal, and because it kept me busy.   
Three other things I credit for the length of that phase; the remote viewing exercise I do during the day, the Hemi-sync music I've been listening to (not during phase attempts, but other relaxation times), and my belief in what I'm doing.
I guess the question I must answer now is, can I turn this sort of phase into the vividly clear phase like a lucid dream ? I have read others say they have, but I just gotta let go of my physical body!
*edit*
Next night I had a similar projection. This type of projection is now easy and getting clearer, but full lucidity still eludes me. It has occurred to me that I have never spoken while in phase. I'll try that as an activity to help forget my physical body.

[Michael Raduga]

Vividness always depends on deepening techniques.

You have to find the reason why you have problems with it. Check out these techniques better

[Ric]

I just had a nice long Lucid dream. Memory started as I got sucked up a light colored tunnel. I was just a point of  awareness (I don't recall a body at first) that could choose to do anything. I called out for a guide asking "Where am I", and "How can I get here easier?" A human head formed from what looked like cloud (classical older bearded male head) telling me this is what I would call the Astral Plane, and given time It would get easier for me to go there (no lip movement, just thought transfer, statements were forecast: maybe self-initiate).
So I experimented a bit, had an erotic moment but cut it short as I felt other things were more important. Of course I woke up immediately. I guess that's where planning comes in.
It felt like it lasted 1/2 hour long.
*edit-oct9*
Last night I cleared off that dark spirit just like the aug21 event. Again I felt the vibrations pick up, and then I used my obe hands to push "energy" up my body, again more vibrations. Nice. It may only be a subjective view to an old method, but it works for me. I then settled down to sleep with the vibes going and flowed smoothly into a lucid and clear event. I found myself drinking water from a tall tapered glass. I felt the water clearly! I examined 3 dirt specks on the bottom, I then chose to help someone but then returned.
I've been reading "Journeys out of Body" ,by Robert Monroe. It bring a lot into focus. A good read!