Over the past few months I've been experiencing a steady increase in precognitive dreams. These are dreams in which the future in part, or in totality is foretold by symbols or clear images and scenarios within a dream. Many have experienced precognitive dreams in their lives, be those the standard Deja Vu like instances, or the almost premonitory dreams that seem to rattle the minds of those who experience them. This dream is either later recalled at the time of the "future" event transpiring, which is also refereed to as being Deja Vu, or directly after sleeping.
Precognition has never actually been an appealing area of practice for me. The answer for that? I can't really say, but I'm more so grouped with those who feel that the future is, and will always remain completely dependent on the individual, and so I don't see the need in predicting it. I do believe that there is some purpose for all actions, and a grand design within the lives we live, but I do not however feel as though we do not have choice, or different "paths" in this life that we optionally take.
For those of you who regularly read my content, it won't be a surprise to know that I'm an avid practitioner of both Lucid Dreaming, and Astral Projection. What's so interesting to me is that it's only after upwards of 6 years actively practicing Astral Projection, and closer to 9 pursuing Lucid Dreaming, that I have experienced a connection between these practices and precognitive dreams. It's either this, or something has changed within my practice to create this. I'm for the most part at a loss regarding the situation because it is quite foreign to me. I suppose the first step would be analyzing what may be different about my practice in these areas now, as opposed to years ago, or even a single year ago.
The Dreams
Over the years I've had my fair share of Deja Vu experiences, and even a few eerie dreams which seemed to come to pass at a much later date. This is nothing compared to what I've been experiencing lately though. It seems as though I have at least one dream every night that directly correlates to my life in future days. The dreams themselves are hazy to some degree, like a puzzle with small bits that pop up throughout sleep, jarred with clear audio and random clear images. As the events come to pass I can't help but examine them with frustration and excitement. Yes, it is very exciting to experience something in daily life that you had written about weeks earlier, but it is also frustrating because the events themselves seem to alter, seemingly only due to the very act of dreaming about them.
What I mean is, the dreams that I actually dream and write down, seem to be different from their "real life" counterparts. Sometimes this occurs because where in my dream I say something, in real life I'm too preoccupied realizing that I experienced this to some degree already, so all that comes out is the description of the dream I had. I can imagine this is slightly irritating to the people who are around me all the time, so when this happens I'm always met with "yes Chris, it's crazy..." or something else along those lines. Fair enough I suppose, but the cool factor wares off after awhile and I'm left sitting here wondering how, and why this is occurring.
My Current Sleep Cycle
The best place to start in figuring this whole thing out I suppose is within my actual sleeping patterns. Every day I usually get to bed between 10pm and 1am, when exactly depends entirely on my workload for that day. I wake up at 6:30am everyday besides weekends. During the last month or so I've been struck with terrible nights of sleep which I attributed to my increased stress levels. I've had several family, personal, and financial issues lately to leave any average Joe pulling out their hair and running from the men in white coats. Luckily, I love my hair too much and the men in white coats are probably hiding from me.
Despite this, I did feel as though the stress was affecting my sleep. For some reason I haven't been able to get comfortable, so when I do eventually fall asleep I wake up a few hours later and then repeat the process. The actual dream state occurs within Rapid Eye Movement (REM), which is the deepest level of sleep and happens during the first hour or two of falling asleep. So, if we consider that I wake up to a conscious level four times a night, and am sleeping an average of seven and a half hours a night, we can estimate that I hit a REM cycle at least 4 times. I may be waking up more throughout the night though. It would be almost impossible for me to say, but mild sleeping issues run in my family and I've been known to talk and even be conversational, or wake up and do something with no recollection of having done it. As in, I was still sleeping.
I have also been taking regular naps that I just stopped taking recently. I had been taking a nap from around 1 or 2pm to 5pm everyday to try to catch up on any sleep I might have missed out on. I think this could have been in part to blame for my hardships in sleeping at night, creating a vicious cycle of napping because I'm tired and being tired because I'm napping. I since stopped the naps because of this.
This is unlike my usual sleeping patterns. Prior to these past four months or so, I was getting between 8 and 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. Looking back even further, my sleeping patterns have changed based on my activities, but yet and still, I hadn't experienced precognitive dreams to this extent.
My Current Practice
My practice overall is extremely dependent on my mindset. Much of my practice involves nothing more than pursuing and solidifying already instilled beliefs about the reality in which we live. I attribute a lot of it to my spiritual views, and less to my actual active "practice." So to be safe, not much has changed as far as overall practice is concerned. Many of my views change regularly, but the overall perceptions have remained for quite some time now. My lucid dreaming practice has actually lessened over the years. By that I don't mean that I don't experience them as often, but am less inclined to pursue them directly, followed by logging each event. It's not so much due to time constraints, though it does play a factor, but it's more so based on a lack of interest in doing so right now. I still experience lucid dreaming regularly, so it would be safe to say I have one on a nightly basis.
My involved astral projection practice has actually increased over the last month. This is where much of my interest comes from, because out of everything, this is the one thing that has changed the most. I felt the need to improve my skills in this field to sort of "loosen" the hold my physical body or rather "consciousness" has on my astral body. If you're lost, I don't blame you, but my current view on the astral body vs physical body is that it is mostly a factor of shifting your consciousness and awareness. The harder you hold onto the physical world as your reality, the harder it is to shift it into just your astral body. I've felt more disconnected from our physical world, no doubt do to my ever growing spirituality, and because of this, felt the need to make astral projection and interaction with that plane a lot easier. What I ended up doing was actively astral projecting as opposed to falling into a lucid dream first. The issue I faced when doing this was fatigue.
College is never something that people call "easy." With the other things that were on my shoulders just piling up, the workload from this past semester has been higher than I'm use to. So when we incorporate this, with my lack of sleep, we find fatigue, and lots of it. Unfortunately, the only time I really feel comfortable to practice astral projection right now is before sleep. This is a big no no typically, because the practitioner is most likely going to fall asleep during the practice because of the relaxation exercises. Even in knowing this, I really haven't felt like I had a choice in the matter, so I persisted anyhow. Well, not to my surprise I've been falling asleep either right before a projection, or right after some deep breathing.
Recent Astral Projection Experiences
After falling asleep I've experienced some fairly "odd" things. It would appear that I'm projecting at times right before sleeping, but then am caught in some form of dual awareness. It doesn't even make sense to me when I say that because when you're sleeping your consciousness is elsewhere as your subconscious or unconscious mind takes over. So the fact that It feels as though I'm aware that I'm sleeping, yet lingering in an uncontrolled projection is hard to truly grasp, even in writing.
Craziness aside, this is what it feels like. It's almost like sleep paralysis, in which you are awake and know you are awake, yet your body is sound asleep so you have no control over it by usual means. When I'm in this position I don't really know how to break free of it. I've tried various things but then either fall right asleep, wake up, or wake up the next morning wondering when I actually fell asleep, and what happened.
What's This Got To Do With Precognition?
Well, something I've never really taken interest in was "teleporting" to the "future" by means of astral projection. I have heard of numerous people attempting and succeeding in this act though. It is apparently no different than moving from point A to point B, as time nor distance has any relevancy in the Astral. The need I see to alleviate myself of stress has led to some serious time management activities. These activities have included making detailed to-do lists and placing these feelings of "stress" on the back-burner until the unfinished, or soon to come annoyances have successfully passed.
I believe that somehow it is possible that prior to falling asleep, and during projection practice my thoughts drift to some degree on these issues. When this occurs, it seems as though I may fall asleep, and my astral self may leap forward to a specific event, or place of relevancy to whatever issue I was considering so that I could make "time" in a sense by living it or seeing what was to come in more detail before it occurs. I think it would make sense and may be a regular event that happens to us all. The unconscious minds way of fixing an issue with the least amount of conscious exertion. Somehow, because I am trapped in this odd limbo, as I sleep this information is then fed to me and I remember it and even see it as it occurs on a somewhat conscious level.
All of the dreams I have been experiencing have been relevant either to a situation I was facing, to something I was stressed about, something I was curious about, or even just what my last thoughts before bed were on. So this is all I have to go on right now. It makes sense to me I guess. It's almost as if this odd state of limbo acts as a sort of Psychical Google that fetches whatever information I need, and delivers it in a way I can understand. There are some holes in this idea though, or perhaps those holes are due to my current ideas of what exactly is relevant to these experiences.
I don't understand how this would cause me to wake up periodically throughout the night. It may not be related to this though, but I'm curious to know the difference, if any, in these events if I were to get a full and uninterrupted night of sleep. My waking up may be due to my experience in lucid dreaming though. Something to do with noticing a difference in a dream that triggers a light bulb moment, and as opposed to becoming aware of a dream, because of the "state" I'm in it results in my waking up.
Also, if I wasn't stressed, would I be in the position to go through this still? I'm not quite sure as of this very moment, and haven't really taken the time to look at it in depth or experiment with different scenarios or manually doing this, so the information I have from personal experimentation is pretty much none at this point. In fact, in just writing this I have put more consistent thought into the situation than I have up until this point.
Coincidentally, reading over that last paragraph I experienced another Deja Vu moment relating to a dream I had a month or more ago. All of this does put me into a very interesting state. I'm in a position where I have seen various images, many of which change when they come to pass, but all of which are somehow relevant to me. I would love to see if I could bring in more information of topics that do not directly relate to me, to see if the overall "future" is as subjective as impressions of my own tend to be. I can say there is a clear relationship between astral projection, lucid dreaming, and precognition now, after thinking about it more. The true question would be, is this relationship based on an understanding and developed conscious "skill" in these areas? Or is it more so based on the conscious passive acceptance of it?
If you were to talk to me regularly, you would know that I feel as though all areas of spiritual development and practice are connected, and once you develop your understanding and acceptance of this, they are all developed in one motion through means of meditation and intention, as opposed to hard "training" in any one given area. So for me, seeing a connection between the unconscious mind and the conscious mind through these means is very intriguing.
It could also be that because I am in this limbo like state, I am just more conscious to my mind "downloading" information from the "Matrix" or the "Akashic Records," both of which are essentially different words describing the stored information of everything that was, is, and will be. Many spiritualists believe we are innately connected to this and constantly receiving and giving information. Many Technical and Coordinate Remote Viewers believe that we can "link" up to this force at will to get whatever information we are seeking. I've also experienced this in remote viewing, but never such a direct conscious connection, because in remote viewing you distract the conscious mind to allow the unconscious to do the work. Maybe all of this is just me being in a conscious state of seeking that specific information out.
Either way, despite what these experiences are or might be, if it is related to the first possibility, and we have the potential to "send" the astral body to do something while only remaining partially aware of this, the world of possibilities drastically increases. It's not so much that this would be a useful practice, as it would be interesting for the sake if spiritual, and even scientific research and discovery. I suppose now all I can do is wait, watch, and continue doing what I'm doing. I'll be sure to keep you guys posted on any new developments, especially after the next two weeks when the current semester is over and my sleep cycle once again changes.
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Stuff Elsewhere
From mainstream Hollywood to children's cartoons, the thought of leaving your physical body and moving forward into a seemingly different reality yet, parallel existence has been a fascination for many. Moving beyond this, the actual discussion of Out of Body Experiences (OOBES) and Astral Projection is a very large and continuously ongoing one, especially within spiritual, religious, and parapsychological communities. The practice by many is seen as almost a bridge between the physical and non-physical worlds, giving motivation and encouraging those seeking confirmation of the existence of an afterlife or the "soul." Once experienced, further investigation into its existence is most often unsought by the person experiencing it, yet the phenomenon has been highly researched by the scientific community due to it's intrigue.
Astral Projection in it of itself is a huge practice with various beliefs surrounding it. It has no simple definition, although the current adopted understanding of the practice is that an individual intentionally separates from the physical world and enters the "Astral Plane." This plane of existence is understood to be parallel to this reality on lower "levels," but also contains with it higher levels of existence that the projector may access with practice in raising the vibration or resonance of the astral body. These higher levels are said to go fairly high and there are those individuals who say that with practice they have even reached a level of resonance high enough which enables them to see and even communicate with Angels. Regardless of the many understandings of the practice, it is an ongoing one and can be extremely exciting, as well as scary within early stages.
Astral Projection and the Scientific Community
Astral projection is a practice that is shrouded in myth and mystic, but through this there is a lot of truth and ongoing research. Along with this, it is an invaluable aid for spiritual growth. Our societies scientific method requires us to prove, experiment, and repeatedly prove whatever it is we are researching. The issue astral projection poses to this method is that we currently do not have effective enough technology to record, document, and measure the astral body. Despite this, many different attempts have been made at studying the phenomenon through scientific means. Despite this, numerous attempts have been made at scientifically documenting the existence of astral projection and OOBE phenomenon.
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded in 1882 by England's Cambridge University. The goals were to research the spiritual, religious, psychic, and general paranormal events that were reported and discussed world-wide. Essentially anything that science could not put a tangible handle on, anything "unknown" within the world of metaphysics. In 1886 a two volume work called Phantoms of the Living was published by Edmund Gurney, Frederick Myers, and Frank Podmore, three members of the SPR. The work cited a large about of Astral Projection events amongst upwards of 702 overall cases cited within the two volumes of work published.
The American Society for Psychic Research (ASPR) is one of the many organizations who devotes a large amount of time and research to the OOBE phenomenon. They attempt to separate the events of clairvoyant vision from an actually out of body experience. This proves to be somewhat difficult to distinguish between due to the subjective nature of certain psychic phenomenons. What one person perceives as being leaving the body within their astral body, another may perceive as nothing more than viewing or observing an area by means of clairvoyance. In 1977 the ASPR and it's director Kaelis Oasis, along with his associate Janet Mitchell, did various experiments with the famed psychic and artist, Ingo Swann.
The reasearch into this phenomenon continued and is still taking place today. In the early 1970s Dr. Robert Morris, director at The Psychical Research Foundation (PRF) in North Carolina, worked with a Duke University student by the name of Keith Harary. Keith, an apparently very skilled Astral Projector, was able to engage in various experiments mostly based on what he was able to perceive during projections. He projected into different buildings and successfully read back whatever was on them during the projections. He stated that he could hear sounds within our physical plane, but also heard incredible harmonious things from beyond our current physical plane of existence.
Another prominent round of research on the subject was conducted by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California. Russel Tard, and Harlod Puthoff, both physicists, conducted a large amount of experiments about Remote Viewing between the 1970s and early 1980s. They were convinced that Remote Viewing is actually a form of clairvoyance, as opposed to a form of OOBE. To me this raises a few extra questions because after practicing Technical Remote Viewing for a few years, I don't see how you can relate remote viewing to OOBES in general. How they came to these conclusions is beyond me, but the research was fairly in depth. They did various experiments with the famed Ingo Swann, giving him the coordinates of a particular location for him to project to, and having him report back successfully. It was stated that he was successful 75 times out of 100 trials, where 14 attempts were missed and the other 6 couldn't be successfully evaluated. These trials were described as being remote viewing experiments, yet, it was made known and clearly obvious that what he was doing was a form of OOBE or Astral Projection. He described how he would leave his physical body and make his way to the specified location.
As the research continues various other systems of measurement have been developed in attempts to measure such phenomenon. Most recently, Kirlin Photography, a form of photography first developed and named after the Russian inventor Seymon Kirlian in the early 1940s. The process is reportedly able to record the aura or bio-field of an individual, and so has been used or attempted, to capture an image of an Astral Body. Kirlin Photography is still highly controversial today, despite the images that have been recorded. Whatever the research, it's safe to say that proving the existence of Astral Projection is still a difficult task within the scientific community. More importantly than the current findings, is figuring out what would prove Astral Projections existence. Either way, we can rest assured knowing that the practice, research, and experimentation that revolves around this extraordinary phenomenon is one that will continue throughout the years.
The Difference Between OOBEs and Astral Projection
It's often debated whether a difference even exists. I decided to mention this only because I tend to use the terms interchangeably, which seems to confuse a lot of people who are under the impression that there is actually a difference between the two. An Out of Body Experience is said to occur to those nearing death, or where the body actually dies for a brief moment. It can also be achieved consciously and when someone experiences one, the environment seems to be as real as it gets. By that I mean physical. Your location appears to you just as it would if you were awake and moving about in your daily life. In Astral Projections people seem to experience a large array of colors, and a generally different vibe.
The only other difference is that within an Astral Projection, in time an individual can "ascend" to different levels, whereas in an OOBE an individual is essentially entrapped within this one level of resonance. If you do move up in a level or plane of existence while in an OOBE, then you are automatically considered to be Astral Projecting. This is somewhat of a logical fallacy I should say. Assuming that one is different from the other based on minute differences in perception. My personal opinion on the matter comes from my own experiences. A low level Astral Projection, more commonly in the first stages of the practice is pretty much exactly like one would experience while during an OOBE. To me, an OOBE is simply a low level Astral Projection, the lowest level often achieved. The issue lies within the practitioner. If you learn that there is a difference, and then strive to achieve one or the other, the idea that you will perceive what you think you are going to perceive is a pretty feasible idea.
What this means is that, if you believe an OOBE is a very real, physical experience whereby everything seems exactly the same, with the exception that you can move through walls and the usual rules don't apply, then you will probably experience that. If you believe that in an Astral Projection you will see things differently, you probably will. Not to say that the entire nature of the two are subjective, I'm speaking on first encounters. It's no different to me at this point, having pursued both on their own terms. If I project and everything seems to point to an OOBE, I have no issue calling it that. But if I think raise my vibratory state, I can then feel comfortable in saying that I am Astral Projecting. I believe that an OOBE may be just the same thing, but on our physical plane of existence. As in, we project, but are still walking around in the physical reality, as opposed to flying around in the "astral" plane.
My most recent projection experience was completely unintentional. My alarm was going off and I had a terrible nights sleep, so I was pretty exhausted. I hopped up and leaned over to turn it off, but as I hit the button it wouldn't go off. The noise irritated me and then I hopped up again to turn it off and was finally successful. I kind of looked around for a minute in confusion then realized that I had unconsciously projected. I suppose I was so startled by it, having just recently fallen asleep, that I was jolted out of body, or rather, never returned to my physical body before trying to turn off the alarm. I would equate this experience with an OOBE because it was no different than normal behavior. If I were to hop up, fly out, and increase my current vibrations to move up in the planes, I would then call that an Astral Projection.
It's really not that complex, and I don't feel that an OOBE is beneath an Astral Projection at all, I just feel as though there are levels within the practice that are hard to really get a feel for unless you practice yourself. So if I refer to an OOBE, it's safe to assume that I am referring to a lower level projection whereby I still have room to move up. Likewise, if I refer to an Astral Projection, I am more than likely making reference to an instance where I'm right above basic level projection. Within these levels though, there is a large amount of practice required to explore and develop your ability, and many uses within each. There are some who only pursue OOBE experiences and find more than enough to do and explore while doing so. Others seek out more diverse and "out there" experiences. Whatever your goal, it depends on your intent. Not too coincidentally, both forms of projection are achieved in exactly the same way. The difference lying in this intent, whether you are intending to OOBE or Astral Project.
Uses Of Astral Projection
Astral Projection is used for various things beyond the general cool factor of flying and exploring another reality parallel, yet separate from the one we move through day in and day out. Many people have used Astral Projection for the purposes of healing and magic(k). Due to being located in a different and higher plane of existence, the use of energy work and similar practices seems to be not exactly easier, but more effective to a certain extent. This is no doubt due to being closer to a source of some form. You are in essence pure energy, as opposed to manipulating that energy within your physical body.
Astral Projecting can be an extremely useful tool in exploring other environments. Be those other buildings to check up on a friend or family member, or different planets. Some even report the ability to travel through time, considering the idea of "time" isn't even relevant once projected. Imagine being in a world where no rules you currently experience are relevant at all. You have no boundaries and there is pretty much not a single thing you cannot do or achieve. The uses are limited only to your imagination.
The Stages of Projection
When it comes to any metaphysical practice, stages are always relevant. I can't help but stress them because it seems to help the newer practitioners understand the processes in which they are experiencing. It's incredibly helpful in understanding where you are with your practice, and where you're going, as well as what you should to to help you further along your practice.
Stage 1 - The first stage of projection is associated with the sleep state. We are believed to project out of the body as we fall asleep. Many are not aware of this, but a lot of people attribute that jolting feeling, or experiences of falling while sleeping to a forceful return of the astral body to the physical body. This stage is also said by some to occur while even in waking states. During times of extreme exhaustion, some people have experienced partial, or even full projections whereby they are moving around, or doing something only to be brought back into the body. It's almost as if they were experiencing a day dream, only to be snapped back into consciousness to realize that what they were going through wasn't really happening in their physical body.
Stage 2 - Stage 2 is experienced when the astral body is forcefully projected a short distance away from the body to consciously escape instances of extreme pain. It's like a mental escape. Many long distance runners, bikers, or other athletes can attest to this form of projection. It's as if they were watching their body from a different perspective so the pain or events going on did not directly affect their mental state. Others have experienced this as looking from behind their eyes. I would call this a very low level projection in which your mental state is actually projected, but you retain conscious control over your body. Sometimes, because someone is use to a certain behavior like biking, it seems as though they aren't even in control over their body, and only watching the events transpire as if the body just remembered what to do.
Stage 3 - This is the first stage of conscious projection. You are free to do what you wish and go where you choose. With more practice you are able to travel at any speed, even instantaneously, and distance is not a factor. At this stage the projector should watch their thoughts, because if we recall that energy flows where attention goes, you will travel or end up where your thoughts are directed. This is because while in a projected state, you are your consciousness, essentially nothing but energy, so where you concentrate or focus on, you will end up.
Stage 4 - This is the stage many more experienced projectors experience. It is the stage that you are "contacted" or being to see and experience contact with higher beings. Some refer these to "angels" or "guardians." You achieve this stage after practice and time spent during astral travel. Once here a lot of lessons are learned and your eyes are opened even further. Many refer to this stage as being the stage of enlightenment, the stage where the highest level of spiritual lessons and growth can be achieved.
Beginning Your Astral Travel
Prior to hopping right into the practice you should first take some basic preliminary steps to optimize your success. There are a lot of people who experience common issues while attempting to leave their body. Wondering thoughts, twitches, restlessness, and even fear are just a few of the many issues you may face while just beginning. Below are a few exercises you should take up on a regular basis, and even just before attempting to Astral Project to help you along.
Meditation - Meditation is one of the most important practices you can take up during any spiritual practice. It's especially important for the individual new to Astral Projection because it enables you to get into a calmer, more relaxed state of mind. Quieting your conscious mind is of the utmost importance so that you can be more focused on the task at hand. I have written some other posts about different meditations and offer various exercises which you can find here. Aside from those, we'll be working with the four phase breath in particular for what we are attempting to achieve.
The Four Phase Breath
The Four Phase Breath is a very popular traditional Chi meditation that utilizes breathing control to help relax, and focus the mind. The exercise it self takes very little work on the part of the practitioner, but I would advise you you to take up it's practice on a regular basis as opposed to doing it just before you attempt to project. I say this only because being exposed to all of these new things in one sitting can be very exhausting mentally, and even physically, as your body adjusts to the breathing change. This may result in you just falling asleep, as opposed to successfully projecting.
1. Sit upright, or lay flat on your back. Begin by taking a few deep breaths in through your nose and out of your mouth. Relax your body, go through and ensure that all of your muscles are fully relaxed. Allow your thoughts to pass freely, don't spend time following any particular train of thought. Instead, allow them to come and go as if you were viewing them on a television.
2. Take in one last deep breath to prepare for the exercise. Breathe in deeply allowing your stomach to expand on the inhale and contract on the exhale. As you breathe in slowly, count to four. When you reach four, you should have inhaled to your lungs' capacity.
3. Hold this breath for a total of four seconds.
4. On the fourth count, exhale slowly to the count of four. Hold for four seconds before repeating. Continue this exercise until you feel fully relaxed. Remember that each inhale, and exhale should be for four seconds, and you should wait four seconds before inhaling, and before exhaling again.
This exercise is extremely easy once you get more adjusted to the practice it self. In the beginning, if you are entirely new to related exercises you may have difficultly keeping count. This is normal and don't worry about it right now, you will get use to it as time goes on, and eventually you won't even need to count, and rather, it will just be natural for you.
Stretching
Often I hear people complain that they experience constant and irritating twitches. This is due to your body still being wide awake while you're sitting in total stillness. We even twitch a lot prior to falling asleep. It's completely normal. Getting around this isn't as complex as some make it seem. Take about ten minutes out of your day in the morning, prior to going to bed, and before practice to stretch. Stretch all of your body parts fully, careful not to over do it. Breathe deeply as you do this. You can even do one round of the four phase breath per stretch. That will be a sufficient amount of time to perform the stretch as well, so it all works out. A good idea would be to take up some light yoga work to help you prepare. It's also great for centering.
Astral Projection Methods
After you have fully relaxed and are prepared for your projection practice, lay down flat on your back to not be so comfortable as to fall asleep, or sit in a reclined position. I would suggest that you wear loosely fitting clothes and that the temperature in the area is comfortable enough so that you won't be too hot or too cold. There are a large variety of different exercises you can experiment with to successfully project, but remember that everyone is different, and something that works for one person may not work in the least bit for another. Everyone and their needs are different, so finding the right method for you may take some work but with consistent practice your success to some degree or another is pretty much inevitable.
Full Relaxation Method
This method is very similar to common relaxation techniques utilized for various means. It's not that complex and in fact, though the desired outcome is to achieve a full projection, the method to induce it has no direct correlation with projecting. You begin this method by getting comfortable and going through to relax each body part individually. Some people like to start from top to bottom, others from the feet upwards. Pick whatever you feel more comfortable with and begin.
Take in a deep breath and focus on the body part you are relaxing. If you are going from top to bottom start with your face. Take in a deep breath and ensure that your face is fully relaxed. Every muscle in your face should be at ease and with no contractions. Some people like to flex and contract every muscle in that area to help relax it. Continue breathing and relaxing this part of your body and then move on to the next.
Move down and relax the neck and upper shoulder muscles. Get out any lingering movements you need to help this process. Breath deeply while focusing on this area, ensuring that it is fully relaxed before moving on. Continue this throughout the rest of your body and repeat if needed. As you do this make sure that you are taking your time. This is the method in totality, so patience is a must. After some time practicing this method you should feel completely relaxed and your state of relaxation may come to a point whereby you experience a spontaneous projection as your body essentially falls asleep while your mind remains conscious. Some experience projections by this method, others require a bit more conscious effort, but I would advise everyone to use this method first, even before trying any other methods we cover later. The more relaxed you are in the long run, the better.
The Chord Method
As you lay down, either tie a string to something above you, tape it to the ceiling, or use a completely imaginary one. As you lay down fully relaxed, imagine your astral arms gripping hold of this string. Take your time and be careful not to flex or tense your physical arms. Pull on this string and gently climb your way up. The goal is to tug with your astral arms and send your consciousness upwards in hopes that your astral body will eventually follow. You should never technically reach the top of the string, the purpose in having a physical rope there is to assist in the visualization. This method has proven very successful for a lot of people. I have unfortunately only had success once with this. It was my first projection ever accomplished manually and was very brief. For this method, along with others but especially this one, I need to stress the importance of relaxation. I experienced the tenseness in my arms for a long time while working with this method, and only achieved success when my body was completely depleted of energy due to a spell of insomnia upwards of six years ago.
Rocking Out
The title to this is fairly humorous, but that is literally what we are trying to accomplish when utilizing this technique. This method is done by consciously rocking your astral body. Not literally, but rather imagining it rocking side to side within your body. As you rock the momentum of the rocking should cause your rock to get longer and even pick up speed. This occurs until you are rocking from one side of your body to the next and continues until you essentially rock your astral body loose of the physical. People have used this method, only to find themselves falling on the floor, but when they rose surprised to lay back down, they realized they were experiencing a projection.
The Body of Light
Variations of this method are discussed virtually everywhere Astral Projection or OOBES are taught. It is a very effective method but requires a lot of practice and getting use to. Begin by creating a mirror image of your body in front of you. Imagine this body to directly reflect your person. Take some time to ensure that no detail is spared. Jewelry, clothing, hair, every detail of your person should be included. See this body moving around the room. Allow it to explore your current location, go into a different room and come back. As it explores see through it's eyes, feel what it feels. It should be no different than walking or moving around in your physical body.
Have the body of light come back to where your physical body is, and position it in front of you. Begin to consciously will your consciousness into this body. As opposed to viewing this body in your mind from your physical body, begin to view your physical body through this body of light. After some work and practice many people experience a projection by doing this. There are other variations of this method floating about. One such involves transferring your consciousness into a ball of light, as opposed to a literal body. Which ever your method, have patience and work at it regularly.
Lucid Dreaming
A lucid dream is a dream in which you are consciously aware of a dream while you are dreaming. From this dream state I have found that you can consciously project yourself out of your body into an Astral Projection. Lucid dreaming it it of itself is a huge practice with a lot of benefits. This is the primary method I suggest everyone to take up. It may not be the most straight forward method, but it's one that will ensure success over a period of time. I wrote a much more in depth look at lucid dreaming that you can find here.
The basic method for achieving a lucid dream though, is by keeping a dream log. Every morning when you wake up write down the time, date, your emotional state prior to sleeping and how you felt when you woke up, and your dream in full detail. If you don't remember your dream at that time write down "I chose not to remember my dreams." As you get into the habit of logging all of your dreams you will eventually begin to remember them in full detail, and over time you will learn your dreaming patterns. This will result in you questioning yourself while dreaming, which will jolt your consciousness and you will realize that you are dreaming. After playing around with lucid dreaming for some time you can eventually push yourself forwards and out into an astral projection.
Final Tips
Astral Projection can be an incredibly enjoyable and enlightening experience. After you have successfully projected your practice and learning experience truly starts. There are a lot of reasons why people fail at projecting. One of which is patience. Developing patience is a key component in finding success. Using affirmations to help along your progress is also encouraged, Also, if you have fears about the actual projection, affirming that you have nothing to fear will help you. Affirming on a regular, daily basis that you will be successful can improve the speed and likelihood that you are successful.
Many of these exercises can be assisted by having a certain amount of skill in other meditation techniques. I encourage you to expose yourself to meditation to the fullest extent. I stress meditation in almost everything I write about because I feel it's just that important. Some of these methods require a shift in focus and concentration. Developing your sensitivity can have drastic changes in your progress, especially when dealing with the Body of Light method. It will help you to get a better feel for the energetic body and to shift your focus from one point to another.
There is enough information about Astral Projection for me to easily exceed 10 books. This post is just meant to get you started along your journey and there is a lot more content that needs to be covered. For now, stick with it, experiment, and most of all enjoy what you are experiencing. I suggest that you keep a log of all of your experiences and results similar to the lucid dreaming dream log. It can help you to see what you have been doing, and what you were doing to give you the most results. There are a few methods to achieve projection through Chakra work, and if you want some added help look for some guided meditations or Astral Projection walk troughs, trance or meditation music seems helpful as well. Most importantly, keep at it, good luck, and I'm more than open to any questions you have. I have a lot more posts lined up on this subject, and if you had any success by means that were not listed here feel free to share them.
The 11:11 Phenomenon, also known as the 111 phenomenon is something that has interested me for quite some time now. It is easier experienced than explained to someone completely new to the concept. Looked at simply, it is a universal wake-up call that many people go through at different stages of their spiritual development. The phenomenon occurs when an individual seemingly cannot escape the numbers. Wherever you go you are noticing 11:11; on the clock, within numbers or the sum of numbers around you, dates, etc... Contrary to popular belief the 11:11 phenomenon doesn't even necessarily need to be with those particular numbers.
It is a process of synchronization and patterns. I still remember when I first experienced the time on the clock. I was really young, in elementary school with a digital watch. I don't even think I could tell time because when I looked down at my watch I said "Wow! My watch goes all the way up to one hundred and eleven!" So, considering I didn't even know that it was in the thousands, I can safely assume I was pretty young. Whenever I would glance down it seemed to be 11:11, and I noticed it twice a day for a long time, but then it stopped and I began noticing different, yet equally strange things.
Particular letters, words, dates, etc... would show up throughout my day. For awhile I questioned what it meant but then eventually figured it out, or at least I thought I did. Years later I was roaming the Internet and discovered an article on 11:11. Many of the current beliefs are what I've already mentioned, but some take it to the point of adding the sums of numbers to find 11:11. For instance, today is 4/7/2009: 2 + 0 + 0 + 9 = 11, 4 + 7 = 11. I can take this as a sign that yes, writing about this today was the right move. Or rather, finishing it, considering I started it last night.
Through the Looking Glass
But before getting more in depth, let's first look at the steps many associate with 11:11.
Step 1 - You begin to notice the number (or related event) on a clock, within purchases, money, just all over the place. You begin to become more conscious of the numbers as well. After observing it for the first time many people get the "oh, well, that's cool" reaction because it is seemingly odd to see. At this point 11:11 is basically just a calling card, something to make you scratch your head and keep on moving throughout your day.
Step 2 - This is when it gets a bit more interesting. This is the step in which the numbers appear to a point that basically destroys all probability. Your curiosity peaks as you notice them more and more. Some even turn off clocks or turn them back, and purposely look away to not notice the numbers, or not consciously find the sum of numbers around them. Yet, within all of this conscious effort to not see them, they still appear. This is where many people who do not believe, or choose not to allow some numbers to disrupt their take on reality are forced to turn around and pursue, just for their own peace of mind. Others never leave this step and try to forcibly push 11:11 out of their minds and lives.
Step 3 - This is the peak of the phenomenon. This is where you actually begin noticing the numbers' significance and many are sent spiraling down the rabbit hole in a fast paced and exciting pursuit of self discovery. Eyes are opened, minds are forever changed and the numbers are no longer just simple reminders, no longer just odd occurrences. They are symbol, they are sign. It's something that's hard to grasp at first but it all makes sense in some odd way because in actuality many still feel discontent with their understanding of it, and instead just use it as a means to continue and deepen their pursuits.
Many see the numbers as having similar meanings to what I described before, but also use them as a foundation. They see different sets of numbers as meaning different things entirely. Such as 000, 111, 222, 333, etc... This to me is not significant in a numerological sense, but more so on a personal level. Just like the many systems of divination floating around, Tarot, Runes, etc... It all depends on the individual. Your own view on what you're seeing and experiencing dictates it's meaning. It's entirely subjective.
There are those who even equate the ringing in the ears with this very phenomenon. That ringing being the high pitched hum that is sometimes heard when you are in silence. Assuming what you are hearing is not the electromagnetic discharge from machines or electronics around you, that ringing is seen as being very significant. Some different belief systems even call it the "Song of Angels," which is wild enough considering the amount of people who feel that 11:11 is a sign that the Angels are among us, guiding us. Is there an actual connection here? Well, who's to really say, but, why not?
Whatever you perceive 11:11 as being directly, it is safe to say that it is, in short, a phenomenon of noticing events, similarities, questions and answers within the universe we live. However, because so many people talk about this topic as if it were the end all be all in spiritual understanding, I felt the need to write about it myself and possibly shed light onto the situation and certain points that may have not been brought up before.
Intent
The power of intention ranges far beyond that of passive spiritual practices, Hermeticism, or Affirmations. Intent literally affects everything you do on a regular basis. Perhaps not at first, but if you do nothing at all to directly pursue your goals, yet hold firm to a particular intent, your actions will begin to slowly reflect that intent. It's simple psychology, the more you focus on a thought the more you are affected by it. This isn't AS simple as that, though, because of course you can keep an intention of murdering someone close to heart, and never go through with the deed. Be that as it may, holding such negative intentions can create more negativity, aggression, depression, frustration, and the like, in your life. Especially towards whatever individual you are thinking of. So either way, you are directly affected by the intention.
I bring this up because the most recent article I read on 11:11 was written by Steve Pavlina on his website. It's a very well written article on the subject, but I kind of felt that some things were left out. This wasn't surprising to me because honestly, the majority of the individuals I have met who are familiar with the topic see no purpose in going out of their way to elaborate on every feeling or experience they had as it applied to the phenomenon. Unfortunately it just somewhat irritated me to see that of all the articles I've read on the matter, no one really felt the need to mention some obvious points that I feel are just too important to mention. That or no one else noticed the same things as me, which is less likely.
As you begin to pursue or notice the many related events associated with 11:11, you will come to a point where you are noticing things in a way that seems to give you "universal feedback" to whatever question, or situation you are facing. I call this simply "seeing the signs." To just elaborate a bit more, if you for instance were facing an extremely stressful situation whereby you had to choose between two different things of equal significance to you and you couldn't decide which to decide on, then the 11:11 phenomenon could potentially play a roll in your decision. Steve Pavlina makes note of a similar situation when it came to his actually writing the article based on the subject. He wasn't fully certain if he should write it or not, but felt the urge to do so. That same day he received various e-mails about the subject, a member on his forums opened a thread about it, he received an offer to write for an 11:11 magazine, etc... This to him made it clear that yes, it was the time to write about it.
Another good example can be taken right out of Hollywood. Jim Carey's character in Bruce Almighty begged God for a sign of what he should do. Several literal signs began popping up around him. Road signs telling him no, turn away, etc... came up all over the place. Even a truck completely filled with signs pulled in front of him, flashing lights and all, yet he didn't notice or take in anything that was going on around him. We as the audience notice it because it was made for us to laugh at, but it's something very real many don't experience. Seeing a sign vs seeing a sign you WANT to see are two completely different things. This phenomenon is a means of opening up to see things for what they are.
Similarly, I've had instances where I wasn't sure what to do, and different things would occur pointing me in the right direction. Things like a random chain letter, signs on the road, e-mails, all containing the same general subject matter. Or feeling stuck and trapped, only to be contacted by someone giving me an opportunity that would most definitely open doors for me. By opening yourself up go actually noticing these "signs," the 11:11 phenomenon can start to play a major roll in your life. Here, though, is where it begins to get slightly more complicated.
Perception
Perception is a primary component in communication. Not only this though, it is also one of if not the most significant things that dictates how you view the world around you. The questions we ask, the answers we receive, how we feel, even how we think often directly corresponds to how we perceive the things that happen around us. With this, how you understand this phenomenon directly affects what you get out of it. In lou of probably confusing you, leaving you staring at your monitor looking something similar to this cool character face O_o, I'll take a step back and approach this what a much more easily understood method.
Imagine this, you are walking down the road and for once in your life you can read the street sign on the corner. It says "Stop." You have been walking down this same street for years and never noticed it, despite the many close encounters with approaching cars, bikers, and the occasional trucker. Never did it occur to you what the sign meant, and even though you experienced close encounters you never really figured that stopping at that corner was what you were SUPPOSE to do, and so you didn't. The only time you stopped or hesitated was when you noticed the impending doom that awaited if you continued. You were never taught to look both ways, and no one ever taught you the laws of the road.
This seems horrible, doesn't it? However, it is human nature to allow curiosity to drive us until we hit a wall along the way. We would never know that fire was hot unless someone got burned. Now that we know that, though, we can stop it from happening to us. But we can only do THAT to the level of our understanding of the fire. We may not know that washing your hands with alcohol and then lighting a candle will result in an enormous fireball just because we know fire burns. What you should take from this is the understanding that seeing signs, does not always equate into doing the right thing.
Going back to the story. Now that you can see this sign and understand it's meaning, you are in a better position to not get hit by a car. This doesn't mean that it will never happen, it is just something that puts you into a better position. Reading the signs is not the end all be all, and by no means is it the end of self-discovery. It's simply another beginning. So where does this lead us? Honestly that depends I suppose, but for this discussion it leads us directly to the entire purpose of this article. Where our Intent, affects our Perception.
Intent Affects Perception
On the surface this may seem self explanatory, but in reality it doesn't seem to be that way. In the book Conversations with God by Neal Donald Walsch, he spoke of a fictional story whereby a particular gentleman walked past a homeless man everyday. As he past him, he noticed that for years he had been sitting on the same chest. Wherever he went, he brought this chest. After years of seeing him the man finally went up to him and asked some questions. I'm not entirely sure of what exactly was asked, but eventually he asked if the homeless man had ever actually looked into this chest he had been lugging around with him all these years. The homeless man looked almost confused, he had never thought of it. When he looked inside there was enough money for him to be richer than he could have ever imagined. It's been a few years so I'm sure I got that story horribly wrong so please forgive me, but the general points still remain. The moral of the story is that we are what we choose to be. Or rather, we are we we choose not to see. Hang in there with me for a second, it will all make sense, I assure you :P.
The positions we place ourselves in throughout life are just that, positions we place ourselves in. When it comes to 11:11 we are exposed to a life changing method of seeing signs, a new method of interpreting the world around us to propel ourselves into better situations. This is what it appears to be at first anyway. As we continue down the road of 11:11 we eventually come to a point where we seek out the signs and symbols to answer the questions or solve the problems we are facing in our lives. This is no overnight occurrence, mind you. It's one that happens after a drastic shift in your mind-state and belief system as it applies to life in general. For some this happens in months, others years, some even decades. This shift means that you are to a point where your understanding and experience of this phenomenon is one that is hard to be expressed into words. It's significance to you is unrivaled and your interpretations of the signs and symbols is your own. But once we move on and begin asking, and seeking, awaiting response, we sabotage ourselves at the same time.
Once you've reached this peak, you probably have already come to a point where you have experienced the power of manifestation. It's kind of difficult not to, not impossible, just not likely. We've already shown how intent affects your life directly, this directly applies to the power of manifestation. As the quote goes, if you believe you can achieve. In our case we are saying we will achieve. Energy goes where attention flows. The more negativity you put out, the more negativity you get back, the same goes for positivity. It's the same process I discusses when I talk about the power of Affirmations. It's your desires, your thoughts, ambitions, emotions. They all have a direct say so in the outcome of your life. So when we are dealing with a very real system of guidance, if you will allow me to call it that, and we incorporate our own intents after we feel as though we have a "grasp" on it, things can get a bit complicated.
Taking that story we used previously. Imagine you are in a mood today in which you don't want to walk to work. You would realllly much rather just stay home today because you have this mild headache and you've missed Oprah all week. You're hoping and praying something happens to keep you home. It doesn't and you leave the house walking the same way you always walk. When you get to the corner you see the stop sign, you didn't see it there before, but because you see it and understand what it means you now take this opportunity to stop what you are doing, and go back home. You didn't take two seconds to think it over, you saw the sign, you had never seen it before, never noticed it nor could you understand it, but now you suddenly can. Why is this bad?
Well both stories have in common the fact that the individual did not understand the sign prior to this experience, the difference lies in their intentions. The first one did not have any particular intention in mind, but was rather struck with an epiphany, if you will. The second individual was hoping, and praying for something to keep them home from work today. With this, the second they observed a sign they figured that, hey, why not, it's CLEARLY indicating for me to stop so I mustn't move forward anymore... it might not be in my best interest.
WRONG. Now, I refuse to be the one to dismiss the whole "everything happens for a reason" scenario, however, I also refuse to be the individual to support selective ignorance. This sign very well could be interpreted as a sign to stop the trail of thought the person was on. It was lazy, selfish, and could put them in a position where they could jeopardize their job, thus their family if any applies. Due to their selfish intents, the individual read the sign as they WANTED to. This isn't getting away from my belief in the signs meaning being up to the individuals perception, it's more so an exercise in self awareness. Just because you see a sign doesn't mean that everything is as literal as it seems. Take a step back and observe yourself, your surroundings, and how you are feeling when these signs occur.
I've seen so many people take that negative perception on 11:11 and related occurrences. All it does is confuse you in the long run. I do feel that it can be beneficial, because it will cause you to walk down this road of self-discovery and experience first hand the many pitt-falls arrogance can offer. It can be an extremely long journey, I know because I went down that road and experienced much of the same. Choosing to see things as they benefited me, as opposed to taking a more objective perspective and evaluating the entire situation. There is a much better way, and this applies to life in general, not just 11:11.
Final Words
This post was originally intended to be a short e-mail to someone about the subject. It's something that bothered me and even though I didn't go in depth to the extent that I could have, I feel I've touched on some important and eye opening issues as it applies to belief, signs, and interpretation. When we are discussing something as mind-boggling as 11:11 or any spiritual subject for that matter I expect there to be a large amount of criticism along with it. I expect many of you reading this to not only disagree with me on the existence of such things, but on my views on life. For those individuals I encourage you to stick with your current understandings and feelings.
We all grow, develop, and change at our own pace. I am fully content with the understanding that my life, all of our lives are completely subjective. Are we living subjective realities with an objective reality? Maybe, maybe not, that's a topic of discussion for another day. However I can fully attest to the fact that universal signs are all around us, guiding us in the right direction. We are shown things that we may not always like, but sometimes it's what we need. I believe that you will take from this what you need to take from this, that we see, feel, and believe exactly what we need to at this moment to propel us forward. I can only imagine what we will experience next.
Sleep is a normal part of life. The least we can do is make it interesting and and use that time to our advantage. Stages of Lucidty
The state of being consciously aware while in a dream is a topic that is discussed virtually everywhere spirituality or psychic phenomena is involved. Yet, people seem to still be extremely vague on the idea of lucid dreaming, and more importantly it's capabilities. I have been actively lucid dreaming for the better half of 6 years and have written various articles that are either floating around without my permission or have been lost amongst the various websites I use to administer.
What lucid dreaming is, isn't a hard question to answer at all, it's simply being consciously aware that you are dreaming while you are dreaming. The idea of lucid dreaming has been studied for hundreds of years and continues to be researched today. It's one of the few topics that fall into the category of parapsychology that many can say is "proven." It exists, and learning to acquire them isn't all that difficult either.
Brief History of Lucid Dreaming
Lucid Dreaming is by no means a modern discovery. However, it has only been in recent decades that the phenomenon has actually gained modern attention. Despite this, the earliest known documentation making reference to Lucid Dreaming dates back to 415 A.D., in a letter written by a man known as St. Augustine. Within' this letter, Augustine states that "Your body is asleep but in your brain your mind is bright and awake and awareness is now in your brains own created dream world." This takes very little analysis to see that he is making references to the phenomenon we know today as Lucid Dreaming.
The Tibetans Buddhists are also very famous for their discoveries of Lucid Dreaming. Within the Tibetan Book of the Dead there was discussion of a system of Yoga to designed to maintain a full consciousness while in a dream state. Their understanding of dreams and the dream state is said to be so advanced it surpasses the understanding we have of them today.
During this same time period, in India similar practices began to develop. Various Tantric texts have been known to make reference to Lucid Dreaming, and mentions exercises of maintaining awareness while falling asleep. Other mentions to the phenomenon occurred by the Spanish Sufi, Ibn El-Arabi. A century later St. Thomas Aquinas mentioned it.
As time went on the knowledge of Lucid Dreaming's possibility continued to grow. With this, came scientists who were willing and interested to investigate the phenomenon further. Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys was one of the more popular of these scientists. Through his work, he published a book entitled "Dreams and How to Guide Them" in 1867, which subsequently led many others in the "modern" world to pursue the practice. He documented more than twenty years of his own research, and left a clear cut methodologies to get into the dream state yourself. The same principals he discussed are taught today. Those being to first learn dream recall, which will later lead do Lucid Dreaming.
Time continued to pass and eventually the phenomenon was discovered by a Dutch psychiatrist and dream researcher by the name of Frederik Willems Van Eeden. This is the gentlemen we owe the term "Lucid Dreaming" or rather "Lucid Dreams" to. He coined this term to explain the event of a dreamer being conscious of their dream, while they are dreaming. The word "lucid" directly translates into clear, easily understood, completely intelligible or comprehensible. So we can essentially say that lucid dreaming can also be called "clear dreaming" or "aware dreaming."
Van Eeden found lucid dreaming at the forefront of his interest, even though he was interested in all areas of dreaming. His ideas of the phenomenon were first published in his fictional book "The Bride of Dreams." Only later, in 1913 did he publish a scientific paper to Society for Psychical Research. Within this paper he reported on upwards of 352 of his own personal lucid dreams, of which he documented and collected between 1898 and 1912. This paper was very extensive, as he discussed eight different classifications, or categories of dreams and dreaming. Today, many of his ideas have been proven otherwise thanks to modern science. Despite this, this particular paper remains a key reference point to dreaming, both lucid and otherwise.
Lucid Dreaming has an extensive history, and some of which is distorted, lost, or we still don't even know about. It's hard to say how long this subject has been studied, but I can honestly say that is has probably been going on long before documented civilization. From the first written language and perhaps even before. Dreaming is something we has human beings experience, so dreaming lucidly, be that a known experience or a strange encounter for some, is a subject that I don't think we could have avoided. Research continues to be done today, and with recent technologies being pointed at the possibility of recording full length dreams on digital screens, the level at which we will begin to unravel the mystery's of dreaming is still unknown.
The Stages of Lucid Dreaming
There are various stages associated with Lucid Dreaming. As you begin to practice you will realize that even within these stages there are deeper stages. It's almost as if you were peeling back the layers of an onion. Although, despite these smaller layers there are three major stages you will experience as you begin practicing to have a Lucid Dream.
Stage 1 - The first stage you will experience is dream recall. As you dream you may not notice you are dreaming at all, but upon waking you will remember more and more details about your experience while you were sleeping. This stage is the first and one of the most important stages. You probably won't have too much success in lucidity until you first go through this stage.
Stage 2 - Stage 2 is where you actually experience lucidity in your dreams. This stage is that prime, optimum, and heart-felt stage we all seek in the beginning. Although within this stage you will realize that the work has just begun. There are levels of lucidity just as there are stages of the overall practice. Like the three main stages of Lucid Dreaming I'm discussing now, the actual stages of lucidity follow the same principal. There are three major stages people experience, but within those three stages are other layers we go through, and the extent at which you can develop your ability in Lucid Dreaming is only limited by the limitations you instill upon yourself.
Stage 3 - This is the stage that you actually begin moving forward within the realm of Lucid Dreaming. Many go off to experience things like Astral Projection, Out Of Body Experiences (OOBES), Dream Walking, Magic(k), etc... This is the limitless stage where self-discovery and exploration, along with spiritual development is at it's peak. From this stage your perception on so many different things may change. It's a truly wonderful experience.
How to Have Lucid Dreams
It is a fairly regular question, no doubt to the lack of interest or use seen in being consciously aware of your dreams, but why exactly would you want to pursue lucid dreaming? Besides the obvious part, it being cool to be conscious during a dream, and what I just mentioned, lucid dreaming can be used to your advantage in more ways than one. A few examples would be practicing something physical without the risk of getting injured, like gymnastics or martial arts, indulging into your own fantasies, and even Astral Projection. The possibilities of what you can do through or by means of a lucid dream are pretty much consistent with your creativity.
How to lucid dream is a lot easier done than said coincidentally, the reason that some people fail is due to patience on their part. As opposed to trying to sound overtly intelligent by elaborating on everything that doesn't interest you I figure telling you how to do it, and how I've done it for so long is the better route. For those that disagree, there are hundreds of books and websites on the topic that I'm sure you can find with a simple Google search.
The first thing I would recommend you doing if you are serious about lucid dreaming, or at least curious, is to begin writing a dream log. You should put the time, date, any emotional feelings upon waking, and more importantly the dream in complete detail down on paper. By detail I mean everything from the smells, sounds, colors, and even subtle feelings should be logged. If upon waking you are unable to actually remember anything, you should put the first part down, the date, time, etc... followed by "I chose not to remember my dreams." Get into the habit of doing this every morning, and eventually you will see that each log will turn into pages as opposed to just a few sentences or paragraphs when you first start out.
This alone may induce lucid dreaming eventually, simply because you will notice patterns. I use to ride the metro bus home from school a few years back, and I had an experience where I was riding the bus home in a dream and noticed that we had skipped a few streets. In the dream I questioned it, thinking "hey wait, this isn't right" and I instantly woke up. The more you log your dreams the better off and more likely you will be to actually induce a lucid dream.
There are a lot of other methods out there floating around used to lucid dream. One of which involves concentrating on one particular thing while you fall asleep, like the amount of fingers you have. The theory is that when you fall asleep this same habit will be repeated and possibly give you that light bulb moment. Honestly, I don't understand why this method is even taught separately from the journaling method, no doubt do to laziness. It is said that it takes an average of 28 days to develop a habit. When it comes to lucid dreaming this is more so defined as your reality check. You pretty much practice regular activities every day on a regular basis, like checking the time, pinching yourself, counting your fingers, etc... This way, when you fall asleep that same habit will be repeated. I think it makes much more sense to teach it like that then to tell someone to count their toes while falling asleep. But to each their own.
Some other methods to induce a lucid dream are out there, like this apparent "dream pill," but I would never recommend using drugs of any kind. There are some binaural beat things out there too, like Hemisync or the Brain Wave Generator. However I honestly feel that if you begin writing your dreams down you will have a lucid dream, it's that easy. Just make it a habit and you will see results.
Lucid Dreaming is a truly amazing experience, and one I recommend everyone who is pursuing any spiritual path to divulge in. Over the years I eventually realized that through Lucid Dreaming I could break free into Astral Projection, yet was unable to do so regularly or effectively by other means. Without Lucid Dreaming I had a few very small Astral Projection/OOBE experiences, but I've had a lot more utilizing lucid dreaming.
How to do it is kind of difficult to explain. When you're actually dreaming you can obviously make the environment to match your predisposed assumptions about an Astral Projection, which makes it hard to judge if you're really successful or not. I personally kind of "will" myself out, but I've heard of others doing things like putting symbols or sigils on the walls of their dream location to "project" them outwards. I would advise you to experiment on your own.
As far as checking your success within regards to having an OOBE or Astral Projection, just look at yourself or look around the house. Upon waking check to see if what you saw was accurate. This seems to be the most used method of checking on your Astral Projection/OOBE experiences. Just keep at it and I'm sure you will see for yourself why myself and so many others deeply enjoy Lucid Dreaming. Happy Dreaming!
Communication, what is it? Telepathy has been one of the most highly researched areas of psychic phenomena. It's mystery is awe inspiring and it continues to be one of the most sought after "skills" within the online communities. Despite this, it's development is very minimal and many people don't ever get past "field scanning" throughout their entire times practicing the skill. So why then do we have individuals in the past like Wolf Messing, and others who seem to develop this ability to extraordinary levels that everyone else is only able to dream and fantasize about?
The issue lies within the understanding of communication and human nature. As the first question in this post asks, what is communication? Communication is, in the simplest form, the act of conveying information. The flawed understanding of people pursuing E.S.P related skills, is that communication has anything to do with words. It's not a mystery, and definitely not anything new, but only 7% of communication has anything to do with WHAT we say. 38% is based on HOW we say something, and the biggest chunk, 55% being body language.
With this put out there for everyone to soak in for a second, let's reevaluate the approach many take to "telepathy." I put telepathy in quotes because what we are pursing is mind to mind communication through non conventional means, like a sixth sense. To me this can be perceived just a little differently, because what we are trying to develop in essence is simply the ability to portray a message without speaking. In it's simplest form, we perform this every day, all of the time. We pick up on signals from others, and actually make major judgments about a person in just the first few seconds of meeting them. That's neither here nor there, but reevaluating telepathy begins with this understanding.
If we are pursuing the most effective way to practice or develop a telepathic skill we should first understand what communication involves. Just saying a word over and over again in your head and attempting to rude-fully "will" that thought onto another is one way... A clearly ineffective way... Another way is to utilize what we now understand about communication to our advantage.
I understand that for many this will be a wake up call and perhaps very frustrating to those who spent so much time on the old dead-end methods of developing related skills, I however don't think it's a bad thing. Where we first need to begin is in understanding a bit about body language. The most important thing is understanding yourself and not necessarily the mechanics or deeper psychological interpretations of body language (couldn't hurt though), but of what works and what doesn't.
The most basic thing to first learn is that open = inviting, closed = insecure/intimidating. If you are walking down the street and you are smiling, if gives people the impression you are in a good mood and speaking to you is "safe." If however it's the opposite, and you have a frown or angry _look_ then people will steer clear. How you walk, stand, look, etc... all has significant affects on how and what people think of you.
We use body language to portray or receive if an individual is; Attentive, Aggressive, Bored, Tired, Defensive, Motivated, Shy, Out-Going, etc... Everything we feel or think is portrayed by little twitches in facial expression, breathing patterns, etc... This can be extremely advantageous, however also very detrimental. The second being due to those individuals whose body's don't seem to be exactly in tune with their emotional well-being. For instance, an individual who meditates on a regular basis is less likely to put off an extremely moody appearance even if they are having a bad day. This is due to breathing, if you meditate more, especially mindfulness meditation, then breath control is the most important thing. Such an individual would know that not only can emotions control the breath, but the breath can control the emotions.
This is irrelevant, however, to an individual pursuing telepathy through body language. Why? Because when it comes to actually portraying a message, using the knowledge of body language emphasizes the initial message intended to be sent, so one way or another that other individual will pick up on it. This does depend on the ability of the "sender" and the receptivity of the "receiver."
The smart person sitting over there has probably already raised the question... How is this whole body language thing even relevant when we are dealing with a communication happening over large distances? I'll touch on that in one second, but first I want to touch on the "receivers" side of all of this. Prior to even touching on how or what to do whatever it is we are trying to accomplish, how does all of this help you receive these messages? Once you have a more accomplished understanding of how to do all this, which only comes from experience and experimentation, then picking up on subtle things becomes a lot easier. I still recommend meditation in a major way for aiding in this process, but that entire idea of consciously and willfully "linking" and "downloading" information is one I don't find necessary. If you simply "open" yourself up and await certain information, that should suffice, simply because consciously as well as subconsciously you know what your intentions are, and applying energy towards those intentions are what brings about the outcome.
So moving on into how we do all of this... Imagine an individual giving a speech to a high school about the inner workings of quantum mechanics. Using words alone the vast majority of the audience will be lost because the presenter will be using words, phrases, and/or equations that they have never come into contact with. If however the presenter spoke, but also showed examples in animations, used graphs, pictures, even music, then the audience would have more ways to pick up on what is being said, thus learning and gaining more from the presentation than they would have previously.
So when we are trying to "send" a message to someone, we should first not exactly try to do this by any one specific way. If I want someone to for instance, play with my hair. I first need to go down a list in my mind of what that would mean to both me and the individual:
My mood would probably need to be open/innocent/sleepy.
My body language would need to register these.
The receiver would have to be willing.
How would that individual react to such things, or rather, what are common traits portrayed by someone who is willing to play with someone elses hair? Perhaps loving, kind, etc...
Then we would move towards actual actions. While I project the experience occurring I see how it would all play out in my head and proceed with the actual scenario. I lay down in a certain way, just as I had planned out, and while still projecting that, the desired outcome eventually occurs, without any words every being exchanged.
This example is fairly trivial, but an exact word for word example is kind of hard to write out. As you might have noticed I used some words I haven't touched on yet.
Project... In this example I do not mean the "normal" use for the word, that being to scream or "loudly" project a word, phrase, or image out. By project I mean relax and play in your head. I can see a lot of people are confused right now, so I'm failing miserably at getting my point across. So here's this...
Sending: To send a method with this mindset we need a few things.
1. A goal intended. (Intent)
2. Visualization. I do not mean just visual, I mean Tactical as well. Every sense should be utilized.
3. A receiver or target.
You begin by first seeing the occurrence take place, If it's a message like a word, phrase, or command, see in your head how a person may respond to such a message.
Then see how you would say that message if doing so verbally, how would you be standing, looking, even breathing if you were standing in front of that person? Get as many details in mind as you feel is needed. I have never found the need to over complicate everything, myself.
If you aren't able to paint a pretty picture that's okay. My visual visualization skills are terrible compared to more tactical methods I use, so I may feel, hear, or react in my mind far better than actually seeing the situation transpire.
After you have this play-by-play in your mind, project it. If you are actually in front of the individual, beginning to do your part as far as body language or changing how you "feel" helps more than you would believe.
And that's it. It's really a more trial and error system and the differences are major. At first glance it could appear that it's just a hybrid of telepathic suggestion methodologies and projection but it's far more border line real-time law of attraction and basic intent based "casting."
A helpful tip would be to not exactly see the projection as being something you hope to happen, more so see it as something that is going to happen, and start small. Expectation is powerful, far more powerful than wishful thinking in my experience. If you expect what you imagine to occur without a doubt than I'm sure you will be seeing more results than before. When it comes to sending without seeing your target the same principals apply, it just takes some creativity on your part. Seeing how they would react and type, text or what they would say, etc... The more I would send or do something similar the less I actually thought about it, but still used the same method.
It's more like I was using this method without thought and am now just trying to word it, which is slightly difficult. This is also still just scratching the surface and I hope I at least gave you a foundation of thought to start building upon yourself. I'll be writing the final and probably much longer installment to the Physical to Non-Physical: ESP series soon. That won't be just thinking out loud and a run through, I intend on actually sitting down and writing everything in article format as opposed to blog post format. So if you aren't exactly understanding what I've been trying to say as of right now, that installment should clear everything up and hopefully get you started seeing results sooner than later.
Part 1
Whether we are discussing religion, psychic phenomena, or general mysticism, it's the question that always seems to be asked, and debated. Does belief matter? This is indeed a good question, but what exactly does it mean? That question alone is a lot harder to answer than meets the eye.
Belief is defined in a general sense as any cognitive thought held as true. This essentially goes to say that belief can work either way in a metaphysical context.
An example would be precognition. Person A believes that it exists without a doubt. Person B believes that in no way, shape, or form is it possible to predict future events.
You take these two people and place them in a room with a trained remote viewer who is blindly viewing a target set two weeks into the future of these two individuals. After the session each person is handed an envelop with the results of the viewing, and after the two weeks, open it. They both find that the results of the experiment suggest that the viewer accurately viewed significant events that occurred within those two weeks. Person A would take this as concrete proof, needing no further evidence. Person B would probably suggest a statistical probability, perhaps an eary coincidence, but nothing more.
Perhaps not the best example for those completely new to all of this, but don't let it confuse you. The example had nothing to do with precognition, remote viewing, or even psychic phenomena. It goes to say that if you believe something, belief is never a question. If however you don't believe something, then the question on its relevance can be raised. The real question is whether or not their belief had any affect on the future events that were set to transpire. Or if by some means a firm belief or lack there of would have had an affect on the viewer, or the prediction.
After years of roaming around the online communities as well as other related sites, and reading all of the constant and repeated questions, comments, and concerns, it's been painfully obvious how little "belief" has to do with the progression of someone pursuing psionics.
While I was pursuing Technical Remote Viewing, the course I had stressed heavily that, even a complete skeptic would succeed if they followed the outlined protocol as taught. This to me means that whatever the underlying mechanisms of the practice are, as long as the desired goal is pursued in a certain way, nothing will stray you away from the outcome. Now, the exact mechanics of all areas of psionics, or psi itself is still unknown by scientific means but based on observations I think that finding a common understanding of how to gain results isn't too difficult (or so we wished).
To find a plausible answer to work from I think starting from a smaller field is a must; psionics being far too large of a category. Psychokinesis is probably the one field we can use that requires very little explanation as far as results are concerned. An object is either manipulated, be that physical movement or an alteration of probability, or no results are seen.
Because this specific skill set, if you want to call it that, is so seemingly *out there,* the subject of belief comes up all the time. Within the online energy communities you see a large amount of people who pursue such things. Everyone has their own reasons behind it, but we can place these people into three categories.
People who want to prove it exists for themselves.
People who want to prove it doesn't exist.
People who believe it exists already but want to develop it.
The trend however seems to suggest that all of these individuals see the same general results if they practice in the same general ways. The major difference lies in the results they themselves see. Those who believe in it, or who are seeking to believe in it notice a lot more "results" than those seeking to disprove it. These are the individuals who push the envelop a bit more, because as opposed to a slight flicker of a psi-wheel suggesting results, they will first rule out any possible outside source of the movement, including themselves. Most likely seeking a container to cover it in, or even moving onto an electronic measuring device like a Geiger Counter.
In low level results these three groups of people are just about neck and neck, but the thought processes are significantly different. In rare instances you find someone who pushes past all the levels and experiences a level of results more easily readable. These seem to be the people who take in what others say, but never take it for themselves. The people who hold experience over the fine print, but also have a certain level of skepticism so they don't waste time chasing a methodology that in reality isn't even working. Coincidentally, from what I have seen these are also the people who already believe in the phenomena. Perhaps because they experienced a level of results earlier on that motivated them to continue.
From here I think it's becoming more obvious that belief in essence does have an affect on the phenomena of psionics, yet not always in such a direct manor. I personally do not feel that believing or not believing in psychokinesis will either hinder or aid someones progression in the field. I do however feel that someone who believes in it is more likely to continue to pursue it, which in turn may have a positive affect on future progression. The issue lies more so within the unknown mechanics.
For instance, something like Astral Projection I feel as though requires a certain amount of belief in the field to pursue a conscious projection. This does not mean that someone with no belief at all cannot experience a spontaneous one, though. It just means that, that same individual will not believe the experience was genuine and would most likely write it off as a dream or something similar.
So when it comes to Psionics I would conclude that Belief does not matter, though it is a significant factor. This is just psionics though, if we are discussing something like religion and healing practices based from this I think it is the most important aspect of it. Taking a reiki healer and asking them to heal an ailing individual who has no belief in the art at all may generate substantial results, but it's not surprising if they don't. Things like healing work two ways, the more the individual believes the more successful the healer, due to biofeedback on the person being healeds' part. So when it comes to the actual practice, it's hard to dictate how successful the healer is at any given time on their own, especially if like the PK people I touched on earlier, this individual didn't take the road of eliminating any possible variables. Then again though, would it even matter if people are being healed?
This entire post was not meant to really be an in depth scientific post proving anything one way or the other. It's more like me just talking out loud. I think this is a subject I enjoy discussing and one that needs to be discussed more often. Unfortunately at the time of writing this it's midterms week and I don't have the time to get that in depth into everything as I would like. So I do apologize if anything is somewhat incoherent. I am planning on writing a much more in depth look into this field the week after next, and when it's up I'll leave a link at the end of this one for anyone finding this post later on.
Just some food for thought... When I was playing a game of shapes and colors in a chat room online between 6-8 years ago I was experiencing large amounts of success. I made a statement openly "I seem to be a better sender than I am a receiver lately." Someone replied "I wonder... Are you as good a sender with someone who isn't a good receiver?" It was something along those lines, the point still remains. It's the type of question everyone who is in this field of research or self discovery should ask themselves. Occasionally questioning yourself is entertaining and really helps overall progression by ruling out possible events or situations that resulted in success that could have been due to other outside means.
