Category Archives: Astral Projection Questions

Post Focus! Moen chat log!

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I was looking around the Astral Pulse looking for a good post to put in this edition of Post Focus!  …and I think I found a great one!  Now, I\’m not really much of a Bruce Moen fan, as I\’m not too keen on his method of projection which entails more about perceiving the experience instead of actually BEING in and directly experiencing the projection first hand.  However, one of the members from his forum posted a transcript of a chat that Moen did back in 2002.  This was posted on the Astral Pulse in the same year, so we\’re going waaaaaaaay back here.  hehe

I\’ve edited the chat log so that it\’s in a bit easier format to read. I\’m also going to try and interrupt it throughout, and break the chat log down a bit with my own commentary regarding what I feel is important to take away from this chat and what parts of it you should keep for future reading once you\’ve got a bit more experience under your belt… so here we go!

There are some interesting \”places\” to explore and one of the most interesting I ran across early on was an area of consciousness I call the 3D Blackness. That stands for 3 dimensional Blackness. I accidently stumbled into this place several times early on. If you close your eyes, and it\’s easier to do this in a darkened room, and focus your attention on looking at what your closed eyes are seeing, you would probably say you\’re seeing a sort of flat, two dimensional blackness, 2D Blackness. Kind of like looking at a flat screen image of blackness before your eyes. I\’m not sure exactly how to describe how to shift your focus of attention to the 3D Blackness, other than placing intent to do so, but when you shift your focus of attention to 3D Blackness it\’s unmistakable that you are there.


Moen makes reference to the 3D Blackness. I\’ve seen other names for this particular experience, most notably Focus 12/21, Void, Astral Bridge. If you practice Phasing, you\’ll probably come to your own conclusion about this 3D Blackness. I experience the 3D Blackness quite often throughout my meditations. I believe it\’s a sort of \”in-between\” state, but please, make your own judgments on this. 🙂

There is a definite shift in the feeling quality you are experiencing and instead of a flat, 2D Blackness you realize that you are peering into blackness that has depth. It\’s like you can change the depth you are looking into, sort of like the feeling of looking at a scene with your eyes open, but changing between focusing on an object that is near or far away, there is a definite feeling of being able to look deeply into this 3D Blackness, or looking closely into it, or anywhere in between. There is also a \”velvet\” quality to this 3D Blackness, like it\’s both smooth and grainy at the same time. Moving your eyes from side to side it\’s like you can see the velvety graininess going by. This 3D Blackness is, in my view, a specific, individual area of consciousness and it\’s one that can be quite useful for exploring other realities.


It\’s important to realize that you might not experience all of this exactly as he (or anyone else, for that matter) mentions it. Your 3D Blackness is going to be rather unique to you, so it might not be exactly as he says. What will (or should be, at least) similar is that sense of DEPTH to the field that you\’re looking into. I can\’t confirm the \”velvety graininess\” that he speaks of, as it\’s not a property of my own 3D Blackness. I can, however, speak volumes to this perceived \”shift\” that he talks about… for myself there is a distinct \”feeling\” of movement when I go from viewing 2D to the 3D Blackness. It\’s unmistakeable.

The many times I managed to shift my focus of attention to the 3D Blackness I was only there for very short periods of time. I\’d get there and think, Oh WOW! I\’m there! And in the next moment I\’d be back in 2D blackness. I had to learn to relax and just let myself be there once I arrived.


This is an important part to realize. You\’ve gotta remain relaxed and passively aware if you wish to \”hang out\” for extended periods of time in this state of consciousness. Otherwise, you\’ll have what happened to Moen… a return to 2D Blackness.

My first experiments with this area of consciousness happened accidentally too. I\’d been intending to try to visit some deceased person before I began my relaxing breaths and then found myself peering into the depths of the 3D Blackness. I\’d learned how to just sort of relax and allow myself to be there, so I didn\’t pull myself out of there. As I peered into the 3D Blackness I could see that it was all very uniform, the same shade of black if you will, then, as I moved my eyes looking from side to side and up and down, I noticed there was a small area that was darker than the surrounding blackness. This caught my attention and I wondered why this little area was darker. I focused my attention on this spot, it looked like a sort of dark swirl, I was trying to see it\’s shape and movement and thought, If I got closer to it maybe I\’d be able to see it better, so I thought about moving toward it. I started to feel myself move, I was suddenly somewhere else. As I looked around I realized I was near the deceased person I had originally intended to visit with. Big surprise!


This, I believe, is the very origins of Franks \”Noticing Exercise\”. This chat log of Moen\’s was done back in 2002, well before Frank finalized his Noticing Exercise on the Astral Pulse. I feel it\’s definitely where he got the idea from. He took this and tweaked it slightly for his own personal uses… he found success in it, and then shared it with others in an easy-to-learn format.

You\’ll notice in this paragraph that he tends to use his Intent quite often to imitate actions that he wants to take. This is very important and you should note this for your own journeys. 🙂

At first I didn\’t get any connection between these two events. But, as I continued exploring our afterlife, intending to find a certain person, or visit some area like the Education Center, or other Center,sometimes I\’d find myself in the 3D Blackness, peering into its depth, and looking it over intently, Then I notice a small area that was different than the surrounding blackness. Sometimes this would be a darker swirl, sometimes a small area that was a little lighter, sometimes just a small area that appeared to be very active, like the blackness in that area was jittering or jiggling.

I\’d focus my attention on the spot, think about moving toward it, and suddenly I\’d be in the place I\’d originally intended to go. Eventually I realized that this 3D Blackness was sort of like a Hub or central location for \”portals\” or \”gateways\” I imagined it was a place that had tubes running from it to any other area of consciousness that existed. Something or someone kept helping me shift my focus of attention to this 3D Blackness, or I was just becoming more aware of the process of \”going\” to the people and places I wanted to visit.


These paragraphs show a bit more of the origins of the Noticing Exercise, along with sharing how he uses his Intent (focusing his attention on a spot to move towards it) to initiate his desired action.

Eventually, I realized that if there was any person or place or thing I wanted to visit or explore all I had to do was to intentionally shift my focus of attention to the 3D Blackness, then I\’d say the name of the person I wanted to visit, in my mind, or the name of the place I wanted to go, then I\’d just start looking for one of those discontinuities\’ in the 3D Blackness. As soon as I found one I\’d just focus attention on it and in the next moment I\’d BE THERE Some here tonight have already found this area of consciousness called the 3D Blackness and by some of the posts on the Conversation Board it\’s pretty obvious some have learned to use it in the way I\’ve just described. I wish it was easier for me to describe how one finds the 3D Blackness, describe the feeling quality of it, give better clues that other folks could use to shift there focus of attention there. Because, it\’s such a great navigational tool for getting from point A to point B.


His first sentence actually gives us a great clue as to how to find our own 3D Blackness within ourselves. Shift your focus of attention (awareness) towards experiencing your 3D Blackness. Shift your Intent to do this. Afterwards, while there, he\’s shifting his Intent once again to visit whoever he wants.

If you\’re noticing a pattern here… it\’s all about your \”Intent\” and using that to illicit the changes that you want to happen.
In this way, Moen is using the blackness as a sort of Hub connecting him to the larger reality.

For those of you interested in exploring for the 3D Blackness and exploring it directly, I\’d suggest you begin in a darkened room. The reason I suggest this is because there will be less physical light stimulating your retina, not that it can\’t be found any where but a darkened room, it\’s just that it\’s a little easier to start that way. With your eyes closed, take in some deep relaxing breaths, Remember the feeling of being relaxed, Let memory of that feeling help you relax a little more deeply as you continue taking in relaxing breaths. When you can feel a difference in your level of relaxation that\’s a good start, for this 3D Blackness exercise it\’s worth spending a little more time than usual to allow yourself to relax deeply. Then, with your eyes still closed look closely at the blackness before your eyes, examine it. describe it, feel it, at first it will probably appear to be flat, two dimensional blackness, Then, say in your mind, I desire to explore the 3D Blackness, place intent.


I suggest closely reading what he says here and take it to heart, but don\’t worry too much about \”his\” details. Use it as a basis and create \”your own\” details.

Then, continue to look into that flat blackness, move your physical eyes a little from time to time, as if you are looking at \’things\’ within this blackness. At some point you may feel a shift in the feeling quality of that blackness, for me it\’s a feeling like being drawn into a scene I\’m looking at, you know how you can just look at a scene and not be drawn into to it, or you can \’look into a scene\’ in a way that your attention is drawn to details within the scene? the feeling is similar. Wish I could describe it better, but that doesn\’t matter, if you place your intent to explore the 3D Blackness and peer into the flat blackness before your eyes, at some point you\’ll feel the shift and then realize you are peering into a different kind of blackness, a velvety, blackness with depth. When you notice you can peer into its depth you\’ll know you\’ve made the shift of your focus of attention to the 3D Blackness. Fascinating place.

As I said earlier, the first several times I arrived there I pulled myself right back out moments after arriving because I began thinking about having arrived. The area of consciousness I\’m in when I\’m thinking that way is a different area than the 3D Blackness. it\’s okay. Just relax and intend to shift to 3D Blackness again, look closely at the flat blackness, and at some point you\’ll make that shift again. EAch time you make that shift take note of the feeling quality of that shift, Then, as you\’re doing the exercise remember the feeling quality of that shift. If you remember it to the point of re-experiencing that feeling quality you\’ll probably find that you can begin to make the shift to 3D Blackness pretty much at will.


He makes a great distinction here to relax at all times and not get excited about experiencing anything in particular, because, as it happened with him, it broke his trance state. This is part of the training, keeping yourself grounded and centered at all times. \”At all times\”… before, during and after a projection.

For me \”at will\” didn\’t necessarily mean \”immediately\” but when I could remember the feeling quality of the shift to the point of re-experiencing it, \”at will\” meant I was definitely going to be there shortly. As you learn to make that shift and let yourself just be in the 3D Blackness, And learn to look around within it, when you can see/detect a small area that looks a little different than the surrounding blackness, just focus your attention on that spot. In other words, be in the frame of mind that you are looking at it and looking at if from a little closer position would be better. Don\’t be surprised if you suddenly find yourself within some entirely different reality, or, reality space. With practice, you\’ll be able to intend to visit with a nonphysical person, human or otherwise, go to the 3D Blackness, find that spot that looks different, intend to move toward it,and suddenly find yourself where you wanted to be,the place is almost like magic. About time for me to take a short break. Hopefully, this chat about the 3D Blackness has stimulated your curiosity and you\’ve got some questions about it. So, let\’s take five.

Enjoy!

My missteps over the last ten years

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

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

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

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

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

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

“After Sleep Exit” Vs. “Conscious Exit”

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As the subject suggests, there seems to be two ways of successfully projecting your consciousness away from the Physical.

The first way I call the “After Sleep Exit”. This is probably the easiest way for beginners to begin practicing because, when you wake up from sleep or a nap, you’re generally already relaxed and your mind is in that optimal point where your it’s drifting on that edge of sleep, without being fully awake yet. This means that you only need to initiate an exercise (two examples would be the Noticing or Mental Rundown exercises) to practice.

The second way, is a bit more practice-intensive. It’s commonly referred to as a “Conscious Exit”. It’s an exit you do from a fully conscious state, generally anytime during the day after you’ve been fully physically aware and active. This particular way requires you to initially put your mind into that “edge of sleep” state. This is what most beginners have the most trouble with as it actually requires a base knowledge and understanding of meditation. Without that base knowledge and practice of meditation, you’re going to find it very hard to focus your attention away from the physical long enough for your consciousness to make the shift.

This is where the Point of Consciousness State meditation comes into play. My suggestion for those of you wanting to learn to project at any time of day whenever you want is to first learn to quiet your mind and remove any sense of physical awareness or your physical surroundings. Any form of meditation should allow you to do that… I highly suggest google to find one that suits you best.

I’ll try to expand on this at a later time, but I wanted to get this down as it’s been bouncing around my head lately. I’ll see if I can find a list of potential meditations you can use to attain this State. In essence, it’s also called the “Trance” state. Trance… Sleep Paralysis… Point of Consciousness… the idea is to remove your consciousness from this physical reality and exist as just a “point of consciousness”. LoL

Tom Campbell on Frank Kepple

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I also wanted to bring up the post that Tom made regarding the Astral Pulse’s own Frank Kepple. I have to give Frank a lot of credit as his information was what initially propelled my own experiences in the non-physical. Until I began reading and understanding what he was saying, I was in quite the non-physical stalemate.

It would seem that Tom was made aware of the Frank Kepple Phasing Resource on the Astral Pulse thanks to one of the members of his own forum and he had this to say about Frank:  http://www.my-big-toe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2589

JoshM: Granted, your books goes into greater detail but it appears to me that the maps that are given by both of you might be overlapping.

Tom: I did read over Frank’s posts — interesting that he cut up consciousness-space into four areas after declaring that there was no separation within consciousness. Everything he said was driven by genuine experience — Frank is a good explorer. Of course there is overlap — we (and everyone else) are exploring the same larger reality — there should be major overlap. The difference is the extent of our experience, the context or structure we place that experience within, and how we communicate that structure to others. Each of these reflect the uniqueness of the explorer — his beliefs and interpretations.

JoshM: I am wondering if his description of what he calls “Focus 4” related to what you are talking about when you talk of the need to go beyond OBEs and go “out of your mind”.

Tom: Yes, it is — that is one description of it. I find his Focus 3 and 4 to be defined rather narrowly. The superset of the larger reality is bigger yet.

JoshM: A description I once read of this place he labeled “Focus 4” was that it felt like you were losing your mind.

Tom: That feeling is only temporary — until one gets oriented and accustomed to that mode of awareness and existence — then it becomes much like any other reality frame — only different.

JoshM: Am I way off base and making a connection where none exists?

Tom: No, you are on target. One reality, many views and perspectives, each necessarily limited and structured by the mind of the beholder.

Tom C

So it would seem that Tom is very respectful of Franks experiences and even goes as far as to call him a “good explorer”. The rest of the thread is equally interesting.

Enjoy!

Regarding Binaural Beats – Tom Campbell

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Someone brought my attention to a post on Tom Campbells “My Big TOE” forums that he wrote up regarding the use of Binaural Beats.  As most people already know, Tom was instrumental in the initial creation of the Monroe Laboratories regarding their original Explorer Team’s efforts of exploring Consciousness.

They essentially took the book that was already written regarding Binaural Beats and began to add to it and refine it.

This post that I’m going to link to you here is a great place for people wanting to start out with Binaurals to assist them in their meditations or Non-physical exploration: http://www.my-big-toe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5056&p=22957&hilit=binaural+beat#p22957

One can use binaural beats to encourage OOBE, remote viewing, or healing ability.

You can purchase Hemi-synch, a professional mix of binaural beats and other sounds (Google “The Monroe Institute”) or you can make your own binaural beat audio file for free. Which is better? Only you can answer that with experimentation — everyone is different. Both have the ability to help you learn to be a good meditator. Many individuals find binaural beats helpful, some don’t. Google “binaural beat” and find a site that lets you make your own customized audio file for free.

The binaural beat frequency is the difference between two base frequencies. A pure tone generated at the base frequency goes in one ear and the base frequency plus the desired beat frequency goes in the other ear (using stereo headphones). The two tones combine in the brain producing a “beat” frequency that is the difference between the two pure tones. This beat frequency (which you can “hear”) drives your brain wave pattern toward the beat frequency, thus inducing an altered state of consciousness similar to a very effective and practiced meditation state.

If you already know how to meditate you won’t need to ramp in and out. Make several binaural beat stereo audio files using different base frequencies and use each for a month to pick the one you like best.

Some suggestions: 100 Hz and 104 Hz; 500Hz and 504Hz; 2000Hz and 2004; 5000Hz and 5004Hz These different base frequencies will all produce a 4 Hz binaural beat. Males tend to like the lower frequencies and females the higher.

You can try a slightly slower beat (difference between frequencies) of 3.75 or 3.8 instead of 4 later on if you get to that level of refinement.

Experiment. Continue to experiment always, but don’t jump between things too quickly. Take the long view …take your time .. don’t rush the process.

Many people, especially in the beginning, want to ease themselves into and out of the 4Hz theta brainwave state. This softening and slowing the transition to and from the desired theta state of 4 Hz (to make it easier to follow) is called ramping. The ramp going in from beta to theta should be slow and gradual enough for you to follow. The ramp coming out from theta back to beta can be much quicker and steeper. On and off ramps are individual.

A typical relaxed, focused in the physical, awake state is in the beta region (20 to 15 Hz) A typical meditation state is in the alpha-theta region (somewhere between 14 to 7 Hz). To encourage OOBE or remote viewing, or healing ability, you want to be in the theta region at about 4 Hz or slightly less (3.75 Hz to 3.8Hz).

If you are a good meditator you don’t need ramps at all.

If you are fair, start in the alpha region and step down in 1 Hz steps from 10Hz to 4Hz to theta. Each step should last anywhere from 30 sec to 3 minutes depending on how quickly you can follow (better meditators follow more quickly).

If you are poor at meditation, start in the mid beta region and step down in 1 Hz steps from beta at 20Hz to theta at 4Hz. Each step should last anywhere from 30 sec to 3 minutes depending on how quickly you can follow. Lower your starting beat frequency as you get better at it.

Once you are in the 4 Hz theta state that is your goal, stay there for a half hour to two hours — that’s enough. You are in this physical reality for a reason. Do not use this as an escape. It is a tool, as is meditation itself, for teaching you to eliminate the noise in your mind thus allowing you to more powerfully, clearly and steadily focus your conscious intent. You want to learn the process of coming and going to and from this 4 Hz state so that eventually you can do it on your own. Sometimes try it on your own without the binaural beats.

So you see, you have to do some experimenting to optimize your sound to your ability and then modify the sound as your ability changes. One size does not fit all.

Trying to sort all this out in a week or two won’t work so well. Pick 3 to 5 different configurations that span your personal unknowns. If you are a good meditator, use each one for a few days cycling through all configurations three or four times each. If a fair mediator, use each configuration for a week or two, cycling through all configurations at least three or four times each. If you’re a poor meditator, use each configuration for at least three weeks, cycling through all configurations four or five times each. Dispense with a given configuration when it is clearly inferior to the others (but not too quickly). Every three to six months add new more refined configurations that are converging to your optimum. In several weeks to a year, depending on where you start and how quickly you progress, you should find an optimum sound. Use it for six months to a year or two, by then it will be time to change it because you will have changed. Commit to a life of constant experimentation because, as you progress, what is optimum changes.

Binaural beats are like training wheels on a five year old’s bicycle — eventually you must wean yourself from the training wheels and take them off or they will retard your development by locking you into specific altered states when you should be free to shift states as easily as you shift your attention. Eventually, you will even let go of formal meditation because you no longer will have a need for the process. You will be able to accomplish the same thing (actually better, being unencumbered) instantaneously. Do not become habituated or addicted to this tool or any tool — or the tool that was once so helpful may turn into a self-limiting crutch.

Tom C

I bolded last paragraph because I feel it’s the MOST IMPORTANT part of it all. Please read it… understand it… then read it again just incase. 🙂

Meditation – A Requirement To Exploring the Non-Physical

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Asking For Guide/Helper Assistance

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I was listening to some of the explorer tapes from the link that Dave (http://gravatar.com/galahadz)  linked in my other post the other day.

I got the idea from them to \”ask\” for assistance while I was in Focus 10 or 12 and just see where that takes me.  Well… I did just that about 20 minutes ago and was quite pleased with the results.  I was just sitting here at my desk, meditating in Focus 10 and I asked if a helper or guide of mine can help me to experience something \”different\”… after a minute I saw my field of view (the blackness behind my eyes) start to spin and rotate, it turned into what looked like a tunnel with me \”moving\” through it.  I began to feel a shift occur, but it eventually stopped and I found myself back at my desk.

So yeah… that was definitely \”different\”.  I\’m going to play around with \”asking\” for assistance from now on when I go about my meditations and phasing practices and see where it takes me and I highly suggest adding this to your own routine as well.  🙂

Goodluck and have fun!

What is the RTZ (Focus 1 Projection)?

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I\’ve always been \”on-the-fence\” as to the nature of what people commonly refer to as the \”Real Time Zone\” (term coined by Robert Bruce).  I was never quite ready to accept that it was some form of objective reality, or if it was just another of many non-physical astral environments.  Well, I believe I might have come up with a possible answer that describes the nature of the RTZ and explains why some people are able to view places, people and things that they might not have ever been personally witness to.  It also explains what people call \”reality fluctuations\”.

I think that the real time zone is a collective, non-physical environment, much like you\’d find in Focus 3 oC, it is being created and sustained by the collective conscious minds of the beings who inhabit this physical reality (aka us physical people).  I believe the consciousness of every living being in this physical reality are interconnected and the \”RTZ\” is the result of that interconnected consciousness.  The reason we can go places that we have personally never been to and can accurately (within reason) report what\’s there is because we\’re tapping into the collective consciousness unknowingly and it\’s giving us the information we need to form the surroundings.

However, the environment is also subtly affected by our thought energy  just like any other non-physical environment is.  This is where the reality fluctuations come into play.  These are our own subconscious (consciously or unconsciously) manipulations overlaying on the surrounding collective consciousness surroundings.  Fluctuations can also be your perception of what\’s actually going on in the environment you are in.  For example, Robert Monroe relayed once that he was watching people playing with large white playing cards, when in actuality they were checking their mail.  The \”envelopes\” were being perceived by him as \”large white playing cards\”, because that was the closest thing his subconscious mind could come up with that matched what he was seeing.

The way to control those fluctuations is to control the output of your thoughts and emotions.  Make sure that the surrounding environment is as pure an experience as possible.  That way, what you experience is what\’s actually there… and not some form of overlay.

Connection Between Classic OBEs and Phasing

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I\’ve recently figured out for myself the connection between Classic Separation OBEs and Phasing.  Simply put, a classic obe is what comes about when you interrupt a phasing practice and initiate an \”exit technique\” and alternatively, if you\’re doing a classic separation obe and instead of initiating an exit technique you just kept doing what you were doing, you\’ll eventually phase directly into the Astral.

Three things came forth recently to get me to this line of thinking.  I first began thinking about this back when I was reading about when Frank had to slow down his own projections in order to have a RTZ Projection.  Next there was a method posted on the Astral Viewers from one of their Admins, Bedeekin.  His made mention of the method that he used for many, many years that was successful for him.  Well, one part of his method takes him to what sounds like a deep Focus 10/early Focus 12, which as I know it is the precursor to a proper Phasing attempt.  However, he then interrupts that Phasing process and initiates an exit technique. Then just now I got to thinking about a night when I experienced this particular thing first hand and, as Frank would say, the penny dropped.

My experience was back in March 2010, and I\’ll relay that quickly before moving on.  I went to bed on the Saturday night as usual.  It was around 2am.  That night I gained a lucid awareness in the dream I was having which was taking place just outside my house.   Some time went by and I began to feel that usual sensation that meant I was beginning to physically wake up.  The dream faded to black, I felt a shift, and I felt myself back in my bed.  I now recognize this state as Focus 12, as I didn\’t fully wake up.  I didn\’t bother opening my eyes, since I knew where I was.  This was the first time I ever experienced and learned about what I call the \”Eyes Closed/Body Still\” state upon waking.  Well, almost immediately, I felt another shift and I found myself in another lucid awareness experience.  This happened two more times.  All four lucid awareness experiences happened quite rapidly and in succession.  Each time I was in the non-physical for what felt like 2 – 4 minutes.  Each time I phased back to the physical, I kept that \”Eyes Closed/Body Still\” state.

After the fourth experience something strange and completely unexpected happened.  I attempted to slip back into another lucid awareness experience like I did the four times previous, but I didn\’t quite make it in.  I felt that it was immediately slipping away.  What I usually do to strengthen the experience in this kind of situation (as I\’ve mentioned on the forums before) is spin, but it\’s usually done while already having the lucid awareness experience, this time I don\’t believe I actually got all the way into the non-physical!  So I started spinning trying to get a grip on the experience, however after probably 3 seconds of spinning I felt I had fully lost the dream, however I was also still sleeping and I felt I was in my bedroom.

I couldn\’t see anything yet, but I felt my arms and legs floating upwards and the distinct \”separation\” feeling.  I sat up and kinda floated awkwardly upwards a bit and towards the end of the bed, kind of out of control.  By the time I had fully cleared my body, my vision came in.  I\’m not sure if I had chose to see or if it just clicked on, but either way I could see.

So that\’s it, that\’s the connection.  By interrupting a normal Phasing session at a certain point, you can then initiate an exit technique and have a classic separation OBE.  This also works in reverse, in that if you\’re going for a classic separation obe, you can for-go the exit technique and just keep doing what you\’re doing and you\’ll end up Phasing directly into the \”astral\”.  So for people who have problems having \”astral projections\” this is what I suggest you try.

We should be able to use this information to guide where we want to go in the non-physical directly from the get-go.  If you\’re someone who only does RTZ projections and wish to visit the greater non-physical (astral), then simply stop doing your usual exit technique and just keep doing what you were doing prior to that and eventually you\’ll phase.  And if you\’re a phaser and wish to experience the RTZ, then interrupt your phasing practice in Focus 12 and initiate an exit technique.

Phasing – Physical Body Disassociation

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I believe I need to explain the reasoning behind this particular article before you read it. First, it\’s geared towards beginners of Phasing. The action of physical body disassociation should be a natural and automatic one, especially if you\’re doing the Noticing or Mental Rundown exercises correctly. However, as with all things, sometimes it just doesn\’t work out that well and someone needs to focus upon other reasons for why a particular exercise isn\’t working. In this case, especially for the beginner, I felt it was important for people to know and understand what was happening behind the scenes with your physical body as you begin to do the phasing exercises.

Now, onto the article…

I tell people that to do Phasing it requires one to disassociate from their physical body and surroundings. That\’s really easier said than done. How do we actually go about disassociating?

Well, there are two parts to Phasing. First, you need to keep your consciousness focused upon something/somewhere that isn\’t \”here\”. This is what our Phasing Exercises do. In the case of Noticing, we\’re placing our conscious awareness into the blackness we\’re viewing. In the case of a Mental Rundown, we\’re placing our conscious awareness in the scene we\’re visualizing. That\’s all fine and well, but there\’s another half to the story and that\’s the point of this article.

Disassociating is something that I\’ve been doing automatically without even realizing it and it wasn\’t until last night that I figured it out. Disassociating from the physical is all about reducing the physical input you are processing from your physical senses. We do this by desensitizing them. Usually this is done very naturally and gradually over the course of our practice time. However, sometimes it doesn\’t work out too well and it\’s our physical senses that end up locking us into this reality. So, how do we go about desensitizing our physical senses and break that hold that physical reality has upon our consciousness?

We have five physical senses which connect and lock us here in this physical reality. To Phase, we need to reduce the processing of that physical input and increase the processing of our non-physical input. The scope of this article is to talk about the reduction of the processing of the physical input.

Our five physical senses are Taste, Touch, Seeing, Hearing and Smell.

Taste and smell are kind of a non-issue. Unless you\’re eating and smelling things while you\’re projecting, you shouldn\’t need to worry about these.

Desensitizing your sight begins the moment you close your eyes. Actually, you can even do this with your eyes open. If you stare at something that isn\’t moving and if you manage to keep your eyes relatively still, you\’ll begin to see a fading effect happen. What\’s happening is that your eyes are becoming desensitized to the visual input being presented to them, because nothing in your field of view is changing. Well, this is what begins to happen when we close our eyes. The blackness isn\’t visually appealing, so our physical eyes begin to shut down on us. If you do this with your eyes open, you might actually recognize the pattern of the fading you\’re seeing… it\’s probably very similar to that which you experience in Focus 10/12.

Our sense of touch can be a little more difficult to desensitize. To do this, we keep our bodies perfectly still. That way the input we\’re receiving eventually becomes familiar and then begins to get ignored altogether. This causes the numbing sensation that most people notice.

Hearing is probably the hardest one to ignore, unless you wear earplugs or use an audio device of some kind. If you\’re sensitive to sound then you\’ll just need to make sure you\’re in a quiet area.

You should obviously not have to consciously worry too much about these things while you\’re practicing as that will probably be distracting. However, note something that I haven\’t talked about yet: Relaxation. I\’m slowly coming to the conclusion that relaxation isn\’t a requirement for projecting. You might need a base level of relaxation to remove any tension you might have in certain muscles, but as long as you\’re comfortable and free from points of stress, it shouldn\’t be a problem.

Next time you find yourself just sitting at your computer or watching TV, take note of your five physical senses and see if you can reduce their input slightly.

You can even use this knowledge, if applied to your physical body as you\’re meditating to enhance your Focus 10/12 state.

Good luck and Enjoy!

A Thought on Retaining Consciousness in the Non-physical

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Tajtas, on the Astral Pulse asked the question, “Ive been trying so hard to get it past 25 seconds… When I realize I’m dreaming I start drifting away and then I woke up. Has anyone have had a LONG lucid dream, dozens of minutes? Is it possible hours or days?”.

The_One made a nice response, “I’ve had this problem. It’s quite simple when you think about it. Don’t get excited, concentrate on a animated character (can be any thing). As, don’t think “I’m about to wake up because I’m lucid”. (Easier said than done).
I’ve substained a dream for so long doing this, I got worried that there was something wrong with my body. As over doing this will pull you out of lucidity and back into the dream.
Hope this helps.”

This got me thinking about why something like that works… I wondered if the effect of how we initially Phase into the non-physical can provide us with a clue about how to REMAIN in the non-physical.  We know that there’s a fine balancing act that must be done to Phase… you need to work at balancing your consciousness so your mind retains, at least, a single thread of consciousness.

Generally, we do this by keeping our minds active in some manner… in the case of the “Noticing” exercise, it’s placing our conscious intent within the blackness behind our eyes and noticing the changes of that which we’re seeing.  In the “Rundown” exercise, we’re placing our intent within the visualized scene that we’re creating with our imagination.

Well, what if, while we’re in the non-physical, we do this act in reverse?  When you feel yourself beginning to lose the non-physical consciousness, begin immediately placing your intent on something within the non-physical, in essence it’s allowing you to focus your intent more INTO the non-physical and away from the physical, which is where your intent seems to be going when you’re slowly in the process of waking up.  In other words, bring your focus/attention to something on or around you in the non-physical.  It’s kind of the same act as increasing your awareness from Lucid to Astral in the first place, except you don’t need to ask yourself any questions.  Your goal here is to give your mind something non-physical to focus on so it ignores the physical reality sensations.

A lot of people say to look at or rub your hands together.  I believe I now understand why that works… because it’s giving you something to focus your mind on that’s away from the physical senses that you’re beginning to feel.

From the point when I begin to feel that I’m waking up to the point when I actually do wake up… seems to be anywhere around 5 – 10 seconds.  So, perhaps it’s best to not even wait for that signal to happen and just do this exercise every minute or so, because once the signal occurs, it doesn’t take long before you’re back in bed wondering what happened.

Astral Pulse Island

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I wanted to bring back to light a project we had going on over at the Astral Pulse called \”Astral Pulse Island\”. It was initiated, I believe, by the site owner along with the help of the other moderators at the time (5 – 8 years ago).

Basically, the goal was to create a stable \”place\” in the Astral (my guess is it would be in Focus 27, if you\’re a Monroe model fan) that people could use as a meeting place. The island, with it\’s golden sand and giant pyramid in the middle is a very easy place to recognize should you manage to make it there.

I use the image on the linked page as my background for my computer so I\’m always staring at it and visualizing it. The more people who do this, the more stable the area will be. I believe it\’s already a permanent fixture at this point though, unless it\’s been \”uncreated\” on purpose.

Anyway, give the link a click and read up. It\’s a great project. We have a forum section devoted just to it, and I\’d like to bring this project back to life!

How I Came To My Beliefs

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I wanted to go into a bit about the How\’s and Why\’s I came to my current belief construct.

My beliefs aren\’t something I came about to overnight… also, and most people might not even believe this, but people such as Robert Monroe and Frank Kepple didn\’t influence any of my beliefs, they simply filled in some of the blanks I had and further reinforced that which I already knew was true.

They opened me up to a world where what I have been experiencing and the questions I\’ve been asking myself for the past 31 years I now had definite answers for. The thing is that, I knew these answers all along… I just didn\’t know I was ALLOWED to believe them.

Questions like, \”Where do we go when we dream?\”… when posed to my parents they would tell me, \”well you go nowhere obviously… it all happens in your head.\”  Alluding to some kind of well known fact that dreams are something that are \”not real\”.  I somehow knew this was wrong. I somehow knew there was more to my sleep-time than \”just dreams in my head\” happening.  I might not have had the terminology and understanding that I do now thanks to Robert, Frank and others, but the basis for my beliefs were formed back then when I began asking myself these questions.

Fast forward to a year or so ago and my introduction to Frank Kepple\’s work.  At this point I had already read a lot of stuff on the subject and had been attempting Astral Projection for well over 10 years with little to no success.  I had managed to feel the so-called \”vibrations\”, but little else (I\’m still not convinced they\’re some objective experience directly connected to astral projections).  I still hadn\’t made the connection that dreams WERE astral projections of a decreased awareness nature.  Finally, as Frank says, the penny dropped!  I had my link… finally the puzzle pieces started to come together.

Dreams, Lucid Dreams and Astral Projections were all the same experience!  It made so much sense to me… my own experiences gave me the proof I needed.  At the time the known majority of my experiences were \”Non-physical Lucid Awareness Experiences\”, it stood to reason at the time that if Dreams and Lucid Dreams are intricately linked… then the next logical step would be that they\’re really the same experience as Astral Projections.  Bam!  Mystery #1 for myself was solved.

Then I started remembering experiences I\’ve had in the past where I wasn\’t sure they were projections or not… and now I had the answers for them, they DEFINITELY were astral projections!  … and they were just like my lucid dreams too, except I knew exactly who and what I was at the time along with my normal waking mind.

Now, as I go back to re-read all the books I\’ve read previously, I find that I\’m able to gleam so much more out of them.  When one understands what\’s going on, one can understand and interpret, not only their own experiences better, but those of other peoples as well… even if the other people come up with different interpretations.

So, here I stand… with too many non-physical lucid awareness experiences to count and several known non-physical astral awareness experiences (I dunno how many there could have been during my youth) under my belt… this post is how I came to realize these truths, the personal experiences which meshed so well with those who came before me.

I can\’t wait to experience more and to attempt to follow in the footsteps of those who came before me.  🙂

Energy Work and Astral Projection

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Personally speaking, I see no relation between these two activities.  I think people are fully developed enough energetically to begin to successfully astrally project and no further \”development\” is required in that area.

There are many examples out there of individuals being highly successful in the field of Astral Projection without doing any major, supportive energy work.  Probably the biggest name was Robert Monroe… I don\’t believe he did anything of the sort, at least nothing as a major supportive activity for him to project.  Frank Kepple… the Astral Pulses own Phaser, he never felt it was required either.  He would speak from time to time about firing off his chakras while already in a phased state, but that\’s pretty much the extent of it.  Then there\’s William Buhlman, now granted, I haven\’t read all of his work yet, but from what I have, I haven\’t seen much indication of energy work either.  Then there\’s Bedeekin, over on the Astral Viewers, I\’m fairly certain he also doesn\’t do any kind of energy work in order to project (feel free to correct me if I\’m wrong ;)).  Then there\’s probably the most important person I think can think of… myself.

I say I\’m the most important person to myself not because I\’m some narcissistic individual, but because I can really only trust my own experiences.   My own personal experiences are the most important thing in relation to astral projection that I have, just as yours are to you.  My personal experiences (along with all the corroborating evidence above) dictate that energy work simply isn\’t required for Astral Projection practices.

So, if I don\’t do energy work… and I can still project just fine, then I can only conclude that what other people are doing is a waste of time UNLESS they\’re doing it for other purposes aside from Astral Projection.  Let me make that 100% clear, I\’m saying this IN REGARDS to Astral Projection ONLY. My stance is that if your only goal is to do Astral Projection, as mine is, then you do not need to waste time doing any energy work what-so-ever.  You are more than developed enough energetically to get the job done.  I feel it\’s best to put that time to use actually practicing the art.

Why is it that people seem to have this belief that energy work is required?  I think the only phenomenon going on here is a self-reinforcing belief.  A person thinks, for one reason or another, that they need to do energy work in order to succeed in Astral Projection, so they do it… and they find it DOES work which reinforces that belief in them.  While for me, I don\’t think it\’s needed, so I don\’t do it… and I find THAT works, which then further reinforces that belief in me.

My current goal for Astral Projection is to continue what Robert Monroe and Frank Kepple started… and that\’s to bring Astral Projection further into the mainstream and make it easy for people to learn.  This means stripping away all the mystical/occult layers and getting down to the very core of what\’s required.  The very core requirement to be successful in Astral Projection is… *YOU*.

Phasing Realization! Thanks Monroe!

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As I\’ve been saying lately, I\’ve been re-reading the first book written by Robert Monroe, \”Journeys Out of the Body\”.  I\’m getting so much more out of it now that I\’m a little more experienced and have more knowledge under my belt.  I\’m able to pick out some of the subtle nuances of the information he\’s presenting.

One particular point of interest was around page 86/87, where he\’s talking about Locale III and his \”turning 180 degrees\”.  The first time I read this I was really confused… what is he turning?  Is he trying to physically turn 180 degrees?  Is he trying to turn his second body (astral body)?  And which direction is he doing this turning?  Well… all those questions are aiming in the wrong direction.  He\’s turning his focus away from the physical and towards the non-physical… he\’s PHASING.  He even explains this slightly in a passing manner on the following pages.  It was something I completely missed at the time of my first reading… however, I doubt that I would have figured it out anyhow.  So, back in 1958 he first discovered Phasing.

I was lying in bed a few days before that, I think it was Friday or Saturday night.  I had closed my eyes and started a really basic noticing exercise… and I began to, really quickly, slip into a Focus 10 state.  It really caught me off-guard… but just as this happened my girlfriend asked me a question and it brought me out of it.  Now, I didn\’t really give this much of a 2nd thought at the time… until I read those few pages in Robert\’s book, then it all clicked back into memory.

What\’s intriguing about this is that I did it while going to bed that night.  Given some more practice at this, I might be able to \”pull-a-Monroe\”  (LOL) and do some phasing on the way into sleep at night instead of having to wake up in the morning or rely upon lucid awareness experiences during the night.  This really opens up a whole new avenue of progress with which I can take.  🙂

To say I\’m excited about this would be quite the understatement.  hehe

What is Visualization and How Do I Do It?

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EDIT: I knew this would happen eventually… I apparently already made a post on this particular subject and linked this very link back in the beginning of September.  Oh well.  I actually consider this to be the very CORNERSTONE of learning how to do Phasing.  In other words, it\’s definitely worth a second look.  Please read it carefully and try to understand EXACTLY what he\’s trying to say here.

Being able to do some sort of visualization seems to be a huge part of astral projection.  With that said, I\’m CONSTANTLY seeing people talking about it and doing it wrong… not to mention there seems to be a vast group of people who believe they can\’t visualize worth beans.

These people are WRONG… *EVERYONE* can do visualization just fine, they\’ve just been conditioned lately to believe it\’s something completely different.  So, rather than me explaining what\’s wrong with peoples idea of visualization, I\’ll just link Robert Bruce\’s NEW article he wrote SPECIFICALLY on visualization.  I agree with every word.

http://www.astraldynamics.com.au/content.php?205-Part-2-NO-Visualization

I\’ll post the first bit here to get you started… then head over there and read the rest! 🙂

Taken altogether, the required skills for any kind of energy work or metaphysical development can seem pretty daunting. But please don\’t panic! Taken one at a time the individual skills needed for development are very simple. They are all very easy to learn and do when explained and taught in just the right way. Anyone can learn them! The following development units are carefully structured to present everything in just the right order to make the learning process as easy and painless as possible.

No prior skills are required to begin with. I have designed the coming sections with the complete novice in mind, but while also catering for the needs of intermediate and advanced students. Anyone can learn and use these techniques, even if they have never had any previous success with energy or development work. I say this without reservation. Some of the theories, techniques and processes offered here are quite new, while other components are clever innovations on existing knowledge; but all are extremely effective. Using these tools it will not take years of hard work before any noticeable results are achieved. In fact, because of their effectiveness most people will get worthwhile results the very first time they use them.
What\’s NEW About Visualization?

Let\’s face it, 99% of people can\’t visualize for peanuts! No, let me rephrase that, 99% of people think they cannot visualize. But this is all wrong too, because I know that one-hundred percent of people can visualize perfectly. Everyone does it all the time. They just don\’t know they are doing it. If you are one of the many people that has problems with visualization, then this is the chapter you have been waiting for all your life.

The above stated problem comes about simply because visualization is generally so poorly explained and taught these days. Visualization is considered by many to be an ability that takes years to master. But visualization is extremely easy and it does not take any time at all to master. It is a natural ability that everyone has and uses all the time. It is an ability that anyone can do with virtually no training or practice.

There are profound in-built problems with the majority of today\’s popular New Age visualization-based techniques. This is especially apparent with popular energy body and Chakra development techniques, if you seriously examine them. I have come across countless developmental problems relating to this single issue. This problem is so serious it greatly increases the difficulty levels encountered with any kind of serious development work. Development time is thereby seriously lengthened. As a consequence the majority of people give up well before they get any noticeable or worthwhile results.

To illustrate a part of this problem: if you belong to a meditation or development group, go and ask everyone, one at a time and in private, how they really get on with visualization. Note the slightly worried looks you\’ll get with this question if you push it, especially from those teaching it. If they are completely honest most people will admit to having a few basic problems with visualization, or that they just can\’t do it at all. But you will also find a few who will claim to have no problems whatsoever. These lucky few can easily see in their mind\’s eye whatever they visualize – just as if they are watching a little TV behind their closed eyelids, in their mind\’s eye. The lucky few with this type of visual ability are unintentionally a part of this widespread self-propagating problem.

A Theory – Visual Fading Away

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I have a theory that I\’ve been tossing around in my head lately that I wish to share.

If you fixate upon a single point in front of you and are able to keep your vision from moving around due to the micro movements of your eye or from objects moving within your field of vision then a strange phenomenon begins to happen.  First, things around your fixated target begin to disappear… a line here, a corner of something there… they vanish before your eyes.  Eventually, everything starts to fade away into a background white or black, depending upon how lighted the area around you is.  Generally, during our normal waking lives, this phenomenon doesn\’t occur because even if there is nothing \”moving\” in our field of vision, the micro movements of our eyes tend to keep things moving.  Think of it as a computer monitor, the micro movements of the eye cause a screen refresh 30 frames every second.  It might be hard for some people to keep this movement to a minimum… but give it a shot and see if you can make this happen.

I feel that the fading away of the visual spectrum is the beginning of the shift into Focus 10!  I find that as this visual shift begins to happen, my mind is nice and relaxed, but that may just be me.  See how you feel when you try it.  But it\’s just the beginning of it.  Now, this is the reason that we usually do our practicing with our eyes closed, due to the visual distractions.  Your eyes are much easier to remain still in this state… this is also a great exercise to do to learn to \”passively observe\”, as you need to keep your eyes passively still for the fading to initiate.

If you can get it so that the visual field you\’re viewing completely disappears, I think you\’re good to close your eyes and try it.  As I said, I think this shift is the beginning of Focus 10… it\’s the start of removing ourselves consciously from the physical.  If you can actually hold this (which would be hard due to having to blink), theoretically, you should be able to project even with your eyes open!

Any other ideas?  Thoughts?

Post Focus! Focus 10 and 12!

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I\’ve been doing a bit of research lately on Focus 10 and Focus 12, and I came across yet another gem-of-a-post from our good buddy Frank. The poster is called \”Difference between Focus 10 and Focus 12\”:

Is there any difference between Focus 10 and Focus 12 ?
I would like to get the answer especially from tose who were/are successuful with the tapes from Monroe Institute.
Any different body sensations ?
Different visuals ?
Different type/quality of OOB ?

Thanks in advance
Jan

Franks reply:

Yes, a distinct difference.

Focus 10 is where you have retreated from the physical about 85 to 90%. You still have an awareness that somewhere \”back there\” is a physical body. You are aware that you have one, but aren\’t really interested in it, and receiving next to no input from its physical senses. Your mind is awake and alert, but your focal point of consciousness is contained in what feels like a black 2-dimensional compartment somewhere about the centre of your head.

The primary difference between Focus 10 and Focus 12 is the 2D blackness becomes 3 dimensional. In other words, you get a sensation of an opening up of space, all around you. It\’s like if you suddenly found yourself in an unfamiliar room, where you were standing in the middle, and there was no light whatsoever. You wouldn\’t have any spatial awareness at all. All you\’d see would be a 2-dimensional blackness before your eyes.

Now, say, someone very slowly began to turn on a light. There would come a point where you\’d begin to see abstract shadows. Then, as the light got steadily brighter, the shadows would become more distinct and you\’d begin to recognise basic shapes. This is what Focus 12 is like.

People perceive the state slightly differently, but the primary difference is the fact that the 2 dimensional blackness becomes 3 dimensional. Which gives you a distinct feeling of spatial awareness. You can\’t really see much at this stage, just indistinct shadows, or maybe whirls of foggy sort-of darkness. But, as I say, you cannot miss the *distinct* feeling of spatial awareness that comes about.

From Focus 12, it\’s like the light progressively gets brighter. Taking the room analogy a step further, as the light got slowly brighter, there would come a point where you\’d recognise some object, previously perceived as an indistict shadow, as a chair (say). But you wouldn\’t know the colour of the fabric or the pattern (if any). As the light got brighter still, you\’d start making out that there might be a pattern on the fabric, but you still wouldn\’t be able to see the colour. As the brightness increased, there would come a point where everything would come into view. This is Focus 21

Yours,
Frank

I like his description of how the Focus 12 state slowly comes out of the Focus 10 state. \”The light progressively gets brighter\”… that\’s really a great way to describe it… and then his description of the progression into Focus 21 using the chair is really good too.

All of these posts by Frank that I keep relaying here are part and parcel of the progress I\’ve made over the past year. I wouldn\’t know what I do now if it wasn\’t for reading and understanding this stuff. 🙂

Oh! I want to add this post in a different thread from Clandestino, one of the other moderators on the Astral Pulse.

Hi there Nick,

this reminds me of another post a few weeks ago, I think Frank was talking about a guide giving him info on how important the focus 12 state is in the whole scheme of things.

It is the transition from focus 10 to 12 that is often hard to acheive. Once you are there though, the whole thing should unravel towards focus 22 and \”out of body\” experiences.

One common technique is focussing on something in your field of view…e.g. a dot of light, or a slightly different coloured area in the blackness around you. If you are in focus 12, you may find that the dot of light you were focussing on takes shape, and grows into an astral scene.

However, if you are in focus 10 and you focus on something behind your eyelids….not a lot is likely to happen !

\”how do you get to focus 12?\” i hear you ask ? I don\’t know yet, it just happens sometimes. I would compare my experiences to a blind man walking down the street and then finding the edge of the pavement (or sidewalk if you\’re that way inclined). All of a sudden, there it is !
After a while of walking down the same street, the blind man will find it easier to reach the kerb. Ask him how he did it though, and he might find it tricky to explain.

I\’m sure there are a few folks out there who have more positive suggestions..?

ps – don\’t infer from the above that i\’m a regular at this sort of thing; i\’ve managed it a few times only so far.

That\’s very much exactly what goes on. Just find some point of \”interest\” in your current field of view… and focus on it. If you see that which you\’re focusing on start to take shape… it doesn\’t have to be any particular object, just a formless blob… then you\’re most definitely in Focus 12. From there, it\’s a simple matter of just doing what you\’re currently doing… and ALLOW yourself to be taken into the 3D blackness of Focus 21.

The part where he talks about HOW you get to Focus 12… the point here is that it does \”JUST HAPPEN\”.   Just as you allow yourself to get swept into Focus 21… you must also allow yourself to be taken into Focus 12.

I\’ve changed up my routine slightly lately, as I now use the Noticing exercise more than anything else these days.  I\’ll sit there staring at a single point on the back of my eyelids.  As I begin to slowly feel my body relax I\’ll start to move my physical eyes upwards REALLY slowly… moving them upwards as much as is comfortable as I don\’t want to strain my eyes because that would become counter productive.  At the point when my eyes are pointing upwards as much as I can, I should be pretty relaxed… you can use a progressive relaxation technique here if you wish and as you go through each muscle, move your sight upwards slightly.

For knowing how MUCH to move your eyes… stare straight ahead while you\’re awake, then move your gaze upwards as far as is comfortable.  With your eyes open this is easy, with your eyes closed, you\’ll need to fixate on a portion of the blackness in front of you for your eyes to lock there.  So, now that you know your range of eye movement, just split it up into nice sections and move your eyes accordingly for each progressive muscle relaxed.

So now you\’re relaxed and your eyes are comfortably looking upwards… just watch the scene infront of you and see what happens.  Wait for something to happen.   That\’s all I do.  🙂

Post Focus! Frank

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I was just doing a bit of research on Focus 12 and I wanted to share this wonderful gem of a post.  It\’s Frank responding to someone asking a few questions.  The following is from someone named Ash, back in March 28th, 2003:

okay i\’ve started to notice a strange phenomenon during my practice sessions. Sometimes I feel like I might be about to phase, or obe, or I\’m viewing hypnagogic imagery, and then I will \”snap back\”. This snapping back is something like being in a daydream and then realizing where you are in real life. It\’s sort of a sudden change in your focus of awareness. What I realized is that every time I snap back it actually feels like a very subtle, quick movement down and to the left. After it happens I feel totally awake, just looking at the backs of my eyelids, my awareness centered behind my eyes. But if I drift off again, my awareness moves up and to the right. Once it moves there, if I can regain control without snapping back, I get all sorts of astral and dream-like symptoms. I may get astral sight, or if not I can easily visualize and actually see whatever I visualize (ordinarily my visualization is the pits)

A couple of things are interesting about this.
1) it absolutely cannot be forced. I only realize it has happened after I snap back. During the process it all seems perfectly natural. I can\’t reproduce it if I actually try to move my awareness.

2) I\’m wondering if this has something to do with the \”Brain Method\”

3) When people access memories, or try to imagine, they either look up and to the right, or up and to the left. I can\’t remember which is which, but one is to remember facts and one is to imagine something. I wonder if this awareness shift is related to accessing a different part of my brain.

Comments or similar experiences?

And here is Franks reply:

quote:
Comments or similar experiences? 

Yes, definitely, what you are describing IS the Phasing process!

quote:
Okay i\’ve started to notice a strange phenomenon during my practice sessions. Sometimes I feel like I might be about to phase, or obe, or I\’m viewing hypnagogic imagery, and then I will \”snap back\”. This snapping back is something like being in a daydream and then realizing where you are in real life. It\’s sort of a sudden change in your focus of awareness.

Yes, that\’s what you should be experiencing. It\’s a distinct shift in your focus of awareness. And there is no mistaking it too. Like, you are not placed in a situation where you are left wondering did you make the shift or not.

The reason why you currently keep snapping-back, is due to your protective sense of awareness kicking in. It\’s not something you can consciously control as the protection aspect operates on a very base level. But it does stop happening the more you practice. As your protective sense of awareness gets used to the shift, it becomes a case of, yawn, here we go again.

quote:
What I realized is that every time I snap back it actually feels like a very subtle, quick movement down and to the left. After it happens I feel totally awake, just looking at the backs of my eyelids, my awareness centered behind my eyes. But if I drift off again, my awareness moves up and to the right.

Again, this is how it should feel. Although I only mainly feel an upwards movement, with just a slight hint of a twist to the right.

quote:
Once it moves there, if I can regain control without snapping back, I get all sorts of astral and dream-like symptoms. I may get astral sight, or if not I can easily visualize and actually see whatever I visualize (ordinarily my visualization is the pits)

At first the whole situation can be a bit of a muddle. But after a while you will be able to distinctly recognise the different states of conscious-awareness as you phase through them smoothly.

The point at which your focus of attention is completely directed inwards, this is Focus 10. Following which you then start to see all kinds of abstract movement (or hypnagogic imagery as you term it) this is Focus 12.

If you are in the position where, like you say, you can visualise and actually SEE what you are visualising, this is Focus 22. Note: Focus 22 is basically the same state of consciousness as Lucid Dreaming: only with a very much greater sense of mental control.

Also, Focus 22 is the first proper realm of conscious awareness where thought equals direct action. So, as you have discovered, it is easy to visualise anything simply by thinking about seeing it, and it immediately materialises.

quote:
A couple of things are interesting about this.
1) it absolutely cannot be forced. I only realize it has happened after I snap back. During the process it all seems perfectly natural. I can\’t reproduce it if I actually try to move my awareness.

That\’s right, and this part of it I find ever so tricky to explain. You cannot will yourself to have the experience. It\’s something you mentally allow yourself to become open to.

It\’s like where I\’ve tried to explain it before by saying that Astral Projection is not about finding the right projection technique, but more to do with developing the right kind of mental understanding. Techniques can be very useful but, ultimately, I believe their effectiveness stems from them acting as a kind of mental primer that serves to kick-start the natural process.

quote:
2) I\’m wondering if this has something to do with the \”Brain Method\”

I don\’t know what the Brain Method is exactly. Someone coined the term a while ago and it seems to have stuck. What I can say for sure, however, is that what you are describing are characteristics of the beginning stage of the Phasing process.

If you keep practicing you will find that you will be able to ultimately make a complete smooth transition from Physical to Astral.

quote:
3) When people access memories, or try to imagine, they either look up and to the right, or up and to the left. I can\’t remember which is which, but one is to remember facts and one is to imagine something. I wonder if this awareness shift is related to accessing a different part of my brain.

This phenomenon can vary between different people. I\’m not sure if they are linked in any way. But the awareness shift you feel is due to the shift in your focal point of awareness. As it shifts it gives a sensation of movement like you were travelling in a particular direction.

If you keep practicing to the point where you can reach the Astral fairly reliably and keep your thoughts/emotions in check; you will be able to contact other members of your Astral Family who I\’m sure will only be too happy to explain and give demonstrations and/or exercises that will show you how the Mind is a separate entity from the physical-body and the physical brain.

Yours,
Frank

Everything he explains here is just perfect to describe everything from the description of Focus 12 to the process of just ALLOWING yourself to Phase. So many insights in one post.

And I\’m just figuring out today at how good the \”noticing\” exercise really is… and I think because of my experience at lunch time today, I might give it a better try again.

What are Astral Projections?

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I\’m ending this three-parter with my opinion on what Astral Projections are.

Astral Projections and Lucid Dreams are VERY similar, actually they\’re the same experience with one difference:  You.  Sometimes it\’s VERY HARD to determine which experience you are in because of it.  The difference is not the environment you\’re in because the area of consciousness where the two (including normal dreams) take place is the same.  So, if the area of consciousness that these experiences happen in is the same, then what exactly IS that difference I mentioned?  I mentioned in the What are Lucid Dreams article that LD\’s are when you recognize that you\’re in the non-physical (dream).  That knowledge is really the ONLY requisite.  You probably won\’t have any notion that you actually have a physical body somewhere else that is fast asleep.  Well, an Astral experience is when you recognize that you\’re in the non-physical AND you retain all your waking faculties/awareness (or as close to it as possible).

Now, for me… this area you now find yourself in is, in essence, the same place where you dream.  This opens up a world of endless possibilities for you.  You\’re limited, LITERALLY, only by your imagination.  If you want to fight demons or dragons?  Go right ahead!  If you want to talk to elven folk or perhaps visit some faeries?  You can do so!  You can also sift through every memory your physical senses have ever recorded… this is where it starts getting really interesting.  So yeah, whatever you want to do/experience, you\’re able to do/experience.  This area, I call Focus 2 oC as per Frank Kepple\’s model of reality.  It\’s your own personal area of consciousness… sometimes referred to as your \”imagination\” or \”subconscious\”.

You can, however, use this area as a jumping board to Focus 3 oC (again F. Kepples Model), which is what I refer to as \”Collective Consciousness\” area.  Focus 3 oC is where you\’ll meet other \”people\” who are either projecting, or even people who have already physically died and have no physical body anymore.  You may also call upon actual guides to come assist you.

To get to Focus 3 oC from your current Focus 2 oC area you need to clear your mind and stop your thoughts/emotions from fueling the Focus 2 scenario around you.  Doing this will cause the Focus 2 environment to fade away and you\’ll start to see the Collective Focus 3 oC environment come into view.  From there, do what you want.  However, just remember that to remain in Focus 3 oC you need to always keep that tight grip on your thoughts and emotions, or you\’ll start to get Focus 2/3 overlays happening.  Basically, this means that dream imagery will start to creep into your Focus 3 experience… and if you don\’t stop it, you\’ll be pulled back into Focus 2 oC until you can calm your mind down again.

Dream, Lucid and Astral Awareness… these three states of awareness are very important to understand if you care enough to define your experiences.  There are more than just these three levels though.  Between each state of awareness is a wide range.  Think of it as a spectrum with \”Dream Awareness\” on one end, \”Astral Awareness\” at the other end, and \”Lucid Awareness\” in the middle… your consciousness can be along that spectrum anywhere at any time and you can potentially go through the entire range within a single non-physical experience.

So happy traveling!  Enjoy every second of it!