Phasing Realization! Thanks Monroe!

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Xanth

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

A Theory – Visual Fading Away

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Xanth

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?

My Recent Phasing Practice Sessions

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Xanth

I guess there isn\’t too much to post about lately, so I\’ll just write about my two previous phasing practice sessions.

The recent one was last night an hour before I went to my Yoshinkan Aikido class. I sat down on my recliner couch, put my iPod earbuds in and started listening to one of my hemi-sync songs. I think I was listening to \”Touching Grace\”. Anyway, I started to relax… I generally work on my face first, I find that I hold a lot of muscle tension around my ears and cheekbones. My body tends to relax very quickly now-a-days, so I don\’t usually do a progressive relaxation method on that part of me. It\’s just my face I find most difficult.

When my face was relaxed, this includes my eyes now (which is a change I started just recently as I never did the eye relaxation thing before), which I\’m finding to be a great thing to do in order to \”passively observe\”. I started my \”Fixated Staring\” routine as noted in my previous post (Xanth\’s Phasing Method) and began slipping very quickly into Focus 3 (Monroe model)… and within 8 – 10 minutes Focus 10 followed. When I felt the Focus 10 state sink in, I started my Noticing exercise. So I was staring at the blackness behind my closed eyes, noticing what\’s going on… and then I feel what can really best be described as an \”expanded awareness/consciousness\”. I really do feel EXPANDED… then the visuals kick on and I\’m now staring at floating formless colour clouds in front of me. I never made it to Focus 21 this time, but I did come to the conclusion that Focus 12 is now always within my reach and truly is easy to get to once you\’ve done it once and realize it.

The practice session before that one also went just like that… except I think I was in my bedroom at the time sitting on my bed. It took slightly longer to hit Focus 12, but I did get there. It\’s really something you need to stumble into once, then it should be easy to get to from then on out… with just a bit less effort each time.

So that\’s really all I have to say right now… I just wanted to relay those experiences out there. Hopefully reading it might give you some glimpse into a point you\’re at where you\’re stuck.

Xanth’s Phasing Method

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Xanth

I posted this in my last article I wrote where I focused on a couple posts from the Astral Pulse, but I thought that it’d be nice to get it down separately and with a bit more detail. So, what follows is my current Phasing method which has been giving me a lot of success as of late.

What I’ve been doing lately has been a slight combination of a few methods, rolled up into something that has been really easy for me to do. Doing this takes me, pretty quickly, through Focus 10 into Focus 12… my sticking point right now is the transition from Focus 12 to Focus 21.

Anyway, let’s get into what I do!
I’ll type up a quick overview, then go through each step in more detail.:

Stretch your eyes out… close them really tightly for a few seconds. Do this a few times. Then rotate them around several times, making sure they’re completely stretched out… I’ll give them a good rub too.
Close eyes, fixate upon a spot in the blackness directly in front of you and visualize something at the spot to help hold your focus there, I use a spinning vortex.
Start your relaxation process.
As you’re relaxing, move that spot you’re fixating on slowly upwards as high as you can comfortably go without straining your eyes.
When your eyes have gone as upwards as they’ll go, you’ll hopefully also be fully relaxed at this point, you should be in Focus 10 at this point… to shift to Focus 12, begin the “Noticing” exercise.
Should you begin to see floating, formless shapeless blobs in front where you’re fixated, this signifies you’re now in Focus 12.
Keep “Noticing” the formless shapes floating around and eventually, without trying (just allow this next part to happen), you should find yourself engulfed within the 3D Blackness of Focus 21.

Ok, so let’s drop into more detail!
Lately, I’ve been listening to some hemi-sync MP3’s that I bought off the TMI webstore. Stuff like “Dreamseed”, “Touching Grace” and “Voyage to the Other Side”. Actually those are the only three I have, I cycle through them quite often.

The first thing I do is stretch out my eyes… this helps to relax them and allows them to stay closed easier. I’ll do this by closing them tight for a few seconds, then release. Do that a few times. Then rotate your eyes around in whatever direction you wish. But try to stretch them as far out in each direction as you can.

Now after my eyes are stretched out nicely (they should feel a lot more relaxed at this point), I close my eyes and fixate on a single point directly in front of me. I visualize a small spinning vortex at that point to draw my gaze into it. You can use whatever you want. I use this time to begin to relax my body… I used to have to use a progressive relaxation technique, but lately I’ve been able to bypass that and start moving directly into a fully relaxed state. So, if you can’t do this, feel free to use whatever method you want to achieve your relaxed state.

Now, throughout this relaxation phase, I’ll really slowly shift that point I’m fixated on upwards in small increments. This has two effects… first it locks the eyelids shut and secondly, for some reason it assists the action of phasing (perhaps it’s just me, but try it anyway). I find I have to find a new point to fixate upon which is slightly higher than the last one each time. Just remember to continue your fixation visualization each time (in my case, the spinning vortex).

Try to coincide your finished relaxed state with your eyes reaching as comfortably high as they’ll go. At this point, hopefully, you should be in Focus 10. You’ll know by the greatly reduced bodily sensations and a general sense of relax and calmness about you. I want to point out here that your body WILL NOT be asleep at this point… and really, it never will. You’ll simply be disassociating your focus from everything physical. I can put it this way… at this point, your focus will be roughly only 20% in the physical and 80% within the non-physical at this time.

From here, we’ll start Franks “Noticing” exercise. You’re going to continue fixating on the point that you’ve been using… and you’re going to just “notice” and passively observe what’s going on in your field of view. It’ll start with blackness, or you might, right away, start to see abstract shadows and areas within your field of view that will begin to shift and move around… keep “noticing” these things. The more you “notice” this stuff occurring in front of you, the deeper you’ll shift your focus into it and the more you’ll remove your focus from the physical. When this happens, you’ll roughly be 10% in the physical and 90% in the non-physical.

Now, there will come a point when you’ll feel a shift… and you might find yourself within a scene or some kind, or floating in what’s best described as a 3D Blackness. When this happens, try to remain passively observing… you’re now in Focus 21. Congrats, you’ve now phased your consciousness as close to 100% as you can go. You still might retain some sensations of the physical, but that’s normal. 🙂

Post Focus! Focus 10 and 12!

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Xanth

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

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Xanth

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.

Coast to Coast – Robert Monroe

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Xanth

This is a Coast to Coast interview with Robert Monroe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRDCaSBPkss

Interview with playlist

What are Astral Projections?

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Xanth

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!

Reality Check Success – November 7, 2010

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Xanth

This will be short. Off and on, over the past month or so, I\’ve been half-assedly trying reality checks in an attempt to increase the frequency of my Lucid Dreams.

Well, this morning it paid off with a very brief Lucid Dream. I found myself walking down the side of an unfamiliar road… I looked around and nobody else was around and no cars were coming, so I decided to try to jump into the air and fly. I jumped, flew a bit… realized, \”Hey, I\’m dreaming!\”… then almost immediately I fell back into a Dream Awareness but the environment and dream changed completely and it was World of Warcraft related. >_<

But, at least the reality check initially worked. 🙂

I do not believe Demons exist!

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Xanth

From time to time on the Astral Pulse forums and lately in the Astral Pulse IRC channel (there are links for both locations on the right side of this website) I\’ve been having to tackle the issue of demons. People supposedly \”fighting\” with and just having general encounters with demons.

I\’ll just say that \”demons\” (or other negative entities) in the astral is purely a matter of BELIEF. They only exist in the minds and experiences of those who believe in them.

Now, how did I come to this conclusion? Well, basically, I can\’t remember a single time in my life where I\’ve ever had an encounter with ANYTHING that could even remotely be considered evil that didn\’t come directly from my subconscious mind. No objective existence of a negative entity has ever cropped up in my experiences.
I\’ve been Lucid Dreaming for pretty much my entire life and more recently into my Astral Projections, I have never experienced this phenomenon.

What can I infer from this? Well one of two things.

If demons really do exist then they are afraid to interact with me for some unknown reason. We know this can\’t be the case due to demon-legend and folklore… and honestly, I\’m nobody special. Now the second option… they are the creation of those who believe and I do not believe that they exist so I don\’t provide them with the chance to exist. Makes sense, eh?

The only reason people experience demons in their astral projections is because either they outright believe in them or on some subconscious level outside their normally accepted conscious awareness, they believe in them. Either way, it\’s a fear-based belief that brings them into your projections.

And seriously… fighting them? That\’s giving them even more power to exist, because you are only further reinforcing the belief in yourself that they exist by engaging them. Your best bet is to ignore them as best you can. Close off your thoughts and emotions to the scenes playing out around you and they\’ll fade away into the nothing they came from.

So, the next time you find yourself facing down \”demons\” in your astral projection, don\’t be afraid, they are a simple fear-based self creation.

Classic OBE vs Phasing

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Xanth

I\’ve seen a lot of people get confused over what \”Phasing\” is in relation to what I refer to as the \”Classic OBE\”. In regards to where you end up, they\’re the same. Both types of projection will take you to the \”non-physical\”. The difference is in the sensations and methods for getting there. That\’s all.

When one has a \”Classic OBE\” they generally feel sensations of separation from their physical body along with the classic vibrations.
When one \”Phases\”, you generally don\’t get those sensations. You\’ll be Here, then you\’ll feel a shift (not a separation), and then you\’ll be \”There\” with your full waking awareness intact. In both cases, they lead to the same \”area of consciousness\”. You could end up somewhere familiar, like your bedroom… or somewhere not familiar, like some otherworldly environment.

I\’ll try to expand on this at a later time, but I hope it provides some kind of idea on the differences between the two phenomenon.

Morning Projection – October 11, 2010

Posted on October 11, 2010 by Xanth

I wanted to journal my experience I had this morning.

So, the first thing I remember was finding myself standing in a very beautiful grassy scene. I had completely bypassed Lucid Awareness and apparently went straight to Astral Awareness. I could see rolling, green hills for as far as the eye could see. I remember looking up at the blue sky, and it was so very beautiful. I just remember standing there for a few short seconds taking it all in. The colours were absolutely brilliant. I believe this was a Focus 3 oC area.

Standing around in this field were MANY people. I didn\’t notice anyone wearing any strange clothing… they all seemed to be rather modern. Some of them were standing off by themselves, others were standing in groups having conversations.

What I believe was a teenage girl came up to me and started talking. I don\’t remember what the original conversation was, but I do remember asking her name in the hopes of getting some information about her that I could try to confirm when I returned to the physical. Her name was Cardiff. Unfortunately, I didn\’t get a last name or any other information regarding her… I do remember \’chatting it up\’ with a few of the other people there, but I don\’t remember the details of them. I remember one big burly fellow giving me a big hug… he seemed to know me, I dunno from where though. All throughout these chats with people, I remember jumping up and flying around a bit. I absolutely LOVE flying. 🙂

So anyways, around this time, I began to feel that I was dropping back into Lucid Awareness… because I was starting to see some Focus 2 oC environments overlay into my experiences. I then began to feel myself wake up… the good thing here was that I woke up slow enough that I was able to keep myself still and my eyes closed, HOWEVER, I also had to go to the bathroom, which was probably the initial reason why I woke in the first place. LoL

My initial goal this morning was to try Personalreality\’s new LD inducing sound file… but, since I didn\’t need it this morning, I skipped that. I\’ll try it sometime this week or probably next weekend. 🙂

Phasing Method – Don’t Open Your Eyes When You Wake

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Xanth

SpiritualShawn on the Astral Viewers posted an interesting question about keeping your eyes shut when you wake up to help you to project.

Ok so I want to practice waking up in the morning without opening my eyes or moving? How can I do this? It seems like in the mornings I usually find myself rolling around while waking up or my eyes are already open by the time I realize im awake.

I know If I wake myself up super early and induce a lucid dream I should be able to gently bring myself back to physical conscious (waking up) without moving much because I am already aware in the dream. Other than that I really don’t know how to go about doing this as after waking up in the morning would seem like a practical time for a conscious exit, (for me atleast).

Any tips?

I don’t have any direct tips, but it did remind me of the ONE time I managed to do this… and I’ll recount it here in hopes it has something that might help someone do the same.

So, the one time I managed to do this I was already in a lucid dream (the LD was me in this room full of toilets and urinals… I know, strange LOL) and I began to feel that usual feeling of ‘waking up’. My vision went to black and I felt the shift… I knew I was back in the physical, lying in my bed, and it happened so smoothly that I didn’t bother to open my eyes. I figured I’d go back to sleep, and within what felt like one minute I slipped back into my lucid dream at the exact point I had left, in the toilet-filled room. A couple minutes into this lucid dream, I, again, felt myself waking up… I kept my eyes closed for that waking as well.

I kept doing this over and over… four times, each time I woke up faster and faster. The fifth time, I got into the lucid dream and I immediately began waking up. I initiated my spinning thing to ground and keep myself within the lucid dream… but it didn’t work and had a secondary effect of causing me to have a classic OBE experience where I felt my arms float up and the rest of me follow. I opened my eyes and I was floating down towards the foot of my bed. This lasted about 10 seconds, when I came back to the physical.

So that’s the only experience I can remember where I managed to not open my eyes upon waking up.

Many times I’ve read stories of people doing this exact thing to project… well, all I can say is that it does work IF you can remember to not open your eyes when you wake. For me, it was a matter of already being lucid in the dream and sensing when I was waking so I could prepare myself to do it.

Hopefully this helps someone. 🙂

Lunchtime Meditation – Sept 17, 2010

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Xanth

I meditated a bit at lunchtime today during which I had an epiphany that I would like to share.

My goal in mind was my usual, I wanted to try to passively observe myself falling asleep so I can learn to catch it.
I had a thought earlier in the day, and I realized that I just wasn\’t keeping my mind active enough while falling asleep… I don\’t know why I never really thought about it before, but it just kind of hit me hard at that point and finally sunk in.

I began my meditation around 12:40pm… sitting at my desk, back straight in my chair, my feet flat on the floor and my arms resting naturally on my desk. After a few minutes, as I started to relax, I\’d notice my upper body falling forward slightly. This is my sign that my body is relaxing enough and is falling asleep. Points would come when I\’d realize that my head is almost touching my desk due to falling forward so much. I\’d straighten up and refocus. This happened twice.

After the second time, I thought to myself, \”Hmmm, I need to get my mind more active\” and I decided to engage my mind more by starting a rundown. I chose a location nearby, down at the lakefront on Lake Ontario. It\’s a cliff that overlooks the lake and beach. i visualized myself standing around up there watching the lake and the waves beat up against the sandy beach… and I still found myself drifting off a bit, it was much better than before in that I was able to catch it happening… so that\’s definitely progress!

I decided to increase the activity a bit… and I got to thinking about Astral Pulse Island. I wanted to incorporate that into my rundown somehow… so I looked out at the water and decided to take a jaunt out there to see what I could/would find on the Lake!

I floated off the cliff, down to the beach below where I had a boat waiting for me. I jumped in an started paddling out into the open water. What happened next wasn\’t part of my script, nor could I control it. I had gone out only a few seconds when the boat started tipping! It would tip left and right, then it went upside down, and righted itself… it just kept doing it. It felt like I was in a tumble dryer. I tried as hard as I could to control it, but once it started, it was very hard to stop it.

I decided to jump out of the boat and swim back to shore. This stopped the \”tumble dryer\” action from happening, thankfully. I floated back up to the initial cliff I was on before and just started walking instead. At which point, someone called me and I had to go do some \”office stuff\”. >_<

So that was a pretty random experience for me, and I\’m hoping to be able to duplicate it the next time I meditate at home or practice my Phasing. I think I was pretty close to stepping into the rundown though, it started to have a real feeling to it. The tumbling was definitely real, I FELT it as if I was actually there. This all ended around 25 minutes later.

Anyways, I just wanted to share that. 🙂

Phasing – Mental Rundown in Greater Detail

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Xanth

I was reading some of Franks old posts, looking for more information on his \”Mental Rundown\” method and I came across this post (post #43 on page 3) which gave a much more detailed recount of what a mental rundown is and how to craft your own to suit yourself.

I\’ve had a number of PM\’s asking similar questions about my comments regarding the mental-rundown given on the monster-thread as being a kind of primer which kick-starts the natural Phasing process.

The questions relate to how you integrate the two and kick-start the process; how can you tell when the process has been kick-started, and what to do then, etc. So I thought I’d post a reply here as it pertains to the thread title.

What is the purpose of creating a mental rundown?

The rundown acts as a kind of mental primer which gets you in the mood and increases your anticipation and expectation levels (very important). The rundown is not what causes you to Phase to the Astral. Phasing is a natural process which comes about under certain mental conditions which I expand on later in this essay. It also gives a person practice in focusing their attention away from the physical body into the expanse of their mind. In other words, what you are basically doing is imagining you are Phasing to the Astral.

What shall I try, and for how long, and how often?

The mental-rundown exercise should be performed preferably at least once each day at around the same time. It does not really matter what kind of mental rundown you use. Simply do whatever feels right for you. Someone posted fairly recently they tried to work out their own but gave up and used the example I gave with a few changes here and there. Others have created their own from scratch. Like I say, it truly does not matter.

You don’t actually need the Wave-1 CD either – you can formulate a mental rundown to some relaxing music, or create something using Brainwave Generator, or use whatever suits you. All I would advise is for you to create something of around 30 to 45 minutes duration which you are basically happy with then stick with it. In other words, don’t make it too short, or too long, and no chopping and changing.

Okay, I’ve formulated a mental rundown so what next?

Once you have learnt your mental rundown you are ready to use it as a mental primer. First you go through it. Then simply remove the earphones (if you are using a CD or tape) and try Phasing for real.

In cases where you perhaps haven’t got all that much time to spare, what I would suggest is you create a short version of your rundown. Say, around half the duration. Then, every other time, listen to the short version after which you try for real. Once you get more competent then perhaps switch to the short version each morning. Or maybe try a regime of rundown one day and try it for real with no rundown the next. Again, it truly is a case of whatever suits each individual.

What do you mean by “Phasing for real?”

When you come to Phase for-real, you switch from perceiving metal imagery you are imagining as part of your rundown, i.e. where you are imagining you are Phasing to the Astral, to perceiving images that are being created as part of the normal Phasing process. In other words, you are not imagining anything, you are doing it!

After going through my rundown I try it for real and nothing happens, why?

Chances are, your physical-body is distracting you by capturing your attention.

One of the benefits of formulating a mental-rundown to some kind of audio recording, is it takes your mind off both the physical body and the Physical environment. Plus, you know exactly what imagery to perceive as it is you who is imagining it. Without these two mental props it can feel like you are right back at square one.

Main things you should avoid when trying for-real

Thinking about day-to-day Physical-realm matters.

Any kind of thinking about anything to do with the Physical-realm tends to put a *big* spoke in the works. In other words, you can’t really hope to kick-start the Phasing process if one part of you is thinking of your dental appointment next day; or whether you’ll get that pay-rise you requested; or your birthday next week, etc., etc.

To deal with this what you should do, right at the start of your practice, is imagine a large box and place all your Physical-realm concerns in that box. Then lock it securely and walk away. When you finish your mental-rundown, unlock the box and take them out again. This method is suggested by Monroe on the Wave-1 CD. It may sound a bit weird but it works!

Any kind of internally verbalised thought (even if it is to do with Phasing!).

What I mean here, is you need to switch your inner-thinking so it is working exclusively in a visual way. Speed-reading aside, when we read to ourselves we have this inner voice which reads the words. This voice is probably what you are listening to within your own mind, right now as you read this.

Also, when we think to ourselves in an everyday sense we tend to use this same inner voice. Like, you may think, “Hmm, I’ve got 30 minutes before I meet my next client, so I’ll go and fill the car with petrol and pick-up something to eat on the way back.” Thinking that way uses that same inner-voice… which must be silent.

Then you quietly and passively observe what happens next.

When I say “quietly” I mean observe without having that inner-voice comment on anything you may perceive.

When I say “passively” I mean avoid reacting in any way to anything you may perceive.

Both the above I realise are a tad tricky to do. The good news is it all comes good with practice. At first, what will probably happen is you might perceive some kind of vague, fleeting image. At which point your inner-voice will chirp-up saying, “What was that?” or it might make some other comment. Perhaps it may comment in recognition that you are making progress.

Problem is, as it does so, it tends to send you a step back each time. Unfortunately, you can get caught in a self-defeating loop: where you take one step forward, your inner voice recognises you just took a step forward and comments to that effect, and the act of it doing so takes you one step back to where you were before.

Or you might perceive something and react to it. You might get startled, or fearful, or such like. What used to happen to me all the time (which was most frustrating) is I’d perceive some image in mind and, the moment I did so, my physical eyes would try and snatch a glance at whatever it was. This, of course, zapped me right back to C1 each time.

Okay, so you are in a state where you are quietly and passively observing. Don’t worry if nothing comes about. Simply curtail the session after your normal time and try again next session. Hopefully, what will soon happen is you will begin to perceive what may seem like fairly weird, totally abstract mental imagery.

Say you perceive some fleeting kind of something or other. Chances are you’ll wonder if what you think you may have perceived is what you should be starting to perceive. Then you’ll realise your inner voice has just made a comment. But the realisation of that was yet another comment. By which time you’ll probably be right back where you started.

The key is to simply roll along with this mental imagery, without your inner voice commenting on it, or having your physical body reacting to it. This is the beginning of Phasing. You don’t need any particular “technique” in order to project. You just need to set it going. Once the process gets underway everything happens more or less automatically.

If you can just quietly and passively observe the process you will end up within the Astral as awake and alert as you normally are while within the Physical.

Yours,
Frank

Actually, that ENTIRE thread has a bunch of gems. I suggest reading all 6 pages of it. There are a few posts there by Bruce Moen as well.

🙂

Yesterdays Meditation – Sept 14, 2010

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Xanth

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

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

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

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

Phasing Method – Mental Rundowns

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Xanth

The \”Mental Rundown\” is the method that I like to use to do my Phasing attempts with.

This post by Frank really puts it all into perspective:

Jeff:

In addition to what the Major has said, you need to be a little bit careful that you do not begin merely entering into a kind of creative visualisation action. This, in Phasing Model terms, would be an F1/F2 overlay.

For example, I have an extremely vivid imagination. I can sit here now and imagine all manner of scenes \”in my head\” so to speak. But this is not making what I call \”the switch\”, which is the action of transitioning your focus of mental attention out of Focus 1 and into Focus 2 of consciousness.

Your imagination faculty is situated in Focus 2 of consciousness. This is the area of consciousness where most people dream and have their basic \”astral projection\” style experiences, lucid dream experiences, etc. Focus 2 of consciousness is also the region where people meet all their devils and demons, and whatever else besides.

Now, knowing that your imagination is situated in Focus 2 of consciousness, what we do is create a little mental rundown that engages our senses within the rundown to the extent where it captures our focus of attention. As it captures our focus of attention we make \”the switch\” and kind of, go to \”meet\” our imagination.

So the idea is not to just simply remain in the physical creating all manner of pretty pictures in our imagination. What we want to do is to actually \”step into\” our imagination. Not just lie back and view it as if from a distance.

Generally, if a person is losing concentration in their rundown then they need to make the rundown more engaging, more captivating. I mean, provided your physical body is fairly relaxed. You could make your rundown as captivating as you like, but if you were riding pillion on a motorbike then not much is going to happen in the way of making a transition. 🙂

That is why I tend to practice this only when my physical body is fairly relaxed anyway. After about 6 or 7 hours of sleep is my most common time and often I do it now about 2 hours before I would normally want to sleep.

If I want to be active, physically, then I get restless and give up. I can\’t be bothered doing it, I\’ll have a list of things to do and a full day and I want to get active and get on with it. So under those circumstances I would find it next to impossible because I simply want to be physically focused. But later on, when I\’ve done all I can for the day, then that\’s the time to lie back, relax, and take a trip over to the other place and see what\’s what.

Yours,
Frank

So yeah, basically when you\’re doing your rundown and you find that the scene is now all around you, then you\’ve stepped into it. At that point, you\’re IN Focus 2 oC.
This particular method is also great if you\’re a big day dreamer. If you\’ve ever been sitting there thinking about something and you become so focused on it that for a split second you find yourself IN whatever it is you\’re day dreaming, then you\’ll probably want to focus on this method.

Goodluck!

What is Phasing and “Noticing”

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Xanth

Before I get into methods that we use to Phase, I think it’s important to know what it is first.
This post, made by Frank, is a perfect description of what Phasing is:

Phasing describes a controlled process where you phase out of the mode of being open to the Physical world (or C1 consciousness as it’s generally termed) and allow your sense of conscious awareness to become open to other realms of reality. There are two basic schools of thought on this, the latest is the Moen-school, and I believe the idea was first touted by Monroe.

There is a technique which people call “WILDs” (Wake Induced Lucid Dreams). These are, in effect, Phasing. Anytime you switch your Focus of Awareness from one Focus to another Focus while remaining consciously awake and aware, that is Phasing. In essence, it’s falling asleep into the non-physical and remaining consciously aware. Through Phasing, you go to the same places as you would through more traditional OBE methods and you can do all the same things.

“Noticing” is a name given to a basic Phasing Exercise. You can find the details in the Astral Pulses’ Frank Kepple Phasing Resource, found here. It’s got lots of solid information written by Frank Kepple and compiled by one of the moderators, Gandalf, after Frank’s disappearance.

Noticing what?

Well, nothing at first, there’s not much to see really but blackness. But then, after a short while, I may see that perhaps one part of the blackness is not quite so black. Perhaps there was just a brief flash of something, then maybe a sensation of a movement somewhere else. Maybe I just heard someone call my name. Hmm, that’s interesting, I might think, I wonder where that came from. But I don’t get too curious I just keep noticing. I might see swirling areas of not quite so black as the rest. I might see flashes of this and that. As I am offering myself these images, my attention is steadily becoming more fixated within.

As my attention becomes fixated within, from the act of noticing, at this stage I am not aware of my physical body. Part of my awareness realises that somewhere in the background is a physical body, in bed, etc. but I have phased away from it. Before, the forefront of my awareness was my physical and 180 degrees turned around from that, in the background of my awareness, was the non-physical. But now there has been a “phase shift” i.e. a turning through 180 degrees. Now, my previous foreground (physical) is my background, and my previous background (non-physical) is my foreground.

Reading this particular link, The Phasing Resource, is what allowed me to progress further than I ever had during the previous years.
I hope it does the same for you. 🙂

Astral Projection Problems – The Eyes

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Xanth

For the most part, I use what I refer to as the \”Rundown\” method to Phase (project). One of the problem that I\’ve come up against is one to do with my eyes. The following post by Frank Kepple on The Astral Pulse helped me a great deal:

One of the *big* hurdles people generally need to overcome is the sudden unwelcome intrusion by the physical eyes. Such intervention almost always has the effect of zapping you right back to C1 consciousness. The reason this happens is because your focal point of consciousness normally resides behind your physical eyes. When I say \”resides behind\” what I mean is your primary focus of attention is mostly based on what the eyes tell you.

The ears may transmit to you a strange sound… then immediately the eyes will go to look. Someone may touch you unexpectedly from behind… then immediately the body spins around so the eyes can see. Which reminds me of an old playground joke where we\’d come up to someone from behind and tap them on the opposite shoulder to where we were standing. So the person would immediately look and see no-one there.

If you think about all the various human-response actions you will see that – almost always – the physical eyes are the primary information providors that determine whatever comes next.

On the Physical, this process works amazingly well. However, it can put a big spoke in the works when it comes to projection excercise. Difficulty being, the eyes are not used to just rolling back and relaxing while the consciousness is awake and alert. Having an awake, alert consciousness and taking-in input from the physical eyes is about as natural as it comes.

It used to happen to me all the time where I\’d just be settling into the Focus 12 state; where it is natural to perceive all manner of outline shapes and shadows, or whirls of colour, and so forth, and the moment I\’d see something definite it was like my protective sense of awareness would shout, \”What\’s that!\” And my physical eyes would immediately go to look. Which, of course, brought me right out of it.

The only way around it is to practice all you can to the extent where your protective sense of awareness regards everything that is happening as normal, and your physical eyes have got into the habit of switching themselves off during practice.

I think this problem can never be eradicated entirely, and it still effects me now and again. Just this morning, for instance, I drifted into the Focus 12 state fairly quickly and the 3D blackness suddenly loomed into view. The thought crossed my mind, \”Wow, that must be the quickest to-date.\” Next moment my protective sense of awareness slapped the brakes on, and my physical eyes immediately became restless. Like they were scanning from side to side on the lookout for any danger.

Which, of course, zapped me right back to C1. It even raised my heartbeat a tad too. Which meant it took me about half an hour just to get that settled again before practice could resume.

Yours,
Frank

He describes the EXACT problem that I face and provides a pretty good explanation for why it happens and how to correct it.
It\’s slowly helping me in my efforts to have a conscious exit projection.

Wednesday with Robert Monroe