- -Comfort
- -Breathing
- -Eye Position
- -Relaxation
- Counting Method
- Command Method
- -Cleansing
- -Completion
- -Use For Sleep
- -Breathing
- -Unnecessary Fears
- Possession
- Getting Lost
- Dying
- Mental Disorders
- Getting Lost
- -Projection Explained
- With No Astral Body
- With An Astral Body
Meditation
This should be the first step you master. Meditation will help you achieve an incredible sense of inner peace and calmness. With practice, it becomes as easy as sleeping or breathing. You can view the world around you from a different perspective... a broader perspective. It clears the mind and sharpens the senses, it aids in healing the body and coping with stress. There are probably as many variations to meditation as their are people meditating, however, there are some basics which will help you achieve better results in less time. Make meditation a part of your everyday life, it is the foundation upon which all else can be built. When meditating, it is a good idea to touch the tips of your first finger and your thumb, forming a circle. Practice this with each hand individually and with both hands simultaneously, later you will be able to use this fingertip connection as an instant trigger to achieve a relaxed, meditative state.
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1) Comfort...
Get comfortable, wear loose fitting clothing, and sit in a chair with a straight back, on a stool with no back, or on the floor with your legs crossed. Above all, get into a comfortable position (no slouching). Although lying on your back is quite comfortable for meditating, you will have the tendency to fall asleep if you are either tired or inexperienced. NOTE: You can also practice skyclad (without clothing). However, many beginners find this difficult due to feeling either uneasy or excited...neither will do, you MUST be totally peaceful, and without distractions.
2) Breathing...
Slowly draw in air until your lungs are as full as you can get them without straining at all. Slowly blow this air out as completely as is possible, again, without straining. Do this a few times, this is the way in which you will breathe while meditating. Now, count your heart beats as you breathe in, as you breathe out, and as you hold. Your hold should be half the time of the inhale or exhale. For example, if you breathe in for four beats, try to hold for two beats, breathe out for four beats, hold for two beats, and repeat. Your count will sound like "1-2-3-4,-1-2,-1-2-3-4,-1-2", this is a 4-2-4 count. You must find your own rythm. Your count may be 3-1-3, instead of 4-2-4, or yours may be 6-3-6. Finding your own rythm will prove quite simple, it will 'feel right'.
3) Look up...
Look up as if looking in between your eyebrows, this will help you achieve a deeper state of relaxation, and it will help you get there more quickly. You may find your eyes wanting to drift shut, this is fine, just keep your attention fixed on the spot between the brows.
4) Relax...
Their are many ways to do this, below are a couple of popular methods. You may use one method alone or you may combine them. With any method of meditation, you must realize that a state of relaxation which may take a half an hour to achieve now, will be attainable almost instantly with practice. Some gurus have been known to reduce their heart rates to 4 beats per minute, in this state, you could get the equivalent of a full nights rest in a matter of minutes. Some people have expressed concern for becoming possessed during meditation if their mind is blank. This really is not a possibility because, though your mind may be blank (you are not unconcious), and all of your senses are acute, and your awareness is enhanced. If you still have any concerns regarding this, simply use a tonal vocalization (such as 'oooommm' long 'o' sound) to counteract the possibility.
Count backwards from 50 down to 1. With each count, picture the numeral in your mind. Do not make a big deal out of this, you already know what each number looks like, and if you wanted to write it down, you would have to first make a picture of it in your mind. As you become more experienced with meditating, you will only need to count down from 5 or 3.COMMAND
Envision each of your toes, one at a time, and verbally tell it to relax, and become aware of that toe and the way it feels. Go to the next toe. Then the ball of each foot, and so on. The more body parts you think of, name, and tell to relax, the deeper meditative state you will reach (name as many internal structures as possible). You will need to have some will power to use this method because you may be tempted to move too rapidly over the body, naming few parts or not really focussing on each part you name. This can prevent you from gaining the full benefit of meditation.
5)Cleanse...
Now is the time to cleanse your mind. If negative or unwanted thoughts enter, gently and calmly push them out away from you and then imagine that the image of the idea collapses in upon itself and then vanishes with a slight "pop!" and a small dot of light flashes at the same time and goes out. This will help you control the flow of thoughts through your mind, allowing you to filter out the unwanted thoughts. This is also a good time to realize self pride. Give yourself a pat on the back for just being you. See yourself smiling, feel the warmth of sunlight upon you (you can do this even in the dark). Bathe yourself in a brilliant sparkling white light.
6)Completion...
Finish up by returning to your common state of conciousness. Tell yourself to awaken healthy, happy, and refreshed. That is all there is to it! Practice as often as possible, this alone can improve your zest for life dramatically.
7) Sleep...
You can use these methods to achieve total relaxation to sleep better, however, you will want to concentrate on the sound of your alarm clock. Duplicate the sound of the alarm clock in your mind and picture yourself waking up, happy, and strong... ready to face the day with confidence. Imagine that you hear that clock and hop right up out of bed, feeling great! Soon you will learn to achieve the best night's sleep you could ever imagine.
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This is the next step in meditation. While meditating, right after the relaxation, is thime to do all your meditative work. Choose an object that is simple in appearance and common in your life. Something you look at every day, an orange would be a good example. It is simply a ball shape with texture, right? Yes and no. That would describe it's appearance, however an orange also has a distinctive scent and taste. These things will also help you with the visualization. Always try to involve all five physical senses when visualizing. Even if you just closed your eyes now and thought about the orange for a moment. Look at it, smell it, think about the taste of it. Pretend to put a piece in your mouth and eat it. You will probably find your mouth is beginning to produce saliva. You will find that your body will readily respond to your thoughts, but, we will get to that later. Anyway, this is how clearly you should focus all images. Some people believe they cannot produce mental images, do not believe this for a second! If that were true, you would never be able to describe anything unless you were looking directly at it. Practice visualization regularly, daily if possible. You are going to notice an improvement in your memory as you get better at visualization, you will have to learn to live with this. It is an unavoidable side effect of mental development, but a good one obviously.
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Focusing
You have been learning to focus on concrete thoughts so far. The next step here is to learn how to focus on abstracts. Abstracts are things which you can not physically see. Feelings are an excellent example. The trick here is to link the abstract thought with something you can see or feel. For example, you can not see happiness, but you can see a smile. You can not see love, but you can see your lover, a Valentine heart, and the roses he gave you (she gave you). See how it works? Practice focusing your mind on one idea at a time, but include as much as possible in it. I will use happiness as an example. Let's say you were looking for a new car recently and you found the one you wanted at a rediculously low price, in excellent shape. You were so excited that you bought it right then, on the spot. Think back on it. Remember the salesperson? Remember the test drive? Filling out the papers? Add in all the sights, sounds, physical feelings (leather seats,etc..), emotional thoughts and feelings, and scents. In other words, make this experience as complete as possible. With practice you will be able to exactly duplicate the way you felt when you first purchased that car. This type of focusing will enable you to control your thoughts and feelings in response to any situation while it is happening. It will also help you to bring about the feelings you wish to be experiencing, this in turn will assist you in creating your future environment. Practice first with situations that have recently occurred in your life, then move on to those situations that you want to occur. Keep your images and senses as sharp as possible. Every rule has an exception, if you are working on a negative situation, reduce the size of the image and the intensity of the colors, scents, etc. Do not, however, dismiss any aspect, your imaging must be complete. By reducing the size and intensity, you are actually reducing the importance of this situation in your life. Your subconcious mind attaches importance to size and intensity, remember this.
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Creative Visualization
Wait a minute, did we already cover this? No, we covered two forms of visualization so far, concrete and abstract. The difference here is that now you will focus something that is completely fictitious to you. This could be an invention, or it could be finding a solution to a current problem. Either way, this will come entirely out of your imagination. You will assign colors, scents, textures, sounds, tastes, and emotions to suit your particular needs and/or desires.
Astral Travel
The first thing you should know about astral travel is that it is a common experience in everyone's life. We have all experienced it at one time or another. Have you ever experienced the sensation of falling while drifting off to sleep? This is the feeling of an uncontrolled return to the body. Astral travel is merely the ability to project your conciousness (your awareness or spirit) to a location other than where your physical body is. Distance is not a factor here.
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Some of the more common concerns that have been expressed to me through the years are concerns of possession, getting lost, dying, and developing mental problems. None of these are possible, if anything, your mind, body, and soul will be stronger and more in tune than ever. I will cover each of these, one at a time.
Possession- This is when an entity, other than yourself, inhabits and controls your mind or body. Possessions can be loving and helpful or evil and destructive. People have asked me, how they can tell if they are possessed? Simple, you know it, that is all. The same way that you know that someone has taken possession of your car when you see them driving down the road in it. That is all there is to it. If you have any doubts, then you are not possessed. Possession can only occur if you want it to. If you do not invite another within, they cannot enter. Astral travel does not open you up to being possessed, if anything, it will strengthen you.
Getting Lost- While many fear getting lost, I assure you that this is completely impossible. When you go outside in your yard, do you fear getting lost? Of course not. You will always instinctively know where your body is. Some books, including the Holy Bible, speak of a silver thread that connects the self to the body. Some books on astral travel even go on to explain how to visualize this thread, they probably do this to help you overcome any possible fears. This is fine if you wish to use it, however it is not really necessary for a successful OOBE (out of the body experience). If you ever have even the faintest thought or feeling of returning to your body, it will happen. In fact, to begin with, you may find it quite difficult to stay out for any real period of time. There has never, ever been a single case of anyone getting lost. And, bears in mind what I had mentioned earlier, that everyone has experienced astral travel in their life, whether or not they even realize it.
Dying- Some fear that death will result if, at any time, the soul leaves the body. OOBE's are a bit different than the form of seperation that exists at death. When a person dies, the spirit leaves the body only because there is no choice; for a soul to remain in a lifeless body would be the equivalent of eternal incarceration of the soul. The will of the soul is to aleays return to the body, if it is possible for the body to survive. We see this evidenced over and over in cases of people who were in comas. When given a choice, they always return to the body. So, in death, we have a case where first the body is incapacitated, therefore the spirit is kept out, in astral travel, the spirit returns because it can.
Developing Mental Disorders- You are more likely to develop mental disorders from the stresses of day to day living than you are from astral travel; and in fact, astral travel can even help you overcome those very stresses thereby reducing your level of anxiety and increasing your capacity for happiness. The end result of training for astral travel is a more powerful mind and a more focused and directed will.
OK, now you will need to combine all of the techniques that you have learned up to this point. To recap, these are:- relaxation
- breathing
- meditation
- visualization
- and focusing
Perhaps the most difficult thing for an apprentice to understand is the lack of any specific appearance of the conciousness, the true astral form, the real you as you exist before and after your life on Earth. This is the part of you that is pure energy. It has no shape, no size, and no color. You become like the wind, you can not be seen, but with practice you can be felt. Perhaps this is a good time to introduce you to a little science. Albert Einstein developed many of the mathematic and scientific formulas that we use today to understand the world around us. His most well known formula is also the most pertinent to understanding what I am about to teach you. E=mc², remember it? Now, do you remember what it means? It means that when you multiply any amount of mass (m) by the speed of light squared (c²), that you will know the potential energy (E) of that mass. Mass is roughly equivalent to weight, it is the amount of matter that composes your body. The significance here is in understanding that your physical body is composed of exactly the same thing as your spiritual body is, the only difference being in the concentration of the energy. In Hollywood, this is typically represented by a small ball of light flying about. In reality however, even that small sphere of light need not be present. You will be fully aware of those around you (including what they are wearing, saying and doing), although the reverse is not true.
Here is the easiest way to learn how to project your conciousness to a location other than where your physical body is:
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You need to choose two locations, one for meditation and one for projection target. For instance, you may choose your bedroom for the meditation and the kitchen as the place to project your conciousness. Now, go to the exact spot where you want to be when you project your awareness. Stand there, looking ahead and to the sides somewhat. Take notice of everything that you can, especially basic items such as the stove, counter, refridgerator, etc. Also take special note of any pictures, writing, or very bright colors. Just stand there and absorb as much of your surroundings as you possibly can. The more patience you have the better your results will be. Listen also for sounds that are specific to that room, also take note of any scents in the air. This is the same type of preparation you used for visualization, involve as many of your five physical senses as you can. Once you are satisfied that you have become completely aware of as much of your surroundings as you possibly can, go to your meditation spot. Do your meditations and visualizations just as you learned above. To begin with, you will notice that you are solely relying on your memory of the room. With practice, you will begin to notice things and remember things much more vividly, and you will begin to wonder if you have been successful. With continued practice, you will begin to notice things that you were not conciously aware of while you were physically standing in the room, this means that you have been successful.
The final step is to project your conciousness to anyplace where you can later verify what you have seen, such as a friends kitchen, or a store that you have not been in recently. In either case, pick out a number of different items like the location of a salt shaker, or the cashier's shirt. Now go verify what you have seen.
Astral Body Formation- As I mentioned earlier, you may find it easier to project with a body. This is fine, however, it would be to your advantage to learn also to project without the use of an astral body. The simplest body to use is your own. Everything will seem just as it does when you are not projecting, the only difference here that you will notice, is the lightness of your body and it's ease of movement. To practice this type of body, just imagine yourself walking, or riding in a car. Be very aware of your body. Again, be sure to utilize all five physical senses. With some practice, it will come to you. Any kind of body formation is possible. Start by imagining what it would be like to possess that body, for instance, your cat. How would the world appear to him, how will the floor feel under his feet? Ask yourself these questions as you begin to see the world from his perspective. Account for his increased hearing, smell, and sight. How does it feel under that fur coat? Consider as many things as you possibly can. This same method can be used to form a body of your creation as well. - Possession
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