Originally Posted by Robert Bruce
To trigger the projection of the Astral body, while fully conscious, there are four major requirements:
Relaxing your body 100% while staying awake.
Concentrating 100% on what you are doing.
Having enough energy available.
Pressuring the astral body to separate.
Together, these four things will trigger an OOBE.
Below are exercises that will teach how to relax the body, concentrate, clear the mind, raise energy, stimulate the chakras and enter the trance state.
Calming The Mind
Relaxation
You must learn and master, a full body relaxation exercise. If you know one already it can be adapted to suit. Here is a very simple one:
Sit, or lie down, and relax. Starting with the feet, tense and relax them. Continue this with calves, thighs, hips, stomach, chest, arms, neck and face until your whole body is deeply relaxed. Go over this a few times, making sure your muscles stay relaxed.
Note: Deep physical relaxation is the key to bringing on the trance state, i.e., deep relaxation CAUSES the trance state. Once you are in the trance state, projection on the astral body is relatively easy.
Contemplation
When you begin meditation, you will be plagued with thoughts from your surface mind, which acts like a huge Memo pad. It carries messages, reminders, pressing thoughts, problems to solve, unresolved issues etc. It is constantly busy, it NEVER rests, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, one after the other, all clamouring for attention.
Before you attempt to clear your mind, with the breath awareness exercise below, it is wise to deal with these surface thoughts by the act of contemplating them. Sit comfortably, do the relaxation exercise and think, nothing more, just think. Search out the strongest thoughts in your mind and examine them, try to resolve and understand them.
Note the word: THINKING. Contemplation does not involve clearing the mind, or visualisation. It requires you to THINK, deeply and thoroughly, about something, to gain a deeper understanding of its nature and how it relates to you, an insight.
Breath Awareness Meditation
This is a simple form of meditation. It will clear your mind and focus your awareness.
Sit or lie down, close your eyes, do the relaxation exercise and clear your mind. Breathe deeply and slowly and focus on the breath entering and leaving your body. Feel it coming in and feel it going out. Focus your whole attention on your lungs and the breathing process. This simple action is enough to occupy your surface mind. Firmly push intruding thoughts away, as they begin, before they can gather strength and distract you.
Breath awareness occupies the surface mind and allows you to think on a much deeper level.
Surface Thoughts
Sounds are very distracting, they generate surface thoughts. A car horn will generate: "Who's that, what's happening?" A door opening will generate: "Who's coming in or going out?" The surface mind is always very curious about what is happening around you. It wants to know all, and it wants to inform you of every little thing going on around you. It will pressure you to open your eyes, get up and go find out what's happening.
Don't allow this to happen. USE these annoying, attention getting thoughts as a training aide. By learning to quash and ignore them, your powers of concentration will grow.
Stop these annoying little thoughts as they begin, before they can take root and grow into something stronger.
For example:
Who's that, what's happening? becomes: "Who's th............"
Who's coming in, or going out? becomes: "Who's co............"
With practise the start of these distracting thoughts will get shorter and shorter until you get:
Wh....?........?.......... and " W...?................... "
And finally:
.......?........?...........................?..... ..............
Many people say they can't clear their mind as they are too easily distracted by all the small noises that surround them, in normal day to day activity. DON'T use music or other sounds to blanket these out, USE them for training. It's like weight lifting, if you train with feather dusters your strength will not increase. You need to master this, the hard way, if you want to give your mind real muscle.
Slowly but surely you will master the ability to clear your mind. Once accomplished, you will have gained a valuable mental tool. You will be able to concentrate 100% of your attention, on one task, to the TOTAL exclusion of everything else.
I sometimes meditate, in the trance state, successfully, in a noisy, crowded room with little children crawling all over me. NOTHING breaks my concentration.
Concentration
You must be able to concentrate and focus completely on what you are doing. Lack of concentration is the single, biggest cause of projection failure. It affects every aspect of projection, from the relaxation exercise, to the trance state and actual projection.
To test your ability to concentrate: Sit and relax. Close your eyes and clear your mind of ALL thought. Breath slowly and deeply and count each breath, at the end of each exhale. Hold it totally BLANK, apart from the counting, for as long as you can. See how long you can hold it like this. Be honest with yourself, every time a thought intrudes start counting from the beginning again.
You are doing well if can do this for longer than ten breaths. Ten breaths is, however, not long enough. Don't worry though, this can be improved on with the exercises below.
Concentration Exercise (1)
After image retention: Relax, calm your mind, and look at a candle or a light bulb. Place this light in front of you, a couple of feet away, and stare fixedly at it for a minute or two. Close your eyes and concentrate on the after image this will generate behind your closed eyelids. Try and keep sight of it for as long as possible. Use breath awareness to keep the mind clear, while you are doing this. Try and make the after image grow, instead of fading away.
Concentration Exercise (2)
One point stare: Pick a spot on a wall and gaze at it. Don't focus on it, just gaze at it gently. Clear your mind of ALL thoughts and forcibly hold it blank. Concentrate HARD, on breath awareness while you are doing this. When you feel a thought beginning, push it away, don't let it finish! Hold this for as long as you can. Do this several times a day, or more if you can.
Concentration Exercise (3)
Energy breathing: Sit and relax. Close your eyes and clear your mind. Do the breath awareness exercise and imagine the air you are breathing IN is brightly coloured energy of your favourite colour. Imagine the air you are breathing OUT is a murky Grey, full of toxic waste. This is a purification exercise. It stimulates your chakras into absorbing energy on the inhale and getting rid of negative energy on the exhale.
Note: Try your best not to tense up while you are doing these concentration exercises, it is ALL mental. In the beginning, it may feel as if you have to tense your mind into a tight ball to stop it thinking, but in time you will find the opposite to be true. When you get used to it, clearing the mind is VERY relaxing.
The Trance State
When you have attained a deep level of relaxation and mental calmness, you will feel your body begin to get very, very heavy. This heaviness is the main symptom of your brain waves changing from the Beta to the Alpha level as you enter a trance. The trance state is caused by deep physical and mental relaxation. There is nothing weird or supernatural about it. It simply means your body has entered the sleep state while your conscious mind is fully awake.
How To Enter A Trance
Do the relaxation exercise and calm your mind through breath awareness. Imagine you are climbing down a ladder in the dark. Don't visualise a ladder, just imagine you can feel yourself doing it. On the exhale, feel yourself climbing a step or two down the ladder with your imaginary Hands (outlined below). On the inhale, feel yourself holding still on the ladder. What is needed is a mental falling effect inside your mind. This changes the level of brain wave activity from the awake level (Beta) to the asleep level (Alpha) or the deep sleep level (Theta). Once your level of brain wave activity reaches Alpha you will enter a trance. Keep doing this for as long as it takes. The time it takes to enter trance will vary, depending on your experience with deep relaxation and mental calmness.
Note: Once you get the heavy feeling, stop the mental falling exercise.
If you don't like the ladder, imagine you are in a lift, feel yourself falling on the exhale and holding on the inhale. Or, Imagine you are a feather, feel yourself floating down on the exhale and holding still on the inhale. As I stated above, you need a mental falling effect to lower your level of brain wave activity. This mental falling effect, when combined with deep relaxation and mental calmness, will cause you to enter the trance state. Feel free to use any scenario you are familiar with to bring about this going deeper feeling.
A trance feels like: Everything gets quieter and you feel like you are in a much bigger place. There is a very slight humming feeling in your body. Everything feels different. It feels a bit like putting a cardboard box over your head in the dark, you can feel the atmosphere change. It's like everything goes fuzzy or slightly blurred. Any sharp noises, while in trance, feel like a physical blow to the Solar Plexus.
Deep Trance
The level of trance you achieve depends greatly on your relaxation, concentration skills and will power. To enter a deeper trance, i.e., Theta level and beyond, you have to concentrate much more and for much longer, on the mental falling sensation aided by breath awareness. The first level of trance, i.e., when you get very heavy, is quite deep enough for projection. I strongly advise against forcing yourself deeper than a light trance, until you have plenty of experience with the trance state.
How can you tell if you are entering a deep trance? There are four very noticeable symptoms:
An uncomfortable feeling of cold that doesn't make you shiver, coupled with a steady loss of body heat.
Mentally, you will feel very odd and everything will feel extremely slooooow. Your thought processes will slow down as if you had been given a strong pain killing injection.
You will feel disassociated from your body, i.e., a strong floating sensation and everything will seem far away.
Total physical Paralysis.
Note: These four things, ALL TOGETHER, signify you are entering a deep trance.
Do not mistake the mild floating sensation you sometimes get with light trance, i.e., as you astral body comes loose. Or the slight loss of body heat from sitting still for a long time and the mild paralysis, i.e., the heaviness, for a deep trance. The sensation of deep trance is quite uncomfortable and unmistakable for what it is.
It is very difficult to get into the deep trance state, as you need highly developed relaxation, concentration and trance state skills plus lots and lots of will power and mental energy. You will not accidentally fall into it.
If you are worried you are going too deep, remember this:
You CAN pull yourself out of it at any time. Concentrate ALL your will on moving your fingers or toes. Once you can move a finger or toe, flex your hands, move your arms, shake your head, i.e., reanimate your body; and get up and walk around for a few minutes. Falling into a deep trance should not be a problem with these exercises.
I have seen many people in meditation groups etc, enter a light trance and not be able to pull themselves out of it, i.e., they float away with the faeries. Usually some kind person will talk them out of it or massage their wrists etc to get them to come back to reality. This is unnecessary and is the result of lop- sided training, i.e., no concentration or will power training. The person only THINKS they cannot come back and therefore does not try very hard. It is also a good way of getting attention from the group.
Note: Your mind is extremely powerful and has vast untapped resources. It can do ANYTHING, no limits, if it is trained, conditioned and properly motivated.
Energy Body Expansion
At some point after entering the trance state, you will feel a mild paralysis come over you. This will soon be accompanied by a deepening vibration and a buzzing feeling all over. You may also feel like you are huge and swollen. The paralysis, vibrations and the huge feeling are symptoms of the energy body expanding and the astral body loosening. This is part of the normal sleep process. The energy body expands and opens in order to accumulate and store energy. During this, the astral body drifts free, slightly out phase with the physical body.
Trance Familiarity
Many people blow their projection simply because they are not used to the trance state. They think it is a briefly opened window into the Astral dimension. This is simply NOT true. If you stay mentally and physically calm when you enter the trance state, you can maintain it for hours. I regularly spend several hours at a time in the trance state, during meditation.
If, when you enter trance, you think: "Yes! I've done it!...I'm in a trance! Gotta hurry and get out quick...before it stops!" You'll blow it for sure! The trance will be ended by the simple act of getting over excited, i.e., breaking relaxation and mental calmness.
It's a good idea to spend time in the trance state, just getting used to it, before you try and project. Just relax, stay calm, focus on breath awareness, and hold the trance. It won't end until you want it to. Get used to how it feels.
When you are comfortable doing this, do the energy raising and chakra stimulation exercises, below, in trance.
Note:
You do not HAVE to be in a trance to learn energy and chakra work, it just works better in trance.
Trance practise can be done lying down, but is best done in a comfortable arm chair.
Your astral body will be loose in the trance state, so try lifting your astral arms and legs out, one at a time. Use your HANDS to do this, as shown in the next section. Focus and FEEL your awareness in an arm and slowly lift it free of your body. You may feel a slight tickling or localised dizziness inside your arm or leg, as you do this. Lift your astral arm up and look at it, with your eyes closed, but DON'T move a muscle. In this state you should be able to see it through your closed eyelids, but don't worry if you can't, this will come later.
Lifting your astral arms free is good practise for projection. Later, you will use these astral arms to pull your astral body free of the physical.
Tactile Imaging
Tactile imaging is a perception or FEELING of localised bodily awareness.
Your hands are very closely linked to your bodily awareness. They are intimately aware of every part of your body. Imaginary HANDS, outlined below, is only an extension of this (hand to body) awareness. When you are asked to feel your awareness, in any part of your body, PRETEND your hands, your real hands, are going to touch that area of your body. Then use the awareness this generates in that area to imagine your imaginary HANDS are there.
Keep your eyes closed and hold your hands out a foot or so in front of your face. Concentrate, FEEL where they are and try and SEE them through the blackness behind your closed eyes. Cross your wrists, slowly move them about, turn your hands over, open and close your fingers. Look hard, concentrate, as if you were trying to see in the dark, and you will see a faint moving shadow in your minds eye, where your hands and arms are.
Close your eyes and touch the tip of your nose with the index finger of your right hand. You'll find you can accurately put that finger on any part of your body with your eyes closed. Try it, put your hand, your real hand, on different parts of your body like this. You know exactly where your hands are at all times, you can sense and feel where they are. If you observe what is happening in your mind, while you are doing this, you will notice you become aware of the part of your body you are going to touch, the instant you make the decision to touch it.
Go over your whole body like this, getting used to the sensation of awareness it generates in different areas of your body.
What is happening is this: Part of your mind is shifting into, and HIGHLIGHTING, the area you are going to touch, in order to guide your hand to the exact spot. Your mind shifts part of its awareness to this spot and acts like a homing beacon for your hand.
The ability to shift your awareness into different parts of your body like this is VITAL to energy work and this projection method.
Note: You do not have to actually visualise these HANDS, i.e., see or imagine you can see them. It is ALL tactile, NOT visual. You just have to be able to pretend to FEEL them doing something, like you are rehearsing some simple action in your mind.
I originally developed this technique for blind people. Blind people cannot visualise AT ALL, if they have been blind since birth, but they do have a very keen sense of bodily awareness. The majority of sighted people also have great trouble with visualisation of any kind, and all projection techniques depend heavily on visualisation. This being the case, I developed a projection technique that does NOT depend on visualisation to exert pressure on the astral body to separate. It turned out to be so much easier, and more successful, than the other visualisation based techniques, that I discarded them in favour of this simple tactile method.
Note: Blind people are not blind in astral form. The astral body does not have any organs as such, it is a point of consciousness only. The astral body you are aware of while projecting is provided courtesy of the subconscious minds creative ability.
