OBE

Well I'm not an expert at all on this kind of stuff, but my guss is that your fear is what's holding you back in a way. If you just let yourself relax and just be chill about it it'll probably work way better. If nothing happens even after a while of that than you could do some things to put preasure on your astral body to help it out, things like imagining yourself in a mirror and just imagining yourself leaving your body will do that.
Please correct me if I'm wrong!

Thanks a lot for your help, I'll give that a try and see how it goes. Have you had a successful obe yet? I'm thinking that right after I feel the vibrations that I should try an exit technique. But I'll try to relax next time.

I think vibrations are the hard part actually, once you get past those, exiting should be a piece of cake right? Metal knows about this more than I do.

Not for me, sadly. I can induce the vibrations stupidly easily (at least, that's what I'm pretty sure they are), but I've never, ever managed an exit. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Oh well!

Once you get to that stage, have you tried just "sitting up"? Not physically, but.... try to sit up your astral body. It basically feels like you are sitting up very very lightly. You will know you have already separated because it will start to feel like you have two sets of hands or parts of your body will begin to get that numb "falling asleep" feeling.

the problem is that for someone who has never had an obe, "sitting up your astral body" means next to nothing. like me, i've tried to get oob by lifting myself up, throwing myself out, or sitting up, even after getting vibrations, but i still can never get out of body. its all well and good to know what it feels like after you do it, but untill you actually get there, its hard to know exactly what to do.

Relaxing, while keeping your focus and letting it happen should do the trick really.

I know how hard it is to shake the anxiety that comes with trying for an OBE. I've always had such a strong fear of losing my grip on my own mental and physical states, and I never had much success with OBE because I'd be so paranoid of not only hallucinating during the separation process, but the idea of not having total bodily control after the fact.

OBE experiences happened for me anyway when I wasn't trying for it, and it really wasn't so scary. It's the fear of the unknown, and the nervous expectation of scary things, that makes it seem much worse than it really is.

Try to convince yourself that you're making it sound much scarier than it is, and trust that you won't be afraid once you take that final leap and see what it's like. It's true!

Good points and suggestions here.

Let's step back for a moment, from the perspective of 'trying'. Fear and anxiety do indeed play a role, and so does a lack of expectation. And now you're all saying "what???"

Sit back and view this objectively for a moment. Examine your own thoughts on it. You've read others accounts of their methods and experiences, but what do you *really* expect to occur? "I don't know" is quite a valid answer, and common, though I rarely see it expressed clearly. I have many times seen 'whatever happens, happens'. (not recommended).

I suspect many of you have a mix of expectations. Maybe it will be like so-and-so's experience, or maybe such-and-such's, or maybe....you get the idea.

Sit down, let your thoughts roam the subject. And then, plan. Yes I said plan. Create a scenario, as if you were writing a story to relay one that *had* occurred. Plan it out, from beginning to end (preparation to return). Run through this scenario several times in your mind. This will create the expectation. Defined expectation alleviates many of the fears of the unknown. Now that you expect a successful practice, not hoping for one, try again.

As for sitting up the astral body:

Accept that the astral body is a part of you, but a part that you can separate from your physical self, that remains in contact via the mind. Imagine if you were attempting to show in a movie, an astral projection. Most likely you would show the physical body in full color. To signify the astral body, an outline of the physical body in a misty/foggy and snowy-fuzzy representation, rising away from the body. Like the filmy figure used to represent ghosts in movies.

intrepid: wow, thats a really nice description. and i almost had an obe last night (i think).

i rekon my way to succes is the other things you mentioned in your post. i found most of the sensations last night too interesting to concentrate properly on the obe thing. yay for motivation [img rel="lightbox" src="style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /]

Okay, I'll present my knowledge on the subject.

Firstly, don't EXPECT in any sense. When you expect, you place barriers on what your body is able and not able to do or perceive. This method is the easiest way of getting past mental bias, programming and other such mental blockages.

Second, you do not have to believe. You only need to express the intent to do whatever you want to do, and then observe. If it is impossible, you will figure it out sooner or later.

INTENT, not expectation, is the important thing here. This stuff doesn't happen by expectation, and if you are succeeding in this manner it is likely that what you call expectation is really pure intent.

Calmness/relaxing. In order to slip through each stage of consciousness you need to keep your mind calm and all your muscles relaxed. If you feel like your muscles are seizing up, you are not relaxed enough and you will not move to the next phase. Do not fear, if you feel you are about to tense up don't freak out. This usually means you are about to (hopefully) move into the next phase of consciousness.

It can also help a bunch to keep you mind occupied in some manner so that you're not paying attention to your body, etc. If you are not doing anything with your mind, you will most likely get to a point where you start to see random images and things. Some people can control this and stay focused, but there is an easier way. The technical term for what I am describing is self-hypnosis. I have developed my own technique which I use and that I will post later.

Lastly, try to have an 'aware' state of mind when you start. Astral projection works by cutting out the lower perceptive abilities (physical world) and using that energy to stretch into the higher dimensional awareness. Thus, the more astute you are, the more likely you will remain aware throughout the process.

Air conditioners. I have noticed that when I am relaxed and calm, the air conditioner suddenly turning on will severely disrupt me (although I have gotten better at quickly returning focus). The noise is part of it, but the sudden burst of electromagnetic energy makes my body quiver. My point is that I'm fairly sure you will have an easier time while electrical equipment is off in your house entirely.

BUZZING. I have encountered this and know what it's like, but I have zero idea what it is. It's pretty scary and debilitating for me. Perhaps alien spaceships? Who knows. Then again, it could be electrical interference. When you move to the astral state, your consciousness speeds up, increases frequency. So it may be possible that we are picking up an FM carrier wave from a radio station.

Overall, I have found that the quickest and most effective way to learn how to deal with moving between different states of consciousness is to use self-hypnosis as I have said.

I hope this helps, and thanks for reading.

Also, texfiles.com is a good resource for 80's era info and techniques for astral projection, aura vision, etc. Bbelow is a good list of techniques:

http://www.textfiles.com/occult/astalpro.txt

- kaenori (sorry, I've been ending with - keantoken lately. That was an old username I think.)

the Vibrations are very scary yes, but they do pass. even if you are frightened while this is happening it is still possible to leave your body, you just have to be able to say fuck it. you know just say what ever and go with the the flow even if its terrifying. and 3k is right the vibrations are the hardest part. also i was wondering if anyone else hears like electronic sounding noises? and im curious to know what people think about the vibrations. is the body actually vibrating? because it sure feels like it is actually happening.

The vibrations are there because your astral body is vibrating on a different level than your physical. I suggest that you should stay still during this, your physical body that is. After the vibrations come in, I usually just try to sit up, or push myself upwards, which usually works. Don't expect anything after you leave. You'll let your thoughts wander and you might scare yourself. If you have fear, chances are you won't make it out. Try to calm yourself down. Don't think about what bad could happen, but try to think what will happen when you do AP. What would will come from it. After you try a few times and get the hang of it, you'll be able to do it easier every time. I used to take about an hour to get into the vibration stage, but now I get into it in about 10-15 minutes. Just take your time, and try not to rush things too fast. You might also want to try and just let it go by itself. Don't try to or force yourself to go, let it happen by itself.