First;
1. Find a place where you will be comfortable and undisturbed - this means if you live with other people, you need to tell them not to bother you during your meditation for any reason. (unless there's an emergency, of course!) Unplug your telephone, as well. Keep your pets out of the room. My cats like to jump up on my lap when I'm sitting, and while I think that's sweet, it isn't very good for my concentration!
2. Dim the lights in the room and light some candles. (don't make the place so dark that you will fall asleep!)
3. If you are meditating in your home, play some drumming or other type of soothing, soft music. This helps you focus and it also serves the purpose of drowning out background noises such as neighbor's music (very distracting if you live in an apartment) or traffic outside.
4. You may cast a circle if you wish to. Sometimes this will help improve your focus.
5. Sit upright in a comfortable position, whether in a chair or cross-legged on the floor. I usually find that it's not very effective to meditate while reclining; too easy to fall asleep!
6. Now, close your eyes and begin to relax every part of your body, starting with your feet and moving upwards to your calves, thighs, hips, stomach, hands, arms, shoulders, neck and finally your face. (be sure to remember to relax your face! A lot of people forget this; make sure your lips, cheeks, jaw and eyebrows are all relaxed)
Focus on each part of your body separately at first, feeling the tension draining away. You should start feeling a tingling sensation throughout your body as you do this, but don't worry if you do not at first. It takes your body time to learn to relax; most of us spend our whole lives in a state of tension except for when we're asleep. While you are doing this, breathe deeply; inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. With each breath, feel yourself relax more. Remember to keep breathing deeply throughout the meditation.
7. When you are fully relaxed, begin visualizing a place that is comfortable and serene to you; a beach, a forest clearing, the bank of a river, a cave - whatever feels right to you. Make this visualization as detailed as possible. You should see it in detail first - notice whether it's daytime or nighttime, see the leaves on the trees or the sand on the beach, notice how the water is moving or whether it is still. See the walls of the cave and notice whether they are rock or clay or another type of substance. "Look" all around you, in front, behind, to the sides. See everything that you can see about your safe place.
Once you have the picture in your mind, you can begin to incorporate your other senses. Feel the air on your body - is it warm or cool? Is there a breeze? Feel the sun on your face if it is daytime. Feel the sand or earth or leaves or water beneath your feet. Dig your toes into it and experience how it feels. Smell the air - does it smell salty or fresh? What other smells do you experience in this place? Hear everything around you - the rushing water, the wind blowing in the treetops, the rustle of animals.
8. Stay in this safe place for as long as you wish. Don't worry if your mind starts to wander at first; this takes practice. If you find your concentration waning and your mind wandering, let it wander without trying to force it back to your meditation. It will eventually get tired of that train of thought and you can gently bring yourself back into focus.
You may see animals or people while you are meditating. Notice how they react to you. Talk to them if you can or if you feel like it. Don't worry if they don't respond at first. Sometimes spirit guides like to check you out for a while before they talk to you. If you don't see anyone, that's fine, too. Maybe you just need to be alone in this place.
9. When you are ready to return, begin noticing things around you in this plane: feel the chair or ground beneath you, listen to the sounds around you, become aware of your heartbeat and your breathing. Become aware of your body again (because once you become skilled at this, your body may go numb during your meditation). When you can feel and hear things around you, slowly open your eyes and sit there quietly for a few minutes. Release the circle if you cast one.
10. When you are finished meditating, get something to drink and eat - it doesn't have to be a full meal, but definitely drink some milk or tea or something and eat a bite of cheese or bread. This will help anchor you in this plane and ground you so that you don't end up feeling drained or jittery.
I would recommend that you start out by meditating for only about ten minutes or so. Don't try to force yourself into an hour-long meditation when you've just begun learning the process. You will only get frustrated. When your mind becomes accustomed to relaxing and focusing for a period of time, you can increase your meditation time.
When you become skilled at this basic meditation, you can use it as a base for meditations to meet your spirit guide, astral traveling or any other type of other-world journey you wish to try.
Techniques for astral projection
Once you are aware that you cannot be harmed by projecting, you should
begin monroe's techniques, step by step.
Step one:
Relax the body. According to Monroe, "the ability to relax is the
first prerequisite, perhaps even the first step itself" to having an
OBE. (out of body experience) This includes bothe physical and mental
relaxation. Monroe does not suggest a method of attaining this
relaxation, although Progressive Muscle relaxation, coupled with deep
breathing exercises (inhale 1, exhale 2, inhale 3.... until 50 or
100) are known to work well.
Step two:
Enter the state bordering sleep. This is known as the hypnagogic
state. Once again, Monroe doesn't recommend any method of doing
this. One way is to hold your forearm up, while keeping your upper
arm on the bed, or ground. As you start to fall asleep, your arm will
fall, and you will awaken again. With practice, you can learn to
control the Hypnagogic state without using your arm. Another method
is to concentrate on an object. When other images start to enter your
thoughts, you have entered the Hypnagogic state. Passively watch
these images. This will also help you maintain this state of
near-sleep. Monroe calls this Condition A.
Step three:
Deepen this state. Begin to clear your mind. observe your field of
vision through your closed eyes. Do nothing more for a while. Simply
look through your closed eyelids at the blackness in front of you.
After a while, you may notice light patterns. These are simply neural
discharges. They have no specific effect. Ignore them. When they
cease, one has entered what Monroe calls Condition B. From here, one
must enter an even deeper state of relaxation which Monroe calls
Condition C-- a state of such relaxation that you lose all awareness
of the body and sensory stimulation. You are almost in a void in
which your only source of stimulation will be your own thoughts. The
ideal state for leaving your body is Condition D. This is Condition C
when it is voluntarily induced from a rested and refreshed condition
and is not the effect of normal fatigue. To achieve Condition D,
Monroe suggests that you practice entering it in the morning or after
a short nap.
Step Four:
Enter a state of Vibration. This is the most important part of the
technique, and also the most vague. Many projectors have noted these
vibrations at the onset of projection. They can be experienced as a
mild tingling, or as is electricity is being shot through the body.
Their cause is a mystery. It may actually be the astral body trying
to leave the physical one. For entering into the vibrational state,
he offers the following directions:
1. Remove all jewelry or other items that might be touching your
skin.
2. Darken the room so that no light can be seen through your
eyelids, but do not shut out all light.
3. Lie down with your body along a north-south axis, with your
head pointed toward magnetic north.
4. Loosen all clothing, but keep covered so that you are slightly
warmer than might normally be comfortable.
5. Be sure you are in a location where, and at a time when, there
will be absolutely no noise to disturb you.
6. Enter a state of relaxation
7. Give yourself the mental suggestion that you will remember all
that occurs during the upcoming session that will be
beneficial to your well-being. Repeat this five times.
8. Proceed to breath through your helf-open mouth.
9. As you breath, concentrate on the void in front of you.
10. Select a point a foot away from your forehead, then change
your point of mental reference to six feet.
11. Turn the point 90 degrees upward by drawing an imaginary line
parallel to your body axis up and above your head. Focus
there and reach out for the vibrations at that point and
bring them back into your body.
Even if you don't know what these vibrations are, you will know when
you have achieved contact with them.
Step five:
Learn to control the vibrational state. Practice controlling them by
mentally pushing them into your head, down to your toes, making them
surge throughout your entire body, and producing vibrational waves
from head to foot. To produce this wave effect, concentrate of the
vibrations and mentally push a wave out of your head and guide it down
your body. Practice this until you can induce these waves on
command. Once you have control of the vibrational state, you are
ready to leave the body.
Step six:
Begin with a partial seperation. The key here is thought control.
Keep your mind firmly focused on the idea of leaving the body. Do not
let it wander. Stray thought might cause you to lose control of the
state. Now, having entered the vibrational state, begin exploring the
OBE by releasing a hand or a foot of the "second body". Monroe
suggests that you extend a limb until it comes in contact with a
familiar object, such as a wall near your bed. Then push it through
the object. Return the limb by placing it back into coincidence with
the physical one, decrease the vibrational rate, and then terminate
the experiment. Lie quietly until you have fully returned to normal.
This exercise will prepare you for full seperation.
Step seven:
Disassociate yourself from the body. Monroe suggests two methods for
this. One method is to lift out of the body. To do this, think about
getting lighter and lighter after entering this vibrational state.
Think about how nice it would be to float upward. Keep this thought
in mind at all costs and let no extraneous thoughts interrupt it. An
OBE will occur naturally at this point. Another method is the
"Rotation method" or "roll-out" technique. When you have achieved the
vibrational state, try to roll over as if you were turning over in
bed. /do not attempt to roll over physically. Try to twist your body
from the top and virtually roll over into your second body right out
of your physical self. At this point, you will be out of the body but
next to it. Think of floating upward, and you should find yourself
floating above the body. Monroe suggets you begin with the lift-out
method, but argues that both are equally efficacious.
If, after all this, you still can't project, I recommend purchasing
Leaving The Body, by R. Scott Rogo. It only costs $7.95 and contains
another eight or so techniques. Not all techniques work for everyone,
but chances are you'll find one that works for you in this book. Good
luck!
Astral Travel simplicity itself
The step by step instructions that I was taught, simillar to those in
the LLEWELYN Practical Guide to Astral Travel, worked better for me -
it took me alot of practise to get to where I could do it and it seems
that for most people it takes practise, although some can do it
spontaneously. In fact it happens to some the first few times with no
warning and then, after worrying they have gone crazy for a while,
they later learn what it is. But I did just want to say for those like
me for whom it does NOT come easy, not to get discouraged but to try
working with it one step at a time.
Two interesting points about astral travel for me. One is that I find
it more interesting to explore the astral planes than to explore
specific locations on this plane. However when you are first
learning, exploring specific locations on this plane can help. Laurie
Cabot suggests picking a store near you that you have never been in,
try projecting to it, immediately on arising write down your
impressions of it and then, as soon as you can, visit the store and
check out your impressions. If they are not all correct, don't be
discouraged The example she gives is DID YOU SEE RED BEHIND THE CASH
REGISTER AND IT'S NOT THERE? Perhaps the cashier that day or evening
was wearing a Red sweater! The longer you wait to visit the
establishment, the more likely it is they will move something or
change a display, so go soon after your visit.
The second is that I used to do it as a kid, no problem - right up
until my Dad told me it was all in my head and I had imagined it.
Then I couldn't do it anymore.
A note here - My DAD, who used to be a hard-core skeptic, started
attending a Spiritualist Church I hung-out at when he married my
step-mother. I find it humorous that originally he went there because
it was non-denominational so you don't have to believe everything the
ministers teach and because he liked the ministers, but he didn't buy
the Psychic stuff. Well, lately he's changing his mind as he's had
some startling experiences. I'm good, I'm nice, I don't tell him he
is imagining things. But I can't help laughing about it to myself
just a little bit.
Oh, some of the stuff the Llewelyn book suggests is to practise
opening your chakras first and grounding the energy, work on that for
1 week to 1 month. WHEN YOU HAVE IT DOWN PAT (be honest with yourself
here or you can forget it) work on projecting a cloud of your energy
out through your solar plexus (some people work better projecting from
the 3d eye, I personally project the body through the solar plexus and
when I project the consciousness into it, I do it via the 3d eye. BUT
since these are all merely visual aids to doing something non-
physical, I am not sure that it matters IF YOU ARE ACHIEVING VALID
RESULTS) and leaving this energy as a cloud only then reabsorbing it.
YOU DO NOT PROJECT YOUR AWARENESS INTO IT. You absolutely MUST
reabsorb it. That is done for a week or a month or however long it
takes. It is done by creative visualization until you get it to the
point where you can feel that it is something more.
Then you do the same thing for a week or a month, ONLY YOU SHAPE THE
CLOUD INTO A SIMULCRAM OF YOUR BODY (if you are also trying to heal
yourself, use the ideal form you wish to achieve - make it realistic
and so it looks like you) WITHOUT projecting consciousness to it, you
send it out to watch a situation you can later check on for yourself.
When it comes back at a prearranged time later on, meditate for a
while and write down your impressions AND DO NOT THROW ANY OF THEM OUT
AS THEY SEEM SILLY OR IMPOSSIBLE - truth is often stranger than
fiction. Check on these later, DISCREETLY - don't TELL people you
sent an astral traveler to them, say I HEARD THAT you went such and
such a place today while I was in school so you can say to your mom
that someone saw her and told you or something, OR just say it's a
hunch, or, if you have the impression that your mom called your
grandmother while you were in school, just say I WONDER HOW GRANDMA IS
DOING? and see if your mother doesn't say, THAT'S WEIRD SHE CALLED ME
TODAY.
PEOPLE GET PARANOID IF THEY THINK THAT YOU CAN WATCH THEM - AND THEY
ALSO THINK YOU ARE THE CRAZY ONE IF YOU SAY YOU CAN DO THIS.
Interestingly enough science (psychology) tells us that one of the
classic symptoms of Paranoia is to think the OTHER person is crazy.
Always be sure to bring the simulcram back at the pre-arranged time
and REABSORB IT!
The next step is to project consciousness into it, go out with it, and
reabsorb the energy/substance afterwards - but only try this once you
have the watcher exercise down pat.
THESE EXERCiSES SHOULD BE DONE FROM A MEDITATIVE STATE.
ALWAYS SHEILD YOURSELF BEFORE TRAVELING
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