Beginner's guide to OBEs

[aimlesswalk]

Even a being totally awake is an advanced form of visualization. Your reality is inside of you.

I don't doubt this I just wish it was easier to shape this reality into something truer to myself instead of being confined in this oppressive world of physical matter which isn't how I want it to be.

[spacelizard667]

I had mentioned some reoccuring lucid dreams in which I moved around in another place that over time was becoming more and more familiar to me like deja vu [while visiting a clinical environment which I won't name here] that seemed like OBE's to me since that was at the time relevant. I also got confirmation from the clinic about what exactly is an OBE. And apparently I had been doing this quite involuntarily already for months at a time. The conscious visualization thing, is also called remote astral viewing and is a technique of astral travel of consciousness, or an experiment in clairvoyance.

Edited October 25, 2013 by spacelizard667

[Himawari69]

Thanks for the post most of the things you put I have already done, I have a dream journal I have been using for the past six months, and I realized, as bizzare as it sounds, my dream characters tell me im dreaming. One particular dream I had I was in a beach with this tall surfer guy, after a few drinks and eating watermellon he told me I was dreaming. I got a bit confused and told him I was not dreaming but he insisted I was. We got into an argument about it, then I felt really aware. Like everything suddenly seemed so clear and I yelled at myself to try an obe. I tried to instantly fly and change the scenery into clouds, it didn't work out so well. A huge black hole appeared out of nowhere and I got sucked into it, making me wake up in fear. I do reality checks too and thus, do them in my dreams. Then I wake up in the sp stage and can see my ceiling behind my eyelids. I even feel like im separating my limbs sometimes. I try to relax, and that helps make the vibrations cease, I get them really bad and it kinda hurts. Then..I get too frightened to exit due to the bad dream.i had success before but im having trouble focusing on changing my enviorment without letting my imagination run wild and creating things I cannot handle. Not always, just sometimes

Edited October 25, 2013 by Himawari69

[White Crane Feather]

I don't doubt this I just wish it was easier to shape this reality into something truer to myself instead of being confined in this oppressive world of physical matter.

It is! its just dense and therefore seemingly slower. This reality is certainly malleable.

Edited October 25, 2013 by White Crane Feather

[all16universes]

It doesn't matter to me if astral projection is an advanced form of visualisation or an external reality and I don't see why either has to be mutually exclusive and it would come as no surprise to me if the boundaries between mind and matter recede during this state of being. I envy you being able to communicate with your own higher self or latent subconscious and hope to be able to that myself eventually. I should think we have a lot to talk about. Also your remark about physical reality seeming to be more real also interests me greatly could it not be that outside the confines of how we perceive reality through the filter of our physical senses we can see the true essence of our surroundings which may be revealed to be extensions of our own consciousness if indeed all reality isn't an externalised projection of our internal consciousness anyway.

I can imagine that during astral projection you experiences things which would be incomprehensible in our waking lives just as I'm sure the narrow range of our sense does not permit us to perceive everything which exists around us. The memory seems to be woefully inadequate at remembering dreams as well (which is why I must start a dream journal) which leads me to believe that just as it is beyond the capabilities of our waking consciousness to fully recall dreams it is also unable to remember all that we can experience in the astral form.

Perhaps if the boundary between the conscious and subconscious could be dissolved then the physical world of matter would be shown to be an illusion of the senses?

You may be interested in shamanism, if you haven't done much research into it yet. I recommend the book "The Art of Dreaming" by Carlos Castaneda. There is much debate whether his stories are fictional, but the details about shamanism seem accurate. He discusses the idea of "seeing" -- essentially "seeing" is seeing things as they are (which is basically energy) before they are filtered by your brain. Regardless of the truth behind the stories, the techniques that are woven into the stories are at least somewhat legitimate (specifically the "dreaming" techniques) and have worked for me. Don't read the books if you fear the OOB state and the possibilities of what might truly lie beyond.

[stevemagegod]

It's as real as you want it to be. I've experienced things in OBEs that I cannot explain. From this I form my own beliefs. You need to discover for yourself if it's just advanced visualisation and don't let anyone convince you otherwise. It might sound bizarre but I learned the "phasing" technique from what I would call my higher self (others call them guides, etc.) I constantly got stuck at paralysis/vibrations and couldn't exit. One day I again got the the vibration stage and suddenly "heard" (for lack of better words, completely indescribable feeling) two voices talking to me. They said I was making it more difficult than it needed to be. They told me to look at the clouds in the distance. All I could see was blackness (my eyes were closed). Suddenly I see some clouds form. I focus on them and suddenly I'm in a new environment in the presence of these two beings (one male one female). I asked them how I can get back here (back to them); they told me that was the easy part, and left it at that. It took me about a year to figure out what they meant. For me, anytime I wish to speak with my higher self/guides, I simply look to the sky for clouds in my dreams/OBEs and suddenly my environment changes. Some deeper/higher part of my consciousness taught me how to do this. My normal state of awareness/consciousness was completely unaware of how to do this before this experience. This I cannot explain away as simply an advanced visualization. For a non-religious view, you might say my subconscious established a way of communication with my conscious mind. This is equally amazing to me.

Also, your surroundings can be distinguishable and indistinguishable at times from waking life. There are varying degrees of vividness. What's remarkable is that you can experience hyper-reality, where things seem MORE real than the physical. The visual aspect of our physical reality is limited with our eyes. You cannot see detail anymore than your eyes allow. In the OOB state, this is no longer a limitation. At other times you experience things that are incomprehensible to the physical world and your consciousness has a hard time processing it when you wake up in the physical world.

More to come!

It actually doesn't sound bizarre to me believe it or not. A while ago I believe i could have made contact with my Higher Self and or Guides. I actually wrote about it in the pinned thread about these three beings. I was basically using the Phasing technique and i noticed these three being standing around some type of machine but for some reason i was afraid to look at them. Another time these beings appeared again and i worked up the Balls to actually look at them. I believe i made some form of contact with them because i woke up soon after and i saw a Shadow type being manifest in reality very quickly by my large mirror and then it was gone. I also believed i accessed some form of Automatic writing when i was communicating with them because i heard someone in my dream say write this down and when i woke up i found my hand writing something on my pillow, and my hand was in the same shape how i would be holding a normal pen/pencil in real life.

Note: these were all separate occurrences.

I haven't made much contact with these beings in a while though. Just those few times.

Edited October 26, 2013 by stevemagegod

[Himawari69]

It actually doesn't sound bizarre to me believe it or not. A while ago I believe i could have made contact with my Higher Self and or Guides. I actually wrote about it in the pinned thread about these three beings. I was basically using the Phasing technique and i noticed these three being standing around some type of machine but for some reason i was afraid to look at them. Another time these beings appeared again and i worked up the Balls to actually look at them. I believe i made some form of contact with them because i woke up soon after and i saw a Shadow type being manifest in reality very quickly by my large mirror and then it was gone. I also believed i accessed some form of Automatic writing when i was communicating with them because i heard someone in my dream say write this down and when i woke up i found my hand writing something on my pillow, and my hand was in the same shape how i would be holding a normal pen/pencil in real life.

Note: these were all separate occurrences.

I haven't made much contact with these beings in a while though. Just those few times.

interesting stuff! I too saw three beings once when attempting an obe. The top half of my body was hanging off the bed and I could see my room with my eyes closed. That's when I saw three human-like beings floating by my mirror. Scared the crap out of me so I forced myself back.

[all16universes]

interesting stuff! I too saw three beings once when attempting an obe. The top half of my body was hanging off the bed and I could see my room with my eyes closed. That's when I saw three human-like beings floating by my mirror. Scared the crap out of me so I forced myself back.

From the few posts that I've read of yours, it sounds like you have much fear of OBEs. It seems like you have quite a natural talent for lucid dreaming and reaching the OOB state. You should really work on overcoming your fear. There is SO much to be learned. It's a shame every time I see someone with so much potential give in to their fears. What is it that you truly fear about OBEs?

[aimlesswalk]

You may be interested in shamanism, if you haven't done much research into it yet. I recommend the book "The Art of Dreaming" by Carlos Castaneda. There is much debate whether his stories are fictional, but the details about shamanism seem accurate. He discusses the idea of "seeing" -- essentially "seeing" is seeing things as they are (which is basically energy) before they are filtered by your brain. Regardless of the truth behind the stories, the techniques that are woven into the stories are at least somewhat legitimate (specifically the "dreaming" techniques) and have worked for me. Don't read the books if you fear the OOB state and the possibilities of what might truly lie beyond.

Thanks for the recommendation and I have heard about Carlos Castaneda so should like to read some of his works especially as I do not know much about shamanism. As for fearing the possibilities of the OOB state I will admit I might be apprehensive but this is far outweighed by my yearning to experience something beyond the confines of my waking life which has more potency than mere dreaming. Given that you're experiences in these matters far exceeds my own can you give me an impression of what one might encounter in the OOB state?

[all16universes]

Thanks for the recommendation and I have heard about Carlos Castaneda so should like to read some of his works especially as I do not know much about shamanism. As for fearing the possibilities of the OOB state I will admit I might be apprehensive but this is far outweighed by my yearning to experience something beyond the confines of my waking life which has more potency than mere dreaming. Given that you're experiences in these matters far exceeds my own can you give me an impression of what one might encounter in the OOB state?

I've only had good experiences, but I also have a very curious and no-fear mindset. Some people I know are scared easily and they end up with scary experiences. But I'm not talking about just having a bad experience. The possibilities offered by the experiences of the experts can be frightening or disturbing. I don't want to spoil the books because they are worth reading but I'll give some short "for instances": Castaneda talks about bringing his entire physical body with him on his "dreaming" journeys and getting lost, and almost not coming back. Not lost in the sense of not being able to find your physical way back, but more in the sense that you've forgotten the "physical" state of consciousness (Robert Monroe talks about something similar). Also discusses different types of beings and how they can be dangerous -- the possibility of real danger in the OOB state. Although, to be fair he was doing a lot of drugs to help induce these altered states. His stories might be fictional but there's some accuracy to the details of shamanism. It's easy to take the mindset that nothing can harm you, but the stories of the experts sometimes make you wonder if you're better off not going too far down the rabbit hole ("stay away from the deep end"). I personally don't let these possibilities stop me or scare me away, but some people react differently and will give it all up because someone wrote about it in a book. Haha I also like a little bit of danger every now and then .

From my personal experience, what can you expect? The simple answer: a learning curve. I had to learn how to fly which took many attempts. For some it's natural, but I had to learn like learning to ride a bike. I used to always get trapped in the same environment (confined to a strange version of my neighborhood) and it took me MANY experiences to learn how to escape it. You have to learn how to prolong the experiences so you can maintain your time there. In my last experience I was experimenting with "choosing" to be restricted by the physicality of the environment (I was swimming in water really fast and unrestricted but I could choose to allow myself to interact with the water physically which would slow me down). I've had experiences where part of my consciousness takes over and I "step in" to another role. While it's happening it's like I'm living another life and it all makes sense at the time. As soon as I leave, it no longer makes sense and I think "what the @!#$ just happened?!" I have memories of these places and these "roles" that ONLY exist while I'm there (Maybe alternate existences/past lives?). Learning what to make from these experiences is just another learning curve.

If you like learning and treat it like an experiment, there are many good things to expect.

[aimlesswalk]

I've only had good experiences, but I also have a very curious and no-fear mindset. Some people I know are scared easily and they end up with scary experiences. But I'm not talking about just having a bad experience. The possibilities offered by the experiences of the experts can be frightening or disturbing. I don't want to spoil the books because they are worth reading but I'll give some short "for instances": Castaneda talks about bringing his entire physical body with him on his "dreaming" journeys and getting lost, and almost not coming back. Not lost in the sense of not being able to find your physical way back, but more in the sense that you've forgotten the "physical" state of consciousness (Robert Monroe talks about something similar). Also discusses different types of beings and how they can be dangerous -- the possibility of real danger in the OOB state. Although, to be fair he was doing a lot of drugs to help induce these altered states. His stories might be fictional but there's some accuracy to the details of shamanism. It's easy to take the mindset that nothing can harm you, but the stories of the experts sometimes make you wonder if you're better off not going too far down the rabbit hole ("stay away from the deep end"). I personally don't let these possibilities stop me or scare me away, but some people react differently and will give it all up because someone wrote about it in a book. Haha I also like a little bit of danger every now and then .

From my personal experience, what can you expect? The simple answer: a learning curve. I had to learn how to fly which took many attempts. For some it's natural, but I had to learn like learning to ride a bike. I used to always get trapped in the same environment (confined to a strange version of my neighborhood) and it took me MANY experiences to learn how to escape it. You have to learn how to prolong the experiences so you can maintain your time there. In my last experience I was experimenting with "choosing" to be restricted by the physicality of the environment (I was swimming in water really fast and unrestricted but I could choose to allow myself to interact with the water physically which would slow me down). I've had experiences where part of my consciousness takes over and I "step in" to another role. While it's happening it's like I'm living another life and it all makes sense at the time. As soon as I leave, it no longer makes sense and I think "what the @!#$ just happened?!" I have memories of these places and these "roles" that ONLY exist while I'm there (Maybe alternate existences/past lives?). Learning what to make from these experiences is just another learning curve.

If you like learning and treat it like an experiment, there are many good things to expect.

Interesting reading and as Castaneda says forgetting (or wanting to forget) the physical state of consciousness must be all too easy to do and something which I could quite possibly see myself doing which is maybe why I've not had an out of body experience Often I've read that any harm which a person could come to during an OOB state is down to their own fear which has to be overcome but is he danger they perceive a manifestation of their own innate fear or something externalised which could have dire implications. It is this uncertainty which would make me apprehensive about having an OOB experience but my longing for experiences outside this physical state of being would override the apprehensiveness. And certainly when you mention flying it very much stirs my imagination at the possibilities out of body experiences present and as you say it is well to treat the entire experience as an experiment and learning curve.

Also I find it interesting how you mention during some OBE's you have 'stepped into another role' and you feel like you're living another life which makes sense in the context of what you're experiencing as I to have occasionally experienced this in dreams where I seem to be somebody else but at the same time somehow detached from them and upon waking the memory of the whole episode seems to be fragmented and confused unlike when asleep where it had it's own internal dream logic.

Edited October 26, 2013 by aimlesswalk

[Himawari69]

From the few posts that I've read of yours, it sounds like you have much fear of OBEs. It seems like you have quite a natural talent for lucid dreaming and reaching the OOB state. You should really work on overcoming your fear. There is SO much to be learned. It's a shame every time I see someone with so much potential give in to their fears. What is it that you truly fear about OBEs?

I don't always have much fear, some sp experiences have been pleasant, mostly by controlling the dream but its very brief and I end up waking up. I do have fear, however of having hallucinations due to reading other peoples scary experiences. I guess deep down I fear whats going to happen to me. Its the exit obe stage that the fear kicks in. Not the sp itself. I just cant help but feel strong emotions when im trying to exit. Im trying to keep that under control.

[all16universes]

Once you successfully make an exit or reach the OOB state, you may notice that it doesn't last very long. In this post I will talk about maintaining your awareness.

The OOB state is hard to maintain in the beginning. The whole experience feels very unstable and the slightest change in focus of attention can end the experience instantly. We need to find a way to anchor ourselves to the experience with what I will call "anchoring techniques". The goal is to maintain your attention in the present experience -- "Being in the now" and not allowing your thoughts to drift elsewhere. How do we do this? Simple. For starters, use as many of your senses as you can. Your senses keep your consciousness anchored to your present environment. Let's move on to the techniques. These can be done any time the experience starts to fade, or continually to maintain your awareness. They should be started immediately upon making an exit or reaching the OOB state.

(1) Constantly touch everything. The sense of touch is possibly the easiest way to keep your awareness.

(2) Rub your hands together or blow on them. Surprisingly effective.

(3) Stare at your hands and take glances of your surroundings. Always bring your awareness back to your hands though. This technique comes from Castaneda. He claims that it stabilizes the environment. I tried it once and I remember it working.

(4) Somewhere or someone once said that all you have to do is yell "Clarity now!" to bring back awareness. I've never had great success with this -- maybe one time it worked. But I have trouble changing my dreams/environment by will alone. I personally prefer other methods.

I'll leave it at this for now.

Edited October 26, 2013 by all16universes

[stevemagegod]

From the few posts that I've read of yours, it sounds like you have much fear of OBEs. It seems like you have quite a natural talent for lucid dreaming and reaching the OOB state. You should really work on overcoming your fear. There is SO much to be learned. It's a shame every time I see someone with so much potential give in to their fears. What is it that you truly fear about OBEs?

I honestly don't know why i am afraid. If i had to take a guess i would say its because i am accessing levels of Consciousness that you normally wouldn't have access to. And in these altered states it seems the Subconsciousness is the one in control(Example Random Dreams). And if it is not in control I believe it will act as a Self-Defense Mechanism to keep you from having a full Consciousness Out of Body experience. I believe that is why so many people get stuck at the Vibration Stage of Astral Projection or get stuck halfway(Example having Astral Arms out but everything else is in) from having a full Conscious OBE.

Edited October 26, 2013 by stevemagegod

[White Crane Feather]

It's not always just about fear as in being afraid of something. There are also internal conflicts that manifest that are not imeadiately apparent in your awareness. These things take on lives of their own. In many ways it is also why this practice is so healing as you over come them. Some people do seem to avoid these issues... Maybe it's because they simply don't have any.

[aimlesswalk]

By trying to stabilise the OOB experience by anchoring to it through the use of all the senses are we using our actual bodily senses extended into the OOB experience or an illusion of them to tighten out foothold in the experience or are they an approximation of our senses in the OOB state? In the anchoring techniques constantly touching your surrounding is mentioned when this is done are you touching the astral counterpart of your surroundings or the actual object itself?

It's all very fascinating and makes me yearn to experience it all the more and only last night after waking after some hours of sleep I made an attempt although unfortunately I didn't make much progress as I the nagging fear of sleep paralysis crept into my mind. I must ask when practicing for an OOB experience is it always necessary to be laying in the supine position? I do have some reservations about this because in the past it is always through laying in the supine position that I have been overcome by sleep paralysis which I have often found an interesting albeit uncomfortable experience which has an element of fear associated with it.

[White Crane Feather]

By trying to stabilise the OOB experience by anchoring to it through the use of all the senses are we using our actual bodily senses extended into the OOB experience or an illusion of them to tighten out foothold in the experience or are they an approximation of our senses in the OOB state? In the anchoring techniques constantly touching your surrounding is mentioned when this is done are you touching the astral counterpart of your surroundings or the actual object itself?

It's all very fascinating and makes me yearn to experience it all the more and only last night after waking after some hours of sleep I made an attempt although unfortunately I didn't make much progress as I the nagging fear of sleep paralysis crept into my mind. I must ask when practicing for an OOB experience is it always necessary to be laying in the supine position? I do have some reservations about this because in the past it is always through laying in the supine position that I have been overcome by sleep paralysis which I have often found an interesting albeit uncomfortable experience which has an element of fear associated with it.

No you can project from any position. Often I'm actually on my stomach.

[aimlesswalk]

No you can project from any position. Often I'm actually on my stomach.

That's good to know I had only previously attempted to project from the supine position which I don't find very comfortable which might explain the complete lack of success I've always had in this venture. Also every instance of sleep paralysis I've experienced has been while in the supine position so this may also have deterred my efforts to astrally project as well being apprehensive of an episode of sleep paralysis.

[all16universes]

By trying to stabilise the OOB experience by anchoring to it through the use of all the senses are we using our actual bodily senses extended into the OOB experience or an illusion of them to tighten out foothold in the experience or are they an approximation of our senses in the OOB state? In the anchoring techniques constantly touching your surrounding is mentioned when this is done are you touching the astral counterpart of your surroundings or the actual object itself?

It's all very fascinating and makes me yearn to experience it all the more and only last night after waking after some hours of sleep I made an attempt although unfortunately I didn't make much progress as I the nagging fear of sleep paralysis crept into my mind. I must ask when practicing for an OOB experience is it always necessary to be laying in the supine position? I do have some reservations about this because in the past it is always through laying in the supine position that I have been overcome by sleep paralysis which I have often found an interesting albeit uncomfortable experience which has an element of fear associated with it.

I would say that we are so used to the physical, that your consciousness tries to use what it knows to gather information -- which happens to be using your physical senses. But these are not necessary. When I say there are times you cannot comprehend the experience, maybe it's because you're gathering information that is not physical in nature. Your senses gather info, then your brain processes it. Your senses and brain are physical -- they can only gather and process physical information. But your consciousness is not bound to these rules. Perhaps we choose to experience the OOB in such a way that the information from the experience can be interpreted with our brain, allowing us to remember the experience. Also, it could be that we imagine using the senses because we are used to operating our physical bodies, but the act of using the senses is not necessary because our consciousness has no body. I would say that when we use our senses in the OOB state, it's force of habit and a mental crutch until we can learn to do without them. As an example, I struggled with flying when I first started having OBEs. I have no way of knowing how to fly because I can't physically fly. I started to use swimming strokes (a physical action) in order to get me off the ground. Was the swimming motion necessary? No, but the physical act of it was like training wheels for me until I could do without it.

[aimlesswalk]

I would say that we are so used to the physical, that your consciousness tries to use what it knows to gather information -- which happens to be using your physical senses. But these are not necessary. When I say there are times you cannot comprehend the experience, maybe it's because you're gathering information that is not physical in nature. Your senses gather info, then your brain processes it. Your senses and brain are physical -- they can only gather and process physical information. But your consciousness is not bound to these rules. Perhaps we choose to experience the OOB in such a way that the information from the experience can be interpreted with our brain, allowing us to remember the experience. Also, it could be that we imagine using the senses because we are used to operating our physical bodies, but the act of using the senses is not necessary because our consciousness has no body. I would say that when we use our senses in the OOB state, it's force of habit and a mental crutch until we can learn to do without them. As an example, I struggled with flying when I first started having OBEs. I have no way of knowing how to fly because I can't physically fly. I started to use swimming strokes (a physical action) in order to get me off the ground. Was the swimming motion necessary? No, but the physical act of it was like training wheels for me until I could do without it.

Yes this makes sense I would imagine that there are aspects of the OOB experience which are beyond the capabilities of our brain to comprehend so our senses do not process them but we do retain some fleeting impression of something which made sense during the experience itself but cannot be fully consciously remembered as you alluded to in a previous post. I also that during an OOB experience are perceptual reference point is that of our senses so it is natural that we would perceive it the same as we do waking life. It could be as one continues to improve OOB exploration they may be able to relinquish the impression of perceiving the event through the prism of our recognisable senses and engage with it in some entirely new way. There may be so many more senses to choose from.

[gstar]

I've been interested in OOB for many months. Tried many time of waking up in the morning and trying to fall back asleep. I've set motionless for hours without ever losing consciousness. Being a insomniac, this has not been so easy to do. After reading the posts from alien embryo I decided to turn off the alarm clock and just wake up naturally. This morning, for the first time ever, I found that small window of sleep/awake and felt rather mild vibration during my waking phase. This appeared to come and go twice. The more aware I became of it the more awake I think I became. I did try to visualize another room in my house to see if I could have a successful exit. no luck. If I can get there again...I'll look for the clouds...usually I only see blackness.

Any other advise????

[White Crane Feather]

I've been interested in OOB for many months. Tried many time of waking up in the morning and trying to fall back asleep. I've set motionless for hours without ever losing consciousness. Being a insomniac, this has not been so easy to do. After reading the posts from alien embryo I decided to turn off the alarm clock and just wake up naturally. This morning, for the first time ever, I found that small window of sleep/awake and felt rather mild vibration during my waking phase. This appeared to come and go twice. The more aware I became of it the more awake I think I became. I did try to visualize another room in my house to see if I could have a successful exit. no luck. If I can get there again...I'll look for the clouds...usually I only see blackness.

Any other advise????

Keep at it.

[stevemagegod]

Its the exit obe stage that the fear kicks in. Not the sp itself. I just cant help but feel strong emotions when im trying to exit. Im trying to keep that under control.

It's probably the initial separation stage from Physical Body to Soul is when fear kicks in. I feel its because your Subconscious mind knows that it is not in control aka the "Dream State" so it will try any and all attempts to stop your conscious mind from having a full Conscious OBE instead of the normal was that just a dream or was it real? type of situation.

I came up with that theory after my strongest attempt at having a full conscious OBE fail. Which i all ready discussed in this thread.

[bLu3 de 3n3rgy]

It's the ego mind that fears and has to be wrestled with or co operated with. At first it is going to feel like going the full rounds in the boxing ring. Because to begin with on this path / journey of consciousness, you are more or less dealing with yourself as a compartmented being. And slowly bit by bit you are unravelling all that and remaking the connections, reconnecting the dots so that everything is going to become integrated again as a whole.

The ego's job is to keep you alive and the ego will fight against anything that it deems a threat to losing the seat of consciousness in your mind / body. What the ego does not know, in the beginning, is that it is not the only part of your consciousness. For the ego, letting the shift of awareness 'go' to your other streams of consciousness is a terrifying thing. For all the ego knows it may be trying to prevent your death.

But the ego in a sense has to learn as well that this isn't the case. So only the experience it self can sort this dilemma out. Once the experience has been had the ego knows it is not acting alone, and as you begin to develop your higher sensory perceptions and allow that bridging to your inner/higher self as a direct result of having these kind of experiences-- the ego still wants to fight to be the one in control lol. Our world is not set up for encouraging our consciousness to develop from the higher natural states, rather it is deliberately set up to encourage and manipulate our egos into petty overdrive. Not even our ego mind was ever supposed to be so dominate. So we have to really work at re tuning our egos and making it a healthy part of us that knows when to step back and when to step in appropriately.

The subconsciousness mind is quite different, the subconsciousness mind basically records everything before it gets filtered to the conscious mind. The conscious mind only deals with a filtered down perception and summary of what is ever going on...It's a dummied down version and often distorted -- It is never the full complete picture that the subconsciousness mind holds. The subconsciousness mind only knows unbiased experiences and is not biased whether something was experienced in a dream, sleep, woken, or meditative state. I feel we should really listen to that part more and learn to understand the power of experience instead of degrade it because it lacks something if it can't be proved or preformed on the spot.

[Himawari69]

I have had so many sp/obe experiences that i "dream" im paralyzed lol