A Few Fellow Explorers

There have been explorers of consciousness space whose repeated journeys have been recorded in books. I would recommend the following authors for their sheer experience in consciousness space. Although they may not all follow the same paradigm or technique, they all have developed an advanced ability at inducing these non-physical experiences. What I have found interesting is the similarities in their experiences, although so out-of-this-world the experiences may be. These authors can give you a glimpse of the larger reality, but it can only be known through your own experience. It is great to know that intelligent minds have rationally and earnestly approached this subject - you are indeed in good company! In no particular order I recommend the following authors:


William Buhlman (Adventures Beyond the Body, Secret of the Soul)

Biography

William Buhlman is America's leading expert on out-of-body experiences. The author's four decades of extensive personal out-of-body explorations give him a unique and thought provoking insight into this subject. His first book, Adventures beyond the Body chronicles his personal spiritual journey of self-discovery through out-of-body travel, and provides the reader with the preparation and techniques that can be used for their own adventure.


During the last ten years he has conducted an international out-of-body experience survey that includes over 18,000 participants from forty-two countries. The provocative results of this survey are presented in his book, The Secret of the Soul. This cutting edge book explores the unique opportunities for personal growth and profound spiritual awakenings that are experienced during out-of-body travel.


Over the past two decades William has developed a proven, effective system to experience safe, self initiated out-of-body adventures. He conducts an in-depth six day workshop with the Monroe Institute titled, Out-of-Body Exploration Intensive. This unique workshop provides the steps, intention and techniques designed for controlled out-of-body exploration. Each participant will experience a comprehensive array of proven OBE methods including the target technique, inner motion, visualization, chakra and energy body activation. In addition, hypnotic, shamanic and early morning methods will be practiced. Information about the author's workshops is available at www.astralinfo.org.


As a certified hypnotherapist, William incorporates various methods in his workshops to explore the profound nature of out-of-body experiences and the benefits of accelerated personal development. Through lectures, workshops and his books the author teaches the preparation and techniques of astral projection and spiritual exploration.


The author brings a refreshing look to how we can use out-of-body experiences to explore our spiritual identity and enhance our intellectual and physical lives. William is best known for his ability to teach people how to have profound spiritual adventures through the use of out-of-body experiences. In addition, he has developed an extensive series of audio and video programs that are designed to expand awareness and assist in the exploration of consciousness. William has appeared on numerous television and radio shows worldwide.

Robert Moss (Dreamgates, Conscious Dreaming, Dreamer's Book of the Dead)

Biography


Robert Moss is the pioneer of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of shamanism and modern dreamwork. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming and a lively online dream school. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His eight books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Three "Only" Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates and Active Dreaming: Journeying beyond Self-Limitation to a Life of Wild Freedom.


Moss describes himself as "a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture." He identifies the great watershed in his adult life as a sequence of visionary events that unfolded in 1987-1988, after he decided to leave the world of big cities and the fast-track life of a popular novelist (already the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Moscow Rules) and put down roots on a farm in the upper Hudson Valley of New York. Moss started dreaming in a language he did not know that proved to be an archaic form of the Mohawk language. Helped by native speakers to interpret his dreams, Moss came to believe that they had put him in touch with an ancient healer - a woman of power - and that they were calling him to a different life.


Out of these experiences he wrote a series of historical novels (The Firekeeper, Fire Along the Sky, The Interpreter) and developed the practice he calls Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of contemporary dreamwork and shamanic methods of journeying and healing. A central premise of Moss's approach is that dreaming isn't just what happens during sleep; dreaming is waking up to sources of guidance, healing and creativity beyond the reach of the everyday mind.He introduced his method to an international audience as an invited presenter at the conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams at the University of Leiden in 1994.


Core techniques of Active Dreaming include:


The "lightning dreamwork" process, designed to facilitate quick dream-sharing that results in helpful action; the use of the "if it were my dream" protocol encourages the understanding that the dreamer is always the final authority on his or her dream
Dream reentry: the practice of making a conscious journey back inside a dream in order to clarify information, dialogue with a dream character, or move beyond nightmare terrors into healing and resolution
Tracking and group dreaming: conscious dream travel on an agreed itinerary by two or more partners, often supported by shamanic drumming
Navigating by synchronicity: reading coincidence and "symbolic pop-ups" in ordinary life as "everyday oracles".


Thomas Campbell (My Big TOE)

Biography


Tom Campbell began researching altered states of consciousness with Bob Monroe (Journeys Out Of The Body, Far Journeys, and The Ultimate Journey) at Monroe Laboratories in the early 1970s where he and a few others were instrumental in getting Monroe's laboratory for the study of consciousness up and running.


Campbell has been experimenting with, and exploring the subjective and objective mind ever since. For the past thirty years, Campbell has been focused on scientifically exploring the properties, boundaries, and abilities of consciousness. During that same time period, he has excelled as a working scientist, a professional physicist dedicated to pushing back the frontiers of cutting edge technology, large-system simulation, technology development and integration, and complex system vulnerability and risk analysis. Presently, and for the past 20 years, he has been at the heart of developing US missile defense systems.


My Big TOE represents a model of existence and reality that is based directly on Campbell's scientific research and first hand experience. It represents the results and conclusions of thirty years of careful scientific exploration of the boundaries and contents of reality from both the physical and metaphysical viewpoints. There is no belief system, dogma, creed, or unusual assumptions at the root of My Big TOE.


Bruce Moen (Voyages into the Unknown, Exploring the Afterlife Series)

The author says, "I'm just an ordinary human being whose curiousity about human existence beyond death led me to extraordinary experience. . . . If there is any difference between you and me it is only that my curiousity has already led me to exlore and know what lies beyond death in the Afterlife."
This fascinating volume recounts the story of some of his voyages past the edge of life, using techniques learned at The Monroe Institute. Moen describes for the reader how to access this knowledge for themselves and to learn what the Afterlife really is.

Robert Monroe (Journey's Out of the Body, Far Journeys, Ultimate Journey) 

Biography


Robert Monroe (October 30, 1915–March 17, 1995) was a New York radio broadcasting executive who became known for his research into altered consciousness. His 1971 book Journeys Out of the Body is credited with popularizing the term "out-of-body experience".

Monroe achieved world-wide recognition as an explorer of human consciousness. His research, beginning in the 1950s, produced evidence that specific sound patterns have identifiable, beneficial effects on our capabilities. For example, certain combinations of frequencies appeared to enhance alertness; others to induce sleep; and still others to evoke expanded states of consciousness.

Assisted by specialists in psychology, medicine, biochemistry, psychiatry, electrical engineering, physics, and education, Robert Monroe developed Hemi-Sync, a patented audio technology that is claimed to facilitate enhanced performance.

He is also notable as one of the founders of the Jefferson Cable Corporation, the first cable company to cover central Virginia.

For more info visit www.monroeinstitute.org. 

Robert Bruce (Astral Dynamics)

Biography 


Robert Bruce is a published metaphysicist and a true spiritual pioneer of our times. Author of five ground-breaking books, with three in Second editions, his life is spent exploring the dynamics of all things paranormal and spiritual, and testing the boundaries of The Greater Spiritual Reality. This exploration particularly involves the human energy body and its Chakras, which form the foundations of both physical and spiritual existence.


The depth and scope of Robert's experiential knowledge is quite remarkable. Robert's other areas of expertise include Astral Projection (often called OBE or Out-of-Body-Experience), Kundalini and its phenomena, Clairvoyance (mind's
eye vision), Spiritual and Psychic Development, Metaphysics, and Psychic Self-Defense. Robert is a may who lives in The Greater Spiritual Reality and asks others to join him there.


Robert lectures internationally and currently resides in sunny Australia. You can find him on the web at AstralDynamics.com and his community site and forum at www.AstralDynamics.com.au.When not writing or lecturing, you'll find Robert diving enchanted reefs and exploring the wild places of the Australian outback.


Robert Waggoner (Lucid Dreaming - Gateway to the Inner Self)

Biography


Robert Waggoner is President-Elect of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) and a graduate of Drake University with a degree in psychology. He is also the coeditor of the online journal, The Lucid Dream Exchange dreaminglucid.com. He is a frequent speaker at national and international dream conferences.


Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self is the account of an extraordinarily talented lucid dreamer who goes beyond the boundaries of both psychology and religion. In the process, he stumbles upon the Inner Self.


While lucid (consciously aware) in the dream state and able to act and interact with dream figures, objects, and settings, dream expert Robert Waggoner experienced something transformative and unexpected. He was able to interact consciously with the dream observer-the apparent Inner Self-within the dream. At first this seemed shocking, even impossible, since psychology normally alludes to such theoretical inner aspects as the Subliminal Self, the Center, the Internal Self-Helper in vague and theoretical ways. Waggoner came to realize, however, that aware interaction with the Inner Self was not only possible, but actual and highly inspiring. He concluded that while aware in the dream state, one has both a psychological tool and a platform from which to understand dreaming and the larger picture of man's psyche as well. Waggoner proposes 5 stages of lucid dreaming and guides readers through them, offering advice for those who have never experienced the lucid dream state and suggestions for how experienced lucid dreamers can advance to a new level.


Lucid Dreaming offers exciting insights and vivid illustrations that will intrigue not only avid dreamworkers but anyone who is interested in consciousness, identity, and the definition of reality.


Stephen LaBerge (Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming)

Biography


Stephen LaBerge (born 1947) is a psychophysiologist and a leader in the scientific study of lucid dreaming. In 1967 he received his Bachelor's Degree in mathematics. He began researching lucid dreaming for his Ph.D. in Psychophysiology at Stanford University, which he received in 1980. He developed techniques to enable himself and other researchers to enter a lucid dream state at will, most notably the MILD technique (mnemonic induction of lucid dreams), which was necessary for many forms of dream experimentation. In 1987, he founded The Lucidity Institute, an organization that promotes research into lucid dreaming, as well as running courses for the general public on how to achieve a lucid dream.

His technique of signalling to a collaborator monitoring his EEG with agreed-upon eye movements during REM became the first published, scientifically verified signal from a dreamer's mind to the outside world. The first confirmed signal came from Alan Worsley under study in England; however his group did not publish their results until later. Though the technique is simple, it opens broad new avenues of dream research and pushed the field of dream research, or oneirology, beyond its protoscientific and largely discredited psychoanalytic roots, establishing it as a fruitful and respectable discipline.


Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (The Tibetan Yogas of Dreeam and Sleep)

Biography  


Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a lama in the Bon tradition of Tibet, presently resides in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is the founder and director of Ligmincha Institute, an organization dedicated to the study and practice of the teachings of the Bon tradition. He was born in Amritsar, India, after his parents fled the Chinese invasion of Tibet, and received training from both Buddhist and Bon teachers, attaining the degree of Geshe, the highest academic degree of traditional Tibetan culture. He has been in the United States since 1991 and has taught widely in Europe and America.


"If we cannot carry our practice into sleep," Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche writes, "if we lose ourselves every night, what chance do we have to be aware when death comes? Look to your experience in dreams to know how you will fare in death. Look to your experience of sleep to discover whether or not you are truly awake."


This book gives detailed instruction for dream yoga, including foundational practices done during the day. In the Tibetan tradition, the ability to dream lucidly is not an end in itself, rather it provides an additional context in which one can engage in advanced and effective practices to achieve liberation.
Dream yoga is followed by sleep yoga, also known as the yoga of clear light. It is a more advanced practice, similar to the most secret Tibetan practices. The goal is to remain awake during deep sleep when the gross conceptual mind and the operation of the senses cease. Most Westerners do not even consider this depth of awareness a possibility, yet it is well known in Tibetan Buddhist and Bon spiritual traditions.


The result of these practices is greater happiness and freedom in both our waking and dreaming states. The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep imparts powerful methods for progressing along the path to liberation.


Michael Raduga (The Matrix is Real - Hack It!)

Now, out-of-body experience is accessible to everyone. It is now known how to easily master it and apply it effectively. It is new way for obtaining information, influencing the physiology, meeting the deceased, visiting any place in the universe etc. This guidebook is the result of ten years of extremely active personal practice and study of the the phase state (lucid dreaming and out-of-body experience), coupled with having successfully taught it to thousands of people. I know all of the problems that are usually run into when getting to know this phenomenon, and have tried to protect future practitioners from them. This guidebook was not created for those who prefer empty reading. It is for those who would like to learn something. It contains no speculations or stories, only dry facts and techniques. Contrary to popular opinion, there is nothing difficult about this phenomenon. The techniques work in literally a couple of attempts. More info and full Free version on www.obe4u.com.

Jurgen Ziewe (Multidimensional Man)

Leading a highly demanding professional life Jurgen Ziewe compensated by practicing intensive meditation to gain balance and spiritual inspiration. He soon discovered there was more to life when he was catapulted out of his body into a parallel universe. For nearly forty years he kept a secret diary detailing his excursions, which reveal a fascinating alternate reality that awaits us once we leave our mortal bodies. The author discovered a multidimensional universe, which he could step into in full waking consciousness. He returned each time with breath-taking accounts of a world which forms not only the natural extension but the foundation of our physical universe. Jurgen Ziewe gives vivid and compelling accounts of meeting his deceased relatives, of interviewing the 'dead', and even of accompanying himself in a previous life. He describes with the zest of a travel journalist some of the mind-bending places he has visited, and recalls the excitement of unearthing the magical powers found there. www.multidimensionalman.com 

NPE #1 - 01/08/09

This was one of my first non-physical experiences. I call it a lucid dream because I had become conscious during what I considered a normal night dream:

I was swimming in a beautiful ocean with a bunch of people I had some type of affinity with. As they all disappeared from the dream, I became conscious that I was dreaming. I saw a small shark in the water but did not worry. I traversed the water like a speedboat -  I was on my back and could only see my feet in front of me as I propelled on the water at fast speeds. As I reached a land mass on the other side of the ocean I noticed it reminded me of a previous dream I had months and months ago. It was a nostalgic remembering. The ocean felt spectacularly real. I was splashing around the water which was on par with waking reality. 

I had a momentary loss of consciousness, but maintained my lucidity as I found myself in a different location. I was in my basement, walking around, marveling at my lucidity in what appeared to be a near perfect replica of my PR basment. I was thinking about using the bench press, but decided not to. I felt a pain in my leg, like a burning sensation. I tried to use a healing technique using my fingers but it did not work. I remember having a minor fear in this state. I was confined to the basement sort of like a prison - I could not find my way out. I began to think of my physical body and began to transition into the waking state. 

I began to hear this sinister laughing which scared me as I woke up. I head another voice say “anything is possible."

Looking back a few years later this NPE has a few interesting features. It demonstrates the idea that these experiences are "layered" and different things can be going on simultaneously. The transition from the ocean location to my basement was marked by a noticeable increase in density within consciousness space.
As I was waking up I seemed to become susceptible to different sounds. On the one hand I had this sinister, scary laughing which I believe was a manifestation of my fear itself. On the other hand there was this rational voice telling me that "anything is possible." As you can see my early experiences were limited - I was confined to my self-created prison, the basement, and could not imagine a way out. 

My focus and awareness were also at a relatively low level - both have increased with future experiences. I found myself in a NPE and was contemplating using a bench press - yikes. 

Methodology - Part I - Indirect Techniques

Many people, including myself, have trouble getting the physical body into the relaxed state necessary to phase into a non-physical experience (NPE). Lucky for us, there are a variety of techniques which utilize the relaxation attained from your normal night sleep cycle. 

You may be wondering, “What does relaxation have to do with a NPE?” Essentially, to transition into a NPE you need to get your body sufficiently relaxed where it falls asleep. The “trance state,” as some call it, is marked by your body getting deeply relaxed and asleep while your mind stays awake.

These techniques which are performed during your normal sleep cycle are, usually, much easier for beginners – those looking to have their first NPE. Michael Raduga, author of The Matrix is Real. Hack it!, refers to these techniques as indirect techniques. Raduga’s book, available free online, will greatly expand on a lot of the techniques presented in this blog – I have found it to be one of the best when dealing with the practical “how to” aspects of the NPE.

My favorite indirect technique is known as the “wake back to bed” method. This method is very simple, and has afforded me great success. For this technique, you want to wake up four to six hours into your normal sleep cycle, allowing a few REM periods to pass by. From my experience, the longer and more intricate dreams come in the latter half of my night sleep – during successively longer REM cycles. After waking up, you need to force yourself to stay awake for at least a half hour or so. During this time focus on NPEs – you can read a book about them, meditate on having one, repeat some affirmations such as “I will have an out-of-body experience,” etc. After at least a half hour, you can go back to sleep, holding the intention to have an NPE in mind. Your chances of having a spontaneous NPE have just drastically and dramatically increased. I have had success with this technique even after staying up for several hours.

The other type of indirect technique involves lying still as you wake up from sleep. By falling asleep with the intention to lay still when you wake up, the intention will find its way into your conscious mind as you are waking up. Don't shift in bed, lay still. You will find yourself in what author Robert Moss calls the “twilight zone” between sleep and waking, a state of hypnagogia. Essentially you are waking up into the aforementioned mind-awake body-asleep trance state. From this state of consciousness you can easily phase into remembered dreams or initiate the classic out-of-body experience by using an exit technique.  

To transition into a remembered dream, you need to immerse yourself back into the dream with all of your senses. I had one experience one night where I found myself reentering the same dream four or five time. I kept coming back to my body, lying in bed in the trance state, and I had the opportunity to keep reentering the dream. I did this by imagining myself walking down the stairs in the dream – I felt the stairs beneath my feat, imagined the walls, etc. In fact, as proclaimed in Robert Moss’ books, you can reenter any remembered dream you’ve ever had from the trance state by imagining the dream in its sensual detail.

Exit techniques, to initiate the classic OBE, are very simple. It is about using your focused intent to simply “roll out” of your body, to use one example. Other techniques involve the tactile senses such as feeling yourself pulling yourself out of your body by climbing a rope or ladder. I’ve found you don’t want to think too much into exit techniques. You don't want the left brain to get involved. When you find yourself in the relaxed state, you simply need to “just do it.” You aren’t supposed to be thinking about it, you’re supposed to be being it.

Try each of these techniques for two weeks or so at a time. People have great success with these techniques if they give them a chance. They work for a lot of people within a mere few days. The next installment of this blog will focus on techniques to stabilize the NPE once entered.

Cultivating the NPE – Part II - The Diet

Disclaimer: Although in my experience diet plays a roll in experiencing NPEs, it is not an absolute rule. I have had NPEs after days of eating fairly unhealthy, and also on days of eating healthy. If you are struggling with achieving these experiences, you may want to look into your diet and try something new.

I consider a diet everything that you subject your body to, including food, drugs and exercise. I have found that diet plays a role in both the ability to have a non-physical experience (NPE) and the ability to recall a NPE. 

My dreams have been giving me diet advice for years. It was because of a dream that I looked into the “80/10/10” diet which led me to incorporate a lot more fruit into my diet, and less meat and other high-fat foods. Since this change my dreams have grown more vivid and intense.

From my experience, drugs and alcohol play a major role in blocking the ability to recall dreams and other NPE. This seems to be the consensus with most people I talk about this subject with as well. This is not to say this is an absolute rule. On nights I would drink alcohol or smoke marijuana, I would rarely remember a dream in the morning. I have never been able to achieve a conscious NPE while under the influence of alcohol or marijuana. As a result I, for the most part, cut these substances out of my diet. It is up to each individual to make the choice on whether or not to use these substances. I am not here to lecture or judge. 

I have also had dreams which warned me about using fluoride toothpaste and artificial sweeteners. Now I use non-fluoride toothpaste and natural honey as a sweetener. 

It is interesting to note that Shamanism, a traditional spiritual system revolving in large around the NPE, adheres to a strict diet, fasts, and usually long trials of solitude. Fellow non-physical explorer and author of Astral Dynamics, Robert Bruce, has recommended occasional one to threeday fasts to detoxify one’s body. I have done a few day fasts with great results. If you attempt this, do some research and be sure to drink plenty of water. Start with a one day fast and work your way up from there.

I’ve found on days I got good exercise, such as weightlifting an hour or so at the gym, I would have increased chances of having a NPE. I don’t have the exact statistics, but it was a noticeable trend. Exercise, and getting in touch with the physical body in general, seems to be an important aspect of achieving non-physical experiences. And not to mention eating healthy and exercising feels good.

In short, be conscious of diet when working on achieving a non-physical experience. Try changing your diet up for a few weeks and see how it affects your success. Try limiting or abolishing any and all mind-altering substances, including unnecessary pharmaceuticals, and see how it affects your success. Give your body time to get accustomed to the new diet before drawing conclusions. My apologies if this came off a bit soap boxesque, but I do believe it is an important part of achieving these non-physical experiences.

An Open Letter to the Skeptics

There are many people who will dismiss the notion of the non-physical experience without second thought. “That’s impossible,” they may quip.  This is unfortunate, for they are closing off an entire avenue of exploration within the human experience. In my opinion, life is too short to not at least give it a shot! In our fast paced world people may question the practicality of such experiences. “What’s the point?” people may wonder. Well, only through personal experience can these questions be answered for you. Only through personal experience can the reality of these experiences be affirmed to you. I can go on and on about non-physical experiences leading to spontaneous physical healing, meetings with knowledgeable non-physical beings, and the exploration of other worlds, but none of it will be real to you without your own subjective experience. I could tell you about how a dream led me to my current job, but I don’t want you to take my word for it. I want you to experience it for yourself. Only you can bring these experiences into your reality, just as only you can shut them out.   

At one point it was “common knowledge” that the Earth was flat and the center of the universe. Even today we hold many assumptions about the nature of reality. Contemporary study of reality on the quantum level shows us that the accepted view of a Newtonian reality, a reality of fixed physical objects, does not hold up very well. The closer we look at the particles that make up reality, the more we find that they are highly variable –all particles behave simultaneously as a waveform and a particle! We find, demonstrated by the Schrödinger’s cat experiment, that a conscious observer plays a pivotal role in the outcome of all experiments. All outcomes at every moment are viable until realized by conscious observation. The placebo effect is another prime example that our consciousness plays a role in influencing our reality on a physical level. There are many other examples within the realm of quantum mechanics. I would speculate that consciousness itself is the missing piece of the puzzle towards a unified field theory. It seems the more we learn about reality the more interesting (and perhaps confusing) it gets! 

It wasn’t until the 1980’s that lucid dreaming was proven to be a scientific reality. Scientists were able to get lucid dreamers to send back certain eye movements, signaling from the dream state. As time progresses further into the information age, I foresee the striking reality of these experiences to move further and further into the mainstream. The vast majority of these experiences are subjective by nature, and therefore do not meet the strict scientific standards only concerned with what is objectively and empirically observable. When living in a culture that tells its children “it’s only a dream,” it is hard to break through the beliefs which confine ones experiences. The movie Inception brought much attention to non-physical experiences, and many people had their first lucid dream as a result of that movie. These experiences also go against the grain of a society which is being propelled by a capitalist-consumerist mentality. Something about having any and all experience at your disposal makes that new car a little less interesting!

It is hard to fathom the idea of a conscious non-physical experience if you have never had one before. Let’s do a little thought exercise: Take a look around at your current surroundings. Take a look at the walls in the room you sit within. Notice the empty space that fills the room. Notice the feeling of the ground beneath your feet, the smell that permeates the air. Now, imagine you have the profound realization that you are dreaming – that you are within consciousness space. An entire avenue of experience had just opened itself up to you. Do you want to fly to the moon or a distant star? How about converse with the dream characters, perhaps aspects of yourself, you find yourself with? The only limit to your experience once within consciousness space is the self-imposed limits you put on yourself. Your first experience “waking up” within consciousness space will be an exciting moment.  

 I use the term consciousness space (CS) to refer to the place dreams and other non-physical experiences occur. In CS you don’t have to have a body unless you want one. Your focused intent becomes your means of travel and manifestation. A mere thought can lead to your favorite food. I’ve found, as first introduced to me by Robert Waggoner, a powerful use of CS is posing a question to the “dream source” itself – How about something like “What is the meaning of life?” Expect the unexpected. 

In short, keep an open mind when approaching this subject. Keep a skeptical and inquisitive mind as well. The only one who can validate the reality and potentiality of the NPE is you. Please don’t take anything I say as fact – validate it for yourself. Give yourself the opportunity to stretch the bounds of what you think you can experience in this life. You may just find that there are no bounds. Give this subject a concerted effort before you brush it off. If you have made it this far, your curiosity may just lead you down the rabbit hole.  

Cultivating the NPE – Part I - The Journal

I prefer to use the term non-physical experience (NPE) in order to move away from the beliefs associated with astral projection, lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences. For example, I think the terms out-of-body and projection are misnomers created by an incomplete view of consciousness. Whereas out-of-body and projection imply that consciousness is somehow moving out of the physical body, a more contemporary model sees consciousness as always out-of-body. To paraphrase Thomas Campbell, we are swimming in a sea of consciousness and the goal is not to get out-of-body but to get into your consciousness. With this model the physical brain takes the role of a receiver of consciousness, as opposed to the sole generator of consciousness. Robert Monroe aptly used the term “phasing” to describe the transition from physical waking consciousness to a NPE. You can see it as changing the channel of your consciousness. Many people who practice the phasing method (more to come on this) do not experience the traditional sensations of floating out of their body, but rather a sudden shift in perception to a NPE.

There are a few steps one can take to greatly increase the chances of having their first NPE. The first and most important step, and I say this time and time again, is to start a journal for all of your non-physical experiences. Dreams are a subset of non-physical experiences. I hear from people all the time that they don’t dream. Everyone dreams! Some people are just not receptive to their dreams. Creating a journal is the first step to opening yourself up to the non-physical.

At first you may not remember anything from your nightly sleep. Or you may remember a lot. Dream experiences are fleeting. If you don’t record them right away they will sink, unrecoverable, into the depths of the psyche. I recommend investing in a digital voice recorder. I purchased an Olympus brand recorder a few years back for something like 40 bucks. When I wake up in the middle of the night I simply roll over, eyes still closed, and talk into my little hand held device. Some people may prefer the old fashioned method of turning on the light and jotting some notes down onto a pad, which is fine. Although it is preferable to write as much as you can, in the least record a few key parts of the dream which will anchor you back to it in the morning. 

Lying still in bed is another trick to improve dream recall. In some way, these NPEs seem to be very connected to the physical body. You need to break the conditioning to roll around in bed as you wake up – You will be able to recall more if you lay still in bed. Pay notice to the feeling of the dream, for it is an important part of the dream itself. Dreams of intense emotion or bad feelings are begging for more immediate attention. I have pulled back so many dreams which were slipping away from memory by simply laying still. If you focus on the lingering feeling a dream leaves, you can reel it back into the conscious mind. Another strange phenomenon I have encountered is remembering dreams that were months or years old during meditation – I’ll be clearing my mind and the aging dream will pop into the conscious mind. In short, be mindful of lying still when you awake as you fall to sleep. 

I can’t stress enough the importance of starting a journal. After a week if you cannot recall at least a couple dreams, try waking up into one of your later REM cycles. Set an alarm clock for five to six hours into your night sleep. Go to bed with the intent to remember your dreams. Try and stay awake for fifteen minutes to a half hour before falling back to sleep. Read this blog or a book relating to dreams and other non-physical experiences. Go back to sleep with the intent to remember your dreams. Recalling and recording dreams will get easier and easier. If I look back at the early stages of my dream journal, I notice that my dreams were very fragmented and I did not recall much. Now, a few short years later, I recall several dreams a night, some of which are pages long. Like everything, practice makes all the difference.

The ASTRAL SUN is born

I've decided it is time I publish all of my ideas, currently scattered throughout numerous forums and word documents, into one central place - the Astral Sun. I decided to go with the traditional occult term, astral, to entitle this blog which will focus on non-physical experiences.

I will work to develop a common nomenclature which will be used throughout this blog, to help clear up confusion and bridge the, perhaps unwarranted, dichotomy between proponents of "lucid dreaming," "out-of-body experience," and "astral projection" - or whatever other term one prefers to describe these non-physical experiences.

A little background is in order. I first got into this subject during my sophomore year of college in New Paltz, upstate New York. I was dealing with a dark night of the soul where I spent most of my time in bed. I thought I may have contracted mono, the kissing disease, but the truth is I was dealing with a serious bout with depression - there was a void in my life, something was missing.

I can't quite remember what planted the seed in my head, but I found myself purchasing a couple books off of Amazon on the subject of 2012 and the psychedelic substance DMT. This was the beginning of my decent down the rabbit hole. I was introduced to an array of new ideas which I found extremely interesting - especially those ideas revolving around the subject of consciousness studies.

Within a year I found myself practicing meditation, keeping a dream journal and devouring all sorts of metaphysical books - everything from shamanism and entheogens, to Eastern mysticism, to quantum physics. All of this was coupled with what I considered to be genuine spiritual experiences and synchronicity. Suddenly my previous paradigm as a cynical atheist was being thrown out the window. A magic which had been barren since I was a child was reentering my life. 

One subject, above the rest, truly captured my excitement; that of out-of-body experiences and lucid dreaming. When I came across my first book on "astral projection," Adventures Beyond the Body by William Buhlman, I couldn't believe what I was reading. "Could people truly have these experiences? Why doesn't everyone know about this?" I thought to myself. I was determined to find out for myself.

Within a week of trying a few of the exercises presented in Buhlman's book I found myself laying in bed in an altered state of consciousness with these intense electrical-like vibrations roaring and buzzing throughout my body accompanied by a loud crackling sound. The experience, often referred to as the "vibrational state," is a known precursor to an out-of-body experience. Ill prepared for the intensity of the experience, it caused me to wake up. I lay in bed, bewildered and excited, unable to process what I had just experienced. Although a fleeting experience, it was subjectively powerful and fueled my determination to see how far I could take this out-of-body stuff. I wanted to test the limits of human experience.

This blog will focus on what I have discovered and give practical advise on how you too can foster these experiences. Anyone can have an out-of-body experience. I will attempt to appeal to a Western audience who, rightly so, is fed up with dogma and other unwarranted beliefs. We deal with dogma everyday, whether it be from our favorite political party, socialite or religious institution.

I've found that these non-physical experiences are a lot about unlearning the conditioning of daily life - the conditioning to think you are merely a physical body. From the day we are born we are conditioned to think in a certain way - all human beings are a product of their culture, there is no exception. Learning to have these non-physical experiences will be an exercise in personal growth. It is part of a greater picture. You will be forced to confront your beliefs and assumptions about reality, which is not always a comfortable process.

As a human being, I still deal with the perils of the ego and fear. I am, most likely like yourself, a work in progress. In a sense, I ask you to join me in a journey of self-discovery. Let us push the limits of human experience and bring magic back into the world.

[Image: The Sun ©Stephanie Pui-Mun Law http://www.shadowscapes.com]