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.
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