Hello all,

One of the best things about Bruce’s workshop was that he would say at the beginning  “Don’t believe a word I say”, now after every exercise he would ask about the successful attempts and also about the people that got nothing. Now I drove a while so I’m not going to be a shrinking violet here, so he got to hear about mine, but some people genuinely did not get anything.
Only after hearing them that I realized that their input was vital.
One of the people that was brave enough to say (thanks Donna, please email me about the Dolphins)  “Bruce, I heard what you had to say, but I had to fake it”, after a few more questions from Bruce we realized that imagining things that Bruce was requesting us to see was ok. In fact it was encouraged (I think of it as a prime the pump exercise).
This was a pivotal point of the weekend for me.

This point opens up a Pandora’s box, for people (like myself) who have been staring at the backs of their eyelids listening to hemi-sync tapes, for a while).
I know there are more than a few of you out there, because I am/was one of them!
Imagination is the key, it’s like the half way house, the thing you have to use to prime the pump. I made the assumption (always dangerous) that hemi-sync tape would grab you by the scruff of your neck and forcibly take you somewhere.
My hemi-sync sessions are never going to be the same after this I thought to myself, well I say thought to myself, but I’ll post most of that later.

If you get a chance, please go to a workshop, it’s valuable beyond words.
Clive.

Thanks, Clive!

Your explanation of imagination's importance is very helpful !  
The way you describe how imagination sort of slipped into the process before you realized its power is going to click with alot of readers who may have previously belittled imagination.

You, Bruce, and Einstein can't be wrong!  :) :)

Betson

Yes Clive, it's true. This whole priming-the-pump thing is very important. I always think that I create through my imaginations a sensorium, through which I can perceive nonphysically, it's so to say a translation apparatus, data of foreign kind are processed through this imagined "stage" into something more familiar for us physical humans.

Looking back, when you are at TMI they are spary with stories of what is awaiting you in what focus level, but they still tell you something, like "expanded awareness", "no time", or "edge of time and space". This spary suggestions can be interpreted as fodder for the imagination, without being too extensive and so leaving you enough space for your own experiences.

Spooky

Clive,

You are right, the input of those who believe they had a "non-experience" during the exercise is so important.  And it points to one of the really valuable parts of learning these techniques in a group setting of a live workshop.  We can learn and understand so much more when we share our experiences, strenghts, weaknesses, and understandings within a group.

For so many years my own beliefs and expectations caused me to believe I was having non-experiences.  Essentially, staring at the back sides of my eyelids, as you put it, with nothing happening.  I was absolutely certain that if I pretended or fantasized any of my experience, even a tiny bit at the very beginning, whatever might seem to occur within my experience after that would also be fantasy.  It took me way too long to decide that I had nothing to lose by going ahead and pretending, since nothing ever happened anyway.  And then a very strange thing happened.  

Sometimes my fantasizing at the very beginning of a hemi-sync tape exercise (in TMIs Lifeline program for example) began to take on a life of its own.  I would see or hear or otherwise experience things that were happening so fast I couldn't believe how great a fantasizer I was.  I seemed to be fantasizing these completely coherent retrieval stories, and reacting to them within appropriate emotional responses for the context of the experiences.  I was still convinced that these were just useless fantasies, but at least someting was happening!  Then something really freaky started happening.  Some of the detailed information obtained from dead people I never knew when they were physically living turned out to be verifiably real.  That really got my attention!

And so I really encourage people to give themselves permission to pretend, fantasize, make it up, or that old standby, fake-it-til-you-make-it.  I do that because I know that as a method of gathering verifiable information from the deceased, it works!  And, that verification automatically opens and clarifies perseption.

I am happy to see that you have posted about your experiences Clive.  I think that sharing with a larger group can be of benefit to all and I appreciate your willingness to let others into your experience and understanding.

Thanks again, Clive

Bruce

Bruce,

You know me, I come from this kind of backwards.  I have had many nonphysical experiences that I never understood what they were, what they meant, how they happened, or if they were real, until I learned about what you teach and then it all made sense to me.  When I say "backwards", I mean that here I was already having experiences, I just didn't know how to make them happen.  It seemed they were just happening to me without my doing anything to make them happen.  Most of them came with so much verification that I never thought that seeking verification was very important.  I just took it for granted.

So it may sound kind of strange, but I am still learning how to make experiences happen, that is to say how to put myself into the right place for these experiences.  I am so conditioned to just waiting for something to happen, that I tend to be stuck in a rut thinking, "great, nothing's going on".  

I know for a fact how important it is to pretend and "fake it" as you say, because all my child hood I was such a day dreamer, always making up scenarios in my mind, it was no wonder that I was able to allow so much nonphysical and psychic stuff into my awareness.  As an adult, I don't have the same inclination, nor time, to do that much daydreaming and fantasizing as I did as a kid.  

I would like to add that I think it's the frame of mind and level of relaxation that pretending and daydreaming put you in that makes things suitable for allowing nonphysical experiences into your awareness.  The content of that daydream or pretending, then, becomes the focus of your intention--isn't that pretty much what the idea is?  

So, even though I know and understand all this, why do I STILL find it hard to get past that blockage?  Why is it still hard for me to allow myself to let go and pretend and put myself into that frame of mind?  How do I get past that feeling of "I'm just waiting, I want to be doing" ?

Bruce Moen wrote on Dec 2^nd, 2008 at 6:28pm:

And so I really encourage people to give themselves permission to pretend, fantasize, make it up, or that old standby, fake-it-til-you-make-it.  I do that because I know that as a method of gathering verifiable information from the deceased, it works!  And, that verification automatically opens and clarifies perseption.

Hmmm....  :o
One's imagination or fantasy may work just like a trigger to begin perception of the ... "other side". Or even a portal (shortcut if you will) to it.
That DOES make sense. Yep, I like it. I buy it... :)

Thanks a lot  :) :) :)

Vicky,


Vicky wrote on Dec 3^rd, 2008 at 12:36am:

So, even though I know and understand all this, why do I STILL find it hard to get past that blockage?  Why is it still hard for me to allow myself to let go and pretend and put myself into that frame of mind?  How do I get past that feeling of "I'm just waiting, I want to be doing" ?

I sometimes still ask myself those same questions.  Sometimes I feel doubt about the level of my own abilities.  And as a result trusting in using the process I developed that will be put to the test in the effort.  For me the blockage in those times are about my feelings of doubt about my ability to get it right, to be 100% accurate.  The way that blockage operates is by preventing me from taking the risk by failing to make the attempt.

Getting past that feeling of "I'm just waiting, I want to be doing" ? is easy.  As easy as jumping into a cold water swimming pool.  You just decide to jump, go to the pool, and jump in without hesitation.  Same way to get past the waiting to the doing, as the Great Yoda (Star Wars) would say, "Try not, do or do not."  Or as Nike would say, "just do it."

For me that meant doing visits with deceased folks on request of a physically living person.  It meant having a reason to want to explore beyond the limitations of my beliefs and doing it.

And yes, it is putting your focus of attention into the daydream if you are a daydreamer.  Just start daydreaming about a fantasyland place, some other area of conscious that interests you.  For me it was the Afterlife but it could be any area of consciousness, including emotions, beliefs, ETs, etc.  Then just daydream it into being.  When something unexpected happens, play along to see where it leads you.

It will be interesting to hear what happens.

Bruce