Interesting article from Robert Bruce's Blog:

During altered state sessions, it is common to have brief visions. When ‘allowed’ to manifest, these are not vague things, but have full color. They can contain sound. They can be metaphorical, precognitive, or depict real life and real time events, etc.  This is clairvoyance…a visual psychic ability.

But it is common for such visions to be short lived…lasting only a few moments before you lose hold of it, before some invisible force shuts them out, like turning off a TV. It might just start building up, you start to see it…wow….and then it goes away.

Its almost like an invisible parent reaches out and shuts it off..saying…that’s not suitable for your viewing… And this is basically what is happening.

What I am about to say is incredibly important to anyone wanting to develop OBE or psychic abilities.
These visions appear in your mind because you are nudging the envelope through the altered state and energy work sessions.

Psychic abilities are peeking through your perceptual filters.

The moment they appear, and your higher self notices, it shuts them down according to your default settings.

Higher self filters out subtle senses and abilities, including OBE, by default, to keep us grounded here in the physical. Barring natural ability or faulty filters, this is the norm.

Here’s what I want you to do.

The next time you have a vision, closely observe your body with body awareness.

You will feel a subtle movement of energy through your stomach and chest, and in your head minds eye space.

You will feel a big part of your self cutting off the vision, pushing it away.

This is a direct movement and action by your higher self.

This feels like you are doing this yourself. But why….when you would love to have the visions and etc?
The only way around this is to ‘allow’ the ability.

All of us have perfect natural strong psychic abilities already. But these are not allowed by our default settings.

So, how do we change the default settings?

With intention.

And the best way to approach this is through verbal and silent affirmations.

We need to get through to higher self that we want these abilities, and OBEs. We need to express that we love these things and that we are okay with allowing them.

Every day, many times a day even, say out loud ‘I am clairvoyant’ ‘I see energy’ ‘I have visions’ ‘I love my visions’ ‘I see into the astral dimension’ ‘I see spirits’ ‘I see the greater reality’ ‘I have perfect psychic abilities’

and etc.

This works.

In time, as long as it takes, short or long, you will notice a weakening of the higher self hand that shuts these things out, a hesitancy. The visions will begin lasting longer and appearing more often.

Having visions is quite confronting, you will find. And this confrontation mirrors the feelings of your higher self. You will have mixed feelings, often tinged by fear of the unknown and etc.

Continue ‘allowing’ this and visions and etc will stop and start and stutter, but progressively grow stronger and more reliable.

Robert Bruce

This is good stuff. I go through this everyday. I try to expand my conscious mind during the day in prep for the journeys. But I go through these things all the time but they are getting less and less. Thank you for the post dude.

Quote:
   "The next time you have a vision, closely observe your body with body awareness.
   You will feel a subtle movement of energy through your stomach and chest, and in your head minds eye space.
   You will feel a big part of your self cutting off the vision, pushing it away."

Yes, it's like a little shock running through my body, making me phase out of the vision.

Spooky

Thanks for these instructions, Dude. I will try using some affirmations to allow more opening of my own perspectives. I can see that I am not using inner suggestion properly in this area, at least, not with the consistency needed for better results.

Ok, now talk about freaky, this is just what happened to me this morning.  I had woken up, and then relaxed into meditation (which is a great way to get into the focus 10 state without being too tired to maintain intent).  And then, I had an experience somewhere between OOB and a lucid astra state.  There was a long rectancular window in front of me, but I was looking out of another window, one that wasn't in the room (but was).  I saw plants, with exotic leaves and flowers growing, and morphing into the most beautiful living things.  The scene changed almost like a slide show, so that another bright, brilliant living exotic plant would take its place about every 10 seconds or so. 

I became aware that this was an altered state, and I was totally lucid at the time.  I was immersed in the mind fully awake/body asleep phase.  I don't recall seeing my astral body though.  I said to myself that I should maintain this window, and watch it develop.  It was sort of as if i said: "great, this is the state I always wanted.  Totally lucid, so now I will use the power of intent/will to delve deeper into the astral." 
However, within a few minutes, despite my best efforts, I phased back into the reality we all know and the window closed.

This happened by chance and then I saw this thread.  My conclusion is that while the altered state is happening, wanting it to continue is not enough.  It wasn't a matter of losing concentration.  It lasted as long as it lasted. 

I believe that R. Bruce may be onto something.  B. Moen on this site has said the same sort of thing.  That we have to set intent to lose our unwanted blocks, hindrances and belief systems.  Perhaps as we are relaxed before sleep, or even throughout the day. 

My only question is whether higher self is blocking us like a parent would a child.  I don't feel this for myself.  Rather, it is a block we in the earth-life-system willingly embrace by being incarnate.  I think our higher self can help us accomplish the removal of blockages when we are truly ready. 

Matthew

Amazing experience, Matt. Really. I am still picturing how beautiful the window was/is. Unforgettable, to see such a thing.

As I was thinking about this experience of yours, so pleasantly, I wondered about the affirmations OutofBodyDude quoted. I notice that they are centered around personal experience, using the word "I" in every affirmation.

Although I can see how this works well, I begin to wonder if the affirmations can be altered for a group purpose. What I mean is, if everyone who chose to explore a specific locale with each other, as a group -- or if they left it open-ended -- but the affirmation itself was explored for differing results, how would that work?

I'm just wondering if a group exploration could be affected positively by the group using the same affirmations together surrounding the time period of the group 'event'. Just curious.

This would require less use of the word "I" and more 'group-speak' in the affirmations. That might be a 'spooky' thought for some people, but I don't know why it wouldn't work if there is enough trust among the group members.

For instance, group energy from this forum could be focused purposefully around Bruce's workshop next weekend. And/or, a group could get together and use affirmations as one 'common to all' exploring tool to help the group focus together for another location.

It could look something like this, taking OutofBodyDude's example for an illustration:

We are clairvoyant
We see energy
We have visions
We love our visions
We see into the astral dimensions
We see spirits
We see the greater reality
We have perfect psychic abilities

:)

Matthew

I don't feel the higher self is acting as a protecting parent figure.  Rather, its purpose is to serve our conscious intents and beliefs.  As most are programmed to be focused in only C1, any experience contrary to this will be against these intents and beliefs, and the higher self will shut the experience down.  So when we change our intents and beliefs, higher self now has a new system to follow in regards to manifesting our reality, and will adjust accordingly.

Cool experience by the way!  When I enter an altered state such as this, I usually jump right into the scene and begin to explore.  It seems to happen naturally, rather than because of intent.  Perhaps its a matter of beliefs.  Do you truly believe you are able to consciously explore other dimensions OBE/phasing style?

B2, what you have suggested is the basis of ancient magic and in fact pagan rituals and the witches coven.  The fact is that when human intent is combined in the focus 10-15 states, it does tend to change probabilities in the physical world, and things happen.

However, when people work together for a common goal, say a healing, or accomplishing something, the effects can be most powerful.  This was demonstrated scientifically by the now defunct P.E.A.R. center at Princeton University.  This center's purpose was to study the effect of human consciousness on random number generating systems.  Imagine an isolated system that would flip a coin heads or tails.  Odds are that 50% of the time it will land on heads.  Use a computer to "flip" the coin billions of times.  There is a calculated variance that would be expected by chance that would vary from 50%. 

What the P.E.A.R. researchers found was that when people were asked to sit near the isolated random number generating machines and change the outcome, something happened.  There were small statistically significant differences in the number of "heads" and "tails," that couldn't be explained away by chance alone.   This was published in a peer reviewed scientific journal. 

However, what was even more interesting was that the effect was more profound if couples or groups of people concentrated on changing the outcome of the random number.  Husbands and wives had powerful effects, when they worked together much more than any individual person.  Some people changed the probabilities in the wrong direction (if they were told to make the coin toss a "heads," there were statistically more "tails" than expected). 

Christian healing groups make use of this combined intent in performing distant healings. 

I think the same may be true of a group retrieval, or setting group intent.  I've often thought that group intent may multiply the effects of nature, such as when tens of millions are waiting for a hurricane to strike the coast and watching the radar/TV reports.  I wonder whether that doesn't make the strength of the storm worse. 

So, I believe from evidence of both ancient sources (magic, covens, etc.) and modern ones like the P.E.A.R. lab, that group intent manifests more powerfully.

Matthew

I disagree with the Robert Bruce statement that our higher self is responsible for shutting things down.  He's got it backwards.  Our higher self is the thing that is giving us the information in the first place.

WE are shutting down the connection.  Our conscious waking mind is doing the shutting down, unbeknownst to us.

Hi Peeps,

Been lurking a while, and learned some things.  I thought I would join the discussion.  This idea of R Bruce's is interesting.  My previous understanding has been that this type of interference results primarily from an inability to focus well, easily my own worst shortcoming, I confess.  I get brief snatches of all sorts of stuff, almost like watching the old broadcast TV during a solar storm.But maybe the two separate notions are two views of the same thing happening~   Are there any shortcuts to a clear sustained focus?  :)

Montana

Vicky

It's true, WE are shutting down these experiences, due to our limiting beliefs.  However, it is through our higher self which these beliefs flow and form our reality. 

The reason why the HS shuts out the experience is because it goes against our programming- the HS is ultimately responsible for all of our perceptions, and these perceptions are dictated by our beliefs.  So the HS brings whatever perceptions into our consciousness which agree with us.  The HS knows if we are not ready to percieve something, and will end any given perception accordingly. 

We begin to percieve a vision, and we would love to continue having it, but beliefs contrary to this type of experience are deeply embedded into our subconscious, into our higher self's programming, that it is shut down, seemingly against our will.  Why can't I continue with the vision?  Why is it abruptly ended?  Like I said, our subconscious is programmed against it from an early age, and it is through our HS which this programming is manifested in our perceptions.  I believe this is what RBruce is talking about.  But it's all connected and interrelated.

I was just thinking of an analogy.

   When we are born to this world, we are given a path to follow. If we get sidetracked, we are guided back into the right direction by our family and friends. Our higher self is waiting for us to arrive at the end of the path, when our mission on this world comes to an end.

   Perhaps by going out of body, we are actually flying above the path to greet our higher self and see what's in front of us. The vision may be cloudy or clear, but we see something other then what we normally would see while just walking the path.

Ralph

Great Thread Dude! I believe our HS wants us to grow as fast as possible so once we open the door we get what we need and don't get what we don't. Some of my best meditations have not included any OBE type stuff but just major information that I could verify if it were important to me. Campbell's psi uncertainty principle is at work no matter how we believe or perceive. You get what you need when you need it. Asking is good way to get it consciously, however.

From what I've read from NDEs, it seems that the person who "dies" and comes back, often feels that the higher self or light beings were observing, without exercising restraint, whatsoever.

The subconscious mind does seem to manifest our deepest beliefs in the physical world (See Afformation thread by Dude).  Thus, I conclude the limiting beliefs are ours, apart from a higher self model.  We can appeal to a higher self (or God) to remove a limiting belief.  We can affirm that it is gone, and see what happens.  But for me, I don't feel that a higher level of being limits my psychic/astral abilities based on what is best for me. 

M

The way I see it, the higher self carries out all of our subconscious manifestations.  So if an experience is closed out against the conscious mind's will due to subconscious beliefs, then it must be said that this blockage is a part of the subconscious/higher self's process.  Ya dig?

Not to prolong the point, but just to give my two cents worth, here, I see the subconscious mind as a template capable of changing reality at the command of the conscious mind.  But not just the conscious mind; only the deep-rooted beliefs in our conscious mind sink down into the subconscious and imprint on this template.   The net result is a change in probabilities and outcomes in the physical world. 

Is the "higher self" synonymous with the subconscious mind?  - I'm not sure, but I don't think so.  In my experience the subconscious acts as a connection between us, and God.  A passive one, with near limitless potential that does not act on its own, but is acted upon by conscious belief. 

I have not decided for myself what higher self is, whether it is a discreet separate entity (disc, etc.) or simply an angelic connection to God.  I don't like to focus on discs or higher selves because I feel it is akin to breaking down God, and subcategorizing a part of us into higher self going to God, which both complicates cosmology, and in some ways is a form of idolatry (hate to say it, but there it is).  If God is one as in the most basic and holy Jewish prayer, the shema ("Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one,") then I don't think that concentrating on higher self as a unique entity is anything but a diversion from our direct trip to the divine.  (I know some may disagree). 

Matthew

Matthew

I don't believe the higher self is synonymous with the subconscious mind either.  Rather, I believe the subconscious mind is the gateway to the higher self.  It is our connection to our higher self.  You say it's a connection to God, and I say that there is really no difference between God and the Higher Self in this case, for both are the source of our conscious minds, as God/AllThatIs flows through our higher self and into us, our Higher Self creating us as individual beings from it's own consciousness, and God essentially creating both our Higher Self and us. 

I don't really understand your dislike of the breakdown and categorization of God- this is simply the nature of reality.  All consciousnesses are God in smaller form- All consciousnesses are made of the very same "God stuff" that God/AllThatIs itself is made of.  Everything is an extension of AllThatIs, and as all consciousnesses have the ability to create, and what they use to create is the very consciousness which they are and a part of, then their creations(for example, our higher self's creation of us, and whatever consciousness our higher self was created from) are subdivisions by nature. 

Modern day science has proven that all matter in our universe is actually all one energy in its most basic state.  This is the nature of God.  But we still have many subdivisions of this basic energy- atoms, cells, humans, planets, solarsystems, ect... Just as in nonphysical reality we have subdivisions of an even finer energy, in the form of higher selves and such.  Each subdivision has its own level of consciousness, which is part of an even higher level of awareness from which it comes from.  Like it or not, this is simply the nature of reality.  It's all in how you view it.  It can be viewed from an enlightening, empowering, positive perspective just as it can be viewed from your perspective.

What if the higher self IS the means to obtain true unity with the divine?  After all, our higher self is our conscious mind's source.  Perhaps when one experiences this divine unity in the physical, they are actually experiencing unity with their higher self.  Not saying this is definitely the case, but it is a possibility, and a good one the way I see it. 

See, Dude,

I disagree in one important idea to the need for subcategorizations of God (although I recognize that reports from explorers describe different societies and hierchies of angels, soul groups, etc.)  And that is, many many sources tell us that the spiritual quest and our direction is based on love.

I guess that I have no real problem with someone praying or asking guidance from higher self instead of God, as long as they realize that the ideals of PUL are simple, basic and in fact the essence of spirituality.  Otherwise, some may feel that higher self has a path for us based on its higher divine nature, and that we should follow HS, regardless of right action associated with PUL.   

I will concede that we all have different needs vis a vis receiving guidance.

Matthew

Of course, this whole discussion is only based on theory to the extent that we lack the experiential knowledge of the reality of our Higher Selves.  I know from experience that I am a part of a consciousness much greater than my own, a consciousness almost impossible to describe in words, and when I merged with this greater portion of my total being I experienced what I can only describe as divine bliss, a direct connection to the most intense love and compassion that I could have ever imagined.  This seems to go against your idea that the Higher Self is just a diversion from the divine, as I experienced the divine through my Higher Self.  Hey, give it a try sometime, see for yourself.   ;)

Love seems to be the nature of our Higher Self.  There are far more people worshiping some version of "God" whose actions are misaligned with love than there are those "worshiping" the Higher Self.  I would think that if they are aware of the concept of the higher self, they are also aware of the concept of PUL being the vital life force which drives our being, as these concepts are part of the same paradigm.  If one is truly following HS, then they are following love.

This is so great listening to you guys talk about HS and God and Love and all that good stuff. I feel that whether you call it HS or God, it's all the same thing. It's the love connection that matters in the end. I have also felt the greatest bliss/love/awareness ever while in the meditative state, speaking/hearing/feeling what truly matters there, consistently. It is the best counselor of all counselors, to listen to that voice which is more than a voice.

To each his own, Dude.  If one needs a disc, higher self to look toward, on their own path, its fine by me.  It is a diversion when one cedes free will to guidance instead of following their own knowledge of what actions are love based or not.  I wouldn't assume that all people who look to HS, or guides, etc. have the same discernment. 

But, like I said to each his own.  When some people pass over, they have a stay in Focus 27, and go over their life review in detail.  For them, it is necessary to move on.  Others bypass all that, and go straight to their place in the heavens.  There are many paths through love to explore.

Matthew

My man.

I love the content of this thread but mostly I like the tone of it. Very cool stuff.