Hi Ryan
Yes, training does come into it as well! We are never to young or old to learn anything
Focus is good to concentrate your energies together to go where you would like to go.
Spiritual excercises are important in this regard.
An excercise, that i think is the basis of all the exercises, as it strengthens the Soul within the Spirit is:
Build an moving picture image in your mind. It does not matter what the picture is; the picture is not important; the importance is the building of the picture.
The building of a picture is based on
Feeling.It is no good to look at a picture and say this is my picture. This is not the picture you require.
Your picture is built from the
feeling of your emotions. This picture might take a while to build; it will not be an instantaneous picture; it will evolve with you on a daily basis as your feelings evolve and change according to what you feel, experience, hear, smell, taste and sense.
Although our feelings should be more or less consistent without mood swings etc; our feelings are subjective and we should not be ruled by them.
Except for the Love of Christ ... lol
In your picture it is good to have
symbolism for example;
An Tree (might) represent Life to you.
You see the tree is an Oak tree, picture the tree. You liken the Oak tree to your wisdom. Feel the wood of the trunk it represent your scars and the dents you have
experienced in your life, feel the solidness and the different textures of the wood.
The Oak tree is full of green leaves. See the leaves, feel the leaves.
The leaves represent rebirth to you. Feel the rebirth of nature, liken it to the rebirth of your day or your spiritual rebirth or the rebirth of an old feeling you once had.
See the acorns in the tree. They represent your soul protected by the spirit.
You see the roots of the tree, this represents the stableness of your life. Feel how deep the roots go down into the earth, liken this to your thinking.
The leaves on the tree are blowing in the wind. Feel the wind, feel the leaves and branches swaying, liken this to when you are feeling insecure.
A butterfly lands on the leaf and is not blown off although it is so fragile and the wind is so strong, liken this to a friend.
A man comes and cuts a branch from the tree. Feel the pain and hurt. See the empty space. Feel the sorrow of the tree.
See the branch grow again, feel the joy of rebirth. Liken the new branch to a new chapter in your life.
Feel the Sun shining on the tree. Feel the warmth liken this to your love. Feel the rain, liken this to your tears. See how the rain makes the tree grow.
Ryan, the symbolism of the Tree is the symbolism of your Life. Can you see how a moving picture image is built up based on your life experiences and feelings?
Any picture build may be used, the Tree is a good one to use. And you can see how different it is from just looking at a picture, this picture of yours is You. As said, it does not matter what the picture is build up upon - the tree does not overtake you, the tree is not the focal point. Your empathy with the tree is.
The focal point is the symbolisation of what is happening in your life each day. The picture grows and changes with you.
This exercise is very good for the soul; it is letting the soul express itself and making it become strong in this expression. This picture build is allowing the soul to come to the front of the normal cognective brain processes.
You might have already your picture that you are building before even reading this.
And although not directly related to your experiences of OBE's .. it is an start ...
This trains the spirit to enter higher worlds as its making it strong. This is the training of this exercise.
I'll stop here and hope that i've explained it okay and i look forward to telling me what you think.
The exercise does go further but this picture building is the basis of going further and may take a while before the soul is at the front.
thanks for the opportunity Ryan
Well my OBE's .. lol ... gosh .. another time
Love.