Hey everyone!

Just wanted to share a experience and wonder what your views are and if I'm heading in the right direction. I am currently working through Bruce's Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook (haven't got far at all!) but keep going back to earlier exercises and practising on my own.

I got a couple of hours free in the house so unplugged the phone, closed my curtains and layed down on my bed in a comfatable position. I started the 3 deep breath exercises as described in the Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook and felt myself start to relax. My view at this stage (even though I wasn't directly looking anywhere with my eyes) was blackness with a slight hint of light (due to it being day when i tried, and the curtains only hold out so much light). With each deep breath i took my relaxation got slightly deeper untill i reached a point where it leveled off, about breath 3.

From here, still not looking directly anywhere I felt and saw my view change. It got darker, a normal black you would expect to see when you close your eyes, no hints of light at all. A good sign I decided! I also felt the feeling of my view change, I don't know quite how to explain this but here goes. Imagine lying down and closing your eyes and the spot you normally see is naturally rested just out in front of you. When it got darker it also felt like my view turned upwards so now i'm looking above the natural rest spot, but of course its natural to look there now. I also felt my perception change in that not only looking upwards i was looking out of my head from just above my eyes (the crown chakra?).

The blackness didn't really have any 3D qualitys to it but it was there slightly. Once here you know when you close your eyes and get the swirlling lights? you see, say you looked at the sun and then closed your eyes you would see a sun spot. Well i had these alot duller in the form of the top half of bodies, there were maybe 3 circling around my vision looking down at me. I wondered if this was imagination or something else so asked them to show me who they were, soon after I had blackness again and they were gone. So i took a few more deep breaths and carried on.

Just something I wanted to quickly point out all the time I was doing this I had a feeling of my physical body. Although when I was concentrating on the bodies for example I lost track of it, awareness taken up elsewhere i geuss. Is this normal still having some awareness of your physical body in the blackness? Whatever and whereever this blackness is? When I OBE all awareness of my body is gone untill i return.

I asked to meet a guide in which I got nothing. I also asked to take part in a retrival and waiting in the blackness for something to appear. I can't remember seeing anything.

The last thing I saw was a room, it looked like my lounge from a different viewpoint. The image was faded and very small, quite far off in the blackness. I could only make it out as a room and recognize it as my lounge due to the corners of the couch i could see and the small bit of the unit inbetween the couches i could see matched as well, plus my feeling was it was. I focused on the image and instead of it getting larger it started to back away and then fade out! I was gutted!

Is this sounding right? After that I must of fell asleep, I just remembering waking up 10 minutes before I had set my alarm to wake me up. Thats quite weird actually, I set my alarm for 4pm to wake up giving me just under a couple of hours to try. My sister gets home from school about 3:55pm and I though to myself before I layed down maybe I should get up at 3:50pm instead so I'm awake before she gets home. And I woke up at 3:50pm very suddenly!

As I write this I just had a thought pop into my head... if it was my lounge, could it be to do with the retrival that I had asked before? I can't remember associating the two during the time as it wasn't ask to participate in a retrival and see the image just like that. But earlier this year for some reason I had a lack of doubt and felt really open which I can't explain and for a couple of times could feel a presence. One of these presences was in my lounge one night, it was the strongest presence I have felt, i could see where it went and when it sat down, and when it went. I'm pretty sure this wasn't made up as I was just watching, and when it was gone I couldn't make it come back! It was gone! I couldnt communicate with it and after a couple of attempts of closing my eyes and trying to see and communicate again I had no luck so haven't a clue who it was. Could it be to do with that?

Well hope that makes sense and sorry for going on quite a bit, didn't quite relise how long!

Cheers

Ryan

Hi Ryan, some comments:

>>>not only looking upwards i was looking out of my head from just above my eyes (the crown chakra?).<<<
I know this too, the third eye chakra is supposed to be there.

>>>you know when you close your eyes and get the swirlling lights?<<<
When I close my eyes and stay focused on the physical input of my eyes, I get these swirling lights too, first there are retina pictures (from what you've seen recently before closing your eyes), then clouds, sparks, waves, and then more geometrical patterns. But I move somehow my awareness away from this, looking more with, I guess, what you meant with looking from a spot above your eyes, well, let's call it the mind's eye. I have experienced that when I keep focused on seeing physically it happened that after a while I saw a scenes, landscapes, as if in a very vivid dream, almost like physical reality. But this happened very rarely and it's difficult to keep these visuals stable for a longer time. But it's interesting.

>>>Is this normal still having some awareness of your physical body in the blackness? Whatever and whereever this blackness is? When I OBE all awareness of my body is gone untill i return.<<<
Same thing with me. I guess most of the people who use Bruce's method remain conscious of their bodies, that's why they're surprised in the first time how subtle and gentle it is. An OBE is compared to that a mind-blower. Monroe managed it to OBE and go to different certain levels at the same time, which is (for me) indicated in the notes he made about his going back to the physical, when he wrote that he felt "something" or "a body signal" which shows that he wasn't aware of his body in his travels. But he's an exception I guess.

>>>quite far off in the blackness. I could only make it out as a room and recognize it as my lounge due to the corners of the couch i could see and the small bit of the unit inbetween the couches i could see matched as well, plus my feeling was it was.<<<
That reminds me of a typical thing I have in my mind journeys. Often there are foggy and faded unsharp visuals, but then I have an idea what it is, or a knowing. Then the quality of the visual is nearly unimportant, because "I know" what it is. It's like telling a story of your life. You know what you're talking about even when you not have vivid visuals on your mind. This of course is also a source of doubt, because it may feel you're making it up. Bruce addresses these things in this book as far as I remember.

>>>I just remembering waking up 10 minutes before I had set my alarm to wake me up<<<
Hee hee, Ryan it really works, I know that. I had that several times. I even managed it to wake up from deep sleep 1 minute before the alarm setting.

Well Ryan, I think you're doing well! It's very good you wrote about it detailed. I'm sure there's people that are helped by reading this, and I too am interested in this, makes me think of some things, where I should work on or explore.

Alanna, you wrote:
>>>it seems like inducing these states would be easy if you can induce an obe<<<
it seems to be that this is not a general rule. An OBE (to feel separated from your physical body, having another one in a quasi-physical surrounding, with the certainty that it's real and different from imagination) is a really heavy (though maybe funny) experience, it may open you up for the belief that there's more out there than the physical, so it's a good start to try methods of mind-travel/meditation. What I've seen in my OBEs (only two and a half) and read, they come and go and you don't know when. It's very difficult to induce them, but I've heard also when you're really work hard (well, years and years) you can make it to get some control.
I have a little theory. The types of OBE that are very vivid and physical-alike they take place in a near-physical level. The farther you move away from the physical, the less physical it would look like- more "mindy".

Spooky

Hi all

Alysia thanks for your reply on the other oobe thread - i'll reply here 
Wow the wall experience you had is awesome!  Spooky and Ryan also very interesting.

I felt a presence (Ryan mentions it here) when i couldn't go through the door - it was very strong and direct in its meaning.  But not scary almost like a parent talking to a child (in no uncertain terms!) Further happenings will only tell.

Also, do you think there are different levels of oobe?

My experience seems to be .. my physical body without colouring in - that is solid but shadow looking but solid although light enough to fly as in my first experience.  And also an outside blackness; the forms like trees have this blackness to them although its not pitch black - i think solid shadow might be a term? 

Once before i have seen, while awake, a human shadow form walking in my garden, not quite walking but floating walking.

Another seems to be - Matthew gave a good example - when his brother had a bike accident and was in spirit form watching below - with colour.

PUL

Hey guys!

Thanks for all the replys they have really helped, I've gotten alot from all of them and my thinking is slightly clearer on what I need to do and where to go so thanks again!

One of the main things is knowing now its ok to be aware of my physical body at times whilst exploring in these states, that was a real block for me! I always didnt accept what I saw sometimes because I felt I wasn't relaxed enough or hadn't 'gone out' yet. Now i'm going to be open to whatever comes through and follow what does.

Hey Alysia! Gutted over here is a word used to decribe the feeling of being annoyed and dissapointed but in a happy way. I was gutted because the image faded away so it was like "come back! oh well I lost it again, i'll get it next time though!" I hope that makes sense, i'm not sure really how to explain it!

Thanks for your thoughts on the presence in my lounge, thats thrown in a few ideas I had never even thought of or considered! I'm going to set my intention to make contact and see if I can find out who this presence is.

Thanks again everyone,

Ryan

Hi Alysia, sorry just seen your post now.  lol no, i wasn't frightened - it took a few seconds to register just what i was looking at but i suppose i could say i didn't get a 'bad vibe' so there was no need to worry.  If i did get a 'bad vibe' i still don't think i would have been that frightened.  lol me brave! me born zimbabwe you have to be brave to do that!  joking all in good faith 

chilipepperflea wrote on Sep 30^th, 2006 at 8:13am:


Ryan; nothing personal here on where it should have been posted...
Love to hear/read more about this experience of yours, keep it up and keep us posted.
Way to go Ryan.

With love, Romain