How Do You Control This State?

[panda0920]

This is a question out of pure curiosity towards everyone attempting, doing, and anything else astral projection.

I've read countless techniques and meditations, and I've already long-learned that everyone associates with them differently, but to get to the point: the Monroe techniques.

He mentions something about holding your arm and when you nod off and the first sleep stage/phase sets in, that your arm will jerk and wake you up again and you'll learn how to control that state. Off the top of my head, I can't remember the name of that state, something like hypnotic? But anyways, it's where dreaming begins and the vibrations are really, really strong. By this point I usually get sick from the vibrations. I have bad vertigo and this really sets it off.

But I was wondering, has anyone reached this state to use astral projection regularly? I did not use Monroe techniques, it's something that is coming naturally to me, since my mind is constantly worried about an alarm clock going off, but I realized it's starting to become "control-able."

I'm just curious to know other's view on this state, exercises they've done, etc. All I know, from experience, is it's extremely hard to control without fully waking up and ruining where you're going.

[Benjamin K]

Hypnagogic state. As far as I know you're supposed to have extreme feelings of vertigo. I'm still experimenting with this state as you are, but from what I've experienced so far, the best way is to try and hold one thought and then when you start to drift off and see all sorts of weird mental pictures and think weird thoughts, that's where you want to be. Fortunately for me I was already good at holding this state before I even started trying to astral project about one month ago. That's about all I know as I'm still not very experienced in such matters. I hope my response helped you in some way.

[panda0920]

It has helped.

I know, from asking my guardian angel who I trust very dearly (considering they saved my life) that I will, probably within this new year, astral project and get it down quickly with ease.

Yes, it is extreme vertigo, sickening really.
I'll try holding onto that thought, since I'll probably go for it again tonight or just happens on its own.

[Philemon]

I think it's mostly about focus. Through most of my astral and lucid journeys, I've always gotten "further" when I had more focus. Even waking mindfulness is a matter of focus. And in a very oversensitized culture, focus can be challenging. Developing focus was and is still one of my biggest obstacles to consciousness exploration.

Personally, meditation works best to increase focus, but simply saying "meditation" is too broad. For the sake of astral/lucid focus, I use sensory-based meditations where I create a "scene" of some sort. I have many of these scenes that I can visit fairly easily and elaborate or manipulate them. And like I mentioned, focus is the challenge.

To elaborate on your Monroe reference, many artists, inventors, scientists, and other thinkers alike use the hypnagogic state. If I recall correctly, Benjamin Franklin would sit in his favorite chair holding a pen and a notepad in one hand, and in the other hand he held two brass balls over a large glass bowl as he sketched his inventions.

I've read Monroe's books and explored his techniques. His sync-wave technology is interesting, and I have applied the idea to the songs I compose, but I don't use his techniques. I do think his work brought a lot of validity and insight to OBE's. I also enjoyed his books greatly.

As far as achieving it "regularly." Regularly for me used to be a couple of times a week, very rarely on a daily basis (protecting my sanity ) I'm still a little confused by the state and what it has to offer. I know it's a good mental exercise and a reminder of my non-physical abilities, but what else? Trying to achieve skill at OBE travel definately improved a lot of my other mental and psychic abilities.

Did I help at all? Can I help any more?