#88 - OOBE + LD

I remember the time, when I traveled to Croatia, to the village - Smijan, where Nicola Tesla was born. It was very interesting to hear about his ‘channeling’ experiences - the way he received the knowledge.

He was a very practical person - an engineer and scientist, so he was able to materialize those things into the physical world. I remember it like it was yesterday; there was a movie, which was describing the whole process of insight. It was stunning as it was very similar to the out of body experiences (OOBE).

That made me think, even more about how limitless we are as human beings, and that actually everything is possible when we are able to perceive beyond the current limitations.

Traveling to different places, galaxies, and dimensions without moving physically. Communicating with somebody from the past. Building complicated 3D constructs, where you actually experience them. You can meet your inner guidance "in person."

Possibilities are truly only limited by our imagination.

For me, it was liberating to face my subconscious fears "in person" and realize that they actually cannot do any harm to me if I will not let them.

"just one minute of meditation in a lucid dream is the equivalent of a 30-day retreat.”

Another interesting experience I had was when I meditated inside my lucid dream (LD). That was one of the deepest states I got into while being fully conscious of being.

There are even some Buddhist traditions that practice "Dream Yoga" (I believe there is a different, proper way to call it).

I won't talk more about my own experiences as they won't bring too much transformation to your own life. Dare to try it yourself.

Hope the lack of proper researches about different states won't discourage you. This is actually possible and it exists. Evidence is by the people who experience those phenomena, and interesting similarities when it comes to the processes preceding them.

Time has come for you. You have created strong roots and you have grown a lot internally. You are ready to practice OOBE and LD safely with great benefits for you. Wonder what practical appliances you will find for yourself. That's another step deeper into the nature of being.

Before you start, master the spoon exercise - that will help you to maintain awareness so you won't fall asleep. Additionally, make sure you are not mentally or physically exhausted.

Benefits of LD:

• Less anxiety. During LD you are physically safe, as your body is resting. You can invite unpleasant experiences from your life and use this state as therapy. The same goes for people who experience recurring nightmares, you are the indestructible being who can deal with any mental difficulty.

• Improved problem-solving and creativity. You gain access to a much wider information pool. That can help you to solve the problem in your dream and try to apply it in the physical world.

• Gain a deeper connection with your subconscious mind.

• Might help to treat phobias. You can summon your deepest fears and consciously work with them.

• (Potentially) Improve motor skills. Practicing physical activity in the dream can benefit rehabilitation and boost practiced skills.

• Increase awareness in everyday life. You will be able to see and feel more. It can open new depth for you.

Dangers of LD:

• Might decrease sleep quality.

• Disconnect from the "real" world. That's why you are introduced to this process in the last month of our journey. It is crucial to create a strong feeling of being rotted.

• Sleep paralysis. You might experience this potentially unpleasant state of mind. However, with great self-consciousness you can slip into OOBE. I can't call it a real "danger".

• You might get scared. It can happen that you will get stuck in the dreams. You will awake, but still be in the dream, in multiple long loops. Remember, you are always safe and you will wake up.

• (Big question) I would be careful, for all of the people with serious mental health problems.

Benefits of OOBE:

• Experiences expanding consciousness. You will be able to communicate with other beings as well as with the parts of your own being, and higher consciousness. You will be able to find an answer to vital questions.

• It prepares you to trust the higher power, and not be afraid of death.

• You will be able to discover more about yourself.

• It's another step on the spiritual journey. You dive deeper into a multidimensional experience.

Dangers of OOBE:

• You might get scared. There are different experiences that are waiting for you. Some of them might be unpleasant. Remember, you are always safe, and until your body is alive you will come back to it no matter what.

You can meet as I call it "Guardians", usually not looking friendly beings, which guard "gates" to go deeper into the experience. One of the ways which can help you to deal with them is to hug them as close, as deep as possible. Filling their energy with Love and Understanding.

Those two different interesting phenomenas are both worth practicing. Based on my experience, I can say - they are not the same states. As a similarity - both occur when the body is sleeping and the mind is awake.

There are plenty of different theories on both of the topics. On what it is, what is not. To be honest, it really doesn't matter. However, if you want to fill yourself with intellectual ideas you can read interesting books from Robert Monroe and Robert Bruce. If you decide to read, practice along with it for the best results.

I encourage you to focus on the personal experience and discover things by yourself, instead of filling your mind with preexisting ideas.

Simply:

• Lucid Dreaming - is when you are conscious while dreaming.

• Out-of-body Experience (exteriorisation) - a phenomenon in which a person perceives from a location outside of the physical body.

You will understand the vivid difference once you will experience them. In most cases, separation from the body is preceded by strong vibrations. Whereas LD doesn't include this experience.

And remember, everyone is capable to re-discover this ability.

I would suggest you start your journey with Lucid Dreaming. It will help you get used to different perceptions, and if you master LD, it should be easy for you to switch to OOBE. If it will happen, that you will get spontaneous OOBE to be open for experience.

Use introduced techniques, learn to trust higher consciousness and you will experience wonderful journeys.

Sleep paralysis also occurs outside of LD/OOBE experiments. It had been given a generally negative outlook.

Experience is interesting:

• partial awareness;

• inability to move;

• inability to speak;

• multi-sense hallucinations (vibrations, sounds, images);

Often linked to folklore night terrors. Americans call it Old Hag, Japanese - Kanashibari, Turkish - Karabasan, in old French, it was called Cauquemare, Polish - Dusiołek.

"Apart from purposeful practice, this "condition" can be triggered by sleep deprivation, psychological stress, or abnormal sleep cycles. The underlying mechanism is believed to involve a dysfunction in REM sleep."

If that will happen to you, the best thing is to rationalize what is happening.

You are completely safe. This experience will eventually finish. It lasts only a couple of minutes or seconds, anyway.

If you practice OOBE be thankful for it, as sleep paralysis is something you aim for. Many techniques use this phenomenon in order to go beyond the body. If you do it with an understanding there won't be any stress or fear during the episode.

Before you will start any of the techniques, purchase a nice thick notebook, or if you want to share it with others consider public OOBE/LD Journaling on MySpiritWay online forum. For some, pen and paper work best, while others prefer the online version.

For every unconscious dream, LD, or OOBE write down all your experiences using as many details as possible.

That sends an important message to your mind, that those experiences are important for you, and this on its own can increase the number of spontaneous occurrences.

Another key benefit is that it helps to develop a special type of memory. Often after a dream, we simply don't remember after few moments what it was about. It's especially crucial when you decide to travel "very far away", it's much harder to remember all the experiences which happen.

After every experience, highlight all of the important (for you) signs, marks, and reoccurring symbols. They will help you to test the reality and they carry special meaning once you will decipher them.

How to journal:

• Use an auto-suggestion before you fall asleep or experience “When I wake up, I will remember every small detail."

• Once you come back, don’t move. Keep your eyes closed.

• Remind yourself of the whole experience. Every small detail matters.

• Very slowly open your eyes.

• Start scribbling.

• Each experience mark with the color of choice, to be able easily to distinguish the type of experience OOBE/LD/DREAM.

• After some time, look for reoccurring details, highlight them. You can use it later as a bridge to get back into those states.

Important to notice.

Don't ask others for an explanation of your personal experiences meaning. Looking for answers also in some dream books, it's not an accurate interpretation. There are obviously some culturally coded ones, that's why we can find f.ex. Indian, Arabic, and other dream books. They might have some more "accurate" answers if you have deeply engaged in a certain culture, and have been surrounded since early childhood with their traditional way of living. Look for the answers yourself, within you. Anyway, in most cases, we look only for outside confirmation of something we already know. Everybody has different symbols associated with different meanings.

There are plenty of techniques that are effective for some and less for others. It's important to choose one and stick to regular everyday attempts at least for 3 weeks up to 1 month.

Intention.

Before trying any of the introduced techniques. Make sure you really want it.

Find this feeling of inner agreement within. That will unlock the possibility of experience, and it can reduce discomfort. You can use the affirmation "I am ready to be guided" or any other affirmation of your choice.

OOBE/LD (Most effective, at least for me)

Wake-back-to-bed (WBTB) 4+1:

• Go to sleep according to your fixed schedule.

• Set an alarm, so it wakes you up in 4 hours.

• Once you wake up, get out of bed (it's important) and keep yourself busy for about an hour. You can do some dynamic exercises. Some people prefer to drink a cup of tea.

• This is a great time to inspire yourself - read about LD/OOBE. That will help you direct your subconscious mind on summoning the experience.

• After 60 minutes, come back to bed and lay down on your back. You can try to sleep somewhere different than where you usually sleep or change the way how your sleep; a lighter blanket, different body position will make you more alert.

• Allow yourself to fall back asleep - if you do it right, you are very likely to enter sleep paralysis within 30-50 minutes. This is the perfect state to try one of the techniques below.

(alteration)

Record a voice message for yourself. Voice will remind you not to move and keep your eyes closed.

After 4.5 hours of sleep, you will be woken up by a recorded voice message. As you fall back asleep, another voice message will wake you up and remind you to stay still. After a series of such alarms, your mind will become quite awake and you will reach the state of sleep paralysis. Once in sleep paralysis, it will be very easy to induce astral projection using any of the methods listed here.

Most of the techniques can be connected with WBTB for maximum effectivity.

OOBE/LD:

STARING AT THE DARKNESS:

• Start staring at the dark space behind your eyes.

• Pay attention to the patterns of light that will begin to form in front of you.

• Wait until they transform into recognizable figures and objects, or a feeling of space. As the realism of the observed shapes increases, you will be able to either separate from your body, or enter the observed scene and begin lucid dreaming.

• In this technique like in most of them, you cannot move your physical body, you need to learn obviously to celebrate stillness.

• Alternatively, you can focus on your third eye chakra.

OOBE/LD:

LISTENING:

• Lay down and relax, while trying to hear the sound.

• Concentrate on the sounds in your head. You need to really sharpen your hearing sense. You might hear some sort of noise, buzzing, humming, or voices.

• Keep listening effortlessly, and you should notice the increase in volume and intensity of the sounds.

• This sound might emanate and transform into vibrations of the body.

• When the sounds get really loud, try to separate from your body with a rapid movement. Sometimes, the noise itself is enough to separate from the body.

• Remember you are completely safe, nothing bad will happen to your ears.

OOBE:

YOYO:

• Before you go to sleep, choose a spot in your bedroom. It can be anything that you are well familiar with: bookshelf, closet, door...

• Once you've chosen the spot, take a close look at it. Examine it carefully. Pay attention to what it looks like. Touch it and memorize all the sensations.

• Now, go to sleep.

• As soon as you wake up, shift your awareness to the spot you had chosen earlier. Visualize it as vividly as you can for about 1 second, and return to your usual focal point, and observe the darkness in front of your eyes.

• Keep staring at the darkness for 1 second, and repeat this 2-step visualization over and over again, as if you were a yo-yo moving back and forth.

• This focal point shifting will likely cause vibrations, and eventually will result in full separation from your body.

• Day by day, you can improve this technique, by imagining yourself leaving your body, and walking around the room, you can go outside, use all of your senses. And come back to your body, just by laying down and fitting into your normal body.

OOBE

CLIMBING THE ROPE (popularised by Robert Bruce):

• Imagine that there is a long rope hanging right above you.

• Without opening your eyes or moving your physical body, visualize yourself reaching up towards the rope and start climbing up.

• Try to feel all the sensations that usually accompany climbing a rope. Feel the tension in your arms (not real tension - keep your body relaxed!) and the weight of your body.

• Climbing the rope will cause vibrations and their intensity will increase as you go. Continue to climb faster and faster to speed up the process, until you fully separate and achieve the body experience

OOBE

RUNNING THROUGH THE TUNNEL:

• Visualize a long dark tunnel. You're in it. At the end of the tunnel, there is light.

• Now, imagine yourself flying through the tunnel, as if you were an airplane getting ready to take off.

• You're going faster and faster. Really take your time and engage into the feeling.

• At this point, you can feel vibrations and noises. Ignore them and focus on your visualization.

• As you enter the white light at the end of the tunnel, you will separate from your body and the projection will start.

OOBE/LD

FORCED FALLING ASLEEP:

• The technique is performed in the morning, right after waking from sleep.

• When you wake you, keep your eyes closed and remain motionless.

• Don't concentrate on anything and allow yourself to fall asleep for few seconds. Remember, to actually, not fully let go, so you won't lose your consciousness.

• It tricks your brain, that you are actually going to fall back asleep.

• It can induce sleep paralysis.

• Perform an aggressive, sudden attempt to separate from the body. Pull yourself with your energetic body without moving the physical one.

• Or let the images and sounds intensify and dive deep into LD.

LD (one of the most popular technique)

REALITY CHECK

A reality check is a test you perform to see if you are dreaming or awake. It might seem odd to test reality when you are sure that you are awake. The idea's about creating a habit that might turn into a reality check while dreaming.

• Choose a few reality checks which you will do regularly.

• Perform the reality check multiple times throughout the day. Do it also immediately after waking up, that will help you become lucid in false awakenings.

• Take them seriously, do not assume you are awake (even when you know you are).

• When performing it deeply, ask yourself "Am I dreaming?". Really feel it inside, make this moment important.

• Pick one or two reality signs from below and do them actively.

• If you will find that you are dreaming - perform a reality check in the dream to fully gain control over the dream.

Reminders:

• You can set an alarm clock;

• Set wallpaper to perform a reality check;

• Overlay reality checks during everyday activities;

• Leave colourful sticky notes everywhere;

Write a reminder on the inner side of the palm;

Reality signs:

• Vision - Do you have a perfect vision? This works best for people who have at least slightly blurry vision in the waking world. Alternatively, if you have perfect vision in the waking world, you may have blurred vision in the dream world.

• Hands - Do your hands have a strange colour, too many fingers (sometimes they disappear and reappear when you try to count them!), or other abnormalities? Can you push your finger through your other hand?

• Breathing - Can you breathe with your fingers tightly sealing your nose and your mouth shut?

• Reading - Do sentences change when you read them? Read, turn away and repeat it to yourself, and then turn back and read it again. Do this twice.

• Time - Does your watch or clock tell a reasonable time? Are you even able to read the time of it? Sometimes clocks have the wrong number of hands, or have strange symbols. Try reading the time twice, like the reading, check above. Note: Digital clocks often work better for this reality check.

• Powers - Are you able to fly (just visualize it), unlock doors, or use other magical powers? Try to change the shape of your body, or walk through a wall, window, or mirror.

• Mirrors - Do you look normal in a mirror?

• Light switches - Does a light switch work?

OOBE/LD (might be best for people susceptible to hypnosis and regular meditation practitioners)

AUTOSUGGESTION

• Each night just before you will fall asleep, genuinely believe that you will leave your body, or become aware while dreaming.

• Suggest to yourself that you will experience it that night, or in the near future.

• You can use an affirmation "I will recognize that I'm dreaming", "I will experience out-of-body"

• Instead of forcing and wanting too hard, try to expect to have such an experience.

LD

MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams)

• Fall asleep while focusing with the intention to remember that you are dreaming. Make sure that the last thing you will remember before falling asleep is your intention to recognize that you are dreaming.

• You can repeat the mantra in your mind “Next time I'm dreaming, I will remember that this is a dream”.

• Additionally, you can visualize the dream you had before. Move through the dream in your mind. Imagine that you recognized dream-sign, even if you haven't.

• Repeat this process until you fall asleep.

• It's possible that you will re-enter your previous dream, and recognize that you are dreaming.

LD

WILD (Wake - Initiation of Lucid Dreams)

• Lay down on your back.

• Tense and relax your body, simultaneously adding strong affirmation "I am aware that I am dreaming".

• Alternatively, you can count from 1 up to 100 while repeating in between of each number "I am dreaming".

• Alternatively, you can imagine stepping downstairs and reading each floor number, from 100 to 0. Try to make this image as vivid as possible — include not only what you see, but also what you hear, feel (touch the banister), and smell.

• Keep your consciousness while falling asleep and go straight into a dream.

• Find out when it's easier to induce this technique. Some people suggest early in the morning after waking up, or during afternoon naps.

LD (a technique for people with a regular sleep cycle).

CAT (Cycle Adjustment Technique).

• When you fall asleep on the same night. Randomly try to wake up 90 minutes earlier than you usually do.

• Spend those 90 minutes doing reality checks every 2-5 minutes.

• Combine it with other techniques for maximum results.

LD (for people with good visualization skills).

VILD (Visual Induction of Lucid Dreams) .

• It's best to practice it when you feel sleepy.

• Relax your body. You can use Ujjayi breath or any other relaxation method.

• Perform a repetitive visualization, incubate a dream in which you do reality checks. Pay attention to every single detail in a dream and remind yourself of this feeling of being lucid after a reality check.

• Visualize the dream over and over again. Do it from the first-person perspective. You need to actually be there.

There are many other techniques, but instead of trying them all, stick to one or two introduced above.

Your first experiences might be purely for fun, and that's completely fine. However, I would like to encourage you to focus on inviting more spiritual experiences later on. It's a great way to understand the delusional nature of what we call "reality".

Experience of those phenomena unlocks great depth in one's existence. Leave the expectations and open yourself for inner guidance. Experience it on your own as everyone has an unusual story to reveal.

There are various gadgets, software, and recordings that can help you experience those altered states of consciousness. Special sleeping masks, reality-check reminder apps, binaural beats, supplements, and drugs. You really don't need any add-ons in order to achieve groundbreaking results. Regular practice and a lot of determination are keys to uncovering this layer of being.

Some ideas on what is possible in those alternated states of consciousness:

• You can travel back in time, as well as discover potential future realities.

• You can meet your inner guides and guardians.

• You can make a connection to your past lives and heal karmic wounds.

• You can make a connection with different aspects of your being such as connect with the animal world.

• You can connect with different realms, realities, beings in and beyond the known universe.

• You can shrink yourself and travel within your physical body.

• You can meet your inner unloved, forgotten parts, and heal them.

• You can simply let yourself be guided and lead to experiences best for your growth.

Good luck! Who knows, maybe, we will bump into each other :)