Astral Projection

[Gerard]

Mastering Astral Projection: 90-Day Guide to Out-of-Body Experience by Robert Bruce.

 

Excellent book that shows you various techniques that will help you attain very deep meditative states, typical of people who live solely dedicated to spiritual practice, i.e. monks and hermits.

 

It is basically a college course that requires discipline and time. It is a lot of work but the fruits are well worth the effort.

 

Honestly, you can spend a lifetime dedicated to meditation and get to nowhere if instead of milking the cow in the right area (udder) you are just massasing the horns. This book will help you tap into the astral and understand and see the complexity of the multidimensional universe we are embedded in and which converges in us from all angles and directions. The techniques explained in the book, which also contain recordings of binaural beats in a CD format, will induce a meditative trance (mind awake, body asleep).

 

All you need is to apply yourself for 1 hour a day for 3 months and you are practically guaranteed to have repeated spiritual experiences. This book also provides a down to earth framework to understand your new experiences, which is vital in our spiritual journey.

 

*****

Edited October 19, 2011 by Gerard

[Friend]

Edited November 16, 2011 by Friend

[John Zen]

This book also provides a down to earth framework to understand your new experiences, which is vital in our spiritual journey.

 

Thanks for the reference. I've been able to induce a few (2 or 3) OBEs, and several (~10) Lucid Dreams, since I've begun meditating. But you say it helps you to understand the experience, which is vital on the spiritual journey... My question has always been ... WHY are OBEs/LDs worth the effort? I feel like if I wanted to OBE tonight, and put enough effort and focus into it, I could do it, but I always question whether or not it is worth the effort.

 

Can you put into context why you believe they are beneficial?

[Gerard]

OBEs is just part of a larger picture. I am talking about various meditative techniques (including dream work) which combined together that will help you rise your conscious level, hence work on your karma and purify your spirit-body.

 

Friend,

 

My experience is just a experience, like yours belong to you. They come and go and so be it, but it is good to know at what point in time you are at to make sure you are progressing and not stuck at a specific level, which is a common pitfall amongst experienced meditators. Also these experiences will help you get rid of the idea that there is a YOU, the ego. When you reach the ultimate reality, the "bright overwhelming light" then you realise we are all God. Buddhas are able to maintain that conscious level before they reach parinirvana, this is a very serious state. I'm not claiming that this book will help you attain Buddhahood (only countless of lifetimes and several of them involving dedicated spiritual practice are able to extinguish karma and burn all the skandhas) but the dedicated process spread out along the stream of consciousness certainly will take you a long way. You reap what you sow and that includes any spiritual technique that you may employ.

 

I am not a staunch advocate of this system, just my Bagua training and simple sitting Vipassana work seems to work fine, but hey at times I like to explore other techniques in order to break my routine a bit.

 

Dragon Gate Daoists employ a wide-range of spiritual practices in their regime, nothing wrong with that. Buddhists seem to be happy to stick to the method set by their school and that's all good too. Each to their own, there is nothing good or wrong as eventually all roads lead to Rome, some faster than others though.

Edited October 16, 2011 by Gerard

[Nilo]

I had this book but man it was an intimidating looking big red book. OBE are great for becoming more and more conscious in every moment, even sleep. Also great for taking the fear out of death.

[Gerard]

OBE are great for becoming more and more conscious in every moment, even sleep. Also great for taking the fear out of death.

 

Yes, you nailed it, be conscious 24/7 in order to erase the ego-mind! The fear of death/dissolution of the ego is great, I can assure you that, specific training is needed to get rid of that idea. This is one of the main concepts Buddhism has been talking about for eons:

 

When life ceases the kammic energy re-materializes itself in another form. As Bhikkhu Silacara says: "Unseen it passes whithersoever the conditions appropriate to its visible manifestation are present. Here showing itself as a tiny gnat or worm, there making its presence known in the dazzling magnificence of a Deva or an Archangel's existence. When one mode of its manifestation ceases it merely passes on, and where suitable circumstances offer, reveals itself afresh in another name or form."

 

Birth is the arising of the psycho-physical phenomena. Death is merely the temporary end of a temporary phenomenon."

 

Buddhism in a nutshell (Narada Maha Thera)

[Gerard]

Here you can read a pdf of Robert Bruce's first book on the subject of astral travel: Astral Dynamics: A NEW Approach to Out-of-Body Experiences. This book is basically the same as the one that gives title to this thread but without some of the added extra techniques.

 

Other recommended books on the subject and from a more spiritual approach:

 

1. The Masters and Their Retreats (Climb the Highest Mountain) by Mark L. Prophet

 

2. Watch Your Dreams by Ann Ree Colton

 

3. Entering the Circle: Ancient Secrets of Siberian Wisdom Discovered by Olga Kharitidi

 

4. The Master of Lucid Dreams by Olga Kharitidi

 

Why don't people heal? Why do they stay wounded--some even driven to suicide by their pain-despite the best that organic and psychological medicine can offer? To find the answers, Russian--born psychiatrist Olga Kharitidi traveled to exotic Samarkand, a major cultural and spiritual crossroads, and ancient capital of Uzbekistan, in the heart of Central Asia. No stranger to mystical and shamanic experiences, Dr. Kharitidi had already immersed herself in Siberian native traditions of seeing and healing. Now, at the invitation of an emissary from an ancient secret brotherhood, Dr. Kharitidi set out to learn firsthand the secrets of healing deep emotional wounds. As she quickly discovered, to master these methods she would first have to heal herself.

 

Under the tutelage of the mysterious and charismatic Michael, the master of lucid dreams and protector of esoteric teachings first given millennia ago, Dr. Kharitidi entered another world altogether. There, she saw how our deepest emotional traumas are held in place by baleful spirits and can only be overcome by the technique of dreaming while awake.

 

A major contribution to experiential psychology and a vivid revelation of little-known ancient teachings, The Master of Lucid Dreams describes a startlingly different and effective approach to inner healing.

 

 

5. Projections of Consciousness by Dr. Waldo Vieira

 

6. Soul Traveler: A Guide to Out-of-Body Experiences and the Wonders Beyond by Albert Taylor

Edited October 19, 2011 by Gerard

[Mokona]

Gerard,

Are you willing to share any OBE experiences?

[Gerard]

Sorry I can't, mainly for ego reasons. I hope you understand my position.

[Ish]

I've so far avoided aiming to have an out of body experience.

Couple of reasons -

It doesn't seem healthy to force your spirit/mind from your body.

 

I've heard some dangers of being more susceptible to spirits, afaik this type of projection is yin, so you don't have your body's yang energy for protection.

 

I'm aware of some people who practice OBE related stuff, seems a bit new agey, kind of playing with experiences rather than actually progressing.

 

Bear in mind I don't KNOW if my points are valid, as I said above I haven't actually practiced OBE's.

[Gerard]

I just came here with the purpose of posting this excellent comment made on the subject and I saw your comment. I hope it clears some of your doubts:

 

 

Why Is Astral Projection So Hard?

 

If you're wondering why Astral Projection is so hard, you are not alone. You must be thinking, "If this was so natural, why do we struggle so?!" I tell people it IS natural. How can it not be? You are not your body, you are your soul. So to travel about and experience that condition is no more unnatural than sleeping. But why is it so hard then?

 

It is difficult because of our self-inflicted concepts and lifestyles. This starts at the society level, and then works its way down to us at a personal level. If you review your typical life (American or otherwise), during our most formative years, we are taught how to socially behave, left brained topics like math and science (with art as an "elective"), fear based religion, and physical survival. We dismiss all metaphysical things with great vehemence and skepticism. Then, after our formative years, we plunge into the electronic and physical lifestyles, which leads us even farther away from inner self. Everything from cell phones, beepers, televisions, traffic, jobs, and surface relationships keep us from seeking inner truths. I just got an e-mail this week from a 14 year old that had her dream journal taken away from her at her religious school because it was a "sin"! How a dream journal (keeping records of soul and astral activity) can be a sin, boggles my mind. It is no surprise to me that we can't project! Instead, it's a miracle any of us can project at all! But then again, is this surprising since this type of oppression goes back even before the Christians imprisoned Galileo for promoting the simple theory that the earth goes round the sun and not vice-versa? Ignorance, established and held by fear, means control to the controllers and as long as we stay ignorant and let fear rule us, our growth will be stunted in this area as well as all others.

 

So here we are, conditioned and programmed to be the worst astral projectors possible. We're ignorant and afraid. Will we ever be able to flex these astral muscles? How do we undo this?

 

It is my opinion, that with our current pace and attitude of life, this is not possible to any great degree for the general public. It will always be a struggle, and it will take extraordinary efforts to master this natural ability. However, I strongly believe, as with all things, we have yet to uncover an astral projection AID (or tool) that will help us all. This was the purpose of my Science page. We already have tools for projection (hemi-sync, meditation tapes, herbs, etc.) but if any of these worked with great success, we'd all be projecting. You can go to the Monroe Institute for one week (for a hefty sum of $1,600.00) and probably project, as you're in a sealed, soundproof booth for days on end, with hemi-sync playing till all hours. But what happens when you get home and are back to your daily life? Probably nothing! No, the tools we need are yet to be discovered. Of all my years of research and projection, there is one fundamental truth that I think is an important clue, and that is that our physical body has a magnetic hold on the astral body. Only through intense meditation, illness, mastery of the body asleep/mind awake state, assorted deprivation, do we reduce the magnetic pull enough to allow for separation.

 

Source: http://www.astralvoyage.com/projection/hard.html

 

 

By the way, Tibetan Buddhists and mountain dwelling Daoists include astral travel as part of their spiritual practices that is how they came across knowledge such as the Bardo states, Yi Jing/I Ching, the Five Phases, etc. Indian yogis know more about the higher planes than what we Westerners do.