out-of-body experiences...

[mario]

I have never had one, except once when I was relaxing in bed I briefly felt like I was floating a foot or two above my bed, but I was wondering if anybody here has ever had them.

For religious people, are obe's the soul leaving the body? Are there any instances of it in the bible? Or is it an impossibility until the body has died. Along with leo's "devine dreaming", it sounds like consciousness can go wherever it pleases...even heaven. Is religion (islam, xianity, etc) in agreement that the soul or consciousness can indeed leave the body without having to die first?

And for all you non-religious people, is it just a hallucination brought on by stress, chemicals or imagination? I know of someone who claimed to have an amazing obe after eating magic mushrooms...but do not try this at home!

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I've often wondered...if the body has to die before the soul (if there is one)can be released...what is the soul thinking when the body is brain dead and lying in a coma? Is it extremely bored and wishing that the doctors will pull the plug so that the body can die and the soul can then go to heaven? And what about organ transplants? How can the soul be in heaven when parts of the body are still alive in another person? Or does the soul only reside in the brain and once it is dead it doesn't matter if the rest of the body is still alive.

 

[Leo Volont]

Dear Mario,

Some people have learned how to "Astrally Project" from the waking state. But others prefer to catch it on the Dream side. If you realize you are dreaming then you can assume the same orientation as your sleeping body and then will yourself to rise up into the air. Sometimes you take off like a rocket and seem to go up thousands of feet, but actually it is not very far. What will happen is that you will break out of the Dream Sky into what appears to be the Real Sky. You will look about (you will be floating above your house by about a hundred or two hundred feet) and it will seem like Objective Reality. Yes and no. When you are in your Astral Body, as they say, you perceive a mix of objective and subjective materials. This is where the World is nestled between Heaven and Hell -- the two Poles of the Subjective Astral World.

Oh! Pay attention to that tip that the one Angel gave me, which I mentioned in my last Vision Post. If you remember, the Angel told me to "be still" before I was ready to just fly away. When I held still and simply suspended breathing for just a second, I shot off as fast as a blur and was instantly where I wanted to be. You see, although you can fly and levitate in your dream and astral bodies, you are using up an energy which does not quickly replenish itself. You can increase this energy by breathing deeply and rapidly, but still it is best that you conserve it where you can. It is the same energy that supports the greater degree of consciousness you have during Lucid Dreaming or Astral Projection. You can actually feel your conscious energy waiver and collapse and later you remember that you fell back down into a regular dream.

Another tip. If you do decide to fly and levitate just for the fun of it, then do it from the lotus position. Flying like "superman" is extremely inefficient. If you roll up into a ball, like in a lotus position, you can zip around higher, farther, faster. But, as I said above, if you simply want to go somewhere, then simply become still, think about where you want to go, or whom you wish to visit, and then suspend breathing for just a second, then ZIP POP... you'll be there.

 

[path]

Read some Carlos Casteneda, you can get instructions from there I believe I managed it at least once (many times as a child) but there is no real way to be certain. I believe I had them as a child because of the distinct "butterflys in the stomach" feeling I got when floating down the stairs of my parents house, a real physical feeling something I don't get with regular dreams.

 

[Leo Volont]

Read some Carlos Casteneda, you can get instructions from there I believe I managed it at least once (many times as a child) but there is no real way to be certain. I believe I had them as a child because of the distinct "butterflys in the stomach" feeling I got when floating down the stairs of my parents house, a real physical feeling something I don't get with regular dreams.

The one good tip from Carlos Casteneda is to look at your hands in order to stabilize a Lucid Dream. But I think the important thing in Lucid Dreaming is to establish a fixed routine on what you will do when you realize you are dreaming. It is not a good time to contemplate choices. When you become Lucid you should know immediately what you will do, so that you don't get lost in it.

Perhaps the best thing you can do when you become Lucid within a Dream is to immediately walk out on whatever Dream Scene you are then acting in. The best way, actually, is to levitate out of it. In most every case nobody will be able to follow you, and those that can, since they can Fly, are probably worthy companions and will not 'slow you down'.

Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection are similar in that you can choose to do whatever you like, but you can't be entirely sure what will happen. The Proponents of Lucid Dreaming say that with Lucidity one can control one's Dreams. That is just hype. You can make your own choices, but whatever Dream Scene or Stage you end up in will throw surprising circumstances your way which you CANNOT control. You can only choose how you wish to respond.

Also, you do not have forever. In both Lucid Dreaming and with Astral Projection, you are on a short Clock. In most cases I do not think you will ever have much longer than 10 minutes to do what you wish to do before you wake up or come back to your body.