Short disclaimer: this post was written in January 2016, since than a lot has happened, however it is still a good intro to lucid dreaming for beginners.
Last summer I borrowed a book from Bogdan, which I believe was not meant for me to finish it reading, because I soon lost it without finishing it. Today I came across an article about this author, so I will probably buy the book again. It’s about Robert Monroe, the author of Travels Outside the Body, an absolutely normal guy, who at some point begins to have out of body experiences. He monitors them and makes a short guide on how you can reach such states. At the beginning he could have such experiences only in sleep or slightly before, normally with exercise you can get to experience them at any time. This is also the ultimate goal.
Now let me tell you about the book. The study of astral projections, near-death experiences, and those out of body experiences are considered part of metaphysics. However, there are not many studies, you will only believe when you experience them. Robert Monroe was among the first to write about such an experience, an experience he had accidentally lived.
“In 1958, for no apparent reason, I began to float out of my body. It was involuntary, but I had complete control over what was happening, which made things difficult. I assumed it was a hallucination caused by something dangerous – a tumor, a mental illness or imminent death. It usually happened before I fell asleep – not always, but many times a week. I used to fly a few feet above my physical body. Terrified, I struggled to return to my physical body. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop. “
I liked his book because it does not comment on experiences, but simply narrates them in an objective way. Thanks to his research work over the years, through which he tried to control his experiences, in 1974 he founded the Monroe Institute, which helped thousands of people with the same feelings to be convinced that they did not suffer from mental disorders.
According to Monroe, in order to trigger an out-of-body experience, the following steps should be followed:
- You need a room where no one will bother you, sit on the bed and relax.
- Remove accessories and make sure you are dressed comfortably.
- Begin relaxation, you can breathe with your mouth open and tell yourself that you will remember everything that will happen.
- Then focus on an object. If other images come to mind, just look at them and let them pass.
- Empty your mind, remove secondary thoughts and close the eyes, but keeps an image in mind.
- Relax and then focus on the darkness in front of your closed eyes, maybe you will see a bright background.
- When the bright background disappears, you have entered a state of deep relaxation and you will lose control over your body.
- You are awake and soon the only stimulus will be thoughts. This is where the out-of-body experiences begin.
- To get out of the body, imagine how you become lighter and more beautiful and how beautiful it would be if you floated.
- Practice and experience will not be long in coming.
There are many techniques, you can read in the articles on our blog. In order to figure out what suits you best, you have to try everything. But not once, but (very) many times. The astral state differs every time. Sometimes you can feel without a certain shape, although most of the time the condition will seem similar to the physical one, you will be able to see everything around you.
You can observe your relaxed physical form and then explore the astral realm. In this form you can do anything, you can have supernatural powers and it is very difficult for the human mind to describe what things look like there.
A common observation of many that experienced it, is that the sounds are much louder, as are the colors. Following the studies, Monroe noticed that the nerves that control the information regarding body weight, size, position stop working when sounds appear. Sounds tend to be mystical and ecstatic, but they can also take on forms we actually hear (whistle, whistling wind, rippling water). In any case, such sensations lead to the annihilation of the ego and the perception of the sensation in its fullness.
Such experiences can occur spontaneously, consciously, or due to external events such as an accident or physical trauma. The ego does not disappear, which indicates the preservation of consciousness even after death. Thanks to studies by Monroe, there is now more information about this phenomenon. It’s a good book to read, I recommend it at the beginning of the year.
You can book a guided astral projection with Bogdan on our website.
