Review: The Phase by Michael Raduga - Part 3 of 3

Review: The Phase - Part 3 of 3

by Michael Raduga

This is part 3 of my review of Michael Raduga's book The Phase. Click here for part 1. Click here to read part 2.

In part 1, I talked a lot about the book's "story" and shortcomings. In Part 2 I talked about Raduga's OBE induction techniques. In part 3, I'll cover other important points made in the book.

Tips and Helpful Hints

The book is chock full of Raduga's advice, tips and helpful hints. Such as:

Frequency of OBE attempts

"Never try these techniques every day, otherwise the success rate of your attempts will drop drastically! Spend no more than 2 to 3 days of the week on it, preferably only on days off." (pg. 64)

Remaining passive vs. aggressive

One thing I found interesting is Raduga's discussion about aggression and passivity. I always need to remain completely passive to gain any ground. For example, if the vibrations come, I personally need to remain totally passive and blank my mind before they increase. If I try to be active and manipulate them in any way, they fade away. Raduga calls for striking a balance:

"Balance between passivity and aggression is imperative; the phase state is easily attained by those practitioners who find a stable medium between passivity and aggression." (pg. 121)

A lot of the book is just explaining "rookie mistakes": what many beginners get wrong and how to do it the right way. In one of these, he seems to actually discourage being passive:

[One mistake is] "Passively performing techniques instead of being determined and aggressive." (pg. 127)

Perhaps the key is trying to remain completely passive while encouraging your subconscious to keep acting toward the OBE on your behalf. In other words, try to be consciously passive but subconsciously aggressive. For example, I often induce a floating or rocking sensation in my body, and then "set it and forget it." In other words, I try to hold a resolve to keep floating or rocking while I consciously force my mind down into a completely passive state.

Forced Falling Asleep

Raduga talks about a "trick" technique he calls "forced falling asleep."

"What the practitioner does is try to fall asleep as decidedly and as quickly as possible, but while maintaining the intention of not losing consciousness. The most important thing is to not get caught up in how to do it...You need only to get pulled in to a wave of sleepiness and catch it at the last second. It's quite similar to real life situations when there is very little time to sleep, and one nevertheless has to catch some rest." (pg. 124)

This reminded me of Dr. Douglas M. Baker's advice in chapter 6 of his book Practical Techniques of Astral Projection from my previous book review: "This must be done rapidly." Later Raduga says:

"This is used in-between any techniques or in-between full cycles of techniques. In this case, the idea is that 3 to 5 seconds of credibly imitating falling asleep can not only conjure the phase all on its own, but also cause a kind of throwback to a more transitional state, thus increasing the effectiveness of all subsequent actions." (pg. 124)

That quote reminded me of my own technique of Sneaking Past The Gatekeeper. Basically, you do such a credible/believable imitation of being asleep that your subconscious thinks it's "lights out," and literally pulls you out of body.

Deepening

The idea here is to strengthen or deepen your "phase" experience. The primary reason to do this is to prolong the experience and make it more stable:

"Resisting the gravity of the physical body is paramount to remaining in the phase. The result of willful resistance is directly proportional to the degree of applied effort." (pg. 161)

But then, according to Raduga, the deeper the phase, the less control you have over the experience:

"All methods for controlling the phase space stem from a primary law: the degree of changeability of the phase space is inversely proportionate to the depth of the phase. That is, the deeper the phase, the more difficult it is to perform something unusual in it because in a deep, stable phase, the laws of it begin to closely resemble those of the physical world." (pg. 194)

I'm not sure I buy it. I've always believed that Lucid Dreams (LDs) were different from out-of-body experiences (OBEs). I believe LDs are more life-like and more closely mimic physical reality because they are self-created hallucinations. I believe OBEs are non-hallucinated events; perceptions of some kind of non-physical environment, and therefore, they don't translate as well into terms of our human-based sense perceptions. My lucid dreams tend to be more controllable, whereas my OBEs tend to be more out-of-control. In a lucid dream, I can make things appear or disappear, or change a hallway into a tunnel by an act of will. In an OBE, I cannot. But I digress. More about control later.

Raduga's primary two methods of deepening your experience are:

• Palpation - Touch and feel anything in your immediate surroundings.
• Peering - Look closely and deeply at the details of objects around you.

Secondary deepening techniques are:

• Vibration - Try to induce vibrations
• Straining the Brain - Try to strain your brain (without using muscles) 
• Aggressive Action - Try waving your arms or legs, swimming motions, etc.
• Imagining Reality - Aggressively imagine being somewhere in the physical world.
• Use Phase Objects - Convince yourself that some object, like a pocket watch, is in your pocket, and is a "deepener."
• Diving Headfirst - Dive into the ground.

 

Maintaining

The subject of maintaining is, in a nutshell, how to make the experience last as long as possible. How long does a "phase" experience typically last? Usually a very short amount of time. Sometimes just a few seconds to a minute. According to Raduga:

"It is physically impossible to remain in the phase forever because even a 20-minute phase is unheard of. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep serves as the main limiting factor, since it normally lasts no longer than 10 to 20 minutes. However, in some cases it may last many times longer, like toward the end of sleeping in very late. However, even a 5 minute phase can seem to last forever in terms of time perception." (pg. 169)

I disagree. I hardly think longer OBEs are "unheard of." Although I've always been skeptical of such claims, some people claim to have had multiple-day OBEs. I personally have had OBEs that lasted about an hour and a half. Now was that my flawed perception of time, or real clock time? Since I was inside the experience itself, I can't say for sure. In most cases, I check the time when I start my OBE attempt, and check it afterward, and they seem to coincide. In almost all my OBEs, time seems to pass somewhat normally.

Techniques for Maintaining

Here are some of Raduga's techniques for maintaining a phase experience. Many of these are basically the same as his "deepening" techniques. Here's what you can do if you feel like you're losing the experience:

• Sensory Amplification - touch and examine things.
• Constant Vibration/Strengthening - try to reconnect with and strengthen "the vibrations" during the experience.
• Diving Headfirst - Dive headfirst with your eyes shut.
• Forced Falling Asleep (3 to 5 seconds) - Try to force yourself to sleep, but resist actually falling asleep. This is like making an OBE attempt inside the OBE.
• Rotation - Try to rotate.
• Counting - Try to count.
• Listening In - Listen intently for noises such as buzzing.
• Hooking onto the phase - Grab an object and try to squeeze it.
• Using Phase Objects - Find a "phase stabilizer" in your pocket.
• Vocal Maintaining - Try to sing or recite poetry.

 

Best Practices for Maintaining

Here are more of Raduga's recommendations for maintaining:

"There is another important rule related to resisting falling asleep: no practitioner should engage or participate in spontaneous events occurring in the phase. Events that are not planned or deliberate lead to a high probability of being immersed in the side action, which results in a loss of concentrated awareness." (pg. 173)

I wrote about this in my first book; I called it "The Fantasy Trap." If you get distracted by something in the experience and start to participate in it, or fantasize about it, you'll get sucked back into a dream state. Resist the temptation. He also recommends:

"The practitioner should not look into the distance. If faraway objects are observed for a long period of time, a foul [premature return to body] may occur, or one may be translocated towards these objects." (pg. 175)

And:

"The less internal dialogue (ID) and reflection that occurs in the phase, the longer it lasts. Talking to oneself is completely prohibited." (pg. 175)

I disagree with that too. I often use my internal dialog to help remember what happened. "Oooh, I've got to remember that I saw this!"

Personal Protection and Controlling the Dream

The subject of psychic protection against hostile entities (or "astral wildlife" as Robert Bruce calls it) comes up in a lot of OBE books, including this one. Here's a small excerpt of what Raduga has to say:

"The first thing to know in this regard is: no thing and no person in the phase presents any real threat. The practitioner himself is able to control everything that occurs." (pg. 183)

This contradicts what Lucid Dreaming expert Robert Waggoner says: that you can't really control the dream all that much, although I usually seem to have plenty of control in mine. Later, Raduga repeats this sentiment:

"In other words, if there is something a practitioner can't do in the phase, that means he hasn't reached a high level of control over it, and has something to work on." (pg. 267)

He continues:

"The second thing to know is: the only thing that can and does attack is the practitioner's own fear, be it conscious or unconscious fear." (pg. 183)

Well, yes, I think that almost everything negative we encounter is self-created from our fear. Still, I'm not 100% convinced. I still think at least a small percentage may be from external non-physical entities.

Sight / Vision

The subject is vision is an important one. So important that I dedicated an entire chapter of my first book to the subject. We often find ourselves in a void and completely unable to see. Here is Raduga's advice:

"To create vision, a practitioner needs to bring the hands four to six inches in front of the eyes and try to detect them through the grayness or darkness. Peering aggressively and attentively at the minute details of the palms will cause them to become visible..." (pg. 183)

What I always recommend is this: if you're too close to your physical body (Muldoon's "cord activity range"), close your eyes and keep them closed until you're at least 15 feet (5 meters) away, then make an effort to open them. If you try to open them when you're close to your body, your body's eyes might open, at best causing confusion, or, at worst, you'll be driven back inside your body.

Practical Uses of the Phase

Raduga has a lot of information regarding practical uses of the phase. Here's just a few:

Communicating With the Subconscious

Raduga doesn't say much about the subconscious. But he does say this:

"Communication with the subconscious mind on a conscious level is only possible within the phase." (pg. 205)

I strongly disagree with this. The ability to consciously communicate with the subconscious is not only possible, it's the entire basis for my fourth book, Answers Within.

Using The Phase for Healing


Robert Waggoner talked about using Lucid Dreams for healing. Raduga also has some interesting techniques for practical applications using the phase. For example:

"It is possible to find a well-known healer in the phase and ask about personal health problems or the problems of a friend or family member. A clarified answer may be used in the assistance of traditional medical treatment." (pg. 211)

He makes it clear that the phase should never be used as a substitute for professional medical help, but it can often offer incredible insight and aid to healing.

Art and Creative Development

The phase has an unparalleled potential for artistic development. The best part?

"They are preserved there forever, and can always be found there again. In other words, any and all information can be stored with perfect fidelity." (pg. 225)

Learning Foreign Languages

"While in the phase, it's easy to observe that general knowledge of foreign languages in it is at a much higher level than in everyday life. If a person is interested in foreign languages, then they usually immediately set themselves the task of using the phase to become more proficient in them in real life." (pg. 227)

Well, I guess that about covers it, from my outlook. As I said before, the book is well written and informative. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn to self-induce OBEs. I give it five stars.

Bob Peterson
25 April 2017