The Guardian on the Threshold

The Guardian on the Threshold

by Bob Peterson

It's Sunday morning and you're lying in bed, trying hard to produce an out-of-body experience. You're in the perfect state, relaxed, focused and single-minded. You're just a hair breath away from an OBE when all of a sudden you hear a familiar voice, convincingly real in every respect. It's your mom, dad, wife, husband, or other voice of authority and they say something like "Come on. Get up! Get out of bed. We've got to go! Right now!" You may even hear banging or knocking on your bedroom door. The sense of urgency is palpable, but what horrible timing! You were almost there, right?

Sometimes the voice may sound angry. "You lazy-ass good-for-nothing. You've been lying around in bed all morning! I've been waiting more than an hour for you to get up. Get the hell out of bed right this minute."

It may appeal to your sense of urgency. "It's your little sister! Something got caught in her throat and she's choking! I need your help! Please hurry!"

Or maybe, "Your boss is on the phone and she sounds pissed. You better get up and take this." You think to yourself, "Why in hell is she calling me on a Sunday morning? How urgent can it be?"

Or maybe you hear loud banging on the door and a booming voice that says, "This is the police. Open up. We've got a warrant to search the premises. Let us in or we'll break the door down."

Or my personal favorite, "The house is on fire! It's a matter of life and death! You've got to get up right now!"

Finally, with a deep sigh, you abort the OBE attempt and get out of bed to see what's so damn urgent. Then you discover there's nobody there. Nobody is at the door. Nobody is on the phone. The house is not burning down. There is no emergency.

You were pranked.

The Shadow Man

It can be much more menacing than just a voice. More sinister versions probably stem from episodes of ASP (Awareness during Sleep Paralysis) in which your subconscious fears and insecurities are manifested as very realistic hallucinations, like:

• An old hag who wants to sit on you (known as "hagging").
• A sexual demon (incubus or succubus) who comes to rape you in your paralyzed and helpless condition.
• A dark menacing shadow figure whose face is not quite visible.

These are all basically the same thing. This is a phenomenon known as the "Dweller" or "Guardian" on the Threshold. If you've tried to produce OBEs for any length of time, you've probably encountered it in one of its many forms.

According to Wikipedia:

"The Guardian of the Threshold is a menacing figure that is described by a number of esoteric teachers. The term "Guardian of the Threshold", often called "dweller on the threshold", indicates a spectral image which is supposed to manifest itself as soon as "the student of the spirit ascends upon the path into the higher worlds of knowledge". 

What is the Guardian?

In my opinion, the Guardian is a big collection of subconscious scare tactics. It's a subconscious defense mechanism. Basically, it comes from within your own mind: your own subconscious fears and insecurities.

What does it want? What is its purpose?

I believe its purpose is to make sure you don't achieve out-of-body experiences until you're psychologically prepared for it. It wants to make sure you're cool enough to remain calm and in control when faced with unexpected or frightening circumstances.

Variations (Alternate scare tactics)

"My heart starts beating out of control"
Another common variation is when it seems like your heart starts beating wildly out of control, like it's going to explode in your chest. This one's a little more tricky. On the one hand, it could really be your heart: it's easy to believe an adrenaline rush may have pushed your heart into atrial fibrillation ("a-fib") or some other fight-or-flight response. I'm especially vulnerable to this because my heart does occasionally go into a-fib (not in OBEs, but under normal circumstances).

However, on many occasions, I've forced myself back to full consciousness only to find it was another false alarm: my heart was, in fact, beating normally; often even more slowly than normal.

"OMG, I stopped breathing!"

Another variation is when it seems like your physical body stops breathing. One minute it seems like your body is breathing normally: you can hear the breath coming and going from your lungs, then suddenly everything goes silent. It seems like you stopped breathing. So you get scared that you're going to suffocate. But when you abort the OBE, you discover your body is still breathing normally. This can either be a manifestation of the Guardian or simply because you've lost awareness of your physical body as your conscious awareness shifts focus to the non-physical environment.

How do you stop it?

The key to stopping this nonsense is understanding exactly what it is, why it's there, and what it wants.


The guardian (your own subconscious) is testing you. To get rid of it, you simply need to pass the test. You need to ignore it and continue inducing the out-of-body state. You need to just ignore the distraction and think to yourself, "Nice try, but I'm not going to fall for it this time. I'm not going to let it stop me."

You need to realize and understand that the voices are not "real" and if there is a real emergency, you won't have to stop and think about aborting: you'd already be jarred out of the pre-OBE state automatically. If a real emergency had happened, there would be no reason to hear the voice in the first place.

Once you learn to ignore the Guardian and continue with the OBE, you will have "passed the test" and leveled up. Your subconscious will realize you refuse to be manipulated and will no longer bother with the scare tactics. Then you can fearlessly start exploring this strange new world.

Bob Peterson
31 October 2017