Getting Out of an OBE Slump Part 1

by Bob Peterson

Even the most accomplished out-of-body explorers (myself included) have slumps or dry spells: periods of time where you don't have any OBEs. Slumps can go on for weeks, months, or even years. It can be discouraging or even downright depressing.

One saving grace is that every OBE, no matter how short or insignificant, seems to make it easier to produce the next one, at least for a week or two. So once you're in the zone, you can stay in the zone, at least for a while. The problem is producing that slump-breaker OBE to get back on track.

So how can you break out of an out-of-body slump and get back in the zone? If I knew a secret formula, I wouldn't have slumps myself. However, I have spent a considerable amount of time studying what works and what doesn't, so I thought I'd share some ideas in this article (and the next).

Try some of these things on a temporary basis to induce that ice-breaker OBE to get you back in the zone:

Adopt Healthy OBE Habits

Bad habits hinder your efforts and good habits reward your efforts. So make sure you do the things I recommend in my article The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Astral Travelers, namely:

• Keep a dream journal
• Learn to accept an alternate body schema and "story of experience"
• Meditate Daily
• Eat early and eat light
• Do OBE/Astral Projection affirmations every morning
• Read OBE/Astral Projection narratives before bed
• Practice, practice, practice.
  

Harness unfamiliarity

One of the best slump-breakers I know is unfamiliarity. I wrote about this in my blog article Harnessing Unfamiliarity for OBEs. The most effective is to sleep at an unfamiliar location, like a hotel room. If you can't do that, try these things:

• Practice in a different room
• Practice from a couch or recliner
• Change your environment. For example, change the position or orientation of your bed.
  

Trim up

Try to lose some weight. I've said before that if I get too heavy, like more than 185 pounds (84 kg), my ability to induce OBEs seems diminished. When I get back down to 185 or under, OBEs seem easier.

Adjust your attitude and beliefs

Rick Stack's book Out-of-Body Adventures primarily focused on changing your belief system. It's simple: your OBE ability can be blocked by negative beliefs. If you believe it's difficult to achieve, it will be. Sometimes you just need to get out of your own way. Improve your beliefs to improve your reality. Positive affirmations can help.

Adjust your gut microbiome

The gut microbiome are the trillions of friendly bacteria that live inside our intestines which help us digest food. Thanks to these bacteria, scientists estimate there is more non-human DNA inside our bodies than actual human DNA. Those bacteria are essential to our survival and if they accidentally die (due to radiation or whatever) they need to be replaced: people sometimes need "fecal transplants" to restore a normal microbiome.

Scientists now know the microbiome heavily influences our sleep and dreams. The same goes for lucid dreams and OBEs. Try these hacks:

• Take raw (I repeat: raw, not cooked) potato starch mixed with water to feed your gut bacteria. It will give you more restful sleep and more vivid dreams. Mix it with something flavorful to reduce the chalky flavor.
  
• Reduce (or altogether eliminate) foods that cause constipation, like nuts and cheese. Make sure you eat enough fiber/fibre.
  
• Don't overeat: Eat early and eat light.
  
• Eat pro-biotic foods (like yogurt) or drink pro-biotic drinks (like kefir or lassi) every day.
• Drink lots of water (not soda), but avoid tap water that contains flouride.
• Reduce your intake of artificial sweeteners aspartame (Nutrasweet), sucralose (Splenda), and Saccharin. In my experience, Monk Fruit-based sweeteners are okay. I haven't done much study of the effects of Truvia or Stevia.
• Try eating more wheat gluten unless your body reacts negatively to it. I know this may sound unusual, but I describe why in my article OBEs, Pasta and Wheat Gluten.
  

Try fasting a day or three

Some people insist that short periods of fasting help induce OBEs.

Use the lucid dream portal

In his book Astral Projection, Oliver Fox wrote that when he was young, he used his "Pineal Doorway" technique to astral project, but as he grew older, it stopped working. Luckily, he found another way, and that is to leverage lucid dreams. There are many techniques for lucid dreaming, but the simplest is to first, analyze your dreams (from your dream journal) to find common themes. For example, do you often find yourself in the same situation or setting when you dream? Second, condition yourself to question reality (and whether you're dreaming) whenever you find yourself in that situation. Here are a few examples:

• If you often dream you're back in college, tell yourself whenever you find yourself in college, you'll question whether you're dreaming.
• If you have nightmares, tell yourself that whenever you're afraid, you'll question whether you're dreaming.
  
• Tell yourself whenever you walk through a doorway or threshold, you will question whether you're dreaming. It helps to actually do this in real life. In other words, (1) Tell yourself "Every time I walk through a doorway, I will question whether I'm dreaming." (2) Walk through a doorway, (3) Question whether you're dreaming or actually awake and really give it some thought, then (4) Reaffirm to yourself "Every time I walk through a doorway, I will question whether I'm dreaming."

Third, periodically check whether you're dreaming throughout every day. Fourth, several times throughout the day, think to yourself, "Bring me to awareness!"

Once you find yourself lucid in a dream, learn to dispel or dismiss the dream hallucination and enter the OBE state. I describe this better in my article Turning Lucid Dreams into OBEs.

Try broken sleep or WBTB

Many people find success with both astral projection and lucid dreaming by interrupting their sleep. For example, they use an alarm clock or app to wake them after 4 to 6 hours of sleep, then, after staying awake a short period of time to make sure they're not too sleepy, go back to bed and practice their OBE technique. This is described better in my article Wake Back To Bed Explained. If that's not practical, try taking midday naps. And make sure you get plenty of sleep.

Conclusions

I'm not asking you to change your lifestyle. These are all things to try temporarily, just long enough to break your dry spell. I'll share more ideas for how to break out of an OBE slump in part 2.

Bob Peterson
10 Aug 2021

If you have ideas for blog articles related to astral projection and out-of-body experiences, send me an email: bob@robertpeterson.org.

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