Eliminating OBE Roadblocks

by Bob Peterson

Even if you're fairly skilled at astral projection and inducing out-of-body experiences (inward focus, relaxation, visualization, maintaining consciousness while your body falls asleep, etc.) your OBE attempts can be completely undermined and scuttled by roadblocks.

In this article I want to talk about OBE / Astral Projection roadblocks: the little things--known or unknown to you--that may be preventing you from leaving your body, and how to eliminate them.

Limiting Beliefs

This is a biggie. According to Rick Stack, author of Out-of-Body Adventures, the most important thing about inducing an OBE is your belief system. As a student of Jane Roberts (who channeled "Seth"), Stack teaches that "Your beliefs create your reality." I concur and I'm not alone. Many OBE authors and teachers agree.

You don't need to believe OBEs are real and you don't need to believe you can induce an OBE. All you need is suspension of disbelief. When I first started on my OBE adventures, I didn't believe: I thought it was mostly self-deception or misinterpretation of ordinary (or lucid) dreams. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Challenging my beliefs, I said, "I'll give it a try and I'll see for myself." In other words, I had my doubts, but I took it seriously.

The bottom line is this: If you believe you cannot induce OBEs--for whatever reason--that can be enough to keep you body-bound. So change your belief system, not necessarily to believe in OBEs, but to believe it can happen to you, at least if the circumstances are right. Affirmations are a good place to start.

Not enough sleep

This is a tough one. Some OBEs are caused by over-tiredness, often coupled with too much stress. But that end of the spectrum isn't very effective for me.

I've always had more OBEs when I over-sleep. I may wake up refreshed and ready to start my day, but I force myself back to sleep another cycle. Burning the candle at both ends, staying up late at night and getting up extra early in the morning can interfere with your ability to induce OBEs. At least they do for me. You've got to get out of the habit of thinking about what you need to get done when you wake up. When you wake up, turn off your mind and make the time to shut out the world and its distractions and practice, practice, practice. Try not to focus on the upcoming day and just let your mind drift in that state between waking and sleeping.

Too much light in the room

Thanks to a million years of evolution, the physical body's natural circadian rhythms are governed largely by the light of the sun. When it gets dark, the darkness triggers our brains to produce melatonin and we naturally become sleepy. When it gets light outside, a tiny bit of light shines through our closed eyelids and tells us to wake up. So one common roadblock is having too much light in your bedroom.

The tiniest bit of light in your bedroom can interfere with your sleep cycles. It can keep you from falling asleep naturally and it can interfere with your ability to induce an OBE in the morning when you first wake up. So minimize the artificial light in your bedroom at night:

• Turn off the back-lighting on your cellphone or flip your phone face-down to shut off the back-lighting and/or ambient display.
• Minimize the use of nightlights. I put strips of black electrical tape over some of my nightlights to minimize the amount of light they put out.
• You can also cover up the tiny red dots that glow from smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

In other words, make your bedroom as dark as possible. But most important of all: When the morning comes, if it's too bright in your bedroom you may not be able to oversleep.

• Use dark dark shades or opaque curtains on windows if you can, to block out as much sunlight as possible.
• If you can't block out the light from the windows consider wearing a sleep mask to block all the light from your eyes.

Exposing your (closed) eyes to almost no light in the morning can trick your brain into extending your body's sleep cycles into hours when you're more likely to be fully conscious, and thus, makes OBEs more likely.

This doesn't always apply to everybody. Some OBE authors claim they have better luck if they're in a dimly lit room, not a completely dark room. So you may need to experiment and find out what works best for you.

Staring into your phone or tablet's blue light

This is similar to the problems mentioned above. A lot of people, myself included, like to wind down at the end of the day by playing a game or two on your phone before bed. But the blue light emitted by your phone or tablet's display can mess with your body's generation of melatonin and keep you from sleeping properly. So consider playing the game earlier in the evening and minimize the use of unnatural light in the evening.

Another tip: whereas it's always a good idea to read an OBE book before bed, it's best to read printed (paper) books, not a tablet. A small reading light won't interfere significantly with sleep before bed; just make sure the light bulb has a "warm" color temperature that emits more red light and less blue light. Avoid those "Daylight" bulbs that emit a lot of blue light.

Watching too much television

I don't know about you, but when I watch television at night, it numbs my brain and I become a walking zombie. It's a bad combination of unnatural blue-light to your eyes coupled with turning off your analytical thinking, and it can interfere with your OBEs. If you're going to watch TV, do it earlier in the evening and allow ample recovery time before bedtime.

Not enough alone time

This is another common roadblock. The best advice I took from Marilynn Hughes's book Odysseys of Light is to spend at least one hour a day alone with yourself. I'd like to further suggest that it be spent on introspection or other "within" tasks such as:

• Read a book
• Meditate
• Listen to music or binaural beats
  
• Use your creative imagination
• Create art or music
• Play video games

Just don't stay up too late doing so.

Animals and other distractions

Out-of-body attempts can be spoiled if you have a dog, cat, or other animal that jumps on the bed or make lots of noise in the morning. Authors like Michael Raduga advise you to not move a muscle when you first wake up, and instead go right into your exit technique before you've used any of your muscles. If an animal wakes you it may ruin your entire attempt. So keep these distractions to a minimum.

Conclusions

You still need to make an effort, practice OBE techniques, and walk the edge of consciousness: the thin line between waking consciousness and sleep.

A big part of inducing an OBE is doing the right prep work, and that includes eliminating (or minimizing) the roadblocks that may interfere with the process. Who knows? You may be on the verge of an OBE breakthrough and just need to get some of these roadblocks out of your way.

Can you think of other roadblocks that prevent OBE? I'd love to hear about them.

Bob Peterson,
12 July 2022

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