Review: Astral Projection and Psychic Empowerment

by Joe H. Slate, Ph.D.

Today I'm reviewing Astral Projection and Psychic Empowerment by Joe H. Slate, Ph.D. The subtitle is Techniques for Mastering the Out-of-Body Experience. The copyright is 1998.

Like all books about astral projection, this one has both good and bad. Like the previous book I reviewed (Astral Projection by Michael Marr), this book is heavy on techniques, but the author doesn't really say where or how he obtained his knowledge. It's another knowledge dump. However, Slate is a Ph.D. and shows higher intelligence than a lot of them. It also means the book is more clinical, sterile, even a bit tedious at times. But it's still good material.

I liked this quote from the introduction:

"Although OBEs have at times been over-dramatized, romanticized, and even trivialized, they have never been more relevant to our personal growth and empowerment than today." (pg. xii)

Absolutely. I also liked this quote:

"In developing our out-of-body skills, there can be no substitute for practice. Even experienced out-of-body travelers find that practice is essential in fine-tuning their old strategies and mastering new ones. Only through practicing various approaches can we discover those techniques that meet our personal needs and work best for us individually." (pg. 21)

Like me, Slate favors techniques that involve an imagined sense of motion. For example:

"Preparatory OBEs exercises often include practice in creative imagery, particularly emphasizing motion. Slow moving clouds, a leaf in the breeze, a sail at sea, or even a magic carpet ride are good examples." (pg. 23)

His preliminary exercises are basic but solid:

"The induced disengagement of the astral from the biological is typically initiated by first allowing the physical body to become deeply relaxed and then, with the eyes closed, clearing the mind of active thought." (pg. 23)

The good news is that this book is heavy on techniques. Slate gives several, listing them, in part, as:

"Among the most highly effective of these strategies are OBEs Levitation, Astral Walk, Mirror Image, and Astral Surfing. Interestingly, gender differences in the effectiveness of these procedures have been noted, with women typically more responsive to Mirror Image and men typically more responsive to Astral Walk." (pg. 26)

Slate then goes on to give more details about each of these techniques. Unfortunately, I still found his techniques a bit lacking. Slate is a professional hypnotist, so his techniques are a bit repetitive. They mostly sounded like this to me:

1. Relax your body, slow your breathing, and focus your mind.
   
2. Steps 2 or 3 are something like "Envision that you're out-of-body."
3. Step 3 or 4 are usually "do something" after you're out-of-body.
4. Return to your body.
   

He makes it sound easy like you can snap your fingers and be there. And maybe it is that easy for some people, especially people are easily hypnotized. But it's never been that easy for me.

Step 1 is basic: You need to be completely and totally relaxed and focused. He gives several different variations of step 2, such as this quote from "OBEs Levitation":

"2. Focus your full attention on your physical body and imagine it becoming lighter and lighter, until finally, it seems to become weightless. 3. As the sense of weightlessness continues, imagine your physical body, as light as a feather, beginning to rise slowly. Next, envision your physical body momentarily suspended in space, then slowly returning to its original position, but leaving your consciousness behind in astral form, still suspended over your physical body." (pg. 27)

That's it. While he makes it sound easy, I want more details. Perhaps it's my own shortcomings. I am, after all, an analytical computer guy who wants his head in the bits and bytes. Slate actually goes into a fair amount of detail on a lot of his techniques. I just found them...somehow lacking. Here's a good example from one of Slate's techniques:

"To induce the out-of-body state, slow your breathing and clear your mind of all active thought by focusing on the white screen. After a few minutes of focusing, close your eyes and envision your physical body at rest. Continue to envision your body resting peacefully until you sense yourself becoming separate from it. Stay with that sense of separateness, letting yourself gently float away from your body..." (pg. 48)

See what I mean? Sounds like you're supposed to just sit there and envision your physical body at rest until--poof--you're there. For me, it's never been that simple.

Here's another example:

"Out-of-Body Induction. With your body now fully relaxed, envision yourself so liberated from the pressures of life that you begin to drift gently upward like a white vapor, away from your physical body, leaving all your cares behind. Notice the sense of freedom and wondrous release from your body, which is now at rest below you." (pg. 70-71)

I feel like he's missing a step. I mean, yeah, sometimes that's all it takes. But I've spent countless hours quiescing my mind and "just waiting" for it to happen and it usually gets me nowhere. It reminds me of this well-known comic:

I shouldn't be so hard on Slate. At times, he tries very hard to go into more details. For example, this excerpt from one of his exercises is much more helpful:

"Out-of-body induction for this procedure begins by generating a focused mental state through imagery of a surrounding space filled with light, but devoid of color, shapes, or movement. A strategy called astral polarization is then used to induce the out-of-body state. Polarization is initiated by a physical and mental clearing exercise that sets the stage for this out-of-body state. Imagery of the physical body as a sponge soaking in relaxation is recommended for physical clearing, while envisioning the astral body as a tranquil energy form, filled with light, is recommended for mental clearing.

As relaxation and tranquility deepen, the physical body becomes progressively heavy with relaxation, while the astral body becomes increasingly buoyant with tranquility. The result is the polarization of the astral and biological bodies, and a slow separation of the two." (pg. 106)

Now that is the kind of information I want.

To his credit, Slate gives a wide variety of astral projection techniques, including how to use self-hypnosis to achieve it. If you're susceptible to hypnosis, many of his techniques might work well. Unfortunately, only 10 to 15 percent of people are easily hypnotized.

Slate does make some dubious claims, such as:

"In its highest and most elegant form, out-of-body PK could either repair a damaged organ or literally recreate a new one. Conceivably, this is one of the most important yet most neglected, health and fitness resources of our time." (pg. 10)

Here's another claim that sounds a bit dubious, even for me:

"Central to ATS (Astral Telepathy System) is the Astral Blue Beltway, a fluid stream of psychic energy used to convey telepathic messages." (pg. 41)

Sorry. I shouldn't poo-poo this. After all, many reasonable scientists conclude, after 100 years of experiments, that telepathy is a fact. And many have suggested the information transfer relies upon principles of quantum physics such as quantum entanglement or some kind of quantum field. Calling it a "blue beltway" may sound hokey, but it may not be too far off the mark.

Slate also suggests that sexual partners can temporarily swap bodies, which is an extremely rare and dubious claim in OBE literature:

"At this critical point in the procedure, each partner first envisions, then astrally engages, the biological body of the other partner. In the male-female dyad, the astral male assumes a female biology while the astral female assumes a male biology, resulting in a gender reversal state which we could call out-of-one's-own-body-but-in-the-body-of-the-other." (pg. 79)

Bear in mind this was written long before the Netflix show Behind Her Eyes. Maybe the show got some of its ideas from Slate?

On the positive side, Slate talks about using astral projection for many different things:

• "Extrasensory expression" (I assume he means ESP or clairvoyance.)
  
• Healing yourself.
• Meeting with astral guides and angels.
• Meeting with friends, relatives, and pets who have passed away.
• Exploring past lives. Curiously, he treats past lives as chronological. In other words, you cannot visit future lives because they haven't occurred yet. Many other books claim OBEs are beyond time, and our lives from other reincarnations coexist simultaneously, past, present and future.
  

Slate also goes into great depth about different colored (or "coloured") astral planes, one for each color of the rainbow, that serve different functions: for example, one is more geared toward healing, etc.). He says to get to any particular one, just focus on it and imagine yourself there (once you're out-of-body). To take advantage of a colored-plane's special property is something he calls "Astral Outsourcing" and he gives instructions for each one. Again, I'm skeptical about this. I've never seen a "blue" or "orange" astral plane, and why should they be limited to the colors seen by human eyes when we're not using our physical eyes and the electromagnetic spectrum is infinite? Why isn't there an infrared astral plane? Or an ultraviolet one? Not to mention a gamma ray plane, x-ray plane, microwave place, etc. You get the idea.

Chapter 10, "OBEs in the Laboratory" is an absolute gem. Slate gives a number of interesting lab experiments he's supposedly conducted, mostly using volunteer college students. For example, he talks about using Kirlian photography to study the effects on the biological energy field during OBEs. He gives several example photos, and most show a uniform (even) energy pattern surrounding the fingertips before an OBE, but during the OBE, the energy has a "broken corona" effect where the energy appears broken into two separated sections around the finger. This broken corona effect lasted for the full duration of the OBE. (Pg. 136-138).

Slate did an experiment in which students used out-of-body travel to identify a remote target, in this case, a model train. A couple of the travelers supposedly correctly reported the train's manufacturer, which was printed in white letters on the side of the engine. (pg. 144)

He supposedly also found, through lab experiments, that ESP was greatly enhanced during OBEs. In one experiment, technicians traveled out-of-body to a different room in which they took 10 open pint containers, 9 of which contained water, and one that contained ethyl alcohol. The students were guided to leave their body and report which container was the alcohol. The students correctly identified the container with alcohol with remarkable accuracy. (pg. 139)

In another experiment regarding using OBEs for precognition, the OBErs reported a 81 percent accuracy in their predictions. (pg. 155)

The book also gives several statistics regarding the OBE, much like William Buhlman's book The Secret of the Soul. This was pretty good, but Buhlman's study had more detail.

Chapter 11 is "A Seven-Day Developmental Plan for OBEs." This is a well-rounded set of instructions for each day, similar to those given earlier in the book. It was solid, but perhaps a bit repetitive.

The book is 187 pages with small print, good format and decent margins. That means there's plenty of content to satisfy.

Summary:

The book is heavy on techniques, but light on narrative. I wish he'd have talked about his own personal experiments, if any, or whether he's just a facilitator. I assume the latter.

I'll give the book 4 stars out of 5.

Bob Peterson
02 November 2021
---------------------------

If you want me to review a book about out-of-body experiences or astral projection, send me an email: bob@robertpeterson.org, but please check the index first to see if I've already reviewed it. Also, I've got a huge pile of books I'm planning to review, so don't expect a quick turnaround.

If you like my work, visit my website, robertpeterson.org, where you'll find lots of other free OBE advice and links.

Return to the index of my OBE Book reviews

 Religious OBE Experiments - Part 3

by Bob Peterson

This is really "Part 4" of the series based on my own OBE experiments, with the three prior articles here:

1. Meeting Jesus Christ Face To Face, (December 2015) and
2. Religious OBE Experiments (September 2021)
3. Religious OBE Experiments - Part 2 (October 2021)
   

Like the prior articles, this one comes from my second book, Lessons Out of the Body, which is out of print, from chapter 16, "Chasing God." Here is another OBE where I tried to contact God. This OBE narrative was from February 20, 2000:

This morning I tried to induce an OBE around 9:00 a.m., and was successful. After careful consideration, I decided to try once more to contact God.

I reached out with my mind with the intent of experiencing God and something strange happened. I was staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, and I noticed a spider crawling on the ceiling. Somehow, I knew this was another test as a second, third and fourth spider converged on the ceiling. Who or what was giving me this test?

Soon there were dozens of spiders on the ceiling above me. I realized I wasn’t really seeing spiders; I was seeing the illusion of spiders as part of the test. I also realized what the test was: before I could realize oneness with God, I had to embrace and experience God’s love. I had to raise my vibrations to the level of God. I reasoned that God loves all things, even spiders and the most hideous creatures on the planet.  How could I expect to attain oneness with God until I raised my own love to that same level? Spiders were just the first question of the exam.

I suddenly became very emotional and pleaded my answer to the invisible helper who gave me the test, “Yes, I will love all things, even the spiders,” but I knew the test was not over: my ability (or inability) to love would be pushed far beyond my endurance, and that’s why I was so overcome with emotions. This was just the beginning; what other horrors would I have to face, and love? I was overcome with emotions and started sobbing until I was reintegrated with my body. I opened my eyes and thought about the OBE a long time before getting up.

So once again, my attempts to contact "God" from an OBE failed, but I learned some valuable lessons.

Many years later I read stories of other out-of-body travelers encountering "astral spiders" on their ceilings from an OBE, and I wonder: Is this some kind of Universal test we all must pass some day? Or is it some unknown fear-based trigger buried deep in our subconscious? It's hard to say, but having experienced it firsthand, it was sure emotionally charged. And once again, it defied all my expectations.

Bob Peterson
19 October 2021

Religious OBE Experiments - Part 2

by Bob Peterson

In a way, you could say this is really "Part 3" of the series based on my own OBE experiments, with the two prior articles here:

1. Meeting Jesus Christ Face To Face, (December 2015) and
2. Religious OBE Experiments (September 2021)
   

Like the two prior articles, this one comes from my second book, Lessons Out of the Body, which is out of print, from chapter 16, "Chasing God."

This experiment took place in June, 1999 (lightly edited from my journal).

This morning I got up at my usual time of 5:45 a.m., put the dogs out, and drank a can of caffeinated Surge soda pop to get motivated. Then I worked on the computer for an hour. I went back to bed around 7:00 a.m. After Kathy got up I decided to do an OBE. I tried to induce an OBE but instead fell asleep. I woke up around 8:00 a.m. and decided to try again. I tried for about ten minutes then I got restless. I decided I’d give it one more shot, and if I wasn’t successful, I’d get up. So I rolled onto my back and gave it my best shot. I didn’t think I’d be successful, but much to my surprise, I was able to coax my mind down into the proper state easily from that point. I waved myself out as normal.

Once I was out, I pushed myself forward, through the bedroom wall until I was hanging in mid-air between our house and my neighbor’s house.
I knew exactly what I wanted to do. At once, I made my request to no one in particular, saying, “I want to experience God.”

Suddenly, I was transported to some place that looked like outer space.  In the blackness of space in front of me was an image of a single human eye, and it was white against the black background. I focused on the image of the eye, and saw that it comprised tiny pinpoints of light. If this were part of a face, I wondered, why I didn’t I see any other features?

I decided to pan backward so I could see more of the image. What I saw astounded me. As I panned back, I saw that the pinpoints of light were slowly swirling around the eye: What I was looking at was not an eye, but a galaxy. The “eye” was actually a cluster of stars in the center of the galaxy. I continued to pan back, and the image of the galaxy started getting smaller. “Woah!” I thought, “Where the hell am I?” Instantly, I lost consciousness and began dreaming. If I had remained calm, would I have continued to pan outward until I experienced the totality of All That Is?

This OBE illustrates several things. First, as in the previous article, this OBE defied my expectations. I did not expect to be transported into outer space. Second, despite being "lost" in the deepest depths of outer space, I had no problem returning to my body.

That wasn't end last religious experiment I did. More to come in the next article.

Bob Peterson
05 October 2021

 Religious OBE Experiments

 by Bob Peterson

 

Many of my readers may wonder: Why don't I share more of my OBEs in my blog? There are several reasons:

• Many of my OBEs are just plain uninteresting. The OBE literature is chock full of authors with much more interesting experiences than mine. A book like Jurgen Ziewe's Multidimensional Man is enough to make me think my OBEs are mostly rubbish.
  
• I shared several of my more interesting OBEs in my first two books.
• I'm saving up my more recent the OBE narratives for another book, which is still a long time away.
  
• Many of my OBEs, especially more recent ones, are deeply personal and I'm not sure I'm ready to share them.
• Even now after 40 years I still feel like some of my experiences make me sound a bit loony.
  

Still, I feel like I should start sharing more of them.

 

I believe that most (or all) of mankind's religious beliefs are the result of someone's personal experience of the divine, and out-of-body experiences offer an ideal way to conduct religious experiments.

 

Over the years I've done several "religious experiments" from the out-of-body state. In December, 2015, I detailed one of those experiments in a blog article titled "Meeting Jesus Christ Face To Face." It was largely excerpted from my second book, Lessons Out of the Body, which is out of print and hard to find.

Here, then, is another religious experiment I did back in 1997, most of which appears in the same chapter in Lessons, titled "Chasing God"):

Kathy and I were at her parents' cabin with some friends. In the mid-afternoon, I lay down to attempt an OBE. I induced the trance, but couldn't sit up, even though I was separate from my body. I struggled a while, then came back.

I decided to try again, so without moving my body, I immediately tried to induce an OBE again. My consciousness was pretty clear. I used a relatively new method that involved intensely imagining that my body was swaying back and forth, swiveling my hips, as if I were standing up and shifting my weight from foot to foot repeatedly. The method worked, and within minutes, I was free from my body again. I made a mental note that I should use this in the future as a method of teaching OBEs.

As soon as I got out, I said, “Yes!” and thought about what I wanted to do. Once again, I tried to sit up and was unable to do so. I struggled a while, then came out of it again.

I induced the OBE state again, reached my arms out in front of me and opened my eyes. I couldn't see my arms, so I knew I was out-of-body for sure. This time I decided to try to contact God.

I stood up, this time successfully. I looked up to the heavens and prayed. I said something like, “God, Almighty, Creator of all things, I reach out for you.” As I said that, I reached up toward the sky with my mind. My soul became charged with energy, and I felt my aura expand in rings of energy out from my astral body.

My energy rose, and reached up to the sky higher and higher. Almost at once, a single bolt of energy came shooting down from above and hit me. The force of the energy bolt was so powerful that it knocked my astral body to the ground. It was just raw power; there was no feeling behind it. I lay there stunned for a second, wondering why I didn't encounter something more religious or loving or holy. Then I came back to my body again. I didn’t feel I was being punished at all; it was more like I had touched an energy force too powerful for me to handle.

I had expected to experience "Transcendence," see "The Light," or maybe some other kind of intense religious experience, but all I got on that particular occasion was raw power, as my astral body lay crumpled on the ground. But it was not my last experiment, and it's not the only one I'll share.

One way to tell the difference between an OBE and a lucid dream is that your expectations are often met in a lucid dream but OBEs usually defy your expectations. Religious OBEs especially seem to defy my expectations every time.

 

By the way: My physical body was not affected by the experience.

Bob Peterson
21 September 2021

Review: Astral Projection by Michael Marr

Review: Astral Projection

by Michael Marr

Today I'm reviewing Astral Projection by Michael Marr. The subtitle is Experience Lucid Dreaming, Hypnogogic [sic] State, Meditation and Prove Your Immortality Ultimate Guide Master to the Art of Lucid Dreaming and Discover Your Own Expanding Consciousness. Whew! That's a mouth full. It was published in January, 2021.

I've complained many times about books that are just knowledge dumps and don't give you any idea the author's level of experience, and this is no exception. There are no personal astral projection narratives or stories. There are no mentions of teachers, gurus or classes. It's just a knowledge dump.

The information Marr gives is actually pretty decent, and most of the book is techniques. Chapter 1 is titled "History of Astral Projection" and like many similar books, this does not go into much detail.

Chapter 2 is how to astral travel. Marr gives very basic instructions including relaxation, meditation, then a few basic techniques:

1. Climb on the Rope - Imagine a rope and slowly climb on it.
2. Float Away - Visualize yourself floating away from your physical body while staying relaxed.
3. Reach for the Object - Imagine a fixed or stationary object.
4. Listen to a binaural beat. (Odd use of the singular instead of beats.)
5. He also gives Sylvan Muldoon's "Thirst" technique.
   

At first I was disappointed. Then I moved on to chapter 3 which is "Advanced Astral Projection Techniques." Here he gives a couple of Robert Monroe's techniques that involve rolling out of your body as in the hammock. Oddly, he says remember not to roll physically, but rather to visualize your astral body rolling out of your physical body. In my opinion, that's often not enough. What I often recommend is that you wait until the vibrations reach their peak intensity, then try to roll out of your body (or stand up, etc.) physically. If you're in the right state, your astral body should move and your physical body should not.

In spite of having described a rope technique in Chapter 2, Marr also gives a more detailed version in chapter 3. This is more like Robert Bruce's original rope technique where you imagine what it would feel like to reach up with your hands grab the rope and pull yourself upwards. Most books don't describe the tactile nature of this technique, so I've got to give him some credit there.

Chapter 4 is "What to Expect in the Astral World" and it's pretty basic stuff.

Chapter 5 is "Water, a Lifeline for Astral Projection!" Now this technique is unique in the genre. Marr gives the following steps for this technique:

1. Creating a Charge - Basically you take a glass of water place it in your hands relax and get comfortable imagine that your right hand is positive and left hand has a negative charge when you hold the glass with both hands placing them on opposite sides of the glass you basically charge the water.
2. Feel the change - Try to feel warm spreading all over through your wrists and hands this is the generation of energy required to "magnetize" the water.
3. Feel the vibrations - Focus on the glass: the increased pulsing sensation makes you feel a vibrating sensation emitting from the glass.
4. Drink the water - And imagine the water charges you.
   
5. Practice - Repeat the above four steps for about a week.
6. Charge the Water again on the 8th day - Charge the water again as before.
7. Cover yourself with white light
8. Deep breathing breath 1 and 2 - breath deeply and holding the breath for about 10 to 12 seconds and then releasing it slowly.
9. Deep breathing breath 3 - On the 3rd breath count up to 12 then release the breath as quickly and forcefully as you can.
10. Practice that over and over.
    

Chapter 6 is "Chakras Expanded." Ho hum.

Chapter 7 is "Acetylcholine Supplements and Memory."

Chapter 8 is "Psychic power is real".

Chapter 9 is "Understanding the Different Planes That Make Up The Human Nature."

Chapter 10 is "Protecting Yourself In The Astral World."

Chapter 11 is "Best Astral Projection Techniques And How To Perform Them." Here he gives some decent information, such as charging up the chakras and:

"You must work to keep your mind active and engaged in the process, or you run the risk of simply falling asleep and missing out on the astral projection experience." (pg. 109)

But the most interesting technique Mar gives is chapter 12 - "The Anchor Technique." I liked this technique best because it reminds me of my own favorite technique: the one I described in chapter 24 of my first book. In my version I:

1. Imagine myself floating and swaying in my bed.
2. Visualize a moving object, like a cube or octahedron floating in space.
3. I pretend the object has a gravity that pulls me toward it.
4. I pretend the object and I swing in an opposite rhythm.
5. When the object gets close to me, I grab onto the object and let the gravity pull me out-of-body.
   

Marr's version is similar, but you visualize or imagine a non-moving stationary object, like a tree. Then you imagine reaching out and pulling yourself toward it. The tree is stationary, so it does not move, and therefore your astral body must move when you pull.

In the same chapter, he gives a variant called the "Moving Anchor Technique" that's even more like mine. You visualize an object, like a television, and imagine it repeatedly swaying back and forth toward you, then away from you. He doesn't give me credit, but this is almost the same as mine and I wonder if he got it from one of my books. (I later revised this technique to use hypnagogic images rather than visualizations because they're easier.)

Chapter 13 is "Protecting Yourself."

Chapter 14 is "Lucid Dreaming." In this chapter he gives some solid lucid dreaming techniques, such as reality checks. Another technique he gives is called "The Diamond Method."

"In this you meditate and visualize your dream life and awake life as facets on a single diamond. Whatever you call the diamond, the aim is for you to realize that everything is happening at once. It is your perception that arranges the events of your life into a linear order.
So therefore your life is like the diamond, each facet can be viewed as a separate experience meaning your waking life and dreaming life exist simultaneously. As you are meditating, shift your awareness from the waking facet to the dreaming facet and you should be able to enter a lucid dream very easily." (pg. 142)

There are a couple more chapters, but basically that's it. The book is 154 pages. The format is somewhat small and the font somewhat large. That means you're getting an adequate amount of content. Still, it's better than a lot of books out there.

I'll give the book 3 and 1/2 stars out of 5.

07 September 2021
---------------------------

If you want me to review a book about out-of-body experiences or astral projection, send me an email: bob@robertpeterson.org, but please check the index first to see if I've already reviewed it. Also, I've got a huge pile of books I'm planning to review, so don't expect a quick turnaround.

If you like my work, visit my website, robertpeterson.org, where you'll find lots of other free OBE advice and links.

Return to the index of my OBE Book reviews

 Getting Out of an OBE Slump Part 2

by Bob Peterson

In my last article, I gave several suggestions on how to break out of an OBE slump or dry spell. These included:

• Adopt Healthy OBE Habits
• Harness unfamiliarity
• Adjust your weight
• Adjust your beliefs
• Adjust your gut microbiome
• Try fasting
• Use the lucid dream portal
• Try broken sleep or WBTB
  

Here are some more things you can try to break out of a slump:

Try my formula for success

This is best explained in my article When All Else Fails: A Formula for OBE Success. Basically, you go to a friend or relative's house, stay up late playing strategy games that require a lot of analytical thinking, then allow yourself to sleep in late. Every time you wake up after six hours of normal sleep, practice your OBE techniques until you're either successful, or fall asleep. If you fall asleep, resume your practice the next time you wake up.

Stay positive

Some authors say that OBEs are nearly impossible if you have "low vibrations" including, but not limited to:

• Being discouraged
• A negative "I can't do this" attitude
• Anger
• Sorrow
• Self-pity
• Sadness
• Depression
  

So do whatever it takes to raise your vibrations. I often find that music is a good way to raise my vibrations. I talked about this in my blog article Raising Your Vibrations.

Eliminate distractions

Some people have a difficult time achieving an out-of-body experience because there are too many distractions: outside noises, lights coming through the windows, cats, dogs or other pets jumping on the bed, self-imposed deadlines.

Try to eliminate these distractions, at least temporarily. For outside noises, use earplugs or noise-canceling headphones. For lights, use a sleep mask that blocks out all the light. Close the door so the pets can't get into your practice room. And practice when you don't have any deadlines.

Reduce your exposure to electronics

Some people claim that electronics, like cell phones, interfere with OBEs. I don't know if that's true, but I do know that when you attend a program at The Monroe Institute, they ask you to shut off all electronic devices, and only use them when necessary. So don't stay up late playing Candy Crush on your phone or iPad before bed, and don't stay up late reading Facebook on your desktop. Remember: this is just temporary until you break your dry spell and induce another OBE. Sometimes you need to make sacrifices.

Do more slow-moving exercises

According to How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain by Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman, many extraordinary states of consciousness occur when there's a sudden drop of neural activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. One of the best way to ramp up that neural activity is with slow-motion exercises like Tai Chi Chuan, Qi Gong, or Yoga. Consider doing a half-hour to an hour of exercises like these, then lie down and go into a state of deep relaxation. When William Buhlman taught OBE classes at the Monroe Institute, most of the students did yoga stretching before their first morning OBE practice. I went to a different room and practiced Tai Chi, which I prefer.

Avoid music the day before OBE practice

I'm a music lover. I love to listen to music under headphones, and I do it a lot. But one of the helpful hints I penned into my early OBE journals is this: For some unknown reason, I'm much more likely to have an OBE if I stop listening to music the day before. So I'd listen to music Monday through Thursday, then I'd have "Music-Free Friday" and I'd perform my OBE attempts on Saturday morning.

Try a hypnotist

Some people can induce an OBE simply by being hypnotized. That goes for self-hypnosis, hypnosis tapes, or a professional. It's worth a shot.

Boat Time

My favorite OBE techniques start with me imagining that my body is gently being rocked forward and backward or side-to-side. That sense of imagined motion is key to letting go of my body. So sometimes if I'm in a slump I'll spend several hours on a boat. I'll go boating or fishing, or maybe just close my eyes and feel the rocking sensation as the boat is rocked with the waves. When I get back on shore I feel "sea legs": the sensation that I'm still rocking when I'm really not. The next time I lie down to perform my OBE technique it's easier to recall the rocking sensation from memory and imagine I'm still rocking as I relax and focus my mind.

Energy Bouncing

In his astral projection books, Robert Bruce recommend "energy bouncing" to loosen yourself from your physical body. This is not part of an exit technique. It's  just a way to loosen the tight grip you have on your physical body. In a way, these are not too different from "Boat Time" above. For example, he suggests:

• Close your eyes and imagine reaching out with nonphysical hands and touching the wall in front of you, then retract and imagine reaching out and touching the wall behind you. Then imagine touching the walls to your sides, etc.
• He also recommends imagining your non-physical energy (instead of your arms and hands), like chi or Qi, extending away from your body and back. 
• He also recommends an energy exercise much like the "microcosmic" orbit taught in Tai Chi in which you imagine nonphysical energy circulating around your body in a full circle, starting from the "Dan Tien" (chakra just below the belly button) down to the root chakra, then back up the spine to the crown chakra and back down to the Dan Tien again.
  

Eliminate roadblocks

Eliminate the common roadblocks that may be keeping you from success. In my next blog article, I'll talk about eliminating roadblocks.

Bob Peterson
24 Aug 2021

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