I was not seeing, but once again mind sensing. I was in a horizontal position about a foot above my body, pointed perpendicularly away my body and about a foot away from the bed. For a second I worried that I might have torn my astral cord and made a permanent projection (death). Then I thought, “Well, it's too late to worry about it now. Either I'm okay or the damage has already been done.” So I ignored it and decided to try to contact LD.
I was groggy. I noticed that I seemed to have a computer printout in my hand, and I felt the need to take this printout with me and show it to LD. I still had that last dream in mind. My bedroom door appeared to be open, although the physical door was really shut. And I somehow believed that LD was upstairs in JP and CA's bedroom. So I took the end of my computer printout and walked into the dining room. I didn't want my computer printout to tear, so I walked very carefully and turned to see how it would unfold itself. The other end was sitting on the floor next to my bed—apart from my body.
I walked backwards and watched it unfold and grow longer with each additional page being unfolded from the main pile. Upon looking back into my room, I saw the printout but no astral cord, so I realized that the unfolding printout was my astral cord (in disguise)! That's why there seemed to be no end to it! It only took the appearance of a printout!
I tried to climb through the ceiling into their apartment but was unsuccessful; I blacked out.
How's that for taking your work home with you? Anyway, since my astral cord didn't break during that experience, I decided not to be so “gentle” the next time I was out! No more Mister Nice Guy!
02/06/82 Sat - OBE #64
…I was in my astral body, swaying. I struggled, and pulled away [from the body] a little bit, but I felt the resistance of my astral cord.
Last night I had been conditioning myself for these problems. I kept saying the following affirmations to myself:
(1) When I am in my astral body, everything is governed by thought, whether conscious or unconscious.
(2) Nothing on earth is solid to me, except in my mind.
(3) I will feel no resistance, nor any restriction of my freedom.
(4) I will be able to go wherever I wish without interruption.
(5) I should be able to see through walls and ceilings.
Well, now I felt the resistance of my astral cord, and I thought, “Hey! This isn't fair! I am projecting and I should be free!” But just then I was violently sucked back into my body after having resisted as long as I could. I woke up in my physical body after a short blackout, and without any ill effects.
I said to myself, “I'm not giving up that easily!” and I tried the same procedure. It was relatively easy this time, and I slipped right out. I pulled away from my body on purpose and started walking toward my bedroom door. This time I could feel my astral cord taking up the slack, and exerting a greater force. I was three feet from my body on the bed, upright and facing my bedroom door.
When I felt my cord starting to tighten, I turned around and faced my body. I'd like to note here that I was only mind sensing during the whole projection. And since I was not “seeing,” I had to feel where my cord was. I felt it, and it was now joined to my astral self at the bottom of my rib cage, or just a little below my heart, and between where the ribs divide going down.
The cord itself felt smooth but very rigid, like a piece of garden hose. The cord was about one centimeter in diameter.
Anyway, I put my hand just above my cord, so that I would see where it was when I woke up. I somehow thought that my physical hand would be moved to that spot too. I got into a kung fu stance with my weight mostly on my back leg. I was now prepared to play tug-of-war with my own astral rope!
I yanked at the cord as hard as I could. I started resisting its pull, and I kept trying to reassure myself that I should, by all rights, be free from this menace.
I resisted the cord's pull for a little while, as long as I could, and then I got sucked back into my body again.
Apparently my kung fu stance didn't help me resist the cord any better. The cord held up against my most determined effort to pull on it, without any damage.
There has been a lot of discussion about the astral cord, what it is and whether or not it exists. Many people who have had out-of-body experiences or near-death experiences have reported seeing a cord or cable linking their astral body to their physical body. People from all societies and all parts of the world have reported seeing a cord regardless of location, age, and religious beliefs.
Just as many people don't see any silver cord, even when they look for one and even when they expect to see one. I've had OBEs in which I have seen a cord and ones in which there was apparently no cord. I personally believe that the astral cord exists only as a psychological comfort or point of reference. I don't believe it has any actual connection with the physical body. Also, I don't believe it has any function, except as a psychological symbol.
I don't believe that playing with the silver cord can damage the body, nor do I believe that the body will die if the cord is severed. However, I caution you against such antics, just to be safe.
EXERCISE 13
black box visualization
Here is another visualization exercise: Get into your favorite OBE practice position, close your eyes, and relax as completely as you can. Let yourself fall deeper and deeper toward sleep until you are consciously watching hypnogogic images.
Then visualize that a black box, about three inches on a side, is sitting three feet in front of your eyes and slightly to the left of the center of your imaginary viewing screen. Hold that visualization for about thirty seconds.
Next, visualize a cloud of gray, about the same size, sittingtothe right of the box. The cloud has no definite shape, but it is taller than it is wide, looking almost like a snowman. Visualize the two figures side by side for another thirty seconds.
Next, visualize a thread of light slowly reaching from the black box to the gray blob. It reaches closer and closer until it reaches the gray blob, filling it with light. If you feel any strange sensations, remain calm and follow your impulses.
If nothing happens, repeat the visualization again from the beginning a few times. Make sure you do it slowly and as vividly as you can.
What in the world does this do? Well, I once used this visualization to leave my body. During the visualization, I felt a sharp sensation along my spinal column, and I got the urge to physically throw myself backward into the bed. I followed the impulse and tried to throw myself backward, but only my astral body moved, and I was out of my body. It was a very easy OBE. I don't know how or why it worked, but it did.
CHAPTER 14
a helping hand
My third travel strategy, walking, was as unsuccessful as the first two strategies. The silver cord and other things kept me from my destinations, and I was very disappointed. Nevertheless, I wasn't ready to give up.
Then, during one of my longest OBEs, I got brave and tried another strategy. I reasoned that the residents of the OBE-world should be more adept at traveling than I was. And since I wasn't having much success at traveling by myself, I decided to ask someone for help.
Until that time, I was content to explore on my own. I was afraid to contact “spirits” because I wasn't too sure of their power and what they could do to me when I was “out.”
07/25/82 Sun - OBE #80
…I was completely out of my body…. I opened my eyes. I seemed to be stuck to my physical body. I tried to use my arms to turn myself around and get away from the body. And although I felt I was turning, my eyes told me I wasn't moving at all. I looked carefully and I was still in the same position. It was like being dizzy—I seemed to sense motion (spinning) but I wasn't going anywhere. I thought about this for a little while. I thought for a minute about what I should do to get away from my body. Then I blacked out.
I came to in my physical body, totally conscious, but in a very good condition for projection. I decided to try again. I used the same sw
aying method to get out of my body again. I tried to push my midsection up and down until I felt a slight tingling of the vibrations, then I tried physically to do the same thing. 1 gathered momentum by swaying, and I was pulled by it out of my body.
I separated from my body, only to discover I was stuck to my body again. I thought about it some more. I figured that the only way I could move was to close my eyes and trust my feelings instead of my eyes.
I closed my eyes but immediately thought, “No! If I close my eyes I might fall asleep!” If I have been reading for an hour, and I close my eyes, I knew this was very likely. So although I had started to move, I decided to open my eyes, and saw that I was again in the same place.
I thought of another way: if I could change my vision to purely astral vision, I should be okay, I thought. So I lifted my arms out in front of me, and I tried to see clairvoyantly…I looked at my arms, not astrally, but clairvoyantly, as if trying to see a spirit from the physical world. My arms looked like transparent, dark black filmy shadows. I studied them for a while, then blacked out.
This time I woke up separate from my body, but inside it. I was surprised at that, and was very happy to still be out of the body. I seemed to be freer now than before. I walked over to the north wall of my bedroom after sitting up, without even noticing the physical things in my way—my stereo cabinet and my computer terminal and cabinet. I planned to go outside through the wall and then fly to LD's house.
I bent forward and stuck my head through the wall. I was looking outside. It was lightly raining, but it was hardly noticeable. Every previous attempt at walking through that wall had not worked, so I tried something different—keeping my head outside, I jumped up in the air, and did a somersault through the wall, and landed outside on my feet. I was free!
I walked to the back yard. I was preparing to fly, but I wanted a clear flying path. The ash tree was once again in my way. I walked near it, and then I jumped up and flew to one of its limbs. I was perched on an ash tree limb. I saw the apple tree next door, and some other trees. I thought, “How stupid of me to try to go through the tree. There are just more trees. I could have just walked to our alley and taken off there.” But now I was up in a tree! I looked down. It was a long fall. I was afraid of jumping from that height! I considered the possibility of flying to the apple tree. I was just about to try it, but then I blacked out once more.
I was unconscious for a little while—maybe fifteen to thirty seconds. Then I woke up again. I was still out of my body! This experience was not unlike the first two. I was curious about that clairvoyant vision again. I held up my arms again and studied them carefully with clairvoyant vision. I was able to alter my vision so that I could totally see my astral hands as solid, not transparent, but I had to focus on them intently to see them this way. I experimented with that clairvoyant sight for awhile, then I lost consciousness again.
I was unconscious again for a short time, and I woke up once more out of my body! I was free again, and I rejoiced! I went over to the north wall again. I bent over and did another somersault to get outside. I got a brilliant idea then: “I'll call for help from guides!”
No sooner had I done this than I felt the presence of a very advanced, great being. I couldn't see him, but I felt he had a very large aura. I figured that I couldn't see him because his vibrations were much higher than mine.
He called mentally and two of his spirit friends came. These two friends, I felt, were less developed than the master whose presence I felt. They were servants of that powerful being. They weren't bound to him, but they always did what he asked, because serving him was their way to advance themselves spiritually. He told his friends exactly what to do. I didn't hear them exactly, but I could tell he instructed them to accompany me to LD's house.
The two friends were normal-looking spirits that were my own size. And I could see them all right. They were very friendly to me, and we became friends right away. These two spirits were average-looking men. One had brown hair, and the other had slightly lighter-colored, sandy brown hair. They were happy, and they were good friends. The “master” spirit left. Unfortunately I blacked out.
When I woke up again, I was still out of body. The three of us were walking east on Larpendeur Avenue toward Snelling Avenue. The two friends were talking. I tried to memorize pieces of evidence that I could look for later to prove the experience was “real,” but I forgot them all.
After we walked for a little while, I suddenly felt a pain. I felt sick to my stomach and weak. I had to an urge to go back to my body. I didn't want to fight the feeling. I knew I had to get back to that body. I stopped them and said I was sorry, but I had to get back to my body. They were very understanding about the whole thing. One said, “Sure thing. Take it easy, okay?” So we exchanged our goodbyes.
I faced east and closed my eyes. There was no lapse of consciousness; I saw complete blackness for a little while. I woke up out of my body again! I got up and thought, “How strange! Why did we bother walking—why didn't we just fly to LD's? This time I should fly there. Walking is way too slow.” I stood up, and this time I blacked out. I was unconscious for a while.
Then I started dreaming. I dreamed I was having an OBE, but it was very obviously a dream, and not a real OBE.
EXERCISE 14
imaginary music
This exercise comes from a friend, JH. He used this exercise to leave his body:
First, get comfortable and relax as much as possible. Then choose a song you know very well. As vividly as you can, pretend the song is playing. Try to focus your complete attention on the music you are listening to in your imagination. Practice this until it seems as if the music is really playing. Again, try for as much realism as possible.
JH says when you can imagine the music clearly, the music can easily turn into the vibrations, and you can easily escape your body.
Some people are better at using their imaginations with sound rather than pictures. Try both and see which works best for you.
CHAPTER 15
what astral programmers
do in their sleep
Many books on out-of-body experiences, especially those of occult origin, say that we subconsciously leave our bodies and do “astral work” during sleep. The trouble is, they usually don't say what astral work is, except maybe helping people with their “final transition,” death.
My first OBE, with the split-consciousness, showed me that parts of the psyche can be very active during sleep. But I never considered myself an astral social worker by night. That is, until the morning of Tuesday, September 1, 1981, when I had my 46th OBE.
Sometime after midnight, I unexpectedly woke up out of my body. When I awoke, I was standing next to my bed in the middle of my bedroom. I was a bit surprised, but before I could gather my wits about me, I was “put under” by my subconscious. It felt as if I were knocked out by a professional anesthesiologist.
A while later, I woke up out of my body a second time. Again, I was standing in the middle of my bedroom. This experience was also cut short when I was “put under” by my subconscious.
It seemed an hour or so passed. Then, just as in my first OBE, I slowly started to become more conscious, and I was aware of having multiple consciousness. My awareness increased until I was fully conscious, but this time my conscious self was an observer. I was allowed to watch with astral vision, but I wasn't in control. Another part of me was running the show, doing some very serious work, and knew all the tools of the trade. What I saw was astounding.
I was gliding slowly up from below, until I saw what looked like a human brain. I could sense the body it belonged to. Somehow, I knew it was my own body. The brain looked like about one hundred small spheres of light, grouped in the shape of a human brain. Each sphere had a different brightness. I noticed that four particular spheres were shining brighter than the rest, and I knew they had been cut off from the other spheres. Using my mind tools, I worked for about ten minutes adjusting neural pathways, “rewir
ing,” and manipulating energy. Then I recharged the four spheres with energy. Next, I programmed the brain so that it would use different neurological connections and make automatic adjustments! I was a psychic healer in my sleep!
Satisfied with my work, I left. I approached a second brain and followed the same process. I rewired, transferred energy, then programmed the brain to aid in the healing process. After I was finished with the second brain, I worked on a third and then a fourth.
The fifth brain was a much more difficult case. As I approached the brain, I could tell that it belonged to a forty-year-old woman with dark hair. Like the others, she had some physical problem, and I sensed many damaged parts of her body.
I went through the same sort of procedure. I looked at the brain and saw many messed-up spheres. I sensed that she had stopped using certain parts of her brain until she had lost the use of these spheres. I pulled myself very close to those spheres as if I were looking through a magnifying glass, and began to work. I worked for about an hour on her, “rewiring” and opening pathways. I transferred a lot of energy to her. My energy spread throughout her body, healing as much damage as possible. Then I spent a long time programming her brain to heal her body. As I left, her body and brain were both busy with the healing process.
As I approached a sixth brain, the observing part of my psyche began to gain more control. As this happened, I was poured like a liquid into my body. As I came to, I was in complete awe. I looked at my clock and saw it was 2:00 A.M. I went over the experience several times in my mind so I would not forget. Then I drifted off toward sleep.
At once, I saw another brain. Then my subconscious realized that “I” was consciously tagging along again. It quickly went back to my body and I woke up again. I dozed off again and this time I was out cold. My subconscious didn't take me along this time. The next memory I have is of dreaming sometime later in the night.
Out-of-Body Experiences Page 9