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and "Backwards Traveler" by Paul McCartney.
Physical Preparation
The best time to attempt an OBE is in the morning, after you have woken up naturally (i.e., not from an
alarm clock.) Since most of us work during the week, it's easier to try on the weekends. Give your body
plenty of rest. Each person needs a different amount of sleep. The trick is to make your body tired
enough to stay in a relaxed state, but not too tired. If I don't sleep enough, I'm too tired and fall back into
a deep sleep while practicing. If I oversleep and then practice, I am too wide awake and can't focus well.
The body should be well rested but relaxed, and the mind must be alert.
When the time comes to practice, try to detect how tired you are. If you're too tired, stretch a little in bed
or shake the sleep off. Some people may want to get up first and have a cup of coffee first. This will
usually keep you from falling back to sleep during practice. It is better to wake yourself up completely
before starting.
Music is wonderful for relaxation and calming the mind. It's okay to listen to relaxing music during your
OBE practice, but this can also work against you: Listening to external sounds can distract you from
focusing inward. Also, if you listen to music before bedtime, you may be too relaxed and sleepy to
practice the next morning.
When you practice, make sure you have good circulation. Get into a position where your limbs won't
"fall asleep" because of poor circulation.
Make sure you won't be distracted during practice. Keep your windows closed to keep noises out, unplug
the telephone, turn off all televisions, radios and other noisy things. Don't set any time limits on your
practice. It is counter-productive to check the time and wonder if your time limit is up. Also, make sure
your bladder is empty before practice; The need to go to the bathroom can ruin a good practice.
STEP 1. Relaxation
The next important condition for OBE induction is a completely relaxed physical body. Relaxation is
important because if you aren't relaxed, you'll have too much consciousness focused in your body.
Laboratory tests on astral travelers have shown (with the help of BSR and GSR skin resistance monitors)
that the physical body is more relaxed during an OBE than during sleep. Ideally, your physical body
should be completely relaxed in every respect during practice. I recommend practicing relaxation every
day until you can completely relax your physical body in a few minutes.
Relax your body from limb to limb, working from your feet up to your head, until even your face is
completely relaxed. Use any technique you are comfortable with to relax completely. If you don't know
any relaxation techniques, do this: Systematically tighten each muscle and make it tense until there is a
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slight fatigue, then let go and feel the muscle relax. After you've relaxed every muscle, start over and
check every muscle again.
You may notice that the more relaxed your body is, the less you can actually "feel" it. Encourage this
feeling: While you're relaxing, pretend as vividly as you can that you do not have your left arm; as if it's
been cut off and you can't feel it. When the sensation of having no arm becomes quite real to you, that
arm is very relaxed. Next, pretend that your other arm does not exist. Next, your legs. Have some playful
fun by pretending that your arms are in different positions, and see how vividly you can imagine these
things. If you are able to lose all feeling in your arms and legs, or imaginarily feel they are in different
positions, your body is very relaxed.
Next, relax your face completely. Here's one way to relax your face: With your eyes closed, stare deeper
and deeper into the blackness, while very slowly tightening your eyebrows and rolling your eyes up
slightly until your eyebrow muscles become tired. Then completely relax your facial muscles for about
15 seconds. Repeat the process again until your eyebrow muscles are tired again, and relax again for
another 15 seconds. Repeat this process about six or seven times. Completely relax your whole body
again and then try to make your mind blank and relaxed too. The vibrations may even come at this point,
making the rest of the process unnecessary! After you're completely relaxed, pay no more attention to
your body.
STEP 2. Quiesce and Focus Your Mind
This is the Single Most Important step. There are five key points to focusing your mind for OBE
induction. They are: state of mind, realism, motion, receptivity and passivity.
When you are trying to leave your body the most important thing is your state of mind. When I've been
in an "ideal" state of mind, leaving my body seems like child's play, as easy and natural as breathing. But
when I'm not in that state of mind it seems very difficult. I can't "teach" this state of mind but I can
describe what it's like. Once you've experienced astral projection you'll know what state of mind to aim
for. The best state of mind is one in which you are a quiet, completely passive, single-minded observer.
In this passive state, your mind does not wander. You are not emotional. You are not analytical either.
You are merely an observer. Visualization is important in many OBE techniques and this passive state of
mind makes it easier to visualize images a long time without your mind "wandering."
The second point, realism, has to do with the degree of focus. This world seems real to us because we are
so focused here. You should learn to focus outside your body to such a degree that it all becomes real.
Focus your mind into that single thread of consciousness.
The third point, motion, concerns the swaying motion you feel within your body. I start an inner
"swaying" sensation in my imagination that later becomes quite real. Then I use the momentum of the
swaying to propel myself out of my body. Pretend that your body is gently swaying back and forth, or
left to right in a regular motion. Try to make this swaying feeling as vivid as possible.
The fourth point is receptivity. This receptive state of mind is important in calling or inducing the
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