Wind of the Soul » Altered States of Consciousness

Understanding Death through Consciously Living Life

John Wolfe — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:35:08 +0000

I just found out a recent acquaintance of mine passed away. We weren’t friends. We actually spoke only briefly a couple of times. But the fact our last conversation occurred a few days prior to her passing is what prompted me to write today’s entry. It never ceases to amaze me how our consciousness can be physically focused one minute and then “gone” the next. I suppose no matter my state of comprehension, regarding the subject of death, I will always be taken aback at that one simple realization.

Many years ago, I spent a lot of time pondering over whether or not we even survive the process of dying. After much soul searching and exploration into the subject, including my own personal experiences with astral projection, I came to the conclusion that a form of our awareness does continue on. Just what that form may consist of and if it’s indeed eternal with regards to our individual personality, I can’t say for certain.

In fact, I don’t believe anyone can ever unequivocally answer those questions from their current physical position, no matter how spiritual, psychic they are, or “who” they may be capable of channeling. Thankfully, developing a broader perspective and a deeper, more conscious understanding does not hinge on the necessity of being able to completely answer those questions. I believe our own inner knowledge may eventually negate the need to find those answers anyway, but that is something I’m still discovering.

Now, I don’t concern myself with these topics because I’m fearful of losing my identity when death washes over me. Rather, I do it because I’m intrigued with the mystery and am interested in trying to obtain some form of deeper understanding, if possible. This is why I continue to conduct my own experiments into altered states of consciousness. These states allow me to have a better appreciation for consciousness itself, as well as providing me with the ability to find new interpretations on our existence.

I believe our best method for not only trying to understand death, but to also release much of our fears associated with it, is through exploring and utilizing wider aspects of consciousness. Consciousness appears to be the only constant, whether we’re physically focused or not. If anything can provide us with some form of insight into the afterlife, it would have to be the further development of our own awareness of the here and now.

In my opinion, that specific form of awareness is not typically developed through ordinary interactions and so called social obligations, such as going to school, to work, shopping, dining out or watching television. While we are (somewhat) active in those situations and we may even be learning something new, we are usually utilizing rudimentary levels of our conscious abilities. It’s these cursory levels scientists are referring to when they speak of human kind only using ten percent of their brain potential.

In scientific pursuits there has to be something quantifiable and measurable. Scientists can’t measure or test for the source of consciousness so they don’t give it any attention, but they can measure the manner in which the brain fires and at what capacity. Since I tend to view the brain as the link up between the body and soul, as opposed to seeing it as the source of consciousness; I believe we can take these scientific findings and apply them to that which is metaphysical. In other words, as most of us are going through the typical, average, ordinary motions of our lives, we are only tapping into and allowing a fraction (10%) of our soulful consciousness to flow.

Here’s the thing, though: despite how it may feel, there are no typical, average moments in life. It’s not the fault of the tasks we undertake or what’s happening in each second that causes us to utilize less than ninety percent of our potential. Instead, I believe it’s the way we consciously (or unconsciously) process the moments in which those events are occurring.

We have been trained and programmed to view our experiences through an extremely narrow lens. The narrower the lens is, the smaller the percentage of consciousness that’s being utilized. This has little to do with intelligence. Someone can be highly intelligent, but still employ very little of their potential for conscious expansion.

When I initially decided to write this post, I considered stating more of my opinions about what may be waiting for us once we cross over. In fact, I actually wrote two pages pertaining to my ideas regarding the after life, but I decided to erase them. When I started writing this entry for a second time, I began using the process I’m encouraging in this post.

I made a conscious decision to try and employ more than the ten percent my opinions (as seen through my narrow lens) would have afforded. My impressions and ideas about something as enigmatic as what awaits us beyond death will do very little to help you find your own answers. In striving to empower you, the reader, by speaking of methods to enhance and expand upon the way you interpret each moment of your life experience; I feel I’m utilizing a larger portion of my conscious abilities. I believe the best way to understand death is to more clearly and presently experience life, instead of barely thinking and acting from automation or rote. Blindly following other people’s interpretations of life, as well as death, is what places so many of us in primarily an “unconscious,” disconnected state throughout our lives.

So, what does an enhanced, conscious clarity of physical existence have to do with better understanding death? As we continue walking around in a daze about our role in life and who we are, we stifle our emotions and become disconnected from feeling our feelings and actions. We eventually shut down deeper modes of understanding and limit our perceptions. As our perceptions become more and more dulled, it’s natural to transfer those same limiting views over to our ideas concerning death. If we are already living a stifled form of life, there’s no way we can have a broader more aware take on the mortality of our physical vehicles. This is why the statement: “many people have died years before they’re actually buried” is so true.

To become fully aware throughout your day; seeing events and experiences through “new” eyes and finding ways to think and feel that have quite possibly never been accessed before is the most empowered form of living. I believe this in turn helps us to become more empowered in our views on death and dying.

If we have the ability to truly feel what our consciousness is (it’s definitely not automation) and what’s it’s capable of, then we will know it is impossible for something so immense to be snuffed out when we pass on. As we begin to see our unlimited potential unfold while we are seizing not only the day, but each moment of it, it becomes easier to grasp how that which flows through us will always continue on in some way and in some form.

I have written several articles contained here at Wind of the Soul which go into great detail regarding techniques for becoming more consciously aware and present. Several of these can be accessed through the links in the related posts section.

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Podcast #9: Out of Body Experience Techniques

John Wolfe — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:13:40 +0000

Following in the footsteps of my seventh and eighth recordings, this ninth episode features a narration of one of my earlier posts, Techniques For Achieving an OBE. The episode runs 20 minutes, 38 seconds and the file size is 18.8 MB (for downloading).

This recording can be streamed in the player in the podcast section or played here directly: Out of Body Experience Techniques.

Episode nine features:

- Easy to follow tips for learning basic meditation
- A discussion on the “still point” and why it’s the most advantageous state for achieving astral projection
- Methods for finding the still point in meditation and how this aids us in projecting at bedtime (the most beneficial time to practice out of body experiences)
- The importance of utilizing visualization techniques to create the feeling of motion
- A discussion on sensations and symptoms, which indicate a projection may be imminent

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Maintaining Perspective amidst Spiritual Pursuits

John Wolfe — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:28:51 +0000

The idea of maintaining proper perspective is vitally important along any spiritual path. Exploring our inner nature without paying close attention to the alterations which may be occurring to our perceptions can be problematic. These alterations can aid us immensely; taking our conscious awareness into new states of mind and being which enhance our physical lives.

However, when we allow these same alterations to consistently take us away from a balanced center, they have the potential for being detrimental. It’s similar to having access to a hammer- if properly employed (along with many other tools and supplies); it can construct a beautiful home. Yet, if we turn around and wield it improperly, that same hammer is capable of destruction.

Coming to a better understanding of our spiritual nature, even from a very mystical point of view, is about positively augmenting our lives. It’s about enriching who we are internally and then projecting that enrichment outward as it blends with our external experience.

While these forms of enrichment and their specific details are unique to each person (and no one can tell anyone else how they should experience this); relatively speaking, they will always be uplifting. They should only increase the joy in our physical lives; never detract from it.

My ideas regarding spirituality most definitely encompass mystical philosophies and experiences, yet for me, it’s imperative I find a way to incorporate that knowledge in a grounded manner. While attaching physical labels to such experiences never does them justice; trying to keep one foot in both “worlds”, or worse- both feet solely in that world, doesn’t cut it either. I feel I want to find a way to acknowledge and learn from things like my own out of body experiences and altered states of consciousness, yet practically apply what I learned “there”, back here, in my real life.

Many individuals are living a life of escapism through their so called spiritual endeavors. They’ve convinced themselves spirituality is about following dogmatic practices or seeing through social constructs, all for the purpose of eventually being rescued from this world. Many even claim to have received channeled messages informing them of the exact date and time this will occur. The “rescue me” mentality breeds a detachment from physical reality. The purpose of this post is not to judge their actions, but to illustrate a shifting of that metaphorical hammer from constructive to destructive.

Spirituality is about seeing through constructs (social or otherwise) and understanding why those constructs are there in the first place. However, it’s not about educating ourselves for the reward of being removed from physical life by some religious deity, super “entity”, or supposed enlightened extraterrestrial civilization. It’s about seeing through the veil to enrich our physical lives, right here and now. The sooner we quit trying to escape our perceived problems, whether physically or metaphysically and we actively start working our way toward our own emotional/psychological “salvation”, the better.

Now, I’m not saying there aren’t other intelligent civilizations throughout the Universe or religious avatars residing a dimensional shift away. I’m saying some people have a tendency, once they begin experiencing metaphysical or mystical encounters (or believing in the experiences of others), to lose touch with their center.

There is absolute legitimacy to mystical experiences, but that legitimacy resides in another “place” or as Jane Roberts called it- “an inner order of events.” And often times, this inner order cannot be literally translated into our outer physical circumstances. Some force the issue anyway, never realizing the potential problems associated with doing so. As they try to overlay it entirely on the physical structure, they can begin losing rational semblance of physical perception.

In my opinion, spirituality should never stunt any area of our lives and it’s definitely not an either or thing- meaning were either spiritual beings or physical humans. I believe we’re both, simultaneously, and because of this it’s important to find a way to merge the two while keeping our feet on the ground.

It is definitely a delicate balance, but for all intents and purposes, I feel, spirituality should always lean toward a more practical application in our lives. Spiritual growth is about staying open, along with exploring and intelligently applying what we’ve learned, but it’s also about always maintaining and enhancing the connection to our physical life experience, while we still have it.

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Q & A: Comas & the Astral Plane

John Wolfe — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:37:01 +0000

Question: My question pertains to the comatose state. Could you give your opinion on comas and whether or not you believe there’s a connection between the consciousness of a coma patient and the astral plane? Despite the fact most patients appear unresponsive, is their consciousness fully aware and possibly traveling outside the body? – Sheena

Answer: I absolutely believe comas provide the means for a patient’s awareness to pursue nonphysical realms. However, I can’t say for certain they are actually spending time on the astral plane. I feel the term astral plane has become a sort of catch all for anything deemed nonphysical, but I do believe the coma patient’s consciousness is extremely busy exploring other avenues of existence.

If we have what many call a higher self (and I believe we do), then that higher self has the ability to extend into many other environments while its focus vehicle rests in a hospital bed, or anywhere else for that matter. I actually believe our higher self is focusing upon several states of existence and physical vehicles simultaneously, at all times, but we are only aware of this one specific personality with which we primarily identify. I spoke about this theory in Altered States of Consciousness & Aspects of Awareness.

If we think of a coma in terms of a really deep state of sleep, then we can more easily understand the manner in which our consciousness shifts its focus away from the physical body. I believe the dream environments we encounter on a nightly basis are evidence of the voyages our awareness takes while our bodies are at rest. The coma would be very similar to this, only from a deeper point of “suspended animation,” regarding the patient’s body.

Now, based on your question, it sounds like you may also be asking why people go into comas from a metaphysical standpoint? This I can’t be certain about, but I believe comas may be a way for the higher self to protect the focus personality and the physical vehicle belonging to the comatose patient. This may be just as true of medically induced comas as it is of those resulting from accidents or medical conditions.

If our higher awareness feels it’s in our best interest, especially if someone has undergone some traumatic event, then these events may be better dealt with by withdrawing a portion of awareness from the physical shell. This allows the physical body to tend to itself while the personality, we associate with that body, explores further into other states of being.

The bottom line is those individuals that have entered into comas are absolutely fine. Our conscious awareness transcends this plane of time and space along with the physical vehicle, whether someone is asleep, in a coma, experiencing an altered state, or has passed on.

Transcending is an easy concept to toss around, but it’s not easy to imagine or understand if we haven’t actually been completely, consciously aware during our dreams or other altered states. If we are capable of retaining consciousness during out of body experiences or becoming lucid during dreams, then we are provided with a window into a truer nature of who we are; and often times, in a way that’s far more meaningful than our waking reality.

An individual that has entered into a coma is doing so for a reason that is beneficial for them at a deeper level of their being, but what that reason is can only be considered conjecture, to a certain extent, on my part. However, you are absolutely on the right track in considering that comas and astral projection have something in common. They both share the common bond of the expansive experience of our awareness beyond the physical body.

I’d like to thank Sheena for her thought provoking question. If you have a self help, spiritual development, or metaphysical question you would like to see addressed in a blog post, feel free to contact me. Your name will always be kept anonymous, unless you request otherwise.

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Ineffable States of Enlightenment

John Wolfe — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:10:53 +0000

“A fly wanders back and forth through the air, then lands on the window pane. It launches itself, flies for two feet, then lands on the glass again. It continues to walk around, on the glass, never finding the exit.

“It doesn’t know that there is an opening in the window just a few feet away. You and I can see the opening because we have the big picture. If only the fly would un-limit itself, get the bigger picture, and allow itself the freedom and perspective to fly higher, it could rise above it all and be free.

“Instead, it is content to wander aimlessly. Now I tell you: You are that fly. You know the way out. But You Choose to Ignore it.” – excerpted from Lessons Out of the Body, by Robert Peterson

In my last post I discussed the concept of letting go and how I’m learning to apply it in a very specific area of my life. However, I’ve also come to realize letting go, in other areas, can lead to some of the most profound experiences of our lives. If we could learn to release our over attachment to beliefs, circumstances and ideas, we could expand our perspectives immensely. It’s this expansion of perspective that will continue to prevent us from stagnating in every experience of consciousness we encounter.

I used Robert Peterson’s quote, pertaining to the fly, to illustrate how we are always just a short distance away from entering into a brand new state of ever unfolding enlightenment. The fly quickly becomes accustomed to only seeing what’s right directly in front of it. Even though the exit exists just a few feet away, it often chooses the bondage of what’s familiar over a journey into more expansive experiences.

Are any of us really that different than the fly crawling around on a pane of glass, always missing the obvious? We gravitate towards appealing ideas and beliefs out of habit and fear; hoping for something, anything to provide salvation. Often times, our determination to make that form of salvation the only way enchains us in shackles that bind, limit and define us for the rest of our lives. Those self limiting concepts can prevent us from finding our own individual opening in the window.

There’s not one set of teachings: religious, spiritual, new age, channeled, self help, personal development, or otherwise that will ever have all of the answers. Every one of them, if you’re not aware, can eventually trap you right back on the window pane. As you’re lulled into believing you’ve finally arrived at THE one truth, you’ll continue to miss the opening that’s waiting just beyond your own limiting beliefs. Our perspective is forever expanding, if we’d only choose to see it that way.

It’s for this reason I stated there is no truth and truth is all there is, in my post Discovering the Truths of Your Existence. By this statement I meant that there’s no ultimate truth out there because your personal truth is all that exists. We each continue to define ourselves based upon this, yet we simultaneously expect the world around us to behave according to our standards of that truth. And each individual aspect of consciousness within the world is reacting to its own version.

People are quick to argue (and a lot worse) over which religion is right or which philosophy or self-help guru has the correct angle. The problem with this line of thinking is simple: none of them can ever be eternally correct. They will all have bits of truth residing within, but just as soon as we assume any one is the be all end all, we have again lost sight of the open window. And the more vehemently we cling to that idea as the only truth in life, the further away from the opening we continue to crawl; turning our back on the way out.

Our beliefs not only shape and limit our experiences in this physical plane of existence, but they may very well do the same once we shift our focus into the nonphysical. In Robert Monroe’s book Far Journeys, he spoke about how our expectations and beliefs create the locations we encounter once we pass into the nonphysical.

During his out of body journeys, on the astral plane, Monroe encountered what he called belief systems, full of souls, which were set up according to religious affiliation and denomination. These souls had already crossed over, yet they had built entire communities on the astral that resembled their physical counterparts. They would attend church along with other “earthly” activities. Some were even still waiting for Christ to meet them when they died, despite the fact they were already dead!

Monroe would do his best to try and coax them out of their belief systems. His intentions were to show that there were more amazing environments (since he had witnessed some of them) beyond their self imposed restrictive communities. The only limit to these other amazing, expansive environments was their own ability to fathom the potentials and possibilities. Some came along with him and others reluctantly stayed behind, turning their back, once again, on the opening in the window.

Obviously, I can’t write about there not being an ultimate external truth and then say for certain Monroe’s experiences were the definitive answer pertaining to the afterlife. However, I believe his experiences do provide us with another clue in our journey. We must use all of the teachings that are available to us as stepping stones towards finding our inner version of truth. And know that even this truth continues to expand and change because that’s the nature of consciousness and this entire Universe.

While I feel our physical environment is loaded with many excellent teachings and teachers; each one is only capable of delivering their truth that is currently stemming from their present perspective in the moment of now. Yet the next moment of now is not the same as the previous one because everything has expanded once again, due to the nature of consciousness. If the Universe, both its physical and nonphysical equivalents, continues to expand, then what are the odds that only one set of teachings, religious or otherwise, is the only universal truth out there?

I’m not suggesting we should cease broadening our horizons through exploring spiritual teachings, philosophies and religions. I’m suggesting we take those teachings for what they’re worth and remember they may have some valid application based upon our current state of awareness only. And as we continue to expand, those same teachings may eventually serve to limit us. Just imagine, since you started reading this sentence the Universe has expanded and subtly changed and it will do so again by the time you come to the period at the end of this paragraph.

The Universe does not stand still, nor does consciousness. If both were stagnant, then perhaps one set of teachings would suffice forever, but that’s not the case. As this conscious Universe continues to expand, teachings from two days ago and even two thousand years ago cannot consistently apply to the farthest reaches of our physical and nonphysical awareness, in this new, present moment of unexplored existence.

Step on the stones of those teachings that have been previously laid before you and continue stepping without hesitation. Pass easily and freely through each new opening in the window panes of your life. As you reach uncharted waters, consistently go within to allow your own present truth to shine forth, moving you beyond the next and the next; always understanding the experience will never cease to change and expand. And always knowing that is exactly how it’s meant to be.

Let go, allowing yourself to flow freely toward your ever developing, ineffable state of enlightenment. For this is not a destination of achievement; it’s a state of forever becoming.

If you’re interested in learning more about Robert Peterson, along with his spiritual insights and experiences out of the body, I highly recommend visiting his website. Both of his books can be found there, free of charge.

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Q & A: Out of Body Noises & Sensations

John Wolfe — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:47:24 +0000

Question: During out of body experiences I’ve encountered many sounds and sensations in my room, around my bed, and near my body. If our astral bodies are pure energy, then why would they create or make sounds we normally associate with our physical bodies? If these sounds and sensations are not related to our astral energy, then what do you think causes them? –Cynthia S.

Answer: The subject of astral “symptoms” is one that I’ve spent a lot of time experiencing, pondering, and writing about. There are many possibilities for answering your question.

Most of the out of body literature points to the fact the majority of sounds and sensations occur just prior to full projection. It seems to me there is an incredible amount of energy being built up during the pre-projection phase.

With that in mind, I have noticed an interesting coincidence between OBE symptoms and the encounters a lot of these ghost hunting groups stumble upon: there’s usually a sudden drop in temperature near the physical body, an increase in strange environmental sounds, internal shifts in awareness, the sensation of being touched, feeling off balance, compression and heaviness, and expansion of the self.

Mind you, these symptoms don’t always happen to astral travelers, nor do they always occur for ghost hunting groups. However, there are a lot of consistent similarities in the occurrence of these symptoms (in both groups) that crop up more frequently than by chance alone.

The only obvious answer for this, in my mind, would be due to changes in the electromagnetic fields around the physical body. This may be just as true for ghost hunters as it is for astral travelers. When ghost hunting groups walk into an area where high readings of electromagnetism are present, they usually encounter strange physical symptoms, along with paranormal experiences.

Since many of the encounters they experience are similar to the symptoms encountered by out of body travelers, it would stand to reason that the pre-projection phase may be causing an increase in the levels of the electromagnetic field around the physical vehicle.

Since we still have a connection to the physical body during the entire out of body experience, then the symptoms are probably due to our skin, ears, etc. detecting this large energy shift. In fact, I’m really interested in testing this theory. I’m going to purchase an electromagnetic field (EMF) detector and try to get some readings during the onset of these pre-projection symptoms. I’ll let you know about my findings.

Another possibility is that the sensations and sounds are related to the astral vehicle, through a mechanism we have no way of fully understanding. Robert Monroe, in his book Journeys Out of the Body, proved that the astral body has the ability to impact physical matter.

Monroe projected his consciousness and used his intentions to draw himself to the location of a coworker. Once there, he found her sitting at her kitchen table. He needed a way to make contact that would be obvious and could not be mistaken as a coincidence. So, he decided to try and pinch her just above the waistline. She flinched and let out a squeal. He was satisfied he had made sufficient and memorable contact.

A few days later he asked her about the circumstances and she confirmed something had indeed pinched her, but was uncertain what had caused it. She then raised her shirt just above her waistline to reveal a small bruise, in the exact same location, created by Monroe’s pinch while traveling the astral plane.

Robert Monroe’s ability to impact the physical environment mimics the abilities that ghosts (if they are truly conscious forms of energy) seem to possess. We think of ghosts as being vaporous aspects, minus any physical appendages, yet despite this fact they seem to be capable of moving physical objects and creating sounds.

So, our astral bodies may be causing very similar occurrences as we draw closer to projection. When we project we may have more in common with ghosts than we realize. The only difference is our consciousness is still partially attached to and simultaneously filtering through a physical body.

There are also theories that state noises and sounds, such as hearing your name being called out (I’ve experienced this during many projections), are stemming from other beings. As we raise our vibrational rate, we may be coming into contact with other entities just a dimensional shift away. If these other beings are the source of the sounds, it shouldn’t be too surprising that they are aware of our names. After all, the astral environment is comprised entirely of thought, similar to the physical Universe; only far more obvious.

I believe this may be a viable possibility since every environment essentially resides on top of one another with no true division. We share the same space with all of consciousness, physical and nonphysical. But we are vibrating at different rates; creating the impression of distance, separation and so on.

My explanations may not fully answer your questions, but I’m not sure anyone can say for certain what causes the noises and sensations associated with astral travel. When venturing into the out of body state, we must understand we are exploring experiences and territories that have not been thoroughly mapped out. Each one of us acts as an adventurer every single time we move into that realm.

Now, I don’t believe astral sounds and sensations are anything to be fearful of. I personally welcome them because they remind me of the fact, as humans, we are not even aware of one quarter of the different forms of energy that exists around us. Our five senses can only afford us interaction to a certain degree in this physical environment. But as we step into the means for altering our consciousness, we become aware of just how limited our physically focused viewpoint is.

One final idea- you may want to try asking for clarity as you are moving through the experience. Either during or right after you project, pose the question in your mind pertaining to the sounds and sensations and allow an answer to come to you. Many times I have tried asking for clarity regarding an experience I encountered on the astral plane.

Interestingly enough the answers I received were not at all what I was expecting. Whether this eliminates the fact I was answering my own question or not, I can’t say. However, we may always be answering our own questions from another perspective anyway. I believe our higher self is always helping guide us through out of body experiences.

And that does it for this question and answer installment. I’d like to thank Cynthia for her great question and you for taking the time to read this post. If you have any spiritual development or self help questions you would like to see addressed, feel free to contact me. As always, your name will be kept private unless you request otherwise.

If this post has been helpful to you, please consider sharing it with others and/or making a donation. Thank you for supporting Wind of the Soul.

Altered States of Consciousness & Aspects of Awareness

John Wolfe — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:07:17 +0000

In my last post I discussed methods for taking an inner journey to discover your own personal truths. One of the methods mentioned for achieving this was using altered states of consciousness. When I refer to altered states, I’m not talking about taking the route Terence McKenna often employed for getting there.

I think the use of psychotropic agents is one of many methods for achieving legitimate altered states; however I’m concerned with having a more intentional, whole, fluid, and intact experience. I want to be completely aware of what’s occurring during the altered state and I want to have full recall of it after the fact; something that drugs may not always grant us. I’ve just never been into hallucinogens (or any other drugs for that matter) and choose to rely on deep meditation as my method for obtaining results. I don’t personally endorse the use of such agents. But I believe we can’t discuss the expansion of our consciousness without at least addressing the fact they play a prominent role in many experiences.

As an aside to what I just wrote- I think Terence McKenna was a fascinating person with awesome insights into existence. If you’re not familiar with his philosophies, I highly recommend doing a search for him on YouTube.

Now, what does it mean to achieve altered states of consciousness or perception?

In the loosest sense, it means to encounter other interpretations or translations of being than that which we typically associate with. It pertains to taking our consciousness and expanding it beyond the boundaries we primarily use for seeing, feeling, touching, thinking, and maneuvering. These altered states can occur within the context of our physical experiences or they can take place in other “worlds.”

An example of an interesting altered state occurring amidst seemingly ordinary physical perceptions would be the story I related about the hole, comprised of static, opening up in my bedroom ceiling. Even though I knew the hole wasn’t there in terms of my physical reality, there was a part of me that realized it did exist in another state, nonetheless.

An example of an altered state occurring in other worlds would be the out of body experience (OBE). Despite the terminology and description of OBE’s occurring out of the body, I’ve encountered information during projections which indicates they are actually a journey inward, further into consciousness or the inner-self I was referring to in Discovering the Truths of Your Existence.

The interesting thing about the experience with my bedroom ceiling was that it occurred immediately after an OBE, so there seems to be some residual lingering effects of traversing my inner nature, which applied itself to my physical environment after the fact. This is why I believe inducing altered states can have a profound impact upon our physical experiences, providing the opportunity for us to look out upon the physical world with a different set of interpreters.

Another example of this lingering effect took place a couple of weeks ago, after opening my eyes, during the initial stages of an afternoon out of body experience. I decided to check out the ceiling in my bedroom during the vibrational state that occurs prior to full detachment. I opened my physical eyes and allowed my vision to sharpen. I then focused on the ceiling light directly over my bed. I could still feel the waves of vibrations pouring through me and the light proceeded to take on these vibrations. It appeared partially solid and partially wave like. It was shaking at a dizzying rate.

I don’t believe OBE vibrations are a physical phenomenon which is affecting the body. I feel they are indications of our focus shifting into a “purer” state of awareness. I don’t think the light was shaking because my body was shaking; because it wasn’t. I believe I was interpreting the object from a state of awareness in between the wave frequency and particle pattern forming tendency of the object. It was as if it was moving in and out of my reality, from wave to particle and back again.

Now, these altered states of interpretation don’t just take place before or after an OBE. In my post If Walls Could Talk, I related some strange empathic experiences that seemed to be brought on from the dream state. I’ve had a reoccurring dream for years that crops up every so often. The contents of the dream are almost always wiped from my memory, despite always waking up in the middle of it. However, I know it’s the same dream because of the feeling it evokes as soon as I wake up.

Each and every time (after waking up) my normally familiar environment takes on a skewed, twisted impression. I feel as if the pre-dream me that’s become accustomed to viewing my world was only a portion of myself. After waking, it seems as if the post dream me is now entering into a strange foreign world where my previous perceptions were somehow invalid, at least in relation to the “me” that’s now awakened into them. The only way I can describe this scenario is in terms of using something visual. It feels as if I’ve awoken in an M.C. Escher drawing- not in a visually literal manner of course, but figuratively and emotionally speaking.

My home and surroundings have the usual, familiar and recognizable visual qualities, yet it feels like the “me” that’s normally living in this environment has taken a back seat. I feel as if someone else (another portion of me) has emerged and is trying to assimilate into the role the old me was playing the part of. This is why I can still recognize my surroundings, but there is a simultaneous foreign feeling that also emerges.

Accompanying these foreign feelings are strong impressions of emotion. I seem to be super sensitive and have a heightened awareness of emotion in my surroundings during these experiences. Depending upon the intensity, I usually feel assimilated back into my normal self within a few hours to days.

It’s a very bizarre dual experience with lingering effects. But I do appreciate it because it’s helped me tap into the awareness that we can become comfortable in our repetitive interpretations of our experiences. When these events come along and shake things up, I realize there are an infinite number of channels and ways of perceiving. It also suggests we may have multiple perceivers slightly shifting into and out of our experience (sometimes without our even knowing it). This brings me to a great theory on what may be causing these occurrences.

Aspects of Awareness

Jane Roberts (of The Seth Material) introduced Aspect Psychology in her book, Adventures In Consciousness. This concept addresses the idea that our source self is similar to a giant radio station sending out multiple signals – each one representing a frequency intended for a different personality.

The signals are received by these personalities that are focused upon innumerable forms of varying dimensional realities. The specific focus personality we identify with is only one of many of these selves existing simultaneously throughout the broad spectrum of different planes of focus. Jane suggests each specific focus personality ordinarily receives one main signal, but by turning its abilities of perception off its home station, it can pick up on other realities and/or the other personality perceivers of those realities.

This means the aspect of awareness that’s reading this text is your focus personality in this form of reality, yet your source consciousness has many other focus personalities existing simultaneously throughout the broad spectrum of other realities. It also means if we “change the station” a bit, our focus personality may be slightly overridden by another channel; which is what I believe is happening to me during my dream triggers.

When I awaken, it’s almost as if I perceive two separate radio signals vying for the same spot on the dial. Both are audible and both belong to me (the source me), yet one is not usually focused upon my current version of reality and the other one is- hence the similar yet simultaneous foreign feeling associated with interacting in my present surroundings.

This may also indicate that another of my source’s aspect personalities is having a similar experience to the one I’m having at that exact same moment. We are both crowding the specific focus personality’s position on the hypothetical radio dial in each respective version of our separate realities. However, because the physical designation of John Wolfe is my specific primary focus in this dimension, I will almost always (at least until I pass on) interpret this effect through my current physical vehicle and interpretation of reality.

I believe we may encounter experiences, to greater or lesser degrees, of this phenomenon throughout our life. There are probably many instances and circumstances in which a bleed through among multiple focus personalities occurs. How often have we said or done things which seem extremely out of the ordinary and uncharacteristically like ourselves?

If the situation is extremely pronounced we can sometimes tap into a quick feeling of “observer and actor”; in which it feels like we are removed from the scenario and are witnessing our “actor-self” performing out of character. Aspects of the focus personality you identify with (as you) could also be crossing over into the other personalities’ realities as well.

Jane’s theory of Aspect Psychology also does an excellent job of explaining the mysteries of reincarnation and why the current moment of now is all that has ever existed. If we only truly exist in the moment of now, then how could we be incarnating chronologically? By understanding our source consciousness projects its awareness, from a timeless state, into multiple personalities that only appear to be moving through chronological and sequential sequences; we can develop a new understanding of past and future lives.

The problem with most interpretations on reincarnation is they ignore the fact that time ceases to be once we move beyond this plane of existence. Of course, the reason for this is still based in the premise that we are incarnating to resolve karmic debts. We have to disregard that dogmatic new age approach to be able to embrace a more powerful and logical explanation of human consciousness.

Using the idea of personality aspects, we can understand how we are living all of our lives simultaneously through each individual personality. This opens the door to understanding that we could also be living our future lives simultaneously as well. Each aspect of awareness is always being launched from the present powerful moment of now.

The aspect theory doesn’t negate the fact we still have full control over our life experience. We aren’t completely aware of the other aspect personalities due to compartmentalization. And even though there is always the potential for slight seepage into our experience, we still have free will and full rein over the development and evolution of our focus self. The only area I see this being an issue is with certain situations where the focus personality has seemingly lost its ability to sector off and compartmentalize the other aspects.

This leads us to the concept of multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia. Aspect Psychology could go a long way in helping us to better understand these misunderstood “disorders.” It’s quite possible that the only difference between people that are considered “normal” and those considered schizophrenic or suffering from multiple personalities is the ability or lack thereof to compartmentalize the information.

Maybe the seepage of information is in extreme overdrive in certain individuals. For some reason, their specific focus personality’s radio station is picking up many other frequencies, almost all of the time. In fact, the tendency is so strong at times; it actually cancels out the main focus personality all together and picks up another station entirely. For people that are that sensitive, it then becomes a case of confusing their reality with the realities of other aspect personalities.

Achieving altered states and recognizing aspects of our awareness provides a glimpse into the multidimensional abilities of consciousness and our psyche. Without delving into studying these events and phenomena, the psychological mapping and understanding of human awareness is incomplete.

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Astral Projection & the Big Bang

John Wolfe — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 03:32:38 +0000

During the course of my out of body experiences there are always two primary sensations which occur. They both immediately follow the vibrations and roaring sounds I described in my last post. Even though I’ve mentioned these sensations in previous posts, I’d like to touch on them again for the purpose of trying to classify and partially explain their occurrence.

The two incredible sensations I feel are being crushed or compacted into an extremely small point of awareness and feeling an amazing expansion at a fast and furious rate. I always feel as though I could rest on the head of a pin after the compaction ceases. Even though I feel infinitesimally small, I’m also aware of an intense amount of energy building within while this is happening. It’s a feeling that’s almost too difficult to explain with words.

This lasts for a short while until I begin to feel the explosive expansion of my awareness and during many OBEs I have felt both sensations simultaneously and in reverse order. Once the expansion begins it seems as though it will never stop. It’s like I’m pushing farther and farther beyond all limits.

The interesting thing about these two sensations is that they seem to mimic the exact description of the scientific theory, pertaining to the creation of the Universe, known as the big bang theory. It may sound far fetched to compare a little out of body experience with the beginning of our entire Universe, but I think it’s a possibility. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples that seem to reinforce my thoughts.

Anyone that’s familiar with acupuncture and reflexology (a form of massage therapy) knows that there are scale models of our entire body contained within smaller areas of the body, such as in the feet, hands and ears. Reflexologists are able to access any point on the body by targeting these key locations (primarily in the feet). This form of treatment has been in use in the east, especially in Asian cultures, for thousands of years.

And to take this concept a little further- here’s an excerpt from one of my favorite books, The Holographic Universe, – by Michael Talbot. In this quote Talbot is summarizing the ideas and theories of quantum physicist David Bohm:

“Just as every portion of a hologram contains the image of the whole, every portion of the Universe enfolds the whole. This means that if we know how to access it, we could find the Andromeda galaxy in the thumbnail of our left hand. We could also find Cleopatra meeting Caesar for the first time, for in principle the whole past and implications for the whole future are also enfolded in each small region of space and time. Every cell in our body enfolds the entire cosmos. So does every leaf, every raindrop, and every dust mote…”

If it’s true that every cell in our body enfolds the entire cosmos and all things (despite their size) contain replications of every aspect of existence, then is it off the mark to think that each time an out of body experience takes place it’s replicating the creation of the entire Universe?

Using this example, we have to ask ourselves, where does the Universe actually reside, if anywhere but within our own minds? Many scientists would vehemently argue these ideas (or find them hysterical), but the problem is those same scientists and their tools are also inside this giant mind of consciousness. It’s impossible for them to get outside of it to precisely test for the true nature of reality and existence.

Along with the “big bang” sensations, I’ve come across another odd experience that I’m not at all sure how to classify. Normally all of my astral projections take place while my physical eyes are shut and after I’ve achieved a certain level of altered consciousness. But, I have had an encounter that was an exception to this.

It took place after coming out of the astral state (induced through meditation). Upon opening my physical eyes and giving my vision ample time to adjust, I noticed several small static lines appearing in a concentrated place on my bedroom ceiling. The static increased until the plaster, sheetrock, and entire roof appeared to be eaten away by its frequency. As the “hole” in the ceiling widened I expected to see the stars but they weren’t there.

The small opening, which was revealed by the static, completely obscured the night sky. As the hole opened up, the static continued to run across its opening. Now, I’m usually fairly calm during out of body experiences, but since this event wasn’t occurring during my usual altered states of consciousness, I became a little concerned. I decided to get up and out of my bed for a while. Once I returned the hole and static were both gone.

As I said, I’m not sure how to classify this experience, but I thought it was worth mentioning. It indicates that there seems to be a lingering form or residue from the out of body state that can continue on after the projection ceases.

In my last post, I mentioned that I also wanted to discuss the experience I had, which validated astral projection for me. While this validating experience is extremely simple and benign compared to the variety of others I’ve shared, it does have a solid foundation for the verification of its content. I find this to be beneficial because while my other experiences were amazing (to me), they didn’t have any legitimate way in which I could perform a facts check.

This particular projection took place during an early morning/afternoon meditation. I became so absorbed in the meditation, which eventually turned into a full OBE, that I completely lost track of time. I did however check the clock prior to beginning.

During the out of body experience I found myself in the corner, hugging the ceiling. I then decided I would try a test to see if any verification was possible. I thought about the digital clock that was placed on the other side of the room and within a flash the clock was in front of me displaying the time. I then brought myself back to my physical awareness as quickly as possible, jumped off the bed and headed for the clock.

It displayed the exact time that I had just observed from the out of body state. Not only that, but I had been meditating for around two hours. So, it would not have been an easy thing to have guessed the time down to the exact minute. This experience verified, for me, that there is legitimacy to the astral state and the experiences gained during these journeys. I have plans to conduct further tests like these in the future and I’ll be sure to write about all of the details here.

And on that note I’ll bring this post to a close. I’d like to wish you a very happy and joyful Thanksgiving holiday. This year I’m not only thankful and appreciative of my family, but I’m also appreciative of my new internet family as well. I’d like to thank all of my readers and visitors for their continued support and interest in Wind of the Soul.

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Recent Out of Body Experiences

John Wolfe — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:29:49 +0000

I’ve been so busy lately that I’ve been missing out on my daily meditations. Even if I get so engrossed with my physical activities that I start to overlook this fact, I’m always reminded of it while I sleep at night because my astral projection experiences inevitably increase.

I usually average some form of an out of body experience at least once every few weeks during my regular meditations. However, once I cease to meditate for several weeks straight, the OBE’s start coming to me during my sleep state. It’s almost as if something’s trying to tell me that if I’m not actively going to help the projections to induce, then they’ll find another way of occurring.

I feel we all unconsciously project while we dream, yet what’s interesting is that during these long stretches without meditating, I become hyperconscious of my nightly journeys into the astral. It’s been said that once we consciously open the door to the out of body state, it never truly shuts. I can now see how accurate that statement is.

So, I thought I’d take an opportunity in this post and the following one to share a few of my recent experiences.

During the course of the last several weeks I’ve found myself being woken up, on several occasions, by what I would categorize as severe vibrations. The feeling of vibrating is not something that’s new to me during the onset of an OBE, but I’ve never before felt it with as much intensity. The vibrations seem to stem from someplace within and recently I’ve felt as though I’m being internally shaken apart.

The experience is not painful but it grabs my attention very quickly. There’s always an intense roaring sound that accompanies the vibrations as well. As both grow stronger, they become more difficult to distinguish from one another, until they merge and then fade out.

Upon a recent encounter, after the succession of these sounds and sensations, I immediately detected detachment from my physical body (this occurs much faster for me when the OBE’s are induced during the sleep state). My room was starting to come into focus in that familiar out of body sensing I’ve become accustomed to, when I had a strong urge to move away from my bedroom and into the hallway.

On this particular occasion I was able to move with a unique fluidity that’s not typical during my projections. My point of awareness began twisting and undulating until it passed through the bedroom doorway.

As I progressed further into the hall I realized there was a shadowy presence standing on the first landing of the stairs. There was nothing that felt sinister about it, but the shock of seeing it caused a fearful response within me. The fear threw me out of control and my somewhat graceful undulations developed into erratic movements and quick spins.

I could sense the wall coming toward me and the last thing I recall (prior to thudding back into alignment with my physical body) was my consciousness passing through the light switch located at the top of the stairs. I seem to have an issue during my projections with going through what I believe are solid objects. In my astral experience with a tribal shaman, I immediately came back to my body as soon as I passed through the hut wall as well.

With regards to the shadowy figure- I’ve found it’s quite common during out of body experiences to encounter entities in the astral environment. Some may be other astral projectors, while many could be individuals that have passed on from an earthly existence. This is why I feel each and every earthly location has the opportunity to be “haunted.”

I believe that we all have forms of “spirit activity” that may be moving in and out of our homes at different times. But they are doing so a dimensional shift away. The only time most people actually encounter what’s considered a true in-your-face haunting is when an entity decides to stay put and forcefully make its presence known. Otherwise, it’s very common for us to be commingling with nonphysical entities all the time, yet we’re never aware of it.

During another recent experience in which I fell asleep on the couch, I stumbled onto a very pronounced form of consciousness. I’m usually only slightly aware of my physical body during OBE’s, which stem from the sleep state, but this situation was completely unlike that.

I progressed into what appeared to be the out of body state, yet it seemed as though I was still firmly connected to my physical body. Instead of moving around I felt stationary, but was able to view in three hundred and sixty degree panoramic style (with my physical eyes still closed) simultaneously.

While some people could assume I was unconsciously dreaming during these experiences, I’m aware of the difference between a dream and a full blown altered conscious state like the one present during astral projection.

In my next post I’ll be discussing a few other encounters and observations about the out of body state along with an experience that proved to me the validity of the OBE.

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Q & A: Out of Body Experiences & Dream Symbols

John Wolfe — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:36:02 +0000

Question: I have a question that I’d like to see featured on your blog about out of body experiences, even though I’ve never really been able to project. I was wondering what your thoughts are about why some people can do it while others can’t? And where do you think those that can project are going?
-Ryan M.

Answer: Those are some awesome questions. It’s interesting how astral projection can come so easily for some, while others may go their entire lives without ever experiencing it consciously. From my personal perspective, I feel that conscious, spontaneous OBEs were a huge launching platform for propelling me faster and farther down the path I’m currently on.

But I don’t view individuals that have experienced them as being “better” or more spiritually “evolved” than those that haven’t. I try not to get caught up in that sort of logic because it implies status and rank, along with the idea that certain people have arrived at some imaginary destination while others are still playing catch up.

I believe that each one of us experiences OBEs while we sleep, so it’s really a matter of who retains the memory (by becoming completely conscious during the experience) and who loses it during the sleep state. People like to take things like near death experiences and astral projection and turn them into something which is more spiritual than being focused on our physical bodies.

While I do believe NDEs and OBEs can have enormous impacts upon the recipients, sometimes changing the entire focus and course of their lives; I don’t feel they are above and beyond our experiences with the physical body. There’s not one human experience that can occur outside the realm of the spiritual. I stress this a lot, but I believe it’s true.

The out of body state exists as another location for focusing our consciousness. We focus our consciousness in a similar manner while existing on the physical plane. The only reason we choose to zero in on physical vehicles is because of the wide variety of experiences they can afford us, which may not be available at more subtle dimensional existences.

I believe we never really “go” anywhere while our energy is physically focused. The same is true when we transition into being non-physically focused as well, whether through out of body experiences or the death transition.

I believe the only form of actual out of body travel, we undergo, is deeper into ourselves. I’ve had astral encounters that have made it very clear to me that the astral plane resides inside my own awareness. As humans, we become accustomed to trying to mark out physical locations and pinpoint them geographically speaking. But OBEs help make it obvious that this entire physical environment, along with the astral plane, is literally all in our minds.

I like to compare life and the afterlife (and life after that and so on) to a virtual reality game. Our higher consciousness is the viewer or player of this VR game. It stays stationary in its consistent, always state of perpetual being while projecting its awareness into a multitude of virtual environments. These environments become backdrops for the characters that we identify with (as ourselves) to make their way through the settings and experiences that we call life. This is why nothing that occurs can happen outside of spirit, because it all stems from the same conscious spiritual origin.

Question: I love to research dreams and their meanings. A few nights ago I had a dream that was full of symbolism and when I woke up I was excited to look up its meaning in my reference books. It consisted of several elements that I’d rather not discuss, but the general consensus of my research pointed to a pretty negative interpretation of the symbols. Do you get into the symbolic meanings of dreams and can you recommend any good books on the subject?

Answer: The dream world fascinates me, but I’ve never invested a lot of time in researching any book’s interpretation of the people, objects and environments I encounter there. I don’t put a lot of stock in someone else’s viewpoints of what’s going on in my dreamscapes. I also don’t feel that anyone can accurately write a blanket statement saying that each dream symbol means exactly the same thing for everyone. While I do feel that the dream world could be considered an actual environment- not just fantasy- I understand that there are symbolic representations that we will encounter while in that realm.

I like to view books as beneficial guides (the dream meaning books are no exception) but not something that’s set in stone for interpreting our own unique individual life experience. It’s important to weigh out information as you read it. I’ve read many metaphysical and supernatural works that I would not recommend through my site because the information just didn’t make a connection with me.

I’ve mentioned before that I encourage my Wind of the Soul blog readers to only take away what truly resonates with them. It doesn’t hurt my feelings if people disagree with my viewpoints. In fact, I encourage them to do so if something I’m saying doesn’t feel valid. I’m sharing my ideas, beliefs, experiences and opinions about this subject matter from my own unique perspective, just as my readers are assimilating it and (hopefully) weighing it out from their own unique perspective.

If the dream guide interpretations primarily feel like they are on the money and they give you a sense of power over any fear that the dreams may be causing, then I think you should continue using them. However, if they feel like they are instilling a deeper sense of fear and insecurity about what they believe your subconscious may be trying to tell you, then I think you should let go of them for a while.

I believe we have our own built in powerhouse for interpreting dreams and we do it through our intuition. Feel for some clarity after each dream and see if you can recognize continuing patterns among the dream themes. I also think dream logs can be beneficial in helping to track trends and themes. I used to log my out of body experiences on a consist basis and it helped me to recognize certain trends. The main thing is to try and rely more upon your own senses, since your dreams are unique and stemming from within you and no one else.

And that does it for this second question and answer post of September. I’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to continue emailing me such great questions. If you have something you’d like to see addressed in the Wind of the Soul blog, then feel free to get in touch with me through my contact page. Your name will always be kept anonymous, unless you ask otherwise.

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Abraham & the Law of Attraction

John Wolfe — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 02:27:56 +0000

The phenomenal teachings of Abraham have been pouring forth from non-physical awareness, through Esther Hicks, for over two decades. In the process they’ve changed thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives for the better. Abraham’s teachings are categorized as channeled works, however that’s not a word that you’d find Esther or her husband Jerry using to describe them. Esther prefers to be known as a translator, which is why I described her as such in my post The Secret.

Although the name Abraham is singular, it represents the awareness of a group consciousness, which “speaks” in vibration to Esther (as thought). She then translates those vibrational thoughts into words, utilizing her own vocabulary and her own speaking voice. There’s no possession or relinquishing of her physical body involved. In fact she has stated that she feels extremely exhilarated and is completely present during the process, yet can simultaneously feel Abraham’s awareness flooding into her.

Abraham brings forth information, which has been stated in many different ways for thousands of years; however they add a clarity and freshness that makes it easy to understand, grasp and apply. They teach that our thoughts, through our emotional resonance, create every aspect of our reality, based upon a principle called the law of attraction.

LOA and Our Emotional Guidance
The law of attraction (LOA) lies at the heart of both the physical and non-physical Universe or Multiverse and is the manager of what can and cannot make its way into our experience. LOA is impartial as it serves our predominant, consistent, emotionally charged thoughts. Abraham teaches that the energy humans refer to as god projected itself into our physical awareness. It’s through god/source/our inner being’s constant communication (through our emotions) that we become aware of whether we are moving toward or away from that which we desire.

Our inner being never joins us as we hold negative thoughts; no matter how justified (in our human interpretation) we believe we are. This is the reason we feel undesirable emotion. It’s our indicator that we are choosing to view life outside the manner of our inner being’s interpretation. When we judge others, ourselves or circumstances and experiences in a harsh manner, we literally divide ourselves in two- the human perspective and the source perspective. Abraham teaches that emotions were always meant to be our feedback mechanism, serving as source’s means for providing guidance in this physical environment.

The teachings go on to state that the more in alignment we become with our inner being’s view, the better we will feel. When we are loving, joyful and appreciative, we are in full alignment with our source, as indicated by our desirable feeling emotions. In turn, the law of attraction will begin to knock itself out to alter circumstances and events in our environment to bring forth what we desire and hope for.

While much of this information may not be new; one of the greatest gems I have found in Abraham’s teachings is the acknowledgement of where we are. They teach that wherever we are on the emotional scale- ranging from depression all the way to joy is fine. It’s all about giving ourselves permission to be present and experience our emotions, instead of denying them and trying to suppress them.

This alone was extremely liberating for me, because I’ve always had a tendency to try and cover up how I truly feel- not being honest with myself and others for fear of their response. Only when we acknowledge where we are can we then take full responsibility for our lives. And once we are honest with ourselves, we can begin to take the emotional journey toward anything that brings the feeling of relief.

Another rare gem among these teachings is the concept of allowing ourselves to feel rage and anger. Most metaphysical, self help and spiritual models, for living life, view this as being improper, as does a good portion of our society. But Abraham encourages it, if we are in a place of feeling extreme fear or depression.

When we move into rage we can start to take our power back, which was stripped from us in our less desirable emotional states. They don’t encourage that we physically act on our rage, but instead feel our way through it. From rage, we could move into anger, then into discouragement and blame, and on as we continuously work our way toward more desirable feeling emotions, all via the intention of reaching for relief.

The Stream of Life
Abraham consistently uses the analogy of life being a stream and the fact that all of us are inserting our boats into this stream in different emotional locations. In the human experience, our primary response is to get into the water and fight the current for all we’re worth as if we have something to prove. If we would instead allow ourselves to stop the fight and the urge to paddle upstream, we would be gently turned and carried quite naturally along with the current.

This stream of life has been put into place by each one of us and all of our collective individual experiences. The more life experiences we’ve lived, the more we tend to launch desires. The more desires we launch, the faster our individual streams flow. If we decide to start bucking a fast moving current and not allow the natural float trip, we’re going to have an extremely rough time.

Our individual streams provide our life journey, but this doesn’t mean we are puppets on a string. It’s through our choices, as we take our float trip (or fight it every step of the way), that we are presented with side tributaries branching off in hundreds of other directions. Using this example we could say that the stream represents not only the flow of life but destiny itself. Along destiny’s current we can take any side path we choose through our free will. But we cannot escape our destiny of the stream’s current; we can only postpone its benefits. As Abraham always says, “We don’t come forth to get it done. We come forth for a ride on the river.”

Whether you believe in channeling (the traditional definition or mine) or not, it doesn’t really matter. The fantastic information provided in the vast body of Jerry and Esther’s work speaks for itself, as does their track record of success for providing others with the tools to fully empower themselves. The teachings, which come forth, mean far more to me than any explanation of how Esther does what she does.

If you’re interested in learning more about Abraham and their teachings, I highly recommend the books, Ask and It Is Given and The Law of Attraction.

If you’re interested in learning more about Abraham, Jerry and Esther; I can’t recommend enough, the beautiful film, Introducing Abraham-The Secret Behind The Secret.

This video is the property of Jerry and Esther Hicks.

www.abraham-hicks.com

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Channeling

John Wolfe — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:47:21 +0000

I wanted to introduce the concept of channeling prior to diving into a future post about one of my favorite authors who has extensively honed this ability. Channeling is usually defined as the process of speaking for a spirit guide, source awareness, entity, or group consciousness that has an expanded perspective upon life and our reason for being. I prefer to look at it as connecting with an aspect of ourselves, which transcends time and space, reminding us of who we are and the capabilities we possess.

There are many different explanations for this process; however it’s not as rare or strange as many make it out to be. In fact, each one of us is an open channel when we are consumed with something which elicits our total focus, energy, passion and enjoyment. We simply express the channeled message through our actions and creations instead of through verbalized teachings.

Channeling primarily involves an expanded state of consciousness. Anytime we can achieve an allowing, relaxed state (be it active or passive) by releasing fear, worry, and anxiety- we are expanding our consciousness and channeling a “purer” aspect of ourselves. As our consciousness expands and our vibrational/emotional resonance lifts, we experience amazing moments of clarity, productivity and creative inspiration. This is the same type of experience that athletes often refer to as being in the zone. We each have the ability to access the channeled zone; it’s not reserved for athletes, psychics, or those that appear to be more clairvoyant than the rest of us.

I believe the two keys (along with the willingness) to channel, either verbally or otherwise, reside in creativity and automation. Creatively expressing ourselves can take on any form that stirs us deep inside, it doesn’t have to be the more traditional pursuits of art or music. Once we find an outlet that’s capable of stimulating us, the next step is allowing it to flow in a manner that feels automatic, minus self judgment and critique. The more automatic and spontaneous our actions become, we can rest assured that our minds are free of the typical clutter and doubt that is responsible for suppressing our talents and abilities.

When our creative actions feel like they effortlessly occur, minus struggle, we are opening the channels to our own higher awareness. We have all experienced this at different points in our lives. These moments are almost always categorized by being so completely engrossed and consumed by the object of our attention, the entire world comes to a stand still and everything else ceases to exist. Many call these peak experiences. These are the instances in which our greatest ideas and creations spring forth.

I feel human creativity is linked to original creation. It’s one in the same. As we create, we are in touch with the source of our life force and the source of energy which brought forth this entire Universe. However, the objects we create are not nearly as important as the experiences and the thrill we encounter while the creative juices are flowing.

Individuals that verbally channel teachings are doing exactly the same thing. They are zeroing in on experiences that stimulate them and stir up their creative passion. When they verbally channel, they are in such an amazing automatic state that everything flows smoothly from a place of all knowing. The awareness they share, no matter where it is said to come from, is an awareness we all have.

The only reason verbal channeling seems rare is because those that do it have practiced releasing tension, struggle, and unwanted negative thoughts from the majority of their life experiences. Along with living in a more conscious in-the-moment manner, they’ve also consistently practiced disciplines like meditation or other pursuits, which have continued freeing their minds.

The rest of us catch glimpses of ourselves being in the channeled zone sporadically because we have not consciously pieced together the how’s and why’s our greatest moments of creativity occur. We often feel that we fall into them by accident. But channeling, whether verbally or otherwise, is just like anything else- there are no accidents- it’s all intentional on our part.

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Remote Viewing: a Tool for Altering the Past?

John Wolfe — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:34:33 +0000

Ever since encountering my first conscious out of body experience, I’ve been fascinated with any subject matter that’s closely related to astral projection. Perhaps, there’s no closer familial bond between relative metaphysical topics than the one shared by OBEs and remote viewing.

Remote viewing is a process that consists of a viewer receiving images and impressions about a remote location, which is usually called a target. The entire process is believed to be outside the boundaries of time and space, so the viewers are actually seeing real events as they develop in real time. Adepts at the process are so highly capable, they can tune into any location, person or object. Essentially, remote viewing is a technique that utilizes many aspects of extra sensory perception (ESP) to peer into distant ongoing events, whether they are from the past, present or future.

Controlled remote viewing experiments are always conducted “blindly”- meaning the remote viewers are not given any access (up front) to the target they will be zeroing in on. Targets are usually chosen randomly by the control of the experiment and viewers proceed to sketch and provide descriptions about the selected item or event, based upon their inner perceptions and feelings.

Can Remote Viewing Prevent a Death on the Titanic?
A few years ago, I came across an extremely fascinating article titled Affecting Time at hrvg.org, which discussed a remote viewing group and their project for turning the tides on a profoundly historic event. The group is engaging in a highly specialized version of remote viewing, called remote influencing or R.I. Remote influencing is considered to be a full on altered state that occurs within the remote viewing experience. In R.I., the viewer is no longer viewing in a slightly removed manner, while sketching and providing descriptions- they are actually completely present and submerged in the events, which are transpiring at the target location.

This group has been participating in an on-going R.I. project involving the sinking of the Titanic. They are specifically focusing on the events surrounding the death of a six year old girl named Ebba Andersson. Ebba and her family were among many of the victims that were locked below decks by gates preventing the “lower class” passengers from reaching the life boats.

The article mentions that Ebba was able to squeeze through the gated barrier, but ultimately took a wrong turn while trying to make her way through the lower deck passages. It doesn’t mention how the information regarding Ebba’s escape and the exact data surrounding her death were obtained. But based upon the specific attention to detail and taking into consideration the pandemonium that would have been occurring that night- it’s easy to gather these details were probably witnessed by the remote viewers, rather than through historical accounts.

The whole purpose of retracing Ebba’s every move is to determine the key points that led to her death. In doing so, the viewers are interested in initiating some form of recourse for trying to aid or even save the little girl. The article goes on to state that many things are being taken into consideration including: ethical observations, psychological outcomes, and paradoxical occurrences surrounding time and the result this deviation could create, just to name a few.

Here’s an excerpt explaining how the viewers would actually interact with Ebba, if the experiment is taken to fruition:

“If R.I. is possible its’ effect will surely be one of the sensory and not one of mind control or a voice from the beyond. The effect will be received and processed by the intended target as sensory data processed through its subconscious to the primary awareness. It is not likely that a viewer could demonstrate enough presence to actually control something as robust as a small child amidst the panic aboard the Titanic. It is far more likely that the viewer might be able to generate an urge or an inclination of direction.”

I have yet to find an update regarding this experiment, but I am always on the lookout for any new information about its outcome. I suppose if something like this ever worked then we would have to consider what its effect upon history would be. Even something that may seem small (like saving a child who was “supposed” to die) relative to larger events in history, would have to have a tremendous impact upon time and space. Altering an event like this could possibly spawn an alternate parallel reality in which Emma physically survived and went about her life, while in our present version of reality it would still be accepted that she had indeed passed away on April 14, 1912.

Experiments of this nature have much to teach us about how flimsy the veil of time is. Whether or not the viewers actually decide to alter Emma’s path or not, the fact that historic events are constantly being played out causes me to take pause. It’s fascinating to know that there are ways to access any event and it’s never truly outside of our reach. It may be outside our grasp without the willingness or understanding of how to invoke the protocol for accessing it, but that doesn’t change the fact that everything we did yesterday is fully accessible to those who have discovered how to see it and quite possibly alter it.

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My Astral Experience With a Tribal Shaman

John Wolfe — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 02:07:21 +0000

My last post introduced a small portion of information about shamanic practices. In always striving for there to be a method to my madness, throughout all of my blog posts, I like to lay some initial groundwork prior to getting a little weird… and so, it’s once again time for the weird.

About three years ago, while experiencing a major influx of intentional and unintentional out of body experiences (OBE), I had one of my most fascinating encounters. It occurred prior to drifting off to sleep, as I slowly entered into the state I like to call the twilight zone. Its technical name is the hypnagogic state, but the twilight zone sounds a lot cooler.

This is where we tiptoe between the waking world and the dreamscape. At certain times I have been able to enter this state while retaining full consciousness, without falling victim to the unconscious sleep state, and that’s what was occurring on this particular occasion. It’s slightly similar to becoming fully lucid, in the midst of a dream, minus all the amazing dream landscapes and scenarios.

After spending an indeterminate amount of time suspended within the twilight zone (without once falling asleep), I felt the familiar sensations and symptoms of an astral projection coming on. Upon fully projecting, I found myself immediately experiencing inner motion and a rush of energy, as if something was drawing me to a very specific location.

Within an instant I was viewing landscape that appeared (to me) to be the American Great Plains (I live in the desert southwest), just as bright and vivid as if I was standing there, seeing it with my physical eyes and body. Again there was a feeling of inner motion and I found myself “pulled” inside a hut, which was seated on the same plains.

The inner portion of the hut looked like a movie set from a very high budget Hollywood western- the type where no expense has been spared to convince the audience of its authenticity, only I didn’t see any cameras, sound men, or directors. The hut was decked out in hides, skins, drums, rattles, and all sorts of paraphernalia and tools involving elements of nature. As I felt myself scanning the room and absorbing the feel and essence of my intense surroundings, I noticed a Native American woman- actually her sex was difficult to determine by appearance, I was only able to feel and intuitively know she was female- sitting with her eyes closed.

In front of her an extremely low fire burned; while a combination of light and dark smoke wafted before her face, then exited up through a raggedy opening in the dwelling. It was obvious the fire was not for warmth, but for a mystical process she was in the midst of conducting. I glanced toward the entrance of the hut and was amazed at the continued clarity of what I was witnessing- the afternoon sun was streaming through the half opened doorway and I could see particles of dust flitting in and out of its light.

Next, she began to rhythmically go to work on one of her instruments, as a combination of drumming and haunting chants filled the hut. I “stood there” completely mesmerized by her process. At this point in time, I had become fairly accustomed to having OBEs, but I had yet to have an encounter, of this magnitude, during an experience. The sights, sounds, and scenery were as authentic as anything I have ever seen, heard or experienced with my physical senses, if not more so.

As I became more and more mesmerized by her process, I felt myself growing lighter and more off balance, until I “fell” against the wall of the hut, passing right on through to the other side. I then dropped into an endless void until I hit, with what seemed like a thud, against my bed- it was at that moment that I again merged with my physical awareness and the experience was over- save for one thing: her chanting was now echoing through my ears and its sound was deeply etched into my mind. To this day I can still hear it.

I opened my eyes, completely blown away by what I had just witnessed. In fact, there are no words that can express how awesome this experience was. As I laid there, strong impressions began washing over me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was responsible for drawing me to her location, considering I found her, upon my arrival, in the midst of meditating.

OBEs usually unfold in a way that reflect what is dominant in our thoughts and emotions, yet I had no conscious awareness of anything that would make me a match to an environment, which contained this woman’s experiences. So, it seemed that her trance like state, which was occurring simultaneously (there really is no such thing as time) to my own, drew me to her. But the strongest of feelings and sensations, I received, was that she was actually an aspect of myself- whether you want to call it a past life, parallel reality or simultaneous interdimensional existence, she was me and I was her. I just knew it.

A few weeks later, I was relating the experience to a friend of mine (who is pretty sensitive and intuitive) but before I could give her my feelings and impressions about why the encounter occurred, she immediately stated there was a strong connection and bond between this tribal shaman and myself, indicating that we were indeed the same person. I also did a little research, after the experience, because I didn’t even believe women were shamans among most native tribes- thinking this may throw a monkey wrench into my whole experience. It turned out that women actually played a very prominent role in shamanistic type work, among some tribes, on the American Great Plains.

I haven’t reconnected with her since my last experience, but I’ll never forget how amazing and vibrant my initial encounter was. It’s phenomenal experiences like these that keep me hungry to continue exploring the metaphysical.

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The Shamanic Tradition

John Wolfe — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:07:04 +0000

When discussing life altering mystical and metaphysical practices, I often find myself coming back to many ancient (nameless) teachers that have been associated with understanding this wisdom for thousands and thousands of years. Tribal peoples, isolated from the influences of the rest of the world, had to rely heavily upon their natural instincts and the exploration of their inner awareness and knowledge.

In doing so, they tapped into the type of universal energy and power that I enjoy discussing and exploring, both in this blog and my personal life. Because of isolation and the time frame in which they lived, they were afforded the perfect opportunity for the development and attunement to the deeper subtleties of existence.

Many times this power, knowledge, and attunement were further expanded upon through encounters with individuals in their tribe, known as shamans. While tribal shamans are usually thought of as sorcerers, medicine men, witch doctors, and healers; a large portion of their responsibilities and talents resided in shape shifting physical aspects of reality, journeying into altered states of consciousness and opening passageways into subtler realms.

These realms were said to contain the spirit world and even alternate forms of our current reality. Often times (but not always) these experiences occurred through the use of hallucinogens and psychotropic agents, usually from regional plant life.

One of the most well known, modern day interpretations of shamanism has fascinated me for a number of years. The accounts can be found in four books, written by anthropologist Carlos Castaneda, containing the tales of his personal encounters with a Yaqui Indian shaman, named Don Juan.

Under Don Juan’s tutelage, Castaneda journeyed through altered states of consciousness, into other worldly adventures, and engaged in banter and dialogue with Don Juan that challenged Carlos’ interpretation and views on reality. The Castaneda adventures interest me because Carlos was presented with opportunities for breaking the mold, so to speak, when it came to the objective interpretation of reality.

His individual experiences showed it is possible to expand beyond the massive conditioning we all receive, pushing the limits until reality gives way; illustrating its actual subjective nature. Over the years, many have criticized Castaneda because he never felt the need to present “proof” for the legitimacy of his experiences, along with the fact that these experiences were inspired through the ingestion of plants and concoctions derived from psychotropic plant life.

I don’t feel Carlos’ apparent lack of substantiating evidence or the fact that many of his journeys were “vegetationally” induced should cause his work to be dismissed however. I’m not really certain how critics expected him to produce physical evidence to validate his experiences when he was traveling further into his own inner consciousness.

That would be like someone asking me to prove my out of body experiences. While you can prove what you are witnessing, in the physical world, while out of body- primarily OBEs are about a knowing and sensing. I can teach others how to have similar experiences, so they too can feel it and know it, but I cannot impart words that would prove anything, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to most skeptics.

And on the drug front: hallucinogenic drugs, in modern times, are fully blamed for the experiences that are brought forth within the user; however I don’t believe drugs create the experience. Dismissing the experience as strictly pharmacological detracts from the benefit of the journeys they help invoke. Now, I’m not at all encouraging the use of such agents and I fully understand they are considered illegal. I’m only mentioning them because anytime someone has a reality altering experience, while using these substances; the entire experience is immediately discarded and considered invalid.

I feel hallucinogens allow the user to tear down the walls of habitually restrictive beliefs, but they don’t create or cause the experience. I believe these drugs unbind the consciousness from our human imposed limitations, opening an immediate portal for our awareness to then create the experience in whatever way we choose.

We have been quick to label these types of drugs as bad because the idea is that the drug is what’s making people “flip out.” Hallucinogenic drugs only loosen the chokehold on our current concepts of reality, because reality is exactly that- a concept that we continue to habitually think into being. The people that flip out are the ones creating the experience, not the drug.

Now, to counter the assumption that shamans are nothing more than drug pushers, I’d like to point to an interesting account, from the book: The Holographic Universe, which pertains to biologist, Lyall Watson.

Watson was conducting a study on the phenomenon of psychokinesis or the ability to alter physical matter. He journeyed to Indonesia where he witnessed amazing feats by a powerful young lady named Tia. Tia was known for her shamanic like abilities to alter physical reality without the use or aid of drugs.

Watson happened upon her while she was talking with a young girl near a grove of kenari trees. Although Watson viewed the interaction at a slight distance, he could tell Tia was passionately trying to explain something to the child, who apparently was not comprehending the lesson.

Tia began pointing at the grove of trees and subtly dancing around them. Within a few seconds of her movements, the entire grove completely disappeared from sight. After a short time she brought the grove back into physical existence, continuing her feat again and again. According to Watson, “One moment Tia danced in a grove of shady kenari; the next she was standing alone in the hard, bright light of the sun.” You can read more about Watson’s study in The Holographic Universe, by Michael Talbot.

There are endless documented accounts, such as the one above, that have been witnessed by many qualified scientists. And while the shamanic tradition may seem like something from a bygone era, it’s actually still very much alive among many cultures. Tia and Don Juan are just a couple of documented examples of modern day shamanism and their abilities to influence all aspects of reality. I approach the talents and abilities of people like Tia, as I do all things in life- if they (shamans) are able to do it, then why can’t you or I?

I’d like to close this post with a quote from Carlos Castaneda, which is a reflection of the wisdom he gained during his time with Don Juan. While it’s simple, I believe its meaning is extremely powerful, illustrating the core teachings of the shamanic tradition, and pointing to the fact we create our own reality, each and every day.

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.” – Carlos Castaneda

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Traversing the Dreamscape

John Wolfe — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:57:16 +0000

Our nightly slumber provides far more than just physical rest; it allows us to shift our attention away from our daily lives and enter into alternate landscapes and environments. The “rules” within these environments appear to be as strict or as lax as the dreamer chooses- limitations of the imagination serve as the only law of the land. While the stuff dreams are made of seems hazy and vague at best, it’s only our recall (after the fact) that presents us with the problems of remembering the bright, vivid details. While we are actually submersed in the dream, the experience appears as crystal clear as our waking lives.

For most, dreams seem to play out without much input; however lucid dreamers have full control and access over their nightly journeys. They can plan out, alter and mix up their dreams at will. While I’ve never been much of a lucid dreamer, I have had dreams whose vividness rivaled anything I’ve experienced in my physical world.

One dream, in particular, found me being pursued through the back streets of a city in Europe, where I was cornered and shot several times in the stomach. I woke, shaking and sweating with a knot in my stomach and a very real, lingering taste of blood in my mouth- pretty intense for something that’s supposedly a product of the brain. If my brain has the capability to fool me into tasting “dream blood” then imagine what it fools me into believing that I’m seeing, tasting, feeling and touching on a daily basis.

Of course, I believe dreams are far more than gobble-dee-gook our brains are regurgitating. But since dreams do require brain activity, I feel that the brain is a very integral part of the conduit between our spiritual selves and the physical body, whether we’re awake or asleep. It serves as the go-between for interpreting reality, which enables the link up of the big three: mind, body, and spirit.

So, if our consciousness is creating our reality and the brain is the piece that is interpreting it for our physical bodies, what’s to say this same process isn’t occurring when we sleep?

Maybe we are actually shifting into a different reality each time we have a dream. Our physical bodies lay sleeping in bed, while our consciousness is free to expand into other environments, all while our brains are running relay and storing the experiences for us to rationalize away as misty fantasies or wishful thinking the next morning. I believe the dream world illustrates how mysterious and enigmatic consciousness is, making it difficult to say where the ultimate perceiver is truly stationed, in any aspect of our lives.

Now, if we truly are experiencing other forms of reality when we sleep, then what happens to the awareness of our physical body while we’re resting?

In Exploring and Creating our Reality, I spoke about consciousness being defined as awareness. As long we are aware, then we are considered conscious, but how does this play out at nighttime, in the dreamscape? We are conscious during dreams, yet we are not aware of the physical self (and what’s occurring around it) that we usually identify with. What becomes of that identity?

Obviously we can say our body is sleeping on the bed, but what happens to our actual identity? What if the you (that you identify with as your identity) that’s reading this post, right now, ceases to exist when your conscious awareness shifts away during sleep?

I believe sleep is like mini-death. Each night, as we drift into it, our consciousness withdraws its focus from our physical bodies and resumes its other pursuits. Essentially, other realities take over once we make the shift into the dream world. We are then reborn into the awareness of this physical existence (which we most commonly associate with as our true selves) each morning, when we awaken.

So, if we are dreaming these other existences into being each night or reconnecting with them, then who’s to say there isn’t another perceiver outside of us, dreaming our daily waking lives into being, while it sleeps? In other words, when we think of ourselves as dreaming, our other “selves” are active and when they think of themselves as dreaming, we are the ones that are active in our daily lives.

Perhaps the dreamscape environments we encounter are actual locations, similar to environments on the astral plane. This would appear to be a function of continuous thought energy being directed toward the idea of the location’s existence. If enough individual aspects of consciousness focus on a specific location, then it becomes tangible, whether you’re in the dream world, on the astral plane, or even in the physical environment.

This brings us to a theory that I’ve encountered- that the dream world actually resides within the astral environment. I think this is plausible, since all dreams could be considered forms of unconscious out of body experiences.

I feel that dreams, out of body experiences, near death experiences and the actual death experience all share similar traits and characteristics. Each one is a journey further into consciousness, but to very different extents and “extremes.”

Of course the life experience itself is a journey of consciousness. I don’t want to sound like other spiritual or mystical experiences are special, while life is not. Each experience is unique and special, but to suggest that life is preferential to death or the dream state is better than waking life would be incorrect. There is not one state of being that consciousness ceases to benefit from.

As we continue to acknowledge that consciousness exists in everything and everything exists inside consciousness, it becomes easier to understand why every experience is truly spiritual, mystical and beneficial.

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Releasing Fear of Astral Projection

John Wolfe — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:10:10 +0000

The primary focus of this post is to help anyone who’s interested in, but somewhat fearful about, the process of having a deliberate out of body experience. While this article is intended to help soothe fears about astral projection, I don’t recommend that anyone, who has a major phobia surrounding the out of body state, pursue it until they can work through or release the majority of those fears.

It’s extremely difficult to experience astral projection if your primary emotion surrounding the subject is fear. Not to mention that when fear dominates your feelings (after projecting) you may have some rough experiences while on the astral plane. When I first started having spontaneous OBEs, I had my fair share of worrisome thoughts and trepidation that accompanied the process.

It was through further exploration, that I discovered most of these feelings stemmed from a misunderstanding or from preconceived ideas I had developed about the astral realm. Once I began reading about astral projection I started buying into many of the myths that seem to run rampant pertaining to out of body experiences.

Let’s go through a list of four of the biggest common concerns for somewhat experienced travelers and the uninitiated alike:

One of the first concerns many people have pertains to the concept of protecting one’s self from entities that inhabit the astral realm. Many seem to feel it’s important or necessary to go through a ritual of protection prior to projecting. If you’ve read my blog post: The Dark Side?, then you know I don’t personally believe there is a concentrated force of darkness or evil that is “out there” waiting to attack, in the earth environment or on the astral plane.

The beings you encounter and the interactions you have with them, in the nonphysical, are totally dependent upon your intentions and your interpretations. The key is to keep your focus upon that which you choose to experience. Just as you wouldn’t seek out an encounter with something you deem negative in your physical environment, you wouldn’t want to go looking for that on the astral plane either.

There is no place in which your intentions work faster than in a nonphysical realm such as the astral environment. In the astral there is no concept of time or anything resembling it that can slow the manifestation of your inner feelings. They have the ability to instantly manifest, similar to the dreamscape. This is why it’s extremely important to be vigilant in directing your thoughts and emotions while traversing the nonphysical landscape. On the other hand, if rituals help soothe your mind then feel free to perform them before you travel the astral, however I don’t believe they are truly necessary.

A second concern centers on the idea of possession and the physical body’s vulnerability while being away from it. I feel this is truly a non-issue. Our physical bodies are nothing more than a focal point for consciousness. I don’t believe our energy is even contained fully by the physical body. I feel that we merely “shadow” the body, or better said- we concentrate upon the body, but we definitely do not inhabit it in a manner equivalent to being locked up inside of it. Energy flows through the physical vehicle, but is not contained by it.

I believe consciousness can only stem from your energetic perspective, not from the physical body itself. So, I would say that there is no need to worry about your physical self being unwillingly overtaken by some other form of energy.

Even if we did house ourselves in the physical vehicle, I don’t believe out of body experiences literally take us out of our body. I believe they are a journey deeper into consciousness. Either way your body is not at risk for being possessed. Possession is most definitely another fear, which stems from the human perspective. It’s not a belief or concept that our higher self even considers.

Another area that seems to elicit fear is whether or not we can become lost from our physical body. I have had dozens of OBEs and have yet to experience any issue in becoming disoriented or unaware of how to remerge with my physical self. Our consciousness has, in a sense, already affixed a homing device to our body. No matter how far into the astral plane you travel (remember distance is an illusion since you are actually traveling deeper within your consciousness)- you only have to think about your body to make a speedy return to it.

Many people, when having an OBE, will see a silver cord trailing from their energetic body back to their physical one. They believe that if this cord were to become severed, they would pass away from physical existence. Personally I have never experienced the silver cord phenomenon. I tend to believe it’s a safety mechanism that we create out of worry over becoming lost or detached from our physical selves. Remember, on the astral plane your thoughts manifest instantly, whether they are conscious or residing just below the surface of your consciousness. The silver cord is only another one of those thoughts.

A fourth concern and question that some people ask is, “Will this experience change my beliefs about religion and/or god?” My answer to that is: quite possibly. I find that most people who have an OBE are never exactly the same again. Of course, I mean that in a good way. Usually they have discovered a broader way of looking at life and its meaning, rather than through simply relying on their physical experiences alone.

You absolutely will emerge a different person after the experience(s); however it doesn’t mean you will want to shun your religion. If anything you will discover the interconnectivity of all things and just how amazing the life experience is. You will come to better understand why we are here and how you can utilize the same tools that benefit you in the astral, here in the physical dimensions, to speed up whatever you are hoping to accomplish in your life.

I have heard others state that once the door to the astral has been opened it never truly closes. I agree with that statement, but it shouldn’t be taken as something treacherous or foreboding. I was on a path of questioning the meaning of my life many years before having OBEs, but nothing propelled me faster and farther down that path, or gave me more answers, than discovering the nonphysical realms of consciousness and my access to them.

I’d like to close this article with, what I feel, are some of the many benefits of exploring the astral plane:

To discover what lies beyond the physical environment

To explore subtler realms of consciousness

To better prepare one’s self for the inevitable death experience and to realize that death is actually quite an amazing journey further into pure consciousness

To see first hand proof of how our thoughts, motivated by our feelings, actually manifest and aid in the creation of our reality, both in the astral and on the earth plane of focus

To gain a broader perspective that aids in self empowerment

To attain a clearer connection to your spiritual self

To see firsthand how the physical Universe stems from within subtler planes of thought- as within, so without

To experience a shift in perspective and to gain a broader understanding that aids in living a more joyful physical life

To better understand the interconnectivity of all things and how nothing exists separate from anything else

To explore environments and activities that currently exist outside the realm of possibility on the earth plane, due to self imposed limitations set forth by the majority of humankind

To find the means for connecting with the consciousness of individuals that have passed on from physical existence

To open the door that can literally change your life and the way you view your reality

While there are many more experiences during astral projections, that have the potential to cause a fearful response, I wanted to cover some of the more obvious ones. If anyone has any questions or other fears they would like to see addressed in this article, or a future one, then please contact me.

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Techniques for Achieving an OBE

John Wolfe — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:51:34 +0000

This entry is designed to provide simple tips and techniques for helping anyone who’s interested in achieving an out of body experience (OBE). If you are unaware of what astral projection is or what occurs during the process, you may want to read my “Experiences Out of the Body” Part 1 & Part 2 posts. While much has been written about this very subject matter- I want to share the specific techniques that have helped me to continually project my consciousness away from the physical body

Many people find that achieving an OBE is easiest during the first few moments after, or immediately prior to falling asleep at night. These circumstances place you in a perfectly relaxed state that is conducive to projecting your consciousness. Meditation is another option which provides a gateway to astral projection. When you reach deep levels within your meditation you are achieving a similar state of relaxation that occurs prior to sleep. I have had success with both of these methods and a few others, but for the purpose of this article I want to focus on meditation and the initial moments before drifting off to sleep.

The key is to reach the point in which your body is essentially asleep and your mind’s awake, but still. The body will be frozen solid while the mind feels slightly numb, yet aware. This is the moment in which you are deactivating the physical experience from your focal point and allowing your consciousness to shift into a different state of awareness.

Many people refer to this moment as the twilight zone or as the still point, though it’s not usually a fleeting instance like the second name implies. The still point can last for quite some time as you weave in and out of its trance like feel. It’s unmistakable when you achieve it, but it can escape you if you become overly relaxed (fully falling asleep) or tense up (allowing fear to come into your mind).

Let’s go through a few techniques that will give you an opportunity to practice reaching this state. As you continue to go there you will become more adept at using it to launch into a full projection of your consciousness.

The first strategy is to utilize meditation to acclimate yourself with reaching the desired still point. While you don’t have to meditate to achieve an OBE (most people actually find meditation to be one of the more difficult routes), meditation will help you to better understand the whole mind awake, body asleep sensation. Once you become fully aware of this sensation you will be better equipped to recognize it as you fall asleep at night.

Everyone has had an experience with the twilight zone state, but most do not understand what can occur if you hold slightly to your awareness and not allow it to fully enter the sleep state with the physical body. Most people have not “trained” themselves to override the impulse to doze off when they enter the still point, or when they enter the Twilight Zone- “You’re traveling through another dimension- a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind! do do do do , do do do do”
- Sorry I couldn’t resist getting a little Rod Serling on you. OK, back to our meditation techniques:

A) Meditation should be as relaxing and as free as possible. You don’t have to sit upright with your legs crossed or in some other funky position. You want to position yourself in a manner that feels natural and comfortable for you. I prefer lying in my bed, on my back, but you can just as easily use a reclining chair. If you do want to try more of a yoga style, then go for it. The bottom line is to approach it in a manner that will allow you to fully relax.

B) Rid your environment of any interruptions. Turn the ringer off on the phone and make sure no one will disturb your session. It’s pretty difficult to become familiar with the twilight zone when someone is blasting the radio or TV in another part of the house.

C) Wear loose clothing. The tighter your clothes, the more distracted you may be. Tight clothes can keep you constantly aware of your physical body. Remember, you want to take as much focus off of your physical environment (including your body) as possible. If it’s winter time then be sure to have a blanket handy to keep you warm. As you continue to relax, your body temperature will drop.

D) Once you get into position, begin breathing through your nose and out your mouth- really focus on using your diaphragm to power your breathing- avoid short choppy breaths. The key initially, is to stay somewhat consistent with your breathing style to facilitate your relaxation. As you relax, your breathing may become more shallow- which is fine. You also may resort to mouth breathing or strictly breathing through your nose as you reach even deeper levels of relaxation- this too is ok.

E) Many people become overly concerned with eradicating any stray thoughts from their mind during meditation. The more you focus on the attempt to control your thoughts, the more attentive you stay to them- again defeating the purpose of releasing focus from your physical body and from your physical environment.

Relax about any stray thoughts that enter your mind. Continue to focus on your breathing and just allow your thoughts to come and go without any emotional attachment to them. In doing this, you will be propelled into deeper and deeper states of relaxation. Once there, your thoughts will automatically take on less and less importance and will eventually cease to flow almost entirely. The key is to resist the temptation to exert control over the experience. Meditation and astral projection are about getting out of the way, so your consciousness can be what it truly is.

F) Do not concern yourself with setting any time limit on your meditation. For our purposes it’s important to again flow with the experience. If at first you are only able to sit still for five minutes- then do that. The more you practice and allow, the longer your meditative states will last. Remember you’re not necessarily meditating to have an OBE, if it happens during your meditation- that’s fantastic!

The goal here is to reach altered levels of awareness that are similar to the still point I described above. The more you familiarize yourself with this still point or twilight zone, the more you will recognize its occurrence as you are falling asleep at bedtime (which again is usually the easiest time for most people to project).

The reason most people do not achieve astral projection during meditation is because they are not as relaxed as when they enter the sleep state. But I think it’s important to familiarize yourself with reaching as close to the still point as possible during meditation, so you will not sleep through it when it happens at bedtime.
After practicing with meditation for several days to weeks, your awareness will be so much more in tune with the outer edges of the twilight zone that you will actually recognize it (while you are drifting off to sleep) and can retain/regain awareness as you travel through it.

Now, let’s talk a little about recognizing the still point and some tips for using this point as a way to launch into an out of body experience. The techniques in the remainder of this article can be used during meditation or when you are falling asleep.

The Still Point: The still point feels extremely misty and somewhat dreamlike for lack of better words to describe it. You are not usually dreaming during it because you are not fully asleep, but rather you are losing yourself in it, similar to what happens during non-lucid dreams, yet there is no dream sequence unfolding. You also are aware, but at the same time you aren’t all that aware either. You’re pretty much straddling the fence between waking consciousness and the dream world. I know it sounds very cryptic but its one of those things that doesn’t translate well into words. The best advice I can give is- try it. Once you have entered that state and retained consciousness, there’s no mistaking it for anything else.

Feeling for Your Awareness in the Still Point: As you fumble around for some semblance of awareness in this dreamlike environment (minus the dreamscape) you have to be somewhat careful not to startle yourself, so that you don’t pull out of the still point. I believe there are varying degrees in the twilight zone that you can practice your astral projection from.

While you reach for awareness you may slightly disturb the still point. But if you are careful in your approach, you can still remain in the moment without destroying the continuity of the experience. It’s similar to feeling your way around an unfamiliar, unlit room late at night. You’re cruising along and all of a sudden you stub your toe on a piece of furniture that you didn’t realize was there. Do your best to find yourself and your way around without stubbing your toe!

Once you have done this, you are in prime territory for working on having a conscious OBE, since your physical body is essentially asleep. Robert Peterson, the author of Out of Body Experiences, described this point as analogous to a fishing cork floating on the water. As you start to drift off and your cork goes below the surface, you want to be careful not to jerk the line too hard or you’ll miss the fish. When you reach this stage you have accomplished the goal of mind awake/body asleep.

Using Visualization: This is now the time that I begin to use visualization techniques to aid in my projection. One of my favorites is to envision myself on a roller coaster. I do my best to feel each and every turn, drop and loop. This visualization creates the sensation of motion and from our current perspective in the still point; we pretty much have no body capable of detecting physical motion, since it’s technically asleep. Though you are still loosely connected to your physical body- you’re sending the message that you wish to experience these sensations. The more you can feel these sensations, the more momentum you will build up in detaching fully from the body.

It’s around this time that I will also try and locate a way in which to slightly move my eyes (with my eyelids still closed). I say try, because depending on how deep into the still point I am, this can be fairly impossible to accomplish. When I can locate a means for doing this I usually roll them somewhat cross-eyed and up, as if I’m trying to point them at mid-eyebrow level. I know this sounds really strange, but this too creates an inner feeling of motion for me.

Many people believe this action stimulates the third eye location- which is a chakra point found in eastern cultures. I’m not sure if it’s causing stimulation to this region, but it does create a sense of inner motion that’s important for achieving full detachment from the physical. I usually will repeat the eye roll a few times as I continue feeling the sensations of my roller coaster ride.

There are many other techniques that other people use, such as: the roll out, and the wire. I believe the roll out was started by Robert Monroe, who is the author of the Journeys trilogy: Journeys Out of the Body, Far Journeys, and Ultimate Journey.

It essentially utilizes a rolling motion that can be used when you are in the still point. You’re not literally rolling of course; you are just mimicking the sensation. The method I call the wire (which is probably not its original name) is credited to Robert Peterson. It involves the visualization of a wire or string that’s attached to a point somewhere near your forehead (possibly the third eye point again), which pulls you from your body. Both of these methods are used to create that same inner sense of motion that my techniques create. The feeling of motion (most of the time) is vital to engaging a conscious projection. Try some of your own visualization methods that feel right for you and that create a sense of motion.

Sensations and “Symptoms”: If you are already somewhat familiar with OBEs or have read my blog posts discussing my experiences, then you are aware that many strange symptoms and sensations will accompany this shift in your consciousness. As you start to apply some of the techniques mentioned above, while you are in the still point, then you will begin to notice accompanying sensations like: ears ringing and roaring, your entire body vibrating and shaking, cold “breaths” of air being “blown” onto key points of your skin, voices saying your name and many more.

In fact, these sensations can even happen prior to your visualization. In the world of astral projection there are similarities amongst every experience, but none are usually exactly identical. It’s important that you allow these symptoms to play out. They are fleeting and are indicators that you have basically initiated the countdown sequence to a full astral projection.

You’re probably wondering, “What is causing all of those things?” That’s a good question. To explore it fully could be an entire article in and of itself. Basically, you are tapping into a flow of energy that’s not your typical way of being or operating during everyday physical moments. You are connecting with a pure energy flow that has amazing potential. This flow is not usually brought into being (for most people) while they are physically focused.

Now, it may sound contradictory to be in a state of mind awake/body asleep, yet I’m telling you that your physical body feels these sensations. I know it sounds weird, but that’s exactly how it happens. When you reach the still point, your limbs are completely frozen and you cannot move them, yet you can still feel cold blasts of air at key points. I wouldn’t believe it myself if this hadn’t happened to me many times.

After a short period of time, these sensations will dissipate and you will begin to perceive an even further shift in your consciousness. At times you may even experience a fading away of your conscious self; very similar to what I described in Experiences Out of the Body Part 1 & Part 2

You may also find yourself experiencing incredible sensations of falling and expanding from some point of consciousness that has very little in common with your physical body. You’ll notice that these sensations are far beyond anything you have ever felt through your physical awareness. If you can release your fear and continue to allow the experience to develop, you will become aware that you have an instinctive way of perceiving your new environment.

It’s different than seeing with your eyes. It’s more about awareness and a sensing than it is visually seeing. Your new environment is typically an energetic blueprint of the very room you are having the out of body experience in. This environment is extremely sensitive to your thoughts. In fact, I believe that it’s this environment in which all things originate, prior to making themselves known in our physical plane.

From here, the sky is truly the limit and the world’s your oyster, quite literally. I have not been as successful as many out of body travelers when it comes to visiting other locations, besides my house (on the astral plane). However I’ve had some amazing experiences in deeper environments, into the astral, that I plan on sharing in future blog posts. I also will be blogging about some validation experiences I have had, which point to the fact that OBEs are more than just fantasy and dreams.

In my next out of body experience entry I will be discussing ways to release your fear (if you have any) about astral projection and further tips for traveling the astral plane and reaching out to environments besides your home. I hope you try some of the techniques I’ve covered in this article. If they work for you or if you have any further questions, then feel free to contact me and share your experiences.

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