The "Brain Fixing" incident taught me an important lesson. When I was trying to prove my experiences were "real," I had problems achieving my goals and I was usually disappointed. When I just let myself flow with the experience, I had fun and I felt good about the experience. Suddenly I realized that I didn't need to prove anything to anyone. There truly is a higher purpose to our experiences, whether in the body or out. All that matters is that we believe in the magic within us and trust that we will be guided to what is best for us.

I never did make it to LD's house in a fully-conscious OBE, but I had some close calls. For instance, on October 4, 1981, after a fully-conscious OBE (#51) had ended, I entered a semiconscious dream state in which I was at LD's apartment. I took note of several details, including a pile of clothes I saw sitting on a bed. After I described the experience to her, she said it sounded "actually quite like our apartment. Especially the part about the clothes. I had done wash and put them on the extra bed." Eventually LD changed jobs and I lost contact with her.

Since I made the decision to "go with the flow," I haven't been disappointed. My goal--to make my presence known during an OBE--also came with time and patience. In 1985, I had the following OBE during which my roommate, JH, was aware of my presence.

09/07/85 Sat - OBE #116
JH [my roommate] and I were discussing OBE last night until 2:00am after watching a horror movie on television. We both decided to try having OBEs, and we agreed that if either had an OBE, he would try to contact the other in the OBE state....

I first woke up at around 7:20am, and I thought about trying to have an OBE. I was very tired, and fell asleep before I had a chance to try.

I woke up next around 9:30am and I thought, "I've almost wasted the whole morning, and haven't even tried to have an OBE." So I decided to try to have an OBE. I got into a straight position with my arms at my sides. I let myself approach sleep, but then I thought strongly, "I WANT to have an OBE." So I started by visualizing a line of light (about three feet long) going straight up from between my eyes. I reached out with my consciousness to the end of the line, and pulled myself toward the end of the line. Then I created a rocking or swaying sensation by pulling and then pushing my consciousness along this line toward its end. Almost at once I felt the vibrations sweep over me, but they were very mild; almost unnoticeable. The vibrations faded away after a few seconds, and I was separate from my body.

My eyes were open, and the first thing I tried to do was look down. I tried to turn my head down, but although I had the sensation of my head turning, my vision stayed where it was, staring at the upper corner of the bedroom. My mouth was very dry and stiff. My vision wouldn't move. I had a slight feeling of dizziness as I turned my head down, but my vision stayed the same, so I stopped.

Then I noticed some sort of spirit form gliding from the direction of JH's room, into my room, and I thought it was JH. I thought, "JH beat me here! Good! Now I don't have to go into his room to get him. I wonder if he'll remember doing this." The spirit figure I saw glided up next to me, and came to rest to my left, near the bed. I turned my eyes to the left to look (I could not turn my head) but I couldn't make out the spirit figure too well.

As I studied the ghostly figure, another spirit form glided in and joined the first. As I studied the two figures, their forms started fading in and out, so that parts of them were completely transparent, parts of them were visible but translucent, and parts of them were completely visible. I could see now that it was not JH. One of the spirits was a man, and the other was a woman, and they grasped each other while they reclined on the bed, less than a foot away to my left. They didn't seem to notice me at all.

I wondered if the images I saw were really spirits, or if they were thought-forms, or just afterimages from a time when two such people occupied the same room years before. I was strangely calm and not alarmed at seeing the spirits. Since the spirits didn't seem to care about me, I turned my attention away and concentrated again on trying to get away from my body.

I reached behind me, and tried to pry myself away from the physical body, but again I had the feeling of movement, although my sight remained the same. I tried to say some words, like "I am projecting now, so I should be able to get away," but the words seemed to come out physically. And since my throat was very dry and stiff the words came out slurred together, as if my whole mouth was deadened by novocaine. I made a mental note to remember all of this, and I let myself back down into my body.

I looked around once more, and as I looked, many other spirits started fading in and out of my vision. I concentrated on seeing them and as I looked they became clearer in my vision, and soon it seemed as if the whole room was crowded with spirits of different kinds.

Most of the spirits were between the ages of 30 and 50, and they were talking to each other in this crowded room. It reminded me of a dance or a wedding reception because there were many people, crowded together, talking to each other. I moved my eyes back and forth, to scan the different spirits in the room. As I moved my eyes, the spirits seemed to move too, and it caused a strange effect. I was curious why, but it didn't bother me.

I studied some of the spirits in the room, and I remember what some of them looked like: a man about 35 years old, wearing 50's style formal clothes, with some scratches and bruises on his face. He was talking to a woman, dressed also in a 50's style formal dress. None of these spirits seemed to notice me either, so I decided to ignore them and try to get away from the body again, to contact JH.

I lay back into my body and then I tried lifting my feet over my head to do a backward somersault, thinking that it should work, since it has always been successful in past OBEs. Again I felt my consciousness move completely in a circle, and I quickly came full circle and found myself back in the same position lying down. My consciousness faded into the same dream I had before I woke up.

After a while I realized I was dreaming again, and I forced myself awake, and I woke up still out of the body. I thought, "I am out of my body, and I am controlling this reality entirely. I should be able to get away from this body." I decided that the only way I was going to get anywhere was to close my eyes and walk, relying entirely on my other senses. So I closed my eyes and bent my knees down until my legs were through the bed and my feet were touching the floor. I used my arms and a kind of swaying motion to stand up. I took a few steps toward JH's room. Then I stopped and wondered whether it would be best to walk into the living room, and through JH's bedroom door, or through the physical closet.

I decided to walk through the closet and straight into JH's room. So I kept going toward JH's room and I approached JH's bed. Just as I started to look around, I was picked up and forcefully pulled back to my body.

The next thing I knew I was back in my body, and my eyes were closed. I felt as if I were still out of my body only I felt very stiff and rigid. I forced my eyes open, and as I did that, I became more physical, until my physical eyes opened and I was again completely in my physical body.

I turned to look at the clock and it felt great to be able to turn my head. The time was slightly after 10:00am. I recalled the whole incident in my mind. Then, I got up to type it into the computer. JH heard me get up, and came out and asked me if I had an OBE.

JH said that he was experimenting with the hypnogogic state when he saw me in his bedroom. Other people have felt my presence too.

I am a believer and a skeptic. I must believe in the paranormal, since I've experienced it firsthand. At the same time, I am still skeptical in many ways. Skepticism is healthy because it can keep us from losing touch with reality and going off the deep end. We shouldn't believe everything we hear or read, or every line of trash fed to us by cults. We must always believe in ourselves, but question what makes sense.

The difference between a skeptic and a believer is simply this: perspective. When I was a skeptic, I approached everything with a negative attitude. I was a pessimist. Everything was hogwash until it was proven to be real. I thought of psychics and mystics as frauds, liars and charlatans who lived lives of delusion.

My psychic experiences--particularly my OBEs--changed my attitude from negative to positive. I see people as inherently good. Obstacles are merely lessons to be learned. My outlook on life is positive and optimistic. And it pays to be optimistic. I believe in magic because I have experienced it firsthand.

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Exercise 16 - Quiescing the Mind

In my opinion, the single most important factor in leaving the body is that you focus your consciousness down to a single focused barely noticeable thread.

The best way to explain this is with an analogy. Imagine two parents who have lots of small kids that make lots of noise. At night, the parents send their kids to bed and wait for them to fall asleep before doing adult things. They try to be covert, so they listen for the kids' bedroom noise to quiet down, and when it does, they proceed. The lack of noise implies, but doesn't guarantee, that the kids are asleep.

Similarly, I think we all have a Higher Self or Oversoul that waits until our consciousness is completely quiet or quiesced. At that point, it goes on to do otherworldly things.

I have found that if I narrow my consciousness down into a single thread, (where my mind doesn't wander) and if I can hold my consciousness that way for about three minutes, the vibrations will rush in and start the separation process.

After a certain point where the vibrations have run their course, I broaden my consciousness back to normal and I allow my normal thinking process to continue. But only after I'm in a fully conscious out-of-body state. It feels like sneaking through a security door with someone, unnoticed.

It's not enough to be single-minded. You have to narrow down your consciousness until it's almost unnoticeable to even yourself. It's also not enough to concentrate your mind. Concentration is different from quiescing your mind.

So here's an exercise for focusing your consciousness down to a quiesced state: Have you ever seen a flash of lightning, and stopped to listen for the thunder? Or perhaps you heard someone knocking at your door or the telephone ringing from several rooms away? At those times, you tend to stop thinking and listen. And your mind is quiesced for a second or two. Well, pretend that some sound will occur in the future, and just listen for it. For a short time, your consciousness will stop all processing and go into a quiesced state. As you practice, increase the length of time that you listen.

Instead of being a thinker, try to be a listener or an observer. Instead of following a train of thought, jump off the train. Don't think; act. Don't concentrate on anything; just pretend you're staring at a blank screen in front of your eyes. Become passive, patiently watching and waiting.

At first, you won't be able to suspend your thoughts for long. With practice you can learn to prolong this passive state.

When the vibrations hit, it can be quite shocking, and may break you out of the quiesced state of mind. If you start to think, "Oh my God, what's happening to me?" or "What should I do next?" then you've lost the quiesced state temporarily and the vibrations will start to fade away. Luckily the vibrations take several seconds to fade away--just enough time to recover the quiesced state. Just concentrating on the vibrations getting stronger is not enough--they will only get stronger when you get back to the quiesced state of mind.

Learn to hold your quiesced state of mind regardless of what is happening to your body. After the vibrations come, you need only hold the quiesced state for approximately 10 to 15 seconds and then you can just get up and walk away from your body.

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