textfiles/fun/project1.txt

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  <___Astral Projection__Part I_>< Brought to you by:_________________>
  <___Preliminary Exercises_____><_______Arkham Asylum________________>
  <___By: The Joker_____________><_______(302)-629-5537_______________>
  <___& The Occult Crue_________><______65 Megz_24oo Baud_____________>
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  This information is taken directly from the book Journeys Out of 
  the Body by Robert A. Monroe.

        Throughout this writing, I have made many references to 
  one evident fact:  the only possible way for an individual to 
  appreciate the reality of this Second Body and existence within 
  it is to experience it himself.
        Obviously, if this were an easy task, it would now be 
  commonplace.  I suspect that only an innate curiosity will enable 
  people to overcome the obstacles in the path of this achievement.  
  Although there are many cases of existence experienced apart from 
  the physical body, they have for the most part - at least in the 
  Western world - been of a spontaneous, one time nature, occurring 
  during moments of stress or physical disability.
        We are speaking of something entirely different, which 
  can be objectively investigated.  The experimenter will want to 
  proceed in a manner that will produce consistent results, perhaps 
  not every time, but often enough to validate the evidence to his 
  own satisfaction.  I believe that anyone can experience existence 
  in a Second Body if the desire is great enough.  Whether or not 
  anyone should is beyond the scope of my judgment.
        Evidence has led me to believe that most, if not all, 
  human beings leave their physical bodies in varying degrees 
  during sleep.  Subsequent reading has proved that this idea is 
  thousands of years old in man's history.  If it is a valid 
  premise, then the condition itself is not unnatural.  On the 
  other hand, conscious, willful practice of separation from the 
  physical is contrary to the pattern, it would seem, in view of 
  the limited data available.
        Harmful physical effects from such activity are 
  undetermined.  I have not detected (nor have any physicians) any 
  physiological changes, good or bad, that can be attributed 
  directly to the out-of-the-body experience.
        There have been many psychological changes that I 
  recognize, and probably many more that I have not been aware of.  
  However, even my friends in the psychiatric profession have not 
  claimed that these have been detrimental.  My gradual revision of 
  basic concepts and believes is apparent in a number of ways 
  throughout this writing.  If these psychological and personality 
  changes are truly harmful, there is not much that can be done 
  about it now.
        A note of caution is in order here for those who are 
  interested in experimenting, for once opened, the doorway to this 
  experience cannot be closed.  More exactly, it is a copy of "you 
  can't live with it and you can't live without it."  The activity 
  and resultant awareness are quite incompatible with the science, 
  religion, and mores of the society in which we live.  History is 
  strewn with martyrs whose only crime was non-conformity.  If your 
  interest and research become commonly known, you run the risk of 
  being labeled a freak, phony, or worse, and of being ostracized.  
  In spite of this, something extremely vital would be missing if 
  you did not continue to explore and investigate.  In the 
  unaccountable "low" periods when you cannot produce this activity 
  no matter how carefully you try, you realize this deeply.  You 
  have a strong sense of being left out of things, of the shutting 
  out of a source of great meaning to living.
        Here, then, is the best written description I can give of 
  the technique of developing the non-physical experience.


  THE FEAR BARRIER

        There is one great obstacle to the investigation of the 
  Second Body and the environment in which it operates.  Perhaps it 
  is the only major barrier.  It seems to be present in all 
  people, without exception.  It may be hidden by layers of 
  inhibition and conditioning, but when these are stripped away, 
  the obstacle remains.  This is the barrier of blind, unreasoning 
  fear.  Given only small impetus, it turns to panic, and then to 
  terror.  If you consciously pass the fear barrier, you will have 
  passed a milestone in your investigation.
        I am reasonably sure that this barrier is passed 
  unconsciously by many of us each night.  When that part of us 
  beyond our consciousness takes over, it is not inhibited by fear, 
  although it seems to be influenced by the thought and action of 
  the conscious mind.  It seems to be accustomed to operating 
  beyond the fear barrier, and understands better the rules of 
  existence in this other world.  When the conscious mind shuts 
  down for the night, this Super Mind (soul?) takes over.
        The investigative process relative to the Second Body and 
  its environment appears to be a melding or blending of the 
  conscious with this Super Mind.  If this is accomplished, the 
  fear barrier is overcome.
        The fear barrier is many-faceted.  The most fearless of 
  us think it does not exist, until, much to our own surprise, we 
  encounter it within ourselves.  First and foremost, there is the 
  death fear.  Because separation from the physical body is much 
  like what is expected at death, early reactions to the experience 
  are automatic.  You think, "Get back in the physical, quickly!  
  You are dying!  Life is there, in the physical; get back in!"
        These reactions appear in spite of any intellectual or 
  emotional training.  Only after repeating the process eighteen to 
  twenty times did I finally gather enough courage (and curiosity) 
  to stay out more than a few seconds and observe objectively.  The 
  death fear was either sublimated or assuaged by familiarity.  
  Others who have tried the technique have stopped after the first 
  or second experience, unable to suppress this first aspect of the 
  barrier.
        The second aspect of the fear barrier is also linked with 
  the death fear:  will I be able to return to the physical or to 
  get back "in."  With no guidelines or specific instructions, this 
  remained a prime fear of mine for several years, until I found a 
  simple answer that made it work every time.  Mine was a matter of 
  rationalization.  I had been "out" several hundred times, and the 
  evidence showed that I was able to return safely one way or 
  another.  Therefore, the probability was that I would return 
  safely the next time also.
        The third basic fear was fear of the unknown.  The rules 
  and dangers of our physical environment can be determined to a 
  reasonable degree.  We have spent our lifetime building up 
  reflexes to cope with them.  Now, suddenly, here is another, 
  completely different set of rules, another world of entirely 
  different possibilities, populated by beings who seem to know all 
  of them.  You have no rule book, no road map, no book of 
  etiquette, no applicable courses in physics and chemistry, no 
  incontrovertible authority you can turn to for advice and 
  answers.  Many a missionary has been killed in a remote land 
  under just such conditions!
        I must confess that this third fear still crops up, and 
  with justification.  The unknown is still to a great degree 
  unknown.  Such penetration as I have made has brought forth 
  pitifully few unalterable and consistent rules.  I can say only 
  that, to date, I have survived these expeditions.  There is so 
  much that I do not comprehend or understand, and more that is 
 beyond my ability to do so.
        Another fear is the consequent effects on the physical 
  body as well as on the conscious mind of participation and 
  experimentation in this form of activity.  This too is very real, 
  as our history, at least to my knowledge, does not seem to 
  contain accurate reporting of this area.  We have studies on 
  paranoia, schizophrenia, phobias, epilepsy, alcoholism, sleeping 
  sickness, acne, virus diseases, etc., but no assembled body of 
  objective data on the pathology of the Second Body.
        I do not know how to circumvent the fear barrier, except 
  by cautious initial steps that create familiarity bit by bit as 
  you proceed.  I hope this writing in its entirety will provide 
  the psychological "step" over the barrier.  It may help to 
  recognize conditions and patterns that are familiar in that at 
 least one person has had similar experiences and survived.
        The following are the necessary procedural developments.

  1.  RELAXATION

        The ability to relax is the first prerequisite, perhaps 
  even the first step itself.  It is deliberately generated, and is 
  both physical and metal.  Included with the condition of 
  relaxation must be the relief from any sense of time urgency.  
  You cannot be in a hurry.  No pending appointments or anticipated 
  calls for your services or attention must clutter up your 
  thoughts.  Impatience of any sort can effectively stifle your 
  prospects for success.
        There are many techniques available for obtaining this 
  kind of relaxation, and a number of good books cover the subject.  
  Simply select the method that works best for you.  There are 
  three general methods that seem to work, two of which are 
  applicable in these exercises.
        Auto- or self-hypnosis.  Most self-study books offer this 
  method in different versions.  Again, it is a matter of which is 
  most effective for you individually.  The most efficient and 
  speediest way is to learn self-hypnosis through the training of 
  an experienced hypnotist.  He can set up posthypnotic suggestion 
  that will bring immediate results.  However, select a tutor with 
  care.  Responsible practitioners are rare, and neophytes 
  numerous.  Forms of meditation can be converted to effective 
  relaxation.
        Borderland sleep state.  This is perhaps the easiest and 
  most natural method and usually ensures relaxation of both body 
  and mind simultaneously.  The difficulty here lies in the 
  maintenance of that delicate "edge" between sleep and complete 
  wakefulness.  All too often, you simply fall asleep and that ends 
  the experiment for the moment.
        By practice, conscious awareness can be taken up to this 
  borderland state, into it, and through it, to your destination.  
  There is no way to achieve it that I know of that than practice.  
  The technique is as follows:  lie down, preferably when you are 
  tired and sleepy.  As you become relaxed and start to drift off 
  to sleep, hold your mental attention on something, anything, with 
  your eyes closed.  Once you can hold the borderland state 
  indefinitely without falling asleep, you have passed the first 
  stage.  It is, however, a normal pattern to fall asleep many 
  times in the process of this consciousness deepening.  You will 
  not be able to help yourself, but do not let this discourage you.  
  It is not an overnight process.  You will know you are 
  successful when you become bored and expect something more to 
  happen!
        If attempts to remain at the borderland state make you 
  nervous, this too is a normal reaction.  The conscious mind seems 
  to resent sharing the authority it has during wakefulness.  If 
  this occurs, break the relaxation, get up and walk around, 
  exercise, and lie down again.  If this does not relieve the 
  nervousness, go to sleep and try another time.  You are just not 
  in the mood.
        When your "fixative," the picture thought you have been 
  holding, slips away and you find yourself thinking of something 
  else, you are close to completion of condition A.
        Once you have achieved Condition A - the ability to hold 
  calmly in the borderland state indefinitely with your mind on an 
  exclusive thought - you are ready for the next step.  Condition B 
  is similar, but with the concentration eliminated.  Do not think 
  of anything, but remain poised between wakefulness and sleep.  
  Simply look through your closed eyes at the blackness ahead of 
  you.  Do nothing more.  After a number of these exercises, you 
  may hallucinate "mind pictures," or light patterns.  These seem 
  to have no great significance, and may merely be forms of neural 
  discharge.  I can remember, for example, attempting to achieve 
  this state after watching a football game on TV for several 
  hours.  All I saw were mind pictures of football players 
  tackling, running, passing, etc.  It took at least a half hour 
  for the pattern to fade away.  These mind pictures are apparently 
  related to your visual concentration in the preceding eight or 
  ten hours.  The more intense the concentration, the longer it 
  seems to take to eliminate the impressions.
        You have accomplished Condition B when you are able to 
  lie indefinitely after the impressions have faded away, with no 
  nervousness, and seeing nothing but blackness.
        Condition C is a systematic deepening of consciousness 
  while in the B state.  This is approached by carefully letting go 
  of your rigid hold on the borderland sleep edge and drifting 
  deeper little by little during each exercise.  You will learn to 
  establish degrees of this deepening of consciousness by "going 
  down" to a given level and returning at will.  You will recognize 
  these degrees by the shutting down of various sensory mechanism 
  inputs.  The sense of touch apparently goes first.  You seem to 
  have no feeling in any part of your body.  Smell and taste soon 
  follow.  The auditory signals are next, and the last to fade out 
  is vision. (Sometimes the last two are reversed; I suspect that 
  the reason for vision being last is that exercises calls for the 
  use of the visual network, even in blackness.)
        Condition D is the achievement of C when one is fully 
  rested and refreshed, rather than tired and sleepy, at the 
  beginning of the exercise.  This is quite important, and not 
  nearly as easy to achieve as it is to write about.  To enter the 
  relaxation state full of energy and wakefulness is great 
  insurance for maintaining conscious control.  The best approach 
  to take in the early attempts at the Condition D exercise is to 
  start it immediately after you wake up from a nap or a night's 
  sleep.  Start the exercise before you move around in bed 
  physically, while your body is still relaxed from sleep and your 
  mind is fully alert.  Don't take too many liquids before 
  sleeping, and you won't have the immediate need to empty your 
  bladder upon awakening.
        Induction by drugs.  None of the relaxation-producing 
  drugs that are readily available seem to help.  Barbiturates