The Biggest Mistake

If you veer off the path I have shown you, you’ll be either completely depriving yourself of a rewarding experience, or at least making such an experience a very rare event. I often have to fight with one very strange aspect of human psychology: the desire to do things in one’s own way in a field that one knows nothing about.

I’ve done nearly everything I can: I’ve tested and described everything exactly, you can be quite sure that it will work. But then I’ll go to talk with another practitioner, and it suddenly turns out that nothing is working for him. At least, that’s what he says.

But once he starts to tell you what he did and how he did it, you immediately hear that he did exactly what you’ve told him dozens of times not to do. It turns out that he’s done everything backwards. And if steps were taken in the right direction, then everything was done half-way, the wrong way, or no way, and the most fundamental elements were given no more than a passing try. Of course, it doesn’t always turn out like that. It only does when someone is having problems with his practice. If there are no problems, that means that he’s doing everything just as he was told.

And so, friend, I beg you to follow all of the instructions exactly. You’re guaranteed to get a result. The more correctly you perform the techniques, the quicker the results will come. Some people get results during their first attempts.

But let’s take a look at the most common mistake. I’ve already mentioned more than once here that one’s practice should start only from the indirect techniques, that is techniques performed upon awakening. I’ve taught this phenomenon to thousands of people personally, and to a countless number through my books. I’m not saying that that’s where you need to start just to have something to say. Indirect techniques are simply the easiest and most effective ones. For some reason, every second student will get some irresistible urge to buck my arguments and start from the hardest techniques: the direct ones, which are performed without accompanying sleep.

They usually tell me that direct techniques deliver more controllability. Yes, they do. And therein lies the problem. That’s exactly why novices are unsuccessful with them, because beginners try to control them. In the section on direct techniques, you’ll learn how they need to be performed in the opposite way – it is necessary to deliberately give up control over them and your conscious awareness for a certain period of time. And this is much more difficult than awakening and then entering the phase within a few moments.

Based on outward appearances, direct techniques seem preferable, which in and of itself draws people to them. However, indirect techniques need to be mastered first before trying anything else. Friend, such a desire will surely arise within you as well. But keep one thing in mind: indirect techniques work for everyone, while direct techniques are fraught with difficulty, even for those with much experience, let alone for a novice who has yet to learn the phenomenon from the inside out.

Starting from direct techniques is the same as walking into a weight-room for the first time in your life and trying to bench-press 500 pounds. No sane person would even think about doing that. It’s simply unrealistic. It’s first necessary to train for a certain period of time, which requires starting out from light weights. If the bench-press is a clear analogy, then direct techniques are a very near equivalent to those 400 pounds – lifting them would obviously be possible only after spending months working out, and require an incredible amount of strength. Yet the phase can be yours in literally a couple of days…

Yes, some people do have a predisposition for direct techniques, especially women. But whenever I talk about such predisposition, almost everyone thinks that I’m talking about them. You can forget about it. First learn what kind of phenomenon this is by performing specific actions upon awakening, and then – and only then – start experiments with direct techniques.

What’s more, a lot of people may think that if they try both direct and indirect techniques simultaneously, then they will get, for example, guaranteed practice upon awakening, and sure practice with direct techniques before falling asleep. I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you, and even warn you. You are not a bottomless well of energy and strength. If you’ve been exhausting yourself with direct techniques all evening, then you’ll have no energy or strength left to do anything correctly or effectively upon awakening. Based on my substantial observational data, I can categorically state that such an approach decreases the probability of having a successful experience by 50 to 80 percent.

The situation is even more ridiculous when a person attempting direct techniques has already suffered a fiasco with indirect techniques due to making mistakes, after having worked on them for say several weeks. I would like to emphasize that such a fiasco is possible only in the face of major mistakes and misunderstandings. And so, having tripped up over what is easiest, the unfortunate practitioner decides to move on to direct techniques – the hardest ones. Where’s the logic? Being unable to do the easiest things, do you think that you will suddenly be able to do the hardest things? Now really? It’s just the other way around! If you are still unable to take your conscious awareness out of your body upon awakening, then the one thing you have left to consider is becoming conscious while dreaming – but don’t even think about direct techniques.

And so don’t fiddle around, put all of your effort from the beginning into actions performed upon awakening – into the universal indirect techniques.

(Sadly, even after this being emphasized so much, a significant proportion of readers will nevertheless throw these warnings out the window and begin to torture themselves with direct techniques…)

Incomplete Performance of the Techniques

Another widespread problem is incomplete performance of the techniques. No less than 75% of practitioners who are learning using my techniques suffer from this. It’s interesting to note that 75% of them do so deliberately. Friend, you’ll see later on that you need not perform superhuman feats in order to achieve the phase state. As far as the indirect techniques are concerned, you just need perform a simple algorithm of actions upon awakening. Just complete everything that you are required to do in full. And perform everything just as it is described.

Let’s observe a few examples of incomplete performance of the techniques. We’ll start with cycles of indirect techniques – the one universal phase entrance technique-based technology. It entails the completion, upon awakening, of no less than 4 cycles of techniques for a total of 9-15 seconds each, until a technique works. For some reason, many think that the proscribed minimum of 4 cycles does not apply to them. And so they do 1 or 2 cycles…. Like the time at one of my seminars when two men of about the same age sat next to each-other, both in the neighborhood of 45 years old. This was the second session, and they spoke about what they had been doing, and how things were going for them. The first man said that he had started by doing 2 cycles during one attempt, but then seeing as nothing was working, he decided to stop right there, even though I had said the previous afternoon to do 4 cycles. I had repeated it again and again… The second gentleman had also started by doing two cycles and nothing worked for him either. But he then started to do a third cycle, just like I had said to do. Then, one of the techniques worked like a charm during the fourth cycle, and he was able to leave his body. However, if he had done everything like his neighbor in the classroom, then nothing would have happened for him either… I have introduced this example only because I remember it quite well, as two people sitting next to one another sharply contrasted in their approach to what they were told to do.

People also very often forget when performing indirect techniques to first try to separate, and only then do cycles. With direct techniques, people also tend to forget about the free-floating state of mind, though without it there’s no point in expecting anything, as I always point out early on.

Sometimes incomplete performance of techniques happens not because of a person’s psychology, but out of an inability to complete a task. For example, with indirect techniques, it’s very important to awaken without moving. Many are simply unable to keep themselves from moving. However, achieving this only requires practice. Not only that, but many also forget that if they wake up to their body moving, then they should nevertheless still make an attempt at separation. Sure, their odds are lower than usual, but are still quite high.

By and far, we could go on forever about the different ways in which people fail to fully perform techniques. I only wanted to tell you, friend, to try to fully implement all of the techniques. Each sentence and every word in the sections on techniques has been vetted by years of classroom instruction and has much more weight than a cursory glance would imply.

You see, in taking this book into your hands, you may mistakenly assume it be yet another work on some-odd occult or esoteric practice, in which everything is vaguely described and the majority of details are literally left up to the reader. Do not take such an approach to this book under any circumstances. Everything here is already well known, there’s no reason to shroud this practice in a cloud of secrecy. You have clear instructions right here in front of you. Just follow them.

Confidence

At nearly every seminar I get to enjoy a different student telling the same funny story. A bewildered student attends the second or third session and relates his experience: the usual story is that he abruptly wakes up in the morning, in a fully conscious state, and starts to try to separate from his body. And nothing happens. He then tries to employ the techniques. Still nothing happens. In a bout of frustration, he then thinks to heck with everything, gives up, and decides to go back to sleep. Then, he gradually starts to realize that his body is lying in a different position than when he woke up. For example, he woke up lying on his back and performed the techniques in that position. But a minute later, it turns out that he’s lying on his stomach! All the while he has sure as day not moved at all physically.

What does all this mean? Friend, if you’re going to doubt whether or not any of this will work for you, then even when you are in the phase, you may simply be unable to get out of bed, which is what needs to be done in such a situation. Any doubt will keep you in your body, and peg you to it.

And just the opposite, in most cases, especially when it comes to indirect techniques, it is sufficient to simply be confident and completely certain that you’re going to get with it and just do it! I’m not trying to psych you up, and I’m not exaggerating. That’s exactly how it is. Sometimes it is enough simply to want it, to believe in it, and to act.

Over the course of several months, I conducted a study at each seminar on the effect of confidence on effectiveness. It turned out that 90% of those who get results do everything confidently, knowing that they will be successful in either the current attempt or a following one. It also turned out that 90% of those who were still unable to achieve anything were making their attempts without confidence, without belief in themselves or in their ability to enter the phase. Draw your own conclusions, my friend.

In this book, you’ll read about a large number of experiences, not only those of my own, but also those of other practitioners. This should bolster your confidence so that you’ll go on and do it.

Determination

It may have seemed funny to you to compare such a powerful practice to weight lifting, but sport has more in common with it than first meets the eye. Here’s another example: in soccer, the best forward will demonstrate two important qualities more than any other: wanting to score, and setting his sights on the goal. When you make attempts to exit the body, your actions should be very similar in approach.

What I have in mind, friend, are situations when you can’t just rest on your laurels, but have to keep pushing on further and harder. You need to realize that success lies in your hands, and not in what somebody else does for you. You need to firmly channel all of your efforts, aiming them only at a single goal – the phase!

This means that you should use each and every favorable opportunity when practicing, taking advantage of it to achieve more and more success. For example, if something suddenly starts to work when performing indirect techniques, you should pursue it through to the end, trying to seize every chance you get. The above seems obvious enough, but many nevertheless stop at the critical moment and try to watch what happens next, or switch to another technique, not seizing the opportunity at hand. You should never allow this to happen. You can’t just bounce back and forth. You have to march straight ahead.

Motivation

If you have already encountered the out-of-body phenomenon (the phase) in your life, then you already know how great it is and you hardly need any more motivation than the desire to do it again. But if you do not have any experience, then you, my friend, must first either try to understand the incredible essence of the phenomenon, or read in detail about its practical side.

The fact is that if you are going to do this just because it’s something new to try and then see what happens, it’s possible that you won’t get any results. You have to really want it. When this desire inside you becomes deep and intense, your results will be much, much better. Moreover, it will often happen spontaneously without any intention on your part – that’s how strong the power of desire and intention is!

From Ultimate Yoga

Stephen LaBerge was born in 1947 in the United States. At the age of 19, he received a Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics from Arizona State University, after which he enrolled as a graduate student in the Chemistry program at Stanford University. In 1969, he took an academic leave of absence.

He returned to Stanford in 1977 and began studying the human mind, including subjects related to dreaming. LaBerge received his Ph.D. in psychophysiology in 1980. He founded the Lucidity Institute in 1987.

Stephen LaBerge has made the largest scientific contribution to the study of phase states(lucid dreaming in this case). It suffices to say that LaBerge was the first in the world to prove during a full-fledged scientific experiment that it is possible to become conscious while dreaming This was done through logging specific signals made with the eyes by a person dreaming while sleeping under measurement instruments. These experiments also proved that eye movement in the physical body and perceived body are synchronous.

Lucid Dreaming, first published in 1985, is LaBerge’s most well-known book. Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, a book that LaBerge wrote with Howard Rheingold, was published in 1990. It was mainly thanks to the efforts of LaBerge that mind-machines for achieving dream consciousness were created, such as DreamLight, NovaDreamer, and DreamMaker.

The key feature of LaBerge’s work and achievements is an absolutely pragmatic approach to the nature of the phenomenon. Arguably, he is one of the few authors and researchers totally lacking in irrationality. Everything that can be read and learned from his books is verifiable and accessible for everyone, with no peddling of out-of-this-world superpowers.

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Due to Carlos Castaneda’s desire to follow the spiritual practice of the Warrior’s Path, which entails erasing one’s personal history, the details of his biography are unclear.

As far as Castaneda’s early years are concerned, it can only be stated that he was born outside of the United States sometime between 1925 and 1935. He enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the 1960s, where he received a Ph.D. in anthropology on the basis of his books.

Castaneda’s entire life path was devoted to studying the teachings of a certain Juan Matus or don Juan Cachora. It is more than likely that his persona is a composite-image of an Indian Shaman, a sorcerer, and an heir of the culture of the ancient ”Toltecs”.

Carlos Castaneda wrote a dozen books; however, the book The Art of Dreaming (1993) has the most to do with the phase state(by lucid dreaming). It contains several effective techniques for entering the phase through dream consciousness. His subject matter is soaked in a large amount of mysticism and virtually devoid of any pragmatism.

Despite the fact that the main orientation of Castaneda’s work did not touch upon the phase state, he nevertheless became one of the founding fathers of this field, as his general popularity reached massive proportions worldwide.

Carlos Castaneda passed away in 1998.

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Robert Monroe was born in the United States in 1915. In 1937, he graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in Engineering. He worked for some time as a radio program producer and director until he established his own radio company in New York, which rapidly expanded.

In 1956, his company also conducted a study about the effect of sound waves on the abilities of the mind.

In 1958, Robert A. Monroe had an accidental personal experience with the phase phenomenon, which strongly stoked his interest in the subject to which he would devote his entire career. In 1974, he founded the Monroe Institute, which was entirely devoted to studying unusual states of consciousness and the ability to influence them through audio stimulation and other technologies. One of its main achievements was the creation of the Hemi-Sync system, which was designed to help a person reach altered states of consciousness, including out-of-body states, by synchronizing the two hemispheres of the brain.

His first book, Journeys Out of the Body, was published in 1971. Two books then followed: Far Journeys (1985) and Ultimate Journey (1994).

Robert Monroe has, so far, made the largest contribution toward popularizing the phase state. However, he understood the phase more as an actual exit of the mind from the body, which is why the term ”out-of-body experience” (OBE) was introduced. The book Journeys Out of the Body was such a massive success that Monroe quickly became an undisputed authority in the field.

However, the large influence of mysticism on Monroe’s work and views cannot be ignored. This is especially apparent after his second book. The majority of phenomena described in the book have not been verified in practice. The only attempt at conducting a full-fledged scientific experiment proving that the mind left the body was unsuccessful. In the end, typical misconceptions about the phase became widespread, as did awareness of the existence of out-of-body experiences.

Robert Monroe passed away in 1995.

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Patricia Garfield was born in 1934 in the United States. From the age of 14, she kept an uninterrupted daily dream journal that would allow her and all of humanity great insight into dreams phenomena associated with the phase.

She was one of the founders of The Association for the Study of Dreams. Dr. Garfield holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

Patricia Garfield is the author of a great number of books, with the 1974 best-seller Creative Dreaming being the most widely lauded. It was one of the first pieces of literature to approach the phase state in a practical and non-specialist way, and received worldwide interest and appreciation. The book contains good practical guidelines and also describes the dreaming practices of various cultures.

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Sylvan Muldoon was born in the United States in 1903. He is considered to be the American pioneer in the study of the phase, although he used the esoteric term astral. He inadvertently woke up in the phase at the age of 12, where he saw a cord connecting his perceived body to his real body.

Sylvan Muldoon first thought that he was dying during the experience, although he eventually concluded that this was an instance of  ”astral projection”. He had repeated experience with the phenomenon, but Muldoon was still unable to become an advanced practitioner due to a lack of full control over the practice.

After coordinating efforts with Hereward Carrington, the famous American investigator of the unknown, the two published the sensational, jointly authored book The Projection of the Astral Body in 1929. The authors published two other books: The Case for Astral Projection (1936) and The Phenomena of Astral Projection (1951).

Despite a large serving of esotericism, Sylvan Muldoon’s books, (especially the first one) contain a lot of helpful, practical information and explanation of the most diverse phenomena that can occur during the phase. However, Sylvan Muldoon is considered to be the greatest popularizer of irrational esoteric terms and theories, which subsequently became quite widespread.

Sylvan Muldoon passed away in 1971.

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Charles Leadbeater was born in England in 1847 (1854 according to some sources). After dropping out of Oxford due to hard times, Leadbeater became an ordained priest, but then became quite active in the occult. This led to his becoming a member of the Theosophical Society in 1883. Charles Leadbeater became one of its most famous participants.

The combination of a bright mind, scientific knowledge, and interest in the paranormal led him to publish many books on many diverse topics. One of them, Dreams: What They Are and How They Are Caused (1898) and Astral Plane, were one of the first works to touch upon the phenomenon of the phase. Leadbeater’s writing is saddled with a ton of esoteric terms and theories. In it, the term astral plane is predominantly used for the phase. Nevertheless, the book is not without some helpful guidelines concerning techniques.

Charles Leadbeater passed away in 1934.

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Robert Bruce was born in England in 1955. He has performed his life’s work while living in Australia. After studying and promoting astral projection for many years, by the beginning of the 21^st century he had become one of the leading authorities in the field. He is also a specialist in many other paranormal fields of study.

Robert Bruce wrote several books, the most important and well known of which is Astral Dynamics (1999). The author holds quite open esoteric views, which are very strongly reflected in his theories and terminology. The helpful, practical guidelines in his books are quite often loaded with a large amount of information that has not been verified or proven by anyone. Robert Bruce is also a propagator of typical superstitions and stereotypes concerning the phase phenomenon (astral projection in this case).

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Richard Webster was born in New Zealand, where he still resides. He is the author of about 50 publications that have sold many millions of copies around the world. However, only one of them, Astral Travel for Beginners, is completely devoted to the phase state(astral projection, lucide dreaming and out-of-body experience).

The book is saturated with widespread misconceptions about the phase phenomenon and misguided theories trying to explain it. The technique-related aspect of the book is also presented ineffectively.

It is quite likely that Richard Webster himself has no practical experience, which can also be said for the contents of his other dozens of books devoted to various topics.

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Charles Tart was born in the United States in 1937. He received his Ph. D. in psychology in 1963 at the University of North Carolina. Tart also received training at Stanford University. He was one of the founders of transpersonal psychology.

Charles Tart became one of the most preeminent researchers of unusual states of awareness after the publication of Altered States of Consciousness (1969), the first book that he worked on. It was one of the first books to examine entering the phase through dream consciousness. The book received popularity when the use LSD and Marijuana were often viewed as vehicles to elevated consciousness, and the book even describes the use of chemical substances in the context of phase states.

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