Need some help with what I experienced last night. I've been practicing Indirect Techniques for about a week now and I've been correcting my mistakes to try and get a successful separation and it finally worked.
Problem is that I was actually in a dream when it happened. I was at my old house and decided to go to bed in my dream with the intention of waking up and trying to separate to get to the mirror. I laid down, slept and woke up and tried to separate, no success. I then tried to rotate witch started to work! I knew that I had to separate and it felt like I couldn't quite get up, like I was stuck (this is usually what it feels like when I make attempts) but this time I focused really hard and "strained the brain" and pulled myself away, almost forcefully. It felt almost like ripping away then popping out of my body. I was excited that I finally separated and went downstairs examining the walls, floor etc. It was in such fine detail! I was amazed!
"Get to the mirror!" I thought.
A mirror manifested on the wall in the hallway and I looked at it and saw myself, but my reflection was looking another direction, which I thought was fun. "Time to get food!" I found some pills on a table that I decided to pick up and chew telling myself that they would help heal my back pain. They were extremely chalky and didn't taste very good. Now to my goal - went to the bathroom door and told myself that my goal would be on the other side. Opened the door and it was just the bathroom. I was a bit disappointed and I then returned to my body as if I had no control.
Not bad for my first experience but I'm confused if that is what it is really like or not since I was in a dream in the beginning only becoming lucid after I separated.
Can I count this? Was what I felt and experienced with separation anything I can expect when I'm attempting the Indirect Method? I think my biggest problem is overthinking everything. Any help would be much appreciated!
Need help with my experience. I'm new to this!
-
Summerlander
- PHASER
- Posts: 1263
- Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2011 5:57 pm
- Location: UK
Re: Need help with my experience. I'm new to this!
Hi, Bladimus
As someone who's been seriously practising the induction of phase states for well over a decade, I can categorically say that, based on my journal of phase experiences, the dream consciousness method reigns supreme:
Dream consciousness: 60%
Indirect: 25%
Direct: 15%
This doesn't mean, of course, that I have trouble with the indirect method—it just means that I'm fond of recording ordinary dreams and often become lucid as a result; it also means that, because I practise mindfulness, I appreciate the challenge of entering the phase directly once in a while, and lately I've been playing around with the indirect method a lot.
In fact, I entered the phase this morning using the deferred indirect way. I still have to remind myself, now and again, to be bolder with separation techniques in my notes to self. Here's a relevant excerpt from my blog:
'Upon awakening, I move my arm slightly but subsequently lay inert in bed with a desire to enter the phase. I try the phantom-wiggling technique using my index finger. There is a sudden twitch of my digit and I'm not sure if it was real or phantom. I hear the sound of mild rain in my head and get the sensation that I'm rubbing my index fingers against my thumbs. I begin to increase the friction with my phantom digits, intensifying the realism, but I still feel like I'm lying in bed. I want to separate from the lying position but lack the courage to boldly move; nevertheless, phantom rubbing is maintained. Simultaneously, I imagine that I'm already standing, and pluck up the courage to rub my hands together. At this point, rubbing hands feels real but I'm somewhat horizontal in a dark void.
'I continue with my vigorous phantom motion until I'm amazed to discover that I am now standing, blind, in what feels like my bedroom. I start dancing and spinning like a dervish around the space where I think there is a bed, all the while rubbing hands and eventually ending up in front of the bedroom door, which gradually manifests in front of me without my robe and clothes hanging in front of it as they do in reality. I feel tempted to go through it, but decide to look back at the bed and see if there is a body lying in it; as it happens, I only see a raised duvet, blue just like in the real world.
'In that moment, I decide to levitate and begin to float over the bed in a reclining position, observing my bare torso, grey boxer shorts and legs. In the background, curtains are partially drawn, revealing the door to the balcony and a compelling exterior world. I glide right through the ostensibly solid barriers, observing as my legs and the rest of my hovering self pass through them like a ghost. I move past the balcony railing and come to hang several feet over the middle of our road. The panoramic view is dominated by a pale sky cropped by a familiar neighborhood and identical parking spaces with a few stationary vehicles below. I start hearing my smartphone ringing in my ear and think, "It's ringing in the real world!" before my perspective suddenly switches to lying in bed again.'
I also tend to be disappointed by environments behind doors which contradict my goals. Often, it takes a second attempt before I get what I want—as the very first attempt tends produce what would make more sense rather than the desired thing that blatantly defies reality, for example: In the phase, I open the kitchen door hoping to step on the moon with an earthrise displayed on a black sky, instead, I find an inaccurate replica of my kitchen in the real world.
I guess the fact that it looks like a 'kitchen' door, and perhaps on some subconscious level I think of it that way out of habit, has something to do with what initially tends to manifest in the phase. Sometimes, if the desired phase object is a character, I knock on the door and expect it to be opened by said goal. Me and another phase practitioner had the recent goal of meeting Morpheus, the lord of dreams, in the phase. In her experience, she passed through a door expecting to find him in the next environment, but he was nowhere to be found and she soon fouled. On the other hand, I had success by doing what I did:
'I'm lying in bed in darkness but manage to vigorously rub my hands in front of my eyes until I see luminous digits. I keep rubbing them until the dark void materialises a scenery behind fully-fledged hands. I walk through a mountain pass, as though travelling through a Transylvanian mountain range, with dark green foliage on either side, leading to a little castle. I run towards the medieval structure until I reach its entrance.
'There are two massive doors and I knock on both. I step away for a second to examine a wooden gate with my fingers, I notice that a patch of ground by the entrance to the castle displays a chesslike pattern which feels like marble to the touch. Looking up, in the distance, the horizon is concealed by a foggy, nighttime landscape redolent of Minecraft, with a hint of lunar light but no moon in sight.
'I draw my attention back to the doors and focus on the left one because its wooden surface is now displaying a vibrant red. I bang on the red door whilst shouting, "Morpheus! Morpheus! Are you there? Morpheus!" My voice echoes. The door finally opens to reveal a towering character resembling a cross between an Arthurian knight and a jester. His head and neck are covered by a helmet and his pale, friendly countenance is marked by a distinct proboscis. "Are you Morpheus?" I ask him as I rub my hands to prevent a premature end to this experience. "Well, yes, my child!" Comes the British reply in the sound of an old man's calm voice. "Come in."
'I step inside to find a humble abode with some pottery and strange objects on shelves. Morpheus heads for an open kitchen. I notice that his outfit is now displaying more white fabric than before. What an extravagant lord of dreams! I think that he looks and sounds nothing like Lawrence Fishburne from The Matrix, but regard him as my Morpheus nonetheless, so I request the obvious for a reaction by saying, "You got any pills for me?"
'Morpheus opens a refrigerator, reaches for what I presume to be pills, and hands me two little sweets of a pale blue and red colouration. I take both. As I chew them, the taste reminds me of sugary tablets that my kids have offered me before. "Come and sit, my child", he says, leading me to a round table semi-surrounded by a padded couch. He sits down first and I reluctantly follow, suddenly becoming aware that remaining still for prolonged periods might end the phase experience. I rub my hands to maintain the realism but feel like expressing my concern to what now feels like a profoundly wise character: "Morpheus, maybe I shouldn't sit. I could wake up!"
'But Morpheus seems unconcerned. Instead, after briefly regarding me with oddly pale-blue eyes and a furrowed brow betraying slight incredulity, the oneiric lord gives me a cryptic reply: "You know, child ... Your sympathy knows no bounds." He looks away and begins to fade. I stop rubbing my hands as I begin to lack confidence in maintaining the phase state. I wake up satisfied with having met Morpheus.'
Morpheus, as eccentric as he looked, was there to open the door, greet me and invite me in. It is worth noting that the environment was completely unknown as opposed to ostensibly being based on known structures in the real world.
Remember that your experience is only one in many more to come during your practice, and it is normal to mistake dreams for reality and think that you need to go to bed in order to separate in the phase when, in that particular case, realising that you were dreaming would have sufficed. But at least you still had success and the night is young, as it were. Plenty more to come and believe me, it can get better like you wouldn't imagine.
Michael Raduga is absolutely right when he says that, for those who have never experienced the phase state, it is virtually impossible to conceive of what it is actually like. If you felt like you were awake in a realistic dream world, or even if the phantom surroundings required deepening but you were fully conscious and aware of the situation, which you were because you had clear goals—even if the initial platform from which you launched, so to speak, was only an ordinary dream which you took to be real—then you were, in essence, in the phase after your perceived separation technique.
I would count this as a phase experience. Absolutely! Congratulations, buddy!
As someone who's been seriously practising the induction of phase states for well over a decade, I can categorically say that, based on my journal of phase experiences, the dream consciousness method reigns supreme:
Dream consciousness: 60%
Indirect: 25%
Direct: 15%
This doesn't mean, of course, that I have trouble with the indirect method—it just means that I'm fond of recording ordinary dreams and often become lucid as a result; it also means that, because I practise mindfulness, I appreciate the challenge of entering the phase directly once in a while, and lately I've been playing around with the indirect method a lot.
In fact, I entered the phase this morning using the deferred indirect way. I still have to remind myself, now and again, to be bolder with separation techniques in my notes to self. Here's a relevant excerpt from my blog:
'Upon awakening, I move my arm slightly but subsequently lay inert in bed with a desire to enter the phase. I try the phantom-wiggling technique using my index finger. There is a sudden twitch of my digit and I'm not sure if it was real or phantom. I hear the sound of mild rain in my head and get the sensation that I'm rubbing my index fingers against my thumbs. I begin to increase the friction with my phantom digits, intensifying the realism, but I still feel like I'm lying in bed. I want to separate from the lying position but lack the courage to boldly move; nevertheless, phantom rubbing is maintained. Simultaneously, I imagine that I'm already standing, and pluck up the courage to rub my hands together. At this point, rubbing hands feels real but I'm somewhat horizontal in a dark void.
'I continue with my vigorous phantom motion until I'm amazed to discover that I am now standing, blind, in what feels like my bedroom. I start dancing and spinning like a dervish around the space where I think there is a bed, all the while rubbing hands and eventually ending up in front of the bedroom door, which gradually manifests in front of me without my robe and clothes hanging in front of it as they do in reality. I feel tempted to go through it, but decide to look back at the bed and see if there is a body lying in it; as it happens, I only see a raised duvet, blue just like in the real world.
'In that moment, I decide to levitate and begin to float over the bed in a reclining position, observing my bare torso, grey boxer shorts and legs. In the background, curtains are partially drawn, revealing the door to the balcony and a compelling exterior world. I glide right through the ostensibly solid barriers, observing as my legs and the rest of my hovering self pass through them like a ghost. I move past the balcony railing and come to hang several feet over the middle of our road. The panoramic view is dominated by a pale sky cropped by a familiar neighborhood and identical parking spaces with a few stationary vehicles below. I start hearing my smartphone ringing in my ear and think, "It's ringing in the real world!" before my perspective suddenly switches to lying in bed again.'
I also tend to be disappointed by environments behind doors which contradict my goals. Often, it takes a second attempt before I get what I want—as the very first attempt tends produce what would make more sense rather than the desired thing that blatantly defies reality, for example: In the phase, I open the kitchen door hoping to step on the moon with an earthrise displayed on a black sky, instead, I find an inaccurate replica of my kitchen in the real world.
I guess the fact that it looks like a 'kitchen' door, and perhaps on some subconscious level I think of it that way out of habit, has something to do with what initially tends to manifest in the phase. Sometimes, if the desired phase object is a character, I knock on the door and expect it to be opened by said goal. Me and another phase practitioner had the recent goal of meeting Morpheus, the lord of dreams, in the phase. In her experience, she passed through a door expecting to find him in the next environment, but he was nowhere to be found and she soon fouled. On the other hand, I had success by doing what I did:
'I'm lying in bed in darkness but manage to vigorously rub my hands in front of my eyes until I see luminous digits. I keep rubbing them until the dark void materialises a scenery behind fully-fledged hands. I walk through a mountain pass, as though travelling through a Transylvanian mountain range, with dark green foliage on either side, leading to a little castle. I run towards the medieval structure until I reach its entrance.
'There are two massive doors and I knock on both. I step away for a second to examine a wooden gate with my fingers, I notice that a patch of ground by the entrance to the castle displays a chesslike pattern which feels like marble to the touch. Looking up, in the distance, the horizon is concealed by a foggy, nighttime landscape redolent of Minecraft, with a hint of lunar light but no moon in sight.
'I draw my attention back to the doors and focus on the left one because its wooden surface is now displaying a vibrant red. I bang on the red door whilst shouting, "Morpheus! Morpheus! Are you there? Morpheus!" My voice echoes. The door finally opens to reveal a towering character resembling a cross between an Arthurian knight and a jester. His head and neck are covered by a helmet and his pale, friendly countenance is marked by a distinct proboscis. "Are you Morpheus?" I ask him as I rub my hands to prevent a premature end to this experience. "Well, yes, my child!" Comes the British reply in the sound of an old man's calm voice. "Come in."
'I step inside to find a humble abode with some pottery and strange objects on shelves. Morpheus heads for an open kitchen. I notice that his outfit is now displaying more white fabric than before. What an extravagant lord of dreams! I think that he looks and sounds nothing like Lawrence Fishburne from The Matrix, but regard him as my Morpheus nonetheless, so I request the obvious for a reaction by saying, "You got any pills for me?"
'Morpheus opens a refrigerator, reaches for what I presume to be pills, and hands me two little sweets of a pale blue and red colouration. I take both. As I chew them, the taste reminds me of sugary tablets that my kids have offered me before. "Come and sit, my child", he says, leading me to a round table semi-surrounded by a padded couch. He sits down first and I reluctantly follow, suddenly becoming aware that remaining still for prolonged periods might end the phase experience. I rub my hands to maintain the realism but feel like expressing my concern to what now feels like a profoundly wise character: "Morpheus, maybe I shouldn't sit. I could wake up!"
'But Morpheus seems unconcerned. Instead, after briefly regarding me with oddly pale-blue eyes and a furrowed brow betraying slight incredulity, the oneiric lord gives me a cryptic reply: "You know, child ... Your sympathy knows no bounds." He looks away and begins to fade. I stop rubbing my hands as I begin to lack confidence in maintaining the phase state. I wake up satisfied with having met Morpheus.'
Morpheus, as eccentric as he looked, was there to open the door, greet me and invite me in. It is worth noting that the environment was completely unknown as opposed to ostensibly being based on known structures in the real world.
Remember that your experience is only one in many more to come during your practice, and it is normal to mistake dreams for reality and think that you need to go to bed in order to separate in the phase when, in that particular case, realising that you were dreaming would have sufficed. But at least you still had success and the night is young, as it were. Plenty more to come and believe me, it can get better like you wouldn't imagine.
Michael Raduga is absolutely right when he says that, for those who have never experienced the phase state, it is virtually impossible to conceive of what it is actually like. If you felt like you were awake in a realistic dream world, or even if the phantom surroundings required deepening but you were fully conscious and aware of the situation, which you were because you had clear goals—even if the initial platform from which you launched, so to speak, was only an ordinary dream which you took to be real—then you were, in essence, in the phase after your perceived separation technique.
I would count this as a phase experience. Absolutely! Congratulations, buddy!
Re: Need help with my experience. I'm new to this!
Wow! Thank you for such an in depth response! I'm honored you took the time to share this with me.
I've since been in The Phase twice, both on the same night, but failed to properly deepen and returned to my body immediately. Both times I realized I was dreaming when I saw my hands and tried to rub them together as I went for my goal but just woke up. I'm rewatching Day 2 of Michael Raduga's seminar to understand deepening and maintaining a bit better.
I'm really excited about everything I'm learning and experiencing!
I've since been in The Phase twice, both on the same night, but failed to properly deepen and returned to my body immediately. Both times I realized I was dreaming when I saw my hands and tried to rub them together as I went for my goal but just woke up. I'm rewatching Day 2 of Michael Raduga's seminar to understand deepening and maintaining a bit better.
I'm really excited about everything I'm learning and experiencing!
-
Summerlander
- PHASER
- Posts: 1263
- Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2011 5:57 pm
- Location: UK
Re: Need help with my experience. I'm new to this!
Oh brilliant! Those seminars are great. I'm glad you're enthusiastic. Happy phase travels, my friend!
Sweet lucid dreams!
Sweet lucid dreams!