Leaving the Body

In Ophiel’s book “The Art and Practice of Astral Projection” he included a training system and a method for leaving your body which he called “The Little System.” The idea was to create a route in your house and memorize it over six months, using sight, sound, smell and touch to remember points along the route and use those memories as means to pull your awareness out of your body. He called it the “little” system because he felt it was an introductory method that beginners could use to induce an OBE, and would build beginner’s confidence in trying more complex and advanced methods of induction.

I tried this system around 10 years ago without much success, it might have to do with my sporadic attempts and pathetic lack of dedication, but it seems today 10 years later I finally got a way to make it work, almost by accident actually. It wasn’t a direct following of the steps he used, but it seemed to be an application of the same principles.

Here’s what I did:

* After waking up in the morning, ate my breakfast (some wheat bread and Nutella-like choco-hazelnet spread) then went back to bed to lounge around.

* I used my iPod to play an i-Doser track “Astral Projection.” This track is a long 30 minute track that starts with a high frequency binaural beat (probably around 20 or so, Beta level) and after like 12 minutes or so gently takes it down to a really low frequency. At this point my body usually starts feeling really relaxed. It’s the track that works the best for me.

* I closed my eyes, then lay face down on the bed. I don’t usually relax in this manner but this time I did. There is a reason for this, which I will explain later.

* With my eyes closed and just having undergone the binaural beat relaxation method, I was in a very drowsy state but my mind was quite clear and not particularly sleepy.

* About eight years ago, I accidentally left my body and did a spontaneous OBE when I was in a similarly relaxed position on my bed. I was on my side, and I tried to turn around — my physical body — but to my surprise I “turned around” instead and somehow my etheric or astral body or otherwise my consciousness fell out of my body as it rolled and my physical body did not. I don’t know why it happened but it did. I was astrally blind and could not see a thing but I was moving about for sure in that room. I then realized I was out of my body, and suddenly my awareness snapped back into my body before I could do anything.

* Thus, I lay on my face trying to replicate the procedure, but no go. I tried to “think” myself into tossing around on bed, but unfortunately my physical body was tossing with my thoughts rather than just leaving it behind.

* With a sudden flash of inspiration which I don’t know how I got, I suddenly was able to picture the image of my classroom when I was in grade school. I felt like I was looking down from my desk, at the floor, and I could see the details of the floor very vividly. Then all of a sudden when I tried to move my head up to “look at the blackboard” of the classroom in front of me, I felt my “head” “lift” out of my head and I realized I was onto something here! Was the key to doing it holding a clear vivid image of something before you try to seperate?

* I saw this as my chance, and tried to “see” behind my eyelids my bedroom around me. When I suddenly “felt” the vivid iamge of my room, I tried to turn around. Sure enough, I felt my awareness moving away and leaving my physical body behind. I put my feet on the floor, stood up, and lo and behold I was out of my body.

* At this point I started feeling “tingles” all around my body — which was sort of new: people said you should relax then feel the tingles, then when you feel them this is your chance to leave your body. In my case, I left my body first, very uneventfully, and once out that’s when I felt the tingles.

* I walked around my room. I could not see my body, but I could see around the room. The room did not look like my usual room. You know how when you have a lucid, vivid dream of a place you know, but it isn’t exactly the same and not a 1:1 replication? That’s what it felt like. I could see my room, but it wasn’t my room. Small details were incorrect, like the table I was using wasn’t the same — instead of wooden it was a glass table with metal legs — things like that. And again I could not see my physical body anywhere.

* I walked around the house based on “images” which came into my mind from memory. It worked pretty well except I couldn’t see anyone in the house, it was just me and the furniture (which was different but similar). I tried to enter my mother’s room where my niece was sleeping, but somehow it didn’t quite work out. I thought I “felt” I saw my niece but I can’t recall. My vision at this point was faltering a bit — as if I had been astrally struck blind.

* It is important to note this: while walking around like this, when my vision started “fading” a bit I felt like I was going to return to my body. Then I focus and concentrate, and my vision gets better again and the room around me becomes more vivid again, and I feel like I don’t need to return to my body again.

* However when I tried to look at my niece (or where I thought she should be) my vision sort of went blank and I felt like returning to my body. In fact, the “tingles” got really strong, as if I were numb all over. I had the impression that I was nearing my “time limit” and that I had to return to my body soon.

* I backed off from the room and focused a bit, and I could see the rest of the house again. But the tingles were very strong and I felt the need to return even more. Before I did, I got a pen and paper, and wrote some notes on the paper. I wrote, “I will win the lottery.” And I could read it very clearly.

* Feeling that it was time to return, I willed myself back to my physical body, and there I was in my room all of a sudden, over my bed. I willed myself to “sit back into my body” and as I did I felt quite pleasant, like dipping myself into nice warm water.

* As I went back to my body, my alarm clock suddenly went off. Was this a coincidence? I don’t know. Maybe my higher consciousness knew my physical body was about to wake up, so it called me back to my body. I opened my eyes and I was back in the physical world.

* After getting up, instead of feeling tired I felt really relaxed and refreshed. My entire body was tingling (similar sensation to the “tingles” but not quite the same), as if blood had rushed all over my body, my head felt very light and refreshed as if a gallon of blood had rushed all around it to provide my brain with rich oxygen. I felt great.

And that was the end of the experience.

This was a very interesting experience. It was my first willfully induced OBE. I’d done the same before but accidentally. This time I did easily, using principles similar to Ophiel’s Little System.

It is important to note that you need to be able to visualize relatively well to use this system. From my experience, it seems visualization of a place was key before I could leave my body (as I indicated above). I am very bad at visualization, but somehow I was able to do it today. I think my last 10 years of on-and-off training somehow paid off. This is sort of important; Ophiel stressed that in the each plane above, if you will something into existence, then the means for its creation appears. It is inverse in the physical plane, the means for creation must be done first, then the object comes into existence.

In other words, practice and work, before getting results. (in upper planes each plane becomes opposite — thus in the Etheric/Astral you get a result first, then the means for its creation appears — this btw is supposed to be the secret to Creative Visualization but I’ll tackle that subject some other time). Ophiel suggested memorizing the route in your house for six months before trying to leave your body. I was never able to do this quite right, so I failed when I tried it 10 years ago. But in those 10 years I did things like various visualization techniques, relaxation methods, etc. It could all have been the “means” needed to create the result which was my OBE today.

So your mileage may vary; you may need to have “paid your dues” before this method works for you; i.e. — you will need to have attained the skills of relaxation and visualization before this method will work for you. If you have done The Work to get these skills, then this method might work for you easily. If not, you may have to “pay your dues” first and do The Work before it works for you.

Relaxation was also important, before trying it I believe you have to be reasonably relaxed. You don’t need to be in a deep trance but your body should be reasonably relaxed, in Jose Silva speak you should be “at your center” or in the Alpha state of mind, even a light one. There are lots of ways to get to this state. If you already have a way of relaxing, it should work great. I did a lot of training to be able to achieve this kind of state, I can use a Zen Buddhist method of relaxation that is great and easy to use. Other people might want to use the Silva Method (the three finger method, you guys know what I am talking about) or you could do what I did in this exampe — use a binaural beat audio clip. You could also use a guided meditation audio clip (like the one offered by the Monroe Institue; someone made a thread about them and a place to get them on this board). Whatever works best for you, use it.

Another thing to note: I wasn’t able to see my physical body when I left. In fact, I seemed to be in a “dream world.” I had had lucid, vivid dreams before and they felt a lot like what I just experienced. When you leave your body but still see the “normal world” around you, they say you are in your Etheric Body and are flying around in the Etheric Plane, closely entwinted to the physical and thus able to see the physical world as it is. But when you do not see the actual physical world and see places that “appear” like it but are not, then you are in the Astral world seeing astral terrain and equivalents of the physical world.

So in essence the method I used did not put me in the Etheric Plane, but apparently straight into the Astral. I do not know very much about this yet so I cannot say for sure, but this is my current understanding of my experience.

So anyone who wants to try this method, go ahead and please post your results and your experiences here. I am interested to learn more about this. I will also do further experimentation with this method I have just stumbled on.