Read an Excerpt

PART 1

Preparing for Liftoff

What follows are the results of my first night of energy work.
I've had sporadic instances of involuntary projection throughout my life. I've tried gaining control of it for many years but nothing has ever worked.

I've always thought that energy work for astral projection was a waste of time. It was annoying to be bogged down with silly “New Age” energy rituals, when all I wanted to do was project.

Then I read Robert Bruce's tutorial. Maybe there is something to this! This was the first time I'd ever read anything that spelled out the mechanics behind this type of energy work, why it's needed, and what it does at a core level. Posts on Robert's online forum further reinforced the validity of doing the energy work. Over and over I was running across postings from people who were getting very measurable results.

I went to bed thinking that this would never happen to me and started doing energy work. For a few minutes I felt an ache in my heart center. I kept “circling” there between passes up the legs and down the arms and in a few minutes it stopped. Then I felt a lot of activity and itching in my brow center, then something like electricity going through that area, as if the blood vessels had been shut off, then suddenly opened.

After that I must have woken up thirty times during the course of four hours of sleep.
Every time I woke up it was like another memory was being restored, and each time I was still on autopilot, doing the energy exercise. By now I can't remember what I was remembering specifically, but I do remember that every memory that surfaced served to connect me to something else I had long forgotten. One by one I kept remembering connections to things, people, places, experiences. Life became a lot bigger than I ever thought it was.

WEEK 1

Flexing Your Astral Muscles

What to Expect
• Setting up your meditation space
• Learning to relax
• Breathwork
• Body awareness exercises
• Energy body stimulation
• Your dream journal
• Affirmations
• Optional: BrainWave Generator instructions

This book emphasizes goal-oriented action rather than just sitting and reading about
OBEs. Just enough information is given at the start of each week to guide you through the coming week's activities, building on what has come before.

This week we'll show you how to organize a place for your daily energy work and teach you a deep physical relaxation and breathing technique.We'll also give instructions for this week's energy work, setting up a dream journal,
and using affirmations. Finally, for those using the optional BrainWave Generator to supplement your OBE program, we'll offer instructions for the current week's preset.
Now that you have read all the instructions in the introduction, let's waste no time getting started.

Setting up Your Meditation Space
First on the list is to select a suitable place to practice energy work, meditation, and other
OBE-related training exercises.

There are several desirable qualities for an ideal meditation space. It should be quiet and allow you to practice undisturbed. Lighting is also important. There will be exercises requiring full lighting and those requiring low lighting or darkness. A room with a curtained window or a variable illumination lamp will suffice.
Headphones or earplugs are ways to eliminate sound, but you also don't want to be unexpectedly disturbed by others. People in busy households may need to innovate to create suitably private spaces. One aspiring projector partitioned a large walk-in closet and turned half into a small private area. Another rigged a makeshift tent in her bedroom. Others have found useful areas in attics, basements,
and garages. Think creatively.

Depending on its size, your private space should have a bed, cot, or easy chair or some place where you can lie down comfortably. A
hard-backed kitchen or desk chair will also be required for some exercises. Your space should be big enough to accommodate this chair,
with the option of placing it against a wall for exercises that require head support. Ideally,
your space should be somewhere you feel comfortable and safe.

Try to avoid using the room in which you normally sleep. If you must use your bedroom,
it is best not to use your bed for the daily exercises.
We are all conditioned to start falling asleep when we get into our own beds. The purpose of the exercises in this program is to learn how to achieve a deep level of relaxation
without falling asleep. If you must use your bedroom, find a comfortable place on the floor where you can do your exercises using a folding bed, small mattress, or a combination of pillows and blankets. An easy chair, deck chair,
or beanbag chair are other good options.
Another handy item is an illuminated clock,
preferably analog with a second hand.Many of the coming exercises need to be timed, so a clock that's easily visible from your practice position will help. A countdown timer, such as those used for baking, can be used to supplement the clock. You can set and forget this, so you won't have to keep looking at the time to see when an exercise is over.

The atmosphere of your meditation space is also important. It should feel comfortable,
safe, and friendly. Atmospheres are affected by décor, as well as by how a place smells and feels. Burning incense and essential oils is one of the most efficient ways of changing an atmosphere and giving it a spiritual quality.
For the purposes of this program, it will help if you select a particular incense or essential oil that you do not normally use elsewhere.
Use this during every training session. This will set the mood and help program your body/mind to respond to your daily exercises more quickly than you otherwise would. In time, tension will begin oozing out of you the moment you smell your special OBE training scent.

Your daily exercises don't all have to be done in the same location. Some techniques will be practiced numerous times during the day wherever you happen to be. These mainly consist of reciting affirmations, doing short concentration and mind-clearing exercises,
energy work, and so on. Put daily travel and waiting time to good use for these.

Learning to Relax
One of the first tasks is to learn how to make yourself so comfortable that your mind and body will almost disassociate. We say almost
because a slight body/mind connection is crucial for straddling that fuzzy edge between sleeping and waking. Deep physical relaxation is the foundation upon which everything else in this program will rest. If you do not thoroughly learn this essential skill, you could waste a lot of time and effort making projection attempts with little chance of success.

This program contains an excellent routine that, once learned, will progressively take you to the deeper levels of relaxation that are required to induce trance and an OBE.
Deep physical relaxation is the one OBE
preparation skill that is most commonly overlooked or poorly done. Being relaxed enough to fall asleep does not mean that you have a sufficient level of relaxation to induce an OBE. Even though you may feel deeply relaxed, your body can still possess significant levels of physical tension. For example, you can still fall asleep while you are tense or in pain. Physical tension can prevent you from projecting, even if all the other skills required for having an OBE have been mastered.

The purpose of this first week's relaxation practice is to learn the steps of the routine.
Staying awake and lucid in a state of deep physical relaxation takes practice. With this in mind, try to avoid doing the relaxation exercises when you are overly tired. Falling asleep during this routine will condition you to fall asleep every time you perform it, in much the same way as you habitually start falling asleep when you go to bed.

Relaxation training begins on Day 1. Each day more steps are added until, by the end of the week, the full routine is revealed. Your goal for the end of this first week is to complete the routine without having to refer to the instructions.
It is easy to miss steps at first, so this week be sure to review the instructions after each session to make sure you are not forgetting anything. The deep physical relaxation routine is progressive, and in time will become almost automatic.

If you find that you are physically or mentally tense before relaxation practice, first take a hot shower or bath and/or a short nap. Some light exercise, a stretching routine, or a massage will also help relieve tension.

Another factor involved with deep physical relaxation is temperature. The body reacts to cold by tensing and shivering its muscles to generate heat. Even if you are a little cold, your body may not actually shiver but your muscles may tense. This can increase the difficulty of physically relaxing to the degree required.
If you are doing this program in a cold climate,
keep your body temperature at a comfortable level during the exercises. Use light blankets, comforters, and loose-fitting, warm clothes. If practical, heat your practice area to a comfortable level. The general rule is, if the method you are using to keep warm is distracting
(e.g., if the blankets or clothes are too heavy or restrictive), try another approach.
Novices often start by paying good attention to relaxation exercises, but then pay only cursory attention to them later in the program.
Avoid this mistake or one day you will find yourself having to backtrack to relearn what has been poorly done. Each time you do it, approach the routine with care and attention.
Think of each minute bit of tension in your body as a barrier to success. Each day try to become more relaxed than the day before.
In time this will become habitual.

Breathwork: Breath Awareness
Breathing is key to conscious-exit projection.
It promotes deep relaxation, provides clearer inner focus, and increases the amount of energy available for projection.

The breathing methods in this program are safe and straightforward. You begin this week very simply with daily, five-minute practice sessions. Each week hereafter you will build on and refine the basic technique. By the time you reach Part 2 of the program, you will have all the breathing skills required for OBE exit practice.

This week you will be learning breath awareness.
All this involves is quieting your thoughts by focusing on the internal sensations of the breath cycle. Sit quietly, close your eyes, and focus your attention on the leading edge of the airflow as it passes into and out of your body. It is easier to focus on the leading edge of the breath than it is to hold the entire mental picture of the breathing process itself.

If you find the above leading-edge breathwork method difficult, you will find it easier to focus instead on the rise and fall of your chest and abdomen. Just close your eyes and focus your awareness on the feeling of your body filling and rising, then emptying and contracting.
Focusing on this action helps keep your mind clear.

Do not change your breathing rate or depth during this exercise. Do not try to count out breaths to a prescribed rhythm. Simply observe your breathing and use this as a focus of attention to help clear your mind. If your thoughts wander, simply release them and bring your attention back to your breathing. No matter how many times foreign thoughts creep in,
push them aside and refocus on your breathing.
This takes a little practice, but you will quickly get the hang of it if you persevere.

During Week 1, the breath awareness technique is used at the beginning of your daily practice routine, right after deep physical relaxation.
This promotes further relaxation and helps quiet the mind for the exercises that follow.
However, breath awareness can be done anytime and anywhere. Do it for five minutes;
no more time is required. Waiting and travel time are excellent opportunities for practice.

Stimulating the Energy Body
This week you will also start learning how to stimulate your energy body. Your energy body is a subtle energy counterpart of your physical body. It has many parts, aspects, and functions,
including several large primary energy centers and hundreds of smaller ones. Primary energy centers are often called chakras or psychic centers. In essence, these can be thought of as nonphysical organs that are involved with the underlying spiritual, biological, emotional,
and mental processes that are associated with the complexities of living.

The ability to stimulate, raise, and manipulate your personal energy is invaluable during
OBE training. The substance of your projected double is generated by the energy body and is wholly composed of your living energy. So when it comes to having an OBE, the development and manipulation of your personal energy resources is a fundamental skill. Lucidity during an OBE is also dependent upon the flow of personal energy.

The exercises in this program rely primarily on the use of body awareness. This is the ability to focus and localize your attention on specific parts of your body. By giving this point of focus movement, it is possible to stimulate your energy body at that location. Combined with other techniques, this enables you to deliberately manipulate the substance of your energy body. This in turn allows you to raise,
move, and store vital energy and to activate energy centers in a controlled way.

No prerequisite abilities or skills are required to learn and use body awareness techniques.
They are easy to understand and use.Most people will get noticeable results the very first time they use them.

Body awareness exercises begin on Day 1 of the program. To improve your body awareness sensitivity, repeat the exercises as often as you can until you get the feel for the technique.
Each time you do this you will improve your sensitivity to energy movement, which is important for all the exercises and techniques that follow.Make good use of travel time and waiting time for extra practice.

On Days 2 through 7 you will explore other ways to stimulate your energy body.When body awareness is focused on a primary or secondary energy center and given motion, that energy center is stimulated, causing noticeable sensations.
Individual energy centers can thus be targeted and manipulated in a controlled way. (We will explore primary energy centers more during
Week 4).

Preparing for Energy Work
Little preparation is needed for energy work,
but there are a few general guidelines.
First, it helps not to be overtired during practice, at least while learning the techniques.
Varying your level of alertness or tiredness during practice sessions will be a factor later when you are actually learning how to project.
It also helps not to be mentally distracted.

If you have pressing issues, a task to complete,
a phone call to make, time constraints, and so on, try to take care of these before your energy work session. This will help you concentrate.
Conversely, energy work practice can be a good way to take your mind off worries.
Additionally, it helps to be physically and mentally relaxed. If you practice energy work right after getting home from a busy day, consider taking a walk, a shower, or some other grounding activity to help you unwind before you begin your daily energy work routine.
If you are using the optional BrainWave
Generator, listening to Week 1's relaxation preset for fifteen to twenty minutes with closed eyes and a clear mind can be an excellent mental cleansing exercise. Breath awareness will also help with this process.

Avoid eating a heavy meal before energy work practice. Digestion takes a lot of energy and after a big meal the energy body virtually shuts down for a while. For this reason, energy work and other OBE-related exercises are more difficult if undertaken within an hour or so of a heavy meal. If you must eat immediately before practice, a light meal is recommended.

Your Dream Journal
An essential ingredient of successful astral projection is improving your ability to remember it afterward. Unless OBE recall is sharpened to the point where you remember the experience,
it will seem like it never happened even if it did. This is the biggest and most prevalent cause of apparent OBE failure. OBE experiences can be breathtakingly vivid, but memories of them, like dream memories, have the annoying habit of disappearing unless precautions are taken.We call these types of memories
shadow memories, as they lie just beneath the surface of conscious recall like vaporous shadows in the mind.

Memory storage and recall functions are complex matters, including both short- and long-term memory processes. Shadow memory is related more to the former. How many times have you walked into a room to do something, only to stop and wonder what it was you were planning to do? Then something triggers an association with the memory and you suddenly remember. This is similar to what happens when you first wake up clearly remembering a dream or OBE, only to have it vanish a few moments later.

Recalling shadow memories is all about triggering memory associations to make them resurface. Dream journaling is one method that helps trigger fragments of shadow memories to reappear in conscious memory. Once a fragment appears, further efforts are then applied to trigger more memories associated with it. In this way, more complete dream and OBE memories can be recalled.

With practice, the mind learns to access shadow memories more efficiently, making dream and OBE memories easier to recall.
Some will be recalled immediately upon waking and others will surface when associations trigger them. Anything can trigger shadow memories: radio or TV, a snatch of conversation,
thoughts and fantasies, a passing car, and so on.

OBEs that take place during sleep are often masked by or blended with dream imagery. The more dream memories that are recalled, the more chances there are to identify OBE-related memories plus OBE symptoms such as flying,
vibrations, rapid heartbeat, falling sensations,
paralysis, astral sight, and so on. More discussion on shadow memory will be in Week 2.

An excellent way to improve OBE memory is to keep a dream journal. A dream journal can be as simple or as elaborate as you want.
In this program, the emphasis is on capturing key words and phrases and using these to trigger shadow memory fragments.

Always keep a notepad and pen handy,
especially by your bed. It is also a good idea to have a bedside lamp or flashlight for recording key words and phrases when you awaken during the night. A small voice-activated tape recorder can also be used, though recordings are less accessible than notes.

Before going to sleep, draw a line across a page in your notepad to signal the beginning of a new entry and add the date. This is a symbolic action that will help trigger your subconscious mind, like an affirmation, to provide you with dream memories. When you wake from a dream or should anything unusual happen during sleep, jot down a few key words describing what happened.Write clearly or you may not be able to read it later. If you have flying or falling dreams as you are going to sleep,
write something like “Flying, falling, woke with a jerk” on the notepad. If you have a dream about vacationing in Italy, write something like
“Rome, fountains, pizza,” giving only a brief description to help trigger shadow memories when you wake the next morning.

Recording key words provides strong memory association sequences that can trigger the shadow memories they represent. Avoid writing long descriptions during the night unless something spectacular happens that you want to remember in detail. In the morning, as soon as possible after awakening, review your list of key words and try to recall more details, fleshing out each section as necessary.

Once or twice a week transfer these notes to a separate dream journal or into the daily journaling space in this book. They will build a record of your progress.

If you were unable to write key words during the night, spend some time recalling dream imagery the moment you wake. Start by shifting into the same position in which you were last sleeping. Behind your closed eyelids, look up and focus your eyes in the middle of your forehead, which is where your brow center or third eye is located. This helps promote dream recall. Next, try to pull back the last memories you have of your dreams.

If nothing surfaces, think about people with whom you frequently interact or about whom you often think or dream. Review places you habitually visit, such as work or school or locales that are frequently part of your dreams. Think of other houses you've lived in, schools you've attended, homes you've visited often or lived in during your childhood and teens. Review what you were thinking about the night before, what you were doing, conversations you had, what you watched on TV. Frequently, things on your mind before you go to sleep bleed into your dreams and remembering these can help trigger more interesting memories. Try to recall flying or falling sensations too. Any of the above can trigger shadow memory fragments.
Some people say they never dream, but what they really mean is that they don't remember their dreams. Everyone dreams and these memories are there somewhere. If you do not usually remember your dreams, put more time and effort into the remembering techniques above. This will help train your mind to recall shadow memories. Do not give up if you keep drawing blanks. In the beginning you may only recover some tiny fragments and these may not seem worth the effort. But even the smallest fragment provides something from which you can build.

To review:
• Keep a notepad, pen, and light source near your bed.
• When you wake, take time to recall your dreams and then write key words and phrases in your notebook.
• Spend a few minutes each morning reviewing your key words and trying to recall more information about your dreams.
• At least once a week transfer your key words into your dream or OBE journal.

For an example of how to keep a more detailed dream journal, refer to appendix C.
Your dream journal need not be this elaborate,
but this should give you ideas.

Daily Affirmations
Each week you'll be given two short affirmations to memorize: a daytime affirmation and a nighttime affirmation. The purpose of these affirmations is varied. Generally, daytime affirmations are geared to program your beliefs to accept and allow you to have OBEs. Later, these can be associated with overcoming astral projection
-related fears and difficulties. In essence,
they are to help you focus and to reassure you,
to program all levels of your mind and body toward what you are trying to accomplish.
Nighttime affirmations are commonly used to program your dreams or to prompt you to remember dreams and OBE experiences.
Sometimes they will contain cues to help you recognize inconsistencies in dreams so you will realize you are dreaming and can take control, or have what is called a lucid dream.
Other times they will be directions for your body to project as you are slipping into the sleep state, or triggers to alert you when an
OBE begins spontaneously.

By design, we have made these affirmations simple and short so they will be easy to remember. They are meant as guides only. Feel free to add, revise, or to create your own.
If you do write your own affirmations,
there are some factors to keep in mind in order to program your subconscious effectively.
Always keep them in the first person: “I
am . . . ,”“I believe . . . ,”“I have the ability . . . ,”
and so on.Make them positive: “I remain calm and relaxed . . .” instead of “I am not afraid.”
The subconscious has trouble comprehending negative words and phrases like don't, won't,
can't, non-, and not, as in “I am not afraid.” So if you use an affirmation like “I am not afraid,” the subconscious will pick up on the word afraid and this could program you to become more afraid.

It is important to write affirmations in an active present tense. For example, “I now leave my body . . .” or “I am leaving my body . . .”will work. “I am about to project . . .” or “I will project tonight . . . ,” which relate to the future, will be less effective. The subconscious mind exists entirely in the present moment, so it must be programmed with active present-tense phrases.
It does not understand the future or the past,
only the now.

You can perform a simple procedure each week to prepare for the daily affirmations. On the first morning of each new week, read the daily and nightly affirmations aloud several times to help you remember and get the feel of them. Start with the daily affirmation. Read it several times and then cover the text and recite it without looking. Write the affirmation on paper a dozen times or so until it is committed to memory.

During the day, whenever you think about it, recite the affirmation to yourself (or out loud if you can) over and over again like a mantra. Consider writing down the affirmation several times a day to really saturate your brain with it.

Do the same thing with the nighttime affirmation before going to bed. Once you're in bed, spend a few minutes relaxing and settling yourself.When you are ready, clear your mind and mentally repeat the nighttime affirmation slowly and carefully as you drift off to sleep.
Some people lose track of affirmations or fall asleep before they have repeated them sufficiently.

For best results, nighttime affirmations should be repeated about thirty times. Use your fingers to keep track of the number of times you recite a particular affirmation; this will prevent you from having to mentally count. Alternatively, move a knotted string through your fingers to do the count.

The more you use affirmations, the more you will understand and value their power to program your goals. You will find they have many uses and possibilities. Just remember to always keep them simple, active, first person,
present tense, and avoid negatives like not,
don't, cannot, and so on.

It can help if you listen to the nighttime affirmations while going to sleep. Consider recording each week's nighttime affirmation thirty times on a tape so you can fall asleep while listening to it.

For the technologically oriented, the affirmations are included in audio form (WAV
and MP3 files) on the CD included with this book. Use the MP3 with your PC or portable media player, set it to repeat, and then just listen.
For those with the know-how, the affirmations have been included in WAV format should you want to add your own quiet music or ambient sound effects.

About the BrainWave Generator
The CD that accompanies this book contains a shareware program called the BrainWave Generator,
which can be used to supplement the exercises in this book. Unlike recorded sound,
the BrainWave Generator produces sound programmatically through the sound card on your personal computer to create a consciousness altering sound presentation. The controls for each sound program are pre-set to play for a certain amount of time at given frequencies;
often there are different voices and layers of sound, and sometimes they are modulated to create a rich, overall experience. Each program's pre-set sound controls are referred to as a preset.

Listening to a BrainWave Generator preset through headphones can enhance relaxation,
increase the depth and speed with which trance meditation is achieved, and even bring on an OBE (especially when used with the techniques given in this book). Presets can also be used with light and sound machines. Light and sound machines include light goggles that,
when worn over the eyes (with eyes closed),
flash at given speeds and intensities to increase the effectiveness of the sound program.
The BrainWave Generator, like CDs containing prerecorded sound, music, and/or guided vocal instructions aimed at inducing an alternate state of consciousness, should be considered a supplemental tool only. Use of these aids is definitely not required for the ninety-day program to be effective.

If you are using the BrainWave Generator in conjunction with this program, you will need access to a personal computer from your meditation practice space. A laptop PC is ideal, as this will free you from having to practice your exercises in front of your desktop computer. There is always the option of temporarily moving your desktop computer near your practice space for the duration of the ninety-day program.

Note: You should never listen to any Brain-
Wave Generator preset while driving or operating heavy equipment as the programs are designed to make you drowsy. For full instructions on how to install and operate the Brain-
Wave Generator, refer to appendix B.

Optional: BrainWave Generator

Preset “Week 01: Relaxation”
The steps in the deep physical relaxation exercise can take several days to learn.We do not recommend using the BrainWave Generator for the first five days while you are still getting the hang of the steps.

On Day 6 you can begin using the first
BrainWave Generator preset, “MAP Week 01:
Relaxation.” Put on the headphones, select the preset, and press the play button at the very beginning of the exercise. Start with the relaxation routine, then go straight into the breathwork and energy body stimulation techniques.

If you are eager to use the BrainWave Generator from Day 1, you can sit and listen to the relaxation preset with your eyes closed for fifteen to twenty minutes before you practice the day's relaxation, breathing, and energy work.
Sitting with no head support is recommended instead of lying down. This promotes slight discomfort, which will reduce the chances of you falling asleep during the preset. We recommend setting a timer for a warm-up Brain-
Wave Generator session so you don't have to keep looking at the clock to keep track of the session length.

Keep your mind clear during the Brain-
Wave Generator session. The breath awareness technique will help with this. If you start falling asleep, suspend use of the BrainWave
Generator for your current session and go straight into your exercises. You do not want to condition yourself to fall asleep when using the relaxation preset; rather, you want to become deeply relaxed while remaining alert and lucid.

The full relaxation preset lasts a total of ninety minutes. This is programmed to take ten minutes to get you from a fully awake to a fully relaxed state, and it will take at least that long for the preset to be effective. A fifteen- to twenty-minute session will thus provide you with a good “warm-up” for deep relaxation.
There is another advantage to using the relaxation preset fifteen to twenty minutes before beginning your daily energy work: the preset has a mild stimulating effect on the energy body. You might notice a faint localized or whole-body tingling. This is further enhanced when combined with the relaxation and energy work routines.

On Day 6, once you've learned the entire relaxation procedure, you can still spend fifteen to twenty minutes with the BrainWave
Generator preset while relaxing, and then go straight into the breathwork and energy work while still listening to the preset.
Reminder: The presets in this program are designed to induce drowsiness. Do not listen to this or any of the presets in this program while driving or using heavy or potentially dangerous equipment.