The gap between the initial attempt and this one was filled with extensive soul searching, meditation, and in depth practice in the field of Hermetics, and although I still had a natural interest in the astral and mental planes, my commitment for other priorities didn’t leave time for any experimentation. It was only when the next mandatory step in my own path towards perfecting myself required visiting subtle planes that I endeavored and undertook phasing out of my body.

This time the experience was greatly enhanced by the fact that I knew exactly what needed to be done, and a night from a Saturday to a Sunday, I finally took the decision to proceed. I set my alarm clock to 5 AM and prepared to go to bed. I prepared my mental body with 60 repetitions of a specific dual kabalistic formula that helps in dissociation of the mental body from the flesh, proceeded to relax deeply and fell asleep as early as I could. I always do a set of suggestions before falling asleep as part of my personal emotional and mental hygiene, but I can’t remember having it done specifically that night: in those days I was training with extreme intensity as a bodybuilder and Friday would be my legs day, which was so taxing on the organism that it would let me recovering most of the Saturday, sleeping on and off during the whole day. It is my impression that I was so tired that I just fell asleep after my set of kabalistic preparation.

At 5 in the morning, I was waken up by the alarm clock. I always struggle not to get back to sleep, so out of sheer will I put myself on my back, closed my eyes and started again the “real” set of kabbalist formulas. For a moment I drifted back into sleep, just to regain consciousness again, as with each repetition of my formula, I could feel the mental body go. When I finished the cycle, feeling that my awareness could be lost to sleep again, I decided to pull into the dissociation vibrations without further delay, and in a few seconds, less than 10, I was effectively out of my body.

From that moment on, movements responded to will; I decided to float to the nearby window, and pushed my head through the closed curtains. I saw the sun starting to rise by the horizon. I moved back, and decided it was enough, and time to return to my body: I didn’t have any clear purpose for this first experience and I preferred sleeping. I floated backwards to my body, but instead of incorporating into it, I just went through it and found myself under my bed. I remember finding that quite amusing at the time, a bit ironic actually.

I then resourced to think loudly in my head my intention to integrate back to my physical body, and next thing I knew is that I was back and asleep.

The experience itself responded at what I had expected from it, and besides the fact that my will seemed considerably diminished during it, the out of body experiment was under my complete control and awareness.

I recall that I had come across an article related to the matter of Astral projections a few days earlier, on a magazine specialized in vulgarization of occult topics, to the general public; oddly enough, I eventually was involved with its editor and the company running this publication and others, and confirmed none of the articles published was the result of any serious work of any kind.

Anyhow, that particular article was enough to push me to try for myself, and not knowing better, I settled down for going early to bed, and rest on my back (I’m a side sleeper, I can’t fall asleep on my back), committed not to move. I don’t have any memories of the agonizing urges to move or scratch at that time, but I do remember being quietly there for a very long time, thinking it was not really working. I didn’t have many expectations in any case, and it was a Friday night – I had no obligation for an early bird start-, so I was just relaxing without much psychological pressure, if any in fact.

Eventually I must have fallen asleep, as my next memory was waking up a few hours later (I didn’t expect to fall asleep, or to be able to, on my back position); but when I did wake up from my sleep, it was only to find that my whole body was floating up, but still attached to my head by the neck. Only my head was still my earthy one, the rest was light and trying to float away in the air. It was uncomfortable and I found it, at the moment, scary, as it seemed nothing I did would change anything. I started breathing heavily and my projected body immediately came back “home”.

After that night and after reviewing the experience I had, I came to the conclusion my fear was a natural reaction and that, should I get to that point again, I would just keep waiting until the projection became complete – only it took me years to gather the courage to attempt the experience again. And when I did, I never found the determination not to move or yield to fatigue.

It was only over a decade later that I approached again the phenomenon of projection, with the help of the knowledge, wisdom and practice gathered in between, and proposed to purposely develop the ability to project out of the body. It did take me several years to come to consistent, actually systematic, results – through the approach herein shared.

• I have been busy with a professional transition (I too have to pay bills!)
• I’ve been even busier setting up control and practice groups in order to have accurate numbers, statistics and reliable split tests both for lucid dreaming and out of body, mental and astral projections. This means the tutorials I will be eventually making available through this website will be backed-up by real world experiences, data and results.
• I have just moved the site to a new, more powerful server: I didn’t expect to generate the interest reflected by the current number of visitors.

Plans for the future are to have the lucid dreaming tutorial published by the middle of August, and the full Astral and Mental Projection Method and Guide, by early September. In the meantime, please be encourage to subscribe to this site newsletter, I will keep you informed of progress timely.

Thank you for your patience.

When we dream, we are actually been lead by our subconscious mind into key experiences for our personality. The subconscious mind has a direct link to the rest of the Universe, and it may be called our “Personal God”. It already knows everything, and contrary to belief, does not work against us, but for our evolution, whether we understand it or not.

A vivid dream is an out of body experience, in the mental plane, and with the guidance of our subconscious mind: while we sleep and dream, it takes us to experiences grounds we require, and what is left after the filter of our narrow daily awareness is what we consider a dream recall. For this reason only, my personal view on lucid dreaming is of a loss of learning opportunities: I much rather like to be lead by my own subconscious mind into grounds of new knowledge and wisdom building experiences rather than hovering without aim in the subconscious fields.

A particularity of the subconscious mind is that it reaches out to our consciousness via images, as opposed to our own awareness that deals with mental hearing to translate ideas and intuitions. This is the reason why what is left to our consciousness after a significant dream, are mostly images.

For this tutorial, I haven’t had the opportunity to work with a control group, as the experience comes from years of personal research and practice. For the next two tutorials, I have done the effort to set up a controlled environment from where to draw statistic outs.

The physiology of out of body projections (including dreams)

There is a physiological time for projections into the non-material, and that is in the early morning hours, provided enough rest has been given to the body. If one proceeds to this or any other experiences too tired, the mind will not be able to be where it needs to be, at the right level of awareness.

All of these experiences need to be prepared the night before, in and by the way we go to sleep. Falling asleep is a process few people understand. If you are one of those individuals who fall asleep anywhere almost instantly, you are either exhausted, or have a magnetic disorder that makes you especially sensitive and likely to have spontaneous projections. The majority of people however experiment difficulties to fall asleep, and this tied to their minds not quieting down.

When we fall asleep, the conscious mind goes to sleep before the body does.  The body periodically probes the mind with urges to scratch, turn around or by sensing physiological activity, and when it finds that the mind does not respond anymore, then falls asleep. The opposite, having the body fall asleep before the mind, is known as sleep paralysis or ‘hypnagogia,’ and is rarely spontaneous. It will be explored with more detail in the projections tutorial.

If the mind is awake and random thoughts are unleashed, as with most people, the brain activity itself is enough to be telling the body that it is not yet time to fall asleep: it is an undermined fact that the body only relaxes as much as the mind does, so don’t expect to fall asleep, unless physically exhausted, if your mind is unrested.

Your state of mind when going to bed should be to fall asleep from your mind, and be in an unpressured, relaxed state, like if on vacation. Relax from within, and quiet down in peace. If there is a particular topic you wish to explore, quietly focus on it, without strains. With each breath out, relax your mind a bit more, and notice how you naturally mark a pause with each expiration. It is in one of these pauses that you will fall asleep. Your body will follow up quickly.

If you cannot relax your mind, the whole falling asleep process with this breathing technique can then take up to 90 minutes – which is the duration of a whole night cycle. Once you learn to ease your mind, you will be in a focused sleep in less than ten minutes.

Falling asleep with this state of mind is essential in order to one, recall dreams, and two, query your subconscious mind for specific or oriented experiences.

The vivid dreams recall technique

Go to bed early enough to have a good night sleep and set your alarm clock to go off after you have had 6 or 7 hours of sleep. If you require longer nights (ie. 8, 9 or 10 hours of sleep), set it to 7 hours of sleep. If you are a shorter night sleeper, set it to 5 or 6 hours. In my case, I go to bed around 10 pm and set the alarm clock to 5:15 am.

Once the alarm goes off early in the morning, shut it down and go back to sleep, gently and naturally. Most people wake up a second time, if this happens to you, turn around and fall asleep again. You will have no problem finding your sleep at this moment, and for all individuals, dreams during this period are intense and recallable.

You will know that you have vivid dreams when you literally feel in your own skin and flesh what happens in them, and you recall them as vividly as you lived them.

Additionally, you need to get into a recalling habit, as the memory of dreams, and for that matter, of OBEs, fades out with time (this is due to their visual nature as opposed to the sound nature of ideas). Writing down your dreams systematically, trains the mind and gives a predisposition to better take advantage of these experiences, and recall them more efficiently. Do not overlook this step.

Empowering the dream recall process.

The above technique works on 100% of people, it is physiological. However, some individuals do not have a recall habit, and I have been asked for an efficient way to speed up the recall ability training.

This can be down with self-hypnosis. Hypnosis is a super relaxed and super focused state of mind where we can establish a dialog with the subconscious mind in order to set up routines that are controled by our subconscious. This is where visualization comes really handy, as it’s the native language of our subconscious mind.

Anybody can perform self-hypnosis with the right technique. A number of sessions however are required before results are seen, and these will depend on each individual. Typically results can be seen from the third to fifth session, but for some individuals, can take up to two weeks. Each session should be performed once a day, either before going to bed or when waking up (preferred).

You can enter a light to medium hypnotic  trance (largely enough for the purposes of this technique), by reading out loud the script below, with a soft and paused voice. Don’t rush it, and let your mind follow the instructions you are reading out loud. Don’t skip any of it: I am not taking the time to explain in this tutorial how hypnosis works, but will in the OBE one. Let your mind create images or representations of what you read as your read along: this is the key to success.

Enjoy your dreams now.

He left humanity three priceless books, that instruct any human being all that is needed to walk the path of Perfection, towards Enlightenment. They are: “Initiation into Hermetics”, “The Practice of Evocation” and “The Secret of True Kabbala”. There are fragments of a fourth and unfinished book as well as romance biography written by his secretary and student, under the title “Frabato”.

In “Initiation into Hermetics”, Franz Bardon clearly explicates the difference between mental and astral projection, and teaches both. He puts both projections into a spiritual context, and explain when and why they are to be used, which in this context, is the evolution and perfection of one self. If I was to summarize it in a nutshell, I’d say that what everybody is calling astral projection is in fact a mental projection into the lower mental planes.  Master Bardon explains how to disassociate the astral body from the physical one from a state of mental projection, and then inhabit the astral body with the mental self via astral breathing – which cuts physical breath, hence the extreme danger for survival of the physical envelope, as Bardon warns.

The range of action of a real astral projection is significantly more limited than the one of mental voyage, as the astral body may only go where the physical would (hence no visiting of other planets for example) – and the purpose of such an exploration is restricted to magical actions and interaction with astral entities.

The preconisations to learn mental projection as provided by Franz Bardon are in line and coherence with his teachings, as his first book is a ten lessons “course” into hermetics. He provides exercises to strengthen the mental senses to a degree where they can be used and overtake the physical ones at will – what Monroe or Kepple would call “phasing” (see corresponding articles in this website).

Although I believe this is the more systematic, safe and proper way to achieve projection into the non-physical, I also deem it unfeasible for those not having a genuine interest and implication into hermetics, or even for those having the implication but not the degree of practice required.

The method is divided into three steps: programming, hypnagogia and separation. Step 1 & 2 are part of the same action, which is to achieve the state of “body asleep/mind awake” technically known as hypnagogia. In order to achieve this Mr. Hopkins advises to take advantage of the body chemistry by inducing a barely conscious awaking to let the body go back to sleep instinctively whilst the mind fights to stay awake, without disrupting the body’s rest. I find this method unreliable and most importantly lacking of control, and restricting the ability to project at will, when chosen.

The separation step is the real value added of the Vehram method: it describes an array of energy sources around the body, that when pulled into one self, will trigger the vibrations that have been popularly described to lead to separation. The “Vehram array” was described earlier in other systems of energy and eastern philosophies, but not with the express purposes of inducing the vibrational state.

The Vehram Energy System used to be available as a short eBook from the website www.vehram.com, but at the date where I write this post, the domain name has not been renewed.

He defines his structure of the non-physical, which he calls directly the “Astral”, as a wider model of reality, with four focuses of consciousness. The mind is present in all four of them, but only awake or aware in one of them. Phasing is defined as the ability to tune from one to another.

These focuses are Focus 1 for the perceptible reality, Focus 2 for the subconscious realms of the mind, Focus 3 for “shared” realms of the “Astral” and Focus 4 for the Akasha, although Frank lacked the knowledge to name it properly. He established himself this comparison with Monroe’s model:

For those familiar with Monroe’s system of labels, here is a basic comparison as far as possible:
Monroe’s Focus C1 = my Focus 1Monroe Focus 3, 10, 12, 15 & 21 = my Focus 2Monroe Focus 23, 24, 25, 26 & 27 = my Focus 3 Here the comparison ends, as my Focus 4 has no Monroe counterpart.

He described his phasing technique as follows:

The key to Phasing is to just let the experience flow. You need to allow yourself to become it, as opposed to trying to go to it, or point to it, with some kind of “method”. Just lay back and simply become it. At which point people usually say, “Yeah, but Frank it’s okay for you but when I close my eyes all I see is blackness. “Well, that is all I see at first!”
I think often that people are too hasty to discount these initial stages, and they just go off on some method.
When I close my eyes all I see is blackness. But I think the essential difference between me and many beginners is when they close their eyes they are not really noticing. And that’s another key to it… that of noticing self. I think people become too wrapped up in methods and techniques, and it prevents them from really noticing themselves.
Okay, so as I say, when I close my eyes all I see is blackness, which is normal. I’ll wriggle around a bit to get comfortable, maybe my knee is itching and my hair is tickling my ear or something. So I’ll sort all that out and just concentrate on breathing gently for 5 minutes or so. Now, because I am noticing as opposed to avidly trying to perfect and follow some technique or method, in the traditional sense, my full attention is taken by the simple act of noticing.
People often tell me that they keep trying and they are saying about how they are concentrating upon holding their awareness outside of themselves, and at the same time they are concentrating on “raising energy” and doing everything correctly, and whatever… but nothing is happening. That’s right, because all their attention is fixated elsewhere, whereas all my attention is fixated on noticing.
Noticing what?
Well, nothing at first, there’s not much to see really but blackness. But then, after a short while, I may see that perhaps one part of the blackness is not quite so black. Perhaps there was just a brief flash of something, then maybe a sensation of a movement somewhere else. Maybe I just heard someone call my name. Hmm, that’s interesting, I might think, I wonder where that came from. But I don’t get too curious I just keep noticing. I might see swirling areas of not quite so black as the rest. I might see flashes of this and that. As I am offering myself these images, my attention is steadily becoming more fixated within.
As my attention becomes fixated within, from the act of noticing, at this stage I am not aware of my physical body. Part of my awareness realises that somewhere in the background is a physical body, in bed, etc. but I have phased away from it. Before, the forefront of my awareness was my physical and 180 degrees turned around from that, in the background of my awareness, was the non-physical. But now there has been a “phase shift” i.e. a turning through 180 degrees. Now, my previous foreground (physical) is my background, and my previous background (non-physical) is my foreground.
This is what is meant by “phasing” because you cause a 180-degree Phase Shift between the non-physical and the physical. As I say, Monroe first coined the term as he was an electronics engineer and he was picturing it like it were two voltages, 180 degrees out of phase with each other. Hence he coined the term Phasing. But I guess people generally have difficulties picturing two voltages 180-degrees out of phase with each other. So, instead, imagine a revolving door that is the entrance to a building. Any old building, it doesn’t matter.
You are standing outside the building. So the “outside” is your reality. You are aware of a reality that exists inside the building, but is closed to you by the door. Now, go through and turn the door 180 degrees and stop (oh, in case anyone doesn’t know there are 360 degrees in a circle, so 180 degrees is half a circle). Now, you are inside the building. So the “inside” is your reality. You are aware of a reality that exists outside the building, but it is closed to you by the door. Now again go through and turn the door by 180 degrees, and stop. So now, the “outside” is your reality again.
Each time you go though the door and turn through 180 degrees, there is a 180-degree “phase shift” between your awareness of the outside and your awareness of the inside, in terms of your reality.
Okay, so as my attention becomes fixated within, from the act of noticing, this causes a 180-degree phase shift between my awareness of the physical (outer) and my awareness of the non-physical (inner) sense of reality. So from then on, I continue to notice anything that may come about. I’m not all that curious, I’m not trying to make anything happen, I’m not enacting some kind of method or technique, I’m simply looking within and noticing what is taking place, and the act of doing that is focusing my attention.
As a person focuses their attention within themselves, through the action of noticing, they allow themselves to view “snippets” of other dimensions of reality. This action is translated objectively as the perception of flashes of all manner of this and that, random images that come and go, all kinds of spurious sounds, and so forth. Sometimes these snippets can form what I call ‘astral screens’ where you objectively perceive something similar to a cinema screen effect in front of your non-physical field of vision, complete with moving images and sounds. What is happening is that you are objectively offering yourself snippets of other dimensions of reality. If you then decide to step into these scenes, you will find yourself in that ‘location’, within that particular region of consciousness.

This technique is a bit deceiving as only advanced and mature travelers, or those with an innate ability to project due to a flaw in their electromagnetic balance (which Frank claimed he hadn’t), can successfully use this approach; Kepple himself acknowledged his inability to systematically project, and what the page linked does not mention is that Frank used the Monroe’s Wave Hemi-sync CDs for very long, and actually added very valuable notes for beginners to work with them.

Also, whereas Monroe was reluctant to use the word “Astral”, Frank used it openly, without having checked on its proper use: everything he describes is actually part of the Mental plane, and not the Astral.

However, Frank Kepple’s legacy is of invaluable importance as he confirmed not only Monroe’s work, but the possibility to develop the ability to consciously project. His Phases also provide a valuable insight in the fact that the subconscious part of the mind is the gateway to the wider and shared mental plane, not to mention his empiric discovery of the Akashic plane.

Monroe developed his own terminology for the wider reality he was living, and although he made some minor mistakes only acknowledgeable to the Theurgist and  scholar, he defined a series of states of consciousness, ranging from the narrow and limited awareness of physical reality (that he labeled C1) and up to gradually deeper and wider states. The process of tuning into each one of them was baptized “phasing”, to illustrate the smooth and progressive transition from one to another. Eventually, his OBE experience became a full phasing one as the vibration state ceased.

The states of consciousness he defined are as follow:

• Focus 1 – Physical Waking Consciousness. The level of awareness in which people spend most of their daily, waking lives.
• Focus 3 – Basic relaxation, when the mind is in sync with the body and is aware of its current location.
• Focus 10 – Mind Awake / Body Asleep. The physical body sleeps and the mind is awake.
• Focus 11 – Auto-suggestion state.Focus 12 – Expanded Awareness. The awareness is expanded beyond the physical body.
• Focus 15 – Sate of “no time” . The awareness is expanded beyond time and place. This is  state of deep mediation.
• Focus 21 – This is the first state of consciousness were awareness shifts out of the personal mental body. It can be assumed it is the first stage of proper mental projection, although this is not explicited by Monroe.
• Focus 22 – At this level people are unconscious or partly conscious. People in coma, suffering from delirium or dementia, under the influence of drugs or alcohol; patients who are anesthetized or comatose. This level is chaotic, people are confused and very difficult to communicate with.The levels above are mainly inhabited by people in physical existence. Beyond these levels this is not the case. People dreaming will usually hover between focus 20 and 23.
• Focus 23 – Inhabited by those who have recently left physical existence (i.e. have died). They are either not aware of this or not able to become free from their ties to life on earth. They are isolated from contact with others.
• Focus 24, 25, 26 – Monroe labels this “Belief System Territories”. Somewhat similar to Focus 23, however people here are not isolated but live in groups. The inhabitants are humans from all periods and areas who have accepted and subscribed to various premises and concepts. All inhabitants of a specific territory are in contact with all others who share their beliefs. Contact with anyone holding conflicting beliefs is very limited. This in fact is the personal paradise, the “Devachan”.
• Focus 27 – According to Monroe, the Reception Center. An artificial area created by human minds, designed to ease the trauma and shock of the transition out of physical reality. It takes on the form of various earth environments in order to be acceptable to the wide variety of newcomers. Contact and communication is open between all inhabitants. Many people living in Focus 27 provide assistance to new arrivals to help them adjust to their new situation. This is a highly organized and structured area.
  This is actually the higher mental, what is also called Shamballa, where assimilation and for those most aware, instruction and continued learning of experience, is possible.
• Focus 33 – Creation, a “creative area”. This is the Akasha the lower Akasha.
• Focus 34/35 – In Monroe’s words, the Gathering. Beings from many other locations within the physical universe are gathered here to witness the upcoming Earth Changes. This is fact is the consciousness of the monad (“I-There” in Monroe terminology).
• Focus 42 – The individuality higher sphere of consciousness.
• Focus 49 – The Higher Akasha.

Through his Hemi-Sync technology, Monroe provided a guided way to support induction into some of this states. The excellent “Gateway Experience”, a set of 6 sets of CDs, guides up to focus 21. Some basic separation attempts are introduced, particularly in focus 12.

I have to say I do not believe this is the perfect method to project into the non-physical, but it is by a mile within the more serious work and material available out there. And the personal growth experience that discovering these different states of awareness provides, has no price. I don’t believe any user will manage a proper projection first time (unless there is an electromagnetic disorder within the individual), but it provides excellent tools to be used and practiced over time.

Bob Monroe did not have any particular interest in projection out of the body nor any spiritual awareness whatsoever. Until he started to experience repetitive and unwanted projections into the non-physical, that is. Most spontaneous projections out of the body result of a temporarily unbalance of our electro-magnetic field (particularly a drop of the electric charge of the physical) due to an illness, weakened state, or emotional surge. Some individuals carry a life-time disorder that provokes numerous unsolicited experiences, and Robert Monroe was one of them.

Long story short, he started to study the phenomena in order to control it; he soon rejected the term “astral projection” for its esoteric connotations and introduced the now common terminology of “OBE”. He discovered how sound patterns can help induce a specific state of consciousness (these sounds are known as bineural bits), and eventually developed a set of recordings he called “Hemi-sync”, to help maximize and improve numerous aspects of one’s experience. During the last past of his life, his out of body experimentations led him to empirically discover what Hermetics teach about the non-physical, and resulted on a spiritual quantum leap of its own, on his very persona. This, which I will approach in part II of this article, has been legated through his books and his “Monroe Institute” organization.

Monroe wrote three books: “Journeys out of the Body”, “Far Journeys”, and “Ultimate Journey”. The Monroe technique of projection is quite popular now in New Age circles and for those who are actively interested in this phenoma. Few are those, however, who are aware that the original approach that Bob Monroe introduced evolved to a significantly different concept at later stages, which I will cover on the second part of this article as well.

In “Far Journeys”, Monroe provides specific instructions to project, and they can be found lamely pasted and copied all over the internet. Monroe introduces the concept of four conditions: A, B, C and D. Condition A is a state of border sleep relaxation, when the individual can keep this state, focused on one single thought, indefinitely. Condition B is defined as an evolution of Condition A, where the individual is no longer focusing on a single idea, but looking into the darkness of his eyes, with a totally relaxed mind. When the light patterns have disappeared (according to Monroe, meaningless neural discharges), one is in condition B.

Condition C follows condition B  and is described as a state where the input of the physical senses disappear.  Condition D is achieved when condition C can be reached from a rested and refreshed state.

Once in Condition D, the individual will then try to introduce the vibration state. The vibration state is the door that opens the possibility to the OBE experience, and is recognizable by a sense of high speed vibration, comparable to an electric pulse – but with no pain involved. The instructions to achieve this state include focusing the attention into a point of space out of the body, pushing it away, and then up and back over the head, in a position where our senses would not naturally perceive it. This will trigger the dislocation manifested by vibrations, and the individual needs to absorb them. Only then separation, by any method (reaching out, floating), is possible.

At this stage of his investigation, Robert Monroe did not have a clear view of the consequences of uncontrolled projection, but still, he did put a word of warning: “I believe that anyone can experience existence in a Second Body if thedesire is great enough. Whether or not anyone should is beyond the scope of myjudgment.” Later in this same chapter of Far Journeys Bob added, “A note of caution is in order here for thosewho are interested in experimenting, for once opened, the doorway to his experiencecannot be closed.”

To this day, I am not sure if more controlled techniques, which take into account knowledge of the subtle planes, can be of use if one has not experimented empirically the reality of projection. More importantly, I doubt that most people can use them (techniques such as Phasing) if they are not guided by someone who has already gone to that stage. For these reasons and for the lonely practitioner, I consider this first Monroe technique as the perfect introductory point to projection into the non-physical.

It will also show the rigor and effort that is required to project: no less than one hour should be spent on this exercise, and achieving Condition A on one’s own (focusing the mind on one thought indefinitely) is a life challenge on its own.