Entering Trance Questions

[jamboh]

I have a few questions/problems about entering trances. At the moment I'm only able to enter a trance less than 50% of the time I try. So far the method which has been working for me is to try and mimic falling asleep; I imagine being on my side in bed and falling asleep, even though I'm sitting up in a chair. This works sometimes but I think my mind is so used to following my body into sleep that when I finally feel the falling sensation of entering trance, most times my mind has become 'fuzzy' and unfocused. I have tried the trance induction techniques that Robert teaches in AD with some success, but it usually takes me a long time to fall into a trance that way.. although the final result is much better as I retain my full mental clarity.

I think the main problem I have with the AD method is with the falling technique, because whenever I imagine myself falling my body tends to tense up, especially the top of my thighs, and it prevents me getting deeply relaxed. The falling method I usually use is to either imagine myself sliding down an infinite fireman's pole, or else imagine falling through a trapdoor in the floor and being in free-fall. These generate the best falling sensations in me, but also cause the tension in my body. I guess the answer is practice, practice, practice... I try to practice twice a day if I can because I'm not really happy with the level or frequency of trance that I'm getting at the moment. I guess my question is.. any advice for me? How do you all attain the trance state, and how long does it usually take you to fall into it? Once you have enough practice can you pretty much go into a trance at will? Has anybody had similar problems with their body tensing up while falling?

[Korpo]

Hello, jamboh.

Well, visualisations are pictures, and can carry associations for you. In this case, a body reaction. So, you might want to do something else.

Another thing recommended by Robert is very effective for me. It's easy - it's abdominal breathing. You just expand your belly during the in breath, and let it go during the out breath. Try to be aware of the muscle movement. Try also to be gentle.

It's very advisable to do this sitting upright, perhaps even without support, at least for the head. It can be extremely relaxing and can send you right off to sleep, meaning that you skip too fast through the light and medium trance and right into sleep. Sitting upright prevents nodding off, as you'll sag once you're "too relaxed." The point where you go limp and the point where you lose consciousness is usually related. It might no longer be in later stages of training.

If you use a lying down position to induce trance, you can use the "elbow trick," also by Robert. You erect your lower arm at the elbow, so that it points upright. That usually very little effort to keep up. But as soon as you skip past the going-limp point the lower arm will drop and startle you awake. This can be helpful for training approaching and holding the kind of trance where you are deep enough but not too deep.

It might be also a good idea not to practice in the place where you usually sleep, but use a couch or recliner instead. This disassociates it with going right to sleep and can establish a habit of going right to trance more easily, because your body consciousness doesn't have to "figure out" whether you are practising trance or actually trying to go to sleep.

If you wake early you can use the relaxation left from sleep to practice trance, which might come more easily this way. I often experience drifting and floating sensation, like being bathed in warmth, gently suspended. This is a state good to maintain, as it is wonderful to be in and also a good trance, I think.

Cheers,
Oliver

[Bluefirephoenixx]

I've been fighting with the same problem. I tend to get facial tension. I have been using a progressive relaxation tape which helped me with that made the focusing a bit easier. I also went to a chair without head support when I nod off my head dropps I don't sit in a position where it could land in a comfortable enough position to sleep in. That got me out of falling asleep and made some progress. twice a day is good I do that on my days off. Sometimes I'll try for an exit at night if the opportunity arises. I practice in different settings including out in the woods and the seashore . I won't fall asleep out there. It strongly affects my energy field though and gives the trance and meditation a different quality than it would have indoors. The binaural beats seem to help though the Brain wave generator program isn't transferable to my mp3 player which is too bad and limits my ability to use the app. For music when I want music I use chuck wild's liquid mind CD's It's made for meditation and is nice to listen to.

I went from not being able to induce trance at all and falling asleep to getting stuck at the exit when I get a good trance going so I guess that's progress. I still need more control over the trance for other purposes. It would be ideal if I could walk around in a significantly altered state and induce in about 10 minutes or less.

[heliac]

Hi Jaboh,

Thats funny that you mentioned you enter trance by mimicking falling asleep. That is something i do too sometimes. It does work sometimes though doesn't it. Maybe try keeping something in the back of your mind as you are starting to fall asleep. You can say to yourself in your head "mind awake body asleep" as you are mimicking sleeping. You might be able to enter trance more often if you find out that balance between keeping you waking mind just enough to notice the sensations of entering trance as you are falling asleep.

[jamboh]

thanks for all the advice. Wow, what a different a week makes! I've been continuing to practice every night (and morning when I can) and have made some great progress. I had a few breakthroughs and it seems (trying not to tempt fate) that I can now pretty much enter the trance state when I want to. I have found that the abdominal breathing works (thank you Oliver), not so much as something to focus the mind on, but as a way of mimicking the breathing rhythm of sleep. I now recall reading this somewhere else a long time ago but since forgot about it. I've also managed to get the muscle tension thing under control.. I actually discovered that I was also unknowingly holding tension in my jaw even though I had searched my body for tension many times. It's so hard to find it! When I first fully relaxed it I was pretty much pulled into trance straight away.

It also seems that my body will 'test' me in some way just before entering trance, to see if I'm still awake. This is manifested as a painful itch or something which if I ignore will bring on the trance state. This is also something I read about a while ago... does anyone else get this? Yesterday I must only have been in trance for 2 minutes or so when I felt the vibrations start!! :D Only the second time I've consciously induced them! They got pretty intense and I felt my hands float out a bit, but although I tried staying calm I think some hidden tension ruined it.. I think I tensed up slightly without consciously noticing it. Is it easier to project from a state of sleep paralysis so your body can't tense up like that? I've never experienced sleep paralysis.. is it similar to deep trance (which I've also never experienced)? How does one go about inducing it? If I wanted to get into a deeper trance I would just continue doing the falling sensation right? Or is it easier to project from just a regular trance?

It's great to feel like I'm finally getting some results instead of just sitting in my chair and relaxing :D .

[Korpo]

Hello, jamboh.

Glad to hear that you're having success. :)

Cheers,
Oliver

[heliac]

Hi Jamboh,

That's really great news about your progress. As i was reading your post i found myself saying to myself "yea that is exactly what happens to me too". You are describing things that happen to me too in other words. Just the other week in a private forum i had mentioned that finding and completely relaxing tension storehouses acts almost like a button that kicks you into trance. We naturally get really really limp,cozy, lax and wet noodley once we are asleep so mimicking that type of relaxation does seem to do the trick.You'd probably be a good actor if you can mimic sleep so well that you are dropping into trance right away :D .
Your tension area is the same for me as well, in my jaw but also in my neck and throat. One thing that i have found that works for me-and this kind of gets tied back to mimicking sleep- is to feel the weight of gravity pushing down on your body in the area where your tension is.Feel like the tension is not able to hold up against gravity by feeling you head press down on to the pillow and let it feel really really heavy like your head/jaw is made of lead.Try it out, once you get to that level of relaxation you will feel trance kick in like you just pressed a trance button. Getting heavy kind of adds to the overall act of mimicking sleep.

What you said about breathing is also very interesting. That is also something i did when i was attempting MAP.When you are asleep your breathing def changes automatically to a deep inhale and quick exhale i think. So mimicking that pattern kind of adds to the overall act of mimicking a sleep state.You are consciously recreating these conditions in a natural way so it sounds like it could lead to a conductive practice.

I mention all this a little bit in the MAP practice journal i set up last year:
http://www.forums.astraldynamics.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15675&start=0

A painful itch, I haven't felt that so much.Sometimes i'll get the chills right before dropping into trance though, it does distract me.
That is great that you got the vibes too, you can try enhancing them by egging them on and they will get more and more intense until you explode out into the sky automatically.Or if they just are not getting any stronger you can just try a projection exit technique. If you do explode out you may have to tell yourself to stop once you feel like you've gotten out. You can just scream out something like "STOP NOW". Look down after that and see how high up you are. :) Look around you too, for stars or the moon, empty space, then tug yourself back down to your body. Don't worry about slamming into your body you might get reeled back down but you will slow down right before you get back.

If you want to get into a deeper trance you can try continuing or enhancing the dropping sensation.One other thing that you can try to deepen trance,it may sound kind of weird but it works for me, is to cross your eyes a little bit once you've hit that relaxing trance button.This might be my own personal button but try it out, maybe it will work for you too, we seem to have a similar projection evolution. You are crossing your eyes ever so slightly. You'll know when you've hit this button when you start to feel a little dizzy, feel some extra dropping sensations and when you see some poofy colors of light start to form in the empty mindspace, you'll see what i mean. It is kind of like looking into 3 dimensional dark space with little poofy colors forming in the background. you can even manipulate the colors if you want. You can form them into objects etc. Anyways, after a while the poofy colors will fade away and you will start dropping more and you will start to get imagery. This is where it can get tricky. The imagery can be a little hard to notice and this is where you might actually fall asleep. If you are aware enough it might actually be ok though. You might pass out and then get woken up again by the vibes or astral sight or whatever just happens.So if the imagery starts to fade and you feel like you are starting to pass out you can try going with it and see what happens. Its kind of a trail and error thing you have to play with a little.
Also, you don't want to cross your eyes too much or use force it shouldn't hurt or strain anything.This happens naturally when entering trance anyway so you want to think natural when doing this.Robert has mentioned to me that this also happens to him naturally during high powered trance states but i don't think he has recommended it as a projection aid so far that i have seen.It is something i am currently exploring a little more though. There is a lot more i can add to this crossing the eyes thingy dingy but i don't want to keep rambling on and on, lol.

Great hearing you are getting results, i hope you have a lot more and share any experiences along the way.

[jamboh]

Wow thanks for the tips heliac! I certainly hope that my projection evolution continues similar to yours because it seems like you are a natural! I'd always assumed that my natural talent at this was pretty much zero, as I've never had any spontaneous obe's or anything.. but I guess stranger things have happened! Your MAP journal is very interesting (and motivating), you've had some cool experiences.. but I'm confused! You mention your first projections very nonchalantly! Did you have projection experience before you started MAP?

I will definitely have to try your advice about using a feeling of weight.. actually I also find my neck really hard to relax properly. I suspect that there is hidden tension there even when it seems relaxed. I have somewhat lousy head and shoulder posture in general and I find it hard to get a good balance point that enables me to relax the muscles.

I've also noticed before that changing the focus of your eyes has an effect. In general it seems that if I focus 'into the distance' it's much harder to trance than if I withdraw my focus into my head and focus more on the inside of my eyelids. I will definitely experiment with crossing them slightly.

Yeah I pretty much messed up the projection exit I think... the vibrations caught me completely by surprise as I didn't realize they would come on so soon after entering trance! I kind of tried using rope, but I find it kind of hard to do as I haven't practiced it much. Do you find it easier just to do nothing and let yourself project automatically? I've noticed that robert seems to suggest this sometimes now. I'm not sure whether to try and take advantage of every trance session to try and go for an exit, or to give my self some experience of just the trance meditation/longer trance/deeper trance first. It's not that I'm not really keen to start projecting (I can't wait!) but I don't want to start running before I can walk. Or do you think I should take advantage of every opportunity? How do you go about 'egging on' the vibrations?

[heliac]

Hi Jamboh,

That is great that you are motivated! A key ingredient with anything we do right?I think there is a lot to motivation we don't know about but it seems like sometimes high motivation alone can yield results.

I think i had a few projections before MAP, none were deliberate though :( I'm kind of a nonchalant kind of guy maybe that is why i described it that way, but there wasn't really anything too tantalizing about it. Most of the time i am trying to control my emotions/excitement while this is occurring anyways :)

I don't know why the neck can be so stubborn to relax. For me sometimes i just need to adjust my pillow but sometimes it is mental and my neck gets tight when i'm worried or anxious about something.Just let everything go when you try relaxing.If anything though, don't set yourself up for failure by affirming this("I suspect that there is hidden tension there even when it seems relaxed") to yourself too much. It's good to acknowledge that but once you do catch yourself saying, thinking or feeling this way, say and feel something more in line with where you want to be. So, as you are trying to relax you may find yourself saying and feeling to yourself something like "man why isn't my neck relaxing, it kind of feels like it is relaxed but there is still a little bit of tension or something there", "maybe i need to adjust my pillow, nope that isn't doing it either", "let me try some heaviness, ahh there we go".That is just an example, that is kind of how i talk to myself, but you should feel like you suspect there is no tension. You can evaluate how that will feel for yourself since it is going to be a personal experience :)

The auto projections, they will just happen whether you think it is easier or not :) I don't know what causes the auto projections other than motivation and maybe a natural ability to carry over a detached observer state of mind from waking to sleeping states.

I would say go for it when it comes to taking advantage or every trance session you experience.I guess this varies from person to person though. Some people may feel more comfortable with "testing the waters" and following the plan and that sounds good to me too :) You may or may not need the full 90 days of MAP for the lights to come on though, but ya you also don't want to get ahead of yourself, it's up to you. :)

Egging on, i'm not too sure how to explain it, but if you could imagine how the feeling behind words that are encouraging feels, i would say that is what egging on would be.