Memories from the past and spiritual experiences

[SiriusTraveler]

I thought that I would write down some old memories and some of the spiritual experiences I'v had in my life. There are som questions at the bottom for you to discuss if you like :)

To begin with I have some old memories from my childhood which I always regarded as dreams untill I understood they were more than that. You could say that I had forgotten about them even untill I "stumbled" upon the matter of OBE and all the related topics. One thing I often "dreamt" about was that I was practicing flying outside my house where I lived when I was little. I remember trying to jump off the ground, to hover and to show off in front of others what I could do. One vivid experience was when I flew over my childhood area and crashed in a lawn and woke up, and another where I saw the extreme detail of a leaf when I zoomed into it with my apparently awesome vision. These memories is not from dreams but from OBE's or astral travels in the RTZ.
I have also been to the lower astral planes when I was little. I remember flying or walking around in a very industrial kind of environment looking for something.
I have vivid images in my mind even today from all these experiences. Its pretty strange how we can forget such nice experiences and blow it off as dreams when they are something else.
Other than that I remember that when I was a teenager I could sometimes lay and listen to my earhiss when having difficulty falling asleep. The noise would increase more and more untill I got a bit scared of it and stopped listening. Looking back on that it felt almost as if I was beginning to enter a trance state. So I think the "spiritual stuff" have always been there in some way.

Another thing I would like to write down is experiences I'v had since beginning with MAP in 2010.
Prior to beginning with MAP I was somehow lead down the path of spirituallity or spiritual development. It had been absolutely nonexisting for most part of my life. I always felt abit lost and always had this question in my head which I couldn't identify. As if something was missing. I almost think the question was about what the purpose was with me beeing here in this life. What do I do? Why am I? Im sure many of you recognize that feeling, that question that you just cant figure out what it is.
Anyway I somehow got onto this path of searching for this question and in various ways and by various influenses it brought me to Robert Bruce (amongst others) and his MAP book.

A list of some of the things I have experienced since beginning with MAP (can work as a morale-booster for those who feel they aren't doing any progress):

-Increased dreamrecall
-Exit vibrations
-Exit noise/sound
-Racing heart chakra
-Electric/static feeling
-Light trance
-Medium trance
-Synchronicities
-Better temperament
-Calmer mind
-Clearer mind
-Chakra strobes
-Seeing through the eyelids
-Lucid dreaming
-Mystic visions
-Beeing in the void
-Tunnel experience
-Floating out of the body

All of these I have never had (consciously) prior to beginning with MAP. I do believe that the will to experience OBE's is extremely important though, and without it I could imagine that the list above would be smaller.

I'm a person who had to learn how to be patient, because I tire fast if I dont find something exciting. And so I have been on and off MAP several times the past 2 - 2,5 years. When I was off it, it was in my mind though, that I wanted to practice deep down inside. But I wanted results faster, I wanted to experience the stuff I read about. So my higher self made me taste what was to come if I continued. I had some very cool experiences and was really amazed. But I have to say that those experiences didn't quench my thirst at all because I just want more. I want consciously induced OBE's.

And so it will be. Period.

What memories from the past do you have? How did you come across MAP? What led you down the path of spirituallity?

[ButterflyWoman]

I couldn't even begin to catalog all the "metaphysical experiences" I've had, so I won't bother to try. I will say that I had my first profoundly "spiritual experience" when I was about five years old (the usual "golden-light, presence of God" type of thing), and when I hit puberty I started having precog dreams and my ability to sense things other people can't has been with me all my life. As I said, there are countless other experiences. I used to keep a record of them, but now I know: they're just experiences, no more or less significant than giving birth or drinking a good cup of tea or breaking my arm or any other experience.

As for what led me down the path, nothing, and everything. I didn't choose it, it chose me. It's just what I've always done, and always been, and always shall be. It's how I'm formed. There was no choice or decision. It just is.

[SoulSail]

Hey Sirius,

Great post.

One my clearest memories on this subject follows...

It is October, a perfect cloudy day. Nothing to do but read, so on a whim I buy William Buhlman's book Adventures Beyond the Body on Kindle and read the entire thing in a matter of hours. This is a turning point from which I may never turn back. I realize how many beliefs I carry around on the impossibility of actually experiencing much positive related to spiritual matters. But this OBE thing IS possible, I think to myself. I can do this, and will. I want to slip this body and experience all I can.


I love going back to that book when I feel myself distancing from practice.


Soul

[CFTraveler]

I've had 'supernatural' type experiences all my life, and even though the spiritual was normal in my house, I always attributed some of them to my family's belief system. Very open, and things were always happening, which were met with acceptance. So when I started having experiences at a very early age, they were recognized and supported (if not exactly nurtured).
Later on in my life, after relative 'normalcy', things started to go dramatic, and the severity of the things that were happening to me, combined with various synchronicities, led me to looking up Robert's works. I decided to try to learn to project on purpose with MAP, and that's what I did. :D Later on I got Astral Dynamics and PPSD, and even later EW and the MAP CD set.
And, that's it. Won't bore anyone with the details.
:wink:

[IA56]

I have also had experiences since very early age but what I want to share here is the occation on 2008 when I "fell" out of my body in my apartment and thought I got a stroke...I was so heavy and was not able to rise me up standing, I was in very odd possission and trying to remember where my phone was, I remembered it was on the kitchen table I was trying to go to call 911 and ambulance and I was thinking if they can hear me or understand me....I was trying to raise me up taking support from my beds end and I went through the wooden end of the bed and when I realised this....schwoooooooh back into my body...and I was exstatic.....and I tried to understand what did happen and it took some time after this when my best friend did give me the book of Robert Monroe and I googled and found the Monroe Institut and I emailed ...and got Robert Bruces name and this led me here to this comunity...and it was one of the happiest days in my life.....I did get the confirmation what I so bad needed, all and everyone who know me did notice the differencen in me....I was more calm....secure and happy....at last I have found people who know and have my experiences....Thank you ALL. Love

[Daisy]

My earliest memory of a paranormal experience occurred when I was about 3, possibly 4. I have a very distinct memory of a spirit in my bedroom. It was incredibly vivid and I was most definitely not asleep. I remember going and telling Mommy and Daddy about the man in my room, but they didn't think anything of it. I still don't know who he was. Oddly, I recall that he was in miniature, and on horse...? Don't know why. But it has stuck with me for 45 years.

Next when I was in first grade I had an OBE. I didn't recognize it for what it was until years later. All I knew then was that I walked on air in my grandparents house. When I stepped off a stair and should have gone down, I kept moving at the same level, several inches off the ground. I tried to get everyone's attention so they could see, but no one seemed to hear me.

I had a couple of spontaneous OBEs in my pre- and early teen years which sparked a strong interest in the paranormal, spirituality and the like. I explored Wicca and several more mainstream religions, trying to figure it all out without satisfaction. I started attempting to have controlled OBEs but quite frankly scared myself and I stopped. I had one experience where I had a very strong, intense feeling in my forehead. I only recently realized it was my third eye opening. Again, fear forced me to abort this from continuing.

Random events continued to happen over the years and I have finally reached a point that I feel more comfortable about spirituality, my place in the universe and the experiences I have had. Perhaps it's a function of aging, but my fear is just gone and I am ready to learn in a way I haven't been in the past. I can no longer ignore what has been making itself abundantly clear for so many years. I recognize that I'm supposed to be learning something and I'm not going to fight it any more. We'll see where this road leads me, but at last I finally feel comfortable that I am on the right path.

[Korpo]

My earliest memory of a paranormal experience occurred when I was about 3, possibly 4. I have a very distinct memory of a spirit in my bedroom. It was incredibly vivid and I was most definitely not asleep. I remember going and telling Mommy and Daddy about the man in my room, but they didn't think anything of it. I still don't know who he was. Oddly, I recall that he was in miniature, and on horse...? Don't know why. But it has stuck with me for 45 years.

Makes one wonder how many reports by toddlers about something or someone in their bedroom (sometimes scaring them) point to similar events.

[MaryAnn]

I remember quite a few experiences from my childhood that I'm convinced were OBEs. Like you, I seem to have trouble with the continued focus necessary to keep at it; I flit from thing to thing and only seem to be able to keep focus on things that I already have practice in keeping focus on, which is mostly learning physical things. Practicing a musical instrument (I play about ten well now) is a meditative, pleasant practice for me and I can forecast progress and meet my own goals. Unlike trying to become more adept at OBE, at which I'm not practiced at and from which I seem to become easily distracted. I'm not used to failure in the things I usually attempt, so failure at this easily frustrates. I haven't bought MAP yet because there seem to be so many things going on my life, which has been complex since a health crisis a couple of years ago. There is one emergency after another, and sometimes just staying on an even keel is on the top. One of these days, though.....always in the future, it seems. Then I'll have a stellar dream and really get on the bandwagon for a few days, and then.....something else surfaces that grabs my attention.

[Korpo]

Hello, MaryAnn.

Have you tried energy work? It something that can be practiced and honed as a skill. For me it was also always a process that showed progress and was rewarding. It's definitely a lot more predictable than projection training, and may even help a bit with your health.