oh, so close...but no OBE cigar!

Hello all...I am so close, but can't quite get that lifting out of physical body...I go through the steps, each one being successful, I think, up to the point where I'm actually feeling a humming/vibrating through my body after I have tranced for a bit. At this point, I use my Astral Hands and reach up for the ROPE...the awareness is there...I can "feel" Hands grabbing rope and pulling...I can feel a tugging sensation...I tug harder, and feel an "almost there" OBE, but can't trigger it. A couple of attempts, I had to conciously relax my body...the effort of tugging on the ROPE was manifesting itself in my body...I was aware of a slight tensing of muscles...focussed on relaxing...quick trance...back to square one and grabbed ROPE...again, almost there, but a full-blown OBE!
Any comments, suggestions? (Beyond what I keep telling myself...don't give up and keep trying!;))

Hi Harry. I already gave you some advice in the 'Welcome' thread, but I'll outline it this time:
1-I suppose you're doing relaxation and such exercises.
2-Then you're moving to trance practice, the object being to relax your mind and get yourself in a very light trance, close to sleep, but not quite.
3-Add energy body loosening to your routine, if you're not using it already. If you're not, we have some listed in the OBE R &D subforum. When you start to get some more definite signs of MABA, then
4-Do an exit technique. You mentioned ROPE, there is also roll side to side, waterski, Robert has a few listed, and we have too in the OBE R &D forum.
Very Important: If you feel you have failed, do not roll over and go to sleep. Get up and walk around.
There are various reasons for this, but basically it's about training.

Hang in there bud Im in a similar boat. Ive had three without TRYING. When I TRY is when I get the same problems youre getting. Take the advice offered and keep moving forward thats the best way I think

Very Important: If you feel you have failed, do not roll over and go to sleep. Get up and walk around.
There are various reasons for this,

CF can you expand on this please? Im interested

There are various reasons people don't project even when they do 'everything' right- most of the time they're not relaxed enough and do not reach a good level of trance before trying an exit technique, and other times they just fall asleep because they're too tired. There are other reasons, but these two are the most frequent. The second reason is something that I'll set aside for another time, but I'll get into the first one-

I find that people start trying an exit technique too soon, before they're in trance, and use the exit technique to induce trance. The problem with this is that after pulling on a rope for too long (or doing any other exit technique) they get mentally exhausted or bored (depending on the tech) and give up- inadvertently training themselves to fail- because if you do an exit technique for some time, and then go to sleep, what you are doing is training yourself to sleep after doing an exit technique.
Humans are creatures of ritual and habit, and starting an exit technique too early and then giving up and going to sleep is a good recipe for failure, and a way to train yourself to fail.
So what I advocate is first, to make sure you are already 'almost there' before even trying to exit, to make sure you are in the right brainstate for a successful exit, hence my insistence on doing various things before the exit technique.

I like breathwork because it combines mental and physical relaxation, and I like doing various types of mind games for trancework, starting with color visualizations and continuing with Robert's trance techniques, which give you a feeling of lightness and start to get you used to 'that floaty feeling'- and I also like energy body loosening techniques, which by themselves can induce an exit (if you're deep enough), but more than likely will begin to 'loosen' the energy body and focus your mind inward, even though it feels like a 'body' thing.

I also like to incorporate 'noticing' before the exit technique if I'm still 'too' awake, (but not until I feel I'm going to sleep) and combine it with listening to my earhiss. When I do this I get to the point where the noises can be separated and 'synched' with- then I know I'm to a point where I can try an exit technique- and it's ok to try more than one, by the way.

As to why I tell you to get up and walk when you think you've failed, the first reason is that sometimes you think you're not disengaged with your body, you think you're awake and it didn't work, you actually did disengage (or got out of phase with your body) but are still 'in' it, and getting up and walking around may be just what you need to completely separate. I have, on more than one occasion, found that when I got up to walk away I ended up floating away, much to my surprise.

Another reason (and perhaps the most important) is that when you think you've failed, if you get up and walk around, you will make sure you have not trained yourself to use an exit technique to go to sleep, because it's not the end result of your attempt- you did get up and go somewhere, even if you took your body along- it's about training yourself too.

I'll stick to this thread CF...already feel I've outgrown the "Welcome Room" threads!
Got the techniques...will incorporate in regimen, and I'll stay longer deepening trance, loosen energy body...today was disappointing, but exciting at the same time...closest I've reached to exit so far! Definitely don't want to train myself to fail...I do daytime trials, and get up and walk around anyway, but I can see your point...something is preventing me...will keep tweaking to hit on whatever it is that works for me.

Three w/o trying? Okay...now I'm jealous!

Excellent Advice CF Thanks. I do my routine later at night from 10 -11:30 when the house gets quiet when Im done with my excercises pass or fail i go to bed, BUT I leave my meditation room and go to bed in a different room so that I keep that seperation. However, I do try some energy raising and body loosening while awaiting sleep to see if I can trigger and OBE. rest assured that from now on if I dont trigger one I WILL get up walk around. You are 100 percent correct about being creatures of habit and I have FAR TOO MUCH waiting for me on the astral to toss all this work for it, down the crapper. The whole reason Im DOING this is to get to my Twin Soul who waits for me and Ill be DAMNED If Im going to disappoint her, thanks again!!

Dont be only the first one was 100 percent and perfect and even then I let astal noise distract me and ended it long before "I" was ready to. The second two were nearly complete exits but I blew them by hitting dreamland. Point is, its all but there, Im right on top of it like you and thats the frustrating part. Maybe if I didnt get SO close SO soon I wouldnt be so antsy. But as you can see from my response to CF above I have the GREATEST MOTIVATION in the Universe for WANTING IT. And so we soldier on...

rf, I'm glad you asked CFT about the getting up and walking around...I feel the same...way too much at stake to blow it because of bad habits (dealing with coffee and cigs on physical plane...don't want to manifest any more demons!). To make sure it doesn't become a habit of accepted failure, I am going to approach it as a method I have to develop until I find something that works for me, rather than keep trying a single method that doesn't quite give me an exit. Reading everyone else's posts, especially those of senior members that are helping the rest of us, I get the sense there are more than "9 ways to skin this cat"! I'll use Robert's basic ROPE program...have had noticeable gains using this, and I'm going to incorporate his NEW techniques for energy raising...have had good results with his treatise when I went through that...CFT's advice on energy body loosening makes sense and I am going to incorporate that as well in my trial runs. I had a witch many years ago say I am to help people...years before that, an Indian sage told me pretty much the same thing, and more recently, I have tried automatic writing, and kept getting "learn OBE...you must learn so you may help others"...I gotta get myself empowered...kinda like the old adage, "Physician, heal thyself!"