Is this meditation

[Zep 0]

After reading a thread on sleep disorder it reminded me of some thing I've been able to do since I was a teenager.
Over the years I've only ever mentioned it to one or two friends, an never really got an answer as to what it is.

So I'll describe the first two stages an see if anyone can shed some light on it.
their are more stages (as I call them) but I very rarely let it go that far as it scares me.

This is how it goes.

At the end of the day I'll sit in my comfy armchair an start to relax, I'll empty my mind of
most thoughts an start to experience a feeling like my body is slowly sinking, down an down.
then I'll start rising , up an up, an the whole process will repeat for an undetermined amount of time.

If I'm left alone an let the process continue ( now this becomes difficult to explain)
the rising sensation will move up into my head, I visualize my brain as a ball of string
an a energy pulse travels the string round an round until it shoots out of the top of my head.
I can actually look down an see my self sitting in the armchair, this is the point when I get scared
an stop it.

I'm not crazy an have decided to share this with you,
I would love to know if anyone has similar experiences or knows what it is.

Gone fishing

[Shotgun 1]

I have a lot of dreams(?) that start out that way. It usually happens when I'm having a hard time getting to sleep... I'll be lying in bed, looking at the window, or the ceiling or something, concentrating on my breathing to relax, and suddenly I'll feel sort of light/numb. And then it feels like I rise out of my body, and I float up toward the ceiling and can see myself lying there.

After this had happened a number of times, I got to a point where I had some control over it, and I could "float" around the house. A couple of times, I've even been able to fly through the walls and fly around outside, but usually if I try to do that it just wakes me up.

For me, I guess it's just dreaming, but it's definitely a strange sensation, and it seems quite different from other dreams that I have.

A friend gave me a book that was written by a guy who has similar experiences, which he considers to be out-of-body experiences. I'm not sure if that's the case, but it's an interesting book: Soul Traveler by Albert Taylor.

[jonstark 8]

Holy shit Jep!!!

If I could do what you can I'd be in seventh heaven. By your description you are on the cusp of astral travel and need to find out just what that means. You may be in for a real interesting ride and I envy you your experiences to come.

jon

[downwardspiral 0]

Seems like meditation to me. I'm not sure why you get scared and stop though. I would be too curious to stop.

I can meditate and feel completely weightless. When I was a stoner I'd watch the NASA channel when they were streaming video from a satellite and I'd sit close to bigscreen and just focus on the earth until I felt completely weightless. Presently NASA doesn't air those videos as much so I don't get to do it anymore. Was great fun though!

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[RastaRicanAir 0]

Sh*t! I've been practicing for years, and it still takes me 20 minutes to stop focusing on the tingling in my feet. I'd be envious if I believed in envy.
Go with it! Your body will probably be there when you get back.

OrFunV/LocoBoca Rodriguez/Sonic Grieco/Muff Brother #4411
-"and ladies....messin with Robbie is venturing into territory you cant even imagine!-cuz Robbie is

[happythoughts 0]

It sounds very similar to a meditation technique that I was taught. It is also a variant on a number of self-hypnosis inductions.

Google self-hypnosis induction or Dave Elman.

I learned more about how to relax from hypnosis texts.
The mysticism-babble that surrounds some of the martial arts meditation techniques wastes your time.

[wrightskyguy 1]

Can I buy some pot from you?

John Wright

World's most beloved skydiver

[aresye 0]

"Dude...where do you get your weed?"
"From you Dante."
"Oh yeah! What's up Mr. Cheezle!"

On a more serious side, you my friend, are on the edge of an out of body experience. When the experience is a conscious effort, it's usually referred to as an astral projection. I've only sucessfully projected a couple times, but it's enough to convince me that the astral plane is real.

When we dream, our astral body splits from our physical, and wanders around the astral plane. However, due to the fact that we are generally unaware during the day, we are also unaware of it when we sleep. That is why we have dreams. It is our subconscious projecting images for us. Experienced projectors get there by developing a high level of awareness at all times. They can project any time they wish, and when they are in the astral plane, their subconscious has little impact on what they observe.

I am truely envious that you can do it without much effort, although I can understand why it can be scary. It's a very interesting place, and the process of splitting can feel...wierd. It's a huge buzzing sensation, like a strong dissociative. The more you practice, the less this feeling will be uncomfortable. The couple times I've projected, the feeling scared the living crap out of me.

If I were you, I would not try to get rid of your ability to do this. I would research more about astral projection, and learn to do it at will.

Also, meditation is not astral projection, but it's one of the steps prior to projecting. With meditation, the goal is to be fully relaxed, without thinking of anything. You let thoughts come and go without notice, and are in a state of complete relaxation, and peace with yourself.

http://www.gnosticweb.com - Register on the forums, and sign up for the dreams and out of body experiences course. It's completely free, and has helped me a lot.

Skydiving: You either learn from other's mistakes, or they'll learn from yours.

[skydemon2 0]

OBE kick ass.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience

There are many books out there to guide you if you want, just relax and enjoy there is nothing to fear!

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone!

I like to start my day off with a little Ray of Soulshine™!!

[Zep 0]

I'll try to explain a little better. When I do this I'm not asleep I'm just very relaxed,
After a while with the sinking an rising sensation I can sense when a build up of energy
is going to take me out, Very often I'll let it buzz round in my head but stop it just before it
breaks out, It's a very pleasurable sensation

On the occasions that I've taken it all the way It's just me looking down on my self,
I'm in a kind of darkness, the room doesn't exist, it's just me sitting in a chair,
One time when I to explore it further I went up through the ceiling and roof as though they didn't exist
but I was still in a strange kind of darkness, an I only saw me down below, Although I was aware of being higher.

As I said this is something I've been able to do since I was about sixteen,

One other thing probably not related, but when I,m in a tense situation like when I first learned to jump
the first couple of jumps after a lay off, on the ride up after getting comfortable I'll close my eyes
an start to think about what I'm going to do, I always get a vision of a fiery red arch or portal,
It just jumps into my conciseness an I have a hard time getting rid of it, probably just my way of telling me
to be careful.

Gone fishing