Hi all
Does anyone have experience with Robert Bruce’s course?
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If you’re referring to his books Mastering Astral Projection or Astral Dynamics, they definitely work.
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I was referring to his audiovisual course on the website becomealivinggod.com, but if you have good experiences with his books, the course should be effective as well.
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cool album 
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I don’t have any personal experience with his course but I know someone who does and they said it was very informative and easy to follow.
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in my experience, astral projection is a lot more simple than it is made out to be.
i looked at the Bruce methods way back when i got interested in AP and while i have nothing against them, for me it served to discourage me because it seemed like a massive project.
now that i know myself better i realize it was because i’m an intuitive person rather than methodical.
as far as AP is concerned, for me it was as simple as getting to the mind awake, body asleep state by remaining conscious while falling asleep.
the obstacle to overcome was fear, for when you get to the vibration stage, the sensations are strange and the classic “am i dying?” moment of panic arises, there’s a reaction where you sort of jerk yourself out of the state and you’re fully awake.
with repetition i got used to the various feelings. what becomes familiar stops being scary.
i’d say the biggest boost is reducing external input throughout daily life. for a while i retreated from the world to the extent where it felt like my main life was in the other realm and this one was the dream. in those days, it was effortless to do AP.
not that such a retreat is necessary. it’s just that on the spectrum of being focused on the outer vs. the inner, it helps a lot with AP to orient yourself to the inner, especially immediately prior to the time you actually go for it.
so really the method would be to hold on to the thread of uninterrupted consciousness as you’re falling over the precipice to sleep. when you get over that hump, for me it’s as easy as kinda rolling out of bed, only in my astral body and it’s off to exploration.
with energy work in general, i found it helpful to tune in to what i’m already experiencing. working with a method created by someone else felt like building an elaborate contraption to get through a door which is already open.
everyone has a different mental model of internal states. the book author used specific words to describe their model. you’d probably use different names and labels, and this mismatch of their language vs. yours can keep you spinning your wheels as you work to resolve it.
you don’t need to resolve it. you’re not trying to get a passing grade or a certificate. your mental model is the important one. in a way, it’s really about trust and where you place it.
defaulting to deference to an external authority can often lead to quite a conundrum when it comes to things like various meditative states. you can spend years being plagued by doubt over whether your experience is “it”, whether you’re doing it “right”.
if it works, i’d say that’s all the proof you need. work with what’s already there, try to achieve your purpose from that state. did it work?
it bothers me a little bit how there can be a massively complex cottage industry around things which are incredibly simple and readily accessible. when you have teachers of something who make their living from teaching, they will create systems to teach to others.
that’s not inherently problematic. after all, we do love our grimoires and sadhanas dearly. and those, of course, are systems.
it’s just that at a certain point systems burgeon and proliferate to such an extent that some well intentioned practitioners may find themselves practicing intricacies of a system rather than a practice and not realize it.
you could say they only have themselves to blame and the confusion serves as an opportunity for the individual to gather courage, clarify it for themselves and thus grow in their own power. what was problematic becomes beneficial and you have yourself to thank for it.
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Thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve tried that technique, but I can’t avoid falling asleep; it’s frustrating…..
Robert Monroe suggested rolling out during the vibrational (hypnagogic) stage to separate from the body.
However, in my first conscious OBE, I chose to face the fear that astral vampires generated throughout the entire vibrational phase. There was a moment when the heart tachycardia accelerated so intensely that I felt as if I might die; but when I pushed through that point, I was propelled out of my body by the heart chakra at tremendous speed.
It felt like a near‑death experience, a kind of dark night of the soul or a rebirth, because I had left the physical body behind.
Afterward, I found myself in my astral body with panoramic, spheroidal vision, able to consciously explore the astral or physical planes at will. Once I went through this initial experience, the next OBEs became much easier to realize.
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In other words, before attempting, is it advisable to perform a banishing ritual or seek the help of a spirit to make the experience less chaotic?
You could ask a guide for protection, but you don’t actually need anything, just don’t let the astral vampires fear make you want to give up during the vibrational stage.
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you need a vessel to cross the river Styx on. you need to configure the mind for the mission. so, it’s good to have something the mind can loosely focus on, like a mantra that is not held too tightly (with intense mantra recitation you won’t fall asleep) plus a kind of overseer consciousness that knows the plan is to AP (so you don’t forget).
once you succeed a couple of times, you will start to understand that sometimes when you have a sudden awakening at night, you are either standing in the doorway or very close to it. so that’s how i was doing most of my practice, then. chance awakenings. most efficacious.
it’s much easier to remain conscious if it’s not the first falling asleep of the night. the question then is whether your body is tired enough, still, to fall asleep if you don’t relax the mind completely.
i never experienced any astral vampires. it simply is scary when you can’t move your body. even if that’s what you wanted to achieve.
being able to control the body is how we know we are alive in the body. when you can’t control the body, you wanna regain the ability ASAP to check that you’re still alive. this is the instinctual reaction.
it’s not astral vampires, it’s just the mind being very pragmatic. i don’t believe in astral vampires who are always nearby trying to shunt you back into the body, because i never experienced such.
i am very skeptical when someone comes right out of the gate with the boogeyman. it’s very oppositional, adversarial. the world is full of boogeymen and they are sucking your loosh. you have to kill them all or there’ll be no end to the sucking. or, you have to tell them “i don’t consent” and they’re gonna stop, because they’re law abiding boogeymen.
i will also say your description of the experience sounds like you’ve hit all the buzzwords on the way to panoramic, spheroidal enlightenment. good for you.
my experience was totally different. murky, dark, non-spheroidal and quite disorienting at first which made getting out of the room a real struggle. your room is the hardest place to navigate because you know it all too well and most of the time when you’re in it, you don’t float.
that conflict of force of habit vs. force of intent makes you bounce around like a ping-pong ball. it’s hilarious. but you’re trying to get to the window. so you can go outside. why not go straight through the wall? because it’s a wall.
does your mind believe walls are solid? it does. that’s why you lock the door when leaving your place and feel you’ve secured the perimeter adequately. intruders passing through walls to steal your things don’t bother you.
AP is not a dream. the astral is a spectrum of density and your bedroom feels marginally less dense than meatspace. so window it is. if you can get to it.
i guess being propelled out of the heart chakra at high speed must have been quite a shortcut. i’ll admit i don’t even know what that means.
i had to learn to move in the astral just like i had to learn to walk.
given how you start in the body, the meatspace body, and come out of it in an uninterrupted stream of experience, you also start with the assumptions you bring from meatspace. like that walls are solid and impenetrable.
i never learned to pass through a wall within a contiguous space. passing through walls acts like a teleport at the stage i got to. it’s possible to do but i dont find myself at the other side of the wall. i find myself in a net new, different place.
maybe it’s because walls represent rules of engagement. they certainly do in our world. in the privacy of our homes we do things we wouldn’t necessarily do outside. in the club, at the office, at the store, etc. etc. places confined within walls come with a whole set of expectations.
the astral is not different. most people you meet in the astral walk. they don’t fly around. they are going about some business. they have places where they live. some of them you barge into. uninvited.
interesting to think about what exactly are we doing in the astral from the perspective of the places we go to. whatever it is, it often gets us kicked out. when you’re being a glitch in their matrix, the in-game mechanics won’t allow for your stay. snap you’re out.
Astral vampires are low frequency entities that appear during the hypnagogic state, just before you separate from your physical body.
They often manifest by showing distorted, devilish faces and staring at you from an uncomfortably close distance. Some may scream loudly in your face. Astral vampires feed on fear, and the only way to stop them is to confront them and demonstrate that your will to leave the physical body is stronger than any fear they generate. Once you no longer fear them, they lose all power over you.
You can even grab an astral vampire, the most effective way to dissolve them is by showing love, such as giving them a kiss in the face, and once they hate and fear you, they disappear for good.
Astral vampires can take the form of anything you fear: a grey alien, a demon, a spider, a snake, any phobia can be used as a mask.
oh well. i guess i wasn’t afraid of them. didn’t register on my radar.