My technique for meditation/trance, the void/the astral plane - and questions

General Discussion
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Hello, potentially long post ahead. I wanted to share a meditation/trance technique that I essentially stumbled into not long ago, which has been working very reliably for me. It has also raised some questions which I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on.

Lately I have been spending a good chunk of time roaming around my own brain in a meditative and/or trance state. Initially I thought of it as “meditation”, but after reading further, I believe “trance” is a better way of describing it.

I will share the technique first:

  1. I get comfortable in a seated position, eyes closed. Headphones on, playing a binaural track - this one is my favourite: Detachment from Overthinking & Stress | Boost Positive Healing Energy | DEEP THETA Binaural Beats HD - YouTube

  2. Focus on steadily inhaling/exhaling for a few moments. If my thoughts wander, I detach myself from the thought by observing it without judgement, and bring my thoughts back to my breath. Eyes closed, and unfocused, fixed above my line of sight, in the middle-distance. Imagine it as fixing your gaze on your third eye, but from the inside of your skull. Interestingly I find that fixing your eyes in this way seems to mimic REM.

  3. In my mind’s eye, first-person perspective, I picture a white void with a plain white door.

  4. I open the door; inside is a black void, with a black staircase descending.

  5. I descend the staircase. In first-person I watch my feet tread down each step, and hear my breath steadily inhaling and exhaling.

  6. As I continue descending the staircase I begin to count backwards from 10. So inhale/exhale - 10. Inhale/exhale - nine. Inhale/exhale - eight.

  7. Generally when I reach six or five, I feel a shift in my brain and I slip deeper into a relaxed state.

  8. When I reach the inhale/exhale count of one, I step off the staircase and into a black and featureless void. I view it in first-person, I hear myself inhaling and exhaling, and the faint drip of water in the distance.

When I wish to leave the void, I return to the staircase and begin to ascend. I count upwards from one to 10 on each inhale/exhale as I climb the stairs. Inhale/exhale - one. Inhale/exhale - two. And so on. On the final exhale, at ten, I step through a doorway into pure white as I open my eyes.

Hopefully some of you can make use of this technique.

Now my question — this doesn’t appear to be standard meditation (as I thought it was when I first stumbled across it). Would this be better defined as the trance state?

If so, what or where is the void that I step into? I do not feel attached to my physical body, but nor do I feel untethered from it. I am just unaware of it. Time passes by easily when I am in this state, but I have no sense of time passing, and my consciousness is fully invested in being in the void. I experience it in first-person, with flashes of third-person.

Is it the void, the abyss, the astral plane, the inner world? Are those all interchangeable terms?

The only feature that marks my void is a red pentagram sigil of Baphomet in the middle distance. Normally, I approach the sigil and sit in the middle of the pentagram.

From the void I have traveled to my “happy place”, for lack of a better word, and was surprised by the amount of detail I felt in first person; like the chill of the air, the wind blowing my hair, the crunch of gravel under my feet as I walked. Or I can see the void fall away, and I stand upon a pillar in the cosmos, with the four angels from the LBRP standing over me in gigantic form. Or I step through a white portal into a holy temple where I first called my higher self. I have evoked entities, meditated, called upon the higher selves of others, travelled to others to “view” them.

Reality is subjective, and these are things that I feel comfortable saying I have “experienced” and “done”. But reading about others’ experiences doesn’t fully convey what it is like - it simply makes me curious to know more, so I have tried to be as detailed as possible.

Reality, or imagination? Is there even any significant difference when in this state?

I would love to hear others’ thoughts on this.

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Nice. I do the same thing (inhale-exhale, counting down while descending a staircase), but without a door. I’m gonna try your technique, seems more effective. :slight_smile:

[Disclaimer: I haven’t read much books about it, not an expert, this is strictly my own take on this]
I stick with the philosophical concept of the Void, that it’s nothingness manifest. It’s possible to “bring” such state of nothingness to your own world. Transforming ∅ into 1.
So this malleable void of yours is your own inner world, your inner temple. From your own temple, you can step into the astral plane at large.
What you see out there may or may not be affected by your perceptions. You can step on places where you can easily manipulate or you can do nothing but explore and/or be an spectator, a guest.

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Thanks for your reply!

I guess the interesting thing to consider in that sense is the concept of nothingness itself. For instance, say, in programming, you may have a value which is defined, is blank, or is null (as an oversimplified explanation from a laywoman).

The void cannot be null, for it would be the absence of all things, including (perhaps?) the consciousness required to perceive it. But if the void is blank, rather than defined, then it is simply a well of pure potential, in that kind of quantum wave-function sense.

After thinking more about it, it seems almost pointless trying to “other” the experience, as much as I would like to name and categorise and qualify it and quiz others to see if they have experienced the same.

If I have subjectively lived it, then why draw a distinction between that personal experience and material reality, if the point of workings is to integrate the two? Regardless of whether it is objectively real or imaginative, if it has an effect on my psyche and outlook, then it has achieved its purpose as magick.

The more I think about it, the more I see day-to-day life as a shadow on the wall, silhouettes cast by our subconscious and helped along by whichever entities we choose to work with. (Shoutout to the great Duke Dantalion, who I am certain has hand a hand in me stumbling into this technique.)

Good luck with the technique!

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The void exists outside the realms and between them, and most don’t go to the real void as the void tends to break down energies with prolong exposure, not in a malevolant way but simply because that’s the energies natural trait. The astral is a mental plane, the collective unconscious. The Inner world if you mean the personal mentalscape is tied to the astral however, which is why the astral can be used to dreamwalk others and why the astral is everchanging and capable of manifesting everything from the imagination. They are by far not interchangeable.

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I kinda agree with your points (about the subjectiveness of it all), but at the same time I think it’s important trying to find a baseline on manifestations and experiences, through reading/listening to the words of those who came before us or just exchanging posts with a stranger online.

Even if a goal is achieved after a specific working, it’s enriching to know if you successfully made contact with an entity, if there’s someone/something else that helped you through it, or if it was 100% your mind.
It comes in handy when you deal with the downsides of magic[k] (thoughtforms & delusions, blockages, parasites, etc).

Thank you!

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Your technique is similar to @AdamThoth’s Void meditation:

The use of a staircase and countdown is quite common in hypnosis, so yes, it is more of a trance inducing technique than a straight up meditation.

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Great explanation, thank you. Seems like they are very much opposed: one is decay, one is potential.

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The void can be potential, for example Tiamat, Khaos, Abzu, they all embody the void, they are all creator gods, the void is the potential that has yet been realized.

The astral is the potential of the imagination, the collective subconscious of everything, that’s why our imaginations can create within the astral due to is highly malleable nature.

I see it as the void is without and the astral is within, people are capable of living out their desires to the fullest in the astral, but the void not so much despite them sharing similar creational aspects. lol.

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