How to have an OBE?

[joelp]

Hello! So far I have yet to have any such experiences in a normal wakeful state. The goal of this post is to collect information about this topic; no theory, only practical methods. I will start by listing some of the methods that I have tried so far:

 

Meditation
a) By concentrating on my breath for 20 - 40 min I have been able to reach transcendental states and lose awareness of my body. I believe that If I pursue this course of action I will eventually be able to have an OBE, though it might take a long time.
b) Through meditation I have been able to turn off my sense of self and revert to just being conscious. One then notices that there is just a stream of perception and one could just alter it? - I don't know, I haven't succeeded yet.

 

(Self-)hypnosis
a) OBE scripts on Youtube.
b) Self-hypnosis with autosuggestions, and hoping that if you snap your finger this time you might just go woosshh...
c) Whilst being in a deep trance, i.e. somnambulism or Esdaile state, inducing an OBE. I haven't been able to go this deep yet.

 

Sleep
a) Waking up in the night and inducing an OBE - this one always work but I don't use this one often as I can't go back to sleep...
b) I assume lucid dreaming is insightful? - So, all methods of lucid dreaming.
c) Entering OBE's through hypnagogic or hypnopompic states.

 

Miscellaneous
a) Recently neo has posted about his experiences involving astral projection. To summarize, he recreated his body parts through imaginary sensations (tactile and visual) and consequently tricking his mind into thinking he was out of his body.
b) Sitting still for hours on end. I have tried sitting motionlessly for 3 hours without sleeping and I only got dissociated. The reason being, I was scared to fail so I didn't try; otherwise, I would get associated back because of the expected failure.
c) Imagining that you are ever so slightly rotating more and more, or moving up and down. - Has worked once.
d) Trying to slide out of your body through sheer willpower.
e) Hopping in a centrifuge.

 

Tulpa
a) Gradual possession.
b) Switching methods.

 

 

Ironically enough, it seems as though the harder you try, the harder it gets. After all, expectation triumphs will, and the more you will the bigger the downfall and the grimmer the expectation. Sigh...

This is only level one, however; just achieving an OBE is not enough. It needs to be consistent and eventually become as easy as breathing. I would also like to ask whether this is possible through practice, and if anyone has achieved this? 

Edited March 21 by joelp

[LostOne]

K: Way back while making Sammy, I (Or if I'm not the original, the original would've been doing this) used to be able to OBE into wonderland. How it worked way back then was a mix of visualizing a small amount of wonderland (At max, just the room we were in) with keeping engaged by creating Sammy, along with doing so nightly as we would be going to bed. It took a long while for it to go from just imagining to OBE, but it became consistent for a while to where it was nearly nightly. The only reason that isn't a thing here right now is I haven't taken time to do nightly practice again, and such has made it very difficult to do another OBE. One thing that helped with me was having music at a low level on as went to bed, and explaining it in the wonderland as playing through a radio in the room or such.

As for the actual technique, I don't remember much. I never really learned to meditate directly, but having had done plenty of random hypnosis via files and youtube likely made me malleable enough at the time to allow myself to be in a trance-like state if required. I also wouldn't immediately just go to visualizing from my body. When first entering the state, I would first sorta 'load up' the surroundings, like a video game. Once that was solid enough, I would then bring myself into it.

Another thing is that I started with 3rd person stuff, it took a good while before i could be steady enough to do first person. Mainly continuous practice and stability is what lead to OBEs being possible, and consistent later on.

[joelp]

I'll be sure to try this tonight!

[neo]

Just thought I'd share a video to clarify how this works because I forgot to link it in my original thread:

This right here is a low key OBE, the method I shared works very similar, but you do this by "identifying" with the whole visualized body instead of just the hand. Focusing mainly on the head and torso, after you start visualizing the sense of balance and gravity it becomes more realistic. The balance thing is consistent with many other methods that I've seen, a common method of OBE is visualizing yourself jumping in a trampoline or going on a roller coaster and a common described method of making the experience last longer is spinning around (which also is often recommended for extending lucid dreams).

I thought I should emphasize the balance thing here because I did not make it clear that it is essential to the experience.

Hope this helps too.