Robert Monroe - Journeys out of the body, Practical Guidebook

Periodic Analysis of Awareness

Periodically asking the question, “Am I dreaming?” while in the phase helps appraise situations and the quality of the actions being performed at any moment. If everything meets the standards of full phase awareness, actions may be continued. Asked on a regular basis, this question becomes habit, automatically used while transitioning to the phase state. If you keep asking this question regularly, sooner or later it will arise automatically at the moment when you are actually transitioning into a dream. This will then help one to wake up, after which it is possible to continue to remain in a full-fledged phase..

The frequency of the question should be based on a practitioner’s ability to consistently remain in the phase. If a phase usually lasts five to 10 minutes or more, it is not necessary to ask the question more than once every 2 minutes; otherwise, this question has to be asked frequently, literally once a minute, or just a little less often.

There is another important rule related to resisting falling asleep: no practitioner should engage or participate in spontaneous events occurring in the phase. Events that are not planned or deliberate lead to a high probability of being immersed in the side action, which results in a loss of concentrated awareness.

TECHNIQUES AGAINST

AN UNRECOGNIZED PHASE

Since the techniques of testing the realness of the end of the phase are a little absurd and demand additional attention to actions, they should only be used in those cases when they are indeed required.

Until then, one should simply bear them in mind and use them only in moments of doubt. The same methods may be used to safely determine whether or not the practitioner is in the phase when using techniques for entering it.

Hyper-concentration

Since the cessation of the phase experience may be simulated and no different in terms of perception from a real exit, differences between the physical world and the phase world must be actively discerned. In other words, a practitioner must know how to determine whether a genuine phase exit has occurred.

At present, only one experiment is known to guarantee an accurate result. The phase space cannot withstand prolonged close visual attention to the minute details of objects. Within several seconds of acute examination, shapes begin to distort, objects change color, produce smoke, melt, or morph in other ways.

After exiting the phase, look at a small object from a distance of four to six inches, and remain focused on it for 10 seconds. If the object does not change, a practitioner can be assured that the surroundings are reality. If an object is somehow distorted or askew, a practitioner knows that the phase is intact. The simplest option is to look at the tip of the finger since it is always close at hand. It is also possible to take a book and examine its text. Text in the phase will either blur or appear as alphabetical gibberish, or full of incomprehensible symbols.

Auxiliary techniques

There are a variety of other procedures to test the occurrence of a foul. However, since any situation, any property, or any function can be simulated in the phase, these procedures are not always applicable.

For example, some suggest that it is sufficient to attempt doing something that is realistically impossible, and, if a practitioner is in the phase, the impossible action will be possible. The problem with this suggestion is that the laws of the physical world may be simulated in the phase, so flying, passing through walls or telekinesis may not be possible, even in the deepest phase. It has also been suggested that looking at a clock twice in a row may help a practitioner determine whether or not the phase is intact; allegedly, the clock will display a different time each time it is observed. Here again, the clock’s display may not change in the phase.

Of all the auxiliary procedures, one deserves mention and works in the majority of cases: searching for differences from reality in the surroundings. Although the usual surroundings of a practitioner may be 100% accurately simulated in the phase, it is very rare. Therefore, it is possible to figure out whether a phase is intact by carefully examining the room where everything is taking place. In the phase, there will be something extra or something will be missing; the time of day or even the season will be different from reality, and so on.

For example, when verifying whether a foul occurred, a room may be missing the table supporting a television set, or the table may be there, but be a different color.

GENERAL RULES FOR MAINTAINING

The rules for maintaining the phase deal with resisting all or most of the problems which cause a phase to end. Some of these rules are capable of increasing the length of stay in the phase by many times and must be followed.

The practitioner should not look into the distance. If faraway objects are observed for a long period of time, a foul may occur, or one may be translocated towards these objects. In order to look at distant objects without problems, a practitioner has to employ techniques for maintaining. For example, from time to time the practitioner should look at his hands, rub them against each other, or maintain strong vibrations.

Constant activity. Under no circumstances should a practitioner remain passive and calm in the phase. The more actions performed, the longer the phase is. The fewer actions – the shorter the phase. It is enough to pause for thought, and everything stops.

Plan of action. There should be a clear plan of action consisting of at least 5 tasks to be carried out in the phase at the earliest opportunity. This is necessary for several important reasons. First, the practitioner must not pause in the phase to think about “what to do next”, which frequently results in a foul. Second, having a plan, the practitioner will subconsciously perform all of the actions necessary for staying in and maintaining the phase to carry out all the tasks that have been planned. Third, intelligent and pre-planned actions permit focused advancement of purposeful actions versus wasting phase experiences on whatever comes to mind at a given moment. Fourth, a plan of action creates necessary motivation and, consequently, pronounced intent to perform the techniques to enter the phase.

Stopping the ID. The less Internal Dialogue (ID) and reflection that occurs in the phase, the longer it lasts. All thinking must be concentrated on what is being achieved and perceived. Talking to oneself is completely prohibited. The reason for this is that many thoughts may act as programming in the phase and even announcing them internally may introduce alterations, including negative ones.

For example, thinking about the body cause a return to it. The practitioner may also get lost in thought, which will lead to a foul.

Also, sporadic thoughts usually and quite easily cause the practitioner to simply fall asleep.

A practitioner must try to re-enter the phase after experiencing a foul. Always remember that a typical phase experience consists of several repeated entries and exits. Essentially, in most cases it is possible to re-enter the phase through the use of separation or phase state creation techniques immediately after returning to the body. If the practitioner has just left the phase, the brain is still close to it and appropriate techniques may be applied in order to continue the journey.

TYPICAL MISTAKES WITH MAINTAINING

• Forgetting to try to re-enter the phase after it is over, although doing so greatly helps to increase number of experiences had.

• Staying focused on techniques for “maintaining” instead of performing them as background tasks.