There is a place I would love to be able to go to whenever I want, at a flick of a switch. It’s that zone where you’re not fully asleep but not entirely awake either. Take a light switch and get it to that position where the light is neither off or on. Its kinda flickering and buzzing. Its the sweet spot.
I have heard many names for this particular state of consciousness they include “The Phase”, “Astral Projecting”, “Out of Body”, “Lucid Dreaming”, “Sleep Paralysis”. I prefer to refer to it as The Phase as its an open ended word that could literally mean anything. Which is very important because anything can happen in this state of consciousness.
Whilst in the phase, people have modelled various other states of consciousness known as Focus levels of consciousness which all gets very groovy indeed. Things then get very spiritual and there is a belief that you’re consciousness is in other realms of existence such as what some may refer to as the afterlife.
Here is my understanding on how it works. When you’re asleep, you’re unconscious and you lose awareness. When you’re dreaming you’re not aware that you’re dreaming. You wake up with either vivid memories of the dreams or no memories of any dreams at all. The sweet spot, aka The Phase is where you’re still aware, and not only still aware, but you also still have a level of control of what is going on and what you are thinking. You’re awakened internal voice is still with you and whilst you’re experiencing a dream you still think to yourself “Actually this is a dream, I’m actually still at home in bed” When you wake up, your memories of the events are usually vivid but will fade like memories of dreams fade. It is like the brain stores non-physical memories and physical memories in different boxes so you don’t go crazy.
I’ve had some pretty awesome experiences of being in the phase myself. Some I would have referred to a full on Astral Projection, others where I have felt myself sit up and pull myself out of body, and have floated around the room. Others where I have felt myself definitely in a Lucid dream where I can to an extent control what is going on but I am fully aware it is a dream. I’ve also had some awesome cases of Sleep Paralysis, whilst scary for most, I find it amazing. Which I will come to next, as it explains a lot:
Does our consciousness inhabit our brain? O r is consciousness a product of the brain? It’s a question we don’t know the answer to. I, and I’m sure billions of other people would like to think that our consciousness or soul or energy, whatever you want to call it, inhabits our brain or our physical body and can exist outside of it. In which case I believe that our consciousness is not actually inside our bodies in a physical sense. It is a non-physical entity that is occupying all levels of existence simultaneously. However, it is currently focussed on your body.
How is it focussed on your body? Well the body has a lot of strong physical senses overloading your consciousness to the point where you can’t sense anything else. All you can perceive is the physical senses. It’s like being at a club and the music is so loud you cant hear anyone else speaking. You cant hear that pin drop, so as far as you’re concerned no one dropped a pin, it didn’t happen, the pin doesn’t even exist. There was no one even there to drop the pin! When we sleep our body enters a state of sleep paralysis. This stops us acting out or dreams physically. But it also quietens down the physical senses. It doesn’t switch them off, because we wake up with a loud noise or if we’re shook etc. But they’re turned down enough to allow the consciousness to perceive glimpses of other things. Of course its just fragments. So now instead of the music being so loud you cant hear anything else, its still loud, but you can just make out bits and pieces of what other people are saying.
What is intriguing is that some people have trained themselves to be able to get themselves to the phase whilst still being aware. They have improved their dream recall and have learned to meditate so deeply they can really turn down those physical senses and really allow their consciousness to perceive the wider realities that we exist in. These people are known as Astral Travellers or Shamans. Some stories I have read are really remarkable. However unfortunately you have to take their words for it. Some people can more naturally do it than others.
You can’t prove any of this. Because people try to prove non physical experiences by turning them into physical experiences. It just not possible. You can prove to anyone what you dreamt about last night, and its exactly the same in regards to any experiences you may have whilst being aware in a non-physical environment. But people have said that they have spoken to dead relatives and have come to the conclusion that our physical bodies are just one part of our existence and we do continue on without them. It was exactly this which got me interested in Astral Projection in the first place. Can I prove to myself that my consciousness / soul / energy can exist away from my physical body?
Did I prove it? Eeeeerm… nope! As most of my non-physical experiences in which I have had awareness and clarity have lasted mearly seconds and they tend to come months apart. So maybe by the time I’ve died of old age, I’ll know for sure!
This is just a very rough introduction of understanding the concept of wider realities above the one we all know and love (the physical world). It literally just scratches the surface. The more you get into it, the crazier it goes and the more questions and what ifs start to appear. You must try not to start building a belief system around it, that’s how religions start!