next »

[wirath]

Method 1:

place your body into a comfortable position.
relax every part of your body starting from head to toes
with every breath every part of body becomes heavy
after the body is relaxed, focus on the breath
only observe the breath, don't breath active.
let your thoughts and sensations of the body disappear by still focussing on the breath.
after a while the breath also disappears.
Now you have state of mind without thoughts and physical feelings.

Method 2:
(This is a bit of a selfconditioning tool)
Lay down, and position yourself comfortable,
slowly relax every part of your body,
also count very slowly down from 10 to 1 when going into trance.
you should be in trance if you hit 1, so do it slowly in the beginning.
If you do this a few things, you will get used to counting down.
this will help you get faster into trance, since you have conditioned yourself to it.


By undergoing this process you will notice, if doing slowly and subtle, that you go through several "mind states"
Getting the feel of these states, results in better control of alterate states. You will get used to it. 

[Shaam]

Good advice.

One of the things that is always important to remind people of, is that this may take several attempts to reach the final stage.  Your mind and body have to get used to doing things a different way.  So practice is what will help the most. 

[Invento]

Good advice.

One of the things that is always important to remind people of, is that this may take several attempts to reach the final stage.  Your mind and body have to get used to doing things a different way.  So practice is what will help the most. 

That is absolutely true. Your mind and body are similar as to learning a new sport. It takes time to master the basics because you are using "muscles" that have never been used before. So practicing on a regular base is a necessity.

[David]

Method 1:

place your body into a comfortable position.
relax every part of your body starting from head to toes
with every breath every part of body becomes heavy
after the body is relaxed, focus on the breath
only observe the breath, don't breath active.
let your thoughts and sensations of the body disappear by still focussing on the breath.
after a while the breath also disappears.
Now you have state of mind without thoughts and physical feelings.

This is very easy to follow
Clear and simple

~namaste

[Nervous]

While these are pretty basic, you don't find as much information on meditation as you should.

[David]

Did anyone actually realised that it does take a time to enter trance?

Trance is a really deep meditation, you are no more focusing anything execpt your awareness.
Only people who had meditate for years who I knew are able to go into trance within minutes.

I've no idea, but there should be two kind of trance. One feels your body light while other trance make your body felt heavy. I ever went into trance on chair and laying one bed. They felt different, mind that I'm not asleep during meditation. The chances of felt asleep during meditation are so small once you get used to it, once you have practice regulary.

~namaste

[wirath]

it is true that there are different "levels" in meditations. Getting deeper and deeper definitely has different feelings at several stages of the progress. So the problem is the definition for trance. Is trance the most deep stage? maybe it's also better to call it, light trance, medium trance and deep trance. Or something like that. I haven't actually counted how many stages there are. mostly I feel 2 great states, depending of the goal of the meditation.

Probably trances could also be linked to brainwaves.
alpha, beta, theta etc..
could the change of brainwave level indicate the different feeling? Have to investigate it further.

[Felix the Cat]

Did anyone actually realised that it does take a time to enter trance?

Trance is a really deep meditation, you are no more focusing anything execpt your awareness.
Only people who had meditate for years who I knew are able to go into trance within minutes.

I can go into trance quite easily, but I've been practicing for years in connection with OBE.

I'm mathematically-inclined, and the best way to describe trance vs. deep meditation vs. normal meditation is using sets, like so:
Normal meditation is like the set {1} or {1, 2...}. It's a deep and ultimate focus on one subject. For example, in a normal meditation, I might be projecting myself into canoeing down an idyllic stream... paddle... paddle... paddle.

Deep meditation is like the set {0}. I'm focusing on nothing, and yet there is something still there - some awareness - or maybe more properly, some awareness of awareness - some consciousness. Perhaps you could say that I'm focusing on my consciousness and nothing more.

Trance is like the empty set. There is literally nothing when I am in trance - no awareness, no consciouness or self-consciouness. This is why it's difficult - your mind wants to go to deep meditation and call it trance, because deep meditation is more comfortable and normal.


For those who know photography - normal meditation is like having the camera's focus on one object. Deep meditation is like having the focus on one object and then moving the camera - there is still focus on some point in the field of view, but on nothing in particular. Trance is like having the focus set to infinite in a completely dark room - there is literally no point of focus; everything is in focus, and everything is nothing.


For those more comfortable with a linguistic approach:
Normal meditation: "I am in a comfortable place."
Deep meditation: "I am."
Trance: "..."


Forgive my Greek, but... trance is when the really freaky **** happens.

[Felix the Cat]

I really think this deserves a separate post, because I feel that completely different topics require completely different posts.

How I enter trance:
Well, nowadays, I just do. But I've had a lot more practice than most people.

How I entered trance when I didn't "just do it":
-Lay down in bed. Contrary to every OBE manual ever published, I nearly always make my attempts at forays into the astral laying down in my bed at bedtime. Silly me. You could do these steps in any situation - I've just been conditioned to only trance while laying down in bed.
-First, think about my day. What's troubled me today? What did I do? What have I thought about today? What did I do today, and do I wish I'd done any of it differently? Basically, I think through everything that requires thinking through now, so I'm not doing it later. This is clearing the conscious mind.

-Next, consider the wider world of "what's on my mind?". Those familiar with the "subconscious stream" will find this familiar: think of nothing, then have a thought pop into my conscious mind. Think about the thought, consider it, resolve it in some way. Move on to the next thought. When all my random thoughts have been dealt with, move on to the next step. This is clearing the subconscious mind.

-While doing the above two steps, do progressive relaxation of the body, starting with the outer limbs (feet -> lower legs -> upper legs -> arms, etc.) and moving in to the core. This is clearing the body of any tension, and helps in focus and setting the tone for the trance.

-Once I have cleared both the conscious and subconscious minds and done progressive relaxation, lapse into a state of deep meditation - except that deep meditation is typically with purpose, but this is purposeless.

-Forcibly throw any outside thoughts out of my mind. Getting this step down is key: you must have sufficient control over all aspects of your mind to be able to force any and all stray thoughts out of your mind. This is the difficult step. Don't believe me? RING RING RING RING RING RING RING, BANANA PHONE! RING RING RING RING RING RING RING, BANANA PHOOOOOOOONE! Is "Banana Phone" nice and stuck in your head? Good! Now un-stuck it, stop thinking of it, stop singing it to yourself, stop EVERYTHING. Can't? Well, now you see that this is the tough step. If you have no idea what "Banana Phone" is, you lose at the internet. Go YouTube it.

-Descend from that focus on not thinking about anything into a sense of not thinking, and then descend from that sense of not thinking into... "not". And then descend deeper than that, to " ".

-Part of being in trance is not being aware that you are in trance while being aware that you are in trance, because by definition, while in trance, you're not aware - but you can, with practice, keep an "impartial observer you" aware and recording what happens. This isn't as tricky as it sounds, and when you begin to achieve trance regularly, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I think it comes naturally with being trance-experienced.

-Weird **** happens.

-Coming out of trance: I find that it helps to reverse the steps. Bring myself forward, out of " " to "not" and then to "not thinking", and then gradually allowing thoughts in (such as "OMG that **** was so freaky"), getting re-acquainted with the body, thinking random stuff, then thinking purposeful stuff. Suddenly coming straight out of trance into full wakefulness can be... jarring... trust me, when you've gone straight from trance to normal without passing Go and collecting $200, you probably won't trance again for a while - it may not be on purpose, but subconsciously you won't want to. It's like if you go running and get a really bad side pain - tomorrow you won't still have the side pain, but you probably will have plenty of perfectly legitimate and reasonable explanations for why you won't be running that day. Again, those who are familiar with trancing can testify to this.

[Shaam]

For those who know photography - normal meditation is like having the camera's focus on one object. Deep meditation is like having the focus on one object and then moving the camera - there is still focus on some point in the field of view, but on nothing in particular. Trance is like having the focus set to infinite in a completely dark room - there is literally no point of focus; everything is in focus, and everything is nothing.


For those more comfortable with a linguistic approach:
Normal meditation: "I am in a comfortable place."
Deep meditation: "I am."
Trance: "..."

(Felix the Cat)

Nice description and is very accurate.

[Nervous]

I really think this deserves a separate post, because I feel that completely different topics require completely different posts.

And I feel it just deserves a separate thread.

This is the difficult step. Don't believe me? RING RING RING RING RING RING RING, BANANA PHONE! RING RING RING RING RING RING RING, BANANA PHOOOOOOOONE! Is "Banana Phone" nice and stuck in your head? Good! Now un-stuck it, stop thinking of it, stop singing it to yourself, stop EVERYTHING. Can't? Well, now you see that this is the tough step. If you have no idea what "Banana Phone" is, you lose at the internet. Go YouTube it.

I could'nt have said it any better myself. :}

Part of being in trance is not being aware that you are in trance while being aware that you are in trance

That's how I am in Lucid Dreams, I mostly just guess I'm in a dream, by thinking, wait, what just happened? Oh wait, that does'nt make any sense, I'm dreaming! ... I think. (Flying cow) Yup, gotta be a dream...

[cmonroe]

i agree completely with this trance

[triten82]

I am going to try the first method tomorrow if I get the chance, I have some friends staying a few days. I have tried a few different things but I just cant get deep enough into a trance.  I keep getting knocked out of what I am doing when I hear some of the quietest sounds.

[triten82]

Well I tried today with no success came close but I started daydreming.  My legs also go numb so I have a hard time staying comfortable. If I remember I am going to give it a try again later tonight.

[bobsackamo]

The simplest method I know for entering a trance is just concentrating into a mirror.