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I was able to hold a conscious trance state for an hour earlier today. No success in conscious exit of my body.

I believe that I've narrowed down my problem and the only thing that's going to remedy it is practice. I've determined that the problem is that I have trouble maintaining focus and mental coherence while in trance. With my mind scattered all over the place it's understandable that I'm having difficulty focusing enough to get out of body.

Once I get that fundamental down I shouldn't be having much more trouble.

Once I've done all I can personally I'll try petitioning higher powers or the like. I really think that this is something that I've got to do on my own, as if I don't have the fundamentals down then no higher power is going to help me short of ripping me from my body and giving me a stern talking to or the like.

I'm going to tentatively say I had some success last night. I went through the typical process of deep relaxation, a little bit of energy work, and then started clearing my mind. I was buzzing pretty good (energy buzzing, that is; best described as very very mild full body vibrations) before I even started consciously attempting to clear my mind.

I don't know how long it was, as keeping track of time is pretty difficult in the trance state, but after a while the vibrations got stronger and that is the cue to begin the exit technique. I was using a combination of the rope technique and a ladder technique that is identical in mechanics just a different mental action. Sure enough, it didn't take long for the vibrations to *really* start up. If anyone has ever experienced this before, you know what I'm talking about, but for those that may not know I'll do my best to explain. It's like being in an earthquake, but you aren't physically moving. Granted, I've only ever experienced one fairly mild earthquake in my life, but that's the best way I know how to describe it.

Anyway, this is usually the part where I have problems. I begin to unconsciously tense certain muscles, trying to intensify this feeling when I'm actually being counterproductive. However, last night I was mindful of my tendency to do this and I was able to stop it by consciously remaining relaxed while *somehow* managing to maintain some semblance of a clear mind while still doing my exit technique. Yes, it's a very delicate balancing act, but I hope it's going to get easier.

After this, I began feeling another sensation that is not overall new to me: I began to feel like I was floating upward. This mostly happens in my limbs; I've previously had *extreme* difficulty in separation of my torso and head. By that I mean that I've never been able to do it. I have my ideas about this but I'll spare you as this is already quite long.

What happened next was something absolutely amazing that I had yet to experience in all my years of attempting conscious-exit projection. I felt as if I, my entire self, was levitating above my physical form. By that I mean that I had the feeling that I was floating off of the bed about six or so inches, which would put my "back" at about the level of the front of my physical body. It was the most incredible feeling. I was *outside* of my physical body.

Sadly, I couldn't get any farther away. In a matter of maybe 10 seconds it was over. I was all too aware of lying on my back, inside my body, feeling the bed underneath me. I was still buzzing, somewhat strongly, but I didn't have the very heavy vibrations. I was still in a trance. So, thinking a position change might help, I took care to slowly and deliberately put on some warmer clothes and move over to my recliner while maintaining a light trance. I was still buzzing when I began. I repeated the process but I could not get the same result again. I got up and went back to bed and tried again and still no luck. I have my ideas about this, but I won't bore you with that right now.

Bottom line: I feel that I have made a huge progress. Sadly, I probably won't be able to make another serious try for a bit as I'll be pretty much reduced to bedtime attempts for the next couple of days. This means I will already be tired and therefore lacking energy and prone to falling asleep, which are not prime conditions for conscious-exit projection.

So yeah, that's my update for the time being. Any repeats or significant improvements will be documented here. It might be a few days as I'll be busy doing real life stuff.

Amazing, congratulations man. ^_^

I haven't done much with my project since my last attempt. I did finish Astral Dynamics today, but I want to look at the glossary and bibliography still. I hope to get back to actual attempts now that I've got this book out of the way and I feel prepared for just about anything the out of body environment can throw at me.

I was able to see the room through my eyelids last night for a few seconds during trance. I haven't been able to get any high level vibrations lately, so that's affecting my attempts at actually getting out. No exit sensations = no exit.