Peebrain's Psi Journal

Re-interpretation of PsiPog

2006-08-20T23:38:00.000-04:00

You might want to read my previous post before you read this one. At least read the very end.

Why did I create PsiPog? A month ago, I would have probably answered that I created PsiPog to grow and learn about psionics, and share with others what we've learned. Teach, help, and continue to grow on everyone's collective discoveries. This is partially true, but it's also partially a lie.

PsiPog makes more sense once you realize why I really created it. Please don't think that I purposely lied to everyone over the years - I wasn't aware of the full reason why I created PsiPog until recently. In fact, just in the past day have I really grasped what was going through my head.

The reason I created PsiPog was to prove psionics to myself. I was a very hardcore skeptic, and even though I intuitively knew psionics was real, I demanded a lot of proof. An unreasonable amount of proof. This was good, and a lot of people identified with my goal. They wanted hardcore proof of psionics as well, and were sick of all the new age people who believed without this strict proof. So we all united with this common goal of proving psionics to ourselves.

So, we got to work. We practiced, but also felt threatened by the practice at the same time. We wanted proof, but also feared it... this balance between the two was hard to maintain. I guess what we really feared was being proven wrong. We all intuitively know that psionics is real, and we know that the world is a mysterious place. But we can't help but be skeptical, and even cynical at times. We live in a society where reality is perceived as a huge machine. In our hearts we knew that this wasn't completely true... but intellectually, we couldn't find another way to express it.

So psionics was adopted. The PsiPog version of psionics was designed for proof. That's why we only focused on newbie exercises. We unconsciously knew that that's where we needed to focus. That's where we would find our proof. Talking about "advanced" stuff was a waste of time... we were looking for proof, not actual skill.

But this fear of being proven wrong also lingered over us. We wanted to believe that the world was magical, and we were sick of this mechanical outlook on life. But we also feared that the mechanical outlook on life was correct.

Practice was constructed in such a way that we would easily sabotage our own efforts. After all... what happens if we honestly practiced our hardest, and didn't get the proof we were looking for? Then we were forced to conclude that psionics wasn't real, and therefore the cynical cold mechanical world must be true. So we made backdoors. We constructed a practice in such a way that if we failed, we could make an excuse, so that we could still believe in this mysterious world.

But these backdoors also hurt us. These excuses built underlying resentment, and deep down we knew something was wrong. Things didn't work... but we didn't know why. But we knew the mechanical world couldn't be true either, so we floated around, unsure of what to do.

Think about it. Why do we keep psionics a secret? Why do we feel the need to shut up and not tell others about it? Because when we say it, we feel like fools. It's not because people think we're crazy... it's because we fear that they're right. We fear that the mechanical world is correct. And we fear that if we become outspoken about psionics, then the mechnical world will bitch-slap us back to the cold reality.

I knew unconsciously that once I found undeniable proof, that I would be forced to deal with the fact that the world was mysterious. Which is also scary. I knew unconsciously that once I found this proof, that PsiPog would have to be deconstructed. So this caused a lot of tension... I wanted proof, so that I could put the mechanical world behind me. But it also scared me that the world was so unknown. And it also scared me to think (unconsciously) that I would have to get rid of all my hard work (PsiPog) once I found this proof. So this caused a lot of conflicting actions and fear.

What changed it for me? The entire geiger counter experience. You can look back in this blog and see the change in me. Before the geiger counter, I was focused on this vision of the "perfect" PsiPog. Focused on programming, and doing tedious work. That was my excuse. Why wasn't PsiPog living up to the purpose I consciously believed it had (learning, teaching, sharing)? Because I had to finish this system! I had to make it better! Then it would work!

But what was really going on? I was just waiting for proof. There is always a way to make something better, and there are an unlimited number of ideas. To put all this emphasis on the programming was my way of excusing myself. There were no new articles, because there was nothing more I could write about that would bring about proof. We had everything we needed, but the proof wasn't coming. More articles wouldn't solve that.

Then the geiger counter proved it to me. That proved it, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the world is a mysterious place. That psionics is real, and psychic abilities are real. Without any doubt. Now I know others are skeptical of the experiment - that's fine. The important thing was that I proved it to myself - I lived up to my own strict hardcore standards.

After that, my entire belief system started to disassemble. I had my proof, and everything that was constructed to produce this proof started to return to equalibrium. Look at my posts after the geiger counter experiment. They are not my "normal" type of posts. Shit was going on in my head.

I "channelled" my subconscious. I put forth evidence that dreams are more real that people give them credit. I created a way for articles to be published on PsiPog.net (there hadn't been new articles in months/years). I got a psychic reading. I decentralized the psipog server (before the update, PsiPog.net was the "main server". Now pbwhere.com is the "main server", and PsiPog.net is a child off of it). I emphasized correct meditation habits. I read a fiction New Age book, The Celestine Prophecy (the last fiction book I read before that was 5 years ago). I posted about how skepticism is unhealthy (even though skepticism is a fundamental belief on psipog). I posted realizations I've made over the years. And then finally, I posted on my purpose.

All of these posts were a result of my beliefs disassembling. I acquired my proof that psionics is real. PsiPog has fulfilled it's purpose.

So now I'm left with: psionics is real. Now what? Now I need to use this knowledge towards a bigger goal. Bigger than just teaching kids to feel energy balls between their hands, or spinning paper using PK. The only reason those goals were adopted in the first place was because they were methods of finding proof. But now that we have proof... what is the bigger picture? Do we really want to sit around and spin paper?

What is the implication of this proof? Back to our original fear: the implication is that the cold mechanical world is false... or more accurately stated, the cold mechanical world isn't the complete truth. The world is a mystical place, not this impersonal robitic world that society holds on to. We can stop being cynical.

Our intuition was correct. The world is not figured out - not by a long shot. We're not at the end of civilization - we're at the beginning. We're reaching the point where this awareness of a non-physical world is starting to become conscious in society. We're reaching the point where people are getting sick of this cynical cold world, and are asking for more. That's why we've become interested in psionics, and this is where society is headed.

But society doesn't give two shits about psi balls. Sorry to break it to you. Society doesn't give two shits about spinning a piece of paper on a tack. We've used these tools up until this point to push ourselves over the edge. But now that we are over that edge, we can return to our larger goal.

Our larger goal is the awareness that there is a non-physical reality. That we are more than our physical bodies. That the world isn't a cruel experience, followed by a painful death. There is more.

That is why my new purpose is focused on OBEs and spirituallity. I believe OBEs are my way of moving between the physical and non-physical. I don't think OBEs are the only way, but it's the way I am wired for. The way I have been preparing for since I was a little kid - even before I believed in psionics.

Does this mean the ideals of PsiPog are thrown out the window? In a way, yes. In another way, no. Don't get me wrong - healthy skepticism and forcing people to explain things without relying on religion is very good. It's very healthy. But it's not the end. We must eventually face the fear that skepticism is hiding us from, and face the truth that the world is a spiritual place.

Both skepticism and absence of spirituallity exist because of this fear that the world is mechanical. Once you overcome that fear, then skepticism dissolves, and spirituallity becomes your focus.

So yes - skepticism and absence of spirituallity are healthy in some ways. They are healthy because it's a more positive manifestation of the fear. It's taking our fear, and creating a system to attack it. For example, a more negative manifestation of the fear would be a belief that human life is worthless because we all die anyways. This belief is another way for the fear of the mechanical world to manifest, but it is obviously very negaitve. However, skepticism and absense of spirituallity are more positive manifestations of that same fear. It's the manifestation right before we overcome it.

But we must eventually leave this behind. We must identify the fear that causes skepticism and absense of spirituallity, and see for ourselves that the world is really a mystical place. Once we understand that, then skepticism seems anti-logical, and spirituallity seems obvious.

That is the shift that society will be going through. We will move, as a society, through this transformation. From an unconscious fear of the mechanical world, to a conscious realization that the world is a spiritual place.

And my purpose is to help make this transformation happen.

The method by which I plan to help is using OBEs and the dream state.

This is my purpose. I hope this has cleared up a lot of things for people. If not, and you think I've gone off the deep end, then that's ok too :-P. Just keep doing what makes sense to you.

~Sean

My Purpose

2006-08-19T23:29:00.000-04:00

I've been doing a lot of digging lately, emotionally. "Spiritually", I guess you could say. Looking at my history, looking at my purpose in life, and the big picture. Looking at why I work on PsiPog, and what my goals are. Looking at what makes me happy, and what makes me excited. Why I'm here on this earth. What I believe. And what I'm going to do with the rest of my life.

At first, when I was a teenager, I believed it was my job to bridge the gap between science and spirituallity. Psionics and psychic abilities have been dominated by religious thinking, and it was the first thing that really blew my mind. So I figured that's where I'd go. I enjoy psychic abilities, and I like the challenge they provide.

But lately, PsiPog and psionics hasn't been very fulfilling to me. It's really bothered me. PsiPog was my vision when I was 16 years old... a vision of an open community of people intelligently learning psionics, in a fun way. The science of psionics is pretty boring... and the spirituallity of it is really fluffy and annoying. So I really like this approach of being open-minded and scientific, and FUN, towards psionics.

It worked out great, and I love the growth I've witnessed with PsiPog. I'm glad that I've mostly fulfilled my vision of what I wanted to do these past years. But at the same time, I do not feel that great about the entire experience. And the direction that PsiPog is headed doesn't make me feel very motivated either.

Psionics is great. When I started, I was mostly looking to "prove" it. Well, the good news is that I have proven it - to myself at least. I now know that psionics is real, without any real doubt. So where do I go next? Teach psionics, I suppose? But even then... I've only trained myself to the point of being capable of proving it to myself. My goals were never really to TEACH people how to do psionics. My goals were very proof-orientated.

Or maybe I can prove psionics to the world? That really doesn't interest me at all. In fact, it makes me feel sick, and frustrated. A path that makes me feel sick and frustrated can't be a good sign .

These are the questions I've been wrestling with the past month or two.

Then I thought: why psionics? Maybe I should do something else? I love politics... perhaps I should forget about psionics, and just do political stuff. That feels like it would be very exciting... but ultimately, it doesn't really feel like it would be fulfilling either.

And I thought about doing religious things. Being a spiritual leader, or something like that. But that doesn't really ring completely true either. I like helping people, and personal development, and I do have some very effective religious beliefs (at least, I think so ). But that doesn't feel right either.

None of these paths really captured what I felt I should be doing. They had some elements of what I wanted to do... but the ultimate goal was lacking. I remembered my original goal, when I was 16, about bridging the gap between religion and science. And I thought about my entire psionics "career" up until this point. What has consistently interested me? What do I have experience with before I even started with psionics?

Then the answer slowly seeped in. Out of body experiences. OBEs are the only thing I've stayed consistently interested in. When I was young, I was a natural lucid dreamer. My experience with OBEs are what define a lot of my religious beliefs... For example, I believe in life after death, higher intelligence, reincarnation. But why? Faith? No, not at all. These things I've taken from my personal experience with OBEs.

Just recently I started talking to my co-workers about OBEs, and they are facinated by them. Of the 14 or so people in my work section, only one thinks I'm crazy. Others are just really curious. I first feared that only one would think I'm SANE, but luckily it's the opposite .

OBEs are the only thing in psionics where I've felt an extreme amount of confidence. Psi balls are easy, but they are also very subjective. I do believe they're real, and I do believe my instruction for them is solid, but at the same time: who cares? It's just a ball of energy. I don't know... I'm not as blown away by them as I used to be. I don't even shield, honestly. I programmed myself to have natural shields years ago, and have only touched them a few times. Energy manipualtion just doesn't really interest me anymore.

ESP, whether it be RV, TP, empathy, or whatever, is interesting. But it's too subjective for me. I am accurate at clairvoyance and clairaudience. I'm really good at empathy... and I'm not too shabby at telepathy. But those don't really excite me... they are just skills I'm happy to have. I use them, and I might continue to teach some aspects of them, but ultimately - those feel secondary to OBEs.

Psychokinesis does greatly interest me... but I suck at it. I've spent years practicing, and my biggest accomplishment is making a pen twitch. C'mon. Others are way more skilled in PK than I am... I'll let them pioneer the way for that skill. I wish I had more skill in PK, but I don't. Oh well.

OBEs, on the other hand, I am highly skilled in. I love them, and they still blow my mind to this day. I don't get bored, or tired of them. I'm learning a lot, and it's very challenging. I have a lot of lucid dreams as well... and that state of mind is almost my default dreaming state. When I have an OBE, the following day I am just happy no matter what happens. Nothing can touch me. The confidence and awareness of knowing that I am not my body just shatters any wordly problems.

--

So, back to the topic. I think my purpose is to be awesome at OBEs. I mean -- totally awesome. Like, capable of inducing OBEs during meditation, at will. Capable of inducing OBEs in the waking state. Capable of shifting my arm (for example), out of body, consciously, while having a conversation with someone. Capable of leaving easily, and perceiving the world accurately, to quickly show proof to skeptics. Capable of teaching people how to have OBEs, and capabale of yanking people out of body if they really need me to. And most importantly, talking to people in person about OBEs. Not just the internet. These are my new goals. This is my purpose.

I don't know if I'll keep PsiPog around. I'm not sure. Perhaps the time will come to pass it along to someone else in the future. The conflict is that I want to address spiritual issues along with OBEs. And PsiPog was founded on leaving the spirituallity out of it. If I do decide to leave or take down PsiPog, then I will most definitly be creating another online organization. Although if I do that, it will probably focus strictly on OBEs, LDs, and spirituallity (with perhaps some starter exercises with the subconscious and ESP in general). I know a lot of my old audience won't like that... but oh well. I know a lot of my old audience will also love it.

This feels right. I haven't thought it out completely... but I have it 80% figured out. The other 20% will solidify the more I think about it. This motivates me, and gets me excited - that's how I know I'm on the right path. Thanks.

~Sean

Mapping out some Realizations

2006-08-17T13:42:00.000-04:00

After reading The Celestine Prophecy, I liked how the author mapped out a progression of realizations (aka "insights"). So I'm going to map out some realizations I've made in my life, starting when I was a teenager.

1. The world is mechanical and predictable. Humans have pretty much everything figured out, and we can do whatever we want. I personally don't know everything, but humans as a whole have figured everything out. If I need to know something, then all I have to do is look it up. Formulas exist for everything. (Science is God)

2. People are idiots. It's clear that everything is figured out - yet they still hold on to foolish ideas. I've already made the realization that science knows everything, yet people still haven't figured it out. Is it really that hard to understand? We know everything. It's obvious they have weak minds and need crutches to function in reality, because they aren't willing to realize the truth. (I am right, you are wrong [therefore stupid])

3. Holy crap - saying people are idiots was a huge understatement. Most people are idiots, but there exists a smaller group of people who are just completely lost. I mean... WAY off the deep end. One person claimed to move shit with his mind. How delusional do you have to be to believe that? These people have serious psychological issues. (There exists people outside the realm of normal stupidity)

4. These people are so dense. Don't they know about science? Don't they know there are procedures for proving things wrong? What's it called... the Scientific Method? If you believe in something crazy, then test it until you realize that you're a delusional fuckwit. Wow. And they won't shut up. I'm feeling bored today, why not engage in an argument for fun. Let's see how stupid they really are. (Life is mostly boring, so let's have some fun)

5. AHAHAHAHAHA. They want me to try an exercise! How retarded is this! Why even bother, I know it's all delusion. Eh, what have I got to lose. This will shut them up. (I am right, and I'm willing to prove it)

6. Ah, now I understand. I got results, but it was self-induced. Sure, they're moronic, but only because they don't know about placebo effects, and self-delusion. I'll be a good guy and teach them the truth. (I'm still right, you've proven nothing)

7. A lot of people said I was doing it correctly, and if I keep trying, I can get better proof. What the fuck? This can't be real. But I do feel something. (Is it even possible that I'm wrong?)

8. These people aren't so bad afterall. I really don't know what to think about them. (Could I be wrong?!)

9. WHOA! (Shit, I'm wrong)

10. Now I have to re-think things. Fuck. Now I have to re-think everything. Well... maybe not everything. Science has a lot of things figured out, they just haven't figured this out yet. I mean... ok, somehow weird shit can happen. Not entirely sure how that works, but that doesn't screw everything up. (We can still use science to explain these weird things)

11. How can this be possible? How can these weird experiences happen? Why doesn't it fit into modern science? How could it be that science hasn't figured this out yet? What is the history of science that led us up to this point? There must be a reason why we are blind to this phenomenon. (Why didn't we know?)

12. Shit, this is a big problem. When I try to talk to people about this, they look at me like I'm crazy. I'm not crazy! Shit. Now I'm the crazy guy that I used to make fun of. Maybe they're right, maybe I am crazy? But I'm not - we are doing things very intelligently. Just listen to me, it really isn't that crazy if you think about it. But of course, they won't listen to me. I was in their shoes - I didn't listen. (In the past, I was in a box)

13. Now I'm hearing even MORE crazy stuff. I suspect a lot of it is bullshit, but how can I tell? I have to be open-minded, because in the past I was close-minded, and look where it got me. But at the same time, there must be a way to think intelligently about this stuff. (There must be a way to seperate truth from delusional crap, without being close-minded)

14. This is hard. How can I find truth? How can I be sure I'm not deluding myself? How can I be fair, intelligent, open-minded, and not gulliable? (I need to find truth without deluding myself)

15. Science has done a lot, so there must be a lot of good to it. Just a few things here and there that need to be patched up. All I have to do is maintain my doubt, and not rely completely on science like I did in the past, to make sure I explore everything fairly. (Enter Healthy Skepticism)

16. Things are going smoothly. I have things figured out fairly well. (I now know the real truth)

17. I wish I could go back in time, and talk to my old self. Talk some sense into him and explain to him how he was wrong. Maybe I can't do that, but I can help people who currently think how I used to think. This is sort of like helping out my old self. (I can help)

18. People are idiots. It's clear that psionics is real, and I clearly outline everything people need to know. I have discovered the truth (well, most of it), but people are just unwilling to hear it. I admit I was wrong in the past, but I've fixed that, and now I'm right. (I'm right, and you are wrong. You can be smart and accept my help, or be stupid and ignore what I have to say)

19. Some people agree that psionics is real, but disagree with how psionics works! How can this be? I have the truth, and my path to this truth has been very structured and logical. (Realizing psionics is real does not guarantee realization of truth)

20. How can I be sure that I know the truth? Wasn't realizing that psionics is real true? Isn't psionics real? Which is it - psionics is real, and I have truth - or psionics is delusion, and I had truth before all of this? (Could I be wrong... again?!)

21. Duh. Psionics is real. But I don't have truth. Shit. (I'm wrong about truth)

22. There is a pattern. That's twice I've been wrong. At first I thought I was right, believing in science. Then I realized I was wrong, so corrected myself. I assumed since I corrected myself, I must be right. But now I've realized I'm still wrong... just less wrong than before. Will I ever be right? Will I repeat this same pattern again? (There is a pattern to discovering truth)

23. The problem is that I think I have things figured out, when I really don't. I need to remember that I don't have the truth, and I must constantly search for it. (I don't know anything)

24. People are idiots. They think they have truth, but they don't. No one has truth. Haven't they figured that out yet? (There is no truth, and if you think there is, you're stupid)

25. Wait. Why do I do that? Why do I think people who disagree with me are stupid? Why do I have that thought? I've been wrong in the past, yet I still continue to have that thought. Do I still think I have truth? Do I still think I'm right, and everyone else is wrong? What is going on in my head? (Why do I act the way I act?)

26. There is no why. People ARE idiots, it's just plain true! (People are idiots)

27. NO! Something is going on here. How come I can reason with myself that this is wrong, but I still feel that people are idiots? (...)

28. When I ask myself that question, I can create a lot of answers. And they logically make sense. But I still feel people are idiots after I accept one particular answer. Something is wrong. (Logic can fail)

29. If I feel something is true, it will override and direct my logical mind to produce reasons that make logical sense. But those logical reasons aren't true - they are creations of my logical brain, BASED on my emotional beliefs. (Emotions dictate logic)

30. How can I be sure of anything I believe to be true? How can I trust logic now that I know that my emotions can distort logic? (Emotions are important)

31. I must inspect my emotions. I must watch myself. I must listen to others when they tell me something they've noticed about me. Emotions can distort so many things. (I must inspect myself, emotionally, honestly)

32. I think people are idiots because I like to feel better than them. If I refuse to accept that people are idiots, then I feel devalued. I feel devalued because if I'm not better than them, then I feel normal. Being normal is unacceptable. (Conflict must be described in terms of how it makes me feel)

33. What if I changed my beliefs? What if I believed that no one is normal, and everyone is different and special in their own way? (Can I change my emotions?)

34. Do I still feel that people are idiots? Yes, but not as much. (Changing a belief will change my emotions)

35. Now what do I feel when I tell myself that people aren't idiots? Instead of feeling devalued, I feel offended. (I must repeat this process)

36. What belief dictates I should feel offended? I believe that if they don't agree with me, then they are telling me my realizations aren't useful. My realizations are useful to me, and therefore, they have no right to tell me they haven't been useful. What if I believed that disagreement is useful because it helps us grow and learn more? (Keep changing beliefs)

37. Do I still feel that people are idiots? No, not really. Hey, I feel good, actually! (This process works)

38. What else can I improve about myself to make me feel better? (Growth is fun and rewarding)

39. Wow, I've changed things about myself I never thought I would. (This really does work, and it really does make me feel better)

40. I've grown and learned a lot about myself. I see people struggling with things that I've overcome myself, and I might be able to help them. (I can help)

41. We use a lot of tricks to hide from our emotional self. I've tricked myself many times, and I see people trick themselves quite a lot. We misuse our logical facilities to serve this emotional train wreck inside ourselves, and we confuse our beliefs and opinions with absolute truth. (We all need help)

42. This is important. Let's get to work.

~Sean

Skepticism again

2006-08-15T10:17:00.000-04:00

I was reading Steve's new blog post on skepticism, The Death of Skepticism, and it got me thinking (of course) .

The line that really hit me was this one: "Ultimately skepticism is rooted in fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of being gullible. Fear of living a foolishly."

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that it's true. It seems obvious now that I look at it like that, and all my past experiences are starting to line up. The universe was preparing to deliver this lesson to me today, based on recent experiences too. Now all I have to do is digest it .

If you've read my blog in you past, you know how I used to struggle with the idea of skepticism, and what is the correct level of skepticism. Now, I see an easy way to detect: if my skeptical attitude is based on fear, then it's unhealthy. A lot of times it is based on fear. The two predominant fears are: 1. if I had an amazing experience, I fear being skeptical will make the experience less amazing, so I don't want to be skeptical, and 2. if I had an amazing experience, I fear by not being skeptical, it's possible I'll be fooled by it, and make myself look like an idiot.

Since having an amazing experience generates both of these situations, I fear all amazing experiences as well. I enjoy experiencing something amazing - but at the same time, it's also a burden to my skeptical mind, and I have to traverse this fearful landscape of what to do next.

As a very clear example, look at the geiger counter experiments. When I first got results that I could see with my own eyes, it threw me into a state of fear. I paced my room, debating what to do... wondering if my fingers made the spike... and if so, then my entire experience was false. Or if something else did... I sat and feared testing my finger on the geiger counter, wondering if it would produce false results. After about 10 minutes of pacing around, I decided I had to test my fingers. When I did, there wasn't any spike, and I was relieved.

Now, I'm not saying I shouldn't test things... what I am saying, is that this experience shouldn't throw me into a state of fear.

Now that I know what the experience shouldn't do, I need to figure out why I throw myself into a state of fear, and fix it . This will then show me what state I should go to instead. The universe has done a good job presenting me with this lesson... although I still probably have a few coincidences that I need to see before I totally grasp it. Fun times.

~Sean

OBE, most likely

2006-08-11T11:27:00.000-04:00

I'm fairly sure I had an OBE this morning.

First, it's probably important that I read the entire book The Celestine Prophecy yesterday. I bought it at the book store, started reading, and couldn't put it down. I finished at about 2:15am. The book is a fictional adventure story, but also has a lot of intelligent and wise ideas (labelled "Insights") throughout it. It talks about coincidences, energy, control dramas, and better ways to deal with people. (It even has techniques to see energy, which I plan on testing out .) All of the advice seemed really good, even though the book was a story. I got a lot from it.

(As another note, please don't take this to mean it's healthy to read fictional books, and lose your grasp on reality. Stories are stories, and written for entertainment purposes. Nonetheless, that particular story had some interesting ideas speckled in it, which are worth my time to think about.)

For my OBE, I woke up in the morning, laying in my bed face up. I was staring at my ceiling fan. I don't even remember what made me think of having an OBE - all I thought about was "charging" myself with energy. As I breathed in, I took in energy at my heart location. I did this for a short while, and noticed that there was a blueish-purpleish light in the corner of my room (to the left of my ceiling fan).

I realized that the light wouldn't normally be there in my room... so I started to look at it closely. When I did, it started getting finer in detail. It was around this time I figured out that I was ready for an OBE (I think... can't really remember exactly).

I didn't really try to leave - instead, I just took my left hand, and tried to reach the ceiling fan like I did in my last OBE. I stretched my arm, and tried to feel for the fan, but couldn't feel it. When I put my hand in front of the blue light, and focused on the area, my hand became visible. It looked almost like a wireframe hand, made out of blue wires.

I stretched my hand out, trying to feel for anything, but couldn't feel anything. I faded in and out of consciousness... trying to figure out if I was having a legitimate OBE or not. At one point, I put my hands over my eyes, to see if I could see through them. I could. At first I thought I was looking through my physical hands, but then I realized that I didn't move my physical hands when I put them over my eyes.

I called for whoever was out there to help me. To grab my wrists and ankles, like "they" have in the past. Nothing happened. I wasn't scared, or angry, or feeling frustrated. I was stuck in my body (while out of body ), but it didn't really bother me like it normally does. I just sort of played around with my states of consciousness, played around with what I was seeing, and had fun.

This entire experience probably lasted around 20 minutes. I don't have memory of the entire experience, but I do remember most of it.

There are two main reasons why I think this OBE was legit. One, my vision was in the correct orientation as my physical body, and my vision was representative of my correct environment (except for the blueish light). In a false awakening, usually things are not that clear, and everything is jacked up. Plus a lot of false awakenings don't happen in the same location as your physical body (for example, I've had false awakenings where I wake up at my old home in New York).

Two, because at one point in the OBE, I saw a blurry skin-colored triangle at the bottom left of my vision. I thought it must be my hand - my knuckle resting on my cheek. After that, I didn't pay much attention to it. Now that I think back to the experience, it was obviously my nose . I must have been predominantly looking through my right eye. The fact that I incorrectly labelled it, and it still existed and behaved like a nose after this incorrect belief, is good evidence that this experience wasn't a dream.

Fun times . Also, I recommend that book to anyone who is interested in psionics and truth. It's sweet.

~Sean

Sleep vs. Meditation

2006-08-08T11:44:00.000-04:00

I started getting into psionics at the age of 15. I started my initial OBE training at 16. This consisted of a lot of meditation and finding a balance between being awake, and being asleep.

When I turned 17, I graduated high school, and moved to Georgia with my parents to go to college at The University of Georgia. It was somewhere in here that I adopted the habit of sleeping... a LOT. I've read that altering your sleeping schedule is one way the body deals with stress (chemically). Perhaps that's one reason why I screwed with my sleeping schedule so much.

The good side effect of doing this was that I was constantly in different states of consciousness. Some days I would take 4 hour naps, stay awake for another 4 hours, then go to sleep for the night for 6 hours. And other times I would pull all-nighters just for the fun of it.

From the ages of 17 until 22, I slept a lot. My record for continuous sleep is 18 hours. My record for most sleep is 24 hours out of 36 hour timespan (slept 14, awake 6, slept 10). My record for staying awake without caffiene or pills is 42 hours. During this time, with all the blurry states of consciousness, I logically attatched meditation to sleep. When I went to sleep, I would try and meditate beforehand. Sometimes I would get bored, and just roll over and say "screw it". Other times I would get deep meditation. And other times I would meditate for 5 minutes then knock out.

This worked wonderfully for OBEs (although I wouldn't recommend doing this just for OBEs... if you're already doing this, then you might want to try OBEs in addition to these bad habits ).

Lately, I've been challenging myself to sleep no more than 7.5 hours a night, and sometimes only allow myself 6 hours a night. No naps during the day. Go to sleep at the same time every night (2am). Eat healthy, exercise, no alcohol. This has really purified my physical body, and I'm turning: healthy! Go figure .

In this process, my meditation has gone down the crapper. When I lay down at night, I don't feel like meditating. I feel like going to sleep. For the past month, I've constantly been strugling with this "Sleep or meditation?" question every night. Most nights I say "screw it", and just go to sleep. Other times, I force myself to meditate, and do terrible.

While running today, it dawned on me. Sleep or meditation? Both decisions are bad. Therefore, there must be a third alternative... and in this case, there was a pretty obvious third alternative once I realized I was stuck in this situation. Sleep AND meditation! Duh.

Once I made that realization, it dawned on me how my old sleeping habits worked great for meditating before sleep. But now that I'm getting healthy, and my body's chemistry is healthy, it doesn't work. So I should sleep when I want to sleep. And then schedule time during the morning to meditate. The plan I have is such: Go to sleep at 2am, wake up at 9:30am, go running at 10:15am, shower at 11:30am, and meditate afterwards. I hope to change this structure so that I sleep 6 hours eventually, but this is a good stepping stone.

Anyways, just thought I'd share that with everyone. If you have healthy body chemistry, and cyclic sleep patterns, then don't force yourself to choose between sleep OR meditation. Sleep when you want to sleep. And make time during the day to meditate.

~Sean

Server Update

2006-08-06T18:19:00.000-04:00

Alrighty!

The servers that run PsiPog.net and PsiPogBB.net have been updated. In this process, I've saved $80/month. It seems backwards... how could I update, and SAVE money?! But yes, it is true.

Visitors probably won't notice any difference... at least, that's what I hope. If you do notice something fishy, drop me an e-mail at: peebrain@psipog.net , and I'll check it out. Some things might still be busted.

Other than that, have fun, and I'll see ya later!

~Sean

More Geiger Results

2006-07-30T13:13:00.000-04:00

I'd just like to keep everyone updated on the geiger counter stuff.

SheepKing has reported getting the counter up to 32 CPM (if I recall correctly), and I just got it up to 24 CPM trying out some new technique ideas (24 isn't that significant, but the spike was timed to intent). My personal record is still 36 CPM from the first post, and the all time record is 47 CPM from JoeT using Erik's counter.

One important note is that it doesn't always detect psionic effects. For example, I've sat there and spun the pinwheel in front of it, and it won't detect anything. But if I focus on the pinwheel a certain way, and trance out to get the wheel spinning, then it will start to raise. Some techniques produce bigger effects than others.

It's really fun to play with. If anyone wants to try out, try to catch me in the chat room, and I can set it up for you. Or you can use the information in my previous post to buy your own geiger counter. Fun times .

~Sean

"Psychic Reading"

2006-07-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

Howdy,
So I decided it was time to get a legit psychic reading. I tend to be pretty skeptic, but I noticed that Erin Pavlina sounds pretty cool in her blog (erinpavlina.com). She also said she reads my blog! (HI ERIN! )

She struck me as a warm woman with interesting abilities... I've yet to ponder extensively over what we went over during the reading. But my initial impression is "cool!" . If you're not shy of New Age spiritual stuff, then you might want to check her out.

She reported that I need to focus on going forward instead of stopping where I'm at and waiting for everyone else to catch up. Specifically, one consistent message was that I need to stop waiting for skeptics to jump on board. Cynics are cynics and skeptics are skeptics. It's healthy to be skeptical - but that doesn't mean it's my responsibility to convince hardcore skeptics.

Sounds like pretty good advice.

Why do I want to wait around for skeptics to catch up? The feeling has been slowly going away over the past year or so... It might have to do with confidence. Or maybe just because that's where I started. By being sympathetic to skeptics, I feel I'm being sympathetic to my old self.

It's also a control thing though. It bothers me that I can't force a skeptic to realize that psychic abilities are real. If they are truly skeptical, and truly logical - then I should logically be able to convince them. If I actually spend the time to jump through the logical hoops of one skeptic, even performing accurate demonstrations of skills - a lot of times the biggest reaction I'll get is "hmm I don't know how you did that, but that doesn't mean psychic abilities are real." Or "coincidence."

Hmmmm. Now she's got me thinking .

Sometimes it's funny how the same lesson keeps getting presented to you over and over again through different channels. Either way - Erin was cool. I suppose it should bother me that I buy into this new age stuff without more skepticism, but at the same time: who cares? Don't get me wrong... Miss Cleo will most definitly NOT be getting a call from me. But advice is advice, whether it's from a friendly woman in Nevada, or some spirits floating around looking out for my best interests. All ideas need to go through a process of understanding... it doesn't really matter where they originate from.

~Sean

New Articles Finally!

2006-07-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

I finally decided to use my creative mind to come up with a solution to PsiPog.net's article problem.

See, I didn't want to post articles online for people. It's a pain in the ass, and I hate doing it. So I figured that people could wait until the new system was up and running. The new system will allow people to post and edit their own articles - leaving me out of it. The problem was that the new system is taking forever to create... and the articles on PsiPog.net were getting older and older.

So I sat here for 10 minutes, thinking that there must be a better way. Forcing my creative mind to give me results, I sat here staring at my screen until inspiration hit me. Luckily, it did!

I got the idea to use WordPress... then leech the posts from WordPress and inject them into the current article system. This would require SOME programming, but not that much... mostly hacks here and there. I thought the idea had some potential, so I got to work.

It only took me two days to hook up all the loose ends. It really wasn't hard at all, and now authors can post articles freely, and I don't have to post them manually myself. Plus everyone gets to read the new articles, and be happy with all the new material. Everyone wins, hurray!

So we have some new articles up, and the article posting system is incredibly easy for authors. I will continue to work on the new PsiPog.net (preview here), but at least some authors can post interesting new articles in the meantime.

~Sean

Belief, Emotions, and Intelligence

2006-07-21T12:08:00.000-04:00

So I was thinking ...

I've always had a conflict with my theories regarding psionics. I flip flop between two ideas. One idea is that belief plays a huge role, and you are only capable of doing what you believe you can do. The other idea is that belief isn't that big of a deal, and that reality determines what you can and can't do. This sort of goes back to my conflict between subjective and objective reality.

I think I found a balance. Emotional intensity.

Humans are emotional creatures. Our intelligence likes to be a little egotisitcal, and proclaim that its reason and logic is how we work... but when you take an honest look at people and how they make decisions, the majority of decision making is done based on how that person FEELS. It's emotional.

Advertisers and salesmen know this. The number one rule in selling is that if your client feels they need something, they will find a logical way to achieve it - price isn't really an issue. Intelligence is used as a servent of our emotions. We first feel something, then we invoke our intelligence to help us understand what we feel, and possibly accomplish the goal our emotions have dictated.

Emotional intensity plays a huge role in psionics. If you feel that you must accomplish a psionic task no matter what, and put a lot of emotion behind it - you have a much higher chance of succeeding. I think of emotion as the currency of existance.

So where do beliefs fit into this? Beliefs dictate emotions. If I believe that when I experience a disagreement, I should feel angry... then I will. Any time I experience something I label as a "disagreement", I will feel angry.

What are my personal beliefs that dictate my own emotions? I have one belief that affects this a lot - I believe that intense emotion is "bad", and that the best state to be in is calm and collected.

This is great for receiving in psionics. With a calm emotional ocean, I can detect the smallest ripples that collide with it. However, this is really bad with psychokinesis... I need to muster up waves of emotional intensity, but I believe that emotional intensity is "bad". So, that belief overrides my emotions, and I can't muster the power needed to affect matter.

This is all really obvious now that I type it out. Everything I've stated almost makes me say, "well DUH!" . But I believe this is the answer to the question I posed to myself in this post in January. The question was: why do I emotionally disbelieve in psychokinesis? The answer is: because I believe that emotional intensity is bad, out of my desire to be calm and collected.

~Sean

Dreams and Reality

2006-07-19T11:06:00.000-04:00

Dreams are cool. Why do we think that dreams aren't real? We're raised to believe that dreams aren't real - but what are the reasons behind this?

I think the biggest issue with dreams is that they aren't continuous. In reality, today is a lot like yesterday. I'm in the same room, with the same computer, same tables, bathroom, job, coworkers, friends, etc. Everything is the same as the day before. With dreams, every night is a new adventure. Is that enough to conclude that they are less real than reality?

Dream "laws" are inconsistent with this reality. I can fly in dreams... I can walk through walls. I can conjure up anything I want. I can run blazzing fast, or breathe under water. So is that enough to conclude that dreams are less real?

We also have the science side of it. Science can map brainwaves, and tell us how our brain acts while we are dreaming. We can see what parts of the brain are active; we've labelled certain states like 'REM' and 'NREM'. Is that enough to conclude that dreams are fake?

I believe the answer to all those questions is no. The evidence presented does not lead one to conclude that dreams are fake, or less real. Now, it's certainly a possible outcome that dreams aren't real - that does make sense. But is that the only conclusion we can come to with the above evidence? Most certainly not.

Now let's bring up some more interesting evidence. People claim to see the future in dreams. People claim to dreamwalk. People claim to visit dead friends/relatives/pets while dreaming. People claim to leap from the dream state to an out of body state. Now what does the evidence suggest?

Can we really continue to think that dreams aren't real? I don't think so. We can leave the option avaiable, but we have a lot of explaining to do until we can conclude 100%. It's time to re-think some things.

I'm not really sure what dreams are. I'm not sure how they fit into reality. They really are one of the most bizarre things that exist. Everyone has them, including animals... yet we have no real idea what they are. We theorize that they aren't real - but we have no way to prove that, nor do we really have any reason to believe that to start with. How can we detect what is real and what isn't real?

If we say that dreams aren't real because of <insert reason here>, then how can we be sure that our reason isn't a characteristic of reality? By that I mean - if you argue that dreams can't be real because they aren't continuous (like I mentioned above), then how do you know that being continuous is a characteristic of reality? Maybe it's only a characteristic of this reality?

~Sean

My Subconscious

2006-07-15T08:56:00.000-04:00

So I just had an idea. Since my subconscious has proven to be useful in the past years with everything, and now lately "he" has proven to be useful in inducing OBEs, I think it's safe to assume that "he" is a pretty helpful guy. So, I'll hand the microphone over to my subconscious, and see what he has to say to everyone reading...

Oh goodie. First, I want to make sure everyone knows what is going on. Yes, Sean is crazy . I don't really "talk" to him... what I do falls under "clairaudient". See, Sean has a tendency to filter a lot of what I say to him because of his "rules". For example, he cringes when I use the term "clairaudient", and he is the one who chooses to write it in quotes, not me. But hey - at least he hears me! So that's a good start.

Alrighty... let's skip all the boring introduction crap, and get right to the chase. Sean doesn't consider himself a "psychic" like everyone else in the New Age realm. He's very uncomfortable with the idea of "spirits", and things like that. So we sort of have to dress up when we talk to him... subconscious, universal unconsciousness, spirits, etc... It's all the same thing. It falls under the category of "higher intelligence".

For example, you might be asking yourself: how does this all work? In that I mean - how does the clairaudience in Sean's head work? We run into a lot of trouble trying to explain it. What I WANT to say is, "it works, so just use it, and forget about the technical aspects behind what is going on". But of course, that answer isn't good enough. So we have to explain ourselves to different people, so that each individual understands it.

Doing so in a public setting like this is a good way to cause conflict. If I told you that Sean channelled spirits, wouldn't you throw a hissy fit? Some of you would. If I told you that Sean is crazy and hears voices in his head, wouldn't others throw a hissy fit? ...Yes. If I take the label of "subconscious", then that is pretty good... it's technically correct, and not as many people throw tantrums. The only people we have trouble with are the psyche majors who proclaim that they know more about what the subconscious "truly" is, and how it operates. But oh well.

Everyone has their own rules for accepting things. To the psyche major, when I use the term "subconscious", it triggers a series of definitions in their head. If the context of my term doesn't fit their own personal definitions, then they get all caught up in how I'm using the wrong term, and miss the big picture.

Just as if I were to say "spirit", then a whole lot of people at PsiPog would (and "should" according to Sean) jump down my metaphysical throat and tear me apart for using such a subjective term.

Look at how much has been wasted in just trying to use the correct terms to allow the maximum amount of people understand what is going on? This is why addressing people in a public setting is a pain in the ass. Half the time is spent on just commuicating the simple fact that communication is hard, even when it's easy . That's why I prefer to stick to being a voice in Sean's head, and letting him do all the translation for the public. He pisses a subset of people off with his word choices, but he consistently chooses specific words to consistently piss off the same subset. So at least those that understood him at first can continue to understand him, and those that hate him at first can continue to ignore him.

I mean... c'mon. You guys can't even communicate with EACH OTHER clearly, when all you have to do is speak, and the other person hears you. All you have to do is talk. Your words fly through the air, and hit the ears of the other person. Seems simple on paper - but look at all the drama and misunderstanding that unfolds from it. So how can you expect me to communicate clearly through Sean's head to a wide range of people?

I think you get the point.

Other than that, I have nothing to say to everyone. Well, I have lots of things to say, but Sean doesn't want to feel the backlash of it yet . That's fine. For now I prefer to be a voice in Sean's head.

On the plus side, he DOES hear me very well. He hears me very clearly. The only problem is that his fingers filter a lot of what I'm saying to him . And for those who remain skeptical, I offer you the only explaination you're willing to accept in the long run: Sean is crazy. (Sean tends to be very forgiving and understanding towards skeptics... Personally, I find it pointless to argue with them, and just give them the answer they fish for. They won't learn any other way.)

See ya.

~Sean's Subconscious

My subconscious was very entertained with having "his" own signature at the end. "Give me a tilde like you always do!" Anyways... I promised I wouldn't filter the text any further. Take what you want from it... I hear it all day long, every day .

~Sean

OBE, haha!

2006-07-12T11:12:00.000-04:00

I had my OBE, as planned! This is another new location, now making a total of 14 different locations I've had an OBE.

This OBE wasn't very exciting, but the actual events surrounding the OBE were very bizarre. A week ago, I was having a conversation with my subconscious. I was talking about how I was kind of depressed that I haven't had an OBE in a long time, and that I really wanted to have one. My subconscious made a deal with me - if I realized/learned something over the next week, then I would have an OBE on Wednesday morning.

Of course I was somewhat skeptical - I haven't learned to have an OBE at will yet, so I can't just do it when I want (although I do have some control). But the deal was made, so I went through the week. On Sunday, I made the realization. It had to deal with why I was upset with my mom, and is a little personal, so I'll leave it at that. My subconscious congratulated me on my realization, and told me that "he" would fulfill his end of the bargain on Wednesday.

Now, of course my obvious reaction is skepticism. I'm hearing voices in my head - I'm probably crazy. But, at the same time, I had already been amazed at my crazy voice's ability to help me have an OBE in a previous event. The voice helped me in the past, so while I was very skeptical last night, I was also pretty excited because there was a chance it could happen.

My subconscious said I had to put SOME effort into it, and not just pass out to Ren and Stimpy cartoons, like I normally do at night. I agreed. I tried to trance out, but didn't get very far, and passed out and started dreaming. It was a really bizarre dream. But during my dream, I woke up.

It was night time, and everything was dark. So I was freaking out a little bit, because it's just a little spooky when you're in a strange state of consciousness, and your room is dark and glowing. But I knew I was in the right state to have an OBE. I pulled my arms/hands into the air, and tried to look at them. Normally when I look at my hands, they look like they're made of glass, and I can tell where they are. This time I couldn't see anything... I just saw my ceiling fan (which was the direction my head was pointed in).

I tried to get out of body, but it was really hard. I slid to the left and right of my body, but kept getting sucked back in. Eventually I broke free for a little bit, and managed to get over to my window. My vision the entire time was really awkward, and it was really hard to tell what was going on. When I got over to the window, there was a mirror (there isn't a mirror in real life over there). I looked in the mirror, trying to see myself. I couldn't see myself. I could barely make out a faint outline of my head, but other than that, I didn't see anything.

I got snapped back into my body. I decided the reason I suck at moving was because my "astral" body was dirty, and needed to be cleaned up. So I took my hands, and started scrubbing my body with them. I started at my head, and moved down. When I got to my upper-back, I got distracted from my goal of cleaning my body. Now I was curious if I could feel anything attatched to my body, like the infamous silver cord.

So I felt the rest of my body, looking to see if my body parts were there, and looking to see if I could feel anything foreign. My ears were there, and really well defined. My ... family jewels were there. Phew! . When I reached around my abdomen region, I noticed that I had a belt around me.

This belt reminded me of a thick seatbelt. It went across my waist, and the angle of the belt made it seem like it was going around my entire bed. I'm not sure if I hallucinated that or not - perhaps it was my mind's attempt to explain why I felt so stuck in my body. After that, I grabbed my legs. I decided to have some fun, so I twisted my legs in impossible positions, like silly putty.

I twisted them in loops, and let go and they would spring back to normal shape. I thought that was pretty cool, and it gave me an idea. Since I could distort my body, maybe I could reach my hand up, and make it longer. That way I could reach my ceiling fan, grab it, and pull myself up.

Sounded like an OK idea... so I started to reach for my fan with my right hand. I used my left hand to push my right hand closer to the fan. My vision was really crappy at this point, so I couldn't tell if I was accomplishing anything. During this time period, I "clicked", and suddenly saw/felt hands grabbing my wrists and legs, pulling me through the air. I knew it must be the same guys from before, who grabbed those same locations to pull me out.

But then I "clicked" back to my body, where I was trying to reach the fan. I decided to wake up, since I had accomplished my goal, and was pretty amazed that my OBE happened on schedule. During my wake up, I made a specific effort to stay conscious the entire time.

Now, I agree that a lot of this stuff sounds crazy. I also agree that things happen that don't make any sense - which definitly supports the idea of it being a hallucination. But even then... I can go from an out of body state, and transition into my normal waking state, and be conscious during the entire transition. In this OBE, I was staring at my ceiling fan. I decided to "wake up", and my vision stayed locked on the ceiling fan. My body started to wake up, and the only period of time where I wasn't looking at the ceiling fan was the 0.5 second it took for me to open my eyes once I became aware of looking through them. My consious mind was ... CONSCIOUS. The entire time. I was in a very aware state of mind, where I was making logical and deliberate decisions, and stayed (mostly) calm.

Like I said before - this OBE wasn't really important about what I experienced inside of it. The important part was that my subconscious followed through with it's deal. This is another little piece of the puzzle.

~Sean

OBE Narration

2006-07-07T23:19:00.000-04:00

Being that I HAVEN'T had an OBE in over a month, which is very unlike me, and an anonymous poster asked for some help in the previous post... I decided to write this mini-tutorial on how to have an OBE. This is just one example technique you could use.

It's friday night, and you don't have to go to school/work tomorrow, hurray! You normally go to bed at 2am and sleep in Saturday morning until noon... but since you want to have an OBE, you set your alarm for 8am. You fall asleep at 2am, and the alarm wakes you at 8am. You're in a pissy mood, but hey, it's ok - you're about to have an OBE, and it'll be sweet. While groggy, you go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, and pick up your favorite article/book on OBEs. After reading about OBEs for 10 minutes, you're ready to give it a shot.

So you lay back down. You're really tired still, but sort of inbetween, and your body is a little confused/pissed that it was forced to wake up early. That's ok... now your body can go back to sleep. You lay flat on your back, with your arms to your side, with your blankets loosly draped over you. You're really comfortable, and ready to go.

The first step is putting your body to sleep. Since your body is already half way there, this is pretty easy. You itch everything on your body that could possibly itch (so you don't have to worry as much about itching later), and then get into a position where you WILL NOT MOVE no matter what. Close your eyes, and then keep thinking to your body "sleep". You keep sending that "sleep" command to your body.

After about 5 minutes, your body is knocked out pretty good, and your mind is almost drifting away. You force your mind to stay aware. Then you keep repeating the phrase in your mind, "I will now have an out of body experience", over and over again. You repeat it for a few minutes, then catch yourself thinking some random thoughts. You notice that you've drifted from your phrase, so you start over again, and keep repeating "I will now have an out of body experience" in your mind over and over. You drift a few more times, but keep bringing it back to that phrase.

You repeat the phrase in your mind for what seems like forever. You drift out again, and then drift back in and notice you aren't repeating your phrase. But then you notice something else... you can see. At first it seemed normal, but now you realize that you SHOULDN'T be seeing since your eyes are closed... but you're seeing anyways. Now what? Now you are ready to leave your body, but first you gotta disconnect a little bit more. Instead of repeating your phrase, you just think of nothing for about a minute. It isn't that hard in this state of mind. As you think about nothing, you start to hear a loud ringing in your ears. If you focus directly on the ringing, it goes away... but if you continue to think about nothing, the ringing gets stronger.

You continue to think of nothing, and the ringing keeps getting louder. You stay calm, and now the ringing starts to get on your nerves. As it gets louder, it starts to make you really uncomfortable, and it quickly escalates to an unbearable amount of noise. You continue thinking of nothing. Your entire consciousness starts to vibrate with this loud ringing sound... so now you not only hear this unbearable sound, but you also feel it. You shake violently.

You begin to fear for the safety of your body. This can't be healthy... your entire body must be having a seizure in bed! You start to question it... why did I listen to that crazy dude on the internet anyways?! I'm going to have a heart attack! Holy crap... this is fucked up! OOOOOUUUUUUUCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Click. All of the sudden, no noise. No vibration. You see clearly. You try to move, but you can't. You focus all your energy on moving your arm... you try to look downwards to see it, but you can't move your neck. You can barely move your arm... it's like moving it through syrup. You slowly get your arm into view, and you notice that it's like glass. You can see through it, but it also refracts the light a little bit too, so you can tell it's there.

You spin your hand around and stare in awe at it. This isn't some hollywood special effect in a movie... this is your hand, sitting right in front of you. It feels normal, minus the fact it moves slowly. But it ripples. It's colorful, but clear at the same time. After about 3 minutes of just staring at your arm, you get a little bored of it.

You try to stand up, but you can't. You're stuck. Now what? You relax a little bit, and try to be more playful. You sink in a little, and get used to what you're feeling. You relax, and become more passive. Then, in a relaxed manor, picture rockets attatched to your back. They ignite, and push you up. You begin to float upwards towards the ceiling at a constant rate.

You get the feel for how to move. You will yourself to an upright position. Then you hop out of the air, and land on your bedroom floor. You walk towards your door, and then realize that you don't really need to go out your door... so instead you look up, and float upwards... You go straight for the ceiling. As you pass through it, you see the layers, and feel the layers inside of you. You feel the drywall, the paper, the paint... inside of yourself. Crazy. You float upwards more.

Then everything goes black. Now you're back in your body. You can't move. You try to move your arm, but it moves like it's in syrup. You relax, and let go. You become passive, and just let go. Click. You start to fall. First you fall through your bed, and then through the floor... and you pick up speed. You fall further and further, and all you can see is your ceiling getting smaller and smaller, with blackness around it.

Click. You're back in your body. You try to move, but you're stuck. This is annoying. You decide to wake up. You force yourself awake... You will your body to wake up. You remain consicious during this entire process... you feel yourself becoming in sync with your body. You keep telling your body to wake up. Wake up. Your vision goes black, but you remain conscious... and you realize you're looking at your eyelids. You open your eyelids.

Then you freak out. You've just had an out of body experience! Hurray! You run to your computer to type the entire thing out, in as much detail as you can. You swear you wouldn't forget it, but you can tell that some of the memories seem a little iffy. So you write as much as you can.

Then you e-mail peebrain@psipog.net, and freak out. You tell him how crazy it was. He gets your e-mail and laughs.

Below is an e-mail I actually received today:

OMG, I just remembered that I had a OBE last night!!! OMG, It's coming bit by bit. FUCK, I can't believe I had one. I'm FUCKING excited man! It felt SOOO REAL. Man...

~Sean

Failed OBEs

2006-07-01T13:53:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been trying to have an OBE so that I can see if I can affect my geiger counter while out of body (this idea was suggested by an anonymous poster in the last post, but I've also been trying to do this since I got the counter).

I can't seem to get out though. It's starting to annoy me. I haven't had an OBE since May 25th! I'm well overdue for one.

I've had a few close calls, and a few bizarre dreams, but no luck yet.

Other than that, I am continuing to work on the new PsiPog, and it's going really good. Everything is clean, and I'm still hoping on having a prototype up by August 1st. We shall see!

~Sean

Reproducible Results

2006-06-22T12:28:00.000-04:00

Hurray!

Using ErikJDurwoodII's ideas, JoeT and myself have reproduced results on my geiger counter.

So what exactly happened?

Erik came to me a couple weeks ago, and was excited about his ideas and theories, and that he would be able to test them out. If you don't know Erik, he's basically a mad scientist. He is very knowledgable in science, and has some really cool ideas. Plus he's down to earth at the same time, and while he has crazy ideas - he recognizes that they are crazy and can laugh about it. So he's a cool guy.

One night, he got JoeT and some other people on Skype. I wasn't there for that experiment, but he basically got a geiger counter, and something he called a transducer (I think?), and an oscilloscope. Using these devices, he had JoeT focus on the transducer, and by mistake he noticed his geiger counter going crazy. He checked the basics to make sure JoeT was the one actually affecting it, and it turned out correct.

So the next time I saw him, he was really excited about his first successful experiment, and told me his theories (which I barely understood) about what was happening. My reaction was to buy a geiger counter as fast as I could so I could reproduce it in my room .

I purchased the Black Cat System's GM-10 geiger counter for about $170 after shipping. When it arrived in the mail, I was really excited to test it out.

Erik first reproduced his experiment, but this time with me watching, so I could see how it was setup. Over his webcam, he showed me his geiger counter, transducer, and oscilloscope. First, I tried to get the geiger counter to go crazy, like he described JoeT doing it. I failed. Roy tried. He failed. So finally we invited JoeT to do it again... The average detection range for a geiger counter sitting in a normal room is anywhere from 8 to 25 counts per minute (CPM)... and it'll usually average between 12 and 15. When JoeT focused on it, he got the counter to max out at 47 CPM. Very significant.

So I was thrilled! I posted this entry in the blog out of excitement. However, we still hadn't reproduced the effect on my geiger counter. When JoeT tried, he was pretty burnt out, and we couldn't measure anything significant.

Just today, myself and JoeT were messing around with my geiger counter. Erik's counter is analog, but mine is digital, and I wrote a program to graph the results. Below is a 10 minute span of a normal graph:

Sorry it doesn't have any units on it, but basically the X axis is time (in seconds), and the Y axis is CPM. The normal resolution is 600 x 315 (600 seconds equals 10 minutes), but I resized it to make it fit in this blog. The green line represents the average, and the gray line represents the "highscore" (in the graph above, the highscore is 22 CPM).

When JoeT and myself were messing around, we tried a few different configurations.

1. 10:40am - First, JoeT tried sending to the geiger counter itself, without a live video feed. Nothing. (As a side note, Joe was really screwing up his monitor because he was using that as a sending point.)

2. 10:56am - Then I thought maybe the steel transducer in Erik's experiment was doing something, so I stuck a metal lock in front of my geiger counter (the next closest thing that I own ). And then I set up a live video feed for JoeT to target through. Still no luck. (As a side note, Joe did fry my internet connection at this point.)

3. 11:23am - I put some radioactive marbles in front of the counter so we could make sure the counter actually was working - and it spiked at 68 with the marbles. So the geiger counter was working fine, but we just wern't getting results.

4. 11:45am - So JoeT had the idea of putting a psiwheel in front of it, and Joe would try to move the psiwheel and see if the geiger counter was affected. Nada.

As usual, we were just sitting around talking in the chat, sort of thinking about what to do next.

[11:55] <JoeT> I can't hit the target for shit today. [11:55] <peebrain> it happens [11:56] <peebrain> I can't hit stuff right in front of me, so dont feel bad ;-P

After I sent that message, I thought to myself, "Well, I haven't actually played with a psiwheel in over a year... I could at least try."

So I focused on the psiwheel for maybe 30 seconds, just trancing out a little bit. I got a solid connection to the wheel, and "saw" the energy field around it. I started to play with it a little bit, and tried to spin in. It didn't spin, but it started to do the wobble thing (those who practice with psiwheel's probably know what I mean). Anyways, I looked up, and the graph had maxed out at 36 CPM! I freaked out. Joe kept telling me to try to do it again, but it was too late... I was already really excited and way too scatter brained to get into a trance again . I took a screenshot of the graph:

You can see a clear spike in activity, and it's much higher than normal. It occurred exactly when I started focusing on the wheel, and ended exactly when I looked up and noticed the huge spike, and freaked out. You can see the gray line maxed out at 68 from messing with the marbles, at the very top (which we did 35 minutes prior).

Now that I've reproduced the effect on my end, I'm blown away. I'm definitly going to start practicing more, especially now that I have measurable results that I can compare against from day to day. If anyone wants to reproduce the experiment, there is more than enough information in this post to do so. If you'd like to use the same graphing software, you can contact me in the chat, or drop me an e-mail at: peebrain@psipog.net .

Exciting times!

~Sean

Back to Coding

2006-06-15T15:30:00.000-04:00

I haven't actually coded for the new PsiPog in a while, but I've finally started at it again. I've coded over 800 lines this weekend, and everything is going really smoothly. I will probably code some more after this break.

Either way, I'm excited about it . I am a computer nerd, and I find elegant code and design to be very satisfying .

I'm hoping to have a prototype up by August.

~Sean

Geiger Counter

2006-06-09T12:09:00.000-04:00

ErikJDurwoodII, from the PRG, has discovered a way to measure psi. Scientifically. I witnessed it with my own eyes (and ears) just last night. I'm close to getting the experiment replicated in my room, and once I do, people will be able to get an actual number that represents how much they're affecting matter using psi.

This will be a huge step forward, and it's crazy to think that Erik has accomplished something that no scientist in the past has done. Hit me up in the chat room if you'd like to hear the current status of this project, and help experiment.

~Sean

Database Complete!

2006-06-05T12:09:00.000-04:00

Wow.

I never thought I would say this, but I am 99.9% done with the new database structure, and I'm actually happy with it! Imagine that! I'm a very anal programmer, and when programming I am always in a constant struggle between effecient code, and "correct" code. If you're not a programmer, you might not understand the difference... Basically, if I don't have an elegant solution to a problem, that is both fast, and makes perfect sense, then I become very irked. A lot of times you need to sacrafice one for the other... so you have a system that works mostly, but has a few awkward bugs because of the sacrafices you made for speed. Or you have a system that is very robust and complete, but slow as hell.

Over the past three days I've been busting my balls on getting this structure elegant, and I've finally finished . Luckily, it was already in pretty good shape from previous "eurika!" moments (like this one).

Ahhhh what a sigh of relief. Now I can safely code the PHP with confidence that the datastructures are perfect. And who says perfectionists never get anything done?!

~Sean

Objective and Subjective Reality

2006-05-29T12:04:00.000-04:00

Alrighty, here's the conflict:

There are two models for reality, both which make sense in their own ways. Somehow, I believe both are true, but I'm not sure how that's possible . (1) Reality is inherently subjective, and (2) Reality is inherently objective.

By nature of the claims, they are impossible to test. This leads me to suspect they are the same claim, even though they sound contradictory. So what exactly are these claims, and how do they relate to psionics?

(1) Reality is inherently subjective. This means that it's impossible for you to experience an objective reality, because it doesn't exist. When you look at something "outside" of yourself, you are still looking at a creation of yourself. Basically, you're living in a dream world, where the dream characters try to convince you that the dream world you create is objective (when it really isn't).

(2) Reality is inherently objective. This is the "normal" belief. This model says that there is a reality outside of your mind, and that you can experience this objective reality, and try to figure it out. For example, I believe that plants function outside of my mind, so if I want to learn about plants, I can go up to a plant and poke around inside of it with some scientific tools.

The problem is that both models have evidence. And any evidence you can find for one model, can be re-interpreted through the other model. For example, let's say you are walking down the street, and you find $5 on the ground. In the objective model, that $5 existed outside of yourself, and through some form of coincidence or synchronicity, you came about discovering this $5 on the ground. Sounds normal.

Or, in the subjective reality, you created the $5. Your beliefs about reality allowed for the $5 to exist, and you created this bill based on the rules you have for your reality.

But now you can argue: ok, so reality is subjective. But isn't that statement itself an objective truth about reality, then? If reality was truly subjective, then it would only be subjective when your rules about reality defined it as subjective. Is that confusing? Let's try again: the subjective reality model states that there aren't any fundamental truths - all fundamental truths are beliefs in your reality. However, isn't the statement "there aren't any fundamental truths" then considered a fundamental truth?!

It seems like a loop. It all comes down to answering the question: what are fundamental truths? Do they exist outside of your control, in a reality that you are playing a part in? Or do you create these fundamental truths, and therefore, create your entire experience in your fabricated dream reality? And if you are creating these fundamental truths, wouldn't it be fundamentally true that you create them?

Lots of logical philisophical enigmas.

I think the conflict exists in defining who "you" are. This is how both models can be true at the same time. Here's my conclusion on this conflict (which I've come to realize while writing this post):

I think we can all agree that when we keep zooming in on reality, eventually we get to cells, then molecules, then atoms, then some quantum field of some sort... but eventually everything is made of the same stuff (or maybe you disagree?). Let's call this stuff "energy". Sounds good so far.

So, we are all connected. We are all made of the same stuff, and division is just an illusion. I'm energy, made of energy, in a field of energy, surrounded by other energy-things, all connected and functioning as one. You can't have something that exists outside of this, by nature of it's definition. We have defined "energy" (in this context) to mean the stuff everything is made from. The minute you say, "well wait a second, THIS isn't made of energy!", I will say, "of course it is, because it exists, and by definition it's made of energy".

Next comes the question: what/who are YOU? Well, the most obvious answer for myself, is that I'm Sean Martin Connelly, and right now I'm sitting in front of my computer, typing away at this long post. But also, by definition, I'm energy that is interconnected to everything else.

If you define yourself as energy, then you are forced to believe in the subjective reality model. Because there is nothing outside of energy... just as there is nothing outside of the subjective model of reality. Everything is subjective, experiencing itself.

If you define yourself as a portion of the energy, (i.e., "I am Sean Martin Connelly"), then you are forced to believe in the objective reality model. There is you, then there are things outside of you. So, both are true! I am energy that is interconnected with everything else. And I'm also Sean Martin Connelly.

In conclusion, the question of "Is the subjective reality model correct? Or is the objective model correct?" is the same question as, "Am I energy in a sea of energy? Or am I an individual?" Rephrased like that, it seems obvious.

So the answer is: both. Reality is 100% subjective, and 100% objective. It's the same thing.

~Sean

OBE + Hands

2006-05-25T10:50:00.000-04:00

Hurray!

I had an OBE this morning. It's really weird how it happens sometimes. A lot of times when I try to have OBEs, I experience synchronicities that help me. This morning, for example, a friend knocked on my door at 6:30am to ask for a shirt. It woke me up at the perfect time, and after giving him a shirt, I decided it would be perfect to try an OBE. I stayed awake for about 5 minutes, checked my e-mail, went to the bathroom, and got a drink of water. Then I went back to bed to meditate.

I did terrible during my meditation, and my mind was constantly wandering. I knew that I wouldn't have an OBE at that rate. So I hit a semi-deep state, and started talking to my subconscious. I sent a strong intent, "Can you please help me have an OBE? I honestly really do want some help. I don't think I can do it on my own this time, and I really want to have one, and I won't freak out if you help me."

Of course I got a reply, "Sure, I can help, no problem", and I replied "Thanks!". But a lot of times when I talk to my subconscious, I'm very skeptical, and a part of me thought, "Sure, he says he'll help, but I'm just psychotic and talking to myself. No one will help." I tried to maintain my meditative state, but my mind wandered way too much, and eventually I passed out.

Surprisingly, I got yanked out. My first memory is literally feeling yanked out and positioned above my bed very quickly. I was a little shocked, but I thought, "OBE! Hell yeah!" and went with it. Then I zipped back to the same orientation as my physical body.

And then, an amazing thing happened. Two pairs of hands grabbed my ankles and wrists. The hands pulled me up and out, towards the center of my room. I was a little shocked by it, but more curious. So I purposely went back to my body, and the hands came back (only this time one pair on my ankles, not my wrists), and pulled me back to the center of the room. While they were pulling me, I reached down and grabbed the hand on my left ankle, and felt it. I shook the hand, and tried to send out a "Whoa cool, thanks!" type of hand shake, however that would feel .

After that, I was teleported to my old backyard in upstate New York (I live in Maryland right now). I was freely flying through the air, and it was amazing. I didn't really control where I was flying, it was very automatic and smooth though. I flew into my old neighbors yard, and flew past them and far into the sky.

While flying into the sky, I was intent on focusing on the detail of the experience, because I was waiting for it to switch into a dream. I knew it was going to happen at some point - usually I don't detect it, and believe I am still out of body. This time I was very intent on figuring out when the switch occurred. While flying into the sky, the detail level dropped, and information started to become garbled. I figured that was the point where I had entered a dream.

At some point, I'm not sure when, I was also in my neighbors back yard petting a huge bird. It was like a huge pelican, and I was petting it's neck. I don't remember if that was before or after the dream-switch.

After it switched into a dream, then it really did turn crazy. I had a false awakening of grabbing my recorder, and recording myself. Then I went into some dream where I was walking down a hallway, and some other weird things. I don't really remember.

Either way, I'm really excited about getting a "helping hand" on getting out! I can't believe when I talk to my subconscious, that it is actually accomplishing something . A lot of times it feels like I'm just talking to myself and getting nothing done - I now know that something is really going on. On top of that, this is my third experience where something else helped me (first was when they talked to me, second was when they pushed my back). I'm glad I'm no longer alone in my adventures, and that I've overcome my fear and limited beliefs enough to experience some help.

~Sean

Subjective Reality, Memory, and the Senses

2006-05-22T12:51:00.000-04:00

Both NI and SheepKing posted some new posts on their blogs. You can check out their links from my "Favorite Blogs" list on the right.

These past couple days I've just been thinking. Steve Pavlina's subjective reality idea is hard to swallow... I understand the concept, but putting it into action is really difficult. Perhaps I'll stick with objective reality beliefs for a while. The only benefit I noticed from it is it removes all fear. That's it.

I've also been thinking about memory, and the physical senses. Memory plays such a huge role in defining my current experience in this reality... it's strange that we don't know more about it. I wonder if remembering something is using the same mechanism as RV... I'm sure it's all tied together somehow. With RV, we're just remembering something that we haven't experienced directly. Just a thought.

The physical senses, especially hearing, have intrigued me as well. I can hear things, and I can hear people talk, but I'm trying to figure out how I actually comprehend the information that's being said. How can my mind convert vibrations in the air into an idea in my head that I comprehend? That conversion process is very peculiar.

I haven't had an OBE in a long time. I hope I have one soon... I'll have to start practicing a little harder.

~Sean

Conflicting Beliefs

2006-05-15T10:33:00.000-04:00

In the previous post, Mr. Shields left a comment to inform me that Steve Pavlina linked to PsiPog.net in one of his blogs. This started a chain reaction. First, I went to the site, and read the blog (duh). Then I became excited, because Steve is going to address his ideas on psychic development in the future, and he's a smart guy who will get me thinking. Then a few more things happened that I don't remember, but eventually I came upon his Podcasts. I've listened to some in the past, but he had added a few since my last visit.

So I decided to listen to a few more. Eventually I got down to #013, on Beyond Religion. I knew Steve would have some cool ideas, but I wasn't really expecting anything mind blowing.

I'm not sure if the content of the podcast was actually mind blowing, or just that it was something I needed to hear at that specific moment... but Steve presents an awesome idea, that I've kind of run with. The idea is that we can hold conflicting beliefs in our mind with no problems at all. He uses the analogy of a computer... just like a computer can run different software (Word processor, Spreadsheet, Game, etc), we can run different beliefs in our consciousness.

As a result, we can be Christian, Athiest, Buddhist, Agnostic, and New Age at the same time. I visualize a computer screen... I maximize the Athiest screen when I want to be Athiest... then I can minimize it, and pull up the Christian program, when I want to feel Christian. I can have both pieces of "software" on my "computer", and it doesn't matter if they are in conflict with each other.

This plugs into a crazy story I read in Tony Robbins' book, Awaken the Giant Within (p. 76).

Beliefs are not limited to impacting our emotions or actions. They can literally change our bodies in a matter of moments. I had the pleasure of interviewing Yale professor and best-selling author Dr. Bernie Siegel. As we began to speak about the power of beleif, Bernie shared with me some of the research he'd done on people with Multiple Personality Disorders. Incredibly, the potency of these people's beliefs that they had become a different person resulted in an unquestioned command to their nervous system to make measurable changes in their biochemistry. The results? Their bodies would literally transform before the researchers' eyes and begin to reflect a new identity at a moment's notice. Studies document such remarkable occurrences as patients' eye color actually changing as their personality changes, or physical marks disppearing and reappearing! Even diseases such as diabettes or high blood pressure come and go depending on the person's belief as to which personality they're manifesting.

Can we tap into this same power without having to go crazy? Yes!

So how does this apply to psionics?

Not_Important (NI) and myself have talked a lot about beliefs with each other in the past. See, the problem is that whatever we believe really alters our entire reality. So we come up with some solutions to that problem, so that we can accomplish what we want. One of my solutions is to convince yourself that whatever you want to accomplish actually isn't in conflict with your beliefs. I.e., you leave all your beliefs the same, you just relabel your goals so that they are in alignment with your beliefs. This works. NI's solution, in response, is to alter your beliefs so that they are insanely flexible. I.e., change your beliefs so that they can adapt when needed. This works too.

Steve's solution, as outlined in his Beyond Religion podcast, is to change your meta-beliefs - i.e., change your beliefs about beliefs. Specifically, Steve targets the meta-belief that "I can only believe in things that aren't in conflict with each other", or worded differently, "All my beliefs must be in agreement with each other". NI and myself have been working on ways to navigate one system of limiting belief. Steve shows that we can also install multiple belief systems, so that if we want to bypass a limiting belief in one system, we just switch systems!

This releases a lot of tension. Instead of constantly trying to figure everything out, and create one master belief system, I can just let my beliefs relax. I can be a hardcore skeptic that thinks psychic abilities are silly. But when I'm in a situation where that belief system no longer serves me (for example, when I'm trying to do something psychic), I can minimize that belief, and pull up the PsiPog belief system. Or a New Age belief system. Or even a Wiccan belief system, if I feel that would be a better decision. I consciously choose what system to work in, based on the pro's and con's of that system.

Does this work!? Yes! After I listened to Steve's podcast, I layed down in bed to just think about it. I'm going to get a little religious here, so be prepared. I'm someone who has a lot of conflict with the Christian belief system. I know a lot about it, but constantly argue with it, and fight against it. With Steve's idea thumping through my head, I came to the conclusion: if I can hold multiple belief systems, then I can install the Christian belief system that I already know a lot about, and even though a lot of my normal beliefs are in conflict with it, I should still be able to feel Christian when I choose to. If I don't want to be Christian, I should be able to just minimize that program, and pull up another one.

So I tested it out. I minimized all my negative beliefs about Christianity, and asked for Jesus to come into my heart (sounds crazy now that I'm typing it ). Low and behold, my body went through a change. I could feel my heart pulsating, and I couldn't stop smiling. After laying in bed smiling for a few minutes, I decided to minimize the belief system. So I minimized my entire Christian experience, and pulled up my old belief system. I felt normal, and even a little silly that I had experienced that! Then I minimized that belief system, and pulled up my Zen Buddhist belief system. I didn't feel silly, but I felt more wise for figuring this out (with Steve's help). I minimized that belief system, then brought up Christianity again... and I could feel the pulsation in my heart again.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to explain this to my Dad. I have been saved, under the Christian belief system. When I pull up that belief system, I become happy that I'm saved, and am excited that I'll see my Dad in heaven. When I minimize the belief system, and pull up a New Age belief system, I go back to the thought that heaven is silly, and I can't wait to see my Dad out-of-body to show him that I was right all along about life after death. But then I can just minimize that, and pull up the Athiest belief system, and I immediately think this is all so stupid!

Logically, the systems are in conflict with each other. But who says we can't hold conflicting beliefs? Why are we forced to feel stressed out when we are in conflict? Why must we choose ONE BELIEF RIGHT NOW that defines us? Why not have multiple systems installed on our consciousness harddrive that we can pull up whenever we choose to?

How does this apply to psionics. Easy. Instead of trying to figure out one master belief system where everything under the sun is possible, we can simplify the problem. All we need are seperate belief systems that work for each skill. If I want to do PK, I pull up the PK belief system, and have no problems. Who cares if my experiences with PK are in conflict with my energy manipulation (EM) belief system. When I want to be skeptical, I pull up that belief system. The skeptical belief system can be deadly to PK results... but it's useful for challenging crazy thoughts. If I want to challenge some crazy thoughts, I pull up the skeptic belief system. If I want to stop caring about that, and just do some PK for fun, I minimize it... and pull up the PK belief system.

This all happened last night, and I'm really excited to get some results with this. I already tried bending a spoon, and I'm not sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but it did look like I was getting results. Once I get some tangible results, I will most definitly be able to finish my next eBook on this same subject. I can't wait!

~Sean

Out-of-Body Exploring : A Beginner's Approach

2006-05-07T14:37:00.000-04:00

I started reading a new book on OBEs, titled Out-of-Body Exploring : A Beginner's Approach, by Preston Dennett.

It's pretty interesting! It could be considered a second- or third-generation book on OBEs, because Dennett takes a lot of quotes from Monroe, Peterson, and Bruce's previous books. He gets ideas from the "old classics", and then applies these ideas to his practice, to see what results he gets. It's cool to read about.

It's nice to see another person actually trying what other authors have suggested - and reporting on how well it worked, or what happened. For example, Dennett read that if you call your name out while out of body, that weird things will happen. So he tried it out. In a lot of cases, he tried calling his name out, but nothing happened at all. On one occasion, some crazy stuff did happen. Here's a quote:

Time to experiment! I remember that something amazing is supposed to happen if you say your name while out of body. I say out loud, "My name is Preston Dennett."

There's a shift. Suddenly, I'm outside in a field in the country. It's nighttime and the sky is filled with stars. I examine the night sky and am shocked to see the most dramatic astronomical display I've ever seen. Huge fireballs are crisscrossing the night sky. It's a fantastic meteor shower. The effect is incredible, and I am totally awestruck.

I fly upwards and into the sky. I keep going up until suddenly there's a shift and I'm in another dimension. I'm surrounded by millions of tiny, shiny, golden flakes. It's like being inside a ball filled with gold glitter. It is indecribably beautiful. I feel absolutely fantastic.

There's a shift and I end up in another place, which I can't quite remember. (Marth 19, 1997)

The only downside of the book is that it's not organized very well. It's basically just a list of random experiments he tried, and the journal entries of the results. Dennett tries to break them into logical sections, but it doesn't really work. (For example, Chapter 3 is "Experiments on the Astral Plane", and Chapter 4 is "Further Astral Experiments"). Overall, the information is useful, and it's worth the read for those searching for consistency between OBE researchers.

~Sean