How Being Present Increases Your Chances of Astral Projection (Patreon)

The more we practice being present, the more we master our tendency to dwell on the past or worry about the future. You might think this just helps with positive thinking or mental wellbeing but it goes much deeper than that; to the point of healing our subconscious too.

For example, say a man comes back from work and becomes irritated when his wife doesn’t have food ready for him. For his sake, it can be damaging if he becomes irritated internally, but what’s more destructive is if he doesn’t make an effort to become conscious in that moment; his irritation can turn into anger, then out of impulsiveness and mechanicalness, he can express his anger verbally, and if this man hasn’t even a single rational thought, he could express his rage physically. The consequence of this is that now this man’s previously pleasant state of mind has been agitated. The remnants of his anger may stay imprinted in his mind until he sleeps and let go of the stress of the day through sleep (which is just one purpose of sleep). Suppose this man is interested in dream-related practices. In that case, he will either find it hard to become lucid, or he will only remember dreams related to his earlier emotional turmoil. In this way, the dream is acting as a block because his consciousness is stuck in healing some sort of spiritual trauma instead of being present during moments of sleep.

If we come into a situation that really ‘hurt’ us during the day, and we spent the day in self-pity after an argument, or because we became distressed by something we read or saw, then we will most likely dream about it at night. Dreams act as a way for our consciousness to process impressions from the day in order to be ready for the next day. Therefore, if we don’t let impressions from the day be interpreted as stressful or negative, and stay impartial towards reality, then we have better chances of coming out of body or becoming lucid in our dreams.

Similarly, people who say they had a ‘bad’ sleep, or have recurring nightmares, may have lived through an experience at any time in the past that gave them an impression so strong that their consciousness is struggling to ‘digest’ or accept it. Thus, it becomes part of their underlying subconscious reality which can express itself in various ways through behaviour and personality. This is why consistent meditation and working on oneself can become a healing process long-term.

Most people think that 'being present' is as simple distracting our minds towards focusing on minuscule things such as gratitude or on our breath; while those things are wonderful, there are much deeper energetic and psychological parts of ourselves that have far more control over our conscious mind than we realise. It's these depths of our consciousness that need addressing in order to truly become more present. The more present we become, the more space and opportunity we give ourselves during sleep. The more inner space we have, the more chances we have to consciously participate in our dreams or have the profound experience of escaping the depths of the Self completely and have an out of body experience.

This post is an extract out of my book; Beyond Dreaming.