[awagsFare]

Hey Beekeeper--

From what I've read and what I've experienced, the idea I have is that dreams are sort of low-energy, passive astral projections. Once I'm awake, I seem to be able to distinguish between OBEs and dreams, but for the purposes of defining what actually happens (the processes and mechanisms involved, etc.), I'm not sure there's a lot of difference besides the amount of lucidity and control.

So I'm not sure what you mean when you say that dreams can overtake OBEs, unless you're talking about the kind of process where there's a second or two of actual, conscious OBE and immediately the mind starts losing consciousness and lucidity, allowing dream elements to bleed into the OBE experience and, in that area between conscious OBE and dreams, those dream aspects can seem very vivid and real -- followed, of course, by either a startling awakening, or a further slip of the mind into passive dream mode.

Either way -- using the rhythm napping method roughly two-thirds of the mornings since I discovered it last week, I've had less than impressive results, and I'm trying to figure out why. I've read a little bit about energy storage requirements, and the building up and usage of energy reserves, but as much as I'd love to fill my sub-navel center, I'm not sure if I even have any idea how to properly perform the full-body circuit (or, to take it a step further, how energy requirements play into the conscious projection process).

I don't think I've ever been able to achieve anything more than a very deep version of a light trance. While I'm able to easily put myself in a state where I fall deep inside myself and away from outside stimuli (a state where I lose most of the sensations of my physical body), I can't say I've ever experienced a full trance because I don't recall ever being in a state that I could label "mind awake/body asleep." It's just too easy to pull myself out of it, and my intuition tells me that "mind awake/body asleep" should be harder to come out of, like sleep paralysis. Because of this, the traditional MAP/Astral Dynamics stuff hasn't worked for me, nor did BWGEN by itself when I discovered it back in 2003; the only results I've ever gotten from any of these are even more crazy, elaborately orchestrated dream sequences.

Therefore, I'm not sure whether to take some time off and hope that the energy storage is working, in order to build up enough of a surplus to allow conscious projection, or to keep at the rhythm napping method every morning hoping to spontaneously OBE enough (or at least to creep closer and closer each morning) that my energy body is forced to evolve and adapt -- not unlike the karate master pounding his fist and his willpower against hard surface after hard surface until he becomes stronger than the hard surface.

Or, for you Superman fans (or those into offbeat metaphors), the genetic engineering of Doomsday, sent by his scientist father out into the unforgiving climes of a harsh alien planet, time and again, death after death, DNA collected, cloned and improved until the process gave rise to the single monster so unstoppable that it would slay the Man of Steel.

Such is my dilemma.

And if you think this post is long, rest assured that I excised quite a bit when I decided it would be more appropriate to put it in my forthcoming introduction post.

Best,

Vic