THE BASIC PRACTICE -

Because conscious body-exit utilizes the subtle body, your practice will be met with greater success once you have awakened your subtle body with the preliminary exercises (page 39) in chapter two. Nevertheless, you can certainly pursue conscious body-exit regardless of the state of your subtle body.

To properly begin this practice, follow the “before bed” techniques (page 52) of mindful dreaming. This will focus your intent, relax your

physical body, awaken your subtle body, and breathe energy into your subtle body, after which follows a sitting meditation. The only difference in this routine will be what you record as your formal intent in your dream log:

Because you are practicing conscious body-exit, let this be reflected in your

intention. And, just as in mindful dreaming, when you phrase your intention, try to keep your expectations open. “I am interested in

consciously exiting my physical body,” might be better received by your subconscious than: “I must consciously exit my physical body this time (or I give up).”

Once you have completed the above exercises, it is time to go to bed.

Try to bring your meditative state with you, allowing for a smooth and mindful transition into sleep. The “in bed” techniques (page 56) of mindful dreaming will serve you well during this practice period. And although it is not strictly necessary, it is a good idea to stay lying on your back during this practice, thinking of it as a formal posture for this horizontal meditation session. You will want to remain as still as possible during this practice, so be sure to move around a bit and get comfortable when you first crawl into bed.

Now feel which areas of your body are touching the bed and let the bed do all the work in supporting your body. Then awaken your subtle body and try to feel its pulse. Repeat to yourself your intention to consciously exit your physical body. Breathe energy into your subtle body: As you inhale, draw energy up through your feet, legs, and spine, letting it rest on top of your head, and as you exhale, feel the energy wash past your face, neck, and torso, letting it rest in your navel area. You may include your arms in this energy breathing by drawing energy up through your hands, arms, and shoulders on the next inhalation. Let this energy flow up the back

of your head and rest at its crown. On your exhalation, feel the energy wash down your body into your navel area. Not only does this exercise energize your subtle body, but also it helps the physical body go to sleep, while giving your mind something to focus on. This is the ideal state for a conscious body-exit.

At this point – especially if you observed your physical body fall asleep, feeling that wave of heaviness envelop you – you might find yourself in the first stage of conscious body-exit. This is the catatonic stage, and it is characterized first by a sense of heaviness in the physical body. This feeling slowly progresses to an absence of physical body sensation.

In this state, soon you will begin to feel vibrations traveling up and down your body. This is the second stage of conscious body-exit: the

vibrational. At first it is wise to just get acquainted with these vibrations and observe how they flow. They generally feel like humming waves of energy which move from head to toe and then back again. Their nature is ecstatic;

however, it may take time to fully appreciate them as such. With the vibrations there may be associated sounds. Both the vibrations and the sounds can be alarmingly intense, so be sure to remember that they are not occurring in your physical body and cannot harm you.

The vibrational stage culminates in the separation of your subtle body from your physical body, which is the third and final stage of conscious body-exit. Generally, your subtle body will exit your physical body automatically, with no effort at all. However, you can help this process

along by imagining yourself floating lightly like a balloon. And while you might separate completely, it is also common for parts of your subtle body to remain attached to the physical. If this is the case, just continue with

pleasant thoughts of floating and know that the rest of your subtle body will separate in good time.

When waiting for your body to fall asleep in bed, it is not uncommon to doze off before you observe any of the three stages of conscious body-exit. However, if this occurs, it is possible that you will spontaneously wake up and find yourself in one of the three stages of exit. If you do, stay still and proceed from that point. As well, it is common to fall asleep and soon find yourself in a mindful dream. If this is the case, you have the

opportunity to convert the dream into an actual conscious body-exit (as explained in a later section). Keep in mind though that both mindful dreams and conscious body-exits are equally valuable experiences of the subtle realm.

In the practice of conscious body-exit, finding the balance between calm detachment and serious interest is key. If you are too detached, you might completely fall asleep out of habit. But if you are too serious, your physical body will remain awake. So if you find that you drift off to sleep too quickly, perhaps repeat your intention out loud to yourself for the first ten times to keep yourself awake and focused. On the other hand, if you find that you just cannot get to sleep, let go of the practice after about twenty

minutes. The energy you have invested might still very well pay off with a conscious body-exit.