Lucid Dreaming? Out-of-body Experience?

The following set of exercises is described as I first learned them from Rotilde Cassiano de Almeida, who represented Maria Aparecida de Oliveira, from Brazil. She is best known by her nickname: Bianca. The full set is composed of five exercises. The first one is supposed to be for the oxygenation of the blood, though its retention-of-breath part might not deliver its intended objective. The second and third exercises are supposed to be "brain-gland" exercises: the second one being for the hypophysis and the third one for the pineal gland. The two last exercises are defined as "brain-exercises": the fourth one is a "brain-pulsation" exercise, and the fifth one would build an "exit-channel" that can be used to exit the material body.

Never mind the controversial aspect of what these exercises are supposed to deliver. At the time I learned them, and until quite recently, I didn't have any way to challenge either the origin or the specific "brain-glandular" work these exercises would do. Nor can I now decide with certainty, with my present knowledge of functional neuroanatomy, if these exercises do specifically what they are supposed to do. What I do know is that as soon as I work with them, principally the "brain-exercises", there is a tendency to experience phenomena of lights, sounds, vibrations. However, one should admit that it might well be the result of concentrated mental work, or special biological or neural conditions.

My colleagues and I followed Bianca's challenge that "if we did practice the exercises regularly, we would be rewarded with the leaving of the material body consciously. These techniques seemed to work straight away for some, but for the majority it took from one to three months to start noticing the leaving of the physical body. Yet, for others, it didn't seem do have any effect at all, thought we were never sure why. The conclusion is that many of us were rewarded as promised, thought not in a perfect way as we all expected.

Now, let's go on with the exercises.

While raising your arms slowly to the height of your shoulders, inhale, being careful not fill your lungs too much. With your arms at the height of your shoulders, hold your breath, stretch your arms outwards, then tilt them backwards slightly, while also tilting your head backwards. Then, hold your breath for more or less 15 to 20 seconds. Return head and arms to former position (before tilting them backwards), while still holding your breath. Then, also being careful to do it slowly, exhale making an "o", blowing of the air (it makes a "foooooo" air-noise) while lowering your arms back down. Relax by inhaling and exhaling deeply, without holding your breath. Repeat this procedure three times. Next do breathing relaxation this way: inhale deeply while raising your arms above your head. Then, without holding your breath, just blow all the air from your lungs while letting your upper body bend/loosely downwards, just letting loose your arms and body. Repeat it three of four times, at will. Next repeat that first part of the exercises three or four more times, again doing the breathing relaxation at the end of it.

2. The "finger exercise": [This is supposed to be the hypophysis exercise.]

Sit confortably on the floor with your back against something, so that you don't feel tired. Again, this is a slow motion exercise, and it takes a while until you finish. Therefore, it's important that you are confortable. You can then use your right knee (or your left knee, if you are left handed) to hold your elbow. Now look at your index finger, with your arm extended resting on your knee. First, look at your finger and try to stop your thoughts the best you can. That will also make your "finger exercise" a good "concentration exercise", and it's my suggestion that you do try to "concentrate", as it will definitely improve your odds for "results". Now, move your finger very slowly with your look fixed at its tip, while counting at (about) the velocity of the seconds, from one to approximately 60. At the counting of 60, your finger must have arrived at the approximate center of your forehead... (AT the Yoga's "third-eye" position.) And you are still looking at your finger, though after a certain point you will not be able to see it anymore, and you will be quite "cross-eyed". Now you are touching the forehead, so now, while you count from one to 10 (approximately), make a very slow circular movement of your finger at this position, as if massaging that point. Then, stop the movement, and very slowly, still with your look fixed at the finger, move it very slowly to the position with your stretched arm, while again counting at "seconds velocity", from one to about 60. Repeat this whole procedure 5 or 6 more times, without at any instant deviating your look from the finger. Also try your best not "wander in your thoughts", and use the "counting" as an extra focusing motivation. (Note: I also use "brain pulsation" as yet another focusing, or concentration strengthening, while doing the finger exercise).

Note: This exercise should not make you permanently "cross-eyed". Ophthalmologists use it to train your eyes to actually not be cross eyed. However, it is a good idea to relax your eyes after finished... See my "Biography" about this fact.

Next three exercises should be done while lying down. Therefore, put yourself in as relaxed a state as possible, and be covered with a blanket. (That is important, as one usually feels cold when deeply relaxed.) Again breath deeply, holding the air in the lungs for a short while, then exhaling slowly. Don't exaggerate in the slow-motion. The objective now is to just help you become relaxed. At this point, before going into a deeper relaxation, do the second "eyes' exercise".

3. (Closed) eyes exercise: [This is supposed to be an exercise for the pineal-gland. It's done preferably in the dark.]

With closed eyes "look" cross eyed and upwards, holding your eyes at this position for a short while. (Note: Not at a slow-motion, this time.) I usually count about 10 seconds. Relax and remain so for another 10 seconds. Repeat this process 5 or 6 more times.

4. Brain-pulsation exercise: At this point, you should try to reach a deeper relaxation using any technique you know. (Or you can use the technique of relaxation I use.) When you feel yourself very relaxed (deeply, if possible), you should pay attention to that blackness in front of your closed eyes, as if a black-screen. Now comes the tricky part of this exercise: you must try to feel as if your brain is pulsating... (You might want to play with this pulsation beforehand, just to get the idea of how you might do it.) Never mind of its "oddity", its lack of "reality", even the sense of its "nonsense". Myself, and my colleagues in Brazil, always had many questions of "how to go about with this brain-pulsation". Could it be "heart-pulsation"? Bianca advised that it should not be heart-pulsation. Soon we just concluded that there wasn't any other way than to just "try and do it" the best we could. At first I thought the muscles on my neck or from the back of my throat were doing the pulsation... And it might well be, I should admit. So, what to do? play with it, and do it the best you can, but at all times try to "brain-pulsate" and try to not use any muscles, and to achieve that, vary the ways you do it, until you find one way that seems "more or less reasonable". honestly, I don't believe I ever really found a convincing way for doing "brain-pulsation"... I just did it and do it for the sake of the exercise, and because of the combined results obtained by doing the complete series of exercises. However, sometimes I do feel as if something pulsates in my head, after all those years of experiences! Sometimes it seems inside the head, other times it seems as if on my forehead... But theses sensations came independently, and unexpectedly. Now, let's go on with this exercise.

Remember: You are now deeply relaxed, and only seeing the blackness of your mind. Also, you are already "acting" on that "brain-pulsation". Next, you are going to "pulsate numbers" on that black-screen in front of your eyes by using this (oh-so-odd) act of "brain-pulsation"! Here is how. Pick the number ten first. Separate it into one and zero, and you are going to pulsate the number one on the left side of the screen, then the zero on the right side of the screen.

Important: You will not be "seeing" the numbers. Build the number 1. [This is done on the left side of your black-screen.] You will "build" the number one on that "black screen" by pulsating (almost like jerking, or like push-slide) movements. So, make the number one almost as if you have a chalk with your hands and you are writing the number one on a black-board. So, you start the number one and in a "jerk" you move the chalk "up" to the top of the number one, then in another "jerk" you move the chalk "down" to the bottom of the number one. Hey! Do NOT see the number. Your objective now is to "build" numbers on the black screen of the mind, by "pulsating" movements, not build an image of it. You will only have the feeling of movements and pulsation. You will build this "number one" that way, counting these "jerkings", say, 60 times. I mean, make those "jerk-movements" at the speed of the seconds, more or less. But don't do it too fast, nor too slow making your exercise too long or tiring.

[Note: If it becomes too tiring, just do it with a smaller number that is more confortable for you. Never exaggerate. If you do, you will discover yourself just falling asleep...It is important that this exercise doesn't make you tense and tired, therefore losing your relaxation, or falling asleep.]

Build the zero: [This is done on the right side of your black-screen.] The zero is continuous, so here you will have the opportunity to do a continuous "circulation" in either jerking "re-starts" every time you complete the circle, or just counting the continuous circulation 60 times. Again, exactly as when you are using the chalk to write on the black board, "rewrite" on the same zero, over and over again.

Build the number 9: [This is done on the right side of your black-screen.]

Build the number 8: [This is done on the center of your black-screen, with the number 8 lying down as the symbol of infinity.] Here, use the two former fields, right and left, such that the center of infinity symbol is at the center of the screen . Then go about moving in a sliding-jerking (more of an inpulsing way) back and forth movement, 60 times.

Build the number 7: [This is done on the left side of your black-screen.] As usual, 60 times.

Build the number 6: [This is done on the left side of your black-screen.] Just like the number 9, but inverted.

Build the number 5: [This is done on the center of your black-screen] Again, it will be using both sides of the black screen, though more centered.

Build the number 4: [This is done on the right side of your black-screen.] Like the number 1, this is done in three (plus one return) jerking movements.

Build the number 3: [This is done on the right side of your black-screen.] This number has two round parts, and you can do it in two half circular movements, back and forth, 60 times.

Build the number 2: [This is done on the left side of your black-screen.] Do it more or less in the same way. I say more or less, because there is a curved and a strait part in the number 2, right? Then, "input" some "circulating" movement while doing the "round part" of the number two, and a "strait jerk" in the strait part. Again, count about 60 movements.

Build the number 1, again: [This is done on the center of your black-screen] I like to do this number more like an upward arrow... Just to have a little part on each side of the screen but with a main movement in the center, with up and down movements. (60 times, as usual)

Build the zero, again: [This is done on the center of your black-screen] Now here is a circulating movement done exactly at the center of your black screen. Try now to "circulate" as smooth as possible, but start it by impelling every time you complete a circle. [At least for me, this movement does not seem too easy, but after some practice, it will become easier, and it might even "take off" by itself.] Do this about 60 times, as usual, and - still circulating, go the next step of these exercises.

5. The building of the exit-channel: [This is done on the center of your black-screen]

You were circulating the zero, in the last part of the former exercise. Now, still circulating, you should count from one to 5 then "impulse" this "circle" out and away from your "forehead's black screen". (Watch for tension building at this phase. It is a very tricky step, the one of "impelling the circle out".) Also, imagine that this circle is moving outward away from your forehead. Do this for a while... The idea is to continue building those circles and "throwing them out" of your forehead, until you "go with it" exiting your physical body!

A "VARIATION" of these exercises:

This variation is mainly what I have been practicing for years. It simply consists of instead of "building the numbers" on the black screen, to imagine building them through various regions of the brain. It was suggested by Bianca sometime in 1980 or 1981. Therefore, you can imagine you are building numbers from the forehead to the back of your brain, with the specific intention to stimulate all the areas of the cortex, and probably other brain organs as well. I don't specifically use it very accurately. I don't believe this is possible at all. However, I do "pulsate the number 1" as if throughout of the main cleft of the brain: the central one. Then, when I am "circulating the zero" in the last part, I like to do it as if propagating from back of the head to the forehead, and out, principally when I "impulse the zero out" in the process of "building the exit-channel". Otherwise, I just imagine "right" or "left" brain-areas, generally. I suggest while doing this "variation" that you try a few different areas of the brain just to see how you "feel them".

There is ONE IMPORTANT TRICK: THE PIN-POINT OF LIGHT.

One other point that Bianca frequently warned the components of our group is that if you "don't exercise" you not only would not progress (meaning become better acquainted with these other worlds), but worse, you would lose the ability to "remember" your experiences. Your "awareness" would drop. I have observed through the years of working on this issue that this is not completely true. I have noted that in periods that I am not able to do work toward these experiences, I would not forget how to do it, but its importance would recede to a subconscious level. Just like if you learn to play piano well, then for whatever reason you had not played piano for quite awhile, you would still play piano, but not so well anymore. Indeed, it might happen that you would have difficulties to remember your memorized music. The same happens with OBE or Lucid-Dreaming skills. I have had many periods of time when I was not able to pay attention to my experiences, or even to keep them in my dream-journal, due to novelties, or just due to a special busy or tricky period of life. Then, even though it receded to the "back of my memory", I have always been able to reawaken my abilities, and even to learn further from the point where I had stopped by once again working in an extended period of time - so that it gives me time to practice again - on my awareness. This fact gave me more confidence and soothed my guilt about not being able to keep up my work in this area. That should help YOU to be motivated, and NOT give up, due to a busy-life style.

For myself, the "brain-pulsation" exercise has been the most important of all. It is one that slowly, but surely, has provided me with important phenomena while approaching the sleep onset. Despite the difficulty of understanding the "how to" mechanism, once I had done it for a period of time, coupled to deep relaxation, it was soon obvious that I was feeling vibrations that propagated in waves throughout my body, and other phenomena I already knew as lights and sounds. Lights and sounds started to come more frequently and in a wider variety. These results appeared in a more obvious way after I followed an extended period of practicing exercises, where I had made a point to learn more about these "brain-exercises". This period happened at the same time I was also learning to do a better relaxation exercise and to input a communication with my subconscious, with the help of a psychologist from Pretoria, South Africa. (I was working at the University of Pretoria at that time.) The pay off for this special coupling of events, plus my working in an extended time without too many interruptions, was impressive. Some of my best experiences appeared during that time, which also included a period of about six months after I moved to the United States. By following this more serious approach, results started to show in less than a month. I started to note the sleep-onset phenomena more frequently and my instances of "getting out" had increased in number and quality. I also had better memory of those experiences.

In commenting about the above successes and difficulties, my point is that the discovery of phenomena at the sleep onset, coupled to the work on dreams, does bring us to the conditions for the OBE-type experience. My involvement with Bianca and her group demonstrated this fact very clearly. For myself, the sleep-onset phenomena brought to the stage another interesting fact: the discovery of the "energies" inherent to our brain/nervous system, which I discovered later to be related to the Kundalini. That is for myself, the most important result from these exercises, though not specifically restricted to them, as demonstrated by the tradition from Eastern Yoga-schools.