Question about concentration :)

I know this is a silly question but I just realised i dony understand it lol :)

Want i want to know is when people say you have to be good a concentration to astral project...what do you concentrate on? and is there ways to practice it?

The way i try and astral projection is to simple relax before going to sleep and just watch my breathing pattern and wait...is this right?


Thanks

Well, concentration usually stands for the ability to visualize and meditate. But it also stands for learning to not pay attention to bodily things and outside influences and thoughts that interfere with the process. I don't actually do breathing techniques much, i have shallow breathing, which is probably not healthy, but i still manage to accomplish things.
For me personally, I like to visualize the process of leaving my body, as in visualizing my soul, or whatever you call it, floating upwards, or sometimes visualizing appearing somewhere else. It works for me rapidly, but the actual process terrifies me at the same time unfortunately, so i never get really far, only about a few feet away, then i panic.
I think the process is different for everyone.
I've heard of lots of people, using the technique of visualizing themselves climbing up a rope. Doesn't work at all for me.
I am way too analytical to imagine climbing up a rope in a physical sense without my body.

Thank you very much Ciqala :)

but surely visulising your self coming out f your body only takes a few seconds ? do you repeat it ? do you do it even when your body is not leaving ? and last of all sorry lol does your physical body have to be asleep first?

Concentration is a lot simpler than that, it's so simple that it's commonly not very well-understood. Concentration is the willful act of focusing your entire attention (ALL of it) on a single thing. This can be sound, taste, smell, feeling, temperature, visualizations, words, phrases, images, objects... anything. Concentration is a highly powerful tool in any endeavor. Be assured also that 99.999999% of humans cannot concentrate very well at all, it couldn't be poorer even if we tried to make it so. Developing concentration is simple, but requires a lot of practise, patience, and dedication. There are also deeper and deeper levels of concentration, so if you ever feel like you're doing well in concentrating, know that you can always do better. Generally concentration power is measured by how long you can focus on one thing. The average human is lucky to manage this for 10 seconds or more, and even then that 10 seconds would be of poor quality. To give you an idea of how powerful concentration is, I once managed to access and hold on to a deep level of concentration which is usually beyond my reach as an average mortal. I managed to hold it for about 10 seconds, and in that time I triggered a split without much prior relaxation.

How do you develop such concentration? Well, it's easy. I would also recommend an e-book from Theron Dumont called "The Power of Concentration" to get an idea of the potential and depth of concentration and various methods to develop it.

As for your questions: Generally any astral projection technique is to be repeated until a split occurs. This can take seconds (unlikely) or minutes-hours. The physical body has to be extremely relaxed for a split to occur.

Thank you very much Alan :) but dos your body have to be asleep or just relaxed to split :) and thank you for sharing your concentration story :) did you say you actually aped from it?

I'm not entirely sure, but I think when the body is asleep it is always detached from the astral body. The point is to get from an extremely relaxed state to the split state. Either way deep relaxation is on the way to having the body be asleep. Concentration should entail ignoring and being apathetic to the physical body, so it encourages it to sleep.

[astralsuzy]

your technique will work thinkgood. You just have to wait for it to happen.

[Xanth]

You need to be able to concentrate, or focus, away from your physical body. The point is to disassociate from the physical.

While in the non-physical, focus is even more important to retain your state. Or in other words, you need to focus and concentrate on keeping your thoughts and emotions from going astray, or you'll find yourself experiencing the manifestation of them. :)

[Xan]

ThinkGood: what do you concentrate on? and is there ways to practice it?

Concentration simply means keeping your attention focused on one thing and staying there, and if it wanders away just bringing it back.

For AP we first focus on relaxing deeply... and more deeply still.

Then focus on whatever method you are using, such as the feeling of lifting up or rolling over or some other. ("The Secret of the Soul" by William Buhlman has lots of methods to choose from.)

Then focus on a target point you have chosen ahead of time to go to... such as the doorway to your room, or another very familiar spot in your house. Later you can focus on further away points, or questions you want answered, or experiences you want to have... such as flying, etc..

When you want to return to your body, just shift your attention / focus to it and there you are.


Xan

I used to concentrate on my energy flow for me to start up to astral project. Now I don't have to concentrate at all, even when I exercise or am working, I can just up and leave my body. I remember one time Benthos took complete control of my body because I took off completely, my buddy saw this and laughed his butt off because of how weird I was walking. When I came back, it's pretty funny thinking of Benthos doing work for me.