He speaks with the aggressive passion of a tired, slightly tipsy uncle at a birthday party with a pearl of wisdom for the socially awkward child trying to read a book under the slide.

Haha, was that meant as a compliment? And what child reads books under the slide while being at a birthday party?

What I like about his talk is that he mentions that consciousness exploration is fun and exciting. Something you hardly find in Buddhist teachings (life is suffering yadda, yadda). I mean they would sell better if they'd say: Hey our teachings and mantras are way better than drugs(tm). And we don't care how many you consume.

Instead, the noble eightfold path.

Haha yeah that was a compliment. There are sometimes, even at adult parties where i'd rather be under the slide with a good book

I only got halfway through but you're right he does colour it as a fun endeavour, and doesn't put out that insufferable 'guru' vibe. Although some of the absolutes he proclaims tickle my skeptic nerve a little. Regarding what 'we know' about the afterlife or 'transition of consciousness' as he put it.

Yes, he really isn't a guru. Probably more of a saleman, because you know, the bills we all have to pay. But as far as I remember, he doesn't say, HIS course and HIS books are the only way to archive enlightenment, knowledge and transition - he mentions yoga and meditation and I'm from another talk I think he mentions drinking ayahuasca with shamans. And he's anti-BS, something you rarely find with dogmatic guru knowledge.

That's the reason why I posted the talk, great summary and no need to buy anything unless you really want to spend your money on, I guess, high price courses. Of those I'm skeptic, too. But you gotta somehow pay the bills - and some folks don't have the time to do all the research on their own.

This is a great talk in a very similar vein to William Buhlman's, this guy Jurgen Ziewe is very experienced with OBE's and has written a few really good books on them...he started having them unintentionally, they arose as a side effect of a regular meditation practice. He also discusses lucid dreams, and makes some interesting comparisons between them and OBE's. Interesting stuff.

Does he describe his practice in detail somewhere?

This is part of a message from I received from him a little while back:

The main thing is going with the meditation and surrendering into it, letting go, rather than hard concentration. On my websites I have given several techniques (links below). In my personal technique at the moment I simply focus on awareness residing in a state of being or stillness. That sounds a bit vague and abstract, but that's what I do, simply entering into stillness, favoring stillness instead of thoughts and surrender into it. Your focus on breathing seems to do the trick. Meditation is simple so you can trust your intuition for guidance if you don't follow any rigorous practices. But here are a couple of more tangible techniques on my website. Chose one, not both or stick to your own:

http://www.multidimensio...ife_after_Awakening.html

http://www.thetenminutem...ditation_About_Love.html

Here is also a binaural soundtrack: [I know you're aware of this already, but seems like it could be a meditation aid as well as for OBE prep].

http://www.multidimensio...ds_-_Binaural_Beats.html

I don't see why a big deal is made of OBEs. The body is always in me, not me in the body.

do most people really find it difficult to lucid dream and OBE? It's always just been something I have done randomly since a child. I don't necessarily agree with peoples distinction between an OBE and lucid dream. They are similar threads and overlap. OBE might even just be a lucid dream, to me, until I can prove it's not.

I have spent up to a year(in dreamtime) before in a lucid dream. I don't know how I know it was a year though, but it was a long long time and I knew it was a year at the time somehow. Many times I have spend multiple days in dream time while lucid.

I have said this before, and I stick by it..the most effective method generating the most in depth lucid dreams I have ever had, is sex. Sex very early in the morning..so early that you roll back over and sleep for a couple more hours. My theory is that it wakes up the brain while at the same time the orgasm releases oxytocin and other neuro-chems that relax the body and put you into the deepest state of relaxation..so you pass right out blissfully but the mind is still stimulated, perhaps from seratonin/dopamine activity.

Thanks Puma, so it isn't really a special technique. Good that you brought him up, adding new and obviously experienced ppl to mix is beneficial to expand our knowledge on this subject.

I also found Mr. Ziewe's vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/user5737590/videos

People definitely vary significantly in their ability to lucid dream and have OBE's. I definitely had more lucid dreams when I was younger. Some people claim to never even remember their dreams! So there is a vast continuum of natural ability, and these days I tend to have to put practice in rather than hope it occurs spontaneously to get results.

I agree with you jamie that lucid dreams and OBE's are on a sliding scale or continuum of conscious awareness (and a WILD seems like a great technique for inducing both experiences), but you should check out the talk and see how the guy compares them, I think it's interesting. He has a great deal of experience of both lucid dreams and OBE's, and he used lucid dreams as a primary launchpad for OBE's. He describes the lucid dreams as an internal subjectively generated experience, experienced in some level of waking consciousness, whereas OBE's occur in full or hyper levels of waking lucidity, and this is how he would induce the OBE's from lucid dream, by bringing his waking consciousness to the fore. I've heard that in a full blown OBE you should be able to remember details like your address and telephone number etc, whereas in a lucid dream this is much less likely.

An interesting article here on an experienced OBE'r, on how he perceives the differences between lucid dreaming and OBE's:

http://www.grahamnicholl...s-a-form-of-lucid-dream/

I just heard back from Jurgen as it happens on the meditation side of things, and this is what he had to say:

I no longer pursue a meditation "technique" as such. I simply focus on awareness when I close my eyes which is already there before closing them.

So my meditation now consists "being". With my eyes closed I can easily allow bliss consciousness, which underpins all reality, enter into my field of awareness and allow it to take it from there, putting any intent aside in a sublime form of surrender.

A technique of course is powerful when the 'being state" is not as yet a permanent feature in your life and when thoughts, personal issues and fixation draw too much energy and attention and distract you from focusing on "what is".

So any technique which enhances your ability to focus on awareness is surely a good thing. It is better to focus on the energy of your breath than on your thoughts. Qigong would be another way and people naturally settle on the process which they feel most at ease with.


But yeah, I dig his vibe; I thought his talk was fascinating personally. His books are highly recommended to, makes for eloquent and inspiring reading on this stuff. Nice find on his Vimeo channel, will check it out.