Chanting in a large group

 June 23, 2022, early morning-

I woke up last night and had a bit of trouble getting back to sleep. I decided to try an internal chant, Om Namah Shivaya. Usually, when I do this I just fall asleep which was what I intended. This time was different. 

After a few repetitions, I heard other voices joining in. I kept on going and thought that I wanted this energy to go out to everyone I knew. It grew stronger, and even more, voices joined. It wasn't really anything like an OOBE sensation, but it was a general hum in the background while the chanting continued. 

Then I heard a slight variation in the chant from the other voices. I don't remember exactly what it was, but it also had Om, and Shivaya included. I see from Google, that Om Shivaya Namaha is a known variation. I need a tape recorder for my mind. The “Namaha” sounds right. It is the way these were combined that I really can't remember. It was very powerful. 

And, as the multitude of voices were chanting, I felt as if my arms were moving in a certain way. I am sure that means something, but I haven’t found anything online about it yet. 

I don't know how long the chanting lasted. In the end, I turned to my right, and my first wife was there. Just a slight bit of background, our marriage ended on more or less friendly terms, although it ended because she wanted it to end. Over the years, I have had a new perspective of those times, and a new understanding of her reasons to end us. And I have tried to keep in touch if doing that every ten years is keeping in touch. 

So, it was interesting to me that she was there, of all people. She had never talked to me before about her role in our separation. Now, she told me she was sorry, and that she had not handled things very well. I said that we were both there, and I was sure we both could have handled it better than we had. 

This seems strange to me to add here, but that it happened at the close of the chanting, made it seem important. I had forgiven her back then after she had told me what had been going on with her. This moment at the end of the chanting seemed to mean that we both had taken some responsibility for our ending, and had forgiven each other. 

A return to OOBEs with a difference (May 13,2022)

 Last night (between 11:00 and 11:20 pm, early for my usual times) was my first somewhat prolonged out-of-body experience in several years.

 

I had felt a bit different than usual, in the initial stages of rest after laying down for the night. I slept briefly. I woke up and turned over. I felt an extra awareness I can't really describe. Like knowing something was going to happen. I mentally repeated one of the mantras I know from a while ago. I synced that mantra to my breathing. I felt a growing awareness of energy in my head. This grew to a point it enveloped my body. If this had been the first time I had something like this happen to me, related to OOBEs, I never would have described the experience as starting with “vibrations.”

 

This was so not that. Think of the vibrations as equivalent to feeling a propeller-driven plane starting up; rough at first but evening out to an almost smooth feeling. This, on the other hand, was more like a jet engine starting; smooth and a different sense of the possible power.

 

As I got used to that difference, I “saw” my right hand. It was a yellowish-orange color, and as I looked at it, I concentrated on feeling the power and saw a plasma-like energy form in my palm. I remember thinking just how different this time was starting than the usual experiences I have had. Then again, each one has slight differences. As I was considering this, the sensation dropped away.

 

I had a brief break, and it started up again a bit stronger. This time, I lifted out quickly. In the past, my “trips” happened with my feeling I was on my back, and I turned over just at the end to approach wherever it was I was trying to get to. This time for some reason, I only felt the sensation of being on my back at the start, and quickly turned over for the rest of the “flight.”

 

And, just where was I going? I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to anything recognizable, at least nothing like I was trying for. I remember three or four entities in a large space. It was too dark to see details. And I didn’t think of trying to see better. I tried to ask who they were, but I couldn't “hear” that. I tried asking where I was, but that too I couldn’t hear. So they didn’t respond, except to appear to watch me. I didn’t feel very comfortable there, unable to communicate, so I ended it.

 

I think part of the issue here was that I didn’t try to contact my higher self to let them direct me. I just wanted to fly. And it allowed me to. I know “they” were with me, but I think they wanted to see where I would end up on my own, and what I would do there.

 

Even though I feel I didn’t accomplish much for my first OOBE in forever, I felt fine anyway, because it was such a new sensation for me. Maybe it was more about introducing me to that difference. 

Yet more chanting

Just a note to myself that last night it happened again with chanting.  This time I got more detail about what I saw during the time I was chanting. It does not really help me to see detail that does not mean anything to me.  But, it is interesting in some ways that the pattern of chanting and not going any "place" is becoming ingrained in me.

Here I am chanting again. . . Aum namah Shivaya and Aum

Aum namah Shivaya- and Aum is a very powerful combination chant for me while in a slightly different stage of conscious awareness.  I have not had any memorable experience of any kind since last February.

This experience started after I had already been asleep for a while and had awakened to find that I could not fall asleep again.  I was aware of laying there and suddenly I was hit by some force or other that knocked me sideways. I felt as if I was tumbling, but I was also aware of my body in bed still in the covers with my arms at my sides.  I was aware of the signal (?) I have heard before that my awareness had shifted, but it seems at this stage that I have to grab onto this signal, so to speak, to have any experience at all. In the past, this having to grab the signal has been hard. This time, my instinct was to chant Aum namah Shivaya- Aum namah on each inhalation, and Shivaya on each exhale.  Doing this seemed to grab that awareness of elsewhere and bring it more into focus.

This time, all of my sensations were much lower in frequency than past experiences where I had usually tried for higher and smoother vibrations.  These are low to the point of being aware of individual vibrating molecules.  None of this is easily described.  The chant of Aum namah Shivaya focused the power.  Putting this chant into more of a melodic chant helped increase the focus.  Dropping it occasionally to simply Aum seemed to draw the focus of energy more into my brain. I just remembered that early on in this, I could almost feel my lips moving in the chanting and was aware of my vocal chords moving.  At the same time I knew this was not really happening physically.  

The chant of Aum brought the energy higher into my head and I could see what looked like two arms in my field of vision.  On each arm was a hand but the hands were in some sort of special position that I knew at the time had some special meaning and purpose that I could not quite get hold of then.  Still chanting Aum, the energy seemed to reach a peak, and then one of the hands reached out and softly touched the middle of my forehead just a bit above the bridge of my nose.   At this point, the arms parted and I could see a clear and starry night. I could feel the energy winding down slowly. The starry night became a clear sunny day with a typical house in my view.  I could hear the voices of what may have been the residents of the home.  And then that faded as the energy continued to drop back into my every day awareness.  It took a number of minutes even at this point to get my eyes open and to feel like I could move.  And then, I just laid there awake again for the next hour wondering about it all.

Chanting Aum namah Shivaya- and Aum

This one started with my more typical aum namah Shivaya chant, but as it started I dropped it to just the more simple Aum, and noticed right away that it seemed to add a bit of power to the proceedings.  I had started earlier in the night as I was going to sleep by chanting aum namah Shivaya as I breathed. This was inhale on aum namah  and exhale on Shivaya.  This tends to get me focused and relaxed.  As I realized the vibration energy was starting- or as I got aware of it in any case, I briefly repeated the aum namah Shivaya.  I started to float a bit, and switched to Aum.  The increase in energy compared to the longer chant was quite fast and overwhelming to say the least.

Oddly, I lost control a bit as I was not sure where I was or why. It is not like I thought of anything, or wanted to go any one place.  I found myself landing very solidly on my back on a very hard floor in a closet or store room.  I felt that I was physically in the place.  I was afraid someone had seen me, but as it happened the door was closed.  As I stood up, I heard my shoes squeaking on this floor.  I sneaked out through the door, and found myself in an office setting. If anyone saw me, they did not react, so maybe whoever I was there was expected to be there.

The last time before this, I had stuck to the ”aum namah Shivaya”  chanting. I remained quite focused on it.   I heard voices speaking but could not quite focus enough to decipher what they were saying.  I saw what appeared to be a lattice work of compartments with individual people.  The impression was that the compartments were on the interior of a cylinder that I was floating in.  As I floated and rotated, I saw the people in this latticework.  Maybe it was some sort of gateway to other planes?  No one was there to tell me except maybe the voices.  And I could not follow what they were saying.

More in chanting mode

Last night I was awake and listening to sounds in the room that basically were interrupting my sleep at that point. I stated to see certain images as I listened to the sounds, and the more I tried to see, the more I slid into a weird awake but not quite all awake state.  It was not the same as pre-OOB, but close.  The sounds I heard kept pulling me back to awake, but I slid deeper each time I concentrated on the visuals.

Then the chanting started, and I was immersed in warmth of sound accompanying the chant. The chanting became a melody to accompany the warmth.  I was still consciously aware of my part in keeping up the chants, still the same as noted before.  Om Namah Shivaya, repeated in an ever-changing melody.  This continued for a fairly long time.  There were visuals accompanying all of this, but I do not remember what at this point.  After a long time, the canting ended.

As the chanting ended, I thought I woke up. The surroundings were not as they should be, and I awoke again, thinking I was really awake this time. Again, the events and people seemed OK for a moment, but I realized they were totally wrong eventually.  When I woke up for real, I remembered the events and wondered how I could have been confused about the reality of the first two false awakenings.  It was around an hour and a half since I had seen the time on my clock.

Just electricity

Sept 9, 2011.  1 AM

With chanting and new start sensation- There were two sessions. The first was with massive bird descending towards me. I heard very loud sounds with the chants. Then I saw a group of large birds. The birds faded as someone warned me I should stop this. The second session started and I heard three names. The only one remembered is William Marsden. Then more chanting and heard separate from my chant, a “hari Krishna” chant start up. Well, the only significance to that is that Shiva is the main devote to Krishna, maybe it would follow that chanting to Shiva would lead to hearing the chant to Krishna?  Not that I ever followed any of this really until this started happening to me. As the experience started to fade, a person near me said they wondered how I could do all of this while recovering. ? 

October 26, 2011

This is starting to move beyond what I can attempt to understand as far as what sort of significance these experiences hold. There is now no sense of vibration or sound. I am immersed in electricity. It is in me, I am it. It is me. I cannot even remember a chant initially. Just “om”. It is enough to bring such a surge of energy to and through me. The rest of the chant is added in as I remember it. The surge grows with each new repetition. There is no thought of “out of body” anything.  Why would it matter with “where” I am now- Out of what? It has no meaning.

I am losing interest in this other stuff. Why would I go out of my body? What would it prove at this point? The odd thing is that I have also lost interest in hearing about the out of body experiences of others. What a progression of experiences in my lifetime. . . What does any of it mean? 

More chanting, finally . . . or was it singing?

Just when I was starting to think that nothing would ever happen again, I found myself vibrating again. So naturally, I started to chant again. Why mess with a good thing? But it was more of a song this time. I did use the same chant as far as wording, but instead of flat out chanting, I varied it to a tune that I must have improvised. I certainly did not recognize it anyway. The result was a fascinating looping flight that varied as the melody changed. It may have been totally worthless in the long run, but it felt nice. Towards the end I finally started to have visuals with this, but they totally disrupted the feel of the experience, and it ended shortly after they started.

More and more experiences related to internal chanting

The last two days I have had more happening related to chanting. The experiences of the last two nights have been shorter duration than before, and similar in the lack of anything much happening other than chanting.

Yesterday it was more related to noticing the changes in the sounds-energy relating to the different words of the chant. The Om was the starting baseline energy. Namah seemed to rise in pitch and intensity. Shivaya is a bit lower in energy again. The effect is of creating a wave that grows to a crescendo and recedes again before starting new.

Last night after chanting had begun almost automatically I found myself suddenly materializing in a body and traveling to a sick family member. I do not remember thinking that I wanted to do this, or having any sensation of traveling as I had experienced in other more common types of OOBE. I was just suddenly there. I am not sure if I was any real sort of place at all. Maybe I was just in some other version of reality. What did I do there? I tried to heal of course.

Whatever the chanting is all about, one thing is for sure here. The frequency of my little experiences is way up after just stagnating over recent years. The overall content is questionable, but I feel better for having been doing this recently. And that may be the important thing here.

Chanting three and four

It is almost like I have no choice about it anymore. Chanting.

This next time was a week or so ago, and was fairly short in duration. I remember that in my field of vision as chanting began, I saw a dark disk in the center of my vision. I raised my right arm and started circling it around that disk. As I did this, a very colorful kaleidoscope appeared, and stayed for the duration.

Now, just last night it happened again. This time I was on my back, a position I almost never stay while asleep due to it causing me to snore. And even if I have an OOBE while on my back, I usually try to stop it and move to my side. But for this time of inner chanting, I stayed on my back maintaining complete awareness and control of my breathing during the chant. I never once had any problems breathing.

One weird thing was that I opened and closed my mouth quickly as if maybe I was trying to actually mouth the words of the chant. What this caused was an amplification of the inner energy surge brought on by chanting. I was aware of noises in the room but kept in the moment. The sensations are so peaceful and I feel like they are very beneficial to me at this point of my life. If I could bottle up this stuff, I could sell it for a fortune. It is everything that an OOBE only hints of as far as sensations go. During these times I feel absolutely at peace and have zero desire to make it change into any other type of experience.

again with chanting

Last night I had a return of the mantra related experience. I woke up a couple of hours after going to bed, and decided to try repeating the mantra “Om Namah Shivaya” as I had in the previous entry. After a few minutes, I had a surge of energy similar to what was described before but ever so slightly stronger and smoother. This energy also seemed to pulsate with my repetition of the mantra. I started to flat a bit, but remembered that my goal was not to go out of my body but was to experience this in my body for as long as possible. I raised my right arm above me (non-physically) and noticed that at least two different times something appeared to gently squeeze my hand as if in reassurance. This first episode ended. I turned to look at the clock, and roughly 40 minutes had passed.

I returned to the mantra, and spent at least 3 more periods of going into this state with brief pauses in-between. When I finally decided I had had enough for a while, I looked at the clock again and it was more than two hours later than the last time I had checked.

I did not appear to loose consciousness during any of these periods and have no memory of actually leaving my body after that first brief levitation.

Another first time event . . . with chants

“Om Namah Shivaya is known as the great redeeming mantra also known as five-syllable mantra

The meaning :

It means "I bow to Shiva." Shiva is the supreme reality, the inner Self. It is the name given to consciousness that dwells in all. Shiva is the name of your true identity- your self. “

http://www.meditationiseasy.com/mCorner/techniques/Om_namah_shivaya.htm

I include that here because for some reason, as my non-physical event started last night, I found that instead of my usual pattern of trying to just get out of my body, I started chanting the above mantra which I had first learned of nearly 30 years ago. I am not entirely sure why I did this, but it prompted another first time type experience.

It started with the familiar “chill” tickle sensation which I have noticed prior to the state from which I normally achieve my OOB vibration. This starts as a cold-chill type sensation at the lower back of my head, and goes out over my entire body in a manner of seconds. Usually, at this point, I can fall into the vibration energy, but it is not a sure thing. It takes a tricky balance of my desire to achieve it. Tonight, for some reason, instead of trying for the vibration energy, I simply started to chant internally, “Om Namah Shivaya”. I had no sooner started this and the cold chill sensation abruptly switched to a low frequency rumble.

Now, in the past I had had low frequency vibrations that were extremely difficult to take, and have over time raised them to smooth them out so I could even deal with them. There was something basically different about this sensation. As low a frequency as this energy was, maintaining this state seemed like something I could have done for hours. Actually, I am not sure how long I was able to maintain this. At some point as I continued to chant, I realized that the energy I felt seemed tied directly to the chanting, almost like it was a musical backing to the chant. I do not mean to say it had any sort of a tune associated with it. Because of the chant, I had none of my usual feelings of wanting to go anyplace at all, so I just stayed put. Eventually, I tried to move my hand, and then floated just above my seeming physical form. Later I realized that what I was seeing was not really me as I was, but at the time I thought it must be truly my body there. I have a memory of someone else seeing me as I just floated aimlessly, but then I returned to my body and found that the link to this sensation had ended.

I lay there wondering about what had just happened, and the chill started again. I resumed the chant, and the same sensation started to envelope me. This time I just stayed with it as long as I could, again noticing that as low a frequency as the energy was, how easy it was to stay in the grasp of whatever it was. I just kept chanting, and it buzzed around me. As time passed, I realized that my vision had started to change a bit. I started to see more of a lightened blue tone to what I was looking towards. I remember no details of this. I think I was distracted a bit by the changes to my vision, and this caused an end to the sensations.

As far as OOBEs go, this is not much to speak of. But it may be interesting from a meditation standpoint.