FLIP
Please play both sides of a coin with me
for just a second:
What do you suppose is the connection
between controlled dreaming and traveling?
On one possible side, is the notion that traveling beyond your body is just an exceptional dream. After all, the brain can pull some amazing stunts. A dream is a dream is a dream. Perception is in the eye of the beholder and I can't SEE you do it, so it ain't happening. It's not possible to be elsewhere while your body is here. Jack Sprat could eat no fat, and his wife could eat no lean. I do go on, don't I?
Now, let's look at the other side of the coin. Let's first assume for a moment that all of that other side is correct but that we don't care if it's made up or not because it feels real. (Except that part about Jack, who actually preferred fat to lean but was trying to make the marriage work). Does the premise that the event is only a dream change the experience? And if we go a step further and state that nonphysical traveling is not a dream but actual fact, how does that change the experience?
Speaking for myself (as I'm a ventriloquist), it sure seems like I'm traveling. It feels like I'm somewhere else, out of my physical body. So, if one side of the coin is correct, then I'm simply experiencing an incredible mind game and I should knock it off. And if the other side is correct, I'm experiencing the real deal, or I'm not but I don't care.
I flipped myself on both sides of the coin for years. And I put off writing this book (the first one, Traveling) while I flipped. I felt that it was one thing to question my own validity of the event, but it was quite another thing to give others the impression that it's either this way or that unless I was sure. And I wasn't. For although I'd been able to verify the event and note a great difference between dreaming and traveling, this was still just my observation. Perhaps I was wrong.
I flipped my coin back and forth. I even considered submitting myself for lab analysis to assist in my coin toss. I'd be hooked up to measuring equipment while I slept, dreamt and traveled. They would break me down to all the tiny components of what I'm experiencing and place me on charts and graphs. Oh my, that sure sounds tempting. Squeak squeak, I'm a rat in a maze. Or now I'm Skinner's kid. Or woof, I'm Pavlov's puppy. No, I finally came up with a better solution to my flipping. And my solution is (drum roll): I don't care if my side of the coin is right or wrong.
To me, my side of the coin seems correct. Traveling is enough just to do it, whatever it is. Let other folks believe what they want to believe. That's their choice. Individual opinion is what makes us all so interesting.
I state that after twenty-eight years of doing whatever it is that I'm doing, I think it's really happening. It is my opinion that I get out of my physical body, and I have a wonderful time. I no longer question the experience. And you are encouraged to pick either side of the coin as well.
So, harking back to my original question from my side of the coin, what's the connection between controlled dreaming and traveling? (There's no flip here.) Both involve desire and visualization.
A controlled dream occurs because you want it to occur. It then continues as you focus your attention on directing the changing visualization. This same concept also applies to becoming nonphysical. You travel because you want to travel. Then, your visualized control of each action into the next (thought equals action) dictates your direction in a nonphysical environment.