I've been meditating daily everyday for 30 minutes to an hour using the Breath Awareness method give by Robert Bruce. At first, I had problems nodding off during the session. Now, about 3 months since I started the practice, it's become the opposite! I don't fall asleep, but my mind just won't quiet down! I used to be able to enter altered states through meditation years back, however life circumstances prevented me from any sort of spiritual work until the last year. Thinking back to my meditation back then, I not only focused on breath awareness, I would saturate my entire mind with "Iiinnnnnn", and then "Ouuuttttt", to where I seen "IN" and "OUT" in my mind's eye, and I heard it being said to the point where it drowned out any and all other sounds, thought-words, etc. The rise and fall of my abdomen was just the physical aspect of my breath awareness, you could say.

Also, I've purchased Initiation Into Hermetics by Franz Bardon. He prescribes the three methods of Thought Control. I'm practicing the first one where I just observe my thoughts for 5 minutes, twice a day. The second method says to focus on one and only one thing (i.e. Breath Awareness), and to keep everything else out of the mind. I'm carrying this method into every second of daily life, as much as I can! I figure, to sit in meditation for an hour with a clear mind, only to get up and walk away from it letting the mental chatter continue, is counterproductive. So I stay mindful of my entire being, just breathing in and out, as much as I can throughout the day.

I also think that its a good idea to get meditation/thought control down-pat some more before continuing into NEW. I'm also doing everything that Franz Bardon has set up for Step I, Magical Schooling of the Spirit, Soul, and Body, and keeping a spiritual journal. Once I've built my spiritual foundation more solidly, I will incorporate NEW into it. If I do NEW now, what starts as me running energy through my limbs ends up being me thinking about what time I should go get groceries!