Please help me with NEW

[MatthewWright]

One thing that reading your repsonses has led me to consider is that I might be expecting something new when really this is all simply natural. What I mean is, long before evr even hearing about OBE's I've thought it was kind of cool how if you thought about a single body part, it was almost as if everything else wasn't there. Almost as if if you concentrated on one body part, it was like you could feel that body part simply "being." Not feel it touching or doing anything, but be aware of the fact that it is simply "there." Now don't think "What an idiot! That's the whole thing! That's what he thinks he's having trouble doing!" I don't get hardly any sensation at all. I suppose I get what you might call a light tingling, but that's it. Also, the reason that I always assumed this wasn't quite it, is because I don't get that feeling by doing anything Robert describes. I get it just by thinking. Just by thinking about my hand.

As much as I'd like this to be the case, I can't be right can I. Because I still can't recall any type of feelings. Like you must know by now, I can't re-create the feeling of being stroked. So I'm still not doing it right, I still am not using tactile imaging.

Man this is frustrating. It must be for the readers too, and I apologize. I can "sense" my hand, but I can't do any of Bruce's stuff with it, and don't even think I'm sensing it properly anyway.

[Tom]

Most people ignore their bodies unless something goes wrong. Hands, feet, the mouth, and the tongue in particular are exceptions to this neglect, so they tend to respond fastest. Often one side of the body will respond faster than the other. It can take several months of daily practice to wake everything up and to no longer have tactile blind spots.

[me]

try to feel for a pulse in your toes and other extremities then work it into a tingle, or something... thats what i do

[enoch]

I never get my foot to actually tingle just asif I've run my finger around it. I think that you would need a very sophisticated and advanced imagination to do that...but try and be aware of how it would feel if you were to circle your toe with your finger...be aware of what kind of sensation you would feel in that area. The tingling will come to some extent in time but nowhere near as exact as the real thing, in my opinion. I could be wrong, there may be people who can replicate that feeling exactly, I dunno. I mean, it's the same as imagining running your hand through your hair or patting your head. You don't actuallt feel that patting but you are aware - in your minds eye - of what it would feel like. Hope this helps

[MatthewWright]

Thanks everyone, I've made a decent bit of progress. I can replicate the tingling feeling of stroking my hand almost any time now, although sometiems it takes a couple of strokes to give me a little "boost" or reminder. I can go a nice ways from there.

Enoch: When I do it I can actually replicate the feeling of having been stroked (still no movement feelings, which is keeping me from the circle around the thumb joint exercise, but I'll get there soon) to the point where it's much stronger than if I had actually just stroked my hand. It's pretty neat.

Once again, thanks for all your help.

[tyciol]

You try and recreate the sensation of touch, tingliness, whatever, then expand it through the knee joint.

[mirtna]

I think that i understand what you are saying, though i don't have your gift of visual imagery.

My personal opinion is that the reason you feel your concentration is wasted (that is, that your idea of 'what it felt like' wasn't real/vivid enough) is that you are just starting out in your practice. Aside from a few lucky and gifted inidividuals that seem to take to all of this like fish to water, we all started out there at some point

I think that a major portion of the changes one undergoes as a result of regular practice is a BIG increase in sensitivity, both to external stimuli and internal. So on the one hand, one might take more pleasure in such things as a sunset or a song, and also on the other hand be much more *aware* (key word here) of their own thoughts and feelings. Building up awareness seems to be absolutely integral to all of this.

Anyway, sorry if i've rambled on, just thought i'd share my view.

[enoch]

I think that a major portion of the changes one undergoes as a result of regular practice is a BIG increase in sensitivity, both to external stimuli and internal. So on the one hand, one might take more pleasure in such things as a sunset or a song, and also on the other hand be much more *aware* (key word here) of their own thoughts and feelings. Building up awareness seems to be absolutely integral to all of this.

I think you hit the nail on the head there, mirtna

[tyciol]

I find the best way for me to feel tactile stimulation is to tickle it, but scratching/slapping/punching might work too, though I'd recommend it for muscley areas and not joints, which you probably wouldn't be working on much anyway.

[nparker]

Hi..!

I though there are a main problem with “being aware of...” mental action, and such is the mind scenario completeness concept.

As in Rope Technique, tactile imagination of a pair of hands pulling a rope doesn´t enough. It´s needed to make a mind image of us climbing the rope, but not from visual imagery viewpoint (remember its energy wasting nature) but including in such a mind image tactil and mainly “kinesthesical” components. It´s needed to think about us and our hands (not physical hands) as a connected set.

Well, apologize previous digression (rope technique related) and coming back to “being aware of...” (aka “feel your...”) concept, scratch action of a specific body part allows us to highlight such area making it even more detectable.

Scratch action, too, allows us to gather a reliable data set in order to efficiently point (or direct) our mind a posteriori, done the tingling sensations generated through.

My best regards...
Sincerely,
Natalia Parker