Hello, Volgerle.

Quote Originally Posted by Volgerle
Regarding this part quoted, maybe that (my target-orientedness) is the most difficult thing for me. You know, I take an almost 'rational' and 'personal-scientific' approach to these things. This involves planning and setting goals (which you need or want or believe that you need/want to reach) beforehand. Many books on AP also recommend that you 'have targets in mind' when you go out, making constant affirmations also contain this element.
There's different people with different responses, so these "success formulas" can backfire in unexpected ways.

The way you describe is pretty similar like I used to approach things. Being a somewhat cerebral type myself my ideas of how to do things or how things should work often led to frustration. I wasn't questioning things, I was just going forward with what I thought was the right response, or with rationalizations of why the course of action I chose was good.

This is a typical behaviour if the mental elemental is in charge. In the theosophic model the mental elemental is a collection of mental matter from the lower mental plane. It has, in a sense, a will of its own, mostly expressed in resistances. If there's a deeply ingrained habit, it will prefer to continue act like it. Also the phenomena as unchecked mental chatter, compulsive rumination or the inability to stay on task can be related to it.

For example concentration meditation is often aimed at reducing these tendencies. The mental elemental is tamed and kept on task. Distractions and mental chatter are recognised, but the focus always returns to the object of meditation. Other methods of taming the mental element exist, of course. And with good reason as the mental elemental can pose a problem in many different ways, and no solution solves all.

If your problem for example isn't distraction, concentration doesn't help. In fact, concentration power can result in situations like the one you see here. You know what you want to do. You stay on task. You apply all the fixes you know. You're not distracted, you're focused. But in another sense you're also mentally asleep. You run through a preestablished program. In a sense you're not lucid to the fact that a mental process is running the show, the script you have established for these occasions when you become aware you're in a dream/OBE.

So, what is needed on these occasions is a state of openmindedness. Curiosity. An inquisitive nature. You could call that the lucidity of the soul. My guess would be that this is what mindfulness training tries to develop. I call it lucidity because it is being present to your experience instead of living in a mental body dream. Observe yourself when you think about something - I can walk down a street and think about something and not notice anything outside myself I would recall later. It's like sleepwalking while awake.

This kind of lucidity applies to all states of consciousness, and Kurt has for example recommended several simple practices to do with observation to open up to it. Also, knowing that the script is not always the answer might lead you to stop and observe while having the experience. Every feedback that surprises you, like the inability to fly, is a clue in itself. It is a chance to get even more lucid and question your own behaviour. It is feedback that challenges you to even higher lucidity.

Cheers,
Oliver