cannabis and out-of-body experiences

[Coelho]

Whatever it is you do, do that. If you feel you need to do more, then do that. The point is, whatever you are doing, you are there.

Yes... there is even a Zen (or something like) quote, that says:
"If youre hungry, do eat, if youre sleepy, do sleep."
It seems obvious, but in fact its very hard to do this... we always do what we dont want or need and do not what we want or need...

Yes, that's it! It takes an incredible about of focus to stay in that state continuously. For most people, it is much too hard to even glimpse. For myself, it is incredibly difficult. I'd say I can enter that state once or twice a day, but it never last more then a half-hour, at least not yet. Some days are better then others and some days I can be in that state for most of the day, but it is still very difficult and those days are rare. Especially if you haven't dealt with past pain that keeps coming up.

HALF-HOUR!!! Damn, man... i only can stay in that state for 5-10 minutes at most, and only while the unmentionable's effect lasts... without it, only meditating with help of weed, i only got some glimpses which lasted only seconds... and they were very weaker, and not enough for making a lasting impression... i could only recognize that i was in the same "enlightened" state i knew, but it was way too fleeting... so i surely admire greatly that monks that sit and meditate for long hours, even days, until reach this state, only by use of the mind, without even some weed to help them... THAT is determination and persistence... only we, who know how hard it is, can recognize and admire properly this feats of them.

That is most definitely your ego. ANY fear is ego and any sort of pain is also your ego. I, too, was afraid of the state. That I'd go crazy if I entered it more often and sometimes I felt I was crazy, but ultimately this is illusion and it is not real. There is nothing to fear there, as that is your natural state. It's like being afraid of the naked body behind the clothes you wear. That is your natural state, so it is useless to fear it. I'm not advocating running around naked here, but the point is that your natural state is nothing to be afraid of, to run away from. You should embrace it.

In order to overcome the ego, you must watch it. Learn from it. You can only overcome it once you know what it is. I myself need to learn more from it, so I am where you are. Past pain keeps coming up and hindering my progress and it is sometimes very difficult to focus on the present moment.

And not only pain hinders us from reaching the enlightenment... for me sometimes its fear, or desires, or any tricks the ego does to get my attention for it and distract me from my goal... and, unfortunately, most time the ego succeed... as it knows us very well (in fact, better than anyone else), as it was grown up and feeded and taken care by us during all its life... damn it!
Sometimes i think the "original sin", when supposedly Adam and Eve learned the good and the evil is a parable for the introduction of the ego in the human minds. Because good and evil are classifications of acts (or thoughts or whatever) of someone. Someone does good or bad things. But only if someone has the notion of self, of "me", it can classify its own acts as being good or evil. "I" did something, and this something is good or bad. But if there were not "I", this something would just happened, no one would be able to say "I" did it, because there would not be an "I" to be said that it did something.
The Bible continues, and says that only after eating it they realized they were naked. But if there were not an ego, they wouldnt be able to separate their bodies from the outside world. For them, it would be the same thing, or at least, parts of the same thing, and not one "me, here" and "everything else, there". And so their nakedness would be only more one part of the nature, and not something important, as it become when they know that their "mes" were naked.
And after having an ego they would inavoidably trasmit it for their children, as it would be impossible for a person be raised by parents having an ego without also developing a ego. It would explain the fact that "all men were made sinners by Adam".
Of course i can be quite wrong. I dont know. But for me it makes all the sense.

Oh, and a sidenote, astral projection won't get you there any quicker. Think of that as a result of spiritual development, but it will not get you there any quicker. In fact, if you don't know what you are doing in the astral realm you can attract some pretty nasty spirits who would love nothing more then to see you suffer. I don't mean to scare you, but to warn you. I would stay away from that stuff until you've progressed spiritually.

Well... while i stopped to deliberately try to astral project, i still do it during my dreams. If i were to use the correct naming, i would have to call what i do of etheric projection, instead astral projection, cause i never entered (consciously) the astral plane, but only remained in the physical (or etherical) plane, the one which more resembles the "real" (physical) world. And fortunately i dont remember being bothered by any spirits, entities or whatever... anyway, i never meant to do it as means of reaching enlightenment, but mainly for curiosity, for the desire of see the hidden things beyond the physical plane we see and live on... but until today i didnt succeed in being anywhere "beyond" the physical plane, or rather, i dont remember of anything about it, even if probably i (as all of us) already have been "there" a lot.