iPod Shaman

There I was, lying in bed wearing obnoxiously hip white headphones attached to an iPod, humming a wavy binaural tone over pink noise. I made the mp3 the previous night using a computer program that generates tones that tune your brain to desired frequencies. I was aiming for the theta state, 4.5 Hz. In the theta state, the brain is more receptive to the subconscious and the spiritual realm. The iPod glitched as the one hour "song" ended, jarring me awake. Crap, what a wasted session.

I tried to go back to sleep when it occurred. I started feeling the rising surges of electricity waving through my body. It felt like the tingles you get when your foot is asleep except not painful. It ebbed as I paid attention to it, and returned as I let it be, concentrating on the sensation of falling asleep instead. Then the electricity consumed my whole body, and the familiar roaring sounds filled my ears. I became sleep paralyzed. Yes, it worked!

Strangely though, I was breathing heavily. I opened my eyes, but discovered that my physical eyes opened, not my astral eyes like I had hoped. I couldn't move anything besides my eyes, eyelids, and lungs. I closed my eyes and concentrated on projecting myself out of my body. It didn't work. I jumped and did somersaults, but it was all in my imagination. There is a very noticeable difference between astral movement and imaginary movement.

I wanted to see my astral arms, but my pillow was blocking my view, so I tried to wake up my body temporarily to move it. I wiggled my fingers, and soon my hand was able to move. I felt the pillow with my hand and moved it. But when my eyes opened, it was still there! Great, my astral arm was moving, and I couldn't see it. I finally was able to move the physical pillow out of the way and tried to go back to paralysis. Couldn't do it. Listened to the theta entrainment mp3 again. Didn't work. Oh, well. I was in the altered-state between one and two minutes, the longest I've ever been there. That's an accomplishment.