you had already a nice selection of experiences with your first "exercises"..
i`ve been using hemi-sync over 10 years now and have shared it with friends, people in need and animals..
a friend of mine (who never sleeps!?!) tried hemi sync before she had surgery where she had her first and a most powerful OBE . after she woke up from her total anesthesia (KO) she asked the doctors to never speak of her body again in such a disrespectful manner(they made dirty jokes..typical)..they blushed, apologized, mentioned that she had died twice on them.. and then they began to ask like mad how she knew, what it was like..etc...(she could hear and see everything..while the doctors thought she was blacked out or dead at times) (reminds me of the movie "city of angels")
the same friend found, that even her plant would begin to move its big leafs towards the source of hemi sync.(she observed it the whole night...through)...living in a appartment block, she found it highly bizarre also, that suddenly a bat chose to be her pet; flying through her open window in the middle of the night...while she played hemi sync...
years ago, when i still lived with my ex-gal..we had about 6 baby rats.. one of them was paralized on her right side (i named her "rera" which is code-talk for "right" . lili would be left) RERA got to hear the "support for stroke recovery" set. the other rats were given metamusic through headphones attached to a confined box in their cage...as uncomfortable as it looked, they still seemed to greatly enjoy listening to hemi sync while lying cramped like sardines in the little space they had.(the box was small enough to make sure,that even a single rat would listen stereo)..it was a hilarious sight to see the rats squeezing into the box just to hear the hemi-sync sounds)
RERA began to get well on her right side...too well...later she turned into "forrest gump"...she was the only rat running the whole night in the wheel, so that it had to be oiled regularly, to ensure my peaceful sleep!
whenever the rats fur felt "dirty", all they needed was 1 metamusic track to get them back the smooth and shiny fur..(instantly)
i can`t tell much about extraordinary experiences using hemi-sync..probably because i use my most vibrant obe (without hemi-sync) as "measuring stick" for all experiences thereafter including hemi-sync....
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but focus 12 is my absolute favourite state..it really kicks-in...feeling afloat, warm, relaxed,etc...it`s the most vibrant focus level for me...
and then it`s all boring until focus 25, where it gets interesting ..
...but not a single focus level has come near the vibrant feeling of that one awesome OBE (measuring stick).
at the GAIA community I`ve found some people who are Hemi-sync / astral experts...
the general consensus is, that a visit to the Monroe Institute in Faber Virginia is the best to get the most out of hemi-sync...it`s not the "coaching/guidance" as i first thought.....it`s the ENERGY there..moreover the GROUP ENERGY, which makes a tremendous difference.
exercising the "tibetian rites" seems to be another key to "textbook" OBEs.
cheers
PS: I would like to hear about your progress with the discovery set.
PPS:
this would be an excerpt of what one of the guys at the GAIA community wrote to me...i have his permission to forward this info...
the experiences at TMI (monroe institute) are soOOO much deeper and better than when I do them tapes/CDs at home. It has to do with the group energy. Having 20 or so people holding hands doing a few OMs before heading off into your CHEC units for the hemi-sync exercises just adds so much more energy to the experience. I've been to 4 programs and no matter what the program is (Gateway, Lifeline, Guidelines, Heartlines) it's the people that make the experience. Once home, life gets in the way and it's like I can feel myself start to shut down. After my lifeline the first night back home I had a text book Bob Monroe OBE and each time I feel asleep the vibrations would come on. But each time it would be to a lesser degree, until they were no longer there. I still struggle to have that open vibrating heart chakra while in society (work,family,stuff) but while you're at the institute it seems like the energy is just booming. I will say that in my Gateway there is not much coaching going on by the instructors. They just want you to have an open mind and go with what ever happens. I will say that if you ever do go there. Open your heart, put any preconceived notions about others in the trash, don't take the whole week to get to know people, open up. Just speaking from some of my mistakes. Your mileage may vary.
I have not been through any specific tantric training but am beginning to open my eyes with the whole Kundalini experience and how sexual energies have a lot to do with it. My TMI Lifeline experience was opened wide open by an individual that was a Barbra Brennan Graduate and a distant healer. With her “abilities” she would astrally come visit me in my Chec unit. The energies that were shared opened my chakras up to an ecstatic vibration that was unworldly. To say the least this was a component that opened my eyes to far better things that the physical world could not supply. Physical intercourse didn't come close to the feelings. I hope I'm not being to explicit here but I hate sometimes how we have to read between the lines to get the full picture. I've been on the journey, I guess you can call it kundalini awakening, or maybe it's just an awakening, every sense then. I've gotten into “The Five Tibetan Rites” and do my fair share of breathing exercises. After a year with the rites I can really feel some energies that are pretty much “out of this world”. Have you read/done any of Robert Bruce's astral projection exercises before? He has some good breathing/energy raising techniques that are very beneficial to the whole OBE process. I know I'm jumping around here a bit and trying not to write a book. Also not trying to stand on a “soap box”.
I'm beginning to realize it “all” has to do with energy. When I say all I mean like psychic abilities, OBE, anything that transcends the physical. As you know we are energy and part of our path is to open up these energy doors to experience all that we can. Life is just an experiential place so that we can have fun, experience love, laugh and learn from our perceived mistakes.
Just to share a little more about the 5 Tibetan Rites- I was doing them for a year and slowly kept getting more and more energy to flow through my body. I've been told that I was over doing it. The energy rushes where so powerful that I would find myself lying on the floor flopping around like a fish out of water. It was actually a little scary at times. I have sense backed off a bit but can get the eeuphoric energy surging pretty easy. I know I still have a whole lot to learn and am getting more and more reference material every day.
Astral sex? Yes I have had it - It is way better than physical sex. It is the best way to have an OBE- the force of wanting to meet up with someone is just what you need to give you the momentum to go OB. The mixing of the two energies can be ecstatic and you don't usually have the down fall of ejaculation to bring you down so you can go on for quite some time.