1) YOUR EYES MUST BE ASLEEP
What do I mean? In a nutshell, your eyes play a BIG role in the ability to consciously have an OBE. They themselves must be asleep. Here is what I mean by that.
Close your eyes right now and leave them closed for about 10 seconds. Just focus on them behind your closed eyelids and observe their activity.
What you will find a number of things happening. You will see that they pulsate a little. Your eyelids twitch. You will also find that the eyeballs themselves move. So when you're looking at the blackness behind your eyelids, your PHYSICAL eyes are the ones that are trying to do the looking. THIS IS NOT WHAT WE WANT.
When I am about to project, one thing I notice is that my PHYSICAL eyes are NOT doing the looking. I sense the blackness and I "see" things, but my physical eyes are completely asleep. No pulsating, no movement, nothing.
To really experience this, you will have to remember this post when you wake up in the middle of the night. The next time you have to get up to go pee or something, when you lay back down, just close your eyes and you will see what I mean. The physical eyes just sit there behind your eyelids like a zombie. They aren't seeing or (better yet) LOOKING for anything.
This is one of the steps you need to work towards. When you lay down to practice having an OBE, spend a lot of time relaxing your eyes. When you find yourself straining to look at the 3D blackness , catch yourself. Ask, "Am I using my physical eyes to try and see behind my eyelids, or my astral eyes?"
Once you start perceiving and seeing images without your physical eyes trying to "look" for them, you have accomplished a big step.
2. MIND AWAKE....YES / BODY ASLEEP.....NOT REALLY
Ok, here is a bombshell for most of you OBE students. We've all read and been told that in order to achieve an OBE, your must reach what has been termed the " mind awake/body asleep" stage, right?
Well, I don't know about you, but I think this has really hindered a lot of people. Why? Because they spend all their time and energy trying to put their body asleep that they end up falling asleep themselves!
Have you ever really asked yourself , "What does it mean to have my 'body asleep' anyway?"
After all, your body really doesn't SLEEP , does it? It simply isn't active. The heart beats a little slower, the muscles are relaxed, but it certainly isn't sleeping. It certainly isn't having its own separate dreams, right?
"But, I think they say your body is asleep because you can't feel it. You won't be able to sense it so therefore, it's asleep."
Ah HA! That's where people go wrong. The reason why you can't feel your body is NOT because of your body, but because of your MIND. You must condition your MIND to have an OBE.
I believe 95% of you out there who have trouble inducing an OBE fall into this trap. You spend all of your time focusing on preparing the PHYSICAL BODY for an OBE (which doesn't get to experience it), and less time on preparing your MIND for an OBE (which does get to experience it).
That's like washing your brand new car for your vacation to Disneyland, and then you take the train there instead.
Instead, when you lay down, get comfortable. Make sure you're relaxed (paying attention to relax your eyes). Once you relax your eyes, spend ALL of your time working on the MENTAL side of things.
Focus on the blackness behind your eyelids (with non-physical eye muscles). As your MIND relaxes, the blackness with begin to take on more depth and three-dimensional qualities.
As your MIND continues to relax, these black three dimensional qualities will begin to hold for longer and longer periods of time before fading away. They will also start to take on color.
THE KEY IS TO LOCK ONTO ONE OF THESE THINGS AND HOLD ONTO IT. If you can do that, it usually can suck you right into the astral. This is also known as PHASING.
3. RELAX YOUR MIND BY FOLLOWING YOUR LINE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
When you close your eyes to go to sleep, by staring straight ahead behind your closed eyelids, you will find that your mind kind of "blanks out", but you don't really become tired. It's kind of like staring at a wall or something. It keeps you occupied, but your mind really isn't moving in a downward, relaxed state.
However, if you mentally explore this area, you will see that there is a current, or energy flow that you can lock onto which almost makes you tired, and brings you closer to sleep.
It sounds "out there" and I'm having difficulty explaining it, but its almost like using a key to unlock a door. If you simply push the key sideways onto the keyslot (aka just closing your eyes and staring straight ahead), this won't accomplish your goal of unlocking the door (aka having a full blown OBE).
However, as you work on turning the key (aka Feeling around mentally for this 'sleep trigger' point), you will find that after a minute or so, the key will slip into the key slot (aka You found the mental state to allow your mind to automatically begin falling asleep).
Now you can ride that line further and further down by allowing your mind to automatically begin to relax, while you focus on the 3D blackness with your non-physical eye muscles.
Make sense? In other words, right now, wherever you are sitting, if you were to simply close your eyes at this moment, you would not go to sleep. However, if you leave them closed and mentally feel around for the right "sleep processing thoughts", your MIND would begin to daydream, begin to wander, and otherwise begin to relax and drift off to sleep. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT.
Now couple that with the other two points above (by using your non-physical eyes and not worrying about the body), and these are the three MAIN OBE characteristics which can make the difference between an ordinary night's sleep and a wonderful, full-blown projection.
Source; Astralpulse - http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_permanent_astral_topics/jeffs_obe_tips-t23976.0.html