I’ve received a few questions lately regarding the “Noticing” exercise. Certain aspects of the explanation that Frank writes about seems to be confusing people slightly… so I’ll try my best to fully explain the process, at least how it relates to me and hopefully you can apply some of this knowledge to your own practices.
First, the entire point of the noticing exercise, as Frank puts it, is to “become fixated within”. That’s really the end goal, as THAT is where the non-physical lies… within us. It’s nothing exterior that you “go to”.
So, how do we “become fixated within” by using the Noticing exercise? That’s where the actual NOTICING part comes in. You can’t just sit/lie there and “look” at the blackness, because that will do absolutely nothing and you’ll eventually become frustrated thinking that it’s not working for you. You need to actually do something for this to work! Just like a binaural beat won’t project you automatically unless you do the actual work yourself… you won’t Phase with Noticing unless you actually Notice!
Now, here’s the confusing part… “to notice” is something you have to actively do… HOWEVER, you have to remain “passively aware” while actively noticing. I know, that sounds confusing… well, lemme describe how “I” notice and I’ll go from there.
When I actually get to the part of my routine when I begin “Noticing”, I stare into the blackness… it’s the same blackness that you see when you close your eyes. It’s just blackness (however nonuniform it may look). My goal is to notice any changes that happen within the blackness that is in my field of view. It can be literally anything, as Frank put it, it could be a flash of something, or perceiving some kind of movement in the blackness… when you begin to see ANYTHING (again, do not outright dismiss anything you see) consciously zero in on it. Your goal is to “Passively Observe”… this means (and this is VERY IMPORTANT) to keep an air of curiosity about what you’re seeing. As I see this stuff, I kind of talk to myself while observing it, but I do so without actually talking verbally or thinking it.
To explain that last part… take a piece of paper, this piece of paper is going to represent the “blackness behind your eyes”. Draw a single dot in the middle of that page then hold that page up to your face and stare at the dot (it’s okay to allow the dot to become unfocused). The dot represents your fixated gaze (depending upon how closely you’re holding the paper to your face, you could see two dots) within the blackness (or in this case the whiteness of the paper)… now, consciously take in the rest of what you can see of the paper, but don’t actually look around, use your peripheral vision. Try to see any irregularities in the paper… there might be a spec of something somewhere, or a small crease somewhere else that you didn’t notice before and you might be noticing that the paper isn’t uniformly white and you begin to focus in on these new-found items of interest. Notice these irregularities and retain that air of curiosity regarding them. Become consciously curious about each and every aspect that you notice in the paper… the more you do this, the more you begin to forget about the physical world around you and the more your consciousness shifts within what you’re gazing at. This is the act of becoming fixated within.
So now that you’ve just done that with a piece of paper and with your eyes open… close your eyes, visualize that dot in front of you… and do it again, this time staring at the blackness behind your eyes instead of a white piece of paper. Remember to NEVER verbalize or think about the things you’re seeing and noticing… try to keep that “air of curiosity” about it all.
The shift into Focus 12, where you start to really get visuals, for me, takes anywhere between 10 – 20 minutes. If I don’t get it after 20 minutes, then I know that my heart just isn’t in it for that session and I go do something else. But, give yourself whatever time you feel is necessary. It can take a while. Just remain relaxed and calm.
Once you do attain a solid Focus 12 and can hold it for a good period of time without losing it, the next shift to Focus 21 will more than likely happen naturally from a solid Focus 12. You simply have to drive your consciousness within just a bit more… the big point here though is that it’s nothing you can force. You have to ALLOW yourself to do this shift. From Focus 21, you can pretty much go and do whatever you want simply by visualizing the area you want to go to. 🙂
I hope that helps fill in some of the blanks as per the Noticing exercise. If you have any questions, please leave a comment here, on my own forums, or on the Astral Pulse. Thank you for reading!
Alternatively, you could also do the “piece of paper” thing without the dot in the middle… and just allow your eyes to slowly drift around the page. This also works well as you’re not too focused on sticking your eyes to a single place and the slow movement of the eyes still feels natural.
Then translate that over to the “blackness behind your eyes” and just allow your eyes to slowly drift around.
Either should work just fine as long as you’re actually passively observing. 🙂
One more thing in regards to Noticing. You don’t just “notice” something and then move onto the next thing… it’s a kind of “build-up” exercise. Each time you notice something, it builds upon the focus that you’ve already put moving into the blackness. The more you notice, the more you move within… and the more you remove yourself from this physical reality.
Hi Ryan,
Had to pop in and express my appreciation. I first found Frank at Gandalf’s Astral Pulse collection of his posts maybe eight to nine months ago. A real game changer. Then I got your PDF. Very clarifying. Just found your incredible compilation of all of his posts and had to thank you. OMG! I’m just over one hundred pages in and feel like I have a great big’ol chocolate cake, which will never get stale, all to myself!! Of course, I share bits with my partner, but he’s had a direct hook-up since he was five, so he doesn’t get quite as excited as myself. Thank you so much for the effort it must have taken to create this. Frank seems like such an affable generous open being. I will happily refer anyone I speak with on this topic to UB. Thank you thank you thank you.
We are big Abraham Hicks fans and I just searched AP and found that you also appreciate them. Was wondering if you have any thoughts about these ideas?: I have R. Bruce’s AD and am looking forward to reading it, and am also aware that he’s into energy work and chakras. I’m sure you’ve heard Abrahams dismissive take on chakras. Frank seems to have gotten a lot out of learning about them. Do you have a personal take yet on the subject? I love Abraham and think they are freakin’ amazing. They truly teach how to “raise the quality of your “consciousness” as Tom Campbell would say. Still, I realize that each point of beingness gets to have a perspective, so I try to stay open to all possibilities even if the vibration of Abe appears to be dismissing it. Would love to hear your take.
Abe has also been dismissive of the description “astral realms”, etc. (hope you’ve heard that response to the hot seat). Maybe they just don’t like to label and limit our expectation? Or, maybe the dynamics of individuated perspective and consensus realities, extend further into the non-physical than I’d ever imagined?
Hope all that makes sense. I think Abe just wants to keep us focused. They say the line about “if you knew how hard you tried to get here, you wouldn’t try so hard to leave”, but then turn around and get all excited about LD, OBE, etc. if the right person (meaning they’re ready for the answer) asks. Please share your thoughts. No rush! Whenever.
Thanks again SO MUCH for the complete Frank package. What a fun and fabulous read,
Melanie
Hi Melanie!
Thank you for the kind words.
Abraham Hicks? I actually don’t know that name. I’ll have to do some research on him sometime!
He definitely seems to share some opinions with that of Tom. 🙂
As for books… I’d actually not suggest Astral Dynamics to anyone until they had a bit of experience projecting. Reason being is that it’s a bit more advanced book in my opinion. Also, in my opinion, there’s a lot in there that really has no bearing on projection. The stuff about energy and everything concerning it. If your goal is to just project, you don’t need to worry about energy. Unless you’re using “energy” as a metaphor for “concentration” or “focus”.
Ryan,
My mistake. Could have sworn I saw your icon in the thread about Abraham on AP. Oops. Any who…..thanks again for the Frank stuff.
Cheers,
ME
One thing that I cannot get over with is that my eyes strain when I am trying to look into the darkness. Like – when you look upwards, you must use some muscle strenght to place eyes there. After some time it’s either to much of a strain for me or I need to blink, so how you get over with this? Please, check your email as I wanted to download 4hz sound with brown noise, but it’s not available anymore. Best regards 🙂
Hi Xanth,
I read something about Frank way of doing noticing, but I lost it. It was something about focusing on top of the head rather than blackness and on sensation of movement, on what kind of movement he was focusing on? I’m asking this because normal noticing doesn’t work very well for me, instead focusing on third eye or the crown chakra is giving me better results, but I was wondering about this sensation of movement.
Thank you for your time.
-Shadow
Yeah, one of the things Frank suggested was to, with your eyes closed, look upwards.
The sensation I believe he’s referring to is just about feeling your awareness floating upwards towards those points.