Introduction:

This web page is intended to provide a detailed overview of Frank Kepple's model for Astral Reality, or what he refers to as the Wider Reality. Frank's findings concerning a range of related issues has also been included so as to provide a one stop resource for those who wish to learn about Frank's contribution to afterlife research. If the theories presented here are of interest to you, then I recommend that you look up Frank’s posts on the Astral Pulse discussion forums where all of this information and more, can be found.

The information here has been culled from Frank's many posts on the Astral Pulse forums over the years. What you will read is Frank in his own words, as far as possible; I have had to paraphrase here and there and restructure some paragraphs in order to present the information in its current format.

I have created this resource as a tribute to Frank and to promote his own findings in the field of afterlife studies. Frank's work has built upon the pioneering research of Robert Monroe and provides an update to it. I believe Frank's new model is of critical importance and deserves to be promoted. I hope you will find his contribution to the exploration and understanding of the astral world as rewarding and stimulating as it has been for me.

Regards,

Douglas Eckhart (Gandalf)

Editor of the Frank Kepple Resource

Please refer to the topic list below for an overview of information provided:



A) About Frank Kepple

B) What is 'Phasing' and how can I do it?



FRANK'S MODEL OF THE WIDER REALITY:

RELATED INFORMATION:

A) About Frank Kepple

Before I let Frank take over, I thought I would provide a brief introduction to his background for those that may be unfamiliar with the man himself:

Frank Kepple is an English researcher who has a long term interest in the theory and practical application of astral projection and exploration, out of body experiences and related areas of afterlife studies. He graduated in Electronics and worked as a Science Consultant in industry for many years before taking early retirement in the South of France so as to more fully concentrate on his research.

Frank first became interested in afterlife studies and the work of pioneering astral researcher and author Robert A Monroe when he came across one of his books in a second hand book shop over 20 years ago. On a whim, Frank decided to read it as he thought that the author was either completely mad or onto something. Frank did not blindly accept everything that Monroe wrote; neither did he automatically dismiss it all: His scientific outlook led him to put Monroe's findings to the test by trying to replicate his work. Only then would he be satisfied that Monroe was indeed onto something. He never looked back!

Not only did Frank replicate Monroe's work, he pushed the boundaries of Monroe's research even further. In recent years, Frank has spent a lot of time contributing to the Astral Pulse discussion forums where he has provided a wealth of information and invaluable advice to many. One of his aims in recent years has been to set up a 'Frank Kepple Foundation' in order to promote his own research, although this project has yet to be realised.

Frank has since retired from on-line participation due to ill-health, but it is hoped that this resource will provide a detailed overview of his research to date, so that people will continue to build upon his work in the future, just as he built upon the work of Monroe. Modern research into the Wider Reality is only just beginning...

What follows is Frank in his own words:

B) What is 'Phasing', and how can I do it?

The term “phasing” was originally coined from an idea presented by the author Robert Monroe who spent much of his physical lifetime researching OBE phenomena. His early work, detailed in his first book Journeys Out Of The Body, followed very traditional lines of study. Such that strong parallels can be drawn between his experiences detailed in that book, and the work of the traditional mystics.

However, his later books Far Journeys and Ultimate Journey, published many years later, reveal how his work had progressed to the development and formation of a completely different model of consciousness. His early “locale” concept had been totally replaced by a series of mental Focus Levels. These levels were labelled by using an escalating series of arbitrary numbers. Each level was identified from the mental impressions presented that Monroe categorised and labelled, so that others could follow in his work and duplicate his experiences.

At some point in his experience, Monroe was able to determine the profound truth, that there is no separation within consciousness. Whereas in his early work it felt to him he was “leaving” and “separating” from his physical body in the more traditional sense. His later experiences led him to conclude that he was not “leaving” his body at all. But what he was doing, in his words, was changing the phase relationship between himself and his surroundings. It was from this discovery that the term “Phasing” came into being.

Monroe was an electronics engineer by profession, and it so happens that I too graduated in electronics, so I understand where he was coming from when he talks about phase relationships. You can have two voltages present on the very same wire (you can have many numbers but for this example we’ll have just two). To all intents and purposes, those two voltages are mixed, but at the same time they are separated. What separates these two voltages is the phase-angle relationship between them.

Monroe used this phase-angle relationship idea as an analogy to describe the relationship between the physical or objective layer of consciousness, and the non-physical or subjective layer of consciousness. Each respective area of consciousness occupies the same area in “space” and to all intents, they are mixed but at the same time they are separated. So Monroe figured there was a 180-degree Phase Relationship between the two areas of reality. To him, projection became a case of "switching phase" between the physical and the non-physical.

Phasing, therefore, entails initiating a 180-degree phase shift between the physical and the non-physical realms of reality. The way this is done is rather different from the traditional ways of initiating an “out of body” experience. In fact, Phasing does not incorporate any kind of out of body feelings at all. The normal bodily vehicle can remain and all that changes is a person’s environment.

The key to Phasing is to just let the experience flow. You need to allow yourself to become it, as opposed to trying to go to it, or point to it, with some kind of “method”. Just lay back and simply become it. At which point people usually say, "Yeah, but Frank it’s okay for you but when I close my eyes all I see is blackness. “Well, that is all I see at first!”

I think often that people are too hasty to discount these initial stages, and they just go off on some method.

When I close my eyes all I see is blackness. But I think the essential difference between me and many beginners is when they close their eyes they are not really noticing. And that’s another key to it… that of noticing self. I think people become too wrapped up in methods and techniques, and it prevents them from really noticing themselves.

Okay, so as I say, when I close my eyes all I see is blackness, which is normal. I’ll wriggle around a bit to get comfortable, maybe my knee is itching and my hair is tickling my ear or something. So I’ll sort all that out and just concentrate on breathing gently for 5 minutes or so. Now, because I am noticing as opposed to avidly trying to perfect and follow some technique or method, in the traditional sense, my full attention is taken by the simple act of noticing.

People often tell me that they keep trying and they are saying about how they are concentrating upon holding their awareness outside of themselves, and at the same time they are concentrating on “raising energy” and doing everything correctly, and whatever… but nothing is happening. That’s right, because all their attention is fixated elsewhere, whereas all my attention is fixated on noticing.

Noticing what?

Well, nothing at first, there’s not much to see really but blackness. But then, after a short while, I may see that perhaps one part of the blackness is not quite so black. Perhaps there was just a brief flash of something, then maybe a sensation of a movement somewhere else. Maybe I just heard someone call my name. Hmm, that’s interesting, I might think, I wonder where that came from. But I don’t get too curious I just keep noticing. I might see swirling areas of not quite so black as the rest. I might see flashes of this and that. As I am offering myself these images, my attention is steadily becoming more fixated within.

As my attention becomes fixated within, from the act of noticing, at this stage I am not aware of my physical body. Part of my awareness realises that somewhere in the background is a physical body, in bed, etc. but I have phased away from it. Before, the forefront of my awareness was my physical and 180 degrees turned around from that, in the background of my awareness, was the non-physical. But now there has been a “phase shift” i.e. a turning through 180 degrees. Now, my previous foreground (physical) is my background, and my previous background (non-physical) is my foreground.

This is what is meant by “phasing” because you cause a 180-degree Phase Shift between the non-physical and the physical. As I say, Monroe first coined the term as he was an electronics engineer and he was picturing it like it were two voltages, 180 degrees out of phase with each other. Hence he coined the term Phasing. But I guess people generally have difficulties picturing two voltages 180-degrees out of phase with each other. So, instead, imagine a revolving door that is the entrance to a building. Any old building, it doesn’t matter.

You are standing outside the building. So the “outside” is your reality. You are aware of a reality that exists inside the building, but is closed to you by the door. Now, go through and turn the door 180 degrees and stop (oh, in case anyone doesn’t know there are 360 degrees in a circle, so 180 degrees is half a circle). Now, you are inside the building. So the “inside” is your reality. You are aware of a reality that exists outside the building, but it is closed to you by the door. Now again go through and turn the door by 180 degrees, and stop. So now, the “outside” is your reality again.

Each time you go though the door and turn through 180 degrees, there is a 180-degree “phase shift” between your awareness of the outside and your awareness of the inside, in terms of your reality.

Okay, so as my attention becomes fixated within, from the act of noticing, this causes a 180-degree phase shift between my awareness of the physical (outer) and my awareness of the non-physical (inner) sense of reality. So from then on, I continue to notice anything that may come about. I’m not all that curious, I’m not trying to make anything happen, I’m not enacting some kind of method or technique, I’m simply looking within and noticing what is taking place, and the act of doing that is focusing my attention.

As a person focuses their attention within themselves, through the action of noticing, they allow themselves to view “snippets” of other dimensions of reality. This action is translated objectively as the perception of flashes of all manner of this and that, random images that come and go, all kinds of spurious sounds, and so forth. Sometimes these snippets can form what I call 'astral screens' where you objectively perceive something similar to a cinema screen effect in front of your non-physical field of vision, complete with moving images and sounds. What is happening is that you are objectively offering yourself snippets of other dimensions of reality. If you then decide to step into these scenes, you will find yourself in that 'location', within that particular region of consciousness.

I think, ultimately, what people who follow the Phasing approach need to be realising is: the other dimensions of reality only seem to be objectively separated. But in reality, there is no separation in consciousness. We place a veil between the place we call “here” and the place we call “there” for the purposes of our experience. However, all these dimensions of reality are all affecting, entwined, and exchanging energy with us within every moment of our existence! It’s just that we objectively CHOOSE not to view this action.

By following the action of noticing, what you are saying to yourself is: “Okay, self, I would like to objectively choose to view this action for a while.”

There is plenty advice in books and online, which you can look at in order to find out more detailed information on the practicals of the phasing approach, so I will not go into additional detail here. What I feel is more important is to try to explain exactly what it is that we are phasing to... what is the 'astral world' anyway and how is it related to our physical world. What exactly IS the Wider Reality? That is what I will attempt to explain here.

FRANK'S MODEL OF THE WIDER REALITY

1) The Wider Reality: An overview of Frank's model

Now, the Wider Reality is apportioned into 4 Primary Areas that I label Focus 1 to Focus 4 inclusive. You can call them what you like. The actual label you place is irrelevant. For ease of understanding, however, we need to call them something simple and logical.

Right, so consciousness is apportioned into 4 areas. Someone asked me recently if there was anything beyond Focus 4, i.e. a Focus 5 or such like. The answer is, to my knowledge, within our particular system there are just 4 Primary areas. But consciousness doesn't end there. Consciousness is infinite. There may well be an infinite number of other systems either like ours or perhaps wildly different. But let's just concentrate on the structure of our particular system and get people projecting properly with that first.

Our system can be divided into Focus 1, Focus 2, Focus 3, and Focus 4. Together they form the totality of our Consciousness Continuum, or all that is (at least in our system). Each of us has our very own Consciousness Continuum that exists across these four areas.

Okay, so here's one of the most important aspects you MUST understand:

When I say there are 4 Primary Areas in our Wider Reality, I want you to fully realise beyond any doubt that these areas are NOT places! They are FOCUSES OF ATTENTION along your very own 'Consciousness Continuum'.

Monroe was a pioneer in this and he was the very first person, to my knowledge, who realised that these areas were actually focuses of attention and not places. Hence the term "focus" in the focus numbers that Monroe talks about such as Focus 10, Focus 21, etc. Why "focus"? You might ask. Well, that is the reason.

Now, our Wider Reality is apportioned into 4 Primary Areas and each person has what is called their Primary Focus. Anyone reading this within the physical (Focus 1) has their Primary Focus set to the physical. When we project, our Primary Focus does not change. We may shift our focus of attention, but our Primary Focus remains Focus 1. Think of your Primary Focus as your "home focus" if you like. Say you visit a friend at another address. For the duration of your visit, the address of your friend's location has become the address of your location also. But that's only for the duration of your visit. Your home address remains the same. It's just that you've changed address temporarily. And that's what we do when we project. Our Primary Focus remains the same, but we temporarily shift our focus of attention to another area of our consciousness continuum.

Throughout the time we are alive and kicking within the physical, our Primary Focus is Focus 1. Now, when a person dies, what we objectively view as "death" is an objective representation or translation of the person switching their Primary Focus from Focus 1 to Focus 3 of consciousness. You see, when you switch your Primary Focus, all subjective interaction with your physical body is stopped. In other words, the physical shell stops functioning as you shed it and go to live within Focus 3. This area is known as the Transition Area for various reasons.

Now, I just want to say again, that all this is not some weird and whacky theory I happened to dream up one day. What I am saying to you is how it is, as far as I can tell. Everything I am putting across to you I have experienced first hand. With a little effort and a little practice on your part, you can experience it too. Ignore those that claim you have to reach a particular "level" of "incarnation" before you can access the "higher" areas. We actually occupy ALL of consciousness ALREADY. Every one of us has the EXACT SAME subjective structure! There is no such thing as any one person being more advanced than any other. In fact, the people who have the hardest or most difficult time in Transition, tend to be the highly religious and deeply spiritual types. They just get bogged down in their own belief constructs and end up trudging through the Astral Mud, as I call it.

One of the great benefits of knowing how the Wider Reality is organised is when you die, you know exactly where you are and exactly what to do. Rather than end up floundering in the dark not knowing anything. But there are many other benefits you can gain from this too while you are alive.

Now, there are 4 Primary Areas and your current Primary Focus is Focus 1.

I want you to also think of these Primary Areas as being intertwined with each other. They are not strung out in a big long line. They are all continually intertwined and connected. Remember they are NOT places. For example, in the physical you may be in one town, then you travel down the road to the next town. These areas are NOT like that. They are all intermeshed and intertwined with one another. Because of this, it is perfectly possible to objectively experience 2 or more Primary Areas at once simply by tuning your focus of attention. You do NOT have to "travel" anywhere. Within the physical, we have Time, Space and Distance to contend with. But once you "step outside" the physical there is no Time, so there is no Space or Distance either. But that's not to say you do not perceive the idea of Space and Distance coupled with a semblance of Time passing. But these notions are mere legacies from having lived within the physical world and have no bearing in fact.

Many people ask me how I travel from one area to the next. I don't, because there is no Space to travel through. I used to have difficulty in navigating the Wider Reality. Then, one day, the penny dropped. The difficulties I was having were not because navigation is difficult. My difficulties were coming about through my failing to realise just how easy it was. I was trying to travel from point a to point b as in the physical. In other words I was trying to travel through Space over a Distance and there is no such thing. Everything within the Wider Reality is contained within the same point. So if you are at one place, you are at all places at the same time. Because there is no Space. That is why I say we each occupy all of consciousness already. The only difference is in your objective perception of your surroundings in terms of where, along your consciousness continuum, you are focusing your attention. And that comes right back to what I was saying on the outset: these areas are NOT places, they are focuses of attention.

Are you beginning to see now why these areas are NOT places?

FOCUS 1:

So we all know Focus 1 of consciousness. It is the physical. Focus 1 incorporates what I call the Wider Physical. This would include the region some call the real-time-zone or RTZ. Personally, I dislike using the term real-time-zone as there is no such thing as "real" time and it is not a "zone". But, then again, I look at this with a scientific air and, in science, you have to be congruent as to the terms you use and get your definitions in order.

To be honest, I can't see the point of projecting into the RTZ (or the Wider Physical). Apart from the novelty value, there isn't much you can do and it would appear a LOT of effort for very little return. Because of that we will start with Focus 2 of consciousness.

FOCUS 2

Focus 2 of consciousness is what is commonly known by psychologists, as your "sub conscious" but there is nothing "sub" about it. Focus 2 is where most people do their dreaming, lucid dreaming, their "astral projecting", their meeting up with all manner of demons and devils, etc. Focus 2 of consciousness contains all manner of personal faculties such as your memory and your imagination. Without Focus 2 of consciousness we simply wouldn't be able to think rationally or create anything within the physical. It holds all our belief constructs that we happen to subscribe to. And it is this latter point that is rather interesting. You can actually project within Focus 2 of consciousness and objectively view representations of your very own belief constructs that you hold. However, taking on board the fact that people typically think that this area of consciousness (to them the Astral) is a separate place, the Astral will actually become whatever you believe it is! This simple fact, unbelievably, has been the source of thousands of years of confusion as regards the wider reality.

The problem has been simply that mystics have always thought they were projecting to some place outside of themselves. Yet what you are actually viewing, within Focus 2 of consciousness, are the objective representations of your very own belief constructs. So if you actually believe the Astral is packed full of demons and devils... then demons and devils you shall perceive. Because what you are actually viewing are the objective representations of your own beliefs. People have the idea that "the Astral" is a weird and magical place where you get all manner of Alice in Wonderland effects such as your thoughts coming to life. Many mystics just accept this as a given and lead people into thinking they could possibly meet up with all manner of doom, gloom and danger.

But do these people ever stop to think, even for a moment WHY their thoughts come to life? WHY there is such a thing as an Alice in Wonderland effect?

It is only when you look at the situation from the point of view of a scientist trying to objectively make sense of it all that you realise the simple reason of why this effect comes about. For almost 5 years I battled with this question. I fought all manner of demons and devils and slayed dragons galore. Then, one day, the penny dropped. I realised that thought equals action. That was it! I was in a place where thought equals action. I remember the time distinctly even to this day around 18 years later. But it was only much later when I realised precisely WHY thoughts equalled action in this weird and wonderful kind of place called the Astral... WHY did thought equal action? Simple! It was because I was projecting into my own mind. In other words, I was offering myself the objective knowing of my very own internal subjective actions!

This simple realisation led me on an amazing voyage of discovery through my very own mind. It was truly fascinating as I learnt to know myself from the inside out, so to speak. Wow, if I had a problem, I could now step right into myself and find a likely solution. Plus, it was from this realisation that I got to know about the way the subjective and the objective translates both in terms of awareness and in terms of energy. This latter discovery has since helped me to make some very profound realisations about the Wider Reality.

FOCUS 3

Focus 3 is even more interesting: This area of consciousness is a collective term that incorporates all of Monroe's Focus 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 areas. This region features all the 'Hollow Hells', 'Hollow Heavens' and everything in-between. Monroe's Focus 27 represents the 'upper level' of my Focus 3. Focus 3 is where we all go when we 'die' i.e. after physical death our primary focus switches from Focus 1 to Focus 3. Focus 3 is also known as the Transition Area, for reasons which will be explained in due course.

Focus 3 is what I call a 'common area' of our Consciousness Continuum. This means that unlike Focus 2, which is ours alone and can only be experienced by ourselves, our Focus 3 area of consciousness intertwines with everyone else's; we can all share in each other's Focus 3 areas of consciousness and interact with each other. As you step into Focus 3 then you will find that it is much like the physical is. Here you can meet people in a totally objective sense exactly as you can while physical. Within this region it is obvious these people are not merely creations of your own imagination. It is as obvious as it is apparent that other people are not merely creations of your imagination within the physical.

There are billions of people on the mid to upper branches all interacting with each other in an objective sense, just as we all do within the physical. The upper branches of Focus 3 are VERY physical-world like indeed, even better in fact on the top-most branches. In my mind I call it the supra physical, sort of like the physical on steroids! In Focus 3 you will find an almost infinite variety of different environments that people have created for themselves to live in, either knowingly or unknowingly. Many of these environments are wonderful and beautiful, some are boring and others are horrific. When people create objects and environments in Focus 3, these things remain until removed, so it is possible to turn up at a location long forgotten about by its creator. It may even have other people hanging about in it! You could even stick around here and add your own touches if you like! Creating things in Focus 3 is slightly tricky as it involves the subjective creation process but with practice you can get the hang of it.

Note: One of the most fundamental rules of the Wider Reality that you must take on board is the rule of 'Like attracts Like'.

This is important in order to understand the myriad 'worlds' of Focus 3: After physical 'death', people with similar beliefs and values will tend to gravitate towards the environments in Focus 3 populated by those of similar beliefs (their collective beliefs created these areas). Furthermore, they will tend to stay there until they have a fundamental shift in beliefs and/or values, at which point they will move on to 'higher' regions of Focus 3 where people are more free thinking. These 'upper areas' of Focus 3, where people are happily free of dogmatic beliefs, are the regions labelled Focus 27 by Monroe. The number of environments in these upper reaches of Focus 3 is huge but here you will find many of the environments described by Monroe, such as 'The Park', the 'Life Review Centre' and so on.

Just to clarify: Focus 3 is HUGE! So say I have had experience with 2 thousand people on the lower branches, as I call them, of the Focus 3 tree. This 2 thousand may account for 10% of people (highly unlikely!), 1%, or 0.0000000000001% (perhaps looking more likely). I really have no way of knowing at this stage. There is so much to explore here!

FOCUS 4:

Focus 4 is the real mind blow! This is the 'top end' of our Continuum of Consciousness. It is pure subjective energy. When we engage with Focus 4 we become our 'Wider Selves'. This is the end goal of Focus 3. This is why Focus 3 is also called the Transition Area. Focus 3 allows us to prepare (at our own pace, be it centuries or thousands of years in some cases) for our eventual primary switch to Focus 4.

Primary Focus 4 of consciousness is the subjective source of all the actions in consciousness. You see, the energy for our actions has to come from somewhere. We don't just create something from nothing. An idea, for example, is an action in consciousness. It is energy with a particular direction, you could say. Now that energetic action had to be sourced from somewhere, in the sense that the raw energy didn’t just come from nowhere.

When we look at ourselves in terms of energy, what we are is essentially a human energetic transducer that converts raw subjective energy into objective becoming of all manner of description. When we project within subjective reality, each of us typically places ourselves in the position or anticipation of facing objects. But when you enter Primary Focus 4, you cast off all notions of “things” and begin merging with the underlying subjective energy. That same energy, down the line, as it were, will ultimately split off here and there (again all in a manner of speaking) and create a “thing”. That thing could be a soccer ball, a human being, a house, a plant, a giraffe, or whatever.

Now, in merging with energy, I do NOT mean you are merging into a vast pool of nothingness. On the contrary, typically, you are merging with a specific action of energy. I suppose you could say, in a very broad sense (and only in a very broad sense) you are merging with a “thing” but a thing in terms of its conceptualisation, or it’s source in other words. And that source of all that is within our system is Primary Focus 4 of consciousness.

So, ultimately, all “things” can be traced to an action in energy, the ultimate source of which is Primary Focus 4. So you could say that Primary Focus 4 is the area of the action of the thought before it is created. But again, only in a manner of speaking because, from the Primary Focus 4 standpoint, there is no before. All simply is. The concept of “before” comes into it as the action is engaged further “down the line” as it were.

I freely admit that I (for one) do not have the full answers. I will not get them until I can take in the full picture of Focus 4 of consciousness. I am not even sure whether it is actually possible for a physically focused individual to take in that full picture. Focus 2 and Focus 3 are easy by comparison, as they are so “earth like” or “human like” and people have usually just made something up for the rest. In the olden days they called it “god” in significance of all they couldn’t explain. But technology moves on, our understanding widens, and this topic is no different. Today we are attempting to broaden our understanding and pave the way for the new paradigm. So here we are calling it Focus 4 of consciousness. An area in consciousness that we can now learn to experience for ourselves (with a little effort in the right direction, of course).

Now, anything involving Focus 4 of consciousness is completely mind blowing, and I do not say this lightly. It is an area I have not been able to “explore” as fully as I would like. It is my current challenge, you could say.

The BIG difficulty with Focus 4 is that it’s an area of fully subjective reality. There is no notion of Time, so in turn there is no notion of Space either. Focus 4 occupies no Space at all and yet it encompasses the other areas, namely, Focus 1, 2 and 3. So our whole physical universe (and all the other universes besides, but let’s put them aside for a moment) is encompassed by Focus 4. Yet “outside” of Focus 4 there is nothing because Focus 4 encompasses all that is within our system. Focus 4 occupies no space, yet it encompasses our whole physical universe. Okay, so that’s the first hurdle. Problem is, to us, if something occupies no space then it cannot possibly exist. Reason being we are so attached to “things”.

Second hurdle: to understand Focus 4 it is necessary to take on board an understanding of infinity. This latter aspect is perhaps the most mind-blowing of all. Because, in infinity, everything happens an infinite number of times. Which means everything that has or will come about, has already happened.

From our somewhat limited linear-time perspective, we may consider a life began, it ended, and it began again. But from the perspective of Focus 4, nothing has begun and nothing has ended. All simply IS. The whole notion of beginning and end is a physical construct. The good news about all this of course is that there is no true end and there is no 'death'. There is only ever expanding consciousness. When you actually step within Focus 4 and experience it for yourself, all begins falling into place. Well, that is what is steadily happening to me and I cannot be the only person in the world today who has stepped into Focus 4 of consciousness. I realise this kind of thing is quite rare and, hopefully, it will start to become more common as people begin duplicating my work.

2) How Frank's model correlates with Robert Monroe's

I have built upon the pioneering work of highly regarded astral explorer and author Robert A Monroe. My own experiences equate with those of Monroe in many key areas but as with any kind of ongoing research, I found that I soon had to modify Monroe's findings in order to take account of my own research and personal experience.

So how does my model equate with Monroe's? Well, in most ways they sit very well together. My model can best be viewed as a simplified version of Monroe's, but with additional features which are due to discoveries made by me during the course of my explorations.

For those familiar with Monroe's system of labels, here is a basic comparison as far as possible:

Monroe's Focus C1 = my Focus 1

Monroe Focus 3, 10, 12, 15 & 21 = my Focus 2

Monroe Focus 23, 24, 25, 26 & 27 = my Focus 3

Here the comparison ends, as my Focus 4 has no Monroe counterpart.

More on Monroe's FOCUS 21 state:

Those familiar with Monroe's model will be aware of the Focus 21 state. This state is also known by many astral explorers as the '3D Blackness' state. You know when you arrive at this state as the black field of vision in front of you becomes completely 3D and you find yourself floating freely within it, rather than just observing it in a 2D fashion. As you can see, it lies right at the top end of my Focus 2 and it borders on Focus 3. The 3D Blackness state, or Monroe's F21 is what can best be described as a bridge state. This state can be viewed as the point at which your individual mind meets the wider astral, i.e. the state where your individual Consciousness Continuum (FOCUS 2) meets the 'common area' of your Consciousness Continuum (FOCUS 3). It is the jumping off point for all adventures in Focus 3, or the Astral Proper as some people call it.

I decided to use the label 'Focus Z' (as in Zero) to describe this state as it is unique in the Wider Reality and seems to deserve a label of its very own.

During the phasing process, people will pass through this state on their way to F3, but many people are unaware of it as they tend to flash through it so quickly. This is a shame since the FZ state is quite awesome in its own right. You can simply relax and float peacefully through the black void, just chilling out. Another thing you can do is to call forth any piece of music you care to think of and you will hear it all around you in glorious surround sound! You can also form 'astral windows' in this state, which will display any particular scene you care to think of in glorious high definition! You can use this as a jumping off point into F3 if you like: all you need to do is will yourself to step into the scene and there you go. There is likely to be plenty more to discover about the FZ state and further exploration is warranted.

3) In depth: Focus 1

F1 encompasses EVERYTHING that we regard as physical: the world, the galaxy and the entire universe. If you want to know who created the universe, I have been reliably informed that it was us! The purpose of the physical universe is to experience objective reality. At some point we got together, from a Focus 4 perspective, and decided to create a common pool of subjective energy that would manifest itself objectively in the form that we recognise as the physical universe, the purpose of which is to provide an excellent means of gathering experience; we are here to experience and being physical in an objective sense is a wonderful way of doing so. The physical world can be thought of as condensed subjective energy manifesting in an objective manner and in creating it, we set up a series of rules surrounding this energy. The result is of course the material principles of the universe and what we understand as Physics. One of the most useful aspects of the physical world is that being physical shields us from the worst effects of subjective expression: with regards to the Wider Reality, if you think about something, you will release subjective energy; do this enough and the desired effect will manifest. This causes problems for those who are in a poor state of mind. The lower levels of F3 are awash with people who are stuck in their own self created hell-holes due to an ever increasing spiral of negative energy. For example, someone who creates a terrifying situation for themselves then results in them becoming even more terrified, resulting in ever more terrifying situations and on it goes.

In the physical, this doesn’t happen. The equivalent to this scenario is what we call a nightmare. This is a fear generated scenario created in F2 while our bodies are resting. However, if the scenario becomes too terrifying, then we wake up, i.e. return to F1 where these energies have little effect. However, when our Primary Focus has switched to F3, we have nothing to stop us and it is possible for us to get caught up in all manner of negative scenarios, all of which provides the retrieval experts with plenty of work!

To put it another way, in F3 if you will a can of beer to appear in your hand then it is possible (with a bit of practise) to make this happen. In the physical, you can sit in your armchair and think about that beer in the fridge until the cows come home, but it won't appear in your hand until you get off your ass and go and get it!

I should point out here that recent exploration has provided me with evidence that our desires and mental attitudes DO directly influence our physical reality to a far greater extent than previously thought; indeed our physical circumstances are DIRECTLY LINKED to our particular desires and attitudes. This means that with the right intent you can change your physical circumstances accordingly. At present I am still only at an early stage of exploration in this important area and much additional research is needed. However, even with this being so, it is clear that the norms surrounding physical reality do shield us from the most immediate and direct aspects of the 'thought = action' principle which governs the Wider Reality (or Astral World as others call it). This leaves us free to engage in all manner of experiences, all of which ultimately lead to our enrichment; that is after all the purpose of life: to live and to experience and to grow.

Some people question the notion that our primary purpose in physical existence is to experience, for if that is so, then this seems to justify or belittle all the horrible things that happen in the world and allow us to pass them off with 'ah well it's all experience and is therefore all good'.

Actually, I am NOT saying this: There is NO excuse for ANY KIND OF SUFFEREING! It is true that we are here to experience, but that does not mean that we have to experience horrendous suffering or that suffering is somehow 'good'. The fact is, the physical world offers us a plethora of possible experiences, so many in fact that there is no need to immerse ourselves in endless horrific situations just for the hell of it. Our most innate natural state is in fact one of joy, peace and comfort; to experience the opposite to any great extent is not healthy.

In fact, the only useful aspect of experiencing agony and suffering is to learn how NOT to experience more agony and suffering! These are NOT naturally desired states and should be avoided if at all possible. Of course, the nature of the physical world and its freedom of action can make this impossible, as we are emotional creatures after all. We can all expect our fair share of pain, but there is no excuse for encouraging these negative aspects. The best we can do is to focus on the love and positivity than can arise from such painful moments, providing we give them a chance to do so. We should do our best to encourage an end to suffering everywhere!

Astral Projection/Out Of Body Experiences:

One thing I want to make clear concerning what is normally called 'out of body experiences' is that this name is actually incorrect. The fact is, we already occupy ALL of our Consciousness Continuum to start with, with our Primary Focus being centred along a certain part of it i.e. F1, F3 or F4. With regards to F1, we are primarily FOCUSED on our physical bodies and we perceive and interact with the physical world through them but we are in no way INSIDE our bodies. When we 'project' we are temporarily shifting our focus of awareness from F1 to wherever, we are NOT leaving our bodies as we were never IN them in the first place!

With regards to exploring the physical while in an 'out of body state': in such a state, what we are therefore doing is not leaving our bodies but focusing away from them. Now, in doing so, we can continue to perceive the physical world as a point of consciousness but it can be difficult to navigate and to perceive properly if we're not used to it, so to make things easy we can (usually automatically) create an energy double to focus on and use to navigate and perceive things around us. This is the so called 'ethereal body' or astral double that people talk about. The ethereal body only exists for as long as it is needed and it is then dissolved when we refocus back on the physical body again. This energy body can take many forms depending on the expectations of the projector; however they are not necessary in order to focus away from the physical but are a common feature.

The term 'Astral projection' on the other hand is normally used to refer to trips to the astral world or what I call F2 and F3 states. In F2 or F3, the process of 'body creation' is the same although it is much easier for people to create bodies for themselves and they feel much more 'real' than the temporary second bodies created for the duration of a physical 'projection'. While people permanently engaged in F3 can adopt whatever form they wish, most people appear to automatically adopt the form of their previous physical existence, but as it was at their physical peak, i.e. 25 to 30 years old. This is somewhat of a generalisation but it tends to be most common.

One other point to note is that it is our continued desire to remain primarily focused on the physical which keeps our energetic connection with our physical bodies intact and keeps our physical bodies alive. As soon as we *permanently* switch our focus then our link with our physical bodies is broken and the physical body dies. To put it another way, the body is not the source of the mind, nor does it sustain the mind; the reality is that the mind sustains the body; as soon as the mind decides to disengage permanently, the physical body will die.

The Real Time Zone:

When talking about physical projections, people often talk about the physical world and a 'buffer zone' next to it. This buffer zone is like an exact parallel of the physical world and is where we project to when navigating the physical world in a non physical manner. I used to accept the notion of a buffer zone between the physical and the astral but no longer do so. I now believe that what we call the buffer zone or 'Real Time Zone' is in fact all part and parcel of the physical world. It is just that Focus 1 or the physical is made up of a lot more than what we perceive from a normal, physical perspective. I suppose we could call this the 'Wider Physical'.

You have not actually gone "out" of body at all. You have simply taken a step "back", so to speak, from the front-line physical in terms of your current focus, into the wider physical. You cannot go "out" of someplace where you were never "in" in the first place. If someone moves their location from point a to point b, this logically presupposes the person was actually at point a to begin with. If I want to go out of one room into another room I have to initially be in that first room.

In terms of the body, we are not located in that first room, we are merely focused within it, as if from a distance, if you like. The analogy falls down rather quickly but imagine looking into room one from a distance through a telephoto lens, then you shift your focus to room two. In a sense, and only in a sense, this is what we are doing.

Reality Fluctuations:

Projectors often talk about 'reality fluctuations' when involved in a RTZ projection. For example, you may be floating around your room, looking down at your body and everything appears just as it was when you were physical, except it was dark outside and now it is light! Hold on, the door is in the wrong wall! These fluctuations are not really fluctuations, they are *overlays*. You see, F1, F2, F3 and F4 don't sit one on top of another in a nice, organised, linear manner. The reality is that they all intertwine together, much like several strands of string bound together to form rope. You can experience F1 and *at the same time* experience an overlay of F2 or even F3. This is how I expect mystics have their visions. They experience an F2 overlay of Jesus or whoever, and this is on top of their F1 experience. The end result is seamless so you would in effect see Jesus walking around in front of you in the parking lot or wherever you were having your vision! Ghostly manifestations may also be a result of overlays, perhaps F1/F3 overlays, allowing the witness and the 'ghost' (i.e. someone residing in F3) to perceive each other. Overlays or fluctuations as they are more commonly called, can be kept to a minimum with practise: you need to practise keeping your mind as focused and emotionally neutral as possible during physical projections and eventually you should be able to observe your RTZ surroundings with a good degree of accuracy.

Parallel Universes:

The Wider Physical is a very interesting area which I am just starting to get to grips with. When you are exploring the Wider Physical you come across all manner of tubular structures, astral gateways and all manner of weird and wonderful entrance structures. I now believe that at least some of these may lead to other parallel physical universes. There is not just one universe you see. While ours is vast enough, it would appear that we created many other parallel physical universes as well. Some are very similar and others are wildly different. I am now of the opinion that they all exist very close to each other but on different vibrationary levels. It is perfectly possible to "travel" between what are commonly called parallel universes. A seasoned projector can do this (though not in the physical sense... yet?) by travelling along the myriad of tubular structures that link all the various different realms of physical-reality universes. I suspect this underlies Monroe's F35 experiences, described in his book. I have never found an exact parallel for F35 and I believe that he may have actually arrived at a crossroads of parallel physical dimensions. However, instead of these crossroads residing somehow 'beyond' F27, these parallel worlds may in fact interact at a much closer level, somewhere in the Wider Physical level, or what we call the Real Time Zone. Like many aspects of the Wider Reality, this area requires further study.

Opportunities For Providing Proof:

As I always say, the only way a person can “prove” experiences to himself or herself is to gain knowledge of an action that is unconnected with themselves. Physical projection, once mastered, is an excellent opportunity to get some. For example, in one RTZ projection I had fairly recently, I was outside and saw a large van making a delivery to the bakery. I popped back to physical, threw on some clothes, walked down the road to the bakery to check and there was the van. This is just one example but once you have done this kind of thing a few times, residual doubts about your experiences will soon be dispelled.

4) In depth: Focus 2

The region of your Consciousness Continuum that I call Focus 2 is very interesting. Unlike Focus 1, 3 and 4, this area of your consciousness can only be experienced by you. It is an area of individual consensus reality that nobody else has access to apart from you.

Focus 2 of consciousness is the next area inwards, so to speak from F1. Now, anything that ever has, or ever will come about within Focus 1 originates within Focus 2 of consciousness. This is the area of a person’s imagination; it is where all ideas come about, all impressions, gut feelings, etc. Each and every manifestation that is brought into being within Focus 1 oC, absolutely all of it, every invention, every design, every piece of art of any description, etc. without exception originates within Focus 2 of consciousness.

Focus 2 oC is the place the olden day explorers termed the astral. It is perfectly possible to enter this area and engage in whatever belief construct you like in 3D. It’s the place where most of us do our dreaming. If a person develops a degree of lucidity while they are dreaming, then this is where they will have a lucid dream. If they purposely enact some kind of "projection technique" then they can often enter this region with certain expectations, which will pan out as an "astral projection" experience as opposed to a dream or lucid dream. But these actions are all essentially the same. All that changes is your level of awareness and your expectations.

The key fact about engaging with F2 is that all your belief constructs will be represented in front of you in glorious 3D! As F2 is divided into many, many areas which all hold different beliefs, thoughts, memories and experiences from your life, you can engage with these belief constructs as you wish.

There are tremendous joys to be had here. Myself, I love running through all my childhood memories, for example. Anything you ever felt, saw, experienced, etc., etc., in your life, you can “relive” again within Focus 2 and in stunning detail. Absolutely anything and everything your physical senses have ever experienced, and I mean that LITERALLY, is recorded by your senses and “stored” within Focus 2, plus all your dreams too. F2 is where you do your dreaming every night so you are actually well used to this area.

When engaging with F2 worlds, you will find that the characters there can be quite limited in their range of abilities. This is because they are constructs made by you. Dream characters are a typical example of these constructs. When you are in a dream state in F2, your awareness is usually pretty restricted anyway, usually to the scenario depicted, so you don't really notice. If you enter an F2 area while fully aware, you will soon notice something odd if you try to engage these characters in meaningful debate or try to get them to do something other than what they were doing. They come across as being a bit vague and not quite 'all there'. This is one of the BIGGEST differences between F2 and F3. Some people ask how I can tell the difference between F2 'dream' characters and real people in F3. Don't worry, You WILL be able to tell! People in F3 engage in a whole range of actions, communicate with you directly in meaningful dialogue and act in ways that you could not predict, just as they do in F1/physical. This will become obvious to you once you gain a bit of experience of F2 and F3 environments.

I should point out that although this is your own personal area and cannot be experienced directly by others, it is still possible for someone to communicate with somebody else in an F2 state (such as a dream for example - which is just F2 with restricted awareness). Someone else from outside, say F3, can try to communicate telepathically and this communication will hopefully manifest itself in the F2 experiencer's world, perhaps even as a representation of the communicator. With any luck, the communicator may even succeed in raising the F2 experiencer's awareness to an F3 state, resulting in full face to face contact. This can happen in a seamless manner and is another example of 'overlays' in action, in this case F2/F3. This is how it is possible for those who have 'passed over', to use the old terminology, to communicate via dreams with those still residing in the physical.

This is about as far as those olden-day inner explorers went. Some of them tried to venture “beyond” F2 but by and large they were captured by their superstitions when they came across the 3D Blackness or FZ area. Getting lost or getting mutilated by some monster hidden in the dark recesses of 'The Void' was a big thing in those days. The tales of which would be filed alongside all manner of other scary “facts”, such as, if a person travelled at more than 15mph their physical body would fall apart.

But these days the more forward-thinking practitioners realise this infamous Void of old is just an area of 3D Blackness situated between Focus 2 and Focus 3 of consciousness. To followers of the Monroe School, The Void is simply the 3D-Blackness at Focus 21. Simple as that. No superstitious nonsense getting in the way. Just place your Intent and away you go.

So when you “take off” into the 3D Blackness, you generally emerge within Focus 3 of consciousness, or what is becoming commonly known as the Transition Area, where you will come into contact with other people who are very real indeed, not just F2 'dream characters'. It is to F3 that we will turn our attention to next.

5) In depth: Focus 3

Now, if you shift your focus of attention to Focus 3 of consciousness, please understand that you are still not in a separate place. You are still within your own Consciousness Continuum, but Focus 3 is an area of common consensus reality, so things are very much like the physical, indeed even more physical than the physical if you know what I mean; like the physical on steroids! As it is a common consensus reality (like F1), it means that you can perceive and interact with everyone else and they with you, just as in the physical.

This is where people go when they 'die', i.e. make the Primary Focus switch from F1 to F3.

F3 is also known as the Transition Area, as it is where we all go in order to begin the process of adjusting back to subjective reality once again and to prepare for our eventual Primary Focus switch back to F4. This is the ultimate purpose of Focus 3. How long this process takes to complete will vary from individual to individual and everyone progresses at their own pace. Some people can take hundreds or even thousands of years, in our terms. There's no rush!

This level equates to Monroe's F23 - F27 areas. Focus 3 is big, and I mean HUGE! You could probably spend thousands of years exploring this area and only manage to cover a fraction of it, with new additions and changes occurring all the time.

The fundamental rules of the Wider Reality are readily apparent here in that 'Thought = Action' and 'Like Attracts Like'. This means that people of similar mindsets will tend to gravitate together with others of a similar persuasion. The subjective energy of these groups then allows for the creation of environments suited for the groups in question, although I should also point out that you often get individuals living in some environment by themselves; this is because they have chosen to do so, or expect to, depending on their expectations on crossing over. As I said earlier, F3 is also known as the Transition Area, as it is where we all go after physical 'death', when our Primary Focus switches to F3 (instead of F1) in order to begin the process of adjusting to subjective reality once again and for our eventual Primary Focus switch back to F4. This process proceeds at each individual's own pace, so we could be talking hundreds or even thousands of years for some people! The whole process can be hampered by the fact that many people may not know that they have 'died' or they may have strong religious beliefs which means that they spend years in some created heaven of their own expectation, along with others of similar beliefs. They only remain in these scenarios for as long as they hold these beliefs, so once they begin to have serious doubts about their 'heaven' then their energetic structure will change, opening up other possibilities for these people and a chance to engage with a more free thinking area.

All the heavens of mainstream religion can be found here as well as all the hells. These are all scenarios created by people's beliefs and expectations. If they really believe that they will be going to hell, complete with fire, brimstone and fork-wielding demons, then that is where they will end up, suffering alongside others of similar persuasion. Like any F3 scenario however, at some point they will begin to question what in Hades is going on and if this thought process goes on then the penny eventually drops, allowing them to leave.

Afterlife researcher Bruce Moen calls all these self-created afterlife scenarios 'hollow heavens' and 'hollow hells' to highlight the fact that they are created by US, due to our own expectations; we are not governed by some God-like figure. Nobody judges us or punishes us; the reality is that we punish ourselves. If you are a serial killing cannibal and love it, after death you will gravitate to areas populated by other serial killing cannibals. This may sound great, but a few hundred years of being eaten alive by other people of the same persuasion as yourself is punishment in itself and allows you to see things from the victim's perspective. After a while, this tends to override the cannibal's joy in being able to continually indulge in his favourite activity. Eventually, the cannibal rejects this mode of thought and frees himself from it, allowing him to gravitate to something better.

Focus 3 can best be thought of as a tree, with the least free thinking areas towards the bottom and gradually becoming more free thinking up to the top. With the lower branches, they are populated by all kinds of people involved in horrific practises who are basically slaves to their basest animal instincts. Many will not even be aware that they have 'died'. This region equates to Monroe's F23 - F24.

Further up the tree, you find all the heaven and hell scenarios and other places created from people's expectations after death. They are populated by those who had very strict, fundamentalist religious views on what would happen to them in the afterlife. You will also find many other groups and individuals engaged in an almost limitless amount of other scenarios of their own making. Again while some of them are aware they have transitioned from F1, others may be unaware that they have 'died' or are confused about exactly what has happened to them. This region equates to Monroe's 'Belief System Territories' of F25 - F26.

Then, towards the upper branches of the F3 tree, which equates to Monroe's F27 label, you have the free thinking areas where people are most well balanced and have no fundamentalist mindsets, or warped desires to kill babies with chainsaws. They are very happy, fun loving and joyful. I tend to refer to their attitude as 'dead and loving it'. These upper (or more correctly: Wider), free thinking areas are also huge in number and you can find all manner of interesting people and locales there. There are too many upper F3 areas to possibly count, but they do include some important locations made famous by The Monroe School, such as The Park, where people often come to chill out while recovering from their physical world experience, The Life Review Centre, the Library and so on.

I honestly urge you to be prepared for a bewildering array of 'worlds' when you engage in F3; some are wonderful, some funny, some horrific! You get all kinds of towns and places full of people and you might just come across people living alone. It all depends on the person in question. Lots of people are 'dying' these days with no particular religious beliefs so they end up in transition just basically doing what they have always done. Basically, the F3 regions are chock full of people who are acting out all manner of scenarios. And I really do mean *all* manner of scenarios you could possibly think of, and more (infinitely more). At the base level you find people engaged in the most disgusting acts of depravity, where child torture, murder, rape, et al, are the norm. As you go higher, or more correctly wider, you come across regions where people are engaged in all manner of other pursuits, many of which have a religious or mystical slant. Beyond that you get to the upper branches were everyone is the most free thinking and well balanced, as I have described earlier.

Once you can reliably project your consciousness into these regions you can have a lot of fun chatting to the locals and finding out what's what. But I do agree that it is very spooky at first because it all seems so real. That's because it *is* real.

The key thing to do, or rather not to do, is start to overly analyse whatever the circumstances are that you find yourself involved in. The best state of mind to be in is that of a passive, mildly curious observer. Problem is, if you begin to react to the circumstances, especially emotionally, your own release of emotion will cause reality fluctuations that can (and often do!) vary from mild to wild.

What happens then is, you become entangled in a situation where you have the astral circumstances you found yourself in. Then, superimposed on that, are the circumstances you are creating from your own release of thought-release-emotion. Which all gets mighty confusing and generally scuppers the experience. If you feel circumstances are getting out of hand, rather than try and "make it right" simply go back to Physical (F1) and project again.

You do come across some interesting cases. During one exploration, I met a very interesting lady called Mary who had built herself a wooden church and was waiting for “god” to come and bless it for her. You cannot help but have compassion for these people. She had held her faith all her life that one day she would be meeting “god” after she died and there she was, waiting for “him”.

She asked me if I was waiting for god too, and if I was lost. I said I was a traveller passing through (as I tend to do). She invited me in and offered to share what she had. Saying if I was lost then I could stay in her little place while waiting for “him” and he would bless me as “he” would her. Once I was “blessed” then off I’d go to “heaven” and all that jazz. I gave her my thanks and, once I was out of sight, Phased back to physical to make notes.

Why people sometimes get 'stuck' in F3:

People often waste loads of time in the various hollow heavens and hells that I have talked about earlier, as well as all manner of other scenarios. They get stuck in these worlds as they simply don't know anything else. This is the afterlife that they fundamentally believed they would be going to, so that is what they get. Also, you have to realise that many people end up living in circumstances very much the same as they did while physical. Loads of people are living their lives within F3 and they don't fully realise they have actually physically died. There is a part of them that is well aware, but they just get wrapped up in their day to day affairs just like they would have done while physical. Such people will carry on living in such scenarios until the penny drops and/or they receive some help from outside.

Emotional loops:

Emotional loops are an even more serious situation however; more so than a hollow heaven. People often get in the unfortunate situation where they are releasing a particular mix of emotion that is creating a certain kind of objective scenario. Then they are reacting to that scenario in a particular way. But that particular way of reacting causes that same particular mix of emotions to be released, which causes the person to react to the scenario in that same particular way. So that same particular mix of emotions are released, so they react to the scenario in that same particular way… etc., etc.

Of course, within the physical, people can become locked in these kinds of weird circumstances in dreams. But it isn’t long before the alarm clock goes off, or some physical demand comes along and the person snaps out of it. But once someone is sans physical then different rules apply.

There is no need to eat or to excrete, no need for sleep, and so forth. So for someone caught in a loop there is nothing much that will come along and make a demand, break their attention, thus snap them out of it. For example, if there was a need for sleep then, after 20 hours or so, the person would get tired, fall asleep, and thus break the construct. Or they would end up starving hungry, or eventually get a severe need to use the bathroom, or whatever. But no such thing applies and people can become locked in these kinds of constructs for what we would gauge as a time period. This time period could be from minutes to even hundreds of years. There are no hard and fast rules.

Retrieval work:

The solution is to somehow interrupt a person’s thought patterns to make them start thinking of something else. As they do so, the objective circumstances they keep repetitively finding themselves wrapped up in will dissipate.

There are many people resident within the upper branches of F3 who try to help people free themselves from this kind of predicament. They are usually referred to as Helpers. Plus, you get people such as myself who regularly project to this area and see it as a challenge to break some of these constructs in which people become entangled. Some people call it “Retrieval” work and I too use that term loosely.

Helpers and people in F1 who engage in Retrieval work can also try to help those living in closed off belief system scenarios such as the hollow heavens, hells and all the other scenarios that people end up in. Helpers from these upper regions are always on hand to help these people and often try to get through to hopeful cases whenever there is a possibility that the individual in question is beginning to question his or her circumstances. Eventually people start to question the validity of their circumstances, thus the framework of the belief construct is gradually laid bare and people progressively gravitate to the upper branches of F3.

Note: when I use the term “top” or “upper” to describe this region I don’t mean in a superior sense, like this top region is more “religious”. If anything, quite the opposite is the case.

The people who are engaged in the religious constructs are the ones caught lower down, which is kind of ironic when you think about it. This is the main reason why I, personally, detest any kind of fundamentalist religion. These kinds of belief constructs are presented within the physical as a boon to progression in the non-physical, when in fact they turn out to be a barrier. But within Primary Focus 3, you can also see that many more people are disengaging from the physical these days with no particular mystical or religious beliefs, and are thus finding the progression through transition very much easier to achieve.

Creating your own environments in F3:

Within Focus 3, you can construct whatever you like. I made a tree house in a dense forest that ran to the edge of a lake. I made an ocean and a lovely open-plan house with a veranda that led out onto the sand. I’ve created all manner of plants, grasses, fish and other animals.

Now, the great thing is, within Focus 3, once you create something, it remains until you choose to change it, so you can go to it whenever you like. You should also be aware however, that so can anyone else, both those who live in F3 and other people phasing there like you, so don't be surprised if you turn up sometimes and find other people there!

It’s quite tricky learning to create things in F3. You have to merge with the underlying subjective energy. It is not like F2 where your thoughts immediately come to life. You have to concentrate a little harder. But there is a knack to it that you soon pick up and then it becomes second nature. If you get stuck, simply ask someone to help you. You’ll find people are ever so helpful. Also, upper F3, do not be surprised to get all manner of people who obviously know you very well, coming up to say hello. Yet you haven’t got the foggiest idea who they are!

A good reason for learning how to create F3 environments now is that people in the know, so to speak, construct a place for themselves so, when they permanently disengage in a physical sense, i.e. when they “die” that is where they go... to their own place within F27, or the upper branches of Focus 3 as I call it.

One final point: One of the useful aspects of F3 exploration is that you contact people, get their details and try to verify that they used to live in the physical world later. I have managed to make a number of verifications of people I met within Focus 3 of consciousness of my Phasing Model.

6) In depth: Focus 4

The Next step inwards is Focus 4 of consciousness. Once you have finished your physical world experience and have spent some time in F3 adjusting back to subjective reality again, you will at some point be ready to switch back to Primary Focus 4. F4 is where things really start getting interesting!

Once we engage with Focus 4, we become our 'Wider Selves'. I don't like using the term 'higher self' as you have no higher or lower self. You are you; it's just that you have focused your attention from your F4 perspective to a narrow F1 perspective for the purpose of experiencing the physical world. When you engage F4, you are engaging your full perspective once again.

Those whose Primary Focus is F4 have no form at all. They exist as energy essences, or what we might call a point of consciousness. I can't really tell you how many people are resident in F4, but it is certainly a huge number in human terms. I’m not sure how many people will remember the kids TV sci-fi series of about 30 years ago, or so. It was called Captain Scarlet and you had what were known as the Voice of the Mysterons. They were these mysterious beings that would talk to you out of nowhere. Well, that’s a bit like how it is communicating with people who live within Focus 4.

So what's Focus 4 like? Well, you need to realise that F4 is nothing like F1, F2 or F3. It's unique. You phase into what feels like a huge interconnecting communications network. In a way it’s like plugging your computer into the Internet. But you are plugging your mind into an infinite network of other minds. There is, of course, a LOT more to it than that. But in a nutshell that’s the simplest explanation I can come up with. While it is an exciting thing to do, I have to mention that it is not for the feint of heart, or for anyone who is not totally grounded in themselves mentally.

The “problem” you might say, is you can get to feeling like you have “lost your own mind”.

Thing is, we get so used to having only ourselves in mind. And communicating in this area is fully mind-to-mind. So what you do is merge your mind with another mind or minds (now multiple merging is really freaky, lol) and you communicate via thoughts, imagery, feelings, and so forth, in ways that are appropriate for the subject matter you are communicating about.

In a sense, though, it feels like someone is “invading” your mind, and the more egotistical parts of you may battle against it. With me it took about a hundred attempts before I became comfortable with the process.

The Graduates that Monroe talks about in his work about must surely be people who have adopted Focus 4 of consciousness as their Primary Focus. I can see no other explanation. I am also convinced that Monroe touched on Focus 4 quite a number of times during his experiences but for some reason the penny didn’t quite drop with him. With me, it was my frustration in my attempts to go “beyond” F27 of his model that led me into the discovering of Focus 4 of consciousness. Not that I actually saw it as Focus 4 at that time. The label came later. But it was obvious that the area was a completely different area to the Transition Area of focuses 23 through 27 of the Monroe model.

As I have said, there are many, many people resident within Focus 4. Pure energy essences you might call them, that you can tap into. These people are quite knowledgeable and do come across as kind of “god-like” you could say. But that’s only because they are subjective energy essences that exist primarily as a point of consciousness, so to speak. When we each (for want of a better word) “complete” our current movement through consciousness, or as Monroe was saying “graduate”, we too will reside within Focus 4 solely as an energy essence, or a point of consciousness. This is simply part and parcel of adopting Focus 4 as your Primary Focus, instead of Focus 1 or Focus 3. But I guess people in the past have just misunderstood what’s what.

If I had come across Focus 4 before Freda and Harath (my guides) had given me a detailed briefing of what to expect, then even I could well have mistaken my interactions as some kind of communication with divine being(s). Because that’s precisely the way they come across. They radiate a kind of energy that tends to turn you to emotional jelly. But they are not “gods” as such. The energy they radiate is merely a product of adopting Focus 4 as your primary focus. If any of us chose to do the same, we would radiate the same energetic signature. Well, that is what I am told. I won’t actually know until I try it myself, of course. :)

I should point out here that I have also discovered people in the Wider Reality who have adopted a kind of 'semi-F4' state; people in this state are kind of half in F4 and half out of it, so to speak. They can also come across as kind of 'god-like' if you come into contact them without knowing what's going on. Again, it's due to the energy signature.

The strange thing is, we actually are now resident as a point of consciousness within Focus 4. We have not in any way “left” Focus 4. What we have done is to adopt a different Primary Focus for the purposes of our experience. You can imagine it as one continuum of consciousness that extends, like a telephoto lens, if you like, from Focus 4 through to Focus 1. What we objectively view as “death” in subjective energy terms is an objective translation of the action of a person shifting their Primary Focus from Focus 1 to Focus 3. After your life within Focus 3 you, in a manner of speaking, die again, when you shift your Primary Focus from Focus 3 to Focus 4. And that completes your cycle, you could say.

Note: I have to be wary of using terms such as beginning or end, because when you are speaking within the context of Focus 4 these terms simply don’t exist. From the point of view of Focus 4, your life here is a movement that you initiate in consciousness for the purposes of your experience.

How Focus 4 fits in with the rest of our system:

As I have said before, we in our F4 states decided to create this physical universe (and lots of others besides), all for the purpose of allowing us varied opportunities for new experiences. When it comes to setting up a physical world system like our physical universe, certain “supply lines” and “structures” have to be put into place. Each physical world system has 3 basic areas of consciousness that ultimately “connect” to Focus 4. So the “main” area or ultimate creative source, is Focus 4. This area is common to all the physical worlds that are “connected” to it. Focus 4 is what you might call an “umbrella” area, and the other 3 areas of each physical world within our system are “nested” within that overall umbrella.

So say you had Focus 4 and 100 physical-world realities. Note: there are actually an infinite number of other physical-world realities within our whole system. But here let us say there are just 100.

Each physical reality has a Focus 1, obviously, because physical reality is Focus 1. So there are 100 Focus 1’s, together with 100 Focus 2’s and 100 Focus 3’s. Each of these areas is nested within one Focus 4.

The best way of thinking of Focus 4 in my opinion, is to think of it as the ultimate creative source of all that exists within our entire system. In other words, all the original plans, archetypes, models, etc., etc. of all the physical realities “connected” to Focus 4, are held within this area.

Focus 3 is a Transition Area that is reserved for people “returning” from their physical experience. People generally have to go through a period of shaking off all the belief constructs they brought into objective reality during their physical experience, to enable them to merge fully with the subjective reality of F4 again, at which point they can decide what to experience next. Focus 3 also has sections that serve as what could be termed areas of our “collective unconscious” but for our purposes, thinking of it as a Transition Area will suffice.

The original archetypes held in Focus 4, that are to do with all the potential states and probabilities possible within our particular physical dimension, are “downloaded” into Focus 2. What people then do is pick and choose whatever actions they fancy and “play” with them within their area of Focus 2.

Essentially, the action of doing this creates a pool of individual probabilities within Focus 2, and each person in question decides which of these probabilities to bring into objective reality, i.e. bring into Focus 1.

In other words, each individual creates their reality subjectively within Focus 2, and then they “insert” it into Focus 1 on an ongoing basis.

Please note: not all physical realities are built on the same basis. Not all physical realities, for example, incorporate emotions like we do. So the potential states and probabilities possible for other physical dimensions will naturally vary. Therefore, each physical reality will have a correspondingly different set of potential states and probabilities “downloaded” into their Focus 2 area. But the ultimate source for all these potential states and probabilities is Focus 4.

The 4 areas of consciousness are NOT distinctly separate. They are intertwined immeasurably, and each area is associated with particular actions, explorations, and/or movements in consciousness; while being fully connected to, and interacting with, each of the other areas.

Above all, I would say that there are two humongous challenges in thinking associated with Focus 4 of consciousness, as follows:

1) It is an area of purely subjective reality. So nothing actually exists as an objective observable form. To feel your whole sense of 'body' totally disintegrate is not something you forget in a hurry. :) This is why I do not recommend beginners attempt Phasing to focus 4. There are no 'dangers' don’t get me wrong. But the effects are mind blowing and I do not say this lightly. Seeing my whole physical life as a *concept* changed my outlook on life significantly overnight. The notion of *concepts* is one that you will have to fully grasp in order to make headway in F4. In F4, everything is to do with subjective concepts and F4 is the source of all concepts that eventually manifest in objective reality. You can decide to merge with the underlying subjective energy that forms the concept of anything you care to think of and experience being that thing, or more correctly, the concept of that thing. You can experience being the concept of a flower, a rock, a cloud, an ant, or a human being. For the really adventurous, you can also experience more abstract concepts, like being a sound (this is fun!), or a day of the week - that's right, you can experience the concept of 'Tuesday'! There is no end of concepts that you can engage with - I told you it was freaky!

2) It is an area of simultaneous time, as opposed to linear time that we experience within this physical reality. So everything that is about to happen, has happened and is happening, is all happening at once within the same moment (within infinity everything happens an infinite number of times). This means of course that there is no death, no beginning or ending: everything just IS. However at the same time, there is ever-expanding consciousness. Hey, it's hard to get your head around, but who said infinite reality and the prospect of ever expanding consciousness would be easy! It's all part of the fun!

Ultimately, sampling F4 consciousness can be a very rewarding experience when you get it right. Because then all your Wider Self is laid open for you and you can revel in the excitement and the enjoyment of it all. Stand transfixed by the sheer awesomeness of it all. Find out who you truly are. Know there is no death. Know that life is just one continuous cycle of knowing that has always been. Know that there is only ever-expanding consciousness. Engage the concept of Infinity. Become that concept within Focus 4 and you will never be the same person again. Imagine the sheer ecstasy of a million orgasms all happening at once. Those are the kind of sensations Focus 4 gives you, and that’s just scratching the surface!

7) Beyond Focus 4: other systems

I have been asked several times if there is anything 'beyond' Focus 4. The answer is, to my knowledge, within our particular system there are just 4 Primary areas. But consciousness doesn't end there. Consciousness is infinite. There may well be an infinite number of other systems either like ours or perhaps wildly different. Nobody to my knowledge knows anything about these potential other systems.

Monroe talks of 'Focus 34/35', but as I have said earlier, I believe that Monroe was experiencing something else. I believe his F35 experiences were actually relating to areas of our Wider Physical, where alternate physical dimensions (within our F1 to F4 system) seem to converge. Ha ha, no wonder I couldn't find it!

The interesting aspect about these other physical worlds within our system and the weird thing about them, is that they all occupy the same physical space. The actual characteristics of the different physical dimensions within our system can be wildly different but they all have this one thing in common, in that they occupy the same space. Anyhow, what 'separates' them, if you like, are these Trans-Dimensional areas in consciousness that allows each physical universe to overlay on one another.

Now, I have it on good authority that it IS possible to 'travel' between Trans-Dimensional areas; when I say travel I mean actual physical travel. It is also possible to do this non-physically as well, so I am told. So my theory is that these UFO sightings might in fact be a kind of 'bleed through' from another Trans-Dimensional area: an area that has people living within it who have already learned how to design some kind of craft with the ability to travel between physical dimensions.

Anyway, back to the potential for other systems outside of our own F1 to F4 model:

From reading Monroe's later work, I wonder where the heck he was sometimes. He was way out, but not in Focus 4 terms. There was something else. Seriously, I reckon he was about to attempt to step into *another* system of consciousness from Focus 3: entering into an 'Extra-Dimensional' state that is outside of our F1 to F4 system completely: that is what I have been trying to study for ages, the possibility of these Extra-Dimensional areas. I reckon that is why his physical was put at risk. Okay, I’m guessing now, I admit, but I am going to completely retrace his footsteps in the future.

If he were trying to enter another dimension totally, i.e. another system, then that is just incredible. That is not Focus 3, 4 or 5, that is just completely into the unknown...and I mean total unknown. Unless he was attempting to enter Focus 4 while holding a complete objective knowing of that fact. That would just be crazy. You’d just be short-circuiting every subjective energy circuit that ever was. I doubt anyone could have the objective will to do that; just too many natural laws against you.

I just wonder what on earth he found and what secrets there are still to be unlocked from Monroe. I’m going to begin again from page one and work through it until that final piece of the jigsaw falls into place.

RELATED INFORMATION

1) Frank's findings on the concept of 'God'

People often ask about 'God' and if I have ever come across evidence of a god-like figure in the style of the Judeo-Christian/Islamic tradition or the more esoteric eastern variety. I have to say, in my opinion, that the familiar concepts of 'god' or indeed 'gods' are belief constructs that various peoples throughout human history have formulated to explain their reality. Plenty of people continue to subscribe to such ideas to this day and when they cross over to F3 they proceed to engage in the many 'belief system territories' with their Hollow Heavens and Hells and all the rest of it, as I have described earlier. Once they emerge from these areas they gravitate to the more free-thinking upper branches of F3 and people in these areas certainly do not subscribe to the traditional notions of 'god' that many people in the physical tend to think of.

I do think a lot of these notions of gods and angels etc have come about by people who have made contact with those residing in our Wider Reality without knowing exactly what was happening. They then proceeded to interpret the situation according to their pre-defined beliefs. When we, from our F1 perspective, come across those who are living in F3 we can often mistake them for some kind of divine beings due to the energy signature that is given off by those who have adopted F3 as their Primary Focus. This energy can induce waves of emotion in us that can reduce us to tears of overpowering love. Often the folks in F3 will tone this energy down to in order to ease communication and you can certainly ask them to do this if you find the energy they radiate to be too overpowering.

This effect is multiplied when you encounter people who have adopted F4 as their Primary Focus. The energies we are talking about at this point are truly awesome. To give you an idea, the energy given off by these people can reduce the most hardened, evil, serial killing cum chain saw-wielding baby killer into a blubbering wreck of emotional jelly in 3 seconds flat... and I'm not joking.

So, again, if I had come across Focus 4 before Freda and Harath (my guides) had given me a detailed briefing of what to expect, then even I could well have mistaken my interactions as some kind of communication with divine being(s). Because that’s precisely the way they come across. They radiate a kind of energy that tends to turn you to emotional jelly. But they are not 'gods' as such. The energy they radiate is merely a product of adopting Focus 4 as your Primary Focus. If any of us chose to do the same, we would radiate the same energetic signature.

Instead of what Monroe and company call Pure Unconditional Love - The Prime Energy of the universe, I think it is more correct to call this energy 'Pure Subjective Energy', the source of which, is Focus 4 of consciousness. I do not subscribe to the 'Unconditional Love' idea as it stems from a more poetic description of the underlying facts of the matter, which are all I am interested in. Pure Unconditional Love is more the effect that Pure Subjective Energy has on us when we encounter it, rather than the cause. The cause is Pure Subjective Energy. I should make very clear at this juncture, that many pieces of the Focus 4 jigsaw have yet to fall into place for me. In order to fill in the blanks, as it were, I agree there is the temptation to begin stretching the narrative. It would be a handy release if I did offer myself a degree of poetic license. But I am resisting this temptation entirely in favour of following a strictly scientific approach. Monroe (unfortunately in my view) did occasionally display a love for poetic metaphor and I am determined not to make that mistake.

However, the energy essences that hold Focus 4 as their Primary Focus are not themselves responsible for the radiation of this Pure Subjective Energy, nor are they the source of this energy. They each are an energetic personality essence and, as such, they are a focus of this energy, just as we all are. The only real difference being between us and them, so to speak, is the Primary Focus we choose to hold.

I have tried to find out where this Pure Subjective Energy comes from but no one appears to know. We obviously all evolved from it. Somehow this subjective energy became focused and developed into a kind of primary energetic personality essence and this is, I believe, what all the old mystical works are objectifying and calling 'god'. Now this primary energetic personality essence somehow began to develop into many, many individual focuses that somehow became us, and all we have created. But as to how it all began, originally - I don’t mean how the physical universe began - but how ALL of it began, I simply do not know. I think it never did begin. I think the subjective side of things have just always been, which is a pretty mind-blowing concept.

2) Frank's discoveries concerning guides

I do subscribe to the concept of 'guides' in the loose sense of the word, although I tend to prefer the term 'helpers' as the former does carry a lot of mystical baggage which I tend to dislike. I did go through a phase where I thought all this guide stuff was nonsense. But my curiosity got the better of me and I thought well, let's give it a go. So I mentally dumped all my thoughts of it being just some kind of mystical nonsense and began projecting with an entirely open mind on the matter.

I suspected that someone had been following me around on my astral journeys for a while but I could never nail anything down. Matters came to a head (as my guide knew they would) and one morning I just said something like, "Look, I know you've been following me around for a while now. So let's cut all this nonsense and just make yourself known." Which he did (as, again, he knew he eventually would).

Since then I never looked back and I now wonder what I ever did without them. I've got two regulars, my main one Harath and there's this woman called Freda.

Guides come from all manner of places. Also, they know all about the person they are attempting to interact with. So they tend to approach you in a manner suitable to you. With me, for example, Harath first began to stimulate my curiosity. Then he gave me the distinct impression someone was following me around and generally looking after my interests. Also, I found there are what I call, 'guides in passing'. I perceive them as people who just happened to sense I was having some difficulty and, as they were in the vicinity, they made a short detour to help me out. After which they just carry on with whatever it was they were doing. I've never actually seen these people, but I do sense them in the distance.

From my experiences, I would say the first step to take is to become open to the whole idea. Then just ask for help in a small way first. Also, be specific. It's no use asking for help in general.

Trust is very important too. People have this idea that the Astral is a really nasty place full of all kinds of devils and demons. Well, I've had my full share of scary moments on the lower branches of F3, but none of these frightful situations can harm you in any way. And none of these people have any real power except to scare you, and cause you to release fear, which instantly goes to creating and fuelling all manner of scary circumstances that surround you.

The plain and simple fact is, if you lend yourself open to the concept of guidance then there are many people non-physical who will give you a helping hand.

If you are with a guide, they will not let you experience more than they know you can bear. Which means you can go ahead and experience whatever it is, fully in the knowledge that (however confusing it may appear at the time) you will be able to work through it eventually.

As an example: One of my experiences was of being taken to a garden with children playing, all around. Some where lying sleeping in the shade of the trees who had been badly traumatised as a result of what they had experienced on the Physical. Eventually, they would awaken and learn how to play again. It turns out that one of those children, was me.

Realisation of this caused an instant and uncontrollable burst of emotion that is still within me even now. I can feel it, as I type, welling up at the sides of my head wanting to explode outwards into floods of tears. Quite why, I do not know. All I do know is I that need to keep working on solving the mystery of what this is about in a rational, logical manner.

As I said, the term 'guide' should be used in the loose sense of the word because there are many people in F3 who will help you to varying degrees and who could be labelled 'guides' or 'helpers'. This is because F3 is generally full of helpful people! There are also quite specific people who will be taking an interest in your journey, let’s say. Members of what I call your 'non-physical family' who you can contact within the upper branches of F3. Sometimes, when you are exploring F3, you will come across all kinds of people who will greet you like an old friend and you haven’t the faintest idea who they are. But that’s just another thing you get used to.

One important pointer concerning guides is this: With the whole guide thing you have to be very careful you don’t trip up over yourself and start creating various constructs within Focus 2 in order to fill the need for a 'guide'. Each of us has many, many different constructs or aspects of ourselves that we create within Focus 2 for all manner of purposes. People who subscribe to mystical belief constructs such as a 'higher selves' often meet these aspects they have created within Focus 2 in order to satisfy this purpose (not that they actually see it that way). As a general rule, you have to be very, very careful regarding Focus 2. It’s a real sneaky area that can catch you out if you are not careful.

What about the appearance of guides? I find that guides, like many F3 people in their raw state (i.e. when they have not adopted their favourite human form), can come across as a ball of sparkly light (well, that's how I perceive it). You quickly get to recognise them because they radiate a loving kind of warmth, which initially makes you feel all humble and gooey inside. But you soon get used to it. They can also read your thoughts and they will approach you in a form they believe will be most pleasing for you. That is why, if you read other people's accounts of meeting guides, the style of approach will always tend to differ. This is why guides sometimes appear in forms of angels etc depending on the expectations of the individual. Sometimes this is due to the experiencer's own perception i.e. an overlay experience, but there is no doubt that guides themselves will often choose a form which they think you will be comfortable with or expect in some way.

All in all, imagination plays a big role. If you relax your mind and imagine the circumstances in which you would most like to meet a guide, this will send out a powerful signal that you are ready to meet up.

Guides will help you greatly in your exploration of the Wider Reality and they will help you to realise some astounding things. Concerning my regular guide Harath, I now know he is a future aspect of 'me' living in another physical-reality universe who came to find the 'me' living in this physical-reality universe. It's all absolutely incredible stuff. This brings me on to the concept of 'reincarnation', which I have discovered is a bit more complex than people have thought up until now.

3) Frank's findings concerning the concept of reincarnation

Reincarnation is a confusing issue. I used to subscribe to the notion that we all lived sequential human lives, one after the other, as did Monroe. You will find that the standard concept of reincarnation runs through his work. However I have now come to the conclusion that this is not quite right. It is fair to say, from a Focus 4 perspective, that we all certainly do experience many, many human lives. The difference is, we don't experience them sequentially, we experience them all simultaneously.

Focus 4 of consciousness holds what you might call our individual Primary Essence. Each individual is a focus of his or her Primary Essence. Stemming from each of our Primary Essences, if you like, are many, many other focuses. A person may have thousands of other focuses who are experiencing physical lives, both in our physical world and in many other physical dimensions too, but these other focuses are NOT us. But they are directly connected to us, if you like, as they are a focus of the same Primary Essence.

We can MERGE with these other focuses as they are of the same Primary Essence and they can MERGE with us. When I say merge I mean we can search within us and experience them. They are, most certainly 'other lives' and other lives we can merge with and experience. But they are NOT us. They are other focuses of our Primary Essence.

Again, within subjective reality there is NO time. There is no such thing as past and future. All is present. This aspect of subjective reality is one of the most misunderstood aspects and causes a LOT of confusion. I've said a number of times that all this is to do with the way these, what are called, Trans-Dimensional Areas in consciousness function. I've been studying them for a while and they are mighty complex to get to grips with. I still have not managed to suss them out, yet.

But what people are calling 'past lives' are, in fact, encounters with other focuses of their Primary Essence. The basic mistake people make is they assume the other person is them. How can it not be them? People think to themselves, after all, they know SO much about them. They can sense them inside, so it must have been another life, they assume. Just like when people looked to the sun and tracked its movements. It was OBVIOUS the sun revolved around the earth. Of course, the sun does not actually move around the earth at all. Quite the opposite. In a similar vein, these people are assuming that the people they are merging with are them. But the people that we encounter within us, in this particular respect, are NOT us. They are other focuses of our Primary Essence that we can merge with. I have done this a number of times. All you need do is project to Focus 4 and all will become apparent to you.

What people are calling 'past-life regression' is, in fact, a merging with another focus in the action of an F1/F4 overlay experience. But I actually doubt that even these are all true mergings with other focuses. It may just be people observing other people within Focus 3 and not understanding that there is even a Focus 3.

There is a difference between merging and observing. When you merge with another focus you actually feel as if you have become that person. Yo