Visiting the Akashic Records or other planes of existance is really going beyond mere OBE and progressing it to what is called Astral Projection, though they are both out of body experiences, one is just out and moving around in the immediate area where the other is going right out to places beyond common dreams and possibly to entirey different universes.
For those who do not easily fall into this state there are some techniques to help you on the way, pretty much the same ones I tried in the first place that have lead me to doing it automatically.
Lie down with your arms at your side with your head level, not raised. Get nice and comfortable remembering there is no rush or immediate need to do anything in the world other than what you are doing now, feel your body gently relaxing from the tips of your toes, up your legs and body to the top of your head. Clench and relax each part of your body in turn then finally relax everything, keeping your breathing slow and constant.
Imagine the space around your body, the imaginary buffer that most people don’t step inside, feeling relaxed; slowly imaging that you yourself are relaxing and spreading out into your own body buffer. After some practice you should be able to feel so relaxed that you can no longer feel your physical body any more; if you reach this stage you are almost to the point of reaching an OBE.
This is where you will begin to feel your conscious seeping out, try not to get too exited like I did or you will snap straight back in again and wonder if any of it was real; just go with it and see what happens, remembering all along that you have all the time in the world if it doesn’t work the first time you try.
Try shifting the focus of your soul by sitting in a comfortable armchair and becoming relaxed as before or using whatever technique suits you best. Imaging that you are across the room looking back at your self, taking time to visualize every detail that you would see. Can you imagine what you would look like with your eyes closed? You are trying to shift your mental focus to the projected self away from the self sat in the chair.
Someone once suggested to me that you could try going for a few hours without any water until you are very thirsty then try this experiment with a glass of water at the other side of the room; the idea being to try and project your consciousness out towards the glass with the water and your thirst as an incentive to succeed.
There are a few ways to feel the experience of being slightly out of your body so you have some idea what it is like, in fact you’ve probable done it before. If you run on a treadmill for five minutes or more then stop the program, you will feel your conscious lurch forward for an instant before it realizes you’ve stopped. You can achieve the same result by running along the street for five minutes and suddenly stopping. You can also spin around like children do and suddenly stop, again your conscious will take a moment to realize you have stopped. I have to say though that for me the feeling of an OBE is not a sickly feeling like the one you can get from spinning around to make you dizzy.
You could also try the discomfort trick. Lie down on the floor again and hold one of your arms straight up in the air; just keep holding it there for as long as it takes, your arm will drop if you drift off and remind you of what it is you are trying to do, after a while you will find yourself out of your body to escape the discomfort.
When you are laying in bed ready to sleep is a good time to practice. Try to imagine that you are not touching the bed. As you drift into sleep try and see yourself flying, drifting freely into space and soon you will see the dream become a reality. Once you feel yourself floating away you will be convinced it is actually happening.
It will be difficult at first not to get carried away, to go ‘woohoo!’ when you feel it working; this will only bring it to an abrupt end. Try to ignore these feeling and go with the flow, they will soon be put aside for a higher level of experience. If you wake in the middle of the night and still remember your dream, get up and think about the dream then go back to bed and will yourself back in the same dream; if it works you should find yourself ‘out’ and ready to fly.
Whether you are willing yourself into projection or it is happening naturally you may experience some unpleasantness during the separation process. Loud bangs or pops and unnerving grinding noises are not uncommon as the astral body prepares to leave. With me it used to feel like I was being drawn out through the top of my head. Sometimes you may feel gripped by an intense eardrum-shattering vibration as the two bodies attract each other and are pulled apart. These are the same feelings we sometime get as we fall asleep and feel a sudden shock of electricity that make us jump, like petit mal seizures.
Of course some lucky individuals (usually myself included) don’t experience any unpleasantness and the astral planes fold apart before them like ephemeral curtains revealing other astral bodies of infinite complexity and wonder. However, even the experiences that start out with discomfort can’t actually do you any harm, though you may find this difficult to believe at the time.
You might have an idea where you would like to go on your astral travels before you begin; you may try to direct them to an extent, but it rarely happens that you end up where you intended to go. More often you will end up where you need to go rather than where you think you want to go.
Most people who successfully go out on an astral journey experience a wonderful sense of joy at having existed outside their normal body, proving that it is possible to survive the death of their body. Others like to use the experience for spiritual reasons, maybe wanting to feel more in tune with the universe.