Introduction to Focus 10

I did the exercise for the introduction to Focus 10 tonight. To maximize comfort, I wore loose sweatpants, socks, and a tee. Started the exercise at 10:30pm and ended at 11:10pm.

The energy conversion box once again proved to be a useful tool. There were a number of things on my mind that had my wheels turning. I placed these into the box, closed the lid, and promptly forgot about them for the duration of the exercise. I need to learn how to apply the use of this tool to the C1 state.

After the resonant tuning and affirmation, I transitioned from C1 into the Focus 3 state. I noticed a perceptible shift in awareness. With eyes closed and body prone in a relaxed state, my mind felt like it expanded internally. Not a physical expansion, but a mental sensation of expansion. Somewhat like my mind was expanding inside of the space that it occupies. Physically, my brain occupies the space inside of my skull. But, since I know that it is physically impossible for my brain to comfortably and safely expand in that particular space, I conclude that my mind is coexistent with my brain, while simultaneously occupying some parallel, non-physical space. It is within this perceived space that I felt my mind expand.

At this point, I was neither asleep nor dreaming. I was still physically aware of my body, but that physical awareness was more subdued. There were a few times where my face itched, and I still retained immediate control over my physical limbs to reach up, scratch the itch, then relax right back into the Focus 3 state.

After relaxing in Focus 3 for some period of time, I was led through the ten-point relaxation technique for entering the Focus 10 state. Focus 10 is the state where the mind is awake and alert, the physical body deeply asleep. It is not a sleep or dream state. However, much like transitioning from fully awake consciousness into sleep, it is important to let the physical senses fade away and allow the desired state to emerge. There is a very fine line between Focus 10 and the sleep state. It takes some degree of discipline not to drift off into a full blown sleep state.

The best way that I can describe the Focus 10 state that I experience tonight is this: I relaxed by physical body through the ten-point relaxation exercise. Starting with all of the muscles in my head and neck, I told them to relax, go limp, and sleep. Which they did. Once fully relaxed, the physical relaxation that I felt in my head trickled down into my brain. Once my brain understood how that relaxation felt, it told the various other parts of my physical body to relax, go limp, and sleep. Which they all did. At some point--it's impossible to say when because time ceases to be measured in this type of state--all awareness of my physical body had completely drifted away. What I was left with was a level of mental activity, completely constrained to my mind. I was alert on some level, aware that I was not sleeping but also not fully conscious. Ideas and streams of thought went in and out of my mind, but they lacked coherency. I could also hear the periodic voice-over by the exercise guide. From previous experience, I know that my sense of hearing completely shuts down if I have drifted off into sleep. So tonight, I maintained some level of balance between fully consciousness and sleeping.

The exercise is fairly long: 40 minutes in total. 40 minutes of many things in the C1 state is measurably long. I note that my awareness of time disappeared at some point in the Focus 10 state and reappeared when the exercise transitioned me back into the C1 state. For some period of time, time ceased to be important, and hence unmeasured. The best analogous state to this is the fully sleeping state, where time also has no meaning.