In order to become skilled in nonphysical exploration you must set goals to accomplish during your lucid dreams and out-of-body excursions because while traveling without a physical body, thought is action. If goals aren't set, you may lose control and end up wandering around in strange, dream-like dimensions with little or no awareness. This is why affirmations play such an important roll in your practice.

Making affirmations is easy to do; just think of experiments and activities you would like to accomplish during nonphysical exploration and record them as goals on a sheet of paper. Then each time you lie down to practice, repeat the goals verbally at least ten times with true emotion and desire.

For example, if you would like to remember your goals while out of body, you could create an affirmation that states something like, “While out of body I will remember my goals.” If you want to become lucid during your dreams, you could make an affirmation that states, “While dreaming I will become lucid.”

Keep in mind that affirmations should be very short, specific, and easily remembered. Following is an example from one of my own experiences that displays how well affirmations work .

One morning years ago during one of my attempts to induce a lucid dream, I became 50% lucid in a dream where I was standing on the end of a branch in a very tall tree.

My goal at the time was to induce lucid flying dreams, so I had already made an affirmation that I repeated each time before practice that stated, “While flying I will become lucid.” So the mental note to trigger a lucid flying dream was already set. All I needed to do was leap from the branch to trigger the affirmation and I'd be off soaring through the skies enjoying every second with a crystal clear awareness.

However, I couldn't bring myself to jump because the dream had deceived me and I didn't know whether or not I was dreaming. Soon my environment faded into blackness and I opened my physical eyes to see that I was safely in bed.

Needless to say, I was angry with myself for being so cowardly that I couldn't jump. After all, anytime I'm not sure whether or not I'm dreaming, I am! With the experience still fresh in my mind, I got up and wrote down an affirmation that stated, “I will not be afraid to jump” and re-wrote it ten times as I repeated it aloud.

During practice the very next morning I awoke within my dream to find myself in the same predicament as the morning before but totally lucid and remembering the very words, “I will not be afraid to jump.” With total confidence , I looked into the sky , leaped from the branch and was off .

This is one of many experiences that proved to me that affirmations do work. By using affirmations you too will learn of their effectiveness when working toward better and more controlled multidimensional exploration.