I had been meaning to reply to this topic for a while now but had been putting it off. As a former "student" of the Academy of Remote Viewing and Influencing I can give you my take on the experience. It is run, as far as I can tell, exclusively by Gerald O'Donnel, a clever name with the acronym GOD (only found the acronym part a few years later in NR chat). He has an Eastern European accent, and while I'm not saying he couldn't have had an Irish Father, it just seemed phoney & weird. If you check out his writings they are pretty new agey with a strong sentiment towards monotheistic religions of the mid-east (Yahweh, New Jerusalem, etc). It seems that he did tap into something (he calls it "the One") with some relatively interesting information regarding the "dark matrix" and the nature of light, but there are definate STS overtones and intent (seen in it's marketing/course content).
I first found the course after I had initially woken up to the NWO side of things (late 2003), and nothing could have properly prepared me for the time until now. I bought it through a loan from a friend since I couldn't afford it and I was really desperate to become the One and totally rearrange my reality and live in a YCYOR utopia, woo!
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I should have heeded the signs early on but I didn't know then what I do now....
- A day before receiving the course I had noticed from my window a woman on the street corner screaming that the world was ending and that there was going to be a lot of pain. I naively thought she needed my help so I decided to "assume" her form and start affirming that everything was ok. At the point that I most felt connected to her she "magically" stopped screaming and just stood there. Little did I know at the time that I was majorly violating her free will, with magic no less.
- The day I got the notice slip from the post office to pick it up...the slip went missing. I asked another person home at the time where it went and we had both agreed that it was right on the couch a few minutes before. I ended up finding it a few months later under a shelf in the adjacent room. Perhaps the cat grabbed it and stashed it there when no one was looking....
Later on I took both of these incidents as signs that this course wasn't all it was cracked up to be. This mystical seer lady that ran the store below the apartment told me the next day that what I did was a mistake due to free will being messed with, that I was moving too fast on my newfound conscious spiritual quest. I later realized that she was right and that I was not ready for such spiritual fast-tracking.
In the period I was doing the course I did have some obvious psychic and astral phenomena take place, but once again, I don't think it was necessary to experience but still acted as major catalyst for a more proper application of my learning into growth.
1. I RV'ed my friend's dream (the friend that helped me purchase it). I had been listening to one of the tapes and had just decided to go sleep when I got this clear image in my inner vision of a white car with 3 big rust holes over the right front wheel. I was able to move around the car and see it from different angles. Later I talked to him about a dream he had at the same time of day I was seeing this image. His dream involved him and some people looking for a white car for some reason. The car may have been symbolic of the path we were moving into, who knows....
2. I had come home early from my night shift job at about 5 AM. It was still dark out and I went to "sleep" right away. A short period later and I consciously awake in my sleeping body. At the time...
to Mr. O'Donnel, I wrote:As I was falling asleep yesterday I decided to see if I could consciously go to the edge of delta and remain there for as long as possible. When I was sufficiently deep, I attempted to turn my ethereal body around so I was facing my sleeping body. Then I decided to go UP! When I thought this, I was immediately shot up for what seemed like a couple of seconds. I then asked what my probable future 5 years from now is and was immediately "whisked away" to what seemed to be my future dwelling. I could from that point think of whatever situation I wanted and it was there for me to view. I was almost able to fly around in this state. When I woke up only about a half hour had passed but it had seemed like hours.
What I want to know is what it was I was experiencing? When I first "shot up" I thought I was having an OOBE, but right after that my experience was more akin to a lucid dream (BTW, the most vivid dream I have EVER had).
Is it possible to combine these two types of states? Are they mutually excusive? I've never experienced anything quite as real as this in my mind that I can remember. I would greatly appreciate it if you could give me your opinion/explanation of my experience.
This experience did a lot at the time to verify to me a lot of the research I was doing into spirituality/metaphysics. Also, I was later told through a friend of a "seer" that I had come back from that trip with an attachment of some form. The incident with the lady on the street while "wrong" at the time provided me great catalyst for polarization in the proper respect of free will.
I stopped doing the course as it was hard to do it during the day, which is when (after my night shift) I would normally listen to a tape and then sleep. Shortly after I stopped I came across cassiopaea.org (and through it montalk.net and NR) and I was officially on my way to "transcending the matrix". I had discovered the ideas of STO and STS, free will, true reality creation, etc... All the info and development from this point on (and somewhat just prior) seemed to fall into place perfectly once I made the intentions at the beginning to activate my quest, refining through greater specification later on to work more efficiently and balanced.
I think the course itself is benign if you have the proper level of awareness to counteract the programming and safely navigate the higher realms, but at that point it may not even be "necessary" to do the course at all. The most important and remaining teaching of the course for me was the idea of the One and that I was naturally the One as well and could affect it simply through thought and being. Having that paradigm shift early on in my quest was extremely helpful to me and allowed for a straighter path, though still covered with lots of roadblocks. Another thing I found useful from the course was the knowledge of the brain wave cycles (beta, alpha, theta, delta) and that you could program yourself to enter them at will in order to tap into your subconscious and through it your superconscious self. The only protection taught was the typical incomplete new age love and light shields. At the time I thought it coud allow me to do all this magical stuff like winning the lottery and attracting all the right stuff (AKA stuff my ego puppet wanted). Turns out I did end up learning how to create reality and become the One but most of that came after trying the course (that I never actually finished). By now maybe I could dust them off and go through the course and learn powerful techniques in a balanced way but something (and some people) advise me against it. I'd rather learn in a pure way rather than fast, way easier to navigate the rough seas.
Anyway, that's my personal take as a former "student" of the "Academy of RV/RI". Overall I would say it's a waste of money for the more aware seekers out there, but is very powerful, and in the hands of the spiritual neophyte it can be very dangerous. Ultimately it was very beneficial for me as growth catalyst but others with uniquely different constitutions may be overwhelmed by its effects. There are cheaper and more balanced approaches out there to learn how to do the same stuff without this former government RVer led Academy's methods of entrainment.
Cliche, but...If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is...