maximus_decimus

There's nothing simple about that. The main problem is that we don't have any scientific way to detect consciousness. We don't know it's necessary or suficient causes, we don't know its neural correlates, even if we knew them we couldn't consider them the mental event per se, if fact we don't even have a good solid consensus about what consciousness is. A few decades back it wasn't even proper to use such word in a scinetific journal or debate. I sugest reading the following chapter of a most interesting book by Alan Wallace. The whole book worths reading. http://www.alanwallace.org/ChoosingReality23.pdf I believe it sheds some light about the probelms science faces when dealing with consciousness and the biased trends sometimes adopted when approachig this sery interesting issue.

There are several kinds of meditation.This said, I'll just give a few hints about one that is a good support for them all: quiescence meditation or calm abiding meditation. It's a type of meditation that allows you to develop focused attention. It can go much further, but it starts like that.Start with very small sessions.Don't do anything special.Sit with your spine straight, take a few breaths and focus in your breath for 5 minutes. If feelings or thoughts arise, just bring your attention back to the breath, gently.This is a good starting point.Do it several times a day and find a qualified mediatation teacher to pick up from there.

A decent book about this subject would be Robert Bruce "Astral Dynamics".However this issues is taught in Tibetan Buddhism under the practice of the six bardos. Even if what is called OBE is not the main purpose, it happens while one is trying to have what Tibetan Buddhists call "clarity dreams".The revered sage Padmasambhava went to a great lenght to explain this process in his teachings. A good book about it (a bit technical for outsiders) is "Natural Liberation. Padmasambhava's teachings of the six bardos" (if I'm not mistaken).I believe this book is still available at amazon.

A very good book about meditation is "The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind.", by Alan Wallce. It explains with some depth a milinar technique called Shamatha in sanscrit.Perhaps some of you would like to visit his website. Just google his name an you can't miss it. I believe this is a book that anyone interested in meditation should read, whether beginning or having some years of practice.