Strange thread sorry- Astral Projection, Lucid Dreams, etc

[skittledoo]

Who on this thread has interest in Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming? One of my curiousity little side hobbies is studying why our mind works the way it does and why things like Astral Projection, Lucid Dreaming, Intuition Communication, etc can happen to people. I'm just curious who else is into that sort of thing.

In the past 5 years I've had multiple episodes happen where I'll wake up in the middle of the night and turn around to see myself still asleep in the bed. The first time it happened I woke up to find myself floating above myself and staring back down at my physical body on the bed. It really freaked me out and I felt like I dropped and opened my eyes to find myself sweating and sitting up suddenly in my bed. I think the reason why I freaked out is because previous to it happening to me, I was always a little more close minded to that sort of thing. It felt wayyyyyy too real to just have been a mere dream.

I started researching a lot afterwards and read that this is a common experience that happens to people. They call it Astral Projection or OBE (OOBE). Personally I've never been one to really believe any of this sort of thing until it actually happened. I can't deny that it can happen now and being the curious kind of person I am, I want to know more.

Lucid Dreaming is even more common. It's the state in a dream in which you become aware that you are dreaming. In that lucid state you can alter things in your dreams and experience whatever you want.

The third is Inuitive Communication. I found a book called "Learning their language" by Marta Williams. It's about learning to communicate with animals by way of intuition. Curious if anyone else knows anything about how valid this way of communication can be. I know that when I was a kid I always thought that I could communicate with any animal around me, but as I've gotten older I've really been brought up so much in logic and reason that I have a hard time understanding intuitive communication.

Woah... sorry for the really weird thread here... it's just been on my mind a lot today because of last night:

I was lying in my bed just resting with my eyes closed. When I was fully relaxed I felt my body vibrating and heard buzzing noises in my head like bees swarming. I also felt like someone was spinning my body on an axle. I couldn't stop spinning and it was making my mind dizzy. As soon as I felt like I was becomming really lightweight and possibly going to astral project, Goober jumped onto my stomach and broke my concentration... he looked like he had just seen a ghost. I couldn't get back into that relaxed state after that.

I guess I'll go ahead and make this thread for people to discuss the strange things that have happened to you that are hard to explain, etc...

 

[GipsyQueen]

I've never really been sure what lucid dreaming is... So is it when you become aware that you are dreaming?
A few weeks back I sleept over my friends house. Her mother had died back in May and she gave us her mother's old mattress and another one. (I kinda pulled the short straw and had to sleep on it.) I felt really uncomfertable while sleeping, I couldn't even fall asleep.... Anyways, Sometime during the night I woke up - I'm still convinced I woke up... and I SAW her mom go through some papers on the desk... she was rather loud. Anyways I staired at my friend sleeping next to me thinking WHY is she not waking up! I was up it was SO real, to real to be a dream. It took me a while to fall back asleep after that. Is that in some way lucid dreaming? Because I could control what I was doing and it didn't have like a fuzzy far away feel like most of my dreams do.

 

[nancy2394]

I have strange dreams all the time. But the oddest one I can recall is when I thought I was awake and I as floating above my bed. I think I remember feeling like I was going to fall but then felt safe. I attributed it to a spiritual experience. I can't really remember much else about it.

Dreams amaze me. I have such vivid ones.. and I dream in color. I feel pain in my dreams. I wonder what my mind is doing when I have these crazy dreams. It would be interesting to study stuff like this.

 

[Angel Chicken]

OHHH Lucid Dreaming... I LOVE lucid dreams.

Gipsy, you are correct. Often when you are lucid dreaming, when you find out you are dreaming, you wake up. It can take some practice to actually stay asleep when you go lucid, but when you do actually do it, you can go wild with it. You can make the dream go how you want.

Like "Hey... I'm dreaming. COOL! Soooooo... let's go to Paris!"... like I said, this takes practice though. It took me a little over a year to do it.

 

[skittledoo]

It took me a while to fall back asleep after that. Is that in some way lucid dreaming? Because I could control what I was doing and it didn't have like a fuzzy far away feel like most of my dreams do.

Here's a link on Lucid Dreaming Gipsy... if you google lucid dreams you'll find a lot about it http://www.dreamviews.com/whatislucid.php
It's really hard to say in your situation. You said you were convinced that you woke up? Could it be that the vision of your friend's mom that you saw was possibly her spirit? If so then that could explain you actually waking up and seeing her. It is possible you could have seen her in a dream though. Do you remember anything else about the dream? Normally you will find things in your dreams that wouldn't make sense in the real world. One thing I've noticed when I lucid dreams is that when I look at a clock or something with writing I can't make it out or it feels like it keeps changing to something else. I usually give myself a cue when I attempt to dream lucidly. One thing I may do before going to sleep is stare at my hands. When I fall asleep and start to dream I'll notice my hands in my dream and that's my cue that I'm dreaming and helps to shift me into a lucid state. They did a Fox news report on it... wish I could find that link.

But the oddest one I can recall is when I thought I was awake and I as floating above my bed. I think I remember feeling like I was going to fall but then felt safe.

Nancy that's how I've felt when I've experienced astral projection. Only... I could look across the room and see myself on the other side... thats one of the big differences I've noticed between a lucid dream and OBE's. When I lucid dream I don't see my physical self when I first realize I'm lucid... but when I project it's usually somewhere in my room so I can see my "physical" self still in the bed. I've heard a lot of people say that they are actually able to travel to places on the astral plane or walk around their house... the few times I have I've been too nervous to try leaving my room.

I've thought of an experiment to try though. The next time I project I'm going to try and walk around the house I live in. I don't go upstairs too often because I live in another family's home. I'm going to go upstairs and look around and find something miniscule that I wouldn't normally have noticed. When I wake up I'm going to go upstairs and see if that object is indeed where I found it in the projected state.

There are scientists that study this type of thing. They did an experiment with someone where they had a person in one room go into an astral projected state. In another room they took a piece of paper and wrote a series of numbers on it. That person was supposed to "travel" to the next room, read the numbers and when they came out of that state they had to recite the numbers to the scientists conducting the experiment... I may have to google that link for you.

 

[Dizzy]

Oh no, I'm interested

Lucid dreaming is something I am definately interested in, because I often become Lucid, but I haven't got the knack of controlling or realising it until I'm awake.. If you get me.

Astral projection - well... I don't know about this one. But I have heard some interesting stories none the less.

I'll see if I can find what I was told.

 

[Dizzy]

ps - I first became interested when researching sleep paralysis

 

[skittledoo]

AC you're so right... it's a lot of fun. I can't decide which is cooler though, astral projection or lucid dreaming. Lucid dreams you can do so much with... but the astral plane is so fascinating. I've heard stories of people that have projected to a friend's room that they know and that friend would tell them the next day that they could have sworn they saw a figure of them in their room. Also there are stories of people who plan on projecting at the same time and meeting up somewhere. When they see each other the next day they realize that all the things they did in the "astral plane" they both admit to experiencing.

 

[skittledoo]

Oh no, I'm interested
Astral projection - well... I don't know about this one. But I have heard some interesting stories none the less.

Dizzy, Astral Projection is a harder one for people to swallow I think because it's one of those seemingly sketchy things. It's like spirits/ghosts for example. There are a lot of people who don't believe they exist... there are a lot of people who do believe they exist. Those that do believe have actually experienced episodes with them. I can definitely say I was sketchy about the idea of your conscience shifting out of your physical body... somehow it didn't seem plausable (sp?)... it wasn't until I experienced it that I realized how crazy and real it was. I don't down anyone for not being sure about something... I think it's fun... but I totally get it if you have to have experienced it to know whether it's realistic or not...

 

[Angel Chicken]

I can honestly say that I have never experienced Astral Projection.

The lucid dreams are pretty cool though. I have stopped many bad dreams (that I am prone to having) by going lucid. Some dreams are harder to stop, like the dream I had about Johnny.

 

[skittledoo]

AC I've stopped a lot of bad dreams as well. I used to have some horrible ones... and still do sometimes... I don't always experience lucidity... not as much as I'd like.... have you heard of the nova dreamer mask with the led lights that's supposed to help induce lucid dreams?

 

[Zoom]

it's interesting stuff, to be sure! I can go lucid at times, haven't done it in a while I don't think...although the other night I might have. It wasn't so much a completely controlled decision, more like "i know this is a dream, so I'd better not think...." and then that exact thing happened. In this case, it was a ghost taking over my cell phone and creeping me the fsck out.

I've gotten feeling like what skittledoo is describing, but I've never followed it to the full extent. I think I usually end up going the opposite way and falling asleep.

 

[GipsyQueen]

Here's a link on Lucid Dreaming Gipsy... if you google lucid dreams you'll find a lot about it http://www.dreamviews.com/whatislucid.php
It's really hard to say in your situation. You said you were convinced that you woke up? Could it be that the vision of your friend's mom that you saw was possibly her spirit? If so then that could explain you actually waking up and seeing her. It is possible you could have seen her in a dream though. Do you remember anything else about the dream? Normally you will find things in your dreams that wouldn't make sense in the real world. One thing I've noticed when I lucid dreams is that when I look at a clock or something with writing I can't make it out or it feels like it keeps changing to something else. I usually give myself a cue when I attempt to dream lucidly. One thing I may do before going to sleep is stare at my hands. When I fall asleep and start to dream I'll notice my hands in my dream and that's my cue that I'm dreaming and helps to shift me into a lucid state. They did a Fox news report on it... wish I could find that link.

Well I was dreaming about her mom coming into the room because I hear sounds coming into the room. That I dreamt Which freaked me out because I thought someone had broken into the house or something. Anyways I woke up (At least I think I did, I'm not sure, I told me self You're dreaming, you're dreaming...) But then she was in the room. I was a little paniced and looked into her eyes at my friend and back at her and then she left... And I was sitting up in bed looking at my friend in disbelief... Then I woke her, and she just rolled her eyes and mumbled Its 'cause you're on her matress...
I always know when I'm dreaming when I can't open my eyes at some point. I HATE that feeling in my dream. It happens for example when I turn on a light in my dream and I close my eyes so that the brightness doesn't blind me, and I can't open them anymore.. So icky.
I ushally have to kinds of dreams, those where I am aware that I am dreaming - I am myself, I am dreaming in my own body. Then I have those dreams where I'm watching over myself from the outside and watch the events that happen. I've never had a bad dream where I am myself - I always watch from the outside. Like When I had my plane crash dream, I was watching from the outside of the plane window... In those dreams, I am not aware that I am dreaming, only after.


Thanks for the link!

 

[Angel Chicken]

AC I've stopped a lot of bad dreams as well. I used to have some horrible ones... and still do sometimes... I don't always experience lucidity... not as much as I'd like.... have you heard of the nova dreamer mask with the led lights that's supposed to help induce lucid dreams?

Nope, have never heard of it. Is there a link on it somewhere?

I have had someone tell me if you want to go lucid, to go to bed completely relaxed, and that it can help... do you think this is true?

 

[skittledoo]

Nope, have never heard of it. Is there a link on it somewhere?

I have had someone tell me if you want to go lucid, to go to bed completely relaxed, and that it can help... do you think this is true?

If you go to bed relaxed and in a meditation like state yes it can definitely help. It also helps to keep a dream log. I write down every dream I have and it helps me to recall dreams which in turn can definitely help reach a lucid state when you do dream.

 

[FoxyWench]

everything to do with dreams, astral projection and something called dream shifting interests me...

i have always had night terrors so developing the ability to lucid dream on "command" has been a goal of mine since i leanred abotu it a few years ago...sometimes i can sometimes i cant...

ive never expereicnd a projection, however theres no doubt some people can send their consiesness out into the world without their bodies...

i als do whats called "dream shifting" where when i sleep i dream im something other than human, this is very vivid kind of "dream" thats supposedly much like astral projection but instead of the energy being out of body, it enters another body, others think its simply a way for our "souls" to explore our animal sids or totems...

dreams and the human mind are amazing things.

 

[verderben]

OHHH Lucid Dreaming... I LOVE lucid dreams.

Gipsy, you are correct. Often when you are lucid dreaming, when you find out you are dreaming, you wake up. It can take some practice to actually stay asleep when you go lucid, but when you do actually do it, you can go wild with it. You can make the dream go how you want.

Like "Hey... I'm dreaming. COOL! Soooooo... let's go to Paris!"... like I said, this takes practice though. It took me a little over a year to do it.

I LOVE that! I have actually become quite good at it. It usually happens very very early in the morning when I am half asleep half awake. I can usually keep myself slightly asleep and have had some really weird dreams.

 

[SarahFish]

The astral-projection stuff is interesting. I live in NZ and on Sunday night my mum and me went to go see Deb Webber, the Australian physic who does Sensing Murder and stuff. She's so cool, I hope you all know who she is. Anyway she did readings in the first half then questions in the second and she talked about the astral projection stuff, and how she did it a few times, with a friend of hers doing it too to find out about the time difference, because she didn't understand it very well at the time.

 

[lilprairiemutt]

I always have very vivid dreams that are always in color. Very rarely am I unaware that I'm dreaming. I almost always know that I'm dreaming and have quite a bit of control over how they go. I have never done the astrel thing, but would love to.

 

[bcmoffatt]

I've only had a few lucid dreams, I think.

I think I had one the other night, actually. It would have been a nightmare-- I dreamed that I was in the yard and somebody left the gate open and Kena got out, only when I tried to run after him, there was nothing beyond the yard, only darkness. I thought, and it seemed like I yelled aloud in my dream, "NO! This isn't real, this is a dream. Kena is safe!" and all of a sudden he was back. I woke up right then. Is that the kind of thing we're talking about?