out of breath experience

[Veles]

hey everyone.
this morning, i was woken up by a phone call around 7am, after which i quickly returned to sleep. all of my previous OBEs have happened after waking up in the morning and going back to sleep, so it's nothing unusual... But anyways, i was dreaming of running late to uni and just as i've reached my destination, i noticed that i lost my car keys and in panic ran back the way i came to find them. At a some point, i realised that my surrounding is unfamiliar to me which enabled me to realise that i was not awake. The lost car keys didn't worry me anymore. I decided to take advantage of my lucidity and at first paid close attention to all of my senses and memories, i tried to recall what am i suppose to do when i wake up, and tried to recall the recent past. Surprisingly, it all came quite easily to me. Among those recollections, there was a goal to check out the Akashic Records the next time i have an OBE, so i thought finding myself next to my body would be a good starting point. After i asked to be taken back to my body, i felt the vibrations slowly taking over my "body" but after a while it stopped and i woke up, feeling disappointed that i've missed another opportunity. But i didn't give up just yet, without even trying to look around me and understand the environment i was in, i tried to return to sleep and in oder to do this, i though i should relax, so i decided to take a deep breath. It didn't work. I couldn't breathe at all, i felt as if i was being suffocated... an intense pressure in my temples followed, but it felt rather real. And so i woke up, breathing heavily and still having a headache for a short while. This experience is very similar to my previous one where i had a false awakening and realised that i cannot speak (speechless false awakening topic) so it seems like twice in a row i had an OBE which i was not able to determine from reality.. quite frustrating!

I figured that i don't like false awakenings at all... Its the same as waking up for real, but there is always an element of surprise awaiting which would normally defy all logic of our physical world..
any ideas on how to avoid it? So that the next time i try to have an OBE out of a lucid dream, i don't get fooled again...

cheers

P.S. just changed the name of the topic, coz not many people seemed to respond )))

[kiwibonga]

This is a good sign of progress... You'll probably be able to tell more easily with time, cause it makes you a bit paranoid, so you'll think to check more often.

People usually try reality checks, but it's really a hit-or-miss thing... Hard to pick a good one... When it happened to me often, I started looking back at my bed every morning after getting up; you know, I figured if I saw my body, I'd know I'm not in-body... But what happened then is that I started having false awakenings where my bed was empty :p Same thing when I tried pinching myself... I would actually feel it as if it was 100% real, even out of body.

Something that worked for a while was jumping... If I can hit the ceiling with my head, then I'm out of body...

Don't need to do it anymore though... There's always something weird about the lighting, like everything is blue-er than reality... Depth and space perception is different too... Once you learn to recognize the differences between your waking perceptions and dream/obe perceptions, it becomes really obvious.

[Veles]

Yes!!! the most distinct difference for me is the lighting too! the first time when i had an OBE, i remember i looked at my hands and they looked kind of "faded" as if it was twilight. the bluish colour could also be compared as if you looked at your hands, standing beneath a dim light post of some sort... It's just that when i had false awakenings, i took all that for granted and didn't seem to notice the difference, besides, i was in a rush to get back to bed

I like your advice to jump, deffinitely gonna try it out!

thanks for the tips an =)