• Are OBEs and Lucid Dreams internal or external phenomena?

    OBE, Dreams, and Lucid Dreaming: Are these internal or external mind phenomena? Robert Bruce clarifies this in an early morning download** debate-1


    OBE, Dreams, and Lucid Dreaming



    Are They Internal or External phenomena?


    Penned in silence at 3.30am on 19th May 2009.


    By Robert Bruce



    Here I will answer the age-old question of whether OBE and lucid dreaming and dreams occur as external or internal phenomena of the human mind. This, of course, begs the questions of: what is your mind, and where is your mind located?

    It is impossible to point to where your mind and your memories are situated. Your mind and your memories certainly do not exist only within the substance of your physical brain. The brain appears to act as a transceiver for the mind. If parts of your brain are damaged, you can lose physiological functionality, and access to short or long term memories may be interfered with or lost. But, a full half-either side of your brain-can be removed in an operation called a hemispherectomy, with no loss of memory.

    My observations over many years indicate that the mind and its memories are spread not only throughout the physical body, but far beyond its boundaries. There is a lot of evidence to support this statement. For example, consider the works of Rupert Sheldrake on morphic fields. Studies like this are compelling and difficult to deny in a hands-on or an empirical sense. You can deny these if they do not fit your particular beliefs or cosmology, but they will not entirely go away.

    It is also impossible to point to where your mind is not. This incredibly important fact demonstrates the probability that your mind is a field of consciousness with unknown and potentially infinite boundaries.

    How far your mind extends as a field of subtle energy is scientifically unknown, albeit a constant source of conjecture. I think it is likely that on some levels your mind extends to the furthest reaches of the universe, and into all dimensions. Again, there is a lot of evidence to support this, including studies on telepathy, precognition, remote viewing, the sense of being watched, etc.

    It is my considered opinion that when you have dream, an OBE, or a Lucid Dream, you are not moving outside the boundaries of your own mind at all, because your mind has no boundaries, and no limits (apart from your beliefs). A better way of looking at this is to consider that when you have a dream, an OBE, or a Lucid Dream, you are shifting the location of your discrete point of consciousness.

    This point moves within the field of your own mind, which is intimately connected with the entire universe. Call this universal mind, the collective consciousness, Source, God-whatever your beliefs decree. But in this sense, every living thing, be it human, animal, or vegetable, is a point of mind, a point of consciousness, within a universal field of all-encompassing Source consciousness.

    Your mind is therefore a discrete unit of subtle consciousness energy, enmeshed within a universal field of subtle consciousness energy. This is like an iceberg floating in an ocean-it appears to be separate from the ocean that formed it, until it melts. But it was and always will be a part of the ocean. It may travel here and there, but it is always a part of its source, its maker, the ocean.

    I have to say that there is no clearly determined inside or outside of your mind and your consciousness. There is no beginning and there is no end to your mind and your memories and your consciousness -- or to your life for that matter.

    References:
    Bruce, Robert. 2009. Astral Dynamics: the complete book of out-of-body experiences. Hampton Roads, VA.
    Sheldrake, Rupert. 2001. The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature. Parker St. Press. CA.