lucid dream?

[Jonestown]

Hello everybody-

I know this is not my experience, but I have a friend who is working on astral travel together... He had an experience that has confounded me. perhaps somebody knows what is going on....

He went to sleep doing the full body circuit, and woke up out of his body. Since it was his first, he decided to keep it short, and just slip back in his body. the only problem was it was not there. He thought he killed himself and started panicking, only to find himself in a surreal world, and ended up in his old house. He said he went outside than suddenly he woke up in his own bed. He said that he had control of the experience in that he was consciencly thinking about what was going on, even though he did not have control of the events. So my question is, what happened here. Was this just a lucid dream, a projection turned lucid dream, both or neither?

[Korpo]

Hard to say.

A lucid dream can explain the aspects that do not exactly match up with an OBE, sure.

But when you read Robert you will see that reentry can be problematic if the body has fallen too deep asleep, a factor limiting the OBE experience. The less trained with trance you are, the easier it is to slip into sleep quickly after hitting the "ejection point".

As the astral is highly receptive to the traveller, panicking can change the scenery and the OBE entirely.

Many people the distinction between lucid dreaming and astral travelling is artificial, so this is hard to decide anyway.

It remains an impressive feat. How does your friend feel now about "further excursions"? Has he been encouraged or deterred?

Oliver

[Jonestown]

He is very encouraged as this is his first real experience. btw do you have any suggestions on how to induce a lucid dream? I have been trying with unseccess.

[Rain, iF]

In my experience, there's not really a universal way to "induce" a lucid dream. There are ways to train your mind so that lucid dreams become more frequent. I'm definitly no expert, but in my experience the best way to start training yourself to lucid dream is to increase dream recall. You can start doing that by starting to write in a dream journal. We don't always remember our dreams, but when we do, it's important to write them down. Doing so tells your subconscious that remembering the dream is important.

If you have trouble remembering dreams in the first place, there are several things you can do. First is to wake motionlessly. Do not move, do not open your eyes, and most importantly do not think about things in the upcoming day. Just focus entirely on any slight familiarity you may have with having just been asleep. If you can't remember anything, mentally or verbally say things like "I was running..." "I was talking...someone was saying...There was a tree..." etc. Just say sentences. Eventually something WILL click and you'll start to remember, then you can write. Write whatever little you remember. As you write, the details will come. Also write your dreams in present tense, as if it is happening now.

Probably the most standard technique for becoming lucid in a dream is setting a trigger. Mine is looking at my hands. Whenever I see my hands (even when I'm awake) I say to myself "am I dreaming?" Even if I know I'm not. So whenever I am dreaming, if I see my hands in my dream, I become aware in the dream- lucidity.

What that excersise does is it makes you aware. That is another thing you can do to increase the frequency of becoming lucid in dreams. Most people are not "aware" all the time of their conscious. Most people engage in activities by habbit and don't have to think about them. Ever drive somewhere while you were zoned out, and when you got there you hardly remembered the drive? it's because you weren't aware. It's hard to explain what I mean, but you can even use a mantra. Whenever you can remember during the day, just say "I am aware". You'll find that it's much harder than it seems. The more percent of time you spend in awareness, the better chances you have of becoming lucid in a dream, because lucidity in a dream just means that you are aware, or conscious in a dream. Do you see what I mean? Sorry if I was unclear. Hope it helps!

[Jonestown]

Thanks for your reply. I read in astraldynamics about the reality checks, but it did not occur to me to standardize them with a ritualistic routine. I will try that. I already keep a dream journal, and what I do is when I wake up, I write only kew words. Than I go about my vusy life, and when I get the time I fill in the gaps. It is amazing how the mind only needs the triggers to remember the whole dream. I find that I can remember dreams from every and any given night.

[Korpo]

Ehem - there are ways.

Look for LaBerge's "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" - he has some things that can help lucid dreams more common and how to enter the state rather directly when going to sleep.

Oliver

[Rain, iF]

Thanks Oliver for that book! I just bought it and I can't wait to begin reading it. Jonestown, if I were you I would seriously consider writting down your whole dream or as much as you can remember. Writting down key phrases is definitly a good thing, but writting down the whole thing tells your subconscious that the whole thing is important- every detail matters, and that will help with recall. That's just my opinion anyway.

[Jonestown]

I do write the whole thing, just not at that moment. Do you think it would help to write it at that moment?

I have been having more success with recall though, and I had an interesting thing happen last night... I remembered a dream that was not the last one in a row. I could not remember the last one, the one I was woken up from, but as I did my morning things, a dream sequence came to me that I can now remember from the middle of my dreaming stage. Is that a sign of better recall?

[Korpo]

Eh, yes!!

Dream recall is all about - recall!

The pieces do not often come regularly or linearly, so it would be a good thing to keep a dream diary. This does not only help organise things, but also send a message to your subconscious: "I do care enough to keep a diary, keep on sending.".

This is an iterative, growing process, and takes time. Keep on doing, and I am sure success will increase.

AFAIK energy work - and IIRC you do enough of that - heightens the chance for lucidity as well.

Good luck,
Oliver

[Rain, iF]

Oliver said it right on. If I were you I would really write the whole thing or as much as you can remember right when you wake up. Exactly as Oliver said, it tells your subconscious that these dreams are important and so you will keep having them so you can remember. Even if you don't remember in proper order, write down what you remember even if it's not linear, and then fix it up later. The most important part is just getting down everything you remember.