use of mirrors in lucid dreams

[Matthew]

Guys,
I've had non-lucid floating dreams where I was floating on my back and then was in the middle of a projection with major falling sensations, but I've never tried to trigger them by doing this during a lucid dream. I'll give it a try when I have my next round of lucid dreams. Good idea....
-Matthew

[Matthew]

OK... I had my next cycle of lucid dreams and tried the falling back technique.
It caused some major energy vibrations- although not as big for me as going through a mirror. I'm definitely going to keep using this technique (I was secretly very skeptical of it).
Anyway, I had major vibrations and then ended up bobbing against the floor somewhere in my usual cocoon-like phase (feeling all bound up and couldn't see anything...had to wrestle my way out of it). I wiggled myself free and walked-floated around for a bit.

I definitely recommend trying this technique. I basically jumped into the air and then laid back...pretty simple stuff.

-Matthew

[stargazer]

Interesting, Matthew!

Skeptical? But it's a Brucian technique!

I keed, I keed.

Actually... I had a lucid dream the other night and I've been going through this period where I'm just not feeling very fearful. I tried the stomping thing to notch up lucidity, didn't feel much.. I wasn't very lucid.

Then I fell backwards, and unlike the last time, I committed FULLY to the fall.

All I felt was light vibrations/tingling, and then I think I woke up. What's interesting is the kind of "submerged in tingling" feeling you get... I definitely lost hold of whatever visuals were in the dream, i.e. instead of seeing the ceiling in the dream, I was just pure body awareness (i.e. couldn't see anything) rising up to the surface which in this case was awakeness.

I found it less traumatic than getting stuck in a mirror, so I might keep trying it.

[Matthew]

Stargazer,
Hmmm... yeah, I see from our conversations on this that it really depends on how you feel and your energy state. Sometimes in dreaming we may have a good sense of body awareness...sometimes not. Other times we may notice that there is no sound. I think we might have to tailor the technique to whichever sense is the most active (just a thought...comments?) It also seems to depend on how much energy we have stored. I've tried most of these techniques more than once now. And sometimes, like you, I just get a tingling feeling...not enough energy? Sometimes when I try a day or two later, I succeed.

-Matthew

[Beekeeper]

I've had only one really decent lucid dream. Reading your posts was just so interesting and inspiring.

I could ask a dozen questions now but I think I just need to go and do some more reading. I thought OBEing out of a lucid dream would be a matter of simply requesting but it's clearly not so easy.

I did OBE spontaneously out of a dream last year. I had no recollection of what the dream had been; I just became lucid on a new bypass that was under construction where we had been walking earler that day. It took me so by surprise that I was instantly frightened back into my body. I saw both through my eyes and also from an angle high above myself.

[stargazer]

Matthew I am definitely convinced that just as in waking OBE's, it requires a lot of energy to transition in lucid to AP. I didn't expect the falling technique to work in this dream as by the stomping showed, I was not lucid enough to really have a dynamic energy transition happen. I also suspect it's why I got stuck in the mirror. In the background, I'm continuing to work on NEW so I can build up more energy... I've probably shared this already but in first reading AD, I reasoned that my first OBE challenge would be to try to see what book was on my night table in the next bedroom. When in a lucid dream I found myself standing next to that table, (I put my hands on the table and was able to feel it) I looked at my hands and they started to melt. I started to get this excited, rushed feeling and thought to myself "I'm probably going to start to wake up and OBE" which is exactly what happened.. with a great energy rush, I started to wake up and transition directly into strong projection sensations. Now RB had warned that these sensations were strong but I still had no idea HOW strong they would be!! My heart and navel chakras were rumbling and roaring, and in a rhythmic manner like a dishwasher, it was very loud and distracting, and I tried to relax and stay calm and go with the sensations. At the same time I was getting hypnagogics and heard these little gleeful voices saying "bye! bye! bye!" like they were wishing me off on my OBE, and seeing little blue furry Alice in Wonderland like creatures jumping up and down as they said it. And snap, like that, I woke up right in the middle of this maelstrom. The experience made me want to really work on toning and strengthening my energy body so that those sensations wouldn't be so overwhelming and I'd have a better chance at a completed OBE... I think my best chances are if I'm in a lucid dream after I've already woken up refreshed after a full's night sleep, and it's one of those dreams where I'm so lucid I can touch things, smell things, feel things, etc. I think my problem lately is that I'm concentrating more on jumping right into the OBE technique rather than elongating and strengthening the lucidity... something I will have to work on. You're a more advanced lucid dreamer than I and I'm cheered by your experiences.

I'm intrigued by your idea of focusing on the more active senses. One lucid technique I've seen described was to focus on a detail, until the rest of the visual dream environment slips away. This would perhaps be an excellent technique if your visual acuity were especially high in a lucid dream that day... I tried this technique with little success but I can hardly remember what I was looking at, and I definitely rushed it.

Beekeeper, Dreaming is such a pleasure. I've always been an avid dreamer... I've woken up, fallen back asleep and continued a dream. Or I've had a dream, embellished upon it waking, then fallen back asleep and continued the dream and found the embellishments included.

I just feel lately like, your brain is just a tool waiting to be used, so given the right determination you can really train your brain to experience most anything. People direct a lot of work and energy toward something like learning how to play the piano, but they complain that powers like clairvoyance and aura reading must not exist because they can't be easily accessed. What people would find out if they just worked at it !!! (Though I would have to say, like piano playing, some people have to really work at it and some people are just born good at it, damn them)

It's only in really TRYING to prolong lucidity after reading AP that I've gotten to the extent where I've been able to open a window, feeling it as I do, leaning my head out and breathing in the spring air. Brushing past a tree branch and feeling pain. Looking at an image and willing it to change.

Your experience with the double angles sounds a lot like the part in phasing technique where they say you see yourself from a 3rd person, as well as be aware of it first hand. When you completely merge with yourself into 1st person and there's "one" of you, you're ready to start off on your OBE adventure. I imagine that if you had stayed calm, you would have merged with yourself and been able to take that experience in whatever direction you liked.

[Beekeeper]

Hi Stargazer,

I'm so with you in loving dreams and seeing the brain as a tool. (I'm even learning piano for the first time!)

I didn't know that about the two perspectives. That's happened a couple of times. That's useful knowledge. Thanks a lot.

Sorry about the intrusion.

[Matthew]

Stargazer & Beekeeper,
I had to take a week off to tend to some business-related things... didn't get to read your posts until today.

I'll have to try focusing on one visually item during my next lucid dream. Of course, I say that as if my normal self can control my lucid self. Sometimes, my lucid self decides to do something I certainly didn't even try to program into it. For example, I hadn't thought about falling back in a lucid dream for weeks. In fact, I was actually trying to do some other things. But when I became lucid, out of nowhere I decided to fall back. Interesting, I think even though I am conscious when lucid, my unconscious "intent" has even more of an impact on my actions. Any thoughts on this?

Anyway, (my mind willing ) I will focus on the one item next.

Take care (and, Beekeeper, you were not interupting!),

Matthew