use of mirrors in lucid dreams

[stargazer]

I stumbled accidentally upon the benefit of mirrors in lucid dreams.

I was having a very ordinary dream about dancing ballet and I seemed to be simultaneously watching or videotaping myself dancing, or watching myself in the mirror. As I watched myself dance, I became simultaneously aware of having an effect on my motions and that self-awareness served to rocket me to lucidity. The effect this has on me is usually to make me feel pretty giddy, like a kid in school, which no doubt hurts the lucidity too but it feels so darn cool.

Anyways, after that any lucid dreams I had, I would run to a mirror. Watching myself in the mirror, with an occasional quick glance at the hands before they start melting, served to extend the avg time of lucidity from.. waking mere seconds after going lucid, to being lucid for several minutes and even lapsing back into a dream. (Which had never happened to me before) It's hard to fight the giddy reaction though, and the urge to make faces at myself. Also, I noticed that one night my reflection looked very tired and sickly indeed so I didn't really try to play around, because the reflection was also indicative of how I was feeling that day.

Anyways, it was then that I started reading here in the forum about the use of mirrors in lucid dreams to help turn it into an OBE. I was intrigued by this.. I had tried Robert Bruce's shopping mall method before and only lapsed back into dreaming, getting too distracted by the feeling that I was on a mission at the mall that wasn't associated with OBE-ing. I just think I'd have better luck with mirrors since I already associate that with lucidity.

So... if I understand this correctly... you look in a mirror, envision some scenery in it, then step through into the scenery? Anything else that you need to do?

[Matthew]

I've used the mirror method for about five years now...not sure where I picked it up from. I have to admit that I am probably not getting the full potential out of it.
In the average dream, I become lucid and then go hunting for a mirror (although once I couldn't find a mirror, so I jumped up and down on the floorboards of the house I was in until the floor started to sink under the weight. Then, I leaped into a crack between the floor and the wall. This did the trick, too.) Once I find the mirror, I grab the edges and pull myself through it. Once on the other side, I experience usually a few different phenomena. Sometimes, I will be surrounded by colors and "energetic colors" (I think these are energies that my mind can't grasp). I will usually fall through these colors and "materialize" in some different location. On other times, I will have no sight but instead feel that I am wrapped up in a cocoon. I will wrestle with this cocoon and end up opening my eyes in a different location. The energetic phenomena and level of consciousness from inhabitants has led me to believe that I am in the astral realms.
I definitely believe that I am underutilizing this method. I never look into the mirror first to see what the reflection is or even to try and visualize where I want to go. Also, I never even have a goal in mind, so I think I just end up somewhere random on the astral planes. In fact, some experiences have led me to believe that these are locations where my astral body was already floating.
Stargazer, if you experiment with directing the mirror method, please let me know how it goes. You'll probably think of some applications that I haven't.
-Matthew

[stargazer]

Thanks so much for your reply, Matthew. I'll try it out and let you know if I have any success.

[stargazer]

Well, I made an attempt this morning.. it wasn't successful, but it was definitely interesting. As a beginning OBE-er, any effort is interesting!

I found a mirror in my dream the moment I went lucid. I attempted to change what was in the reflection... at first, it would mist up and then change and it would again be my reflection, but each change improved my reflection... I looked happier, brighter, healthier, better. I expressed a desire to project and tried again, and this time was able to pull up some beautiful mountain scenery. The problem was that the scenery changed very quickly. I was looking at the mountains outside the window of a hallway of a house. This was okay to me, so I was going to try to move into the mirror, but then night fell and the hallway darkened. I tried to lighten up the hallway and the scenery shifted to a pleasant meadow. This was fine by me so I tried going in.

The mirror gave, but offered a lot of resistance. It was not easy to push through, but I did it. The thing that made it challenging is that when I moved into the mirror, I found myself in a black void, with the scenery pushed farther back as if on a screen. It was rather like entering the back of a movie theater. While the void was frustrating, I was determined to push on through towards the scenery... in spite of, yep, the mild projection vibrations I was feeling, as well as a strong and unpleasant "compressed" feeling. Something definitely changed when I went through that mirror. I also heard lots of noise/voices that sound hypnagogic in nature, they sounded like they were being played in reverse. I was pretty determined to press on towards the scenery, regardless, but woke up when I had gotten about waist in.

Not very pleasant. I think it takes too much effort to focus on scenery as well as push through... I may make another few tries, although I might try Matthew's blind mirror method (the idea I found a bit intimidating in the lucid dream) or maybe also try to find a door instead, which won't quite have the same limitations of changing scenery... I'll expect there to be a fixed scenario to step into, with the same intent to project before I step through.

[Matt]

Stuart Wilde writes about using a mirror in a lucid dream for self introspection in which you walk into the mirror then turn around and look back at yourself. I'm not sure which one of his books it's in though.

I've walked through mirrors a few times and they seem to act like teleporters. However whenever I walk through a mirror I go from being fully lucid to it just being a dream so even though I recall what I did on the other side I don't have full control of things while I'm over there.

I've noticed that if I have a mirror in a room, then when I project to the RTZ it will sometimes appear like a door, with a knob and everything. Other times it will make the walls open up into another area. Because mirrors affect the RTZ so much I've taken most of my mirrors down. If I want to see a mirror I'll use the one in the bathroom.

I've read that it's a good idea to keep mirrors you're going to walk through clean, I have a feeling that's a good idea.

[Matthew]

Interesting experience, Stargazer. I like your term "compressed." We are definitely having the same type of experience. If I wrestle with the "cocoon-like" compression, I will see an array of unidentifiable colors, feel either a falling or floating sensation, and then I will "pop" into an astral realm.
The mirror technique has always been a very powerful technique for me. But from Matt's description, it doesn't work for everyone....
Matt, what techniques have you used to go from a lucid dream to an OBE?
-Matthew

[stargazer]

Matthew, I was reading at a different astral forum and someone was saying that their technique was to find a high place, such as a cliff or a high window and to jump out of it, trying to speed their descent towards the ground. They said that it takes just seconds before their bedroom pops up around them and they're out of body, and that they've done hundreds of APs that way.

My guess on why this works is that the "falling" sensation, similar as in trance, helps slide you out of body and you transition quite quickly into your OBE. I was intrigued by this method, as I'm not scared of heights and it has more of a "can't commit halfway" quality that I like, but I'll admit it sounds intimidating as well.

Another person was saying that they looked at their melting hands, shouted "Take me to my body!", saw the environment around them shimmer and found themselves bumping noses their body, floating just above it. My problem with this method is that I don't want to wake up.. the last time I looked at melting hands, it took me back to my body and started the projection reflex but I'm not quite strong enough to sustain the reflex (something that I'm working on) and woke up in the middle of it. I'm more intrigued by gateways from the lucid.

[Matt]

Matt, what techniques have you used to go from a lucid dream to an OBE?
-Matthew

Do you mean what's a way to get from a dream area into the RTZ? The way I normally do things I exit my body and then go to a different realm by flying upward. If I want to go back to my body I still have some awareness of my physical body which I can use to return to the RTZ.

If I start out in a normal dream and become lucid, I generally have to wake up and go back to sleep again in order to get to the RTZ

[Matthew]

Stargazer,
I had a really long lucid dream last night, and I tried the "falling/flying at the ground" technique:

I was flying around when I remembered the technique, so I flew high up and then flew at the ground as fast as I could. I then promptly hit the ground. The best description I can make of what I saw was that the ground became "bigger" so that the individual particles of dirt were about an inch in diameter. I had a bit of trouble maintaining body awareness and lucidity, but I managed to pick myself up. Oddly, I was stuck on the ground after this and had trouble getting airbourne.
In recalling the dream, I can't say that I had a very noticable "falling" sensation. You know, sometimes basic sensations are there in dreams and sometimes not. Maybe I didn't feel the falling sensation strong enough to trigger the OBE.

-Matthew

[stargazer]

Matthew, you're so brave!! Yay! Thanks so much for trying this. The person who posted about this method mentioned that they used NEW to speed up their descent, but I'm not sure how that would be done. Maybe it'd help if you weren't flying to begin with, but simply jumping off a stable plane (like the edge of a cliff) and free-falling. Transitioning from a very slow, stable state to a very quick-moving state. Maybe if your brain expects vertigo, thinking that you're awake, (as opposed to a more subjective dream experience like flying?) it would feel vertigo and then pop you OOB. Still, I won't champion the method til I find out if it works or not. And I've just been too tired lately to have many lucid dreams.

Next on my list of lucid experiments is enhancing lucidity with spinning. (Supposedly something about the spinning causes the brain to pause, not wanting to transition while it's disoriented) Some people have used the spinning as a method of transportation. Me, I'm interested in combining spinning with looking at melting hands and see if I can get close to my physical body without waking up.