Conscious-like wandering dream mind, or a brush with lucidity/astral projection?
 

Earlier this evening I was napping in the recliner I do my meditations in and started dreaming. The dream was very vivid my and throughout it I was experiencing conscious-like thought. As dream events played out my mind would wander from time to time, and I somehow came across a thought sentence that included the word "dream" which triggered me to instantly realize I was dreaming. I quickly got excited at the prospect of fornicating with a dream character and was overcome by a feeling of warmth and excitement. I tried to calm down so I wouldn't wake up, but before I knew it, the dream world started to fade to black.

As everything faded to back, I felt a very odd feeling, like I was getting pulled somewhere and was now traveling back to my sleeping body. It was very dark but I thought I could see a mass of stars off in the distance. It felt like I was consciously outside of my body and I got scared as I remembered Erin's story of her first astral projection experience. I may have even heard voices like she did, or perhaps just subconsciously triggered similar thoughts that made it seem like I was. All I know is that I wanted to get out of the darkness and back to the bright and colorful dream world.

A moment later I was back in the bright and very green landscape of the dream world, but this time I was somehow viewing a projection of an earlier part of the dream playing out in front of me. The scene was two college-aged females stripped down to their underwear, laid out on a picnic blanket, very innocently and curiously fooling around. Apparently I don't get full frontal nudity in my dreams, or to be a part of cool scenes like this. I again thought sexual thoughts, but quickly remembered that I can't do anything about them because, in the physical world, I am 20 days into a 30 day challenge to not masturbate, and even masturbating in the dream world would constitute cheating. My mind then began wandering again and I woke up a little while later without the hint of an erection.

I lied still after waking because I didn't want to forget anything. So, I decided to tell myself the story of the dream over and over again until I felt I remembered it enough to move. Midway through I started recalling another part of the dream. Where, inside the dream, I thought of something that triggered me to "remember" I had some ability. I then found myself visualizing a zooming out effect and saw a Google Earth like 2D/3D map of part of the universe. It was extremely vivid and took up my whole "dream screen" or visual plane. I moved my mental mouse down and to the right and zoomed in to a different part of the universe. I found I could zoom in completely from space till the level of seeing houses and people up close. I'm not sure what part of the universe I was viewing, or where my dream self was while I was doing this, but it seemed like what I was viewing was very earth-like and made me feel far away from home.

What do you think? Was this just a subconscious projection of what the experience of lucid dreaming or astral projection might feel like? Was it just my weird way of experiencing either of these for the first time? Or was it a combination of all three, jumbled by the perspective of an inexperienced and easily frightened mind?

Hey there Inverse Paranoid. It has been years since you wrote that quote, but it really got me thinking today.

I won't include the whole quote above, but people can just read above in this thread if they want.

But after a dream of my own, did a google search to see if anyone else ever experienced anything like this. I eventually came upon stevepavlina.com and read Erin Pavlina's first astral projection. Part way down in the responses, I came across the "dream" story, "Conscious-like wandering dream mind, or a brush with lucidity/astral projection?" above by Inverse Paranoid from 2007. Kind of a weird thing to write on a public forum.

I remember thinking "what a weirdo" and moved on, reading other responses. Then today (a couple days later) I was thinking -- could that have been me writing that 2 years ago?

After all, it was weird, but aren't all dreams weird. They say when you write down dreams, you need to be honest and simply write everything you remember. I thought, perhaps he was just being honest.

Then the 30 day celebacy challenge (even including masterbation) thing? I thought that was weird and freaky too, but then, I remembered, I have done that also -- gone on the challenge -- very personal, and I would have never written it in a blog forum, but hey! very honest, if the person was writing down the dream, right? And why the 30 days. Its a nice round number usually representing a month, but whenever I have done this, it has also come in 30 day increments. I've even made it the 30 days. Totally private. My wife never even knows I am doing it.

Again that was just too freaky coincidental, so I came back here today to see, could that weird freaky dream have been mine? And I just didn't remember replying on a blog years ago? (I do this sort of thing from time to time)

Of course, I am seeing now that it was some blog post from 2007 from some guy in Milwaukee. But wait! Hey, I was born in Milwaukee ... don't live there now, but still ...

Very odd coincidental, don't you think?

Anyway, here is my dream that lead me to google the words "sleep body vibration" two days ago, that gave me a stevepavlina.com page as the number 2 hit.

So, I woke up the other day, after having one of those "dream within a dream" dreams, you know where you dream waking up, but you're really not awake, you are just dreaming that you are awake.

But this time in my bed in this reality. I could not move or open my eyes, but I could see my bedroom even with my eyes closed. And I could also see another bedroom in familiar dream place -- a distant home, but not my home here in this reality.

Suddenly, I began feeling tingly inside -- good tingly (like when you are really happy or like feeling the spirit good and strong in church or things like that)

I began to visualize an entity coming into me. In this dream, I could see it (the entity) but not see it (hard to explain). But I was visualizing the entity as you might visualize a ghost, a semi transparent being with a human like body.

Then there was another entity. Same as the other one and it tried to come into me also. I sensed that this was some sort of mistake. That two of these entities were not supposed to be inside me at the same time. I remember thinking (sensing in this dream) that these entities were both mine. I mean like some sort of "thought adjusters" or "dream guides" but that they were not both supposed to be here at the same time.

But this time the tingly began to intensify. It began mostly in my extremities, but then moved to my entire body, even deep within its core. I was vibrating like a big cell phone set to vibrate. And the second entity came into me and the vibration intensified even more. The whole bed was vibrating -- like I said like big cell phone, about 300-500 cycles per minute or 6-8 Hz.

When the second entity came into me the vibration intensified, but it was not uncomfortable; it was enjoyable. It felt good -- really good -- like I would imagine a higher level orgasm. Not just sex, but a sort of cosmic orgasm. I didn't want it to stop, but every time the entity tried to move back out of me, it seemed the vibrations would start to go away.

I tried to reach my arms up to grab hold of the entity, but could not move my arms. When I was finally able to reach out to grab hold, the entity got scared and left. I woke up in this reality. I don't know if they both left or just the one.

The other place I remembered (that home that isn't my home) was a ranch home in some dessert place with a side addition where my bedroom was. Although they were not in my home or in my dream, I knew there that I had two boys, the same boys as two of my children in this reality. In this reality I live in a dessert, but have 6 kids. 3 boys, 2 girls, 1 girl adopted from a previous marriage who was not mine biologically, but has been my daughter her whole life.

This other home, where I only have the two boys is very unfamiliar to me now, but during the dream, I knew everything about that life and that home.

Unfortunatly, my wife was away on a trip and no one in bed to ask if they felt the vibrating too. As far as I am concerned I was awake (or conscious lucid dreaming) the whole time. I know my body was really vibrating.

I googled, to try to make sure I was not having seizures, stroke, or convulsions, but even the "medical sleep disorder" related hits to "sleep body vibrations" do not indicate that I was having convulsions.

I also woke up feeling just great -- not like I have just been beat up or something -- which people who have seizures always seem to say the feel after having one.

No -- I think this was something real --something that could lead to higher awareness of some kind. It hasn't repeated since (although I am not afraid and would like it too). At least I can not remember it happening again over the last couple of nights sleeping.

My wife is still away on summer holiday.

What can I do to increase the chances I will return in my dreams to this home away from home and have the chance to bring both "thought adjusters" "dream guides" back together again?