Lucid dreaming, astral projection, out of body experiences, etc.

[RandomJohn]

I have a question for the experienced lucid dreamers or astral projecters. I've heard that lucid dreaming is one way to astrally project, and some sources even claim (and I don't quite believe) that lucid dreaming is equivalent to either OBEs or astral projection.

Has anyone ever used lucid dreaming to induce an out of body experience or astral projection (or had it spontaneously happen)? I'm curious to hear of your experiences with this.

[sourceofmiracles]

The only astral projections I can recall seem to move from Lucid dreams. And they have all been by accident.

Carlos Castaneda talks about it in The Art of Dreaming. He discusses 4 gates of dreaming (though there are appearently 7). the gates represent doorways to states from lucid dreaming - waking in the "energy body". Incredible book. One of my favorites.

[Erin Pavlina]

In my experience, lucid dreaming and astral projection are entirely different experiences. In lucid dreaming I am inside my own consciousness, able to affect the entire dream world. When I'm astral, however, my consciousness moves to another realm where I cannot control or populate it just with my thoughts. It's a different place.

With lucid dreaming, I am going to more of an inner space, while with astral projection I am going to a different space, outside myself.

[mrDarcyMurphy]

My experience has been that lucid dreaming can be a way to have an OBE, though I've had far more success without going that way.

[RandomJohn]

I've experienced many more lucid dreams than OBEs (which I've only had really minor success with). I guess I found it odd when I saw it mentioned (elsewhere) that OBEs=lucid dreaming.

Since it seems to be accepted that one can induce an OBE from a LD, does anyone have any experience with this? How did you do it?

[AndyMartin]

Hmmm...what was the question again? Oh yeah:

Originally Posted by RandomJohn

I have a question for the experienced lucid dreamers or astral projecters...Has anyone ever used lucid dreaming to induce an out of body experience or astral projection (or had it spontaneously happen)? I'm curious to hear of your experiences with this.

I hardly count myself experienced in this area, however I have had some interesting experiences that I don't fully understand yet. I have on occasion found myself "popping" out of a lucid dream into what I think is an astral projection. The assertion is that dreams take place in the astral, so I think what that means is awareness exits the dream state where it is synthesizing an environment and into some locale in the astral.

What's interesting and what leads me to believe these are not a dream environment is that my level of lucidity seems to increase once that shift occurs.

I haven't learned to do it consistently, so as far as I'm concerned the jury is still out. I follow the approach of questioning; that wondering if something is real is the first step to understanding.

--Andy

[Erin Pavlina]

The other night I had a "first" experience. Normally when I'm in a dream and I ask, "Hmm, I wonder if I'm dreaming" I am always snapped instantly into a state of lucidity, as I've trained myself to realize that if I have to ask if I'm dreaming, I probably am.

But the other night something unusual happened. I questioned whether I was dreaming and got a "no" reply. So the dream continued and I didn't become lucid. I have no idea why that would happen. Clearly a glitch in the system though.

[RandomJohn]

Interesting. I try "practicing" the idea of wondering whether I'm in a dream (i.e. during the waking hours I'll try to determine whether I'm in a dream). It's had some effect, but I still don't ask inside a dream whether I'm in a dream. I'll just see something "dreamy" and say "Hey, wait a minute, I'm in a dream!"

[RandomJohn]

Adam - this is fascinating and might describe why some schools of thought put lucid dreaming and astral projection together. One seems to be a body inside and the other a body outside. (Astral body? Dream body?)

[RandomJohn]

And whaddya know? It's 11:11. Time for bed.

Or, rather, it was when I began the post

[RandomJohn]

Ok, so I actually tried to do this last night. In a dream, I became lucid while driving the car. I thought that since I was in a lucid dream, I could induce an OBE. So I turned the car down a field (which arose because I wanted to try an OBE), with a lake at the end. I figured the lake was supposed to be an obstacle, but I knew it would present no problem. I accelerated the car, skimmed the surface of a lake and then ... blackness. Maybe a bit of wispiness. Then I cut to a different dream, where I was partially lucid (had to keep reminding myself that I was dreaming, but couldn't affect very much).

Any thoughts on this?

[Digits]

I think ive almost astral projected a few times before. The state I would be in was, well, dark. There would be no light, no sound, and I couldnt feel any of my body. I would hear, more like get the impression that I was hearing, a sort of vibrating sound. I the first two times I would come out of it within what felt like five minutes out of fear, the 3rd time I stayed for what felt like 15 minutes, tryihng to push my way out, but gave up cause I was afraid that if someone broke into the house or something I would be completely unable to defend myself and my brother. Whats the easiest way to get into this state?

[Rocket Surgery]

I believe I astral project every night. I believe that most people do. The difference is not who can and who cannot. It's who is skilled at becoming conscious of being out of the body, and who remains in their safe coccoon of the dream or even lucid dream.

Personally, for reasons still unknown to my waking ego, I choose to remain in that safe coccoon. Only twice in my life have I caught myself astral projecting. Both instances happened during dreams that became lucid dreams. Both instances were years before I had researched such phenomena.

The first time, I became lucid within a normal dream cycle. The lucid dream lasted only a few moments, and then the dream universe was "pulled away" much as if a blanket had been swiftly pulled from over my head. I felt completely awake and physical with all my memories and current personality intact. Only problem was... I was standing on a deserted beach somewhere on the east coast. I noticed I was completely naked, but didn't really care because I was much too fascinated to have woken up in a place other than my bed.

The scientist in me took over, and feeling my time was limited, I investigated every aspect of my surroundings. I took note that I could see and feel the breeze and smell the salt in the air. I bent down and grabbed a fistful of sand, and marvelled at how it felt exactly like sand and behaved as sand should as I allowed it to pour through my fingers. I tried to conjure up other people as one can do in a lucid dream, but nobody popped into being. Nothing I tried to do to change my surroundings with thought had any effect on this beautiful and real beach setting. I woke up after about a minute in my bed and, as you can see, remembered every detail of the experience. No dream, lucid or otherwise, has ever felt to me EXACTLY like my waking existence as did that experience.

The other OBE I had happened the same way. I went from dream to lucid dream, to the "blanket pulled away" sensation. This time, I found myself flying low over a wet paved road. I existed as a bodiless POV, about bumper level of a car, and was accelerating up a freeway onramp onto a freeway. Sounds like a weird place to wake up, but I did feel completely awake and not in a limited dream consciousness. Other than my location, nothing odd took place, and the experience lasted less than 30 seconds. Next thing I knew, I was opening my physical eyes back in my own bed.

I have tried to attain this state on purpose, but have been unable to completely separate from my body while awake. The best I can do so far is achieve a lucid dream state, upon which I have trouble staying in the dream very long. When I wake up from that state, sometimes my "astral" body feels that it has not yet "snapped" back into place within the physical, and there is an initially frightening sensation of paralysis.

I remember first feeling this paralysis as a child, and would panic as I struggled to make my body fully awake. I would roll back and forth hoping to roll out of bed, thinking that hitting the floor would jar me into full wakefulness. Many years later, after reading the Robert Monroe books, I realized that what I was experiencing was actually separation from my physical body. I even rolled out and lightly bounced and rolled like a log in water just as he described doing in his early experiences. I just wrote it off to a bad dream.

But now that I know what the paralysis is, I experment with it and have been able to detach all my limbs, but not my torso from the physical. It's weird because many times my eyes are open, and I can see, say, my arm lying there, bent and still, but I can feel my arm moving to and fro as I'm willing it to do, even below and through the mattress!

Once, I achieved this state with my first wife sleeping facing me just inches away. I decided to see if I could cause her to stir or react by tickling her ear with my "astral" hand. I had to estimate distance since I could not see my astral hand, just feel it. However, she did not stir after several seconds of tickling. I was about to give up, when I noticed something unexpected: some of her hair that fell around her ear was moving! Not like it was being pushed by an invisible finger, but in the way that hair moves when you place a brush charged with static electricity next to it. For me, this was the greatest proof of existence beyond the physical that I had ever experienced.

Then I pulled my hand away from her, and she did stir and woke up. And that made me snap back into sync with my body, and I told her what had just happened.

I've been told my an "expert" that I would have more waking OBE's when I overcame my fear of being outside the body. So far, hasn't happened, so I guess now that I know what happened, I'm too chicken to be aware of it. Sort of like those people who want general anaesthesia for a teeth cleaning. "Just put me out. I don't wanna know!"

[stellabeam]

I had a profound experience while sleeping which was both lucid and OBE.
I was flying along a forest path. I felt a tightening round my waist like a drawstring being pulled tighter and tighter as i flew. I realised my sleeping boyfriends' arm was around my waist, stopping me from progressing. I flew back down the path into my body, "woke up" long enough to move his arm off me and instantly was back flying up the path. This time free to follow it. I became lighter and lighter. Flying has often been a bit awkward for me but I have never experienced the freedom I felt in this dream. A thought, and I was there.
I became lighter and lighter and felt myself expanding away from the earth. It was the deepest peace. The sweetest freedom. In this state I entered a timelessness.
I was given a choice about whether to return or not. I instantly chose to return. Then i was back on the path and flew back down into my body. Instantly awake. And I could not concieve of why on earth I had chosen to leave that beautiful amazing place to be back here. It seemed a completely ludicrous choice to have made.
Later I was grateful to have been given the chance to remember a conscious choice to live here. To remember how strongly I said yes to that, even though it meant leaving the most divine place.

[Erin Pavlina]

Cool Stellabeam! Nice experience.

[Anagogy]

The only experience that I can remember having involving a possible Astral Projection happened after becoming lucid in a dream. I said to myself, "I'm gonna leave my body!" And proceeded to allow the dream scenery to dissolve. At first there was blackness, but then it began to feel as if I was lying on my bed. The problem with my experience is that my consciousness was extremely "muddy" during the whole thing. So it probably wasn't as mind blowing as the other posters' experiences. I think I may have pulled an arm out or two and waved them around -- I seem to recall my entire astral body feeling really tingly, sort of like your arm does when you sleep on it only to wake up and find it deprived of blood.

I did a roll out and my memories of it are really sketchy at this point, and walked out into the downstairs living room. I remember finding it interesting that it felt very much like being in the body as far as the sensation of walking was concerned. I think I may have tried to go upstairs and then I blacked out, and found myself in sleep paralysis in bed a few seconds later.

I don't know if it was a dream, but it certainly was cool whatever it was. Can't wait to do it again with clearer consciousness.

[cameroncameroncameron]

i remember having a lucid dream when i was tiny, it was more lke a lucid nightmare, my whole family was in a room, then there faces started changing into differennt colors and shapes, and i became lucid.it was realy freaky, and i experienced the waking-paralysis and i was stuck in my dream, not able to get out.
i also recently had a lucid dream, were i had, before hand, been meditating and creative visualizing alot, and i think thats why i had one, because now im only 14 and this lucid dream was a month ago, before that, i hadnt had any lucid dreams since 7 and 8. but in my recent lucid dream, i found it realy hard to fly, and i read or heard about somewhere that if you fly straight up, you can exit youre body and make a lucid dream, an astral experience. but i couldnt fly, and when i did, i only hovered about half a meter of the ground. and i realy had to concentrate, it sucked. but i then tried to focu all my atention on flying, and found myself rising, and i then looked around and i was about 10 meters of the ground. i then landed on a rooftop[the whole background was downtown klamath falls] i then tried to exit my dream and my body but right before lift off, i woke up. i probably could have gone straight back into the dream, and i realy wish i had, but i was too excited to so i got up and wrote in my journal.