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Hello Astral Potato

Some people believe that every dream character is an aspect of yourself. Therefore, the others who called out your name and asked why you were pretending to be asleep were the lucid aspects of you. No wonder they all looked amused.

I also think your theory in the second post has some merit. 

Losing control of the dream happened I believe because you started to panic. The dream then became non-lucid due to emotion. This tends to happen with any emotion - whether positive or negative. To help with this, it's simply a matter of practise when lucid. Every two seconds say out loud 'I am dreaming' (even quietly to yourself). But don't just say it as if on autopilot - it has to be said slowly, clearly and understood every single time you say it. One way that I sometimes use is to sing the Rod Stewart song 'I am sailing' but replace sailing with dreaming. 

And of course the key to prolonging these experiences in a lucid manner is to practise mindfulness and self-control of emotions. This can be done in everyday life and it should naturally transfer to sleeping life too.

Hope that helps.

I went to bed very early yesterday. Had a kip for about an hour and then lay awake practising relaxing without mentally falling asleep. This can include a variety of methods, but yesterday it was a case of thinking abstractly, then latching onto those lazy, loopy thoughts and following them.

After a while, I knew I was in the hypnagogic state as I heard my OH noisily putting cutlery away in the kitchen whilst simultaneously sitting next to me in bed reading a newspaper that was rustling. (I wear ear plugs so I knew for sure that both these sounds were non-physical.)

Next thing I noticed was that my astral arms had begun moving on their own ever so slowly upwards. Then the middle of my body started rising too. I thought 'here we go' and remained calm, neutral and curious. My body lifted out approximately 1ft before coming back down, not too quickly. Consciousness rose to full waking with my usual all-over tingles.

I think the reason it ended was because my mind was slightly too awake/alert.

It was brief, it was a tad disappointing, but it was a start. 

Well hello fellow dreamers and oneironauts 

I've not been here for a Very Long Time. Not sure who, if anyone, from the old days is still around. I know Xanth from another forum (hi Xanth!  ) and was a moderator here for a while.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to make AP/OBE/LD/whatever my primary hobby once again, so here I am. Already had a small experience last night (which I'll post elsewhere), so that's something. Thought I'd have to start from scratch again, but seems I've jumped right back into it. Woop!

Looking forward to getting to know some/all of you and reading your experiences. 

Selski

Welcome to the Pulse Amyla.
It helps some if there's a hint of tiredness as your body will want sleep. If you can stay aware of yourself as a point of conciousness whilst allowing your body to fall asleep you can have a concious experience within a few mins. Its not easy as you most likely crash out into an unconscious state normally when tired. It can be done, small steps are required.

that also was my first thought as well that this was some sort of test and it was inspired by the Cheshire being, I do hope to know the results of how I did, or if I even did the right action, but this experience was 4 years ago, I never did run into him again, but then again I haven't been out in such a while, and the few times afterward I did get out still never saw it again.

Welcome Amyla, you appear to be well on your way. I can only re-iterate what's already been said at this point. You'll find your way and we are here to help where we can.

This is very similar to some of my own experiences. As Thomaos said above I also think the 'Cheshire' entity inspired the rest if the event. In my own experience the name of the entity that equates to your 'Cheshire' is Chester. (How odd)

I've come to see him as something akin a trainer/attendant/partner in crime. LOL
The purpose seems to be only to see how you respond and/or to see how others respond to you. While there are lessons we can learn from these type experiences it seems we aren't the only ones doing the learning.

What is real in this context? Helps to know what the goalposts of the question are... because I can think of senses in which it is both real and not real!

YES! (goal posts is a great metaphor or euphemism for "context")

There are a few things that I have heard the non-physical repeat over and over ... and one of them is this ... "the better the question, the better the answer".

So ... a well defined context (e.g., goal posts) gives a better answer. And ... a non-physical experience when well defined and presented in a solid context will provide most of the answer to most questions following the experience.

It comes down to this...

"What is REAL?"

Real is anything you can experience.  If you've experienced it, it's real.

You can experience living beyond the confines of this physical reality.  It's real, because we can experience it. 

I've astral projected very briefly after self-induced sleep paralysis. That should have been enough proof for me. Then I once asked for help getting out of my body and was literally shaken/pulled out of my body by the ankles, but I couldn't see what did it. I haven't doubted it since, though it's been a while since I've ap'd