Castle Grounds

[Selski]

Hello everyone

Thought I'd share my latest.  Most of my jaunts are via dreams these days.  This one, although brief, was lovely because of the high level of lucidity.  I would say I was as lucid as I am now typing it up.

I also think I'm progressing.  I remember when I first started having regular lucid dreams, I'd only be interested in telling whoever was in my dream that I was dreaming and enjoyed watching their reaction.  In this one, I quickly lost interest in the dream aspect and wanted to move beyond.  

It might be slow progress - but it's progress!  :applause:

Even this little experience is something for me to learn from.  My mental calmness was important - it felt like the right state to be in, rather than getting all excited and running around like a headless chicken trying to do everything.

Anyway, here it is.  Enjoy.

BTW, if Nay reads this - it's littered with F2/F3 references - be warned!  

I was at Charlie's house.  We were going to play a board game, but were waiting for others to arrive.  Charlie was getting concerned because the time he'd said to meet had passed and a few people still hadn't arrived.

The dream switched and I was outside on a dusty patch of land.  It appeared to be the outside of a castle.  The castle was behind, made of light stone, very old, ruined in places.  There was a wall around the castle.  I'm pretty sure I was in an F3 environment.

However, I still had my F2 overlay, in that all of Charlie's friends were outside, but they'd brought their friends and there were hundreds of 'friends' around.  They were in a party mood and heading in one direction (probably the pub!).

I was becoming lucid, blissfully so.  I looked around and said to myself, "Am I dreaming?" Then I looked around some more and said, "Yes, of course I am."  I remained calm (most unusual for me).  I was really lucid.

I watched the people all head off in the same direction and felt like an outsider.  I now didn't recognise any of them.  I knew they were part of F2.  I even contemplated staying in F2 and having some fun, but I wanted to go to F3.  

I wondered how to get to F3.  I knew about my 'door' theory, but then I remembered the idea of looking at one thing and focusing on it.  I looked at the ground, searching for an interesting looking stone that I could focus on.  I spotted quite a large one and picked it up.  It had nice markings on it.  

Then I worried that this might not work, and I really ought to stick with what I know does work (for me), so I discarded the stone and started to look for a door.

At first I couldn't see one, but I scanned the castle wall and there was a smallish door in the wall, made of wood.  The door was arch-shaped and had a black latch on it.  I also saw the number '1' on the door, just above the latch.  I mentally noted these details and turned the latch, saying "F3" in my head as I did so.  I could see through the door that it was a continuation of the castle.  I turned around, looked back at my dream environment and said "Bye F2", and continued through the door, closing it behind me.

I stood for a while soaking in the change.  It was incredibly peaceful and calm.  I could see the stone wall of the castle to my right and I could also hear a gentle gurgling stream.  I seemed to be in the grounds of the castle itself now and there was a huge tree ahead of me.  I wondered whether I was in a part of the famous "Park".  Just as I was about to wander around, I started to lose it and knew that I was about to wake up.  I groaned and thought, "But I've only just got here," and then fizzled out.

Sarah

[Heather B.]

Congrats on a lovely, lucid experience--and not getting all excited! :mrgreen:

:cheerleader:

F2/F3 overlays are always so peculiar--it's really great that you were able to recognize it for what it was and to shift fully to F3.  Hehe, I had that one overlay where I was really confused, thinking I was in F2, and all the F3 people around me thought I was nutso!

This is so wonderful and encouraging---I think we're all progressing! :dancing:

[alex_21]

can anyone tell me what f2 and f3 and all the other f(n) mean?

[Gandalf]

It's the new 'focus level' terminology, pioneered by Robert Monroe and further developed more recently by Bruce Moen and Frank Kepple.

It's very useful as it helps describe states without the usual mystical terminology and although there is nothing wrong with mystical terminology if you like to use it, others find that it can be distorting due to all the baggage that goes along with it.

On the other hand, the focus level approach describes the same things but in a clear non-mystical manner which some people find refreshing.

There are plenty of articles on it here if you care to do a search.

Frank's approach is simply to condense Monroe's lables somewhat.

So Monroe's F22-23 now becomes Frank's F2.
Monroe's belief system zones of F25-26 and his free-thinking F27 are all combined as part of Frank's F3. with F27 being the upper end of F3 and the belief system areas of F25-26 being somewhere below that in terms of F3 awareness.

Just stick with what you want to use, they are all just lables after all. Although I now tend to prefer the simplified combo approach of Frank's model, I sometimes still make use of Monroe's lables, esp the belief system areas and the term F27.

Doug

[WarpedReality]

I also think I'm progressing.  I remember when I first started having regular lucid dreams, I'd only be interested in telling whoever was in my dream that I was dreaming and enjoyed watching their reaction.

How did they react?

[NickJW]

isn't Focus 12 and 15 Frank's F2?
and F22 through 27 his F3

[Gandalf]

Nick_

Yes, you may be right. I need to check Monroe again!

Doug

PS but hopefully people get the idea!

[Selski]

How did they react?

Gobsmacked mostly.

[Selski]

Doug - thanks for the focus level information - I'd be useless at working it all out!  But I know how Frank's model works for me...  

Sarah

[WarpedReality]

How did they react?

Gobsmacked mostly.

haha, I had to look that word up.

Next time, I am def. going to do that. Usually in lucid dreams I just float around and try to move things around with my mind.

[knightlight]

How did they react?

Gobsmacked mostly.

Exactly.  Its like their mind melts down and suddenly they realize they are just a part of your imagination.  This combined with a "What the  :eyetwitch:  are you talking about?" look.  One or both of those usually.

[Ben K]

How did they react?

Gobsmacked mostly.

Exactly.  Its like their mind melts down and suddenly they realize they are just a part of your imagination.  This combined with a "What the  :eyetwitch:  are you talking about?" look.  One or both of those usually.

its like in "vanilla sky"...they react how you imagine them reacting. in this case you are telling a person they are not real so the reaction of disbelief might be common  

[Selski]

Ben - I've not seen Vanilla Sky - is it good?

They do go from gobsmacked when I initially tell them, then disbelief (as Ben says), then they start to get wary of me and I can feel them backing away.

When I tell them I can prove it, they become interested, then when I walk through walls and stuff, they come full circle to being gobsmacked again.

Then of course, they want to walk through walls...  

Sarah

[dingo]

For me, they usually carry on as normal, not seeming bothered.

[Ben K]

Ben - I've not seen Vanilla Sky - is it good?

They do go from gobsmacked when I initially tell them, then disbelief (as Ben says), then they start to get wary of me and I can feel them backing away.

When I tell them I can prove it, they become interested, then when I walk through walls and stuff, they come full circle to being gobsmacked again.

Then of course, they want to walk through walls...  

Sarah

Yeah i personally love it...its all about lucid dreaming and it brings up some interesting ideas.

I wont give away anything but you should check it out if only for the end

Im sure when you are actually there in a lucid dream or whatever, alot of different factors are involved when you tell someone they are a dream charactor. Id love to hear some other peoples experiences with this  

[Sepultura123]

These F* State look sooooo confusing...  :confused:

[Selski]

LOL - They are until you get to grips with them.  Some members like to use them, some don't, it's personal preference, that's all.

For me, I want to explore these states in some sort of "logical" fashion, so labelling my experiences is one way of making progress.  In my opinion.  

Sarah

[Sepultura123]

I woudl like to experience them too but they look like too confused to me. Im not an expert in Astral projection term.