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Absolutely great video. Why didn't I know about this sooner?

I was always scared of silver cords and getting lost and all that.. I've never seen a silver cord before, nor have I ever gotten lost I should be so lucky.... My personal belief is that it is not possible to get lost, as we are firmly anchored in the physical until the time we die. We can not just evaporate into ghosts and get lost somewhere.

Maybe your practice is paying off - it sounds like you did good Don't get nervous, and don't 'try' to do anything, ESPECIALLY not controlling or forcing your thinking! It sounds as if your body was starting to fall asleep - great! The most important thing is to be aware. If you have hundreds of thoughts in your head, just remain aware of them and don't fall asleep. At the same time though, don't try to force your thoughts away, or force them into anything else, as all that involves is more effort and thinking Hope this helps!

An interesting fictional read, but I'm struggling to find any sources to back this story up. I think a living, functioning, intelligent man with no brain matter whatsoever, and a skull filled with liquid would have become quite famous by now

Reaffirm to yourself, this can not hurt me - this is just a new experience!

It really does affect everyone differently. Personal experience is that it hinders progress. It seems to be possible to get more relaxed and slightly deeper into trance, but then that's about it. In terms of dreaming practices in general, THC also suppresses REM sleep which I personally believe is tied with AP.

Well done SirMike You did it. Even today I find it hard to get to that position on demand, and it often takes several tries.

So this was a strange one, not heard of this before and I wonder if it was an OBE. I woke up at 4.30 and took galantamind/alpha-gpc supplements. I then concentrated on rolling out as I fell back to sleep. I don't think I managed it and just fell asleep into a regular non-lucid dream.

That non-lucid dream was of me in my bedroom about to go to sleep(!) I remember thinking inside that dream all about OBEs and that I would really like to do it. In my dream, I rolled out of my dream bed for the first time into awareness, found myself in a void, and returned back to my dream bed. I then tried again, I rolled straight out, and focused very  clearly on what I knew the carpet looked like in the bedroom, and eventually the void began to clear. I stood up. I didn't turn around to look at myself - I wanted to but remembered how that could pull me back to my body so I didn't. I walked/floated down the hall, concentrating on keeping awareness. Went into the lounge, went over to my rabbit's hutch where he was sleeping, I put my hands straight through the metal bars and stroked him. He looked 'different' but it was him. I also put my hands through the wall and it felt 'watery'. I then walked away and walked/floated back down the hall - didn't want to go back to the bedroom so decided to walk through the front door, although I couldn't - it was solid. I'd run out of energy/awareness and found myself back in my [dream] body, again, non-lucid and dreaming in the same position I started in. I was so excited, I had just OBE'd, it was so vivid and amazing. Then I woke up for real. What?!

From Carlos Castaneda's books on don Juan - a man of knowledge IMHO

It's difficult. In this day and age, anything outside of visible rigid reality is 'weird'. If you launch straight into OBE experiences, you can count the seconds on one hand before you are labelled as either a freak or mentally ill, especially amongst people who haven't experienced this kind of thing before. Well, I have talked to my fiancee, my family and some others about it in the past, and I usually open the door with LDs. "Did you ever have a dream where you knew it was a dream?" You can then go from there depending on the receptiveness of the audience. Some people say, umm, no, never. Others, will say yes. My brother actually said that often when he's had nightmares in the past, he knew it was a nightmare and kept saying "wake up" until he did. I obviously turned round and said, "whats wrong with you boy.. you make yourself wake up?" before telling him all about LDs Hope this helps!

All,

I had an interesting experience the other day. I woke after my deep sleep, and took 1xgalantamind and 1xalpha gpc as is my usual routine for LDs. I don't perform specific induction techniques, I just have LDing on my mind and fall back asleep. Most of the time I'll realize I'm dreaming in the dreams that follow and enjoy an LD.

On this occasion, I couldn't get back to sleep. I was not in my usual bed, and I was hot. After about 30m of tossing and turning at about 5AM, about to write off the whole experience, wake up and go and start the day, I decided to go and lie on the couch instead as it was colder there. As I was dozing off to sleep, I 'rolled' off the couch and onto the floor in a colorful 'void'. Confused and disorientated, I opened my eyes and was lying still on the couch. Was this an almost OBE?

Next question, is what is this void. It's not black but is it THE '3d blackness'? I'm usually moderately aware, can't see or hear anything, but can feel everything. Asking for vision/clarity does nothing. I find that only works when you have some limited vision or clarity - in this case I have none.
Normally, if you shut your eyes and rub them, you get strange swirly yellowey/orangey shapes - this is the consistency of the void and it's kind of 3d. What is it?

Ty!

Hello friends,

After much time I am still very much confused between AP (Astral Projection) and LD (Lucid Dreaming). Some conflicting distinctions that I've heard;

1. Lucid Dreaming is a (Frank) Focus 2 experience, whereas Astral Projection is a (Frank) Focus 3 experience.

2. Lucid Dreaming is when you find yourself consciously aware that you are dreaming inside a dream. Astral Projection is where you step out of your body. What does this make Phasing then?

Anyway, that aside, I'm very sure I'm LDing. I can LD almost every night (occasionally with the use of GALANTAMIND). Most often, I have the classic LD. I'm dreaming vividly, something is sufficiently 'screwey' in the dream, I ask myself whether or not I'm dreaming, all of a sudden I'm lucid. I'm inside my dream, in control to varying degrees, usually with enough consciousness from reality to know what day/time it is, various things I planned to do in my next LD, etc, etc.

Now twice, I have a stranger experience, where I am perhaps closer to waking and in a very very light sleep. I am aware of my physical body and the fact it is sleeping in my bed, but I can not 'see it' or step into/out of it. It's more of one of those bilocation things where I'm switching between my bed, and an unrelated location in my LD. When I'm in the LD, I realise I'm sleeping in bed, and when I'm half sleeping in my bed, I realize I'm trying to have an LD.

Does this make sense?? Thanks!

Sleep paralysis can be very scary, even when you know what it is. It's also a perfect opportunity to induce further OBE. Sleep paralysis CAN NOT HURT YOU. Keep reaffirming this and the fear should dissipate. The more you try and fight it and try and move, the more you get scared and anxious. There is one important thing that isn't paralysed during SP - your breathing. Take a few deep conscious breaths, and the SP disappears pretty quickly.

I think it really depends on how much awareness/consciousness you have. One thing I can confirm is that commands work. Intend your vision to become better and command out loud "CLARITY NOW". Keep repeating that with as much intention and strength as you can muster, and your vision will become crystal clear.

Try examining your scenery in more detail, touch things, smell things, listen for sounds and 'absorb' yourself in the experience as much as possible.

Hope this helps!

It's interesting how vitamin B makes your experiences more vivid.. What dosage are you taking?

This one right here: http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=60&prodid=667 there are actually way stronger ones out there too. I understand that any of the B complex that you don't use/need just gets pee'd out, but I'm not comfortable taking stupid doses of it just for the sake of it. Who knows what happens decades down the line

A lot of people swear by valerian root - I can't say it does anything to me whatsoever, so I suppose its all down to individual differences. Be interested to know if simple vitamin B makes any difference for anyone else but it's by far the most powerful dream enhancer that I've come across.

One other comment to add.

Something that often helps when I first become lucid (especially because I'm always very excited) is to repeat a few times "You're lucid. Calm down, dont go crazy, and just focus and center." Too much excitement is sure to end the LD quickly.

All,

I wanted to share a technique that I've figured out that has successfully worked 6 days running for lucid dreams. This is from someone who has tried and failed at every projection, relaxation, visualization technique in the world. For all those who just "CANT" project or have any kind of experience like me, there is real hope

I'm not going to criticize other techniques as I certainly don't have enough experience to do so. I am surprised though that people talk so much of sleep cycles, and waking up with alarm clocks, etc. Everyone's sleep cycles are slightly different, and you'll never catch the exact moment you fall asleep so trying to set your alarm to wake you up at an advantageous point after a sleep cycle, is in my opinion, absolutely useless. I welcome any advice to the contrary. Anyway -

Before you're ready to sleep, go and take a pee, and then drink a glass of water. The only thing you might need to experiment with, is how much you drink. Enough to wake you up in a few hours, not enough to need another pee in 10 minutes before you get to sleep. A full glass (250ml?) does it for me. Assuming you dont drink too much, your body will wake you up naturally, when it is in a relatively light sleep after a your deep sleep period. That simple. I personally never recall dreams during that first 3 or 4.5 hour period as I'm in a deep sleep and dreams are very vague and limited.

Wake up, go to the toilet, have a pee, wash your face with cold water and take a few deep breaths so you don't just fall immediately back to sleep.

If you keep a journal or start building one up of vivid or lucid dreams, read some pages of it as I find it helps. Don't stay up more than about 5 minutes or your body will wake up too much and you probably wont be able to sleep again. Lie back down and go to sleep, just keep repeating in your mind affirmations. I use the sentence "Am I dreaming? I'm going to be lucid." over and over in my mind. If you can't sleep, you're probably repeating it too often and focusing too hard on it.

Hopefully, you'll find yourself asleep a few minutes later and dreaming still repeating the same phrase, "am I dreaming? I'm going to be lucid", at which point you become instantly lucid.

It works and it works well [for me]. I'm not going to go on about a load of advice on LDs yet as I'm not an expert and am just starting out. I've also found my journey has been hindered so far by reading too much bad advice and incorrect assumptions. When I've had more experience, I'll be very happy to share what I 'know' rather than what I 'think' or 'believe'. Some things that I know to help you with LDs:

1. Commands really work. I've found that short ones especially "clarity now", "give me vision", "fly now" seem to almost always work. Longer ones like "I cant see, I want to see" seem to do nothing for me. If a concise command doesnt work, put more intention and thought into it and say it with a bit more conviction - it WILL then work.

2. Keep a jornal of EVERY dream you remember and every LD you have. Just a few nights of writing down dream fragments, however small or irrelevant, and your dreams WILL become more vivid.

3. Im not an advocator of drugs/plants/etc etc nor am I a doctor. I do however find that a high dose vitamin B pill before sleep makes my dreams MUCH more vivid. I stumbled upon this by mistake, when I forgot to take my vitamins before sleep and had a very hazy/short dream and very little recall. I then googled for it, and google seems to agree.

4. I BELIEVE that the key to becoming MORE lucid is through testing your senses. I have not validated this myself, and I'm currently working on it. I welcome feedback. Try touching, then smelling, then hearing something, see if it doesnt become more vivid. "CLARITY NOW" command certainly works for vision. Also try and not be so 'self focused' and trying to think or go crazy with excitement. Instead, examine your scenery in more detail, become more interested in it.

Hope this helps

Hi zack,

Other more wise folkes may have further advice, but what are you doing when you lie there? I suspect you are lying there with your eyes shut, quite awake and waiting for something to happen?

Try some breathing and relaxation exercises first, there are thousands of techniques on the forum for this. One that I haven't seen written about on here, and has always been very successful for me is as follows;

Lie on your back in a comfortable position and with your arms on either side of you (not on your stomach or anywhere else)

In your minds eye, say to yourself;
"As I count from ten down to one, every part of my body will become really really relaxed."

Breathe in slowly and deeply, hold it, as you breathe out, feel each and every muscle in your body just 'drop' with relaxation and say "10" in your mind, then "9", "8", etc.

Now; "As I count from ten down to one, every part of my body will become really really heavy."
Same process as above, breathe in slowly and deeply, hold it, as your breathe out, feel everything becoming so heavy, sinking in to your bed/couch, so heavy that you couldn't even move it if you wanted to.

Now; "As I count from ten down to one, every part of my body will become really really warm and comfortable."
Same as above, this time imagining warmth and comfort, I personally visualize a warm sun-filled environment.

Try to stay perfectly still throughout, release all muscle tension. My main tense areas are usually lower back and neck.

I read somewhere a vague scientific link behind this method, in that these are the 3 stages that the body goes through before sleep, relaxed, heavy, then warm.

Hope this helps

Adam

Dear all,

I am new here just making my first post. I hope I have posted this in the right place, if not please do feel free to move. I will detail my current progress and experience and see if anyone can assist or help answer any of my questions. TIA

Some 5 years ago, I was reading various self hypnosis, meditation etc techniques out of curiosity and deep interest. After lots of wasted time and money, I struck on a simple technique. In bed - Essentially, lie back flat and relax. In your mind's eye - "As I count from 10 down to 1, every single part of my body will become really relaxed.". Breathing slowly and deeply, slowly count from 10 to 1, deeply feeling the muscle relaxation on every number. Then, "As I count from 10 down to 1, every single part of my body will become really heavy.". Same as above, except that you should be deeply feeling the heavyness and inability to move on each count. Lastly, "As I count from 10 down to 1, every single part of my body will feel really warm and comfortable.". Visualizing a wonderful warm place and feeling very comfortable, count slowly from 10 down to 1 again, really experiencing the visualization on each exhale. I think there was some science behind this to do with the process that the body automatically goes through towards sleep.

Suffice to say, that somewhere on the 3rd and final count from 10 to 1, I suddenly and very frighteningly felt a "switch" [in consciousness?] and complete paralysis which instantly caused a huge wave of fear, and I jumped up. As this was the most interesting and curious thing I had come across - After several years of on and off practising and messing around, I overcame that fear, and can now get to that state most of the time at will. Probably on every 4 out of 5 attempts. When I can't do it, it seems to correlate well that I'm usually stressed, frustrated, have something on my mind, or have had any stimulant ie caffeine. Now I can usually between the final 10 and 1 hit the state, at which point finishing the counting to 1 will slightly deepen the state. Something just 'switches' and my body is very numb and vague. I notice that this state is sometimes deeper than others. I don't have any idea as to how to deepen it when I'm there, some days it just does, others it doesnt. I have tried recounting again from scratch, but I usually just get frustrated/itchy/restless and give up at that point. Sometimes just 'pushing' the sensation deeper helps although not reliably.

#1. Is this the 'mind awake/body asleep'? If not, what is it?
#2. Is this Monroe's 'focus 10'
#3. How to deepen or lighten it?
#4. Is a deeper focus 10 automatically an "Expanded awareness" (Monroe's focus 12)? This brings me onto my next experience..

Sometimes once I've got to some of the deeper states detailed above, i.e. my body is even more numb and asleep, I then notice another instant "switch" - this one I don't know how to induce, it only ever just "happens" or in some cases just doesn't. My 'awareness' switches from inside my head to slightly outside of it with a slightly expanded perspective. Sometimes this is very subtle, sometimes it can be larger, i.e. the size of the room or a little higher. I also have no idea how to deepen or lighten this.

#1. Is this monroe's focus 12?
#2. How to deepen or lighten it?
#3. Is this the right path that I'm on and steps that I'm taking?

Now at this point, I'm stuck. I can lie there experiencing this for some time, but eventually I just get bored, summon up enough energy to move, and turn over to fall asleep. What next? I've tried everything I can think of. The rope technique, energy/chakra visualizations, attempting to 'shift' again into a 3rd state, visualizing rolling over, and all the rest of it. Nothing happens. I just lie in this state of what I'm guessing is the expanded awareness state.

Now I'm referring to Monroe's focus levels because I'm using the gateway experience CDs at the moment. For anyone familiar with them, based on the above, I think I've linked the focus levels to some of my previous accidental experiences and I really hope that I've tied this up right. I've worked through the Wave 1 and 2 CDs and just started the 3rd. Towards the end of CD 2 and the first two parts on CD 3, the most recent of which involved taking you and your energy balloon and bringing it up and down. Absolutely nothing happened, as with most of the visualizations that he has taken me through now in this state. I lay there in the mind awake/body asleep state and just visualized it with nothing further happening. I'm useless with imagination and visualizations. Am I supposed to be deeply immersed in some kind of visualization? If so, how? Am I not in the right state to be starting the visualizations? Maybe I never got the focus 10?

In the last week I've had some interesting new experience(s?). Whilst on Monroe's Wave I and II, on several occasions, I (might?) have achieved some 'switch' to that 3rd state. I think I might possibly have just fallen asleep though. I recall remaining awake although my mind has drifted off somewhere. It seems to feel like a few minutes at a time although I think it's only really seconds. It just seems to me to be some kind of dream visualizations, and on 2 or 3 occasions, I've had a few isolated bursts of strong imagery, just weird dream stuff that didn't really mean anything to me. After a session, I got that general sleep/groggy feeling identical to the one you get when you wake up after you dozed off for a minute - not a very pleasant feeling. I then just feel a bit funny/tired for a few minutes. Is this something of interest, or am I just dozing off for a few moments because I'm tired?

Anyway, this is about as far as I've got. Not really sure what kind of progress I'm making. I feel sometimes that I might almost be there, but at other times completely stuck!

Any help would certainly be much appreciated
Thank you!
Adam