How many of you can say this is REAL?

[Xanth]

"More real than real!"
That's what I hear a lot... nobody really stops to wonder WHY that is though.

I believe that what we experience when we're fully astrally aware is that we're now experiencing a reality WITHOUT the filter of our human physical body.  It's something so new and fresh.. so it's not that it feels MORE REAL than real, it's that you're now experiencing reality DIFFERENTLY, unfiltered.

I equate it to wearing a new pair of shoes.  I remember growing up and getting a new pair of shoes.  I'd put them on and they would feel SOOOOOOOO different, so much more cushion and such, I felt like I could run super fast!  It's kind of like that.

Projecting is like stepping into a completely different pair of shoes.  haha 

Sounds silly, I know, but it works! 

[PerspectiveShift]

Interesting perspective Xanth. It makes perfect sense! Our bodies are very limiting.

Lumaza, I'm not sure what the "Technicolor" experiences are, but probably the most realistic experience where I was totally aware was after doing the Monroe track in the morning and following it with Frank's noticing exercise. I ended up seeing the typical colours and patterns which ended up forming a rip in the black screen in front of my eyes. It looked like a portal ripping very violently through the blackness but there was no sound. It looked so real and kept growing and I could see a massive planet-sized ball of blue energy on the other side. I started sweating profusely and couldn't hang on for the ride. Then everything went grey. Haha! I usually wear glasses in waking life so everything is a bit blurry at a distance, but the portal that I saw in that vision was extremely clear and vivid. I would even stretch to say it was clearer than when I have my glasses on!

Lightbeam, yes I truly hope to experience it soon! Im getting closer as I've had a few weird experiences recently. I'll keep at it. Thank you for the tip, I will do this. I started keeping a dream journal again and I've been having better memory of dreams again like I used to. I fell off of it for awhile as life got in the way there for a bit. I find the most benefits so far with keeping a dream journal and doing daily meditation. Then doing the other exercises tend to have more of a punch behind them.

[Volgerle]

I had the 'Technicolour' experience during a 'kind of' NDE-OBE during a surgery in 2009.

Excerpt from my blog entry:

"I was not lying on the table. I seemed to be hovering - a bit above my (physical) head, as it seemed. I was at my "head side" but it seemed that I was a bit more lifted, I however don't remember seeing my body at all (I never looked there, though). I saw everything in colours - so vivid, intense, vibrant, warm and lush - colours that I never saw before (and never after, so far!) on Earth. I just looked from the left side (with all the gadgets) to the right where I saw the chief surgeon doing some routine measure on a kind of handlebar (as it seemed, but don't know exactly what it was) next to or at the side of the operating table.

But there was more: I read his thoughts!

And even that is not enough to describe it, because maybe I actually "was him" in that short moment, too. I was expressing sth to me - the guy on the table - which I also was - strange, huh?. What "he" "said" was this (not in words or literally - just in a seemingly telepathic expression, an entire instant thought bundle directed towards me, and coming from me alike - yeah, I know how that's weird ... It wasn't words to be heard or even grasped, just information entangled with feeling/emotion. I only paraphrase it here, clad into words, to convey the meaning (emotionally as well as content-related):

"Hey, everything's alright, chap, don't worry, it worked well and we are ready now."

But actually, I was far from being worried anyway!

I was in an UTTER STATE OF BLISS like never before in my life.

It must somehow be what the mystics talk about. Ultimate well-being, vibrant with life and happiness, it is beyond expression, it is not happiness we experience as humans, not even when drugged (I suppose). The vivid unearthly colours seemed to envigorate (but on the other hand also be an expression of my) permanent joy, too. And one more thing: It felt like home. I cannot express it better. It's this feeling of being home, secure, in the right place at the right time - all as the ultimate expression of happiness. I felt "home" in spite of still receiving the 'visual' input from the surgery. That is bliss. Home. Also Love, of course. But in the end, there was and is no difference between the two for me. Love is Home. Home is Love."

[floriferous]

Some great experiences on this thread for sure.

But I will say that I think a measure of our reality or realness is in how we privilege certain experiences over other ones through our descriptions.

We will obviously favour an experience of hyper real vivid colors, deeply intimate sensations, and a rich tapestry of sounds compared with an experience of monotone colour values, muted sounds, and dull lethargic sensations. But actually these two hypothetical experiences are identical in terms of their level of reality. It is only how we privilege the first experience over the second one that defines it as more real.

If you consider your level of awareness in both experiences - that too is identical in both scenarios You are exquisitely aware of the vivid colors and bright sounds in experience 1 and you are equally exquisitely aware of experience 2s dull monotone colors and lethargic sensorial expression. If you weren't you wouldn't be able to describe it as such.

The only difference is a thought which chooses experience 1 which then elevates it in our experience and so we seek out more experience 1s.

[PerspectiveShift]

Some great experiences on this thread for sure.

But I will say that I think a measure of our reality or realness is in how we privilege certain experiences over other ones through our descriptions.

We will obviously favour an experience of hyper real vivid colors, deeply intimate sensations, and a rich tapestry of sounds compared with an experience of monotone colour values, muted sounds, and dull lethargic sensations. But actually these two hypothetical experiences are identical in terms of their level of reality. It is only how we privilege the first experience over the second one that defines it as more real.

If you consider your level of awareness in both experiences - that too is identical in both scenarios You are exquisitely aware of the vivid colors and bright sounds in experience 1 and you are equally exquisitely aware of experience 2s dull monotone colors and lethargic sensorial expression. If you weren't you wouldn't be able to describe it as such.

The only difference is a thought which chooses experience 1 which then elevates it in our experience and so we seek out more experience 1s.

These are very good points floriferous, you seem to have a very wise outlook.

Some people might interpret this vivid vs dull as "success" vs "failure". You could relate this to acquiring a skill. Where experience 1 is walking across a tightrope while maintaining balance and experience 2 is falling off. We tend to favour the mastery of difficulty scenario and have the rush of emotions at the end of the experience (1) more than the actions we consider failure. (2)

In the end of the day does it matter? Not really as we are all one anyways, so nothing essentially changes regardless of what we do because WE ARE no matter what. But if we want to experience different experiences of ourselves, practicing to get to them can open up a new experience of ourself. I think that's the whole purpose of the duality existence we have created for ourself in the first place. Exploring ourselves in different ways.

On the other hand, I think where people get caught up is in seeing experiences as bad or good or important/unimportant which I think is what you might be getting at here. It's okay to "fail" or to see dull colours as this is essentially You and what you are supposed to experience right now. It's a unique and important experience in itself and it isn't bad. It is still an equally important part or an aspect of ourself.

You could think of it as the shadow of the light, neither could exist without the other. So maintaining balance between the forces of light and darkness I think is essential. Maintaining the balance between polarities.

I just watched a mind blowing series by Matias de Stefano and he talks about this. He explains it by imagining you are in a room with a light source on one side. You have a shadow of your figure projecting on the back wall opposite of the light source. Now we are typically taught to move towards the light. Well if you do that in this scenario, the dark shadow grows bigger and bigger until it fills the whole room. His point was that if you are focussed on only light or only darkness you are ignoring an aspect of yourself and that ignored aspect of yourself will grow and grow and eventually pull you back into it. In other words, karma. So balance between the aspects is important. Like the Yin Yang symbol. The dance of light and dark is the two opposing aspects of ourself dancing together.

I thought I would share this last piece as it really opened my eyes and it might help other reader's perspectives on this forum as well.

[floriferous]

On the other hand, I think where people get caught up is in seeing experiences as bad or good or important/unimportant which I think is what you might be getting at here. It's okay to "fail" or to see dull colours as this is essentially You and what you are supposed to experience right now. It's a unique and important experience in itself and it isn't bad. It is still an equally important part or an aspect of ourself.

Yes, I think you hit the nail on the head. That is the crux of it for me. There really is no good or bad or right or right in experience. Problems aren't real until we bring them into existence by the way we define/resist experience. All experiences are born equal until we privilege them.

If we truly saw that all experience was just ourself flowing with itself would we see any situation as good/bad/desirable/dull/hyper real rather than just the flow of self expressing itself in infinitely new ways?

[Blossom]

Become the astronaut that's in all of us, fear has no place and you'll see this barrier destroyed once you succeed.

YES!!!  I love that! I know that wasn't for me, but that is great advice!! Become the astronaut and be filled with wonder.