Astral Love in Dreams- Dream or OBE? You be the judge

[rubyaura]

So I'll refrain from using any buzzwords because I've got my ideas on what kind of connection this is, but I'm be curious to see what people's opinions are on this kind of scenario without planting any thoughts. I have a very strange and deep connection with someone whom I've seen in my dreams since childhood but only met a few years ago. I had honestly forgotten my kiddie dreams of meeting with someone special until I met this individual, and I suddenly started having 'odd dreams' in which I was almost completely aware of myself, my surroundings and that person. The old dreams from the past came flooding back and this person seemed able to easily show up 'unannounced' in my dreams. What really got my attention though was my level of awareness whenever he was around.

We were just coworkers for a short while, no real serious relationship, didn't even go out for a beer or anything, but we did work in closed space and became quite good friends at the time. It was only a few days after we had met that he began 'walking into my dreams' and when I say walking in, it was seriously just that. He can walk right into my dreams and if he wants, carry on a full conversation with me.

We haven't seen each other in a few years, but he still shows up in my dreams regularly. Usually dreams that involve him are always busy, and a lot of people are around me like a busy restaurant on a friday night. After a couple of years we became more comfortable I guess and he started  'drawing me away' from the crowd. On one occasion I remember looking at myself, wondering what the hell I was wearing, and suddenly became more aware. Around that time I heard him say "If you want to talk to me, come over here."

After that when he would show up he would find ways to 'get my attention' by using a phrases that I was very familiar with when we worked together. "Wanna go smoke?" I considered it being something my brain used since the phrase was so familiar to me, but he actually touched me to pull me away from my packed Denny's scenario and I suddenly became aware. It was a moment like, "I physically felt that!" and then realized I was in a wild-butt dream but he was drawing me away from it to somewhere way less crowded.

This person, unlike other people in my dreams, can appear in full detail, and has been from the very beginning. Also, as I was falling asleep/meditating one night, right before the "Wanna go smoke" dream I actually saw this person in my mind's eye (the first time I had a vision that seriously startled me) and I knew I was wide awake at the time and wasn't dreaming because it was like a movie reel, just like clairvoyants say it is. I was working on clearing my Chakras and suddenly saw him walking along the side of a building.

Strangely enough, I figured after several years of not seeing this person and having slim to no contact the dreams would go away. They went away briefly while I was distracted with my life so I figured it was infatuation and I had 'gotten over it'. Then when I was going through a very spiritually dry period they started back, full force, with way more 'vigor' you might say on his part. I have other strange symptoms that lead to a possible telepathic bond in the waking hours, but I like to keep myself rational so I generally shrug them off.

Anyway, that's the short of it, though it's still a wall of text. Like I said, I've got my opinions on what this is, but I'm curious to know if anyone else has a strong connection with a single individual in this way, or opinions on what kind of connection this is.

tl;dr : I had a man showin' up in my dreams since childhood, and ever since I actually met him he's able to visit me much more often. Anyone familiar with this?

[Xanth]

It's simple really, from my perspective... if you knew you were dreaming, then it was at the very least a lucid awareness experience.  If you didn't know this, then it was a dream awareness experience.

The "man" you speak of might be a guide/helper/whatever for you.

[Summerlander]

Let's consider the thoughts that we don't even realise we have.  The subconscious mind stores a myriad thoughts and the conscious mind only tends to focus on a very small portion of them.  Then, apart from the thoughts that it already contains, new ones are generated.  Other are updated.

Considering that the brain has innumerable synaptic connections, the constant flow of thoughts that the mind generates and the many associations between them that we are not even aware of could be reflected in the electrochemical interactions.  Within a plethora of thoughts (visual, auditory, tactile, conceptual, ideal, idealistic, memory, false memory, fantasy, desire, escapism, belief-centric ect. ect.), the conscious mind may sift through and capture both what's of interest and sometimes what's random.  Other times it may follow a thread or a pattern which could be your case.  Maybe you are dwelling to much on the idea of that man visiting you and taking you away and perhaps he's also taking up a lot of your thinking energy in your waking state.

Imagine that your mind randomly stumbled upon that thought-memory (which was probably changed overtime/updated)...then it becomes interested or fixated on it and persues it.

This is only a possible explanation.  We are not always aware of what our other mind is doing.  This is evident in our intuition or when we suddenly have ideas out of the blue without any conscious effort.

Then we get to see them and experience them more realistically in the hypnagogic state, a lot more in dreams, and, finally, in the Phase state (OOBEs/AP/LD)...we get to really slow things down within the great subconscious 'mechanism' and focus mainly on generating/creating constructs or explore constructs that have been created already.

Dream experiments have been conducted in the past, particularly with REM sleep, and some suggested ESP at work...particularly telepathy.  But the veracity of the evidence could not be confirmed.  If you are interested in this and you wish to prove something to yourself then the best thing to do is to conduct experiments on your own or with someone you can rely on.

[rubyaura]

Good thoughts to chew on. I've been trying to decipher the theme of these 'dreams' for a few years, because it's as if I suddenly become aware without becoming truly lucid.