Astral, Lucid or Dream?

[Koto_Distari]

My apologies if something like this has already been posted before...

I tend to never sleep completely well.  I have the oddest dreams and images, lucid, astral or whatever you call them experiences -- so much it's hard for me to completely tell what's what anymore...I just know what I feel and see.  Though one thing is bugging me a good deal...it has reoccurred several times before in many different places (so I'm pretty certain it's something tagged to me or just flat out following me no matter where I live) and I think it's getting worse each time it happens.

Let me see...how best to explain this... At times when I lay down either to rest or nap occasionally (at least it's only a handful of times so far) I find myself in a curious experience.  It's like a dream within a dream (as best as I can describe it) and most times I realize this, but the past few recent times it's gotten fuzzier to separate the reality from the non reality.

For example I can dream (or whatever it might actually be called) that I'm sleeping in my bed -- which I currently am when this happens -- and then see and hear normal sounds within my room as well as noting how I feel and such.  The problem is that I can never move...or if I can it's very limited...almost like I'm struggling against total paralysis of my body.

Like I can hear the TV on in the background and it bugs me...a thought comes to mind about getting up to shut it off, but I can't move.  My body feels so heavy and weighted that I struggle to slide out of bed and move to the side to bring about some momentum so I can move and shut off the TV and go back to sleep.  It feels like forever that I'm trying to force and will my body to move every inch...like the weight increases upon me every time I move and it seems it would just be easier for me to give up and not move at all...  Though when I finally manage to move just enough to fall out of bed and shut the TV off with my big toe everything starts to ease and I think about trying to climb back in bed to rest -- that's when I wake up...

Here's the kicker for me...I wake up and found I never moved...the TV was never on...and everything in my room is unchanged in anyway.  Like if I'd knocked over the lamp in my dream it would be standing on the bed side table as normal...unmoved as the dust was never shifted from it...  But the lingering feel of being held and unable to move...that I saw my room and everything as clear as crystal...it bugs me every time it happens.

Sometimes it's not being unable to move...but moving very slowly -- as if treading though water.  In another instance I find myself pulled or drawn out of bed in search of something and though I can see, I feel somewhat drugged and slugish... I can clearly see myself rising from the bed or wherever I'd fallen asleep or dozed off at...and try to walk 3 feet to the door to open it and go into the next room (the layout or landscape is always exactly the same of wherever I'd fallen sleep -- hubby on the computer in the background or even if I'm at a different house or dwelling...it always matches up exactly) struggling against the weight I feel draped over me.  Something woke me, but I can't remember what...

Lately it's gotten worse (at least in my opinion) as now it seems I need some outside noise to wake me from this when it happens.  Just the other day I had it happen to me -- I was in bed and I'd dozed off when I found myself held by that same kind of weighted paralysis.  I wanted to get up, but as that thought entered my mind it was just brushed aside lightly and I remained where I was...though at one point I recall my right hand fiddling with something.  I wasn't certain what it was at first, but then I realized it was my hematite ring.

It was cracked and I'd been meaning to replace it, but I hadn't had the chance to do so yet as I'd been running around a lot recently.  For some reason this was in my right hand, which had a surprising amount of mobility opposed to the rest of my weighted body.  At one point the fore finger and thumb pushed on the crack of the ring and broke it in two halves.  One part of me was startled and upset about that...another part just brushed it aside and said it didn't matter at all...cajoling me that I could replace it later and I should just drop the pieces and finish resting.

I almost let the pieces slide from my hand, but as I heard the two halves clink together that other part of me that was upset it broke just clutched onto them and held it tight.  That kind of became the only hand I could move at that point -- the rest of my body felt the paralysis weigh me down even more so and I wanted to wake and get up, but couldn't... I struggled to force my body to move, but couldn't...and I didn't dare open my right hand least I lose the pieces of the hematite ring -- it felt very important that I hold onto that.  I struggled for what seemed like a good half hour to an hour of time...and then the phone rang.

Recently hubby and I had gotten a new phone around the end of December cause our old cordless was dying...though it seems that they only make phones in sets so we now had one for the living room and one for the bedroom -- some kind of corded/cordless phone combo pack.  Either way I could clearly hear the harsh shrill of the phone ringing in the distance.  I recall faintly able to hear hubby get up open and shut the bedroom door to answer the phone...not sure why he didn't pick up the cordless one in the bedroom, but when he came back into the room I tried to vocalize my question of who was on the phone -- it was the barest of whispers to my ears, but I know I didn't actually speak...it was in the faintest dream or such that I was trapped in that I made the question and I didn't speak in my sleep as I had to re-ask the question when I finally woke up...

Now I'm guessing this is where my dumb luck comes into play, as to what I learned later, the phone kept ringing every 5 minutes...hubby didn't answer it again after the first time, but that shrill noise of the phone ringing annoyed me...disturbed me -- such a nuisance and pest...would it not be silenced?  To one part of me it only bothered me slightly...but to another part (that part that didn't care about the broken ring) it was greatly perturbed by the constant ringing.  Each time it rang it felt like parts of strands or something snapped and fell away...and I could start to move more of my body...start to finally wake up...  I'm not sure exactly how many times the phone rang, but at one point I grumbled as I sat up and hearing the phone ring yet again I rose from my bed to go walk into the living room and hear if a message would be left on our answering machine.

As I got halfway into the living room I felt more awake and puzzled by my flash of anger. I stood by the answering machine as the phone had finally stopped and looked at the number of messages left.  There were 4 messages, but it seemed like the phone had rung far longer than that...  The first message was some woman "I'm calling for you Angie" is about all that I recall and that was pretty much it on the answering machine as the other 3 messages were blank or hang ups.  I went back to the bedroom to ask who'd called the first time when hubby picked it up -- hubby said it was some guy calling for a girl and must have been given the wrong number or something...hubby thought the guy had just kept calling the phone like crazy cause he believed he had the right number, but the girl didn't want to pick up the phone.  I was puzzled cause I was like -- "no, there wasn't a guy that left a message on our answering machine...it was some woman looking for an Angie" -- he just shrugged and thought it odd.

That's when I started to think over everything that'd happened...so parts of what I'd actually heard were reality...while other things were non reality...but it was all so blurred together it was hard to separate it all.  What bugs me the most is the fact that I wasn't able to get up without the phone ringing off the hook.  Now in the past our phone line has gotten a lot of odd wrong phone number calls...extending from an Alcoholics Anonymous group to the police calling to let us know a "Bob" is in jail and that if we'd want to visit and post bail to come down to the station...

However we haven't had such a wrong number call of any kind within the last several months.  It just seemed too convenient and coincidental for us to be getting a string of wrong phone number calls that day and specifically at that time.

I'm honestly not sure exactly what this is that I've experienced over and over again...though even for a handful of times it's progressively grown in how much it tends to weigh me down.  I figure the best way to put a stop to this...is to figure out what it is first...so if anyone has ideas or comments I'd like to hear them.

Powers this is incredibly long... I hope this hasn't sounded too confusing -- if so I'll try to elaborate as best I can wherever the confusion is in all of this...

[Nick]

Hi Koto_Distari,

Some of the most puzzling experiences that, in my opinion anyway many people encounter, occurs when we're in these states of sleep or near sleep. It is certainly difficult for me to give an opinion here, perhaps someone else will try though.

There are dream books, as well as books on OBE/AP wherein the authors describe experiences that may be a dream, lucid dream, OBE, false awakening, and so on. They write that there have been times when they just weren't sure what they were experiencing.

The fact that you find yourself in a "sleep paralysis" situation indicates that you are experiencing obe symptoms though. I've always liked reading as much as I can in the area of OBE/AP and lucid dreaming because invariably, I will come across a relatively similar experience that the author has had. While everyone's different, there are similar themes to the general experiences and that I've found, is helpful.

If you're curious about some good books on dreams, OBE an astral projection, you can either use our search engine, look over our Welcome to Member's Book Recommendations and Reviews, or just post a thread asking for recommendations specific to what you want.

All the best,
Nick

[RedWolfHealgDrmr]

Hi, In shamanism we have what we call waking dreaming, where you are totally aware of what you are dreaming and what is going on around you.

We have a dreamer body and our physical body, not to mention our other bodies, the standard, emotional, mental, energetic, etc.  It is no surprise then that you are able to move your dreamer body around while your physical body remains where you left it.  If you ahve not already you might want to check out the Carlos Castaneda/Don Juan Matus Books, they talk about this type of thing at length besides the fact that it is very interesting reading, the enteire series should be available at your local library and I suggest you begin with the book called "Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge" and work your way through the series from there.
If you are interested, you can read excerpts from the amazon.com selections while online!
Here are a couple of links to get you started, the second one is a link to the excerpt from his first book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671600419/qid=1106264705/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-1526362-9288003?v=glance&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0671600419/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-1526362-9288003#reader-link

His book, "The Art of Dreaming" can teach you a great deal in an entertaining way.  Blessings, RW

[Vicky]

I had a similar experience. It felt like a real OBE at the time when it was happening the way dreams feel real while you dream. At first as if i left my body - i could see the room the way it was in the dark and i started spinning in a circle over my bed without any control of myself - i finally managed to stop the spinning and it really felt that it was really happening and that i was out of my body, but then i flew out of the window and thought this was more a dream than an obe - i was in the front of our apartment area and flied but with a lot of efforts in flying- i only need to put effort in this if it is a dream. I saw one tree that was far away and thought to myself that if this was a real OBE the moment i think i want to be on this tree it would happen. So i thought and i was still on the ground... And finally my question is - are such dreams training for having future OBEs ( i used to have them more than a year ago)

[Koto_Distari]

Oh dear...I'm so bad at keeping track with things... *sheepish grin* ^.^;  I thank all of your for your input.  This has been an on going thing for me since I was 5 and I don't think I've ever had a peaceful dream or experience at all ever.

I've looked around a lot and still haven't found exactly any one thing to explain these kind of experiences or other dreams. I'm wondering if I'm losing it sometimes... Is it possible to wake up with dried blood under the fingernails without a scratch on you and when you sleep alone? Or what about odd marks that show up in areas struck at when dreaming appearing, is that normal?

I'm just a jumble of questions, but this place has been more enlightening than other places I've wandered to and I hope to find some answers now.  Thanks for all your input...I'll check into them.  Hopefully in this I'll be able to actually feel rested when I rest. ^.^' Ack...this was longer than I meant...gomen...  Thanks for your input everyone! ^_^

[Kodemaster]

Sounds like a WILD (wake-induced lucid dream)

http://www.astraldynamics.com/library/?BoardID=30&BulletinID=422