Something weird has been going on with me. Either my waking reality is becoming more dream-like or my dreams are becoming more life- like! Yes, yes, I know that 'life-like' is such an obscure term. What I mean is, my dreams have been doing a great job in mimicking the material plane, senses included, it seems...
Basically, I've been waking up with what feels like sleep paralysis except I will not be in my room, or even in this dimension sometimes (it seems), and I'll still be dreaming. Ie, I'll be in a dream scenario. Either that or I get mad wild hallucinations during SP.
The also crazy thing is: it doesn't even always have to be paralysis. Lately, I've been able to hang around the dream scene after I break my paralysis, which, makes me wonder if I'm even as awake as I think I am. Like I said, I'm not claiming this is 'real'.
I basically woke up, I tried to get up, and found myself paralyzed. My room looked a bit different than it does now but it contained a lot of my things mixed with things I didn't buy along with a different arrangement pattern of the furniture. Odd. The paralysis wore off (with much effort) and I became very weak. I got up, walked around, and realized it wasn't my room (despite the fact that it felt physical), and I found myself being whooshed back to my room, into my body.
Then, more recently, I woke up feeling very weak (not paralyzed but I felt like I was 1000 pounds and expanded) and I wasn't even in my room. I was in a dream scene, somewhere I've never been before. I kept fighting for strength and it kept draining me of energy. I realized what was happening and projected out of there and found myself back in my room and in my body.
Sometimes, I will wake up in full paralysis and will have the typical hallucinations, but I will break free of my paralysis, and will chill out (I will be mobile but very weak and heavy) with my hallucinations for a few minutes after the paralysis, until everything just goes back to normal. Sometimes, I won't even be in my room.
A few years ago, I had this one episode in particular where I woke up with a momentary sleep paralysis and I wiggled my arm, reached for the remote very weakly (it always feels like I'm really heavy), turned on the t.v., and CNN was talking about how they were about to interview Natalee Holloway who was the victim of being sold into sex slavery. The paralysis broke, and I moved around some. The news cast continued for a minute until the t.v. turned off and the program was no longer anywhere to be found.
The reason I'm not sure if this is a false awakening, astral, or SP is because my dreams are becoming more and more lucid and my energetic body has been doing a great job of tapping into my physical senses. Well, at least, it imitates them really well, leaving me unsure of my reality, at times. Just the other night, I had a dream where I was at a bar, ordering dirty martinis and getting drunk. And you know what? That martini tasted fabulous. It went down nice and cold down my throat and tasted just like a dirty martini. I also started to feel dream drunk. That's a first. Head spinning, vertigo, ordering tasty dirty martinis that I could actually taste, in my dream... it was FABULOUS. With no risk of alcohol poisoning and no hangover. :wink:
I have a feeling I'm already projecting in SP and sometimes spontaneously project upon awakening, to an environment usually similar to that one around me, etc etc. My first reaction is always to try to get up to go about my daily business even if there's a leprechaun dancing around my room. Nothing really bothers me anymore. If it feels physical, I assume it is. Thing is, a lot of times, things will feel physical but I know they are not. This is a new thing for me and I've never had it before. I've been lucid but I've never been having what I described happen until just recently. I sense it's only good, though.
I might be completely of the mark but this may all seem more real to you because you are starting to accept it. That's how it is working with me.
When I first started posting here, I felt compelled to put disclaimers on everything because I didn't want to come across as somebody who is gullible and easily influenced.
I still do at times. I'm not completely comfortable speaking about some of my OOBE's because of how real they are and our culture says that only the kooks believe this stuff is more than just a dream. I have said it before and I'm fine with calling all this stuff just a dream. I'm not fine with what many people consider just a dream.
I'm realizing that saying that something makes me uncomfortable is just another way of saying I am scared or I don't understand.
Well, I guess most of us are just black sheep.
Obviously, if you can feel it, touch it, smell it, and taste it, it is by all means real.
If we live in our minds anyways, and can only go by what is tangible, then that's real, as well.
Most people's opinion of what is 'real' only extend out to the material. I know people who claim to have very vivid dreams. My boyfriend claims to have very vivid dreams, like HD movies. I asked him if he has ever become lucid or tried. He told me no. He said he merely goes along with the simulation and hardly ever questions it. I asked him if he'd ever try being lucid and gain awareness, and he said "I don't believe in that stuff" as simple as that.
So, it doesn't matter how vivid or life-like something appears. What matters is how much you're willing to examine it or accept it.
I remember some of your posts in which you speak about anxiety and questioning your sanity. The anxiety I understand but I see nothing of the other.
I almost made myself into a basket case over my anxiety and panic attacks. I still have the experience that others call a panic attack but I haven't panicked over one in years if that makes sense.
For what ever reason, they haven't gone away but they no longer worry me at all and they last for only a sliver of the time that they used to.
I had to give up my beloved Xanax because I could no longer justify taking them. Being able to explore the NPR has become way more important to me than any temporary relief that a drug can provide. Xanax stopped my OOBE's cold in their tracks.
The first thing it made me think of was false awakenings. But being in the NPR is like apples and oranges... they're all fruit. As for discovering yourself in SP, do you believe that you will begin this in SP? When you wake up, do you often find yourself in it? It could be reflecting there or I'm just completely off, hehe.
False awakenings can be really quirky things. Especially when they start stacking.
For me, my false awakenings are incredibly vivid and I usually have no idea I am dreaming in the slightest. The other senses in dreams are kind of hit or miss for me. Sometimes everything's there, sometimes not, but I don't think about it much. If I eat something, it has taste. If I pay attention to something in detail such as walking barefoot on sand, I feel the texture. But I guess I don't always notice.
Sounds awesome how vivid yours have been recently :D
And yeah, belief and expectation play huge roles.
These strange new twists have been happening to me to Fairywindblues... constant epic very detailed dreams and APing without SP and generally on command.
Quote from: Fairywindblues on March 05, 2013, 09:55:04
I asked him if he'd ever try being lucid and gain awareness, and he said "I don't believe in that stuff" as simple as that.
That's crazy. He doesn't believe in Lucid Dreams?
I don't think I've met anyone who doesn't entertain the idea... being able traverse the nonphysical that's one thing... but Lucid Dreams are an accepted reality of actual sleep science.
A "heightened sense of awareness" brings along with it many unique awakenings".
You opened Pandora's Box, so now you are experiencing the wonder and amazement of what's really inside of it.
Enjoy it, learn from it, ALLOW it to manifest and grow! :-)
@Bedeekin
My boyfriend and I mirror in our spiritual beliefs. I try to find a metaphysical explanation for everything. He, on the other hand, will seek out a 'logical' explanation for everything before he will entertain the notion. He believes lucid dreams are merely the result of being in a light sleep. Usually, if he ever becomes more aware during a dream, he will get pulled away and will wake up immediately. Thus, he has come to the conclusion that when a dream is really vivid and life-like, we are already really close to physical awakening so that's why that happens. He just doesn't search for a deeper meaning behind some things. :roll: I've told him about my projections. They went over his head. I told him about my sleep paralysis, too, and I don't think he understands that too much, either... :-P
@ChopstickFox
False awakenings make sense. I guess I'm having lucid false awakenings about sleep paralysis, then. This has just started and is a new thing. I'll wake up in a false awakening and may still be dreaming, but will still battle against the sleep paralysis and will feel as confined as I do when I wake up with legit SP. Like I said, my dreams are just being taken to a whole new level. I was never one to jump on the ascension bandwagon, but now, I'm starting to think that spiritual evolution is happening right now, for many people.
Quote from: Fairywindblues on March 06, 2013, 13:42:51
He believes lucid dreams are merely the result of being in a light sleep. Usually, if he ever becomes more aware during a dream, he will get pulled away and will wake up immediately. Thus, he has come to the conclusion that when a dream is really vivid and life-like, we are already really close to physical awakening so that's why that happens.
I think that he is even right with this, even from a metaphysical perspective. It is obvious that OBEs also occur from 'light sleep' when in trance and in the process of waking up in the physical. At least that's my experience. You can liken it to driving in an underground train and the next step will be coming out of the tunnel into daylight and then you hop off at the last moment. For me, trance (as needed for induction of AP) is actually when in 'light sleep', too, still asleep, but almost woken up.
Quote from: Volgerle on March 06, 2013, 13:53:17
I think that he is even right with this, even from a metaphysical perspective. It is obvious that OBEs also occur from 'light sleep' when in trance and in the process of waking up in the physical. At least that's my experience. You can liken it to driving in an underground train and the next step will be coming out of the tunnel into daylight and then you hop off at the last moment. For me, trance (as needed for induction of AP) is actually when in 'light sleep', too, still asleep, but almost woken up.
I believe this can easily explain the mechanics. Now if we can figure out why the engine was built.
Oh yes, he has a high I.Q. and he teaches me many things, including the thing about light sleeping and dreaming.
However, he just leaves it there whereas I will dig deeper to find a deeper spiritual meaning.
See, he has called actual astral projection and OBE baloney. :-D It's just light sleep or hypnogogic trance.
And in a way, he could be right, from a physical standpoint. I just always take in the possibility of that X factor; the unknown.
On a side note:
I HAD THE BEST DREAM EVER LAST NIGHT. :roll:
I have this repetitive dream where I go into a thrift store and shuffle through a bunch of random junk. The funny thing is, it has new junk every time, in my dreams.
I actually remember dreaming and saying "I have this dream so many times! Good thing I'm actually awake and in an actual thrift shop!" Tehehe.
How easily the mind can be fooled. Apparently, for some, shuffling through worthless junk is heavenly and is a great place to just escape. The sad bit is that I remember grabbing three gorgeous outfits, purchasing them at the register, and now they're gone because they were never mine in the first place!
Quote from: Fairywindblues on March 08, 2013, 08:10:11
The sad bit is that I remember grabbing three gorgeous outfits, purchasing them at the register, and now they're gone because they were never mine in the first place!
Aww!!!