it ain't easy

[deric]

I've had many slightly lucid dreams lately where things don't seem right  such as 'people just don't go around forgetting where they parked their cars so often' so  I must be dreaming.  but then I think 'it's obviously not a dream because it's real, my friends are here etc.'-so then I continue looking for my car.  Then I wake up to find it was a dream.  Obe coaches tell you that when you become lucid  to do various things to convert into an OBE.  I think they are missing something.  How can you believe it's a dream when it's just as real as waking life?  Maybe that's the key-to understand that we once believed dreams were this smoky whispy unreal thing of the imagination but that actually when dreaming your consciousness is in a very real dimension-not much different than waking life.  Then if you can get a grip on that you actually could use one of the techniques such as demanding 'clarity now' or 'higher self now', or 'obe now'. You'd want to say 'I know it's real but it's still a dream because this isn't my usual waking reality. But anyway keep positive and be patient.  

get rid of all preconceived ideas about what to expect in alt states

[Nameless]

Well said Deric. Although we may be experiencing an alternate reality it is still our reality no matter how you look at it.

[Lumaza]

 I agree with Nameless, "well said".

A Dream Journal really helps here because it shows you common Dream"triggers". The more you learn to notice those "triggers" in your Dreams, the faster you get your bearings on where you "really" are.

I also found that you have to even balance your level of awareness even after you know that you are Dreaming. Too much awareness, you get too involved and either click out or do the dreaded, "think of your physical" body. Too little awareness and your recall is shot. So, yes, you need to find a "happy medium".

Some areas and situations I find myself in there, do seem to point at a "parallel existence". Once in awhile I have a experience and all the Dream characters, though the same, have nothing to do with my immediate physical characters here. I mean new friends, even I am different. My NP personality can seem so different form my current one sometimes. Most of the time, I click in, get my bearings, just as my NP personality has created some kind of dire or complicated scenario. Then I have to consciously solve the "dilemma" or circumstance.

[serge]

Well said Deric. Although we may be experiencing an alternate reality it is still our reality no matter how you look at it.

Thanks Deric for this. I can relate to what you are saying. For me too, once in the dream state I do not question reality. Everything is in order, even the most extravagant or absurd situations. The only shreds of lucid dreaming I ever get take place  in the twilight zone when I am falling asleep or waking up.

In my dreams I often wander in a town forever  unable to find my way home.
Recently this suggested to me  (as I woke up)that when I am in dreams I often bring with me waking life attitudes and expectations.  The main  waking   attitude here is that to go from A to B ...I have to drive or take a bus. I would like to train myself to think (as I should in the dream world): to go from A to B .......think of........ B.
Period.


Altogether, on the subject at hand:   to me the hypnagogic state is where I find  rare opportunities to experiment with NP reality (mostly flying) from my physical awareness perspective. This is not bad, IMO.  It provides me with enough evidence that there is indeed a fully  structured  alternate reality with its own rules and that it  does not conform to time , space, and  waking rationality.

My sense is that the said alternate reality features its own independent memory (in dreams I recall other dreams with details). I also bring over distorted fragments of physical life  memory(places, people, jobs, feelings)  which become integrated into the dream situation.

My own view is that in the dream state we experience a level of being which is just as real as the physical life and that this is where we go to stay when we transition.  

[Illuman]

I agree completely, after a small hiatus and re-taking in some of the information I did two years ago things are crystalizing a bit more in my head.  For this reason alone I feel is where that inception type thought comes in.  Training your brain to question reality always is key.  If you flip light switches and question whether your dreaming in your waking life that will natural transfer over to the dream state.  Once that happens things that happen in your usual reality (IE, follow the laws of physics etc) do something vastly different to "trigger" your brain or consciousness to "KNOW" that this is an alternate reality from which your consciousness normally operates.  Or maybe rather normally identifies with and recognizes. 

That being said I am rather new to all of this and my replies and comments are more to attempt to build a frame work for myself while experiencing a sense of community to reaffirm to myself that what I am doing is correct for me.  Or in fact what I want.  I wish everyone here the best and this type of community is irreplaceable.  Thanks to everyone who puts time and effort into this because it benefits all.