I am standing in an empty lot. A man walks towards me and I become concerned for my safety.
"You are only a part of my dream," I shout at him. "Disappear, go away!"
At first it seems to have no effect. I insist and to my satisfaction he disappears.
Now I begin to float into the air. I immediately grab the opportunity and begin to will myself up more and it helps a little but I feel I lack power.
"Clarity now!" I command because it is slightly dark. I repeat the command and it clears up only slightly.
I flap my arms rapidly and it also helps a little more but I still feel lacking in power and feel a strong pull towards the ground.
I manage to see some of the city from above.
I awake.
I cannot say if this was a lucid dream or to what degree I was conscious. I have been working on LDs and OBEs with some success.
Commanding "clarity now!" and telling someone to go away, and flapping my arms to fly are all things I have read and thought about so much that I may have just said and done those things by rote.
I never really thought, "This is a dream." However I was reasoning much as I would in waking reality.
Your commands won't have much power unless you truly believe that they will. This isn't life, where you can put up a front and shout and expect things to go your way.
If you believe that it will work, then it will. I doubt this has much to do with being lucid, because if you can reason and think things through, you're obviously lucid. I don't know if there are discernible levels of lucidity.
Maybe that there is some kind of training involved, because I haven't been
able to turn an LD into an OBE either. Perhaps it is related to energy in some
way too? I've never been able to say it with my normal voice, it has either
been thought only Clarity Now! or my voice have been very mumbled and
deep, unnatural.
A second problem is that I've not been in full control of myself, even when LD,
and that's resulted in me not doing the affirmation more than a few times, when
I probably should have persisted longer. I don't know how to work around that.
Leary, I wrote this article for my website several days ago. I wrote it to point out why it's a bad practice to label our experiences... but in it, I explain my perspective on exactly what you're asking about: The degrees of lucidity... or as I call them, the levels of awareness in a non-physical experience.
QuoteI've made posts of this nature in the past, but as I've re-read them, they've seemed confusing, even to myself! And I wrote them! LOL
So I wanted to see if I couldn't clarify things further.
I want to explain why "labeling" your experience in an attempt to categorize and define them is a bad idea, especially when you're just starting out.
When I first started attempting to explore the non-physical, 10+ years ago, I had terms like "out of body experience", "astral projection", "lucid dream" and more all knocking around my skull. The only experience I had originally known about were lucid dreams, as I've been having those for as long as I can remember. It wasn't until I really started putting the puzzle pieces together within the last 2 – 3 years that I figured out the actual nature of those experiences.
I found that there is one constant, one commonality, that linked all of these, supposedly, separate experiences/labels... dreams, lucid dreams, astral projections, out of body experiences, false awakenings, etc... there is one factor which everyone seems to completely ignore: YOU. Well, more to the point, Consciousness! Because you ARE consciousness. This is why these experiences all feel "different" and "separate", because the "YOU" is different in each case.
YOU are the label. YOU are the definition.
How did I figure this out? What experiences did I have which gave me this conclusion? I have directly experienced the full spectrum of, what I can only describe as, "levels of awareness" within a single non-physical experience. I have started an experience with a dream awareness (normal dream), then become lucidly aware (lucid dream), then initiated a technique and brought forth my full waking awareness bringing me to an astral awareness (full astral projection). "Awareness", to me, is a point along this spectrum. At each "level", it feels like a different and completely separate experience. I can completely understand why people feel this way, but these aren't experiences which you "have"... they're experiences which you "are". There is a vast difference between those two statements.
That spectrum looks kind of like this:
(Keep in mind that these are MY metaphors... MY labels. But I ask you to try and identify these labels in comparison to the ones you use. I try to make the comparison as obvious as I can using words and terms which people "mostly" agree upon. LoL)
"Dream Awareness" ...... "Lucid Awareness" ...... "Astral Awareness"
On the left of this spectrum, you have the experience which you don't realize you're in the non-physical. Essentially, it's you dreaming... it's you experiencing a reality that isn't this physical reality, you just don't realize that fact. It's you having a dream awareness. You have to have a very base level of awareness in order to experience this, otherwise you won't directly experience the event, so you'll have zero chance of remembering it (which would be any experience taking place to the left of this point). If you've ever awoken in the morning with brief flashes of symbols and images from the dreams you had during the night, then you had a dream awareness experience, but you were just on the very cusp of having the bare minimum level of awareness in order to remember the experience.
On the far right, you have the experience which you do realize you're in the non-physical *AND* you have the same awareness which you have right now while reading this post. You're wide awake and fully aware of who you are with all your memories of such. THIS experience is what most people (and myself) would consider the "holy grail" of projections. It's what most people refer to as an Astral Projection. It's you experiencing the non-physical with an astral awareness.
I should point out, too, that your awareness can move both ways along this spectrum. You can gain awareness, and lose awareness.
So far I've described the two ends of the spectrum. Where does a "lucid awareness" fit into all this then?
Well, in the middle is the point where we have become "aware" that we're in the non-physical and experiencing a reality that isn't this physical reality. Anything to the left of this point is a "dream awareness experience", or as most people call them, a "normal dream" (it's important to point out here that the further right you move from the far left, the more "clear" and "vivid" your experience will become until you actually become lucidly aware). It's at this point that the only thing you have is a base awareness that you're in the non-physical. At this time, the closer you can bring your awareness to your full waking awareness, the further to the right you'll move along this spectrum towards the "astral awareness" (aka, full astral projection). I have some techniques I've written about on my website to accomplish this. If you can't find them, please let me know and I'll provide the links.
So, as you can see, an astral projection is just a "dream" where you have a full waking awareness. However, don't let the "just" fool you... what most people consider a "dream", as I mentioned above, doesn't exist. There is no such fundamental experience called a "dream". There is only you experiencing the non-physical unknowingly!
This is why labeling an experience is a waste of time, because they're all the same experience. What differs is only how consciously aware you are during the experience. This is why I don't really worry too much if I had a lucid awareness experience or an astral awareness experience, because I know that what's important is that I was consciously aware in the non-physical! I have a set of goals which I always keep solidly in my mind, so even if I'm only lucidly aware, I still remember enough to do them... such as meeting a guide. Sometimes it works out, other times it doesn't... but as I said, in the end, I'm happy that I had an experience outside this physical reality.
I have a challenge for anyone who can project. Try to experience the full spectrum of awareness in a single non-physical experience. If you manage it, try to take note how each "level" feels compared to the last.
http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2012/07/22/labeling-experiences-of-the-non-physical/
Thanks Xanath,
Yours approach makes a lot of sense to me. It is one way of settling the OBE LD controversy. The benefit being that once you are not concerned with the debate, which seems to come down to semantics many times, you can concentrate on your true purpose.
I would also like to mention that my awareness shifts during waking reality as well. I have tried to be totally aware during an ordinary, daily activity, let us say driving, only to find that within seconds I am operating automatically.
Quote from: Leary Herring on July 28, 2012, 15:23:40
Thanks Xanath,
Yours approach makes a lot of sense to me. It is one way of settling the OBE LD controversy. The benefit being that once you are not concerned with the debate, which seems to come down to semantics many times, you can concentrate on your true purpose.
It's just one perspective... as you've probably seen on this forum and others, there are a myriad of other perspectives.
But yeah, that's really the point. Put aside categorizing the experience and just worry about becoming aware in the non-physical. It doesn't matter HOW aware you become, because you can always correct that later, just have the experiences.
QuoteI would also like to mention that my awareness shifts during waking reality as well. I have tried to be totally aware during an ordinary, daily activity, let us say driving, only to find that within seconds I am operating automatically.
Yup! You have the same varying levels of awareness within this physical reality as well. The same scale can apply.
Usually we operate in this physical reality with a waking awareness... which would correspond to an astral awareness. However, that awareness can vary... like when we first wake up in the morning, it could be closer to a lucid awareness on the spectrum. It might take only a minute or two to reach that astral awareness level... some people might require a coffee before they hit that 100% astral level. :) I know I'm a bit like that. LOL
This is an excellent write up Xanth. I try to tell new people not to put labels on anything yet. Experience it first, write about it, then after awhile go back to your books and try to see a pattern. You will be able to tell from your journals what is happening. You will see that some entries are just short memories of what occurred, while others are 2-3 page write ups with full recall. You will be able to tell the brief Hynogogic Imagery from the true Astral visits. When I first started to learn I sat down in my chair and started relaxation and breathing exercises, as soon as something happened, I stopped the session. I then wrote down in my journal what it was. In the next session I would attempt to go further, again another sign post would occur and again I would stop the session to write about it. Yes it took along time to finally project doing this, but I knew what to expect or not to expect along the way. Pretty soon I was projecting at will and still am today. With me it was all a process of elimination, once something occurred and I understood it, I could move on. I have self taught myself a number of different techniques using this method.