Hello!

[Jessica_Lynn]

My name is Jessica, 27 years old from Melbourne, been fascinated with AP and OBE's for a long time but am right back into it having started to read "Astral Projection for Psychich Empowerment" and getting all very excited about it all!

I will post this in the dream section, but I do have a few things I'm seeking clarification on. I have had a number of dream capabilities over the years which have changed and evolved and I guess I'm trying to get them back!

In Primary shool I could lucid dream a lot. And it was easy for me if I woke up to lay still and get back into the dream. But when that stopped in early high school i thought it was of a self sabotaging nature .. as soon as I realised I was in a dream my eyes would force themselvwes open and I coul never get it back, which was sad.

Then I developed the ability (perhaps due to my wasting my teenage years in front of a computer) to "reset the levbel" if I was captured by predator, so I had the chance to escape again.

Then up until a few years ago as I dont really have nightmares anymore I could realise I was in a nightmare and then force my eyes open.

Now I just have really kooky dreams, and am looking into astral travel for mind expanding benefits. My question is, is there a chance my infrequent dope use has effected my abilities to lucid dream? (Even though I was unable to stop lucid dreaming long before i smoked a joint haha) and do you thinks its possible its a self sabotage thing? Self sabotage is apparent in lots of areas of my life and im doing what i can to move past it. Thank you

[Micael]

Hello Jessica, I'm also a new guy around here but what the heck... welcome!

It's really good that you already have very significant skill and experience with lucid dreaming because that means that the most demanding part, which is getting yourself accostumed and open to the experience, has already been done. Now it's more a matter of re-conditioning yourself, your subconscious and conscious aspects to pay attention to your NP experiences and bring more awareness into it again. Dream recall being a big factor in that regard IMHO.

That being said, I believe these experiences are a natural part of our consciousness and who we are, so if definite focus and a little bit of good information on how it all works is not enough or seems to not be effective overtime I would say it is certainly unconscious self-sabotage. There's a lot of conditioning that we go through in many different ways that we often need to let go off even if only for so long before we can bring these experiences in whatever state we may be at a certain point in our lives. So perhaps you could try to ask yourself, "what is it about being in a dream that makes me have to wake up?".

Regarding pot specifically I myself was not an heavy or regular smoker for that long but when I was yes, I definitly felt that it messed with my dream recall and perhaps even the amount of REM sleep I got. However if it is only a sporadic thing then even if it mildly or significantly impacts your habilities the effects would of course still be... only occasional.