Really Good Question!

[schulzy175]

If we have an OBE everynight, why do we dream or lucid dream? How is it an OBE if we are dreaming?

[Boom]

Hi Schulzy.  The theory is, that a lucid dream, dream, astral projection and an OBE is actually the same thing.
A classic OBE is where your conciousness projects away from your body, and you become aware of floating around your own room. From there you go further into the astral where you perceive totally new worlds and realities.

When you dream on a normal night. You are generally unconcious. So  you are not really aware of what is going on. During a dream you don't realise youre dreaming, and the dream generally just plays out.

Im sure others will give a better explanation than I can

[floriferous]

Yeah that's nicely put. I see it much the same way. I think it comes down to definition of OBE.

I steer clear of thinking about it in terms of OBEs, projections and the like. For me consciousness is a spectrum with includes everything from waking consciousness to mental realm consciousness and everything in between including, subjective dream states, drink and drug states, coma states, various afterlife regions etc etc... Your conscious awareness is wherever you choose to focus it (hence Monroes coining of the term focus level). At the moment your physical body locks it to this focus of consciousness. Monroe even said that when you daydream a part of your consciousness is there so you can include daydreams in that list. I think the only variable as Boom said is your level of conscious awareness within the area of consciousness you are focusing in (although the word 'area' is incorrect as that implies a spatial element). In a dream your conscious awareness is very limited affecting perceptions and recollection whereas if you access the same environment straight from waking consciousness the chances are you will have a very lucid experience.

I was also thinking recently about when people say they only experience lucid dreams and not proper OBEs. I think there is a trap here that people dont class LDs a proper 'OBE' experience. If you consider that at TMI in focus 27 you are encouraged to create your own subjective environment. But by definition of modern literature on this topic that makes it a lucid dream. But focus 27 is considered by many as one of pinnacle areas of afterlife consciousness to access. So I think its important not to get bogged down in all the associations words have on this topic and trust guidance is showing you what you need at this time in your consciousness evolution.

[Xanth]

In my opinion, I'm in full agreement with Boom.

What we call an OBE, Astral Projection, Phasing, etc are simply the why and the how we "enter" the non-physical. 

I break it down like this (this is from a post I wrote on my own website):

I was dreaming this morning and I came to a realization after I awoke.  I realized that the term "Conscious awareness" just doesn't work when using it to describe anything more than your awareness during a dream, or in any case, it makes it more confusing.  I need a phrase or phrases to make it easier for new people to learn the concepts and a catch all "Conscious Awareness" just doesn't do that, because once you pass into Lucid Dreams and even further, Astral Projections, the term begins to fail.

We dream every night of our lives, yet we don't remember all of them, why?  We have varying levels of consciousness through these dreams... everything from not remembering that a dream ever happened, to remembering bits and pieces of a dream, to remembering every last detail of the dream.

I was thinking about how we "remember" our dreams... and I realized that the dreams I remember most, are the ones in which I was most consciously aware in.  Not consciously aware in that I knew I was dreaming... but consciously aware that I was experiencing the dream AS it was happening.  I call this "Dream Awareness".  Basically, I'm living the dream life as if I was awake and not realizing it's a dream.  I am the actor not realizing he's in a play.  This tends to give me the best chance to remember after I wake.

The next step up from that would be "Lucid Awareness".  This is the point where you know you're dreaming and you know that what is around you is a dreamscape.  You don't have much more awareness than that though.

After that, I'd call it "Astral Awareness".  At this point, you are as wide awake and aware as if you were awake in the physical reality... except you're in the nonphysical.

Also, I believe that the line between Lucid Awareness and Astral Awareness can be very blurred.  Your awareness can float between that range at any one time during the experience.  You'll start off with Lucid Awareness, then muster up Astral Awareness... after some time, you might lose focus and concentration and drop back down to Lucid Awareness.  You could shift back into Dream Awareness too.

For myself, I start off with Dream Awareness, then I'll shift into Lucid Awareness... after that I'll do my conversion to bring forth my Astral Awareness.  Generally what happens after some time in Astral Awareness is that I'll just wake up.

So yeah, these are my new "States of Mind".  Hopefully they'll assist me in helping new members on the Pulse and other forums I frequent.

I guess you could say that this is the first thing I now disagree with Frank on!

http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2010/10/04/my-new-consciousness-designations/