Real or not

[Astralsuzy]

Hi all, just wondered sometimes we ap and it can turn into a dream.    Would you say this came from your mind if you ap and you became a bird or some alien creature?    They are talking about it on another forum.   I will not say anything as I am likely to upset people. 

[Xanth]

What is "real"?  My perspective is that REAL is whatever you experience.  If you experience it, then it's real.

With that said... there's an issue that you're trying to deal with, one that MOST people are trying to reconcile... the "individual" experience vs the "collective" experience.

http://www.unlimitedboundaries.ca/2015/01/23/astral-projection-individual-collective-areas-consciousness-exist/  <-- give that a read

Whether you're experiencing this physical reality... a "projection" (astral, lucid, obe, etc)... or a "dream"... it's ALL collective. 
Nothing "comes from your mind", as much as you're simply interpreting what you're experiencing in a manner which is understandable to YOUR awareness.
WHAT you experience is objective... HOW you experience it is subjective.

[soarin12]

For me personally, if I suddenly just turned into a bird or alien, I'd suspect something else at work besides my mind.  I'd think someone (or my higher awareness) was trying to tell me something.  My normal dreams are always me - human- sifting through the thoughts of the day type things.  I'm just not that imaginative to be turning to things lol.

There was one time many years ago, when I did have a dream -actually it was a vision - that I turned into a bird.  I was skimming low over the water and then soared high into the sky.  At that point I saw myself in the third person -I was a large eagle type bird soaring with wings out stretched.  The experience had a certain feel to it, like I was to pay attention - like a premonition.  Maybe it was a premonition of my future OBEs.  Ha!  I even named myself Soarin - I didn't make that connection until now.  Anyway, I'd say pay attention to the feel of the experience.  If there's something more going on than your mind sifting through it's every day junk, your inner self tells you so. 

Nice article, Xanth.       The individual zone of consciousness theory never made much sense to me.  Never felt right according to my experiences, either.

[Projector4life]

Becoming a bird means the obe turned into a dream and came from your mind.

[Xanth]

Becoming a bird means the obe turned into a dream and came from your mind.

Why does that then make it "qualify" as a "dream" and make it come "from your mind"?

It's a serious and honest question...

[Astralsuzy]

Thanks everyone.   If you change form such as a bird, reptile or anything else then that is real.   If you see monsters and other awful things, I never have then that is real as well.   Am I correct?

[Volgerle]

EVERY thing is real. Even NO_thing (= not a thing) is real.

This is why we talk about experiencing REAL-ities here.

Your thought is real. A so-called "hallucination" is real. A dream is REAL.

Even illusions are REAL.

Everything is an illusion the mystics say.

Hence: everything is REAL.

[Xanth]

Thanks everyone.   If you change form such as a bird, reptile or anything else then that is real.   If you see monsters and other awful things, I never have then that is real as well.   Am I correct?

In what you're saying here, you're identifying yourself as "a body"... whatever that form/shape that body takes.
You're not a body.  You're consciousness.  Formless/Shapeless consciousness. 

As Volgerle pointed out, it's all real. 

There's nothing that you can experience that can be considered NOT real.  <--- read that statement carefully and slowly.  I don't say that to be mean or anything, it's a difficult thing to understand.
We're all raised to understand "real" vs "not real"... and going against that teaching can be extremely difficult. 

Here's a question for you then...
Take what people call "hallucinations".  What does that label now mean if "everything you can experience is REAL"? 
See, this concept that we're all consciousness has huge implications on every single aspect of our life and the reality we find ourselves in.  It shifts everything pertaining to what YOU are.