Lucid Dreaming & Astral Projection: Theory

The Astral Body

Hello World. 

As i said in "Heaven & Hell: They got it All Wrong!" i would create a post concerning OBE (out of body experience) and explain Astral Projection & Lucid dreaming so that you guys will have a better idea of what these things behold! 

I will make this post a two part post. 

First post is going to explain what Lucid Dreaming & Astral Projection is,

and the second post will explain on how to enter these states. 

Enjoy!

To give you a good idea of what you can do with lucid dreaming / astral projection, here is a video uploaded by "Spirit Science" on YouTube. 

Despite its aesthetic simplicity, every time i watch this video it never ceases to be able to put a smile on my face!

Let's start off with Lucid Dreaming... what is lucid dreaming?

It is the ability to completely control your dream! 

Instead of being the passive observer, you "wake up" inside of your dream and become completely in-control. 

Have you noticed that in some of your dreams, you see things a little blurry and distorted... some details are clear, others aren't...yet most of the time, you can't even remember your dreams or even have the feeling you didn't dream at all? 

While you are awake in your dream everything becomes more vivid and real, also once you wake up from a lucid dream you can remember every single detail. 

*Fun Fact: Every Person (unless they have a strong psychological disorder) dreams 4 to 7 times each night*

Alright now that you have a basic idea of Lucid Dreaming, lets have a look at Astral Projection... 

What is astral projection?

Astral Projection is the ability to project your "Astral Body" into the Astral realm, which in some cultures is referred to as "the after-life".

Your body stays calm and motionless in one place, while your astral body which is your soul / mind, travels to wherever your heart may desire, whether it is to explore the astral realm or even the very planet we live on.

If looked at in a general perspective... I personally would have to say that Lucid Dreaming & Astral Projection is the same thing. 

Both of these states of OBE, IF YOU CHOOSE TO, let you:

• Travel the Astral Plane & the Universe
• Give you a deeper understanding of life
• Let you meet your Subconsciousness, which had many names throughout history; "The Spirit Guide", "Your Higher Self", "Guardian Angel", "The Helper", "The Mentor" etc... 
• and MUCH MUCH more!

What if the only difference between these two states, is the condition we induce them in?

During Astral Projection people usually choose to induce it through meditation, therefore knowing that they are awake and aware of the real world around them they are able to project their astral body into the "real" world, into the "now". 

Whereas Lucid dreaming occurs when you are asleep and you wake up inside your dream, therefore limiting yourself only to the thought of a dream reality.

So bottom line is..

If we go to sleep, and wake up in a dream, knowing it is a dream, we perceive our surroundings as a dream, if we induce OBE through meditation, we know we're awake, and perceive our surroundings as the "real awake world".

We must remember that everything we do in our dream / projection state is reflected by our emotions, feelings, and thoughts, the astral realm is governed by these aspects much like the physical world is governed by gravity and everything else..

While my post might not even touch upon all the wonders Astral Projection & Lucid Dreaming can achieve i strongly encourage you to check out "Lucid Dreaming & Astral Projection: Practice" for some instructions to try and undergo this magnificent experience yourself!

Thanks for reading!

BTW here is a little list of some famous Lucid Dreamers :) 

Albert Einstein - Theoretical Physicist

The Wachowski Brothers - Creators of the Matrix Trilogy

Richard Feynman - Theoretical Physicist

Stephen King - Author of horror, suspense, science fiction & fantasy

Chris Nolan - Creator of Inception

James Cameron - Creator of Avatar

Lucid Dreaming & Astral Projection: Practice

Entering The Astral World

Hello World.

As I personally never had the pleasure to experience either one of these things, I have researched  ways on how to induce these states, here's a little guide, so give it a try!

(remember lucid dreaming doesn't necessarily have to be induced, it may also happen completely by accident when you "wake up in a dream" and I'm sure you've woken up in a dream before, but instead of staying in the dream, our minds get too excited and literally wake ourselves up in the physical world)

Things you should do during the day

During your day to day life, perform reality checks. 

Ask yourself a couple of times during the day... "am i dreaming?", and truly ponder the question...

When entering a room, flick the light-switch once or twice, and watch the light go off and on.

(in a dream, the light won't go off or on, the atmosphere would stay exactly as it was)

Try to physically put your index finger through your palm ( i know it sounds ridiculous) but simply imagine pushing your index finger through your palm without any problems, and seeing it coming out on the other side, do this a couple of times during the day.

(In a dream your index finger would go through your palm because anything is possible!)

Check fine writing on your surroundings, or even check your watch from time to time.

(In your dream fine details are distorted because we don't pay attention to them)

Get into the HABIT of doing these things. The Habit is the key. All of these techniques make a crucial difference in telling whether you are dreaming or not.

By making these things a habit, you are transferring them into your subconsciousness. Since your dreams are based of your subconsciousness, you will be more likely to do one of these reality checks in your dream, and as a result realizing that you are dreaming!

*Important* : once you do find yourself awake inside your dream, STAY CALM, our mind tends to get over excited and wake ourselves up before you even get to experience all the fun things you can do, so try and rub your hands together, or swirl around, or do anything to keep yourself focused on your dream.

Another factor which helps inducing Lucid Dreaming is ... going to bed early!!! 

By having a longer sleep you have a higher chance of inducing Lucidity in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stages of your sleep.

I cannot stress how important this following part is so please read carefully:

While we sleep, we have complete muscle atonia which prevents us from acting out our dreams.

This means that our muscles are completely paralyzed during our REM sleep (during REM sleep is when our brain is most active, and displays the same activity as though our body was awake)

The reason i'm telling you this is because of a common phenomenon known as "Sleep paralysis", remember that this event can occur during any kind of sleep, and doesn't depend on any specific factors,

(unless you have the neuromuscular disorder narcolepsy) 

Sometimes it has been reported occurring after some lucid dreams, rather more frequent than normal dreams. (Sleep Paralysis is entirely dependent on how stressed you are!!!) 

Sleep paralysis occurs when our REM sleep is disrupted while falling asleep or wakening, this is often associated with terrifying visions of either demonic visitations, or intruders in the room etc... it may also give you the feeling of something sitting on your chest preventing you to breathe properly, all whilst you are unable to move. 

It is important to remain calm, and focus on your body to snap out of this state and to start moving, usually there are always some parts of the body which you can move so try to keep moving those parts faster telling your brain that you are awake, or even just lie back, relax, and dream! Sleep paralysis is completely natural and you undergo this every night. In-fact you must induce sleep paralysis to willfully lucid dream! The only reason you are starting to freak out is because you do not understand why you are paralyzed! 

The most terrifying thing about it is when it happens and you do not understand what is going on.

So just by reading this, the worst part is over ;)

Remember Sleep Paralysis can happen at any time whether the result of a lucid dream or a normal dream, so please do not be discouraged to lucid dream!

Here's the basic 5 step process of how you should go about trying to achieve this goal

1. Practice Meditation, and the art of controlling & clearing your mind of thoughts.

2. Go into a comfortable position, whether it's the traditional meditation position, or you can simply lie down on the bed.

(the bad part about lying in bed is that you may fall asleep during the process and render your experiment unsuccessful) 

3. After you assumed a relaxed position, focus your mind on relaxing every single muscle in your body.

4. Once you have done so, remain motionless and relaxed, with your mind cleared of thought.

(it's okay if you can't remove all thought since it's almost impossible) best way of doing so is to focus your mind on the feeling of air passing through your nose... in and out, in and out... with slow deep breaths.

5. After you are feeling the state of complete bodily relaxation , and your body feels almost as though it was numb, focus your mind on your hands or feet and imagine moving them without physically doing so. Try to imagine your hand moving, try to feel it moving, without literally moving it. 

(this is the closest I have come to OBE, there were times I could feel my hands and feet moving, and only moments later realized that I wasn't actually moving them as the sense of the physical body, rather they were moving extremely vividly in my imagination)

6. By this step, you should be able to move your entire body freely and easily, simply through your mind, your physical body is in a relaxed, and completely motionless position, your mind is calm and thought-free focusing at the task at hand. imagine projecting yourself into the world :) , trust me you'll know once you are in a lucid dream.

Good luck with the practice and i hope you will lucid dream :) 

Thanks for reading.

Heaven & Hell: They got it All Wrong!

The Eternal Tomb Within Us

If the doors of perception were cleansed, then everything would appear as it is, Infinite.
- William Blake

Hello World.

I really couldn't resist making a post stating my say on this compelling and very controversial subject! 

After reading the Alchemical texts of William Blake titled "The Marriage of Heaven & Hell" i couldn't help but forming my own opinion about heaven and hell based on some of the insight Blake has offered.

Now to clear things up a little, I myself am an atheist and I refine my own views on some of the great mysteries of life. 

* I apologize now if i offend some of your views but to me some sort of logic comes before belief, & don't worry not all posts will be bashing religions, so if you don't like this one please stick around for others *

As always i welcome you to open your mind and join me on this particular subject!

I'm sure in today's day and age, every one of us has heard about the Christian views on heaven & hell...

You know... the old: 

If you sin you'll go to hell where you will be subjected to eternal torment. Days on end agonized by the very devil himself, skinning your burning flesh piece by piece until nothing but mere bone remains, only to find yourself re-constructed again and repeatedly undergoing the process over... and over... and over... and over again for eternity. And frankly i don't think the devil rests on the weekly Sabbath.

But if you worship god, go to church, and follow the ten commandments, then upon death god shall grant you the access to heaven, where you will rejoice with all your previously deceased family members and friends (well at least with the ones who made it there as far as i understand...) living blissfully for eternity in paradise. 

Well I'll be damned... what straight-forward world to live in if the consequences truly were "pain and torture" for eternity...Although this raises a obvious question... what kind of cruel god would let this happen? 

But that's maybe for another post. Well my theory on this subject is in fact not too far of the idea which our beloved friends in Christianity had to offer! 

I believe that our after-life is nothing but a dream.

Exactly like the ones we have each time we sleep... the difference is that we'll never wake up. 

The people who have heard of Out of Body Experiences and Lucid Dreaming, are quite aware of what the human mind is capable of, and might even argue that those states enable our soul to leave the body... (I will get more in-depth with those subjects in the next up coming posts) 

So in the afterlife, just like in our dreams, we reflect upon the experiences we have gathered over the "awake time" and generate them into our presence in the "dream world" (You'll see why I'm pointing out Dream World in the following posts to come! ).

To put it simply;

If we live like decent and respectable people, we create a positive mindset which has positive thoughts and emotions, which in-turn creates a beautiful and nice "Dream World" surrounding. (Heaven?)

But if we behave like violent, murderous, thieves then our mind and soul will be tainted by negative emotions and dark thoughts... creating a horrific after-life for ourselves. (Hell?)

By the angle's flaming sword ... the whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt. 

This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment.

But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged

this shall i do by printing in the infernal method,

by corrosives which in hell are salutary and medicinal

melting surfaces away and displaying the infinite which was hid.

- William Blake (Edited - Shortened & Summarized)  

Hell-fire cleanses the soul of its humane impurities, it burns away all the dark and ugly remains which your human life has left on your soul so that you can move on into eternal peace... Maybe Christianity hasn't got the wrong idea, just seems like they have simply blown things a little out of proportion (once again...)

At the end of the day no matter how much we argue about this subject... what will happen will happen... the beauty of these posts is that it gives people hope, and widens their view on life... or I'd like to think so anyway.

Hope you enjoyed this post! stay tuned for more! :)