Difference between Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming
If you have had out of body experiences (OBEs), you might be well aware of the difference between astral projection and lucid dreaming, but if you have never had OBE adventure, then it will be very difficult for you to even imagine what it would be like to be an astral traveler.
I am saying this because I have been lucid dreaming for a long time now and I have had dreams that are so close to waking life, that it sometimes feels like reality.
Multiple false awakenings combined with sleep paralysis have troubled me a lot in the past, to which I found out a solution by converting false awakenings and sleep paralysis into lucid dreams.
Whenever I successfully become aware of a dream that is a false awakening, the dream scene in most cases was very close my actual environment, I can roam around my house and see the usual happenings as if I have come out of my body. Thus, often when I wake up, I will quickly reach places where I was in my dreams to check if anything was real, to my disappointment, it always has proved out to be a dream.
Sadly, I have never had an out of body experience yet, but I know, even if I learn to do astral travel it will not happen in the universe in which I live right now, or better to say “this dimension”.
If that is so, then what makes my false awakening dreams different from the OBEs?
Lucid Dreaming vs. Astral Travel
Lucid dreaming is a scientifically proven state. When our mind is in the REM phase of our sleep cycle where dreams occur, we can become conscious in our dreams and then control it.
As a lucid dreamer, you can do what you want in your dreams, you can use all your senses in the dream world just like the real one to experience whatever you desire.
Astral projection, on the other hand, happens when consciousness enters an astral body to explore a different realm. The astral travel, we are talking here is said to be tantamount to what people with stories of near death experiences report where they can see their actual body lying in the bed from a third person perspective.
Unlike lucid dreams where people become conscious in dreams, astral projection is done from a completely conscious state, it is often explained by astral travelers as “tuning into” or “reaching up” to a particular energy field and then separating from the physical body using various ways.
A certain type of vibration or buzzing sound is also associated with this technique, where people feel an energy when they are between wake-sleep state and then they use their will to allow this particular energy to take over so that they could have an out of body experience.
Science has no answers for OBE apart from the possibility that it could be a state created by mind just like dreams with heightened awareness while sleeping.
Is Astral Travel Real or Just Another Lucid Dream?
Being a lucid dreamer makes me doubt the claims that astral projection is something entirely different from dreams. I am not trying to falsify this; I agree that astral travel is possible and that you can have this amazing journey of experiencing a whole new world.
From what I have known about the dream world, I am aware that I can have dreams where my awareness has increased to the extent that it can match my waking life qualities in all ways. If you have tried WILD techniques for lucid dreaming, you might be knowing that it allows us to enter into a conscious dream from complete wakefulness, that’s exactly what happens when I convert my sleep paralyses into lucid dreams.
I have read materials created by some expert lucid dreamers which include a post that very skeptically talks about Astral Travel, it is written by Rebecca Turner (She is the maker of the program lucid dreaming fast track which initially helped me with my conscious dreaming journey). As a result of exploring all these works, I came to a conclusion that it is possible to have lucid dreaming experiences that is similar to astral travel.
Apart from the buzzing sounds, energy fields and “tuning in” processes, some lucid dreams can be similar to astral travel, you can even find your body sleeping in your bedroom because it is all images created by the mind.
There are people who frequently do astral travel without being aware that there is something called lucid dreaming, whereas there are also those who are both lucid dreamers as well as astral travelers. The latter type always puts a very strong emphasis that lucid dreams are different from OBEs, but they are hardly able to explain why they hold that opinion.
Some people are not even open to talk about it because they believe in what they are experiencing and considering any other possibility is very difficult.
Just like lucid dreams, in astral travel also you need to maintain your awareness and write things down immediately after waking up or you will forget it.
However, when I hear that some people can simply close their eyes and make their consciousness leave their body and that two friends can meet in the astral world, it really boggles my mind.
Still, that in no way gives any astral traveler a right to say that dreaming and OBE is entirely different. See, if you will read my posts on “amazing lucid dreaming stories“, you will get to know that mutual lucid dreaming is also possible according to some people.
I choose to believe that “waking state”, “dreams” and what happens in meditation as well as astral projection is simply varying states of consciousness where we experience things in many different dimensions.
I won’t like to argue with people who have frequent OBEs about what’s “real”, I just want to convey a message to people who aspire to be astral travelers to learn about the subject completely beforehand and also become lucid dreamers because OBEs can be a very scarifying as well as disturbing thing sometimes.
If you are a lucid dreamer and understand the fact that no matter to whichever realm you go, your beliefs will be reflected in one or the other way there and to protect yourself from your own inner demons you need to know where your angles are. Makes sense?
I hope you enjoyed this post. If you want to be a lucid dreamer or astral traveler you need to increase your dream awareness which you can learn by reading about the lucid dreaming meditation that I use.
If you have anything to share on this topic, please feel free to share your opinions. Does not matter if you agree with me here or not, I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
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