Throughout the night, we find ourselves acting as performers on the stage of this surreal world. This alternate world that envelopes our minds during sleep reaches each and every one of us every night. We need not move any further than we are right now to get there. It comes to us under the disguise of a dream and carries us away. Take a journey into your own dreams and discover yourself. Learn simple techniques to control your dreams and achieve astral projection experiences.
Have you ever suddenly awakened from a vivid dream with an incredibly strong feeling that only a few moments ago you were involved in some bizarre activity in some distant land?
In a moments’ flash, you become transported from this strange place into a surprised wakefulness. The sensation and vague images of this and other worlds left behind may still remain, leaving you possibly quite perplexed and mystified. Many people just pass it off as a dream.
Or, was it a dream?
When we are in the midst of a nights’ sleep, our mind evokes a certain state of consciousness that still defies scientific explanation.
A montage of images, sounds and sensations some people call dreams and other worship as visions appear out of the depths of our brains.
Occultists and the psychics refer to this “place” as the Astral Plane.
We visit the Astral every night while asleep and remember our experiences as dreams after we awake.
Most of us, unfortunately, are swept across the Astral Plane unaware of anything between falling asleep and waking up. As soon as the morning alarm jolts us into wakefulness the rushing of thoughts and concerns for the coming day turn an evening of bizarre adventures into a confused, often fragmented, series of hazy memories.
The Astral becomes a nighttime world covered over by the veils of sleep and quickly slips away from consciousness.
While we are dreaming, we hardly ever think about the things we’re doing and seeing in this strange world within our minds.
We become completely engrossed with acting out a kaleidoscope of situations. We fail to realize we are in a different place than in the working world.
A dozen elephants could be roller backwards down a freeway and this scene may not even phase the unaware dreamer. The dream would be less likely remembered after waking. The Astral becomes lost in a dream.
Have you ever dreamed that you are dreaming?
A sudden flash of awareness may come over you, during the flow of a dream, and bring up on the realization that you were dreaming... while the dream is unfolding at around you.
That overwhelming excitement may have abruptly awakened you, leaving the unique sensation of being in some other environment far removed from your bed and sleeping body.
This realization of being in a dream while the dream is occurring is known as conscious-dreaming, or lucid dreaming. The dreamer as “awakened” to the dream and stepped into the Astral.
Becoming aware of yourself and your surroundings while you were dreaming changes the quality of the ordinary dream.
No longer does the dream seem like a staged television production or surreal movie. And empathetic feeling emerges towards the dream. It is felt as being an actual experience rather than an elusive the flow of meaningless images.
Once the thought comes to you that you are having a dream, you have access to supernatural powers that can change the dream world into the Astral.
As long that as you remain aware and alert to the fact that you are dreaming, you can realize that you can have control of the dream. The dream world and then becomes the Astral and a whole new form of consciousness arises into awareness.
Dream consciousness can be evoked in many ways. The dreamer simply needs to be aware of the dream while it is in progress. The elusive in dream becomes lucid. Everything in the dream is there to see, here, taste, touch and to experience.
The smell of a rose or the touch of another person in the dream may be enough to bring up on a condition of awareness without awakening the dreamer from the dream.
This sight of something that is absurd or ridiculous may suddenly gain ones’ attention and bring about a vivid dream experience. Finding oneself 8,000 miles away from home in a dense African jungle trying to elude of a large pack of angry chimpanzees should be some clue that this present situation must be a dream.
That spark the awareness causes the experience to become more than just a dream.
We let so many unusual things pass by our awareness that would seem odd and out of place if we were fully awake and observing or experiencing the same thing. We barely give any intention to our dreams while they are happening and lose out on another plane of consciousness where our minds operate.
Waking, resting, sleeping and dreaming are different planes of consciousness. Conscious dreaming, or lucid dreaming, is still another “world” that we can become aware.
A vivid, or lucid awakening, will enable you to taste an apple you pluck from a tree or you might reach out and touch a wall and feel the plaster or brick against your fingers. Maybe you can even see your fingers move through the wall.
The magical energy to create year own world is consciously at your fingertips.
As you prepare for sleep, lie comfortably on your back. Relax. Take a few, slow deep breaths to clear how your clogged mind. Inhale. Hold in your breath. Then, slowly exhale.
Feel relaxed and more rested. As you breathe in, exchange and release the vital energy that maintains your body.
Let all of the troubles plaguing you from the waking world pass from your mind. Dismiss the thoughts that come rushing upon you. Enjoy these few moments of peace and serenity as you retire. Let yourself sail away inside of the solitude of your mind.
While you are laying on your back, calm and rested, the monotony of the silence and darkness around you will soon begin to dull your mind.
You will feel drowsy and desire sleep. You will become less aware of your surroundings and your body and mind slips into sleep. The bed, pillow and sheets will no longer seem to exist. The world around you will begin to fade from interest.
Let it happen.
As consciousness dims and drowsiness overcomes you, your eyes will start feeling heavy and fatigued. Close them and let reality slip away. You will soon feel your body drift as you pass into sleep.
This floating sensation is the disassociation or separation of your mind from the concern of your body. It is a desirable experience to achieve if you want to perform out of the body experiences known as Astral Projection.
Instead of unconsciously letting yourself space off into oblivion, let yourself dream.
Simply, picture some image or a scene suspended before you in the darkness. Hold the visualization firmly in your mind as though you were actually looking at it.
Practice is needed as most of us are out of touch with our imagery processes which once used to be so vivid as children.
Imagine a garden full of blossoming roses and colorful tulips or reproduce a memory of a place you once been that pleases you.
Mentally create any type of the image form that you desire. The scene should stay the same throughout this exercise so you can give it your full concentration.
If you have a problem evoking an image, just lay back, and allow whatever comes to mind to appear on your internal movie screen. You don’t have to think about what you want to see if you are practicing passive imaging. Just let the flow of images come through. Let your imagination draw magnificent visions and behind your closed eyes.
Both methods of visualizing, active and passive, can help bring about dream-like experiences. You just need to remain aware of them without letting your body completely go to sleep.
Dreaming experiences happened during almost translate to sleep. It is like being both awake and asleep at the same time.
If you are able to keep yourself mentally awake without going into unconsciousness, the pictures you have projected in front of you will soon take on an extraordinary quality.
It may take many, many times, but don’t give up. For a while, you may only fall asleep instead of being able to step inside of your dreams.
The intention is to remain mentally aware of being awake while your body is falling asleep.
Practicing meditation or simple relaxation will open your mind to the hypnagogic state and allow you who entered into the Astral.
Have the intention is to remain mentally aware of being awake while your body is physically falling asleep. If you imagine a colorful garden projected in front of you, the colors may get brighter for a while. The flower’s fragrance may flow through you. While hypnotically staring at the flowers blossoming into life, they will begin to flourish with brilliance and energy.
Everything surrounding you will soon seem very lucid and realistic. You may even start to believe that they are actually in front of you. As long as you remain entrenched with the scene it will remain active.
If you were eventually able to reach out and touch the flowers before you, their touch will tickle your mind.
A lucid dream is unlike the normal dream where you are caught up in an endless flow of uncontrollable situations.
Lucid dreaming happens when you have full awareness and can actively participate in the dream. It is more than just a vivid experience– it is life-like.
How many times have you wanted to change the contents of a dream and all of the sudden a new world emerged? In a typical dream, the dreamer is usually unaware of the dream environment.
When the dreamer reacts in a conscious, or lucid manner, to the surroundings of the dream, a phenomenon takes place in the dreamers’ experience. This is the sensation of dream-consciousness.
When a lucid dream occurs, the whole experience becomes more than surrealistic. Momentarily, the dream becomes almost indistinguishable from the ordinary waking reality.
The sights and sounds of the dream feels like an actual, conscious experience. That spark of awareness can cause the experience to become more than just a dream.
Awareness of being in a dream while it is happening does something unusual to the quality of the dream. It no longer seems like a fantasy stage production with touches of reality thrown in to keep it believable. For a moment, the dream is not a dream. It seems real.
With this acquired awareness, you can become deliberately involved the scene. The realization you are somewhere else, participating in some strange environment rather than lying in your bed sleeping changes the dream into an experience rarely forgotten– you dream that you are dreaming!
Once the thought comes to you that you are having a dream, you have access to supernatural powers that can change in the dream environment. A whole new form of consciousness arises into awareness. Becoming aware of yourself and your surroundings while you are dreaming changes the quality of the ordinary dream. In a lucid dream, you can actually feel an apple you pluck from a tree. You might be able to touch, and feel, a table or a wall as if it were real. Or, your hand might pass through it.
As long as you continue to remain aware and alert while you are still dreaming, you can have control of the dream sequence. The skill is to maintain that awareness as long as possible without drifting back into unconsciousness. This takes practice.
The phenomenon of lucidity arises when sleeping habit patterns are broken and the conscious mind begins to perceive from a new perspective. This experience is similar to a “peak” or “enlightened” state of mind. Awareness supersedes normal attentiveness.
Some skeptics believe that lucid dreaming is not a sleep state, but one of “brief wakefulness.”
In most dreams, the dreamer is carried along a continuous flow of situations and reacts to them without much attention. The dreamer rarely realizes that they are in a dream episode and continues to operate as a puppet in a show. When the dreamer realizes that it is only a dream, absurd incongruities are suddenly noted as a feeling of “reality,” or in the skeptics’ views– “wakefulness”– begins to encompass the dreamer.
While you dream, you may let many unusual things pass by your awareness that would seem out of place if you were fully awake and observing the same experience. Most people barely give any intention to dreams while they are happening, and they lose out on this extraordinary experience.
The sight of something that is absurd or ridiculous may suddenly gain your attention and bring about a vivid dream experience. Dreaming of being 8,000 miles away from home in a dense African jungle trying to elude of a large pack of angry chimpanzees should be some clue that this situation must be a dream. Dreaming of running down the street naked while no one pays attention would be another clue that you are only dreaming.
To induce dream awareness, the dreamer simply needs to be aware of the dream while it is in progress.
The elusive dream becomes lucid. Everything in the dream is there to see, here, taste, touch, and experience. This phenomenon occurs more frequently during early morning hours and usually happens without expectation.
Anything can help spark conscious-dreaming. The smell of a rose, the sight of an incongruity in the dream, a frightening situation, or the touch of an object may be enough to “awaken” the dreamer to the dream.
New possibilities begin to unfold with this realization. Within a moments decision, those stampeding chimpanzees can be instantly turned into a stream of trickling water or a luscious flowerbed. You can transform that reoccurring dream about being naked on a city street when you realize that you are just dreaming this anxiety. When that spark of awareness occurs while you are dreaming, it is sometimes enough to make a conscious decision and alter the dream.
If you dream of being confronted by a hungry dragon who is contemplating you as his next meal, the mere acknowledgment that is only a dream can give you that desperately needed superpower to garner your strength and divert a possible nightmare. Being lost on a crowded street in some obscure dream-created city can be turned into a flying dream that projects you above the people and buildings into the clouds and soar to a new adventure.
However, when someone obtains lucidity on a dream, the mere realization is enough to flood the senses and cause the dreamer to lapse back into unconsciousness. But most of us just say, “it was only dream” and let it pass away. A lost opportunity.
When I’m confronted with a frightening situation in a dream– being chased, lost, or in immediate peril– I try to imagine different surroundings and the threat morphs into another scene. If it is really frightening or endangering, I will wake up immediately. After awakening, remnants of the nightmare may still remain long enough to remember what scared me so much.
Any unusual occurrence in a dream can trigger a lucid dream experience.
Lucid dreaming will enable you to taste that apple you pluck from a tree or you can reach out to touch a wall to feel the plaster or brick against your fingers. Maybe you can even see, and sense, your fingers move through the wall. In a recent lucid dream, I held a butterfly in my cupped hand and actually felt the sensation of it fluttering its wings before I let it go and awoke with a smile.
Awareness of dream imagery, while it is unfolding almost like hallucinations, have often been attributed to the mystical visions of prophets, seers and clairvoyants. Many scientific and religious discoveries arose from the depths of the dream world.
The ancient Egyptians practiced dream awareness religiously. The “Egyptian Book of the Dead” explained how the gods were revealed through dreams. They believed that dreams gave warnings, provided advice, and foretold prophecies. The Egyptian word for dream has a similar root meaning of the word “to be awake.” The Egyptians practiced an advance form of dream travel with the knowledge they gained from their observances.
The Yogi’s of Tibet and India attain a dream consciousness state to experience great visions and perform extraordinary feats. The ancient Chaldeans devised a magical science from the knowledge of the dream state. Our Western civilization today seems to ignore the importance of the dream and imagery processes. We may be depriving ourselves of expanding a huge reservoir of human potential.
Everyone is capable of achieving awareness during the dream and “projecting,” or sending, their souls to travel through the Astral World.
When you open the door into the Astral World, suddenly, your whole concept of dreaming changes. Once you realize that you are dreaming while the dream it is unfolding around you, the existence of this and other planes of consciousness become apparent.
If you become more aware of your dream experiences, they will no longer be a secluded part of your life. It takes a bit of practice and patience to regain that awareness of your dreams.
When you reawaken yourself to your dreams, an awareness of your subconscious can help balance your whole personality as well and as evoke extra-sensory events in your waking life.
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