Flying in Dreams

[dslandolfe]

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[CFTraveler]

Funny you should ask this because it's one of the things that I think about when I dream. I would say it's the manipulation of my etheric (astral, energetic, yada-yada) body in relation to the space around it. In other words, when I go up, I make my p.o.v. relocate itself by making the energy around it relocate itself around and below me, by causing it to flow a certain way. It sounds complicated but it isn't- it's actually instinctive, like in the physical when you walk, you activate all your muscles to make them move in a certain fashion to propel you forward. Kind of the same idea. It's easy if you don't think about it too much, it becomes much harder if you think about it as you do it.

[Sparkwielder]

I have had a few dreams where I just take off without even thinking about "how am I going to do this". It just happens as effortlessly as taking a step. The one dream I had where I was actually willfully "trying" to fly was when I couldn't do it! So like CFT says, the harder you try the harder it is.

:D I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the blackout I caused on the Astral plane a few years back. I had this dream where something so rediculous happened, that it caused me to realise that I was dreaming, and I became very lucid. I thought to myself "Hey I just realised that I am dreaming, which means I am having a lucid dream! So what do I want to do? Oh! I know, I will fly!" So up, up up and away I went! Unfortunately I became non lucid again when I saw an electrical substation. I thought since this is only a dream, and I can't get hurt, why not get mischievious and create my own little fireworks display. Suddenly a huge wrench just appeared in front of me. I took hold of it and threw it into the buss bars(conductors). In the middle of the zapping, zorching and explosions I woke up, and immediately became angry at myself for being so irresponsible before I realised "silly me, it was only a dream". Even at that I thought about the fact that I really should have used that lucid dream to do something more useful than acting out my immature fantasies! :D

Don't try, just fly!

[Jake]

Flying, for me, is related to the energy in my hands and feet... mainly my hands... and flying dreams are the most common that I have... Lucid dreams seem to be a training ground of sorts... always practicing one function or the other, flying/phazing etc... there is a definate sensation associated with moving/flying... quite fantastic...

Heed the warnings though... I have spent YEARS, litarally, practicing and documenting the fundamentals of flying/moving in the OBE state,,, and the truth is,,, the more you try to figure it out, the harder it is ... the act of observing, is effecting what it is you are observing... even though there are specific mechanics involved, it is best to not try and understand it and just 'do it'... don't think, just move... (easier said than done???)

[Martin]

I agree with you earthborn. I sometimes wonder how understanding of life would have been in the middle ages, and before the romans, or with other civilizations. They must not have known peanuts about how things in life were. They just were...
A world where people don't think how something happens, but only think of how to master the phenomenon.
Really interesting, because in a world like the dream world, where you make things happens by thought, there can't be any understandable mechanics, since you can't stop influencing it while you observe it (IE you start to think about how and why, and before you know it YOU are controlling it).

Now for the topic, you said you wanted to remember the feeling. Well I don't think there is one, since like earthborn said, you just do. Now I think you want to know this feeling is because you want to practice it in daily life, am I right? I wish you succes...

[Pneumaphor]

dslandolfe,

I find this core experience of flying to be fascinating since I empathize with all the things that have been said here regarding flying. Flying seems to be something very important. It seems to be a metaphor of sorts for 'going with the flow' of things in the real world, as my flying abilities are improved in dreams following a successful intellectual day, and vice versa.

Flying seems to be the only dream power like this. I say this because once, I shapeshifted in a lucid dream and it seemed to take a huge amount of the expected "trying to" feeling, and a lot of straining to reach the threshold of shift, which happened instantly, much different than the flying experience ever has been for me and seems to be for everyone else.

I find it interesting because at least 50% of my dreams are concerned solely with flying and doing tasks while flying. I'll go out on a limb and say that I believe that the quality of my dream flying, for me, coincides most evenly with my real time interpersonal relationships which happen during the day. If I feel good about my daytime relationships, that night I will fly well. There seems to be a definite correlation. Lately I've been hovering a lot, about 20 feet in the air and I think this is because I've been remaining somewhat aloof in my day-to-day life for the purpose of integrating new perspectives on reality into a workable paradigm.

I'm just guessing about all of this but flying well almost always appears with practicing 'Right Relations' as the Buddhists call it. Have a good flight!

[Freawaru]

Some time ago we have had this topic on another forum and the consensus was that flying in dreams, lucid or non-lucid, is especially easy when something electrical appears in your dream - as in Sparkwielder's example. Personally, I do not recall electricity in all my flying dreams but, yes, in those that felt really easy there were usually overhead power lines I have to take care not hitting while speeding through the air. ;-)

I suggest if flying does not work in a lucid dream:look for a toaster or something like that ;-)