Sucsess!

[Ivo]

This afternoon I had a very interesting experience approximately 2 hours before I normally wake-up. I don't know whether to classify it as a lucid dream or any sort of projection. I'm still pretty unsure.

My body was paralyzed (I think). At the same time I felt 'kind-of' awake. When I consciously thought about seeing something - I would. But only faint dark shapes barely discernable as anything. With some effort I found myself in a house which seemed to be made-up of pieces of every house I've ever lived in. It was strange. Kind of like a movie. I could move around but only when I thought strongly about it. I also found out that any strong thought whatsoever would yank me directly out of this state. The moment I realized what was happening, I was rudely ripped back into normal waking consciousness before I could act in this condition.

I was somewhat disappointed, but exhilirated nonetheless. I hope this can happen again, and that I can discover how to deliverately cause this whenever I want.

It's been several hours since the experience and an interesting thing is happening; I forgot most of what I was dreaming about. Why does my mind want to erase these experiences?

It was still very interesting. To me, it's progress.

[Xap]

Congrats on the progress!

In response to your question about the mind, I'll give you my little pet theory on memory.

I think that experiences are "imprinted" on our memory through our senses and association plays a big part (Smell of apples bringing back "Mom's apple pie" - cue childhood memories....).

To me, my senses give my experiences a certain "weight" in my memory. In a dream, however, everything is being constructed by my mind. There is no such sensory weight to help solidify the memory so it has nothing "anchoring" it to your memory except your own deliberate conscious effort.

That's why dream journals and conscious recall and reflection are so important to me.

Anyway, congrats again on the progress and here's to much more!

Xap

[Matt]

My body was paralyzed (I think). At the same time I felt 'kind-of' awake. When I consciously thought about seeing something - I would. But only faint dark shapes barely discernable as anything. With some effort I found myself in a house which seemed to be made-up of pieces of every house I've ever lived in.

That state where you're not entirely sure if you're asleep or paralyzed yet is a good description of the right time to try to use light muscle twitching to induce paralysis. It's when your body is not sure that you're asleep that you can give it the signal to paralyze by simulating a dream.

Here's a link on the twitching trick to get into paralysis
http://www.saltcube.com/out-of-body/cha ... r-06-04-05 (http://www.saltcube.com/out-of-body/chat-forum/viewTopic.jsp?t=newsletter-06-04-05)

It sounds like you developed imagery to be vivid enough to phase into it even though you may not have been paralyzed. When I use phasing, it's usually a very smooth transition in the sense that I don't actually get up out of the body, but like you're saying it can be easy for it to become dreamlike and hard to remember what exactly happened.

If you're able to get back to that state again, you may be able to somewhat overcome the memory download problems by paralyzing and then getting up out of your body so there's no point where you drop into a dream state.

[Rydel]

Well considering you were having trouble with dream recall earlier, I think that's GREAT progress.

Sounds like a very interesting dream there. The other replies in this post seem to have it covered. :wink:

[Donald McGlinn]

Hi Ivo,

Have you started re-using your dream journal?

Donald

[Ivo]

Hi Ivo,

Have you started re-using your dream journal?

Donald

No, but I will now.

I now understand it's purpose and how it works. I'm sorry I've underestimated such a simple thing.

I used to think of recording my dreams every morning as a "pain-in-the-ass" but now, hopefully, I can get over the chore-like feeling I get every morning.

I think I need to get over my laziness, too. Hehe.