Ashyne Posted February 19, 2009 #1 Share Posted February 19, 2009 How can I tell if I'm having a lucid dream or astral projection? I've come very close to astral projection, hearing voices and music and experiencing vibrations, then I enter a dream sometimes. Lucid dreams are very real and vivid, and I am able to control them. What if I think that I am astral projecting (while I'm not), but since I am lucid dreaming, my mind might create the images and experiences associated with astral projecting? Or is lucid dreaming and astral projection the same thing, and that in lucid dreaming I also enter the astral plane with my astral body? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eight bits Posted February 19, 2009 #2 Share Posted February 19, 2009 (edited) Well, Ashiene, langauge fails us. A lucid dream is exactly a dream during which you know that you are dreaming, no more and no less. So, if you are having an experience, and do not know that it is a dream, then the experience, whatever it is, is necessarily not a lucid dream. Except for the single issue of "situational awareness," lucid dreams have no other unvarying distinction from other dreams. People can have vividness and control in non-lucid dreams. Control may, or may not, be "easier" in a lucid dream than in a non-lucid dream. A lucid dream may, or may not, be more vivid than most other dreams, etc. As to the whether the alternative hypothesis is "astral projection," it surely is not the only alternative hypothesis. It is easy enough to find on this site (use the search function) people who report dreaming about being out of their bodies, as opposed to believing themselves actually to be out of their bodies. (Oh, hang the search function, I have had such a dream.) That is prima facie evidence that "being out of body" is a dream motif. So, to distinguish definitely a dream from some other kind of experience when the person was, or could have been, asleep requires some additional feature of the experience that doesn't fall within known dream phenomena. For example, we have had reports of "bilocation," which involve somebody who is awake seeing somebody else whose physical body is known to be elsewhere. We have even had matching reports: the "somebody else" reports having been with the first, wide awake, witness at the time in question. Perhaps something like that would open the door to being able to establish that something other than a dream occurred. Indeed, something other than a simple dream has occurred. What that was exactly would require more discussion. Hope that helps. Edited February 19, 2009 by eight bits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exeller Posted February 19, 2009 #3 Share Posted February 19, 2009 How can I tell if I'm having a lucid dream or astral projection? You are likely ALWAYS having a lucid dream. There is no real proof that astral projection is even possible, and there probably won't be anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunny Munro Posted February 22, 2009 #4 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Astral Projection is just a common motif in lucid dreams, you have the astral projection experience because it's what the literature on astral projection has suggested and that's what your mind presents because you are having a lucid dream that you are controlling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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