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Do you Astral Travel in your dreams

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  • 30-07-2006 11:08am
    #1
    mysteria
    Closed Accounts Posts: 403 ✭✭


    Dreams are a mixture of different things. Usually bits and pieces from our daily lives, mixed with telepathic or psychic stuff, stressful issues being worked out in our subconscious minds, sometimes contact with people who are in the Spirit world. Astral travel is very common in dreams too, you may find yourself in another country, or revisiting places you know. These dreams are generally in colour and are quite vivid and memorable, the type of dream you get little flash backs of during the day, even weeks after. The kind of dream that makes you feel as if you really were in that place. These dreams often end with you packing bags to get home, or rushing to catch a bust, train, boat or plane to get home. Sound familiar to anyone?


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    #2
    eachtrannach
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43 ✭eachtrannach


    Yeah, well, I have these dreams occasionally ... but they are just dreams to me. What's the big thing? Unless I wake up with a sunburn after dreaming about the tropics ... or clutching a souvenir in my clammy little hand ...


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    #3
    mysteria
    Closed Accounts Posts: 403 ✭✭mysteria


    "they are just dreams to me. What's the big thing? Unless I wake up with a sunburn after dreaming about the tropics ... or clutching a souvenir in my clammy little hand .."

    There may be some people on the board who have a genuine interest in dream analysis, no need to reply if you're not interested ( why is your little hand clammy when you wake up btw?:p[/QUOTE]


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    #4
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,226 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    By "Astral Travel" would this include what some call "out of body" experiences?


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    #5
    mysteria
    Closed Accounts Posts: 403 ✭✭mysteria


    Blue_Lagoon wrote:
    By "Astral Travel" would this include what some call "out of body" experiences?
    To me Astral Projection is an out-of-body experience, often happens while falling asleep but still conscious. Brain in Alpha state in other words. I refer to Astral Travel as dream experiences where the same type of OOBE happens except you're asleep.


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    #6
    Da Bounca
    Registered Users Posts: 2,699 ✭✭✭Da Bounca


    I had a dream that I was flying around the place. I was at the golden gate bridge, flying low across the water, then soaring, then looping under the bridge, was great fun. In the end of the dream I had an apple and when I woke up I tried to take a big bite out of it, and I was like, wheres my apple , whats going on. It was a slow realisation, the dream seemed so real. For about 20 seconds I couldn't understand where the apple had gone. Was quite funny really. Flying rocks. Not sure if that was astral travel.

    As far as I know, you can train yourself to astral travel.


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    #7
    is_that_so
    Registered Users Posts: 32,136 ✭✭✭✭is_that_so


    Robert Louis Stephenson trained himself to dream up full stories or so it is said.


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    #8
    Strokesfan
    Registered Users Posts: 575 ✭✭✭Strokesfan


    Isn't that something like transcendental dreaming or something? I've heard of it, I have the strangest dreams in the world, often fraught with anxiety, a common one goes like this, I'm inside my house, I can feel something malevolent outside, I run all round the house closing the windows so "something" or "people" can't get in, I keep checking, discovering I've missed windows, there's a total sense of hurrying and the need to protect the people I care about " - it's beyond bizarre
    I really feel these dreams are real when I wake up and I rarely know the people I meet in my dreams, is that like what you mean?
    I thought maybe they just consist of a composite of faces that I've seen in the past but who knows maybe dreams make us more susceptible to something entirely different :)


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    #9
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    Aside from the dreams I've posted in other threads (lucid dreams in which I flew over dublin then to donegal, and in another flying around my hometown) I just rememberd a dream I had where I found myself in New York at the site of the World Trade Center.

    The strange thing about the dream is that it wasn't strange at all, it felt entirly real and 'normal'. I was on a platform looking over the construction / wreckage site with a lot of other tourists and that was about the height of the excitment - I was just taking it all in like any other tourist would.

    It was a short dream but I had a very clear memory of it when I woke up, and it took me a while to remember that I've never actually seen the wreckage of the WTC.

    I'd be hesitant to class any of these dreams as 'astral travel' though. Is astral travel not more to do with traveling out of body in the waking world, rather than in a dream world?


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    #10
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    Pff, its probably just lucid dreaming.

    How can you tell you're not lucid dreaming when you think you're Astral Travelling? Have you done tests to see if you really do move to another location, or have you just been happy to presume thats whats happening?


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    #11
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    The wikipedia entry sheds some light, actually.
    wikipedia (emphasis added) wrote:
    Astral projection

    The traveller finds him- or herself in an apparently real domain, analogous to the "other worlds" experienced by traditional peoples, which have no parallel to any physical setting or to consensus reality, described by New Agers and occultists as the astral plane or the astral.

    Environments here may range from populated to un-populated, artificial to natural to completely abstract environments and from beautific to horrific. Here, normal physical laws often do not apply and humans can often, for example, float or fly. Quality of physical detail ranges from crude and un-detailed and depressing to bright, vivid and fascinating as detailed, among other writers, by Robert Bruce in his Astral Dynamics. Travellers may travel from one realm to the other. Projectors may find access to visions of the past or future and to the Akashic records accessible from here. It's been said that space and time don't exist on the astral plane nor the higher planes - but no explanation is given as to how forms and entire environments can exist without spatial dimensions, nor why there can be a sequence of events and yet no such thing as time. Many travellers have theorized that people having dreams actually travel to the astral realms, unaware, and, again as reported in Astral Dynamics, travelers have reported seeing dreamers enact dream scenarios on the astral plane, unaware of the more extensive and varied non-physical environment surrounding them.

    So the astral plane is not necessarily linked so closely to the waking world. Interesting stuff, tbh. I wouldn't be too quick to discount this at all.


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    #12
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    Goodshape wrote:
    I wouldn't be too quick to discount this at all.

    Why not? What about it convinces you that its not just dreams?


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    #13
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    Zillah wrote:
    Why not? What about it convinces you that its not just dreams?
    Nothing convinces me ;), I just find the posibility to be an interesting and cool enough idea that I'm not going to discount it. There are stranger things in this world tbh.

    And going along with it for the sake of argument, at the end of this very lucid dream, I was invited into a house and offered food by a person (who I didn't recognise) and told he had been expecting me. It was definitly unlike any dream I had had before.


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    #14
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    Goodshape wrote:
    I just find the posibility to be an interesting and cool enough idea that I'm not going to discount it. There are stranger things in this world tbh.

    :eek: Stranger things? Stranger than humans leaving their bodies and traveling to other dimensions in their sleep?
    And going along with it for the sake of argument, at the end of this very lucid dream, I was invited into a house and offered food by a person (who I didn't recognise) and told he had been expecting me. It was definitly unlike any dream I had had before.

    So it was a weird dream? At what point did it become weird enough to require a supernatural answer?


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    #15
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    Zillah wrote:
    :eek: Stranger things? Stranger than humans leaving their bodies and traveling to other dimensions in their sleep?
    For a start, pick almost any one of the various religions people believe in. Most of them have some pretty 'strange' ideas.

    Also, try explaining television, radio, computers, even electricity to someone a few centures ago and they'd think you're talking utter nonsense.

    The accepted notions of what is 'strange' are changing all the time. There's still plenty out there that's yet to be explained.
    So it was a weird dream? At what point did it become weird enough to require a supernatural answer?
    At no point did it require anything, I suppose. I'm not really trying to convince you of anything, I just don't see the point in dismissing such a cool idea straight off the bat. Seen as you're doing not much else but sleeping and dreaming for about eight hours everyday, you may as well try and get the most out of it.

    And whether you find yourself reaching some astral plane or not, you'll probably at least manage some pretty cool lucid dreams.


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    #16
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    Lucid dreaming I'm all in favour of. I learned it a few years ago and it was cool, but I forgot about it and it stopped happening. I just think its silly to assume its actually travelling to other dimensions rather than just weirder dreaming.


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    #17
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    Zillah wrote:
    I just think its silly to assume its actually travelling to other dimensions rather than just weirder dreaming.
    The Oscar Wilde quote in your sig seems to be at odds with your reasoning ;)

    Anyway, yea, lucid dreaming is defenitly real and a lot of fun. Anything more is obviously just speculation, but that can be good craic too.


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    #18
    kshiel
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭kshiel


    Just woundering do you have to travel to another country or could it be within say your own house. Like if you dreamt that you went into another room to check on someone or something to find when you woke up that it was exactly as you precieved it in your dream.

    I like the idea of astral travel. Would be a little bit freaky at first I would imagine.


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    #19
    abetarrush
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,221 ✭✭✭abetarrush


    I wanna try this, but i'd be 2 afraid sum1 would go into my body, and i be trapped in the dream world FOREVERRRR


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    #20
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    kshiel wrote:
    Just woundering do you have to travel to another country or could it be within say your own house. Like if you dreamt that you went into another room to check on someone or something to find when you woke up that it was exactly as you precieved it in your dream.
    As the theory goes, yes, this would be consistant with 'Real time projection'.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_projection#Real_time_projection
    Wikipedia wrote:
    Real time projection

    In contrast to "astral" projection, the traditional understanding of out-of-body experiences involves the projector (or traveller) moving about in (usually invisible) ghost-like form in a world resembling mundane physical reality. This world may, however, have minor differences between the physical reality world we know and travelers may encounter non-human astral entities. Practitioners sometimes refer to this practice as Real Time Projection (RTP) and the mundane world as the Real Time Zone. From the Real Time Zone, travellers can access "the astral".
    This would be the sort of out of body exeperience (OOBE) that I would be more familiar with (reading about that is, not experiening). The idea that there is a non physical 'astral plane' which we can also access and, seemingly, encounter other astral travelers on is new to me but also I think a good deal more interesting.


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    #21
    meowCat
    Registered Users Posts: 494 ✭✭meowCat


    astral travel???!!
    wtf!

    mysteria if you say it happens a lot, can I please see some references to reports about this phenomenon? Preferably scientific please.
    Goodshape wrote:
    This would be the sort of out of body exeperience (OOBE) that I would be more familiar with (reading about that is, not experiening). The idea that there is a non physical 'astral plane' which we can also access and, seemingly, encounter other astral travelers on is new to me but also I think a good deal more interesting.

    Yes, interesting is a good word. I could live with the idea of there being an "astral plane" but honestly, I don't really buy into these theories. :cool:


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    #22
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    The way this thread is going it may be better suited to the Spirituality or (although I'd prefer not) the Paranormal forum. A tricky one though as there's a case to be made for the fact that this phenomonon is pretty closely linked to dreaming, and maybe most easily accessable through it.

    In anycase, AstralDynamics.com seems to be a decent enough source of information, including tutorials.

    I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find any scientific evidence to support these theories though. Then again, science should never claim to have all the answers.


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    #23
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    I've yet to hear a single reason as to why these things shouldn't just be considered dreams. Seriously, a dream is a fantasy projection inside your brain. At what point does something make it so you say "Ah, that was no longer a dream and I have in fact left my body and am travelling through another dimension!"

    Sure its fun to think so, but its also fun to think I'm a millionare but I don't go around acting as if I am. It'd certainly be cool if I had a flying unicorn, but I don't try and ride it to work.


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    #24
    bounty_hunter
    Registered Users Posts: 1,702 ✭✭✭bounty_hunter


    I developed a huge interest in this a few years ago, and after a lot of research attempted an "experiment" with a friend, whereby we were to meet up in some location or other (by forcefully projecting ourselves towards each other) and immediately after waking write down what we had experienced. We didn't decide on a location because we didn't want to think about it beforehand and give ourselves a chance to imagine it, thereby eliminating the option of using it as evidence. We simply agreed to meet somewhere at some time.

    When we met up the next day and exchanged "notes" we were very surprised to find that we seemed to have described exactly the same location, both in physical appearance and atmosphere. We also noted the same conversation (not word for word, but the general gist of it). However, I believe quite strongly in the possibility of humans passing small bits of information between each other telepathically, so this wasn't enough to say that we had actually travelled and not just transferred thoughts. Very interesting stuff none the less.

    Anyway, I got distracted by something else at the time and didn't pursue it much further. I'll definitely have a look again now that it's been mentioned though.


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    #25
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    Zillah wrote:
    I've yet to hear a single reason as to why these things shouldn't just be considered dreams.
    Then consider them dreams and let that be the end of it. There are plenty (well, a few at least) of people here who might be willing to have a bit more of an open mind on the subject. You don't have to join in.
    It'd certainly be cool if I had a flying unicorn, but I don't try and ride it to work.
    If you get a kick out of trying to ride an invisible unicorn to work then by all means go right ahead :), but I can clearly see you don't have one. I don't think what goes on in dreams or deep meditation can be as easily defined all of the time, so I'll reiterate that it's fairly wide open to theories and speculation.

    Can you prove that meeting distant, dead or dying relatives, or visiting places you've never seen before, or talking with dream entities about subjects you have no or little prior knowledge of, is just and always a 'fantasy projection inside your brain'?

    Would you not be at all open to the idea of the interconnectedness of all things? (which is something I do believe in myself) and if you are, then I don't see how the idea of accessing this connectedness with a trained mind through (for lack of a better word) an 'astral plane' is that much of a leap.


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    #26
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    Goodshape wrote:
    Then consider them dreams and let that be the end of it. There are plenty (well, a few at least) of people here who might be willing to have a bit more of an open mind on the subject. You don't have to join in.

    Oh don't get me wrong, I don't expect anyone to convince me, I'm just trying to understand your rationale, and so far it seems baffling and illogical.
    Can you prove that meeting distant, dead or dying relatives, or visiting places you've never seen before, or talking with dream entities about subjects you have no or little prior knowledge of, is just and always a 'fantasy projection inside your brain'?

    1 - The burden of proof lies on the claiment, its up to the person claiming to have met supernatural entities to prove it.
    2 - If you have done any of the things listed above then it should be easy to set up experiments and prove that its happening.

    Seek out to find your great-uncle, remember and record his appearance and then check it against an old photo. Or a more simple one, a ludicrously simple one: Have a friend draw something on a piece of paper and put it somewhere really inaccessible. Then, when you astral travel, go look at the paper and confirm what it says with your friend.

    If Astral Travel exists it should be really really easy to confirm its existence with some simple experiments. Science would have to accept the phenomenon even if they don't understand the mechanism. Why hasn't it?
    Would you not be at all open to the idea of the interconnectedness of all things?

    What does that actually mean? We occupy different points in the same space time continuum? Sure. We all use energy in various forms? Sure. There's some mystical, intangible, undetectable and unprovable force connecting all things? I see no reason to think that.


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    #27
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    You're far more sceptical than me. A healthy trait actually.

    I can only tell you why I'm interested in learning more about the subject, which I think I've done already. I'm certainly nothing more than an interested party and very far from an expert, so I can't really even begin to offer 'proof' (yet :p).

    bounty_hunter's small experiment is beyond anything I've done myself.

    Regarding interconnectedness, I think we're all connected in many ways. Some very tangible and some less so. Again, I'm no expert and I'd really need to read up on it before I start making myself look (more?) silly.


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