• Home
  • The Book
  • Understanding Consciousness
  • About the author
  • Blog
  • Consciousness Links & Other Resources
  Multidimensional Evolution
Contact me by email

Lucid dreaming and projections of consciousness

17/11/2013

6 Comments

 
There seems to be a range of ways in which people use the concepts of lucid dreaming and what I call “projection of consciousness” but others may refer to as “astral projection” or “out-of-body experience” (OBE). In this post I explain how those terms are used from the perspective of projectiology (the study of the projection of consciousness).

First, it is good to be aware that there are two fundamentally different approaches to understanding these kinds of experiences. One is the “psychological model”.  According to this model any experiences we have, whether we call them “lucid dream” or “astral projection”, are only taking place within our own psyche. Basically, this model has the underlying assumption that consciousness is a product of matter and all our experiences take place in the brain. This model dominates most mainstream scientific research into dreams and is also the starting point for some lucid dream researchers. The other is the “projection model”. This model assumes that we can actually leave the physical body in some other body and experience ourselves on another dimension of manifestation. According to this model, consciousness is something beyond matter; consciousness is not created by matter, it simply uses matter to manifest in this dimension.

If our basic starting point is the psychological model then it makes sense to use the term “lucid dreaming” for any conscious experience that we have during our sleep state. After all, no matter how aware we are the experience has to be a subjective dream of sorts, because in our model it is not possible to have experiences beyond our physical body during sleep. From the view point of the psychological model there is no such thing as a projection of consciousness (astral projection etc.).

If our basic starting point is the projective model, however, we can start to think more carefully about the range of experiences that we can have while our body is asleep. From the perspective of projectiology, leaving the physical body happens to all of us every night. It is simply a result of our multidimensional physiology (para-physiology). As our physical body goes to sleep, our subtle body (the psychosoma in projectiology) floats out. But that does not mean that we all then have out-of-body experiences, because most of us don’t experience anything. We sleep in our psychosoma (astral body). There is no lucidity. In the projective model, the lucid dream is a particular state of consciousness that sits between an unconscious or sleep state on the one hand and the fully lucid projection of consciousness on the other.

Once we realize that every human being projects every night, we come to understand that the challenge of the out-of-body experience is not getting “out of” the body. It is maintaining our consciousness in a state of awareness during our regular slip into multidimensionality. We leave the physical body, but we sleep and dream in our extraphysical, subtle body. To paraphrase from Waldo Vieira’s comprehensive Projectiology treatise: Many people are awake in the extraphysical dimension, but most are not awake to the extraphysical dimension.

Lucid projectors regularly report encountering friends and family out of the body who are sleeping or “sleep walking” in their psychosoma.

The movie What Dreams May Come provides a great illustration of the process by which a consciousness can be in the extraphysical dimensions, but essentially confined to a world of its own creation. After the main character, played by Robin Williams, “dies” he finds himself in a beautiful world of paintings. These are paintings like those his wife used to produce. It is a familiar comforting space and he remains there until his helper (or extraphysical guide) decides that he has adjusted well enough to confront the extraphysical reality. At that point the paintings fall away and a whole world shared with many other consciousnesses becomes apparent (what William Buhlman calls a “consensus reality”).  The vast majority of us move through our natural nightly projections in the same way that Robin Williams’ character did after his death; surrounded by images of our own creation.

But as we look more carefully we realize that our dreams can have different qualities to them. Some are purely psychological. For example, we may be floating just centimeters above our physical body while having a dream based purely on the inner content of our mind (fears, desires, unexpressed emotions etc.), without any external influences. In other cases we are actually projected some distance from our body, floating along and our dream involves us flying as our mind taps into the external experience and incorporates it into the dream. Such a subtle, extraphysical stimulus can be incorporated in the same way that that external physical stimuli sometimes are. For example, when the blanket has fallen off and our feet start getting cold, or when birds begin to sing early in the morning these things can become woven into our dreams as well. Clearly, the physical and extraphysical are not completely separate, as is also apparent from the fact that there appears to be a correlation between dreaming and certain physiological changes (Rapid-Eye-Movement, particular brain wave activity, etc.).  From a bioenergetic perspective we know that the physical body and the psychosoma are in continuous connection through the so-called silver cord of energy. This connection appears to involve the transmission of information between the two vehicles in ways that we do not yet fully understand.

From this multidimensional perspective, a lucid dream is still a dream, i.e. an experience dominated by images created by our own mind, but one in which we become aware that we are dreaming. Something triggers our awareness, whether it is the absurdity of a given scenario – “Hang on, why am I walking around in a video game?”, or a sudden recall of our actual situation – “Hey why am I in my office? I am in bed sleeping!” Or perhaps it is simply something we have willed ourselves to do prior to going to sleep. Whatever the trigger, we become aware of the fact that we are dreaming; we become lucid in our dream. But if this is all that happens we are still dreaming. We may realize that we can create our own environment, for example by changing an unpleasant scenario into something more appealing, and start taking conscious control over our actions, but our experience is still dominated by our own thought-form creations (called morphothosenes in projectiology). In other words, we are still cut off from the extraphysical reality that surrounds us, moving about in a mental world of our creation. If we do not accept the possibility of multidimensional life, it is entirely possible that this is where we will leave it.

Being lucid in our dreams is already a great accomplishment. It feels good and can have psychological benefits and we may think that we have reached the pinnacle of our nocturnal awareness. But from a multidimensional point of view, the next step is that we break through our own mental creations and start to see the more objective aspects of extraphysical life; the next step it to actually awaken to the extraphysical dimensions. It is at this point that we start talking about a projection of consciousness. If we are open to the existence of other dimensions, then the lucid dream can represent a great springboard for our exploration. Once we gain awareness of the fact that we are dreaming, rather than focusing on creating more dream images, we can set our intention on gaining awareness of the underlying extraphysical reality (e.g. through affirmations such as “Awareness now” or “See reality now”, but also through ongoing practice and conditioning of our mind in our daily life).

So in summary, lucid dreams and conscious projections are distinct experiences. They are both on a continuum that begins with complete unconsciousness and ends with the incredible expansion of cosmic consciousness. Lucid dreams still see us essentially caught within our own mental creations, but they represent a final threshold between our own subjective inner world and potential entry into the vastness of extraphysical life. While lucid dreaming can teach us about our creative potential in all areas of our life, and thereby be of great psychological benefit, the conscious projection connects us to our sense of immortality and can be the portal to deep self-knowledge and understanding of our evolutionary journey. 

6 Comments
Craig Jarvis
2/4/2016 06:32:29 pm

I believe you speak great truth, having experienced this first had I can agree there is a distinct difference between lucidity whilst dreaming and astral projection where by reality closely resembles the physical world. I believe Humans as a species must wake up even in the physical world, deception has conditioned our mentality and in some respects we are yet to expand our consciousness and realise greater things. I hope one day physical changes ie cosmological epochs may force us to change and those who cannot, well that's just evolution for you! We will move on and for the better. I've been reading your pages also on Para teleportation recently and would love to learn more. Thanks.

Reply
Twylo
23/11/2016 02:29:16 pm

And what of "those who cannot?" Will they be crushed on the lathe of heaven?
One thing that we should never do in the course of our evolution, is to let our journey become an ego trip. Because then, we become "bad" witches!!

Reply
Kim
23/12/2016 07:02:03 am

Well you wouldn't want to become a bad witch :-)!

Kim
3/4/2016 06:10:45 pm

Hi Craig, thanks for taking the time to comment. I think there is a close relationship between us waking up in the physical world and in the non-physical world. The way I see it the two are not separate, just different aspects of experience.
There are some good resources available these days to learn more (although not necessarily on parateleportation, that still seems to be a very poorly understood phenomenon) - check out the links on this site or the book suggestions at the back of my book.
Best wishes,
Kim

Reply
Millie
9/12/2017 06:43:00 pm

Dear Kim,

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your book! I have experienced Vibrational State (spontaneous) since I was 15. Since my 20's (after attending lecture at IAC, London), I began to practice and achieve Vibrational State 'at will', with a dozen or so OBE's (never go further than my bedroom).

My question: Is it possible to have a distinct OBE experience/memory but not be conscious for the seperation from physical body part?

I had an extremely 'lucid' dream a few years back when I felt myself being called to visit a man (I remembered his name when I awoke), to help him cross over from the physical world to the spirit world.

It is not usual for me to have such clear dream recall, but 7 years later and I can still see him, what he was wearing, his house, the smell, the room he sat in, the books he showed me he had written and our converstaion. I also remember his wife, what she looked like, the fact that she could not see me and his emotions that I had arrived to 'collect' him.

The man's name was Swedish (so not a common name). I did not know this man in this life.

It has always fascinated me...was I lucid dreaming? Or, did I actually leave my bedroom in an OBE?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Millie

Reply
Kim
13/12/2017 04:05:12 am

Hi Millie,

thank you for your comment. It is always lovely to hear from people who enjoyed my book!
As to your question - it is absolutely possible to have OBE experiences without any recollection of leaving or returning to the body. In fact, I would say those are the most common, but because we are missing the disconnection / reconnection part it is easy to doubt them and treat them as mere dreams. And you identify some really important markers that leave me in no doubt that this was a projection: the scenario of assisting this man transition, the level of detail you recall so long after the experience, and his name. If it had been a normal dream the whole thing would have been more jumbled and you would have forgotten it. If it had been a lucid dream you would have been the one creating the scenario and you would have been aware of doing this. You're going to have to own this as a partially conscious assistential projection :-)

Best wishes from Australia
Kim

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Kim McCaul is an anthropologist with a long term interest in understanding consciousness and personal transformation.

    About this blog

    This blog is about my interests in consciousness, energy, evolution and personal growth. My understanding of consciousness is strongly influenced by the discipline of conscientiology and I have a deep interest in exploring the relationship between culture and consciousness.

    I am often inspired by comments and questions from other people, so if there is something that interests you drop me a line and I will see if I can write something about the topic.

    Archives

    April 2016
    February 2015
    January 2015
    August 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Categories

    All
    Aboriginal Australia Psychic Phenomena
    Conscientiology
    Energetic Body
    Evolution Of Consciousness
    Life After Death
    Lucid Dreaming
    Movie Review
    Parateleportation
    Past Lives
    Projection Of Consciousness
    Reurbanisation
    Third-Eye
    Walk-in

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly