Jinked

I am open to many schools of thought, whether they be found in secular, religious or spiritual teachings or even the simple ways in which we live our lives. I won’t discredit or discount, and even when I affirm it is a rare occurrence, especially when it comes to personal belief. I’m one human being; I don’t ever want to claim I know all. I have faults. I definitely have limitations.

With all my lucid dream induction over the past several weeks, I’ve had to ponder four certain dreams out of at least twenty or so I had. I think about these dreams because they were very different from all the others in terms of how they start, where I start and the things I see, yet these four isolated dreams all have elements in common with one another. I don’t know what to make of astral projection and other forms of out of body experiences. I don’t know if they exist in the way people want them to exist, or if they are perhaps just a different kind of lucid dream, or that I am totally, 100% mistaken. Maybe it shouldn’t matter. Things don’t always need labels, do they?

Whether they exist or not isn’t really the point. Despite the reality or unreality of astral projection, these four specific dreams ride the line of absolute strange. I’ve been diligent in recording all my lucid dreaming experiences in a paper journal, so it’s nice to be able to look back on these entries, notice any patterns, frequency, and the like. The first of these bizarre dreams was on July 29th, the second on August 5th, and the last two I had this morning, one right after another on August 16th.

What made these dreams different from the others?

The way they started. It sounds hokey, but I could feel myself in bed, moving, getting up and rolling off the mattress onto the floor within a dream state (or maybe an astral state, but for the sake of brevity I will use dream state). This morning I panicked a little as it felt like I was pulled upward, floating a little over the mattress, like some one had grabbed me by the scruff of the neck they way they would a kitten. In these dreams I always start by rolling off the bed. I’m always in my bedroom. Unlike most accounts of astral projection or OBE, however, when I look in my bed, there is no body. It’s just a messed up bed, like I had woken up for real.

I usually walk around my apartment for awhile, frequently going into the spare bedroom to wait for various someones. Eventually I go out the door of my apartment, into the main hall, and out the building into the complex proper. I usually see people sitting on their patios. This morning I remembered to ask various people I came across where others were. I was guided to them in both dreams.

What struck me as strange about today’s set of dreams was that it was the same girl that pointed me in the direction I was to go. I had woken up in between dreams (unless it was a false awakening) and went back to sleep. To go through the same set of motions (float out of bed, go through my apartment to the door, out the main building to the outside) and come across the same exact girl in the same exact spot was troubling for some reason. It shouldn’t be, it was only a dream, yet I was shaken.

I have no idea why I wanted to talk about this today.

I don’t really think dreams are mystical or magical, but I do think they have the ability to tell us things we feel in our subconscious, even within lucid dreams. Maybe more-so in lucid dreams. I feel like I’m just scratching the surface of dreaming. It’s also nice to have remembered to ask people questions this time around instead of just flying around town like a maniac. Flying is fun, I will admit, however it does get old after awhile.

Have any of you had these kinds of lucid dreams? What do you think of astral projection and other out of body experiences?