you know i can't really figure out what an obe is actually....i know it's an out of body expierence but would it be considered an obe if i just controlled my dreams?

watch if you check out www.spellsandmagic.com you will see what im talking about.......

it's my understanding that it's when your soul leaves it's physical body only...though i could be wrong.

A true OBE feels quite different than even a fully Lucid Dream. I will let someone who's OBE's involve the Astral Plane explain those if they wish because for me OBEs always happen right here.

There is no time shifting, no additional people or things, when they are really clear it feels just like wandering around my house. There is sometimes a slight feeling of being 'bigger' than my surroundings but everthing still appears normal.

I will admit that I have never spent a great deal of time either learning to extend the state or even attempting to get to it. They have just happened now and again over my lifetime. The first few times were when I was in high school and I actually thought at the time I was just up in the middle of the night for some reason. It was not until years later, when I had already spent a great deal of time in the study of the occult that I was able to recognize them for what they were.


A.T
(-)

For the sake of this board I will assume that OOBE is real, since the author does. Please don't start debating it here, there are other boards for that.

The most simple way to put it would be that.... all lucid dreams are astral projections, but not all astral projections are lucid dreams.

Every night when everyone goes to sleep, all people astral project in their sleep, this is what sleep is. The only difference between an astral projection or a lucid dream is how aware your mind is. In a lucid dream, you are on the astral plane but your subconcious mind is projecting all of your surroundings around you so you do not see the astral plane as it truely is. It is like living in your own dream world. There are ways to project from lucid dreams such as doing reality checks, etc and removing the dream images. But that is a whole other topic, and I will just explain what it is here.

When you are in a lucid dream, you will appear to be wandering around drunk to people who are conciously projecting.

When a person conciously as an astral projection (or even accidentally), they skip this lucid step and go right onto the actual astral plane. Your mind can still create things that are not really there and distort it, but generally in this state, what you see is what you get (what is really there). It is much more real. Like Alexander described, you are actually there and you know that you are there, the same way that you know you are in the physical world right now.

For this reason, there are some things that you can do in a lucid dream that you cannot do when you are simply in a concious astral projection. In a lucid dream you may be able to create things from nothing and make people do whatever you want, but it may not be that simple on the astral plane. Generally it may be harder to communicate with (real) people in lucid dreams, also. Often if you are in a lucid dream and someone projecting talks to you, you will remember nothing when you wake up.

Hopefully this helps a little bit. Post any other questions I have left unanswered if you have them =).

[edit on 11-8-2005 by Yarcofin]

Yarcofin,

I would really love to here some of the techniques you can use for projecting out of a lucid dream. If you don't wanna post it here, maybe you can u2u. I've been interested in astral projection and going to the astral plane for a while. I've searched up many techniques for astral projection on the internet, but none of those techniques really worked for me. I was really disappointed and pretty much gave up trying to astral project, but I read your post above and you sound like you know your stuff about this topic, and maybe you could share some techniques to some of us here.

[edit on 11-8-2005 by Striker122]

that's the same as me, i was curious about how it's done, and have read many sites about it, but have had no luck, and i don't think there's a thread on ats about how it's done, well not really anyways, have any of you guys managed ot controll it? once you're in the "obe"? i've heard stories of people who claim to have gone travvelling to other towns and things whilst out of their body, including some wacky stories about people goin to area 51, and having there souls "trapped" by some energy fields, seems a bit silly to me tho.

[edit on 11-8-2005 by a_dying_atheist]

I started off about the same as you Striker. Actually I probably knew even less. But I have now been researching and studying Astral Projection/Out of Body Experience for... at least five years now. I definately don't consider myself an expert on the subject. It's not like I can project at will any time that I lay down and try, but I do feel that I know quite a lot about it, knowledge-wise.

It is indeed pretty hard to find actual "how to" techniques out there. Anybody that is interested can U2U me. If you have MSN or AIM, that would be the most easy way for me to communicate the idea. It is a ton of information and too much to put all on this board. If enough people are interested, maybe I will post my own thread with all of it.

atheist, from what I have heard, there doesn't seem to be much of a limit. I have heard of people going to Area 51 (but I have also heard there is some sort of "psychic shield" thing there that prevents people from getting in, somehow), as well as hearing of people projecting to the moon, mars, etc. There are also groups of AP-ers out there that pick a time and night and all try to project to the same place at once in order to verify it for themselves. They often meet at popular places like the pyramids, mt everest, etc. Although I have never done this myself. Anyway now that's getting into the weirder side of things, and I try to keep it more level-headed so people don't think that I am completely insane . The best way to answer questions about the astral is to go there and find out for yourself. Knowing is better than taking someone elses word for it.

[edit on 11-8-2005 by Yarcofin]

Assuming such things exist, can one interact with ghosts during an oobe?

Angel, it depends on what your definition of ghost is really. If you mean the typical ghost that you hear about in hauntings, then no. Most people who astral project a lot will tell you that a "ghost" in that sense is not really alive or able to interact. It is simply an imprint, a part of the whole of a being that is left after it dies and slowly fades away.

If you want to interact with the deceased, you would need to be interacting with the essense, the "soul". The part of you that also assumedly leaves your body during an astral projection. In this case, yes. I believe that you can communicate and interact with a deceased person. If someone is in a tragic car accident, you may find them wandering around in the astral plane, bewildered to where they are and what has happened. These people move on fairly quickly once they realize what has happened, and people who died naturally do the same at an even faster rate. At first they may stay around for a while to attempt to watch over their families, etc, but before long they will realize that there are more important things to do, and more important places to be.

While I do not believe/trust in psychic mediums in the large majority, this is how any that actually speak to the deceased would go about doing it. If you are in the astral, you can 'talk' to them much easier than this.

You can also interact with other travellers who are doing the same as you, and I have even been told that you can interact with extraterrestrials (I have not verified this one myself, though).

Please be aware that there are also negative entities on the astral plane and other planes. Some of them are quite horrible and terrifying. They may attempt to trick you and appear as the person you are really looking for, etc. From the horror stories I have heard, I would not get involved with magic, or channelling (including automatic writing, ouiji, etc) as it apparently attracts these entities.

But along with negative entities are also 'higher beings'. Many people have talked to advanced/heavenly beings, and it is even said that you can interact with spiritual leaders such as Jesus, Buddha, etc etc on the astral plane.

I know a lot of that sounded ridiculous and that is okay. Don't believe anything until you verify it for yourself. And that is a simple summary of pretty much all the types of entities you can interact with on the astral plane =).

Originally posted by Yarcofin


You can also interact with other travellers who are doing the same as you, and I have even been told that you can interact with extraterrestrials (I have not verified this one myself, though).

Theres someone on ATS here who has had contact with extraterrestrials. I just forget the persons user name.