Tom (British podcast "Get Lucid") - Jan. 18th 2011

Tom is a co-host of the British podcast Get Lucid which weekly discusses topics related to lucid dreaming. We invited Tom and his co-host Joe to send us their dreams so we could upload them along with the cast and crew of Lucidity.

18/01/2011
First OBE!!
Too much went on to record the events in exact detail as it remains slightly fuzzy in my mind.

Basically after the podcast I and Joe did with the lucidity guys the idea of astral projection/OBE has been playing in my mind. (Which I go into detail at the end)
I had very little sleep the night before due to a heavy night out with work lot. So I had a nap around 12pm. From there the shit hit the fan!

I tried the wild technique and laid in my bed for sometime before I drifted off to sleep. I have realised this may take several attempts at first and can be time consuming, but well worth it. I actually lost consciousness and found myself dipping in and out of 2-3 small dream sequences that at the time I actual thought were thoughts in my head until I awoke.

After this I began to obtain lucidity as I felt I was much more alert after the previous dream experiences. The first time I remember becoming lucid was for an almost a split second I found myself wearing my coat I instantly knew I was dreaming but felt the dream fade, I tried rubbing my hands together to keep the dream going but I awoke.

I again tried the wild technique however lost consciousness. I then was in the following dream sequence. I found myself in my house in the kitchen I remembered I wanted something to eat so I went to the fridge , on some level I felt I could have been in a dream at this point, I guess just intuition. I opened the fridge to find basically a roast dinner but it was laid out all separately on different shelves in the fridge I was like that is weird. I did a state test of the light switch, and I held my nose and tried to breathe in and out but results were that of waking state. However I still remember thinking this probably is a dream. I then went to get a spoon out of one of the kitchen draws to find the spoons were completely covered in cream, it was everywhere. I was thinking this has to be a dream then I started washing the cream off the spoon and my manager form work showed up to my left. I was then like fuck this. This is a Dream!!!. I still did not feel confident as it all seemed so real and at the time plausible for some reason lol. I decided to do a reality test I did several light switch tests on and off and the light worked as it does in “waking life” so then I was very freaked out and I just wanted to wake up. I’m so used to using the light switch as a reality test it acts as my anchor, sort of like a safe guard to confirm what reality I’m in. When you are 100% sure you’re in a dream and your safe guard fails it fucks you up.
I think this may be my subconscious teaching me a valuable lesson, not to rely on these ‘state tests’. Rather I need to trust my own judgment and use my awareness to guide me.
After awakening in a slight panic, I was like let’s get lucid again. Aging I did the WILD technique however I lost consciousness. This time I found myself outside in a car park after some sort of party. I was with joe and I cracked some awful joke about the Flintstones. At the same time there were four people also leaving the party getting into a car. As I said this joke, the dream characters got in the car and picked it up from the inside and used their feet to run off instead of driving (Flintstones style!). So my thought process of this joke obviously had a reaction on the dream environment. So I was like yea this is a fucking dream. Didn’t bother doing a state test however I retraced my steps which confirmed I was in a dream. My thought process was something like. Ok what was I doing beforehand well I went to bed during the day and I knew I obviously wanted to get lucid. As the scene was night time I knew that I obviously was dreaming as a moment ago it was light inside my bedroom (it’s quite a cool realisation that you remembered wanting to obtain lucidity whilst becoming lucid). So after I went through this thought I opened a door next to me and found myself in my bedroom. I wanted to write down on a bit of paper ‘I’m dreaming’ sort of as an experiment. I wrote it down in block capital letters big and clear as I wanted to see if the writing would remain stable if written so clearly. As I was doing so the paper was crunching up whilst I was trying to write making it impossible to do so (not really sure why the paper did this but it is a dream!). I focused all my attention on the piece of paper and intended it to become smooth again which it did. I wrote the words ‘IM DREAMING’ very clearly. I then looked away and back again and it read ‘IDREAM’ in the exact same font so it did remain much more stable than what I’m used to reading after looking away at text. Having just written this down the thought occurs to me maybe there is meaning behind this. Maybe I don’t dream and a different force is doing the dreaming? I then awoke, not very exciting in terms of my involvement but it made me question things more deeply about the dreaming world. It also now makes me think retracing your steeps is a much better way of testing what state your in rather than a reality test.

Ok so I thought that was pretty mental, also at one point I had a chain of 2 false awakenings which is quite a freaky experience.
I was still basically tiered. I thought why not slap out another dream. Basically tried the Wild again and don’t know how it happened really but I felt my astral body, it started very subtle with my hands. But basically my astral body started to slowly sink into the bed at the start I was just slightly out of alignment lower than my body but still mostly overlaid with it. I basically felt like when you’re on a boat and the sea was rocking me a bit. I wanted to really detach myself from my physical body, it felt more natural for me to carry on lowering my astral body downwards into the bed so I basically intended this and focused on going lower. I think I was about half way inside my bed! My hearing changed to that of when you are under water and I felt pressure in my ears as well. The experience was so alien to me that I was basically shitting myself. So much so that I didn’t open my eyes. In fact I was like shit I want to wake up and get back into my physical body. Which I obviously regret now as I should have taken more advantage of the situation. However at first I was like how the fuck am I meant to get back into my body!! I was quite scared, but I remembered that basically remaining calm is probably the best option so I did and I tried using the same technique of intending myself back into my body which slowly worked. The transition of being re attached with my physical body is too hard to descried as I’m not really sure what happened but I slowly awoke. And was like OBE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the fact that the idea of the astral body had been on my mind is why this happened, as my initial lucid dreams happened mainly because I was reading up on them and thinking about them. Basically this has opened me up to a million questions. Like is this the form we tack when our physical bodies die. I think so!
So this was the most intense nap I’ve ever had! I learnt don’t rely on reality tests, use of retracing your steps to help you decide which state you’re in. Also OBE’S are defiantly real, I never doubted them but I never had strong believes in them.
I know if I was reading this a couple of years ago I probably what have said this is a load of bullshit, I’ve always felt there is something more to life than this physical plain of existence. I know I only left my body for a short period of time and a small distance but fuck me that was insightful!

I’m not sure if I have OBE’s and astral projection mixed up, if they are the same thing or separate. I need to research into it more deeply.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeea!

Smithy