Re: Entering before you know you're awake

[LawPaw]

This will be difficult to describe, so bear with me.

Over the last few months I've been trying to train myself to enter the phase very quickly, almost pavlovian when waking up.  I tried a short alarm (4 beeps) but that didn't work.

But a few times I have been able to separate before I realize that I'm really awake.

That probably isn't accurate, but typically I try to wake up without moving, so when I wake up my first thought is "don't move."

This morning I was very successful entering the phase through visualizations before I even thought to myself "don't move."

It's hard to explain exactly how this feels, but it almost like becoming lucid in a dream, except that you do actually have enough wakefulness to create the initial place that you enter.

It also felt more like an OBE than a lucid dream (which to me feel VERY different in creation).

[Summerlander]

It was a wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD).

I do have a question for you though: what makes you distinguish between an OOBE and a lucid dream, and why do you so readily rule out the possibility that what feels like an OOBE is in fact another type of lucid dream?

I'm only asking because, to me, when a person separates from the body and encounters their abode, and see their sleeping bodies, they are having nothing but a lucid dream whereby the phase environment has been created from expectation, belief or the brain's quick fix in an attempt to make sense of the peculiar situation (body fell asleep but the mind remained awake). 

[LawPaw]

I agree with what you're saying Summerlander.

I believe it is all the same thing, the phase.

The difference for me right now is that I find lucid dreams harder to deepen fully and to have a completely real experience.

Scientifically believe their is also a slight difference: in an OBE you enter the phase directly from consciousness (usually weakly conscious until deepening), whereas in a lucid dream you enter the phase from unconsciousness (becoming conscious from unconsciousness instead of maintaining).

I'm not sure why, but I feel that this slight difference actually matters.  I'm sure after years of practice it will matter little.

[Summerlander]

It is also true that, no matter how you enter the phase, one can lose lucidity and slip into a dream state.  However you enter the phase state, you are basically bringing your waking consciousness into the dream world. 

If you believe that the phase is harder to deepen when entered from dream-consciousness, then that is exactly what will happen.  I personally don't see any difference and can deepen all the same.

I'm going to share a story with everyone here...

There was once a little guy called "Me" who was born and lived in a dark house that he called "brain".  This house had no doors and windows so there was no way in which Me could see the external world. 

However, Me had little servants called Neurons living with him who obtained information from the external world in other rooms of the house which Me couldn't enter and even if he could he would not be able to understand this information.  The information presented there was encrypted in a complex binary language capable of describing any reality imaginable.  This language had been developed since the foundation of the house and the birth of everything inside it.

In the rooms where the Neurons worked, there were phones and fax machines called "synapses" which enabled communication among them and made their great network possible.  There were also cabinets full of files with data that could be reused or merely revisited.  Some cabinets were labelled "memory", others were labelled "inner workings", and others were called "outer reports".

Me often thought that the Neurons were able to look directly at the external world through a couple of windows and at times he believed he was doing this as the information he received could be so intense, but, this was not the case, because, the house had no windows. 

It had, instead, two cameras attached to the exterior side of the front wall which captured external light and its sensors converted it into electronic signals which the Neurons could then interpret using their codes.  A matrix report would then be produced and constantly updated in accordance with any changes in the external world. 

Me would always be in his room, which was the main one in the house and its location was not certain but the Neurons could always get their information there.  Artists lived with Me in his room and their job was to interpret the matrix report from the neurons and create animations called "mental projections", based on those reports, for Me to see and experience.  The animations had to be accurate so that Me knew what was happening outside the house that the cameras could capture.  Everyone in the house worked for Me.

By day, the neurons worked in interpreting the signals from the external world.  By night, the cameras were switched off but the Neurons continued to work.  There were periods of quiet when everybody needed to take a break and restore their energy.  But there were also periods of great excitement, known as "REM", where files could be reviewed and shown to Me.  Different departments of Neurons would all work in order to get Me's attention and bombard his office with a matrix report containing a mishmash of memories, ideas and creativity.  Me could often get lost by selecting a portion of the mixed matrix and mistake the animations for events occurring outside the house.

Sometimes, however, Me would become very much aware that the animations were not a direct interpretation of external world events.  In these moments of awareness, Me was able to become the director of the house.  He could request and browse files, order that specific matrices be formulated and influence his artists to make the animations more interesting.  During this period of awareness, which was the same as how Me felt during the day when curious about the external world , he proclaimed himself to be "lucid".

Early in his life, Me had learned about other "Mes" who lived in their own houses.  Some had messy houses where the neural networks were dysfunctional.  Such Mes were often thought of as being "mentally disabled".  There were cases where the house workers were ignoring or misinterpreting the signals from the external world even though the cameras were on and working fine.  The Mes in charge of making decisions were misled by the erroneous animations they received.  They were often called "insane".

Me was also unsure about whether or not he would survive when and if the house was destroyed.

[LawPaw]

Lol.

I suppose you are right about attitude effecting deepening in Lucid Dreams.  Slipping into a dream state is still usually how I exit the phase.

Oddly, I frequently slip into sleep, then become lucid again later on and deepen just as well as when entering the phase from consciousness.  More evidence that difficulty fully deepening is in my head.

I do think; however, that this is marked difference between entering the phase from unconsciousness and entering it from consciousness.  I think when you enter from unconsciousness (a dream) you are closer to unconsciousness and more deepening is needed whereas entering from a conscious state you are closer to consciousness so less deepening is needed. 

[Summerlander]

Mi casa es su casa. 

[Michael Raduga]

When you get the habit to separate immediately upon awakenings, sometimes you separate and only than you understand that you're conscious and already separated. That's normal

[Summerlander]

That's happened to me so many times.  These days I usually get up to separate.  It also happens if I roll over and out.  I even remember once when I was in the middle of trying to separate and experienced a lapse in consciousness.  When I came to I was bouncing on a bed a few feet away from where the real bed would be.  The room replica had magnolia walls instead of lapis blue and the light was on instead of being off like in reality.

If I get ejected from the body, then I usually understand that I'm already in the phase and don't appear to lapse in consciousness.  I've been spat out of body to land a few perceived feet away and enjoyed the ride!