Alice in Wonderful Angry-Trampland

I’d been ill with a fever for most of the day. I woke up in the early hours after only managing about two hours sleep, and took a paracetamol to stop me from shivering.
When I got back to sleep, I went straight into a dream about my landlord…who’s name I can’t even bring myself to mention as he is the most un-human, human being I have had direct dealings with in my life so far.
In the dream he was mopping my brow and massaging my temples… i.e. acting in a caring manner. With this, I immediately became sharply lucid and had a little chuckle to myself at the irony with which these wake up signals, or dream-signs seem to be designed.
I got up and floated downstairs to the kitchen. But as I did my level of consciousness began to fade. I walked into the front room and saw a big group of people sitting around chatting… this was something that never happened in our house at the time, so I said “Sorry to interrupt, is this an o.b.e.?”
All together they said “YES” in the tone of people who had been dutifully waiting for me to ask the most boring question in the world.

I did my usual jump in the air to lock in the lucidity, floated for a while then flew through the ceiling. Feet first, I traveled through what felt like one dimensional layer and landed somewhere in complete darkness. I felt safe, and aware that I was in a room somewhere.
I said “Hello? Does anyone want to guide me somewhere please?”
A single, large eye appeared very clearly in the centre of my vision. It stayed for about twenty seconds so I had plenty of time to stare into it. I savoured this opportunity as I’d heard people talk about seeing a big eye and was curious about how it would feel. I breathed deeply, watching the colour and the detail of the iris become more vivid with each breath.
The answer I felt on holding the question of what or who it was, was simply that it was me.

 

Gradually, and with a couple of ‘Clarity now’ commands I began to be able to make out shapes in the room until it became clear where I was. It appeared to be a very small music room at a school. It was quiet, and I was standing behind an old wooden desk on a rough, beige carpet. I could see two keyboards, a guitar and some shelves with a few books, files and a set of maracas.
Everything was solid to the touch and my hands looked just like they do in the physical.
My first thought was to look for clues as to what I was doing here so I searched around excitedly.
Under the desk were a set of small ‘Alice in Wonderland’ books. I opened one of them but there was nothing legible inside, or I couldn’t focus properly on the writing. I think I was hoping to find a note with an instruction like “eat me” !
I felt that these books were there simply to serve as confirmation that I was in another dimension and that it was time for another adventure.

I flew out through the closed door of the room, feeling a very slight resistance from its density, then proceeded along a series of wide corridors which eventually opened out and led to a long, sunny veranda overlooking a warm, golden beach.

Flying was totally effortless in this experience, and the further I flew, the more beautiful the landscape became. I came to an area of very tall conifer trees and spent a while swooping around through the tops of them. As I looked down I saw that it was a huge, rocky canyon filled with very tall, castle – like buildings, with trees all around them. The foundations of these structures must have been about 150 meters below me as I weaved around them, admiring their turrets, every one unique.

I moved on from the canyon and came to a grassy verge on my right with two men sitting in the sun, drinking cans of beer. They looked kind of trampy. I went over to them, making a conscious effort to conceal my excitement and said
“Hi guys, I hope you don’t mind me bothering you but I’m not from around here and I’m a newbie to all this flying lark. I wondered if you’d mind telling me where I am and whether it’s o.k. to fly here? How many layers out from the physical are we?”

They both listened attentively but I noticed one of them seemed very irritated by my questions as he made a sour face and turned away, tutting, so as to leave the other one to speak to me.
He said “Ok, I’ll tell you what, I’ll help you…I’ll show you something that might help explain it…Come on, we’re going to the cemetery.”
“To show me your grave?” I said. “Yeah.”

I asked if we would be flying there and he replied adamantly “NOOOO”, but then he got up and flew off !
I followed him over a railway track, then a beautiful sparkly river. It was very earth-like, very idyllic and the atmosphere of the place was pleasant and calm.
After a minute of flying behind him, we both seemed to have forgotten where we were originally going.
We arrived at a shop front and went inside to a reception desk with a friendly looking middle aged woman behind it. It felt like the entrance of some kind of learning institute.

He introduced me to the woman behind the counter and said “This little Missy is just starting out flying, so I’m showing her around a bit”.
He put his foot on some kind of sensor on the floor and the woman walked around to a metal turnstile near where we were standing. She took a reading from a dial on the wall which appeared to correspond to the sensor. It was made of brass with a glass front. His reading read just over 40 ‘somethings’ on a dial with about 150 notches.

They gestured to me that it was my turn. Excitedly, I put my foot on the sensor. The dial barely reached 5 ‘somethings‘ !
It was clearly an entry requirement to get a reading over a certain level. Level of what though?!
I felt it was measuring life force, or consciousness, or something alike.

Unfortunately at this point I suddenly zoned out and woke up back in my bed…Dying to know where he was going to take me! And what was behind that turnstile!?

On reflection :

Conifer trees had popped up a few times in o.b.e.s by now. I supposed that being evergreens they symbolised the eternal nature of the soul. Being trees, they are firmly rooted to the earth for a lifetime so I guessed that could be a simple reminder of what we are as humans…pretty vague conclusion but it didn’t feel like anything too important, more of a background theme.

The two men’s reaction to my question: This irritated attitude was becoming quite a familiar occurrence when conversing with locals on some of the astral planes. As he said he was going to take me to a cemetery, I concluded that some of these people are probably quite unhappy about being dead, and don’t really want it rubbed in their face by some over excited traveller who gets to go back to their physical body whenever they want. That would explain why in some environments it’s quite a taboo to fly and it feels like people can see you but they don’t want to look.

Thousand Islands

I’d spent the evening at a 500 strong group meditation organised by Todd ,which my Mum and Dad had also attended. We had spent a couple of hours in a big church doing a guided visualisation which involved opening our energy bodies and creating a ‘vortex through which spirit could travel from the higher realms.’
There was also a good half an hour of collective ‘Aumming’ which felt like quite a rare treat, so needless to say my energy levels were quite high and I felt very clear on going to bed that night.

I fell into a dream about being at a beach house with some friends, and a few strangers. As soon as I sensed that I was dreaming, I started a conversation with some of the others about it…asking if they were dreaming too, or whether they were unconscious characters in my dream etc. Their answers were vague.
I told one of the girls there that I intended to look for my guides, and I also remembered to meditate in order to set the intention and try to direct myself towards them.
I breathed deeply, closed my eyes and focused on it. Within about 10 seconds I felt the pleasant whooshing sensation of soaring through space/time/dimensions.

After a short period of blindness, my vision came back into focus and I found myself hovering above a row of houses. I was aware that one of the houses was somehow ‘my house’ but it looked completely derelict and didn‘t bare much resemblance to anywhere I‘d ever lived on the physical plane. I flew through an open window on the top floor which I was very sure was ‘my old bedroom’,

I examined a few items and details in the room so as to further anchor my state of lucidity, then tried to open the bedroom door so as I could explore the rest of the house. The door was covered over with curtains…layers and layers of them, and was a real struggle to open. When I finally did get it open, the doors to all the other rooms across the hallway were completely filled with old suitcases and mattresses, stuffed in so tightly that it seemed clear I wasn’t supposed to be able to get in there…I had come across these type of barriers before, so I sensed there was no point persevering but instead to reflect on whether there was a symbolic meaning to them when I woke up.

I flew back out of the open bedroom window and circled around over an open grassy area outside, to get a feel for flying and to power up a little bit.
As I was doing so I said “Take me to my guides”.

An old, beaten up, dirty yellow taxi rolled slowly towards me across the grass and stopped about 10 feet away.
A dark haired, scruffy looking gypsy man got out of the drivers seat and said “Where you travellin to?…You goin over the top?”
“Where’s that?” I said.
“Thousand Island is a good spot” he said, “Here, have some money.”

He threw a handful of old coins across the grass to me.
Intrigued about the house I’d just been in, I said “Hey, is this Bromley?” He said “Yeah…well it was anyway…Have a good trip”, and drove off.

I had no idea what that meant but wasn’t too fussed.
I focused my intention on going to this ‘Thousand Island’ place, fully aware and amused that it was the name of a sauce that goes on a prawn cocktail.
I pondered on the suspicion that instead of being humour that was added into the experience by a guide, and this being a bonafide o.b.e, it may have been something my own mind had concocted.
Thinking about how familiar the flavour of the humour, I continued down a thought process that led to the conclusion that :
’I am my guides on some level and my guides are part of me…maybe I even get a lot of my own humour from their energy around me in my waking life’

Whilst focusing on that though, I wasn’t really getting far along my journey. I realised I had been trying to fly physically again (flapping and struggling) rather than concentrating on internal movement. So I meditated on the name of the place and the expectation of being there, and soon felt the sensation of fast movement as I went soaring upwards into a very blue, sunny sky.

As I drifted along, a small wooden parousel spun delicately past me . The sound it made reminded me of those little shiny paper windmills on sticks, the ones I used to get on visits to the beach as a child. It seemed to have it’s own character like something from a cartoon… like in ‘Bednobs and Broomsticks’ and it carried a vibration of real innocence.
I watched it drift a little way in front of me, then spin a bit faster, and then explode into about 50 larger versions of itself ! It was beautiful. They whirred around, glistening in the sun and all drifted along next to me like a school of jellyfish…as if to offer me their service on my journey.
I was so overwhelmed by how this felt and looked, that I started blubbing with happiness. I realised that I had not been present or open enough for such a high vibrational feeling in my waking life in a long time. It felt like purity, playfulness and freedom.
I was very deeply comforted to know that it still existed somewhere, and that I was fully accepted and welcomed by it.

After soaking up the bliss of all this for a few minutes, I arrived at an Island. Full of beans and still weeping with joy, I glided about 20 feet over a rocky shore and noticed an old castle on my left.
I carried on along a path by the beach, gliding through crowds of very happy people who were mostly in traditional Gypsy attire.
There were children playing, and people dancing in the sun and splashing around in the glistening water. I could still hear the sound of the whirring carousels, the breeze, the peoples laughter, and occasionally, of a young woman singing a sweet, soothing folk song in a very pure voice.
I stopped over on the sand near a large rock pool. Splashing around in it and basking happily in the sun were three of the strangest animals I’ve ever seen. They looked like a cross between rhinos and baby dinosaurs.

I was absolutely awestruck at the beauty of the place, and I think even more overcome at how conscious I felt. It was a level of ‘realness’ that paled any I’d ever felt in physical life.
I drifted back onto the path and past a few women wearing long, pretty, classical Gypsy dresses. One had a chain of coins around her head and long dark plaited hair. My intention was to converse with someone, but as I passed them, I realised my eyes were too full of tears to maintain eye contact and I couldn’t stop sobbing for long enough to speak clearly. I don’t actually know what I’d have said anyway.

I don’t remember anything after that, I probably fell back into a dream state. Woke up feeling amazing.

On Reflection :

The large group meditation clearly paid off for me. I’d bet it did for a lot of others too. It’s exciting to be privileged enough to see evidence like this, first hand, of the energy we can create when we join our efforts as a collective. If it brought this experience of such high vibration to me, I’m convinced we probably made some really positive change for the energy of everyone and of the earth that day. More of that please, bring it on.

The house I visited : I think it represented my energy body. The top floor windows were open (upper chakras), it was ‘my bedroom’ (these upper chakras are where I tend to rest and be most of the time), and I couldn’t get downstairs as all the entrances were blocked. (a common state of being for my lower chakras)
So perhaps that was a simple nudge to do more grounding work.

The parousels : .This just felt like spirit offering me any assistance I might need and letting me know they were always around. It was really sunny at the time so I suppose that offering to shade me was a gesture of how attentive, respectful, and ready to help they are. I wonder what would have happened if I’d grabbed hold of one…It would all have turned very Mary Poppins!

The gypsy theme: This was probably the third o.b.e. I’d had at this point that had gypsies in it. To me, a Gypsy symbolises a traveller, a searcher, a seer, a mystic. I suppose that is what astral travel is all about…and I suppose for now that it’s that simple. I’m just being drawn to similar energies to mine on other planes.

 

Astral Victorian Bromley

I woke up alone on the sofa in my parents living room. I sat up and looked around the room for a while, with the distinct feeling that something wasn’t quite right. I couldn’t remember going round to visit them that day. Eventually it became clear that I was out of my body or dreaming.

Everything around me looked pretty close to how it looks normally, but with a certain iridescent quality that had become quite familiar by now. I looked down and saw that my hands were glowing, which was the confirmation I needed to bring my consciousness up to a level where I could float.
I went up as far as the ceiling, and out through the front windows of the house. I flew easily over the railway track on the other side of the road.

After a while I noticed my vision was a bit skewed, and I seemed to be tumbling as opposed to flying with any control…almost as if I’d been fired out of a canon.
I landed on a patch of grass on the other side of the tracks, next to some allotments. I clearly recognised where I was. This was Bromley as I know it, spliced with Bromley as it was in Victorian times.
At the top of the hill, a few of the main buildings you can see today in the High street were visible, but a lot of what I was seeing in my immediate vicinity was farmland. There were horses and carts, women dressed in bustled skirts and bonnets, and men in scruffy black suits with white shirts and black hats. Most of the men appeared to be working or transporting hay from one end of the road to the other.

I turned left and traveled about 20 meters while I asked internally to meet my guides. I saw a couple of people dressed in modern clothes, who gave me polite nods of acknowledgement.
There was a small, modern looking building at the end of the road that had the feel of a welfare office, or somewhere that people in the community went for free support of some kind.
I walked through the door to see a woman dressed in modern attire with bobbed blonde hair. She seemed pleasantly surprised to see me and said ” Oh!, hold on I’ll just serve these people then I’ll be right with you.”

I don’t know why, but I suddenly lost focus at that point and I was quite disappointed to find myself back in my bed at home.

Can we meet deceased friends?

Following a conversation with my friend Katie who was mourning her Dad and strongly needing to know that she would one day see him again, I’d been thinking about whether it was possible to meet deceased friends during these new conscious experiences I was having.

I had done an hours meditation in the afternoon during which I decided to try this out with my old friend and ex boyfriend Joel. Joel had passed away 4 or 5 years previously and I had seen him at least twice in some very vivid dreams shortly after he died. In one of them I clearly remember that he was teaching me to fly.
He had always been a keen paraglider and usually referred to it as ‘going flying’ so since I’d been having lucid dreams and out of body experiences, I’d felt happy in the knowledge that he probably now got to fly whenever he wanted. Maybe he was excited to tell me that, and that’s what my dream had been about.

So anyway, during my meditation I held the intention of inviting Joel to come and visit me in a dream so that we could have a go at meeting up consciously.

That night, I dreamed I was in my bed at home, watching the shadow of a small biplane moving around on the wall.
My Dad was there. (Dad is still with us.) He was telling me how the image had come to appear, by explaining the way in which the light was reflecting through the curtains to cause the illusion.
I looked around the room to see if I could see a real or toy biplane anywhere but just saw Alex, (my boyfriend at the time) with a remote control box, seemingly controlling the shadow of it. I looked at the other side of the bed and saw another version of Alex there too. Normally this would have been a strong enough dream sign to wake me up into lucidity but for some reason it didn’t.

Next thing I knew I was downstairs in the kitchen with a previous housemate, Dee, who was playing with a little girl of about 6, and Joel was there :), but I didn’t become lucid.

In hind sight it was a bigger, brighter, more spacious version of my house in Peckham but I didn’t notice at the time.
Joel and I were looking at things in the fridge. He asked me why it was up-side-down. I laughed, blamed one of my housemates and asked him to help me turn it back around.
We went out into the garden…which was twice the size of my real garden, and chatted for a while. He pointed out that the garden was the size of football pitch, which by this time it was as it had been blatantly growing in size during our conversation.
I just shrugged and said “yeah it’s great for sunbathing”

Next thing I knew I was dozing in the sun in my bikini, and was suddenly jolted awake by really loud, horrible music. Angry, I walked over to Joel and shouted at him for turning the stereo up so high.. “Have you got no consideration for the neighbours? What’s the matter with you for gods sake?”
He yelled back at me “It’s because I don’t want you to sleep!”

There was a long pause, then I asked him why, and what he’d meant by it.

I had heard or interpreted his words slightly differently and for some reason though that he was insulting me or saying something bad. I can’t remember exactly what I heard but it was something that had triggered my insecurity and an attack of low self esteem.
He just rolled his eyes and said softly “Don’t worry…just give me a hug”
We had a big long hug which made me feel quite emotional…in neither a good or bad way, but I sobbed for a while.

When I woke up the next day I was kicking myself. The poor guy could not have made it any clearer!
I was so pleased that he seemed to have heard my invitation, and come to visit me but SO annoyed with myself that I hadn’t become lucid and made more of the opportunity.

When pondering on reasons for my surprising lack of lucidity during this dream, the main thing that stood out to me was the part when I’d misheard him say he didn’t want me to sleep.
I’d heard something instead, that had resonated with my biggest fear about myself, but as soon as I woke in the morning I could clearly remember him saying “I don’t want you to sleep”
It reminded me of something I’d read before that said having a lot of fear in ones energy field can be a cause of obstruction to O.B.E.s and lucidity. I guess that’s because it’s a low vibration.
I concluded that what was going on inside me on an emotional level at that time in my life could have easily been exactly the reason he couldn’t wake me up, and as regretful as I felt, I also felt very grateful to him for showing me that.

Also, “I don’t want you to sleep” was an interesting choice of words…Why not “I want you to wake up” or even more directly, “ I’m trying to remind you that this is a dream, so we can meet like you intended” ?

It definitely seems that there are some boundaries in place and that spirit guides aren’t allowed to make things too easy for us, but only give us hints. I noted that I wanted to find out more about these limitations and the reasons for them. Was it something to do with the law of free will?

Astral inspired Edible Art

In case you were wondering why there are now pictures of edible furniture on the blog, I have a new project on the go. While I am still writing my book, I want to find out whether it’s possible to successfully combine my two greatest passions by making art that’s inspired by out of body travel, out of sugar. The first attempt seemed to go down very well indeed, so watch this space sweetpieceart.wordpress.com for more, and to get an overview of the concept 🙂 Oh by the way, I wonder if anyone would be kind enough to follow me on twitter..you’d be doing me a huge favour… http://twitter.com/spaceyourself

David Luke and Ben Sessa do the honors of cutting the cake.

Edible furniture

Sweetpiece arrives at Breaking Convention ’13 in London.

Dreamism

If I ever felt the need or desire to apply an ‘ism’ to what I practice and believe in, the word would definitely be Dreamism.
It was shown to me on a series of banners in an o.b.e. and I was told there that I should write about it. Since then I’ve been pondering on how I would define what Dreamism is. Here’s what I’ve settled on :

* A perspective of reality that includes holding the awareness that we are technically now dreaming our lives. (lucid living)

* The awareness of oneself and everyone else as a unique fragment/expression of the same consciousness.

* The intention to ‘vision quest’- explore higher aspects of the self by opening a communication between the conscious and unconscious minds, through lucid dreaming, and dream recall.

* Living by the answers and guidance you receive in your dream experiences.

Practices include :

* Recording your dreams for reflection or analysis.
* Reality testing whenever you remember, to facilitate lucid dreaming.
* Setting dream objectives or life questions to be answered in dreams.
* Meditation to clear and unblock chakras.
* Raising your frequency and expanding your energy field to facilitate astral projection.
* Practicing exit techniques for astral projection

The feeling of comfort, liberation and empowerment one can experience from trusting ones own inner resources can be utterly life changing. Not to mention the excitement and relief that comes from experiencing oneself as a non-physical, eternal, happy awareness.

Also I find that living by my dreams, I am able to ‘live my dream’ in the other sense. I hope I can inspire others to experience this too 🙂

http://www.meetup.com/meditation-and-dreamism (link to my classes)

The Difference – my take on O.B.E.s & L.D.s

Allo.I recently received some feedback on the way I worded a sentence in relation to distinguishing whether I was in a lucid dream or an O.B.E. I’d said something like “so maybe it was just a lucid dream”.
This prompted me, while it was fresh in my head, to write a little post on my understanding and my experience of the difference between a lucid dream and an O.B.E.

Firstly, one thing they have in common is that they are both ‘a conscious experience on an astral plane.’ In a lucid dream you see and experience a lot of content from your unconscious, where as in O.B.E. you see and experience pretty much the same as everyone else there does.
In theory, an O.B.E. happens in a consensus environment which means the place is formed of the collective thoughts and beliefs of other beings…other fragments of consciousness like yourself. The physical plane is a consensus environment.

Typical characteristics of a lucid dream are :

* When you look down at your hands they are either all wobbly and distorted, or they are something else entirely…like branches of a fern tree or slices of avocado.

* When you make expectant commands at random objects, they do as they’re told e.g. you can very easily turn a bottle into a pineapple or make an elephant appear from inside a phone box.

Typical characteristics of an O.B.E. are :

* When you look down at your hands or body they are solid and real looking…(I usually find I’m wearing whatever pyjamas I wore to bed, even if I don’t consciously remember what they were…odd, I know)

* When you shout at objects or try and manipulate your surroundings, nothing happens, and you feel like an idiot in front of all the other solid and real looking people who are going about their daily business just like on the physical plane.

There are of course many different vibrational areas or levels of the astral planes, and I’ve very often come away from an experience not really knowing what just happened. Some of the higher planes are far from similar to the physical, with what I would call ‘dreamlike’ qualities in that the colours, shapes, animals you see there are so outlandish that you can’t believe it. So this can also confuse matters.

The question though, is always “how much of what I’m seeing here is coming from me?” Even in a solid, consensus environment (built and solidified by the thoughts and beliefs of the majority of beings in it) there can often still be little exerts from your unconscious, sneakily layered over it.
I’m someone who is always looking for meaning in such experiences so it can get quite frustrating when there are so many mixed messages and no clear distinction between who’s who. Are they a spirit guide giving you symbolic hints about tying your shoe laces? Is that the answer to a big life question you’ve had on your objectives list? or is it just someone on their way to work that’s noticed your shoelace was undone?

So, as well as reality testing by making commands at objects and looking at your hands, it’s useful to calmly and confidently question everyone/everything you engage with. “Show me the truest picture of what you are” or “Reveal your true essence to me” are good. Some people will dissolve, because they were essentially part of your unconscious, and some will morph from someone you know, into someone you don’t e.g. a guide who was disguised as your Mum in order to make you feel safe.

Some people of course will just say “erm..yeah.. I am, this is me”. They are usually actual inhabitants of wherever you are.

In my reply to the aforementioned feedback, which was very much appreciated, I explained that by writing ‘just’ I hadn’t meant to devalue lucid dreams as learning environments at all, but just that I see them as being less real.
Being less real certainly doesn’t mean they are any less fun, informative, or useful. Actually I would say they are usually more so. I get a great deal out of them.

I think that what I get uniquely from an O.B.E. though, is an all encompassing sense of excitement in knowing that this physical existence isn’t all there is, and peace in the knowing that I will never die.
I feel exactly the same only more conscious and more free without my body.

There are a seemingly infinite number of dead people living quite happily, in whatever reality they choose to gravitate to. The possibilities are endless, and so are we. It makes me feel so safe to experience that instead of just believing it, that I’m able to let go of a lot of the seriousness and urgency from my life and really enjoy it.

🙂

My Events

My Events.

Questionable Cake

I was having quite a boring non-lucid dream that I was travelling on a train to a friends house, carrying a cake I had made for him. The icing on the cake read ‘Congratulations John on your O.B.E.’ So, as far as I knew I was on my way to celebrate with a friend named John who had recently been awarded an Order of the British Empire.
There were some other friends with me and we were taking turns to carry the cake. Every few minutes they would point out that the ‘O.B.E’ bit had come off and say “Oh dear, you’ll have to write it on again…sorry”.
This must have happened about 7 or 8 times before I picked up on the fact that they were all sniggering amongst themselves, and my lazy old mind clocked that I was dreaming. What a brilliant wake-up trigger these people seemed to have set up for me 🙂 – especially seeing as I decorate cakes as a large part of my job.
I felt that they were well humoured spirit guides, but their sense of humour was so similar to mine that I’m open to the possibility they could have been my own projections.

I gained full waking consciousness in the dream and decided to go somewhere higher, using the usual ’Higher Self Now’ command. I projected upwards with quite some effort, eyes closed, and eventually landed in what I think was probably quite a low Astral plane.
I was talking to a young man of about 18, who seemed quite wary of everyone around him, and a bit scared and lost. We were in a crowded town center and he kept telling me to ‘watch out’ for various things and people that we came across, so it was clear to me he was frightened of them.
I tried to explain to him that without his physical body he couldn’t be harmed, but he wasn’t fully convinced he didn’t have one.
He said “This isn’t exactly heaven though is it.. I mean I cant be totally dead can I ?” .
I spent a while talking about the higher vibrational places he could go to with the use of his focused intention, but he couldn’t understand what I meant. I manifested a few random objects to show him that there was some level of thought responsiveness to the place, but he just seemed shocked and even more confused.
I found it was only just possible to move or change objects here, which is what lead me to believe it was quite a low or dense dimension, but definitely consensus.
About 10 metres away from us we saw a young, angry looking guy with long blonde hair, pull a knife out of his pocket and make off after someone in the street. My guy wanted to get away from the danger, so I walked off with him in the opposite direction.
I felt compelled to show him there was nothing to fear, so using my focused intention, I got the man with the knife to come up behind us and stab me just above my right hip . It hurt for a second with the shock, but then I realised as expected that it had done nothing and I was fine. I showed my new friend that I was unharmed, then without consciously choosing to, came straight back to my body in bed and opened my physical eyes.

I got a real buzz from this experience because it gave me a deep sense of purpose. It seemed as if I might have been sent to help someone who had recently died and was freaking out…What a cool job. Beats writing on cakes that’s for sure 😉
It did leave me quite confused though about the increasingly curious subject of how to tell the difference between an O.B.E. and a lucid dream. How can I have made the man with the knife come straight over to me with my intention unless it was a dream environment and he was my own projection? Maybe it was a dream character from my mind, but layered over a consensus environment. This was still definitely a grey area in my understanding.
I knew that the answer lay in remembering to question people/characters in these experiences e.g. “Show me what you really are” and seeing whether they change.
Remembering to do that can be quite difficult because you have to really stand back from the experience enough to observe it objectively, but It’s a really good habit to get into as it basically helps you distinguish between what someone else is trying to show you, and what you are trying to show yourself…although the two are very closely linked if you think further down that route, so its never going to be an exact science.

The Importance of Writing Things Down!

I was dreaming that I was hanging out with two girls in a shopping mall.  (I seem to go to a lot of shopping Malls on the Astral Planes.)  They started talking in a language I didn’t understand.  Because we’d previously been understanding each other perfectly, it caused me to question my reality and so I realised it must be a dream.

I asked them what they were talking about, and they said “I’m afraid if you can’t work it out we can’t tell you…We’re not allowed.” 
I said “Oh wait a minute, is it to do with lucid dreaming?” They looked really pleased, and congratulated me for catching on/ becoming lucid.  They said that they called it something different there. (wherever we were)

They took me around to various parts of their world and showed me things that would educate me on how to tell what realm I was in. According to them, some realms were distinguishable by details such as what language was spoken, and some by the seemingly physical or visual laws such as there being no water, or not being able to light a match.

There was something that they pointed out as making people from my realm recognisable to them, and they showed me what to look for to recognise beings from their realm…  both of which were something non-visual/non-physical.

The very experience of having these concepts shown and explained to me was mind-blowingly exciting, and filled me with a strong sense of clarity and hope for the future. It felt as if my mind or my learning abilities had been stretched in a direction I never knew possible, and served to substantially fill gaps in my understanding of the very reason for our existence as humans.
 I remember first arriving back to body and thinking  “Oh my god this is revolutionary information…this is genius!  I’m pretty sure that this has not been brought to the physical realm before…If it has, I’ve certainly never heard about it…this is going to change everything!   Ill write it down in the morning when I’ve had a bit more sleep.”

You can guess how this tale ends. I went back to sleep and completely forgot the content of what I’d learnt… Gutted!  
It was something I really could have used creatively both in waking life, and non.  And those girls had spent all night bothering to drum it into me!

So, always scribble good stuff down, even if its the middle of the night and you can’t be bothered.
Also, there have been many occasions when I’ve looked back through the last 6 months entries in my dream/O.B.E. diary, and seen that things that seemed irrelevant or empty at the time have turned out to be prophetic. Therefore your dream journal is a very important tool for your psychic development.

Waterfalls n’ Shopping Malls

I’m not sure exactly where I was when I became lucid this time but I remember making the decision that I’d like to go somewhere peaceful so I could try meditating.  The last time I’d tried it I had made a mental note not to close my ‘eyes’ or whatever the energetic equivalent, as it kept either taking me straight back to body or making me lose consciousness.

I found myself a lovely spot by a river opposite a waterfall with about 20 people splashing around and sunbathing on the rocky banks. The water was a lovely deep shade of blue and everything sparkled in the sunlight.  I edged back a few feet from where I was sitting till my back was against some flat rocks, and crossed my legs (or at least I got into a suitable position, don’t know if I’d have even seen legs if I’d have looked down! I keep forgetting to!)

Keeping my eyes open, I started to breathe steadily and deeply in the same way that I would normally, to charge and expand my energy body.

With every breath I took, the scene I was looking at became brighter, more sparkly, more colourful. It felt as if my breath was charging the environment with energy and vibrance.

I wanted to understand more about what kind of place I was in, as I was still unclear on whether my being able to have an effect on the scene like this might mean I was in a dream environment and the whole thing was a projection of my mind.  My first thought was to study the people.

A young boy of about 10yrs emerged from the water and walked past me. I urged him (telepathically) to look into my eyes and he did for about 5 seconds.  His eyes were bright blue and sparkly like the water.  He seemed real, or as if he had his own soul…his thoughts separate to mine, but if I’m honest I was really none-the-wiser.

I fell back into a sleepy state and then found myself in a busy shopping center. I was standing on about the 3rd floor with my boyfriend at the time, and we were both looking over a brass railing at a hanging decoration in the middle of the building. It was made up of lots of wonky bookshelves holding old looking, brown books.  As I stared at the detail and writing on the books I felt my level of consciousness rise.

I felt myself bubble with excitement at the possibility that the person next to me might actually be the real Alex, and not just a projection from my mind… maybe I could gently wake him in his dream too!

I turned to him and said “Hey are you aware that this is a dream?  Do you remember that we are actually both asleep in bed at my house right now?”  He closed his eyes as if to concentrate or try to recall.

I told him it would be better to keep his eyes open for now and started to point out the writing on the books in front of us to keep his attention.  I said “Look at the detail on the books and try to stay conscious”.

As he stared at the books, the expression on his face was changing back and forward between lucid, lost, happy and frightened.  I said gently “Isn’t it funny how when you wake up like this in a dream and look back at your physical life and where your body is, it feels as though THAT was the dream, and that this is more real ! ? ”

With that he turned to face me with a look of pure fear in his eyes, and at the very same moment his physical body jolted in the bed and woke us both up!  I didn’t wake him fully to ask if he remembered it, I waited until the morning..he didn’t remember at all.  Yeah I know…Duh.

Who knows if the timing was a coincidence or not..certainly felt real enough for me to go back to sleep with a big grin on my face. 🙂

Conclusion:

It was cool to feel it was really possible to meet up with your mates in dreams.

I would pay more attention to reality testing next time.

In hind sight the experience with the boyfriend was a beautifully apt metaphor for the nature of our relationship 😉 and quite a few others come to think of it .

A Fizzer at the Market

Setting Objectives

As much fun as it was at first to fly around aimlessly in lovely or strange places,  it became apparent to me that I didn’t really understand the point of astral projection. What was it actually for?

I think the answer to this question lies in whether your’e having a lucid dream or an O.B.E.  For me, lucid dreams are useful in that your’e exploring the depths of your subconscious or maybe even your Higher self. I often experience things in lucid dreams that give me answers or very useful information regarding my life.

In some O.B.Es though, where the environment is quite solid and real and I am clearly making no difference to the place or the people around me, I have often had the feeling of “what am I doing here? ” and not been given any indication as to what I’m supposed to do. Iv’e felt  strongly that I want to make the most of the opportunity but have received no clues or guidance from anywhere.

Sometimes Iv’e even embarrassed myself in front of the locals by seemingly trying to read into everything that’s said or that’s happening around me…trying to form some kind of personal meaning from it… only to have people roll their eyes at me, as if to imply that I’m self obsessed and I ‘just don’t get it’ !  Iv’e often been made to feel like a bit of a confused baby in front of non physical beings.

It’s different when I get to somewhere that’s ‘further out’ as it’s often so visually amazing and different to physical earth that you could just float around looking at stuff  for hours without needing any purpose…Which Iv’e always thought is an interesting parallel to draw with life! More on that later!

So I spoke to Todd and a couple of other explorers about this question and discovered that it would be a good idea to set a list of objectives.  What did I want to experience and where did I want to go?

My ‘Things to do whilst out of body’ list looked something like this :

1. Ask to see or meet my guides,

2. Look at my energy body..are there any blockages or areas in it that need attention/healing?

3. Learn to play guitar

4. Learn to mix cds

5. Get over my phobia of going under water

6. Meet up with a deceased relative

7. Meditate to raise my vibration and see how it could effect where I ended up

8. Ask  people on other realms questions about where they’re from, whether they’ve lived in a physical body or whether they are living in one now too.

9. Question the environment and things or people I see by asking ‘show yourself in your truest form’ or ‘show me the raw energy of what I’m seeing’ (to make sure they aren’t my own mind’s projections)

10. Visit one of my mates and spy on them so I can freak them out by telling them what they were wearing or doing that day..especially the ones that think I’m delusional since Iv’e been talking  to them about my O.B.Es 🙂

I wrote the list out clearly and left it next to my bed so I could remind myself of it all before going to sleep.

To my surprise I had this dream a few nights later:

..I found myself lucid in a dream but with a very sleepy, in-and-out of consciousness feel. I was floating around, looking for things to study to keep me awake’ and raise my state of lucidity.  I was just conscious enough to know that it was an opportunity to fulfill some o.b.e objectives but could not remember for the life of me what any of them were.

I floated through a beautifully decorated parlour with white and gold silk cushions and drapes and gold tables, candles and shisha pipes.

There was nobody in it and there were no walls around it..There was relaxing music playing…it seemed to be suspended within a vast empty space. Its significance wasn’t clear at all until I found myself walking over to a room,  made up of racks of studio equipment and turntables with a red carpet underneath it ! Then it all fell into place!

This had been set up for me so I could learn to mix cds ! ..and immediately I understood what the parlour was for…meditation!

I felt elated at how attentive, kind and helpful my guides had been in setting all this up for me. Amazed that they had read the note by my bed and had so much time dedicated towards helping me progress in my adventures. (or I guess there’s a possibility that I did it myself unconsciously just by setting the intention..but it felt more like outside help)

I began a lesson in the studio with a dj, but kept loosing consciousness and feeling like I was passing out every 2 minutes. I  tried meditating but every time I closed my eyes it made it impossible for me to stay awake in the dream.

So not a great success, probably due to a recent bout of sloppiness in the maintenance of my energy body, but reassurance that there was an abundance of help and guidance available to me if only I just ask clearly for what I want…again, an interesting metaphor for physical life!  Definitely more on that later 🙂