Lucid dream VS. Astral travel
 

I was wondering what *your* personal view is?
Are they one and the same?
Does one lead to the other?
Which do you prefer?
What do you use them for?

I hope the last aren't too personal. Just super curious.
After having a lucid dream "hijacked" by a friend (he began speaking on his own, admitting things that were later confirmed indirectly, and overall had more freewill than I had imagined) several people said that it seemed as if I may have been astral traveling and not LD'ing. It got me thinking a bit about the difference between the two.

Hi thehermit

My opinion only. :smile:

They are the same.

However, something that I regularly do when in a lucid dream is to 'remove' the dreamier aspects of the dream. This is done by either going through a wall/window/door and placing intent. Or I'll use my hands to slowly move the scenery away.

In addition, if I'm having an RTZ OBE (Real Time Zone Out-of-body experience), and am bored rigid with floating around the bedroom, I will use the same method(s) to get away from the RTZ. I've had good success with this. :smile:

I haven't got a preference. As long as I'm lucid, I don't care.

I use them for adventure, learning, fun, curiosity and to experiment.

Squatch

I'm also of the belief that they are "the same".

Dreams, Lucid Dreams, Astral Projections, Out of Body Experiences... they're all simply "projections" of varying levels of conscious awareness.

Ones doesn't lead to another, because they're the same thing. What you do is increase or decrease your awareness while you're in the non-physical.

I have certain "tags" for them.
"Non-physical Dream Awareness Experience"
"Non-physical Lucid Awareness Experience"
and "Non-physical Astral Awareness Experience"... those are three stops along the continuum of awareness that consciousness can have. There are also an infinite number of ranges between those three.

Which do I prefer? Well... having an Astral Awareness is the ultimate goal in my opinion. A Dream Awareness is just that, a normal dream. Nothing too special there. :)

I use them for personal growth. ;)
And flying... I LOVE flying.

I've been listening to William Buhlman and he has some exercises on getting an OBE from a lucid dream. Basically he says that as soon as you realize you're dreaming, you are lucid, but you're still in the dream. He then says something to the effect of "awareness now" and the dream simply fades away, and he is transported into the astral.

For me, the difference between LD and AP is not just qualitative or energetic, but also relies on where it is sourced.

For me, dreaming and lucid dreaming are primarily 'internally informed' - that is, their contents come from within my own mind. OBE and AP, on the other hand, I call 'externally informed', the experiences and information seeming to come from primarily outside my own person and mind.

Really though there are no hard and fast rules - one can contain elements of the other or move from one into the other - though the definitions help me to sort the experiences.

I suppose I'm just not that disciplined. :smile:

For me, Lucid Dreaming is actually Astral Travelling though with "clouds" and "blobs" of your own mind thoughts. Now, Lucid Dreaming can bring you to clear, vivid Astral Travel by willingly removing the "dream" aspects of Lucid Dreaming (meaning illusions and mind garbage) and willingly transferring yourself to the Astral Realm.

for me lucid dreaming happens in your mind and astral travel you actually transport your consciousness to another realm,

i no iv had dreams wear iv bean 2 sm wear evn iv not befre in only in dreams:cool: iv even bean 2 new york in a dream evn thro iv not bean befre only in a dream wen i get thse dreams i seam 2 so confusd i do:angel13: :angel13: :computer: :lurk:

A friend of mine described such questions as simply being where one decides to slice their bread.
Meaning that the distinctions we make in describing such experiences depend only on what we individually choose to include in our description.
Consciousness is not in actuality separate states of mind, it is continuous and undivided, yet for most people we cannot experience the wholeness of it all at once, and it also makes experiences hard to talk about unless we talk about the smaller pieces. For some the difference is as simple as having waking consciousness on one side and subconscious on the other. But for others it becomes important to break things into many smaller pieces so that the details can be expressed in a much clearer fashion.
Personally I like to make distinctions between lucid dream, astral travel and OBE. Where lucid dreams are where your consciousness experiences perceptions from within ones own psyche, and astral travel is where it gets beyond the personal experience. But there is alot of blending and bleed through between the levels.