lucid dream or astral travel?

[Camilla]

So about an hour ago, I woke up from a nap that changed my life. I'm a LITTLE experienced in both Lucid dreaming and astral travel but I don't know what to make of this.

About three times today while napping, I tried to exit my body but had difficulty doing so. Unfortunately, Im also tortured by demons occasionally during either sleep paralysis or before astral travel. I felt an entity behind me pushing on my back....and I felt his hands. I also saw someone or something in my closet.

but anyways, after multiple attempts and trying to avoid these demons, I said the name of a man I have recurring dreams of, and INSTANTANEOUSLY I finally exited my body. However, I was somewhere else when I POPPED out (which is what is confusing me). On the other side, or in another dimension....I don't know. It was pitch black inside the house and outside the house. I could barely navigate around. Like the world had already ended over there.

Well, I was trying to find the man who I see in my dreams all the time, but I ended up in a house where my family was. I saw my mother and myself in a bright room. They were organizing clothes and shoes on this silver rack. I immediately felt a certain resentment towards my mother when I entered the room. I immediately went to see ME (another version). She was avoiding me, so I went over to my mother. I told her if she could see me, to raise her hand and touch mine....and she did. Both my mother and the other version of myself had faces and eyes that were emotionally vacant. They made no facial expressions whatsoever.
I then went over to the other version of myself and I was startled at how disheveled and sad she looked. Her hair was a mess (my hair used to stay messy), she was still skinny (I used to be really thin), her eyes were reddish-yellow and vacant. I looked in the mirror and said, "look at how WE are on the other side!" Be happy and dont worry I am going to live for you, I promise.

I then went into the bedroom where my sister, dad, and two other people were sleeping. I couldn't make out the two other people's faces because the blanket was covering their faces. I hugged my sister, then I hugged my dad. Something happened when I hugged my dad, it was traumatizing.
When I made my way back to my current reality, I realized something had happened to me when I was a child with my father. I was certain of it. The event came back to me so vividly.
But when I woke up, I realized it didn't happen, but the girl on the other side, or in my dreams went through it. I have recurring nightmares about it in different settings. I finally realized why I never felt comfortable around him.

I felt I was gone for years. I was certain my phone was going to say "2013" or something LOL, but I was only asleep for about two hours.

Any ideas as to whether this was astral travel or a lucid dream?

[Xanth]

To me, lucid dreams and astral travels are the same experience of differing levels of conscious awareness.

Here's a little something I wrote for my website to explain it:

I was dreaming this morning and I came to a realization after I awoke. I realized that the term “Conscious awareness” just doesn’t work when using it to describe anything more than your awareness during a dream, or in any case, it makes it more confusing. I need a phrase or phrases to make it easier for new people to learn the concepts and a catch all “Conscious Awareness” just doesn’t do that, because once you pass into Lucid Dreams and even further, Astral Projections, the term begins to fail.
We dream every night of our lives, yet we don’t remember all of them, why? We have varying levels of consciousness through these dreams… everything from not remembering that a dream ever happened, to remembering bits and pieces of a dream, to remembering every last detail of the dream.
I was thinking about how we “remember” our dreams… and I realized that the dreams I remember most, are the ones in which I was most consciously aware in. Not consciously aware in that I knew I was dreaming… but consciously aware that I was experiencing the dream AS it was happening. I call this “Dream Awareness“. Basically, I’m living the dream life as if I was awake and not realizing it’s a dream. I am the actor not realizing he’s in a play. This tends to give me the best chance to remember after I wake.
The next step up from that would be “Lucid Awareness“. This is the point where you know you’re dreaming and you know that what is around you is a dreamscape. You don’t have much more awareness than that though.
After that, I’d call it “Astral Awareness“. At this point, you are as wide awake and aware as if you were awake in the physical reality… except you’re in the nonphysical.
Also, I believe that the line between Lucid Awareness and Astral Awareness can be very blurred. Your awareness can float between that range at any one time during the experience. You’ll start off with Lucid Awareness, then muster up Astral Awareness… after some time, you might lose focus and concentration and drop back down to Lucid Awareness. You could shift back into Dream Awareness too.
For myself, I start off with Dream Awareness, then I’ll shift into Lucid Awareness… after that I’ll do my conversion to bring forth my Astral Awareness. Generally what happens after some time in Astral Awareness is that I’ll just wake up.
So yeah, these are my new “States of Mind”. Hopefully they’ll assist me in helping new members on the Pulse and other forums I frequent.

http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2010/10/04/my-new-consciousness-designations/

Using this information, you should be able to ascertain what experience you had... lucid awareness experience, or an astral awareness experience... due to how consciously aware you were during the experience. :)

[Xan]

In my view there's a fine line between lucid dreaming and astral projection and sometimes they overlap.

The important part for me is not defining which it is but becoming more self aware and making new choices as that is how we grow from the experiences.


Xan

All above me are correct. Sometimes during your dream you get a sleep paralyze when you realize you're dreaming. You feel 'jolt' in that state. If it happens to you, relax and don't rebel. try opening you eyes and, in your mind, tell your ether body to wake up from your body.

Unfortunately for me, I still depend on brainwave music to do this. So I need my Mp3 player. :p