Had a dream and woke up with apnea

[Akhila]

I would like to give some details about the content of my dream first. I had a really traumatic period during my university education so it keeps haunting me all the time. My dream was also based on it.
So i was sleeping today afternoon and was dreaming about my college again, i could somehow see myself on the highway leading to my college. I thought in my sleep that its not right dwelling on my past so i wanted to come back. I could see myself rushing to the place i was at that time, that is onto my bed and woke up breathless.

Now i dont know what to make of this. I dont even know if this was a dream or i was astral projecting because lately i've been doing it everyday and i feel vulnerable now.

 

[Li-la]

hi,
if i got it right one can project different ways, one is by staying in the body and yet move with the mind alone, another OBE which can happen knowingly by sound and voices, another is that our astral body hits something, usually the roof (this is how it is with my daughter and I, we touch the roof and realize we are out of our bodies). you could catch your breath because of all the emotions from this difficult collage time and then it can only be a dream. You could also do astral project with your mind or your body and then this experience too could effect your breathing when you wake up. By instinct I say you did leave your body, was shocked that you did when coming back which caused this reaction, but I can't be all that sure. In sleep we can go to places and to people we don't think we would go to, it is like it is out of our controls. A soulmate of mine, my co-worker, does this sometimes at night. I think it is something from our past life together. I left him while he was then asleep to never return. He has also managed to clone himself who has been a ghost who has watched over both my daughter and me at night for years before. I know this sounds super weird and beyond belief, but I am not the only one claiming that we can duplicate like this; his clone is like a shadow of the real thing. It is really another story. I am sorry I got off this topic. So please don't mind this last part. I hope you will be able to work out what it is that is heavy for you from collage times. I think then you will be free and you will stop returning to it.

Best Wishes
Li La

 

[Eowyn]

It was just a dream, you became anxious and woke up, that's all.

We all leave our bodies while we sleep, it's natural. The only difference between a dream and astral projection is the degree of lucidity.

 

[Li-la]

I forgot to ask this is you were in the car driving or outside traveling in air? if in the car driving you were dreaming, outside on your own astral traveling, that is my take on it ,at least.

I feel for your vulnerability, been there too. It is like it is not you in control but your subconscious which has a will of it's own. It is your subconscious that need to work this out, and you have to follow.

Best Wishes

Li La

 

[Akhila]

I forgot to ask this is you were in the car driving or outside traveling in air? if in the car driving you were dreaming, outside on your own astral traveling, that is my take on it ,at least.

I feel for your vulnerability, been there too. It is like it is not you in control but your subconscious which has a will of it's own. It is your subconscious that need to work this out, and you have to follow.

Best Wishes

Li La

I was not in a vehicle, i felt like i was just floating which is why i was confused and asked the question. It was weird

 

[Speedwell]

I was not in a vehicle, i felt like i was just floating which is why i was confused and asked the question. It was weird

That does sound like astral travel. Though personally I've had a number of dreams in which I glide just above the ground, sometimes self-consciously glancing at other people who are all firmly held to the ground by gravity. But the out-of-body experience, another name for astral travel, tends to be different to a dream, the places seem real, even the unfamiliar seems very real, in a way that dreams do not.

 

[Speedwell]

It was just a dream, you became anxious and woke up, that's all.

We all leave our bodies while we sleep, it's natural. The only difference between a dream and astral projection is the degree of lucidity.

There seems to be a suggestion here that astral travel and lucid dreaming are the same thing, something with which I don't really agree. A dream remains a dream, even if lucid.

 

[fireflydancing]

A dream remains a dream, even if lucid.

In this case, you should define what is a 'dream'. They are not all the same kind of experience.

To me, a dream is when there is a story, interaction and things that happen without you organizing it.

A lucid dream is when you are conscious that you walk around in a story and that you have the ability to change behavior and circumstances (more or less, not everything)

What I call an astral dream, is when there is no story and no emotions involved. Nothing happens to me, I just observe and move around in some kind of templates. When I meet people, there is no story, we can have a conversation or ignore each other. And when they touch me, I wake up with pain in my physical body.

Only my personal definitions and sometimes there is a little pollution, like a highly symbolical event that I watch within an astral dream, like background information or set-up to present me a message).

 

[Speedwell]

Yes, I'm willing to disagree with myself on how I referred to 'what is a dream' above.

In particular I have in mind at least two particular occurrences in which I had a contact with my deceased father. We don't really have any other word than dream for the context in which these took place, but there was a very real, most undreamlike quality that somehow breaks the definition of dream. Language is sometimes inadequate.

 

[Li-la]

I was not in a vehicle, i felt like i was just floating which is why i was confused and asked the question. It was weird

It sounds to me as if you traveled there by mind but was still in your sleeping body or that you were there in an OBE but some say one is suppose to hear strange sounds if one leaves the body but not everyone seem to have it this way.

 

[Akhila]

It sounds to me as if you traveled there by mind but was still in your sleeping body or that you were there in an OBE but some say one is suppose to hear strange sounds if one leaves the body but not everyone seem to have it this way.

I dont remember much. I dont know if there were sounds but i do remember that whenever i try to get out of the body, i get a tingling feeling allover and i jerk awake at any small sound. After i wake up i have numbness in my arms and legs.
It is getting scary actually because after i am awake again, i seem to be having hallucinations, i see things everywhere, things that dont exist. Im sleeping with lights on because of fear

 

[Akhila]

In this case, you should define what is a 'dream'. They are not all the same kind of experience.

To me, a dream is when there is a story, interaction and things that happen without you organizing it.

A lucid dream is when you are conscious that you walk around in a story and that you have the ability to change behavior and circumstances (more or less, not everything)

What I call an astral dream, is when there is no story and no emotions involved. Nothing happens to me, I just observe and move around in some kind of templates. When I meet people, there is no story, we can have a conversation or ignore each other. And when they touch me, I wake up with pain in my physical body.

Only my personal definitions and sometimes there is a little pollution, like a highly symbolical event that I watch within an astral dream, like background information or set-up to present me a message).

But dont you see other astral beings when you astral travel? Like Other things which are scary and may cause emotions in you

 

[Speedwell]

I dont remember much. I dont know if there were sounds but i do remember that whenever i try to get out of the body, i get a tingling feeling allover and i jerk awake at any small sound. After i wake up i have numbness in my arms and legs.
It is getting scary actually because after i am awake again, i seem to be having hallucinations, i see things everywhere, things that dont exist. Im sleeping with lights on because of fear

Some of the things you describe sound normal. However, seeing things after you wake - how long does that last? It isn't something I associate with astral travel.

When you mentioned apnea, that can be a problem if the body is not getting a proper supply of oxygen, sometimes there are physical or medical factors which are the cause. Also, lack of oxygen may perhaps be a cause of hallucinations.

 

[Akhila]

Some of the things you describe sound normal. However, seeing things after you wake - how long does that last? It isn't something I associate with astral travel.

When you mentioned apnea, that can be a problem if the body is not getting a proper supply of oxygen, sometimes there are physical or medical factors which are the cause. Also, lack of oxygen may perhaps be a cause of hallucinations.

Doesnt last long so i posted this thread as soon as i woke up. I considered hallucinations due to expelling too much carbondioxide because i deep breathe for a while to try and concentrate.
I get apnea sometimes which i know is caused due to other conditions i have. I never associated it to OBE before this. This time it was different, the apnea,im sure felt like it was caused due to me rushing into my body so i wanted to know the experiences others have in this forum.

 

[Eowyn]

There seems to be a suggestion here that astral travel and lucid dreaming are the same thing, something with which I don't really agree. A dream remains a dream, even if lucid

I agree 100% with you, sorry if I didn't explain myself. I use to simplify so people who haven't done conscious astral travel understand it better.

The way I see it, it's kind of a ruler where 0% lucidity is a dream and 100% is astral travel (though I was told by people with more experience than me that it's nearly impossible to be 100% lucid, and the most you reach is around 60-70%). You have all the possibilities in-between, but yes, a lucid dream is still a dream.

So, reading all the comments, I think there is not a definite answer to the OP; because, most times, like this one, what we experience is a mixture of dream + astral travel, as none of us is 100% lucid and this was not a "normal dream" where we use to be 0% lucid.

When you leave your body consciously (you astral project) it is more likely you have an experience closer to 60-70% of lucidity, that is when you see strange things and you are somewhere that has nothing to do with the real world. Dreams look like the real world, so once I heard somebody say that the more real your dream looks like, the less likely it is you are astral travelling.

When we don't astral project consciously and we are not completely aware of the moment we leave our bodies, we "wake up" already in the astral plane, and it's more difficult to differentiate the astral plane from a dream. Our mind is always "creating" something, that's the part I call "dream" in an astral projection, and that's why it's rare we are 100% lucid.

For those who have the ability to have lucid dreams, we can say there is more part of "dream" than "astral travel", but they're out of their bodies anyway, because that's natural and we all do it every time we sleep. I insist in this part because I have the impression people just don't believe it or don't understand.

And although we tend to use OBE and astral travel as synonyms, I'd say OBEs are often associated with more lucidity because we usually talk of OBEs in the context of NDEs or circumstances when the body is completely shut off, like anesthesia or a blackout. Here we're not just sleeping, our physical body is totally unconscious and maybe that's why there's more lucidity in these experiences.

 

[Eowyn]

To me, a dream is when there is a story, interaction and things that happen without you organizing it.

A lucid dream is when you are conscious that you walk around in a story and that you have the ability to change behavior and circumstances (more or less, not everything)

What I call an astral dream, is when there is no story and no emotions involved. Nothing happens to me, I just observe and move around in some kind of templates. When I meet people, there is no story, we can have a conversation or ignore each other. And when they touch me, I wake up with pain in my physical body.

I don't think it's so much related to the story and emotions, but just the degree of lucidity, as I explained above. It's clear than in a dream we are just mere observers, it's like you're in a movie and your brain creates everything and you can't do much about. Then, if you are a bit lucid, you can begin to interact with what you see, maybe you can change the plot a bit, plan what is going to happen next, but it's still a story your brain is creating. If lucidity grows, as it seems in what you call an astral dream, maybe you are starting to be aware of the astral plane (what you call a template), you see "something" where you're moving, and lots of beings around you that ignore you or not. Those surroundings are not like the real world at all, it's more similar to a fantasy world (I always say it reminds me a lot of the movie Tron). And if you have enough control to maintain a lot of lucidity for a longer time, then you'll see that apart from this astral world, you can indeed create what you want, and fight with other beings using just your imagination, and going wherever you want, etc. It's possible that in this phase there are less emotions, because you have to control them so that they don't control you. Our negative emotions, those that are in our subconscious, tend to take shape in the astral and we can be deceived by them.

 

[Eowyn]

I get apnea sometimes which i know is caused due to other conditions i have. I never associated it to OBE before this. This time it was different, the apnea,im sure felt like it was caused due to me rushing into my body so i wanted to know the experiences others have in this forum.

This sounds like something totally physical, nothing to do with AP. Apnea and sleep paralysis are totally different things, though some people think they are the same. When we leave or return to our physical bodies, there can be a moment of lack of synchronicity in the process, and you may have the feeling that you can't breathe, because you're paralyzed, but it's only that, a feeling, as for a little while you are not in control of the muscles responsible for breathing. Sleep paralysis is just a symptom you're separating from your body and all you have to do is to relax so the moment will pass and you'll be back safely in your body. Now, if your physical body just stops breathing while you sleep, and you know this is what happens to you because of a medical condition, then it's apnea and it will have to be treated conveniently.

 

[Speedwell]

Though I think that sounds fair enough, in my opinion we need to be careful about what role we assign the brain in all of this. For example the brain as creator, that would be something I'd not be certain about. So saying something such as "a story your brain is creating" would not be something I feel comfortable with. However, I don't wish to get into a long discussion of this, merely to express my doubts. I've spent a long time on considering the relationship between consciousness and the material world. Just how they interact is pretty much an unknown, though there are plenty of views out there expressed with certainty. Myself I'm mostly uncertain on these matters.

 

[Eowyn]

Though I think that sounds fair enough, in my opinion we need to be careful about what role we assign the brain in all of this.

O.K., maybe you feel more comfortable if I use the word "mind"? For me the brain is like any other organ, nothing special about it. The point here is that we can be more or less conscious of our mind activity.

 

[Eowyn]

I've spent a long time on considering the relationship between consciousness and the material world. Just how they interact is pretty much an unknown, though there are plenty of views out there expressed with certainty. Myself I'm mostly uncertain on these matters.

This is an interesting subject I've been discussing recently in a Facebook group. I feel we won't be able to understand it properly while we keep seeing the physical and nonphysical planes as two separate things. It's all the same reality, the same way we can't talk of a body and a soul as separate entities. I am made of energy, and my physical body is just that energy in a "solid" state, so to speak. But everything around me is made of the same atoms, of the same energy in a solid state. I used the example of a virus, because it's something we don't see with our physical eyes, however, I don't think anyone here doubts a virus can interact with us at a "physical" level, only, it's a level (a plane) we only can access with an electronic microscope. It's quite possible the soul/consciousness belongs to the quantum physics level or perhaps even beyond, where the physical laws are different, and it's a level we can't see or perceive, except in certain circumstances (there are indeed sensitive people who can, and there are certainly ghosts that somehow interact with the physical world). We don't understand how this can happen because we haven't discovered yet which is the exact nature of that part of us. We can barely imagine our molecules and atoms interacting with the molecules and atoms of a virus, but we know it happens because of the effects. Likewise, we see some of those effects in what we call paranormal phenomena, but we have yet to find at what level that interaction takes place. I have no doubt we'll know someday, but first we have to understand it's all the same reality, there's not a material world separate from the immaterial one. They both are close together (and maybe that's the reason we always say the dead never leave us).

 

[Grel]

There seems to be a suggestion here that astral travel and lucid dreaming are the same thing, something with which I don't really agree. A dream remains a dream, even if lucid.

I hold the opinion sleep apnea may not only be a medical issue but a shock to the soul from reliving a trauma either in this life or past.
As for lucid dreaming, imho it's not only dreaming per se but perhaps a way for the soul to explore.
-Grel