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What is Lucid Dreaming? What is Out-of-Body Experience?

The term phase state (or simply phase) encompasses a number of widely known dissociative phenomena, many of which are referred to by various terms, such as astral projection or out-of-body travel. This concept also includes the more pragmatic term lucid dreaming, but does not always exist in the sense and form implied by that expression. Hence, the term phase has been introduced to ease the study of phenomena that exist beyond habitual – and often unfair – associations and stereotypes. The term out-of-body travel is accurate to the extent that it describes the sensation felt by a person experiencing the phase phenomenon.

So what is a lucid dream (a phase)? Lucid dreaming experience has two primary attributes: 1.) practitioners possess full, conscious awareness during the experience, and 2.) practitioners recognize a genuine separation from the physical body.

What is Lucid Dreaming and Out-of-Body Experience

Simultaneously, the degree to which practitioners perceive lucid dreaming environment affects the level of sensory experiences therein, which often occur in a higher form than the sensory experiences of wakefulness. This concept is difficult to imagine without firsthand experience of lucid dreamings. And so, it is not without reason that this practice is considered to be a higher state of self-hypnosis or meditation, and is often referred to under different names as the highest possible human achievement in various religious and mystical movements (yoga, Buddhism, etc.).

In essence, the phase is an unexplored state of mind where one is unable to control and feel his physical body. Instead, his space perception is filled with realistic phantom experiences.

It is believed that up to one quarter of the human population has encountered this phenomenon. However, if variations and different degrees of intensity of the state are taken into consideration, it may be safely assumed that everyone has encountered the phase. Since the phase is a rare subject of study, many who inadvertently enter it do not realize what has taken place once they return to wakefulness. Many do not assign any significance to the occurrence of a phase environment that is not fully formed because shallow phases don’t leave the same jolting impression as deep states. Elusive as the phase may seem, this is an extremely common phenomenon, accessible to anyone willing to consciously learn and apply the correct methods of achieving and maintaining the phase (lucid dreaming and out-of-body phenomenon)

Even a scientific approach to the phenomenon states unequivocally that making dreams lucid is accessible to all, barring serious brain pathologies. This has been unambiguously confirmed by experimental research. Therefore, there’s no sense in reasoning that lucid dreaming is something difficult, accessible only to a small circle of people, or out of anyone’s reach. Difficulties in mastering it attest only to technique-related mistakes, and not to the inaccessibility of the phenomenon.

Interesting Fact!
World Phase Day is naturally celebrated on the longest night of the year, i.e. on the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere – December 21st (and December 22nd on leap years).

 

Science and Lucid Dreaming

What is Lucid Dreaming

Science first accepted the possibility of the phase state within the dream consciousness context with Keith Hearne’s 1975 experiment at England’s Hull University. Over the course of the experiment, lucid dreamer Alan Worsley was able to make deliberate and previously agreed eye movements at the same that an EKG monitor indicated his brain was in a state of sleep. Several years later, Stephen LaBerge would perform a similar experiment at Stanford University that became well known due to his active contribution to the development of this field of study.

Quite a number of scientific experiments have been conducted worldwide to prove the existence of the phenomenon and investigate its nature. For example, experiments on three phasers at the Max Plank Institute in Frankfurt (2008) demonstrated the following: the largest difference between the states of wakefulness, lucid dreaming, and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep is observed at the 40 Hz frequency, and is concentrated in the frontal parts of the brain. Essentially, it was demonstrated that lucid dreaming is something in-between wakefulness and REM sleep. Notably, those very parts of the brain that are very much responsible for consciousness and whose development distinguishes humans from primates turn out to be the most active while in the phase. This work was undertaken by J. Allan Hobson, Ursula Voss, Romain Holzmann, and Inka Tuin. This was the group of researchers that demonstrated in a 2014 paper that stimulating the frontal region of the brain with 40 Hz of power during REM sleep significantly increases the odds of becoming conscious while dreaming, i.e. the onset of the phase state.

More in-depth explanations of the nature of lucid dreamings remain to be discovered. With each passing year, the scientific community increasingly realizes how important the study of this state is, recognizing that it enables a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for consciousness and how varying states of wakefulness and sleep arise.

There is also a theory which states that lucid dreaming is a product of the evolution of human consciousness: consciousness first arose in and occupied wakefulness, and then gradually began to seep into the REM state, the next-closest state still free of conscious awareness. Possibly, conscious existence in two worlds – wakefulness and the phase – will be as commonplace for men and women of the future as being aware only during wakefulness is today. However, there is also a completely opposite theory which maintains that phase ability used to be inherent, but is gradually disappearing. It points to the frequent ease with which younger children enter the phase, but later lose the ability with age due to its neglect.

Esoteric and Mystical Explanations

What is lucid dreaming

Although the general tone of this learning material has so far kept to a sufficiently materialist tack, it is not theorizing about the phase that brings people together, but its practice. Practice is indisputable, while theory always leads to contention. For that reason, it makes no difference at all what the practitioner considers the nature of the phenomenon to be, including if he sees esoteric or mystic motifs in it. Everyone has the right to their own outlook.

Unfortunately still, there is no clear definition of the phenomenon in esoteric culture, nor an unambiguous term for it. Depending on the esoteric practice, the phase state is alternatively lumped in with astral projection or out-of-body travel, and sometimes with lucid dreaming. Postulated is some essence (the soul or astral body) leaving the physical plane and finding itself somewhere in a) the physical world, b) the dream world, or c) the astral plane, etc. Meanwhile, the number of worlds that can be visited varies depending on the mystical school. For example, the astral plane can be the higher one or the lower one, or also the mental plane, etheric plane, and so on and so forth. In some mystical schools this is considered a higher experience in terms of one’s personal practice and state of being, while in others it is equated to the physical world, and is but a layer between more ethereal realms. Just the same, explanations of the nature of the phenomenon and its significance also vary widely.

It is also often considered to be the same state that people experience when dying. In many Eastern practices and religions, like Buddhism for example, where the main goal is to stop the cycle of reincarnation through remaining conscious while dying, it is believed that conscious dying can only be accomplished through ability to enter the phase, which would be a form of training for the moment of death and remaining conscious during it.
There are endless disagreements regarding how lucid dreaming (i.e. dream consciousness) actually differs from so-called “out-of-body travel” and whether its classification under the phase is justified. The same controversy extends to another esoteric term – astral projection. However, such doubts only trouble novices and those whose acquaintance with the phase is superficial. Not a single experienced practitioner can unequivocally differentiate these phenomena, although explanations for this may vary. For example, when classifying all these phenomena together, one practitioner will conclude that it’s indeed a parallel world, while another might maintain that it’s all generated by the mind.

There are many reasons to classify lucid dreaming (i.e. dream consciousness) together with out-of-body travel. This is not only because existing research and a massive number of peoples’ experiences easily prove it. There are a number of questions that adherents of dividing phase phenomena into various states cannot answer. First, why do lucid dreamers and out-of-body travelers use the very same techniques to achieve their states, but merely call the result by different names? Second, why are the fundamental properties of the out-of-body plane and lucid dreaming world exactly the same? Third, if the world of dreaming can take on any external form with any properties, then how does one differentiate real exit of the soul from the body into the physical world – or a parallel astral one – from a simulated dreamscape? Many can offer theoretical explanations, but not one that can be applied or proven in practice.

People usually encounter extreme physiological difficulty in leaving behind the idea of there being a myriad of worlds that they can fall into. This is usually tightly interwoven with their life philosophy and worldview, which can be pulled at the seams by such questioning. However, even opponents of classifying phase experiences together can easily use the techniques to achieve them in a way compatible with their outlook. This again demonstrates the secondary role of theory and the overriding importance of practice.

Why Practice Lucid Dreams?

What is lucid dreaming

Such a question can only arise from not fully understanding the properties of lucid dreamings and its nature. When one suddenly understands at a certain moment that he is just as real as he normally is, and is standing somewhere that is not in the physical world with his same hands and body, and can touch everything around him and discern fine details, such much emotion stirs up inside him that no questions arise at all. This is the most amazing experience that a person can attain!

The initial lucid dreaming encounter is always jolting and sometimes frightening. Depending on the individual, fear experienced during initial encounters with the phase occurs in about one-third of all cases. Even veteran practitioners encounter fear, which speaks to the profound nature of the phase state.

With time, as rapture ebbs and emotions wane, thoughts turn from the fact of the phenomenon itself towards how to somehow use it. And here, a fantastically diverse field of practical application opens up before the practitioner. These applications – which this website communicates – are not to be associated with the many unproven and dubious methods often described in sundry esoteric literature. The information presented herein is verifiable, practical, and attainable.

Whatever the nature of lucid dreamings– a state of mind, or perhaps an external experience – this is the sole opportunity to: visit any part of the world or universe; see people who are out-of-reach in real life, including relatives, the deceased, celebrities, and various creatures; communicate with the enormous resources of the subconscious mind and obtain information from it; realize desires that are unattainable in real life; model artistic productions; influence physiology, and more. These are not dull experiences. They are eminently personal and real. We will being going into all of them in detail later.

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More about Lucid Dreamings

1. We celebrate Phase Day on December 21th

2. A logo for all phase related projects (for all languages). Please, use it everywhere it is appropriate

THE_PHASE

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Check more:

The Phase. Shattering the Illusion of Reality
by Michael Raduga

The Phase. Shattering the Illusion of Reality

“All my life I sought an elegant solution to one odd riddle. I sought it from Siberia to California, from the field of neurophysiology to quantum physics, and in illegal experiments on thousands of people. But the answer I found sent me into shock and changed my entire perception of reality. Unlike others, I offer not only a new perspective on the world, but also step-by-step practices that can shake the pillars of your limited reality, and give you revolutionary new tools for obtaining information, self-healing, travel, entertainment, and much more.”

(Download an old version (2011) OR buy the newest one (2015) on Amazon)

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