How Dreams Can be Used to Initiate OBEs

Dreams can be an effective doorway to out-of-body exploration. For many people it's a natural way to ease their awareness away from their physical state of consciousness and begin to recognize and experience other states of consciousness.

Since the dawn of civilization, societies and cultures around the world have viewed dreams as an important doorway to a different world. The significance of dreams is portrayed in humanity's oldest recorded writings including The Upanishads, The Bible, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, and The Koran. From the lavish dream temples of ancient Greece to the modern dream therapy techniques used by psychologists and psychiatrists, dreams continue to provide valuable insights into our subconscious mind.

If used properly, dreams can act as an effective trigger or signal for out-of-body exploration. One of the best ways to initiate an out-of-body experience is to become aware or lucid within the dream. This can be accomplished by changing our attitudes toward our dreams. First, begin to personally acknowledge the importance of your dreams in your daily life. Treat your dreams as valuable insights and messages from your subconscious mind. In effect, think of them as an actual form of communication, as real as your physical experiences.

Second, begin a daily dream - OBE journal. Record every dream you can, even the small fragments. This should be done immediately upon waking, either by writing or using a tape recorder. Pay close attention to your feelings, emotions, and sensations that are experienced during the dreams.

Third, firmly express your desire for increased clarity and awareness within your dreams. As you drift to sleep, strongly request your complete conscious awareness to be present in your dreams. Make a firm, verbal commitment to yourself as you fall to sleep that you will recognize, recall, and consciously experience every single dream.

Fourth, repeat a strong affirmation to yourself as you fall to sleep every night. For example, "As I fall to sleep, I remain aware" or "Now, I have a fully conscious out-of-body experience" or "I become aware in my dreams."

When doing your affirmations, make them firm and positive, fully expect your request to be granted. As with all out-of-body affirmations, concentrate your full emotional and intellectual energy into each one. It's important to focus and maintain your affirmations as your last conscious thoughts as you drift to sleep.

The transfer of your awareness can occur quickly so it's essential to remain calm and enjoy any changes in your personal perspective, environment, energy, or location.

This type of dream conversion is easy to achieve if we are willing to recognize and accept the entire process. The most important element is how we respond at the moment we become consciously aware within our dream.

I would like to clarify that vivid or lucid dreams are not necessarily out-of-body experiences but a psychological manifestation similar to an internal projection. The unusual or outrageous events in our dreams are creations of our subconscious mind specifically designed to grab and hold our attention. I have found that once we make a firm commitment to explore out-of-body, this type of lucid dream becomes a regular event. In effect, our subconscious mind is doing its best to assist us in achieving our goal for a conscious out-of-body experience. This, of course, is another reason why written goals are so vital. The more focused our goals, the more our subconscious mind is willing and able to assist us.

This type of lucid dream can be literally anything out of the ordinary: unusual surroundings or people, outlandish colors or shapes, strange buildings, animals or pets. I have found that it often may manifest as a single strange thing in a relatively normal dream; any strange, illogical or inappropriate person, place or things that is obviously out of the norm. The key to success is our conscious recognition and knowledgeable response to our lucid dream occurrence.

For example, a typical family sedan may become a bright red sports car. A regular home may become a castle. A household pet may become a lion or an eagle. A single object or event in a dream may become completely out of place and outrageous: a jumping crab, a talking cat, or maybe a flying dog. Whatever it is, it's something so psychologically outlandish it captures and holds our complete attention.

After you recognize the dream anomaly, say aloud anything that will consciously acknowledge your awareness, such as, "I know I'm dreaming," "I am awake in my dream" or "I'm now aware." The next step is to be prepared for the transition or movement of your consciousness from your dream state to your nonphysical body. It's quite common to wake up in the vibrational state while still within our physical body or experience ourselves out of sync with our physical body. The key to success is to remain calm and direct our inner self, our awareness away from our physical body.

This entire process is very natural. Now more than ever, I believe that dreams are created and designed to assist us in our personal development. It is our choice whether we recognize and use them, or ignore them. Whatever we decide, our subconscious mind will continue to send its dream messages to our conscious mind. Maybe the time has come to listen and learn from the imagery we receive every night in our dreams.