Lucid Dreaming and Mysticism

It becomes difficult for one to accept details of the scientifically proven phenomenon of lucid dreaming from the same light as ‘spirit powers’ and telepathy. Why do these concepts often go hand in hand? Again, one is proven and explainable, while the others are, (albeit highly sought after) lacking in empirical reason.

I believe they go hand in hand because they are on the same “level of craziness” so to speak. At least people generalized it as approximately the same craziness. But we know that dreams aren’t that crazy of a concept specially not once they were proven, specially lucid dreams. The sad part of this is that just because of that generalizing and putting it in the level of craziness even today dreams are so neglected and not thought to future generations.

I can’t stress enough how little we talk about dreams and how unimportant they are to general population. Although I must say also that all this is changing. If you look around more and more is talked about the subject of dreams and consciousness…

It’s funner to believe in astral projection and that you’re actually out of body. That’s why I choose to believe in it, really.

I really don’t know the difference between AP and LD. except that when i WILD, I can see myself in bed! next time i am going to try and see if my bed body will rise and come fly with me. :wiske:

Soupfruit, isn’t saying that AP is possible akin to saying I can fly in RL? Why do you think AP almost always happens during some kind of dreamy state?

I’ve though long about this. But I didn’t come up with a clear answer. At least none that I can put into words. So, maybe it’s the question. Because my personal answer is really: They don’t.

The reasons why I’m interested in lucid dreaming are completely different from my interest in astral projection, for example. The latter one probably wouldn’t even be a topic of interest for me if it wouldn’t be a common topic on lucid dreaming sites. Sure, they have both very much in common, if you believe that astral projection is real. But I don’t. Choosing to believe in something is a concept that I don’t get.

But I know what you mean when you say they go hand in hand, of course. I think the question can be answered far better by people who are interested in both and are practicing both. Maybe the question of why someone is interested in both topics would also be interesting in this regard. That’s what I asked a friend once (because we have a lot of common interests, but also this very different approach to many things). And he said: Because it’s unscientific and mystical, the limits are unknown and the possibilities seem endless. It’s not that he doesn’t accept research or its findings, for example on lucid dreaming. He just doesn’t want to be limited by assumptions or implications if he can just as easily decline them and continue to explore a world that is far bigger than the one that I see and far more interesting than I seem to understand.

So, the interest in both lucid dreaming and astral projection (as well as other topics) is big because these fields let him explore something that appears mystical to him. So the reason why both concepts go hand in hand in this case might just be that both provide a good opportunity.

Maybe I shouldn’t try to speak for someone else. But from the ways my thoughts went this is the one that I found most promising.

I think that they go hand in hand because, before lucid dreaming was proven, it was still practised by Buddhist monks. They used lucid dreaming in what they call ‘Dream Yoga’ and still do today. That’s about my whole knowledge on Dream Yoga unfortunately, I stopped researching it a while back so I forgot most of it. But, as well as lucid dreaming, Buddhist monks still practise what they believe to be moving their souls out of their bodies (out of body experiences) and travelling to what they believe to be different planes of existence with their souls (astral projection).

In conclusion, I feel that they go hand in hand because they were most commonly used (albeit not that common anyway) by the same religion who didn’t need it proving scientifically. The fact that lucid dreaming was proven probably means nothing to them and they probably have just as much faith that out of body experiences, astral projection and other spiritual beliefs they have will also be proven one day.

I was going to answer something similar. It depends on each person. People have their own expectations to the topic.

This site (and others related to the topic) gather several people; some prefer to look by only believing on the proven scientific theories. Others look at it as something mystical. Others look at it considering every unproven possibility as well; which involves both perspectives.

In middle ages, chemistry was also seen with lot of mysticism. Nowadays, there are still people who look at it considering it mystical or magic, but probably in different quantities.