Well you bring a new meaning to RCs 
Perhaps you are actually regressing, Zaerus, and you are trying to convince yourself that your dreams really are real. If this is the case, eventually you will be like the rest of us, trying to figure out when we are dreaming and when we aren’t.
I am adding my name to the horribly jealous. You are obviously much much much more skilled than am I with LDing so I won’t presume to give any technical advice.
You are saying that the dream feels so real that you are, in a way, losing lucidity? I mean… you begin to accept the dreams logic? Do you slip back into normal dreaming (albeit intensely sensual) Or are you still maintaining the sense of self and awareness?
Hey everyone…well, I agree with Athiest on this one - there are really MANY levels of lucidity, and what you’re describing sounds to me like a pretty high level - although, by no means beyond lucidity. I’m not doubting your ability, since I don’t know you at all, but it does just sound like a high level of lucidity. I’ve actually attained that level only a few times; the only way I could accurately describe it to anyone at the time, was telling them it was like I put on powerful eyeglasses, because everything became SO incredibly SHARP and vivid ( I don’t even wear glasses). The rest of my senses followed suit - every sense was amplified to my extreme delight. Unfortunately I wasn’t experienced enough at the time to employ a “prolonging technique” to keep the LD going (spinning, rubbing hands together, etc…) so it faded in just a few minutes. 
I think you can know you’ve reached one of the highest levels of lucidity (if not the highest), when you can literally do ANYTHING…especially things the mind registers as inconceivable IRL. One of my friends is something of a master LDer, as she has been able to do some very amazing things, in the terms of LDing. She has actually manifested huge things, like mountains and houses, and then picked them up and thrown them, or split them in half with her bare hands. 
She’s proclaimed she can manifest people, objects, landscapes, etc etc…and then manipulate them in any way; I’ve heard everything from her, from climbing through mirrors, to dictating an entire crowd’s movement (like the group of people in the bar in “Vanilla Sky”). The only thing she says she can’t do in a LD is turn on a light! I don’t think anyone, not even the GOD of lucid dreaming, Dr. LaBerge, has been able to turn on a light…I haven’t even tried it yet, but I have a strong feeling that within a few more months, I’ll be having an LD once a week…and then I’ll give it a try… 
Well, those are just my thoughts, Happy LDing everyone! 
I used to have some opinions on why turning on lights dosn’t seem to have any effect. Originally I concluded that this is because lights are not something the mind can realistically project. Don’t get me wrong, you can certainly dream about dark places, but I don’t think most people have the ability to change the light level in a localized enviromnemt.
A while ago I concluded that things like shadows, specular highlights and shiny surfaces were simply not possible in dreams. The mind is powerful, but generating realistic light structures from arbitrarily positioned light sources is just a little too much to process.
Recently though, I’ve had some Lucid Dreams in which I’ve been able to use things like flashlights and fire in dark places.
I guess you just don’t notice these things when you’re dreaming. Too many other things to look at 
Zaerus: I find your experiences very exciting I don’t believe at all that you are regressing, and feel that this is something that can only be positive. Like a deep meditational state, you seem to exhibiting a oneness with your thoughts.
I am reminded of the movie “Groundhog Day” for no good reason except that he was able to repeat an experience over and over to gain specific skills. If you have this level of concentration and sound, I wonder if you could try learning to play the piano or practice a foreign language.
Please post what discoveries you make in the coming weeks
P.S. I HAVE turned on a light with a switch. I’m not a very controlled LDer, but for some reason it worked for me. I suspect it was because the dreamscape was the house I grew up in, and therefore I had a high level of expectancy and comfortability. (just a note) 
My first real LD I was half lucid after a FA and I flipped a switch and as I was anticipating, the light turned on in the hallway, but I could see part of the light beneath the door. Then I went to the next light switch for my room and it somehow lit up in a way. But then again I was still half-lucid and not being critical, so I probably just pretended it did and looked away. As good a RC light switches are, I don’t trust em.
I think I know why you have this realistic dream. But to explain you have to understand my theory about normal dreams.
It’s very easy.
For us to be able to take the right choises in life, we have to know the consicvenses of the different choises we make.
A good way for the mind to know this is to simulate a senario where one of the choises where made and see hwo the body and mind would react on that.
This mothod is far from failproof, but since the dream uses every thinkeble thing to make this as real as posible it is really usefull.
But when we start interfering with the dream the mind can’t use this dream for the original purpose. This normaly isn’t a problem since we usually have plenty more dreams than problems to sovle.
But when you get to good hang of the LDing and non of the dreams get to live its own life, the mind have to make the dream more realistic so that you don’t get lucid in every single dream.
You say you are a master of LDing. You migth be too good. I think the mind just trying to prevent you from geting lucid every single time.
You are experiencing what many people really mean when they say “out of body experience” - when your conscious brain wakes up entirely (or stays awake entirely, if you’re doing WILD) but your body stays entirely asleep in every other way. The result is extremely vivid hallucinations.
Fwongo:
You just described Lucid Dreaming in it’s entirety.
“Out of Body Experience” means exactly what it sounds like. Your body is asleep, and your mind has the ability to leave the body, giving you a perspective of the location from a viewpoint away from where you are sleeping.
Note: I don’t personally believe any of this, but there are many resources online if you want to read more about it.
That’s not true! I refer here to being completely conscious, as you are when you’re awake (rather than the hazy consciousness of real life), but still being otherwise asleep. 100% lucidity. When you attain this level, having a sense of being out of your body becomes more common, but it doesn’t always happen. People who say “out of body experience”, or (especially) “astral projection”, then, often are thrown a bit off by this and really mean any instance of this kind of hallucination/dream, whether or not there is any explicit evidence you are out of your body.
If you don’t believe me, I can dig up a few links.
I think what people really mean when they say “out of body experience” is just that. They believe they have actually left their physical bodies as a spirit or what have you. That is what they mean. What they have actually ecperienced? Who knows. Some people say there is an area of the brain that can be electrically stimulated to produce the same effect… I don’t know about that… some people say its a version of lucid dreaming… truth is elusive.
… despite what links you have. mrgreen: [/list]
Fwongo:
I’m not sure what you are disagreeing with?
If the conscious mind is awake, and the body is sleeping, then you are having a lucid dream. If you then continue to lucid dream about leaving your body, and perhaps viewing things in the third person, then you are still having a lucid dream.
I didn’t want to have to resort to throwing links at each other, but the TRUE definition of “Out of Body Experience” is a spiritual thing, as described here:
https://www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/obe-faq.html
When people experience this while asleep, you’re right in that they might be mistaking it for a simple high-level LD. However, religious people sometimes claim to be able to perform these OOBs from a completely conscious state, perhaps while sitting under a tree and meditating.
I am not religious person and still think obes and lds are way different.I judge by my 7-8 obes experiences and about same of lds.
They are not spirituall,they are not just higher level lds.I dont really know how to pinpoint the difference.But they feel way different.Its just another thing.
ohh…maybe i shouldnt have started this post cause i find it helpless to describe differences but reading your post it looks like u see obes and lds as separate because of spirituall touch.Thats not like this.
Ummmmmm…let me think about it,its late tonight.ill try to be more specific tomorrow.
Or maybe someone with bigger experience could confirm it or help me to find right words.
everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1281730
Quote:
"The classic example is this: you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. You get out of bed, saunter to the toilet and do the work biology dictates. Three seconds later you still have to go to the bathroom. Repeat. Over and over. Sooner or later you realize you’ve been ‘dreaming’ about going to the bathroom rather than actually doing it. Then you ‘really’ go to the bathroom. But, shoot, even that was a dream.
That’s an OOBE. Any other one you have will feel exactly the same way (without having to pee).
A similar effect to OOBEs is that of lucid dreaming. In fact, lucid dreaming can be a precursor to a full-out OOBE. A lucid dream is one in which you know you are dreaming while you’re doing it, but don’t do much about it. Things still happen to you. You’re mostly reacting."
Here, someone is mistaking an OOBE for some combination of false awakenings and dream control.
Many people have odd ideas about how OOBE’s relate to lucid dreams. Here’s the many ways I’ve seen it defined, in order of popularity:
- The literal sense, having an impression of being out of your body
- The state where you have completely teased your brain into a waking state, but somehow you’ve managed to stay physiologically asleep. Since you’re no longer under any of the effects of sleep (ie poor memory and logic), except the hallucinogenic aspect, it feels different than plain lucid dreaming, where you’re the only qualification is tht you’re aware that you’re dreaming. Whether or not you have explicit knowledge that you’re out of your bod, this definition can hold. A WILD-like technique can be used to attain this state (outofbody.co.uk/obehowto/obehowto-3.shtml), or you can try to do it by various techniques from within a dream.
- Any WILD
- Any experience where you feel isolated from your mind, like you’re watching yourself do things from an outside and disassociated perspective, even if you don’t actually see your body from the outside
- Some people even go so far as to say any dream is an OOBE - in a sense, when you’re in a dream you’re not in your physical body.
The OOBE is an extremely poorly-defined concept, and anyone who argues about it will likely exhaust themselves if they don’t make sure their definitions match.
(Wow, this forum is acting crappy. When I say “OOBE”, I don’t intend for there to be an “s” on the end, OK?)
I agree, in that the general definition of OOBEs has been stretched and torn so much that now it’s a person-to-person opinion-based concept.
The first option you wrote (literal definition) is the right one. The term “Out of Body Experience” was more frequently used to describe a state in which you can see your sleeping body, and believe that you are seeing things that are happening in the same room where you are alseep, just from a different perspective.
To be truthful, I believe that anything that happens to you while you are sleeping should only be described as a dream, or a lucid dream. If you can see things clearly, indulge each of your senses and walk around the landscape like you do each day while awake, then you have achieved a high-level of lucidity.
I’m not sure I agree with that quoted bathroom example. That, my friend, is a dream as standard as they come. If you need to attend the bathroom while you are asleep, then this will most certainly influence your dreams.
It’s normal to mistake dreams for RL while you are dreaming them.
Zaerus, how often do you LD?
Fwongo:Why bring out such a debatable subject leading nowhere…
it’s like me trying to express my views on THU (see sig), but actually debating that I’m correct and dreams are in fact as real as waking life [although I only find that an interesting theory, which is part of something that goes well beyond something as simple]
I can’t see how people got the term OBE confused, although you are right it seems.
OBEs in a scientific view is some form of conscience ‘spirit, aura, astral body, some form of awareness,…etc’ that has physically left the body. The only problem with this is science only sees this as an observation made by people, mainly common in NDEs, so people can refer to OBEs anytime they feel something like that happened, whether it really did or it was in their heads all along!
LD are dreams! They happen within your head (given your belief on the subject) so if you dream about an OBE, it was a dream about an OBE.
Am I the only one with the mental picture of a dog chasing its tail?
Why do I bother with this…
Hello all. This is my first post in about a year and just wanted to say hi again 
Anyway i thought your post was interesting. I have been LD’ing for a while now and way-back-when, we had a debate about this. Perception = reality. Reality is such a loose yet distinct term. I believe there are many times when reality can be felt, one of which is when you LD. Although you are not bound by the rules of waking reality, the simple fact is, you have a consciouss understading of yourself and your environment; therefore, it is your reality. Ok its late, time to go to bed 
Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake. --Thoreau
well said micron!