Experts - I need your expertise

I got home yesterday kind of loagy & decided to take an afternoon nap.
Despite what some textbooks say, it is possible to go almost immediately into REM without sleep deprivation - afternoon naps usually happen this way. So I pseudo-pulled myself to sleep and it was probably only a couple of minutes before I was lucid. The LD turned into a pretty nasty nightmare, so I woke myself up.

OK, here’s where it all went awry. I decided to go back and experience something more positive. I was already tired now, so I just closed my eyes & fell into the wave.
Usually when I’m falling asleep, the wave pulls me further down until I apparently lose consciouness until the LD.

This time I was falling fast, but I was still aware for way, way too long. I realized this & nervously tried to pull back from sleep (which I do often to get out of LDs), but that may have worsened the situation. I’m not totally sure on that account.

I heard the sound of something like a medium-loud rhythmic buzzing. It was a sound similar to the buzz made from static electricity. By this point I was very freaked that I was in some way damaging my brain by being conscious through this, but decided to wait & hope that I would simply go into a dream. My visual was just black & the sensation was the exact same as in LD mode. I hung in the balance for that bizarre buzzing to stop & for an image to break through. Nothing, nothing…It was all very negative.
Just like divine intervention or just crazy good luck, my husband called in the middle of this & pulled me out of it. I never got to the dreaming stage.

I am almost positive that this is closely related to LD. If this is a side effect of LDing too much - I don’t want to at all. If this had happened to you; would you begin avoiding LDs? How does one avoid LDs? What about the prospect of damaging my brain functions by being awake?
Thank-you, Aubra

Sounds like you just experienced the famous “vibrations”. This is a highly alert state where the body is still paralysed in sleep mode, yet your conscious mind is alert and aware. The vibrations are often the starting point for an OBE, by focusing on them and striving to increase their intensity it is possible to shift your awareness externally and possibly even detatch it from your physical body. This state is often accessed unintentionally by lucid dreamers, and can be very scary. However, the vibrations are very well documented and no harm can come to you from experiencing them. I have had had them many times, on occasion I have went with them all the way, forcing and visualizing myself up and out of my body, and have done so. If however that would not interest you as it indeed sounds, you could just relax and try to focus on entering a lucid dream, or if you want just force yourself to awaken your body again. I have also done both of these, entered an LD sometimes, or just told myself to wake up.

The vibrations signify that your conscious mind has shifted or is on the verge of disconnecting totally from your physical body, preceding full or partial detachment from it. In this instance you are basically bordering on pure mental experience alone, with all physical sensory input cut off…in a way the “poles” are about to be reversed, instead of inside looking out, you can switch to outside looking in…I always felt that the vibrations are the electrical equivalent of two magnets being pulled apart slowly. There can be a hell of a lot of force there until enough distance is put between the two. With practice one can speed up and smooth out that detachmet. All that said, I am afraid that they are pretty much part of LD territory, in my experience anyway. One needs to be aware of their possible occurance as well as other things like sleep paralysis. Forewarned is forearmed.

I am so grateful, Ascension, for your input on this matter. It had not even slightly occurred to me that this could be the precursor to an out-of-body experience (let alone that it is normal, as I’ve never seen them mentioned on the sight or in my LD books).

This is all really great news. I wonder, how long does it take for the vibrations to stop for you? They went on for quite some time for me, is that normal? Also, how do you get back into your body once you have removed yourself from it?

I hate to bombard with questions, but I’m am very, very relieved & want to find out the raw basics before I have a chance to research it.

Thank-you again

After reding that, it seemed liked you were ready to go lucid, right at that point of being surronded all in black. My question is, were you thinking clearly? did you ever question, knowing that you were dreaming? B/c if you did, i guess you were in controll at that point. I think you had controll over your dreamscape and everything.(I wouldnt know, it was your experinece) But what i am saying, it sounds like a LD and you sounded you didnt know what to do, b/c you thought you were somewhere else. I dont know, thats what i thought after reading your post, just think about it , and let me know what you think…

That is normal yes. It depends really, how long the vibes will last. At times I have had really rough, intense and prolonged vibrations which have resulted in an OBE, and at other times I have had very mild vibrations and found myself unable to have an OBE. Very occasionally I have felt no vibrations at all and had a really smooth OBE. To be quite honest though, I have had more aborted OBE’s than anything. It takes a lot of nerve and focus during the vibrations to allow yourself to have an OBE, manys a time I myself have become a little frightened and lost my focus, or even given up and woken up because the rhythm or frequency of the vibrations just was not strong enough to cause me to project…I was just lying there buzzing and aware for too long, so I would just give up. Apart from the occasional smooth exit, I have found that the stronger the rushing, crackling force of the vibrations, then this is the best time to try an OBE. Just focus on nothing else but floating up and out. If done well, you will feel the vibrations intensify, grow in force, this feeling can be seriously disconcerting if you allow your attention to wander…try hard to maintain focus, for if you do the rushing will rise to a crescendo and at this peak you will feel yourself float up out of your body, one of the most amazing experiences I will honestly say I have had. Still focus must be maintained. Several times I have wavered when exiting, the head is the last point of detachment with me, and sometimes when losing concentration I have become stuck at the head, half in and half out! Then I have had to give up.

Here is where I can answer your question regarding returning. Again there is nothing to fear, simply wish yourself back and you will be there in an instant. It is well documented that an unbreakable astral cord connects the astral body to the physical, I have never seen this but I have always been able to return to my body without any problems. Although usually due to lack of skill I would return not wanting to! The vibrations are meant to disappear altogether the more you practice OBE’s…I cannot verify this myself as I have not been having OBE’s frequent enough. To be honest I never started out with the intention of having an OBE, I was interested in LD’s and stumbled across OBE’s literally in my sleep! I first experienced sleep paralysis, then another night I got the vibes…this happened several nights, until I got them really strong one night, and fully aware I forced myself out to float up to the ceiling. In later ones I then made myself go through walls etc. There is a clarity or awareness of ones environment when experiencing an OBE that seem higher level than a normal LD. I have had some OBE’s where I knew I was asleep, but by the time I floated out everything seemed so clear and as if I was seeing with open eyes that I really would start to question if I was awake. Even as I floated across my room and hovered perfectly horizontal above the carpet, I was almost convinced I could actually be physically levitating my body across my room! Intense stuff. A real awakening, if you will!

Just as a sidenote, opinion varies widely on the subject of OBE’s. Some say they are just LD’s, all in the mind, others say an actual detachment of mind or spirit or whatever has taken place. I personally say they can be all of these. I believe that during an LD all visual data is constructed internally by imagination, memory etc. However during an OBE I believe consciousness can shift to an external perspective, like a third outside eye. The physics and dynamics of how this actually occurs are beyond me, but I believe this because I have had OBE’s tainted with dream images, where I believe consciousness has not fully shifted to an external perspective and thus internal dream data is mingled with the external awareness, and I have had OBE’s that were seemingly fully external awareness, clear as a bell. Of course I have also had straight LD’s where consciousness is still focused internally and utilizing the imagination and memory to construct the dreamscape we desire. Like I mentioned before I think an OBE is like flipping a coin, or reversing the polarity of consciousness for a period of time. Anyway, just my opinion. Hope it helped.

The static electricity buzz that you mentioned in the first post is something that I seem to encounter in most of my LD’s - it fills my ears, building in intensity, and I am always woken up by it. For me, it seems to indicate that conciousness is very close - I’m not sure if this is related to the experience that you had Meow, and I don’t know much about OOBEs or vibrations. I have always wondered where this noise eminates from though, as I am constantly suprised to awaken to a perfectly quiet real world. It always builds in intensity, sometimes taking on characteristics of recognizable sounds - such as a lawnmower - that I am sure will be present when I wake up, but never are.

PS I’m definitely not an expert!

Hubbs: Good input. When you close your eyes, you’re surrounded in black - even when clearly awake. This was the black I was referring to, although, at that point I couldn’t open my lids if I wanted to.
When falling asleep - I often LD almost immediately. But there is always a break in consciouness. What made this so unsettling what that I had no break in consciouness and was completely aware when the bizarre buzz rhythems began. I LD all the time & have naturally for 15 years, so I really know what it feels like, and this was something altogether different.

Ascension: You are full of great knowledge!(much appreciated). It is ironic that I hadn’t really considered OBEs possible before this. Sort of like Karma kicking me to research more appropriately before making my decisions.

I am still very concerned about the waking process. Ever since I began having LDs, I have been trying to wake-up from them. I would “jolt” myself within the dream over an over until I could escape. Usually rather than waking, I would just “jolt” from dream to dream. Eventually I would stumble upon wakefulness, but it would sometimes take a long time. Thanks to this Forum & other informative sites, I have learned some tricks to make the process easier (although the problem admittedly persists). If anyone else has this problem, there was a post about 10 months(?) ago that I found helpful. I think it was called “Can’t wake up”.
So when you say that you just decide to go back, I worry that my LDing issue will transfer. Anyway, that’s my concern.

You mention some very interesting and worthwhile experiences, though. I wonder if it’s worth the risk

The fool: That sounds similar to what I had experienced. However, mine was not like a lawnmower. There were clear gaps between each buzz & sounded more like electric connections being made. Still, it could be the same thing. All buzzes were created equal, right?

Meow, I understand what you mean about not being able to wake up quickly. When I say I force myself to awaken from a LD/OBE or whatever, I sometimes have to really exert a lot of effort! It can seem like an age sometimes, and I can understand how this can be scary. With me though I never really worried about it, as long as I am able to awaken eventually. But different strokes for different folks, so yes I do understand your apprehension. To be honest I had to overcome a lot of fear before I had my first LD and OBE. If you are LDing ok, then I wouldn’t worry about trying for an OBE. I have rarely deliberately set out to have one, they seem to happen to me quite spontaneously. Personally my own main goal now is imroving my lucidity, though I settle quite happily for OBE’s if they come along! As for yourself, keep doing what you do best!

I think ultimately that unless we are a very light sleeper, waking instantly out of a dream or whatever is unlikely. I guess there will always be a little drag upon awakening for most of us, whether we are awakening consciously or not. It just seems to take the body a while to kick in and switch from the paralysed sleep state to an alert wakened state.

Good to know that I’m not the only one with the opposite LD problem than that of most people. It’s actually not too bad nowadays. Since I’ve learned more about LDing it doesn’t really freak me out anymore, I’m more just wary about OBEs. Actually, being able to LD in such a deep-sleep has allowed some valuable opportunities for personal growth.

As far as waking, there are a lot of different things I try. What seems to work pretty well right now is flying higher and higher into the sky. As the ground gets smaller and smaller, the strangeness seems to offer a good wake-up cue. Also, floating higher almost makes me feel like I’m floating into a lighter sleep.

Do you have any good wake-up tricks?

I’m afraid not…I always try to stay in the dream for as long as possible, unless I get really freaked out. Then I just tell myself to wake up and wait for it to happen!