Lucid Dreams and Out-of-Body Experiences: A Personal Case

Abstract

I have just finished LaBerge’s book, Lucid Dreaming, and was gratified to learn that the lucid dreams of not a few people have similar characteristics to my own. These include: 1. Testing of gravity to reassure oneself that one is really awake in a dream; 2. Varying degrees of lucidity, some so lucid that one fears one will become "stuck"; 3. Frequent inability to read any written or printed matter; 4. Need to remain emotionally detached from the dream to prolong it; 5. Experience of lucidity coming over one gradually or suddenly; and 6. Capacity for voluntary action in this dreamworld. My lucid dreams are tied up with another phenomenon, that of the outofbody experience. . . . The essential difference between [OBE] experiences and my lucid dreams is that I am totally conscious when I enter this other state of consciousness whereas my lucid dreams always begin with a nonlucid dream which then becomes lucid.