OBEs - Are They Dreams?

Abstract

A great deal of controversy has accompanied the presentation of the theory, as in Stephen LaBerge’s bookLucid Dreaming(LaBerge, 1985), that so-called out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are simply dreams or possibly even pre-lucid dreams. That this is true is not surprising, since, as many who have had such experiences have noted, these experiences often surpass all others in vividness and emotional intensity. They leave one with an extraordinary sense of conviction that what one has just experiences is real, perhaps even more so than ordinary reality. However, this same conviction is often experienced by people in ordinary dreams not involving the OBE feeling. I have often heard recounted, and personally experienced the thought, “This cannot be a dream; it is too vivid, too real.” Upon awakening, however, the dreamer realized that the situation he or she was just experiencing was entirely fictitious--a dream after all.