Thread: What are the differences between AP and LD?

LD is real, AP isn't

That's a good question defygravity, and also a very controversial one, with some people, and even courses like the Bradley Thompson ripoff Dream Course, saying that there is no such thing as Astral Projection, that it is all a dream.

Anyone who has ever woke up in the middle of the night to find themself floating over their body looking back at themselves laying on their bed, or has felt themselves come tumbling back into their body after having been out of it, knows that Astral Projection or Out of body experiences do exist though.

The main difference I find between Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming is that with Lucid Dreaming a persons spirit is still inside their body and they are in control of their dream, whereas with an Astral Projection or an Out of body experience, a persons spirit is outside of their body.

Dreams of floating or flying, even though they may not even be lucid dreams can sometimes be astral projections as the persons spirit may be outside of their body floating or flying around.

My last lucid dream turned into an Astral Projection when I felt myself float out of my body, after which I was able to float around my house a bit and go through some walls.

The biggest problem I had while I was out of body was being able to see as everything was so dark, whereas while I was in the lucid dreams I had no problem seeing since it was a dream.

Feel like I need to counterpost to keep the balance.

Traditional neuroscience will tell you that every sensation you ever experience will be created by your own brain, and this would include "feeling that you're outside your body." Every thing about AP that supporters tell you makes it different from just lucid dreaming can at least in theory be invented wholly by the mind. So just because you feel the sensation of floating out of your body does not mean that your brain doesn't just have the imagination to make you think you are while you're really still just lucid dreaming.

That being said, if you ever experience the sensations of a typical AP, you'll have no way of deciding whether they were illusion or reality, and since they felt real enough you'll probably conclude anecdotally that APing is possible. Those of us deprived of the opportunity of feeling how convincing an AP can be, though, will continue to follow what empirical thought and scientific evidence suggests, which is that APs are a particularly convincing form of lucid dream.

Lucid dreaming is what science has so far proven. Conscious dreaming.

OBEs are experiences that are open to interpretation. They are usually very vivid LDs and the person may actually believe they have left their body. Powerful experiences.

Astral projection is a belief that one leaves the body and ascends to the astral or emotional plane of existence in an "astral body". In this belief there are up to seven different subtle bodies corresponding with seven planes. The new age astral projection belief has many parallels with ancient cultures and their interpretations of OBEs. Astral projection is very, very overused however in that people forget there is an entire belief system with that term; one that draws many conclusions other than simply leaving one's body or feeling like one has done so.