Thread: Trying To Understand What This Is

Hi all. I'm new here. I joined because I'm trying to understand these experiences I have during sleep. I would love to have a name for it so that I can read more about it. I'm wondering if anyone here can relate to any of this or knows what it is. This post will probably be a little long, but I would so appreciate it if you could read through it and give me any ideas. I've been dealing with this for a few years now and have really been hoping to get some answers.

I've basically been having what I call sleep meetings. There is one person in particular - an old friend who I haven't spoken with for several years now, but was very close with for many years prior - who I seem to meet up with during sleep. Well, the friend and on two occasions, his wife, who I don't know and have never met in waking life. These are not dreams. I have dreams about this old friend once in a while and even if they are vivid or intense, I know they're just dreams, but this other thing that happens is definitely different. Every time it happens, it begins with a feeling that I've been abruptly pulled, or have otherwise abruptly landed at wherever this happens to be taking place. The entire feeling of it is different. Often times, I get information from him that is true in real life, that I couldn't otherwise know. For example, in these "sleep meetings" I have learned about the pregnancies and births of both of his children (and the name and gender of the most recent one), and his wedding. While awake, other big life events have come up (engagement, his mother's illness, and then her death). So, it seems like, in general, there's a sort of psychic connection there, which I would love to understand too, but the things that happen during sleep are what really puzzle me. We don't have any friends in common and live about 3,000 miles apart. In order for me to verify that this stuff was real, I had to do a bit of facebook creeping (I'm not proud of it lol, don't judge me. I did it because this happened so frequently and created such strong reactions for me that I was afraid I was having some kind of psychological problem and needed to find out if this information was even true or not). The facebook page is private except for the profile pictures and their comments, so it's not even like I could have seen comments on a wall that suggested that those events were happening, however subtle. I verified everything after the fact and only in this way, but it was all true.

Not all of the meetings are like that though; not all of them come with information. Sometimes, they're just hang outs, which are usually more fun. The first one I had with the friend's wife was crazy. Again, there was the feeling of being yanked into some space. It was a park. She was there, waiting for me; she was really kind and welcoming. It seemed like she knew where we were and as we walked around together, she seemed to be the one sort of guiding the whole thing. I saw a bunch of landmarks, things I had never seen before - a river so big that I thought at first that it was a lake. I saw a really odd looking bridge. We sat at a picnic table among some younger trees and off in the distance, almost in my peripheral view, I saw some small, wooden structure that I couldn't totally process, but reminded me of a group of small, old buildings, but I knew that wasn't what they were. When I asked her where we were, she said "Kennewick." When I woke up, I googled it and found that it's a real city in WA. When I zoomed in on the map, I saw a park on a huge river (Columbia Park on the Columbia River). A google image search found that crazy looking bridge (the Blue Bridge), the same exact view of the river that I'd just seen in that "dream", a picture of the picnic table area I'd just sat in with the young trees, and then a picture that made me laugh. The wooden structure in the distance that I couldn't quite process...it was a playground-type structure, made of wood, had a bunch of little towers in it (like small, wooden buildings). It was right there, all the stuff I had just seen, that I had never seen prior to that "dream"...I'd never heard of Kennewick, WA, or Columbia Park, or the Columbia River, or the Blue Bridge. That was a weird one.

There was one instance where, during the night, there was a "sleep meeting" that was just fun and laid back. No information was involved, no showing up in places that I had never known about, but that are real - just hanging out. And then the next time I slept, I showed up somewhere to meet him again, like we had planned it, and he wasn't there. It made sense because it wasn't a normal sleep time...I was napping in the early evening. All sorts of weird things have happened with this.

Things that are often or always true in these "sleep meetings" are that most or all of the communication seems telepathic. There are times when he will be speaking with his mouth, but I can't pay attention enough to understand (it definitely happened that way with his wife in the Kennewick incident). Even when that's true, I wake up with the information that he gave me. So for example, when we had the sleep meeting where he told me that they were about to have a daughter named Emma, I wasn't getting that information from his speaking (the speaking is like background noise - it's there but you tune it out). It was as if that's not how he actually communicated with me and that's definitely not how I communicated to him. I can't help getting the distinct feeling that when there is actual speaking going on in these things, it's because we have an instinct to use our mouth to communicate, so we move our mouths, but we're really communicating through thought. Very often, nobody moves their mouths and all or most of the communication is done telepathically. The other thing that happens a lot (again, this was true in the Kennewick situation) is that I spend a lot of time looking around, wondering where the heck we're at and how the heck I got there. Not every time, but often enough that I figure it might be worth mentioning.

I sometimes loosely call this astral projection, but any time I've read about astral projection, it doesn't sound the same. People talk about seeing astral bodies, being out in space, sometimes seeing other people doing astral projection. I haven't experienced any of that, it's just that I get the sense that maybe I'm leaving my body when this happens. I definitely have an overwhelming feeling that I *go* somewhere for this, and that he (or occasionally, she, the wife) goes somewhere too; that we are literally meeting up. I don't think this is lucid dreaming (not as I understand it anyway). I don't intend for any of this to happen. There's no flying or any of that. I don't plan for what happens next in these experiences. I don't feel like I have any control over it at all. I can't make it happen on the rare occasion that I want it to. I never know when it's going to happen. I don't feel like I have control over what happens next while it's actually happening. I don't even feel like I have control over when it ends. It doesn't bother me because nothing bad ever happens and there's never a bad feeling, but it's not something that I seem to have any control over whatsoever. The only other times I've seemed to have meeting-type experiences with people during sleep have been with two relatives - one at the time of his death, and the other, just shortly after her death. So, again, this feels spiritual, or like the soul is involved moreso than the mind.

So, can anyone relate to this? Or have you heard of it or know what it's called? Any clue why it's happening? I would appreciate any input. Thanks so much!