WEIRD experience, would like some insight please :)

[venusflesh]

Hi there, I'm brand new to this forum, but not new to dreaming. I've been fascinated by dreaming ever since I was a little girl. I've been keeping dream diaries since I was 11 (am almost 27 now). Ever since I found out what lucid dreaming is, I've wanted to have one, but never have... I remember my dreams almost every night, though. On Monday night I had a REALLY weird experience, unlike anything I've ever had before. I would *REALLY* appreciate any insight from you guys, as to what you think this was... here goes (I wrote this Tuesday after it happened): Last night something weird happened, and it's hard to explain because it's kind of vague and cloudy in my mind, but I'm going to try. First, I remember getting up to go to the bathroom, and looking at the clock in the bathroom and it being 12:59 am. The thing is, I remember looking at a clock that isn't really there... when I remember it in my mind, the clock is in a different place than where it really is in real life. In our bathroom it's on the window sill, but in this memory of last night, the clock is on the shelf by the sink. I don't get it... it's really weird to me. I don't know if my mind just is remembering wrong, or if this was all a dream, or what. The next thing I remember is going back to my room, and I remember standing by the light, because I had turned it on. If I remember right, I had turned it on because I'd had a kind of freaky/scary dream before waking up, although I can't remember what it was at this point. So anyway, the next thing I remember is laying in bed, and the thing is, I felt SO weird... it's really hard to explain. At points I felt like I was floating out of my body or mind, in a way, but it wasn't physical... it was in my mind. I felt like if I drifted back to sleep, I wouldn't wake up, or something weird would happen. I was thinking about lucid dreaming, and I was wondering if I was having a lucid dream (I've always wanted to experience one, but never have). I was thinking what it would be like if I got up, to see if I was having a lucid dream, but I was scared to, for some reason... I was scared something weird would happen, or I wouldn't be able to wake out of the lucid dream. I honestly don't know what this was that I experienced. I don't know if this whole thing was a dream. I remember so vividly laying there and feeling that WEIRD feeling, as my eyes were closed... like I was weaving in and out of dream-world, in and out of reality, like my mind was floating... to be honest it really freaked me out! I wish I would have gotten up and tried to tell whether I was having a lucid dream or not, but I didn't. So that is what happened, and I'm still thinking about it, over 3 days later, because it was just soooo weird!! Any thoughts/insight?? I'd be very grateful! Thank you! Tiffany

[John11]

It definately sounds like you had a False Awakening. FAs in my opinion are about as close as you can get to an LD without having an LD because they just feel so real even though you later realize they weren't. FAs can really help with LDing. Just make sure whenever you wake up you do a reality check to make sure you are really awake. I had an LD just last night that started as the result of a FA.

[Mercen_505]

Yup. File that one under 'false awakening.' I find that I have them more often now that I'm seriously working toward lucid dreaming.

[venusflesh]

OK, so then, I probably DIDN'T really get up and go to the bathroom-- that was just a false awakening? And I was still dreaming the entire time? It was so real... I've never experienced a dream that real before. I could have sworn it actually happened! So weird. This stuff is fascinating.

[John11]

OK, so then, I probably DIDN'T really get up and go to the bathroom-- that was just a false awakening? And I was still dreaming the entire time? It was so real... I've never experienced a dream that real before. I could have sworn it actually happened! So weird. This stuff is fascinating. Just last week, I was staying at my parents' house and I was sleeping in my brother's bed since he was supposed to be gone for the night. I had a false awakening where he ended up coming home and he woke me up. I went to go sleep on a mattress in another room. You can imagine my suprise when I woke up the next morning still in my brother's bed.

[venusflesh]

Just last week, I was staying at my parents' house and I was sleeping in my brother's bed since he was supposed to be gone for the night. I had a false awakening where he ended up coming home and he woke me up. I went to go sleep on a mattress in another room. You can imagine my suprise when I woke up the next morning still in my brother's bed. Haha yeah, that would be weird/surprising, for sure. I've had dreams before where I wake up and in my dream I'm telling someone about the dream I just had, but in those dreams I've never realized I was dreaming... if that makes any sense.

[John11]

Haha yeah, that would be weird/surprising, for sure. I've had dreams before where I wake up and in my dream I'm telling someone about the dream I just had, but in those dreams I've never realized I was dreaming... if that makes any sense. Yeah. That'd be considered a false awakening too. I described an entire dream to one of my roommates back in college and then I actually woke up and had to explain it all over again.

[venusflesh]

What about the other part of it-- where I experienced the floating sensations, of mentally leaving my body, floating up towards the ceiling? I was talking to another person I know and they said it sounded like the beginning of an OOB experience... hmm.