Thread: Is OBE a form of Lucid Dreaming or not?

Originally Posted by linz2d

Person A with a mystical point of view will interpret the phenomena as the spirit and consciousness leaving the body, and he calls it astral projection.
Person B with a scientific point of view, interprets the out of body experience as a Lucid Dream, and says its and OBE conjured up by a dream.

I'm guessing that my confusion comes from the fact that I have always understood there to be a very distinct difference between Astral Projection and a "base-level" OOBE. I mean, you can say "they are just words", but I can also call a lucid dream a bottle of Gin, but we all know that there is a difference.

And yes, even if the bit about OOBE's happening at a different stage than an LD is true (It is also said that people "don't visualize/dream during non-REM sleep, which isn't true), that gives no one reason to believe that an OOBE is a physics-defying phenomenon (like Astral Projection). I'm all for the open-minded concept of a subjective interpretation, but I have always known Astral Projection to mean a physical separation of conscious from body. So, when I see a newbie come into the world of dreaming, I do not like to see them confused by faith-based assumptions. If they want to go the way of AP, that's fine, but they need to at least be informed about what that entails. People should not be interchanging AP with dreaming, because the two concepts are different (as far as established science). A dream can be an OOBE, but to just "interpret" it as an Astral Projection is a much more serious claim about the nature of the universe, itself, and should be backed up by consistent facts - not a subjective 'feeling' that that's what's going on.

Just my opinion, though.