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Dream or astral...anyone else had a similar experience?

08:01 / 15.02.04

So I spent two days isolated, smoking small amounts of pot and salvia and reading and writing and ritualizing in intense bursts. Then I had this experience where I laid down and seemed to walk around my place, never feeling (before or after) like I had fallen or been asleep. My consciousness appeared continuous.
The whole time I seemed to know (italics there) that I was not dreaming. I moved about the room which was my room,yet it was not quite my room at the moment I had 'left it'. Same layout, but there were candles burning where there weren't candles burning. I walked around and found that I had a problem with my right eye, it was as if it was covered with silly putty or something. I could kinda open it, and kinda see from it, but it began to worry me and the situation grew more and more frantic. I began fearing that I had injured my eye or something on the everday level of reality and that it was being expressed this way there where I was. I walked to the bathroom and tried to look in the mirror but my reflection was stretched just beyond proper comprehension, like a spirally image that made me think of A.O.Spare for some reason. I kept thinking that it felt like I was on an exponentially smaller level of reality, like if I was on x to the 2nd then in order to get back to 'reality' I had to move to x to the 16th or something similar. At one point I actively tried talking but it came out worn and far off. this made the frustration build.
Also worth mentioning I think is in 'reality' I had the new Fantomas on repeat (one 74 min track that is unstructured song wise, playing more like an all-encompassing film score than anything else). It was in this 'other place' as well, seemingly in continuity with what was in 'reality'.
Anyone else had an experience like this? Any thoughts. When I came up it did not seem like I had been asleep and dreaming, more like I had been moving about on a different level of awareness. Is this what astral travel is like , because I have not yet explored that avenue but have been recently writing fictional accounts of it for a story.
any info is appreciated.
Cheers

14:29 / 15.02.04

I moved about the room which was my room, yet it was not quite my room at the moment I had 'left it'. Same layout, but there were candles burning where there weren't candles burning.

My guess 'd be that makes it astral, otherworldly (as opposed to etherial, this-worldly travel).

I walked around and found that I had a problem with my right eye, it was as if it was covered with silly putty or something.

worth getting checked out by an eye doc, maybe?

08:05 / 16.02.04

My eyes generate a substance like silly putty. Every few hours I have to stand in front of a mirror extracting eye bogeys (boogers to you 'Cans).

12:19 / 16.02.04

C.W Leadbeater's The Astral Plane in PDF format.

I found Leadbeater's work to be helpful at the time I read it. Although, having had an experience of unbroken, awake conciousness you might find it to be a bit detracting from the experience of "here and now" by his analyzing the phenomenon in such great detail. Leadbeater really breaks it down well though, but remember he was Anglican clergy before becoming a Theosophist, so his writings are slightly biased in this manner.

Another helpful book for you might be Dreams: What they Are and How they are Caused

Of course, once again, I recommend the entire Castenada collection, as Don Juan gives complete instruction and Castenada painstakingly explains his experiences for the reader.

12:34 / 16.02.04

Oh, and the eye thing may be transformative. Quite possibly, you were changing form, which is why you did not see yourself in any particular form. Your eyes that you use in this world did not need to be opened, as you were "seeing through new eyes". I believe it is generally accepted that the left eye is the one that looks into the "nagual" or unknown. I think what you were experiencing was the fustration of not accepting the transformation and trying to force yourself to remain in your familiar form in this other plane. Your experience with your voice, Neville, also seems to point to this for me, as you were no longer in need of communicating in this manner. If you had another creature the same as what you were trying to transform into, most likely the two of you would have been telepathic.

13:40 / 16.02.04

I've had experiences (a lot) where I could move around what I thought was my room after falling asleep. I started off "feeling" with an imaginary/dream arm and afterwards walking around in the space. I always thought it was my room at first but the more I explored it the clearer it became it wasn't. Though it was always clear to me that I'd dropped off, unlike your experience. I could sometimes project through "astral doorways" in his state ie. I'd visualise/draw a tattva on a door and I'd go through and encounter corresponding imagery.

Actually, re-reading your post.... one thing that happens to me in this state is I can usually open my eyes and see the room although my body is paralysed. Had this last night, I could open my eyes and see my girlfriend sitting next to me, although I've dropped off and couldn't move. Sometimes in this state though I would have problems opening my eyes, I'd cooldn't open them and I'd blink a lot - real sruggle to keep them open, I don't know, this might be related to your experience? Perhaps you had the same thing as me, and had crossed over into dreaming/hypnagogia, and the eye thing was your biological eyes over-riding this?? There's definitely a connection between these kind of lucid/astral states and having your eyes open. As to your state of mind at the time, I've noticed that the more I get into these kind of states the more bizarre and dream like my thoughts become. Things go a bit ...odd. This might relate to the odd thoughts and stuff you were having. Hope this helps!

(hello May. btw, not seen you round these parts for awhile).