is astral travel real? truly?

gee, it's been a while

Months later. Months have passed since my last entry, and I have not gotten closer to my goal of astral projection...

And yet...

I have finally been able to induce a lucid dream, which I consider an absolute win. I'm really excited, honestly! The practices are very similar, so I take it that a lucid dream is just a step on the way to projecting. 

I realized I was dreaming when, in the midst of an apocalyptic volcanic eruption mixed with a terrifying earthquake, I went through a doorway in a crumbling tropical resort and came out on the other side in front of my house, like I'd just left through the front door. 

That didn't seem right. At that moment logic hit me, and I realized that I was not awake.

It's honestly exhilarating how realistic the world felt. I could feel the sunshine on my face; the spring breeze that ruffled the leaves and my clothing; each and every pebble and crack in the uneven sidewalk under my feet; the sound of distant cars driving on the main road bordering my neighborhood; the colors were vivid, more so than real life; the people were acting normally too, like they had a will of their own and weren't just a part of my imagination!

I had just been escaping the chaos with my twin, and almost blurted out "Holy shit, I'm dreaming!" before I recalled that alerting dream-NPCs (is that the correct term? haha) that they're not real could have unexpected consequences, and I didn't want to bother my twin with an existential crisis, even if she truly wasn't real in that moment. 

I recalled a comment in r/luciddreaming that said that if I asked for something to appear, it would. Unfortunately I also forgot to check out other neat things that I'd wanted to try, such as flying, shapeshifting, teleportation, and glancing in a mirror (which usually leads to a terrifying experience, according to others). What I did do, however, was command my subconscious to "Bring me a monster!" 

What kind of thing would my brain think scary enough? 

Something... spidery appeared, and my twin screamed and ran away. It wasn't that scary -- maybe it would be to someone who has arachnophobia, which I don't -- but it was very big and... alien. Maybe a spider-like kaiju, if that makes sense? Yeah, it wasn't a spider, but its design was based off one. It had a personality, too, I could feel the fact that it -- no, he -- wasn't a mindless creature of destruction, but had a past. Of course he didn't really, because I'd just invented him, but it felt like he did! Isn't that cool?

 I felt elated, not at the fact that there was something dangerous, but at the amount of control I had over the world. I was about to walk forward and interact -- maybe fight, maybe chat, maybe something else -- when it all disappeared. 

Unfortunately, something loud happened downstairs in my real home at that moment, and I woke up. 

For god's sake! Right when things were getting interesting! 

The time was 7 AM, which makes sense, considering I'd fallen asleep at 1 and this would be six hours into sleeping, which is when the longest REM cycle occurs, I think? I've looked at charts about sleep, and I'm pretty sure this is where the longest and most vivid stretch of brain activity happens. 6 hour mark. That's it.

So... yeah.

Not astral projection, but just as good! I've been working towards this too, and I'm quite excited for tonight to try again. I have a to-do list to test out, LOL. 

Next update will hopefully be about either a successful lucid dream, or a successful astral projection. 

Stay healthy, folks.