Lucid Dream Arc or AP?

I am so happy to have found this forum, because I've never understood what's been happening to me and it's taken strange turns lately. Please let me know if you think this is lucid dreaming or astral projection, and what you think it means. I apologize for the length, but this has been going on for my entire life and until I read some of the comments here on LD/AP I thought it was just a weird coincidence of dreams. It still might be, I suppose.

To begin, when I was in elementary school, I had my first dream of flying over a foggy nighttime landscape. I had separate, more normal dreams as I grew up, but even in these I could freeze time, "rewind" the dream, and change parts of the dream to ensure I escaped pursuers, etc. But the flying dream was the same: I felt happy, I knew it was a dream, and I would fly over huge, empty scenery, always at night with a little fog. I never met anyone or anything else during these flying dreams.

Long story very short (I'm in my 30s now), I lost the ability to change parts of normal dreams by my early 20s. For the flying dream, in my mid 20s I saw my first person in my flying dream other than me. I asked "What are you doing here?" (It was a friend) and then I woke up.

Around the same time I began being able to realize when I was in a nightmare, and concentrate on my body in the nightmare and float myself up and out of the situation and head off flying, again, into the usual foggy and nighttime scenery, aware all of this was a dream. The odd detail here is that I have to carefully focus on the concept of lightness in the beginning or I don't start floating, and if I lose focus I start drifting down again.

After "escaping" like this, I've been attacked on several occasions, sometimes by human-looking enemies, sometimes not. Both times I was able to fight off and destroy my attackers, once by choking and once by, for lack of a better word, "disintegrating" it by getting the random idea to concentrate on that happening. I have also been spoken to by kind-seeming non-aggressive humans(?) on two occasions who have asked me to stay and talk to them, which I don't do out of fear.

These flying dreams have gone from happy things to ones I dread, because now these flying dreams always begin with me "waking up" in my bed, just as if I were awake, to a horrible sense of dread or nightmarish things happening. When it's the dread and nothing's actively happened yet, the only definitive way I can tell if it's a dream (or AP?) is by pinching myself hard or looking carefully at details (sometimes the light switch will have two switches instead of one, etc.). It's gotten to the point that if I wake up in the middle of the night for any reason, the first thing I do is pinch myself.

When I have normal dreams, I have never had regular dreams in the sense they mirror reality closely, but these particular flying nightmares all start with near-perfect replications of the room I sleep in. The dread hits me as I realize I'm dreaming (or awful, frightening things start to happen), and I concentrate until I can fly up and out through the window or walls. I can then fly around until the dream fades. I now encounter someone or something almost every time, and it's 50/50% if they mean me harm or not.

The negative "others" I've been running into have been getting more and more aggressive and I'm concerned at this trend in the dreams in the last few years. The last dream I had, when I sat up in bed, a giant red eye was staring into my window, taking up almost the whole space of it, so in that case I didn't even get to LEAVE the room before I encountered something. I slipped past the eye and flew off, in that case, outrunning a person that started following me.

What does all this suggest to you? Is it just an odd series of normal dreams? Is it AP/lucid dreaming? Is there anything I can do to make these experiences positive again if it's AP? If it's just lucid dreaming, is this some unresolved thing in my life?

I spent a couple of hours reading related threads here on the forum, and some people suggest praying for protection, etc. before projecting but I'm not doing this consciously so I don't "gear up" before it all starts.

Again, my apologies for the extreme length, and I appreciate any help or thoughts anyone can give. Thank you very much for reading.

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Im not going to lie to you. I have learning issues and did not read the whole post. Im just trying to respond as I like people to have at least one answer to their question so no one feels left out or unimportant.
Many times, flying dreams are your mind trying to rationalize or dealing with issues. If it is a lucid dream, and your strong in your commands, you will get what you want. Sometimes it takes me a few times of saying “this is my dream and this is what I want to happen” before I get what I want.
If you dont get info on dream interpretation, I know there is a pretty good web site that has a free on line book. Given I dont get to this area much, if you would like to e mail me and remind me you need it, I will be happy to send you a link. Best of luck.

Well, thank you for responding, even if you didn't read it all. However, the reason I put so much detail into it is precisely because this isn't random flying dreams. I appreciate your offer of help but it's no different than what I've read on my own anyway.

I was hoping someone could help give me clarity from personal experiences or knowledge of their own.

I apologize for bothering the forum.

Sounds like astral projection to me. Even though you are not trying to do this, it happens in some people's sleep. I was given a prayer to say before going to sleep to help protect me and has worked for me so far.
saying this prayer of protection prior to going to sleep.
"The light of Goddess surrounds me, the love of Goddess enfolds me, the power of Goddess protects me, the presence of Goddess watches over me and all is well, so mote it be"
Also I have heard that what your thinking of in AP is attracted to you, so if your thinking of negative energies hurting you they appear to do so. Hope this helped, blessed be

Ok, let's explore this topic a bit.
Lucid dreams and OBE are very closely related. Lucid dreaming is creating a world in your mind. This is where your mind rules, which is why you can control everything. When you can switch scenes, change behavior of those around you, and overall control EVERYTHING and ANYTHING, this is lucid dreaming. OBE is exploring the astral around you, but due to you being asleep, your subconscious can cause you to see things differently or create things that are not truly there (as it does during sleep walking). Depending on the level of lucidity, you can either change things as you watch the movie unravel or control the entire thing as if it is your own imagined story with a few subconscious surprises along the way. When you cannot control what is around you but you are consciously aware and in control of your own actions (not like watching a movie), and your senses are sharp, this is OBE.

What it sounds like is that you used to lucid dream but now you are experiencing OBEs (out of body experiences)

How do you stop this? Ground if its an OBE. I used to wear hematite necklaces and bracelets when sleeping.

For lucid dreaming, you need to retrain yourself how to gain better control. There are many books out there on lucid dreaming from both spiritual and psychological perspectives. I would pick one with both.

Okay, if this is astral projection (which it probably is) these "attackers" are a serious problem that you need to deal with. Defensive and protective rituals/spells are important and should be done whether you project or not. With that out of the way, I would suggest talking to these figures that keep coming after you. What you need to know, above all else, is that YOU CAN NOT BE HARMED. It is impossible to hurt a spirit unless you convince it that it can be hurt. As long as you know that you can't feel pain or be hurt while you are projecting these figures will have no power over you. If you are ever scared, call upon the angels. It is as simple as just thinking "help me angels" or "angels come" and believing that it will work (emphasis on BELIEVING, the most crucial element) and you will be safe no matter what. Angels are very much the police force of the astral plane and will look out for anyone who requests their help.

I believe you should calmly assess this yourself. Precaution should be set but this depends on you. Hopefully those dreams or astral projections cease. Only you can decide how to act on the problem. My advice stand you ground and be ready.

It is a common misconception that 'Lucid Dreaming' is controlling your dreams. Lucid dreaming is simply the awareness that you are dreaming, whereas once you start controlling your dreams, it becomes a 'Controlled Dream.'

In regards to your question, it sounds like a OBE to me however you are aware and able to control this OBE. It's almost like a mix up between the two.

As Raven said, wearing hematite can help. Also, amethyst or citrine near you at the time can also aid with these dreams.

Dreams are often projections of your subconscious mind. Negative dreams are usually due to stress, a hidden fear, or things as such. Is there anything that you are worried about? In this dream, when I consider the fact that you rewind and change things, it makes me wonder if you are regretful about something that has happened in the past that you wish to change.

Its true that basic lucid dreaming is just being aware, but the more advanced form of it is controlling them, and that is what most people who strive for lucid dreaming desire to do. Really, it doesn't matter what the terminology of it is, what matters is, whether it is still just a dream vs OBE.

I, like nightflyer, used to control my dreams as a child. I used to call them movies in my head. I used to even switch them at will, when they became "nightmares" to something pleasant. I pushed away the ability when I grew older and I never had the desire to get it back. I found dreaming every night, knowing I was dreaming, and controlling it was nice, but I find more enjoyment from just plainly remembering my dreams and interpretting what my subconscious can tell me about myself.

Im new to this site,but if its obe,when you realize its a obe picture a white cord running from your tail bone(lower spine) to the ground or bed that your body is in.you kind of slam back into your body and jump awake,but your where you want to be.just try it and then you will at least know if its obe.hope this helps.