I’m really interested in hearing about anyone’s experiences having to do with split perception, and specifically of being aware of being in a dream and also knowing what’s happening at the same time with your body laying in bed. I think this is the coolest weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me while sleeping.
Here are a couple of my SP experiences:
I was having a very vivid dream about playing soccer with a beautiful white and very fluffy dog on an emerald green grass field. He was a very worthy opponent. We were moving sideways very fast and doing all kinds of spins and fakeouts. I was about to kick the ball when I become aware of my body laying in bed and a loud rustling in the bushes right outside my window. However, I was still in the dream, kind of frozen about to kick the soccer ball. Weird. I sort of decided that the rustling in the bushes was something I should investigate, so I left the dream and settled all the way into my body. After that I wish I’d stayed in the dream because the sounds in the bushes had stopped, and I really wanted to know if I could beat a dog at soccer. EOD
In this more recent dream, my dreambody and physical body were in the same position. I became aware of this when my pillow in the dream started attacking me and throwing verbal insults. It was disconcerting, but I actually managed to shift my physical body’s arm from an uncomfortable position while remaining in the dream and defending myself from the abusive pillow. I think that helped somehow, because in the dream I got the upperhand on the pillow and it disappeared. After that, the dream totally shifted to another dimension, and I lost the split perception. EOD
If you have any experiences of being in two places at once or more in your dreams, I’d love to hear that too.
I have a question: does it have any effects on your dream recall at all? In Astral Dynamics, the author states that we think we fail getting out of body because our consciousness stays focused on our usual body while we’re out. Since we can’t take the sensations of the other body/ies at the same time, we think nothing happens but we’re really somewhere else. The difficulty of the whole process would be to correctly download memories from the other body into the physical.
I’m curious about what you’re name means?? anyway to answer your questions…
Yes! I always remember these dreams, and it gets me enthused to keep naturally remembering more.
i can’t really agree or disagree with any of this, because i’m not much of a theorist, i’m more of a “just do it-ist.” If you have a question about any of this, i’d be happy to take a stab at it.
i’m not sure if this is the same thing you’re talking about, but i just had an odd experience.
i was listening to the monroe institute lucid dreaming exercize, and had myself in deep meditation, my body asleep with my mind completely alert. i started having memory recall, not what i’d call dreams, but i played with them, added new and unusual things to them (like, i was in a playground, sliding on a slide, then i levitated the slide, spun it around, got bored, invented a cow, and rode the cow around the playground.) this just kept on going, but i was still fully aware of my physical body, the fact that it was asleep. i was ‘sensing’ the dreams, and i was lucid, but i wasn’t fully immersed in them. i could still see the blackness behind my eyelids, and the dreams were coming from a different part of my mind.
it’s so frustrating, because i feel that if i could let go of my body i could jump into the dreams. i could sense them in my mind, i could control them, i could go as detailed as i wanted with my surroundings and objects, but i just wasn’t actually there.
thanks for your post, that mind of yours sounds like a fun place!
honestly, i’m never really sure what i’m talking about, but fortunately there are some great words out there to describe our experiences and get us going down the road of understanding what’s happening, and hopefully creating a good time from our experience. anyway, thanks for sharing.
i experience that frustration as well, but i see that it’s caused by the idea that that’s what has to be accomplished in order to feel that we’re getting somewhere with our dreaming. to me, that’s bs.
whatever happens happens, and the more i let go of other’s ideas of what should happen, the more fun i have and the more accomplished i feel. basically, validating my experience in whatever form it comes creates space for more growth and deeper exploration.
it looks to me like you’re an awesome meditator, and working on acknowledging and releasing self-depracating emotions. congratulations!
Also, if my dreams aren’t as super-phenomenol as i think they should be i just focus on something else that give me gratification. i try stay physically healthy by walking and getting sun for instance.
makes me very happy.
i’m actually just getting into meditation and lucid dreaming. about a month ago i started going insane, and decided to keep a conscious and subconscious journal. this got me into binaural tones, guided meditation, etc.
i /think/ what i experienced was conscious dreaming. the tape i was listening to was mean to keep your brain awake while you went through a full sleep cycle, alert you when it’s time for REM, and then wake you up with suggestions to improve recall.
i guess, for me anway, i see ‘normal dreams’ as being a character in a movie script, ‘conscious dreams’ as being aware of your dreams but not awake in them, like playing back memories in your head, and ‘lucid dreams’ as being awake and aware inside the movie.
the split perception is keeping me at the conscious dream level; i’m definitely asleep, definitely dreaming, definitely conscious of all of it, but still conscious of my body.
my subconscious actually came as a voice when these dreams were happening, because they came to me as my memories do, and said ‘hey, up here. let go of your body, you don’t need that, you’re safe. let go. focus up here, where i am.’ i think i tried too hard to follow the voice (and also had to pee, which definitely didn’t help) which kept me where i was. i didn’t realise what was going on was dreams until that point. i thought i was just relaxed, in a trance, and going through my memories.
it’s just so bizarre, that feeling of being asleep and dreaming but conscious and aware. it’s hard to let go of the physical body.
I have only had few of this split perception dreams. One of them was more fearful and writable than the others so I’ll share that one.
I was in a huge house with my mother. I was telling her to get out of the house because somebody was in it. She kept slacking behind me in the dream. I heard someone coughing in the house which was really just my step dad coughing in waking life. I remember in the dream it being really scary and wanting to leave the house immediately. In the dream i did and ended up in a bob wire fight with the culprit.I woke up shortly after i hear a big thud which was my step dad making noise in the kitchen in waking life. I was annoyed when i woke up.
Hello again my tronic brother, and thanks for those cool comments!
i dig your ideas.
This brought to mind my experience of where split perception for me means actually being fully engulfed in two or more different realities at the same time. Not just remotely aware of your body while in your dreams or vice versa. That’s my experience and that’s why it’s so freaking odd to me…to have my consciousness fully inhabit both realities at the same time, with a first person perspective.
An analogy to this would be that my physical and dream bodies are each an eye on the same body of my omniscient consciousness. hmmm…we never really think about how easy it is to have two eyes work at the same time or hands, feet,etc, we just do it. Some people train their body parts to do different things at the same time, and have absolute focus on what’s happening with each part. I see split perception as no different.
Also, when i let go of my desire to be out of my body or totally in it, that’s when these experiences took on a new level or dimension.
It was disconcerting, but I actually managed to shift my physical body’s arm from an uncomfortable position while remaining in the dream and defending myself from the abusive pillow. I think that helped somehow, because in the dream I got the upperhand on the pillow and it disappeared. After that, the dream totally shifted to another dimension, and I lost the split perception. EOD
