Literature of every sort has always been the main vehicle for disseminating information about lucid dreaming state. lucid dreaming phenomenon is referred to by other terms: astral projection, out-of-body travel, or lucid dreaming. In addition to disseminating information, many books are often vehicles for disseminating fallacies.

This is easy to recognize when researching several such books and comparing described events and theories. The information is more often than not contradictory and based on opinions that have never been verified by anyone, including the authors. The result is a mass of speculation that has no bearing on reality, nearly always accompanied by a false certainty about the subject matter. However, unlike the real world, lucid dreaming is not a place where one can believe one’s eyes or feelings. lucid dreaming’s appearance and qualities depend very much on the person experiencing it.

For example, if a practitioner believes upon entering lucid dreaming that his body will be lying nearby on the bed, then it will always be there. If a practitioner believes that the perceived body should always be tethered to the physical body, then the practitioner will always see and even feel a tether in lucid dreaming. This is a simple case of expectations becoming reality. Similarly, someone who has entered lucid dreaming by accident and thinks that the time of death has arrived may see angels and a tunnel with a light at the end. If someone is extremely religious, there may be a perception that something holy, even God, has appeared. If entry to lucid dreaming is construed as a result of being abducted by aliens, then that is exactly what will happen.

This would all be quite funny if it were not encountered all of the time. If one has no doubts going in, then the only thing left to do is to believe. To believe, to tell others about it, and write books about it…

There are authors who impart no illusions, but it is often difficult for a novice to separate the truth from illusion or open fabrication, which is why a skeptical approach to the contents of any book is warranted. The only truth conveyed in any book is that which has been verified by personal experience. The rest should simply be noted and possibly taken into consideration.

In conclusion, books should be studied to discover technique-related information that allows a practitioner to enter lucid dreaming and control the experience. This is the only point of intersection among all beliefs and theories.

Samara, Russia

Truly, the most interesting things almost always happen unexpectedly.

After a sufficiently long break in my attempts to go to the other world, tonight I decided to try it again. I threw in the towel after yet another unsuccessful attempt, rolled to my other side, and decided to simply get a good night’s sleep. I do not know exactly how much time passed while I lay down and thought about what I was still doing wrong while observing interesting images that my imagination was drawing. But at one fine moment, I suddenly felt the phenomenon that is commonly referred to as vibrations. I started to intensify them (I should add that the feeling is indescribable), but I could not levitate, though I really wanted to take a look at myself from the outside. I decided to simply stand up, and that’s when it all became most interesting! The entire process of transitioning from a horizontal position to a vertical one was accompanied by increasingly palpable vibrations and a louder and louder roaring sound in my head. The sensation was the same as that experienced after going to bed after not having slept for 24 hours and then being suddenly roused by somebody: my head spun, everything started crackling inside of it, and I was about to lose consciousness. Then, a flickering picture started to appear. It stabilized after one or two seconds, the roaring in my head died down, and I realized that I was sitting on my bed.

I was in my apartment, thought it was noticeably altered. My room seemed more or less the same, though the interior was indeed different upon detailed examination (M.R.: no deepening). For example, my mobile phone, which is always within a reach, was somehow an older and different model. It turned out to be the first object that I tested, as I suddenly wanted very much to find out what time it was and check which day of the month it was (M.R.: no plan of action). I distinctly felt the phone in my hand, but upon attempting to concentrate on and look at the display, I was thrown back into the reality.

I immediately climbed back out of my body and decided to simply pace around the apartment while trying to remember what I could experiment on. I tried to conjure an object, but that didn’t work and resulted in some mental activity. This caused lucid dreaming to fade and my being thrown back into reality. In total, there were about five successive entries into lucid dreaming that lasted for 2 to 3 minutes each. The experiences were not stable at all, which is why I was examining my surroundings in a hurry, always trying to get ahold of anything I could get my hand on. However, there were a good amount of impressions, considering that it was my first entry.

Novice practitioners should not immediately rush towards a single specific goal if long-term practice is desired. It is better to extensively investigate lucid dreaming and its surroundings before focusing on accomplishment. This will build intimacy with the experience and allow unhindered entry and interaction with lucid dreaming.

As in reality, learning whatever first reveals itself is the key to increasing and specializing knowledge. A beginning practitioner should at first enjoy the simple fact of actually being in lucid dreaming, then learn its details and functions. Once inside lucid dreaming, a practitioner should explore it, examining and interacting with everything encountered.

He should also try to fully sharpen all the feelings possible in lucid dreaming in order to fully understand how unusual it is in its realism. A practitioner must experience movement: walking, running, jumping, flying, falling, swimming. Test the sensations of pain by striking a wall with a fist. The simplest way to experience taste sensations is to get to the refrigerator and try to eat everything that you find there, at the same time not forgetting to smell each item. Walk through the walls, translocate, create and handle objects. Explore. All these actions are very interesting in and of themselves. The possibilities really are infinite. However, only when they are well understood and thoroughly explored can it be said that the practitioner really knows what lucid dreaming is about.

Michael Raduga’s School of Out-of-Body Travel conducts training seminars in many countries around the world. The coursework allows students to master lucid dreaming phenomenon and hone their skills at traveling in lucid dreaming. Information on existing branches and seminar schedules are available on the website www.remspace.net. We also welcome potential partners interested in organizing School of Out-of-Body Travel branches and seminars. All correspondence regarding seminars, partnerships, and proposals related to the translation of this book may be handled by e-mail at obe4u@remspace.net.

Presented next are out-of-body experience accounts from the most famous authors and researchers in the field: Muldoon, LaBerge, Monroe, Castaneda, and Bruce. However, if their experiences are to be compared with some of those from the previous section, it would turn out that some humble freshman from the countryside is able to exceed all of them in terms of understanding how to use techniques to control and apply the phenomenon – with the possible exception of Stephen LaBerge.

The explanation for this is simple: the knowledge we have now could only have arisen thanks to the foundation they laid, whatever its quality. It is no exaggeration to state that their work was revolutionary for its time. But now we live in a completely different era, with contemporary advances in technology and technique. A time will come when our currently up-to-date knowledge becomes antiquated.

In order to give the reader practice at independent analysis, these experiences are provided without commentary regarding mistakes. Gather your courage and, using the analyses in previous sections of this book as a guide, comb the experiences of the authoritative figures for what modern knowledge now recognizes as the most typical and common mistakes:

– no separation;

– no deepening;

– no plan of action;

– no maintaining;

– no re-entering;