I woke up during a daytime nap. While still in a drowsy state, I tried to roll out of my body and fly up into the air, but nothing happened. However, I felt that I was in a state very close to that of lucid dreaming. I tried forced falling asleep, and then felt lapses of consciousness, during which images flickered before my eyes. A few seconds later, I decided to try separating from my body again. Meanwhile, I knew that if that didn’t work, I could switch to observing images, as they were already there. However, that turned out not to be necessary, as I was easily able to simply get up out of my body. My vision immediately came to me. I was quickly able to make the state that I was in extremely realistic by palpating and peering at objects around me. I also managed to quickly palpate my body, all the while creating and amplifying vibrations in order to cement myself in a deep lucid dreaming.

While I had a clearly-formulated plan of action regarding studying lucid dreaming, I had already re-thrashed its details several times that week. At that moment, I really just wanted to use lucid dreaming for my own personal enjoyment, and do something I was looking forward to for a while. At one of my seminars about a week before, I had told my students about how it was possible to go for a walk among dinosaurs. A desire to do so now burned within me, as I had not done anything of the sort for a long time. So I scrapped my previous plan of action, closed my eyes, and concentrated my attention on the Tyrannosaurus rex. I then felt the sensation of movement. The translocation took longer than usual. This was normal for such a situation, because it was simply psychologically difficult to believe one would see dinosaurs, even though I had succeeded in doing so many times before. The rational brain tends to have difficulties with things like encountering dinosaurs.

I nevertheless managed to get myself together and concentrate my attention. Then, I landed on something soft. It was a patch of moss in the forest. I began to scrutinize the moss and palpate it with my hands. Vision almost immediately came to me, and became incredibly sharp. I crouched on all fours and stared for a while at everything right in front of me – mainly small twigs of various shapes and decayed leaves. There were also all kinds of insects crawling around.

I then focused my attention on my own feelings and perceptions. I was still wearing the same t-shirt and shorts that I had fallen asleep in. My body itself seemed unusually pale. However, I was most surprised at how hard it was to breathe. Not only was the air saturated with indescribably-repugnant odors, it also turned out to be quite hot and humid. Trying to breathe in only through my nose made me dizzy. Meanwhile, the air was so hot that breathing in through my mouth hurt my throat. In the end, I decided to breathe in through my mouth, and was able to banish the pain.

I turned my attention to my surroundings. There was forest all around. Very little sun made it through the canopy. The trees were very tall, and had long straight trunks. There were plants all around that looked like ferns, but they were nearly my height. I had found myself in a small clearing without trees. The whole place was filled with sounds that were unnatural for a forest. Instead of birds chirping, I heard whistling and croaking. I heard roaring from time to time coming from somewhere in the distance. I kept hearing crackling and then something crashing to the ground. I could hear a lot of rustling and dull thuds coming from somewhere behind the bushes about thirty yards away from me. I immediately understood that that’s where my objective was.

By the time I decided to head for my dinosaur, I was already itching from constant attacks by exotic insects of all colors and sizes, both terrestrial and airborne. While heading for the target, I all the while scrutinized my arms and the leaves that I had ripped off with my hands. I intentionally made right for the tree trunks ahead. I kept special tabs on the hyper-realism of the experience, as this was the most important factor here. The vibrations didn’t die down one bit, as I constantly kept them going right from the start.

I went up to the bushes and cautiously peered through them. There was a stream flanked by a muddy bank, from which an enormous patch of horsetail shot up. My objective was wading right in the middle of the stream, I almost shouted out in ecstasy at the sight of it. I kept quiet only out of a desire to not attract its attention. That could have ruined everything. I tried to avoid drawing its attention not so much because I was somewhat afraid, but more out of a desire to simply watch this magnificent creature from the side, and feast my eyes on its beauty.

I had already seen a T. rex at least five times before, but this one was much larger than all of the previous ones. Even the the color of its skin was different – slightly darker and with fewer spots. For some reason, this one seemed to be a female. The giant paused at some point, apparently reacting to me. I immediately returned my attention to peering at the leaves and the insects on them, so as not to interfere in the situation with the dinosaur, and also remain in a deep lucid dreaming.

I was quite afraid that this lucid dreaming might not be sufficient for more sensations – and so instead of sticking it out, I quickly ran up behind the T. rex. It immediately turned in my direction, but I concentrated as much as I could on the thought that it would see me as a friend and not a foe. Risking lucid dreaming, I even stopped in order to program the situation. Its huge head looked at me for several more seconds, and then calmly bent down. It seems that it had a victim there.

I ran up to its massive tail. I quickly peered at it up close, and then moved to its face. I was meanwhile in a panic over lucid dreaming and its depth, and so made great effort to amplify the vibrations I was feeling. Also, I petted the reptile the whole time, for now moving my hands down its side, and stepping into the cool water up to my ankles. Everything was already so extraordinary, and I didn’t want to be ejected into reality by making a stupid move. Fear of the monster had already completely subsided, but I started to grow a little concerned over the great depth of this lucid dreaming. The unwholesome idea of staying there forever suddenly came over me. However, the instinct of self-preservation kept me to my senses.

Pulling up the reptile’s massive and muscular frame, I got up to the front of it. I had not seen tyrannosauruses up so close that often before, so I was a bit amused by how helplessness its forearms appeared, almost like puny unwebbed flippers (Tyrannosauruses only have two clawed limbs). They are generally considered to be vestigial, but this reptile was clearly using them to help itself to the carcass of another big lizard, holding it up. In turn, the prey seemed to be quite ugly and bony. Its innards were hanging out of the large jaws of the dining reptile. I squatted down just a yard away from the dinosaur’s muzzle and watched the scene. It didn’t pay me any attention, even when I grabbed the gnarled leg of its victim (it looked like a chicken-leg, but a hundred times larger), and threw it aside. The T. Rex, still ignoring me, raised its head and went straight for the delicacy. Its movement seemed to require a lot of effort, and all the muscles of its haunches simply pushed forward when exerted. I could see that the beast was incredibly strong.

After going halfway towards its prize and scanning its surroundings, the lizard turned again to the carcass. It began to go at it again. I had already made up my mind to feed him by hand, but then some kind of alarm went off. Quickly realizing that it was coming from outside the window in the physical world, I immediately dunked my head underwater in order to get rid of that sound by programming the qualities of the space around. It was indeed quieter underwater, but the alarm was still audible. While observing the pebbles at the bottom of the clear water, I plugged my ears with my fingers. The sound became even quieter. Employing the straining the brain technique made the vibrations still stronger, creating a noise that I began to listen in to. The alarm sound went away. I surfaced, took my fingers out of my ears, and then it occurred to me that it could have been a car alarm. "And what if that was from my car?" – I thought. Cursing all earthly matters, I recalled my body in order to return back into it. And it was only just upon feeling the physical body that I remembered that my car had already been at the mechanic’s for several days now… I heard the alarm again, but it wasn’t coming from my car. And so, there was no point in cutting lucid dreaming experience short. I tried to get back into lucid dreaming once again, but the wail of the alarm did not stop, and so all of my attempts to return to lucid dreaming were in vain.

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.