I'd like to share my personal experience and beliefs regarding the differences between OBEs and Lucid Dreams.  These are my viewpoints and won't necessarily be what others have experienced, so I am only speaking for myself.   I am not very skillfully experienced in either LD's or OBE's.  I just thought I'd like to point these things out and see what everybody had to say about them regarding their own personal experiences. 

1)
Lucid Dreams:  It takes practice and work to maintain conscious awareness in a lucid dream.  With inexperience and getting too excited, lucidity (conscious awareness) can easily fade in and out while the dream scenario continues to take place as if nothing has changed.  Even after getting used to not becoming too excited, I notice that holding onto conscious awareness is difficult and can be quite a balancing act.  If I do become too excited, or if I begin to question the reality of the experience, I simply lose conscious awareness altogether and the dream continues on as a regular dream.  When I wake up, I can recall the entire dream, including noting the exact parts where consciousness faded in and out. 

OBE's:  I have never experienced conscious awareness "fading in and out" during an OBE.  I have never had to concentrate to hold onto conscious awareness during an OBE.  It is always steady and constant no matter how excited I get or what the content of the experience is.  If I begin to question the reality or possibility of the experience, then I instantly wake up (whereas in a lucid dream, I would just continue dreaming after consciousness had been lost).  The "waking up" usually consists of a feeling of being pulled back to my body.

From what I have read from authors is that while lucid dreaming always takes place in REM sleep, OBE's do not. 

2)
Lucid Dreams:  Once I realize I am dreaming and make the statement, "I'm dreaming!", I have always noticed that the lighting within the dream changes to a sort of global illumination.  This is not of my doing but seems to be an automatic process.  What I mean is, during a regular dream I don't wonder about where the light is coming from within the dream.  But once I become lucid and say, "I'm dreaming!" suddenly there is a singular source of illumination that brightens and takes over the entire dream scene.  I'm sure this has something to do with heightened awareness, but I have no idea why this is necessary.

OBE's:  Out of all of my OBE's, I have grouped them into three different types.  They each have distinct characteristics, but in none of them have I ever considered the experience to be a dream.  Their lighting characteristics are distinctly different from each other, and different from that of a lucid dream.

3)
Lucid Dreams:  I am not highly experienced in lucid dreaming, but I have had a fair variety of experience in them.  I know from my own experience that when it comes to lucid dreaming, the fact that I know it is a dream allows me to do a lot of wish fulfilling things that I certainly would not do in waking life!  Some examples would be thrill seeking, showing off for other dream characters, acts of magic, and sexual fantasies. 

OBE's:  I have never done crazy things in an OBE.  I wouldn't even think of it!  In my OBE's I feel and act the same as I do in waking life.  I am respectful of others, kind, use manners, etc.  My OBE experiences give me the same sense of being a real experience as waking life does. 

4) 
Lucid Dreams:  When I find myself in a lucid dream, I don't always know what I want to do.  I usually just go along with whatever is happening in the dream, even if it seems pointless or a waste of time, but I do that just to hold onto conscious awareness.  I don't want to cause any waves!  But there have been times where I literally just stand there and think, ok what should I try to do? 

OBE's:  When I find myself in an OBE, I have never had to think about what to do.  From my experience, it seems that I already have a "hidden" agenda that I am not aware of.  I have not yet found myself out of body and just floating around aimlessly.  It seems my experiences have an exact purpose which I usually understand later back in the physical once I've had time to process the experience.   

5)
Lucid Dreams:  In a lucid dream, I know I am within the framework of a dream.  If I need to wonder if I am dreaming or not, I have plenty of time to ponder it, tossing it back and forth in my mind all while the dream continues to take place around me. 

OBE's:  In an OBE, I either know that I am separated from my body, and/or I have a split conscious awareness (where I am equally consciously aware in my body and consciously aware outside my body somewhere else, as if there were two of me).  I may be surprised at finding myself in a strange place and think something like, "How can this be?  This shouldn't be possible!"  And if I begin to have any doubt, I am instantly snapped back to my body and awakened. 

6) 
Finally, simply put...conscious awareness is conscious awareness.  It doesn't matter what state you are in, if you have conscious awareness then you have it!  Think about it...we don't spend time in the waking (physical) world going, "Oh my gosh, I almost lost conscious awareness there for a moment!  Whew, that was close.  I better stay completely conscious today or else!"  How many times have we driven down the street completely day dreaming and not even aware of driving?! Obviously, our reality in the physical world isn't governed by how consciously aware we are at any given moment.  And, at any moment while you are awake, you can ask yourself "how do I know I have conscious awareness right now?  How do I know that what I am experiencing right now is really real?"  But you don't have to question the validity of conscious awareness in physical reality so why question it during non-physical reality? 

It is my belief that in a lucid dream I should technically, if I had the presence of mind to do it, be able to say to myself, "I am dreaming.  I have complete conscious awareness.  That means that my body is asleep and my mind is awake.  That means that I am experiencing my awareness completely within the non-physical world.  That means I am not bound by my physical body or by the physical world.  That means that I am technically out of body."  And so on and so forth which can lead to an OBE in any sense of the meaning. 

One final thought...it's not like your only choices for conscious awareness are either to be conscious while awake or conscious while dreaming!  There definitely is conscious awareness outside the dreaming mind and outside the physical body. 

Hi Kathy, 

In some OBE's it seems that they operate the same as lucid dreams do in the sense that what you think gets created. 

Also, with OBE's I know that there seems to be different degrees or levels of awareness or perception.  But it has been my experience that during these events I feel that my truest and most honest nature is activated.  I guess what I mean is, my ego cannot get in the way.   I don't have a choice but to be my true self. 

Whereas, with a lucid dream, I could make myself be anything I could imagine, even if it were not my true characteristics, i.e. rude, dishonest, sneaky, etc. 

I also wonder about the two experiences crossing over each other.  For instance, we could start our having a lucid dream, but then it could phase into more of a true OBE upon our realization that this is possible.  Has anyone ever noticed this kind of shift? 



I believe we split off parts of our consciousness on a regular basis.  We usually don't know this is happening, but perhaps when we have instances of ESP or deja vu, this is how those processes work.  Some part of our self split off and brought back information.  I have a lot of thoughts on this and may start another post on this topic alone.  It is very interesting to me.  Thanks Kathy.

Vicky

What you call "dreaming true" I call ESP dreams!  Same thing though.  And my take on this concept is that although these seem like "regular" dreams (until they come true), I view them as "information we pick up along the way while OBE-ing.  And either we don't remember the experience or we didn't have a way of incorporating the information into something we could understand at the time.  Therefore, our brains create the dream so that we can make sense of the information.  So although the dream cannot be true literally, it is the information in the dream that is what's true.  And in my book that is good proof that we do travel and operate outside of our bodies. 

I think that most anyone has these dreams.  You need only to be able to remember your dreams and write them down.  Certainly, if you are wondering, exploring, or desiring to know more in this area, that more of this sort of thing will happen to you. 

love,
Vicky