From: janice@mailinator.com   
      
   In article , laura@nospam.me says...   
      
   >True enough. It is a question of definition. With a preexisting definition,   
   >though, it is easy to tell if it has happened to you or not.   
   >I define it something like this: An experience of being awake and leaving   
   >your bed (or other location you went to sleep/rest in), moving around and   
   >doing whatever, and then returning to the bed, usually quite abruptly   
   >without the experience of moving back to it. It is unlike a dream in that   
   >the quality of your consciousness in the experience is one of waking, or   
   >very near waking, clarity. Also, the experience of the surroundings is   
   >fairly realistic - i.e. you don't suddenly find yourself in a completely   
   >different place without first experiencing your actual bedroom to some   
   >extent.   
   >   
   >I know this definition is not perfect by any means.   
      
   It's a good description of what seems to be the most common type of OBE   
   that posters here, including myself, have.  I personally would say,   
   though, that it's "unlike a *typical* dream," since I've had non-OB-type   
   lucid dreams that also featured consciousness with waking or near-waking   
   clarity.   
      
   As for not finding yourself in a completely different place, that's   
   basically true, but I found out through experimentation that it is   
   possible to force an OBE to start in a different scene than where you're   
   located.  I did this when I was away from home for a couple of weeks.   
   The OBEs that I had which took place in that unfamiliar setting were   
   sketchy and boring and I missed the customized OB version of my   
   neighborhood that I'd built up while at home.  So while still in dark,   
   formless SP, I tried concentrating on the idea of being in my bed at home   
   and going through the motions I would typically do to start off an OBE   
   from there, which at that time was turning around and going out the   
   window behind me.  When visuals resolved I saw that I had been successful   
   in recreating my usual local OB environment.   
      
   Sometimes I get false awakenings in which I find myself in bed in a   
   former home, and induce OBEs from there without ever remembering that I   
   am realy asleep somewhere else.  I suppose those should count as dreams   
   of OBEs, or at best as semilucid OBEs.   
      
   >As for how to distinguish between OBEs and lucid dreams, I can't come up   
   >with a good method. Perhaps becuase such a distinction is meaningless,   
   >except to describe the contents of a certain variety of lucid dream.   
      
   It does seem to be pretty much meaningless if, like me, one does not get   
   OBEs that even seem to take place in the normal physical environment.   
      
   >Yes, and everyone tends to post as if their version of it is the true one   
   >(myself included, though I try to take into account other views), which is   
   >understandable :-)   
      
   After reading accounts of OBEs taking place in association with   
   meditation, anaesthesia, shock, mental illness, etc., at a point my   
   working definition expanded from the sleep-paralysis-based type to the   
   very generalized, "Any experience involving the perception of leaving the   
   body." :-)   
      
   --   
      
   For the alt.out-of-body group website and my other sites, visit:   
   http://www.hopkinsfan.net   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)