Lucid Dreaming/Out of Body Experience

So, I found this post on tumblr about Lucid dreaming and there were quite a few people who were so interested in doing this and I admit, once upon a time, I was interested too, and thought it was a neat concept but never did it. I forgot about it and though I might have thought it was interesting I don't think I was interested in doing it and here's why:

According to some comments on the post I saw tonight, what this is, is actually an Obe, which is completely different to Lucid Dreaming. Here's the comments I saw tonight:

i really wouldn’t recommend doing this to get yourself to lucid dream, sleep paralysis is actually a horrible experience most of the time. i can’t speak for everyone but being in sleep paralysis most people feel agitated and/or afraid even if nothing seems to be wrong.  some people (myself and my mother included) will also see a black figure somewhere within the dream which is fucking terrifying and you wake up exhausted, so. don’t make yourself get sleep paralysis to lucid dream, there are other ways.

"NO NO NO NOTHIS IS NOT LUCID DREAMING.
THIS AN AN OBE.
IT IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM A LUCID DREAM.
AND OBE INVOLVES GETTING YOUR SPIRIT OUT OF YOUR BODY AND ROAMING AROUND LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE. AND YOU CAN SEE SCARY SHIT WHILE DOING AN OBE IF YOU DON’T DO IT PROPERLY, LIKE BLACK PEOPLE WITH RED EYE AND ALL.
THE BEST WAY TO DO A LUCID DREAM IS TO COUNT YOUR FINGERS AS MANY TIMES AS YOU REMEMBER A DAY. I TRIED IT, AND IT WORKED. THE HANDS DUPLICATE IN YOUR DREAM BECAUSE THERE IS NO LOGIC.
PLEASE PASS MY MESSAGE ON, A BADLY DONE OBE CAN BE A TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE, READ RELIABLE SOURCES AND WAYS BEFORE DOING AN OBE, FOR YOUR OWN SAKE." 

"I’m experiencing that obe-whatever thing involuntary from time to time, and let me fucking tell you that it’s not fun or interesting or anything like pleasant and you wouldn’t want that happening to you.
Basically you can’t move no matter how hard you try as if your veins were filled with lead and you are seeing your trippiest fears grotesquely dance all around you and feeling them suck your soul out of your body while believing that they are indeed real and knowing that if you don’t move, you are a goner. It fills you with actual fear and physical pain and leaves you exhausted for the whole following day, if not longer. It is also highly possible to trigger seizure or a heart attack.
This is coming from a dude who hardly ever gets scared and I swear that I’ve never been more terrified in my life than when this happened to me for the first time."

 First of all, if I'm exhausted, or just really tired, I would much rather just go to sleep. If I ever did try this stuff and it worked, and I did see stuff that horrified me, then it wouldn't just stop after I woke up. It would trigger paranoia and anxiety, and it would affect my sleeping and whatever I'd see during the Obe, would probably wind up being in my dreams for a while after the experience.

Now, I have Nyctophilia which is a preference for the night or darkness. And as such my room tends to be dark at night unless I'm doing something in which I need the lights to be on for and if I went through a terrifying experience during an Obe, it would effect that and I'd have to keep the lights on or I'd be paranoid about being in the dark. It would be detrimental to my mental and emotional health which, considering I have depression, is already a barely there kind of thing. Not to mention, as stated in the last quote, you run the risk of having seizures or having a heart attack, neither of which I ever want to risk having.

Watching Paranormal Witness or horror movies is one thing because that's fiction or something I'm not experiencing personally so it doesn't really effect me but an Obe experience is something that would effect me personally and it would be an entirely different situation. I'd be like a really scared little kid who just had a really horrible nightmare and needs to sleep with their parents to feel better.

Over all, if anyone reading this is interested in Lucid Dreaming, or having an Obe, please, PLEASE know what you're doing, and be safe while doing it and find a safe way to do it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience

View the original article here