Observations placeholder
The strange but comforting lucid dream of the lady in the pink nightgown
Identifier
023597
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
This is a lucid dream, not an OBE, we know this because she is able to do things like ‘hold back the curtains’, those in an OBE state cannot ‘hold’ or influence anything directly. The dream is a comforting dream for her, but we cannot use any of the content because it is a composition rather than actual ‘travel’. One suspects her dream making function was supplying her with what she needed at the time. We have included it because it is a reasonable example of a lucid dream.
There is the hint in her description that she was very unhappy or lonely – it is the ‘love at last’ feeling she manages to convey, but the primary driver to this appears to be grief – ‘There are the faces I have waited so long to see again’.
A description of the experience
The following from Light, vol. XLV, 1925, p. 142, was abbreviated by Dr Robert Crookall in More Astral projections
I seem to be looking out of the window for the sun to rise, the window is open, but I don't feel cold. I am puzzled by a subtle change in the atmosphere. I hold back the curtains and wonder at the unfamiliar outlook. I still have a sense of golden light, of unfolding love and happiness. I think I will try to keep this feeling all day, and then I begin to laugh, because I see myself lying in bed. Suddenly it occurs to me: 'This is very odd, I am looking at myself. Are there two of me?' Stranger and stranger, I have a sense of whirling in the air, of travelling rapidly, of ever-increasing light, brightness, beauty and surprised content; then there is soft music, those soft voices calling, they penetrate and thrill me. I feel surrounded, encircled, permeated by love and kindness; and yet, here I am standing by my bed looking at myself asleep. My arm, with a pink-patterned sleeve, lies outside the coverlet. I look down on myself: I have on a similar pink gown ... yet, I didn't have two pink gowns.
I am puzzled, what am I to do now? To get into bed with myself again, or what? Something must be done, because I hear footsteps coming down the passage. Jane will 'have a fit' if she sees two of me! I know! : I'll just float out of the window. I must be quick ... I feel as light as a feather as I float away. Hands are held out to me. I have invisible support. I sail away. "This is a great adventure. I hope I shall remember it all when I come back. I feel I never want this journey to end: everything is getting more and more beautiful, wonderful, and the voices are getting nearer and clearer. 'Here she is at last !' ... I am enfolded in an atmosphere of love. There are the faces I have waited so long to see again.... I see, I feel, I know, that all I ever longed for, and more, is here.
It is too much to grasp. I just know I have come home at last, safely across the great divide ...
When the sun shone through the chinks of the still-drawn curtains, it woke me up. I remembered vividly every word and sensation. ... All the more wonderful to me because, as a rule, the happenings of sleeping hours with me are as tantalizing as Burns' 'snowflakes on the river.'