Do we travel in dreams?

Have you ever had a dream that was so vivid, so seemingly real, when you awoke you carried with you the feelings you experienced well into the day as though, possibly, what you dreamed actually happened?

Today my friend reminded me of such experiences when he shared with me about his night paralysis episodes. Some of them are too graphic for me to describe here. Several of them involved visitations from other worldly beings, demons per se. To give more insight into what my friend described, it's important to know his early world view was founded upon Christian beliefs. He mentioned the term succubus and talked about being between consciousness, having the sensation of someone sitting on his chest. He reported having actually seen shadowy figures, being unable to move his body as it lay in slumber. He reported hearing voices and sounds so real he swore it was not just his imagination.

While I'm not someone who suffers night paralysis, generally speaking, I think I may have had some brushes with it. Occasionally I find myself in dreams being haunted by someone or something. In trying to wake myself to end whatever suffering is heading my way, my physical being materializes moans, sometimes whimpers. This has awoken my husband on occasion, who then wakes me to make sure I'm alright. The fear seems real. Sometimes I am able to recount the dream, or horror, and other times I suffer short term memory loss.

Once I saw a shadowy figure. I was in college, rooming with my brother in a two bedroom townhome. My bedroom was pretty basic, consisting of a bed, desk and drawers. My bed was positioned against the far wall and window with my desk directly adjacent. On this particular night I was awaken by the sudden, startling realization I wasn't alone in my room. Yet the room was dark and still. Without opening my eyes, which I was first fearful of doing, it felt as if someone were sitting next to me, just watching me sleep. I'm getting a chill now as I type this.

When I did crack an eyelid, I saw someone or rather something. It was like a silhouette figure, sitting in my desk chair, which I usually kept pushed all the way in when not in use. Yet here the chair was, pulled out from the desk a little ways and turned facing directly toward the bed.

In the instant I perceived the shadowy figure, the figure began to dissipate, becoming a fuzz of black dots or small black spheres which whirled around, growing smaller and moving faster until it vanished in moments.

I shared this with my friend who had first reported to me about his night paralysis, and he got the chills.

I've practiced meditation over the years as well as participated in several conscious breathing workshops. Both have a very strong connection to pure consciousness, and at times I have experienced being elsewhere. I'm certain my experiences, while unique, are widely shared.

DMT, also known as the spirit molecule, is a powerful psychedelic, said to literally transport human consciousness to other realms, times, space and dimensions. It works on our pineal gland, which is located deep in the core of the human brain. This gland is responsible for secreting a substance near death that gives a person an out of body experience. Near death experiences also are attributed to the actions of the pineal gland. Meditation is said to be a natural way to stimulate it.

As I type this, scientists and engineers are working to create singularity. Singularity is a way of downloading a person's consciousness into a computer, giving someone the ability to perhaps live forever, or at least until the hard drive fails. Digital immortality. This begs the question, if consciousness can be moved from one place to another, could our consciousness possibly be powerful enough to transport us places, too?