I had my first “out-of-body” experience at the age of 5, which left a lasting impression on me. I still remember every detail of the experience, and although many people do not understand the subject, it turns out it is actually fairly common.

I was intensely curious, I could not ignore my own experience and I wanted to learn more. 

As it turns out, OBE’s and Dreaming are related. I have always had incredibly vivid dreams in my life. Dreams that often felt as solid as being awake. It is difficult to live out these kinds of meaningful experiences and not be able to speak about it. The other night, I dreamt that I was in a tornado; I became the wind, and felt the air. I have dreamt that I went inside the earth; dreamt that I swam through the ocean and felt the water on my skin; dreamt that I took a deep peaceful breath and felt the oxygen in my lungs. The depth of these experiences is amazing, considering you are just lying in your bed.

When you talk about dreams like that to a stranger, they are likely to give you a funny look. This leads to people ignoring their dreams for fear of “sounding crazy” because they do not have anyone to discuss it with who understands. Without support, people often ignore their dreams or become afraid of their experiences. When I ignored my dreams, they got louder and became nightmares that kept me awake at night and caused me to wake in the morning feeling intensely anxious.

I made the decision to volunteer, because I thought that it would help me to do something to help others. I volunteered for a center for women healing from trauma. While I was there, the subject of dreams got brought up, and a woman was telling me about someone she knew, who was having nightmares that kept her awake and from enjoying her life, although it was “just a dream” they very much affected her.  That was the moment that I realized I was not the only one who has been afraid of their dream experiences, and I decided I had to go for it.

I made the decision to concentrate on my own dreams again, so that I could heal and transform myself and my life from the inside-out.

Instead of running from my nightmares, I went to bed with the intention to immerse myself fully in them. I ran directly into my own storm so that I could find out what was really happening with me. I was having nightmares of a man chasing me and trying to kill me. When I made this decision, I dreamt of him again, but this time, I turned around and laughed at him. I asked “Why are you here?”

This led to a series of dreams in which I was running through my dreamscape until I found him and asked every question I could. It wasn’t easy, actually, and was a pretty intense experience all its own, however through this experience I found that I became empowered. I was working through the various levels of fear that I had built up over the years. One night, I realized that I was no longer afraid of him, and he had no power in my dreams. I stopped dreaming about him, but then I walked around my dreamscape and saw that the imagery still wasn’t very happy. The anxiety, stress, worry that I had collected over the years was visible in my mind.

I decided that I was done having nightmares at that point. I felt I had expressed and healed the parts of me that needed to be acknowledged enough. I was ready to move forward with my life. With this intention, I had another dream; one that was intense and unexpected. Because my entire dreamscape was made up of nightmare imagery, there was only one thing to do – my dreamscape collapsed. In an earthquake, the water flooded and the ground shook, and then I was in a void.

Elephants appeared and walked me out of the void, they each had an earth on their back, and there was several of them. They walked somewhere there was water, and trees growing out of the water. I felt peace. I had collapsed my nightmare dreamscape, and pulled myself into a new one.

It was an intense experience, even though it happened in the realms of my dreams; it transformed my entire life, my attitude, it helped bring me clarity and most of all, it helped empower me again. I haven’t had a nightmare since, although sometimes my dreams can be intense, I am not fearful of my experiences anymore. This feeling reflects out in other parts of my life as well. Actions that you take while awake are reflected in your dreams, but also, when you take an action in a dream, it is reflected into the waking world.

I want others to feel comfortable expressing their dream experiences, talk to me about the weird stuff! Consider me a friend that has been through it, lets see if we can make some sense out of the nonsense, or perhaps, just explore, transform, and empower.

Sweet Dreams,

Karma Dreamwalker

Karma Dreamwalker is a 22 year old Spiritual Dreamwork Artist, Intuitive Health coach, and Teacher of Magickal Arts. She lives in California and focuses on inspiring transformation through the art of lucid dreaming, dream interpretation, and dream divination. Visit her website www.KarmaDreamwalker.com or her blog www.theartofdreamwalking.com to learn more.