---
title: "Altered & Metaphysical States Dream Meanings"
description: "Altered & Metaphysical States in dreams: Out-of-body and astral experiences, reality shifting, and the fringe states around sleep, explained. DreamTold explains the psychology and the spiritual or cultural meaning behind each."
url: "https://dreamtold.com/categories/altered-and-metaphysical-states/"
lang: "en"
image: "https://dreamtold.com/images/altered-and-metaphysical-states/altered-and-metaphysical-states-astral-out-of-body-international-ether.jpg"
---

Category

# Altered & Metaphysical States

Out-of-body and astral experiences, reality shifting, and the fringe states around sleep, explained.

![A rising ribbon of gold light lifting from a still gold pool, with faint gold sacred-geometry lines and drifting smoke over warm near-black.](https://dreamtold.com/images/altered-and-metaphysical-states/altered-and-metaphysical-states-astral-out-of-body-international-ether.jpg)

In this category

## Dream meanings
in this category.

Each of these gets its own in-depth meaning guide. Detailed entries are being added.

[Astral Projection](https://dreamtold.com/dream-dictionary/?q=Astral%20Projection)[Reality Shifting](https://dreamtold.com/dream-dictionary/?q=Reality%20Shifting)[Out-of-Body](https://dreamtold.com/dream-dictionary/?q=Out-of-Body)[Precognitive Dreams](https://dreamtold.com/dream-dictionary/?q=Precognitive%20Dreams)[Third Eye](https://dreamtold.com/dream-dictionary/?q=Third%20Eye)[Quantum Jumping](https://dreamtold.com/dream-dictionary/?q=Quantum%20Jumping)

Not seeing your dream yet? [Send a request from the contact page](https://dreamtold.com/contact/), or [browse another category](https://dreamtold.com/categories/).

Reads in this category

## In-depth guides
on altered & metaphysical states.

8 guides published in this category, newest first.

[Browse every guide](https://dreamtold.com/blog/)

- [Why These Experiences Feel More Real Than Dreaming](https://dreamtold.com/blog/why-these-experiences-feel-more-real/): Vividness is how much detail a dream had. Realness is the conviction it was not a dream at all. Here is what sleep research has measured about the second one.
- [Remote Viewing and Dreams: What Is Claimed, and What Was Studied](https://dreamtold.com/blog/remote-viewing-and-dreams/): Dreamed a place you had never seen, then found it? Remote viewing was studied for decades with public money. Here is what the record actually says.
- [The Third Eye in Dreams: What the Tradition Holds](https://dreamtold.com/blog/third-eye-in-dreams/): Dreamed of an eye opening or glowing on your forehead? Here is which tradition that image belongs to, from ajna to the wedjat, with every reading labeled.
- [Hypnagogic States: The Images Just Before Sleep](https://dreamtold.com/blog/hypnagogic-images-before-sleep/): Faces, a voice saying your name, a place you have never been, right as you fall asleep. What hypnagogic images are, why they happen, and when to take note.
- [Is Reality Shifting Dangerous? An Honest Look](https://dreamtold.com/blog/is-reality-shifting-dangerous/): Is reality shifting dangerous? An honest look at what actually carries risk, what research has measured, and the line worth watching, without the panic.
- [Reality Shifting: What It Is and What People Actually Report](https://dreamtold.com/blog/reality-shifting-what-people-report/): What reality shifting is, in the words of the people who practice it, what they describe during an attempt, and why not having shifted yet says nothing about you.
- [Out-of-Body Feelings and Sleep Paralysis: What Sleep Research Calls This](https://dreamtold.com/blog/out-of-body-feelings-and-sleep-paralysis/): Floating, rising, or seeing yourself in bed while unable to move is a common part of sleep paralysis. Here is what sleep research has measured about it.
- [Astral Projection or a Dream? How People Tell Them Apart](https://dreamtold.com/blog/astral-projection-or-a-dream/): Floating above the bed, vibrations, seeing yourself asleep: here is how people actually tell astral projection apart from a dream or a lucid dream.