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Out of body exp. and memory of waking life


nisheeth

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I have come across numerous people who claim out of body experiences are hallucinations but my experience is quite different. Here is an excerpt from a project I was doing sometime back, it contains a few entries from my journal of OBEs I used to maintain.

At the outset I would like to add a brief note which you may call "my conclusion".

I have noticed that often changing the position of the body after a long meditation quite suddenly puts one into an OBE and this thing has pretty much convinced me that apart from the physical frame of our body there is possibly also a subtle one which under normal circumstances is extended or spread in many directions due to haphazard thoughts, but when we meditate enough and become very calm then it becomes collected and acquires a shape similar to physical frame and then it becomes prone to venture out of the body (I prefer to call this subtle body a mental body). :geek:B)

Anyway, here is the excerpt from my project:

Being out of body

Most people are aware of three usual states of being namely, waking, dreaming and

deep sleep. However, there are some people, including this author, who have

experienced some other states of being. one of them is called Out of Body Experience (OBE).

This state of being involves dream-like impossible experiences but is much more

remarkable than dreams in that in an OBE one remembers the waking state (to some

extent, and sometimes completely). This makes it just like a waking experience because

the experiences of OBE are as vivid as in the waking state and the person having an

OBE has a sense of doer-ship exactly like the one he has in the waking state. The

individual knows the OBE to be continuation of his waking state (although he may still

find himself in strange lands and having superhuman powers like ability to fly, etc. he is

aware that any time he may snap back to the physical body and waking life, and usually

he tries to avoid that. “Snap back” implies coming back from an undesirable situation but

OBE is actually perceived as a much better experience than real life).

The OBE usually starts with a feeling of floating out of one's body. A person may float

out, or roll out of his body or all of a sudden he may find himself standing apart from his

physical body and staring at it. Almost always it begins with the separation from the

physical body and finding oneself in a similar, but usually a much more capable body.

However, there are instances when one is having an ordinary dream and suddenly

realizes that he is dreaming, and then the dream gets converted into an OBE (some

people call this phenomenon lucid dreaming). The interesting thing about OBEs is that

one can train himself or herself to experience this state.

I was once fascinated with OBEs and have had quite a few. They are really a great

escape, the highest form of entertainment I have ever known. Dreams are supposed to

relieve one of suppressed desires, but believe me, there is no experience which can

compete with an OBE at this front. In fact, if one could perfect the practice so as to be

able to induce an OBE at will, some would probably rate the life of OBE higher than the waking life.

Nevertheless, going deeper into the subject has made the illusory nature of all kinds of perception quite

apparent to me.

In those days I used to keep a journal of OBEs and I would like to insert here a couple of

entries from that journal, just to give you a feel of what an OBE is like and how it is not a

hallucination but as real as the waking life (you may skip if you are already familiar with

OBEs).

My very first real OBE

I was lying down in the corpse posture with my eyes closed. I did some breathing

exercise and then started concentrating on various parts of my body one by one from the

toes upwards. By the time I reached the eyes I knew that my body was quite numb and I

could listen to my heartbeat as well as to the internal sound produced by the flow of

blood in veins and arteries. My body was quite rigid and I felt my body had become very

heavy, as if glued to the bed. I observed that my breath had slowed down considerably

and it was as calm as if I wasn't breathing at all. Then I was disoriented, I felt as if I was

falling into a reverie and was afraid that I would be soon fast asleep.

All of a sudden, I felt something in the back of my neck and then, something even

stranger. I felt a thing, like a second heart beating in my chest, it was right in the center

of my chest and its beating was of a different kind. It was like a circle of energy spinning

around its axis. It made me choke. My breath suddenly stopped completely. The next

moment I found myself floating out of the body (I still had my eyes closed but knew that I

was getting out of the physical body). Surprisingly, my awareness seemed to be shared

by both the bodies, I could feel both of them and think from the point of view of both. But

the higher my new body went the weaker my awareness of the physical body became.

Now, I knew that I was exclusively in my new body; however, I still remembered that I

had left the physical body on the bed.

Anyway, while I was just wondering what really happened, my head bumped into the

ceiling of the room. I wanted to go out, and the next moment I found myself outside,

standing on the roof, stark naked. First, I felt embarrassed but then I realized it was night

time. I instantly forgot all embarrassment. As I looked around I realized that it was not

the roof of my current house (the house where the physical body lived, I still

remembered it), it was the roof of a house we used to live in when I was a student at the

school (I was not particularly fond of that house).

I don't know why, but I was fearless. I jumped down from the roof, got stuck among

some telephone wires, freed myself and was standing on the familiar street of my

childhood. I don't know why, but I knew that I could fly. I wanted to fly and I thought I

needed some speed to take off (perhaps a reminder of airplanes), and so I started

running on the street.

It was a very quiet night and the streets seemed to be completely empty, but all of a

sudden a few children appeared in front of me (I myself had the body of an adult). While

I was still running in their direction I looked at my nudity and thought of covering it with

my hands but as I came very close I instinctively jumped and crossed the hurdle. I found

that now at each step I floated in the air for a few moments and then came down to the

ground (like it happens in those videos where astronauts look like frogs hopping in slow

motion on the moon). Now the speed was of no use, so I tried to push myself higher at

each step and finally started flying.

It was exhilarating, a dream come true. I just wanted to keep floating in the air but then

thoughts started rushing in. I felt as if drowning in a sea of possibilities, I thought now I

could go anywhere at will, I could see the whole world! But then I thought it would be

wiser to first narrow down my choices to a few destinations. First I thought about going

to Himalayas (I am fond of trekking and have trekked some 1300 km in Himalaya,

usually all alone) but then I remembered that it was late night and I wouldn't be able to

see those beautiful mountain valleys at night. My next choice was Barcelona (I have

been there once, physically) because I liked the beaches there. Like Superman I started

flying at a great speed. I really didn't know what direction to take but I was confident that

my instinct would guide me faithfully.

Then suddenly a disappointing thought came over me, I remembered the time difference

between Spain and India. I realized that it would still be late night in Barcelona while I

wanted to see the sunrise there and then go back home (to my physical body) as soon

as possible. I found that it was not feasible at the moment. The remembrance of my

physical body had a strange effect on me. I instinctively knew that the OBE was going to

end very soon. I didn't want it to end as yet but I had no idea what to do. Then I found

the sun rising in front of me (I am not really sure whether it was sun or moon because

while it was white like moon, its size was much larger, or who knows maybe it was the

moon after all, and maybe I had gone too high and so it looked much bigger), and I

snapped back to my physical body.

I was extremely happy and slightly disappointed at the same time. Happy because after

months of practicing what once I thought was only a product of someone's imagination I

had finally come to know that OBEs were a reality, and I had also fulfilled my long

cherished wish of flying. Unhappy, because there were so many things I could have

done but didn't get a chance to do. Anyway, I opened my eyes and noticed some sort of

vibration in my hands. I could feel the pattern of vibration and it corresponded with the

shape of those parts of my physical body. It was as if my OBE body was yet to settle

down completely into the physical frame. I could distinctly feel two palms in a hand; one

of them was not visible to the eyes but felt like some field of vibrations moving back and

forth passing through the plain of my physical palm. After a few seconds the vibrations

disappeared and everything became ordinary once again.

The desire to fly is hard to control

I had already experienced a number of OBEs but the moment I was out of body I always

wanted to fly. My desire to fly had become very strong. Often, before starting the

meditation I thought that it would be wiser for me to try talking with people I see during

OBEs. There were so many things that I could have tried to do in an OBE if only my

desire to fly didn't overpower me as soon as I was out of body. I had not yet reached

Spain even once. Finally, I decided that I would fly once more but this time only

vertically, in order to see if I could reach the space beyond the atmosphere. I decided

that in future I would try to talk to people within the OBE and explore the possibility of

bringing some object from OBE back to the physical world. So, I once more started

meditating and in due time rolled out of my physical body. This time, I found myself in a

room. It was dark but I could see a door. First I thought of trying to pass through a wall. I

tried, but the wall was as hard and impassable as any physical wall. Disappointed, I

approached the door. It was only slightly opened.

Surprisingly enough, I didn't have to move the door and I easily passed through the open

space through which no more than an arm could pass. Once outside, I started running

frantically. I took off with my objective still fresh in my mind. I soared upwards like an

arrow aimed at some star. The wind on my face became cool. Very soon I found myself

surrounded by a thick white mist. I realized that it was not mist but clouds. I kept flying

vertically, and then, it started raining.

Imagine getting wet in rain while flying like a bird, without having to worry that your

feathers would get wet! I can't really describe the feeling. Anyway, now I stopped and

decided to fly downwards (I thought of a maneuver the Indian airmen call 'Vertical

Charlie’). I started descending at a great speed while simultaneously spinning my body.

After some time I stopped spinning but kept descending, I was still surrounded by clouds

but they were becoming thinner. I remember thick cool showers of water pouring down

upon my body; the water was white like milk and falling in torrents. Enormous quantity of

water!

I remember having thanked the clouds. I felt love for some unknown god. I don't know

how long it took me to reach the ground but it definitely seemed like a very long time,

apparently I had traveled quite a distance. Surprisingly, instead of falling head down I

landed on my feet. I took a leisurely walk. Then I thought that the OBE was going to end

sooner or later so why not try flying to Barcelona?

I started flying again and within seconds reached a different place. The streets were

European style. I thought I had reached Barcelona, but on close inspection I found that it

actually resembled Venice (I have been there physically, once). As much as I liked

Venice, I was disappointed that Barcelona had once again eluded me. I became anxious

that I had spent quite a long time in Venice and at any moment now my OBE could end,

which would mean no Barcelona this time. As soon as I thought of the end of OBE and

of my physical body, I knew that everything was fading away quickly. Within moments I

was back to the boring, ordinary existence. Now, sitting up at my bed I realized that

while the OBE seemed to have lasted for at least an hour, in the physical world only a

few minutes had passed.

I commit crimes in the OBE-land

These were two different OBEs. In one of them I interacted with a human being and in

another with an inanimate object. In the first one I found myself in a street resembling a

familiar place in Mumbai. I think it was about to dawn very soon. A couple of men were

sweeping the street. I wandered around for some time and then found myself standing

before a very beautiful and grand mansion flooded with light. I wanted to have a closer

look and so I flew in order to go across the high walls surrounding the estate, I had never

seen such a grand and beautiful property in the real life.

Once in the sky, I discovered that the building was situated in the middle of a very

extensive and beautiful garden. I found two or maybe, three beautiful girls sitting at a

secluded spot, chatting among themselves. I alighted to the ground and went near them.

I noticed that one of the girls was extraordinarily beautiful. I couldn't resist the temptation

and seized her. I took the beautiful girl in my arms and flew away, like a cruel hawk

taking away an innocent little bird. After flying a long distance I alighted at a beautiful

meadow. Before that although I had seen mountains in real life (I am from Uttarakhand

state of India, which is a mountainous region) I had never seen a meadow in the

mountains, and surprisingly, after some months when I had taken to trekking big time, I

saw an almost exact replica of that meadow in the Garhwal region of Himalaya (in real

life).

Anyway, I looked at the girl and tried to kiss her.

Suddenly, I stopped and reflected within myself. Why was I misbehaving with that girl?

What if it resulted in some terrible consequence? I remembered that after all, I was still

not aware of the real nature of these things, and above all, I was a completely different

kind of person in the physical world. The thought of unknown consequences made me

afraid and I was reminded of my physical existence. Immediately I felt being drawn

towards my physical body and soon I was merely an ordinary man lying on his bed,

cursing himself for his wicked nature (and I don't know yet what became of that girl but I

hope she was just an imagination or an ordinary girl having an OBE, in which case she

might have reached home safely).

As for the other OBE, before it began I had decided that I would try to bring back some

object to the physical existence, some sort of souvenir. If I succeeded, I could show it to

my family and maybe teach them my technique. I also thought, let’s go for something

expensive. Although it seemed like a possibility of creating things out of nothing

nevertheless I can see that it was no different than planning a theft.

Anyway, during the OBE I didn't find anything of value that I could take away. I even

looked for some book. I thought if there is a book that I can take away it might prove very

useful, being a book from another world! But unfortunately, all that I could succeed in

laying my hands on was a grayish-brown kettle. In my anxiety caused by my

remembrance of previous OBEs (I remembered that OBEs may end at any time and I

was still not capable of controlling them) I grabbed the kettle lest I have nothing to take

away with me. During the OBE I had the kettle with me all the time but when I came

back to physical existence I saw no kettle.

I was extremely disappointed and at a loss to understand when and where did I lose my

dear kettle. After that experience, although I still used OBEs for entertainment, I stopped

taking them seriously. Apparently, I have failed to learn how to take objects from one

existence to another. I can't take any physical object to an OBE, even the body is a

different one as far as its capabilities are concerned. Similarly, I can't take away any

object from OBE to physical existence. Although, now I knew that it was possible to

interact with people and objects in an OBE, my interest kept waning. I often thought that

maybe I could learn something from the people of OBE world but my passage to that

world became more and more infrequent with time. I don't know if this was a

consequence of my misbehavior with that OBE girl but if it was then I think it was for

better because it was obvious to me that intoxicated with my power of flying I was

becoming some sort of monster-on-rampage in the OBE world.

Nevertheless, I have learned one important thing from OBEs -they are essentially no

different than the waking world and dreams. The fact that I remembered my physical

existence and was often afraid to go back to it proves the continuity in my consciousness

during both states. The fact that I planned specific tasks for an OBE and then tried to

accomplish them (for example, my persistent attempt to visit Barcelona, to fly vertically

towards the space, to interact with people and to try and take away some object as

souvenir) proves that I was not dreaming and the world I visited was as real as this

world.

And the fact that I perceived the strange sensation of having one virtual palm of hand

parallel to a physical one when I came back to physical existence shows that there is

something as serious about the phenomenon of OBE as the real life. Some may say that

perhaps it was because my hands went numb since I was lying on the bed for a long

time in same posture, a genuine suspicion indeed; however, I have lived on this earth

just too long to not to know what the numbness or tingling in the body actually feels like.

It was no numbness but a distinct perception of two palms in the same hand with one of

them which I am calling here virtual (because it felt like a wave or a field but a field

having a distinct shape of palm of hand) going to and fro in the plain perpendicular to the

plain of the physical palm. To those who believe that nothing beyond matter as seen

really exists it may be a hallucination, because to them everything they cannot explain is

just that. I however, don’t bother much about them because apparently they are not

capable of these things (or have been incapable so far) and so there is no point

convincing them, and frankly speaking, if they are not capable of something then

convincing them will be injustice to them because it will be like showing them something

alluring which they cannot obtain -that will be inhuman.

Rhetoric aside, I must add here that it is actually a misconception that anyone is

incapable of anything (unless that person believes him or herself to be incapable), there

is only one entity in existence and all of us are mere imaginations of that entity and so

our status is similar, and so are our capabilities. And as I said in the beginning of this

section about OBEs, these are experiences one can train oneself to have. When you

have a genuine OBE you will realize that what you thought was a waking reality was

actually no different than what you earlier took for hallucination experienced by some

people and not by you.

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Wow that was really long, but interesting. I have heaps of dreams where I leave my body but I have never been able to convince myself they were other than dreams. I have however, had one odd experience in my life and it lasted about 10 to 15 seconds while I was awake!

I was working as a receptionist at the time and it was during lunch break when I would move to an empty office behind the reception area and have my lunch, make some calls, read the paper and so on. The co-worker who was covering me on this particular occasion came in to ask me a work related question and I looked up at her and started to respond, suddenly I COULD SEE MYSELF AND HER FROM A DISTANCE like maybe 3 metres to the right side from the vicinity of the ceiling, I can't remember what we were saying it was a long time ago but I was talking and looking at myself talking, then it was over and I was back looking at her, apparently I had stopped talking and she was looking like she was waiting for me to continue, I had to apologise and say sorry, what were we talking about and apparently made the appropriate responses because she went back out front.

I couldn't see or think straight for a while and got up and went outside to walk it all off, I couldn't fathom how I had been talking and so normal when I wasn't actually in my body (if that is what happened) and I looked so normal and unconcerned while I was talking too, it wasn't until I "returned to my body" that I lost my memory of the conversation thru shock more than anything and had to be prodded back onto the subject.

It was random and ridiculously insignificant as a setting for such an event and I still can't imagine what about my mindset in that moment has ever been any different from any other time in my life for such and experience to just pop up.

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Excellent. Very enjoyable. Are you available to post regularly?

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Long but good post nisheeth.

In some occasion I tried to pass the wall too, but can't. Instead with the direct way, you can try to tear apart the wall. Don't worry about breaking the wall, you are tearing the time/space to make your way.

Your power is kinda limitless. I've tried many abilities : teleportation, materialization, deformation of an object, telekinesis , ect... The desire and the thirst of power make you not want to return to the real world. A complete freedom from any rule and time/space limitation.

You can indeed planned your intention of what you want to do. You have access to your real life memory so all you need is to remember this planning. You can remember your experience and it's not deleted from the brain like normal dream (but it doesnt mean you can't forget it). You can also notice that in AP you see less , very few, of people on the road than usual.

Lots of my experienced failed because of girls, got too much excited.

It's hard to describe this sensation to those who never experience it, the complete freedom, the overwhelm of power. It's like asking a human to imagine a new color which is not in the light spectrum range.

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Excellent. Very enjoyable. Are you available to post regularly?

Thanks, Seeker. I would have loved to be able to post regularly but unfortunately these accounts of OBE are more than one year old and in the intervening period I have been cut off from meditation etc. The OBEs have now become extremely rare and short. My experience tells me that I can regain the ability anytime with some practice but currently I am engaged in something else. I hope to resume after sometime and then be a more regular contributor here.

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Long but good post nisheeth.

In some occasion I tried to pass the wall too, but can't. Instead with the direct way, you can try to tear apart the wall. Don't worry about breaking the wall, you are tearing the time/space to make your way.

Your power is kinda limitless. I've tried many abilities : teleportation, materialization, deformation of an object, telekinesis , ect... The desire and the thirst of power make you not want to return to the real world. A complete freedom from any rule and time/space limitation.

You can indeed planned your intention of what you want to do. You have access to your real life memory so all you need is to remember this planning. You can remember your experience and it's not deleted from the brain like normal dream (but it doesnt mean you can't forget it). You can also notice that in AP you see less , very few, of people on the road than usual.

Lots of my experienced failed because of girls, got too much excited.

It's hard to describe this sensation to those who never experience it, the complete freedom, the overwhelm of power. It's like asking a human to imagine a new color which is not in the light spectrum range.

You are right about the over-excitement when it comes to girls! :P

For the newbie it is almost like an infant teaching new things to itself and in my case the situation became even worse because all of a sudden I became aware of so many possibilities that usually it was very difficult to decide what to do.

And yes, I noticed that too, only very few people on the road. My guess is that reflects the relative scarcity of people in physical world who can have these kinds of experiences. I have never talked to anyone in an OBE, if you have had any such experience, please do tell me. I would love to know what you all talked about.

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Wow that was really long, but interesting. I have heaps of dreams where I leave my body but I have never been able to convince myself they were other than dreams. I have however, had one odd experience in my life and it lasted about 10 to 15 seconds while I was awake!

I was working as a receptionist at the time and it was during lunch break when I would move to an empty office behind the reception area and have my lunch, make some calls, read the paper and so on. The co-worker who was covering me on this particular occasion came in to ask me a work related question and I looked up at her and started to respond, suddenly I COULD SEE MYSELF AND HER FROM A DISTANCE like maybe 3 metres to the right side from the vicinity of the ceiling, I can't remember what we were saying it was a long time ago but I was talking and looking at myself talking, then it was over and I was back looking at her, apparently I had stopped talking and she was looking like she was waiting for me to continue, I had to apologise and say sorry, what were we talking about and apparently made the appropriate responses because she went back out front.

I couldn't see or think straight for a while and got up and went outside to walk it all off, I couldn't fathom how I had been talking and so normal when I wasn't actually in my body (if that is what happened) and I looked so normal and unconcerned while I was talking too, it wasn't until I "returned to my body" that I lost my memory of the conversation thru shock more than anything and had to be prodded back onto the subject.

It was random and ridiculously insignificant as a setting for such an event and I still can't imagine what about my mindset in that moment has ever been any different from any other time in my life for such and experience to just pop up.

Your experience is really very interesting. During the initial phases of OBE sometimes I have had this experience of seeing myself in two bodies and even sharing the consciousness in both of them. But in your case it was an office setting, that makes it very remarkable. Did you experience any such thing, or somewhat similar things later?

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You are right about the over-excitement when it comes to girls! :P

For the newbie it is almost like an infant teaching new things to itself and in my case the situation became even worse because all of a sudden I became aware of so many possibilities that usually it was very difficult to decide what to do.

And yes, I noticed that too, only very few people on the road. My guess is that reflects the relative scarcity of people in physical world who can have these kinds of experiences. I have never talked to anyone in an OBE, if you have had any such experience, please do tell me. I would love to know what you all talked about.

Most of my communications is through symbols body language etc. Guides and higher dimentional beings rarely communicate verbally. I have had a few verbal interactions with other beings on my own level . I have posted a few journies on my blog " a man awake". Half of which is just struggling with control. Still other journies I keep to myself either because they are profoundly personal or well it's so far out I don't wish to sound like anymore of a lunatic than I already do.

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Your experience is really very interesting. During the initial phases of OBE sometimes I have had this experience of seeing myself in two bodies and even sharing the consciousness in both of them. But in your case it was an office setting, that makes it very remarkable. Did you experience any such thing, or somewhat similar things later?

Nothing like that, the closest at all was this and it is the only other one in my waking state.

I was asleep and dreaming, I can't recall what when I heard my front door being opened. It was my one of my nieces coming home late from a night out. I always sleep with a lamp on in my room because when I open my eyes when sleeping in the dark I can't see a thing its like pitch black for a minute or two and this scares me. Anyway, I woke to the sound of the door slamming and heard her stomping up the stairs so I lifted my head to get up and ask her how her night was, as I lifted my head I looked up toward the corner where the door is and there was a bright orange circle there swirling rapidly like a basket ball sized orange I could even see the segments when it sometimes slowed down and then sped up its spinning again. I just looked and looked I can't say for how long then it just sort of shrunk and faded, spinning really rapidly. This was not a solid object it was definitely a light. I looked around my room to see if there was any glass or shining thing that had moved somehow into a position so that it had created a reflected light. Couldn't find a thing. By the time I had that much sorted and I don't know how long but my niece had climbed the stairs and was in the bathroom getting ready to brush her teeth.

I have placed a couple of my dreams in the weird dream thread on here too. I rarely forget my dreams they don't seem all that different from other memories but I do know they are from me sleep time when I reflect back so I am not saying I have a confusion about reality.

I try to comprehend whether I astral travel when I float or whether it is a dream state that speaks to my state of mind. Wish the scientific method worked for me to figure it out to my complete satisfaction - you may have got me started on a new journey, thank you.

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